Chapter 352

Chapter 353: A Trip to the Otherworld Should Bring Something Back

With The Door open, Yu Sheng did not step through right away. He turned to look again at the nearby Assault Titans.

Seeing that, Xuan Che asked: “Is there another problem?”

“I’m thinking,” said Yu Sheng, rubbing his chin, “should we try to move one of these Assault Titans out of here?”

Perched on his shoulder, Irene popped up and said: “Do you have to pluck a local specialty everywhere you go?”

“This is basic sampling when you explore an Otherworld,” said Yu Sheng with a shrug. “Besides, they carry the mark of the Reclining Cloud Ten Halls. That looks shady to me. We should bring one back and study it.”

“Mr. Yu is right,” said Xuan Che at once, then he frowned. “But these Automatons are huge. How do we get one through The Door?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I’ll just make The Door bigger,” said Yu Sheng. “We do need to decide where to drop it. Should we send it straight to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, or first park it on open ground outside?”

Xuan Che thought for a moment and shook his head: “It carries a Reclining Cloud Ten Halls mark, but it still came from the Otherworld. Sending it outside is risky. Better to deliver it directly to the Parted Clouds Palace at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain. I will inform my master and ask him to prepare a reception.”

“Alright,” said Yu Sheng. He opened another Door to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, then glanced at Xuan Che and added with a grin: “You’ve been running back and forth so many times in such a short while.”

Xuan Che held out his hands with a wry smile and said: “This is also my first time ‘exploring the Otherworld’ like this.”

At that moment, inside the Grand Hall of the Parted Clouds Palace, Immortal Yuan Ling saw a new Door appear not far away. He had been handling palace affairs in the inner hall. After hearing that Xuan Che kept running back with prisoners and then corpses, he came to sit in person. When the new Door opened, he had not yet spoken when he heard two disciples whisper behind him:

“Eldest senior brother is coming back again?”

“Looks like it. The last two times looked the same.”

“I wonder what he will bring back this time.”

“Who knows? I only heard he went to probe that strange secret realm on the Nethermoon. But all this back and forth. Is this how you explore secret realms?”

“It looks easy. Maybe I could do it? People always say those ‘Otherworld’ secret realms are easy to get into and hard to get out of, full of weird stuff, but now it looks…”

Immortal Yuan Ling could not hold it in. He turned and said to the two whispering disciples: “You two. Exploration is not child’s play. Your senior brother is fine because an expert is helping him. He is only assisting, so things look simple. If you two charge in blindly, how many lives do you think you have to spend?”

The disciples shrank their necks and fell silent. Just then, Xuan Che stepped out of the Door, saw his master in the Grand Hall, and walked over quickly.

Immortal Yuan Ling asked: “Xuan Che, how did it go?”

“Master, there is more to send over,” said Xuan Che with a bow. “This time, we need your personal help.”

“More?” Immortal Yuan Ling’s eyes widened a little, but he understood at once and asked: “What is it this time?”

“A sample from the Otherworld. A twelve meter tall Assault Titan. We need you to lay down sealing measures, then move it into the Demon Suppression Tower. Also, we need a few skilled telekinetic movers to help dig it out. Right now it is buried in sand.”

Immortal Yuan Ling opened and closed his mouth. He had not expected the deliveries to get more and more unbelievable. Now they wanted to move back a twelve meter siege Automaton. He could only sigh that this was what happened when a true expert led the way. Ordinary people making a first trip to the Otherworld might scrape some dirt into a small box and tiptoe home like it was a battlefield. Mr. Yu went in like he was stocking a warehouse.

He schooled his face and looked over the disciples gathered to help. He said: “You few, go with your senior brother and help carry things. Before you enter, take a Soul-Calming Pill. Once you are there, follow the expert’s orders in all things.”

After a round of work, they finally dug out the best preserved Assault Titan and delivered it straight to the open ground outside the Grand Hall of the Parted Clouds Palace.

To get it out, Yu Sheng opened a Door more than ten meters high between the Otherworld and the Parted Clouds Palace. The good news was that the whole process went smoothly. Digging it out of the sand took effort, but Xuan Che had brought a few junior brothers built like oxen to help, and Foxy was very good at digging. In the end, they got this astonishing “Otherworld sample” to its destination in one piece.

