Yu Sheng startled awake from an endless darkness and chaotic visions, opening his eyes in the dim bedroom, then suddenly sat up... but couldn't.

Erin sat on his arms on both sides, and another Steel Erin sat on his chest, while Hu Li lay on the bedside with wide-open eyes, staring straight at him. The latter's eyes glowed golden red in the darkness, full of an unsettling aura.

Yu Sheng almost choked in his breath, waving his hand to push Steel Erin off, "We agreed not to suddenly jump onto the bed, why are you up here again? Don't you know how heavy this body is..."

The puppet stared at him with blood-red eyes, "I didn't jump up suddenly, I climbed up slowly."

Yu Sheng, after much effort, finally managed to sit up, the dizzy feeling in his head not yet dissipated, he blurted out instinctively, "What are you all doing here, surrounding me like you're observing a body?"

Before he finished speaking, Erin nodded, "Yes, we were observing a body."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

"Savior, you were lifeless for half an hour just now, probably dead," Hu Li also nodded earnestly beside him, "Then Erin and I were discussing how you died. Erin said that humans are fragile creatures, and staying up late can cause sudden death, so you died suddenly. But I think you were crushed to death by her sitting on your chest. So we were waiting here, hoping you'd wake up so we could ask...

Yu Sheng: "…Can you learn something reliable from Erin!"

As he spoke, a dizzy spell hit his mind again; he couldn't tell if it was the aftereffects of his near-death experience or the impact of a steel + stone puppet sitting on his chest that nearly sent him to an early grave. Then, slowly, he began to regain his clarity, recalling his recent experience—

Squirrels, a small house, a hunter, the flashing Black Forest, Anka Aela scanning the skies, the wolf pack... and death.

A pair of golden red eyes silently approached, Yu Sheng instinctively raised his head, seeing Hu Li's face just centimeters from his own, she looked worried, "Savior... what's wrong?"

"I became a 'Hunter,' saw the rift behind the Black Forest—and was killed by the wolf pack," Yu Sheng said, suddenly reacting, quickly got up and looked out the window, "Wait! What time is it now?!"

"It's already dark, Savior, you've slept for a long time," Hu Li was startled, quickly answered, "Erin and I went to the valley in the afternoon, everything there is good..."

"No, no, something's about to happen, it's almost nightfall again—" Yu Sheng said, a strong sense of unease surged in his heart, quickly getting out of bed and speaking urgently, "Anka Aela's movements are still intensifying, it's preparing for a bigger impact... something has been overlooked, something sure has been overlooked..."

The three Erins looked at each other, one of them suddenly jumped from the bed to the bedside table, looking up at Yu Sheng, "Wait, what do you mean something's about to happen... wasn't the most dangerous night already over? And Hu Li and I just confirmed in the valley, the children are all very safe..."

"But Anka Aela's activity didn't decrease, it's actually increasing!" Yu Sheng interrupted Erin urgently, looking at the puppet's blood-red eyes in the darkness, "The previous Blood Transferring Ceremony's protection effects for the children and the valley's 'shielding' indeed weakened Anka Aela's 'control power,' but its awakening speed is instead accelerating!"

The three Erins simultaneously froze, "…What?!"

"I saw in the Black Forest... that Dark Angel is scanning all the subsets," Yu Sheng had already swiftly put on his coat and picked up his phone to notify the Special Service Bureau, then said while reaching out to open the door, "I suspect it's searching for those 'interfered' Fairy Tales members—I protected those children, which Anka Aela sees as a sort of 'kidnapping,' it has realized the stage is losing control but I'm not sure how much this accelerated its awakening..."

Erin listened to him, one after another, jumping off the bedside table, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To the valley—you and Hu Li come with me!"

The illusionary door opened out of thin air, Yu Sheng directly appeared in the temporary camp in the valley, the bright daylight making him, who was just in a dark room a second ago, a bit uncomfortable, and then he saw Little Red Riding Hood standing not far away, looking at him in surprise.

"Why are you here?" The girl in red quickly came over, her face smiling, "I heard Erin say you were exhausted and went home to sleep—we were just about to make dinner, want to join?"

"Is everything normal in the camp?" Yu Sheng couldn't respond to the other party's invitation, hurriedly asking, "Any children suddenly fall asleep or hear or see anything unusual?"

Little Red Riding Hood immediately noticed the serious expression on Yu Sheng's face, instantly became nervous, "No, everything is normal in the camp—what happened?"

