A strange, gnawing sound filled the entire valley, like an endless chorus of crunching teeth. It rose and fell in waves, echoing against the jagged cliffs. The wholendscape had turned into some bizarre feast, and soon, everyone hiding in the cave realized what those sounds meant.


    Li Lin swallowed hard, mustering his courage as he crept toward the mouth of the cave. His scalp prickled with dread as he dared to peek outside.


    The serrated mountains seemed to be devouring each other. Giant crevices yawned wide, copsing in on themselves, constantly splitting into new cracks that devoured and dissolved one another. The dark, snaking tendrils covering the ground had begun to eat themselves, and grotesque creatures of flesh sprouted from the shadows, only to be swallowed by unseen forces almost instantly.


    Amidst all this, a lone figure stood on the open ground outside the cave—Yu Sheng. He stood there, gazing thoughtfully at the horrific scene of self-destruction unfolding in the valley.


    For a moment, Li Lin felt as if he were dreaming, but he quickly shook off the strange feeling. The memory of Yu Sheng’s supposed death had faded, reced with the thought that Yu Sheng must’ve just wandered off for a while.


    At the cave entrance, Foxy and Irene spotted Yu Sheng right away.


    “Benefactor! You’re alive!” Foxy eximed, her voice filled with relief. Then she quickly grew anxious. “Hurry inside! It’s dangerous out there!”


    Yu Sheng finally turned and stepped briskly toward the cave. “I have a feeling,” he muttered, “that whatever’s in the sky—as strange as it looks—doesn’t mean us harm…”


    Irene didn’t seem to care about his muttering. Instead, she eyed him from head to toe, her small face scrunched up with worry. “Are you really okay? Is your mind still all there?”“Can’t you wish me well for once?!” Yu Sheng shot back, ring at her. “Do you think it was easy for me to get back here?”


    Even as he spoke, he nced back at the cave entrance. “‘Hunger’ should be ending soon, but that giant eye in the sky—I have no idea what it is. It’s not part of ‘Hunger.’ It doesn’t seem like it belongs here at all.”


    Irene had been ready with a snarkyment, hoping to lighten the mood, but his words stopped her short. “Wait… it’s not from this valley?”


    “No,” Yu Sheng said, shaking his head. He still maintained a subtle connection with this strange realm, a thread of awareness that let him sense the gaze from above. That enormous eye was separate from everything else here. “I can feel all the entities of ‘Hunger’ now. But that eye—it’s different. It’s an outsider. It’s been up there for years, like a parasite, recing the original sky.”


    Irene blinked, at a loss for words. A deep voice suddenly echoed from the back of the cave, breaking the silence.


    “That’s an ‘Angel.''”


    Yu Sheng startled and looked up to see a tall, broad-shouldered man approaching. He was nearly two meters in height, his face lined with shadows cast by the eerie blue glow of foxfire.


    The man eyed Yu Sheng with a cautious intensity, his expression serious. “Did you get separated from us earlier?”


    There was something strange about his gaze—not quite hostile, but certainly wary. It wasn’t the look you’d give a teammate who’d just made it back.


    Yu Sheng didn’t dwell on it. He was more intrigued by the term the man had used.


    “I got held up for a bit, but I’m fine,” Yu Sheng said, waving off the concern. “But what did you mean by ‘Angel’?”


    “More specifically, a ‘Dark Angel.’ A dangerous entity of unknown origin,” the man exined slowly, as if weighing each word. “Every Dark Angel is different—in form, ability, everything. The one you see up there now has been hovering over this realm for years, twisting it with its presence. It’s why the entities here mutated.”


    Yu Sheng listened closely, realizing this man probably knew far more than he was letting on—more than he could share with a near stranger.


    And that was fair. They hadn’t even properly introduced themselves yet. Sharing any information at all was already a generous gesture.


    “I’m Yu Sheng,” he said, extending his hand. “These are my friends, Foxy and Irene.”


    The tall man hesitated for a moment before taking Yu Sheng’s hand. “Xu Jiali.”


    Yu Sheng blinked, his expression incredulous.


    “Sorry, could you say that again? Your name is…?”


    “He said his name is Xu Jiali—like ‘beautiful girl’ Jiali,” a girl in a red cloak called out from where she sat on a stone bench. She gave Yu Sheng a sly smile. “You can call me Little Red Riding Hood.”


    Yu Sheng blinked again before it clicked. “Ah, I get it. You’re professionals, right? Using code names in the field?”


    The tall man’s voice was dry. “She’s using a code name. My name’s real.”


    Yu Sheng opened his mouth but found himself at a loss. After a moment, all he managed was, “It’s… a nice name. Very cultured.”


    He then turned his attention to thest young man, who had yet to introduce himself. There was something familiar about his face, though Yu Sheng couldn’t quite ce it.


    The young man stepped forward without hesitation. “I’m Li Lin.”


    Before Yu Sheng could reply, Irene blurted out, “Hey! Finally, a normal name!”


    Li Lin looked taken aback. He nced at Yu Sheng’s group—a fox spirit with multiple tails, a half-meter-tall doll, and Yu Sheng himself. And they had the nerve to call his name normal…


    But his attention was soon pulled elsewhere.


    The chewing sounds outside were dying down, and the tremors that had been shaking the valley were fading.


    Xu Jiali moved to the cave entrance, peering out. The entire valley looked like it had been turned inside out.


    It was as if the mountains had been gnawed away, leaving behind jagged cliffs and barren slopes. The distant forest had vanished, reced by scarred earth and deep, winding fissures.


    He turned abruptly back to Yu Sheng. “This… was your doing?”


    Xu Jiali seemed reluctant to even ask, knowing how absurd it sounded. The eerie devastation outside didn’t seem like something any human could cause. Yet somehow, he sensed that Yu Sheng’s disappearance was connected to it all.


    “Sort of,” Yu Sheng said with a cheerful shrug. He seemed to be in high spirits, a deep sense of satisfaction radiating from him. “Though it took quite a bit of effort.”


    Li Lin had also seen the changedndscape, and he turned to Yu Sheng, disbelief in his eyes. “How… how is this possible?”


    Yu Sheng thought about how to exin it. Should he tell them that he’d been swallowed by ‘Hunger,’ but his appetite turned out to be greater? That he’d somehow made the entity consume itself?


    It was hard to exin. And even if he could, it would make him sound like the viin.


    Besides, he didn’t want these near-strangers to know too much.


    “I just got lucky and found its weakness,” he said casually. “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but it seems I triggered some kind of chain reaction—made them start eating each other…”


    He was clearly being evasive, and Li Lin understood right away. Some things were better left unsaid.


    Suddenly, Irene’s excited voice broke through their thoughts. “Hey! The thing in the sky—it’s moving up!”


    Yu Sheng hurried to the entrance and looked up.


    The enormous eye that had hovered over the valley was slowly ascending, drifting upward without a sound. It was like a projection shrinking away, and within seconds, it was only a third of its original size.


    It was retreating.


    Brighter, more natural light spread across the valley from the distant mountains. The clouds reappeared, and the eye shrank into a palm-sized disc before disappearingpletely.


    “It’s… gone?” Irene craned her neck, her expression puzzled and unsure. She turned to Xu Jiali. “The ‘Angel’ you mentioned—it ran away! What do we do now?”


    Xu Jiali let out a long breath, a smile tugging at his lips. “What else? We celebrate—and then I go back and write a report.”


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