Chapter 351

Chapter 352: The “Missing” Blood

Yu Sheng laid out everything he had learned through Conversation With The Dead, then added the guesses he had made from those vague scraps of words. He said: “He mentioned ‘Celestial Sovereign dreams are not limited to one place.’ I think it means there is more than one entrance to this Otherworld. That is how they got in even after the Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain blocked the mine entrance.

“Also, the phrase ‘Celestial Sovereign dream’ really bothers me. Does it mean this Otherworld is actually a dream? Or that its entrance is a dream? Or maybe its activation and control work like a dream?

“From what we know, every time this Otherworld opens, what explorers see is different. In theory, that should be random. But these people in black stepped into the same desert as we did, and they even ambushed us ahead of time around these Assault Titans. That means they must have found a way to enter a chosen ‘scene’ in the Otherworld on purpose, maybe even to predict what scene people from other entrances will enter. Of course, it might be pure chance, but the odds are too low.

“Sovereign’s Legacy, Celestial Sovereign dream. All the clues circle the same ‘Celestial Sovereign’, yet we still don’t know who this Celestial Sovereign is supposed to be.”

He paused, then turned to look at Xuan Che again: “Your Grand Void Spiritual Axis really has no legends about this? Like some ancient powerhouse whose legacy became a secret realm after death?”

Xuan Che had been listening with a slight frown the whole time. His face stayed grave as he shook his head and said: “If someone like that existed, I would know. In fact, not to mention a legacy turning into a secret realm, I have never even heard that any ancestor of the Grand Void Youth Form carried the title ‘Celestial Sovereign.’”

Yu Sheng blinked and said: “What? So no one ever used the title ‘Celestial Sovereign’? I thought that was a common honorific among people who practice Cultivation.”

“There isn’t,” said Xuan Che, looking puzzled, “where did you get that idea?”

Yu Sheng fell silent. [I can’t tell him I picked it up from novels. Worse, I write that trope all the time myself.]

With little to go on, their talk drifted in circles. Seeing this, Irene glanced around, tugged Yu Sheng’s pant leg, then pointed at the other black robed corpses on the ground and said: “Then just ask the rest while they’re still warm.”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched as he muttered: “How do you make every normal topic sound like it needs laxatives the moment it passes through your mouth?”

“You’re harsher than me,” said Irene, planting all four hands on her hips and puffing out her chest, “and what’s normal about you pinning down people’s souls for questioning after they die?”

Yu Sheng looked up at the sky. [Annoying as this short gremlin is, she has a point.]

So he questioned every corpse at the scene, one by one.

To him the process felt long. To Irene and the others, it was only a moment. They watched him stand before each body for one or two seconds, then move on and soon walk back.

Foxy noticed the faint disappointment on his face and asked: “Benefactor, no harvest?”

Yu Sheng sighed and said: “Worse each time. The ones Luna killed had souls burned clean. The ones you and Irene beat had only a few muddled mutterings left. Only the one Xuan Che finished with a single palm still managed to clearly spit out a few keywords.”

Irene stared, then glanced at Xuan Che and said with feeling: “So it really pays to have a healer’s kindness.”

Yu Sheng spluttered: “What the heck, since when is slapping someone to death a healer’s kindness?”

“It is for our group,” said Irene, chin up. “At least right after he slapped him, the guy still looked lively.”

Listening at the side, Xuan Che’s expression grew more and more awkward. The topic was drifting in a strange direction. He didn’t know whether to cut in or keep quiet, so he only gave an embarrassed smile and switched the subject: “In any case, we should send these bodies back too. Spirit Infusion Peak has many experts at autopsy. They don’t have Mr. Yu’s divine methods, but they might find some threads of evidence on these bodies. Add the live captive we took earlier, and we may still figure out what this ‘Celestial Sovereign’ really is.”

“Alright, I’ll open The Door again,” said Yu Sheng, nodding. He pulled open a Door to the Parted Clouds Palace and added: “Go call a few people to help carry them.”

Soon, all the black robed cultivators’ bodies were sent to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain.

After finishing that, Yu Sheng wandered over to the toppled “Assault Titans” half buried in the yellow sand.

