Chapter 016

Chapter 16: Hunger

Foxy sat on the steps of the ruined temple with her head drooping, looking a little hurt.

Yu Sheng sat beside her with his head drooping too; he was truly hurt. That Fox Immortal girl had taken one bite and torn off a whole chunk of skin and flesh.

He knew dogs guard their food, but he never thought a Fox Immortal would guard food with that much force.

Foxy finally spoke, her white fur trembling as if she might cry: “Benefactor, I’m sorry. I… I couldn’t hold back. I hurt you again.”

Yu Sheng sighed like life had no meaning, glanced at the blood at the corner of her mouth, and said: “Yes, you hurt me again, but it’s lighter than when we first met.” He stared at the smear of red and thought: [Good thing it was only one bite. The very first time we met, that was a Sonic Headbutt. The wound was way worse. That one was like being chopped off below the neck.]

When she heard that, Foxy only tilted her head in confusion. She still could not remember the “first meeting” he was talking about. Yu Sheng had tried to ask around it a few times, and she always reacted the same way.

Foxy peered up at him with puzzled eyes and asked: “Benefactor, are you saying… we really met outside the temple before?”

Yu Sheng frowned and said: “You have no memory at all? I was fighting some messy thing. You rushed in saying you wanted to help, then bang, everything went black. When I woke up, I was here, and you were wandering around outside.”

Foxy squinted like she was trying hard to recall. A pair of furry ears on top of her head slowly drooped. Remembering seemed very hard.

Yu Sheng lowered his eyes and looked at the wound on his hand.

The place where Foxy bit him was healing. It was mending at a speed he could see. In the torn flesh, countless tiny buds of new tissue were sprouting. Even the blood seemed to have its own life, wriggling and circling through the seams of the wound. He almost felt like he could hear a faint sound from inside the cut. It was the sound of tissue being reborn, of split skin gluing shut. Everything was returning to the way it was before.

Within minutes the pain was gone, and only a little itchy feeling clung around the wound.

He knew this wasn’t normal. Human wounds don’t heal like this. But compared to the fast healing, resurrection felt even more wrong.

The changes in his body made him uneasy. So far they all looked like “good things,” but he kept worrying that there was some hidden risk behind them, some kind of price.

People naturally resist the unknown and losing control. For Yu Sheng right now, his own body was becoming the biggest unknown.

A strange feeling cut off his thoughts. He could not name it. It was like he heard a sound, or like ideas suddenly broke into his head. Thoughts and memories that were not his. A small patch of his mind began to throb out of his control. Inside that restless patch, another stream of thought stirred:

[Mother is gone, father is gone, uncles and aunties are gone. It’s dark. It’s poisonous. It’s cold. I’m scared. I’m hungry. It’s cold. I’m hungry. Very hungry. The fruit is poisonous. The bark can’t be eaten. The leaves can’t be eaten. The dirt can’t be eaten. The stones can’t be eaten. Can’t eat. None of it can be eaten. Hungry. Very hungry. Very hungry. Very hungry.]

A wave of hunger swept through his mind, so strong it felt like it could grind his will to dust. Even though it was only a thread of alien information invading his head, he still felt as if his reason would be swallowed whole by that hunger. The frenzied thoughts boomed in his skull, and only when they slowly faded did Yu Sheng begin to think again. He lifted his head and looked at Foxy.

The fox demon girl was slowly licking the corner of her mouth. Yu Sheng saw his blood move like a living thing on her tongue, seeping into her skin, into her teeth, into her very soul.

Sensing his gaze, Foxy licked the last trace of blood away, looked up at him, and gave a simple, harmless smile.

But Yu Sheng stared as if through to her soul. He saw the part already near madness. He saw the wild hunger growing behind that smile.

She was hungry. She was still hungry. Hungrier than she looked, even hungrier than she herself knew.

Foxy glanced at his pocket with careful eyes and said with that same goofy smile: “Benefactor, do you still have anything to eat? My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore, but I’m still a little hungry.”

A chill pricked down Yu Sheng’s back. He seemed to guess something. At the same time, he wondered even more how he had just “read” her mind.

[Why can I see her thoughts and memories?] He remembered what he had seen earlier: his own blood seeping into her skin. [Is it because of that?]

He noticed her expression changing fast. It was as if something hit her. Daze flashed into shock. Foxy pushed herself up, staring straight at Yu Sheng like she was “recognizing” the person in front of her all over again. She shook her head hard, raised a hand, pointed at him, and blurted: “Benefactor, you… you didn’t die?!”

