Chapter 52: Connection
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
The moment he heard those four words, Li Lin felt his blood turn cold.
Just a moment ago, he had been mourning Yu Sheng, who had been killed by a monster’s sneak attack. Now, he realized he might not live much longer than this fallen stranger.
“How could this be… The reports never mentioned a Dark Angel lurking here…” Li Lin muttered to himself. Under the cold, indifferent gaze from above, he felt a storm of thoughts roaring in his head. “How could this be…”
“In their dormant state, every Dark Angel is different… This is worse than battling Angel Cultists out in the wastelands!” Xu Jiali cursed, shaking his head. He couldn’t understand how his routine mission had spiraled into such chaos. What was supposed to be a simple surveillance task at the border had turned into a nightmare.
Everything had happened so fast—being pulled into an Otherworld, seeing that “door-opening weirdo” he’d met once on a wasteland planet, standing with a half-meter-tall puppet and a fox demon who looked like she’d been exiled for a century. Before they could exchange even a few words, the mysterious “door-opening weirdo” had died right before his eyes. The puppet had reacted in the strangest way, and then even more creatures of Hunger appeared. To top it all off, a Dark Angel emerged in the sky…
How could all these bizarre things happen in just one day?
Low growls echoed around them. Shadows shaped like wolves circled the group. The cold gaze from the solitary eye in the sky made these creatures feel immense pressure, even fear.
Little Red Riding Hood, perched on one of the wolves, frowned. “This is strange. Why aren’t those monsters coming at us?”
Irene, resting in Foxy’s arms, felt a chill. She noticed it too—the strange creatures surrounding them were still prowling and growling, but none had stepped forward to attack.
The cold, solitary eye floating in the sky just watched, showing no sign of attacking.
“I think we should take this chance to run,” Li Lin finally spoke up. “Let’s not question why these monsters are just standing there.”
Little Red Riding Hood interrupted him, her voice calm. “Run where?”
The eye in the sky seemed to watch every inch of the valley, and the whole Otherworld seemed to be alive, shifting under its gaze. Any thought of escape felt impossible—like trying to run when there was nowhere to hide.
Suddenly, Irene seemed to remember something. She looked up from Foxy’s arms. “You said this happened before? The day the immortals died, right? Your parents hid you in a cave back then?”
Foxy was stunned for a moment, then nodded quickly.
“Where’s that cave?!”
Foxy blinked, then nodded again. Holding Irene tighter, she turned to leave. “I remember! It’s near the back of the mountain. I’ll take you there!”
But she hesitated, her gaze falling on Yu Sheng’s body, lying lifeless on the ground.
Her benefactor’s eyes were still open as if he couldn’t rest in peace.
“What about him… What should we do?” the fox demon asked softly, uncertainty in her voice.
She knew Yu Sheng could “die and come back,” but she didn’t know the details. They hadn’t had much time together, and Yu Sheng hadn’t explained much to her.
“Just leave him here, don’t worry,” Irene said. She had spent more time with Yu Sheng and clearly knew more. “He’ll disappear soon; he knows how to find me.”
Foxy blinked, then nodded, though she looked unsure.
“Oh, and where’s my kitchen knife?” Irene suddenly remembered. “Oh, over there on the ground. Can you pick it up for me? And hang that painting on me first—I can’t be separated from it… Is the knife still intact? As long as it’s not broken, it’s fine. If I lose it, Yu Sheng will definitely blame me. Forget the body—it’s not useful now…”
The little puppet rattled off orders, and the fox demon girl followed them obediently. Li Lin and his companions watched the scene, their expressions filled with confusion. They saw Foxy carefully pick up a kitchen knife that couldn’t have cost more than a hundred yuan, all while ignoring their fallen comrade’s body.
Little Red Riding Hood finally spoke up, her voice tight with frustration. “Are you just going to leave him here like this?!”
Irene poked her head out from Foxy’s arms. “It’s hard to run while carrying him!”
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off by a low rumble from deep within the valley.
In the distance, the mountains cracked open. Countless pitch-black boulders tumbled down the peaks, and within the widening fissures, flesh and blood began to form. Sharp teeth ground against rocks, producing a chilling roar.
The forest shook, and trees toppled as if shedding a disguise. Tentacles with sharp teeth burst out where the trees had fallen, letting out a unified, blood-curdling howl.
The creatures of flesh and blood, which had been prowling around the ruined temple, suddenly seemed restless, stirred into action.
Irene’s eyes went wide. She tapped Foxy’s shoulder with her only remaining arm. “Whoa! We shouldn’t stick around here! Let’s get moving. Those three can follow if they want!”
As Irene finished speaking, Foxy was already sprinting towards a gap at the bottom of the valley, behind the ruined temple.
Li Lin and his companions exchanged glances. Despite the dozens of questions they had, they knew they had no choice but to follow.
They hurried after the fox demon, sprinting toward whatever “shelter” might await them.
Little Red Riding Hood looked back one last time at where Yu Sheng had fallen.
She bit her lip, and one of the wolves broke away from the pack, rushing towards Yu Sheng’s remains.
But after only a few steps, the wolf seemed to forget what it was doing. It paused, paced around for a couple of seconds, then turned and rejoined Little Red Riding Hood.
She didn’t look back again. She urged the wolf pack onward, protecting the others as they followed the silver-haired fox demon ahead.
She had already forgotten about the pool of blood they were leaving behind.
Around the ruined temple, the restless behemoths of flesh and blood slowly quieted down.
These entities, born from “Hunger,” looked confused. They stood among the ruins, their deformed eyes scanning aimlessly. Hideous limbs waved in the air, and their mouths murmured like broken dreams.
Suddenly, among their scattered murmurs, a clear word emerged:
“Delicious.”
A will was speaking through their mouths.
Delicious.
Must eat.
The behemoths swayed. Their eyes, which had been wandering aimlessly, suddenly fixed on each other.
Eat, not out of hunger.
The one that devours all, above all else… Now is the time to eat.
The first behemoth moved. It staggered toward another one. It didn’t launch an elaborate attack—it simply opened the largest mouth on its body and greedily bit down.
The one being bitten didn’t dodge or scream.
As if unaware that it was being eaten by its own kind, the monster simply swayed, carrying its “companion” as it stepped toward the next nearest creature.
None of the “Entities” chased the prey that had fled. It was as if, in that moment, they no longer cared—drawing power from hunger didn’t matter anymore. Eating had become their sole mission.
At the center of the ruined temple, the last of Yu Sheng’s blood slowly seeped into the earth. Where the blood spread, the soil changed color—slowly at first, but then faster and faster, unstoppable.
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
Yet the cold, solitary eye in the sky didn’t react. It just floated there, its gaze too vast to hold any human emotion. It continued to observe the valley, and because of its immense size, no one on the ground could tell where it was looking.
If that transcendent gaze even had a “focus.”
But Yu Sheng felt it—he felt that focus because it was now on him.
After drifting in darkness for a while, an indescribable sense of “connection” woke him up. At first, he thought he had already revived, but soon realized he was still “dead.” Only this time, his death was different.
In the darkness, he found he had another kind of “vision.” At first, the strange angles and overlapping images confused him, making his thoughts a jumble. But gradually, he understood one thing.
He was seeing through the eyes of this Otherworld—responding to the gaze from the sky.
He had made a connection with the valley.