Dimensional Hotel

The chewing sound filling the entire valley gradually rose like ocean waves; the whole Exotic Realm had become a festive banquet, and soon, every person hiding in the cave realized what this noise signified.

Li Lin mustered his courage and approached the cave entrance, his scalp tingling as he sneaked a glance outside.

Mountainous fangs tore at each other, and trench-like gaping maws collapsed inward, constantly branching into more fissures, devouring each other in a melting consume, while the feeding tendrils that covered the ground began to digest themselves. Blood Flesh Giant Beasts kept sprouting from certain shadows, only to be devoured in the blink of an eye by an unseen force.

Against the backdrop of this terrifying feast, he saw a figure—Yu Sheng stood on the open ground outside the cave, somewhat entranced by the sight of the valley's entities devouring each other.

For a moment, Li Lin felt bewildered, but in a blink, he forgot this sense of incongruity—he had forgotten the scene of Yu Sheng's death, feeling instead as if the other had simply left the group temporarily.

Hu Li and Erin, guarding the cave entrance, also saw Yu Sheng's figure at the first instance.

"Savior! You really didn't depart from this world!" Hu Li was the first to shout out, quickly followed by nerves, "Savior, come in quickly! It's dangerous outside!"

Only then did Yu Sheng turn around and hastily stepped into the cave, muttering as he walked, "I feel that thing in the sky, although it's a bit eerie, doesn't seem to have any intent to attack..."

However, Erin was not paying attention to Yu Sheng's mutterings; she was more concerned about observing him up and down somewhat anxiously: "Are you really alright? Is your mental state still normal?"

"Can't you wish me well for once?!" Yu Sheng immediately glared at her, "Is it easy for me to come back?"

While talking, he looked up again at the cave entrance: "'Hunger' should be about finished, but I don't know the origin of that big eyeball in the sky. It's not one and the same with 'Entity-Hunger', and it doesn't even seem like something that was originally in this valley."

Erin had been ready with a barrage of witty remarks to lighten the mood, but she fell silent at his words: "Ah? It's not from this valley?"

"No," Yu Sheng shook his head. Maintaining a subtle connection with the Exotic Realm, he was still able to clearly distinguish that gaze falling from the sky, demarcating the "boundary" between the eye and the valley, "Currently, all the Hunger Entities are within my perception, and I can clearly feel that this eye is an outsider—it's just that it has been 'lying' above this Exotic Realm for many years, replacing its original sky."

Erin stood with her mouth agape, seemingly stunned into silence by the surprise, when a deep voice came from the depths of the cave, breaking the moment's quiet.

"That's the 'Angel'."

Yu Sheng looked up in surprise to see a nearly two-meter-tall burly man approaching from the depths of the cave, with the blue glow of Fox Fire casting distinct shadows on his cheeks.

The burly man sized up Yu Sheng and his expression carried a certain strange seriousness and caution, "Did you fall behind before?"

Whether it was an illusion or not, Yu Sheng felt that the way the other looked at him was odd, full of immense vigilance and precaution, not exactly hostility, but not quite the concern or confusion one might have upon seeing a "lost-and-returned" temporary companion in normal circumstances.

However, Yu Sheng did not delve into this. He was more concerned about the unusual name the burly man had just mentioned.

"I just failed to keep up, don't worry, nothing major," Yu Sheng waved his hand, then asked, "What do you mean by 'Angel'?"

"A more accurate term is 'Dark Angel', a kind of... creature of unknown origin that is dangerous, sometimes also referring to special phenomena triggered by these dangerous individuals," the burly man pondered his words, then slowly said, "Each Dark Angel is different, ranging widely in form, abilities, and ways they appear. And the one now occupying the sky probably parasitized this Exotic Realm many years ago—it's due to its influence that the entities here have undergone mutation."

Yu Sheng listened in surprise to the other's narration, before quickly realizing that this big fellow must know more, a lot more detailed information about these so-called "Dark Angels."

But he did not reveal everything, whether it was due to confidentiality requirements or some other consideration.

But this was normal—after all, no one knew anyone, and although they had fought together, they had not yet had a chance to introduce themselves. Willingness to share information this early was a gesture showing initiative and sincerity.

"I'm Yu Sheng," he extended his hand to the newcomer, "and these two are Hu Li and Erin—my friends."

