Chapter 96: Voluntary Test
“The sentry Entities spawned by the Museum won’t cross between zones. We can rest here in this corridor for a while,” said Little Red Riding Hood, her gaze fixed on the quiet passage ahead. “But we’ll need to be extra cautious when transferring to the next area. It’s still unclear how many Entities the Museum has generated. If they’ve all spawned around the White Exhibition Hall… well, that would be disastrous.”
“The real mystery is how these ‘sentries’ are being ‘activated’ in the first place,” muttered Irene, hopping off Yu Sheng’s back with a serious expression. “We definitely didn’t do anything wrong, yet they came charging at us the moment they appeared, no questions asked…”
Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if to speak, then hesitated visibly.
Irene raised an eyebrow. “Spit it out. What were you gonna say?”
She finally spoke. “The most likely explanation is that… someone else besides us has entered the Museum. They must’ve triggered the Museum’s cleansing protocol. But… that shouldn’t be possible. I checked beforehand—there were no scheduled investigations for tonight aside from our team.”
“Maybe someone snuck in?” Irene offered, eyes narrowing. “With some shady, unreported purpose or something.”
“Unlikely,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “The Special Affairs Bureau has strict rules. Any attempt to open an Otherworld within the Borderland must be reported in advance. Every single ‘node’ is equipped with a monitoring array, forming a massive sensory network. If an Otherworld passage or a temporal rift were activated, it would’ve definitely triggered alarms.”
“Ah, well, yeah, that makes sense.” Irene nodded shamelessly, though it wasn’t clear if she actually absorbed any of that. Then, with a twinkle in her eye, her attention shifted to Yu Sheng.
At that moment, Yu Sheng was squatting on the floor, picking up a twisted, deformed plastic arm.
It was the remnant left behind by the sentry Entity that had lunged at him just as he crossed the Phantom Door. The Door had severed the limb, and, likely due to being too far from the core body, the arm had lost all activity. Now, it was as lifeless as a mannequin part, unmoving and inert.
Yu Sheng examined the dismembered Entity limb with curiosity, tapping it against the ground and producing a hollow thunk.
Plastic. Looked like plastic, felt like plastic. He wondered, fleetingly, if it tasted like plastic too…
Just as that bizarre thought formed, a horrified shriek burst out from the little doll: “Hey! Yu Sheng, what are you doing?! That thing’s plastic! You can’t eat that!”
“Duh. Of course I know I can’t eat it.” Yu Sheng rolled his eyes at her. “Even if it weren’t plastic, I still wouldn’t eat it—those things are humanoid, after all. I do have some standards. I’m just curious how these Entities move.”
Irene clutched her chest. “Phew, thank the heavens… You scared the hell out of me. I swear, you could pull a wok out right now and stew this thing, and I still wouldn’t be surprised. You’re just that kind of guy…”
Yu Sheng sighed. “Is that really how you see me?”
Little Red Riding Hood watched the whole exchange with growing horror.
It wasn’t Irene’s overreaction that shocked her—it was the image that flashed through her mind: that one time on Wutong Road No. 66, when she’d seen a plate of stir-fried meat. She now genuinely suspected Yu Sheng had actually considered eating the limb. At the very least, he’d pondered its flavor profile.
Then, to her utter disbelief, she watched Yu Sheng casually pull out a small blade, slice open a spot on his arm, and smear his blood onto the plastic limb.
A completely different kind of terror crept up her spine. She gasped, “What are you doing?!”
“Trying to gather some intel, maybe gain an edge,” Yu Sheng said nonchalantly, carefully coating the limb with his blood. “My blood can form connections with lots of things—including Entities. Just not sure if it still works on detached parts like this.”
This time, Irene didn’t even flinch. She’d developed a high tolerance for Yu Sheng’s freakish antics. She even helpfully explained to Little Red Riding Hood: “Yu Sheng’s blood is really weird. Both I and Miss Foxy have dealt with it before…”
Then Yu Sheng, deadpan, turned to Little Red Riding Hood and held out his bleeding arm. “So hey, seriously—don’t you want a taste? While it’s still fresh? My wounds heal fast, you know. Miss your chance, and you’ll regret it.”
Little Red Riding Hood instantly leapt off her Wolf, retreating several steps. “No thanks!”
