Chapter 296

Chapter 297: A Clue from Xuan Che

Yu Sheng was very surprised by Xuan Che’s answer. He asked again to be sure and found that Xuan Che meant it.

“You came from out of town. You don’t need to join a local disaster investigation,” said Yu Sheng, frowning.

“To fight evil and protect the people is the duty of us cultivators. Besides, since our founding, my Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain has kept the rule that ‘those with great power help the world,’” said Xuan Che, smiling with gentle pride. “Do not worry. Though our home is not as special as the Borderland, we also have Otherworlds. Our cultivators have experience exploring them and solving entities. We will not hold you back.”

“It’s not that I think you’ll hold us back…” Yu Sheng started, but since the other side had said so much, he swallowed the rest. He only warned: “Then wait while I drive the house into the Otherworld. We will go out together. Mistbound City is very strange, so move carefully.”

“…?”

Xuan Che felt he had heard yet another fresh string of words, but he had heard many such strings today and could not be bothered to ask.

Yu Sheng stepped up, took the doorknob, and, like last time, calmed his mind. He guided No. 66 Wutong Road to shift position and moved toward the coordinates of Mistbound City.

Xuan Che sensed subtle changes. He seemed to hear a hollow, deep rumble from the depths of the mansion, as if a huge invisible creature were slowly moving its limbs. The whole house’s “mood” flipped in an instant. Everything felt alive. Even the ceiling lights, the wallpaper, and the tissue box on a nearby table seemed to look at him without malice.

All those feelings lasted only a heartbeat. Before he could truly react, everything grew quiet again. From not far away, Yu Sheng said: “Alright, we’re here.”

He pushed the door open, and the fog-shrouded street appeared outside.

Startled, Xuan Che stared out. At the instant the door opened, his divine sense finally broke free of its suppression and reached the world beyond No. 66 Wutong Road. Then he understood what Yu Sheng had meant by “drive the house into the Otherworld.”

He stared at Yu Sheng, and one thought circled in his head: [Expert!]

Yu Sheng did not notice his expression. He was busy choosing which Irenes to bring.

“Bring a damage dealer and a controller. The Pro and the rebar one will come with me. The other two stay home and watch the house,” said Yu Sheng quickly. “If anything weird shows up outside the windows, let me and Foxy know right away.”

“We can bring one more!” said Irene (Lotus), tipping her face up at the door. “More people means more power!”

“I have no more space on my shoulders,” said Yu Sheng helplessly. He glanced at the two who had already taken rightful seats on his shoulders, Steel Irene on one side and Pro Irene on the other. “Unless you climb down and walk.”

As soon as he said that, the little doll on the floor rattled off a rapid string: “Have a safe trip, be careful out there, come back early, and if anything happens I will contact you at once!”

…

A moment later, Yu Sheng, carrying two Irenes, led Foxy and Xuan Che into the thick fog.

He still held the savage tetanus staff. In the last fight with the artificial saintess, the “war club” had been slashed full of scars by her fingertip blades. Nearly half the blades and rebar had been shaved off. But Foxy later repaired and reinforced it, and now it looked savage again.

The two Irenes on his shoulders kept reminding him: “Do not suddenly put that thing on your shoulder. Remember we are on both sides!”

“I know, I know. You have said that eight hundred times since we stepped out the door,” said Yu Sheng, annoyed.

Since earlier, Xuan Che’s gaze had drifted to the tetanus staff again and again. He opened his mouth several times, then stopped, a hint of caution and doubt in his eyes.

Yu Sheng noticed. “Interested in this spiked mace?” he asked casually. “You have been eyeing it for a while.”

“Please forgive me, Mr. Yu. I only have one question,” said Xuan Che, turning very solemn. “Why does this weapon carry such a heavy aura of blood and slaughter? And even layers of deathly energy?”

He looked like a man thinking, [If I ask, I might die, but not asking would betray my heart.] Yu Sheng paused for a beat, and before he could answer, Irene on his shoulder burst out laughing: “Hahaha, he thinks you’re an evil cultivator!”

