Chapter 16: Hunger

Hu Li sat on the steps of the ruined temple with her head hanging low, looking somewhat injured.

Yu Sheng was also sitting on the steps with his head hanging low—he was truly injured. That bite from the Fox Immortal lady had torn away a large chunk of flesh along with the skin!

He knew that canine-like animals protected their food, but he hadn't expected the Fox Immortal to make such a scene when guarding her meal!

"Benefactor..." Hu Li finally spoke from the side. The white-furred fox looked as if she were about to burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I... I couldn't help myself. I... I hurt you again..."

"Yes, you hurt me again, but it's much lighter than the first time we met." Yu Sheng let out a long, weary sigh. Looking at the blood at the corner of Hu Li's mouth, he thought to himself that it was a good thing it was just a bite. The subsonic headbutt he received during their first meeting had caused a wound far larger than this—that had been a near-amputation from the neck down...

Upon hearing this, Hu Li merely tilted her head in confusion. She clearly still couldn't recall what Yu Sheng meant by "the first time we met"—Yu Sheng had tried to ask indirectly several times just now, and her reaction had been roughly the same.

"Benefactor, what you said... did we really meet once before outside the ruined temple?"

"You have no impression of it at all?" Yu Sheng couldn't help but frown. "I was fighting some messy-looking thing at the time, and you rushed over saying you wanted to help, and then—*bang*—everything went black. When I woke up, I was here, and you were wandering around outside."

Hu Li narrowed her eyes as if struggling to recall something. A moment later, the fluffy ears on her head drooped slowly, suggesting the process of remembering was quite difficult.

Yu Sheng looked down at the wound on his hand.

The place bitten by Hu Li was healing at a visible rate. Countless tiny sprouts were growing between the torn flesh, and the blood seemed to possess a life of its own, wriggling and patrolling through the crevices of the wound. He... he even felt as if he could hear tiny sounds coming from the wound—the sound of tissue regenerating, of broken skin knitting back together. Everything... was returning to its original, intact state.

For a few minutes, he couldn't even feel the pain; there was only a slight, itchy numbness lingering around the wound.

This wasn't normal. He knew that. A human wound couldn't heal at this speed, but compared to the rapid healing—the resurrection was even more unsettling.

The physical changes made him feel uneasy. Although these changes seemed like "good things" for now, he worried there might be some unknown hidden danger or... "price" behind them.

Humans instinctively resist the unknown and the loss of control. For the current Yu Sheng, his own body was gradually becoming the greatest unknown in his heart.

But just then, a strange sensation suddenly interrupted Yu Sheng's thoughts. He couldn't describe the feeling; he only felt as if he had heard a sound, or perhaps some thoughts had suddenly "invaded" his mind—thoughts and memories that did not belong to him. He felt a small area in his mind becoming uncontrollably restless, and then, within that small pocket of restless thought, he sensed another consciousness—

*Mama is gone, Papa is gone, uncles and aunts are all gone, it's so dark, it's poisonous, it's cold, I'm scared, I'm hungry, so cold, so hungry, so very hungry, the fruit is poisonous, the bark is inedible, the leaves are inedible, the dirt is inedible, the stones are inedible... can't eat, can't eat anything, hungry, so very hungry, so very hungry, so very hungry...*

An overwhelming sense of hunger, as if it were meant to crush his very soul, swept through Yu Sheng's mind. Even though it was merely a stray piece of external information intruding upon his brain, he had the illusion that his own sanity was about to be completely swallowed by that hunger. This frantic thought caused a roar in his mind, and only when it finally began to subside did Yu Sheng gradually regain his ability to think, slowly lifting his head to look at Hu Li sitting beside him.

The fox girl was slowly licking the corner of her mouth. Yu Sheng saw his own blood wriggling on the tip of Hu Li's tongue as if it were alive, seeping into her skin, into her teeth, into... her soul.

Sensing the gaze beside her, Hu Li licked away the last bit of blood from her lips, looked up at Yu Sheng, and gave him a simple, harmless, silly smile.

However, as Yu Sheng looked at her, it was as if he were looking directly into her soul. He saw... the part of her that was on the brink of madness. He saw the frantic hunger beginning to surge and grow deep within that smile.

