Chapter 048

Chapter 48: Feeding Day

The Fox Maiden stared wide-eyed at the big pile of things Yu Sheng had set on the ground. She stood there dazed for several seconds, as if her mind could not process what was happening, until Yu Sheng opened a can of eight-treasure porridge and held it to her lips.

Yu Sheng said, “Eat, I brought all this for you. If it’s not enough, there’s more.”

The smell of food-real food.

Not stone, not dirt, not brick or wood-not the empty phantoms from dreams that never filled a stomach no matter how hard you imagined.

Foxy’s eyes opened wider, then she snapped back to life like someone hit play. She grabbed the can from Yu Sheng, skipped the spoon, and poured it straight into her mouth, making low, muffled sounds as she gulped.

She finished the full can in barely more than ten seconds, then carefully licked the rim. Soon she grew impatient, because she could not get the last bits inside. When Yu Sheng moved to help, Foxy pinched the can with her fingers and tore hard. With a sharp metallic snap, she ripped open the tough metal, then peeled it into long, thin strips and licked every drop stuck to them clean.

Yu Sheng said, “There’s more,” as he dug in his pocket, passed her a piece of bread, and handed her a bottle of water, “but slow down.”

A blur flashed before his eyes, and the food was already in Foxy’s hands.

She devoured everything. For a while, eating became the only thing she did. Yu Sheng and Irene kept quiet. In the ruins, the only sounds were Foxy’s chewing and the faint noises she made in her throat, as if she wanted to speak but could not bear to stop.

Then Foxy began to cry.

Tears suddenly rolled down the Demon Fox’s face. Holding bread in both hands, she kept stuffing it into her mouth. She did not sob or wail. Her tears slid calmly along her cheeks, fell onto the bread, and then went into her mouth with it.

The sight startled Yu Sheng. He hurried to wipe her dirty face with his hand and said, “Don’t cry, you’ll choke and your stomach will hurt. No more crying. There’s more food, and there will be more from now on.”

Foxy finally seemed to wake up, her mind free enough to think of something else. She stared blankly at Yu Sheng for a long moment, then held out half a piece of bread and said, “Benefactor, you eat too.”

Yu Sheng waved it away: “I ate before I came. I’m not hungry.”

But Foxy did not move. She stubbornly held the bread out. Even though all the food here was what Yu Sheng had just brought, she still insisted on sharing it with him, as if the act meant something very important to her.

Yu Sheng at last reached out and took the half piece of bread.

The Fox Maiden smiled, then grabbed a pack of compressed biscuits. This time she did not gobble. After tearing the wrapper, she nibbled in tiny bites, careful and slow, as if trying to stretch the meal for as long as possible.

She seemed a little less hungry now, even if only for the moment.

She whispered, “Tasty, benefactor, tasty.”

Yu Sheng jolted and, remembering something unpleasant, said, “Don’t put ‘benefactor’ in front of ‘tasty.’ You… just eat your fill, that’s enough.” [That sounded wrong.]

Foxy nodded at once and said, “Mm.”

Irene finally spoke, her face relaxing as she saw the Demon Fox’s mind steady a little: “You’re finally coming back around. You really held on for a long time.”

Foxy flinched. She seemed only now to notice the Doll on Yu Sheng’s shoulder-or to realize this 66.6-centimeter-tall figure could move and talk. She stared in shock and said, “This one… is alive?”

Irene widened her eyes and said, “…Of course I’m alive! I just helped you bite open a sausage!”

Yu Sheng said, “She’s Irene, a Living Doll from Alice’s Little House. She’s the helper I told you about. She’s small, but she’s very capable. I only managed to contact you in the dream because she helped.”

Irene hugged a kitchen knife with one hand, put the other on her hip, and stood on Yu Sheng’s shoulder looking very proud.

Foxy thought for a moment. She did not know what a Living Doll was or why such a small human-shaped thing could move and speak, but she understood this was her benefactor’s friend. After a few seconds of hesitation, she offered the compressed biscuits and said, “Irene, you eat too.”

Irene’s proud look turned awkward: “Uh… I can’t eat. Dolls can’t eat.”

Foxy pulled the biscuit back at once and kept nibbling.

