The next day, inside an ancient, dim, and spacious chamber.
Long Ge addressed the figure with its back turned to him: "Elder, last night we discovered that Zheng Yueling is dead."
"What did you say?!"
"Having learned from the failure of Long Hai last time, we assembled our people last night, intending to demand that strange spider be handed over. But when we got there, we found not only was the person dead, but the spider was also gone," Long Ge said.
"Furthermore, the other venomous insects had vanished as well. Judging by the scene, she was most likely killed by that spider..."
No sooner had his words fallen than the Elder's astonished voice rang out: "Are you sure you're not mistaken? That young lass, who could single-handedly force back a core disciple like Long Hai and cost him two Gu Insects — was slain by a spider? Killed by her own pet?"
"That spider shouldn't have had such means yet... This... this growth is simply too fast."
The Elder was silent for a moment, then solemnly declared: "A Gu Insect of this caliber, we must obtain at all costs. Going forward, you are to locate that demon spider's trail as quickly as possible. Once its position is confirmed, do not act recklessly."
"Report to me at that point. I shall personally take action to subdue it — that is the most secure approach."
"Yes, Elder." Long Ge nodded in acknowledgment.
...
Waking up, Chen Zhang thought he was still dreaming.
Never in his wildest imagination would he have thought he'd receive such a shocking text message. Someone was impersonating Bai Jie and texting him?
Was this a prank?
But such doubts were quickly dispelled as Chen Zhang read on.
This... Chen Zhang's pupils abruptly contracted, his eyelids stretched as wide as they could go, his lips trembled, his complexion shifting through shades.
Confusion, shock, awkwardness, surprise, worry — a chain of emotions flashed across his face one after another, ultimately settling into a daze.
Bai Jie was still alive!
And he'd brought him a wealth of critical information: the meteorite, the eerie organism, parasitism, Zheng Yueling, the missing persons, the Criminal Investigation Department...
Keyword after keyword surfaced and connected in Chen Zhang's mind.
His train of thought was instantly ignited — waves crashing against the shore, towering tsunamis raging — even as thick, swirling fog rose along with it.
After a while, he shot up from his bed and dialed a number: "Yo? Class Monitor, I want to ask about something, regarding that woman's ex-boyfriend..."
...
Although Chen Zhang had no idea what Bai Jie wanted, he still forwarded the information he'd gotten from the Class Monitor to the number Bai Jie was using.
"Holy crap! This is bad!"
Chen Zhang was startled by a sudden loud yell from the dorm room.
"What's wrong?" Chen Zhang looked toward his roommate, Wang Xiaofan.
Their dorm had four people total. Aside from the missing Bai Jie and He Jun who hadn't come back last night, only he and Wang Xiaofan were staying in the dorm.
"Something huge happened! They're locking down the campus!"
"WTF?! How come it's a sudden lockdown?"
Chen Zhang immediately checked the class group chat to see if there was an official notice.
Sure enough, he saw Xingchuan University's campus lockdown announcement:
[Due to the severe security situation in the vicinity of the campus, and in order to safeguard the health and safety of our university's faculty, staff, and students, the school leadership has decided, effective immediately, to impose a temporary campus lockdown. Unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering the campus...
Furthermore, starting tomorrow, law enforcers shall be stationed within the campus and at campus entrances and exits...
The lifting time shall be announced separately.]
Then, in the unofficial class group without teachers, he saw a message that made his breath catch in his throat:
[Know why we're suddenly locking down?]
[What's going on? Five people disappeared before and they didn't lock down, and now suddenly they are!]
[I heard... Senior Zheng from our college died last night]
[???]
[! Are you joking?]
Chen Zhang didn't read further. Rather, with shock and uncertainty, he once again dialed Xia Qimeng's number.
This time, before he could speak, he heard a clear, gentle voice from the other end: "I just asked my uncle. She... really is dead."
"Her neighbor heard screaming and called out from outside. When no one responded, they reported it."
...
On the other side, Bai Jie received Chen Zhang's text.
It learned that Zheng Yueling's ex-boyfriend was one of the four missing persons, named Long Xiaofeng.
As expected — the parasitized Zheng Yueling hadn't let her ex-boyfriend off.
This also indicated, to some extent, that Zheng Yueling wasn't completely controlled by the eerie violet light.
Furthermore, Bai Jie learned that the campus security guard had been charged with murdering the four missing persons aside from itself, and the man had gone insane.
"From what I can see, this security guard was very likely pushed out to take the blame."
"But... my own corpse wasn't among them?!"
"Then where did it go? Don't tell me it came back to life? Or did it just vanish into thin air? Zheng Yueling must have known — what a pity she's dead."
Bai Jie watched the numerous law enforcement vehicles surrounding the residential complex and the Criminal Investigation Department agents going in and out of Zheng Yueling's house. It was clear the demon woman's death had been exposed.
Chen Zhang subsequently sent another text touching on Zheng Yueling's death:
[...It's said there was spider silk on her body, and marks from being slashed by a sharp weapon, but the killer's identity hasn't been confirmed yet. The authorities haven't issued a statement — only the media has started reporting.]
He also asked if Bai Jie knew any clues about the killer.
Bai Jie chuckled bitterly to itself. Forget clues — I know the killer's identity, motive, and modus operandi crystal clear. But I'm not telling you.
Bai Jie had no choice but to reply saying it didn't know, and suggested it might have been an accomplice of Zheng Yueling's silencing her.
Immediately after, Bai Jie opened a social media platform on the phone and tapped into the local trending topics.
At the very top of the trending list, in bold, were the words: "Prestigious University Female Student Brutally Murdered at Home."
The top few media accounts all reported that a large amount of spider silk and signs of struggle had been found at the deceased girl's residence. They also introduced the fact that the girl had worked part-time as an exotic pet streamer and kept a large number of valuable exotic pets at home.
But many of the terrariums in the house were empty.
The comments below were all wildly speculating.
[Probably someone she knew tried to assault her, and during the struggle they knocked over the terrariums, causing a bunch of spiders to spill out]
[Her hands were severed... is this revenge killing or a crime of passion...]
[Probably for money, right? Even the valuable exotic pets were all cleared out.]
In the trending topics, some netizens, based on Zheng Yueling's university background and side job, had unearthed her livestream account ID.
This post was also quickly boosted to the top ranks.
[Holy shit!? It can't really be her — I've been watching her streams for ages]
[I hope the poster is spreading rumors, hope it's a misunderstanding]
[I'm her fan!!! She had a super huge spider at home — people even said she was from the legendary Wu Gu Clan]
[Reading all your comments suddenly gives me chills — could it have been that spider that killed its owner?]
[...]
Public opinion was fermenting madly.
Zheng Yueling's past livestream recordings were dug up, especially the recent ones showing "Nyx" fighting and killing other venomous insects — these drew extremely high attention.
The focal point of public opinion converged on the fact that "Nyx" possessed danger far beyond that of ordinary venomous insects.
Combined with the already-circulating online images showing a copious amount of spider silk in Zheng Yueling's home, netizens and media arrived at a terrifying speculation.
This female university student and exotic pet streamer from Xingchuan University had very likely been killed by the mutant spider she had been raising!
That would also explain why the other venomous insects had disappeared — they'd all been devoured.
For a time, public opinion erupted in an uproar.
Some also proposed conspiracy theories, believing that a powerful individual had set their sights on "Nyx's" enormous commercial value, tried to obtain it from Zheng Yueling, and retaliated after being refused.
— Of course, this speculation was rather far-fetched, and very few believed it.