Yu Sheng bid Erin a sign-off, but this time he didn't disconnect immediately.
It wasn't because the creature opposite had turned vegetarian, but because the terrifying beast seemed to have fallen into some sort of bewildered state.
It stood in the night breeze, dozens of chaotic eyes overlapping on its flesh ball staring intently at the prey before it with a strange "gaze". Odd as it might sound, Yu Sheng really felt that he could see "confusion" in those eyes—the kind of confusion where one's mouth and stomach have been mismatched for half an hour.
Erin was still anxiously calling out in his mind, but all of Yu Sheng's attention was focused on the horrible monster before him, Erin's voice distant to him as if through a thick curtain. He tensed his muscles, his heart thumping like a drum, every twitch and pulse of the monster's muscles and veins crisply reflected in his eyes.
Although he had made certain preparations when he had "resurrected" from the ruined temple before, facing this deadly pressure yet again, Yu Sheng still felt tremendous tension.
The only difference from last time was that the fear mixed into this tension had greatly diminished, replaced by a certain excitement that even he found strange and unfamiliar.
Then, he suddenly felt something.
It was muscle contraction, thick and turbid blood gathering, Hunger surging in the depths of his heart, a command to feed coming through the murky Consciousness—In this extremely brief moment, an alarm spiked in his heart, accurately sketching out the contours of that alarm.
The monster was about to make a move, from the left, but it was only a feint. The real killing blow was a snake tail with barbs and sharp edges that would whip over from behind.
The beast lunged forward, a gaping maw suddenly ripping open from the end of one of its limbs and snapping towards Yu Sheng's left side—but before it had leaped, Yu Sheng had already reacted, without much thought, he violently twisted his body as prompted by his instincts and then quickly lunged forward, moving with speed that even he couldn't believe.
He noticed that his previously twisted waist had somehow completely recovered, as if since his "resurrection", his body had been in an incredibly good state.
The behemoth missed its strike, and the snake tail attacking from a tricky angle merely grazed past the "prey's" back. Yu Sheng felt the wind pressure from behind, the sensation of skimming past the edge of death made his hair stand on end, but greater than this thrilling sensation was a disbelief in his heart:
He had actually dodged it?! What just happened?
But he didn't have time to think it through, because another wave of impending doom was coming from behind him, and this time there wasn't enough time to evade. Yu Sheng barely managed to get up awkwardly after landing when he saw a sharp claw smashing down on him.
In desperation, he could only instinctively raise his hand, using the frail human arm to block a claw strike that almost came crashing down like a meteorite.
With a loud 'bang', the air around him exploded, sending grass and dust meters around dispersing. Agonizing pain spread throughout his body, Yu Sheng felt as if more than a dozen bones were smashed at once, he grunted, out of breath, and stumbled back two steps—
But he had blocked it, he had truly blocked that hit.
Yu Sheng looked at his hands in shock, noticing that his left hand was at an abnormal twisted angle, clearly indicating that the bones had truly been smashed. However, the pain was retreating at an astonishing rate, and the twisted bones seemed to be slowly healing.
He vividly remembered the monster's first attack on him, and the true strength of that creature. Every inch of its muscles could easily crush a human's body, and Yu Sheng was completely certain that he couldn't withstand a full-on assault from the monster—no matter how many bones were broken.
But the monster clearly wasn't going to allow him much time to think. After landing, it only took a second or two to adjust before the starving behemoth let out a chaotic and angry roar, and once again pounced towards the annoying "prey" in front of it.
The Astral Wind bit to the bone as the monster leapt like a small mountain descending from the sky. Yu Sheng reacted in advance once again, ungracefully rolling to the side, then jumping up to avoid a tail whip capable of splitting mountains. However, in the next second, Yu Sheng who hadn't yet steadied himself, was swept to the ground by the retracting tail, and then, the behemoth's body split open from the middle, and a disgusting, wriggling "tongue" lashed out in the night, gripping Yu Sheng, who had lost his balance, tightly and violently dragging him back.
Yu Sheng supported himself with his hands, trying not to let the "tongue" snap his chest, at least not so quickly. He watched helplessly as he was dragged before the monster. Its body opened up a large hole in the middle, teeming with sharp teeth, grinding within the hole like a gaping maw driven by extreme hunger.
