The demon fox girl's eyes widened as she stared at the pile of things Yu Sheng placed on the ground for several seconds, seemingly at a complete loss as to what was happening, until Yu Sheng opened a can of eight-treasure porridge and brought the food to her mouth.
"Eat, this is all for you—if it's not enough, there's more."
The scent of food, real, the taste of food.
Not stone, not mud, not bricks and wood—not those mere illusions from dreams that no matter how one imagines, never fill the stomach.
Hu Li's eyes slowly opened wider, and then she seemed to suddenly come to life from being frozen still, grabbing the can in Yu Sheng's hand and pouring it straight into her mouth without using a spoon, making indistinct whimpering sounds as she gulped it down.
She devoured the full can in just over a dozen seconds, then began to meticulously lick the edges of the can. But soon she showed an impatient look because she couldn't lick the can clean—just as Yu Sheng was about to help, Hu Li pinched the can and tore it hard, and with a sharp metallic snapping noise, she forcibly tore the fairly sturdy metal can open. She then carefully tore it into continuous strips of metal while licking off every drop of food stuck on it.
"There's more here," Yu Sheng hurriedly fished in his pocket, pulling out a piece of bread and handing it over, along with a bottle of water, "Eat slowly."
The remaining food was in Hu Li's hands in a flash.
The demon fox girl gobbled up her food, and for a while, eating was the only thing she did. Yu Sheng and Erin stayed silent, leaving only the sounds of Hu Li eating and the occasional indistinct noise from her throat in the ruins, as if she wanted to speak but couldn't bear to stop eating.
Then, Hu Li suddenly began to cry.
Tears flowed down her cheeks as she silently stuffed bread into her mouth, without sobbing or making any noise, only her tears calmly tracing down her face, landing on the bread, and then being shoved into her mouth.
Yu Sheng was startled by this scene, hastily wiping Hu Li's dirty face with his hand: "Don't cry, choking will give you a stomach ache. Don't cry now, there's more, there will be in the future..."
It was then that Hu Li seemed to finally come to her senses, having the spare energy to think about other things. She stared blankly at Yu Sheng for a long while until suddenly handing half of her bread to him: "Savior, you—eat too."
Yu Sheng waved his hands hurriedly: "I had a meal before I came, I'm not hungry."
But Hu Li didn't move, just stubbornly held the position. Even though all the food here had just been brought by Yu Sheng, she insisted on sharing her bread with him, as if this act had some especially significant meaning for her.
Finally, Yu Sheng reached out and took the half piece of bread that Hu Li was offering.
The demon fox girl smiled, grabbing a pack of compressed biscuits from the ground. This time, she did not eat voraciously but carefully nibbled the biscuits in small bites after opening the package, as if trying to prolong the process of eating as much as possible.
She didn't seem so hungry anymore, even if just temporarily.
"It's tasty," she whispered softly, "Savior, it's tasty…"
"Don't add 'Savior' before 'tasty'," Yu Sheng suddenly shuddered, reminded of some unpleasant memories, "As long as you can eat your fill, that's good."
"Mhm," Hu Li immediately nodded lightly.
"You've finally eased up," Erin finally spoke. She looked at the demon fox whose spirit seemed slightly more stable now and breathed a sigh of relief, "We're really lucky you've been able to hold on..."
Hu Li was slightly startled; she seemed to have just noticed the humanoid doll on Yu Sheng's shoulder—or rather, she realized that this 66.6 cm tall creature could talk and move, and she showed a look of astonishment: "This is alive!?"
Erin's eyes widened in exasperation: "…Of course I'm alive! I even helped you bite open a sausage just now!"
"She's Erin, a living doll from Alice's Cottage," Yu Sheng hurriedly introduced, "She's the helper I mentioned, don't be fooled by her small size, she's actually very capable. I was lucky to have her help to contact you from the Dream Realm."
Erin, with a cleaver in one hand and her other hand on her waist, struck a very proud pose 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 such a small "human form" could speak and move, but she realized that this was Savior's friend. So, after a few seconds of hesitation, she passed the compressed biscuits over: "Erin, you eat too."
Erin's proud look suddenly turned a bit awkward: "Ah... I can't eat this, dolls can't eat food..."
Hu Li immediately took back the biscuits, continuing to nibble carefully.
Erin: "…Hey, you're just taking it back without even offering? Your attitude just now when sharing bread with Yu Sheng was not like this!"
"A doll can't eat food," Hu Li murmured, "Giving it to you, wastes food."
Erin puffed up her cheeks in anger, but no one paid her any heed.
Yu Sheng's attention was now fully on the dark, cold night that surrounded them.
