Chapter 390: Portable No. 66 Wutong Road

In the quiet center of the Shu Ji Central City, inside a hotel suite belonging directly to the Thousand Peaks Lingshan, Yu Sheng's gaze looked out the window at the alien landscape beyond.

The rain fell continuously, the dark clouds blurring the boundary between day and night. Although when Hu Lizheng had landed, sunlight was still shining on the thick cloud layer above Shu Ji, the city under this endless drizzle still seemed shrouded in night—countless lights illuminated this rain-soaked city, neon lights flickered between the high-rises, and many huge phantom projections floated in the air. At the end of the rain curtain, those magnificent ancient refining towers stood like strange mountains outside the city, occasionally lit up by flashes of lightning, their outlines reflecting a hint of past glory.

Hu Lizheng was devouring food nearby with great gusto. Various local dishes of unidentifiable names were spread across the table before her; these things clearly held far more attraction for her than the alien scenery outside the window.

Zheng Zhi sat somewhat stiffly opposite, the table full of dishes making him feel a bit at a loss. Before almost every bite, he had to check with Xuan Che beside him. The main points of his confirmation were three: What is this thing? Can humans eat this thing? And won't this thing suddenly jump up and hit someone?

Yu Sheng felt it was a great regret not to have let his great-nephew experience Hu Lizheng's stew. If he had seen that thing, his acceptance of all kinds of strange and bizarre foods would surely be extremely high in the future. Let alone the specialty dishes of this border planet—he reckoned that by then, he might even be able to accept getting hit by the food on the table before every meal started.

Erin sat cross-legged on the windowsill, looking out at the scenery with Yu Sheng. The small doll's eyes were wide open, carrying an excitement of traveling far away, making everything she looked at appear particularly joyful.

Luna, as always, stood quietly behind Yu Sheng. She seemed to be paying attention to nothing; the lights of the restaurant and the rain curtain outside the window reflected on her cold alloy shell, glowing with a faint light.

"Where shall we start first?" Yu Sheng broke the silence, looking at Yuan Hao Zhenren sitting with Xuan Che. "Do you have a plan?"

"Two lines," Yuan Hao Zhenren nodded. "First, Xuan Che has already contacted the Lord of Mocheng. As an envoy of the Thousand Peaks Lingshan, he can request Mocheng's cooperation in the investigation, officially inspecting the situation of cultivators in this city in recent years to see if we can find any traces of those black-robed cultivators. Second, while Xuan Che contacts the Mocheng authorities, we will walk around various places in the city. When I came, I already scanned this city with my spiritual sense; there are quite a few places in this city that are not quite right, with spiritual energy congealed and pulse flows stagnant. We must confirm this."

Yu Sheng listened and nodded gently.

Then he withdrew his gaze and turned to look around.

This was the "lodging" arranged for their group by the Thousand Peaks Lingshan locally. It was comfortable and spacious, possessing a somewhat exotic style blending the future and the Immortal World. In this hotel named "Huixian Continent," it should be an excellent suite.

However, after hesitating for a moment, Yu Sheng still got up and walked to a door leading to a certain bedroom, then raised his hand to pat its doorframe, as if checking and confirming something.

Yuan Hao Zhenren watched from the side with a curious expression: "What are you doing?"

"Being away from home is never as comfortable or convenient as being at home," Yu Sheng said casually, then turned his head to look at the small doll on the windowsill. "I have an idea..."

"Okay, okay, you have another idea... I know," the small doll immediately drew out her tone, as if already used to it, slowly climbing down from the windowsill, strolling over to Yu Sheng's side and looking up. "Let me tell you, this is the hotel's property; if you mess around, you'll have to pay money..."

Then she saw Yu Sheng dig into his pocket and pull out a palm-sized hard card.

On that card, a suspicious dark red "pigment" had been used to draw a transference ritual alchemical array in advance. In the middle of the array, a "Inn" logo was drawn—that emblem originally intended to be a fox head but, due to someone's poor craftsmanship, could only end up as a triangle.

Erin had a face full of question marks: "...?"

"I call this Portable No. 66 Wutong Road," Yu Sheng said seriously. "Its basic principle is to split the process of the 'fixed teleportation gates' I made before. First, go through the 'spirit infusion' and 'value assignment' processes, encapsulate them, and wait until a large door serving as a carrier is found to complete the 'opening' action. The process is concise, convenient to use, and very reasonable."

Erin was dumbfounded: "... This actually works!?"

"I thought it would work," Yu Sheng thought for a moment. "I tried it once at home before. I used it to connect the bedside table on the second-floor bedroom with the refrigerator on the first floor. Anyway, it worked quite well at the time."

"... What the hell kind of prefabricated door is this!" The small doll finally couldn't hold back the sense of dissonance and the urge to complain in her belly. She raised her hand and pointed at the hard card in Yu Sheng's hand. "Hey, wait, I don't care about your inventions, but doesn't this thing look a bit low-class?!"

"What do you mean low-class? This is a high-grade item I carefully crafted, you know? Do you understand the peak of alchemy?" Yu Sheng immediately widened his eyes upon hearing this. While speaking, he began to peel the adhesive on the back of the paper card. "And look, this thing even comes with its own backing adhesive. I went back to Jie City specifically two days ago to buy it... Ah, it's actually quite hard to peel."