She was hungry. She was still hungry—hungrier than she looked, perhaps even... hungrier than she herself realized.

"Benefactor..." She looked cautiously at Yu Sheng's pocket, a silly smile on her face. "Do you... have anything to eat? I feel... my stomach doesn't hurt anymore, but I'm still... a little hungry."

Yu Sheng felt a chill run down his spine. He seemed to vaguely realize something, but at the same time, he was more curious about the process of how he had just "read" that information in his mind.

Why... could he see Hu Li's thoughts and memories?

He thought of the scene he had just witnessed: his blood rapidly seeping into her skin.

Was it because of that?

Just then, he noticed the expression on Hu Li's face changing rapidly.

As if she had suddenly remembered something, her eyes grew vacant, and then the vacancy turned into shock. Hu Li slowly stood up from the steps, staring blankly at Yu Sheng as if she were "re-recognizing" the person before her. Then, she shook her head violently and pointed at Yu Sheng in disbelief: "Benefactor... you... you didn't die?!"

Yu Sheng froze.

Hu Li raised her hand and pressed it hard against her forehead. Her body swayed; the chaotic, conflicting memories left her already unstable mind teetering on the edge. Then, she finally began to recall the "truth" that had once vanished from her memory—

She remembered her first "encounter" with Yu Sheng, remembered her terrible "accident" at the time, remembered the sight of her "Benefactor" being torn apart, remembered the warm blood of a living person, and then... how that blood gradually turned to nothingness, how the remains vanished, and how the process of Yu Sheng's "death" faded from her memory...

She slowly steadied herself, her golden-red eyes clouded and confused, muttering to herself, "Ah, I remember now. Benefactor, we just... we met just now, in the clearing outside. I accidentally... but..."

She hesitated and stopped, the latter half of her sentence turning into a muddled murmur. Her muddled mind seemed to be gaining the upper hand, causing her thoughts to descend rapidly into chaos.

Yu Sheng blinked. Clearly, Hu Li had remembered their first meeting and the incident of the subsonic headbutt. He didn't know how she had suddenly recalled it all, but perhaps it was related to him seeing her thoughts and memories just now—but now was clearly not the time to investigate the cause.

Hu Li's state was clearly wrong. Her body began to sway again, as if she might lose her balance at any second.

Yu Sheng instinctively took half a step forward—but her reaction in the next moment forced him to stop dead in his tracks.

Hu Li lifted her head, her golden-red eyes seemingly filled with bloodlust. She stared fixedly at Yu Sheng, a low, beast-like growl emanating from her throat.

She gradually bent down, and the messy tails behind her began to unfurl bit by bit. The fox tails spread and grew in the night, with eerie blue flames dancing and burning at the tip of every tail.

In a beast-like posture, she recklessly released the aura of a predator.

Hunger was growing wildly in those bloodshot eyes. Through some faint connection, Yu Sheng even felt as if he could hear the voice echoing in the girl's heart—

*Benefactor, you smell so good...*

Yu Sheng swallowed hard, slowly taking a half-step back. And at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he finally noticed a certain... shadow behind Hu Li.

It was a massive shadow, spreading out from the darkness and creeping closer to Hu Li's back. The fox demon's eerie blue spirit flames flickered in the night; in the light of the flames, the shadow gradually took shape—it looked like countless grotesque, twisted beast limbs mashed together. On a mass of flesh several meters high grew crisscrossing mouths, eyes, and claws, appearing as the very incarnation of hunger and predation. The monster let out a low, muddled, urging growl behind Hu Li.

Amidst those muddled growls and urgings, Hu Li's body crouched even lower. Silvery-white fur covered her skin, her cheeks deformed, and sharp teeth grew. Human features rapidly receded; in almost the blink of an eye, the girl who always wore a silly smile vanished. A massive, silvery-white demon fox stood in the night, its eerie blue tail-flames illuminating the ruins of the collapsed temple and Yu Sheng's face.

Yu Sheng heard a voice, carrying a powerful, seductive force that pierced the mind, faintly drifting toward him—

"Eat... eat it, and you won't be hungry anymore..."