Chapter 195

Chapter 195: A Strange “Little Red Riding Hood”

Irene nearly jumped off Yu Sheng’s shoulder, but Yu Sheng stayed deadly serious.

His confidence came from the day he’d swallowed the Hunger Entity, and from that devouring, fusing sensation he’d felt when he’d brushed against the Hunger Entity’s deeper, truer self.

He knew it now with brutal clarity: anything he “ate” would be broken down, devoured, and merged into him. It was faster—and far more reliable—than any seal or transfer.

If the angel umbilical cord really had triggered an early activation of Anka Aila, then even opening a door and throwing it away might not be enough to sever its link to the true body. But if he ate it…

Of course, there were risks. The angel umbilical cord wasn’t like the Hunger Entity. The Hunger Entity had been strengthened by the Dark Angels’ influence, but it was still only influence. This thing, though, was clearly tied far more tightly to the Dark Angel called Anka Aila. If he really swallowed it—

He might get indigestion.

Still, Yu Sheng felt it would work. He’d always trusted his own judgment.

And if his judgment failed… well, he’d treat it as a deliberate death wish. He trusted that instinct, too.

Irene took one look at his expression and knew she couldn’t talk him out of it. Once this guy had an idea, he would do it. With a sigh, she tilted her chin up. “Fine. People with big appetites usually have decent luck. When are we leaving? Now?”

“Yeah. Now.” Yu Sheng nodded, then turned to Foxy. “Get ready. You’re coming with me to the Black Forest.”

Then he remembered something and frowned toward the balcony. “Uh… your tails are still hanging out there to dry—”

Before he could finish, he caught a glimpse of Foxy’s back as a whole bunch of spare tails sprouted with a buzzing flutter. The demon fox girl grinned. “I’ve got plenty more~”

“…Right. I almost forgot.” Yu Sheng smacked his forehead. “Okay. Let’s go. Irene, open the door.”

A phantom doorway appeared out of thin air. Black, silk-thin threads spread like thorny vines, twisting and knitting together until a door to the Black Forest yawned open.

Yu Sheng held the wooden box with the angel umbilical cord in one hand and his terrifying tetanus staff in the other. The moment he stepped through, that familiar chill hit his skin, followed by faint wolf howls drifting through the trees.

He steadied himself and looked up at the Black Forest’s sky. Dusk seeped through gaps in the canopy, spilling mottled light across the undergrowth.

The Black Forest always felt like it was looping between two times—either an endless dusk, or that dim stretch after nightfall when the last trace of daylight still clung to the world.

And from experience, dusk was a little more stable. After nightfall, the wolf pack became far more active, and Big Bad Wolf almost always showed up during that darker phase.

Foxy’s big ears twitched, snapping toward every whisper of movement. She sniffed the air, gauging the faint currents between the trunks.

“I don’t smell any wolves nearby yet,” she murmured. “The sounds are a mess. They come and go—near, far, all over the place.”

“Before the pack truly forms, you can treat those ‘sounds’ as background noise,” Yu Sheng said, casual as if he were talking about weather.

Irene kept staring at the box in his hand, tense enough to crack. “Hey. Is that thing doing anything?”

Yu Sheng glanced down, then lifted the lid a sliver.

Inside, the umbilical cord lay quietly on the red velvet lining—shriveled, gray, and dead as ever.

“No reaction for now.” He closed it again. “If I have to say something… I keep hearing a baby crying. It’s faint, like it’s coming from deep underground. But it shouldn’t be the cord itself. I’ve been hearing it ever since I fought that huge Wolf Granny last time.”

“A baby crying?” Irene frowned. “Okay. Foxy and I can’t hear anything.”

Yu Sheng propped the tetanus staff against his shoulder and dug into his other pocket.

A bullet with a strange spiral tip glittered in his palm.

“This one isn’t reacting either,” he said quietly. “We’ll go deeper and see if we can find the little house. But Little Red Riding Hood hasn’t entered the Black Forest yet, so Wolf Granny might not show up, and Hunter probably won’t either… Still. Let’s take a look.”

