The fox demon girl's eyes widened. She looked at the pile of things Yu Sheng had placed on the ground, and stood there in a daze for a few seconds, as if she hadn't reacted to the situation at all. It wasn't until Yu Sheng opened a can of eight-treasure porridge and brought the food to her mouth.
"Eat, it's all for you—there's more if it's not enough."
The aroma of food, real, the taste of food.
Not stone, not soil, not bricks and wood—not the phantoms in dreams that could never fill her stomach no matter how she imagined them.
Hu Li's eyes slowly widened, and then as if she had suddenly come to life from a frozen state, she reached out and grabbed the can in Yu Sheng's hand. Without using a spoon, she poured it directly into her mouth, and while pouring, she made a muffled "woo woo" sound.
A full can of things, she even ate it all in just over ten seconds. Then she began to carefully lick the edge of the can, but soon she showed an impatient look, because she couldn't lick the things inside the can clean—just as Yu Sheng was about to help, Hu Li directly squeezed the can with her fingers and tore it hard. With a sharp sound of metal breaking, she actually tore open the quite sturdy metal can, and then carefully tore it into continuous narrow metal strips while licking every drop of food on them.
"There's more here," Yu Sheng quickly took out a piece of bread from his pocket and handed it over, along with a bottle of water. "Eat slowly."
A flash of afterimage appeared in front of his eyes, and the food was already in Hu Li's hand.
The fox demon girl was gobbling it down. Eating became the only thing she did for the next period of time. Neither Yu Sheng nor Irene spoke. In the ruins, only the sound of Hu Li eating was left, and occasionally a muffled sound from her throat, as if she wanted to speak but was reluctant to stop eating.
Then, Hu Li suddenly started to cry.
Very suddenly, teardrops flowed down the fox demon's face. She held the bread and stuffed it into her mouth. She did not sob or cry out loud. Only tears flowed quietly down her cheeks, fell on the bread, and were then stuffed into her mouth.
Yu Sheng was startled by this scene and hurriedly stretched out his hand to wipe Hu Li's dirty face. "Don't cry. You'll get a stomachache if you get choked by the wind. Don't cry. There's more. There will be more in the future…"
Only then did Hu Li seem to finally wake up and have the extra energy to think about other things. She stared blankly at Yu Sheng in front of her, and after being stunned for a long while, she suddenly handed over the half piece of bread in her hand. "Benefactor, you, you eat too."
Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand. "I ate before I came. I'm not hungry."
But Hu Li did not move. She just stubbornly maintained her posture. Although all the food here was just brought by Yu Sheng, she still insisted on giving the bread in her hand to Yu Sheng, as if doing so had some particularly significant meaning to her.
Yu Sheng finally reached out and took the half piece of bread that Hu Li handed over.
The fox demon girl smiled and picked up a pack of compressed biscuits from the ground. This time, she finally didn't gobble it down. Instead, after tearing open the package, she carefully nibbled at it in small bites, as if to prolong the process of eating as much as possible.
She seemed to be not so hungry anymore, even if it was temporary.
"Delicious," she said in a low voice. "Benefactor, delicious…"
"Don't add 'benefactor' before 'delicious'," Yu Sheng was immediately startled, recalling some bad things. "You… as long as you can eat your fill."
"Yes, yes." Hu Li immediately nodded lightly.
"You've finally recovered," Irene finally spoke at this time. She looked at the fox demon whose mental state was obviously a little more stable, and a look of relief appeared on her face. "It's really thanks to you that you could hold on for so long…"
Hu Li was slightly startled. It seemed that she had only just noticed the doll on Yu Sheng's shoulder—or rather, she had only just realized that this 66.6 cm tall guy could actually talk and move. A look of astonishment immediately appeared on her face. "This, it's alive!?"
Irene's eyes widened. "…Nonsense! Of course I'm alive! I even helped you bite open a ham sausage just now!"
"She is Irene, a living doll from Alice's Cottage," Yu Sheng quickly introduced. "This is the helper I mentioned. Don't look at her small size. She is actually very capable. I was able to contact you from the dream before thanks to her help."
Irene held the kitchen knife in one hand and put the other hand on her hip, looking very proud on Yu Sheng's shoulder.
Hu Li thought for a moment. She didn't know what a living doll was, nor did she understand why there would be such a small "humanoid" that could talk and move. But she understood that this was her benefactor's friend. So after a few seconds of hesitation, she handed over the compressed biscuit in her hand. "Irene, you eat too."
Irene's proud appearance suddenly became a little awkward. "Uh… I can't eat this. Dolls can't eat…"
Hu Li immediately took back the biscuit and continued to nibble at it in small bites.
Irene: "…Hey, you just took it away without even offering it again?! That's not the attitude you had when you gave the bread to Yu Sheng just now!"
"Dolls can't eat," Hu Li said in a low voice. "Giving it to you is a waste of food."
