Chapter 12: Someone is here!?

Yu Sheng bid Irene goodbye offline, but this time, he didn't disconnect immediately after speaking.

It wasn't because the thing on the other end had suddenly turned vegetarian, but because for some reason, this terrifying behemoth seemed to have fallen into a state of bewilderment.

It stood amidst the night wind, dozens of chaotic, overlapping eyes upon its mass of flesh staring fixedly at its prey with a strange "gaze." Though it sounded odd, Yu Sheng felt he could truly discern "confusion" within those eyes—the kind of confusion one feels when their mouth and stomach haven't balanced their accounts for half an hour.

Irene was still calling out anxiously in his mind, but Yu Sheng's entire attention was fixed on the horrific monster before him. Irene's voice felt as distant as if it were behind a thick curtain. His muscles were taut, and his heart hammered against his ribs like a war drum; every twitch of muscle and surge of vein on the monster was reflected clearly in his eyes.

Despite having made certain preparations when he "resurrected" from the ruined temple, Yu Sheng still felt an immense tension upon encountering this crushing weight of death once again.

The only difference from last time was that the fear mixed within this tension had greatly receded, replaced by something he himself found foreign... excitement.

Then, he suddenly felt something.

It was the contraction of muscles, the gathering of turbid, thick blood, and a surge of hunger from the depths of his heart. An instruction to feed echoed through his chaotic mind—in that extremely brief instant, the warning signs in his heart spiked, and he accurately outlined their silhouette.

The monster was about to strike, from the left, but it was merely a feint. The true killing blow would be a serpentine tail, bristling with barbs and blades, whipping around from its back.

The monster lunged. A massive, bloody maw suddenly tore open from one of its limb-ends and snapped toward Yu Sheng's left side. But before it could leap, Yu Sheng had already reacted. Without overthinking, he threw his body to the side following the mental prompt, then immediately lunged forward with a speed so great even he couldn't believe it.

He noticed that his previously sprained waist had somehow completely recovered; it seemed that ever since his "resurrection," the condition of this body had been incredibly excellent.

The behemoth lunged into empty air, and the serpentine tail attempting its tricky flank attack only narrowly grazed the "prey's" back. Yu Sheng felt the wind pressure from behind; the sensation of brushing past the edge of death made his hair stand on end. Yet, more than the horror, there was a sense of disbelief in his heart

He had actually dodged it?! What exactly just happened?

But he had no time for deep thought, as the next wave of crisis surged from behind. This time, there wasn't enough time to dodge. He only managed to scramble up clumsily after landing, only to see a set of claws descending toward him like a falling mountain.

In his desperation, he could only instinctively raise his hands, using his frail human arms to block claws that felt as if they were falling like meteors.

With a deafening *bang*, the air rippled, scattering grass and dust for several meters. Intense pain radiated through his entire body; Yu Sheng felt as if a dozen bones had been snapped simultaneously. He let out a muffled groan, unable to catch his breath as he stumbled back two steps—

But he had blocked it. He had truly blocked that strike.

Yu Sheng stared at his hands in shock. He saw his left hand twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly broken, yet the pain was receding at an astonishing rate, and the distorted bone seemed to be slowly mending itself.

He remembered clearly when the monster first attacked him, remembered its true strength. Every inch of that thing's muscle could easily crush a human body, and Yu Sheng was one hundred percent certain that if the monster had lunged with full force, it would have been impossible to block—no matter how many bones were broken.

But the monster clearly wouldn't give him much time to think. After only a second or two of adjustment upon landing, the hungry beast let out a chaotic, furious roar and lunged once more at the annoying "prey."

The gale struck him to the bone. The lunging monster was like a small mountain falling from the sky. Yu Sheng reacted in advance again, rolling to the side ungracefully and then jumping away to avoid a tail swipe that could split mountains and rocks. However, in the next second, before he could even steady his footing, he was knocked down by the retracting tail. Immediately after, the behemoth's body split open from the midsection, and an disgusting, writhing "long tongue" that resembled a tentacle shot through the night, binding the unbalanced Yu Sheng and dragging him back violently.

Yu Sheng braced his hands with all his might, trying to prevent the "long tongue" from snapping his torso in two—at least, not that quickly. He watched helplessly as he was dragged in front of the monster. The creature's body had split open into a massive hole, where countless sharp teeth and fangs churned and rubbed against each other like an extremely hungry maw.

