The brutal Wolf Tooth Club smashed into the elongated claw with a deafening thud, accompanied by the whistling wind. The claw shattered like thick mud, splitting apart and emitting sizzling smoke. The sensation beneath Yu Sheng’s hands was not flesh and blood but a texture closer to rotten cotton and decayed wood.
In the blink of an eye, the distorted, elongated creature standing by the door began to swell grotesquely, letting out an ear-piercing shriek. Its entire body expanded and proliferated outward, appearing utterly enraged.
But Yu Sheng had anticipated this reaction.
“Irene! Now!” he shouted.
Pitch-black threads unfurled from behind Yu Sheng, stretching and proliferating wildly like living tendrils. These threads stealthily penetrated the creature’s flesh, ensnaring it. Despite its violent growth, the icy threads matched its speed, binding the creature tightly in mere breaths. The tension between the threads and the monster produced unsettling cracking sounds, forcing the Wolf Granny to halt its movements.
Inside the Little House, Irene stood tall, her hands raised high. Despite her petite frame, she seemed as immovable as a mountain, resisting the overwhelming force.
As Yu Sheng had predicted, Irene’s body, constructed from clay and lotus roots, could momentarily endure the backlash of Hunger’s curse. Now, with a skeleton made of rebar, her strength had multiplied exponentially—the change in materials had amplified her transformation into a Doll on an astonishing scale.
Yu Sheng bolted out of the Little House.
Wielding the terrifying club, he moved as swiftly as the wind. Each step he took left deep cracks in the ground. He lunged at the immobilized Wolf Granny, his club slamming into its chest with a thunderous blow. The resulting recoil nearly knocked the weapon from his hands, but the creature’s chest caved in, revealing a gaping, horrifying hole.
Yu Sheng landed steadily, glancing at the towering Wolf Granny, which loomed two to three times his height. He focused on the gory cavity in its chest.
This was Little Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Granny, a creature born from a girl’s terror, growing alongside her nightmares since childhood.
Compared to this monstrosity, the Wolf Granny that consumed Xiao Xiao seemed pitifully weak. That one was no more than a large wolf, while this one possessed powers beyond ordinary comprehension.
The next moment, Yu Sheng felt an ominous premonition.
Even though the Wolf Granny remained tightly bound by Irene’s threads, appearing incapable of attacking, Yu Sheng instinctively dove to the side.
Almost instantly, a razor-sharp, icy “wind” swept past the back of his head. The screeching sound behind him was followed by a deep gash carved into the ground where he had stood, slicing through a nearby tree stump.
“What the hell was that…?” Yu Sheng muttered, alarmed. He caught a fleeting shadow in the corner of his eye.
Realizing the danger, he shouted toward the house, “Irene! Its shadow!”
Night had fallen over the dense forest, and starlight illuminated the canopy. Beneath the giant wolf, its shadow expanded unnaturally, sprawling wide enough to engulf the entire Little House. Within the darkness, countless indistinct forms writhed and churned, whispering as they emerged from the ground, materializing before Yu Sheng’s eyes.
There were elongated wolf-like silhouettes, faceless humanoid shapes, stumbling children, and adults turning their backs as they walked away. Some wailed, some begged, while others stood silently or glared at Yu Sheng with hatred or malice.
The shadowy figures roamed near the Little House, dissolving and reappearing endlessly beneath the Wolf Granny.
It seemed they sought to unsettle Yu Sheng—but he wasn’t sure.
After all, he didn’t recognize any of these shadows.
Then, Irene acted again. Countless pitch-black threads emerged, pouring from the doors, windows, cracks in the walls, and even the chimney of the Little House. The scene resembled the house sprouting hair under the cover of night. These threads wove into intricate webs, enveloping the Wolf Granny and its shadow in a silent snare.
A shadowy blade extended from the darkness, aiming at Yu Sheng, but the threads intercepted it, halting it mid-air.
Suddenly, ghostly fox fire flared in Yu Sheng’s view. The bluish flames surged along the threads, flowing like water out of the Little House, rapidly engulfing and melting the ensnared shadows.
Having learned from her previous encounter in the Museum, Foxy avoided physical attacks and relied on her flames, which proved highly effective.
With the Wolf Granny and its shadow subdued, Yu Sheng finally moved.
He darted toward the giant wolf’s chest, aiming for the gaping hole he had struck earlier.
Black threads wove together in midair, forming a staircase leading directly to the pulsating heart. Irene had deduced his intent, crafting a path to his target.
Yu Sheng dashed up the staircase, his eyes locked on the enormous, throbbing heart.
He wasn’t sure if it was truly the Wolf Granny’s weak point, but with something so prominent and active in sight, it was worth a shot.
The bound wolf let out a deep, furious howl. The sheer malice and rage it emanated became almost tangible, pressing in from all directions.
Yu Sheng knew he was on the right track.
With a final leap, he pounced on the heart.
At that critical moment, part of the wolf’s body broke free from the threads. Its shattered chest began writhing violently; the sludge-like flesh fought against the threads, regenerating under immense pressure. Layers of pale bone grew from its chest cavity, trying to shield the heart.
But Yu Sheng swung his Wolf Tooth Club with relentless force, smashing through the regenerating ribs.
As the club fell again and again, breaking through bone and tearing apart flesh, Yu Sheng heard faint, layered voices. They emanated from the wolf’s chest, its heart, and the entire Black Forest, whispering to him in wolfish growls, human tongues, and the murmurs of the forest itself. The voices tempted him, deceived him, even mimicked his subconscious thoughts, repeating over and over:
Not even a sliver of hesitation?
Yu Sheng simply raised his weapon high again.
“By all logic, I should be scared,” he said, grinning as he gazed at the exposed heart. “But logic is in my hands.”
With a resounding crash, the Wolf Tooth Club smashed down. Despite enduring countless strikes, its sharp edges and spikes remained unscathed, shattering the wolf’s ribcage into fragments.
The club became lodged in the wolf’s chest, and black threads surged to fill every gap, halting the creature’s regeneration.
Yu Sheng reached in and yanked out the enormous, still-pulsating heart.
The heart quivered violently, splitting open to release streams of toxic liquid. The substance dripped onto Yu Sheng’s arm, burning through his flesh and seeping venom into his veins.
Yu Sheng felt as though his blood was boiling. The wolf’s venom burned through his vessels, the Black Forest’s malice piercing toward his own heart.
But instead of despair, he laughed.
“Yes, yes, that’s it… You invade me, I invade you. Either way works…”
He clutched the heart tightly, holding the toxic, life-threatening object against his chest. “I was wondering how to find you… Good thing you came to me.”
The faint cry of a baby echoed in his mind, piercing straight to his soul. It was as though the entire Black Forest had been wailing from the start—sounds he hadn’t noticed until he touched the heart.
The venomous heart convulsed as its pulse weakened. The poisonous liquid slowed to a trickle, no longer spilling.
The venom now coursed through Yu Sheng’s veins—it had been overtaken by him.
The Wolf Granny’s massive body began to shrink, deflating like a punctured balloon. In seconds, it went from towering over the house to a height of just over two meters, then continued collapsing into a pile of sludge.
Yu Sheng fell to the ground alongside the withered heart, landing at the entrance of the Little House beside the club dislodged from the wolf’s chest.
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation