Chapter 181 – Beguiling

Chapter 181 – Beguiling

In the eerie room draped in a layer of dim, murky color that sunlight could scarcely illuminate, the dense text faded from the air — but an ugly, hideous tentacle extended from a void in the ceiling, slowly expanding and contracting as it swayed through the air, drifting closer and closer to where Yu Sheng stood.

Yu Sheng’s heart clenched instantly, and he hurried two steps back. He’d certainly seen his fair share of things with bizarre aesthetics or outright horrifying appearances lately, but the sight before him still made his scalp tingle. Mainly because the tentacle’s design was truly beyond flattering — even with Yu Sheng’s imagination, he couldn’t figure out in those first few seconds how one could possibly process this thing to make it any less stomach-turning…

It dealt Yu Sheng an enormous shock.

The tentacle swayed sluggishly through the air a few times, as though it had suddenly lost its sense of the “target,” then began slowly expanding and contracting in place, rocking aimlessly.

The sight was like someone blindly sleepwalking.

Yu Sheng steadied his somewhat rattled nerves and cautiously maintained his distance from the thing, pressing against the wall as he slowly circled around to the other side of the tentacle.

Faint, blurry ripples spread through the dim room, as if Yu Sheng’s footsteps had disturbed a grotesque dream. The ripples born within that dream radiated outward, stirring faintly glowing patterns across the tentacle’s surface.

So this was the thing the contact known as “Old Zheng” had touched? This was the “higher-dimensional projection” he’d “summoned” through a crude séance after being beguiled by those Angel Cult followers? This was… what those cultists called an “Emissary”?

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then cautiously moved half a step closer to the tentacle. After confirming this distance wouldn’t disturb it, he began carefully examining the surface of the tentacle and the eerie void from which it emerged.

If the contents of that secret letter were true, if the séance technique those Angel Cult followers taught Old Zheng was also real, then this thing should be a part of a “Twilight Angel.”

Although Little Red Riding Hood had just said that true Twilight Angels wouldn’t respond to human calls, Baili Qing had also told Yu Sheng that those cultists could indeed “touch” an “Angel” under specific conditions — perhaps only touching a part of Them, perhaps only summoning a projection, or perhaps merely seeing a phantom limb in a hallucination, hearing a hazy voice.

The void in the ceiling was filled with dense darkness. Whatever “true form” lurked behind that tentacle was completely concealed in the depths of that darkness. Yu Sheng could only vaguely make out a small section of structure near the opening, confirming that the tentacle connected to something far more massive — something utterly motionless, lurking in the void at the very edge of reason and perception.

The tentacle writhed blindly through the air, passing before Yu Sheng once more.

Should he try?

Give it a touch?

The bold thought tangled through Yu Sheng’s mind, and even he was startled by his own impulse. Reason told him that something this obviously sinister and dangerous should be given the widest possible berth at first sight. Little Red Riding Hood had warned him more than once not to make contact with anything related to the Twilight Angels. Baili Qing had also said that the very existence of the Twilight Angels was the wellspring of madness and loss of control…

But making contact might yield intelligence — at least he could see what that “client” had once seen.

Go on, touch it. Perhaps it wasn’t as dangerous as it looked. This tentacle had only been writhing about blindly, showing no sign of aggression whatsoever.

Go on, touch it. Even if there were consequences, they wouldn’t be too severe. After all, this was just a grotesque dreamscape, and what lay before him was merely a phantom.

Go on, touch it. An ordinary person with no special power had touched it before, and had even sensed Its goodwill and sincerity. If something truly felt wrong, he could just let go and step back…

Go on, touch it…

Just once…

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow and turned to look around: “The hell’s doing all that yapping…”

The voice of temptation from who-knows-where vanished instantly — just as useless as those X090 graphics cards, limited-edition controllers, toolboxes, and prime fishing spots that had lined the path through the Black Forest.

Yu Sheng blinked, and in that instant decided not to touch the eerie tentacle. In fact, if those yapping noises hadn’t popped into his head, he might have already grabbed the thing by now…

But just as he calmed down and prepared to inspect the rest of the room, a chilling aura suddenly appeared in his perception.

The next second, Yu Sheng felt that familiar cold sensation touching his limbs, piercing bit by bit into his flesh and spreading through his body, as though dragging him backward. He instinctively stepped back half a pace and saw dense black threads materializing from the air in every direction, some of which had already wound around his hands and feet.

Eileen’s voice sliced into his mind like a sharp blade: “Yu Sheng, what the hell are you spacing out for!”