They moved cautiously into the depths, scanning the dappled dusk for the lamps that marked the path.

Foxy volunteered to lead. Aside from the one storage tail she couldn’t use, she released the other eight. Wrapped in faint foxfire, they floated around the group with a soft buzzing hum. Every so often, they snapped toward a shadow between the trees, ready to unload the instant something felt wrong.

Yu Sheng found it entertaining enough to ask, “I’ve been meaning to ask—does this move have a name? Like… fox carrot drones?”

Foxy went dead serious. “It’s Fox Roaming Cannon. Irene named it.”

Irene immediately lifted her face with smug pride, as if she’d invented the wheel. Yu Sheng still didn’t understand what, exactly, she was proud of.

They walked on.

And walked.

Time stretched thin in that half-lit forest. Then Yu Sheng stopped so abruptly that Irene nearly bit her tongue.

“Huh?” she asked. “Why’d you stop?”

“Something’s off.” Yu Sheng’s brows drew together. “How long have we been walking?”

“Uh… a while?” Irene scratched her head. “I wasn’t counting. What’s wrong?”

“We still haven’t seen the path,” Yu Sheng said, voice low. “And we haven’t seen the little house either. But by the Black Forest’s rules, once you enter, the first path should show up pretty soon if you just keep going forward.”

Foxy scanned the shadows with wary, golden eyes. “Now that you say it… yeah. And today feels different from before. I can’t explain it. Just… the vibe.”

Yu Sheng’s heart tightened. Instinct made his gaze flick to the wooden box in his hand.

Was it the angel umbilical cord?

Was it interfering with how the Black Forest ran?

Or was it something else entirely?

“Squirrel hasn’t shown up, either,” Yu Sheng muttered. “As the guide, it should be the first thing we see.”

He slung the tetanus staff over his shoulder.

In the same instant, Irene wrapped her arms around his neck and swung around his back in a quick flip, landing on his other shoulder with practiced ease.

The doll huffed, “I knew you’d pull that. If I didn’t react fast, one day you’d smash me to death with that stick.”

Yu Sheng turned in surprise, half about to ask when she’d learned to move like that.

Then a faint rustle came from the bushes behind them.

Was that Squirrel?

All three of them snapped their attention toward the sound.

But what slipped out wasn’t the familiar little guide. It was a red-cloaked girl, face pale and tense, as if she were hiding from something.

Yu Sheng froze, dumbstruck.

“Another Little Red Riding Hood…?”

He took half a step forward and tried, cautiously, “Uh, hi. Are you also from the Fairy Tale organization—”

He cut himself off.

Because the girl didn’t look at him at all, as if she hadn’t heard a single word. She crouched low, eyes sweeping the forest with careful fear, like she was dodging an invisible wolf pack.

Yet she showed no awareness of the three strangers standing right in front of her.

Foxy tugged Yu Sheng’s sleeve. “Benefactor… she can’t see us?”

“It looks like it,” Yu Sheng said, frowning.

And then the strange Little Red Riding Hood moved again.

Something in the forest must have brushed her senses. She shot a sharp glance toward one direction, then turned and ran.

Yu Sheng reacted instantly. With Irene on his shoulder, he sprinted after her. “Stay on her!”

The red-cloaked girl tore through the trees, with Yu Sheng, Irene, and Foxy right behind her. Wolf howls rose from every direction, so close Yu Sheng swore he could smell them.

Blood-stained stench. Thick, wet malice.

He could almost feel fangs and claws brushing past his skin.

But when he looked, there were only shadows—branches, trunks, and the trembling dark between.

The wolf pack had formed. They were chasing the girl ahead.

Yu Sheng just couldn’t see them.

The red-cloaked girl began to slow. Her stamina was failing, and her sprint turned into a stumbling, desperate stagger.

Then an open patch of ground appeared ahead.

A small wooden cabin stood in the clearing, oddly out of place against the surrounding trees.

The moment Yu Sheng saw it, his expression tightened.

There was no light inside.

But the girl was out of options. She froze for a heartbeat when she spotted the cabin, then rushed to the door and burst in without hesitation.