Chapter 192

Chapter 192: A Smooth Dream Entry

In the end, Princess Snow White politely refused Yu Sheng’s offer of a straw or a paper cup and chose to go straight in.

“Honestly, this looks kind of wrong,” Irene commented from the side as she watched. “Three parts freaky, seven parts perverted, and the other ninety parts look like you’re performing an evil ritual you can’t show in public. Princess Snow White, if you kneel on one knee and swear loyalty while we light a few candles, I can snap a photo and report you straight to the Special Operations Bureau…”

“Say two fewer words and nobody will mistake you for a mute,” Yu Sheng shot Irene a look. Then, after hesitating for two or three seconds, he couldn’t help reminding Princess Snow White, who was still pulling a little too earnestly, “Uh… a little is fine. You don’t need to drink until you’re full. My arm is starting to go numb…”

Only then did Princess Snow White realize it. She quickly let go, wiped the “dragon fruit juice” from the corner of her mouth, and said awkwardly, “Sorry. You didn’t tell me how much I needed. I was worried the ritual wouldn’t work.”

Yu Sheng raised his hand and blew gently on the wound, thinking that this tiny girl had a terrifying amount of suction.

Foxy reached over at once and healed the small cut with practiced ease. She looked quietly pleased, as if she’d been waiting for an excuse to cast a healing spell on her benefactor.

“Then what?” Princess Snow White asked, smacking her lips as she tried to ignore the metallic taste. “What do I do next?”

“That’s it,” Yu Sheng said, waving a hand. “The rest is just waiting. Go do whatever you were going to do. This ‘ritual’ is that simple.”

Princess Snow White listened with half-belief, half-doubt, her brows knitting slightly. “So if I get into trouble in a nightmare tonight, I’ll enter that Wasteland you mentioned?”

“In theory, yes.”

“Oh.”

She asked a few more questions—details about the Wasteland, the steps, the timing. Only after she confirmed everything with Little Red Riding Hood several times did she finally relax and leave the room.

After the door closed, Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng like he’d turned into a stranger again. “Now what? What’s your plan?”

“What time do lights go out?” Yu Sheng asked.

“In an hour and a half,” Little Red Riding Hood replied. “Tonight, neither Snow White nor I need to stand watch. We’ll sleep with the other children after lights-out.”

“An hour and a half…” Yu Sheng thought briefly, then made up his mind. “All right. Then I’ll go home and sleep too. Let’s see what happens tonight.”

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and sent a message to the Special Operations Bureau. Then he casually opened the door to Wu Tong Road 66. “Sleep early. Sweet dreams.”

—

The wavering curtain in front of his eyes faded quickly, and the solid feeling of ground returned beneath his feet.

Yu Sheng opened his eyes in the dream and saw the endless gray Wasteland stretching out before him. The hazy, gloomy sky hung low as always. The whole world was quiet.

After steadying himself, he glanced to the side.

Foxy’s figure appeared, then Irene followed—floating in midair in her painting form.

“Honestly, your dream-guidance ability is really useful,” Yu Sheng said, looking at the hovering doll and praising her with complete sincerity. “You can even pull Foxy in.”

Irene puffed out her chest, smug, while still trying to sound modest. “It’s not that impressive. It’s just dream entry. Super easy.”

Foxy reached out, curious, and poked Irene’s floating painting.

“Sealing someone in a painting is an interesting trick,” Foxy said. “Irene, can you really not get out like this?”

“Stop poking!” Irene spun in the air under Foxy’s fingers and complained. “Why are you so handsy? I told you—when I’m in dream mode, I’m a painting!”

“It’s just us here,” Yu Sheng said, only half-listening to their bickering. He lifted his head and looked toward the distance. “Looks like Little Red Riding Hood and Princess Snow White haven’t fallen into nightmares yet.”

“Or they’re lucky tonight,” Irene said, resting her chin on her hand. “Maybe they get to sleep like normal people for once.”

Yu Sheng nodded. “Hope so.”

His gaze remained fixed on the far horizon.

“Benefactor, what are you looking at?” Foxy asked.

“This place,” Yu Sheng said quietly. “I’m curious what it is, where it is, and what it has to do with me. I know almost nothing about it—so little that using it as shelter for Fairy Tale’s children feels reckless.”

He exhaled. “But we don’t have a choice. If we did, I’d spend more time investigating it properly.”

