Someone's Here!?

Yu Sheng said goodbye to Irene, but this time he didn't immediately hang up after speaking. It wasn't because that thing had gone vegetarian, but because this terrifying giant beast seemed, for some reason, to have fallen into a state of bewilderment. It stood in the night wind, dozens of eyes chaotically overlapping on fleshy masses, staring fixedly at the prey before it with a strange "gaze." Though it sounded odd, Yu Sheng felt he could truly see "confusion" in those eyes—the confusion of when your mouth and stomach had been reconciling accounts for half an hour and still couldn't balance. Irene was still calling out anxiously in his mind, but Yu Sheng's attention was entirely on the terrifying monster before him. Irene's voice seemed as distant as if separated by a thick curtain. He tensed his muscles, his heart pounding like a drum, every muscle twitch and vein ripple on the monster's body clearly reflected in his eyes. Although he had made some preparations when he "resurrected" from the ruined temple before, truly encountering this crushing weight of death again, Yu Sheng still felt enormous tension. The only difference from last time was that the fear mixed into this tension had greatly receded, replaced by something he himself found very unfamiliar… excitement. Then, he suddenly sensed something. It was his muscles contracting, turbid thick blood gathering, hunger surging in his heart, commands to feed coming from his muddled mind—in this extremely brief moment, his sense of warning soared, and he accurately traced the outline of that warning. The monster was about to strike—from the left, but it was only a feint; the real killing blow was a snake-tail that would whip around from behind, covered in barbs and blades. The monster lunged at him, a bloody maw suddenly splitting open from the end of one of its limbs and biting toward Yu Sheng's left side—but before it leaped, Yu Sheng had already reacted. Without much thought, he directly followed the prompt in his mind, suddenly turning his body sideways, then quickly lunging forward, at a speed he himself couldn't believe. He noticed that his previously sprained waist had completely recovered at some point. It seemed that ever since the "resurrection," this body's condition had been unbelievably good. The giant beast lunged empty, and the snake-tail ambushing at a tricky angle only barely grazed the "prey's" back. Yu Sheng felt the wind pressure from behind; the sensation of brushing past the edge of death made his hair stand on end, but compared to this terror, he felt even more disbelief in his heart: I actually dodged it?! What on earth just happened? But he didn't have time to think it over, because the next wave of danger came from behind again—this time without enough time to dodge. He only managed to scramble up from the ground after landing when he saw a claw smashing down toward him from overhead. In desperation, he could only instinctively raise his hand, using a human's frail arm to block a claw that fell almost like a meteorite. With a loud bang, the air surged, scattering grass clippings and dust within several meters. Intense pain spread through his body. Yu Sheng felt as if over a dozen bones had been shattered at once. He grunted, failed to catch his breath, and retreated two steps—but he had blocked it. He had truly, solidly blocked that blow. Yu Sheng looked at his hands in shock. His left hand was bent at an abnormal angle—clearly the bones were broken—but the pain was fading at an astonishing speed, and the twisted bones seemed to be slowly restoring themselves. He still clearly remembered when the monster first attacked him, remembered its true power. Every inch of muscle on that thing could easily crush a human body, and Yu Sheng believed one hundred percent that when the monster struck with full force, he couldn't block it—no matter how many bones broke. But the monster obviously wouldn't give him too much time to think. After landing, it adjusted for only a second or two, and this hungry giant beast let out a chaotic, angry roar, lunging once again at the annoying "prey" before it. A bone-piercing gale assailed him. The leaping monster was like a small mountain falling from the sky. Yu Sheng reacted in advance again, rolling ungracefully to the side, then jumping up to dodge a mountain-splitting tail swipe. But the next second, still not steady on his feet, Yu Sheng was swept to the ground by the recoiling tail. Then, the giant beast split open directly from its midsection, and a disgusting, constantly writhing "long tongue," like a tentacle, shot through the night, tightly entwining the off-balance Yu Sheng and dragging him back. Yu Sheng braced his hands hard, trying not to let the "long tongue" strangle his chest—at least not so quickly. He watched helplessly as he was dragged