Yu Sheng quickly recounted his encounter to the other party, then said, "Next, I need to quickly return to the Black Forest, find a way to get close to that rift—but Anka Aela's activity is a big problem. My act of 'taking you away' seems to have greatly stimulated it, a big stimulus."

Little Red Riding Hood listened seriously and nervously, several times she opened her mouth without finding an opportunity, then hesitantly spoke, "So... the previous 'Protection' was too hasty? We shouldn't have provoked that Dark Angel so much?"

"Of course, you can't think like that," Yu Sheng immediately interrupted her, still clear-headed on this matter, "It's not just us in action—the Angel Sect has always been trying to accelerate Anka Aela's awakening, the situation of other children during the Blood Transfer at that time already left us no room for hesitation.

"In the end, even though 'protection' actions will irritate Anka Aela, not executing protection will still make Anka Aela awaken earlier. After all, those cultists are crazy enough to perform a collective self-sacrifice to provoke their lord—so we have to seize this time. At least by doing so, we can have some control in our hands."

"True, I panicked too," Little Red Riding Hood quickly nodded, her eyebrows furrowing tightly. "So, what do we do now? Anka Aela has further awakened and started scanning all the subsets... the upcoming nightmares might be even more dangerous."

"That's why I rushed over to confirm the situation—it's already dark in the real world, and we're approaching the active phase of the 'Fairy Tales' stage. Tonight is particularly important," Yu Sheng said seriously. "As long as the Sanctuary Wilderness is still in effect, getting through the nightmares shouldn't be an issue. No matter how active Anka Aela becomes, it's still trapped in the 'Fairy Tales' Exotic Realm—ideally, its connection to the real world has already been severed by your 'refuge'."

"I understand," Little Red Riding Hood immediately said. "Tonight, I'll increase the patrols, and the King has already prepared. His royal court wizard will continuously monitor the entire camp."

Yu Sheng nodded.

But he still felt a vague sense of unease lingering in his heart. Even though he had confirmed that the children in the camp were all fine and had arranged tonight's patrols and monitoring, he still felt that something was wrong, that something was about to go awry.

Yu Sheng's expression was grave, and just as he felt he was on the verge of grasping some crucial detail, a sudden, urgent phone ringtone snapped him out of his contemplation.

He subconsciously frowned and picked up the phone, only to see that it was a call from Baili Qing.

Upon answering, before he had a chance to speak, the cool and concise voice of the female director came through from the other end: "The book has been found."

She paused for less than half a second and added: "The book that 'Zhao Lele' handed to Anka Aela, we've found the same batch, same edition records. There are several scanned images, already sent to you on 'Border Communication'. Check it out."

Yu Sheng hung up the phone. Despite his mind being restless with turmoil, he immediately opened Border Communication on his phone to check the private message from Baili Qing.

Erin and Little Red Riding Hood instantly crowded over, and even Hu Li, who hardly knew any words, came over too.

Yu Sheng quickly found the image files Baili Qing mentioned. The first thing that caught his eye when he opened them was an image scanned with a low-fidelity scanner, depicting a vibrant yet roughly-made fairy tale book cover. Its edges were damaged, instantly revealing it to be a record of an old book.

The cover illustration portrayed a graffiti-style forest, with a winding path and... a reddish-brown squirrel sitting on a tree stump by the roadside.

Exaggerated and comical, holding a pine needle and pointing to the book title with it.

"Squirrel Knight Takes You to Read Stories"

Yu Sheng's gaze instinctively lingered on that squirrel. He stared at it for a long while before taking a light breath and clicking on the next page.

It was a scanned image of the table of contents.

The first story, "Little Red Riding Hood".

The second story, "Snow White".

The third story, "Sleeping Beauty"...

Little Red Riding Hood stood beside him, unblinkingly staring at the contents on the phone. After a moment, she whispered softly, "Oh, so I'm the first story..."

Yu Sheng's gaze lingered on the table of contents for a few seconds before he clicked on the next page.

On the yellowed and damaged paper, the low-quality printed text narrated the first story, accompanied by simple illustrations and some pinyin annotations.

The entire story, including the illustrations, occupied only two pages, extremely concise, clearly intended for children who had just started reading storybooks independently.

Yu Sheng continued flipping through, looking at the subsequent scanned images—

He saw chaotic printed text and occasionally blank spaces.

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