Chapter 54: The Return of Yu Sheng
The chewing sounds that filled the entire Valley grew louder, like waves crashing on a shore. The whole Otherworld seemed to have turned into a grand feast. Soon, everyone hiding in the caves realized what these sounds meant.
Li Lin, nervously, made his way to the cave entrance and cautiously peeked outside.
The jagged teeth within the mountains were gnashing at each other. Massive trenches, like gaping mouths, were collapsing inwards, splitting further and devouring one another. The foraging tendrils on the ground had already begun to digest themselves, and enormous flesh monsters were constantly being born from certain shadows, only to be consumed by an invisible force in the blink of an eye.
Against the terrifying backdrop of this feast, Li Lin spotted a figure—Yu Sheng was standing in the open ground outside the cave, seemingly mesmerized by the chaotic devouring taking place in the Valley.
For a moment, Li Lin was disoriented, but then, he quickly shook off the unease. He had forgotten that Yu Sheng had died; to him, it felt as though the other had simply separated from the group temporarily.
Foxy and Irene, guarding the cave entrance, also saw Yu Sheng.
“Benefactor! You really didn’t perish!” Foxy called out first, but then quickly became anxious. “Benefactor, come in quickly! It’s dangerous outside!”
Yu Sheng turned around, took a few quick steps toward the cave, and muttered, “I don’t feel like that thing in the sky is hostile, even though it’s a bit Door-like…”
Irene, however, didn’t pay much attention to Yu Sheng’s mumblings. Instead, she nervously scanned him from head to toe. “Are you really okay? Is your mental state normal?”
“Can’t you just wish me some good luck?!” Yu Sheng snapped, giving Irene a glare. “You think it’s easy to come back here?”
As he spoke, he glanced up at the cave entrance again. “The ‘Hunger’ should be nearly finished, but that giant eyeball in the sky, I’m not sure what it is. It’s not part of the ‘Entity-Hunger’ and doesn’t seem like something that belongs in this Valley.”
Irene, who had prepared to lighten the mood with some sarcastic remarks, froze in surprise. “Huh? It’s not from this Valley?”
“No,” Yu Sheng shook his head. Even now, he still maintained a subtle connection with this Otherworld, allowing him to distinguish the mysterious gaze descending from the sky. “That eye is something foreign. It’s been lying in the sky of this Otherworld for many years, replacing the original sky.”
Irene gaped, seemingly frozen in disbelief. Just then, a deep voice from within the cave shattered the silence.
“That’s an ‘Angel.'”
Yu Sheng looked up in surprise, seeing a tall, muscular man of nearly two meters walking out from the deeper part of the cave, with the eerie blue glow of Fox Fire casting sharp shadows on his face.
The man sized Yu Sheng up, his expression heavy with a strange mix of caution and solemnity. “Did you fall behind earlier?”
Yu Sheng felt an odd unease from the man’s gaze, one that was filled with excessive wariness and vigilance. It wasn’t exactly hostility, but it also wasn’t the typical concern one would show toward a companion who had fallen behind and returned. However, Yu Sheng didn’t dwell on this; his focus was on the strange name the man had mentioned.
“I didn’t keep up earlier, but it’s nothing serious,” Yu Sheng waved dismissively. Then, he asked, “What do you mean by ‘Angel’?”
The man took a moment to think, then spoke slowly, “The more accurate term would be ‘Dark Angels,’ a dangerous and… unknown entity. Sometimes it refers to the unusual phenomena caused by these dangerous beings.” He paused. “Each Dark Angel is different—from their form and abilities to their manner of appearance. The one occupying the sky now must have parasitized this Otherworld many years ago. It’s because of its influence that the Entities here began to mutate.”
Yu Sheng listened with growing surprise, quickly realizing that this giant knew far more about the Dark Angels. He seemed to hold more detailed information, but the man didn’t reveal everything. Perhaps there were confidentiality reasons or other concerns.
But that was normal. After all, no one really knew each other, and even though they had fought together, there had been no introductions until now. The fact that this person was willing to share any information was already an expression of good faith.
“I’m Yu Sheng,” he said, extending his hand toward the man. “These two are Foxy and Irene—my friends.”
The tall man hesitated for a moment, then shook Yu Sheng’s hand. “I’m Xu Jiali.”
Yu Sheng froze for a moment.
After a brief pause, he opened his mouth, “Wait, I didn’t quite catch that. You’re called…?”
