Chapter 52: Connection

The moment he heard those four words, Li Lin felt his blood turn ice cold.

One moment he was lamenting Yu Sheng's death by a monster's ambush; the next, he felt he might not live much longer than the other man.

"How could this be... the data never mentioned a Dark Angel parasitizing this place..." Li Lin muttered to himself. Under that cold gaze from the sky, more and more chaotic static began to rise in his mind. "How could this be..."

"In a dormant state, every Dark Angel has different traits... this is even worse than fighting the Angel cultists on the Wasteland!" Xu Jiali couldn't help but curse. He couldn't figure out how a routine return trip for work, a relaxing surveillance mission in the Borderland, had suddenly taken such a sharp turn into this mess.

Everything was so beyond his expectations—suddenly falling into a foreign realm, suddenly seeing that "Door-Opening Stranger" he had met once on the Wasteland planet, seeing a half-meter-tall doll standing beside him and a fox spirit who looked as if she had been exiled for a century, not even getting to say two words before that mysterious "Door-Opening Stranger" was brutally killed right before his eyes, the doll's reaction being utterly absurd, then more Hunger Entities appearing, and now a Dark Angel rising from the sky...

All the imagination he had in his entire life couldn't simulate this bizarre chain of events happening today!

Anxious low growls from the wolf pack came from all around; shadow wolves prowled and circled nearby. The cold gaze of that eye from the sky made these eerie creatures feel immense pressure, even fear. Yet Little Red Riding Hood, riding atop one of the wolves, frowned: "... Strange, why aren't those monsters coming closer?"

Erin, who was being held in Hu Li's arms, paused in surprise upon hearing this, then noticed the abnormal situation as well.

Those flesh beasts gathering around the ruins of the broken temple were still roaring and prowling in chaos, but strangely, some time had passed since then, yet not a single monster had taken a step forward, not a single monster had launched an attack.

That floating, cold single eye in the sky merely observed quietly, seeming to have no intention of taking further action.

"I think we'd better run while we can," Li Lin broke the silence. "Let's not worry about why those monsters are dazed for now."

Little Red Riding Hood cut Li Lin off, speaking calmly: "Run where?"

The cold single eye in the sky watched every inch of the valley, and the entire foreign realm was changing as if it had come alive. Under that eye's gaze, the thought of escape would instantly be shattered by the despair of having nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

But just then, Erin seemed to remember something and lifted her head in Hu Li's arms: "You just said something similar happened before? The same thing happened the day the Immortal died. Your mom and dad hid you in a cave back then?"

Hu Li paused, then hurriedly nodded.

"Where is that cave?!"

Hu Li finally reacted, turning around with Erin in her arms and walking away: "I remember! It's near the back mountain. I'll take you there!"

But suddenly, she stopped, hesitating as she looked down at Yu Sheng's corpse on the ground.

The Benefactor's eyes still aren't closed; he looks like he died with unfinished business.

"Benefactor... what do we do about the Benefactor?" the fox spirit girl asked, somewhat at a loss.

Although she knew about Yu Sheng's "death and resurrection," she didn't know many details, because their last time together was short, and Yu Sheng hadn't had time to explain much to her.

"Just leave him here, don't worry about it," Erin said immediately. She had communicated quite a bit with Yu Sheng and clearly knew more information than the fox. "He'll be gone soon; he has a way to find me."

Hu Li paused, then nodded blankly.

Erin then immediately remembered something else and quickly added: "Oh right, where's that kitchen knife I just used... oh, it's on the ground over there, help pick it up. Hey, hang that oil painting on me first; I can't be separated from this painting... Is the knife broken? If it's not broken, that's fine. If he loses it, he'll definitely say I—never mind the corpse, it's useless..."

The small doll barked orders rapidly, while the fox spirit girl executed them in a daze. The trio of Li Lin watching from the side felt it was extremely eerie. They watched Hu Li carefully pick up that kitchen knife, which would cost at most a hundred or so yuan in a supermarket, yet completely ignore her fallen comrade's body on the ground. After holding back for a long time, Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't hold it in: "You're just leaving him here like this?!"

Erin poked her head out from Hu Li's arms: "Carrying him makes it hard to run!"

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, seeming to want to say something else, but was interrupted by a roar coming from deep within the valley.

