Chapter 53: The Feast
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
Yu Sheng sensed a peculiar bond with the valley—an indescribable feeling that stretched beyond ordinary understanding. It was as though his mind could slip between stones and soil, weave through the restless forest depths, and blend into the currents of water and gusts of wind. His awareness spread outward, and soon, through countless twisted and distorted eyes, he glimpsed the valley from above.
High above everything hovered a single giant eye, so vast it seemed to cover the entire sky. It gazed down calmly, its stare distant and detached, like an aloof observer examining tiny creatures sealed inside a glass dish.
Yet Yu Sheng was sure that it had noticed him. The instant he merged his senses with the valley, that enormous eye focused on him and him alone.
He could almost feel its thoughts: it was puzzled, curious. Though the eye did not change its expression in any human way, Yu Sheng sensed its confusion. Tremors of meaning vibrated through the air, as if the creature’s silent thoughts could shake this strange world. A person who was not attuned to it would never sense these strange echoes, and even Yu Sheng could only guess at their meaning. Still, there was something oddly neutral about the eye’s interest—no warmth, no threat, just a calm, distant assessment.
After a few moments, the eye drifted its attention away, no longer watching the entire valley. Instead, it began searching for something specific. Its gaze swept slowly across the ground, as if trying to find a hidden object or creature.
Meanwhile, Yu Sheng’s awareness continued to spread. Over the following minutes, he began to understand something terrifying: the entire valley was coming alive. It seethed with an unnatural, hungry energy, as if this Otherworld had become one massive, living being longing to feed.
Li Lin, standing at a distance, watched this transformation in stunned disbelief. Along the ridges far away, he saw rows of sharp teeth sprouting from the land itself—crooked, jagged fangs that rose up like monstrous hills. The ground cracked into deep, messy trenches between them. Those terrible teeth shifted and rolled like waves, their thunderous rumblings echoing through the valley.
On the opposite side, the forest no longer looked like a forest at all. Instead of trees, dark, writhing tendrils had appeared, slithering across the ground like swarming insects, feasting greedily on everything they touched.
All of this took place beneath that calm, giant eye in the sky, which observed without blinking. The entire scene was chilling, like stepping straight into a waking nightmare.
Little Red Riding Hood’s wolves howled, hurling themselves at the creeping tendrils, at the grotesque stalks and slimy tongues that thrust up from the soil. The wolves bit and snapped furiously, struggling to hold their ground. But no matter how fiercely they fought, the safe territory beneath their paws kept shrinking, swallowed up by the living valley.
One young agent from the Special Affairs Bureau was nearly overcome by despair. He turned his head to spot a girl darting ahead—a girl with many foxlike tails. She clutched a doll to her chest, moving with a quick, graceful speed that no ordinary human could hope to match. He, a mere man, had trouble keeping up with her swift, animal-like movements.
At last, Foxy—the girl with multiple tails—began to slow down. They had reached a hollow area at the base of a mountain. Still holding Irene and the kitchen knife, Foxy climbed onto a large rock and glanced around. Her fluffy ears twitched, listening to the faintest rustle of wind, and then she sniffed the air carefully before fixing her gaze on a particular spot.
“This way! The entrance is here!” Foxy called out.
Without waiting for an answer, she leaped down, carrying Irene, and the others followed closely behind. They hurried to the mountainside, where they found a narrow opening in the rock, just wide enough for two people to squeeze through side by side.
“It’s roomy inside!” Foxy’s voice echoed as she dashed into the cave first.
A pale bluish flame flickered at the tip of her tail, lighting the cavern. It looked natural, formed by the mountain itself. Here and there, the stone walls showed signs of being carefully widened by human hands long ago. In some corners lay a few crude tools, hinting that someone had once lived here.
Xu Jiali pulled a small black device from her belt and ran a scan along the cavern walls. She spoke softly, “No toxins. The structure is stable. No signs of erosion.”
Nearby, Little Red Riding Hood made a quiet gesture, recalling some of her wolves from outside. She left a few to guard the entrance, their forms melting back into the shadows around her feet. The rest vanished, waiting inside her crimson aura.
Foxy placed Irene gently on a broad stone ledge near the entrance. Her eyes were filled with concern. “Are you all right?” she asked, pointing to Irene’s damaged arm and battered leg.
Irene looked terrible. She had been through so much. Still, she tried to sound lighthearted. “I’m fine. This body is temporary, after all. Some parts weren’t that sturdy to begin with.” She paused, as if trying to reassure Foxy. “Don’t worry. Yu Sheng will fix me when we get out of here. He built this body, though I have to say his craftsmanship could use some improvement.”
Foxy’s ears perked up. “That sounds like Benefactor is pretty amazing.”
