Chapter 214

Chapter 214: The Martial Virtue of Foxy’s Homeland

The interstellar craft with its streamlined shell and intricate frame lay buried among collapsed mountains. It was shattered beyond recognition, yet even the pieces still hinted at the elegance and mystery it must have had when it sailed the star sea.

To be honest, just from the outside, Yu Sheng could hardly connect this obvious “spaceship” with the pile of Cultivation terms Foxy had used, or even with its name, the Celestial Shuttle. But when he thought about it, he himself had no idea what a star age Cultivation civilization’s ship should look like, so maybe looking like this was reasonable.

Song Cheng and Bai Li Qing walked up close to the wreck of the Celestial Shuttle and craned their necks to study this strange looking craft.

A silent pair of eyes surfaced behind Bai Li Qing’s back and watched with curiosity too.

Song Cheng murmured as he compared details: “It really is a style I’ve never seen. At first glance it’s a little like the Algladians’ Node-Class Youth Formship, but only the hull looks maybe thirty or forty percent similar. If this thing did crawl in from outside the known universe, do you think it could be related in principle to the Dark Angels’ ‘invasion’?”

Bai Li Qing did not answer at once. She pressed her lips, as if speaking in her heart with her “sister.” After a long moment she shook her head and said quietly: “The exterior tells us nothing, and the internal structure is beyond our understanding, but the residual energy reactions inside are still worth analyzing. If possible, we should separate its energy System. Back-solving from the System, we can guess what level of travel this craft supported. Flight inside a star system and crossing between galaxies require energy on completely different scales, and boring through a ‘world’ would need power we can hardly imagine.”

“That calls for an Organization of experts, and a joint team across Domains since it might be from ‘outside,’ and no one can say what principle it uses,” Song Cheng said, then paused to think before adding: “We should contact the Academy. They’d be very interested.”

“There is a lot here to attract them, not just this craft,” Bai Li Qing said softly as she glanced toward Yu Sheng. “The first Entity to be permanently erased, the first Otherworld parasitized by an Angel yet rendered harmless, the Portal Yu Sheng opened…”

Song Cheng shrugged and added with a faint grin: “And the first Vegetable Patch planted inside the Otherworld.”

“Yes, a Vegetable Patch in the Otherworld,” Bai Li Qing said as she looked back at Yu Sheng in the distance. “Hearing all this, even the Academy’s hardest to invite professors will have trouble sitting still.”

Yu Sheng and Foxy sat on a nearby slope, letting the mountain wind brush past as they watched the view, and the bits of Bai Li Qing and Song Cheng’s talk drifted faintly to their ears.

Of course, Foxy’s ears worked better than Yu Sheng’s.

The Fox Maiden’s furry ears twitched smartly, angled toward Bai Li Qing. After a moment, she leaned in to whisper to Yu Sheng: “They’re planning to invite a bunch of very learned people to study the principles of the ‘Celestial Shuttle,’ and they also want to study your Vegetable Patch, benefactor.”

“That’s not a surprise. Bai Li Qing has always been interested,” Yu Sheng said as if he had expected it. He reached out to rub the fluff behind Foxy’s ear and asked: “What about you, what do you think?”

Foxy blinked, a beat behind, and stared at him: “Me?”

“The Celestial Shuttle is yours. It’s one of your few links to your homeland,” Yu Sheng said, looking seriously into the Fox Maiden’s eyes. He knew Foxy, who often drifted through life, likely hadn’t thought about what came next. Her reactions were always unhurried, so he had to remind her. “This is your call. Are you willing to let a bunch of ‘outsiders’ study it? They’ll almost certainly take it apart. If you don’t want that, I can turn them down for you.”

The fox went still, as if this was the first time she had truly considered it. Then she sat down beside Yu Sheng on the slope, pulled both tails into her arms, and thought hard.

After a while she tugged on Yu Sheng’s sleeve and said: “Benefactor, left here like this, these things are just wreckage.”

The Fox Maiden lifted her head and met his eyes: “You can mourn wreckage for ten thousand years, and it is still wreckage. Mourning alone is useless.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes widened a little as he looked at her in surprise.

“Let them study it. A crowd of scholars is fine. Taking it apart is fine. Even moving it to their own facility is fine. I’ve kept what I wanted to keep. For the rest, I don’t mind,” Foxy said as she pulled Yu Sheng’s arm, making him sit close, and lazily swept his back with her big fluffy tail. “I feel the people at the Special Affairs Bureau are fairly reliable. If they really find clues, they should tell us something, at least a part. Even if they hide everything, the worst case is the same as now, where we know nothing.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, his expression a bit complicated, and said: “What if things get worse? Don’t blame me for having a vivid imagination. Maybe I’ve read too many novels and watched too many movies. Say some force, not necessarily the Special Affairs Bureau, maybe the Algladians, the Academy, or some group we don’t know, has bad intentions. After they get information about your homeland, they try something nasty, you know, the usual plot, like an invasion. What then?”

