Chapter 337

Chapter 338: Preparing for a Long Trip with the Door

Xuan Che’s Elder Senior Uncle was a strange person.

Yu Sheng had only heard some legendary stories about him before and already felt that way; now, after hearing a whole new set of stories from another angle, he felt the man was even more legendary. [A bold idea popped into his mind.]

He glanced at Irene and said: “Do you want to take a long trip with the Door?”

“…Huh?” Irene did not get it at first, but after two or three seconds she understood what he meant and her eyes lit up: “Oh! Yes, let’s go!”

“I want to meet your Elder Senior Uncle,” Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then turned to Xuan Che and said: “Mainly I’d like to talk with him about those strange events he ran into, like that ‘barren star’ between two worlds, the ‘weird ship’ you mentioned, and the fragment he found years ago that seems to share a source with the cloth scrap I discovered. I want to talk face to face about all of that. I’m also curious about what the Hermitage Order did on your side… can you arrange this?”

Hearing that, Xuan Che froze, then showed open delight: “You wish to travel with me to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain? That is wonderful. My master has long wanted to meet you as well, but since you sit in the Borderland to counter the Angel suppressing the Otherworld, we dared not invite you rashly…”

Yu Sheng blinked, then burst out laughing: “Sit in what now? The one sitting in the Borderland is Bai Li Qing and her Special Affairs Bureau. I only helped them a little by chance. I opened this Hotel so I could run around looking for things to do. There’s nothing ‘too important to move’ about me.”

Xuan Che stood there a bit dazed, realizing his earlier judgment of Yu Sheng might have been off, but he quickly recovered: “Then I will report to my master and have the sect make some arrangements. Tomorrow you and I will set out together. From the Borderland to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, even the fastest shuttle on the jump lanes needs about three days…”

Yu Sheng waved it off and said: “Why bother with that? I’ll just open the Door.”

Xuan Che had been racing through travel plans when Yu Sheng’s words cut his thoughts clean in half. It took a second for him to understand, and then the two of them sat there staring at each other.

Old memories rose from the bottom of Xuan Che’s heart: the Alchemy Furnace, the roof beam, the Copper Headed Belt, the Copper Headed Belt, and yes, the Copper Headed Belt.

For the first time, Yu Sheng watched a person’s face shift so fast, so complex, and so deep. The expressions flashing across Xuan Che in a single second could probably last Bai Li Qing a hundred years.

“That last time was an accident,” Yu Sheng said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, a little embarrassed, “so this time please tell your master ahead of time.”

Xuan Che seemed to do a round of mental prep. A feeling of not wanting to look back, mixed with a bit of expectation and curiosity, circled in his chest. In the end he nodded: “Okay.”

“Then when do we leave?” Yu Sheng asked right away.

“Still tomorrow,” Xuan Che answered after thinking it over, “besides informing my master, I should go pack a bag. And I need to refund the shuttle ticket.”

“Alright, tomorrow then. When you’re packed, just come to my place,” Yu Sheng nodded, “we’ll leave from here.”

A moment later, Xuan Che took his leave.

Irene climbed onto the street-facing windowsill. After peeking outside for a while, she hopped down, ran to Yu Sheng, and said with bright excitement: “Hey hey! Are we really going? Really going to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain? We’re taking a long trip! Is that place full of Cultivation? Should I get clothes that fit the local style? I saw a doll outfit online that was so pretty, the vibe, the design…”

“If you want new clothes, you can just say so,” Yu Sheng said as he grabbed the little doll zipping around him like a small rocket and set her on the sofa, “and about a ‘long trip’… it’s one Door Opening. Why so excited?”

“Benefactor,” Foxy walked over with a thoughtful look, “should we bring gifts?”

[That made sense.] Yu Sheng asked: “Do you still have those iron ingots?”

“Yes!” Foxy nodded at once, “I have several pieces!”

“That works. They don’t have to be big. Just cut half off one of our standard blocks for the Special Affairs Bureau. It’s material that can directly refine into an Artifact Spirit. It will be valuable over there.”

Foxy nodded, then held out both hands to Yu Sheng, eyes squinting with a smile as she asked for candy.

Yu Sheng chuckled, rubbed the fox girl’s ears, took out a few Immortal Spirit Pills, and put them in her hands. She tossed them into her mouth with crisp crunches like jelly beans.

