The ancient black oil painting frame floats in the dim dream world, and the puppet girl sealed within the painting is full of question marks about the situation at hand.
"This shouldn't be happening! I've already broken free from this thing's control and even have a body in the real world now!" Erin circles around inside the painting, "When 'outside,' I accepted having to carry this painting around as an extra baggage, but how come the situation is worse in the dream world... Logically, shouldn't entering the dream mean more freedom?"
She looks up, staring straight at Yu Sheng.
"You ask me, but who am I supposed to ask? I also thought you'd be freer after entering the dream," Yu Sheng spreads his hands, "I wanted to see what you'd look like at 167 centimeters tall, but you're still just a flat paper person."
Erin seems really irritated and doesn't even feel like bickering with Yu Sheng. After circling countless times around the chair in the painting, she finally resignedly sits back down and casually picks up the fluffy teddy bear to vigorously rub in her arms.
"Now I'm stuck in here with this guy again... But, well, it's fine, at least I do have the freedom to move in the real world, the dream world isn't that important, yeah, not so important."
"…Sometimes I really envy your optimism," Yu Sheng genuinely sighs.
Erin immediately bares her teeth at him, but whether in reality or in the dream, her snarling has never been intimidating.
Yu Sheng then steps around the floating oil painting to approach the sleeping Silver Fox.
"What next? Do I lie on her tail like last time? Then the two of us 'sink' together?"
"It's the same as last time, but this time, the connection will be more 'direct'. I'll find a way to keep Hu Li's consciousness close to being awake to make it easier for you to communicate with her and to sense her surroundings afterward," Erin says, floating next to Yu Sheng, "But at the same time, 'Hunger' will notice you, it will come for you... What happens after that, I can't help you. The contact and struggle on the level of consciousness can only be handled by you alone."
At this point, she pauses, seemingly to reassure Yu Sheng, she adds another line: "But I can be the last line of defense. Once I sense your spirit becoming severely unstable, I'll forcefully 'pull' you out, just like the Rude Awakening last time; it's going to be tough, so you'd better be mentally prepared."
"…Honestly, I really don't want to go through that again," Yu Sheng suddenly exhales, but soon nods, his previous determination unshaken, "Alright, let's get started."
He once again finds a steady depression among Hu Li's large tails and then catches Erin who leaps down from mid-air. One person, one painting, they lean against the Fox Tail, sinking again into the dusky dream world.
Perhaps due to the previous connection, this second descent is much quicker and smoother than Yu Sheng expected. Almost instantly, the scene before his eyes blurs, and as his view stabilizes, he already sees the figure of the demon fox girl.
She's squatting quietly among a pile of rubble, staring blankly at something in front.
Yu Sheng's perspective moves behind Hu Li, following her gaze—
He sees a massive wreckage, looking like a large aircraft after a crash, its contorted metallic skeleton and broken deck still faintly hinting at its former grandeur. Additionally, there's a soft glow, like an unyielding spirit, slowly drifting among the broken fragments.
The entire wreckage has fallen at the base of a valley, the collapsed and melded rocks nearly engulfing it, blending it into part of the mountainside. Even at a glance, one can see the remarkable impact of that event.
If ordinary people had been aboard then, there likely wouldn't have been survivors.
Yu Sheng looks at the crash site in astonishment, but he doesn't forget his primary purpose here; he approaches the demon fox girl softly, so as not to startle her: "Hu Li."
The ears on Hu Li's head instantly perk up, then she swiftly stands and surveys her surroundings, seemingly trying to locate the source of the sound. After failing to find it, she hesitantly responds: "…Savior?"
"It's me; stop looking. I am directly contacting your consciousness."
"Savior! You're really here! I thought I had misheard last time… Savior? What's going on?" Hu Li's face shows joy. She still instinctively searches her surroundings with her eyes, "I... I was daydreaming in the valley, but suddenly, I ended up here. Am I... dreaming? Is it a dream?"
"It is, I... managed to manipulate your dream here, it's the only way I could contact you—but now is not the time to explain in detail," Yu Sheng quickly says, "Listen, Hu Li, I'm going to rescue you, and to do that, I need to open a special door. This requires your cooperation—do you trust me?"
