"Both feet on the ground!"
Standing atop a pitch-black boulder, Irene clutched the kitchen cleaver with both hands through sheer effort. Bracing herself against the night wind, she struck what she considered an imposing pose and yelled toward the empty valley floor.
Yu Sheng poked the doll's head with a finger, nearly knocking her off the rock. "Quit making such a racket. We haven't even found Hu Li yet. Don't go drawing Hunger's attention early."
"That thing doesn't sense people by hearing anyway," Irene muttered resentfully as she hopped down from the boulder. She tightened the cords securing the picture frame to her back, then looked up to take in her surroundings. "...It really is desolate. And just like you said, it feels eerie and sinister as hell—like there's a layer of something blanketing the sky."
"Be extra careful," Yu Sheng said, glancing at Irene. She was so diminutive that she hardly looked capable of any combat whatsoever. Even knowing she possessed all manner of bizarre abilities, he couldn't help offering a word of caution. "If something happens, make protecting yourself your top priority. I'm not afraid of dying, but you're different. Neither of us can be sure whether your soul will survive if this temporary body of yours gets destroyed."
"Don't worry, I'll protect myself. Besides, to be honest, Hunger isn't much of a threat to me anyway." Irene tilted her head up. "Dolls generally aren't susceptible to mental influences. And more importantly—I don't get hungry."
"Right, you don't get hungry, but you sure know how to crave things under normal circumstances. Every time I take a sip of water, I have to hold it in front of you so you can gawk at it twice," Yu Sheng muttered under his breath, then glanced down by his feet.
The large plastic bags he had brought were all there, which instantly gave him a sigh of relief. Being so cautious and meticulous when opening the door had paid off; he had carried all of his cargo through the doorway. At least the start had gone smoothly.
Yu Sheng bent down and easily lifted the food, which would have been quite heavy for an ordinary person, and looked ahead not far off.
The collapsed, ruined temple stood quietly in the dark of night, looking not much different from when he had left.
"Let's head over there first. Hu Li should be around here—I can feel it," Yu Sheng said softly, striding into the night.
He had only taken two steps when he heard Irene squawking behind him: "Hey, wait! Slow down! I can't keep up!"
Yu Sheng turned around and saw the 66.6-centimeter-tall doll dragging the kitchen cleaver with one hand while using the other to balance herself. As if scaling mountains and crossing ridges, she picked her way around several boulders in her path, trudging with uneven, stumbling steps across the gravel-strewn riverbed of the valley floor.
Obstacles an ordinary person could clear in a single stride required her to climb over or spend ages detouring around...
Speechless, Yu Sheng let out a sigh, walked over, and squatted down in front of her. "You'd better just sit on my shoulder—and don't you dare say 'giddyup'!"
Irene instantly brightened, brandishing the cleaver as she charged toward him. "Aww! You're the best!"
Yu Sheng let out an immediate shout: "Put that damn thing away first! Or at least point the blade the other way!"
Good grief. A red-eyed living doll charging straight at his neck with a raised kitchen cleaver in the dark of night—the scene was too terrifying.
Yu Sheng wasn't afraid of dying, but he was scared of that.
...
"Where the hell did that dump us?" Li Lin shivered as a cold wind swept through the woods, an ever-growing unease gnawing at his heart. "Is this even a boundary zone anymore...?"
"Foreign domain: Nightfall Valley. Current depth: L-3, gradually sinking toward L-4. Danger level assessment... according to the archives, above Level 3," Xu Jiali's voice came from the side. At some point, the nearly two-meter-tall burly man had connected a portable depth detector to his eyeball, and he was now looking around while reciting data rapidly from memory. "This foreign domain is classified as 'wilderness'—we're in huge trouble."
Li Lin's eyes slowly widened. Prompted by Xu Jiali's reminder, he belatedly recalled the material he had studied during training.
A "wilderness" foreign domain was massive in scale, with no clear boundaries and no distinct exit; escaping required meeting specific conditions, or being at a specific time and location. A depth of L-3 meant it was fundamentally cut off from reality and governed by rules that defied reason, with prolonged exposure carrying an extremely high risk of mental and cognitive erosion. A Level 3 danger rating meant overt malice was present—something was entrenched here that would actively attack and attempt to slaughter intruders. The threat was lethal, and it could not be bypassed or countered simply by "following the rules."
Operating in a foreign domain of this caliber typically required at least a full team of Special Affairs Bureau operatives—a dozen or more personnel, fully armed and equipped with heavy gear.
