Chapter 54: Yu Sheng's Return

The sound of chewing that filled the entire valley gradually rose like crashing waves. At this moment, the entire exotic realm had transformed into a grand feast, and soon, everyone hiding in the cave realized exactly what that sound signified.

Taking a bold step, Li Lin approached the mouth of the cave and peered outside, his scalp tingling with dread.

The jagged teeth within the mountain range were gnashing against one another; trenches as vast as gaping maws were collapsing inward, constantly splitting into more fissures, devouring and dissolving each other. The foraging tentacles covering the ground had begun to digest themselves, while colossal beasts of flesh and blood continuously spawned from certain shadows, only to be swallowed by an invisible force in the blink of an eye.

Against the backdrop of this terrifying feast, he saw a figure—Yu Sheng was standing in the clearing outside the cave, staring somewhat absentmindedly at the scene of mutual consumption in the valley below.

For a moment, Li Lin felt dazed, but in an instant, he forgot the slight incongruity—he had already forgotten the circumstances of Yu Sheng's "death" and simply felt as though the man had merely drifted away from the group for a while.

Hu Li and Erin, who were guarding the cave entrance, also spotted Yu Sheng immediately.

"Benefactor! You really didn't die!" Hu Li was the first to cry out, but she quickly followed up with nervous urgency, "Benefactor, get inside, quickly! It's dangerous out there!"

Only then did Yu Sheng turn around and walk quickly into the cave, muttering as he went, "I feel like that thing in the sky is a bit sinister, but it doesn't seem to have much desire to attack..."

Erin didn't care what Yu Sheng was muttering about; she was too busy nervously inspecting him from head to toe. "Are you really okay? Is your mental state still normal?"

"Can't you wish me well for once?!" Yu Sheng glared at the puppet. "Do you think it was easy for me to come back?"

As he spoke, he looked back out toward the cave entrance. "'Hunger' should be finishing up soon, but I don't know the origin of that giant eyeball in the sky. It isn't one with 'Entity-Hunger'; it doesn't even seem like something that originally belonged to this valley."

Erin, who had prepared plenty of banter to lighten the mood, froze upon hearing this. "Huh? It's not from this valley?"

"No," Yu Sheng shook his head. Even now, he maintained a subtle connection with this exotic realm, allowing him to clearly distinguish that gaze falling from the sky and discern the "boundary" between that eye and the valley. "All the Hunger entities are currently within my perception. I can clearly feel that the eye is an outsider—it has just been 'perched' above this exotic realm for many years, replacing the original sky."

Erin stood there agape, seemingly stunned by surprise, when a low voice drifted from the depths of the cave, breaking the momentary silence.

"That is an 'Angel'."

Yu Sheng looked up in surprise to see a burly man, nearly two meters tall, walking from the depths of the cave. The dim blue foxfire cast sharp shadows across the man's face.

The man sized Yu Sheng up, his expression carrying a strange sense of gravity and caution. "Did you get separated from the group earlier?"

Whether it was an illusion, but Yu Sheng felt the man's gaze was somewhat strange—it held immense vigilance and wariness. It wasn't exactly hostility, but it wasn't the typical concern or confusion one would show toward a temporary companion who had "returned after being lost."

However, Yu Sheng didn't dwell on it; he was more interested in the peculiar name the man had just mentioned.

"I just couldn't keep up. Don't worry, it's nothing major," Yu Sheng waved it off, then immediately asked, "What do you mean by 'Angel'?"

"A more accurate term is 'Gloomy Angel,' a type of... dangerous entity of unknown origin. Sometimes it also refers to the specific phenomena caused by these dangerous individuals," the man said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "Every Gloomy Angel is different; they vary greatly in form, ability, and manner of appearance. The one currently occupying the sky likely parasitized this exotic realm many years ago—it is precisely because of its influence that the entities here underwent mutations."

Yu Sheng listened to the explanation in surprise, quickly realizing that this large man likely possessed much more information. There must be more detailed data regarding this so-called "Gloomy Angel."

But the man hadn't revealed everything, whether due to secrecy requirements or some other concern.

But that was normal; after all, they were strangers. Although they had fought side-by-side, they hadn't even introduced themselves yet. In this situation, being willing to share information was already a sign of proactive sincerity.

"My name is Yu Sheng," Yu Sheng said, proactively extending his hand. "These two here are Hu Li and Erin—they're my friends."

The two-meter-tall man hesitated for a moment before reaching out to shake Yu Sheng's hand. "Hello, my name is Xu Jiali."

