Ah, the familiar darkness, the familiar heavy pressure, and the familiar sensation of sinking consciousness.
Yu Sheng's thoughts floated in a chaotic darkness, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of helplessness and fatigue, as well as the pervasive pressure from all directions.
He had thought about the many twists and turns he might face before leaving the "Exotic Realm," even considering the possibility of "dying" more than once, but he had guessed the beginning and the end, yet he did not anticipate this process—floating and sinking in the darkness, he couldn't help but recall the last scene he saw before losing consciousness, the brief moment that flashed by, those gold-red pupils that caught his eyes, those magnificent Fox Tails blossoming in the night…
And that supersonic headbutt.
So, who exactly was the girl who headbutted him to death? Where did she come from? And why did she appear in this Exotic Realm?
Additionally… what was the transformation that occurred on his body while he was fighting that monster? The sudden increase in strength, agility, and…
The impulse of Hunger.
What exactly happened to him?
Yu Sheng felt his jumbled thoughts swirling in his mind like a vortex, and, freed from the constraints of the physical body, these uncontrollable "thoughts" even transformed into various bizarre illusions before his "eyes," intertwined with numerous memories emerging from the depths—he saw the monster made of countless limbs, and the sudden appearance of the headbutt girl with fox tails and ears, but the next second, he saw a painting, in which Erin was shattered around a chair, connected by cobweb-like threads, and a strange shadow vaguely stood in the depths of the frame…
Suddenly, Erin disappeared again, and new images emerged from the depths of Yu Sheng's memories—crimson clouds and sky, sunlight flowing like water, dyeing the familiar old streets.
Oh, that was Boundary City, the inconspicuous coastal city where Yu Sheng grew up, he left there two months ago… but for some reason, when the images in the depths of the memory emerged, he felt as if they were from a very long time ago, so distant that they seemed like someone else's memories, coldly presenting themselves before him.
All the images vanished, and only the gentle darkness enveloped him.
Yu Sheng felt his thoughts slightly coming back to clarity, and after hesitating for a moment, he tried to call out from the bottom of his heart: "Erin."
In the darkness, there was no response.
It seemed that the connection between him and Erin was severed while he was in this "dead" state.
Then, Yu Sheng tried to move his "gaze," searching for other objects in this darkness, and confirming whether his limbs existed.
He saw nothing, there was nothing here, and he seemed to be just a floating, unanchored "thought," without any physical body.
Yu Sheng silently tried more things.
In his previous two "deaths," he had no experience and had returned to the mortal world almost bewilderedly, but this time, he began to consciously perceive this process and tested various hypotheses.
He knew that he had been confused all this time, unfamiliar worlds, strange phenomena, his own mysteries, resurrection from the dead… too many incomprehensible things piled up together, leaving him clueless.
But ever since Erin introduced him to the concept of the "Exotic Realm," he knew he had a goal again—he wanted to return, to go back to the "normal" side.
When the holes of the Exotic Realm occasionally open to people, ordinary people see the scenes leaking from the holes for a moment, crossing the edge of rationality, reaching the other side beyond the normal. This process could be due to getting off at the wrong station while traveling, taking an extra step on the stairs, or even turning one page too many in a book, reading a wrong word, and… opening a wrong door.
But no matter the reason, the key point is, this process is not irreversible.
According to the information disclosed by Erin, some people in this world are studying the Exotic Realm, some have summarized its patterns, and there are even specialists dedicated to solving Exotic Realm issues, and even ordinary people have a chance to return after falling into the Exotic Realm.
This valley enveloped by night is an Exotic Realm, his current residence at No. 66 Wutong Road is an Exotic Realm, but Yu Sheng believes that his first contact with the Exotic Realm was even before that—
When he opened his home door two months ago, he might have fallen into an Exotic Realm centered around him, named "Boundary City."
Now, he wanted to explore as much as possible, to understand these odd things, to learn about the knowledge related to the Exotic Realm, and then… to leave this wrong world.
