Chapter 358
Chapter 358: A Mentally and Physically Healthy Young Man
“You said you saw strange birds in the sea of clouds?” Yu Sheng stared at Zheng Zhi, eyes wide. “And you’ve seen them all day, weaving through the clouds? And now there are more and more?”
Now Zheng Zhi reacted too. He looked back at the sea of clouds, then at Yu Sheng, panic flooding his face. “Damn! It’s only me who can see them again?!”
Immortal Yuan Ling also walked over, his expression unusually serious. “What do these strange birds look like? Can you describe them?”
“Long, sharp beaks. Tail feathers like several streamers. Big. The wing edges…” Zheng Zhi frowned, thinking hard, then blurted, “Wait. Hold on. I’ll just draw it.”
He turned and ran back into his “outpost.” A moment later he came sprinting out with a tablet and stylus. He opened a drawing app and sketched fast. In just a few minutes, he’d captured the shape of a strange bird swimming through the sea of clouds. It was only a few simple lines, but the features were clear—and the thing looked unsettlingly alive.
Irene stared. “Big nephew, you can do that?”
Zheng Zhi scratched his hair shyly. “I used to be an artist.”
“Oh.” Irene nodded as if everything in the world suddenly made sense. “No wonder every time I see you, you look exhausted like you’re about to ascend.”
Yu Sheng didn’t pay attention to their banter. He studied the sketch, then raised his head and looked out at the sea of clouds beyond Cloud Viewing Terrace.
The sun was already close to the horizon. Golden-red light spread across the cloud layers, outlining every swell and fold in brilliant splendor. But in that spectacular sunset, there was no trace of any “strange bird” at all.
Immortal Yuan Ling frowned deeply at the drawing.
He reached toward the tablet and grabbed at empty air.
The “drawing” peeled out into his palm.
It twisted, shifted, and transformed, becoming a vivid black phantom of a strange bird that leaped and circled through the air as if it were alive.
“Is it like this?” Immortal Yuan Ling asked, turning to Zheng Zhi and staring straight into his eyes.
Zheng Zhi went blank at the technique, full of awe, but he recovered quickly and examined the phantom carefully. “The tail needs to be longer. The tail feathers should look more flowing.”
Immortal Yuan Ling adjusted it immediately. “Like this?”
“The beak is a bit shorter. The wing edges should be more rounded…”
“The tail feathers should lift upward, with that kind of lively feel…”
“Adjust the neck a little…”
“…Actually, maybe the first version was better.”
Irene poked the back of Yu Sheng’s head. “Is big nephew dumping all his artist resentment here and going full revenge-mode client?”
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, surprised she even knew that joke. Then he remembered: Irene spent forty-plus hours a day online. Between trash-talking in games and arguing with online friends, she basically lived on internet memes. Of course she knew.
Luckily, Zheng Zhi settled on an answer quickly. “Yes! That’s it! That’s exactly it—right now!”
Immortal Yuan Ling nodded. He’d gone through all those revisions without the slightest complaint. With a flick of his hand, the finalized strange bird came alive again, circling through the air in a tight, silent glide.
Yu Sheng noticed Immortal Yuan Ling’s expression growing heavy with thought.
“You figured something out?” Yu Sheng asked.
“It feels… somewhat familiar,” Immortal Yuan Ling said quietly. “But I cannot remember where I saw it.”
Princess Rapunzel leaned in. “Is it a species from your Grand Void Star?”
“No.” Immortal Yuan Ling slowly shook his head. “I have not seen it in reality. It may be from an ancient text, or somewhere else.”
He turned to Zheng Zhi. “Are those strange birds still at the horizon?”
“Only two or three left,” Zheng Zhi said, glancing toward the far end of the cloud sea. “Looks like they went back to their nests when it got dark.”
Yu Sheng looked at Immortal Yuan Ling. “So this…”
“This is indeed strange,” Immortal Yuan Ling said seriously. “What Zheng Zhi saw seems harmless, but for illusion phantoms to appear inside Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain’s protective formation is extremely abnormal. Cloud Viewing Terrace is very close to the Parted Clouds Palace. Ordinary evil and uncanny things cannot possibly approach. I need to investigate properly and find out what these phantoms are.”
After exchanging a few more words with Zheng Zhi, Immortal Yuan Ling led his disciples away from Cloud Viewing Terrace.
Princess Rapunzel hesitated, then crept over to Yu Sheng. “Bro… can we still play here?”
Yu Sheng rubbed his chin and stared at the distant sea of clouds for a long moment before turning back. “What Zheng Zhi saw doesn’t seem dangerous, but it’s almost dark. Let the kids go back first. Tomorrow, we can have the immortals arrange a few people to take everyone down the mountain for a look around.”
“Oh… okay.” Princess Rapunzel looked disappointed, but she moved quickly. She gathered the children, lined them up, and led them back through Wu Tong Road 66’s door.
After all that liveliness, Cloud Viewing Terrace became quiet again.