Yu Sheng felt a stab of pain in his head, then watched as the dim gray tones around him dissolved like water, melting away rapidly. In just a few breaths, the colors of the normal world restored themselves before his eyes. Sunlight once again poured through the window and filled the room, its warmth dispelling the cold from the depths of his consciousness.

He turned around and found himself still standing beside that dark red circle. Little Red Riding Hood stood where she’d been before, while Eileen had her hands outstretched toward him, wisps of black threads extending from her fingertips and connecting to his body.

Yu Sheng froze for a moment. The next second, Eileen charged at him in a fury: “Yu Sheng, you bastard! Can you please not ‘give it a try’ every single time! What if trying gets you killed! Even if you really have to try, would it kill you to give a heads-up first!”

“Are you alright?” Little Red Riding Hood walked over too. “You suddenly went rigid just now, and then your figure started turning transparent. Eileen said your consciousness was being ‘dragged away’ by something…”

Yu Sheng fumbled to catch Eileen as a storm of complaints pelted his ears from the Little Doll. It took considerable effort to calm her down before he could finally get a word in: “I’m fine, I’m fine… Wait, I was almost ‘dragged away’ just now? Really?”

As he spoke, he hastily looked down at his own body — naturally, nothing seemed amiss. But seeing the tense expression on Little Red Riding Hood’s face and Eileen’s current state of outraged fury, he knew the situation just now might have genuinely been dangerous.

Even though he hadn’t fallen for the tentacle’s “beguiling,” simply being in that eerie, dim “room” had nearly caused some kind of “losing himself”?

“Of course it’s real,” Eileen said, clutching fistfuls of Yu Sheng’s hair. “If I hadn’t pulled you out in time, you would’ve disappeared completely — and don’t you dare say something about dying-and-coming-back or Door-Opening your way out. What if you capsized in the gutter? I’d like to see what you’d do then…”

“What did you see just now?” Little Red Riding Hood asked, her expression grave. “Did that crude séance… actually summon something?”

Yu Sheng steadied himself, his expression turning serious: “I saw a tentacle, and I saw another version of this room — that ‘contact’ of yours really was deceived badly.”

Over the time that followed, he recounted everything he’d seen and experienced in that grotesque “vision” to Eileen and Little Red Riding Hood, in complete and thorough detail.

Including how that tentacle had tried to “beguile” him at the end.

When he finished, the room fell silent for a moment.

Eileen stared at Yu Sheng fixedly. After a long while, she spoke in disbelief: “…You weren’t affected at all?”

Yu Sheng frowned: “What kind of question is that? Isn’t it a good thing that I wasn’t affected?”

“But normally in stories, at a scene like this, you’d instantly fall into a daze, then nearly get swallowed by some eldritch monster, and then my power would descend like divine intervention to rescue you from the tentacles just in time, and after you came to your senses you’d prostrate yourself before me in gratitude and pledge to serve me for the rest of your life…”

Yu Sheng instantly tuned out the rest of the little chatterbox’s rambling.

His gaze turned to Little Red Riding Hood.

She had been standing there since earlier with a complicated expression, not saying a word for a long time.

Yu Sheng didn’t speak. Eileen, too, gradually fell quiet.

After what felt like an indeterminate stretch of time, Little Red Riding Hood finally sighed.

“…Old Zheng has known us for a very long time,” she said softly.

Yu Sheng nodded: “Yeah, you mentioned that before you came.”

“He was close to the Orphanage. Apparently, a long time ago, he even worked as a volunteer at our Orphanage as one of the Council’s ’employees’ — back then he hadn’t joined the Curiosities Association yet, and wasn’t any kind of expert on the Otherworld or anomalous objects,” Little Red Riding Hood continued, speaking as if to herself. “He helped us arrange many commissions. Among all the jobs the Fairy Tale organization handled, Old Zheng always offered the best terms… But in truth, I never really got to know him as a person. What I knew of his past came only from what the seniors at the Orphanage occasionally mentioned.”

Yu Sheng didn’t know what to say, and the room lapsed into a brief silence.

Then they heard the sound of a door opening from the direction of the living room entryway.

Old Zheng’s nephew had returned.

Yu Sheng looked at Eileen, who immediately waved her hand with practiced understanding: “Open a door. I’ll head out first.”

Yu Sheng nodded, had Little Red Riding Hood go greet the visitor in the living room first, then quickly completed his reporting procedure and opened a small door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road.

Eileen stood in the doorway and suddenly turned back to look at Yu Sheng.

“Those ‘cultists’ really piss me off.”

“I feel the same way.”

(End of Chapter)