Yu Sheng blanked.

A moment later, he opened his mouth. "Uh, I didn't quite catch that. Your name is...?"

"He said his name is Xu Jiali, as in the 'Jiali' for a beautiful girl," the girl in red sitting on a stone stool broke the silence, glancing up at Yu Sheng. "You can just call me Little Red Riding Hood."

Yu Sheng blinked, suddenly realizing. "Oh, I get it. You guys clearly work in this field; you all use codenames when you're out and about, right?"

The two-meter-tall man spoke in a muffled tone, "She uses a codename. I use my real name."

Yu Sheng: "..."

What could he say? He could only awkwardly remark that it was actually a very nice name that sounded quite cultured, before turning his gaze toward the last young man who had yet to speak.

He felt the man's face looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere, but he couldn't place it.

Li Lin did not hesitate. Seeing the gaze fall upon him, he walked over quite openly. "My name is Li Lin."

Before Yu Sheng could respond, Erin suddenly blurted out, "Hey! That name is actually normal!"

Li Lin was instantly speechless. He looked at the composition of Yu Sheng's group—a fox demon with a bunch of tails, a puppet half a meter tall from head to toe—the three of them combined barely made a whole human, yet they had the nerve to comment on whether someone else's name was normal...

However, his attention soon shifted elsewhere.

The chewing sounds from outside the cave were gradually fading, and the vibrations that had filled the entire exotic realm seemed to be rapidly diminishing.

Xu Jiali rushed to the mouth of the cave in a few strides and peered out, seeing that the entire valley had been turned upside down.

It was as if everything from the distant mountains to the nearby valley floor had been forcibly gnawed away. The mountains were left with nothing but countless jagged rocks and barren layers of earth; the distant forests had vanished, and the land below the slopes was crisscrossed with deep ravines.

He turned around abruptly to look at Yu Sheng, who was standing beside Hu Li.

"Did you... do this?"

Xu Jiali asked with a hint of hesitation. He knew it sounded somewhat absurd, because the eerie and terrifying scene in the valley looked nothing like something a "human" could achieve. However, his intuition told him that all of this was related to Yu Sheng's brief "absence" from the group.

"Something like that," Yu Sheng responded quite readily. He was in a great mood; a sense of satisfaction from finally being able to eat his fill filled his heart. He nodded cheerfully. "Though it took quite a bit of effort."

By this time, Li Lin had also seen the scene in the valley. When he looked back at Yu Sheng, the shock on his face was beyond words. "...How is that even possible..."

Yu Sheng thought about it and decided it would be very difficult to explain exactly what had happened to an outsider—that he had been "eaten" by Hunger, but his appetite turned out to be far greater than "Hunger's"? A human ( ) had mentally contaminated an entity, causing the "Hunger Entity" that had eaten something dirty to undergo a massive surge in appetite and end up eating itself?

It wasn't just a matter of whether it was hard to explain; it was a matter of not being able to clarify who the villain was even after explaining it.

Moreover, he didn't want to let these unfamiliar people know too much about his business.

"Got lucky and found the entity's weakness," Yu Sheng said casually. "I'm not entirely sure of the specifics, but it seems I triggered a chain reaction of self-consumption among the entities in this valley..."

He sounded like he was being dismissive, and quite obviously so. Li Lin immediately understood—some things were private matters.

Immediately after, Erin's noisy outburst interrupted the confusion in the minds of Li Lin and Xu Jiali. "Hey! Is that thing in the sky slowly floating upwards?"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng hurried over and craned his neck to look at the sky above the valley.

He saw that the massive eye covering the entire valley was slowly ascending. It made no sound, appearing like a projection in the sky that was gradually shrinking. In just a dozen seconds, the giant eye had shrunk to only one-third of its original size.

It was rapidly moving away from this place.

A brighter, more normal light began to permeate from the distant mountains. The disturbed clouds reappeared in the sky. The eye quickly became a palm-sized disc floating in the center of the sky, and after a few more breaths, the disc vanished completely from everyone's sight.

"It... it ran away?" Erin stared up at the sky, looking somewhat lost for a moment, before turning to look at the two-meter-tall burly (Jiali) man. "That 'Angel' you mentioned ran away! What should we do?"

Xu Jiali merely let out a soft sigh of relief. Upon hearing the puppet's words, a smile squeezed onto his face.

"What else can we do? Celebrate—and once the celebration is over, I'll go back and write my report."