Chapter 164

Chapter 164: Irene MK-II (But Still Not Taller)

It had to be said: Foxy’s argon fox welding was shockingly good.

With fox fire enhanced by immortal arts—or maybe demon arts—she cut and fused metal with effortless precision, the seams smooth and clean. There was a brutal beauty to it, made of strength and raw stats. More importantly, she could cut and weld in one flow.

After a quick explanation and a bit of setup, the alchemic platform started throwing sparks.

The rebar rods were cut into different lengths by ratio, then arranged and fitted into the outline of a doll’s skeleton based on the marks Yu Sheng had made back at the bench. Foxy directed several tails through the air like a cluster of anti-gravity robotic arms, adjusting angles and welding with crisp control. The air filled with the smell of hot metal. Hissing sounds overlapped as brilliant firelight lit Yu Sheng’s face.

Irene sat nearby with a blank expression, welding flashes flickering across her palm-sized features. Every few seconds, she muttered, as if trying to convince herself, “This isn’t alchemy… This isn’t alchemy…”

“How is it not alchemy?” Yu Sheng was practically glowing with excitement, and he argued the moment he heard her. “Isn’t smelting ‘refining’? Isn’t metal ‘gold’? If you refine metal, how is it not alchemy?”

As he spoke, he sat beside Irene and gestured at the blazing scene inside the formation, his tone oddly serene. “Isn’t it beautiful… The demon arts of a cyber fox immortal, secret alchemy, modern industrial rebar. Don’t you think the way these three come together has a kind of—”

“A kind of abstract beauty,” Irene finished flatly.

Yu Sheng considered it, then nodded. “…Fair.”

Just then, the flames finally stopped. Foxy wiped sweat off a forehead that didn’t even glisten and turned, waving happily. “Benefactor, it’s welded!”

“Great work, Foxy!” Yu Sheng clapped immediately. As he stood, he lifted Irene too. “Stop contemplating whether it’s abstract and get over here. Check if you’re satisfied with the frame I prepared for you.”

Irene kept muttering, but when she saw the finished piece, she went quiet.

In the center of the formation lay a doll skeleton welded to the height of a normal adult.

Irene stared at it for a long time, then slowly looked up at Yu Sheng, as if she’d only just dared to believe what she was seeing. “You… this size…”

“I promised I’d make you a one-sixty-seven body,” Yu Sheng said, setting Little Doll down with a faint smile. “Now we move to the next step.”

“Yes!!” Irene finally cheered. All her earlier complaints vanished on the spot. She jumped up, grabbed Yu Sheng’s arm, shook it hard, then ran to the spirit-infusion node and practically bounced in place. “Start, start! I want to see how you do the next part.”

Yu Sheng only smiled.

Then he began shaping the doll.

This time he didn’t prepare clay, and he didn’t use dough or lotus root. For this special “Irene body,” he wanted to try something bold.

He sprinkled the “alchemical materials” evenly over the rebar skeleton and across the ground around it.

Then he took a small knife, cut open the back of his hand, mixed his blood with the materials, and scattered that over the earth as well.

Under the curious gazes of Irene and Foxy, Yu Sheng stepped back to the outermost ring of the concentric circles. He drew a quiet breath, gathered his focus, then crouched and pressed his bleeding palm to the ground.

The platform began to tremble. A faint sound of friction and writhing rose from deep within the rock, as if the entire ground was slowly waking up.

Yu Sheng was going to shape Irene’s new body using the soil and stone of this otherworld valley.

After a brief delay, the center of the formation began to rise. The soil and stone moved as if alive, gray-white matter melting into a thick, flowing mud that surged and layered over the steel-forged skeleton, one coat after another. It rustled softly as it gathered and set.

Irene’s eyes widened. “Living soil…” she murmured. “He actually pulled it off?”

The living clay formed at an incredible speed. Before Irene even finished speaking, the body in the center already had a rough human shape.

Yu Sheng refined the last details with care, splitting fingers from palms, shaping facial features. He stepped into the formation and sat beside the body, using his hands directly, adjusting little by little.

Somehow, it felt easier to control than clay.

“He’s actually… taking it seriously,” Irene whispered to Foxy, tugging on her tail. “He made my last body a total mess. I thought he was always just winging it.”

“Benefactor is always serious,” Foxy said solemnly, eyes fixed on the forming body. “It’s just that what he focuses on usually isn’t the same as other people.”

Yu Sheng made the final adjustment.

It was faster than he’d expected. Smoother than he’d expected.

