Chapter 191

Chapter 191: Blood Bestowal

That reason Yu Sheng gave was of course a joke.

In the end, Little Red Riding Hood called the “parents” in the Orphanage to the room, but not with a “takeout” excuse. She only said there was something important to discuss. Soon, a group filed in.

Yu Sheng stood and looked around. He did not know most of them, so he turned to Little Red Riding Hood to confirm: “Is everyone here?”

“A few have to stay in the dorm area to look after the younger ones,” she said. “We’ll rotate. It’s safer.”

“Oh, that works,” Yu Sheng nodded. Then his eye caught something behind the crowd and he raised a brow. “…Why is there a cat too?”

He saw a Tabby Cat sitting openly on the window ledge, as if it had come to the meeting. It looked very smug. He was shocked.

Before his words even faded, the cat lifted a paw to lick it and lazily said, “Why can’t I come?”

Yu Sheng: “…?!”

Not just Yu Sheng. Irene and Foxy were stunned too. The three of them stared at the Tabby Cat that had just spoken in a low, documentary narrator voice. After a long moment, they said in unison: “It talked!”

“It is ‘King,’” Little Red Riding Hood stood and introduced it to Yu Sheng with a playful smile, clearly happy to see him finally this surprised. “It’s also a member of our Fairy Tale Organization, and it’s a veteran. By the way, it is very strong, second only to the most powerful in our generation, ‘Snow White.’”

A small girl with ear length hair raised her hand: “By the way, I’m ‘Snow White.’”

Yu Sheng listened in a daze, face stiff like he had been hit by lightning for two hours. After at least half a minute, he “woke up.” He looked from the smug Tabby Cat to Little Red Riding Hood, back and forth, and finally squeezed out: “…Why?”

He didn’t even know why he asked why. [My head has only one word right now: why?]

“Oh, that’s a very long story,” the Tabby Cat said from the window, still with that magnetic documentary voice. “When I was a kitten, I wandered the streets. A child passing by gave me a piece of steamed bun, so I followed him home. That night, he had a dream and I fell into his dream. When I woke up, I could think like a person…”

Listening to this, Yu Sheng felt a strange, abstract feeling rise. He had seen plenty of abstract things here, but this felt a bit too much. As he tried to judge whether the cat’s story could make sense in the Borderland, he caught Little Red Riding Hood winking at him.

“Don’t believe it,” she whispered. “A different version every time.”

Yu Sheng hesitated: “Then…”

“No one knows what happened. Not even it,” she said, shaking her head. “When it first ran into the Orphanage, we thought it was a stray that sneaked in. Then it suddenly summoned a team of Adventurers and knocked down several people.”

The Tabby Cat waved a paw at Little Red Riding Hood: “I can hear you.”

Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands and looked at Yu Sheng: “Anyway, that’s how it is. Even though we don’t know the principle, we later confirmed it was affected by Fairy Tale, so we made it a full member. We also want to test with you to see if your plan affects a special individual like ‘King.’”

Yu Sheng did not know how to react. He sighed at how little he had truly seen. He glanced at Irene. The Doll turned her head away: “Don’t look at me. I haven’t seen this either.”

Yu Sheng looked to Foxy.

Foxy stared straight at the cat for a while. Her eyes lit up and she clapped: “Oh! It is an innate mystical beast sensing Earth Spirit energy!”

“…I’m so jealous of this Silly Fox,” Irene said, holding her head. “Such a simple and happy way to live…”

“Sister Red Hood,” Snow White spoke up, “let’s get to the main topic. Why did you call us here all of a sudden?”

Little Red Riding Hood turned to Yu Sheng at once.

“Ahem, I’ll explain,” Yu Sheng said, clearing his throat as he stood and looked around. He knew most of them had heard about him from Little Red Riding Hood. “In short, I have a defense plan…”

He explained in the simplest way he could. He laid out the background and the current situation with Little Red Riding Hood and Xiao Xiao. He also gave a brief intro to what made him “special.” He skipped many details, but he made the relationship between his blood and the wasteland very clear.

As expected, when he finished, the room went quiet.

The teens looked at each other and did not speak. Doubt showed on nearly every face.

The news was sudden. The plan sounded wild. If Little Red Riding Hood had not been a strong guarantor, Yu Sheng felt he himself would have seemed suspicious here.

“It’s normal to have concerns. That’s why I called everyone to discuss first,” Little Red Riding Hood finally broke the silence. “I can confirm what Yu Sheng said is true. Both Xiao Xiao and I have been to the wasteland. We did not suffer any after effects from touching his blood. What is unclear is how effective this ‘shelter’ is. So far, we have only triggered the jump from the Black Forest to the wasteland once. There is also the question of whether everyone is willing to form something like a Blood Pact with a third party.”

Clearly, that last point was the heart of everyone’s concern.

“Blood Pact” is always a sensitive topic in the Domain of the occult. Forming one with an unknown being carries great risk. This was not rejection of Yu Sheng as a person. It was the caution these “big kids,” who had served as “parents” and Spirit Realm Detectives for years, had to keep.

Truthfully, Yu Sheng himself was not sure his plan counted as a Blood Pact.

“Come on, stop hesitating,” Irene, who lacked patience, stood up when she saw everyone still wavering, including the cat. “The Angel Cultists have you in their sights. Your situation is already on the edge. When you have a chance, you should grab it…”

Little Red Riding Hood shook her head: “Because we could die at any time, we are extra careful while we’re alive.”

Irene had no answer.

Little Red Riding Hood clapped her hands and turned to the group: “Go to the room next door and discuss. No rush.”

She had the authority of an older sister here, almost about to be an adult. People moved the moment she spoke. No one questioned her. The only exception was the cat, who still acted aloof.

The cat left last. At the door, it looked back at Yu Sheng with a serious gaze.

“I’ll go keep an eye on them,” Little Red Riding Hood said to Yu Sheng with a nod.

Yu Sheng did not speak. He only waved.

She left, and the room fell quiet.

Foxy rummaged in her tail, pulled out two chicken legs, and handed one to Yu Sheng: “Benefactor, have a drumstick.”

Yu Sheng patted her tail: “You eat. I’m not hungry.”

The quiet room filled with the sound of Foxy chewing through both drumsticks in one go.

Yu Sheng waited patiently, not nervous at all.

After some time, he heard footsteps at the door.

The door opened. Little Red Riding Hood walked in with a small, thin figure behind her, the girl called “Snow White.”

Yu Sheng raised a brow: “Looks like you picked the first tester.”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded: “Yes. We decided to send one person to try.”

“Why her?” Yu Sheng asked. Then he added quickly, “Just curious.”

“No problem answering. Because besides me, Snow White is the least stable,” she said evenly. “She has the strongest destructive power among us, but because her power releases too fast, her erosion level is high. She’s sixteen, and her state is close to mine. Now she is dragged into nightmares almost every day. She is perfect to test whether your ‘shelter’ works.”

The small girl called Snow White came to stand in front of Yu Sheng and stared without blinking.

“What do I need to do?” she asked, curious. “Do we need some kind of spirit link ritual?”

“No need to make it complicated,” Yu Sheng said with a smile. He took out a small knife and drew a line on the back of his hand, then said, “Sip.”

Snow White, stern a second ago, froze: “…Huh?”

Seeing that, Yu Sheng realized this might be a bit much for someone who didn’t know him well. He thought for a moment: “Should I find you a straw?”

Snow White again: “…Huh?”