Chapter 132: The True Meaning of Death

Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel both thought Yu Sheng had lost his mind.

"She died an hour ago!" Rapunzel stared with wide eyes. "All her organs—including her heart and brain—showed no signs of life long ago! We checked; she is definitely dead..."

"No, she has not died, at least not yet," Yu Sheng still shook his head, the confusion fading from his face as his expression grew resolute. "I don't know how to explain it to you, but I can feel it... she is still on the side of the living; she hasn't crossed over yet."

As he spoke, he touched the bloodstain on the girl's neck again with his finger.

In a fleeting black-and-white-gray vision, he felt as if he "understood" something, but that sensation vanished in an instant; when he tried to grasp it again, it was gone.

Little Red Riding Hood seemed to think of something: "You... can't perform 'Communication with the Dead' like you did in the museum before? So you think she's still alive?"

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Little Red Riding Hood widened her eyes, instinctively doubting Yu Sheng's judgment, yet a trace of unrealistic fantasy lingered in her heart: "But..."

Yu Sheng waved his hand vigorously, silencing both her and Rapunzel, who was about to speak beside her.

"You don't understand. It's not just because I can't perform 'Communication with the Dead'; I... can feel she is still here," he said while examining the wounds on the girl's body. Suddenly, he pulled a small knife from his pocket. Under the shocked gazes of Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, he sliced open his own palm and smeared his blood onto the fine cracks on the other's arm. "Do you understand what I mean? I mean, in my view, she is still alive, merely sleeping in a dream on the verge of death..."

Erin seemed to finally realize something; she jumped straight down from Hu Li's arms and ran to Yu Sheng's side: "Did you 'see' something again?!"

"See... yes, you could say that. I suddenly understood some things," Yu Sheng mumbled, smearing his blood on the girl as if self-harming. He suddenly looked up at Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel—who had instinctively felt uneasy upon seeing his actions and wanted to stop him, yet stopped in unison under his gaze. "Keep your distance. Yes, stand right there. The balance is very fragile; she is about to fall to the other side..."

Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel stepped back half a pace, their questioning gazes simultaneously fixing on Yu Sheng.

"Do you know how bees judge a comrade's 'death'?" Yu Sheng suddenly asked them.

Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel looked at each other, wondering why such a question had suddenly popped up.

"Pheromones," Yu Sheng said without waiting for their answer, speaking on his own. "The most direct way bees judge a comrade's death is through pheromones. A dying bee releases volatile substances that are received by living bees, causing them to rush over to 'bury' the dead comrade and remove its corpse from the hive. This effectively prevents disease spread within the hive... However, this identification method has a problem: in our view, 'pheromones' and 'death' cannot always be equated.

"If we artificially apply specific volatile substances to a living bee, then even if it is hopping around or struggling desperately in the hive, its comrades will still treat it as a dead bee, forcibly handling it like a corpse—because in the bee's limited nervous system, a fellow creature emitting the 'scent of death' is a corpse, even if it is struggling fiercely; it is still a corpse. They do not understand death characteristics beyond pheromones.

"However, for the survival environment bees face, this judgment is actually sufficient. Humans' boring 'interference' is something outside natural conditions, and bees, within their limited scope of evolution, originally did not need to consider such things."

Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel listened blankly as Yu Sheng spoke these words. Watching the blood silently seep into the small "corpse" on the bed, an unexplained... shudder suddenly rose faintly in their hearts.

"You..." Little Red Riding Hood finally couldn't help breaking the silence. She swallowed hard, looking at Yu Sheng with somewhat unfamiliar eyes. "You want to say we are..."

"Bees." Yu Sheng looked up, his gaze calm as he faced the girl in red.

He lowered his head again, his blood-stained palm gently brushing the forehead of the child named "Xiaoxiao," leaving a fleeting streak of bright red upon her brow.

"Facing an 'interference' beyond your understanding, the feigned 'death' confuses you—heart stops, brain halts, nervous system collapses, blood stops flowing and gradually cools, then cells decay on a large scale, enzymes become inactive, and the body begins to digest itself... People regard these as signs of death. If a person exhibits these characteristics, then he is dead..."

