Chapter 78

Chapter 78: Exploring Again

The door to the valley flickered with dim light. Yu Sheng stepped across the boundary, and in the next second, bright daylight flooded his vision.

He narrowed his eyes, looked into the distance, then up at the sky scattered with broken clouds.

After the massive eyeball that had covered the sky vanished, the otherworld once known as Night Curtain Valley had lost its eternal night. But Yu Sheng hadn’t expected it to still be day now—when it was already night in the real world.

Did this place not have day and night at all?

After the eternal night caused by the “dark angels” ended, had it become eternal day instead?

His mind raced. He raised his guard to its peak and carefully watched his surroundings.

He chose the same entry point as before, near the ruined temple. The devastation from when Entity-Hunger went out of control was still there. The temple, already crumbling, was now nothing but shattered bricks and rubble. Not a single wall remained standing. The wasteland around it looked like it had been plowed again and again. Massive trenches cut across the ground, stretching from the ruins all the way to the edge of his sight. The forest that once stood here was nothing but dead remnants. Piles of rock lay scattered across the valley floor. Nearby cliffs had been scraped clean, exposing bare soil.

But beyond that…

There were no signs of danger at all.

Yu Sheng frowned. He crossed the trenches cautiously and stepped onto an open patch of ground littered with broken brick and debris.

He remembered this place. This was where he’d started the grand feast—where the first Entity-Hunger affected by him had opened its huge maw and begun swallowing other entities.

Now every trace of entity was gone. Even the bloodstains had vanished, as if they’d evaporated.

The valley was silent. A breeze drifted up from the valley floor now and then, but it wasn’t as cold as before. The wind no longer carried that sickening stench of rot.

Compared to the night-shrouded dread it once held, the valley now carried a hint of… peace.

If you ignored the trenches, anyway.

Yu Sheng stood among the ruins, staring at this quiet little world with a dazed expression.

Was this what that “director” wanted him to see?

Or did she not know what it looked like now, and want him to confirm it?

Irene’s voice suddenly rose in his mind, slicing into his thoughts. “Hey! Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng—respond if you can hear me! Are you dead? Are you dead?!”

“I hear you,” Yu Sheng said at once, scowling. “Could you say something nicer? What do you mean, ‘are you dead’?”

“Duh! You don’t exactly have a low death count!” Irene sounded brazen and infuriating. “You opened the door and then there was nothing. I thought you got killed again by a regenerated Entity-Hunger…”

Yu Sheng could practically picture her standing on the table with her hands on her hips, smug as can be. He had no mood to bicker.

“There’s no entity,” he said flatly.

A two-second pause. “…Huh?”

“I haven’t seen anything yet. The valley is extremely calm. I can’t sense the malice or hunger aura that used to be everywhere,” Yu Sheng said as he walked out of the temple ruins. He bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt. “And the rot stench in the soil and air is gone too.”

“Then walk farther out,” Irene said.

“I am,” Yu Sheng replied, starting forward. “Could it be it’s just been too little time and Entity-Hunger hasn’t regenerated yet? I made a pretty big mess last time…”

He didn’t finish before Irene cut him off, loud with panic. “No way! Do you know how long it’s been?! Regeneration is measured in hours. Some entities only need a few dozen minutes! We’ve been gone for over twenty-four hours! If Entity-Hunger could breed, it’d have five generations living together by now!”

Yu Sheng sat on a boulder at the edge of the ruins and stared into the distance. “But there really is nothing. And honestly… the air is pretty nice now. The view is easier on the eyes too.”

“Huh?”

Yu Sheng ignored Irene’s disbelief and pressed his foot into the soft soil around the rock.

He felt that subtle connection.

After returning, the connection strengthened again—not as direct as when it had peaked and produced a “viewpoint” using the valley as a carrier, but still clear enough for him to sense the world around him.

The hard rock. The gentle wind. The soil under his feet. The pool hidden between mountains on the valley floor. And—

Yu Sheng suddenly froze and turned his head.

A tender green sprout poked up through the soil, trembling in the wind like a newborn creature.

Stubborn life.

Yu Sheng stared in shock. For reasons he couldn’t name, the sight of that tiny sprout fighting its way up made his heart race. Something bright and strange stirred in his chest—maybe the link to the valley, maybe something more purely human.

Without thinking, he reached toward the ground.

The soil began to writhe.

The deep trenches started to close. Tiny sprouts broke through the dirt.

Life spread—rebirth after death.

Yu Sheng stared, then couldn’t help blurting out, “Holy shit?!”

Irene immediately started shrieking. “Huh?! What?! What what?! Why are you screaming—are you hurt?!”

“I can’t explain it,” Yu Sheng said, already yanking open the phantom door. “You and Foxy need to see this!”

In the next second, he was back in the living room, eyes wide. Irene was standing on a chair, staring at him.

“Foxy’s still washing dishes,” Irene said, pointing toward the kitchen. “Do we go call her now?”

Yu Sheng nodded, but before he could speak, his pocket started vibrating nonstop.

He pulled out his phone and saw a string of missed calls—two from Li Lin, two from Xu Jiali, and several from the same unknown number.

His expression turned subtle. Before he could decide who to call back first, the unknown number rang again.

He answered before it finished ringing. A familiar female voice came through the speaker. “It’s me. Bai Li Qing.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. Of course.

Out loud, he coughed awkwardly. “Ahem. I just… stepped out for a bit. I should’ve told you first, huh?”

“It’s fine,” Bai Li Qing said coolly, with no obvious emotion. “As long as we can confirm the ‘tremor’ was caused by your door opening. We’re trying to record more sample parameters. That way, when alarms trigger later, we can quickly identify your ‘signature.’”

Her calm, non-accusing tone only made Yu Sheng feel more awkward. “Uh… sorry for the trouble.”

Bai Li Qing didn’t seem interested in apologies. “Are you going out again?”

“…Probably,” Yu Sheng admitted. Then he remembered and added quickly, “I’m checking Night Curtain Valley.”

He was sure he heard a small inhale on the other end.

Bai Li Qing’s tone shifted immediately. “You got in? It still exists?”

Exists.

She thought Night Curtain Valley didn’t exist anymore?

Why would she think that?

Yu Sheng’s thoughts flashed. He answered, “Of course it exists. I went in for a quick look. I’m not sure what’s going on yet. I’m about to bring some manpower and go in again.”

As he said it, he glanced up at Irene still standing on the chair—his “manpower.” There was also one more in the kitchen, washing dishes.

Bai Li Qing didn’t press. After a brief silence, she said, “Fine. If you need support from the Special Operations Bureau, contact me directly. This number is always open.”

The call ended in a series of short beeps.

“That was the director from the Bureau,” Yu Sheng told Irene. “Nothing serious.”

Then he headed into the kitchen to call Foxy.

The moment he pushed the door open, he saw the demon fox girl wiping dishes with her tail—

And secretly eating sesame paste from the cupboard.

For a second, he honestly didn’t know what to scold first.

“Ah, Benefactor…” Foxy’s ears twitched. Hearing him come in, she turned around in a panic, mouth smeared with pale paste. “I… it smelled so good. I couldn’t hold back. Sorry.”

Yu Sheng looked at her, then at the sesame paste on her mouth.

He couldn’t help laughing. “Clean yourself up first. Then come out with me for a bit.”