“Don’t worry,” said Yu Sheng, giving a helpless tug at the corner of his mouth as he shook the club. “The bloody smell is mine. I coated it with my own blood. It works especially well on some weaker entities. The cost is that it looks a bit creepy. As for the deathly energy, it’s probably because I have taken down a lot of entities with it.”

“Is that so?” murmured Xuan Che. He still looked unsure, but he accepted the answer.

“Don’t overthink it,” added Irene. “Our hotel always does things fair and square. If a person ends up dead, they must have deserved it.”

The more Yu Sheng listened, the stranger it sounded. “Hold on, are you hinting at something?”

“You’re overthinking it,” said Irene, tapping the back of his head and changing the topic very fast. “Do we really need to explore here ourselves? The Special Affairs Bureau has already sent lots of people. We could just wait for their report.”

“Not the same,” said Yu Sheng, shaking his head. “This fog can show up at the windows of No. 66 Wutong Road. That alone bothers me. Add the artificial saintess who ran away last time…”

“Huh? What about that artificial saintess?”

“She appeared nearby,” said Yu Sheng calmly as his eyes swept the fog. “She hasn’t gone far.”

At once, both Irenes perked up: “C Buckle!”

Foxy’s ears pricked the moment she heard Yu Sheng. She watched the surroundings with care and scanned the area quickly: “Benefactor, this is not far from where we were attacked last time.”

“So that C Buckle circled around and still came back to the edge of the old city?” said Irene, hugging Yu Sheng’s head with a solemn face. “Is something really hidden here?”

“It is hard not to suspect it,” said Yu Sheng with a frown. “But the Special Affairs Bureau already sent the Deep Dive Squad to search this area. They found nothing.”

Xuan Che had been listening quietly. Now he spoke: “The ‘artificial saintess’ you mentioned, is that the automaton crafted by the Holy Revere Hermitage?”

“Yeah,” said Yu Sheng with a nod. “Have you dealt with it before?”

“I have not seen one with my own eyes,” said Xuan Che, very serious, “but my sect mates have said it is extremely hard to fight. Its moves are strange, its speed is very fast, and it can hide in shadows and shift in an instant. Ordinary cultivators are not its match. You need an expert, or many working together.”

Yu Sheng was surprised. “You people who can soar in the sky and burrow through the ground still find a metal shell hard to handle?”

“That ‘metal shell’ is the main problem,” sighed Xuan Che. “I have heard it is made of starship armor. It is not only tough, but lined with many sinister techniques. Regular spells almost do nothing to that shell, and these machine puppets are not afraid of curses, illusions, or bindings. Just in breaking arts alone, most cultivators lose half their power when they meet her, and what’s left is to rush in and fight at close range. Flesh against starship armor is dangerous.”

He paused, then added: “Of course, stronger cultivators are not afraid. There are ways to deal with her. It just takes some effort.”

Yu Sheng listened closely, then suddenly remembered something Bai Li Qing had told him recently.

The Holy Revere Hermitage has a fairly fixed range of activity and has kept a low profile for the past decade.

He frowned, recalling another detail Bai Li Qing had mentioned: Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain’s sector, Featherwing-13b, is relatively sealed off. Its security level may not match the Borderland, but it is not far off.

“Did an artificial saintess ‘invade’ your place too?” Yu Sheng asked, frowning. “When?”

“In the past one or two years,” said Xuan Che, face grave. “On several frontier planets, people saw traces of the so-called Hermitage Order. Twice, an artificial saintess appeared. They did not cause major damage. The cultivators stationed there drove those villains out in time. But their appearance was suspicious.”

“What were they doing?” asked Yu Sheng quickly.

“It looked like smuggling something,” said Xuan Che after thinking, then he shook his head. “Sadly, those villains are always careful. When the mountain guardian cultivators arrived, they found only many wrecked warehouses and machines. What exactly they were doing is still unknown.”