So, he opened his eyes.
The cold night wind blew through the large hole in the wall, and outside the partially collapsed roof, the sky was murky.
He sat in a corner of the ruined temple, but didn't immediately stand up, instead maintaining his just-awakened posture motionlessly, cautiously sensing everything around him, while trying to grasp the swiftly fleeting memories and "impressions" in his mind.
He was trying to recall the sensation at the moment of his awakening, confirming the boundary that brought him back to the present world from darkness.
He believed that this might be the key to understanding his process of "dying and being resurrected."
At least, this could get him a bit closer to the mysteries' ultimate truth.
Vaguely, he began to recall the scenes he "saw" right before he awakened; he remembered rising from darkness, crossing a hazy boundary, then sinking towards reality... But what after that? Between "sinking towards reality" and "opening his eyes," what had happened during that brief moment?
It seemed like he saw several fleeting images, quick and blurry, yet a few clearer ones included... the small path near his home, the front of No. 66 Wutong Road, and... this corner within the ruined temple.
Yu Sheng's eyelids drooped slightly as his mind began to calm, and some guesses surfaced, which he temporarily set aside. Then he took a light breath and began to gingerly move his limbs.
This body was pure and robust; he could even feel the immense power flowing through his veins. His hearing was sharp, his sight reached far, and his limbs were full of strength—although, not too long ago, he had been nearly paralyzed from the neck down by a subsonic headbutt; now, he was lively and energetic.
He got up from the corner, ready to call for Erin.
But in the next second, he forcefully halted his movement.
Because rustling sounds were coming from outside the wall.
Yu Sheng's first thought upon hearing this was—had that tasty monster actually followed him to the ruined temple?!
However, he quickly dismissed that thought as the monster always made earth-shattering noises, not cautious ones like these.
He took a quiet breath, moved cautiously with a hint of alertness to a hole in the wall, and peered outside through it.
The night was deep, but his eyes clearly saw everything.
He spotted a girl, carefully navigating through the ruins of the ruined temple.
The girl was draped in a tattered robe that seemed to have once been a beautiful dress, now just dirty, ragged cloth pieces. Her unkept white long hair was messily draping down, covering most of her face, and atop her head were a pair of fox ears.
But more than those fluffy ears, Yu Sheng's gaze continued to focus behind the girl—those tails.
Fox tails, more than one, but from his angle, Yu Sheng found it hard to discern exactly how many there were—and considering her ragged appearance, he even wondered if it was just one big tail that had become tangled due to lack of grooming...
By now, Yu Sheng had recognized her.
It was that subsonic headbutt.
But the headbutt seemed not to have realized that Yu Sheng was nearby; she was just cautiously moving around in the ruins of the temple, occasionally twitching her nose as if to discern and search for something. After a while, her eyes lit up, and she quickly ran towards a certain spot.
The sound of rummaging through a plastic bag echoed in the darkness.
Yu Sheng widened his eyes.
That was the bag of kitchen waste he had brought with him when he was "thrown" into this valley, which he had casually tossed into the ruins.
Inside were leaves and eggshells from the evening's cooking, and leftover meals cleaned out from the refrigerator.
He peered from the edge of the wall and saw the girl with fox tails, surprised yet clumsy, tearing at the plastic bag, accidentally spilling its contents, then unhesitatingly grabbing a clump of leftovers and stuffing it into her mouth—
As if she had been starving for many, many years.
Yu Sheng suddenly felt suffocated.
He didn't know why, but he felt terrible, feeling that... no one should ever be starved like this.
Even though she did not quite look like a "human."
Even though she had once headbutted him—but she had meant to save him.
And just then, the girl seemed to finally sense the presence of a "living person" in the ruined temple.
She squatted on the ground, mouth containing a rotten leaf, turning her head in shock and tension.
Yu Sheng stood at the collapsed corner of the ruined temple, across the ruins, eyes meeting hers.