Chapter 171 – Death and Response

The wolf’s aura temporarily receded. The heart flowing with wolf venom gradually shriveled and withered in Yu Sheng’s arms. The Black Forest suddenly fell silent—no more of those low, chaotic howls, no more of that gaze cast from deep within the forest.

Hu Li and Eileen came running out of the cabin and together half-dragged, half-hauled Yu Sheng inside.

“Benefactor, benefactor, how are you?” Hu Li looked anxiously at Yu Sheng’s blue-tinged face, the fur on her tail bristling on end. “Can you still hear me?”

“I can hear you, I can hear you… don’t get so close,” Yu Sheng panted with difficulty, feeling his strength draining away and the cold numbness gradually spreading through his veins. “I’m about to die. This thing is poisonous—I got poisoned the moment I touched it…”

“Looking at you, I’d say you do seem like you’re about to die. Your face has gone black,” Eileen leaned in from the side, climbing onto Yu Sheng’s chest. Her crimson eyes studied his face. “So, is Granny Wolf dead too? Does this count as having killed it?”

“Dead, but temporarily—just like all entities, it’ll come back. The Black Forest will reset to how it was before we entered at the next cycle,” Yu Sheng said with effort, coughing twice before continuing. “But it doesn’t matter. I’ve already intervened in its cycle… we succeeded, at least one major step… get off me first, you’re incredibly heavy right now.”

“Obviously—my body is made of steel and stone right now,” Eileen grumbled as she obediently climbed down from Yu Sheng’s chest. “But you didn’t complain about the weight when I was sitting on your shoulder before.”

“I’m about to die right now, aren’t I? I’m weak as can be,” Yu Sheng said, then paused to catch his breath and extended a hand toward Hu Li beside him. “Help me up.”

Hu Li quickly murmured an acknowledgment and supported Yu Sheng’s arm. “Benefactor, what are you going to do?”

“You two go back,” Yu Sheng said, and with Hu Li’s support, he extended his hand toward the air. A great door flickering with faint light gradually materialized. “Take my weapon with you—that thing’s actually pretty useful. I’ll modify and improve it later for next time… oh, and also take this shriveled heart. Granny Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood didn’t leave behind anything useful except this heart, which looks like it might be made of actual flesh. Now that its poisonous blood has drained out, I’ll study it later and see if I can make some chili-fried wolf heart…”

“You’re planning to eat this thing?!” Eileen was stunned, staring at Yu Sheng with her jaw hanging open. “Isn’t that a bit too terrifying?”

“Just a taste, just a taste. It wasn’t easy to kill, and besides, it killed me once too,” Yu Sheng caught his breath. “If I don’t stir-fry it, I’ll feel cheated.”

Eileen felt an indescribable sense of strangeness, but Hu Li—who only ever listened to Yu Sheng—had already curled two of her tails around the shriveled wolf heart and the Staff of Tetanus that had fallen to the ground. She stepped toward the doorway, then turned back to ask: “Benefactor, aren’t you coming back?”

Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively. “I’m staying here.”

“Huh?” Eileen looked up, her face full of surprise. “You’re not going to die at home?”

“I’ll wait here a bit and see when that hunter finally shows up,” Yu Sheng was already having trouble standing steady. “What if I can communicate with it… I’ll just die here later.”

“Alright then, we’ll head back first,” Eileen sighed, then asked casually, “Want something to eat when you get back? Hu Li and I can start preparing… don’t give me that look, we won’t use the stove. Just washing vegetables and such.”

“Wash a couple of cucumbers and a couple of tomatoes. It should be about morning by the time I get back. I just want something light after dying—cold noodles, with tomato and egg sauce and shredded cucumber.”

“Oh.”

Eileen and Hu Li left, and the faintly glimmering door slowly dissipated behind them.

The cabin fell quiet. Yu Sheng looked around and saw the place had been left in complete disarray from the earlier battle. Although the giant wolf had never set foot inside the cabin, the spreading foxfire and piercing threads had destroyed nearly every piece of furniture, leaving large swaths of burn marks across the walls and floor.

He let out a breath and struggled over to the small bed in the corner, which had already collapsed from the fire. He sat among the wreckage, waiting for the hunter, waiting for death.

Wolf venom flowed through his veins. His blood flowed through the Black Forest.

A faint, indistinct sound of crying seemed distant and muffled, as though separated by a veil at some unknowable point, and yet something seemed to be soothing the source of that crying, letting it gradually quiet down.

A soft rustling sound came from amid the bed’s wreckage. Yu Sheng looked toward the source and saw a small, dark-brown, furry creature poking its head out from the charred debris, a strip of red cloth still wrapped around its head.

“Oh, Squirrel. I thought you’d definitely have run off by now,” Yu Sheng greeted the squirrel. “Pretty brave of you.”

