Chapter 367: At the Inn, Everyone Has Their Own Tasks

The next day, Yu Sheng's side was unusually quiet—no further disturbances in that strange otherworld, while Yuanling Zhenren was focused on contacting all sides and coordinating inspections across various regions for "suspicious spatial rifts and evil path cultivators." Outsiders couldn't help with these matters, so Yu Sheng simply relaxed and devoted himself to enjoying his "vacation" life.

After all, otherworlds always exist and are everywhere; one must still live one's ordinary days as usual.

Taking advantage of the free time, Yu Sheng returned to Border City once. Besides buying some daily necessities, he took Hu Li to the Special Affairs Bureau cafeteria again to mooch two meals. Baili Qing expressed some surprise that he would travel thousands of light-years from Qianfeng Lingshan just to mooch meals, then inquired about Zheng Zhi's situation.

In theory, a lowest-level Special Affairs Bureau agent like Zheng Zhi, who hadn't even passed his probation, wasn't worth the Director's personal attention. But clearly, the legendary experience of his great-nephew being dragged by Yu Sheng's accidental slip to Qianfeng Lingshan, then immediately plummeting into a high-risk otherworld, was a rare event even in this land of outstanding talents. Baili Qing specifically asked for many details about it.

Erin's life trajectory basically hadn't changed much. Although she had claimed when coming to Qianfeng Lingshan that she wanted to enjoy the happiness of being able to go out and wander freely, once here she still spent most of her time cooped up at home, either watching TV and playing games or arguing with netizens, happily doing butterfly strokes in various internet pits every day, looking as if she were about to become useless (though she had always been quite useless).

Luna had already started her farming enterprise. She greatly liked the plot of land Yu Sheng had given her. After receiving a set of farming tools, she immediately began working. The climate in the valley was pleasant but lacked seasonal changes; the temperature staying constantly around twenty-five or twenty-six degrees Celsius wasn't very suitable for planting wheat, so she, like Yu Sheng, chose to grow vegetables.

Hu Li's days were even happier than Luna's and Erin's. Besides being able to mooch meals at the Special Affairs Bureau anytime, she now had an additional "cafeteria" at Queyun Palace to eat and drink for free. Beyond that, she had discovered an excellent foraging spot—the pill refining rooms of the ordinary disciples.

Yunling Peak was the place on Qianfeng Lingshan dedicated to teaching the Dao of Pills and Talismans. Directly under Queyun Palace alone, there were thousands of pill path cultivators refining various elixirs daily. Among them, inevitably, there were "waste pills" that went wrong during refinement or had poor appearance and failed Yuanling Zhenren's strict standards. Basically, such items were temporarily stored in the recycling warehouse of the pill room on the same day, strictly guarded by the impartial pill room artifact spirit awaiting destruction.

No one knew how Hu Li had managed to sneak in. Anyway, by the time people discovered her, she was already lying in the middle of the warehouse, having devoured almost all the waste pills on the surrounding shelves...

The scene at that moment was truly spectacular. The guarding disciple who noticed the artifact spirit's abnormal dormancy rushed into the warehouse, and the first thing he saw was a nine-tailed fox the size of a small immortal vessel lying on the ground. Its two front paws held a medicine jar, which it was guzzling down with loud clanks. While eating, it was also belching. Several guarding disciples turned pale on the spot. It wasn't because the waste pills were stolen, but because they feared that the "honored guest" lying on the ground might eat itself to death...

As it turned out, Hu Li was fine. After eating and drinking her fill, she not only bounced around energetically but also immediately spat out a lump of Spirit Fox Black Iron to "pay the bill"...

Now, this fox that had stuffed its belly with "immortal pills" was lying beside Yu Sheng. A pile of tails was heaped on top of the latter like a quilt. She held a medicine gourd in her hand, shaking it occasionally to pour out a pill of indeterminate nature, which she tossed into her mouth and chewed with a crunch, as if eating candy beans.

Crucially, every pill she poured out was different, looking like opening blind boxes.

"I asked that door-guarding artifact spirit earlier. It said the things in the room were useless and would be destroyed later, so I went in," Hu Li mumbled while eating. "It didn't stop me either."

Yu Sheng glanced at the lazy Miss Fox: "... Is there such a possibility that the artifact spirit actually tried to stop you at the time, but the Spirit-Demon Suppression Mirror it activated first couldn't identify you and instead caused itself to crash?"

"Ah, is that so?" Hu Li was stunned for a moment, then happily squinted her eyes and snuggled closer to Yu Sheng. "Hey, anyway, it was all explained in the end. Yuanling Zhenren even said I can eat freely from now on."

"That's right. You exchanged Spirit Fox Black Iron for waste materials they originally planned to throw directly into the furnace for destruction. If it were me, I'd let you eat freely too," Yu Sheng's eye twitched, but then he looked at the Miss Fox rubbing her tail against his arm with some concern. "But seriously, do you really feel no discomfort eating like this? These things aren't food."

"No, is there a difference from food?" Hu Li opened her eyes in confusion, looking at Yu Sheng, then tossed another pill of unknown purpose into her mouth. "Ah, Benefactor, this one tastes crunchy!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

He decided not to ask further. This cybernetic Hu Li, who had stuffed a heavy fusion reactor into her belly, obviously couldn't be judged by conventional "biological" standards. Who knew what kind of "digestion" process the things she ate went through.