The two-meter tall man hesitated, but still took Yu Sheng's hand, "Hello, my name is Xu Jiali."

Yu Sheng paused for a moment.

A short while later, he opened his mouth, "Sorry, what was your name again?"

"He said his name is Xu Jiali, the beautiful one," the red-clothed girl sitting on a stone bench broke the silence, glancing at Yu Sheng, "You can call me Little Red Riding Hood."

Yu Sheng blinked his eyes and realized, "Oh, I get it. You must be in this line of work; everyone uses code names when they're out and about, right?"

The burly two-meter-tall man grumbled his reply, "She has a code name; mine is my real name."

Yu Sheng: "..."

What could he say? He could only awkwardly express that the name actually sounded pretty nice, culturally rich, and then his gaze finally landed on the last young man who hadn't spoken yet.

Something about that face seemed familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place it.

Li Lin didn't hesitate, and upon seeing the focus on him, he walked over openly: "My name is Li Lin."

Before Yu Sheng could speak up, Erin suddenly started to shout, "Hey! That name sounds normal!"

Li Lin was instantly speechless and looked at the group with Yu Sheng— with a fox demon that had a bunch of tails, a puppet over half a meter tall from head to toe, three of them together could barely make up a human—and they still had the nerve to comment on whether someone else's name was normal or not...

However, his attention soon shifted elsewhere.

The chewing noise coming from outside the cave was beginning to deepen, and the vibrations that filled the entire Exotic Realm also seemed to be rapidly diminishing.

Xu Jiali rushed to the entrance of the cave and peeked outside, seeing the valley had almost completely transformed.

It was as if everything from the distant mountains to the nearby valleys had a layer harshly bitten off. Only countless rugged rocks and bare soil layers remained on the mountains, the forest in the distance had vanished, and large gorges crisscrossed the slopes below.

He abruptly turned his head and looked at Yu Sheng standing beside Hu Li.

"Did you do this?"

Xu Jiali asked hesitantly because it sounded a bit far-fetched; the eerie and terrifying scene in the valley didn't seem at all like something a "human" could do. However, intuition told him that all of this was related to Yu Sheng's brief "departure" from the group.

"Sort of," Yu Sheng replied quite cheerfully, as he was in a very good mood with a feeling of fulfilled satiety in his heart. He nodded happily, "Although it took a bit of effort."

Li Lin also saw the scenario in the valley, and the astonishment on his face was indescribable when he turned back to look at Yu Sheng: "...How is this possible..."

Yu Sheng pondered a bit, finding it difficult to explain what had happened to outsiders—was he eaten by "Hunger," only to find out his own appetite was greater than "Hunger"? A human being () contaminated an entity with his psyche, so the "Hunger Entity" that ate something dirty ended up cannibalizing itself in a surge of ravenous desire?

It wasn't just about how hard it was to explain; even after explaining, it would be unclear who the villain was.

What's more, he didn't want these as-yet unfamiliar people to know too much about him.

"Luck was on my side; I found the entity's weakness," said Yu Sheng offhand, "I don't know the details, but it seems like I triggered a chain reaction of the entity in the valley consuming itself..."

His explanation clearly sounded perfunctory, and it was obviously intentional. Li Lin immediately understood—some things were other people's secrets.

Then, Erin's loud commotion broke through Li Lin's and Xu Jiali's internal doubts: "Hey! Is that thing in the sky slowly floating up?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng hurried over and looked up at the sky above the valley.

He saw that the giant eye covering the entire valley was slowly rising, silently like a projection in the sky getting smaller. In just a few seconds, the giant eye had shrunk to a third of its original size.

It was quickly leaving this place.

A brighter, more normal daylight spilled from the distant mountains, and the disrupted clouds reappeared in the sky. That eye swiftly became a palm-sized disc floating in the middle of the sky, and after a few more breaths, the disc completely vanished from everyone's sight.

"Did it... run away?" Erin craned her neck to look at the sky, seemingly at a loss, then turned to the burly two-meter-tall (Xu Jiali), "The 'Angel' you were talking about has run away! What do we do now?"

Xu Jiali just sighed with relief and forced a smile upon hearing the puppet's words:

"What else can we do? Celebrate—after that, I'll go back and write a report."