Chapter 47 – The Road Splits in Two

“We’re on solid ground!”

Eileen stood atop a large, dark boulder, struggling to hold her cleaver in both arms, doing her best to strike what she considered an impressively heroic pose against the night wind as she shouted into the empty valley below.

Yu Sheng jabbed a finger into the puppet’s head, nearly knocking her off the rock: “Stop making such a racket. We haven’t found Hu Li yet — don’t go drawing ‘Hunger’s’ attention over here before we’re ready.”

“That thing doesn’t even sense through hearing,” Eileen muttered resentfully as she hopped down from the rock, tightening the rope fastening the picture frame on her back. She then raised her head to survey her surroundings. “…It really is desolate out here. And just like you said — eerie and unsettling. The sky looks like something is draped over it.”

“Be careful,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at Eileen, whose small and slender frame gave almost no impression of any combat ability. Even though he knew the puppet possessed all manner of strange capabilities, he couldn’t help adding a word of caution. “If anything happens, your first priority is to protect yourself. I’m not afraid of dying, but you’re different — neither of us can be sure that if this temporary body of yours is destroyed, your soul would survive.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect myself. And honestly, ‘Hunger’ is less of a threat to me,” Eileen tilted her head back. “Puppets generally aren’t affected by mental attacks — and more importantly, I don’t get hungry.”

“Right, you don’t get hungry. But you sure do get cravings all the time — whenever I drink water you have to stand there staring at it for two seconds,” Yu Sheng muttered under his breath, glancing down at his feet.

The several large plastic bags he’d brought were all there, and he exhaled in immediate relief. The care and thoroughness he’d taken during the Door Opening had been warranted — he had sent all his “cargo” through the door, and so at least the start of things had gone smoothly.

Yu Sheng bent down and easily hoisted up the bags of food — a considerable weight for an ordinary person — then looked up toward a spot not far ahead.

The crumbling, dilapidated old temple stood silently in the darkness, much the same as when he had left it.

“We’ll head over there first. Hu Li should be nearby — I can feel it,” Yu Sheng said quietly, stepping forward into the night.

He had barely taken two steps before Eileen made a ruckus behind him: “Hey, wait up! Slow down! I can’t keep up!”

Yu Sheng turned around to see the 66.6-centimeter-tall little puppet dragging the cleaver in one hand and holding her arms out for balance with the other, climbing over several large rocks in her path like she was crossing mountains, then wading through the rubble-strewn stone riverbed of the valley floor, one foot sinking more than the other.

An obstacle an ordinary person could step over in one stride, she had to either climb or walk a long way around…

Yu Sheng stared at the scene speechlessly, then finally let out a sigh. He walked over and crouched down in front of Eileen. “You’d better just sit on my shoulders — and don’t say ‘giddyup’!”

Eileen lit up with delight instantly, raising the cleaver and charging toward Yu Sheng: “Hey! You’re the best!”

Yu Sheng immediately let out a yelp: “Put that thing away first! Or at least point the blade in a different direction!”

Good grief — a red-eyed living puppet charging at his neck with a cleaver raised in the dark of night. That scene was way too damn terrifying.

Yu Sheng wasn’t afraid of death. But he was afraid of that.

……

“Where the hell have we ended up,” Li Lin shuddered as a cold wind swept through the forest, a growing sense of unease coiling around his heart. “Is this still the Borderland…?”

“Otherworld. Night-shrouded Valley. Current depth: Deep L-3, gradually sinking toward L-4. Danger level assessment… based on recorded data, above level three,” Xu Jiali’s voice came from beside him. The burly man, who stood nearly two meters tall, had at some point already connected his portable depth-detector to his eye socket, and was now scanning the surroundings while rapidly reciting information from memory. “This Otherworld’s classification is ‘Wilderness’ — we’re in serious trouble.”

Li Lin’s eyes slowly widened. Prompted by Xu Jiali’s words, he finally recalled, albeit belatedly, the information he had once encountered during training.

A ‘Wilderness’-type Otherworld was large in scale, with no clear boundaries and no clear exit — one could only leave by meeting specific conditions or at specific times and positions. A depth of L-3 meant the location was essentially completely isolated from reality, operating under rules that defied rational understanding, and long-term exposure carried a very high risk of mental and cognitive erosion. A danger level of three meant there was a clear malevolent presence here — something had taken up residence and would actively attack and attempt to kill intruders. Its threat was lethal and could not be avoided or countered by simply “following the rules.”

Operating in an Otherworld of this level typically required at least a full team of Special Operations Bureau agents — a dozen or more people, fully armed and equipped with heavy gear.

