Chapter 163: The Irene Enhancement Plan
The hum of the hairdryer echoed softly. Irene sat cross-legged on the tea table, clutching its edges to keep from being blown away as she waited for Yu Sheng to finish drying her hair.
Whenever the dryer turned to face her, she would lift her head abruptly, mouth wide open against the blast, shouting “Ah-wah-wah-wah-wah!” with childish glee.
Yu Sheng often questioned what exactly filled this Doll Lady’s head.
“Stop messing around,” he sighed, gently forcing Irene’s head still after her third round of wind-blasting antics. “Just a bit more… There. That should do it.”
“Thanks~” Irene ruffled her hair with one hand, watching as Yu Sheng tidied away the hairdryer. Suddenly, she blurted, “Something wrong? You seem distracted.”
Yu Sheng paused, exhaling softly. “Not really. Just… I met Little Red Riding Hood in a dream last night. Talked to her for a bit.”
“You dreamed about Little Red Riding Hood?” Irene looked puzzled at first, then quickly recalled, “Ah! That weird dream of yours again? Like the one where you ran into Miss Foxy? Wait, she got in too?!”
“Yeah, and unlike Foxy, she entered fully conscious this time,” Yu Sheng replied casually, leaving out the things he witnessed in Little Red Riding Hood’s memories. “…I’m planning another trip to the Black Forest tonight.”
Irene blinked but remained silent, simply watching Yu Sheng.
“Little Red Riding Hood’s condition has reached the ‘terminal stage.’ Every time she enters a dream, she ends up in the Black Forest. I think I can help. Maybe, if luck is on my side, I’ll catch that ‘Wolf Granny’ she’s facing… or even the ‘Hunter’ again. She’s turning eighteen next month. There’s not much time.”
“You actually called meeting the Wolf Granny ‘lucky’… only you would,” Irene sighed. “Well, whatever. You can open a Door anytime now. Taking me and Miss Foxy with you? Bet there’s gonna be a fight.”
“Foxy’s definitely coming,” Yu Sheng nodded, then hesitated. “As for you…”
Seeing his expression, Irene sprang from the tea table. “What do you mean, ‘as for me’? I’ve been crucial so many times! You…”
“I just worry your survivability in a head-on clash isn’t enough—you’d get one-shot by the Wolf,” Yu Sheng sighed again, lost briefly in thought before nodding. “Still, you’re right. I need your support abilities. Your threads might be useful against the Phantom Wolf Pack.”
Irene finally beamed. “Now that’s more like it.”
The little doll was always easy to appease.
Yu Sheng chuckled and pulled out his phone, sending a private message through Frontier Communications to Little Red Riding Hood: “Message me before you sleep tonight.”
Peeking at his phone screen, Irene suddenly muttered, “That line’s super creepy. Feels like you’re hitting on a Young Lady…”
“What kind of comment is that?!” Yu Sheng snapped, glaring at her. “And why’d you wait until after I sent the message to say something?!”
“I just realized…”
Yu Sheng didn’t buy it for a second. Just then, his phone buzzed. A message popped up:
Little Red Riding Hood: “…???”
Two seconds later, another message: “Why?”
Yu Sheng glanced up to see Irene staring intently at him. He swallowed the long-winded explanation he’d been crafting and simply replied: “Black Forest.”
This time, Little Red Riding Hood took a while to respond. She seemed to be composing something carefully, but eventually only sent: “Okay… and thanks.”
Yu Sheng pocketed his phone and leaned back on the sofa, letting out a long breath.
Irene watched him curiously. “So now what? Just wait for nightfall?”
Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He stared at the little doll before him until her expression shifted to unease. “Hey, what’s with the look? I didn’t say anything wrong, did I…”
“I need to enhance you,” Yu Sheng said suddenly.
“…Huh?”
“The Black Forest is dangerous. You haven’t faced the greatest of the Evil Wolves. That thing might even be tougher than Hunger. Your threads might restrain it, but your body won’t survive the clash,” he said seriously. For once, even Irene dropped her usual carefree demeanor. “Foxy’s strong, but she’s just one fighter. If our support collapses, that Evil Wolf becomes even harder to deal with.”
