They had to set off early the next morning, so after dinner, everyone quickly went to rest.
Only Yun Xiaoxiao and Bai Hongting remained on duty for patrol.
Of course, Yun Xiaoxiao hadn’t volunteered for this—it had been decided by drawing lots.
She was resigned to it.
Though she didn’t want to be paired with Bai Hongting, the draw had already been made, and she wasn’t the type to throw a tantrum or refuse outright.
After all, it didn’t really matter to her who she was tead up with.
She lay flat on the high earthen platform, her head resting on her hands, legs slightly bent, gazing up at the starry sky while keeping her senses sharp for any movent around her.
Bai Hongting didn’t disturb her. Instead, he sat quietly on the other side, stealing occasional glances at Yun Xiaoxiao.
He had co to terms with things now.
He had been the one at fault in the first place—he had no right to demand Yun Xiaoxiao’s forgiveness.
That would be an unreasonable burden to place on her.
Nor had he ever fulfilled a single day of his duty as a father.
How could he have the audacity to hope she would call him "Dad"?
If acknowledging him as her father would only bring her distress, then he’d rather stay silently by her side.
He would step in when she needed him, doing whatever he could to help.
That was the most he could do for now.
The night was utterly still.
Not even a whisper of wind stirred.
But at least the sky was filled with countless stars—a rare sight in most places.
Yun Xiaoxiao rested her head and quietly admired the breathtaking view.
Ti passed minute by minute.
About three hours later, Yun Xiaoxiao abruptly sat up.
She turned her head toward the pitch-black stretch of sand to her lower left, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"Sothing’s coming from over there."
Bai Hongting approached—he had noticed the disturbance too.
At that mont, sothing seed to be rushing toward them across the dark sand.
A faint, rustling sound reached them.
It wasn’t the wind—it was the sound of sothing crawling.
An ordinary person might not have noticed, but for an ability user, especially a high-level one, the noise was unmistakable.
Soon, the sound reached the base of the platform.
A massive shadow was scaling the side at terrifying speed.
Yun Xiaoxiao’s brows furrowed, and she imdiately hurled a blast of fire downward.
The flas illuminated the side of the platform as they streaked toward the ground.
Only then did Yun Xiaoxiao and Bai Hongting get a clear look at the enormous creature below.
It was a mutated spider!
Its size was staggering, easily matching that of a grown man.
Its body was a dark brown-black, with a round, bulbous abdon marked by a red hourglass shape.
At that mont, its spindly legs clung tightly to the side of the platform.
The mont the firelight flared, it seed to sense danger and imdiately released its grip, leaping sideways to evade the attack.
"What’s going on?!"
Nie Yizhou and the others, startled by the commotion, rushed out of their tents and gathered beside Yun Xiaoxiao.
Following her gaze, they saw, in the fading glow of the flas, a massive black spider twitching on the ground.
"Is that… a black widow?"
The only woman in Bai Hongting’s group raised an eyebrow.
"What’s a black widow?" Tang Yanchi asked.
Long Zhe’s voice was steady. "It’s an extrely aggressive and highly venomous spider. Fierce by nature, with strong reproductive capabilities. A single bite can cause severe systemic poisoning."
He recited the facts thodically—knowledge he’d picked up from encyclopedias before the apocalypse.
"Hey, you know your stuff," Nie Yizhou said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"Look out!" Zheng Yuner suddenly shouted.
Everyone turned to see the mutated black widow shudder violently.
Then, countless tiny spiders sward out from beneath its body, surging toward the platform like a plague of locusts.
For anyone with trypophobia, it was a waking nightmare.
Yun Xiaoxiao and the others quickly ford a line, unleashing a barrage of abilities to fend off the advancing horde.
anwhile, the enormous black widow circled the platform at high speed.
Spotting an unguarded section, it reared up and shot out a silvery thread, anchoring it to the top of the platform.
In an instant, it began scaling the thread with terrifying agility.
Just as it was about to reach the top, a small figure suddenly appeared before it.
"You’re pretty fast, huh?"
Yun Xiaoxiao smirked, then unleashed a blast of ice directly at the spider.
Given its venom, she couldn’t afford to be careless.
The black widow tried to retreat, but Yun Xiaoxiao gave it no chance.
The ice was imdiately followed by a burst of fire.
Even when the spider scrambled backward, Yun Xiaoxiao closed the distance effortlessly.
Under the relentless assault of the two abilities, the black widow had nowhere to run.
Within monts, it was frozen solid.
Seeing it immobilized, Yun Xiaoxiao withdrew her flas.
With a single clench of her fist, the massive ice sculpture shattered.
The spider’s limbs exploded into fragnts.
Though the mother spider was dead, its offspring remained—countless tiny, agile creatures.
Eradicating them completely took considerable effort.
Just as they finished cleaning up and prepared to rest, Tang Yanchi suddenly let out a confused sound.
"Yun Xiaoxiao, why is your scorpion here?"
He reached out, intending to pick it up and return it to her.
Hearing this, everyone turned—especially Yun Xiaoxiao, who reacted the fastest.
Her little scorpion had been inside her spatial storage the entire ti—it hadn’t co out at all.
With the scorching heat outside, the creatures preferred the cool, spring-like environnt of the pocket dinsion.
Unless summoned, they never ventured out willingly.
Yet Tang Yanchi claid to have seen it.
How was that possible?
She spun around just in ti to see Tang Yanchi’s fingers brush against the black scorpion.
"Don’t touch it!" she shouted in alarm.
Tang Yanchi froze, assuming she was just protective of her pet.
He started to pull his hand back—but at that mont, the small black scorpion suddenly leapt onto his skin.
Its stinger arched high before plunging into his finger.
"Agh—!"
The sharp pain made Tang Yanchi gasp.
The others were stunned.
Those who had seen Yun Xiaoxiao’s scorpion before knew it might look intimidating, but it never attacked without reason.
Lu Chen’s eyes darkened. "That’s not Xiaoxiao’s scorpion."
His words confird everyone’s suspicions.
"Save him, now!" Bai Hongting ordered urgently.
One of the n rushed forward, kneeling beside Tang Yanchi to administer first aid.
But Tang Yanchi’s condition deteriorated rapidly.
The bitten area had already swollen grotesquely.
His face grew deathly pale, sweat pouring down in beads as his body trembled uncontrollably.
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