Chapter 78: Exploring Again

A faint, ghostly glimmer flickered within the gate leading to the valley; Yu Sheng stepped across this "boundary," and in the next second, bright daylight flooded his eyes.

Yu Sheng squinted, raising his head to gaze into the distance, then looked up at the sky drifting with scattered clouds.

After that giant eyeball covering the sky departed, this foreign realm once known as "Nightfall Valley" ended its eternal night, yet Yu Sheng had not expected that it would still be daytime here—even though it was already evening in the real world at this very moment.

Could it be that this place had no cycle of day and night at all? After the eternal night caused by the "Gloomy Angel" ended, had this place instead become an eternal day?

A few conjectures arose in Yu Sheng's heart, while simultaneously he roused twelve parts of vigilance, cautiously observing the surroundings.

The "landing point" he chose for opening the door remained around those ruined temple ruins; as far as the eye could see, the devastation caused by the out-of-control Entity-Hunger during that incident still remained—the already dilapidated temple was now basically nothing but a ground littered with broken bricks and tiles, without even a single standing wall to be seen, while the wasteland surrounding the ruined temple seemed as though it had been "plowed" over and over again, with huge gullies visible everywhere stretching from the ruins to the very limit of vision, and the forest of old days now reduced to a stretch of withered remnants, with piles of gravel large and small accumulated at the end of the valley floor, and the nearby mountain rocks scraped away entirely by a full layer, exposing bare, naked earth.

Yet apart from this... there were no signs of any danger.

Yu Sheng frowned, carefully crossing through the gullies one by one until he reached an open ground mixed with broken bricks and tiles.

He still remembered this place; it was here that he had initiated the feast—here that the first Entity-Hunger affected by his "influence" had opened its massive maw and begun devouring other entities.

Now all traces of the entities had dissipated, and even the bloodstains seemed to have evaporated, disappearing completely without a trace.

The valley was quiet, with only an occasional breeze blowing from the valley floor, yet it was no longer as cold as before, and the wind no longer carried that unpleasant stench of decay... compared to that gloomy land shrouded in nightfall before, this place now surprisingly possessed a hint of... the flavor of a "peaceful pure land."

If one ignored those gullies, that is.

Yu Sheng stood thus amidst the ruins, somewhat blankly gazing upon this tranquil little world.

Was this the thing that "Director" wanted him to see? Or perhaps... she actually did not know what the situation here was now, and therefore wanted him to come over and confirm it?

At this very moment, Eileen's voice suddenly transmitted from the bottom of his heart, interrupting Yu Sheng's thoughts: "Hey! Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng, respond if received—are you dead yet, are you dead yet?"

"Heard you, heard you," Yu Sheng replied immediately, his brows slightly furrowed, "Say, couldn't you say something nicer? What do you mean, 'are you dead yet'..."

"Nonsense, haven't you died violently outside enough times already? You pushed open the door and went over, then immediately there was no sound; I thought you'd been taken out by a regenerated Entity-Hunger again..."

The doll's tone was self-righteous and annoying; Yu Sheng could almost imagine that little one standing on the table with hands on hips and a smug expression—but right now he had absolutely no mood to banter with Eileen.

"There are no entities," he said lightly.

The Young Lady doll on the other end clearly paused for two seconds: "... Huh?"

"I have not yet seen any entities; the valley is extremely calm, and I cannot sense that omnipresent malice and aura of hunger from before," Yu Sheng said as he walked out from the ruined temple, bending down to grab a handful of soil, "The stench of decay in the soil and the air... has also disappeared."

"Try walking further out?"

"I am walking out right now," Yu Sheng said as he moved, "Could it be that not enough time has passed, and the Entity-Hunger has not yet regenerated? After all, the commotion I caused last time was quite huge..."

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by Eileen's noisy clamor: "Impossible! How much time has passed already! The regeneration speed after an entity is destroyed is calculated in hours, with some needing only a few dozen minutes! We've been gone from there for over twenty-four hours; if Entity-Hunger could reproduce, by now they'd have five generations living under one roof!"

Yu Sheng sat down on a large rock at the edge of the ruins, gazing into the distance as he casually remarked, "But right now there really is nothing here, and to be honest... I even feel the air here is quite nice, and the scenery is much more pleasant to look at."

"Huh?"

Yu Sheng paid no heed to Eileen's astonishment, simply stepping with his foot on the soft soil around the rock.

He felt that subtle connection; after returning to this place, that subtle sense of connection had strengthened once more... although it did not directly create a "perspective" using the valley as a "carrier" as it had when the connection strength reached its peak before, he could still clearly perceive many things around him.

