Chapter 52: Connection

The moment he heard those four words, Li Lin felt his blood run cold.

One moment, he was feeling sorrow for Yu Sheng, who had just died from a monster's sneak attack; the next, he felt that he might not live any longer than the other man.

"How can this be... the files never mentioned a Gloomy Angel parasitizing this place..." Li Lin muttered to himself. Under that indifferent gaze descending from the sky, he felt an increasing amount of chaotic noise surfacing in his mind. "How can this be..."

"In a slumber state, every Gloomy Angel's characteristics are different... This is fucking worse than fighting the Angel Cultists on the wasteland!" Xu Jiali couldn't help but curse. He couldn't understand how a routine official return trip, performing a low-stakes surveillance mission in the Borderlands, had spiraled so catastrophically into this mess.

Everything was so unexpected—the sudden fall into an otherworldly realm, the sudden encounter with that "Door-Opening Weirdo" he had seen once on the wasteland planet, and seeing a half-meter-tall doll and a demon fox who looked as if she had been exiled for a century standing beside him. Before he could even exchange a few words, that mysterious "Door-Opening Weirdo" had died abruptly right before his eyes, the doll's reaction had been utterly absurd, and then came more Hunger Entities, and then a Gloomy Angel appeared in the sky...

Even if he pooled all the imagination of his entire life, he couldn't have simulated this bizarre string of events!

Anxious low growls from a wolf pack drifted from all sides. Wolves composed of shadows patrolled and circled the area. The gaze from that indifferent eyeball in the sky exerted immense pressure, even fear, upon these eerie creatures. However, Little Red Riding Hood, riding atop one of the wolves, frowned: "...Strange, why aren't those monsters coming over?"

Eileen, who was being held in Hu Li's arms, froze upon hearing this, and soon noticed the abnormality as well.

The flesh behemoths gathered around the ruins of the broken temple were still roaring chaotically and patrolling, but strangely, a significant amount of time had passed since then, and not a single monster had taken a step forward, nor had a single monster launched an attack.

The indifferent single eye floating in the sky merely observed quietly, seemingly showing no intention of taking further action.

"I think we'd better run while we can," Li Lin broke the silence. "Let's not worry about why these monsters are dazing off for now."

Little Red Riding Hood interrupted him, speaking calmly: "Run where?"

The indifferent single eye in the sky watched every inch of the valley, and this entire otherworldly realm was undergoing changes as if it were coming to life. Under the gaze of that eye, the very thought of escape would instantly be shattered by a sense of despair—a feeling that there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

But just then, Eileen seemed to remember something and lifted her head from Hu Li's arms: "You just said something similar happened before? On the day the Immortal died, it was like this too, and your parents hid you in a cave?"

Hu Li froze for a moment, then nodded hurriedly.

"Where is that cave?!"

Hu Li finally snapped out of it, turned, and ran while holding Eileen: "I remember! It's near the back mountain, I'll take you there!"

But suddenly, she stopped her steps, looking hesitantly at Yu Sheng's corpse on the ground.

Her benefactor's eyes were not yet closed; he looked quite unwilling to die.

"Benefactor... what should we do about the benefactor?" the demon fox girl asked, somewhat at a loss.

Although she knew about Yu Sheng's "death and resurrection," she didn't know many details, because their last encounter had been brief, and Yu Sheng hadn't had time to explain much to her.

"Just leave him here, don't worry about it," Eileen said immediately. She had communicated extensively with Yu Sheng and clearly knew more information than the fox. "He'll be gone in a bit; he has a way to find me."

Hu Li stared blankly, nodding vacantly.

Eileen then remembered something else and hurriedly added: "Right, where's my kitchen knife from just now... oh, it's over there on the ground, help me pick it up. Hey, hang the oil painting on me first, I can't be separated from this painting... The knife isn't broken, is it? As long as it's not broken, if I lose this thing, he'll definitely lecture me later—forget the corpse, it's useless..."

The little doll barked orders rapidly, and the demon fox girl executed them blankly. The trio of Li Lin and his companions watched, feeling that the scene was eerie to the extreme. They watched Hu Li carefully pick up a kitchen knife that would cost no more than a hundred yuan in a supermarket, while completely ignoring the remains of their companion on the ground. After a long silence, Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't take it: "You're just going to leave him here like this?!"

Eileen poked her head out from Hu Li's arms: "It's hard to run while carrying him!"