Irene hesitated, her tone uncertain. “I suppose so. Sometimes I think he’s not entirely human, with all those odd abilities and ideas…”
Before she could continue, Irene’s eyes flicked toward the cave entrance, as though sensing a change in the world outside.
“What’s wrong?” asked Foxy, tilting her head with curiosity.
“Could you…carry me over there? To the entrance?” Irene asked quietly. “I’d like to see what’s going on outside. Sitting here in the dark makes me uneasy.”
Foxy nodded without hesitation. She picked Irene up and moved closer to the cave’s mouth. The bluish foxfire cast a soft glow on the rock walls as they went.
At the entrance, Irene craned her neck, peering out into the valley. Her eyes widened when she saw that giant eye still drifting in the sky, cold and watchful, as if it had never once looked away.
“It feels like that eye has been focused on this spot for a while,” Irene whispered, quickly pulling back, her face tense. “Why hasn’t Yu Sheng returned yet?”
Foxy looked down, ears twitching nervously. “Benefactor will be okay, right?”
Irene tried to sound sure. “He’ll be fine.” Then, leaning closer to Foxy, she lowered her voice and warned, “Don’t mention anything about Yu Sheng ‘dying’ to the others. They’ve likely forgotten that by now, and it’s best to keep it that way.”
Foxy’s ears flicked again, though it wasn’t clear if she fully understood. Still, she nodded.
From deeper inside the cave, Li Lin glanced toward them. He had the strange feeling that he’d forgotten something important—something vital that had slipped from his mind since following the fox-girl and the doll. He frowned and glanced over at Xu Jiali and Little Red Riding Hood, but neither showed any sign of noticing anything odd.
Xu Jiali was still carefully examining the cavern’s interior, scanning for dangers. Little Red Riding Hood, seated on a simple stone bench, watched her shadow wolves at the entrance. Her red cloak was torn from the battle in the forest, one sleeve completely ripped away. The exposed arm was covered in strange, blood-red lines, as if it had once been violently shredded and only barely put back together.
The bluish foxfire danced overhead, making Little Red Riding Hood’s shadow flicker. Sometimes, her silhouette stretched and wavered, taking on the shapes of the wolves that emerged from it.
Outside, the valley’s eerie howling continued, and its echoes made the hush inside the cave feel impossibly heavy.
Li Lin took a step forward, intending to introduce himself properly to Foxy and Irene. But before he could, he heard a strange, scraping noise. He froze instantly.
It was an uneven, grinding sound, like teeth rubbing and scraping against one another.
At the same time, both Xu Jiali and Little Red Riding Hood tensed and looked up. The very “feel” of the valley had changed again.
Moments later, an unnatural silence fell upon the land outside, as if the entire valley had decided to hold its breath. But this hush lasted only a heartbeat. Soon, the scraping returned, louder than before, and now mixed with a low, whimpering sound—nothing like the earlier roars of chaos. This was different, more unsettling.
Foxy sprang upright at the entrance, ears flattened back, staring outside. Irene braced herself against Foxy’s shoulder, straining to see. And then, above the horrible scraping, Irene heard a voice in her mind.
“Irene.”
It was Yu Sheng’s voice. Irene’s heart leapt. “Yu Sheng?! You’re alive? Where are you? Can you sense me? Hurry and come to us! We found a safe hideout. The valley is… it’s gone mad out there—dangerous!”
But before she could finish, Yu Sheng’s calm voice cut through her anxiety.
“Irene, don’t panic—it will be over soon.”
“What?” Irene murmured, confused.
The scraping and grinding grew harsher, echoing fiercely through the valley, making everyone in the cave shudder.
Yu Sheng’s voice came again, steady and sure inside Irene’s mind. “Irene, do you recall when we tried to contact Foxy through the dreamscape? When we searched for the valley’s ‘frequency’ using her senses?”
Irene remembered. Of course, she remembered. She remembered how they made contact with the entity called Hunger.
“You made direct contact with Hunger’s core! It took root in your mind!” Irene said, nearly tripping over her words. “Did something go wrong? Are you—are you trapped? Are you in danger?”
All around them, the scraping, gnawing sounds filled the cavern, growing louder and more dreadful by the second.
But Yu Sheng sounded incredibly calm, even peaceful. “Don’t worry, Irene. I’m fine. I just realized something.”
Irene’s eyes widened. She was beginning to guess what the scraping truly meant.
“Hunger didn’t take root in my mind,” Yu Sheng said.
At that very moment, Irene realized she could hear Yu Sheng not only in her mind, but somehow echoing throughout the valley itself, as if his words had become part of the landscape.
“I took root in it.”
Now Irene understood. The scraping, grinding roar that thundered across the valley was the sound of devouring. The Otherworldly creature known as Hunger, that terrible force dwelling in this place, had begun a horrifying banquet.
It was devouring itself.