Chapter 52: Connection
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
The instant those four words reached Li Lin’s ears, he felt as if all the blood in his veins had turned to ice.
Just moments ago, he had been grieving for Yu Sheng, who had fallen to a monster’s sudden attack. Now, he felt certain his own end was near. Standing under that silent, watchful eye in the sky, Li Lin’s voice wavered as he mumbled, “How could this be… there was never any mention of a Dark Angel lurking here…”
He shook, his mind filled with chaotic thoughts, while that cold gaze from above pressed down on him like a heavy hand. “How could this happen…”
Not far away, Xu Jiali cursed under his breath. “Dormant states… every Dark Angel has different traits… Damn it, this is worse than fighting those Angel Cultists out in the wasteland!” he hissed, fists clenched, anger and fear twisting together inside him. How had a simple scouting mission at the Borderland turned into this nightmare?
Just a short time ago, things had seemed so normal. Now, everything was spinning out of control. First, they were dragged into this strange Otherworld. Then they saw that peculiar man who opened “doors” appear, the same man from the wasteland. He’d shown up with a half-meter-tall doll and a fox spirit who looked as if she’d been wandering alone for a hundred years. Before Xu Jiali could even speak to them, that odd “door-opener” had dropped dead right in front of him. The doll’s reaction was violent and strange, and more and more Hunger-formed creatures had swarmed in. Now, a Dark Angel hovered high above, its single eye watching them all.
Xu Jiali would never have imagined that life could ever become this bizarre.
A low growl rose around them, as eerie, shadowy wolves began to circle. Even these unnatural beasts seemed uneasy beneath that distant, unfeeling stare in the sky. Yet, the girl they called Little Red Riding Hood, who sat atop one of the wolves, narrowed her eyes. “…Strange. Why aren’t those monsters coming any closer?” she asked, frowning at the odd stillness.
Irene, who was cradled in Foxy’s arms, also noticed something was wrong. Her eyes darted about, taking in the strange scene. The monstrous flesh-beasts that had gathered near the ruined temple roared and paced, but did not advance. They hadn’t attacked since their initial outburst.
In the sky, that solitary eye simply hovered, watching without any clear sign of moving or acting. It remained cold and distant, like a frozen moon.
Li Lin took a shaky breath and said, “I think we should run while we can. Let’s not bother figuring out why they’re holding back!”
But Little Red Riding Hood silenced him at once, her voice calm and even. “And where, exactly, would we run?” she asked, staring up at that terrible eye. Under that gaze, it felt as if the entire valley was exposed. Every rock and leaf was under its watch, and no path seemed safe. It was as if the whole Otherworld had come alive to trap them. The mere thought of fleeing felt hopeless—there was no place to hide.
Suddenly, Irene stirred. She lifted her head from Foxy’s arms. “Didn’t you say something like this happened once before?” she asked Foxy. “The day the Immortal died, your parents hid you in a cave, right?”
Foxy blinked, startled. “Yes, they did.” She nodded hurriedly.
“Where is that cave?!” Irene demanded, eyes bright with sudden purpose.
That seemed to snap Foxy out of her daze. “I remember!” she cried. “It’s behind the mountain, not too far. Follow me!”
She started forward, only to pause, looking down at Yu Sheng’s body sprawled on the ground. He lay there, eyes half-open, unrest lingering on his face even in death.
“What about… him?” Foxy asked uncertainly. Though she knew Yu Sheng had once died and then returned, she didn’t understand how it worked. They hadn’t known each other long enough for him to explain everything.
“Just leave him,” Irene said quickly, her voice firm. “He’ll be gone soon anyway. He knows how to find me.”
Foxy stared for a moment, confused, but she nodded and accepted Irene’s words.
Then Irene seemed to recall something else. “Wait,” she said. “Where’s that knife I had? Oh, there it is—on the ground. Pick it up. And hang the painting on me—I can’t be separated from it. Check if the knife’s broken! Good, it’s fine. He’d definitely complain if I lost it…” She went on, fussing over these small details, sounding more concerned about a simple kitchen knife and a painting than the corpse nearby.
Foxy followed Irene’s instructions without question, carefully collecting the ordinary kitchen knife and making sure the painting was secured with Irene. Meanwhile, Li Lin and the others looked on with bewilderment. This doll and fox spirit acted as if Yu Sheng’s lifeless form was a mere inconvenience. Even as their comrade’s blood stained the ground, they ignored his body, focusing instead on the doll’s odd possessions.