Yu Sheng froze.

Foxy pressed her palm to her forehead. Her body swayed. Confused memories crashed into each other and shook her already fragile mind. At last she began to recall the “truth” that had slipped from her memory.

She remembered the first “meeting” with Yu Sheng. She remembered her terrible “mistake.” She remembered her benefactor in pieces, the warm blood of a living person, and then that blood turning into nothing, the remains vanishing. The whole process of Yu Sheng “dying” faded away from her memory.

She steadied herself at last. Golden red eyes fogged, she murmured: “Ah, I remember. Benefactor, we met just now, out on the open ground. I lost control and… but…”

She trailed off. Her last words turned to a muddled mumble. The fog in her mind grew heavy, pushing her thoughts back into chaos.

Yu Sheng blinked. It was clear Foxy had remembered their first meeting and that Sonic Headbutt. He did not know how she suddenly recalled it. Maybe it was tied to how he saw her thoughts before. But this was no time to dig into why.

Foxy was not well. Her body was swaying again, like she might lose balance any second.

Yu Sheng stepped forward without thinking, but what she did next made him stop cold. She lifted her head. Her golden red eyes were full of blood light. She stared hard at him and let a beastlike growl rumble from her throat.

She bent lower and lower. The messy tails behind her spread wide. In the night they flared and grew, and ghostly blue flames leaped and burned at each tip.

In a beast’s crouch, she let a predator’s aura spill out.

Hunger was running wild in those bloodlit eyes. Through a thin, hazy link, Yu Sheng almost heard the voice echoing in the girl’s heart: [Benefactor, you smell so good.]

He swallowed and edged half a step back. Then the corner of his eye caught a shadow behind Foxy.

A huge darkness was spreading from the night. It crept up behind her. The fox demon’s blue spirit fire flickered, and in that light the shadow took shape, like a heap of twisted beast limbs mashed together. A mound of flesh several meters high, grown over with crisscrossed mouths, eyes, and claws. It was the shape of hunger and hunting. From behind Foxy, the monster let out low, garbled roars that sounded like commands.

With each urging growl, Foxy crouched lower. Silver white fur spread across her skin. Her cheeks warped. Fangs pushed out. All traces of the human shape faded. In a blink, the silly smiling girl was gone. A massive silver white demon fox stood in the night. The blue foxfire on her tails lit the fallen temple ruins and Yu Sheng’s face.

A voice reached Yu Sheng’s ears. It was full of temptation and sharp enough to stab the mind. It drifted to him, faint but clear, and it said: “Eat. Eat, and you won’t be hungry. Feed. Feed, and we will do it together. You are hungry. Eat.”

At first Yu Sheng thought he was hearing Foxy’s thoughts, but he realized the voice came from the ugly monster. It was pushing Foxy to eat, pushing the fox maiden to bow to hunger. Its tone felt like someone waiting for a long-planted seed to finally bloom.

Yu Sheng wanted to shout, to warn Foxy not to be tricked. He had already guessed part of the truth. But before he could speak, a terrible hunger surged up from the roots of her mind.

That hunger could swallow reason and drown any other voice.

He gave a bitter smile and spread his hands to the demon fox: “I’m telling you now, your mouth and your stomach won’t agree later. Next time we meet, you’re going to be so embarrassed.”

He said it like last words. Then he set his jaw, sank his stance, and raised his fists in a military boxing guard.

Military boxing could not beat a Nine Tailed Fox, maybe seven or eight tails, but it could let a man die with some dignity.

[And what if? My body got strangely stronger. Maybe, just maybe, before I die I can land one good punch on Foxy’s nose and make it sting for a long while.]

That silly thought flashed by. A blast of wind hit him full in the face. The silver white demon fox leaped up. The air pressure made him shut his eyes.

Death did not arrive.

He opened his eyes and saw the demon fox twist in the air and pounce toward the disgusting monster instead. With a roar so furious it sounded like a cry of grief, she lunged to bite.

Then, all at once, countless black spikes and shards of black bone exploded out of Foxy’s own body. They pierced her everywhere and nailed her in place, hanging her in midair.

Yu Sheng stared in shock. The silver white demon fox slowly turned her head. Golden red blood ran from wounds all over her, steaming in the night.

Her voice shook with pain as she forced out a whisper: “Benefactor, run.”

[You smell so good.]
“I am not a monster.”
[So hungry.]
“Run.”