EP.28
Artercopus was lacking in energy.
His idol, the long-tailed green lizard, had disappeared.
He waited for him day by day, but even after a week, there was no sign of him.
…Could he have fallen prey to that alligator?
Pus was keening while worrying about the lizard.
“Keek…”
It seemed that Artekomartus approached her and gently poked her.
“Caw…”
It looked like a form of consolation in its own way.
Pus and Tus.
The two were sisters.
To be precise, they were not blood sisters.
After all, they were of different species.
One was a spider that spun threads, and the other was a spider with venomous fangs.
However, they had been raised together since birth.
They slept together, ate together, and lived together—this was Tus and Pus.
The two sisters, who lived peacefully, were kidnapped one day by human hands.
It was the Sichuan Tang Sect.
They trapped venomous beasts in one place to make them fight, extracting the venom from the sole survivor.
Solitude.
The sisters’ fate must have been to become the ingredients of solitude.
Before the grim tragedy of having to devour each other unfolded, a man rescued them. He stole all the spiders that the Tang Sect had kept, which could potentially become a Human-Faced Master.
Tus and Pus were among them.
Thus, the two sisters, who experienced a not-so-pleasant kidnapping, were released in the vast Shiman Mountain.
A new start in a new place.
The two sisters combined their wits and put their heads together.
However, surviving in this barren wilderness was not an easy feat.
For reasons unknown, beasts larger than ordinary buildings wandered about, and even the bugs were bigger than Tus and Pus.
Two sisters who were presumably less than 5 cm in size couldn’t easily hunt anything.
They fled from predators relentlessly until they finally reached the swampy area.
Though they attempted to hunt somehow, with the non-sticky spider silk and the small amount of venom from their tiny fangs, there were no beasts they could hunt.
They were literally starving to death.
If not for occasionally surviving on seeds from fruits that fell to the ground, they would have died long ago.
Amidst this, a green lizard appeared like a comet.
The moment Tus and Pus saw him, they felt an affinity.
It was thanks to the effect of the titles he possessed, but they had no way of knowing that.
With a sharp yet somewhat comical face and green skin, his plump white belly was mouthwatering.
Moreover, the real highlight was his long tail, which seemed to be twice the size of his body.
It was no wonder that even the timid Tus showed interest in him.
Though they felt a strange attraction just by looking at him, it was merely a simple affinity.
However, the lizard displayed more than that.
With a glimmer of hope, they approached him, and he offered them a water beetle that they dared not try to catch.
Long-starved Tus and Pus rushed in to eat the water beetle.
Of course, that water beetle was alive and almost ended up eating them instead, but in the end, that lizard saved them.
With his sharp claws, he meticulously peeled off the shell of the water beetle one by one.
Tus and Pus’s fondness for the lizard only increased.
Just as they were basking in their joy, the lizard committed a rather shameless act.
He touched Pus’s behind.
Moreover, he inserted his hand to pull out the spider silk!
The spider sisters were horrified.
It was no surprise that Pus was shocked, as he had touched her without her having even been married yet.
Tus was angry, while Pus was so embarrassed that she didn’t know what to do.
Of course, they understood it was necessary for hunting piranhas, but the embarrassment of having allowed him to touch her behind didn’t just vanish.
Despite that, they both clapped their hands when they ate the piranha.
It was a flavor they had never tasted before. What spider in the world could catch and eat a piranha? Pus thought that if she could eat this fish, she would allow him to touch her behind as many times as he wanted.
The little lizard appeared to need a lot of Pus’s spider silk.
He used spider silk to make a nest and also to hunt the toad.
Pus reluctantly pushed her behind out, thinking there was no other choice.
It was strange, but Pus oddly enjoyed the light slap on her behind before he pulled out the spider silk.
To think that she, a spider who had never married, was having her behind slapped while her silk was being pulled out—it was extremely rude, yet the charm of that long-tailed green lizard overshadowed such things.
Tus was shocked by her sister’s transformation, but occasionally she fantasized about wanting her silk to be pulled out too. Of course, she was discouraged since she was a venomous spider who couldn’t produce silk.
Amidst this, an opportunity came to her.
It was when the lizard suggested that she bite his tempting long tail.
