Chapter 350

Chapter 351: Between two worlds

When Yu Sheng said this, Luna seemed to understand right away. She accepted the situation and adapted to it quickly.

Seeing her reaction confirmed Yu Sheng’s guess. His judgment had been right. After being revived, this Artificial Saintess had truly changed in some deep way.

He said to the knight before him: “I saw the whole battle you just fought. I mean, the battle on the other side.”

He remembered what he had “seen” through the blood link while they fought the black-robed cultivators.

When Luna fought them, she opened two battlefields at once.

In the realm of the living and matter, her enemies faced a ghost-like Artificial Saintess. In the realm of souls, Luna and her Bronze Knight squad attacked the enemies’ spirits. The result was deadly and strange.

No one could easily adapt to such a weird way of fighting. Even powerful cultivators, tough in soul and will, would struggle to make sense of it right away. Their minds split between two perceptions, unable to tell where they truly were. Before they could understand, either their body or their soul had already lost.

And this power of Luna’s was not new. The first time Yu Sheng saw the figure by that bonfire in the nameless wilderness, she was already “over there.” It now seemed she had always been in that wilderness and had never left since that day, even when she moved in the real world as the Artificial Saintess.

No one had noticed this because Luna herself had never said so until today.

Luna spoke slowly with her holy sword in hand: “I always feel like I am in two worlds at once. One world is gray and calm, with wide wilderness. Wind blows through tall grasses I do not know the names of. Rivers of souls reflect in the sky. The other world is bright and noisy, with many new friends. You are there, and Foxy, and that loud little shorty…”

Yu Sheng had been listening closely, but the last part broke his focus. He rubbed his forehead and warned: “Watch it with that last line. If Irene hears, she will curse you so hard. You two argue eight hundred times a day.”

Luna laughed, her eyes showing the lively mischief a girl her age should have when teasing a friend: “The little shorty is fun. Poke her and she jumps.”

Yu Sheng’s face took on a strange look. Seeing Luna’s playful eyes, he realized something: “So you provoke her on purpose?”

“Of course,” Luna said with a nod. “She always bullies me for reacting slowly.”

Yu Sheng glanced back at the two Irenes standing not far away. The two tiny dolls were frozen in the black-and-white world, stuck in the pose they had when the view of the dead descended. They looked silly.

He turned back to the smiling Luna and felt a bit unreal. He was used to her slow, sometimes laggy Artificial Saintess state. Now her lips moved fast, her face showed emotion, and her actions were smooth. It felt strange.

He joked: “So your inner thoughts are that rich, huh?” He looked her over again and muttered to himself: “[How does this work, exactly?]”

“I do not know,” Luna said, shaking her head. “When I woke in the Holy Coffin, this is how the world looked to me.”

“Have those knights always been with you?”

“Yes,” Luna answered seriously. “In that wilderness, they and I guard the bonfire you left.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then asked with curiosity: “What is that river of souls reflecting in the sky you mentioned? Is it also in that wilderness?”

Luna answered as if it were obvious: “Yes.”

Yu Sheng frowned.

He realized that what he saw and what Luna saw were still different, even if they looked at the same wilderness and even though she had stepped into the sight of the dead, just as he had.

This was not the first time. The same thing could appear different to different people. Over time, it felt like a basic rule of this world. He even felt that the world ran on such differences.

Luna watched him fall silent and asked with concern: “Yu Sheng? What is wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said, waving a hand. He knew the world held endless secrets, and strange things always surrounded him, but this was not the time to study them.

He turned his focus back to the “dead” in the gray world.

He walked to the black-robed cultivator, nudged the body with his foot, and said in a calm voice: “Wake up. We have been talking next to you for a while. Time to open your eyes.”

At first the “corpse” did not move. Yu Sheng waited with patience. He knew not every dead person would cooperate. The Angel Cultists had fought him even after death. But resistance would fade in time.

After a moment, the cold body twitched.

The dead stirred. The black-robed man, killed by Xuan Che’s righteous patient-correcting strike, sat up stiffly. His eyes under the mask were dazed and blank.

He did not understand at first. A few seconds later, memories and the truth of death rushed back like a tide, washing the last pieces of mind left in the shell.

A rough, hoarse voice came from under the mask. It sounded like angry cursing, or like a dream-murmur from a mindless shade.

Yu Sheng spoke in a low voice to guide him: “Answer a few questions, and you will have eternal peace. Who are you all? What is your goal?”

The black-robed man slowly lifted his head. His eyes under the mask were muddy, like soaked in sludge. He still resisted, forcing out rasping sounds. After several tries, Yu Sheng finally caught a few broken words: “Sovereign’s Legacy… awakening… seeking fortune…”

Yu Sheng picked out the key phrase at once: “Sovereign’s Legacy? What does that mean?”

The man rasped again. It was as if some words were taboos in his soul. Even after death, the matching knowledge remained locked tight in the last corner of his reason, too hard to speak.

Yu Sheng tried a different guide: “Is there some ‘legacy’ hidden in this Otherworld? Did you come for it?”

The dead body trembled. He nodded with effort, then shook his head a second later, and his words confused them: “If he wakes… the world will end…”

The voice under the mask blurred again, too hoarse to hear.

Yu Sheng asked a few more questions, but only got broken murmurs. This man’s mind was truly tough. Even now he fought the pull of the Conversation With The Dead, and that struggle burned away what little soul he had left. Cracks began to appear across his shell.

Knowing time was almost gone, Yu Sheng asked one last quick question: “The entrance to this Otherworld is sealed. How did you get in?”

At that, the black-robed cultivator’s body split with harsh cracks. Dust rose. As he turned to ash, a final, muffled whisper came from under the mask: “Celestial Sovereign dreamscape… more than one place…”

The gray world shattered in the next second, and the Conversation With The Dead ended.

Color rushed back into Yu Sheng’s sight. Wind sounded in his ears again. The blonde knight vanished, and the tall Artificial Saintess not far away turned her head and waved.

The pale metal face held a smile that now seemed warm.

Irene reached Yu Sheng first. Climbing up his clothes, she chattered: “Hey, hey, Yu Sheng, what did you learn? Did the dead confess? There are a few more bodies here; want to ask them too? These ones were killed by C Buckle. Their deaths look messy. Not sure they still work. Over there is one Foxy stepped on. He is a little flattened, but still has arms and legs…”

Her noisy voice was like a spring sandstorm, blowing Yu Sheng out of the cold stillness of the dead world. He set Irene on his shoulder and looked to the curious Xuan Che as he asked: “Ever heard of the term ‘Sovereign’s Legacy’?”

Xuan Che froze at the name: “Sovereign’s Legacy?”

He thought it over, then slowly shook his head: “I have not.”

“Then we have to ask your master,” Yu Sheng said, letting out a light breath. “That is the best piece of intel I got from the dead. Also, I may know how these black-robed cultivators slipped in even with the entrance sealed.”

Xuan Che’s face turned serious at once: “How did they get in?”

Yu Sheng answered after a beat: “He spoke in riddles, but if I understood right, this Otherworld may have more than one entrance.”