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to say more, but was interrupted by a roar coming from deep within the valley.

The distant mountains split open, and countless pitch-black boulders tumbled from the peaks. Within the widening cracks, flesh actually began to grow from the mountainside, with teeth grinding against the rock, producing a bone-chilling roar.

The forest shook, and great trees toppled over as if shedding a disguise. Countless toothy tentacles grew from where the trees fell, roaring in unison.

And those flesh behemoths that had been patrolling around the ruins, stuck in their eerie state of lethargy, seemed to be stimulated and began to stir with unrest.

Seeing this, Eileen let out a startled cry, raised her arm—which now only had a stump left—and slapped Hu Li's shoulder hard: "Mother of God! We can't stay long! We're retreating first; you three can follow or not!"

As soon as Eileen's voice fell, Hu Li was already carrying her, turning and charging toward the back of the temple ruins, sprinting toward a gap at the bottom of the valley.

Li Lin's trio exchanged glances. Despite their heads being full of question marks, there was only one choice left.

They quickly caught up with the fleeing fox, sprinting toward some kind of "shelter."

Little Red Riding Hood looked back one last time toward where Yu Sheng had fallen.

She gritted her teeth, and one of the wolves from the pack broke away from the group, rushing toward Yu Sheng's remains.

However, after running only a few steps, the wolf seemed to suddenly forget its mission and stopped. After pacing in place for two seconds, it turned and returned to the pack beside Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood did not look back; she simply drove the wolf pack in a mad dash, protecting the others in the group while keeping pace with the silver-haired fox demon ahead.

She had already forgotten the pool of blood she had left behind.

And around the ruins of the broken temple, the restless flesh behemoths had gradually grown quiet again at some unknown point.

These entities derived from "Hunger" seemed to have fallen into a daze. They stood among the broken walls and ruins, their deformed, proliferating eyes scanning everywhere, their hideous and ugly limbs swaying aimlessly in the air, and their massive mouths agape, with teeth-filled maws emitting muffled, dreamlike murmurs.

Suddenly, a clear word mixed into the muffled murmurs of those flesh behemoths—

"Smells delicious."

A single will was speaking through their mouths.

*Smells delicious.*

*Should eat.*

The behemoths swayed their bodies. Those eyes that had been scanning the surroundings gradually stopped their blind rotation; one by one, the eyes stabilized, and their gazes fell upon each other.

To eat, but not out of hunger.

That which devours all, that which is above all... to eat. Yes, it is time to eat.

And after that, there would be cold tranquility and merciful eternity—for it is, after all, the devourer of all, the ultimate fairness and the final end.

The first flesh behemoth moved. It staggered toward another entity. Without any flashy attacking movements, it simply opened the largest mouth on its body and bit down with extreme greed.

The one being bitten did not dodge, nor did it even wail.

It was as if it had no realization that it was being devoured by its own "kind." The monster simply swayed its body and stepped forward, carrying a "kind" that was currently eating it, toward the next nearest entity.

Not a single "Entity-Hunger" attempted to chase the prey that had already fled, as if at some moment just now, their very essence had changed—drawing power from hunger had become an insignificant matter, and the sublime act of eating had become their sole mission.

In the center of the temple ruins, the last traces of blood left by Yu Sheng after his death were slowly seeping into the soil. Wherever the bloodline spread, the color of the soil was gradually changing—slowly at first, but then gradually accelerating, unstoppable.

However, that indifferent giant eye floating in the sky seemed to have no interest in the changes occurring on the surface—it merely hung in the high sky. There were no signs of human-understandable emotion or thought within that massive eyeball. It continued to observe the valley, but because of its immense scale, it was impossible to determine from a surface perspective where its "focal point" actually lay.

If that transcendent gaze truly possessed a "focal point."

But Yu Sheng felt this "focal point," because that focal point was now resting upon him.

After drifting in the darkness for a period of time, an indescribable sense of "connection" jolted him awake. At first, he thought he had been resurrected, but he soon realized he was still in a state of "death"—it was just that this "death" seemed different from before.

He discovered that he had gained an extra "perspective" within the darkness. Initially, this perspective confused him greatly, as the strange angle of observation and the layers of overlapping information left his thoughts in chaos. But gradually, he realized one thing.

He was responding to the gaze from the sky with the gaze of this "otherworldly realm."

He had established a connection with this valley.

(End of Chapter)