Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Sanctuary of the Mind

Yu Sheng set this first The Door on the platform’s central axis at The End Web. He raised a wall behind it, then shaped two tall rows of pillars in front. Between them, he built a smaller stone platform. That finished the first round of “decorating.”

It was only a rough start, but as the Hotel’s base, it finally had a proper look.

When those tasks were done, Yu Sheng meant to visit the deepest part of the Valley again to check the Celestial Shuttle’s Crash Site. He still remembered talking with Bai Li Qing about bringing in a team of Special Affairs Bureau experts to investigate. Building the Portal took even longer than he expected, though, so he had to put that trip off.

It was time to visit the waste and confirm whether that “mind shelter” worked as planned.

He slipped into sleep, went down, and passed through the dim, shadowy veil. Entering the waste grew easier every time. He hardly needed Irene to hypnotize and guide him now. By will alone, he sank into the dream and stepped onto the waste. When he opened his eyes on the far side of the veil, there was the gloomy gray sky and the endless plain.

He drew a breath and followed the tug that led him onward. Irene and Foxy appeared a heartbeat later in this mind space and moved with him. They had not gone far when two familiar figures came into view.

Little Red Riding Hood was resting on the grass with her Wolf Pack. A slim Snow White stood nearby. Not far away, the vast ghost of a Thunder Titan faded from the air.

As Yu Sheng walked closer, he heard Little Red Riding Hood grumbling about sneak attacks, almost winning, and people not fighting fair.

“You did not win again, huh,” Yu Sheng said with a grin as he came up behind the girl. “Did you get beat up pretty badly?”

“If I had won, I wouldn’t be here,” Little Red Riding Hood said, shooting him a look before flopping onto the grass. “It makes me so mad. I had the fight under control. Then something burst up under my feet. I panicked, and when you panic, you mess up. I am furious.”

The red clad JK kept muttering, clearly still angry. Snow White stood by with a helpless face. After listening for a while, she sighed and said, “You did well. I got beat even worse. The Bronze Titan and the Frost Titan almost got killed by that crazy woman.”

Little Red Riding Hood curled her lip, suddenly sat up, and said, “Next time I will try a new plan.”

Snow White said, “You said that last time.”

Yu Sheng listened in silence, but a strange look slowly came over his face.

Little Red Riding Hood finally noticed. She glanced up at him and frowned: “Why do your eyes look weird? Is something wrong with me?”

Yu Sheng blinked out of his thoughts and said, “Two things. First, your mindset changed. Did you feel it? Your fear of the Black Forest is fading.”

Little Red Riding Hood froze, then looked down, thinking.

“I guess it is,” she murmured, and after a while she whispered, “So this is what it feels like to have confidence.”

Understanding what had changed in her, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly smiled.

“Feels nice,” she said, lifting her head to him. “So what is the second thing?”

Yu Sheng asked, “Did you see the Squirrel this time?”

“Squirrel?” Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyebrows, not sure why he brought it up. Then doubt flickered over her face. “Now that you say so… I did see it, but it was acting strange, distracted. I asked things, it would not answer. It only told me, ‘You will know.’ No idea what happened.”

It seemed the Squirrel had not told her the old truth yet.

Yu Sheng let out a small breath. He was not surprised.

Right then, he felt something and turned his eyes to the distance.

In the next second, a huge shadow appeared over the plain. An upside down, shattered spire bloomed in the sky. Within the cracking image, wild golden hair grew and then snapped away, fading. Countless shadowy monsters roared and vanished into the Rift at the broken spire’s heart. A slim figure wrapped in golden hair fell from those fading shadows, and as she fell, the shining hair quickly lost its power and turned black.

A sharp shriek ripped open the sky. A Pumpkin Carriage, coming apart, burst from tangled Space Rifts and swooped under the falling Rapunzel to catch her. Hot fragments and smoke gushed from the rear. Like a failing airship, it tilted and fell toward the ground.

