Chapter 336

Chapter 336: Otherworld Hotel

While the technical experts rebuilt the core system around Yu Sheng’s practical needs, a long list of modification projects for the ship officially got underway.

Yu Sheng led Foxy, Irene, and Luna through corridors decorated with extravagant carvings and cabins packed with religious symbols.

In the D1 and D2 connecting passages leading toward the core zone, engineers from the Special Operations Bureau scraped away reliefs on the walls. In front of the door between the residential area and the medical area, two large statues symbolizing the Hermitage Order sage were being dismantled. In a huge cabin used as a gathering and prayer hall, staff pulled down banners and drapes bearing an enormous double-ring emblem, then began cleaning up ornate murals praising the “supreme saint” and various miraculous deeds.

Everything removed would be packed up and shipped back to the Special Operations Bureau for study—to assess Holy Revere Hermitage’s “mental state” and predict its future actions. To experts in that field, even a torn scrap of trash could contain crucial information.

“I’ve got to say,” Irene said, sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, sounding oddly sentimental as she looked around, “after tearing all this stuff down, it looks so bare in here. Especially after scraping off the murals and reliefs. It feels like an adventurer already looted the place.”

“Later we’ll replace them with decorations that have a normal vibe,” Yu Sheng said casually. “Landscape paintings. Stuff like that.”

Irene hugged Yu Sheng’s head, her eyes rolling as ideas poured out. “Hey! Landscape paintings are boring. Why not hang up a bunch of paintings of you? Like the kind where you’re in uniform, on horseback, sword raised, riding into a blaze of glory. Or the kind where you’re sitting on a tank. We could borrow one from Dorothy!”

She kept going without taking a breath. “Or we could have Dragonslayer turn into a dragon. You stand on the dragon’s head, and we paint that and hang it on the bridge…”

Yu Sheng pictured it and got goosebumps. Every part of him refused.

“You don’t want paintings?” Irene pressed. “Then what about sculptures? We can put two big-head sculptures of you at the door of the control hall. The kind with a laurel wreath on top…”

Yu Sheng truly could not understand why this Little Doll was so determined to stamp his face all over the ship. Ever since the beginning—when she and Foxy had conspired to paste his big face in space and make it orbit the ship—he had never understood it.

So, the moment she started talking about carving his bust out of marble and mounting it on the bow as a ram, Yu Sheng forcibly changed the subject.

“You know, instead of putting this much effort into awful decoration ideas,” he said, “why don’t you help me think of a new name for the ship? Bai Li Qing is getting the ship licensed right now. She asked me for a registered name.”

Irene froze for half a beat. Then her eyes lit up. “A name?! That’s great! It should definitely be called Irene!”

Foxy rolled her eyes so hard Yu Sheng thought he heard it. “There’s no way it would use that name. It should be called Yu Sheng!”

“Then why not just call it Yu Sheng Irene Foxy…” Irene muttered, then glanced at Luna walking beside them in silence. “Oh, and we have to add C Buckle. By the way, how many characters can a ship name license register at most?”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. “Forget the character limit. Do you think ‘Yu Sheng Irene Foxy C Buckle’ sounds like a name any human being would come up with?”

He shot Irene a look. “And how many times do I have to tell you—stop calling her C Buckle. Luna has a name.”

“C Buckle doesn’t mind,” Irene said righteously. She even turned to Luna. “Right, C Buckle?”

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

Yu Sheng decided, on the spot, that taking suggestions from this group was a mistake. The three of them combined couldn’t scrape together one normal brain, let alone a single decent ship name.

Fine. He would rely on his normal, healthy human common sense and his bright, wholesome sense of aesthetics.

He lowered his head, thought hard for a long time, and finally said, “Let’s call it ‘Hotel.’”

Irene blinked, then slapped her palm against her forehead. “You held it in that long and that’s what you came up with?!”

“It sounds like one of those little motels next to a bus station,” Foxy muttered, and Yu Sheng didn’t know where she’d picked up that particular bit of “knowledge.” “Like eighty a night.”

Yu Sheng choked. Before he could retort, Luna nodded again. “Mm, right.”

…She clearly had no idea what Foxy meant. She just thought whatever other people said was right.

Yu Sheng took a slow breath, forced himself to think again, and tried a second time. “Then let’s call it Otherworld Hotel. It really shows our business scope.”

