All the sounds tangled together as wild, chaotic impulses clashed and tore against the fox spirit's last shreds of sanity. Beside him, Yu Sheng heard Hu Li's pained whimpers, while an even louder roar of frenzied voices hammered inside his head—the fox spirit's near-uncontrollable appetite, a bone-chilling, gnawing hunger, the whispering lure of dark chaos, and... cries urging him to flee.
Yu Sheng inhaled sharply, ducked low, and lunged toward a gap between the fox spirit and the monster. Yet he did not run as Hu Li had begged. Instead, he scooped up a broken bluestone slab from the ground, hugged it to his chest, and charged at the monster's flank.
He knew full well he stood little chance against this creature, but he knew even better that human legs could never outrun it here. Debris and ruined walls blocked every path, and the only wide opening leading out of the ruined temple was completely obstructed by the beast's colossal body. Charging blindly in panic would only hasten his death.
He might as well grit his teeth and make a stand. He couldn't win, but since he wasn't afraid of dying, he had a chance to trade blows and inflict some damage before the end. If he got lucky and distracted the monster, he might even give Hu Li an opening to break free from those horrific bindings. She was still desperately clinging to her reason; if she managed to slip loose, she might actually have a shot at turning the tables...
All these thoughts flashed past in an instant. Yu Sheng knew his plan was far from sound, but there was no time to think. With no other choice, he steeled his resolve. His body once again erupted with a staggering strength that baffled even himself, hurling the heavy bluestone slab like an artillery shell straight at the colossal beast of flesh.
The next second, he had no time to see the impact of his strike. A tremendous sense of alarm surged from within. Yu Sheng "saw" the monster's counterattack a second early, and his body leaped violently to the side.
A whip-like black shadow slammed violently into the spot where he had just stood. It was a serpent tail that had suddenly split off from the monster's surface. Soil and stone exploded in an instant; solid bluestone and broken bricks were pulverized into dust. Caught in the shockwave in midair, Yu Sheng felt flying gravel pepper him like bullets, ringing with the metallic clangs of striking stone.
Yu Sheng ignored the stinging pain. The moment he hit the ground, he rolled fast, dodging the serpent tail's follow-up strike, his peripheral vision sweeping toward Hu Li.
The silver fox spirit was thrashing violently amidst countless black spikes and skeletal fragments. The ghostly blue spirit flame burning near her fox tails flickered wildly, looking ready to detonate out of control at any moment.
Yet she remained trapped. The things restraining her seemed tailored specifically for her; Yu Sheng's interference had achieved nothing.
In truth, Yu Sheng could tell at a glance that the fox girl was countless times stronger than him, yet she was utterly powerless before the monster. There was clearly an obvious hard counter between the two.
Yet back at the very beginning, out on the open ground beyond the ruined temple, she had charged forward without hesitation to save him—and even if the rescue had gone awry, she had genuinely tried to help.
The memory flickered past. Yu Sheng gritted his teeth, ready to charge again to see if he could use the same old life-for-a-life gamble to tear a few more pieces off the monster.
He didn't know where this extra strength and regenerative ability had come from, but he remembered that before these changes first appeared, he had bitten off a chunk of flesh from the creature.
He wasn't sure if the two were linked, but with no other way out and no fear of death, he might as well put every daring theory to the test.
"Stop... worrying about me!" Hu Li's voice cried out again. "It can't kill... me! You, run, quick!"
"Don't worry, it can't kill me either." Yu Sheng spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, left over from when the flying gravel had struck his chin. He glanced back at the silver fox spirit with a bright smile. "I might die in a second, but don't worry—I'll come back for you."
Hu Li's struggling paused, momentarily struck dumb with confusion.
Yu Sheng offered no explanation. He simply strode toward the monster, his footsteps light and his smile broadening.
The smile carried the delighted anticipation of attending a banquet.
"Don't you love telling people to eat?" he muttered, eyeing the giant beast of flesh ahead. "Fine, yours truly is here to feast!"
He bounded into the air, lunging at the banquet table like a ravenous wolf.
The dozens of eyes covering the flesh monster trembled violently. For the very first time, a flicker of hesitation and cowering appeared within those chaotic, frenzied eyes.