Yu Sheng thought that he was the same—when he matched these "characteristics," he was dead.

Dead in the eyes of ordinary people.

But he merely continued to live in a way ordinary people could not observe or understand, waiting for the short-term "symptom" called "death" to fade from himself.

"... Perhaps I have never truly been resurrected."

He murmured softly.

The small corpse lay quietly on the bed. As the blood seeped in, Yu Sheng gradually understood her "death," and also understood his own "death."

He felt the surroundings were somewhat quiet, so he looked up, only to see Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel standing aside in a nearly cowering manner, their gazes upon him filled with unease. Erin stood beside him; she looked up, her gaze showing no unease, but she appeared quite confused as well.

Only Hu Li showed neither confusion nor unease. Although she didn't understand either, she nodded with an expression of "I get it," her tone filled with emotion: "The benefactor seems to be comprehending the Great Dao."

Erin stood with her mouth agape: "... You can accept anything, can't you?!"

"We have three hours, or perhaps even less," Yu Sheng suddenly said.

Little Red Riding Hood froze: "Three hours? What?"

"Pull her back," Yu Sheng pointed at the thin, frail figure on the bed. "The connection established by my blood is insufficient; she doesn't know where to go. Next, some 'manual intervention' is needed—Erin, I need your help."

The small doll didn't react immediately: "Ah... ah? How do I help?"

"She is still dreaming, a dream that doesn't rely on brain function," Yu Sheng said casually. "Remember how you found me in the Black Forest? It's a similar process. You find her, then send me there too."

Erin finally reacted: "Oh, oh! Easy enough. Just find a place to lie down—sitting is fine too. I've guided this thing once before; you don't need to do anything. Just stay calm and peaceful."

At this moment, Little Red Riding Hood also reacted—although her mind was still full of questions, at least now she knew what Yu Sheng intended to do: "Wait, you want to actively enter the 'Black Forest'? To find her?"

"Yes."

"I'll go with you!" Little Red Riding Hood said immediately, then added, "I'm more familiar with that place than you are!"

Yu Sheng frowned, looking at Erin: "Can we bring one more person?"

"Should be no problem," Erin thought for a moment and nodded with some confidence. "She is already deeply connected to the 'Black Forest' and doesn't require me to maintain any link. Theoretically, I just need to act as a guide to ensure you can both enter together."

"Then let's try," Yu Sheng nodded without hesitation, sat directly on the ground beside the small bed, patted the ground beside him, looked up at Little Red Riding Hood, and said, "Sit here."

Little Red Riding Hood made an "Mm" sound, walked over silently, and sat beside Yu Sheng.

Rapunzel looked somewhat uneasy: "Will it really work? Before... we've never done this before?"

Little Red Riding Hood remained silent for a few seconds, then turned her head to glance at Yu Sheng beside her: "Let's try."

Pitch-black threads appeared out of thin air from Erin's hands, then grew wildly throughout the entire space, weaving into a huge and complex giant net in the blink of an eye. The doll carefully controlled this "net," gently covering it over the small bed.

The ends of the threads hung down from the air, like countless tentacles extending from some strange jellyfish, beginning to silently drill into the body of the dreamer.

Rapunzel instinctively stepped back half a pace, turned her head to look at Hu Li beside her, who still wore a calm expression, and finally couldn't help speaking: "People from your 'Inn'... are they all this eerie?"

Hu Li had no idea what the other meant; she merely watched Erin's wonderful operation with admiration and nodded appreciatively: "Erin, you might become a Weaving Immortal."

This was the last sentence Yu Sheng heard before falling into the dream.

And the last thought in his mind was—Erin seemed to have grown stronger.

The next second, a sense of dizziness and falling came simultaneously. He felt himself and another consciousness falling rapidly through the darkness. When a solid sensation came from beneath him, he slowly opened his eyes.

An endless Black Forest came into view.

(End of Chapter)