Chapter 191 – Blood Bestowal

Chapter 191 – Blood Bestowal

The reason Yu Sheng had given was, of course, a joke.

In the end, Little Red Riding Hood did call the “guardians” of the Orphanage to the room, though the reason she used certainly wasn’t “I ordered takeout.” She simply said there was something important to discuss, and moments later, a group of people filed in.

Yu Sheng stood up and looked around. Naturally, he didn’t recognize most of them, so he turned to Little Red Riding Hood to confirm. “Is everyone here?”

“A few people had to stay behind in the dormitory area to watch over the younger ones,” Little Red Riding Hood said. “They’ll rotate in. Safer that way.”

“Oh, that works too,” Yu Sheng nodded. But then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught something at the back of the group and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow. “…Why is there a cat here?”

He was startled to see a tabby cat sitting brazenly on a nearby windowsill, looking for all the world like it was there for the meeting too. Its expression was impossibly smug, which left him genuinely astonished.

No sooner had Yu Sheng spoken than the cat lifted a paw, gave it a lick, and drawled lazily, “Why can’t I be here?”

Yu Sheng: “…?!”

Forget Yu Sheng—even Eileen and Hu Li were stunned. All three of them stared slack-jawed at the tabby cat that had just spoken in human words with a voice as deep and magnetic as a nature documentary narrator. It took them a good long while before they exclaimed in unison: “It talked!!”

“This is ‘King,'” Little Red Riding Hood finally stood up and introduced it to Yu Sheng with a half-amused expression, clearly delighted that she’d managed to shock even him. “It’s also a member of our Fairy Tale organization, and a senior one at that. By the way, it’s very powerful—second only to ‘Snow White,’ the strongest fighter of our generation.”

A petite girl with an ear-length bob in the crowd raised her hand. “Also, just so you know—I’m ‘Snow White.'”

Yu Sheng listened in a daze, his expression as stiff as if he’d been struck by lightning for two hours straight. At least half a minute passed before he “woke up,” his gaze bouncing back and forth between the supremely self-satisfied tabby cat and Little Red Riding Hood several times before he finally managed to squeeze out a single word: “…Why?”

He didn’t even know why he was asking why—right now there were only two words in his head: why?

“Oh, well, that’s a very long story,” the tabby cat perched on the windowsill began, still in that documentary-narrator baritone. “When I was just a little kitten, I was wandering the streets. A passing child gave me a piece of steamed bread, so I followed him home. That night, he had a dream, and I fell into his dream with him. When I woke up, I had learned to think like a human…”

Yu Sheng listened to this story with his jaw on the floor, an indescribably surreal feeling washing over him. He’d already witnessed a mountain of absurd things in this place, but this was pushing the boundaries even for him. Just as he was trying to work out whether the cat’s story actually made any sense in the context of the Borderland, he caught Little Red Riding Hood sneaking a wink at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Don’t believe it,” Little Red Riding Hood whispered. “It’s a different version every time.”

Yu Sheng hesitated. “Then…”

“Nobody knows what happened. It doesn’t know either,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “When it first wandered into the Orphanage, we thought it was just a stray cat that had gotten in from outside—until it suddenly summoned an adventurer party and knocked down several people.”

The tabby cat on the windowsill waved a paw at Little Red Riding Hood. “I can hear you!”

Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands and looked at Yu Sheng. “Anyway, that’s how it is. The mechanism is unknown, but we later confirmed that it was indeed influenced by a ‘Fairy Tale,’ so we made it an official member. This time, we also want to try your method on it—to see if your plan has any effect on a special individual like ‘King.'”

Yu Sheng didn’t know how to react for a moment, and could only marvel at how little he’d truly seen here. Then he glanced over at Eileen, but the Little Doll turned her head away. “Don’t look at me. I’ve never seen anything like this either.”

Yu Sheng then turned to look at Hu Li.

Hu Li stared fixedly at the cat for a long while, then her eyes suddenly lit up and she clapped her hands. “Oh! It’s an innate spirit beast that attuned to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!”

“…Damn, I really envy this dumb fox,” Eileen groaned, clutching her head. “What a simple and happy way to live…”

“Red Riding Hood,” Snow White suddenly spoke up, “let’s get to business. You called us all here for a meeting—what do you want to do?”

Little Red Riding Hood immediately turned to Yu Sheng.

“Ahem, let me explain then,” Yu Sheng cleared his throat and rose from the sofa, sweeping his gaze around the room. More than half the people here were strangers to him, but he knew they had all heard about him to some degree from Little Red Riding Hood. “To put it simply, I have a ‘defense’ plan…”

Yu Sheng explained his proposal as concisely and clearly as he could. He also laid out the full context—including the current situations with Little Red Riding Hood and Xiaoxiao—and gave a brief introduction to his own “special” nature. While he omitted quite a few details, he felt he’d explained the relationship between his “blood” and the “Wasteland” clearly enough.