And that would only be for an investigation mission — in other words, the goal would merely be to gather intelligence and withdraw alive, not to attempt confronting the entity here. That would require even more personnel, or more seasoned special operatives.

Li Lin looked around. Including Xu Jiali, there were two Special Operations Bureau agents on the scene. Though one of them was a deep-diver — a specialist operative specifically trained to confront entities — the situation had arisen so suddenly that even this powerhouse of a man had brought very little equipment.

Alongside them was a freelance underage “Spirit Detective,” reportedly of the reconnaissance type.

Their fate was thoroughly screwed.

“Give the food in your hands to that young girl over there,” Xu Jiali broke the silence just then, his expression grave as he issued orders. “Li Lin, you and I will use these.”

Li Lin snapped out of his “thoroughly screwed” lament without hesitation, obeyed the senior agent’s instructions, and handed both cups of instant noodles — already going cold — directly to the still-dazed Little Red Riding Hood. Then he reached out and took what Xu Jiali was handing over.

It was a needle-free injector, the pale green liquid inside faintly glowing in the darkness of night.

A rationality-blocker.

Li Lin looked up in shock, watching his colleague press the injector against his own arm.

“The entity generated here is ‘Hunger,’ which has a tendency toward mental attacks,” the burly man said calmly. “From the name alone you should have a general idea of what we’re dealing with. Give yourself a dose first — the side effects are worse than the aerosol inhaler version, but at least for the next forty-eight hours, it’ll ensure you don’t lose your judgment.”

Li Lin nodded, and with a sharp hiss, the rationality-blocker from the injector was pushed into his body.

Meanwhile, beside them, Little Red Riding Hood had immediately understood the situation the moment she heard the name “Hunger.” She stepped forward at once: “Wait, then hurry and eat something — your bodies are still ordinary human. I can endure far more than you — and I have snacks on me…”

“Listen to me,” Xu Jiali cut her off directly. The burly man, standing nearly two meters tall, loomed in the darkness — nearly two heads taller than Little Red Riding Hood. He looked down at the girl in front of him, his expression exceptionally grave. “I know your situation.”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, then finally said nothing more.

Xu Jiali gave her shoulder a pat. His deep voice seemed to carry a steadying, reassuring weight: “This is for our sake too — your wolf pack is our greatest hope for fighting the entity. You need to keep your combat strength up.”

Li Lin watched Little Red Riding Hood crouch down beside a nearby rock and begin quietly eating the by-now-cold instant noodles. He turned to glance at his colleague, a trace of puzzlement in his expression.

Xu Jiali shook his head slightly and lowered his voice: “If she falls into hunger, her wolves will eat her.”

In the darkness, the wolf pack let out restless, soft whimpers deep in the forest.

In the cold wind, a malevolent “gaze” spread across the valley.

In the rubble of the ruined temple, Yu Sheng and Eileen searched cautiously.

The omnipresent stench of decay grew thicker and more cloying, as if it were sentient, forcing its way into their nostrils and making everything deeply unpleasant.

Eileen simply stopped breathing altogether.

Yu Sheng found himself quite envious of that.

“Are you sure the fox is here?” Eileen gripped the cleaver in one hand and Yu Sheng’s hair in the other, riding on his shoulders and craning her neck to peer around. “I can’t see anything…”

“Positive,” Yu Sheng said casually. “There’s a faint connection between her and me, established through blood — the same goes for you, though you probably can’t feel it yourself.”

“Is… is that so?” Eileen cast a slightly doubtful glance at Yu Sheng, then looked down at her own hands, seemingly pondering what this “faint connection” he spoke of might feel like.

And just at that moment, a faint rustling sound broke through the silence of the ruins, interrupting both Eileen’s musings and Yu Sheng’s movements.

Almost simultaneously, both of them raised their heads and looked toward the source of the sound.

A white figure carefully squeezed out from behind a section of collapsed wall.

Silver-white fox tails swayed gently in the night, fluffy ears trembling lightly in the breeze. The Foxgirl who had emerged from the ruins stared wide-eyed at the figure standing not far away — and the moment she finally made out who it was, she broke into an immediate, delighted smile.

“Benefactor!”

Hu Li came running out from behind the broken wall, sweeping over the rubble and broken tiles like a gust of wind, darting two quick circles around Yu Sheng before finally coming to a stop in front of him. Her face was filled with pure joy and a trace of disbelief: “You — you really came! Benefactor, is it real?”

“It’s me, it’s me, it’s real,” Yu Sheng smiled just as happily, and then immediately set down everything he was carrying. “I brought you a lot of food. Starting today, no more going hungry.”