The only thing he couldn't figure out now was how this nine-tailed fox demon, capable of devouring immortal pills like candy beans, managed to get a stomach ache from eating chocolate... Was this some kind of underlying setting of the world?

Shaking his head, Yu Sheng redirected his attention back to the "traffic manual" before him.

But after reading just two lines, he was interrupted again by a voice from across the coffee table: "Ah—Brother, I can't write the essay! Can you help me..."

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Princess Rapunzel sitting cross-legged on the cushion across the coffee table. Her unfinished holiday homework was spread out on the table, written in wild, flying strokes. Beside it was another pile of homework, belonging to the Mermaid.

"Write it yourself," Yu Sheng said expressionlessly.

"I only have the last hundred words left in my essay!" Princess Rapunzel grabbed her head hard, messing up her hair until it looked like a chicken coop. "Brother, you're a great writer, right? For you, this word count is just a matter of a moment..."

"Look at Little Fish. She's been writing all morning and hasn't been like you," Yu Sheng pouted, pointing at the Mermaid who was diligently writing character by character with her head down. "If you were half as serious as her, you'd be finished by now."

Princess Rapunzel grabbed her hair again, peeked at the nearly completed test paper in front of the Mermaid, and could only sigh in resignation. But after writing only a few characters with her pen, she looked up again, pointing at Little Red Riding Hood on the other sofa who was bowing her head and holding a phone: "Brother, look at her! She's been playing on her phone for ages!"

"I finished long ago," Little Red Riding Hood lifted her eyelids and glanced sideways at Princess Rapunzel. "And I'm not playing on my phone; I'm studying Subject One."

Princess Rapunzel was stunned for a few seconds, sighed again, and finally lowered her head once more, starting to write her essay properly.

After hearing Little Red Riding Hood's words, Yu Sheng curiously leaned over to look in her direction, and a smile appeared on his face: "Finally started?"

"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "We've started practicing driving!"

"Going smoothly?"

Little Red Riding Hood's face flushed: "... Drove it into a ditch."

Yu Sheng was stunned.

He really hadn't expected this. In his impression, Little Red Riding Hood had always been mature, steady, smart, and quick-witted. Although these traits might not all apply to getting a driver's license, there was no way she would drive a training car with the throttle locked straight into a ditch, right?

But the next second, he heard the girl sigh: "Hey, I'm used to riding wolves. Seeing a ditch ahead, I thought I'd just jump over it along with the shadow. Turns out my thought jumped over, but the car didn't."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"But I helped carry the car out immediately. Although the instructor looked a bit angry at first, he didn't scold me later and just told me to be careful next time," Little Red Riding Hood added.

Yu Sheng's eye twitched, and he saw a hint of cunning smile in the corner of the girl's eyes.

"Take it easy, don't scare ordinary people."

"I know, I know," Little Red Riding Hood said with a smile, then her gaze fell on the manual Yu Sheng was holding, her expression curious. "What is that? I've seen you looking at this thing a lot lately."

Yu Sheng laughed upon hearing this, showing the manual's cover to Little Red Riding Hood: "Interstellar Subject One. Want to swap?"

Little Red Riding Hood's expression froze, and she immediately lowered her head to continue looking at her phone.

Yu Sheng laughed, leaned back on the sofa, and looked over the top of the manual at the scene beside him.

Hu Li, holding her gourd of "candy beans," had already fallen into a drowsy sleep.

Princess Rapunzel and the Mermaid, dragged out early in the morning by Little Red Riding Hood to catch up on homework, were writing furiously across the coffee table.

Little Red Riding Hood was seriously studying Subject One exercises. She had finally started the first step of her long-awaited "driver's license exam."

Erin was watching TV in the dining room. This time, the little doll sensibly turned the volume down to the minimum.

But the movements of the other three Erins were not so quiet—one was in the corner of the living room holding a phone tricked out of Hu Li, scrolling through short videos and laughing loudly, while the other two were playing games upstairs, making such a clatter that one might suspect she was being beaten by the game...

Luna was not at home. She should still be tending to the newly opened vegetable garden in the valley and might not return until the afternoon.

Zheng Zhi had gone out early in the morning. Although he had just returned from a dangerous otherworld, this guy had an incredibly good mindset. Adhering to the spirit of "even if the sky falls, life must go on" and "better to gain skills than sit and wait for death," he ran to the Enlightenment Hall on the mountainside, saying he wanted to learn a few self-defense skills from the immortals.

—Actually, this was somewhat against the rules, since he didn't have local residency and hadn't gone through enrollment procedures. But reportedly, Yuanling Zhenren specially approved this matter, and the responsible elder of the Enlightenment Hall felt an instant kinship with Zheng Zhi...

Alright then, this is all good too.

Yu Sheng, thinking drowsily, slowly closed his eyes under the strong hypnotic effect brought by "Interstellar Subject One."

At that moment, a voice abruptly intruded into his ears—

"All cultivators... activate the Star-Protecting Great Array... Let the mountains and rivers remain unharmed!"

(Family matters, mother-in-law seriously ill and hospitalized. For this period, I really cannot guarantee the update volume and can only try to maintain single updates for now... I am truly sorry. I will resume double updates once this busy period is over.)

(End of this chapter)