Chapter 80: Running

What lies outside the valley?

Yu Sheng felt this was a natural curiosity—the range of rolling mountains stood quietly within his line of sight, appearing not so towering as to be unclimbable, and the sky was no longer covered by any terrible barrier; anyone in this place should wonder what the scenery beyond those mountains would be like.

"Have you ever tried to cross that mountain before?" Yu Sheng asked Hu Li curiously.

"I... tried a long time ago, when the Immortals were still here," Hu Li nodded immediately. "Back then, I and several my lords tried to cross it together, but we couldn't reach the summit. Halfway up, terrible sounds would come from the sky. Climbing higher, we would begin to lose strength, and terrifying phantoms would appear before our eyes. The Immortals even tried to turn stone into puppets, sending stone puppets to climb the mountain, but contact was lost halfway up. The next day, fragments of the stone puppets rolled down the mountain. Blood flowed from every stone, and the my lords who went to check reported that flesh and bones had already begun to grow inside the stones."

"Sounds coming from the sky... sounds like the influence of that 'Dark Angel' that covered the sky before," Irene muttered. "But I don't know if that thing did it on purpose or if it's just a 'passive effect.' After all, such a sinister thing, sometimes merely 'existing' is enough to cause great influence."

"Now that the Dark Angel is gone, we can try again," Yu Sheng looked at Irene and Hu Li with a questioning gaze. "What do you think?"

Hu Li nodded immediately: "I will listen to my benefactor."

Irene waved her hand: "I'm fine with anything. Anyway, you always have ideas and want to try even the most sinister things; I'm used to it."

"Alright, that's unanimous. Let's go."

"How do we get there? Open a door?" Irene glanced at Yu Sheng.

"We have to walk," Yu Sheng waved his hand. "We've never been to that place, so opening a door directly would make it hard to locate. Moreover, if that is the edge of the Otherworld, the environment might be very special, so opening a door directly isn't safe. If we walk slowly, we can observe environmental changes along the way and won't be caught off guard."

Hearing this, Irene immediately looked surprised: "You actually have the concept of 'safety'?"

Yu Sheng: "I threw you down! Sit on my shoulder and talk so much nonsense!"

Hu Li looked at Yu Sheng and Irene bickering again, considered for a moment, and spoke softly: "Um... the valley is hard to walk through, and you don't know the convenient path up the mountain. Shall I lead you?"

Yu Sheng looked curious: "Lead us? How?"

Then he saw the fox girl turn and run a few steps, then drop down flat. Accompanied by a gust of wind pressure and illusory light, her form suddenly dissolved and changed in the light. Before anyone could see what happened, a giant silver-white demon fox appeared before Yu Sheng and Irene.

Yu Sheng had seen Hu Li transform into a fox before, but this was the first time Irene had witnessed it. The small doll immediately widened her eyes in surprise, let out a loud "Wow!" and exclaimed: "Oh my! It looks bigger than two vans."

"Is that how you describe it?" Yu Sheng couldn't help but glance at the doll on his shoulder, but still nodded along. "It is indeed bigger than a van... just that pile of tails is bigger than a car."

As he spoke, the giant silver-white demon fox walked over with light, elegant steps. She gently touched Yu Sheng's head with her chin and nuzzled affectionately: "Like this, I can carry several people!"

Yu Sheng fell silent for a moment.

Because those two "affectionate and gentle" nuzzles from the great demon fox had made his head spin, nearly smashing his skull into his chest cavity.

"Just speak! Can you control your strength a little?" Yu Sheng barely managed to keep from fainting, grabbing the fur on the fox's chin to prevent her from nuzzling him down again. "Good heavens, banging my head like that..."

As he spoke, he still felt his head buzzing, the shock of the Fox Immortal cracking his skull lingering for a long time.

Hu Li, for all her faults, apologized quickly, lowering her head instantly: "My benefactor, I'm sorry..."

Yu Sheng quickly jumped half a meter to the side, narrowly avoiding having his head cracked open by the girl's nose as she bowed.

Only then did he have the chance to seriously examine the appearance of the demon fox girl.

I must say, she is truly elegant and truly beautiful. It was the first time he could see the words "national beauty and heavenly fragrance" in a furry canine creature. However, compared to this "beauty," what he felt more at this moment was the demon fox's unique "aura."

The giant silver-white demon fox stood upon the earth, her golden-red eyes seeming to hold a pool of flowing light. Several long tails swayed slowly behind her, and occasionally tiny fox fires would appear in the air, swirling and drifting around her tails like spiritual beings with independent lives.

And probably because she had eaten well these past two days and taken a good bath, her tails now looked glossy and smooth—much better than when they first met.