He could feel that, with his arrival, the atmosphere in the valley was gradually changing; the "entity" lurking in the Exotic Realm was becoming active, and his bringing food to momentarily alleviate Hu Li's hunger had stimulated the monster.
His purpose today was firstly to save Hu Li, and secondly, to find a way to deal with the Hunger Entity that occupied this place—it wasn't initially a must-do task, but now that he had established a "connection" with the monster and knew that it was learning to think, he had no choice but to consider how to neutralize this hidden danger.
However, for some reason, the monster had yet to reveal itself before him.
A trace of doubt began to surface in Yu Sheng's mind, and just then, a faint sound carried by the night wind reached everyone's ears—
It was the distant howl of wolves.
Yu Sheng and Erin exchanged glances, with the latter hesitating for a moment: "Yu Sheng, did you hear that just now?"
"It's the sound of wolves, I thought I had heard it wrong..." Yu Sheng furrowed his brow, then turned to look at Hu Li, who was earnestly nibbling on a biscuit, "Are there wolves in this place?"
"No, there's just me and that monster," Hu Li seemed just as bewildered, "This is the first time I've heard such a strange sound."
Just then, the howling of wolves rose once again, interrupting the conversation among Yu Sheng and the others.
The sound seemed to be coming closer.
The Wolf Pack was closing in, pursuing something or being pursued.
In the dark, dense forest, the Blood Flesh Giant Beast wandered like a terrifying nightmare, constantly shifting its position in the shadows of the trees, now revealing itself through the mist, now abruptly disappearing from view.
But no matter which direction it ran, the monster eerily materialized nearby, then launched an attack from tricky angles.
Wolves materialized from the shadows, leaping out of the woods to pounce on the Blood Flesh Giant Beast that moved swiftly in the dark, and then more wolves swarmed from all directions, attempting to block the monster's movements.
However, suddenly countless tentacles and barbed bone-like limbs violently pierced from the inside of the giant beast, instantly repelling the recently gathered Wolf Pack and creating a huge gap in the encirclement.
The multitude of eyes of the giant beast simultaneously locked onto a figure outside the pack—Little Red Riding Hood sat atop the largest wolf, her calm eyes confrontationally locking with the dozens of cold gazes of the monster.
The next second, the middle part of the giant beast's body suddenly split open, and a pitch-black "tongue" with scales, accompanied by a whooshing sound, shot out like a malevolent arrow aiming straight for the girl's throat.
Little Red Riding Hood, however, merely tilted her body slightly. Just as the "tongue" was about to make contact, she swiftly raised her right hand.
The slender arm of the young girl abruptly swelled as flesh burst and billowed with a bizarre hissing noise, and smoke started to emerge. Blood and mist blended in the blink of an eye to form a massive black wolf's head—which then viciously clamped down, gripping the "tongue" that could no longer change its trajectory.
The Blood Flesh Giant Beast realized what was happening and hastily retreated, but Little Red Riding Hood was still stubbornly "biting" down, she and her mount steadfastly standing their ground in a deadlock with the monster. During this brief moment, another figure suddenly leaped from the shadows of the dense forest—
Li Lin, as agile as a leopard, rushed towards the beast from the side, his hand holding a short knife that gleamed with cold light in the night, a spare weapon temporarily lent by Xu Jiali. The monster immediately noticed the attacker suddenly emerging from hiding, and along with a rapid shift of several eyes, a raised claw swiftly swiped towards Li Lin.
However, the true ambush was still hidden to the side. Li Lin pressed his body low and dodged the monster's claw with a radical maneuver impossible for an ordinary person, while another large figure leaped out from the blind spot behind the monster—nearly two meters tall, the muscular man raised the Laser Dagger, which for others might have been used as a short knife, and stabbed fiercely into a lump of flesh on the back of the beast.
With a hiss, the heat of the Light Blade penetrated the lump without resistance, even slicing it off entirely.
However, the monster simply let out a chaotic and piercing roar and, with a swift turn, flung off the barely sustaining Little Red Riding Hood, and sent the brawny man who couldn't retract his force in time flying.
Xu Jiali tumbled into a nearby thicket, letting out a muffled groan.
Li Lin hurried to the side of the thicket, dragging his colleague out before the two of them looked in the direction of the monster together.
The figure of the beast had disappeared without a trace.
The fog in the dense forest gradually thickened, and within the billowing mists, countless distorted and grotesque illusions could be vaguely seen sprouting, burrowing out from the ground, swaying slightly in the cold wind.
Layer upon layer, endless.
The entire forest seemed to have become a gigantic maw eagerly awaiting its next meal.
Xu Jiali sharply inhaled: "We can't linger, keep running towards the edge of the woods!"