Chapter 314

Chapter 315: Yu Sheng’s Thoughts

Yu Sheng spent a long time telling Little Red Riding Hood how this spaceship came to be here, and he also gave Irene and the others a rough account of what happened after he followed the “tower” and got lost in deep space.

The little doll stayed blank for a long while, then with her world-shaking wisdom boiled his long story down to six words: “So we have a spaceship?!”

Yu Sheng said: “That’s the conclusion.”

Irene’s eyes went huge: “You said you’d buy an e-bike and still didn’t. Do you even have a license? Can a Class C license drive this thing?”

Yu Sheng almost laughed and sighed: “That’s not the same.”

“I’m a little scrambled, let me think,” Irene said, waving both hands. Then who knew what she thought of, because she climbed onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder and started grinning: “Hehe, a spaceship. It feels like we bought a major appliance for the house… a really major one. What will we use it for? Long trips through the Door? Scouting outside the Borderland?”

“I haven’t thought that far,” Yu Sheng said seriously as he patted her head, then looked at the others, “want to go inside and look around?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Little Red Riding Hood nodded fast. “This is my first time seeing something like this.”

“Excellent,” Xuan Che said with interest. “The Hermitage Order is trouble for our Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain as well, but those heretics are sly. We have crossed blades several times and can never catch their trail. Now that you have captured one of their ships intact, this is a fine chance to learn about them.”

Little Red Riding Hood could not hold her curiosity anymore and turned to Yu Sheng: “I wanted to ask, who is he…”

“Ah, I got so dizzy I forgot to introduce you,” Yu Sheng said, slapping his forehead. “This is Xuan Che from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain. Do you know that place? I know his master, and he’s here as a guest.”

Xuan Che bowed politely to Little Red Riding Hood: “I am Xuan Che. Pleased to meet you, miss.”

“This is Wang Jia Jia, but we usually call her by her codename, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’,” Yu Sheng added, pointing to the girl in red. “She’s the chief of the Fairy Tale Organization, works closely with the Hotel, and she’s my friend.”

“Uh, hello,” Little Red Riding Hood said, a little late to react. Then she suddenly got it: “Ah, Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain! The one that sells Immortal Spirit Pills?”

Xuan Che smiled and nodded: “Exactly.”

“They’re so expensive,” Little Red Riding Hood muttered. “I only bought them once, and Rapunzel stole all of them.”

Xuan Che and Yu Sheng: “…”

What could they say. Classic Rapunzel.

Yu Sheng introduced the squirrel and the hunter as well. Once everyone knew everyone, he steadied himself and pulled open a phantom Door. On the other side lay the inside of the Pillar of Order.

Ever since he learned Door Opening, he saved himself as many steps as possible.

They crossed the Door and finally entered the mysterious Pillar of Order.

The ship’s corridor looked like a grand cathedral, nothing like what Little Red Riding Hood and Irene imagined a spaceship would be.

“These cultists are terrible people, but their taste is solid,” Irene murmured from Yu Sheng’s shoulder, stretching her neck to look everywhere. “They almost turned the ship into a palace. The airtight doors even have reliefs. Are those marble statues on both sides?”

“The Celestial Ships built by the Grand Void Spiritual Axis do have decoration, but it is mostly simple and elegant, never so… cluttered,” Xuan Che judged. “The build time for this ship must be long, with much effort spent on needless detail. Even compared to other things the Hermitage Order makes, this is too lavish. Its purpose must be special, likely with meaning beyond practical use. Given the Holy Revere Hermitage’s obsessive creed, they probably built it to carry out a major ritual.”

Foxy’s verdict was simpler: “Flashy nonsense. I don’t like it.”

“I’m going to clear out these statues,” Yu Sheng said. “Those so-called Hermitage Elders are an eyesore. Clearing them will also make the corridors and rooms wider. As for the reliefs and murals, landscapes can stay. I’ll scrape the rest and put something else up.”

“Sounds like a big project,” Irene said, swaying her head. “What will you put up?”