“He says his name is Xu Jiali, the ‘beautiful Young Lady’ one,” a red-clad girl sitting on a stone bench broke the silence, lifting her head to glance at Yu Sheng. “You can just call me Little Red Riding Hood.”
Yu Sheng blinked a few times, realization dawning upon him. “Oh, I get it. You all are in that line of work, right? Always using code names when you step out of the door?”
The two towering men grunted in unison. One of them, with a deep voice, muttered, “She’s using a code name. My name is the real deal.”
Yu Sheng: “…”
What could he possibly say? He could only awkwardly admit that the name actually sounded pretty nice, carrying a sense of cultural depth. His gaze then shifted to the last Young Man who had yet to speak.
Yu Sheng had a strange feeling that this face seemed familiar, as though he’d seen it somewhere before. Yet, he couldn’t quite place where.
Li Lin didn’t hesitate, noticing the attention on him. He walked over confidently, “My name is Li Lin.”
Before Yu Sheng could speak, Irene suddenly piped up, “Hey! That name sounds totally normal!”
Li Lin was instantly speechless. He glanced over at Yu Sheng’s group—an eight-tailed fox demon with a bunch of tails, a doll nearly half a meter tall, and three of them together barely forming a single human—and couldn’t believe they had the gall to comment on someone else’s name being normal…
However, his attention quickly shifted elsewhere.
The chewing sounds from outside the cave were gradually subsiding, and the tremors shaking the entire Otherworld were weakening at a rapid pace.
Xu Jiali dashed to the cave’s entrance in a few quick steps, peering outside. What he saw made his heart skip a beat—the entire Valley had been utterly transformed.
It was as if a layer of the mountains from the distant peaks to the valley floor had been gnawed away. The mountains were now littered with jagged rocks and barren earth. The distant forests had vanished, and deep ravines scarred the land beneath the hills.
He quickly spun around and looked at Yu Sheng, who was standing next to Foxy.
“Did you… do this?”
Xu Jiali asked hesitantly. The sight seemed so far beyond the work of any human. No matter how it looked, it couldn’t possibly be something a mere mortal could do. Yet, his intuition told him that everything was connected to Yu Sheng’s brief departure earlier.
“Sort of,” Yu Sheng replied, almost cheerfully. He was in a good mood, a feeling of satisfaction filling him from finally having eaten his fill. He gave a happy nod. “Though it took quite a bit of effort.”
Li Lin now also saw the devastation in the Valley. When his eyes returned to Yu Sheng, the shock on his face was overwhelming. “…How is this even possible…?”
Yu Sheng thought for a moment, realizing it was hard to explain what had happened. How could he tell them? That he’d been eaten by “Hunger,” only to find that his appetite far surpassed that of Hunger itself? Or that a Human had somehow infected an Entity with his desire, and thus the “HungerEntity” had eaten him in turn?
This wasn’t the sort of thing that could be easily explained—and even if it were, it wouldn’t be clear who the villain in the story was.
Moreover, he wasn’t keen on revealing too much about himself to these strangers just yet.
“Lucky me, I found the Entity’s weak spot,” Yu Sheng casually said. “I’m not exactly sure how it worked, but it looks like it triggered a self-consumption chain reaction in the Entity in this Valley…”
His explanation seemed a bit too convenient, and clearly, it wasn’t the full story. Li Lin immediately understood—some things were meant to remain secret.
Then, Irene’s sudden outburst interrupted their private thoughts: “Hey! Isn’t that thing in the sky slowly drifting upwards?”
Yu Sheng immediately turned his attention to the sky, leaning forward to look.
What he saw made his eyes widen. A giant eye, covering the whole Valley, was slowly rising, making no sound. It resembled a projection shrinking in the sky. Within mere seconds, the eye had reduced to a third of its original size.
It was rapidly fleeing from the area.
A clearer, brighter light began to spread from the distant mountains, and the disturbed clouds reappeared in the sky. The giant eye had turned into a small disk, barely the size of a palm, floating in the center of the sky. Moments later, it vanished entirely from sight.
“It… ran away?” Irene craned her neck, staring upwards, her face filled with confusion. She quickly turned and looked at the two towering men nearby, “The ‘angel’ you talked about—it’s gone! What should we do now?”
Xu Jiali merely sighed in relief, a smile squeezing onto his face after hearing Irene’s words.
“Well, what else can we do? Celebrate, of course—then I’ll head back and write my report.”