Chapter 103

Chapter 103: A Calm Sleepless Night

The night was deep.

In a high-rise apartment somewhere in Boundary City’s central district, Bai Li Qing—wrapped in a robe—poured herself a glass of strong liquor and strolled to the wide floor-to-ceiling window.

The room was unlit. Only the dim yellow glow of a nightlight in the corner outlined the furniture. Beyond the glass stretched a breathtaking night view: a massive city lit by neon, brilliant colors flashing and flowing between layers of dense high-rises like a living creature that could breathe. The land seemed endless, lights and shadows stretching into the distance until they vanished into hazy night.

In the window, Bai Li Qing’s own reflection looked especially thin.

Fog rose outside.

Thin mist seemed to form from nothing, spreading evenly until it became a rolling gray-white curtain. The city’s scenery turned hazy and unreal—and then a pair of indifferent eyes appeared outside the window, calmly watching her.

They had the outline of human eyes, but their color was drained away. The pale iris structure was almost identical to Bai Li Qing’s own. They floated in the mist and yet also looked like they were printed directly onto the glass, filling the entire window.

“Drinking at night isn’t a good habit, sister.”

The voice went straight into Bai Li Qing’s mind—mechanical and flat, but exactly the same as her own voice.

“It helps me calm down,” Bai Li Qing replied, swirling the glass. “Especially after a phone call jolts me awake from a nightmare.”

“A nightmare?”

“I dreamed I finally became you.”

“Oh.” The faded eyes blinked. “That really is a nightmare. Be careful. Don’t let me tempt and control you—though you’ve done fairly well so far.

“So why did you call me out right now?”

“I woke up suddenly and wanted to ask you something while I was at it,” Bai Li Qing said. “About that One-Eye that appeared in the valley at night. Did you find anything?”

The eyes narrowed slightly. The voice pressed into her mind again. “I traversed every place I have ever watched, including the otherworld we experienced together, and those death voids in deep space pierced open by dark angels. I found nothing related to that giant eye. It has never appeared in any of those places.”

“So even you can’t find it…” Bai Li Qing sounded faintly disappointed. “Fine. That’s what I expected.”

“Your mood is worse, sister,” the eyes said. “And you’re worried.”

“…Because more and more clues suggest the enormous eye entered this world without anyone noticing,” Bai Li Qing said quietly. “And considering the trail Alglade found in deep space months ago—something that may have been left by another unknown angel—it’s very likely more dark angels have already pierced through our world. More holes we haven’t discovered yet.

“Even right now, at this very moment, the holes could still be increasing.”

She stared absently at the liquor swirling in her glass. “Do you know what I’m most worried about?”

“You’re worried more dark angels are hiding in the real universe?”

“No. That’s everyone’s worry. What I’m more worried about is what’s behind dark angels—whether they’re a species, whether there’s organization to them, whether they can learn. Whether they’ve gradually learned the rules of our world and mastered more efficient ways to pierce death void… and learned to hide themselves on purpose.”

“That does sound worth worrying about.”

Bai Li Qing drank, feeling the burn spread through her mouth, then set the glass down on the floor beside her.

“Also, I had you scan the old city district and look for the hidden wu tong road No. 66. Did you find anything?”

“I found distorted traces, but I can’t see clearly,” the eyes said. For the first time, there was the faintest hint of frustration in that flat voice.

Surprise flickered across Bai Li Qing’s face. “Even you can’t see it clearly?”

“Yes,” the eyes said. “Every time I try to focus, my gaze feels like it gets… swallowed all at once. When I come back to myself, I realize I’ve been spacing out the whole time.

“But I have a guess.”

“What guess?”

“That so-called wu tong road No. 66 might not be there at all. That place is only an entrance…”

“That isn’t surprising,” Bai Li Qing said, cutting in before it could finish. “The agent who investigated submitted the same conclusion. They believe it’s a special space in a spatial rift, like those fortress-type otherworlds in Boundary City—drifting in the cracks of the Borderland’s spacetime structure…”

“No.” The eyes interrupted, sharp. “I mean it may not even be in the Borderland at all. It isn’t drifting anywhere. It’s just… too deep, too far, so what reflects into the Borderland as wu tong road No. 66 is only a very thin shadowspawn. When I feel my gaze being swallowed, it’s because I’m staring at a place so distant it can’t be seen.”

Bai Li Qing’s expression stiffened.

“Too deep, too far?” Her voice held a rare hesitation. “Do you know what that means? Your sight can even see subspace.”

“So it’s deeper than that, and farther than that. That is based on logical analysis, sister.”

Bai Li Qing blinked.

A moment later, the mechanical voice returned. “So what exactly is the person living in wu tong road No. 66?”

“I don’t know,” Bai Li Qing said softly. “I only know all intelligence so far suggests his personality and self-awareness are infinitely close to a human. And just now, he even called me.”

“Ah. So the call that woke you from your nightmare was from him.” The eyes blinked again. “What does he want?”

“He said he wanted to open a door and report it to me first. According to information from the operations department a few hours ago, he should have gone to the museum.”

“…Interesting.”

The eyes gradually dissolved into the fog. The mist outside the window retreated just as quickly, and the boundless city nightscape filled the glass again.

…

Yu Sheng barely slept at all in the second half of the night.

He lay in bed, tossing and turning. Thoughts, knowledge, new information—everything wriggled through his mind like countless Irenes crawling across the floor: squirming, climbing, hopping around, screeching…

That comparison was unfair, because if there were truly countless Irenes crawling everywhere, it would be much louder than this.

Still, his mind was a mess.

New knowledge about the otherworld. Little Red Riding Hood and the Fairy Tale organization behind her. Angel Cultists and dark angels. The kneeling victim in the white exhibition hall. And the moment the dead spoke to him.

Yu Sheng opened his phone and searched the Border Comms database for entries related to “converse with dead.” He actually found some.

According to the database, certain adepts outside the Borderland really did have the power to communicate with the dead. Some, called necromancers, could even temporarily anchor a dead person’s soul in the real world after performing a series of complex rituals and speak face-to-face in a brief exchange.

But no matter which entry he read, none of it matched what he’d experienced in the white exhibition hall.

The “techniques” listed either required complex rituals, advanced equipment, or something closer to holographic deduction—collecting massive amounts of data to reconstruct scenes from before death. Even the methods that supposedly could “communicate with the dead” produced vague, crude results—at best extracting a yes or no response from residual brain activity or a so-called soul.

None of them involved touching dried blood at a scene and having the dead suddenly turn their head and spit a rap at you.

Yu Sheng set the phone down and sighed into the dark.

Then he heard rustling from the bed.

He turned his head and saw Irene wriggling at the foot of it, rolling around, throwing a flying kick into the air, then flopping down with a thud.

Yu Sheng went blank.

Another big reason he couldn’t sleep was that there really was an Irene crawling all over his bed.

And she kicked people in circles.

A second later, Irene rolled again. Little Doll sat straight up, eyes still closed, and jabbed a finger forward.

“Me! Alice little house’s! Pay up—or I’ll beat you!”

Then she tilted, toppled off the bed, hit the floor with a thump, and crawled back up in a daze while clutching the bedsheet. As she squirmed toward Yu Sheng, she mumbled, “Don’t kick me… I fell off…”

Yu Sheng sighed.

There was no way he was sleeping now.