As he spoke, his eyes drifted again toward the only thing in the Wasteland that could be called scenery: the small hill in the distance.

“What I’m most curious about is that mountain.”

“That mountain?” Foxy shaded her eyes and squinted. “What’s on it?”

“No idea,” Yu Sheng said. “And that’s the problem. I can’t reach it no matter what. Everywhere else, I can move there instantly with a single thought, like traveling through a dream. But the mountain is the exception.”

He frowned. “It’s always in the same spot. Walking doesn’t work. Teleporting doesn’t work.”

Foxy listened, then suddenly straightened. “Then I’ll run over and try.”

“You?”

Foxy’s expression turned serious. “Benefactor, you’re special here. Maybe the restrictions are for you. That mountain won’t let you get close, but I’m an outsider. Maybe it won’t affect me.”

Yu Sheng blinked, surprised by how reasonable that sounded.

“Then go take a look,” he said. “Be careful. If anything feels off, come back fast.”

“Okay!”

Foxy sprinted toward the hill. After a few dozen meters, she lowered her body and transformed into a huge nine-tailed demon fox. She accelerated in a blur, her figure becoming a silver-white phantom pushed by nine streams of foxfire. A deafening sonic boom tore through the air as she blasted into the distance.

Yu Sheng watched closely. As seconds passed, his brows slowly furrowed.

Foxy grew smaller and smaller until she was only a bright speck. But the hill remained exactly where it had been—still far away, still unreachable.

It was as if the distance between Foxy and the mountain was locked in place, to the point that it didn’t even obey the usual rule of near being large and far being small.

Even Foxy seemed to notice. She slowed hard, several tails flipping direction to reverse-thrust. A bright flash flared in the distance—and then she came racing back.

Only when she skidded to a stop in front of Yu Sheng, slightly out of breath, and returned to human form did the delayed rumble of her sonic boom finally catch up.

“No, Benefactor,” Foxy said quickly. “I can’t reach it. It stays that far away. And when I looked back… you were so far I could barely see you!”

Yu Sheng’s frown deepened. He stayed silent for a long time.

“Then don’t try again,” he said at last, voice firm.

Foxy nodded fast. “Mm-hm.”

Just then, Yu Sheng caught a twisted ripple in the air above the nearby grass.

Before he could focus on it, a figure in red and several wolves made of shadowspawn tumbled out of the distortion and hit the ground in a mess. The wolves were still snarling and lunging as they landed, like they’d been fighting a powerful enemy a moment ago.

Yu Sheng and the others hurried over and helped Little Red Riding Hood up. She looked a little stunned from the fall.

Irene floated to her side. “Didn’t think you’d be the first one here. Couldn’t win?”

“I almost did!” Little Red Riding Hood snapped, already realizing she’d entered the Wasteland. She immediately launched into a furious list of grievances—how the other side had no honor, how it was a sneak attack, and so on.

Yu Sheng listened for a moment, then said casually, “Want me to open a door so you can go back and keep fighting?”

Little Red Riding Hood fell silent instantly. She sat down on the grass. “Tired. Resting.”

Then she noticed Irene floating nearby and blinked in surprise. “How are you—”

“Don’t ask!” Irene cut her off.

“…Fine, I won’t,” Little Red Riding Hood muttered. “No need to yell.”

Yu Sheng just smiled. He sat down on the grass beside Little Red Riding Hood.

“Will Princess Snow White come?” he asked.

“Very likely,” Little Red Riding Hood said more quietly. “Her situation has been terrible. Her power’s grown sharply these past two years, and it’s made the Bloodstained Court subset she faces mutate badly. She’s had trouble finding a stable dream for a long time…”

Yu Sheng nodded, saying nothing.

After a short silence, Little Red Riding Hood added, “Oh, and when she shows up, she might be fighting right before it—like I was. Don’t be surprised.”

“Surprised?” Yu Sheng frowned. “What’s there to be surprised about—she…”

A shriek of space-warping distortion cut him off mid-sentence.

Yu Sheng shot to his feet and looked toward the sound.

Huge figures were appearing in the air one after another.

They wore seven kinds of armor—gold, silver, copper, iron, rock, ice, and lightning. Each one hit the ground with a heavy boom.

A small girl sat on the shoulder of one of them like a commander, though she looked listless now.

Yu Sheng and the others stared, mouths open.

Then Little Red Riding Hood’s voice came softly from beside him.

“There. Princess Snow White—and her seven Thunder Titans.”