Chapter 170: Little Red Riding Hood's Wolf Grandmother

The ferociously shaped wolf-tooth mace, whistling through the air, slammed hard onto that slender claw, emitting a dull, strange "plop." Yu Sheng saw the claw splinter apart like thick mud, hissing with smoke; the sensation of the blow felt less like flesh and blood and more like rotten cotton and wood.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the twisted, lanky monster standing at the door began to swell violently, letting out a piercing shriek as its entire body expanded and proliferated in all directions, appearing completely enraged.

But Yu Sheng had been prepared for this all along.

"Eileen! Act now!"

Endless black threads erupted from behind Yu Sheng in the blink of an eye, growing madly in the air as if possessing independent life, proliferating, and silently piercing into the lanky monster's flesh and blood. As the monster grew rapidly, the chilling spider silk also surged; within a few breaths, the two became tightly entangled, reaching a certain balance. The taut silk emitted a disquieting "crackle-crackle" sound, while the Wolf Grandmother was forced to cease her movements.

Eileen stood inside the small wooden cabin, raising both hands high. Her small frame was as if cast into the ground, resisting the immense force.

Just as Yu Sheng had predicted, a body made of clay and lotus root could allow Eileen to withstand the backlash of "Hunger" for a short time; thus, a skeleton made of rebar could enable her to unleash astonishing power—the change in raw materials resulted in an exponential increase in strengthening effects after transformation into a puppet.

Yu Sheng charged out of the small wooden cabin.

Gripping that ferocious club, his figure was swift as the wind. One foot stomped the ground, crushing a deep, cracked pit beneath it. He lunged fiercely at the motionless "Wolf Grandmother," smashing the wolf-tooth mace hard against the latter's chest—the violent recoil nearly made the rebar slip from his grip, while the monster's chest was directly smashed open into a horrifying gaping hole.

Inside the hole there was no flesh and blood, only formless mist, surging mud, pale bones, and a black heart beating rapidly, spewing forth toxic substances.

Yu Sheng landed back on the ground amidst the recoil, stabilizing his stance slightly, then looked up at the "Wolf Grandmother," which towered two or three times his height, staring at the terrifying breach in its chest.

This was the "Wolf Grandmother of Little Red Riding Hood," a monster soaked in a young girl's fear, growing from her childhood until now.

Compared to this monster, the Wolf Grandmother that had devoured Xiaoxiao back then was clearly far weaker—that one could at best be considered a slightly larger wolf, whereas the one before Yu Sheng's eyes now had clearly acquired power beyond common sense.

In the next second, Yu Sheng felt a sudden, rising sense of danger.

Although the Wolf Grandmother before him was tightly bound by Eileen's threads and appeared utterly incapable of launching an attack, he still lunged fiercely to the side without hesitation.

And almost the instant he threw himself outward, a sharp and cold "wind" swept past the back of Yu Sheng's head. He heard only a piercing whistle from behind, and the ground where he had previously stood, along with a nearby tree stump, was sliced open by some invisible force into a horrifying fissure.

"Holy crap, what the..." Yu Sheng turned around in horror, and his peripheral vision caught a shadow rapidly retracting.

In the next second, he suddenly realized what was happening, looked up, and shouted toward the cabin: "Eileen! Its shadow!"

Night had already shrouded the dense forest, starlight covering the sky. Under the cold starlight, the shadow beneath the giant wolf was growing madly.

Although the black threads bound the wolf's body, its shadow had now spread to almost encircle the entire cabin. Inside that shadow, countless chaotic, blurred outlines churned, then struggled and whispered as they emerged from the ground, taking shape before Yu Sheng's eyes.

There were slender wolf-shadows, human forms with blurred features, stumbling children, and adults turning away without hesitation. Some wailed, some begged, some simply stood there silently, while others looked at Yu Sheng with some kind of resentful or venomous gaze.

These things emerging from the shadow wandered near the cabin, constantly collapsing and dissolving, yet constantly regenerating from beneath the Wolf Grandmother's feet.

They seemed to be attempting to shake Yu Sheng's resolve—Yu Sheng wasn't entirely sure of this.

Because he didn't know these shadows.

Then, Eileen inside the cabin acted again. Dense black spider silk appeared, surging out from the cabin's main door, from its windows, even from every crack in the cabin's walls, from the chimney, and from the gaps where the roof met the walls. This scene was as if the small wooden cabin had grown countless hairs under the night sky; these "hairs" wove together in the darkness, transforming into a network of crisscrossing spider webs that silently covered the Wolf Grandmother and the shadow beneath her feet.

A dark "blade" extended from the shadow, attempting to stab at Yu Sheng, but was entangled by the spider silk and abruptly froze in mid-air.

