Chapter 79: Changes

Going out?

Hearing Yu Sheng's words, Hu Li froze for a moment, then swiftly dried the remaining few bowls on her tails before grabbing another tail to wipe the sesame paste from her mouth: "Okay, I'm ready now..."

Yu Sheng's eye twitched as he looked at this young lady: "It's not that urgent—but you're really using your tail to wipe your mouth?"

Hu Li looked down at the sesame paste on the tip of her tail, only then realizing her mistake; she plunged the tail back into the water pool to scrub it, then stood before Yu Sheng and shook it vigorously.

"I'm used to it..." she muttered softly, "I forgot there are better things to use at home."

"It's fine, no big deal," Yu Sheng said, wiping the water from his face, "Also, next time you shake off water, watch out for people nearby—and electrical appliances."

"Ah, sorry, Benefactor!" Hu Li only then realized she had flung water all over Yu Sheng's face; panicking, she rushed over and used her other dry tails to frantically rub his face, asking while wiping, "So... where are we going? Do we need to fight?"

"Stop, stop, stop, I can wipe myself—" Yu Sheng flailed his hands to block the tails wildly rubbing his face, then spat two silvery-white tufts of fur from his mouth, "We're returning to that valley, but this time we probably won't need to fight."

Hu Li instantly froze, her entire body tensing up where she stood.

The tension and fear in her eyes were of course impossible to hide from others—in fact, Yu Sheng had known she would react this way even before he spoke.

But precisely because of this, he felt he absolutely must let Hu Li see the strange changes that had occurred in that valley.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here," he stepped forward and gently patted the fox young lady's hair, "I know you're very resistant to that place, but some strange changes have happened there, and I think it's necessary for you to see them with your own eyes. Rest assured, you won't get trapped inside again."

Hu Li stared blankly at Yu Sheng; several seconds passed before she nodded stiffly, as if summoning immense courage to make this decision.

Yu Sheng then led her back to the dining room, picked up the little puppet who had been waiting for quite some time, opened the door leading to the valley's otherworldly realm, and the three of them (though the human content was low) stepped through.

The sunlit valley came into view; a fresh breeze blew through the valley floor, while distant mountain rocks and wastelands bathed in heavenly light; with the night receded, everything appeared vivid and bright.

Even the devastation left behind after the "feast" seemed, under the embrace of this heavenly light... soft and reassuring.

Erin sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, eyes wide as she gazed at the scenery within the valley; after staring blankly for a long while, she finally blurted out, "This is truly Yu Sheng crawling into an alchemy furnace—bizarre beyond belief..."

Yu Sheng instantly forgot what he had intended to say, turning his head to look at Erin on his shoulder with a complex expression: "Could you please stop using me to create two-part allegorical sayings?"

"Then explain this to me first—" Erin raised a finger to point at the valley before them, "The aura of Entity-Hunger has truly vanished completely! I sense this place isn't even the original 'otherworldly realm' anymore!"

"No longer the original otherworldly realm?" Yu Sheng noticed Erin's phrasing, his expression shifting slightly, "What do you mean by that?"

"The environment has completely changed; I don't know if you can sense that difference in 'atmosphere,' but this place now has a kind of..." Erin spoke, frowning slightly, then turned her head to look Yu Sheng up and down several times before continuing somewhat hesitantly, "It has an atmosphere of yours, or rather... an atmosphere of No. 66 Wutong Road."

Yu Sheng: "...?"

And just as Yu Sheng was stunned, Hu Li had also been nervously surveying her surroundings for a long time; when she first passed through the gate, she had been completely tense, but now only confusion remained on her face—unlike Erin, she did not possess that strange and precise "perception" ability regarding otherworldly realms, but as a fox spirit, she possessed an instinctive perception for things in the environment that had once threatened her.

Entity-Hunger had truly vanished completely from here, and after such a long time, there was not the slightest sign of it regenerating.

Just then, Yu Sheng's words interrupted the attention of both Hu Li and Erin: "What I want to show you goes beyond just this."

As he spoke, he squatted down on the spot, extending his hand toward the patch of pitted muddy ground ahead.

There, everywhere, were gullies and corrosion marks left behind after being devoured by the tentacles of Entity-Hunger.

Hu Li and Erin did not understand the purpose, but both instinctively looked in the direction Yu Sheng was pointing.

They saw the soil there beginning to slowly churn.

They heard faint friction sounds coming from deep within the earth.

The ground began to heal; gullies were gradually filled in, corrosion rapidly erased.

Greenery appeared between the earth and stones; delicate, fragile, yet those tiny specks of green were enough to plunge one into astonishment.

The valley is "healing"—this was the only description that could come to Erin's mind at this moment.

She turned her head stiffly, looking at Yu Sheng's face beside her.

Yu Sheng, meanwhile, let out a long breath and slowly rose to his feet.

Within a radius of several dozen meters around him, the ground had gradually recovered, but this was already the limit of what he could do at present.