"Stop, stop, stop, don't peel it! Don't you see it's about to break?" Erin quickly waved her hands, then climbed up Yu Sheng's pants. "Give it to me, your hands are clumsy enough."

Saying this, she snatched the prefabricated door card from Yu Sheng's hand. The small doll's hand, only the size of a bottle cap, was indeed very agile at peeling off the adhesive. In three or five moves, she peeled off the backing adhesive, then held up the card and asked, "What's next? Stick it on the door?"

"... Yes."

Erin turned her body and stuck the card onto the door, then patted it a few times with a "pa-pa" sound: "Is that it?"

"Then it needs to be activated, which is equivalent to the final step of the spirit infusion ritual: establishing a connection between the array and the target of spirit infusion," Yu Sheng said seriously. "This step requires fresh blood. Lu..."

As soon as he uttered the syllable of "Luna," the artificial Saintess standing by the window flashed over in a single movement, appearing beside him like a ghostly shadow in an instant, "swish," and then, hand raised and blade dropped...

Blood sprayed from the back of Yu Sheng's hand. He blinked his eyes, looking at the iron doll standing before him. The latter also stared blankly at this side. After a long while, she slowly nodded: "Cut well."

Yu Sheng: "... Thanks."

While speaking, he turned around and, while the wound on his hand hadn't healed yet, quickly smeared the blood onto that card. He also solemnly muttered and chanted there—sounding incredibly mysterious to others, but only Erin, sitting on his shoulder, could tell it was the multiplication table...

Obviously, this set of hand seals and incantations was something he had recently learned at the Thousand Peaks Lingshan.

The next second, the fresh blood smeared on the paper card was silently absorbed—as if the paper suddenly possessed life, transforming into a living, rapidly growing "skin."

It began to writhe, its edges spreading and growing like a living creature. Countless tiny branches drilled into that door, bestowing vitality upon this new carrier. The array pre-infused with spirit, the blood of the one who commanded the door, the will pointing to the target, and the carrier executing that will—all conditions were met, so the "door" took effect.

A virtual and low heartbeat came from that seemingly ordinary large door.

Yu Sheng exhaled lightly and casually pushed open that door without exerting any extra "opening" power.

On the other side of the door was the living room of No. 66 Wutong Road.

"... Just to be safe, let me ask," Erin blinked her eyes. The small doll was already used to such outrageous things, but at this moment she still couldn't help but confirm. "You didn't actually open No. 66 Wutong Road over here again, did you?!"

"No, that's not it," Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands. "Saying it's a 'Portable No. 66 Wutong Road,' it actually just means the door was moved over here; the house itself is still at Guanyun Terrace—but anyway, the effect is the same. Push the door and you're home."

"That's good then," Erin immediately breathed a sigh of relief. "Not that outrageous."

However, on the other side, Xuan Che and Yuan Hao Zhenren were already dumbfounded at this moment. The two of them almost spoke in unison: "This counts as not outrageous?!"

As soon as the words fell, Xuan Che turned his head to look at Zheng Zhi, who was closest to him: "... Has Mr. Yu always been like this?"

"I don't know!" The great-nephew looked completely confused. "I haven't known him for long either..."

Xuan Che subconsciously looked at the nine-tailed fox demon across the table, but found that Hu Lizheng hadn't even lifted her head from start to finish; the plates beside her were just stacking up higher and higher.

She hadn't noticed what was happening around her at all.

However, soon, the fox demon girl seemed to sense something. She looked up and, at a glance, saw the door leading home beside Yu Sheng. So she immediately smiled, got up, walked through the door, reached into the refrigerator of No. 66 Wutong Road to grab two steamed buns, returned to the Shu Ji side, broke them open, and dipped them in the soup from the plate to eat.

The entire process was as smooth as flowing water, without a trace of confusion or hesitation, as if the world in her eyes should be this way—or rather, the world "Benefactor" built for her operated this way.

Xuan Che & Yuan Hao Zhenren: "..."

At the same time, on the edge of Mocheng, deep within a derelict industrial area near an ancient refining tower.

Dozens of cultivators dressed in black and wearing masks were gathered inside a spirit ore smelting factory, busily working around an array that was obviously set up recently.

That array was inscribed on the ground, and countless virtual rifts floated above the array. Each rift was filled with hazy light and shadow, within which seemed to be hidden countless strange illusions and distant times and spaces.

But now all the rifts were flickering unstably, as if they were about to lose contact with the "time and space" on the opposite side at any moment.

The figure of an old man with a blurred face hovered above the many illusions. In the hazy shadow, only a pair of eyes was particularly clear, looking at those black-robed cultivators busy around with a full sense of pressure.

"Quickly find out what exactly happened just now!" The old man suddenly spoke, his voice ethereal and blurred, as if separated from the real world by a thick curtain. "All twenty-two arrays on the entire planet were interfered with simultaneously. This cannot be caused by simple disruption of the earth veins—there must be a hidden great power acting! You must not be careless!"

The black-robed cultivators immediately responded in unison: "Yes! Benefactor!"

(End of this chapter)