Chapter 26: The Moment of the Hunt

A new day began, and the members of the Salt Lake tribe, led by Zhou Xu, were once again on the outskirts of the Black Forest, continuing their hunt.

In fact, they had done this every single day prior.

Their actions consistently squeezed the survival resources of the giant spider within this stretch of the Black Forest, forcing the creature to frequently lash out and launch offensives against them.

Today was no different.

"The giant spider! The giant spider is coming!"

Following the shout, the tribe member responsible for scouting the creature came sprinting toward them. Looking back, the reason the spider had managed to charge right up to them during their first encounter was that the scout had been too clumsy, inadvertently luring the beast straight to them. Of course, dwelling on that now was pointless.

Hearing the cry, Zhou Xu felt a familiar tension, but his overall demeanor remained remarkably composed.

"What are you panicking about? We came here specifically to hunt it down!"

Zhou Xu’s words instantly provided the backbone the surrounding tribe members needed.

"Signal the others. Follow the original plan."

Almost as he spoke, their primary target appeared at the edge of his vision. Although they had crossed paths with the giant spider many times recently while competing for the limited food in the area, there was no denying that this grotesque monster always brought with it an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Coordinating its eight legs, the giant spider moved with its usual agility. The speed at which it closed the distance put immense pressure on everyone.

"Prepare the slings! Follow the drills and begin the attack!"

At the command, tribe members deployed throughout the Black Forest began spinning their slings, launching an assault against the giant spider. Yet, the initial results were minimal.

"Ch-Chief, is this really going to work?"

In the short time since he arrived, the scout who had delivered the warning was already showing his talent for losing nerve.

Faced with this, Zhou Xu, as the tribal chief, refused to show even a hint of the tension he felt.

"Do you know the biggest difference between humans and beasts?"

As a heavy, dull thud echoed from the distance, Zhou Xu tapped his own temple.

"It’s the brain. Humans use their brains."

Just then, two of the giant spider’s thick legs on one side sank directly into a pit. The hole was not particularly deep, and it would be easy for the spider to climb out; relying on a simple pit trap to fully restrain such a creature was unrealistic, a fact Zhou Xu had been well aware of from the start.

"Now! Everyone, now!"

Shouting this, Zhou Xu charged forward while spinning a strange rope with a stone tied to each end. Once he reached the necessary velocity, he leaned low and whipped it across the ground.

Guided by the stones at either end, the cord spun through the air and, upon impact, wrapped firmly around the spider's legs.

At the same time, tribe members scattered in other positions followed suit, throwing their own identical weapons. Their technique was by no means refined—after all, it had only been a week since Zhou Xu had invented the weapon—but as long as the target lost its mobility and they closed the distance to improve their margin of error, technical shortcomings could be overcome.

A round of flying cords followed. Before the giant spider could even pull its two legs out of the pit, the remaining six exposed legs were consecutively bound.

The massive body, which had just reared up, crashed back to the ground with a thud, leaving the giant spider completely immobilized!

This sudden turn of events clearly panicked the creature, and it began to thrash about wildly. But with all eight legs entangled, it could exert no leverage.

"Watch out for the silk it spits! Stay away from that area and attack the joints! Sever its legs!"

With the plan proceeding smoothly, Zhou Xu’s confidence surged, and he moved with effortless grace. He had assigned tasks to the tribe members well in advance, and upon receiving the signal, they acted with remarkable speed.

Dashan was the fastest. Charging in, he aimed for the joints of the spider's legs and swung his stone axe with all his might. While the spider’s carapace provided decent defense against the stone pellets of the slings, the joints were inherently less durable to maintain flexibility.

The heavy strike shattered the jointed armor, and bright green insect blood sprayed out. The giant spider shrieked in pain, its thrashing becoming even more frantic.

Not wanting any further variables, Zhou Xu accelerated his pace.

He directed the tribe members armed with stone axes to chop off the giant spider's eight legs one by one. Even if the spider didn't die immediately, without its legs, it had no power to resist. As long as they avoided the area where it spat silk, it was nothing more than prey waiting to be butchered.

Under the continuous assault, the giant spider let out a final, mournful cry and its life force flickered out.

Looking at the monster's corpse, the tribe members, who had been nerves-tight and swinging their axes like madmen only moments before, stood frozen in place.

"It... it's dead?"

"It’s actually dead..."

"We succeeded! We actually succeeded!"

They could hardly imagine that they, who had only been able to flee in terror when facing this monster before, had now managed to kill it so easily!

The entire process felt surreal to them.

As their emotions began to settle, the tribe members turned their gazes toward Zhou Xu, who stood not far away. The reverence in their eyes at that moment reached a point beyond measure.

Feeling those gazes on him, Zhou Xu was inwardly ecstatic, but in front of so many members, he still had to maintain the dignity of a chief.

Calming himself and organizing his thoughts, he quickly beckoned to Feique.

"Feique, go back to the tribe and get people to come and process this carcass."

Zhou Xu scanned the area and briskly pointed at four other tribe members. "Just in case, you four stay here and guard it. Everyone else, follow me."

After issuing his orders, Zhou Xu took the lead and marched toward the depths of the Black Forest.

The destination of their journey was obvious: the crevice cave that served as the giant spider's lair!