Tus refused, thinking about how she could possibly bite her benefactor’s tail, but it was difficult to overcome her desire. The moment she bit that long and beautiful tail, she opened her eyes to something new.
Pus loved having her behind touched, and Tus enjoyed biting tails.
You might think it was a complete mess, but there was no real problem.
The long-tailed green lizard appeared to have no thoughts about it at all.
Tus and Pus believed this happy time would last forever.
However, sudden happiness often leaves just as abruptly.
Cayman.
The giant alligator devastated their home.
The last image Tus and Pus saw of the lizard was him luring the Cayman away from them to save them.
But despite the lizard’s sacrifice, Tus and Pus ended up getting captured by the Cayman.
They were distracted by searching for the lizard’s traces.
It was foolish, but anyone could become foolish in the face of love.
The Cayman caught the tiny spider.
It was strange.
Their sizes were smaller than the Cayman’s pupils.
He neither ate them nor killed them; instead, he chose to keep them alive.
Why on earth had the Cayman captured them?
The answer was simple.
It was because of the Nidan.
They were spiders with the potential to become Human-Faced Masters.
For the Cayman, who had lost part of his Nidan, it was necessary to somehow recover it.
While hunting spirit creatures scattered about was an option, spirit creatures endowed with Nidan were perhaps not strong but were not easily caught either.
Thus, he chose to raise the two spiders.
So that when he regained his Nidan, he could consume them.
Pus pulled out spider silk every day, and Tus was made to extract her venom.
They believed that the more effort they put in, the more likely the Nidan would manifest.
It was a continuous exploitation, and they were living in a state of survival.
The sight of the Cayman pacing back and forth in front of them was terrifying.
Still, the two sisters endured.
They relied on each other.
And they thought of that lizard.
“Grrr…”
The Cayman’s eyes were fixed on the spiders.
It was a warning to stop idly messing around and get to work.
“Kyieeek…”
Pus hurriedly tried to pull out some silk, but nothing came out.
Her sorrow over the lizard’s inability to slap her behind had diminished her silk production.
The Cayman quietly observed the spider’s state before lifting one of its massive front paws.
Pus struggled desperately.
“Kyiaaak!”
The implication was that it intended to strike her behind to encourage silk production.
She would rather die than allow it to touch her precious place.
The sight of the defiant spider triggered an unnecessary surge of anger in the Cayman.
“Grrrrr…”
Tus grabbed her sister’s leg and tried to stop her.
“Kyiek…!”
But Pus didn’t relent.
“Kyiaaaak!”
She would not succumb any longer to the enemy that had killed the lizard.
The humiliation of producing silk until now was already enough.
To think it wouldn’t be satisfied and would try to touch her behind again was unbearable.
“Kyieeeeek!”
For her lord, and for her dignity, she would give her body.
Pus’s will was remarkable.
The Cayman raised its front paw once more.
After all, the one more likely to become a Human-Faced Master was the venomous one.
It would not matter if it killed one.
In fact, it believed demonstrating an example would compel them to obey its orders better.
A vast shadow loomed over Pus.
Yet, there remained a twinge of attachment to life.
She felt regret about leaving Tus, who had grown up with her since they were young.
And it pained her that she would never see that lizard again.
Artercopus closed her eyes.
To visualize him, if only slightly.
That long tail.
The green scales.
Kuwung!
…It would have been nice to at least hear his voice.
It was the moment she sensed her own demise.
“Grurrr…”
The cry of a beast echoed.
It was different from the Cayman’s sound.
Moreover, for some reason, Pus felt that sound was oddly familiar.
She opened her eyes.
The giant Cayman’s front leg was trembling violently.
The creature blocking her path was a gigantic lizard.
A lizard she had never seen before.
With deep turquoise skin and blue eyes.
But somehow, it felt familiar.
The length of that tail, bundled with multicolored threads and grains, was something she recognized too well.
…Why?
No, how?
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
The emotions she had been holding back burst forth like a waterfall.
Joy surged up from deep within her chest.
The feelings in her heart transcended simple elation.
She fumbled with her short arms, reaching out to touch the being in front of her.
It was no longer just a figure in her thoughts.
“Geegegeg!”
He had returned.
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