She whirled toward Foxy, who had remained silent the entire time. Her instincts told her that this Demon Fox Maiden might just be the most grounded member of this bizarre trio. “You’re seriously okay with this?! Isn’t something about this just wrong?!”
But Foxy simply stared at Yu Sheng with a look of absolute reverence. “Our Benefactor’s mystical arts are truly divine. This is what Blood Sorcery looks like.”
Little Red Riding Hood wore a thoroughly baffled expression. She had no clue what this so-called “Blood Sorcery” was supposed to be. After all, she was just a High School Student and had barely interacted with any Cultivators thus far.
Meanwhile, Yu Sheng noticed that the blood he had smeared on the plastic arm was being absorbed at a pace visible to the naked eye.
“Seems like it’s working,” he muttered under his breath.
“Really?!” Irene instantly leaned in, her face alight with curiosity as she stared at Yu Sheng. “What did you see? Did you figure out why those ‘security guards’ suddenly went berserk?”
“The link I just established is still blurry—I can’t pull up something that complex yet,” Yu Sheng replied, waving his hand to signal the little doll to quiet down. Then, he honed his focus, tuning into the faint connection born from blood between himself and this strange Museum.
He narrowed his eyes slowly, envisioning his senses stretching into the void, his gaze gliding along the long corridor, passing through each Door and Exhibition Hall. Amid the endless array of curated relics, he sought the source of the arm—and those other presences that echoed with a similar essence.
Suddenly, he sensed them.
For a fleeting moment, he even felt as though he stood among them.
He was clad in a security uniform, his posture crooked and stiff. Around him stood countless other plastic mannequins, dressed identically.
But he knew—it was just an illusion. Just like when he had glimpsed the movements of “Hunger,” he recognized it as a misinterpretation of the “information” conveyed through blood, mistaken by his mind as extensions of his own limbs.
He hadn’t reached full synchrony with the Museum yet. But if the bond deepened further… then perhaps, like during the “feast” in the Valley, he could temporarily become one of those silent guards standing sentry in the Exhibition Halls and corridors.
“Most of the ‘security guards’ are clustered this way, two forks down from here.” Yu Sheng’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and he pointed to a section off the corridor. “They’re motionless for now, probably waiting for further orders. There are a few more scattered around distant Exhibition Halls, but none seem active.”
Little Red Riding Hood blinked wide-eyed, visibly awestruck.
This was the first time she’d seen Yu Sheng’s power in action with such clarity—their “alliance” during the chaos in Night Valley had been too hectic, and the intel she’d gathered back then had been quite limited.
Now, she instantly grasped just how terrifyingly useful this ability was.
One contact—just one—and if he could get his blood into the target, he could form a stable “resonance.” He could glean intel on Entities in the Otherworld before engagement, track their positions and states… For any Spirit Realm Detective or Investigator, this was beyond priceless!
And right after that realization, a second question surfaced in her mind: did this ability… work on Humans, too?
For some reason, she suddenly recalled Yu Sheng’s invitation to “have a bite.”
A chill crawled down her spine. She shook her head quickly, forcing away those intrusive thoughts, and blurted out: “Then we can totally avoid clashing with those ‘Entities’ head-on… But wait, are you only able to sense where the ‘security guards’ are? Can you pick up anything from the Exhibition Halls themselves? Like, say, find the White Exhibition Hall?”
“Nope,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “The link’s still too shallow. Most of it’s tied to the ‘security guards.’ As for the Museum’s structure itself—I can barely sense a thing.”
While speaking, he casually opened another small cut on his arm (the previous one had already healed), and experimentally smeared his blood evenly across the nearby walls and floor tiles.
The blood quickly soaked into the walls and floor, but Yu Sheng didn’t feel any noticeable shift.
“Guess it’s not enough,” he said seriously. “I figure I’d need to slather myself over this whole place three or four times before I’d get anything decent…”
Little Red Riding Hood’s face contorted beyond simple horror.
Thankfully, Yu Sheng noticed her reaction in time and, with a rare sense of social awareness, quickly waved his hand. “Kidding, just kidding. I’m just the curious, experimental type.”
Little Red Riding Hood: “…”
[Is that what ‘exploration spirit’ means to you?!]