He placed his hand on the armor of one giant Automaton and studied the towering, solemn form. Buried by sand, the Automaton lay silent between heaven and earth. Their steel faces seemed to lock away secrets millions of years old. The air itself felt quiet and bleak.

The armor was cold and rough to the touch. Time twisted strangely inside the Otherworld, and no one could say how long these huge “soldiers” had lain here. Yet seeing them so intact and imposing, Yu Sheng almost felt they could wake at any moment and stride back onto some ancient battlefield.

He was not alone in that feeling.

“They look like they could move any time,” said Foxy, still in her Demon Fox form, as she came over and nudged the Assault Titan with her muzzle. “From the outside they don’t look damaged at all.”

“I inspected the insides of a few Automatons,” said Xuan Che. “They are not empty Illusion Arts shells. There are real mechanisms inside. But the core structure is complicated and strange. I cannot understand the principle, and I do not know if they can still be started.”

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, and an idea came to him.

He looked back at the Artificial Saintess waiting on standby nearby and said: “Luna, stab me once.”

Luna blinked, dazed for a second as if confused. Then she walked over and, speaking in a hesitant tone, asked: “Should I stab you to death?”

Yu Sheng almost choked: “What are you thinking? I want you to help me draw some blood. With you here, I’d rather not stab myself.”

Luna finally understood. She was new to the team. Though Yu Sheng’s blood had influenced her the most, she clearly was not familiar with the Hotel’s usual workflow yet. Still, she adapted fast. Once she confirmed his order, she raised her hand and, without even blinking, cut a long line across his palm.

She moved so fast that Yu Sheng did not even feel pain.

He pressed his hand straight onto the Assault Titan’s shell.

Blood flowed out and soaked in like water into a sponge, vanishing into that cold, rough armor.

Seeing this, Irene whispered: “Told you there would be healthy and moderate bloodshed.”

Xuan Che said nothing. He only widened his eyes a little as he watched Yu Sheng’s unusual “method.” [To be honest, this looked exactly like what an Evil Cultivator would do.] But because Yu Sheng was strong, and because he was on their side, the only thing to say was that he was an innovative, hands-on, big-picture, and very proactive righteous expert who just happened to use The Door a lot.

A moment later, Yu Sheng withdrew his hand and frowned at the Assault Titan.

Irene reacted at once and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“It feels different than usual,” Yu Sheng said, eyes filled with doubt. “The blood was absorbed by something, but I didn’t sense any ‘link’ with these Assault Titans. Instead I felt emptiness behind them, as if the blood fell into the void.”

As he spoke, he knocked on the armor with his knuckles.

The solid feel under his fingers told him the thing was truly here.

So where had his blood gone?

Yu Sheng moved to the other Assault Titans and repeated the process several times.

The result was the same. His blood got absorbed, yet no link formed with the huge Automatons. Each time, at the instant the blood vanished, he felt a vague, vast emptiness. It lasted only a heartbeat.

His frown deepened. Bold guesses stirred in his heart whether he liked it or not.

Foxy saw his face change and asked: “Benefactor, what did you think of?”

“Either the blood really ‘disappeared,’ or it flowed into something far bigger,” said Yu Sheng, lifting his gaze as if he could see through the sand-buried, steel clad giants before him. “Something very, very big. So big that this little bit of blood wasn’t enough to form a useful link. So big that you can’t see the whole picture at a glance.”

Foxy slowly crouched and rubbed her cheek against Yu Sheng’s side. Her tail curled around him.

Yu Sheng glanced back at the big Demon Fox and asked: “Did you just fluff up?”

“You’re scaring me, Benefactor,” said Foxy as she scooted closer, trying to curl into a fox ball behind him. It was hard to hide when her head alone was taller than a person.

Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead. [This is ridiculous.]

He took a long breath, stroked the soft fur on the Demon Fox’s cheek, and turned back: “Let’s leave this place first. We’ve been in this Otherworld long enough.”

Foxy gave an “oh,” and in a blink changed back to human form.

Yu Sheng could not help but smile at her, then casually pulled open a Door to the outside world.

Beyond The Door was the slanted mine-park entrance scene.