Enemies Are All Nourishment for My Fungi-Chapter 137: Let’s Go Hunting (8)

Ye Nai, who was spying from a distance with a telescope, had just sat through an entire biology observation class on spider mating, and regretted not bringing a camera. If she had captured this on film and put it online as natural observation or biology course material, she was sure it would have been a moneymaker.

From what she saw, she understood that the mother spider waited in her lair for the male spider to come bearing prey; if she was satisfied, they would mate.

It was said that during the breeding and mating period, mother spiders were in dire need of energy-rich food to lay healthy egg sacs. It was the time of year when their flesh was the tastiest and sold at the highest price.

To chance upon one was a lucky break, and she couldn’t miss the opportunity to taste how delicious it was.

Five or six minutes later, the two large spiders separated, and the male left. The speed at which he left gave Ye Nai the impression that he was fleeing for his life, as if he feared being eaten by the mother spider if he lingered too long.

However, the mother spider did not pursue the male; instead, she turned back and entered the earth cave, and it was unclear whether she was resting or feeding.

At that time, the fungal mycelium beneath the soil around the earth cave was already taking shape and merging into a single entity.

Ye Nai did not disturb it immediately, waiting to see if another male spider would come to mate. She then released a new wave of spores in pursuit of the fleeing male spider, capturing it directly into her space and killing it.

Afterward, she rode her motorcycle around the area and stumbled upon a lake with crystal-clear water. Standing by the lake, one could easily see the opposite shore, surrounded by lush trees.

She had come because she had seen the large trees, and only then, did she notice the lake.

Ye Nai released a large number of spores, constructing a subterranean fungal wall around the forest and the lake.

Regardless of what kind of fish, shrimp, crabs, amphibians, aquatic plants, or microorganisms were in the water, it was always right to stake out the territory first.

The growth of spores took time, so Ye Nai set up a tent under the shade of the trees, took out her computer, and began studying a medical course that she had downloaded for offline learning.

An hour later, Ye Nai got up to stretch her limbs and sensed that the fungal mycelium in the soil had roughly connected. She issued a new command for it to find the lake’s inlet, to grow along the underground water vein in search of the source of the water, or the end of the Secret Realm.

The Otherworld enemies that once ravaged the land had disappeared without a trace after being driven back into the Secret Realm; the whole country believed that they must have returned to their own world through the Secret Realm. The entire nation was eager to find this mysterious pathway to the Otherworld for retaliation.

Tracking the source of a water system was always an effective method, but it had not been successful in the Secret Realm because the visible rivers on the surface were fragmented and accounted for only a small proportion. A larger percentage of the water actually flowed through underground rivers with complex paths beneath the surface, and in many places, the rock layers were too thick, blocking detection by instruments.

Short-term, small-scale searches had always been ongoing, but the brief duration meant that useful clues were few, and without sufficient evidence, large-scale official expeditions couldn’t be organized.

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Besides professional researchers who needed to enter, personnel to protect the researchers were also necessary. With a larger group, costs began to soar.

Transportation, equipment, food, water, medicine, supplies—none could be omitted, and all were headed to places without communication facilities, necessitating a dedicated team for communication support. The longer the stay, the more cost incurred.

Therefore, large-scale official operations with numerous personnel only occurred in the first few years. In the following years, they had gradually become short-term activities by small groups.

Ye Nai wanted to find the source of the water vein for herself, of course. She saw the Secret Realm as her own property, and understanding the details of one’s property was only right.

She stayed in the shade of the trees for most of the day, and the fungal mycelium had captured four male spiders for her. As she was packing up to return, the mother spider welcomed the fifth male spider, which also delivered prey for mating. After the deed was done, Ye Nai collected both the male and the female into her space.

By the way, she took the prey brought by the fifth male spider as well, which the mother spider hadn’t had time to eat.

Throughout the day, the fungal mycelium had grown into the interior of the earth cave, finding nothing of value.

The prey brought by each male spider had been promptly eaten by the mother spider after mating. She then returned to the entrance of the earth cave, all eight legs neatly folded, and waited for the next male spider to arrive.

Since the mother spider needed to accumulate energy for laying eggs, she wouldn’t leave anything for the fungal mycelium to scavenge, except for that last bit of prey.

As Ye Nai was about to leave the territory of this patch of fungal mycelium, she ordered it to continue searching for spider lairs, to capture more males and especially females. Once they laid eggs and hatched, the whole patch of land would become a playground for the spider family, a no-go zone for predators and humans alike.

When her quiet walkie-talkie crackled back to life with the noise of human voices after a day of silence, Ye Nai stopped her motorcycle and pressed the talk button on the walkie-talkie.

"Hey, hey, everyone."

"Wow, Xiao Yezi, you finally showed up."

"What about the spiders? Said you were catching spiders, then you ran out of communication range."

"We’re waiting to see your push-ups and frog jumps tonight."

"Caught the spiders, huh? Five males and one female, tonight we feast on spider leg meat."

The walkie-talkie suddenly went silent for two seconds, followed by tsunami-like cheers.

Ye Nai mentioned she needed to continue on her way, cut the communication, and sped away at full throttle.

Over an hour later, she returned to camp and received a warm welcome from everyone.

"She’s back, she’s back!"

"Oh, we’ve been looking forward to it!"

Facing the crowd that gathered around her, Ye Nai didn’t play coy, she smiled and stopped her vehicle, promptly throwing the six large spiders out for everyone to ogle.

The six spiders were laid out in a line, the difference was obvious.

The only big one was the female spider, the other five were slightly smaller males.

"You don’t notice when looking at them individually, but put together, the size difference between male and female is so big, it’s like the female is carrying babies."

"I’ve never seen this pattern before."

"Do different species of large spiders also divide territories?"

"Haha, maybe."

"Which one are we eating tonight?"

"Let’s eat a male, keep the female. If we can catch another female then we’ll eat her."

Everyone knows the female spider legs are the tastiest this season, but with just this one, they had to restrain their cravings. Eating the males would be enough.

The logistics team member with the Space skill stepped forward, took the chosen male spider away, while Ye Nai gathered the rest and went back to her tent in the camp to rest.

An hour later, everyone gathered around the campfire in the middle of the camp for dinner.

A spider has eight legs, which the logistics team cut off, but only steamed three. Together with other dishes, it was enough for everyone to have a full meal. The remaining spider body and the other four legs were still entrusted to Ye Nai to look after for next time.

After satisfying their hunger and tidying up, everyone reconvened to count the day’s hunting bounty.

Ye Nai took out heaps of wild rabbits, wild chickens, and eggs of all sizes with the sound of beans spilling out.

"Wow!"

"Did you raid their nest?"

These were all collected by the Fungal Mycelium for her. Ye Nai didn’t know the specifics herself; she just shrugged her shoulders, tacitly agreeing with what everyone said.