At last, Little Red Riding Hood could contain herself no longer. “You’re really leaving him there?!” she exclaimed. Her voice rang out with disbelief.
Irene poked her head farther out from Foxy’s arms, speaking as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s easier to run without him,” she said simply.
Before Little Red Riding Hood could argue, a deep rumble thundered through the valley. Everyone’s heads snapped up. In the distance, the great mountains began to crack and split. Massive black stones tumbled down, and from the jagged gaps in the rock, writhing flesh began to grow, twisting into something monstrous. Jagged teeth bit into the stony cliffs, making terrible, crunching sounds.
The forests shuddered as trees fell like dropped matchsticks, their trunks giving way to tangles of fang-lined tendrils. These tendrils emerged from the earth where the roots had been, screaming together in shrill, inhuman voices.
The giant flesh-beasts that had circled the broken temple suddenly grew restless again, as if awakened from a stupor by this horrible change.
Irene let out a frightened shriek and slapped Foxy’s shoulder with her tiny, half-broken arm. “Go! Run now! If you three want to come along, do it! If not, stay and end up like him!” she shouted, pointing vaguely at Yu Sheng’s corpse.
That was enough to get everyone moving. Foxy sprang into action, bolting toward a gap at the bottom of the valley with Irene clutched tightly in her arms. Li Lin and his companions glanced at one another, their minds racing with questions they couldn’t begin to answer. Left with no other choice, they followed as fast as their legs would carry them.
Little Red Riding Hood lingered for a moment, looking back at Yu Sheng’s body lying on the blood-soaked ground. She ground her teeth, frustrated and uncertain. Then one of her wolves broke away from the pack at her command, trotting toward Yu Sheng’s remains. But the moment it reached the spot, it seemed to lose its sense of purpose. The wolf sniffed, circled, then turned back without doing anything at all.
Without another glance, Little Red Riding Hood spurred her wolves to hurry after Foxy and Irene. She tried to forget the blood and the body behind her. Survival mattered more now.
Back near the ruined temple, something strange happened among the Hunger-born beasts. The creatures, who just moments ago had screamed and lunged at anything in sight, suddenly fell silent. They seemed puzzled, lost, as if their minds were slipping away. They stood crooked and hunched, eyes rolling strangely, muttering nonsense. Their limbs twitched and jerked in directions that made no sense, mouths drooling and mumbling as if caught in a nightmare.
But then, from the midst of their confused murmurs, a single word rang clear:
“Delicious.”
It was as though a will beyond themselves spoke through their misshapen mouths. They repeated it softly, hungrily: Delicious.
They needed to feed.
Slowly, their aimless eyes focused—not on the distant, fleeing humans, but on each other. Their twisted gazes locked on their own kind.
To feed. Not from hunger alone, but from the pure, driving urge to devour. This was now their single purpose. One creature shambled forward and took a huge, wet bite out of the beast next to it. The victim did not protest or scream. It seemed utterly unaware of what was happening, even as its flesh was torn away. Instead, it stumbled onward, as though searching blindly for another creature to bite itself.
They did not give chase to the fleeing group. Instead, their world had narrowed to one dreadful task: devouring each other, merging into a single chaos of flesh and teeth. They abandoned all else, surrendering themselves to a strange new destiny.
Meanwhile, where Yu Sheng’s blood had seeped into the soil, the ground itself began to change color. It was slow at first, a subtle darkening, but the transformation spread steadily, as if the land itself were drinking in the blood’s essence.
High above, the enormous, unblinking eye continued to hover. It offered no reaction, no mercy, and no sign of understanding. It simply watched. From below, no one could guess what it truly saw or if it had any feelings at all.
Yet Yu Sheng, despite being trapped in his death-like state, sensed that cold stare. He felt it as clearly as if he were awake. After drifting in darkness for what felt like forever, he suddenly felt a strange “connection.” It was as if, in this silent emptiness, he had gained a new point of view.
At first, this extra perspective confused him. He seemed to be seeing from all around, layers of unfamiliar sights and sounds washing over his mind. But slowly, Yu Sheng began to understand the truth.
Somehow, he was looking up at that distant sky from the valley’s point of view. He could feel the land. He was connected to the Otherworld itself.
He had become part of it.