Chapter 335

Chapter 336: Otherworldly Hotel

While the technical experts rebuilt the core system to match Yu Sheng’s needs, a full refit of the ship began.

Yu Sheng walked with Foxy, Irene, and Luna through corridors lined with luxury decorations and cabins filled with religious symbols. In the D1 and D2 passageways that led to the Core Zone, engineers from the Special Affairs Bureau were scraping the religious reliefs off the walls. At the door between the living area and the medical bay, workers were dismantling two huge statues of the Hermitage Order’s Sage. In a large chamber once used for gatherings and prayer, crews pulled down flags and drapes covered with the giant Double-Ring Emblem, then started cleaning the colorful murals that praised the many miracles of the Supreme Saint.

Everything they removed would be packed and sent to the Special Affairs Bureau to study the Holy Revere Hermitage’s “state of mind” and to help predict its next moves. For experts in that field, even a chunk of scrap or a torn strip of cloth taken from the ship might hold key information.

Irene sat on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and looked around with real feeling: “You know, once all this stuff is gone, the place looks bare,” she said, “especially with the murals and reliefs scraped off. It feels like our house got raided by adventurers.”

“It’ll get new decorations later,” Yu Sheng said casually, “normal ones, like landscapes.”

Irene hugged his head, her eyes spinning as ideas popped up: “Hey! Landscapes are boring. Let me paint a bunch of portraits of you to hang up, like you in a uniform on a horse, sword raised like you’re ready to die with someone, or you sitting on a tank. We can borrow one from Dorothy. Or we could ask Dragon Slayer to turn into a dragon. You stand on its head and I’ll paint that for the bridge.”

Yu Sheng pictured it and got goosebumps all over: “No way,” he said in a hurry. [Absolutely not.]

“You don’t want paintings? Then what about reliefs? We could put two giant reliefs of your head on the Control Hall door, with a laurel wreath style on top,” she pressed.

Yu Sheng could not understand why this doll was set on stamping his face all over the ship. From the moment she and Foxy planned to stick a giant head of him in orbit around the ship, he had been confused.

“You have time to pitch wild decor, but how about helping me name the ship,” he said, seeing Irene already suggest a marble bust of him as a ramming prow. He forced the topic to change: “Bai Li Qing is filing the ship’s license and asked me for a registry name.”

Irene dropped the ramming idea at once and lit up: “We get to name it? Great! It should be the Irene.”

Foxy rolled her eyes: “No way. It should be the Yu Sheng.”

“Then let’s just call it the Yu Sheng Irene Foxy,” Irene muttered. She glanced at the quiet Luna and added, “Oh, and add C Buckle. How many characters can a registered ship name have?”

Yu Sheng regretted asking for help. His mouth twitched: “Forget the character limit. Do you think ‘Yu Sheng Irene Foxy C Buckle’ sounds like a name a person would think of? And how many times have I said this, stop calling her C Buckle. Luna has a name.”

“C Buckle doesn’t mind,” Irene said with full confidence, turning to look at Luna: “Right, C Buckle?”

Luna thought for a moment, then nodded honestly: “Mm, right.”

Yu Sheng decided not to take advice from his crew. [These three together do not add up to one normal brain.] He would decide on his own, using normal, healthy human common sense and taste.

He lowered his head, thought for a long while, then broke the silence: “Let’s call it the Hotel.”

Irene blinked, then clapped: “You thought that long and came up with that?”

“It sounds like a tiny motel by a train station,” Foxy muttered, somehow picking up new slang, “eighty a night.”

Yu Sheng choked. He was about to argue when Luna nodded again: “Mm, right.”

She clearly did not know what Foxy meant. She just agreed with everything.

Yu Sheng sighed and thought again. Then he tried a new name: “Then Otherworld Hotel. It fits our line of work.”

Irene considered it: “It sounds unlucky, like rope-free bungee jumping over a volcano. Like boarding your ship means you’re headed straight for the otherworld.”

Luna thought, then nodded: “Mm, right.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

“Then let’s go with Otherworldly Hotel,” he said after another long pause, spreading his hands, “it has a bit of occult flavor, and it uses our organization’s name. That should not be unlucky.”

Foxy and Irene rubbed their chins and thought it over. Luna nodded once more: “Mm, right.”

She really did think whatever others said was right.

So, one way or another, the ship Yu Sheng had claimed got its new name:

Otherworldly Hotel.

Yu Sheng felt pretty happy with it.

As he wondered if he should celebrate tonight with a nice meal and invite Xuan Che too, to talk about the Hermitage Order’s research on the Angel Catalyst and the possible plot behind Featherwing-13b, his phone suddenly rang.

He took it out and was surprised to see Xuan Che calling.

“Speak of the devil,” he murmured, then answered: “Hello, Xuan Che?”

“Mr. Yu, I greet you,” came Xuan Che’s polite voice, “are you at home today? The sect sent an order telling me to return. I came to say goodbye in person.”

“So sudden?” Yu Sheng said, very surprised. “I’m home. Where are you now?”

“Near Wutong Road. I’ll head over.”

Yu Sheng hung up and traded looks with Irene and the others.

Not long after, Xuan Che arrived.

Back at No. 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng opened the door, let him in, and handed him a drink: “What happened that you need to leave so fast? You said you’d stay a few more days.”

Xuan Che thanked him, sighed, and said: “It came up out of nowhere. My master said a strange domain suddenly appeared near the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. The situation is complicated. He cannot leave right now, so he needs a respected disciple to handle things. He asked me to go back and steady the situation.”

As he spoke, he noticed Luna standing in the corner of the living room in standby. He froze: “Ah, isn’t that…”

“She’s one of us now,” Yu Sheng said casually, “her name is Luna.”

Xuan Che blinked. A few days ago they had fought the so-called Artificial Saintess to the death. Seeing her here as an ally stunned him. But he already knew Yu Sheng had seized the Hermitage Order’s ship and was trying to repair the Artificial Saintess, and he knew Luna’s true past. He soon recovered and smiled gently. He rose and bowed: “I am Xuan Che. I’m glad to see you safe and back on the right path.”

Luna paused, trying to match this familiar face. Her database pulled up the last meeting, when Xuan Che had hit her with a single Medical Brawl Exploding Fist and sent her back into the Holy Coffin. After a small hesitation, she bowed with grace and said: “Hello.”

Once they had greeted each other, Yu Sheng turned back to Xuan Che: “Alright, since it’s an order from the sect, I won’t keep you. But you don’t have to rush this minute, do you?”

“I’m not in a rush. I booked a high speed shuttle tomorrow from the Borderland Youth Form Port,” Xuan Che said with a nod. “Do you have plans?”

“I just learned some things from the Special Affairs Bureau about the Holy Revere Hermitage’s activities over the past ten years,” Yu Sheng said, his face turning serious, “they may even connect to the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. I wanted to tell you. Your master should hear from Director Bai Li soon. Many big forces are likely to get busy.”

Hearing that, Xuan Che’s eyes narrowed: “The Holy Revere Hermitage’s last ten years? And it involves the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Are you saying the secret lair we found near the Featherwing-13b border?”

“Exactly,” Yu Sheng said with a nod. “In short, those cultists have been secretly studying something called the Angel Catalyst for years and are developing dangerous tech with it. They hid in the Mistbound City to get the catalyst left when the Dark Angel Anka Aila fell. Based on the special traits of the ship they built, the Pillar of Order, I think their actions at Featherwing-13b may have a similar goal.”