Muffled roars tore from its gaping maws, and several tentacle-like serpent tails covered in black scales split from the heaving mass of flesh, piercing toward Yu Sheng in midair.
Yu Sheng felt his body impaled. Fatal wounds—he couldn't tell how many. He felt his life slipping away, the warm blood draining the vitality from his frame.
Yet that indescribable appetite surged from deep within. He disregarded the agony, disregarded all dread and aversion toward death. Grabbing a serpent tail that had driven straight through his belly, he pulled his lips back into a grin and sank his teeth into the flesh—
The monster let out a bizarre, piercing shriek, violently thrashing the tail as if trying to shake off a lethal, venomous parasite clinging to its flesh.
Yet Yu Sheng clung to the tail with an iron grip, refusing to let go no matter how hard it whipped. The tail slammed him into the ground and smashed him through a crumbling wall nearby. His resilient body survived the fatal impact, the pain only sharpening his senses.
Just then, the serpent tail reared high once more, flinging him toward a massive gap in the ruined temple's wall.
An unusual flash of golden light suddenly darted across the edge of his vision.
Through the roaring wind, Yu Sheng struggled to lift his head. He saw the golden light rushing toward him. Before he could make out what it was, his hand instinctively reached out to block it.
His fingers closed around something solid—a handle.
Yu Sheng: "...?"
A faint creak cut through the rushing wind. The image of a door suddenly formed in Yu Sheng's mind—an ordinary front door leading somewhere, leading to...
The moment an instinctive destination surfaced in his thoughts, his hand pulled the door open.
The next second, Yu Sheng and the black-scaled serpent tail plunged through the threshold. Then, with a harsh creak, the front door slammed shut.
The flesh monster's serpent tail was sheared clean off by the door that had appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. A demented screech capable of driving anyone mad echoed through the valley. The wound seemed to send the beast into a frenzy; it roared and rampaged through the temple ruins, biting madly at everything within reach, even tearing at its own flesh. Only after an unknown time did it finally calm down, its form dissolving once more into a dark, void-like shadow that gradually melted away into the night.
The black spikes and bone fragments faded silently into nothingness. The scarred silver fox collapsed to the ground, lying motionless as though dead.
Several minutes later, Hu Li slowly opened her eyes. She stared around in a daze, her golden-red pupils completely stripped of any human spark.
Only after a long while did her gaze settle on a spot in the ruins.
It was the stone steps where she and her benefactor had sat together earlier.
Dragging her massive fox body, she crawled slowly over. Seeing the plastic bags and discarded vegetable leaves scattered beneath the steps, she lowered her head and whimpered, swallowing everything down.
Yet she remained starving.
The bewitching voice, like an inescapable demon, whispered from the deepest depths of her hunger:
"Eat. You know where there is food to fill your belly...
"You buried them in the woods...
"Bones, flesh, and blood...
"Go on, eat. Eat and you won't be hungry anymore..."
The fox spirit hung her head, letting out a weeping whimper. Curling up beneath the steps, she slowly stretched her neck, gnawing on the broken bricks and tiles beside her. She dug up the dirt and rotting wood buried under the rubble, stuffing them into her mouth and chewing relentlessly.
"I'm not hungry... I'm not hungry... Someone gave me food... He'll be back soon with more food for me... I'm not hungry..."
She kept gnawing until, just as she had so many times over the years, she slowly lost consciousness.
A feeling of endless falling jolted Yu Sheng from his stupor. The tactile sensation of gripping a doorknob still lingered in his hand, but the next second, he realized he had crossed a threshold.
His eyes widened in shock. He was lying by the side of a road, surrounded by familiar streetlamps, utility poles, and the low, weathered old houses along Wutong Road.
The aged outer wall and front door of No. 66 Wutong Road stood just ahead, quietly waiting in the faint morning light.
With great effort, he looked back over his shoulder. He caught sight of the phantom outline of a front door slowly dissolving. Deep within the fading mirage, he could still faintly glimpse the night-cloaked valley, the ruins of the temple, and...
The white fox, dragging herself through the rubble with agonizing effort.
Yu Sheng reached out a hand toward her.
Yet the last remnant of the shadow dispersed before his fingertips could touch it.
Chapter 17