“Squirrel… Squirrel Knight fears nothing… fears nothing…” The squirrel repeated these words over and over, as if its sanity had broken down. But then it suddenly stopped and stared blankly at Yu Sheng. “Wait, you’re dying… you were bitten by the wolf—the wolf’s heart bit you! You… you’re going to die! Really going to die! You’ll die in the real world too! What do we do what do we do what do we do…”

It seemed to have finally realized something horrifying and began shouting frantically, agitated and panicked.

“I came here in my physical body from the real world to begin with,” Yu Sheng merely gave it a fading smile. “Don’t be so nervous. I’ll be back—for me, ‘death’ is just a temporary symptom. Of course, you don’t need to think about something that complicated right now. Calm down, little squirrel. If you don’t want to leave yet, keep me company and chat.”

The squirrel stared with its round little eyes, seeming to neither understand what Yu Sheng was saying nor know what it should be doing, stuck in a state of insufficient processing power.

“You’ve wrapped that red cloth strip around your head again,” Yu Sheng reached out a finger and pressed gently on the squirrel’s head. “You really like it?”

“Red cloth… red cloth is a good omen,” the squirrel jolted and spoke instinctively. “Squirrels need their own red cloaks too… red cloaks scare away the wolves. A red cloak is proof that you haven’t turned into a wolf…”

“A red cloak is proof that you haven’t turned into a wolf? So that’s how it is,” Yu Sheng said slowly, struggling to keep his eyelids open. “Do squirrels also worry about turning into wolves of the forest?”

The squirrel suddenly went silent, standing there in a daze, as if Yu Sheng’s question had sent it into another round of crashing.

This little creature was always crashing like this, as though a brain too small was bearing far too many thoughts beyond its capacity to understand.

Yu Sheng felt like he was in much the same state right now.

His mind was gradually going numb. The wolf venom seemed to have replaced his bloodstream, slowly sprouting cold, malicious branches throughout his vessels. His vision was growing dim and hazy. The tiny squirrel multiplied into overlapping afterimages before his eyes. He heard the hollow sound of wind from the forest, and the wolves began howling again, one after another, rising and falling—they were always howling like that, because that was how the story told it. At least… the one telling the story believed so.

In his gradually darkening vision, Yu Sheng saw something.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the Black Forest, through this barrier shrouded in shadow and the thick earth beneath it. He saw countless fine branches—branches like the limbs of trees, supporting this place from the “other side” of the forest. He also saw a multitude of interwoven structures, tangled and proliferating throughout the chaos and void like blood vessels and nerves, each cluster of interwoven structures fanning out at their ends like tree branches to support something above.

They held up the king’s castle, the wilderness where knights battled dragons, the never-ending ball, the tower imprisoning the princess, the bedchamber ringed by thorns, the beanstalk soaring into the clouds, and the ocean and court echoing with song…

But these were not what Yu Sheng wanted to see.

What he wanted to see was the “other end”—the depths of those interwoven structures.

He strained to control his line of sight, trying to turn his gaze toward the depths of that chaos, toward the origin of those interwoven structures.

But an absolute darkness blocked him. There seemed to be nothing at all in the depths of that chaos.

Footsteps reached his ears.

Yu Sheng snapped briefly back to consciousness. His awareness returned from that perspective that had pierced through the Black Forest, settling back into the little cabin.

The hearth fire in the cabin had gone out. The candlelight on the table had long since vanished. A cold, stark atmosphere enveloped everything, and a tall figure pushed open the cabin door and strode inside with mechanical, rigid steps.

Dim starlight fell upon the figure, tracing a vague, blurry outline.

“Hello there, ‘Hunter’,” Yu Sheng forced a grin at the figure walking in. He leaned against the wreckage of the small bed, feeling the hollow, formless shell directing its gaze toward him. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Nearly died waiting.”

The Hunter came unhurriedly before him. Its empty hood hung low, as though carefully observing this “dying” “person.”

Though he couldn’t see the “expression” beneath the hood, Yu Sheng felt the Hunter seemed to be in a state of confusion.

This was probably because his own body currently carried a trace of the wolf’s poisonous blood, which prevented the Hunter from determining whether it should pull the trigger.

Yu Sheng didn’t explain anything. Conserving every ounce of his remaining strength, he slowly drew a piece of paper from inside his coat and unfolded it before the Hunter.

Twelve men and women in heavy protective armor stood there, posing for a meticulous group photograph.

“Remember this?” Yu Sheng raised his head and spoke softly. “Are you… one of them?”

The Hunter stood motionless, offering no response.

Yu Sheng waited patiently, wondering which would arrive first—his death, or the Hunter’s answer.

Then he watched as the hollow, formless shell slowly raised the shotgun in its hands.

Yu Sheng: “…?”

Seriously, dude?

“Bang!”

The gun fired.

Death and response arrived at the same time.

(End of Chapter)