“I haven’t decided,” Yu Sheng said. “The overall style is what it is, and I can’t change the main structure. Leaving bald patches on the walls looks bad, so they still need something. I plan to unleash my artistic tal-”

“How about we leave them empty,” Irene cut in.

“I mean I’ll unleash-”

“Empty is great.”

Yu Sheng: [Forget it, I’m not arguing with this doll. I’ll secretly show off my amazing artistic creativity later. If it doesn’t amaze them, scaring them works too.]

They passed many compartments and corridors, then took a lift into the tower’s Core Zone. From time to time Yu Sheng explained what a compartment did, based on how he “understood his own body.” He could not answer very technical questions, but he was accurate about the ship’s layout.

They walked and talked until they entered a special room, and Yu Sheng’s face grew serious.

It was a large bay lit with warm yellow light. A bright beam from the ceiling shone on a huge device in the center. Many pipes and cables gathered at the top and ran into its base. In the middle of the base rested a black iron coffin tilted at forty-five degrees.

The iron coffin still hummed softly.

Yu Sheng had already cleared away the cultists’ corpses that once lay here, but a faint smell of blood still drifted in the air. Little Red Riding Hood and Foxy sniffed the moment they stepped inside.

Irene noticed the change in Yu Sheng’s expression.

“What is this place for?” the little doll asked.

Yu Sheng stepped up to the platform that held the Holy Coffin and said slowly: “This is the Holy Coffin of the Artificial Saintess. The Artificial Saintess is inside.”

Irene froze, then yelped: “Huh? That C Buckle? Why did you keep her? Weren’t you going to hand her to the Special Affairs Bureau?”

Yu Sheng had expected that reaction.

He lifted Irene down from his shoulder, held her with one hand, and with the other gently touched the cold coffin.

“Do you want to hear the truth about the Artificial Saintess?” he asked the others.

That was why he had brought them here.

Foxy blinked: “The truth of the Artificial Saintess. Benefactor, what did you find?”

Irene saw where this was going and rushed to interrupt: “Wait. Don’t tell me this C Buckle used to be a good doll who was controlled by the Hermitage Order. I’m telling you-”

“She isn’t a good doll,” Yu Sheng said, shaking his head and cutting her off. “She used to be a person.”

Irene went stiff, as if her joints had locked.

“And those Bronze Knights were people too,” Yu Sheng said calmly. “They kept thinking of themselves as people, even when they ‘fell in battle’.”

Irene said: “What the…”

Yu Sheng turned, sat on the platform under the Holy Coffin, looked at the place where he had fought the Artificial Saintess last time, and put his thoughts in order.

“The Hermitage Order made these ‘weapons’ by turning living humans,” he said. “Some still keep a little organic tissue. Others had their souls extracted and injected into machine bodies. In the last fight with the Artificial Saintess, I found proof. She carried a mix of blood and machine oil, and her shell still held human memories and a soul.

“She came from a place with wide fields of wheat.”

Yu Sheng sorted through the memory he had seen and told it slowly.

The hum of running systems filled the room. The Holy Coffin’s low tremor did not stop.

At some point the squirrel had hopped down from the hunter, climbed onto the platform, and stared up at the cold iron coffin. The hunter stood beside her in silence. Under his hood there was only hollow darkness, yet it felt like a fierce fire was building there.

Little Red Riding Hood and Foxy looked pale.

“I swear… what is this mess?” Irene finally broke the silence. A red glow flickered in her eyes, and she cursed nastily: “Those Hermitage Order bastards are %$#@. If they have guts, they should transform themselves. If they can’t trick enough cannon fodder, they pull this garbage. I swear I’m going to @#$ their household registry.”

“That’s the situation,” Yu Sheng said with a slow breath. “The so-called Sage ran at the end, but every cultist on this ship who was still alive has been sent to the Special Affairs Bureau. Now we wait to pry open their mouths and find where their lair is. Even one planet is enough.

“As for the Sage who escaped, I can’t track him right now. He fought me for a long time, and I managed to leave some marks on him. When the time comes, I’ll find him. He has to die.”