Chapter 195 – The Unfamiliar “Little Red Riding Hood”

Although Little Doll jumped quite high, Yu Sheng was actually being serious.

His confidence came from the experience of devouring the Hunger Entity, as well as the sensation of consumption and fusion he’d felt when making direct contact with the Hunger Entity’s “deep-layer true form.”

He knew that anything “eaten” by him would be fundamentally devoured and assimilated—more effective and faster than any seal or displacement measure. If the Angel’s Umbilical Cord truly triggered An-Ka-Ai-La’s premature activation, using Door Opening to throw it away at that point might not sever its connection to the “true form”—but eating it definitely would.

Of course, there were risks involved. After all, the Angel’s Umbilical Cord was nothing like the Hunger Entity. Although the latter had also been enormously empowered by the Twilight Angel’s influence, that was ultimately just “influence.” The Angel’s Umbilical Cord clearly had a far more intimate connection to the Twilight Angel known as “An-Ka-Ai-La.” Actually eating this thing…

Might cause indigestion.

But no matter—Yu Sheng reckoned it would work out. He’d always trusted his own reckoning.

At worst, if his reckoning failed, he’d just treat it as seeking death—and he had plenty of confidence in his ability to court death too.

One look at the expression on Yu Sheng’s face told Eileen she definitely couldn’t stop his wild ideas. Once this guy got an idea in his head, he was absolutely going to act on it, so she could only sigh in resignation, tilting her head up: “Fine. People with big appetites usually don’t have bad luck—when do we leave? Now?”

“Yes, now,” Yu Sheng nodded, turning to look at Hu Li. “Get ready. You’re coming with me to the Black Forest.”

As he said this, he suddenly remembered something and frowned toward the Balcony: “Uh… your tails are still hanging out to dry over there…”

Before he could finish, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye as a whole bunch of spare tails sprouted from behind Hu Li with a “buzz.” The Fox-Spirit Girl smiled happily: “I have plenty more~”

“…Alright, I almost forgot about that,” Yu Sheng slapped his palm against his forehead. “Then let’s head out—Eileen, open the door.”

An ethereal door materialized out of thin air, and then black threads grew like thorns, intertwining and coiling until a gateway to the Black Forest opened.

Yu Sheng held the wooden box containing the Angel’s Umbilical Cord in one hand and his terrifying Staff of Tetanus in the other. The instant he stepped through the door, that familiar sensation of eerie cold and the faint sound of wolf howls washed over him. He steadied himself, looked up at the sky above the Black Forest, and saw the amber glow of dusk spreading through the gaps between the tree canopies, casting vast dappled patterns of light and shadow across the forest floor.

The Black Forest seemed to exist in a perpetual cycle between two states of time—either a prolonged dusk, or the dim twilight of early nightfall when a faint trace of daylight still lingered.

And from experience, the Black Forest during its dusk state was relatively calm. After nightfall, the wolf packs in this forest would suddenly become active, and the Big Bad Wolf basically only appeared during the nighttime phase.

Hu Li’s large ears twitched, swiveling sensitively toward every rustle and stir. She sniffed the air, gauging the faint currents of scent drifting through it.

“There’s no wolf scent nearby for now,” she said quietly. “The sounds are coming from all over the place, sometimes far, sometimes close.”

“Before the wolf pack truly manifests, these ‘sounds’ can basically be treated as the Black Forest’s ‘ambient noise,'” Yu Sheng remarked offhandedly.

Eileen stared nervously at what Yu Sheng was carrying: “Hey, is that thing showing any reaction?”

Yu Sheng glanced at the wooden box in his hand—the one holding the Angel’s Umbilical Cord—and cracked it open just a sliver.

The umbilical cord still lay quietly on its red velvet lining, looking just as withered and lifeless as before.

“No reaction for now,” he shook his head. “If I had to say something… I’ve been hearing the sound of a baby crying, very faint, as if coming from deep underground. But that shouldn’t have anything to do with the ‘umbilical cord’ itself—I’ve been hearing that sound ever since we fought that enormous Grandmother Wolf.”

“A baby crying?” Eileen frowned. “Well, neither Hu Li nor I can hear it.”

Yu Sheng carefully closed the box, leaned the Staff of Tetanus against a nearby spot, and reached into a pocket on his other side.

A bullet with a peculiar spiraling tip appeared in his hand.

“This bullet isn’t showing any reaction either,” he said softly. “Let’s head deeper into the forest first and see if we can find the cabin—though since Little Red Riding Hood hasn’t entered the Black Forest yet, Grandmother Wolf probably won’t appear, and the Hunter probably won’t either… In any case, let’s go take a look.”

The group cautiously made their way deeper into the Black Forest, searching through the dappled light and shadow of dusk for the glow of that “path.”

Hu Li volunteered to take point. Aside from the one storage tail she couldn’t deploy, she had released all eight of her other tails. Surrounded by the faint glow of Fox Fire, these fox tails emitted a soft humming sound as they floated nimbly around the group, occasionally swiveling to point warily toward some direction in the forest, ready to unleash a barrage the moment something went wrong.

