Chapter 393

Chapter 393: Portable Wu Tong Road 66

In Shu Ji’s central district, inside a hotel suite owned by Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, Yu Sheng looked out the window at the alien scenery beyond.

The rain kept falling. Dark clouds blurred the line between day and night. When Foxy landed, sunlight had still been shining on the thick clouds over Shu Ji, yet the city under this endless drizzle still felt wrapped in night. Countless lights illuminated the rain-soaked streets. Neon flickered between high-rises, and enormous illusion projections floated in the air. At the far end of the rain curtain, grand ancient refining towers stood like strange mountains beyond the city, occasionally lit by lightning, their outlines hinting at past glory.

Foxy was feasting beside the table. A whole spread of local dishes—things no one could quite identify—covered the tabletop in front of her, and they fascinated her far more than the view outside.

Zheng Zhi sat stiffly across from her, utterly at a loss in front of the food. Before almost every bite, he had to confirm with Xuan Che. His questions always boiled down to three: What is this? Can a human eat this? And is this thing going to suddenly jump up and hit me?

Yu Sheng couldn’t help thinking it was a shame he hadn’t let his big nephew experience Foxy’s stew. If Zheng Zhi had seen that, his tolerance for strange food would be sky-high from now on. He’d probably even accept getting beaten up by the meal before every bite.

Irene sat cross-legged on the windowsill beside Yu Sheng, watching the city. Little Doll’s eyes were wide with giddy travel excitement—everything she looked at made her happy.

Luna, as always, stood quietly behind Yu Sheng. She didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything. The dining room lights and the rain beyond the window reflected off her cold metal shell in a faint sheen.

“Where do we start?” Yu Sheng broke the silence and looked at Immortal Yuan Hao, who sat with Xuan Che. “Do you two have a plan?”

“Two lines,” Immortal Yuan Hao said with a nod. “First, Xuan Che has already made contact with the Ink City lord. As the messenger of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, he can request official cooperation and check on the city’s cultivators over the past few years, to see if we can find any spider-silk traces from the black-robed cultivators.”

He raised a second finger. “Second, while Xuan Che deals with the city officials, we’ll walk around ourselves. On the way here, I swept the city with divine sense. There are several places that feel off—spiritual energy knotted, meridian flow sluggish. We need to confirm what’s going on.”

Yu Sheng nodded.

Then his gaze drifted around the room again.

This was the base Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain had arranged locally. Comfortable, spacious, with a mixed otherworld feel—half futurism, half immortal-realm style. In this place, a hotel called Immortal Conclave Isle, it was likely one of the best suites available.

Even so, after hesitating, Yu Sheng stood and walked to the doorframe of a bedroom, lifting a hand to tap it as if checking the material.

Immortal Yuan Hao watched, curious. “What are you doing?”

“Traveling isn’t as comfortable as being at home,” Yu Sheng said lightly. Then he turned to Irene. “I have an idea…”

“Okay, okay, you have an idea again. I know,” Little Doll drawled, sounding long used to it. She climbed down from the windowsill and shuffled over, looking up at him. “I’m telling you, this is hotel property. If you mess with it, you’ll have to pay—”

She stopped when she saw Yu Sheng reach into his pocket and pull out a stiff card about the size of his palm.

A spirit-infusion ritual formation had been painted on it in a suspicious dark red ink. In the center was a “Hotel” logo—an emblem that was meant to be a fox head, but because someone’s skills were so bad, it ended up looking like a triangle.

Irene stared. “…?”

“I call this Portable Wu Tong Road 66,” Yu Sheng said with a straight face. “The basic idea is that I broke down the steps from the fixed teleportation gate I made before. I run through spirit-infusion and assignment first and seal it up. Then, whenever I find a door as a carrier, I just finish the door-opening step. Simple, convenient, very reasonable.”

Irene looked genuinely shocked. “…This even works?”

“I think it does,” Yu Sheng said after a moment. “I tested it once at home. I used it to connect the bedside cabinet in the second-floor bedroom to the fridge on the first floor. It worked fine.”

“What the hell kind of precast gate is this?!” Irene finally couldn’t hold it in. She pointed at the card in his hand. “Hey, invent whatever you want, but doesn’t this thing look kind of cheap?”

“What do you mean, cheap? This is a carefully made high-end tool, okay? Peak alchemy. Do you even get it?” Yu Sheng glared at her and started picking at the adhesive backing. “And look, it even comes with its own glue. I went back to Boundary City a couple days ago just to buy it… Ugh, it’s hard to peel.”

