It was half an hour later when Chen Yuan stood before this deep, dark cave.
“Yip, yip, yip!”
The Flame-tailed Fox stretched out its paw, pointing at the cave in front of them.
This was the place!
Chen Yuan looked around, seeing that the little guys were all eager to try, looking excitedly like they couldn't wait to "charge into the cave," so he waved his hand and said, "Then let's go in."
The Flame-tailed Fox and the Frostbite Fox wanted to scout out the cave, while Papa Bear and the bear cubs were trying to assess whether this place was suitable as a new home.
With the thick-skinned and fleshy Papa Bear leading the way, Spark followed closely behind, and the rest of the little guys surrounded Chen Yuan.
Although the cave was very dark, Spark's flaming light illuminated the path ahead.
However, before they had walked for long, Papa Bear shook his head: "Roar, roar."
It was not satisfied with this cave.
"Why?" Chen Yuan asked.
“Roar, roar, roar.”
According to Papa Bear's explanation, the passage inside the cave was too narrow, and it couldn't move around freely inside.
Chen Yuan nodded understandingly: "It's okay, it's normal if you don't like it, anyway..."
“Chirp.”
Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Spark's cry. Chen Yuan looked in the direction of the sound and saw two hiking bags in the corner ahead.
He quickly walked over to take a look. The two hiking bags looked quite new, and there was no dust on them, so they had obviously only appeared here recently.
"Someone's in trouble?" This was Chen Yuan's first reaction.
Some time ago, the Beastmaster Association issued new regulations regarding the field training of ordinary Beastmasters, stating that all field training would be the responsibility of the individuals themselves, and staff would not participate in field rescues.
As soon as this regulation came out, Zhang Hao applauded and cheered.
Therefore, Chen Yuan was not sure whether any Beastmasters had encountered accidents in the Qinling Mountains.
But judging from the two hiking bags left in the cave, it was likely that some Beastmasters had encountered an accident here.
And judging from the abandoned hiking bags, the Beastmasters had lost.
Chen Yuan squatted down and tried to pull the white spider silk that was all over the place, but no matter how hard he tried, the spider silk remained motionless, without the slightest sign of breaking.
“Roar!”
Papa Bear stretched out its palms, grabbed a strand of spider silk, and suddenly used all its strength to pull it desperately to both sides, but the result was exactly the same as Chen Yuan's experience. The spider silk still didn't budge.
“Roar!”
Seeing this, Papa Bear was furious. Feeling that it had lost face, it brazenly used [Bear's Strength], its huge muscles suddenly exerting force, tensing its body and turning its face red.
At this moment, the spider silk finally broke in the middle.
Seeing this scene, Chen Yuan's mentality finally balanced out.
The Earth Tyrant Bear, famous for its brute force, still had to use all its strength to break the spider silk, let alone him, an ordinary human?
On the other side,
The bear cubs and Cola were both trying.
No matter how hard the bear cubs tried, the spider silk was extremely strong. It clearly looked like just a thin line, but it was as hard as steel, leaving the bear cubs helpless.
“Roar.”
The bear cubs finally gave up, panting and lying on the ground, turning their heads to look at Cola next to them.
“Awoo!”
Cola's attempt was relatively simple and crude. Its round eyes rolled around, and finally it selected the section that it thought was the thinnest, opened its mouth, bared its teeth, and bit down!
Clang!
No matter how frantically Cola shook its head, its sharp teeth, gleaming with cold light, could do nothing to the spider silk.
“The strength of this spider silk seems a little unreasonable.” Chen Yuan's eyes flickered.
Indeed, natural spider silk is the strongest known natural protein fiber in nature.
When ordinary spiders evolve, the strength of the spider silk they can produce will definitely increase, but increasing it so much is a bit outrageous.
“Chirp~”
In the instant that the thought flashed through his mind, the corner of Chen Yuan's eye caught a glimpse of a bright flame, and he saw Spark喷出 a small cluster of flames, splashing onto the white spider silk, instantly melting it.
Chen Yuan couldn't help but mutter to himself: "It seems that it's not that the spider silk is too outrageous, but that we haven't found the right method."
“Awoo!”
Suddenly, Cola, who was biting at the spider silk in front of it, raised its head, its triangular ears twitched, its nose twitched slightly, and the next moment it let out a vigilant cry: "Awoo, awoo, awoo!"
A strange smell is approaching!
Many, many!
In the instant that Cola let out a vigilant cry, Spark's dark blue eyes scanned the surroundings, gently fluttering its wings, and layers of flame flowed out.
The internal environment of the cave was narrow and not suitable for Spark to fight.
