Chapter 51: Awakening

Chapter 51: Awakening

It’s not over.

Almost the instant Hu Li finished speaking, Yu Sheng understood what she meant.

He heard chaotic shrieks rising and falling throughout the dense forest. He heard a horrifying and hollow wind suddenly echo through the Valley. The eerie and sinister aura permeating the entire Other Domain had not diminished with the destruction of the flesh giant. Instead, it suddenly became several times stronger. A heavy, almost stagnant malice and sensation of being watched surged madly from all directions, as if something had been awakened and was falling into a state of furious rage.

“What is this thing?!” Yu Sheng looked at the demon fox girl, who seemed to know something, and asked quickly.

“I don’t know, but it... appeared before,” Hu Li said, her face filled with fear as she hid behind Yu Sheng. “The day the immortal died, it was like this. Something woke up. The immortal took the remaining people and went outside. They never came back. Later, only their bodies were found...”

The demon fox girl trembled slightly and lowered her head.

“Father and Mother... hid me in a cave and wouldn’t let me see outside. I don’t know what it was. When I crawled out, everyone was already dead...”

Yu Sheng quickly pieced together the situation from Hu Li’s fragmented and incomplete account.

The truly terrifying thing in this Valley was not that flesh giant.

Or rather, it was not only that flesh giant.

Something even more powerful slept in the depths of this darkness. Ever since he and Irene had entered the Valley, that thing had probably been gradually waking up.

Gritting his teeth, Yu Sheng quickly made a decision and immediately ran toward Irene.

“We can’t keep fighting,” Yu Sheng said rapidly. “There’s something even more twisted in this valley. Plan Two, retreat first. I’ll open a door. How are you? Can you still move?”

Irene tried to brace herself with both hands and stand up. The moment she exerted force, a faint Crack. sounded.

Both of her arms snapped at the elbows. The detached portions fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

“No. And my legs are damaged too. If I force myself up, they’ll probably break as well.” The little doll raised her arms dejectedly. “I told you this thing you made wasn’t sturdy. You mixed sand into the clay, didn’t you...”

To be honest, Yu Sheng had genuinely been startled when he saw Irene’s arms break off. He had never dealt with a living doll before and had no idea how serious this was. Yet hearing her complain immediately reassured him.

“It can be repaired, right?”

Irene nodded.

“Yes. But we’ll definitely have to go back.”

Yu Sheng let out a sigh of relief. Seeing that Irene could no longer stand on her own, he removed the painting frame from her back. After adjusting the straps, he slung it over his own back, then picked Irene up and seated her on his left arm.

Irene protested a little, apparently finding the situation somewhat embarrassing. But a doll with broken arms was hardly intimidating. In the end, she obediently settled down on Yu Sheng’s arm.

Yu Sheng then extended his free right hand into the air. After concentrating briefly, a door shimmering with illusory light appeared at the end of his arm.

He noticed that the three strangers who had appeared from nowhere, one of whom looked strangely familiar, all cast odd looks his way the moment they saw him open the door.

But he had no time to think about it. After confirming the passage was established, he immediately pulled the illusory door open.

On the other side was the living room of Wutong Road 66.

“The safe route is here. Everyone, retreat quickly,” Yu Sheng said rapidly. “Before that monster regenerates again!”

He looked toward the nervous and hesitant demon fox girl standing nearby.

“Hu Li, you go first. Don’t be afraid. The other side of the door is safe.”

Then he turned toward Li Lin and the other two.

“As for you three, I don’t know who you are, but thanks for the help just now. Come with me afterward.”

Encouraged by Yu Sheng, Hu Li finally gathered her courage and walked over, stepping toward the illusory doorway.

Yet the instant she was about to touch the passage, a strange whistling sound suddenly came from nearby.

Immediately afterward, Yu Sheng felt a fierce gust of wind attack from behind.

Countless pieces of information suddenly flooded his mind from nowhere.

Several gazes focused upon the ruined temple.

Perspectives extending from the distant sky and the depths of the Valley.

Chaotic and cold sensations.

And...

The joy of an imminent meal.

Yu Sheng spun around abruptly.

A flesh giant had appeared at the edge of the ruins without anyone noticing. A hideous opening split across its middle, and a long tongue shot out like an arrow.

In the blink of an eye, it pierced his chest.

He only had time to shove Irene aside.

