Chapter 78 – Return to the Valley

A faint, ghostly glow flickered within the great door leading to the valley. Yu Sheng stepped across this threshold, and in the next instant, brilliant daylight flooded his eyes.

Yu Sheng squinted, lifting his gaze to peer into the distance before looking up at a sky dotted with wisps of scattered cloud.

After that enormous eyeball covering the sky had departed, this Otherworld once known as “Night-shrouded Valley” had seen its eternal night come to an end. But Yu Sheng hadn’t expected that it would still be daytime here—when it was already evening in the real world.

Could it be that this place had no day-night cycle at all? Now that the eternal night caused by the Twilight Angel had ended, had it simply swung to the opposite extreme—an eternal day?

Speculation flickered through Yu Sheng’s mind as he raised his guard to its highest level, cautiously surveying his surroundings.

The “landing point” he’d chosen for his Door Opening was still the area around the ruined temple. Everything within sight bore the scars of Entity-Hunger’s rampage. The temple, already crumbling ruins before, had been reduced to nothing more than a field of broken bricks and tiles—not a single wall remained standing. The wasteland surrounding the temple looked as though it had been “deep-plowed” over and over again. Enormous trenches stretched from the ruins all the way to the edge of his vision. What had once been a forest was now a withered graveyard of stumps and splinters. Heaps of gravel piled up at the far end of the valley floor, and the nearby cliff faces had been scraped clean of an entire layer of rock, exposing bare earth underneath.

But beyond all that… there was no sign of danger whatsoever.

Yu Sheng furrowed his brow and carefully picked his way across the trenches until he reached an open clearing littered with broken bricks and tiles.

He remembered this place. This was where he had opened the feast—where the first Entity-Hunger he’d “influenced” had opened its gaping maw and begun devouring the other entities.

Now every trace of the entities had dissipated. Even the bloodstains had vanished as though evaporated into thin air.

The valley was utterly silent. Only the occasional breeze drifted up from the valley floor, and even that was no longer as biting cold as before. The foul stench of decay that had once permeated the wind was gone as well. Compared to that sinister, night-shrouded place from before, this place now carried a hint of… “peaceful sanctuary.”

If one ignored the trenches, that is.

Yu Sheng stood there amid the ruins, gazing somewhat blankly at this quiet little world.

Was this what the Bureau Chief wanted him to see? Or was it that… she herself didn’t know what things were like here now, and wanted him to come check?

Eileen’s voice suddenly rose from the depths of his mind at that moment, cutting through his thoughts: “Hey! Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng, come in—are you dead or what? Dead or what?”

“I hear you, I hear you,” Yu Sheng responded immediately, his brow furrowing slightly. “Could you maybe say something nicer? What do you mean ‘dead or what’…”

“Oh please, like you haven’t dropped dead out there enough times already? You walked through the Door and went completely silent—I thought you’d been killed by a newly regenerated Entity-Hunger or something…”

The doll’s tone was brazen and infuriating. Yu Sheng could practically picture the little thing standing on the table with her hands on her hips, looking smug as could be—but he was in no mood to bicker with Eileen right now.

“There are no entities,” he said flatly.

The doll on the other end was clearly stunned for a couple of seconds. “…Huh?”

“I haven’t encountered a single entity so far. The valley is completely calm. I can’t sense any of that omnipresent malice or hunger from before either,” Yu Sheng said as he walked away from the temple ruins, bending down to grab a handful of soil. “The stench of rot in the earth and air… is gone too.”

“Try walking out a bit farther?”

“I’m already walking,” Yu Sheng said as he moved. “Could it be that there hasn’t been enough time for Entity-Hunger to regenerate? I did cause quite a commotion last time, after all…”

Before he could finish, Eileen’s excited sputtering cut him off: “Impossible! How long has it been?! Entities regenerate on a scale of hours after being destroyed—some only need a few dozen minutes! It’s been over twenty-four hours since we hightailed it out of there. If Entity-Hunger could reproduce, it’d have five freaking generations by now!”

Yu Sheng sat down on a large rock at the edge of the ruins, gazing into the distance as he replied casually: “But there really is nothing here right now. And honestly… I actually think the air here is pretty nice, and the scenery is a lot easier on the eyes.”

“Huh?”

Yu Sheng ignored Eileen’s bewilderment and pressed his foot against the soft earth around the rock.