The doll, shaped from steel, soil, and stone, lay quietly within the formation. It hadn’t awakened yet, but it already showed the form of a girl—along with an atmosphere, a sense of vitality, as if it could sit up and breathe at any moment.

“Let me think… how did I do it last time…” Yu Sheng muttered, recalling the experience of making Irene’s second body. “Guide spirit-infusion. Right. Guide spirit-infusion and bring it to life…”

He pressed his hand gently to the doll’s forehead.

“Wake up.”

The stone began to throb.

“It’s time to live.”

The soil rose and fell in a faint rhythm.

“Are you ready to open your eyes—”

The steel skeleton shifted. The soulless body released a shallow breath.

Vitality appeared.

“Irene,” Yu Sheng called softly.

“Huh?” Little Doll beside him answered on reflex.

In the next instant, her consciousness was yanked away—pulled hard, pulled fast. A part of her detached. A new link snapped into place in her perception. For a brief moment, the sensory mismatch swallowed everything; she didn’t see what was happening around her. She only heard Yu Sheng utter a startled “Huh?” and Foxy seem to gasp nearby.

Then—nothing.

But it lasted only two seconds. Irene successfully entered and took over the new body. She opened her eyes, steadying herself in the unfamiliar third perspective.

“It worked!” Little Doll shouted from the center of the formation, snapping out of the disconnect. She pushed herself up, stood, planted her hands on her hips, and looked up at Yu Sheng and Foxy. “I can’t believe this mess actually worked. Yu Sheng, you really do have talent for alchemy. Look at my one-sixty-seven long—”

She froze.

Something was wrong.

Yu Sheng looked way too tall. Foxy looked way too tall.

Irene stared down at the ground in front of her, dazed. Then, through the eyes of her other body outside the formation, she saw what the new body looked like. A beat later, realization hit.

“Why am I still this tall?! Huh?!”

“I don’t know!” Yu Sheng looked just as baffled. “One second before you opened your eyes, this body was one-sixty-seven. Then it visibly started shrinking. Before I even reacted, it was down to just over half a meter. Foxy can vouch for me. I didn’t do anything.”

Foxy nodded furiously. “I can vouch! Benefactor didn’t do anything! You shrank on your own!”

Irene stood there, stunned, silent for a long moment. Yu Sheng was already worrying the doll might short-circuit from the shock when Irene suddenly snapped and screamed, “No—why?! The body was already one-sixty-seven, right?! It was already coming alive, right?! So how come the moment I got in, it was only half a meter tall?! Why?!”

Yu Sheng backed away and slid beside Foxy, whispering, “I think we shouldn’t provoke—”

Before he could finish, the other Irene standing at the edge of the formation turned her head. She drew a deep breath.

“Why—why—why?!”

Yu Sheng sighed at Foxy. “I forgot there’s still another one here.”

Then it became two Irenes running circles around the formation, then circles around Yu Sheng, chattering nonstop—one moment cursing fate, the next lamenting how hard it was to be a doll, then hopping, then shrieking. They blamed Yu Sheng’s “slippery hands,” then started suspecting something was wrong with their own soul. After six or seven loops, Yu Sheng’s head buzzed so hard he felt like an investigator listening to an Outer God ramble might not have it much worse.

When Little Doll reached her tenth lap, Foxy finally couldn’t take it. The demon fox girl wrapped both Little Dolls up at once with her tail. “Irene, you’re so loud…”

The two 66.6-centimeter-tall Little Dolls were pinned, unable to move. They muttered a few more complaints, then stared at Yu Sheng with faces full of despair.

“Am I going to be this height for the rest of my life?” wailed the Irene with the frame on her back.

The rebar-body Irene looked like she was about to cry. “Why is this happening…”

Yu Sheng had no idea how to comfort an unlucky doll, so he started making things up on the spot. “Temporary failure. Just temporary… Look, I’ve already found so many weird ways to do alchemy. Maybe one day I’ll build you a body with normal proportions. This shrink might be related to the materials. Or maybe the rose oil and stuff is unreliable… Next time I won’t buy it from the five-yuan shop.”

Rebar Irene froze.

Then she reacted.

She burst free from Foxy’s tail and pounced onto Yu Sheng’s arm. “Five-yuan shop?! Last time you said it was a ten-yuan shop!”

In the next second, Yu Sheng learned exactly what was different about an enraged Little Doll in a rebar-built body.

Rebar Irene was really strong.

Those tiny hands twisted his arm like a vise.