Before he could dodge, the attack pierced straight through his heart.

It had already regenerated?

That fast?

Or was it... another one?

Several questions flashed through Yu Sheng’s mind in an instant.

As his consciousness rapidly sank into darkness, he heard Hu Li’s terrified cry, Irene’s scream, and the howling of the wolf pack.

The illusory door hanging in midair flickered twice before rapidly dissipating.

Yu Sheng’s body fell backward.

Within his tilted and darkening vision, he saw layers upon layers of shadows rising at the edge of the ruins. Deep within every shifting shadow, a flesh-built monster was slowly taking shape.

Countless greedy mouths opened throughout the Valley.

The distant forest was filled with hunting tentacles.

Faraway mountain peaks grew razor-sharp fangs.

And the sky...

The sky was gradually splitting open along one edge.

“Benefactor!!”

Hu Li was the first to rush forward.

She threw herself beside Yu Sheng. Although she had witnessed Yu Sheng return from death before, her already muddled mind clearly failed to process things this time. Seeing him collapse, her first reaction was still terror.

“Y-you... how are you...”

“How else could he be? He’s obviously dead!” Irene’s loud outburst immediately interrupted the demon fox girl’s cries. The little doll had fallen to the ground and was struggling to move. “This isn’t even your first time seeing it. Calm down!”

Only then did Hu Li pause.

Her sluggish and confused mind finally caught up a little.

She stared blankly at Yu Sheng’s corpse.

The demon fox girl wore a conflicted expression. She looked as though she wanted to cry, but knew she did not need to cry. Yet the atmosphere seemed to demand tears. Not crying felt disrespectful to her benefactor, but crying felt even more inappropriate.

Li Lin, however, clearly had no idea what Yu Sheng’s situation was. The moment he saw the flesh giant in the distance, his entire body tensed. While staying alert for the monster’s next move, he tried to comfort the fallen doll and the demon fox.

“I’m sorry, but the dead can’t return to life. The urgent matter now is dealing with...”

Before he could finish, the miserable-looking doll replied:

“It’s fine. He’ll come back to life after a while. But we need to hold out for twenty or thirty minutes until he returns and opens a door. Fox over there, help get me up. Don’t forget the painting on the ground.”

Hearing this, Hu Li hurriedly pulled the oil painting frame out from beneath Yu Sheng’s body and picked up the immobile Irene.

Li Lin and his companions stared at the scene in astonishment.

They simply could not understand the doll’s reaction. They even suspected it was some symptom of overwhelming grief.

But they soon had no spare energy to dwell on it.

Chaotic shrieks echoed one after another from the darkness around the ruined temple.

Terrifying waves of madness appeared continuously.

Even Xu Jiali, with her many years of combat experience, froze the instant she clearly saw what surrounded them.

Hideous monsters composed of piled flesh were emerging one after another from the darkness.

The entire Valley filled with shrieks.

“Holy shit!” Li Lin cried out. “How are there so many?! The records said a Hunger entity only generates one at a time!”

Xu Jiali slowly raised her head.

Only after swallowing hard did she finally break the silence.

“What if this Valley has already been parasitized by an angel?”

“What do you mea...” Li Lin began reflexively.

Then he noticed where Xu Jiali was looking.

He saw the Valley slowly writhing and undulating beneath the night.

Sharp tooth-like structures had appeared along the outline of the distant mountains.

But even more horrifying than that was the sky.

The sky had opened.

The Other Domain sky, forever shrouded in chaotic darkness as though covered by a vast curtain, was changing.

One edge of it gradually split open before their eyes.

A faint glow appeared within the crack.

Then came the truth hidden behind the veil.

It was not a curtain.

Nor was it a mass of dark clouds.

It was an eyelid.

A single eye that had remained closed the entire time covered the sky above the whole Other Domain, creating its eternal night.

Now it had opened.

The eyeball gazed coldly upon everything below.

Its hollow, sunken pupil was filled with chaotic lines and flickering lights, as though carefully examining the prey within the Valley.

The escaping glow even dispersed part of the perpetual darkness that blanketed this Other Domain.

“Light” had descended.

And with it came boundless horror.

A howling cold wind snapped Li Lin out of his terror.

He heard someone murmuring beside him.

It was Xu Jiali.

This veteran Deep Diver with more than a decade of service softly spoke a single term.

“Dim Angel...”