He could feel that subtle connection. Upon returning to this place, that faint bond had strengthened once again. It wasn’t as intense as when the connection had peaked before—when it had generated a “perspective” using the valley as its “vessel”—but he could still clearly sense many things around him.

Hard stone. Gentle wind. The earth beneath his feet. A hidden pool at the base of the valley’s cliffs. And…

Yu Sheng suddenly froze, turning to look beside him.

A tender green shoot was poking its tip through the soil, like a tiny creature seeing daylight for the first time, trembling nervously in the breeze.

Tenacious life.

Yu Sheng stared at the sprout in astonishment. For some reason, the sight of it pushing through the earth made his heart beat just a little faster. A strange, peculiar stirring leapt in his chest—perhaps born from his connection to the valley, or perhaps from something more sentimental. Instinctively, he reached his hand toward the patch of soil.

And the earth began to move.

Deep trenches started to close. Tiny buds broke through the surface. Life was growing, as though reborn from death.

Yu Sheng stared at the scene, and finally couldn’t help but let out a cry: “Holy shit?!”

Eileen instantly erupted: “Huh? What? What what? Why are you yelling—are you hurt?!”

Yu Sheng shot to his feet and yanked open an ethereal Door: “I can’t explain it properly—you and Hu Li better come see for yourselves!”

The next second, his figure reappeared in the living room, and he found himself staring eye-to-eye with Eileen, who was standing on a chair.

“Hu Li’s still washing dishes,” Eileen said after a moment of surprise, pointing toward the kitchen. “Should I go get her now?”

Yu Sheng nodded, but just as he was about to speak, he felt a rapid series of vibrations from his pocket.

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

Yu Sheng’s expression turned somewhat awkward. He was just considering who to call back when that unfamiliar number rang again.

He answered before the ringtone could even play and held the phone to his ear. A somewhat familiar female voice came through: “It’s me. Baili Qing.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. Just as I thought, he mused, while his voice betrayed unmistakable sheepishness: “Ahem, I just… stepped out for a bit. Was I supposed to let you know beforehand?”

“It’s fine. As long as we can confirm that the ‘tremor’ was caused by your Door Opening,” Baili Qing’s somewhat cool voice came through the receiver, betraying no discernible emotion. “We’ll work on recording more sample parameters so that we can identify your ‘signature’ promptly the next time an alarm goes off.”

Her calm, unbothered attitude actually made Yu Sheng feel more awkward than if she’d scolded him. He couldn’t tell if this was simply the Bureau Chief’s style, and could only manage an embarrassed laugh: “Ahem, sorry for the trouble…”

Baili Qing seemed to pay no attention to what he was saying. “Will you be ‘going out’ again shortly?”

“…Probably, yes,” Yu Sheng said, then quickly added: “I’m checking on the situation in Night-shrouded Valley.”

He was certain he heard a faint intake of breath.

Sure enough, Baili Qing’s tone shifted: “You got in successfully? It still exists?”

Yu Sheng keenly caught one particular word she’d used: exists.

Baili Qing had assumed Night-shrouded Valley no longer existed? Why would she think that?

Thoughts flickered through his mind in an instant, and Yu Sheng spoke: “Of course it exists. But I only went for a quick look. I’m not sure what the situation inside is like yet—I’m about to head back in with everyone.”

As he spoke, he glanced up at the little doll standing on the chair. That was his “everyone”—plus one more currently doing dishes in the kitchen.

Baili Qing didn’t press further. After a brief silence, she simply said: “Very well. If you need support from the Special Operations Bureau, contact me directly. This number is always available.”

The call ended, and short, clipped beeps came through the receiver.

“That was the Bureau Chief from the Special Operations Bureau,” Yu Sheng told Eileen. “Nothing major.”

With that, he turned and headed into the kitchen to fetch Hu Li.

He pushed open the door—and was immediately greeted by the sight of the fox-spirit girl drying dishes with her tail, while sneaking mouthfuls of sesame paste from the cupboard.

He didn’t even know which one to comment on first.

“Ah, Benefactor…” The fox girl’s ears twitched atop her head. Hearing Yu Sheng open the door, she whipped around with a somewhat panicked look. “I… it smelled so good, I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry.”

Yu Sheng looked at Hu Li with an expression caught between laughter and exasperation—and at the sesame paste smeared all around her mouth.

“Clean yourself up first, then come with me. We’re going out.”

(End of Chapter)