“This trip, besides meeting that ‘strange man’ and learning what the Hermitage Order has been up to, is mainly to see the world,” Yu Sheng said as he sat on the sofa, “after staying in the Borderland for so long, I’m more and more curious about what the ‘outside’ is like.” [I want to see the world.]

“Me too, me too!” Irene raised her hand: “Staying here all the time is suffocating! In Boundary City everything has to keep some ‘baseline state’. It’s such a hassle every time I go out the Door. A Cultivation place like Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain has to have seen a ‘doll’ before, right?”

Chewing her candy beans, Foxy swayed happily on the sofa: “Over there I can let my tail out. I heard from Xuan Che that they have Spirit Foxes too, though they’re a minority group.”

Only Luna had not spoken. Yu Sheng glanced at the “Artificial Saintess” and saw she was trying hard to organize her words, so he spoke first: “When we get there, it won’t stop you from coming back to farm. I can give you a Door Opening. That’s what you wanted to ask, right?”

Luna nodded at once: “Yes, right.”

Right now those two words were what she said best. Her second-best was calling Irene “shorty.”

While they were lively in the living room, talking about taking a long trip, a set of footsteps came from the stairs leading up from the basement. Yu Sheng looked up and saw Little Red Riding Hood walking up from below.

There was a Portal in the basement that led straight to the Valley, so sometimes children from Fairy Tale would pop out from there. Yu Sheng was used to it.

But Little Red Riding Hood’s mood today surprised him. This eighteen-year-old girl moved like she was eighty. Her face looked like all hope had died. When she reached the top, she didn’t wait for anyone to speak. She let out a long sigh, one heavier than rebar Irene.

“You were talking about a long trip just now? Where are you going? How far?” she asked right after the sigh.

Yu Sheng hurried over and said as he walked: “Yes, we’re taking a Door trip to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, but what’s with you…”

Little Red Riding Hood tipped back her head, her face empty of joy: “I want to live on another planet.”

“…?”

Yu Sheng stopped cold, and the high-def blackmail videos he had recorded on his phone flashed through his mind. [Ah, Rapunzel must have shown off too much.]

The next second, he saw Little Red Riding Hood throw herself onto the nearby sofa. She buried her head in Foxy’s tail and groaned out loud: “Ahhh, I am never drinking that stuff again!”

Irene stared and tugged Yu Sheng’s pant leg: “What happened to her?”

With a solemn face, Yu Sheng said: “Growing pains.”

Foxy, who had just finished her candy beans, was startled, but quickly reacted. She pulled Little Red Riding Hood out of her tail, patted her back, hesitated, and then took out a drumstick to offer: “Want a drumstick?”

Irene was even more stunned, because this was her first time seeing Foxy share food with anyone other than Yu Sheng. She gasped: “What is going on?!”

Yu Sheng kept his solemn face and said: “Friendship among rascals.”

As soon as he said that, Little Red Riding Hood whipped her head around, her face full of grief and anger: “Forget it! Forget this!”

But looking at Little Red Riding Hood, who seemed on the verge of tears, Yu Sheng suddenly smiled.

Something was different.

After her eighteenth birthday, the girl who had been a lord for over ten years had finally become a kid again. She would probably rein it in soon, but even a short break to relax like this was good.

Of course, Yu Sheng was also smiling because he replayed those videos and photos in his head again and couldn’t help it.

At that moment, another bold idea popped up. Irene raised her head like she had spider-sense: “What are you trying to do now?”

“…Hey, I haven’t said anything yet,” Yu Sheng said as he scratched his hair, then, after a short pause, added: “Tell me, after we get settled at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, should we try moving Wutong Road No. 66 there too?”

Irene was stunned, then finally squeezed out words: “Where did that come from? Do you really mean to let Little Red Riding Hood live on another planet?”

“Not that. I was thinking that since we’re already taking a long trip, I can update the coordinates I use for Door Opening and test whether Wutong Road 66 can move as a whole. I only tested this house in Mistbound City, and Mistbound City is an Otherworld, not the real universe,” Yu Sheng explained. “We might not stay long this time. If I move the house there, it saves trouble. Living in our own home is easier than staying in someone else’s place, and Luna won’t need me to open a Door Opening every time she wants to go back to the Valley to farm.”

“…”

Seeing the little doll stand there in a daze, Yu Sheng asked carefully: “Irene?”

Irene blinked, and a look of growing awe spread across her face: “Yu Sheng, you are a genius.”