The sun sank beneath the sea of clouds. Only a faint afterglow lingered where sky met cloud. The light faded. Stars rose at the horizon, and with them, three moons climbed over the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.
The largest moon, Nethermoon, rose first, giving off a hazy, weak glow. Across its face, large and small ecological regions glittered in the silver light like blue-green gems.
Then came the smaller Everbright. From the ground it looked only as big as a broad bean, yet it shone even brighter than Nethermoon. They said its surface was covered in crystal veins that reflected sunlight, which was how it got its name.
Everdark rose last. If Irene hadn’t been sharp-eyed, Yu Sheng might not even have noticed it at first. From the ground it looked only a little smaller than Nethermoon, yet it was unbelievably dim, like an ordinary gray stone ball hanging in the sky. Across its surface, you could faintly make out a web of glowing bands. They said those were ancient automated mining transit lines built long ago by Nethergloom Valley. The mining facilities on Everdark had already shut down, but the old transport lines still maintained themselves, keeping only the most basic lighting. It had become a “scenic feature” in the night sky.
Yu Sheng carried a lounge chair out of the house and sat at the edge of Cloud Viewing Terrace, where the view was best—just like Zheng Zhi had. He leaned back and took in the alien night.
Through gaps in the sea of clouds, he could even see what lay below. Beneath the mountains, a great city glowed with brilliant lights. Streams of light occasionally streaked across the sky above it. From time to time, enormous cargo flying ships passed over distant plains, traveling between the city and the mountain ranges.
Zheng Zhi’s voice sounded beside him. “Brother Yu… did I kind of kill the mood today?”
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “Why would you say that?”
“Because I saw something weird.” Zheng Zhi let out a slow breath. “The kids wanted to play until night. And honestly, what I saw was just some shadowspawn. Seeing it is seeing it. If I hadn’t said anything, everyone would’ve kept playing and laughing. But I said it, and everyone got nervous…”
Yu Sheng glanced at the young man beside him—close enough in age that it still felt strange to call him “nephew”—and didn’t answer right away. He just settled deeper into his chair.
“I’ve had this problem since I was little,” Zheng Zhi continued. “I’d see all kinds of strange stuff, but I couldn’t tell what everyone could see and what only I could see. So the head of the household never really liked me. Later, when I learned some basics, I could tell what I shouldn’t be seeing, but I still scared people by accident. And like today, I’d ruin everyone’s fun. Most of the time, whether I said something or not didn’t change anything—the stuff was just there.
“Later, my uncle started helping me. He made me a ‘common sense list’ so I could tell normal things from abnormal things. He taught me how to act like a normal person after seeing something abnormal, and how to keep my distance from things that might be dangerous… He didn’t have any special powers. He just had theory knowledge, but what he taught me really worked.
“But it only worked in the Borderland. Here, it doesn’t seem to work anymore.”
Yu Sheng turned his head. “Done?”
Zheng Zhi blinked. “Uh… done.”
Yu Sheng adjusted in the lounge chair, finding a more comfortable position, his eyes half-closed. “Have you watched horror movies?”
“Yeah. Some. But later I realized they aren’t that scary, so I lost interest.”
“Some is enough. Then do you know the most classic way a horror movie protagonist team dies?”
Zheng Zhi looked lost. “…What is it?”
“It’s when someone finally spots a deadly clue,” Yu Sheng said calmly, “and keeps their mouth shut.”
Zheng Zhi went silent.
“That wasn’t a ‘problem’ you had since childhood. It was a skill. It just never had a place to be used,” Yu Sheng said. “You got into the line of work late, but those eyes of yours? I think they can be very useful.”
Zheng Zhi’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“Really.” Yu Sheng paused, then added, “But I think your bigger advantage is your mental state.”
“My mental state?”
“How the hell did you grow up like this and still end up mentally healthy, with normal values?” Yu Sheng turned and stared at him, open admiration on his face. “With an experience like yours, shouldn’t you have ended up as a classic legal-education-channel case study by fourteen? And didn’t they say you’re high-sensitivity, low-stability? You don’t look ‘low-stability’ at all.”
Zheng Zhi scratched his head. “My uncle says I’m ‘low-stability.’ The Bureau said my constitution is prone to contamination too. But I’ve just grown up like this. I don’t even know what they mean by ‘contamination.’
“As for a good mindset… yeah. I’ve always had one.”
As he spoke, he grabbed another grape-like “immortal fruit” from the small table beside him and tossed it into his mouth, smiling.
“Because if someone sees a ‘ghost’ for the first time at thirty, they’ll get scared,” Zheng Zhi said, almost amused at himself. “But if you’ve been seeing ghosts around you since you were three months old, the most likely thing you’ll do is give the ghosts names. To put it bluntly, I’m more familiar with the shadowspawn I see than with my own parents. Parents go out to work sometimes. Those things swaying in front of my eyes never took a day off.”
Yu Sheng exhaled. “…That actually makes sense.”