Endless roses erupted from the earth like an upside down fountain, surging up to meet the crashing Pumpkin Carriage and soften the landing. From inside came a girl’s cry: “Ah, the thorns, the thorns. Sleeping Beauty, it would be better if you did not catch me… ow, ow, ow, the thorns.”

Before Yu Sheng could react, another ripping screech shook the waste. A burning, odd looking fighter climbed out of the rose sea, then immediately crashed in the barren field. Smoke billowed. A black haired girl in a strange commander’s uniform crawled out of the thorns. Dragging herself forward, she yelled into a radio, “Scarecrow, shift your gun nests fifty meters left. The Witch Coven is charging.”

Yu Sheng stared, speechless. As the commander girl met his dazed eyes, smoke rose on the horizon. Dragonfire lit the sky. A Red Dragon screamed, punched through the clouds, and fell crookedly to the earth far away.

Where it hit, a winding Giant Beanstalk shot up. A sea of fire burned along it. In the unreal flames, a girl’s wild laughter rang out: “Hahaha, today all of you must meet your great great grandma. I mean it.”

A burly knight in medieval plate armor planted a boot and kicked the laughing girl off the Giant Beanstalk, shouting, “For the King’s glory.” As he kicked, Yu Sheng caught a glimpse of a Kitty head painted on the knight’s shield.

The scene was pure chaos.

Irene floated beside Yu Sheng’s head, gasping every few seconds with a fresh, “Wow.” Even Foxy, who usually accepted anything, widened her eyes. Her tail spread like a fan as she clapped and said, “Hey, this is lively.”

She was actually pleased.

After who knew how long, the sudden commotion finally eased. Rifts still popped up at times, so an unlucky loser would tumble in with some strange pose, but at least they weren’t pouring in anymore. Flames dwindled. The rose fields withered like a dream. Smoke lifted. The fallen Red Dragon turned to mist. The Fairy Tale members gradually figured out what was happening. In a rush of confusion, they pulled back their runaway power, checked themselves and each other, and then gathered toward Yu Sheng.

As the oldest among them, Little Red Riding Hood naturally took charge of keeping order and explaining what was going on.

Yu Sheng, meanwhile, was numb.

He admitted his imagination had been too weak. Even after Snow White and the seven Thunder Titans last time, having the whole Fairy Tale Organization arrive in a pile was beyond what he had pictured.

After holding it in for a while, he muttered to Snow White, “Do all your members have a style like this?”

Snow White clearly did not get it and said, “Like what? This is normal.”

“…”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” she said, finally understanding and showing a wry look. “It is not that bad. They fell in together, so it looks messy. When you met Little Red Riding Hood alone, you handled it fine, right?”

Yu Sheng fell quiet, then pointed at the black haired girl in the commander’s uniform, head wrapped in bandages, several bodyguard drones hovering by, who was resting with a serious face: “That one, Dorothy?”

Snow White said, “Right.”

“What is her subset like?” Yu Sheng asked.

“In the war torn Kingdom of Oz, Dorothy’s Resistance Army fights a long war against the evil Witch Coven,” Snow White said.

“And the one who got a head full of thorns?” Yu Sheng asked.

“Cinderella, subset Eternal Ball,” Snow White said. “Every night after midnight, she has to fight her way out driving the Pumpkin Carriage. Good news, the carriage flies. Bad news, the Prince set up anti air batteries around the Castle.”

“The blonde from earlier… oh, I have met her, Rapunzel,” Yu Sheng said. “She had black hair last time, so I didn’t recognize her at first.”

“Right, Rapunzel, subset High Tower,” Snow White said. “Random floors in the tower spawn Demons. Honestly, her case is mild. She just needs to fight Demons in the tower. The setup is simple.”

Yu Sheng said nothing.

He sat on the grass with a blank face and tilted his head up at a forty five degree angle to watch the sky, [Any more princesses or princes about to drop?].