"Come, rescue me?" Hu Li pauses, then suddenly realizes, and immediately shakes her head, "Don't, don't come here, Savior. You barely made it out, this valley is very strange, once you get in it's hard to get out! Don't come, please don't..."
Yu Sheng interrupts the somewhat panicked girl: "I have a plan! Hu Li, listen, I have a plan, I've found a way to reliably enter and exit that valley. Now, I just need your help to open that door, don't worry about the monster, I can handle it—got it? I am very capable, and I've even found some help this time, also very... well, capable."
Yu Sheng tries to soothe Hu Li, working hard to make her feel at ease. Hu Li shows a trace of bewilderment, struggling to keep up with Yu Sheng's words. After a while, not sure how much she understood, she asks in confusion: "So, are you an Immortal, Savior?"
Yu Sheng has absolutely no idea how Hu Li's thoughts jumped to that conclusion.
But he could be.
"An immensely powerful Immortal." He tried to make his voice sound more reliable.
The demon fox girl then laughed.
"Savior, what would you like me to do?"
"You don't have to do anything, just concentrate and sense your surroundings, you will feel someone probing into the depths of your heart, even sensing someone looking through your eyes—don't resist, that is me."
"Mm, okay."
Yu Sheng felt a slight relief in his heart; negotiating with Hu Li was easier than anticipated, so next... he only had to face the second issue.
"Erin," he softly called out in his mind. "Let's begin."
The next second, accompanied by a slight daze, Yu Sheng felt an indescribable... pull.
A new "connection" emerged between him and Hu Li, different from the obscure bond previously formed through blood; he could distinctly feel that this new connection was more robust and also more... brutal.
Part of his consciousness broke free from control and merged into a series of new senses—it was as if his nerves suddenly connected to an entire set of additional limbs, and even though the sensations that came through were somewhat blurry and delayed, he still began to... sense the aura surrounding Hu Li.
Cold, decaying, with a stench of all things withering and rotten—the wind churned through the valley, blowing through the dark forest.
The night was eternal, the Hunger everlasting.
The demon fox girl stood in the forest, her eyes wide open as she tried hard to observe her surroundings.
She didn't actually understand what the Savior was doing, nor did she know if just staring with wide eyes was the right thing to do; she simply followed her understanding in an attempt to complete the task Yu Sheng had assigned her.
Then, she felt the "connection" referred to by the Savior.
She was startled, but she didn't sense any malice.
Hu Li had always been keenly aware of even the slightest hint of malice, but this time, no malice came.
She felt somewhat relieved, and even... her stomach didn't seem as hungry.
...
The moment an overwhelming wave of Hunger and the tide of madness suppressed beneath it surged toward him, Yu Sheng felt as if he sensed a giant wave crashing over him—a mountain collapsing in the pitch-black night, as Hunger and frenzy materialized, like a vast shadow, like solidified darkness, nearly instantly submerging every inch of his perception.
Yu Sheng didn't even have time to call Erin's name; he just managed, in the nick of time, to remember the "features" of the valley transmitted from Hu Li before being completely engulfed by this maniacal dark tide.
However, deep within the dark tide, he found that he remained conscious.
Hunger gnawed at his soul, his soul withered and died, Yu Sheng watched in the frenzy of darkness as "himself" was devoured in the blink of an eye, while his perspective was that of an indifferent bystander.
As the Hunger receded, the soul that withered and died awoke once more; Yu Sheng opened his eyes in the darkness, for a moment uncertain whether he had experienced another "death" or if it was just a momentary illusion of being consumed.
He wandered in the depths of darkness, unable to feel the passage of time, unable to sense the end of space, and even uncertain whether he was truly moving.
All he could feel was... that a gaze was always upon him.
Not just one gaze, but this entire expanse of Dark Chaos was part of that gaze.
He was like a speck of dust so tiny it was only the size of a needlepoint, watched and engulfed by the boundless gaze of Hunger.
And then, after an unknowable length of time, he finally glimpsed within that deep darkness... vast and undulating limbs, or perhaps shadows.