“Stop, stop, stop. Don’t peel it!” Irene waved frantically. “Can’t you see it’s about to tear? Give it to me. You’re way too clumsy.”

She scrambled up Yu Sheng’s clothes and snatched the card from his hand. For hands the size of bottle caps, Irene’s fingers were absurdly nimble. In no time, she peeled the backing cleanly and held the card up. “What’s next? Stick it on the door?”

“…Yeah.”

Irene turned and slapped the card onto the door, patting it twice. “That’s it?”

“Not yet.” Yu Sheng’s expression turned solemn. “We still have to activate it. It’s like the final step of the spirit-infusion ritual—connecting the formation to the target. For that step, we need fresh blood. Lu—”

He didn’t even finish the first syllable.

Luna flashed over from the window like a ghostly shadow. In a blur, she was beside him, and a knife came down.

Pain flared. Blood welled on the back of Yu Sheng’s hand. He blinked at the iron doll in front of him. She stared back blankly for a long moment, then nodded once. “Cut.”

Yu Sheng exhaled. “…Thanks.”

He turned at once and smeared the fresh blood onto the card, working quickly before the wound closed. Then he began to chant with great seriousness.

To everyone else, he sounded mysterious as hell. Irene, perched on his shoulder, could tell he was reciting the multiplication table.

Clearly, this whole incantation-and-gesture routine was something he’d learned recently at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain.

The blood was absorbed without a sound. The paper seemed to come alive, turning into living, rapidly growing skin. It wriggled. Its edges spread like a creature waking up, and countless tiny tendrils drilled into the door, claiming it as a carrier.

A formation pretreated with spirit-infusion. The blood of the door’s holder. The will pointing toward the target. A carrier to execute that will.

All conditions were met.

A phantom, low heartbeat sounded from within the plain-looking door.

Yu Sheng let out a soft breath and pushed it open casually, without using any extra power.

On the other side was the living room of Wu Tong Road 66.

“…Just to be safe, I’m asking,” Irene said, blinking. She was used to absurdity by now, but she still had to confirm. “You didn’t actually drive Wu Tong Road 66 over here again, did you?!”

“No, no.” Yu Sheng waved fast. “I call it Portable Wu Tong Road 66, but really I just brought the door over. The house itself is still at Cloud Viewing Terrace. Same effect, anyway. Push the door and you’re home.”

“That’s good,” Irene said, relaxing. “At least it’s not that insane.”

On the other side of the room, Xuan Che and Immortal Yuan Hao were staring, slack-jawed.

“This counts as not insane?!” they blurted out at the same time.

Xuan Che turned on the nearest person, Zheng Zhi. “…Mr. Yu is always like this?”

“I don’t know!” Zheng Zhi said, utterly baffled. “I haven’t known him for that long!”

Xuan Che then glanced toward Foxy across the table—only to find that she hadn’t lifted her head once. The stack of plates beside her just kept getting higher.

She hadn’t noticed anything happening.

But soon, the demon fox girl seemed to sense something. She looked up, immediately spotted the open door to home, grinned, and padded through it without hesitation. A moment later, she returned with two steamed buns from Wu Tong Road 66’s fridge. She tore them open and dipped them into the soup on her plate.

The whole process was smooth as flowing water, without the slightest pause—like this was simply how the world worked in her eyes. Or rather, how the world Benefactor built for her was meant to run.

Xuan Che and Immortal Yuan Hao could only stare.

—

At the same time, on the edge of Ink City, deep inside an abandoned industrial zone near an ancient refining tower…

Dozens of cultivators in black clothes and masks gathered in a spirit-ore refinery, bustling around a formation that had clearly been set up only recently.

The formation was carved into the ground. Countless illusory rifts floated above it, each filled with hazy light and shadow, as if it held endless eerie illusion arts and distant timespace.

But now the rifts flickered unstably, as if they could lose contact with whatever lay on the other side at any moment.

A blurred old man hovered above the illusion arts. In the haze, only his eyes were sharply clear, and they bore down with pressure as he watched the black-robed cultivators working below.

“Find out what happened just now, immediately!” the old man said. His voice was distant and indistinct, as if separated from reality by a thick curtain. “Twenty-two formations across the whole planet were interfered with at the same time. This cannot be caused by a simple disorder of the earth veins. A hidden great power must have made a move. None of you may be careless!”

The black-robed cultivators answered in unison, “Yes, Benefactor!”