Foxy looked surprised, but after staring at him for a few seconds, she suddenly laughed.

“They won’t win,” she said.

Yu Sheng took a second, then understood what she meant by “won’t win.”

“They won’t win,” Foxy repeated before going on: “And my homeland, my people, and the Skyfolk won’t care. Risk and threats are normal parts of evolution. What matters is winning at the end. That’s what the school taught us.”

“So your homeland’s martial virtue is that abundant?” Yu Sheng asked.

“Is it?” Foxy thought it over, uncertain. “Anyway, Teacher said the Skyfolk’s order among the stars is ‘peaceful coexistence.’ You kill those who don’t accept peaceful coexistence, and the rest will accept you. This process is called ‘Great Unity.’ The final form of Great Unity is peace.”

Cold sweat slid down Yu Sheng’s back as he listened. [This kind of martial virtue feels a bit too abundant.] He also was not sure how much of what this miss said was true. Foxy had dropped out of grade school, then drifted for decades. Who knew how much she remembered right, how much she filled in herself, or how much she misunderstood because she didn’t listen in class.

Just then he finally noticed the big furry tails sweeping across his back.

He asked, puzzled: “What are you doing?”

Foxy tilted her head and said with a straight face: “Rua.”

Yu Sheng went silent: “…”

So he had always idly rua Foxy’s tail, and now this miss knew how to rua him back.

…

After that, Yu Sheng used Door Opening to send Song Cheng and Bai Li Qing back to Special Affairs Bureau headquarters. Before they left, they discussed a rough plan for deeper research on the “Celestial Shuttle.” But the more urgent problem was still the threat from “Fairy Tale” and the Dark Angels’ “Anka Aila,” so Yu Sheng focused on the orphanage.

At the Valley, work on the resettlement site was still busy and orderly. Yu Sheng left Foxy and Irene there to watch the progress, and he himself went straight to the orphanage.

It was already late at night, but there was always a “parent” on duty.

Little Red Riding Hood was tonight’s duty parent. When Yu Sheng arrived with a greeting, she was patrolling the east building’s corridor.

The corridor was extra quiet at midnight. Cool night air wrapped everything. Yu Sheng walked slowly with Little Red Riding Hood. As they passed a window, he turned to glance outside.

The lively daytime play area had become a blurred silhouette under the night, with swings, a sandbox, a slide, and a climbing frame. Everything slept quietly in the darkness. Seen through the corridor window, it carried a faintly eerie tinge.

With all that had happened lately, Yu Sheng could not tell if that eerie feeling was just in his head. [Maybe I’m spooking myself.]

Little Red Riding Hood, though, took it in stride. She said with an easy smile: “If the night feels eerie to you, then nothing here is not eerie after dark. The Cursed Children’s dreams often nudge reality a little. A table moves, a light flickers on, a window creaks. We’re used to it. Relax and stop scaring yourself. Real anomalies make a much bigger racket.”

Yu Sheng said casually: “I thought Spirit Realm Detectives were extra sensitive to anomalies, going on high alert at the tiniest sign.”

“Sharp and sensitive aren’t the same,” Little Red Riding Hood said seriously. “A Spirit Realm Detective must notice every rustle, but also tell true danger from self-made illusions. The balance is the key. Too loose or too tense both fail. If you’re too loose, an Otherworld Entity might kill you by accident. If you’re too tense, you often drop dead on your own before any Entity needs to act.”

Yu Sheng pressed his lips together and walked on by her side. After a while, he broke the silence and said softly: “The resettlement site in the Valley is under construction. If we’re fast, the move starts tomorrow.”

She nodded: “That’s about what I expected.”

“Do the Cursed Children all know?”

“All set. They’re very sensible,” Little Red Riding Hood said. She paused, then pulled a crooked smile. “Look on the bright side, starting tomorrow we won’t have to patrol these halls at night…”

Yu Sheng answered with a chuckle: “On the not so bright side, the Valley doesn’t have a ‘night’ at all. Keeping the little Cursed Children on a schedule will be your next big challenge. Good news is, the blackout curtains from the Special Affairs Bureau work pretty well.”

Little Red Riding Hood rubbed her temple and muttered: “Bro, now I’ve got a headache.”