And as expected, when he finally finished, the room fell into a prolonged silence.

The teenagers, sixteen and seventeen years old, exchanged uncertain glances. No one spoke. Doubt was written across nearly every face.

The news was sudden, the plan was outlandish, and if not for Little Red Riding Hood’s powerful endorsement, Yu Sheng felt that even his own presence here would be “suspicious.”

“It’s normal to have reservations, so the purpose of this gathering is mainly to discuss things first,” Little Red Riding Hood was the one who finally broke the silence. “First, regarding what Yu Sheng has described, I can confirm it’s real. Both Xiaoxiao and I have been to that ‘Wasteland,’ and neither of us has experienced any ‘side effects’ from contact with his blood. What remains uncertain is just how effective this ‘shelter mechanism’ really is—after all, so far, Xiaoxiao and I have each only triggered the process of ‘jumping’ from the Black Forest to the Wasteland once. And then there’s the other question… whether all of you are willing to establish this kind of ‘blood pact’ connection with a third party.”

Clearly, it was this last point that weighed most heavily on everyone’s minds.

“Blood pacts” were always a sensitive topic in the field of the occult. Establishing a blood pact with an unknown entity had always carried enormous risk. This wasn’t personal rejection or resistance toward Yu Sheng—it was the necessary caution of these “big kids” who had been serving as “guardians” and had spent years working as Spirit Detectives.

Though even Yu Sheng himself wasn’t sure whether his plan actually qualified as a “blood pact.”

“Oh come on, stop hesitating already,” Eileen, never one for patience, couldn’t stand watching everyone deliberate any longer—even the cat was hesitating. She finally jumped up from the sofa (though standing up didn’t exactly increase her presence). “The Angel Cult has already got their eyes on you. You’re all living on borrowed time as it is. When an opportunity comes along, you need to grab it…”

Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “Precisely because we could die at any moment—that’s why we’re extra careful with every choice we make while we’re still alive.”

Eileen was immediately at a loss for words.

Little Red Riding Hood then clapped her hands and turned to the group. “Everyone, go discuss it in the next room. There’s no rush.”

It was clear that Little Red Riding Hood, soon to come of age, was like an older sister to everyone here. Her words carried considerable authority (except with the cat—the cat was always full of itself). Once she’d spoken, the people in the room filed out quickly without question.

The cat was the last to leave. As it exited the room, it turned back to give Yu Sheng a look, its gaze notably serious.

“I’ll go keep an eye on things too,” Little Red Riding Hood said to Yu Sheng with a nod.

Yu Sheng said nothing, only giving a wave of his hand.

Little Red Riding Hood left, and the room fell quiet.

Hu Li rummaged around in her tail and produced two chicken drumsticks, offering one to Yu Sheng. “Benefactor, have a drumstick.”

Yu Sheng casually ruffled Hu Li’s tail. “You eat. I’m not hungry.”

And so the quiet room was filled with the sound of Hu Li devouring two chicken drumsticks at once.

Yu Sheng continued to wait patiently, not the least bit anxious.

After some unknown amount of time, he heard footsteps approaching the door.

The door opened. Little Red Riding Hood walked in, followed by a small, slender figure—the girl codenamed “Snow White.”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow at the sight. “Looks like the first test subject has been chosen.”

Little Red Riding Hood nodded. “Yes. We discussed it and decided to send one person to try it first.”

“Why her?” Yu Sheng asked curiously, then quickly added, “Uh, just curious. No particular reason.”

“There’s nothing I can’t answer. It’s because aside from me, Snow White is the most unstable,” Little Red Riding Hood said calmly. “She’s the most destructive among us, but because her power releases too quickly, her erosion level is very high. She’s sixteen, and her condition is already about the same as mine. Right now she’s being dragged into nightmares practically every day—which makes her the perfect candidate to verify whether your ‘shelter’ mechanism actually works.”

The petite girl codenamed “Snow White” slowly approached Yu Sheng, staring at him without blinking.

“What do I need to do?” she asked curiously. “Do we need to perform some kind of séance or spirit-binding ritual?”

“Nothing that complicated,” Yu Sheng laughed. He casually pulled out a small knife and made a cut across the back of his hand. “Suck.”

Snow White, who had been dead serious just a second ago, instantly froze. “…Huh?”

Seeing her reaction, Yu Sheng figured this was probably a bit too jarring for someone he wasn’t that familiar with, so he thought for a moment. “Want me to find you a straw?”

Snow White, again: “…Huh?”

(End of Chapter)