Irene puffed her cheeks and began to get angry, but no one paid any attention to her.
At this time, Yu Sheng's attention was already on the dark and cold night around him.
He could feel that with his arrival, the aura in the valley was gradually changing. The "entity" entrenched in the Otherworld had become active, and his act of bringing food and letting Hu Li temporarily get rid of hunger had already stimulated that monster.
He came today, first to save Hu Li, and second to find a way to solve the hunger entity entrenched here—originally this was not something that had to be done, but now that he had established a "connection" with that monster, and knew that that monster was gradually learning to think, he had to find a way to solve this hidden danger.
But for some reason, that monster had not yet shown itself in front of him.
A trace of doubt gradually appeared in Yu Sheng's heart. And just then, a faint sound came with the night wind and into the ears of everyone present—
It was the distant howl of a wolf.
Yu Sheng and Irene looked at each other, and the latter hesitated for a moment. "Yu Sheng, did you hear that just now?"
"It's the sound of a wolf. I thought I heard it wrong…" Yu Sheng frowned and then turned to look at Hu Li who was seriously nibbling on a biscuit. "Are there wolves here?"
"No, there's only me and that monster here," Hu Li also looked very茫然. "This is the first time I've heard such a strange sound."
Just then, the wolf howl sounded again, interrupting the conversation between Yu Sheng and the others.
The sound seemed to be a little closer.
The wolf pack was approaching, chasing something, or being chased.
In the dark and dense forest, a huge flesh beast was like a terrifying nightmare wandering in the forest. It constantly changed its position in the shadows of the trees, sometimes appearing in the thin mist, and sometimes disappearing from view abruptly.
But no matter which direction it ran, that monster would appear nearby very strangely, and then launch an attack from a tricky angle.
A wolf took shape from the shadows, leaped up in the forest, and pounced on the flesh beast that was rising and falling in the darkness. Then more wolves swarmed in from all directions, trying to block the monster's movements.
However, countless tentacles and bone-like limbs with barbs suddenly pierced out from the beast's body. The wolf pack that had just gathered was instantly forced back, and a huge gap appeared in the encirclement.
A large number of the beast's eyes simultaneously locked onto a figure outside the wolf pack—Little Red Riding Hood was riding on the largest wolf, and her calm eyes were staring at the dozens of cold gazes of that monster from a distance.
The next second, the middle of the beast's body suddenly split open, and a black, scaled "long tongue" shot out with a sound of breaking through the air, like a sharp arrow full of malice, straight towards the girl's throat.
But Little Red Riding Hood just slightly tilted her body. The moment the long tongue was about to touch her, she suddenly raised her right hand.
The slender girl's arm instantly burst, swelled, and her flesh made a strange hissing sound. Smoke rose out, and blood and mist intertwined in the blink of an eye, turning into a huge black wolf's head—then the wolf's head bit down fiercely, and firmly bit the "long tongue" that had no time to change its trajectory.
The beast reacted and suddenly retreated, but Little Red Riding Hood still "bit" the other party tightly. She and the wolf she was riding on were like they were nailed to the ground and were in a stalemate with that monster. And in this brief moment, a figure suddenly jumped out of the shadows of the dense forest—
Li Lin rushed towards the side of that monster like a nimble cheetah. The short knife in his hand shone with a cold light in the night—it was a backup weapon that Xu Jiali had temporarily lent him—the monster noticed this sudden ambush at the first time. With the rapid turn of a few eyes, a highly raised sharp claw had already slapped straight towards Li Lin.
However, the real ambush was still on the side. Li Lin suddenly lowered his body when he was halfway through his charge and dodged the monster's sharp claws with a move that an ordinary person could not make. Another tall figure jumped out of the monster's blind spot from behind—the nearly two-meter-tall strong man held high the beam dagger that could already be used as a short knife by others and stabbed fiercely at a tumor on the monster's back.
With a "hiss," the scorching hot light blade pierced into the tumor without any obstruction, and even cut off the entire tumor.
However, that monster only let out a chaotic and ear-piercing roar, and then suddenly turned around, and threw away Little Red Riding Hood who was barely in a stalemate, and also sent the strong man who had no time to retract his force flying.
Xu Jiali rolled into a bush not far away and let out a muffled groan.
Li Lin hurriedly ran to the side of the bush and dragged his colleague out of it. Then the two of them looked at the direction where that monster was.
But the monster's figure had disappeared at some unknown time.
The fog in the dense forest gradually became thicker. In the lingering and rising fog, it could be vaguely seen that countless twisted and strange phantoms were growing, drilling out of the soil, and swaying slightly in the cold wind.
The shadows were heavy and endless.
The entire forest seemed to have turned into a huge mouth that was looking forward to eating.
Xu Jiali instantly sucked in a breath of cold air. "We can't stay. Keep running out of the forest!"