Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Yu Sheng’s Temporary Plan

Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised by Little Red Riding Hood’s answer. He didn’t have any leads either.

By instinct, he felt the two matters were connected. After all, both Little Red Riding Hood and Old Zheng were tangled up with the Fairy Tale Otherworld, and the Angel Cultists had targeted both of them. The sacrifice in the white Exhibition Hall was clearly a carefully arranged ritual with an obvious target.

But just as Little Red Riding Hood said, there was still a missing ‘connection’: the goal of the Angel Cultists. Sacrifice always seeks something, right? If they picked Little Red Riding Hood as the target, there had to be a reason.

Out of nowhere, Yu Sheng remembered a detail from his “talk” with the victim in the white Exhibition Hall.

It was the line those two Angel Cultists kept repeating while they worked the ritual: “Save the lord from the bitter sea.”

Little Red Riding Hood heard his whisper and asked: “What did you say?”

Yu Sheng said: “Their goal was to ‘save the lord from the bitter sea.’ You should remember that line. And also ‘aid His Descent.’ What if some traits of the Fairy Tale Otherworld can help a trapped Dark Angel break free? Or maybe the Fairy Tale Otherworld itself is a ‘sacrifice’ that can be used to let a Dark Angel Descent?”

Little Red Riding Hood’s eyes widened a little.

“Let’s treat it as a lead,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “I’ll tell the Special Affairs Bureau when I go. Either way, we now have one more reason to end the Fairy Tale Otherworld.”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded.

It was time to go home.

The Orphanage’s Cursed Children were waiting for their guardians, and Yu Sheng needed to check whether the doll and the fox had made a mess at home.

She asked: “Do you need me to take you back?”

“No need. I’ll use Door Opening,” said Yu Sheng. Just as he was about to leave, he remembered something and added: “Right, I forgot to tell you one thing. Xiao Xiao also entered my ‘dream.’”

Little Red Riding Hood, who was about to ride the wolves, stopped at once and looked at him in surprise. After two or three seconds, she realized what he meant and asked: “You mean that gray wasteland?”

“Yes,” said Yu Sheng. “At noon. She said she took a nap and fell into the Black Forest. While wolves were chasing her, she somehow escaped to that wasteland. I stayed with her for a while. The little miss wasn’t scared. In the end, she avoided a Black Forest erosion, which is good.”

Little Red Riding Hood blinked and said, thinking: “So that means when I left through The Door, Xiao Xiao was already awake. She was telling her friends in high spirits that she had a strange dream. I was in a rush and didn’t pay attention.”

Yu Sheng asked: “Do you remember what it was like when you entered the wasteland?”

Little Red Riding Hood frowned and thought carefully: “It was also when I entered the Black Forest. I met the Wolf Pack and was about to hide. I had just run a bit when I felt dazed. My foot slipped, and suddenly I was standing on a grassy field I didn’t know.”

They looked at each other and both fell into thought.

The Phantom Door opened out of thin air, and Yu Sheng stepped through.

The moment he put his foot on his own floor, Foxy’s happy, muffled voice came from the side: “Benefactor, you’re back!”

Yu Sheng looked over and saw Foxy at the dining table, twirling noodles with chopsticks into something as big as a drumstick and gnawing on it, sauce all over her face.

Then Irene’s voice came from behind him: “How did it go? Any new clues after I left early?”

Yu Sheng turned and saw three Irenes huddled on the coffee table. Two were in front of the computer, one typing and the other hugging the mouse with both hands. The last Irene had her head tilted back, staring this way with curiosity.

“Old Zheng’s case is complicated. I’ll tell you the details later,” Yu Sheng said as he hung his coat and walked over to wipe Foxy’s face. Halfway through, he frowned and asked: “Did you use your tail to wipe your mouth again?”

Foxy said: “Benefactor, how did you know?”

“Nonsense. The tip of this tail is the color of fried sauce.”

“Heh.” Foxy laughed, embarrassed. Then she yanked off the dirty tail, ran to the bathroom, and tossed it into the washing machine.

Yu Sheng stared and said: “Your tail can go in the washing machine?”

“Sure,” Foxy said like it was normal. “A tail isn’t an inconvenient thing.”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched. [So that’s why the freshly washed clothes at home kept having fox fur on them.]