Hu Li lowered her body, one of her tails gently resting at her side, the tip landing before Yu Sheng.

"You can come up now," she said happily.

"This really is a first..." Yu Sheng hesitated, then finally tentatively stepped onto it (in fact, since the demon fox's fur was so beautiful at this moment, he even considered taking off his shoes). "Doesn't it hurt to step like this?"

"Almost no feeling, just a little ticklish," Hu Li turned her head, watching Yu Sheng clumsily climb up her tail, and added, "You can grab the fur on the side, or your feet might slip."

"It's fine, I'm quite agile," Yu Sheng, carrying Irene, struggled to climb onto Hu Li, then carefully found a relatively stable spot and sat cross-legged. "I'm seated firmly."

Furry, and very warm.

With a subtle mood, Yu Sheng reached out and touched the surrounding fur, feeling as if he were sitting on an exceptionally high-end, soft blanket. Before he could even sigh, he saw several of Hu Li's tails curling over from behind, blocking the way beside him.

Irene poked Yu Sheng's head: "There are armrests and a backrest too!"

Immediately, she added another sentence: "Can I install a seat on your shoulders too? A hard seat is fine..."

Yu Sheng: "... What do you think?"

"If it's no, then it's no."

A slight swaying came from beneath his body. The giant silver-white demon fox slowly rose, turning toward the distant range of high mountains.

"We are setting off," for some reason, Hu Li's voice sounded exceptionally joyful. "My benefactor, hold on tight! We're going to run!"

"I'll hold on..."

Yu Sheng had barely managed to say a few words when he felt a jolt beneath him; immediately, he almost lost his seat—the demon fox had shot forward like a runaway something.

A tail curling from behind in time supported Yu Sheng and Irene, who were on the verge of losing balance, while another tail extended from the side to block the gale rushing at their faces. Amidst the intense push against their backs, Yu Sheng saw the scenery on both sides instantly turn into a series of constantly retreating blurs. Whether it was the gullies or ruins on the ground, none of it could hinder Hu Li's continuous acceleration.

The demon fox ran freely across this vast valley.

"Waaaaah hahaha!" Irene shouted and screamed, gripping Yu Sheng's head tightly while opening her mouth wide against the gale blowing through the gaps in the tails (even though the wind had been weakened countless times). "We-are-ah-fly-ing-up!"

"I love running!" Hu Li's voice came from the front, full of excitement. "I haven't run like this in so long!"

Yu Sheng tightly gripped a furry big tail at his side with one hand, while using the other to hold the small doll on his shoulder to prevent this already excited creature from falling out: "Be careful! Don't crash into... the mountain! Mountain! There's a mountain ahead!"

"Okay!"

Hu Li shouted happily and accelerated again toward the hillside that was gradually approaching. Even clusters of brilliant fox fires burned fiercely behind her. The flames condensed into clusters on her fox tails, followed by continuous and dense explosions, forming cone-like trails amidst the fierce burning and eruption!

Hearing the commotion, Yu Sheng quickly turned back and peeked through the gaps in the fox tails, immediately exclaiming: "Holy crap—rocket-boosted fox!"

Then he felt an even more intense push against his back and violent shaking. Even with his current physical constitution, he almost couldn't catch his breath. Immediately, he discovered that Hu Li had charged up the hillside.

She wasn't running up.

She was basically flying at ultra-low altitude along the terrain!

In the blink of an eye, the rocket-boosted fox rushed to the area near the mountain waist. Her voice pierced the gale and reached Yu Sheng and Irene's ears: "Back then, we started hearing strange sounds right here. Higher up, we would lose strength and see strange things. We are going to cross it!"

Afterwards, Hu Li rushed through the "mountain waistline" in her memory, which had once blocked the Immortals, blocked her father and mother, and blocked all the survivors, almost without any obstruction.

Nothing was blocking her here anymore.

She could vaguely see the scenery at the mountain peak, seeing the jagged giant stones standing on the ridge like rows of strange sentinels, arranged under the daylight.

She began to slow down. The propelling flames of her fox tails quickly faded. Her agile four paws landed among the mountain rocks, stabilizing her body as she ran.

In the final few hundred meters approaching the summit, Hu Li's speed finally dropped to that of a brisk jog; she leaped a few more times among the rocks before coming to a halt in a relatively open area.

The several tails on her back slowly unfurled, much like a crew compartment opening, revealing the slightly dazed Yu Sheng inside.

It took Yu Sheng several seconds to come to his senses; he looked up at the distance with some sluggishness.

"Benefactor," Hu Li's voice reached his ears, "outside... it is still mountains, mountains repeating endlessly."

(End of Chapter)