before the monster. The latter's body had split open a huge hole in the middle, countless sharp teeth rubbing and grinding inside it, like the maw of an extremely hungry mouth. At the instant just before he was dragged into that maw, Yu Sheng suddenly planted his feet, the rock beneath him cracking with a bang, and the tremendous recoil even made the monster stagger. Yu Sheng didn't bother wondering why he had such strength. Seizing this brief chance to catch his breath, he almost used all his strength, roaring as he broke free of the entwining long tongue. Then he picked up a sharp piece of rubble from the ground and lunged at the monster's side, at one cloudy eyeball trembling wildly. The long tongue snapped, and the monster let out a bone-chilling roar. Blood sprayed from its midsection. It staggered, trying to regain balance, dozens of eyes filled with madness and hunger staring at the prey before it— So fragrant, so fragrant… The scent of blood drilled into his nostrils, stimulating the hungry one's nerves, awakening some instinct that had slept for a long time… It really smelled so good. Yu Sheng felt his heart racing wildly, felt something scorching almost to boiling surging in his blood. A wild joy was gradually rising in his heart. He tried hard to figure out what this joy was, and finally, he understood. It was the joy of impending feeding, the reward of hunger about to be satisfied. That giant beast, that pile of flesh and blood, that chaotic fallen soul, that… prime meat. The sharp rubble was gradually crushed into powder in his hand. He breathed heavily, feeling everything around him slow down. He lunged at the monster, the monster lunged at him, food embracing food. In a daze, he felt as if he hadn't eaten for over twenty years, or at least hadn't eaten "real food." He embraced the monster's hideous limb, and the monster "embraced" him back with even more astonishing strength, until it broke one bone after another in his body. But Yu Sheng seemed to feel nothing. He had already sunk his teeth into the monster's flesh and blood. Unlike last time, this wasn't a final angry, desperate counterattack before death. He now had a new mindset: He wouldn't die; he would come back again. The monster could kill him once, twice, or countless times, but he would return. And every time, he would understand better how to deal with this monster than the last time. This might take a long time. But he would enjoy this piece of prime meat bit by bit. Dozens of eyes beside the monster trembled wildly. A few of them seemed to sense something, finally slowly focusing on Yu Sheng. A maw full of sharp teeth had already begun gnawing at Yu Sheng from the side, yet those eyes seemed to gradually show a layer of fear. Yu Sheng felt his body being gradually torn apart by the monster. He knew he had lost again, as expected—he would die, eaten by this monster. At least this time, he still couldn't win. Be that as it may, the time he lasted this time was far beyond expectation. He originally thought he would die on the spot after one exchange, but instead he had fought the monster back and forth. "Irene…" Before his consciousness sank into darkness, Yu Sheng tried calling out in his heart. Irene's voice sounded almost immediately: "Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, are you okay?! I kept calling you and you wouldn't answer…" "I'm fine. I just said goodbye too early earlier; now I'm hanging up…" Then he ignored Irene's shouting and simply waited quietly for death to descend. But just before that heavy darkness descended, he suddenly heard a voice nearby—a clear, truly existing voice in this valley. "Don't be afraid! I'm coming to save you!" Yu Sheng's consciousness was already unclear, but at this moment he was jolted into a moment of clarity, a thunderous impact exploding into his mind— Someone?! Someone in this place?! He painfully opened his eyelids, looking toward the direction of the voice, and saw a figure rushing from afar. He vaguely saw what seemed to be a girl in tattered clothes, but the next second, he also saw other contours flying behind her in the night. What was that? A tail? A fox? A person? No, it was a subsonic headbutt. Desperately, Yu Sheng saw the figure shouting to save him accelerate a second time in midair like a rocket-assisted shell, lowering its head and charging straight over. Meanwhile, the monster chewing on him happened to turn its body slightly (probably on purpose), so he became the target for that figure to crash straight into. "Fuck…" He only managed to squeeze out two syllables through his teeth. The girl charging over hadn't even seen the situation ahead. The subsonic headbutt smashed into Yu Sheng's chest, and then he had no chest. Nothing below his neck remained. As if evaporated. "Miss, you fucking… missed…" Then, Yu Sheng was saved to death.