Chapter 138: After Awakening
The Phantom Door creaked open slowly. But beyond it lay not the vivid images of the real world, nor the clear scenery of a “normal Otherworld.” Instead, only murky blackness stretched out, a realm of chaos and shadow.
Yu Sheng did not recklessly step through. He remained still, alert, carefully attuning himself to the Door’s connection.
Previously, he had only confirmed that the Phantom Door could be opened within the Black Forest. He had never actually crossed it. But now, with the Wolf Pack outside the Cozy Little House having retreated, and the Hunter long gone, the surroundings were finally quiet. Even the Squirrel had disappeared. At last, Yu Sheng had the peace he needed to investigate.
As he suspected, a Door opened within the Black Forest was truly unusual.
“Fairy Tale” was an abnormal Otherworld, founded upon a compendium of stories. And the Black Forest, being one of its subsets, possessed a warped structure of time and space. Here, the power of “consciousness” surged to abnormal levels, and while the visitor’s awareness entered this world, their physical body remained slumbering in reality.
Naturally, the Phantom Door opened within this place couldn’t be attuned or customized with the usual precision.
Yu Sheng sensed this Door was tethered to a fixed point—his body, still asleep in the West Wing of the Orphanage.
This revelation solved a riddle that had nagged at him:
If he entered the Black Forest in a state of pure consciousness, and then opened a Door to some distant point in reality, what would happen if he stepped through? Would his consciousness return to his body? Or would he drift to that distant place as a disembodied soul?
Now, the answer was clearer. At least in an abnormal Otherworld like “Fairy Tale – Little Red Riding Hood,” any Door opened in a consciousness state would lead only back to one’s own physical body in the real world.
At least, that was the limit of what he could do for now.
Yu Sheng looked down at the severed Big Bad Wolf leg he still clutched. Only one question remained:
Could something acquired in the Black Forest, while in a state of pure awareness, be brought back out?
He took a breath, stabilized the Door as best he could, and stepped through, dragging the Big Bad Wolf’s corpse along.
A brief wave of dizziness struck. Then came the sensation of falling from a great height—as if waking from a deep dream in an instant. Yu Sheng abruptly felt his body again, felt the softness beneath him.
His eyes shot open—and he was staring at a tail.
And Foxy’s ears.
He was lying in a nest of fluffy tails, with two draped over him like blankets. The Demon Fox Maiden turned her head from the mound of tails and smiled brightly, “Benefactor! You’re awake! I was worried you’d catch a chill…”
Yu Sheng blinked a few times before fully waking, then scrambled awkwardly from the fluffy heap, muttering, “Chill? Not really. Just… warm. Really warm. I get it now, why you sleep with your tails every night. These things are insanely cozy!”
Foxy beamed with pride.
Then Irene bounded over, chattering as she approached. “She was going to pull all her tails off and pile them on you. I had to remind her you’d suffocate, even if it wasn’t terrifying. You should’ve seen it—looked like a grave mound, and you lying there all peaceful, like some lifelike statue. I wanted to stick a sign next to you but couldn’t find one. Anyway, enough talk. Little Red Riding Hood and the others are waiting outside, so I—aaah!”
She was cut off as a massive shadow crashed from above.
Thud—smack!
The little doll was flattened beneath a huge figure.
It was the Big Bad Wolf.
Yu Sheng leapt up, confirming quickly.
Yes. It was indeed the dissected Big Bad Wolf from before.
“It really came through…” Yu Sheng muttered, thoughtful. He checked his pockets. The filthy scrap of paper that had fallen from the Hunter was there too. Relieved, but also puzzled, he murmured, “But how does it work…”
From beneath the corpse, a small hand reached out and flipped him off with a tremble.
“Yu Sheng, you bastard!” came the muffled voice of the Doll Lady. “Is this really the time to be pondering principles? I’m still trapped down here!”
Yu Sheng burst into laughter, then pulled the little doll out from beneath the massive Wolf.
Mostly to get back at her for the whole “lifelike statue” bit.
Irene sprang up and tried to kick him in the knee, but each time she jumped, he shoved her back down. After three tries, she pouted, “You’re so petty…”
But she got over it quickly and redirected her attention to the impressively open-chested Big Bad Wolf corpse.