And that was merely for an investigative mission. In other words, the objective would be strictly to gather intelligence and evacuate alive, rather than trying to confront the entity here—which would demand even more personnel, or far more senior specialists.
Li Lin looked around. Counting Xu Jiali, there were only two Special Affairs Bureau operatives present. While one was a deep diver—a specialist trained specifically to fight entities—the incident had happened so suddenly that this muscle-bound powerhouse was barely carrying any gear.
Beside them was an underage "spirit realm detective" working freelance, who was supposedly a reconnaissance type.
Their fortunes looked utterly screwed.
"Give the food in your hands to that little girl over there," Xu Jiali, the most experienced person on site, broke the silence with a grave instruction. "Li Lin, you and I are using this."
Li Lin snapped out of his lamentation that their fortunes were utterly screwed and carried out the senior operative's orders without hesitation. He handed the two bowls of instant noodles in his hands directly to the still-dazed Little Red Riding Hood, then reached out to take what Xu Jiali was passing him.
It was a needleless injector. The pale green liquid inside glowed faintly in the dark.
A sanity blocker.
Li Lin looked up in shock at his colleague, who had already pressed an injector against his own arm.
"The entity spawned here is 'Hunger,' which tends toward psychic attacks," the burly man said calmly. "From its name, you can probably guess how it works. Take a shot first. The side effects are worse than an aerosol inhaler, but for at least forty-eight hours, it'll ensure you don't lose your judgment."
Li Lin nodded. With a sharp hiss, he discharged the sanity blocker from the injector into his body.
Meanwhile, Little Red Riding Hood reacted the moment she heard the name "Hunger." Stepping forward immediately, she urged, "Wait, then you two should hurry up and eat this! Your bodies are still those of ordinary humans, and I have much higher endurance than you—plus I have snacks on me..."
"Listen to me," Xu Jiali cut her off. Towering nearly two meters tall in the dark, nearly two heads taller than Little Red Riding Hood, the burly man looked down at the young girl with an exceptionally solemn expression. "I know your situation."
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing more.
Xu Jiali patted her shoulder, his deep voice carrying a steady, reassuring strength. "This is for our sake too. Your wolf pack is our best hope of fighting the entity. You need to keep up your combat readiness."
Li Lin watched Little Red Riding Hood crouch beside a boulder and begin silently eating the now-cold instant noodles. He turned to glance at his colleague, a hint of confusion in his expression.
Xu Jiali gave a subtle shake of his head and lowered his voice: "If she falls into starvation, her wolves will eat her."
In the dark of night, the wolves in the forest let out restless whimpers.
In the cold wind, a gaze filled with malice was spreading across the valley.
Within the ruins of the temple, Yu Sheng and Irene searched carefully.
The omnipresent stench of decay had grown increasingly thick, worming its way into the nostrils as though possessed of conscious intent—an exceptionally foul sensation.
Irene simply stopped breathing.
That was one trait Yu Sheng found deeply enviable.
"Are you sure that fox is here?" Irene held the kitchen cleaver in one hand and gripped Yu Sheng's hair with the other, craning her neck as she peered from atop his shoulders. "I can't see anything at all..."
"I'm sure," Yu Sheng said casually. "There's a faint connection between her and me, forged by blood. There's one between you and me too, though you might not sense it."
"R-really?" Irene glanced at Yu Sheng with some skepticism, then stared down at her hands, seemingly pondering what sort of "faint connection" he was talking about.
Just then, a faint rustle broke through the silent ruins, cutting short Irene's pondering and halting Yu Sheng in his tracks.
Almost simultaneously, both raised their heads toward the sound.
A white figure crept out cautiously from behind a collapsed section of wall.
Her silvery-white fox tail swayed gently in the dark, and her furry ears twitched faintly in the wind. The demon fox girl who had emerged from the ruins stared wide-eyed at the figure standing nearby. Once she finally made out who it was, a joyful smile broke across her face.
"Benefactor!"
Hu Li dashed out from behind the broken wall, sweeping across the broken bricks and rubble like a gust of wind. She zipped two quick circles around Yu Sheng before coming to a halt before him, her face filled with unadulterated delight and a touch of disbelief: "You... you really came! Benefactor, really?"
"It's me, it's me. Really," Yu Sheng laughed just as happily, setting the bags in his hands down onto the ground without delay. "I brought you lots of delicious food. Starting today, you won't have to go hungry anymore."
Chapter 47