Yu Sheng found the sight rather amusing and asked casually: “I’ve been meaning to ask—is this move of yours called the Fox-Turnip Drone?”

The Fox-Spirit Girl answered with complete seriousness: “It’s the Fox Roaming Cannons—Eileen named it too.”

Eileen immediately lifted her chin with pride—though Yu Sheng had no idea what she had to be proud of.

They continued walking deeper into the forest for who knows how long before Yu Sheng suddenly stopped.

Eileen, perched on his shoulder, immediately asked with curiosity: “Huh? Why’d you stop?”

“Something’s not right,” Yu Sheng’s brow gradually furrowed. “How long have we been walking in here?”

“It’s been… quite a while, hasn’t it? I wasn’t really keeping track,” Eileen scratched her hair. “What’s wrong?”

“…We still haven’t seen that ‘path,’ and we haven’t seen the shelter cabin either,” Yu Sheng said in a low voice. “But according to the Black Forest’s pattern, you should see the first path shortly after entering and walking forward for a bit.”

“Now that you mention it, Benefactor… that does seem to be the case,” Hu Li realized it too, scanning their surroundings warily. Her faintly golden eyes swept across the shadowed areas of the forest. “And I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but the Black Forest today feels different from before… I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the atmosphere?”

Yu Sheng’s heart tightened, and he instinctively glanced at the wooden box in his left hand.

Was it because of the Angel’s Umbilical Cord inside? Was it interfering with the Black Forest’s operation? Or was it something else entirely…

“The Squirrel hasn’t appeared either. Under normal circumstances, it should be the first one to show up as our ‘guide.'”

Yu Sheng muttered, casually hefting the Staff of Tetanus onto his shoulder.

Eileen instantly grabbed his neck and flung herself backward, executing a grand swing around Yu Sheng’s back before climbing onto his other shoulder.

The Little Doll cursed up a storm: “I KNEW you were going to pull that move! Good thing my reflexes are fast, or one of these days you’re going to smash me to death with that stick…”

Yu Sheng turned his head in astonishment to look at the doll on his shoulder, about to comment on when she’d trained such impressive acrobatic skills, but before he could speak, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from a nearby thicket.

The Squirrel?

Yu Sheng and the others instantly looked toward the source of the sound. But a moment later, what appeared before their eyes wasn’t the familiar Squirrel—it was a red-clothed girl with a tense expression, seemingly hiding from something.

Long hair, thin and small, fifteen or sixteen years old, with an unfamiliar face—not the Little Red Riding Hood that Yu Sheng knew.

Yu Sheng and his companions froze on the spot.

Another “Little Red Riding Hood”?!

Yu Sheng stared in bewilderment at the unfamiliar girl who had emerged from behind the bushes. He was stunned for two seconds before stepping half a pace forward, tentatively greeting her: “Uh, hello, are you also from the Fairy Tale Organization…”

He frowned and stopped mid-sentence.

Because the red-clothed girl before him wasn’t looking at him at all—she seemed completely oblivious to his words.

She simply crouched cautiously, her gaze sweeping warily across other parts of the forest, as if hiding from an unseen wolf pack, yet completely unaware of the three strangers standing right in front of her.

Hu Li caught on and tugged at Yu Sheng’s sleeve: “Benefactor, I don’t think she can see us?”

Yu Sheng frowned: “Seems that way.”

And at that very moment, the unfamiliar “Little Red Riding Hood” suddenly moved.

She seemed to have abruptly sensed some dangerous presence. With a nervous look, she glanced in a certain direction, then broke into a sprint!

Yu Sheng reacted immediately, hoisting Eileen as he gave chase: “Follow her!”

And so the unfamiliar “Little Red Riding Hood” ran through the forest, with Yu Sheng, Eileen, and Hu Li following close behind. Meanwhile, wolf howls rose and fell from every direction, filling the air on all sides, as if closing in—at the nearest moments, Yu Sheng felt he could practically smell the wolf pack, sense their aura reeking of blood and thick malice, even feel their fangs and claws sweeping past him.

Yet when he looked around, there was nothing but shadows among the trees.

The wolf pack had gathered, chasing the unfamiliar Little Red Riding Hood ahead—but Yu Sheng couldn’t see them.

The fleeing red-clothed girl gradually slowed. Her stamina seemed to be giving out; visibly, even her footsteps began to stumble.

But just then, a clearing suddenly appeared in the direction she was running.

A small wooden house stood quietly in the clearing, looking somewhat out of place against its surroundings.

The moment Yu Sheng saw that wooden house, his expression hardened.

There were no lights inside that cabin.

Yet the red-clothed girl, nearly out of strength, seemed to have no other choice—after a brief moment of hesitation upon seeing the cabin, she charged inside without looking back.

(End of Chapter)