Now the twelve meter Assault Titan stood in front of the Grand Hall with impressive presence. Its ancient, heavy golden armor shone in the daylight, and the long halberd in its hands pointed straight at the sky.

Immortal Yuan Ling had seen much in his life and knew large Automatons well, but this one still amazed him. He began to layer safety seals over the “Otherworld sample” in case it carried hidden contamination from the Otherworld. Misty radiance covered the armor in folds upon folds. Phantom Runic Chains dropped from above to bind its limbs and torso. Standing in midair, Immortal Yuan Ling pointed a long sword at the Assault Titan’s chest and, with quick flicks, sketched dizzying arcane patterns. In a short time he drove powerful Talismanic Runes into the puppet core.

Then he saw Xuan Che step out of the Door again and called down: “Xuan Che, is there anything else to move?”

“Nothing more,” Yu Sheng’s voice answered before Xuan Che could. Walking out of the Door, Yu Sheng waved at the elder and said: “That was the last one.”

“Finally done,” said Irene as soon as she stepped out. She squirmed on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and grumbled, “I don’t like deserts.”

Yu Sheng quickly reached back to steady the little doll so she would not fall: “Why are you squirming?”

“Sand got into my joints,” said Irene, frowning as she rotated her arms next to his ear. “Listen, it’s still creaking.”

Yu Sheng blinked, then looked over at Luna, thinking her C Buckle must have fared worse in the desert. But Luna just stood calmly, totally fine.

Irene noticed and glared at her rival, whom she insisted on calling an arch enemy: “C Buckle, you don’t have sand in your joints?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Luna thought hard, then squeezed out a single word: “Training.”

“You can fix that with training?” Irene’s eyes went wide. “Are you messing with me?”

Luna ignored her.

Just then, Yu Sheng saw Foxy walk off to one side. She looked around for a spacious spot, flopped down, and turned into a giant Demon Fox.

In the next second, just as Yu Sheng wondered what the fox miss was planning, the silver white Demon Fox spread all four legs and gave her head a hard shake to get rid of the sand.

Imagine it: a Nine-Tailed Fox as big as two minivans rolled into one, who had just wrestled and brawled in a sea of dunes, coming back and shaking off sand. The result was a little sandstorm. Dust and grit rose like a demon wind around Foxy. Two unlucky disciples standing too close cried out and vanished behind a wall of flying sand.

When the dust finally settled, Foxy walked out, changed back to human form as she came, and patted her tails while muttering to Yu Sheng: “Benefactor, I need a bath. My tails still itch.”

Yu Sheng could only stare speechlessly.

After a beat, he muttered to Irene on his shoulder: “I’ve learned something. Deserts are bad for our team.”

While Yu Sheng’s group handled the many desert aftereffects, Immortal Yuan Ling finished the emergency sealing of the Assault Titan. After careful bindings, he ordered the disciples to send the giant to the Demon Suppression Tower.

The name said it all. The Demon Suppression Tower was Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain’s Containment Facility for dangerous things. It was much like the Special Affairs Bureau’s many Containment Zones in their tall building.

Immortal Yuan Ling came over to Yu Sheng, face serious, and said: “I will send a message to the Reclining Cloud Ten Halls today to explain this ‘Assault Titan’ matter. I saw the emblem on it. It is indeed their badge. But it is very strange. The design of this Automaton is different from any they build now. Even the inner spiritual circuitry is nothing like our current mechanisms. We will see how they respond.”

Yu Sheng nodded, then asked: “What about the black robed cultivators? Can we confirm who they are?”

“No leads yet,” said Immortal Yuan Ling with a shake of his head. “The captive you sent earlier has been locked up, but he will not wake any time soon. I haven’t had time to examine the other bodies in detail. A quick look shows their training marks are all over the place. Some hints of great sects, but also many signs of scattered practice.”

“Rogue cultivators?” Yu Sheng blinked. “The kind who sneak a bit of big sect techniques on the side?”

“That is how people used to say it,” said Immortal Yuan Ling, stroking his beard. “Nowadays we usually call it ‘correspondence.’”

Yu Sheng stared. [?] [You have got to be kidding me.]