For the land beyond that range, he could sense the subtle connection between himself and it, yet he could not simply "activate" or "reshape" it as he had just done.

Nevertheless, even so, he could feel that what he was doing now had an effect on the entire valley; it was as if he had planted a seed, initiating a slow, continuous reaction; he felt the whole valley gradually awakening, restoring vitality bit by bit.

"How did you do that?" Erin finally could not hold back and asked aloud.

"I'm not clear on the specific principles, but this should likewise be a connection established by 'blood'," Yu Sheng said slowly while thinking, "Ever since the last incident ended, I've felt that I've established some kind of stable 'connection' with this valley; probably because I died too many times in this broken place, the amount of blood lost was enough to irrigate the fields... Anyway, from a certain moment onward, I could sense it, just like this."

He pointed to the patch of healed ground beneath his feet.

Erin looked at Yu Sheng's eyes with astonishment, even a touch of horror; after holding it in for a long while, she blurted out, "What the hell is your blood?!"

Immediately afterward, she realized something else: "Wait! Then you used your blood to shape my body, and smeared it on my picture frame; doesn't that mean you can also control..."

"No," Yu Sheng sighed immediately upon hearing this, "If I could control you, do you think I'd still spend all night getting kicked by you while trying to sleep?"

Erin thought about it for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh, that's true."

Then she turned to look at Hu Li, who had remained silent the whole time: "Your hometown is into cultivation; your perspective must be different; what do you think?"

Hu Li looked at Yu Sheng with adoration: "Benefactor, your immortal arts are profound, capable of comprehending natural transformations; you could serve as an Immortal of Landscaping and Greenery!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

For a moment, he wasn't even sure whether this fox young lady was praising him or not; he decided to just take it as a compliment.

"I shouldn't have expected you to have any insight," Erin sighed upon hearing Hu Li's answer, then reached out to poke Yu Sheng's head, "Anyway, let's set aside this 'connection' between you and the valley for now; the most critical thing is the 'Entity' lurking in this place—it hasn't regenerated after such a long time; could it be that it's truly gone?"

"Has this really never happened before?" Yu Sheng asked with some suspicion.

"Of course not; at least, I've never heard of it," Erin answered without hesitation, "Entities are an 'inevitable phenomenon' in the operation of otherworldly realms, not independent individuals that can be destroyed; where the otherworldly realm exists, the Entity exists; but then again—"

The little puppet paused, her gaze looking around with a subtle expression.

"Now the entire 'atmosphere' of this valley has changed; at least from my perception, it truly is no longer that otherworldly realm which gave birth to Entity-Hunger; if that's the case, then Entity-Hunger might really disappear permanently..."

The Young Lady puppet frowned tightly; logically, she seemed to have found an explanation, yet rationally, she simply could not bring herself to believe it was true.

Hu Li, standing nearby, did not understand what Erin was struggling with; she only understood one thing: that monster seemed like it would never return.

She tugged on Yu Sheng's sleeve: "From now on, that monster won't come out to hurt people anymore?"

"It seems so," Yu Sheng thought for a moment and nodded gently, "Unless this valley severs its connection with me and can somehow revert to its previous state on its own."

Hearing this answer, Hu Li stared blankly at Yu Sheng, for a moment unsure what thoughts were running through her mind.

Then she suddenly pounced forward, hugging Yu Sheng tightly—with such force that even Yu Sheng's body, far stronger than an ordinary person's by many times, instantly creaked and groaned; and not only that, she even wrapped a multitude of tails around him: "Benefactor, this is wonderful! This is wonderful!"

Yu Sheng had never expected this; in an instant, the air in his lungs was nearly squeezed out completely. Forget about feeling whether the fox demon's embrace was warm or not—he felt as if seven or eight hydraulic clamps were wrapping around him from every direction: "Lo... lo... I'm dying... the tail..."

Only then did Hu Li react; she quickly let go and jumped aside in alarm: "Ah! Sorry, Benefactor—I just got too excited and..."

Having survived a close call, Yu Sheng propped his hands on his knees, gasping hard. It took quite a while before he had enough strength to wave his hand: "You... why is your tail also so strong!"

"It scared me too!" Eileen protested vigorously as well, "Your tail came sweeping over in one go; it nearly knocked me off!"

Hu Li kept apologizing profusely there, her ears almost pressed flat against her scalp...

But it was clear she was still very happy.

It was a joy, thorough and secure, that even surpassed what she had felt when she originally escaped from the Other Realm.

At this moment, Yu Sheng finally evened out his breathing (and incidentally repaired several minor bone fractures on his body). He raised his hand to pat Hu Li's hair, calming this Miss down, then straightened up and lifted his gaze toward the distance.

Eileen noticed the change in Yu Sheng's movements and expression instantly.

The little puppet immediately said to Hu Li: "I think he's about to have another idea..."

"Shall we walk a bit farther out?" Yu Sheng indeed spoke up, "What do you think lies outside this valley?"

(End of Chapter)