Immediately after, ghostly blue fox-fire appeared in Yu Sheng's vision—the flames raced swiftly along the paths woven by the spider silk, "overflowing" from the wooden cabin like flowing water, rapidly burning and melting those shadows bound by the silk.

Hu Li had learned his lesson from the incident in the museum; he didn't attempt to deal with shadow-state enemies using physical attacks but instead employed his own flames. Now it seemed this was very effective.

Yu Sheng moved.

Once the giant wolf and its shadow were suppressed by the combined efforts of Eileen and Hu Li, he finally took action—he lunged once more at the giant wolf's chest, at the gaping hole he had just smashed open. Layer upon layer of black threads wove together in mid-air, precisely tracking every step Yu Sheng took. Eileen had already sensed Yu Sheng's intent; she wove a staircase leading to the giant wolf's chest, and at the end of that staircase lay the heart beating furiously.

Yu Sheng charged upward, the furiously beating heart becoming the largest target in his vision.

Actually, he had no idea whether this thing was truly the "Wolf Grandmother's" weakness, but since such a conspicuous and moving object was jumping up and down in his line of sight, no matter what it was, Yu Sheng was definitely going to rush up and give it a heavy punch.

The giant wolf, bound by spider silk, let out a low howl. Overwhelming malice and fury, almost taking on tangible pressure, crushed down from all directions.

Yu Sheng immediately knew he might have guessed correctly.

He stepped onto the final stair and lunged fiercely at that heart.

At this life-or-death moment, part of the giant wolf's body actually forced its way free from the spider silk's bonds—its splintered chest began to writhe violently. Mud-like "flesh and blood" forcibly pushed against the silk's suppression and began to heal, while pale bones grew from the chest cavity, layer upon layer, attempting to block off that heart.

Yu Sheng swung the wolf-tooth mace in his hand and smashed it down onto those intersecting, regenerating ribs.

The ribs regenerated again amidst piercing static, and then Yu Sheng's wolf-tooth mace struck down once more, smashing those bones into splinters.

He smashed down again and again, the ferocious club studded with blades, iron nails, and rebar fragments whipping out afterimages. Like chiseling stubborn stone, he smashed and gouged at the giant wolf's chest. In his ears, he seemed to hear layer upon layer of illusory voices. Those voices came from the evil wolf's chest cavity, from that heart, from the entire black forest. They whispered to him, using the wolf's language, the human language, the forest's language, bewitching, guiding, even disguising themselves as his subconscious, repeating over and over to him—

Aren't you afraid?

>

Have you never hesitated?

Not the slightest hesitation?

Yu Sheng merely raised the "weapon" in his hand high once more.

"Logically, I should be afraid," he grinned, looking excitedly at the now-exposed heart, "but 'logic' is in my hands—"

He smashed the "logic" in his hand down hard. The blades and iron nails on the "logic" should logically have become dull, broken, and deformed through these repeated impacts, but at this moment they seemed like unbreakable, unyielding objects. Not only were they undamaged in the slightest, but they also smashed the wolf ribs, harder than steel, into fragments.

The wolf-tooth mace jammed between the giant wolf's ribs. Endless black spider silk instantly filled the other gaps, completely blocking the regeneration process of that breach.

Yu Sheng reached in and violently yanked out that black heart, larger than a basketball, still beating continuously.

The heart beat violently, cracking open with fissures. Highly toxic substances gushed endlessly from the cracks. Some of the substance splashed onto Yu Sheng's arm, easily burning away his flesh and blood and seeping the poison into his veins.

Yu Sheng felt as if he were boiling inside. The wolf poison burned his blood vessels, and the malice of the black forest traveled along his arteries, stabbing all the way toward his heart.

But instead, he smiled happily.

"Yes, yes, just like that... you seep into me, just as I seep into you; it doesn't matter who permeates whom..." He hugged the Wolf Grandmother's heart, squeezing that thing, which was radiating deadly poison and rapidly killing him, tightly against his chest. "I was wondering how to find you... so good, you've come to find me."

He heard faint crying sounds, an infant's wail, piercing the soul, echoing in his mind.

He even felt as if the entire black forest was crying. This sound had been there from the very beginning—he just couldn't hear it before contacting the Wolf Grandmother's heart.

The heart, flowing with wolf poison, twitched. Its beating finally began to weaken, and the poison liquid flowing from the cracks gradually became thinner.

That poison liquid was now flowing within Yu Sheng's veins—they were surrounded by Yu Sheng.

The Wolf Grandmother's body began to shrink. Like a deflated balloon, in the blink of an eye it went from the height of a house to over two meters tall, then continued to contract and deform, collapsing like a puddle of rotten mud.

Yu Sheng also fell from mid-air to the ground. He held that same shriveled heart, landing at the cabin's entrance along with the wolf-tooth mace that had detached from the Wolf Grandmother's chest.

(End of this chapter)