Chapter 053

Chapter 53: Feast

In a way of sensing he could not fully grasp, Yu Sheng felt the link between himself and the Valley. His mind poured through the rock and soil, slid under the heaving, creeping forest, soaked into the water and the wind. Then, through countless twisted eyes, he looked up at the sky over the Valley.

The eye that filled the sky watched the land, steady and cold, never changing, like a being above mankind observing things inside a petri dish.

Yu Sheng could feel it had noticed him. The instant he linked with the Valley, that eye set its sight exactly on “him.”

The eye was puzzled. Curious. It showed no expression, no change in its look, but Yu Sheng almost “read” its thoughts. A vast mind quivered through this space. Each thought sent waves through the Otherworld. Ordinary people could not feel the thunder of these thoughts. Even Yu Sheng, borrowing the senses of the Otherworld, could only blur at the awareness behind that eye.

Strangest of all, he felt no hate in that eye. No kindness either.

After a while, he felt the focus slide off him. Or rather, the eye stopped watching the whole Valley and narrowed its sight onto one place inside it.

The eye swept the land, as if it was tracking, hunting for something.

Yu Sheng’s mind spread thin. Within minutes, he grasped a truth.

The whole Valley was moving. A terrible life had woken here and turned this piece of the Otherworld into a living thing of Hunger.

Li Lin watched as rows of teeth rose along a far ridge. Between the teeth, cruel trenches tore open. The lines of fangs rolled like waves, and thunder roared from their depths.

He saw the forest on the other side of the Valley come alive. Black tendrils took the place of trees. They ran down the Valley Floor like swarms of hunting bugs, drowning everything in their path.

All of it unfolded under the ice cold gaze of the eye in the sky. The scene was warped and frightening, like a nightmare.

Little Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Pack howled and tore at the tendrils, eyes on stalks, and tongues that grew from the ground. They kept biting them off and forcing them back. Yet no matter how hard they fought, the safe ground for the team shrank.

The young agent from the Special Affairs Bureau felt despair creep in. He looked ahead and saw the many tailed girl hugging the Doll and running first. She bent low, and even with something in her arms, she moved fast and fierce, like a wild mountain beast. As a Human, he was close to falling behind that “beast.”

Just then, Foxy finally slowed down.

Hugging Irene, and the kitchen knife, she reached a shallow hollow at the base of the mountain, hopped up on a big rock, and craned her neck to scan. The Fox Maiden’s furry ears trembled in the wind as if they were catching the tiniest sounds. She sniffed hard, then fixed on a direction.

“This way. The entrance is here!”

Before the words were done, she had jumped down with Irene. The others sprinted after her to the cliff face and saw a mouth of rock just wide enough for two to pass.

“It’s roomy inside.”

Foxy shouted back, then slipped in first.

Ghostly blue fox fire rose out of nothing and drifted up from the tip of Foxy’s tail, lighting the cave.

It looked like an ordinary cave, part of the mountain itself. Some walls showed signs of being widened by hand. In one corner, rough tools lay about. Clearly, someone had lived here for a time.

Xu Jiali took a palm sized black device from his belt, scanned the cave, and spoke low: “No toxins. Matter is stable. No erosion signs.”

Little Red Riding Hood waved a hand and set a few wolves to guard the entrance. The other Shadow Wolves returned to her side and slowly melted into the shadow under her feet.

Foxy carefully set Irene on a stone platform close to the mouth and showed a worried look.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

She pointed at Irene’s broken arm and her bad right leg.

By looks alone, Irene’s state was rough, almost as bad as the benefactor who could not close his eyes.

The Fox Maiden did not know much about a Living Doll.

“I’m fine. This body is only a temporary shell, and some parts are flimsy,” Irene said, easy in her heart, still trying to comfort Foxy. “Don’t worry. Once we get back, Yu Sheng will fix me. He made this body. His work is… kind of so so.”

The Fox Maiden’s eyes widened a little: “Sounds like the benefactor is amazing?”

“Maybe,” Irene said, unsure. “Sometimes he doesn’t feel like a person. He has so many strange abilities and ideas…”

Halfway through, the Doll stiffened as if she sensed something and lifted her head to look toward the entrance.

