Plotting with You: The Forensic Scientist in Ancient Times!-Chapter 429 - 428

The glimmer of light gave Zhu Yu immense encouragement, igniting a spark of hope in her heart, and made her more determined to walk step by step towards it.

The feeling of more and more spiders crawling all over her body made her want to run as fast as she could to that bright place.

Fortunately, reason still prevailed. She forced herself to suppress all impulses and instincts, continuing to move forward stiffly and slowly, allowing herself to ignore the eerie sensation of things crawling on her body.

As she stepped closer to the well-lit area, the situation finally improved—the spiders seemed to dislike bright light. The more Zhu Yu walked forward, the more the spiders on her body scattered away, retreating into the depths of the dark, damp tunnel behind her as far as she could see.

The further she walked, the lighter that crawling sensation with countless tiny legs on her body became. Finally, when she reached the tunnel entrance, she felt as if she was bathed in warm sunlight, and the crawling sensation completely vanished. Looking down, she noticed a few spiders that hadn’t escaped in time dried up under the sunlight, seemingly exposed to intense heat. Their slender legs curled up beneath their bodies, quickly dehydrating and shriveling.

Zhu Yu breathed a big sigh of relief, carefully tore off the scarf wrapped around her head, and shook it, dislodging a few dead spiders.

She inspected her body and was surprised to find that on the wound on her calf, embedded in the thicker band of scarf fabric, were at least five or six spiders that had been baked to death by the intense light. They hadn’t fallen off but clung to the fabric. Tracing an iron needle from her waist, she gingerly prodded them, finding their mouthparts embedded in the cloth. They couldn’t penetrate it and died still attached, swaying but unable to fall off.

Zhu Yu reached into her pocket and pulled out a small porcelain bottle, pouring out two pills Yan Daoxin had given her earlier, tucking them cautiously into her belt. She then used the empty bottle to collect the dead spiders from her leg into the porcelain bottle, sealing it tightly before putting it back in her pocket.

It was hard to say if these spiders were indeed as poisonous as she suspected, but judging from where they bit, they seemed attracted by the blood scent from her wound.

So if she could make it out alive, she wanted to show Yan Daoxin to understand what exactly these things were.

After securing the dead spiders, Zhu Yu felt something moving on her neck. The fear of spiders crawling all over her hadn’t completely subsided, making her quickly reach to swipe her neck.

She ended up wiping a handful of damp sweat.

It was then she realized that during her careful observation and collection of the spiders, she unknowingly became drenched in sweat.

The warmth and comfort she felt when she first emerged into the light from the chilly tunnel had completely dissipated, leaving her feeling uncomfortably hot.

She quickly looked around, noticing she was in a very open area surrounded by bare rock walls, each several dozen feet high, sloping slightly inward from all sides to the center. At the top, the rock walls formed a circular opening, about the size of a water jar.

The opening should have led outside, with the sunlight pouring through. However, a giant crystal stone was embedded in the original exit.

This crystal stone was clearly meticulously crafted, not only entirely translucent without a hint of cloudiness but also purposefully carved with many different angles.

Just lifting her head to look a few times made her eyes hurt from the piercing light, making her lower her head quickly, afraid of damaging her eyes further.

After a pause, she lifted her eyes and gazed around, finding in the seemingly empty and open area before her were some strange reflective points she could see within her sight.

Evidently, in the seemingly bare ground ahead of her, there were indeed many crystal bricks.

However, these crystal bricks were very different from the piece above her; they lacked any carved protrusions or edges, polished to an incredible smoothness, making it impossible to discern their arrangement unless glimpses of reflected light were caught.

Zhu Yu wiped the sweat from her forehead and walked forward.

Although bright, the light here was blinding and made her sweat profusely.

Zhu Yu had also thoroughly analyzed her predicament.

From the initial entrance, it was destined to be a "dead end."

First, the quicksand forced people into a tunnel with hidden iron needle traps. The unfortunate might end up like the female corpse she saw and die right there. If one happened to survive, they’d find themselves on that chillingly cold stone slab with no way to stay long, forcing them into the dark tunnel full of spiders.

By then, whether due to a wound inflicted by the iron needles attracting the peculiar spiders with the scent of blood, or simply being bitten by the potentially venomous spiders, death was still likely even if one escaped the previous stage unscathed.

Of course, there was the possibility she was facing now, but besides the scorching heat and light, even if she survived to this point, the choices were stark—either die from thirst and heat here or hold out until night when the light became less dazzling, and the temperature dropped.

Once darkness fell and with no heat or light, those spiders might return.

At that point, it would still be a dead end.

In short, every step was fraught with peril, each attempt intent on leading to death.

Zhu Yu took a few more steps, nearly colliding headfirst into a crystal brick. She quickly regained her focus, reaching forward cautiously, probing as she continued, pondering to herself—these large crystal bricks were indeed a rarity, unexpectedly finding countless pieces here.

It seemed this Little Mountain Building truly relied on some patron, displaying remarkable generosity!