At the moment he was about to be dragged into that giant mouth, Yu Sheng kicked out with all his strength. The rock beneath his feet shattered with a bang, and the massive recoil even caused the monster to stumble.

Yu Sheng didn't have time to wonder why he possessed such strength. Seizing this momentary breath, he used almost every ounce of his power to roar and break free from the entwined tongue. He then snatched a sharp piece of rubble from the ground and lunged toward a turbid, frantically vibrating eyeball on the side of the monster.

As the tongue snapped, the monster let out a bone-chilling roar, and blood sprayed from its midsection. It stumbled, struggling to regain its balance, its dozens of eyes staring at the prey with madness and hunger—

So fragrant, so fragrant...

The scent of blood entered his nostrils, stimulating the nerves of the hungry and awakening a long-dormant... instinct.

It was truly fragrant.

Yu Sheng felt his heart racing wildly, felt something burning almost to the point of boiling surging through his blood. A sense of ecstasy was gradually rising from the depths of his heart. He tried hard to discern what this ecstasy was, and finally, he understood.

It was the joy of imminent feeding, the reward for hunger being satisfied.

That behemoth, that pile of flesh, that chaotic, fallen spirit, that...

Exquisite meat.

The sharp rubble was gradually crushed into powder in his hands. He breathed heavily, feeling as if everything around him had slowed down.

He lunged at the monster, and the monster lunged at him. Food embraced food. In a trance, he felt as if he had never eaten in the past twenty years, or at least had never eaten "real food." He embraced the hideous limbs on the side of the monster, while the monster "embraced" him with even more terrifying strength, until it snapped bone after bone in his body.

But Yu Sheng seemed not to feel it. He had already begun gnawing on the monster's flesh. This was not like his last time—a final, angry, and desperate counterattack before death. He now possessed a new mindset—

He would not die. He would come back. This monster could kill him once, twice, or countless times, but he would always return.

And each time, he would understand even better how to deal with this monster.

It might take a long time.

But he would savor this fine meat, bit by bit.

The dozen or so eyes on the side of the monster vibrated frantically. A few of them seemed to sense something, finally focusing slowly on Yu Sheng.

A massive mouth full of sharp teeth was already gnawing into Yu Sheng from the side, yet a layer of fear seemed to gradually surface within those eyes.

Yu Sheng felt his body being gradually torn apart by the monster. He knew he had lost this time, as a matter of course—he would die, eaten by this monster.

At least this time, he could not win.

Regardless, he had lasted much longer than expected—he had thought he would perish on the first encounter, but he hadn't expected to actually trade blows with this monster.

"Irene..." Before his consciousness sank into darkness, Yu Sheng tried to call out in his heart.

Irene's voice rang out almost immediately: "Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, are you okay?! I've been calling you and you're not responding..."

"I'm fine. I just told you too early. I'm going offline now..."

Then, he ignored Irene's frantic shouting and simply waited quietly for death to arrive.

However, just before that heavy darkness descended, he suddenly heard a voice nearby—a clear, unmistakable voice existing truly within this valley.

"Don't be afraid! I'm coming to save you!"

Yu Sheng's consciousness was already very blurred, but at that moment, he suddenly experienced a brief flash of clarity. A thunderous impact exploded into his mind—

Someone?!

There are people in this place?!

He struggled to open his eyelids and looked toward the source of the voice, seeing a figure rushing from the distance. He saw vaguely that it appeared to be a girl in tattered clothes, but in the next second, he saw other silhouettes fluttering behind her in the night.

What was that?

A tail?

A fox?

A person?

No, it was a subsonic headbutt.

Yu Sheng watched in despair as the figure shouting about saving him accelerated a second time in mid-air like a boosted projectile, head down, charging straight at him. The monster currently gnawing on him happened to shift its body (likely intentionally), making him the direct target of the figure's straight-on collision.

"Holy sh—"

He only managed to squeeze two syllables through his teeth.

The girl rushing in didn't even see the situation ahead.

The subsonic headbutt slammed into Yu Sheng's chest, and then he no longer had a chest.

Everything below his neck was gone.

As if he had evaporated.

"Girl, you... hit the wrong way..."

And so, Yu Sheng was "saved" to death.

(End of Chapter)