Irene looked thoughtful. Yu Sheng glanced out the window.
“It’s still early. We have time to prepare for tonight’s mission. We need to go out.”
“Go where?” Irene asked reflexively.
“The Valley will do,” said Yu Sheng, turning his head toward the approaching Demon Fox Maiden. “Miss Foxy, come upstairs with me for a bit. We need to grab something.”
“Alright!”
Moments later, a grand Door linked the living room of Wutong Road No. 66 to the Valley. Yu Sheng led Miss Foxy and Irene (the one whose clothes were still intact) through the Door, arriving on a vast central platform within the Valley.
“Here will do,” Yu Sheng said after surveying the area, pointing to a nearby open patch. “Foxy, place the things here.”
The Demon Fox Maiden nodded, rummaged through her Storage Tail, and began unloading ritual supplies: ordinary candles from a convenience store, rose oil likely devoid of any actual rose essence, possibly expired tea powder, random unlabeled essential oils, and dubious bottles and jars of indeterminate content.
Finally, she detached her tail and gave it a shake in midair. The air rippled, and with a series of clanging noises, several rebar rods clattered to the ground.
Irene stared, slack-jawed. “You’re not actually going to use rebar and cement to make me a new body, are you?!”
“Why not? I said we were going to do some enhancements,” Yu Sheng replied matter-of-factly. Then, he added, “Rebar is fine, but forget the cement. I tried it before. It’s not like clay—you need a mold for it to set properly, and it’s hard to control. That’s why I chose this place. The Valley is rich in materials, and more importantly, I can ‘control’ them well.”
Irene twitched at the explanation. “Is that even going to work?”
Yu Sheng nodded. “As long as the framework is sturdy, it should significantly boost durability—that’s my theory anyway.”
“That’s not what I meant…” Irene mumbled, then sighed. “Forget it. Do whatever you want.”
Without needing her approval, Yu Sheng was already getting started.
Unlike the laborious setup back in the attic on the Alchemic Platform, he didn’t need to draw alchemy sigils or formations painstakingly on a table.
He simply stood on the flat ground and extended his hand.
Soft scraping sounds echoed as lines etched themselves from beneath Yu Sheng’s feet, spreading rapidly in intricate, converging patterns.
Within moments, the Alchemy Formation required to forge a Doll was complete.
Yu Sheng controlled the process with precision, a smile gradually forming on his face.
[Yes, this is how it should be used—long overdue.]
Lowering his head, he met Irene’s astonished gaze.
“That’s actually pretty convenient!” the little doll exclaimed.
“Of course! I should’ve been making use of this place ages ago.” Yu Sheng grinned. He instructed Miss Foxy to help, and together they quickly arranged the ritual candles. Then he raised a temporary wall around the area to shield the flames from the Valley’s wind, and lifted the oil-painting-frame-bearing Irene, setting her on a specific node of the formation.
Preparation was soon complete. Yu Sheng’s eyes now turned toward the rebar.
“Next, I’ll forge the Doll’s skeleton,” he said quietly.
Irene looked up at him. “Then go on.”
Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, face suddenly stern. “…I forgot to buy a welding torch.”
Irene froze for two seconds. “…”
Then the Doll leapt up in fury. “You did all that prep and brought all this rebar, but no welding torch?!”
Yu Sheng scrambled to defend himself. “I just forgot, okay? Who thinks about a welding torch when making a Doll…”
“Who the hell thinks of using rebar for a Doll in the first place?! You went that far and couldn’t think of a welding torch?!”
The Hotel’s top two leaders were at each other’s throats, squabbling like boiling kettles. Just as Irene sank her teeth into Yu Sheng’s hand, a sudden flash erupted beside them.
Yu Sheng turned his head in shock. Miss Foxy had just used a focused, blinding arc of Fox Fire to slice through a piece of rebar. Then she fused two rods together with the flame dancing from her tail.
Moments later, she held the welded bars in one hand and hugged her tail with the other, looking up at Yu Sheng expectantly.
“Benefactor, does this work?”
Yu Sheng blinked. “…That’s Argon Fox Weld!”