In the moment before he was dragged into the giant maw, Yu Sheng's feet kicked violently, and the rocks beneath him shattered with a loud bang, the tremendous recoil even causing the monster to stumble.
Yu Sheng didn't have time to wonder why he had so much strength. Taking advantage of this brief respite, he used all his might to roar and break free from the entwining tongue, then picked up a sharp piece of rock from the ground and lunged towards a cloudy, wildly trembling eyeball on the side of the monster.
With the tongue severed, the monster let out a chilling roar, and blood sprayed from its midsection. It stumbled, trying to regain its balance, while dozens of eyes, crazed with hunger, fixed their gaze on its prey—
Oh how fragrant, so fragrant...
The scent of fresh blood was penetrating his nostrils, stimulating the nerves of the hungry, inciting a long-dormant... primal instinct.
It truly smelled so good.
Yu Sheng felt his heart pounding wildly; in his blood surged something so intensely hot it was almost boiling. A rapturous joy was slowly rising from the depths of his heart, and he tried to discern what this ecstasy was. Finally, he understood.
It was the joy of an imminent feast, the reward for his hunger about to be satiated.
That giant beast, that pile of flesh, that chaotic and corrupt spirit, that...
Prime meat.
The sharp stone in his hand gradually turned to powder, and he breathed heavily, feeling as if everything around him had slowed down.
He lunged at the monster, and the monster lunged at him, food embracing food—a dazed sensation made him feel as if he had never eaten in the past twenty-plus years, or at least had never eaten "real food." He embraced the hideous limb on the side of the monster, while it, with even greater strength, "embraced" him—until one by one, his bones were crushed.
But Yu Sheng seemed to feel nothing as he gnawed into the monster's flesh—not like the last desperate counterattack in the face of death, he now had a new mindset—
He would not die; he would come back, this creature could kill him once, twice, or countless times, but he would return.
And each time, he would understand better how to deal with the monster.
It might take a very long time.
But he would savor this fine meat bit by bit.
The dozen or so eyes on the monster's flank trembled crazily; some seemed to have sensed something, eventually fixing their gaze on Yu Sheng.
A giant maw bristling with sharp teeth had bitten into Yu Sheng's side, yet those eyes seemed to gradually cloud over with fear.
Yu Sheng felt his body being slowly torn apart by the monster, he knew—just as it should be—he would die, devoured by this beast.
At least this time, he could not win.
Regardless, the time he had lasted was far beyond expectation—he had thought he would die upon encounter, yet he managed to exchange blows with the monster.
"Erin..." Before his consciousness sunk into darkness, Yu Sheng tried to call out in his mind.
Erin's voice almost immediately responded: "Yu Sheng! Are you alright?! I've been calling you all this time and you didn't respond..."
"It's nothing, just that I spoke too soon earlier, and now I'm about to die..."
He then ignored Erin's cries and screams, simply waiting quietly for death's Descent.
However, just before the overwhelming darkness fell upon him, he suddenly heard a voice nearby—a clear, unmistakable voice echoing in this valley.
"Don't be afraid! I'm here to save you!"
Yu Sheng's consciousness was barely there, but suddenly it jolted into a moment of lucidity as a thunderous impact exploded into his mind—
Someone?! In this place?!
He struggled to open his eyelids, looking towards the direction of the voice, seeing a figure rapidly approaching from the distance; he squinted and saw that it seemed to be a girl in tattered clothes, but in the next second, he saw more silhouettes flitting through the night behind her.
What was that?
A tail?
A fox?
A human?
No, it was a subsonic headbutt.
Despairingly, Yu Sheng watched the figure who shouted about coming to his rescue accelerate a second time in the air like an extended-range projectile, dipping her head and charging straight for him, while the monster gnawing on him conveniently moved aside (likely on purpose), making him the direct target of that oncoming figure.
"Da f..."
He only managed to force out two syllables through clenched teeth.
The rushing girl hadn't even seen what was in front of her.
The subsonic headbutt smashed into Yu Sheng's chest, and then his chest was gone.
Everything below his neck was gone.
As if vaporized.
"Lady, you f...ing missed..."
Then, Yu Sheng was 'rescued' to death.