But Spark's power was no longer limited to actual combat. When it unleashed its full aura, most pet beasts would flee in panic.
The Fallen Horned Beast remembered Chen Yuan's teachings before entering the mountain—once encountering a battle, it didn't need to participate, just stand in front of Chen Yuan.
“Roar.”
The Fallen Horned Beast obediently followed Chen Yuan's teachings, its body as hard as a rock, standing firmly in front of Chen Yuan, like an indestructible shield.
“Hum~”
The increasingly grown Twin Flower Concubine was no stranger to battle. It lay on Chen Yuan's shoulder, cleverly blinking its light pink eyes, its petal-shaped palms ready to use its skills at any time.
Seeing the little guys' reactions, Chen Yuan nodded in satisfaction.
“Yip, yip, yip!”
“Woof, woof, woof!”
The Flame-tailed Fox and the Frostbite Fox looked at each other and decisively chose to hide behind Spark, where they felt the safest.
“Roar.”
Papa Bear and the bear cubs' reactions were out of sync. They seemed to be half a beat slower, and only came back to their senses after seeing the little guys put on a fighting stance.
Papa Bear pulled the bear cubs behind it, its dark eyes staring straight ahead—a pair of dark green eyes appeared in the shadowy corners. Whether in the passage ahead or on the rock wall above, silhouettes gradually appeared.
The bright flame illuminated the surroundings, and Chen Yuan quickly saw the specific appearance of these figures—purple all over, with irregular black stripes distributed on their backs, round dark green eyes staring straight ahead, and eight legs supporting their not-too-large bodies.
Black-striped Spider, an insect-type pet beast, is best at setting traps with woven spider silk to capture prey. They usually live in deep caves.
In the instant that the thought flashed through his mind, the leading Black-striped Spider opened its mouth, and a white spider silk shot towards him.
Obviously, Chen Yuan was the prey in the eyes of these Black-striped Spiders.
Without even needing Spark to make a move, the Flame-tailed Fox had already sprayed out a burst of flames, the scorching light reflecting off the rock walls on both sides, instantly melting the spider silk.
Seeing the Black-striped Spiders take the lead in attacking, Chen Yuan no longer had any desire to communicate and directly ordered: "Quickly end the battle."
After the words fell, he looked at the rock wall above his head and added: "Keep the noise down as much as possible, don't let this cave collapse."
"Spark, don't take action, you just hold the line."
“Chirp~”
Spark obediently nodded and retreated to Chen Yuan's side.
The cave environment limited Spark's performance and was not suitable for Spark to take action.
Spark's moves are basically high-power skills with a large range of impact. Using them in this narrow cave might cook them before defeating the opponent.
“Awoo, awoo!”
Hearing this, Cola's eyes gleamed, and it couldn't wait to rush towards the group of Black-striped Spiders.
If the Big Sister doesn't make a move, then it's my turn to shine!
“Roar!”
Bear Dad had the bear cubs hide in the corner, then stepped forward and swung his sharp claws at the nearest black-striped spider.
In an instant, the fierce battle began.
At the same moment,
Wu Peng slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself in a pitch-black cave. Although he didn't have claustrophobia, he was still a little scared.
He tried to get up and examine his surroundings, but found himself wrapped in layers of fine threads, unable to move at all.
No, not fine threads.
Spider silk spun by the black-striped spider.
Thinking back to what had happened earlier, Wu Peng felt a surge of anger.
Read without errors, typos, or interruptions!
He and Zeng Hui had been ambushed by a group of black-striped spiders. Both of them, along with their pets, were trapped by the spider silk and eventually transported here.
That's right, what about Zeng Hui?
“Zeng Hui, Zeng Hui, are you there?”
Wu Peng shouted his companion's name loudly, the sound echoing in the cave. After a while, a hoarse voice finally sounded in his ear:
“I’m here.”
“Are you alright?” Wu Peng asked with concern.
“I’m fine.”
“It seems we’re trapped here. I don’t know where our pets have been taken.” Wu Peng struggled for a while, but was unable to break free from the tough spider silk. In the end, he accepted his cruel fate. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have let you come in.”
Having just woken up, Zeng Hui gradually regained his senses. He also felt grief and indignation at what had happened earlier, but after hearing Wu Peng's words, he simply sighed, “It’s no one’s fault. It’s just that our strength is too low.”
“Yeah…” Hearing this, Zeng Peng nodded in agreement. “Weakness is the original sin. If it were Chen Gu, I’m afraid these black-striped spiders wouldn’t be a match for him at all.”
This time, Zeng Hui didn't respond. He remained silent for a long time, finally squeezing out a sentence: “Do you think… we will be eaten?”