Distant mountain ranges cracked open; countless pitch-black boulders rolled down from the peaks. And within the constantly widening fissures, flesh was actually forming inside the mountains, sharp teeth grinding against the rock, emitting a chilling roar.

The forest shook; trees fell one by one, as if shedding their disguise. Countless tentacles armed with sharp teeth grew from where the trees had fallen, roaring in unison.

Those massive beasts that had been prowling around the broken temple ruins, trapped in an eerie sluggish state, also seemed stimulated, beginning to emit restless agitation.

Seeing this, Erin immediately cried out, raising her arm which was now just a stump, and slapped Hu Li's shoulder hard: "Oh my god! We can't stay long! Let's pull out first. As for those three over there, follow if you want, don't if you don't!"

As soon as Erin finished speaking, Hu Li had already turned around with Erin in her arms and rushed toward the rear of the broken temple ruins, sprinting toward a gap at the bottom of the valley.

The three of Li Lin exchanged glances. Though their minds were full of questions, there was now only one choice left. They quickly caught up with the fox who had already run far ahead, sprinting toward some "shelter."

Little Red Riding Hood looked back one last time, toward the direction where Yu Sheng had fallen.

She gritted her teeth; one wolf from the pack broke away from the formation and charged toward Yu Sheng's remains.

However, that wolf had only run a few steps before it seemed to suddenly forget its mission and stopped. Then it wandered in place for two seconds, turned around, and returned to the wolf pack beside Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood didn't look back either; she simply drove the wolf pack to run at full speed, protecting the others in the formation while keeping up with the silver-haired fox demon ahead.

She had already forgotten the pool of blood she had left behind.

And around the broken temple ruins, those restless flesh beasts had, at some point, gradually quieted down again.

These entities born from "Hunger" seemed lost. They stood among the crumbling walls and broken beams, their deformed, proliferating eyes scanning everywhere, their grotesque and ugly limbs moving aimlessly in the air. Their gaping maws opened, and from their mouths filled with sharp teeth came mumbled sounds like sleep-talking.

Suddenly, a clear single word was mixed into the mumbled sounds of those flesh beasts—

"So fragrant."

A will was speaking through their mouths.

!.

So fragrant.

Must feed.

The beasts swayed their bodies. Those eyes that had been scanning the surroundings gradually stopped their blind turning; one by one, the eyes stabilized, their gazes falling upon each other.

Feeding, yet not due to hunger.

That which devours all, that which is above all... feeding. Yes, now is the time to feed.

And then, cold tranquility, and merciful eternity—for it is after all that which devours all, the ultimate fairness and the final end.

The first flesh beast moved. It staggered over to another entity. Without any flashy attack moves, it simply opened the largest mouth on its body surface and bit down with extreme greed.

The one being gnawed did not dodge, nor did it even scream.

As if completely unaware that it was being devoured by its own "kind," that monster just swayed its body and stepped forward, carrying a "kindred" that was eating it, and walked toward another entity closest to it.

Not a single "Entity-Hunger" attempted to chase the prey that had already fled. It was as if, at some moment just now, their essence had changed—drawing power from Hunger had become an unimportant thing; sublime feeding had become their only mission.

In the center of the broken temple ruins, the last trace of blood remaining after Yu Sheng's death was slowly seeping into the soil. Where the bloodstain spread, the color of the soil was gradually changing, slowly, but gradually accelerating, unstoppable.

However, that floating, cold giant eye in the sky seemed completely unconcerned with the changes happening on the surface—it merely hung high in the air. In its massive eyeball, there were no signs of emotions or thoughts that humans could understand. It continued to observe this valley, for its scale was so immense that from the surface perspective, it was impossible to determine exactly where its "focus of vision" was.

If such a "focus" truly existed for that transcendent, non-human gaze.

But Yu Sheng felt this "focus," because this focal point of the gaze was now resting on him.

After floating in the darkness for a while, an indescribable sense of "connection" woke him up. At first, he thought he had been resurrected, but soon he realized he was still in a state of "death," only this time the "death" seemed different from before.

He discovered he had gained an additional "perspective" in the darkness. At the very beginning, this perspective confused him greatly, because the strange observation angle and the multi-layered, overlapping information made his mind chaotic. But gradually, he realized one thing.

He was responding to the gaze from the sky with the eyes of this "Otherworld."

He had established a connection with this valley.

(End of Chapter)