“…So this is the ‘Wolf Granny’?” Irene stared in disbelief at the grotesque corpse before her. The body was far larger than a typical Evil Wolf, monstrous in size and shape. “What a massive creature. No wonder it could swallow a six-year-old child whole… Its limbs are oddly proportioned. Gives me the chills just looking at it.”
The Demon Fox Maiden, Miss Foxy, strolled over, crouched beside the massive body, and began to zone out.
“Benefactor,” she murmured after two seconds, turning her head toward Yu Sheng, “I haven’t eaten this before.”
“Neither have I. We’ll have to try a few cooking methods,” Yu Sheng replied casually. “The tender meat along the ribs should be good for stir-frying or deep-frying. Leg meat could be great sautéed or as cured meat—if it really doesn’t work out, the pressure cooker always performs miracles. I’m just not sure how to handle the organs.”
By the time he was midway through his musings, Foxy’s drool had already begun to trickle down.
Irene, who had remained silent throughout, looked completely stunned. Just as Yu Sheng was about to start discussing how to prepare the Wolf Granny’s brain, she finally leapt to her feet.
“You two just naturally fell into this conversation?! And this is what you’re talking about?!”
Yu Sheng blinked out of his culinary reverie, quickly reining in his rampant recipe thoughts and grabbed Foxy’s tail to wipe her drool.
“Right, back to business—we’ve got things to do. Go get Little Red Riding Hood and the others inside.”
Still deeply suspicious, Irene gave the two a side-eye before reluctantly heading to the Door. She only made it halfway before stopping again, her gaze returning hesitantly to the terrifying corpse on the ground.
“Won’t this be too much for Little Red Riding Hood and that child, Xiao Xiao? If they see it… I mean, what if it triggers something?”
Yu Sheng frowned slightly.
He understood Irene’s concern—and truthfully, for once, the often unreliable Doll Lady had a valid point.
Little Red Riding Hood might manage. She’d been wrestling with her nightmare Wolf for so long that she could rationally suppress her swelling fear. But Xiao Xiao… it might be too soon for her.
After all, Yu Sheng had no idea what state the girl’s mind was in.
“You’re right,” he exhaled and nodded at Foxy. “Put it away for now… and no sneaky bites! It’s still raw!”
He couldn’t help the last reminder—after all, if left unsupervised, Miss Foxy was absolutely the type to gulp down the entire Wolf Granny—raw, bones and all.
“Okay,” Foxy replied, obediently dragging over her Storage Tail. With a casual flick, the massive body disappeared before Yu Sheng could even register how.
Only then did Irene step out and summon Little Red Riding Hood, the Long Haired Princess, and the others from the Door.
A small, nervous, and shy Young Lady trailed behind Little Red Riding Hood.
It was Xiao Xiao.
The signs of “death” had vanished from her. The once fragmented flesh had fully regenerated, her torn heart and brain restored as though untouched. Life now surged through her body. Within the faint link formed through blood, Yu Sheng could feel each steady heartbeat.
Sensing something, Xiao Xiao suddenly stopped and looked up at Yu Sheng.
But within a second, her attention shifted to the multi-tailed Fox.
Wonder lit up the little Young Lady’s face, and she let out a soft gasp of amazement.
“It’s over,” Yu Sheng smiled, stepping toward Little Red Riding Hood. “How are you two holding up?”
“If you mean when I first woke up… felt like dying would’ve been better,” Little Red Riding Hood grimaced. Just the memory of “waking up” seemed enough to make her uncomfortable. “You said it’d be intense, but I wasn’t ready for that intense.”
“You’re joking about it already. That’s a good sign,” Yu Sheng nodded, then looked to the small girl beside her. “Xiao Xiao… right? Are you feeling any pain or discomfort?”
Shy and wary, the girl instinctively flinched back despite the faint blood bond. But she quickly stepped forward again, raising her head with wide eyes.
“No pain.”
“Good. No pain is good,” Yu Sheng said warmly, giving her a gentle pat.
“Honestly, it still feels unreal,” the Long Haired Princess finally spoke. “Her wounds just vanished. As if nothing ever happened. Then she opened her eyes and said she had a dream.”
“A dream?” Yu Sheng raised a brow and looked at Xiao Xiao. “What did you dream of?”
“A lot of people,” the girl murmured, head down and voice as soft as a whisper. “They were all wearing Red Cloaks. They told me to run, but I couldn’t move… Then I don’t remember anything else.”