He was used to odd things like this. After mumbling a few words, he told the doll and the demon fox: “Okay, stop eating and gaming for a bit. I need to say something.”

“I don’t need to stop,” said the Irene with the picture frame on her back as she hopped down from the coffee table and pattered over. “I’ll dedicate one body to listen. What is it?”

“I might have found a way to keep Little Red Riding Hood and the other Cursed Children at the Orphanage safe from the Fairy Tale for now,” Yu Sheng said with a serious face. Then he adjusted his wording and added: “Or put it this way, I might have found an emergency shelter method for when the erosion hits. It’s only a concept for now.”

Irene looked amazed and asked: “Huh? What method?”

“You remember how Xiao Xiao also entered my ‘dream,’ right?” Yu Sheng sat next to Foxy, speaking carefully. “I just checked details with Little Red Riding Hood. She also ‘switched over’ into that wasteland while entering the Black Forest and being chased by wolves. And back then, Foxy appeared on that prairie when the Hunger eroded her to a dangerous level. So here’s my bold guess.”

Before he finished, Irene already followed the logic and said: “You mean, if someone has formed a ‘link’ with you and has permission to enter that wasteland, then when they face mortal danger, their consciousness will be pulled into the wasteland to avoid it?”

“It’s only a guess,” Yu Sheng said, cautious but nodding. “We still need to test how it works and how reliable it is. But so far, Foxy, Little Red Riding Hood, and Xiao Xiao all entered the wasteland in similar ways.”

Foxy caught on and asked, eyes bright: “So, Benefactor, you mean…”

“We can’t solve the whole Fairy Tale Otherworld yet,” Yu Sheng said. “But if we can protect the Cursed Children who are already affected, that’s huge progress. Even if it fails, there’s not much downside. At most, I’ll drink two bowls of brown sugar water after I come back.”

Irene muttered, speechless: “Two bowls may not be enough. You might as well ‘sleep’ for half an hour.”

Yu Sheng waved a hand and said: “Small problem.”

“Fine, small problem,” Irene said, giving him a look. “Now the big problem. How do you plan to ‘do’ this?”

“How to do it?” Yu Sheng blinked. “Simple. Let them touch my blood.”

Irene stared at him like he’d lost it and said: “You mean you’ll gather dozens of minors, maybe have them stand in a circle for efficiency, then you’ll walk around bleeding and smear blood on each Cursed Child. Right?”

Yu Sheng still didn’t see the problem and asked the doll blankly: “What’s wrong with that?”

Irene said: “Try picturing that scene again.”

Yu Sheng finally started to get it and frowned in thought.

Foxy tapped his arm with her tail and said: “Benefactor, where I’m from, proper blood magic can’t be done like that. The ones who do it that way are evil cultivators. The Public Security Immortal would arrest them halfway through and give them at least three hundred years.”

Yu Sheng finally understood. His face went a bit stiff as he said: “That does sound off. The Cursed Children at the Orphanage might agree, but the security staff the Council sent would probably report me.”

“So you need a normal method,” Irene said, spreading her hands. “At least not one that looks so shady.”

Yu Sheng kept frowning and thinking hard.

He thought for a long time, then, as if a light went out in his head, said: “Fine, smearing blood one by one won’t work. What if we gather the Cursed Children and eat Mao Xue Wang instead?”

Irene blinked, blank.

A moment later, Miss Doll jumped up and yelled: “That sounds even creepier!”

Yu Sheng pouted, then looked at the fox miss and asked: “What do you think?”

Foxy stared at him, and two seconds later she started drooling: “Benefactor, I can try a bite first.”

Irene looked from one to the other, stunned. As the self-proclaimed peak of normal values at No. 66 Wutong Road, she felt this was getting way too wild.

There had always been plenty of wild in this house, though.

Luckily, before Miss Doll could jump again, Yu Sheng slapped his own forehead and said: “Wait, we should think this through. Mao Xue Wang isn’t great either.”

Irene let out a breath and said: “I knew it. You finally-”

Yu Sheng added: “Kids might not handle spicy food.”

Irene threw up her hands and yelled: “What is wrong with you!”