“That sounds kind of unlucky,” Irene said after a moment. “Like you’re bungee jumping over a volcano crater with no rope. Like the moment you board your ship, you’re already on a pirate ship headed for otherworld.”

Luna considered that too, then nodded. “Mm, right.”

Yu Sheng said nothing for a full two seconds.

“Then just call it Otherworld Hotel,” he said at last, spreading his hands. “It at least has an occult flavor, and it includes the organization name. There’s nothing unlucky about that.”

Foxy and Irene both stroked their chins and weighed it seriously.

Luna nodded again. “Mm, right.”

In any case, the ship Yu Sheng had “borrowed” ended up with a new name:

Otherworld Hotel.

Yu Sheng was, against all odds, quite satisfied with it.

He was just thinking that tonight he should eat something nice to celebrate—maybe invite Xuan Che over for dinner too, so he could talk through the Hermitage Order’s research into “angel catalyst” and the possible conspiracy behind their presence on Featherwing-13B—when a mobile phone ringtone cut off his thoughts.

Yu Sheng pulled out his phone and paused. The caller was Xuan Che.

“Speak of the devil…” he muttered, then answered. “Hello, Xuan Che?”

“Mr. Yu, this junior pays respects,” Xuan Che said—his signature polite greeting. “Are you at home today?”

Yu Sheng blinked. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“The sect has sent an order, commanding me to return,” Xuan Che said. “I have come today to bid you farewell in person.”

Yu Sheng was startled. “Huh? That sudden? Where are you right now?”

“I’m near Wu Tong Road. I’ll come over at once.”

Yu Sheng hung up and glanced at Irene and the others.

Not long after, Xuan Che arrived.

Yu Sheng returned to Wu Tong Road 66, opened the door to let him in, and handed him a drink. Then he asked, genuinely curious, “What happened? Why are you leaving in such a hurry? You were saying you’d stay a few more days.”

Xuan Che took the drink, thanked him, and sighed. “Ah, it truly happened suddenly. My Master said that near the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, a bizarre, uncanny realm has appeared. The situation is complicated. He cannot leave at the moment, so he needs a reputable disciple to step in and handle things. He wants me to return and take charge…”

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

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

Xuan Che stared for a moment. The “artificial saintess” he had fought not long ago was now standing here as “one of us.” It left him briefly dazed.

But he did know about Yu Sheng capturing a ship from the Hermitage Order and attempting to “repair” the artificial saintess. He also knew Luna’s past and the truth behind her creation. He recovered quickly, a gentle smile appearing as he stood and offered a greeting.

“I am Xuan Che,” he said politely. “I am glad to see the young lady safe and returned to the right path.”

Luna paused as if searching her memory. Then she matched him to an old record and remembered the last time she saw him: he had hit her with a “medical brawl exploding fist” and sent her straight back into the holy coffin.

After a brief hesitation, she bowed with careful, elegant posture and said simply, “Hello.”

Yu Sheng watched the exchange, then turned back to Xuan Che. “All right. If it’s an order from the sect, I won’t keep you. But you’re not leaving this very minute, are you?”

“I’m not in a rush,” Xuan Che said, nodding. “I booked a high-speed shuttle departing tomorrow from the borderland starport. Do you have other plans?”

“Mainly, I learned some things from the Special Operations Bureau—about Holy Revere Hermitage’s activities over the last decade or so,” Yu Sheng said. His expression gradually turned serious. “It might even involve the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, so I wanted to tell you. Your Master should also receive news from Director Bai Li soon. Many major powers are likely going to get busy in the near future.”

Xuan Che’s gaze immediately grew heavy. “Holy Revere Hermitage’s activities over the last decade? And involving the Grand Void Spiritual Axis… are you referring to the secret nest we found near the Featherwing-13B border?”

“Exactly,” Yu Sheng said. “Simply put, those cultists have been researching something called ‘angel catalyst’ for more than ten years, and developing dangerous technologies based on it. They hid in that Mistbound City to obtain the ‘catalyst’ left behind after dark angels Anka Aila fell.”

He leaned forward. “And given the special features of the ship they built—the so-called ‘pillar of order’—I suspect their actions on Featherwing-13B may have had a similar purpose.”