Irene huffed: “…Hey, you just took it back without insisting even once? That’s not how you acted when you shared bread with Yu Sheng!”

Foxy said softly, “Dolls can’t eat. Giving you food would waste it.”

Irene puffed her cheeks in a sulk, but no one humored her.

Yu Sheng’s attention had already shifted to the dark, cold night around them.

He could feel the Valley’s breath changing after he arrived. The Entity that lurked in the Otherworld was now active. Bringing food and letting Foxy slip free of Hunger, even for a while, had provoked the monster. He had come today for two things: first, to save Foxy; second, to find a way to deal with the Hunger Entity in this place. It was not something he had to do at first, but now that he had formed a link with the monster and knew it was learning to think, he had to solve this danger.

Yet for some reason, it still had not shown itself.

Doubt crept into Yu Sheng’s mind. Just then, a faint sound rode the night wind into everyone’s ears-

A distant wolf’s howl.

Yu Sheng and Irene looked at each other. After a pause, Irene asked, “Yu Sheng, did you hear that?”

Yu Sheng frowned and said, “Wolves. I thought I misheard.” He turned toward Foxy, who was still carefully chewing a biscuit: “Are there wolves here?”

Foxy looked confused and said, “No. It’s only me and the monster here. This is my first time hearing such a strange sound.”

The howl came again, cutting off their talk.

It sounded closer.

The Wolf Pack was drawing near, either chasing something or being chased.

In the dark Dense Forest, a huge Flesh Behemoth moved like a nightmare wandering among trees. It shifted through the shadows, sometimes showing itself in the thin mist, sometimes vanishing from sight without warning.

But no matter where it ran, the monster would appear nearby in a strange way and strike from a tricky angle.

Wolves took shape out of shadow. They leaped through the trees and pounced on the Flesh Behemoth racing in the dark. More wolves swarmed in from every side, trying to lock down its path.

Countless tentacles and barbed bone limbs suddenly stabbed out of the Behemoth’s body. The Wolf Pack, which had just closed in, was forced back at once, and a huge gap opened in their encirclement.

Many eyes on the Behemoth fixed at the same time on a figure outside the pack-Little Red Riding Hood sat astride the largest wolf, her calm stare meeting the monster’s dozens of cold gazes from afar.

A heartbeat later, the Behemoth split in the middle. A black, scaled long tongue shot out with a hiss, an arrow of malice streaking straight for the girl’s throat.

Little Red Riding Hood only tilted her body a little. Just as the tongue neared her, she raised her right hand.

Her slender arm exploded and swelled in an instant. Flesh sizzled. Smoke rose. Blood and mist braided together in a blink and formed a giant black wolf head, which bit down hard and clamped the tongue before it could change course.

The Behemoth recoiled, but she held on. She and her Riding Wolf stayed planted like a nail in the ground, locked with the monster. In that brief instant, a figure burst from the Dense Forest’s shadows-

Li Lin sprinted like a quick leopard toward the monster’s flank. The short blade in his hand flashed with Chilling Light-the spare weapon Xu Jiali had lent him for now. The monster noticed the ambusher at once. Several eyes snapped toward Li Lin, and a raised claw chopped straight down at him.

But the real ambush waited elsewhere. Halfway in, Li Lin dropped low, dodging the claw with a move no normal body should make. A second tall figure vaulted out of the monster’s blind spot from behind-an almost two-meter-tall strongman lifted a Beam Dagger, a weapon so big others might treat it like a short sword, and drove it into a fleshy tumor on the monster’s back.

With a searing hiss, the hot blade sank in without resistance and even sliced the whole tumor off.

The monster let out a chaotic, shrill roar, then spun hard. It flung off Little Red Riding Hood, who was barely holding on, and sent the strongman flying before he could pull away.

Xu Jiali tumbled into a nearby bush with a heavy grunt.

Li Lin rushed over, dragged his colleague out, and both looked toward where the monster had been.

The shape was gone.

Fog in the Dense Forest grew thicker. In the rolling mist, countless twisted phantoms seemed to sprout. They crawled up from the soil and swayed in the cold wind.

Shadow after shadow, without end.

The whole Forest looked like a giant mouth waiting to feed.

Xu Jiali sucked in a sharp breath and said, “Don’t stop. Keep running for the edge of the woods!”