Before Wu Peng could answer, a chuckling sound suddenly came from their ears.
Suddenly hearing a strange laugh from an unknown location in the dark cave startled both of them, causing goosebumps to rise all over their bodies. Zeng Hui's face turned pale, and he stammered, “Y-you… are you a human or a ghost?”
“You’re already Beast Tamers, and you’re still afraid of ghosts.” The person's tone was mixed with laughter as he continued, “Don’t worry, I’m just as unlucky as you guys, but I was trapped here two days earlier than you.”
After saying this, he muttered, “Damn it, I finally saw living people. I haven’t spoken for two days, I was about to suffocate.”
Hearing these words, Zeng Hui and Wu Peng breathed a sigh of relief, and even secretly felt a sense of rejoicing.
So it wasn't just them who were so unlucky.
The thought flashed through his mind, and Wu Peng couldn't help but ask, “Bro, what's your name?”
“Just call me Ah Tian.”
“Ah Tian, what was with the laughter just now?” Wu Peng pressed.
Ah Tian replied, “I just thought your statement was very funny.”
After a slight pause, he explained, “Don’t worry, black-striped spiders won’t eat people. They will only use you as a tool to practice their skills.”
A tool to practice skills?
These words made Wu Peng frown, and after thinking for a long time, he didn't understand what it meant, so he decisively asked, “Can you explain in detail?”
“Yeah.” It seemed that he hadn't chatted with anyone for a long time, and Ah Tian's desire to talk was very strong, and one sentence after another popped out, “You’ve already seen their spider silk, right?”
“Isn’t it very tough? Does it give you a headache?”
In the darkness, the two nodded frantically.
“The ability of these black-striped spiders to spin silk so powerfully is all practiced.”
Speaking of this, Ah Tian paused slightly, as if he was lost in memories, or as if he was brewing his words.
When he spoke again, his voice was mixed with obvious fear: “These black-striped spiders will use us as tools to practice their silk-spinning, spewing out spider silk to wrap around you again and again.”
“In this process, you can’t resist, you can only watch helplessly as a group of black-striped spiders surround you, watching as strand after strand of spider silk wraps around you.”
“They will even let you run away, spraying spider silk while you are running at high speed, training their accuracy.”
Wu Peng was silent for a long time, finally spitting out a sentence: “They are truly a group of hardworking black-striped spiders.”
This kind of practice is even more diligent than himself, a Beast Tamer.
“What about our pets?” Zeng Hui only cared about the whereabouts of his pet.
“The same experience as us.” Ah Tian replied.
For a time, the two fell into a long silence.
After a long time, Ah Tian suddenly asked, “Do any of you happen to be intermediate Beast Tamers?”
“Or possess a second-tier fire-type pet?”
Wu Peng shook his head: “I am an intermediate Beast Tamer, but I don’t have a fire-type pet.”
Zeng Hui didn't speak, but his silence represented his answer.
“Yeah, if you had a second-tier fire-type pet, you wouldn’t have been captured.” Ah Tian smiled, “Then let’s just quietly wait for the judgment of fate.”
“See if we can wait for a Beast Tamer with a second-tier fire-type pet to enter this cave and then save us.”
After saying this, Ah Tian shook his head again: “That won’t work either, there are too many of these black-striped spiders, one is not enough, at least two.”
He emphasized: “Two second-tier fire-type pets.”
Although his tone was smiling, the two could hear the madness hidden in the deepest part of his heart.
This Beast Tamer, who had been captured before them, was about to collapse.
A bitter smile appeared on Zeng Peng's face: “There might be such Beast Tamers in the Fire Province, but here…”
“Then just wait to die, what’s the big deal.” Ah Tian replied casually.
In the dark cave, the two fell silent again.
Until a sound of fighting entered their ears, the three of them suddenly raised their heads and looked towards the pitch-black front.
“Someone has entered the cave.” A light of hope lit up in Wu Peng’s eyes, “They must be fighting with the black-striped spiders.”
Zeng Hui stared intently at the front, even though he couldn't see anything, his heart was more nervous and expectant than ever before.
Ah Tian smiled slightly: “My reaction was exactly the same as yours before, hoping that someone would save me, until…”
“Until you were also captured.”
After a pause, he said, “Do you think this will be another unlucky person like us?”
“In a while, there will be a few more brothers talking beside us.”
“Well, it sounds good.”
Wu Peng frowned: “Are you so pessimistic?”
“Otherwise?” Ah Tian asked, “Do you really expect such a powerful Beast Tamer to save us?”
“Wake up, this is not a novel or a movie, there are no heroes falling from the sky.”
At the moment the words fell, a surging and澎湃firelight illuminated the entire cave.
