Chapter 49: The Doorway Ambush
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
A restless wind stirred through the valley, whispering and hissing as if alive. Yu Sheng stood amid the broken stone ruins, feeling something strange in the air—an unsettling change in the Otherworld’s mood. He couldn’t quite explain it, but it seemed as though every bit of the landscape had begun to wake up. The distant forests, the towering mountains, and even the soil beneath his feet felt as though they were opening their eyes. Above it all, the sky seemed to loom closer, sending down a chill that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
He glanced at Foxy, who trembled as if she had seen a ghost. The fox girl clutched the precious bits of food in her hands, her face gone pale. She stared up at the dark sky, her steps shifting backward until she stood near Yu Sheng. She was mumbling something under her breath, words that made no sense at first. As she drifted nearer, her voice grew clearer:
“This is how it was when the Immortal died… This is how it was when the Immortal died…”
Irene’s voice broke through the tense hush. “What’s happening now?” she asked urgently. Her arms tightened around the tiny doll she carried, the strange little figure holding its small kitchen knife as if ready to defend its mistress. “Foxy, do you know something?”
But Foxy was lost in her chant, ignoring Irene’s worried question. She just kept repeating the same words, her eyes distant and unfocused, as if trapped in some terrible memory.
Yu Sheng and Irene had no time to press her further. Yu Sheng suddenly felt a familiar presence stalking them nearby. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a shadow gathering at the temple’s ruined edge. There, a horrible shape began to form—an ever-growing, swollen heap of flesh layered over itself, its ugly limbs jutting out at unnatural angles. It looked like a patchwork beast stitched together from spare body parts. Dozens of eyes snapped open across its hide, scanning hungrily, and where no eyes grew, sharp teeth formed instead. A low, snarling rumble rose from deep within it.
Entity-Hunger had arrived, right where it wanted to be—right before its prey.
Irene’s voice rose in disgust. “What the heck is that thing?! It’s so ugly!”
Yu Sheng stepped forward, voice steady. “Be careful. Its body can twist and change shape any way it likes. Tentacles, tails—anything can sprout from anywhere.” He looked over at Foxy. “You just worry about keeping yourself safe. You’ve been infected by this creature’s influence. You can’t fight it.”
Foxy’s gaze remained glued to the sky, her fear so intense that the monstrous arrival didn’t shake her from it. Still, she managed a stiff nod at Yu Sheng’s words and gathered the scattered scraps of food. She backed away, but only a little, as if afraid to leave Yu Sheng’s side completely.
Irene’s voice dropped to a whisper. “So what’s the plan? You’re not really going to fight this thing with your bare hands, are you? I mean, I have a kitchen knife at least.” Her attempt at humor fell flat. The creature seemed to be studying them, biding its time, and that made Irene more nervous than if it had simply charged.
Yu Sheng frowned. He knew ordinary weapons wouldn’t work well against the thing’s tough flesh. Even if he hacked at it with an axe, he’d never do more than lop off a chunk or two—nothing that would truly harm it. That was why he had come empty-handed. He had other ways to hurt it, ways that did not rely on blades.
“Just like we planned before,” he said quickly, his eyes never leaving the horror before them. “You use your threads to control its movements. I’ll try to tear it open from the inside. If I fail, you must grab Foxy and run. Don’t worry about me—Foxy will live, and Hunger won’t chase after you forever.”
Irene looked startled. “Wait, what about you?”
“I’ll come back,” he said calmly. “We’ll just try again. This creature can’t live forever. We’ll wear it down.”
“Yu Sheng!” Irene hissed. “You promised not to rely on that ‘resurrection’ trick all the time!”
“I’m doing my best,” he snapped, then narrowed his eyes at the creature. Something felt off. “Why isn’t it attacking?”
Irene’s eyes darted nervously. “It’s like it’s waiting. Could it be getting smarter? Thinking things through?”
“That’s all the more reason not to wait.” Yu Sheng clenched his teeth. “I’m going in!”
With those words, he sprang forward. Almost at once, Irene leaped nimbly off his shoulder. She landed lightly, one hand stretched toward the monster. As she focused, her eyes turned pitch-black, and hundreds of fine, dark threads unfurled from her fingertips. They spread across the air like the strands of a giant spiderweb, careful not to block Yu Sheng’s path as he charged.
Now racing through a forest of twisting black threads, Yu Sheng’s enhanced body streaked forward in a blur. The hideous beast finally stirred as its prey attacked, lifting a monstrous claw from somewhere along its back and swinging it down to crush Yu Sheng.
In that instant, Yu Sheng felt something strange—an eerie kind of foresight. He could sense the tension in the monster’s muscles, feel exactly where it would strike, as if he could see through its own eyes. He knew there would be a tentacle waiting to trap him if he tried to dodge too obviously. It was no guess or hunch; it was like some new, uncanny power inside him.
These thoughts flooded his mind in less than a heartbeat. As the claw descended, Yu Sheng held his ground, trusting the black threads to help him. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Irene’s dark web lashed forward, tangling around the claw and piercing into the creature’s flesh. Long, razor-thin filaments stabbed through the limbs, the gaping mouths, and the writhing tentacles.
Suddenly, Yu Sheng felt a dreadful chill wash through him. It was as if his own thoughts were being pierced, tangled, and numbed. In a swift, terrible vision, he saw himself trapped in a giant spiderweb, his arms and legs bound tightly by countless dark strands. At the far edge of the web, a shadow with gleaming red eyes approached with a twisting, unnatural gait.
“Yu Sheng! Snap out of it! I can’t hold on much longer!” Irene’s shout crashed into his vision, bringing him back to the grim reality before him. He blinked, shaking off the horrible illusion. He saw that the black threads had wrapped the beast’s flesh securely for the moment, but they were straining, seconds away from snapping under the monster’s furious strength.
He had no time to ponder the strange vision or the freezing feeling. Gritting his teeth, Yu Sheng darted around to the creature’s side. With one hand, he seized a length of Irene’s thread for balance, and with the other, he reached out into empty air, willing a door to appear. He focused as hard as he could, knowing he had only moments before the monster broke free.
It took immense effort to open a door in midair, far more than when he opened ordinary doors. He concentrated fiercely, as if pulling something half-formed out of thin air. Slowly, a shimmering outline appeared. With a final, forceful tug, he yanked the door wide open. Its hinges gave a soft creak, and suddenly, beyond the door lay a world filled with blazing light.
A fiery glow flared, revealing a landscape of molten rock and bubbling lava on the other side—an inferno stretching as far as the eye could see. Yu Sheng had discovered this place in one of his countless earlier experiments, a deadly realm of endless flames that looked like a corner of hell itself.
The creature known as Entity-Hunger was indeed formidable, but its real threat lay in its mind-bending powers and endless hunger. Physically, it was tough but not invincible. If they couldn’t hack it to pieces, perhaps they could burn it to cinders. If one bonfire wasn’t enough, he’d give it a whole lake of magma.
“Throw it in!” Yu Sheng shouted to Irene, his voice echoing across the ruin.
“Got it!” she called back, gripping her threads and tightening her hold.