The hard rocks, the gentle wind, the soil beneath his feet, the pool of water hidden at the foot of the valley mountains, and also...

Yu Sheng suddenly froze, turning his head to look beside him.

A tender green grass sprout was poking its tip out from the soil, like a young life seeing the light of day for the first time, trembling uneasily in the wind.

Tenacious life.

Yu Sheng looked at that grass sprout in some bewilderment; for some reason, upon seeing its appearance of breaking through the soil, he even felt his heartbeat quicken slightly, a... very strange stirring leaping in the bottom of his heart—this stirring might be due to his current connection with the valley, or perhaps due to some more emotional cause—he subconsciously reached his hand out toward that patch of soil.

And so that soil began to writhe.

The deep gullies began to heal, and tiny sprouts broke through the earth.

Life was growing, like a rebirth after death.

Yu Sheng stared blankly at this scene, finally unable to restrain a startled exclamation: "Holy crap?!"

Eileen instantly became noisy: "Huh? What? What what? Why did you suddenly shout—were you injured!?"

Yu Sheng abruptly stood up, yanking open the illusory door: "Can't explain clearly; you and Hu Li had better come over and take a look too!"

In the next second, his figure returned to the living room, staring wide-eyed at Eileen who was standing on the chair.

"Hu Li is still washing dishes," Eileen paused, pointing a finger toward the kitchen, "Should we go call her now?"

Yu Sheng nodded, but just as he was about to speak, he felt a series of vibrations coming from his pocket.

He took out his mobile phone and saw several missed calls popping up consecutively on the screen—two from Li Lin, two from Xu Jiali, and several more all from the same unfamiliar phone number.

Yu Sheng's expression immediately became somewhat delicate; just as he was pondering whom to call back, he saw that unfamiliar phone number calling again.

Without waiting for the ringtone to sound, he answered the call and held it to his ear, whereupon a somewhat familiar female voice entered his ear: "It's me, Baili Qing."

The corner of Yu Sheng's mouth twitched; thinking to himself that indeed it was so, he could not hide his embarrassment as he spoke: "Ahem, I just... stepped out for a bit. Should I have told you guys about that?"

"It doesn't matter; as long as we can confirm that the 'vibration' was caused by you opening the door, that is fine," Baili Qing's slightly cold voice came through the receiver, revealing no change in emotion, "We will strive to record more diverse sample parameters, so that we can hopefully distinguish your 'signature' in time when subsequent alarms sound."

This indifferent attitude of not pursuing the matter from the other party instead made Yu Sheng feel even more awkward; he did not know if this was simply the style of this "Director," my lord, so he could only smile awkwardly: "Ah, causing trouble for you all..."

Baili Qing seemed not to care about what he was saying: "Are you going to 'step out' again in a while?"

"... Probably still have to," Yu Sheng said, immediately remembering something and quickly adding a sentence, "I am checking on the situation in Nightfall Valley."

He was certain he heard a slight intake of breath.

Sure enough, Baili Qing's tone changed next: "You successfully entered? It still exists?"

Yu Sheng keenly noticed a word the other party used: exists.

Did Baili Qing originally think that Nightfall Valley "no longer existed"? Why would she think so?

Thoughts flashed instantly through his mind; Yu Sheng opened his mouth to say, "Of course it exists, but I just went over to take a look; I am not yet certain what the situation inside is, and I am preparing to gather all hands to go there again."

As he spoke, he raised his head to look at that little doll on the chair—that was his "hand," and there was another one in the kitchen washing dishes.

Baili Qing did not probe deeper, merely saying after a moment of silence, "Good; if there is any situation requiring Special Operations Bureau support, you can contact me directly; this number will always be open."

The call ended, and a short series of beeping sounds came from the receiver.

"It was that 'Director' from the Special Operations Bureau," Yu Sheng said to Eileen, "Nothing major."

Saying this, he turned and entered the kitchen, preparing to call Hu Li.

Then, pushing open the door, he saw the fox-girl wiping a bowl with her tail—and secretly eating the sesame paste that had originally been stored in the cupboard.

For a moment, he didn't know which part to complain about first.

"Ah, Benefactor..." The ears atop the fox Miss's head suddenly twitched twice; hearing the sound of Yu Sheng opening the door and entering, she immediately turned her head in panic, "I... it smelled too fragrant, I couldn't resist. I'm sorry."

Yu Sheng looked at Hu Li with a mix of helplessness and amusement—and at her mouth, which was covered in sesame paste.

"Clean yourself up first, then come with me on an errand."

(End of Chapter)