From here they could barely see outside.

“What is it?” Foxy asked.

“Can you carry me and let me look outside? Just at the mouth is fine,” Irene said, hesitant. “I can’t see anything from here. I don’t feel safe.”

Foxy was puzzled but did not ask. She picked Irene up and went to the entrance.

Irene stretched her neck from Foxy’s arms and dared a look at the sky.

The huge eye still floated over the Valley, like the sky itself had grown a pupil. It pulled at the soul.

“I feel like it has kept its gaze on this spot since a while ago,” Irene muttered, shrinking back, face tight. “Why isn’t Yu Sheng back yet…”

Foxy stared at the small Doll in her arms and asked, soft: “The benefactor will be okay, right?”

“He will,” Irene whispered, then glanced at their three “temporary allies” deeper in the cave and murmured to Foxy, “and don’t tell them Yu Sheng ‘died.’ By now they should have forgotten it.”

Foxy tilted her head. Her furry ears twitched twice. It was hard to tell if she understood.

Li Lin looked up at the Demon Fox and the Doll by the entrance, a frown tugging his brow. Maybe it was a trick of his mind, but he felt like he had ignored something on their run here, something very important that had slipped right out of his head.

He looked to Xu Jiali and Little Red Riding Hood but saw nothing odd in their faces.

Xu Jiali kept searching the cave with care, and Little Red Riding Hood sat with arms crossed on a stone bench, eyes on the Shadow Wolves guarding the entrance.

Her red coat had been torn in the forest fight. One sleeve was shredded, and her right arm lay bare. Fine blood red lines covered it, as if her flesh had been ripped apart and only just stitched back into shape.

The blue fox fire burned quietly on the cave roof and threw her shadow long across the floor. It wavered. For a blink now and then it twisted and took the shape of the wolves that crawled out of shadows.

Outside, the Valley never stopped howling. The quiet inside felt heavier under it.

Li Lin stood, heading for Foxy and Irene at the mouth. He figured it was time to at least say who he was.

He had taken only a few steps when a strange sound froze him.

An uneven scrape, like teeth striking teeth and grinding.

His Spiritual Intuition jolted hard.

Xu Jiali, searching in the back, and Little Red Riding Hood, steadying her breath on the bench, both lifted their heads at once.

The “air” of the Valley changed.

Two or three seconds later, outside fell into a sudden quiet, like the whole world had gone still.

The quiet lasted only a heartbeat. Then scraping rose again, along with moans different from the earlier chaos. The sounds came into every ear, grew clearer, and grew loud.

Foxy stood at once, tense, staring out. Irene braced her ruined arm on Foxy’s shoulder to steady herself and check the view.

At that moment, the Doll heard Yu Sheng’s voice: “Irene.”

“Yu Sheng?” Irene blurted, then rushed on, “You’re alive? Where are you? Can you sense me? Hurry and use Door Opening to get here. We found a safe hideout. It’s not safe outside. The Valley has a big problem…”

His voice in her mind cut her off: “Irene, don’t panic. It will be over soon.”

Irene blinked: “What?”

The scraping in the Valley grew even denser.

Yu Sheng’s voice sounded calmer than any time before: “Irene, do you remember when we used dreams to reach Foxy and tried to use her senses to find the Valley’s ‘frequency’? Do you remember what happened?”

Of course she remembered.

“You touched the body of Hunger directly, and it Took Root in your mind,” the Doll said fast. “Did something happen? Are you not going to make it?”

The scraping swelled until it seemed to fill the whole Otherworld. The echoes shook the cave. Everyone’s nerves drew tight.

Yu Sheng’s voice in Irene’s heart stayed level: “Don’t worry, Irene. I’m fine. I just realized something.”

Irene’s eyes slowly widened. She was starting to make out what the scraping really was.

“Hunger did not Take Root in my mind,” Yu Sheng said.

His voice rose from her heart.

His voice rose from the whole Valley.

“I Took Root in its depths.”

Now she heard the sound clearly. It was chewing. It echoed through the Valley.

The sacred feast had begun.

The Entity-Hunger that infested this Otherworld had started to eat itself.