Chapter 37 – The First Step in Preparing a Body

Hearing Eileen’s request, Yu Sheng was a little surprised. He didn’t know why she was raising the matter so solemnly at this particular moment.

They had discussed the idea of crafting a body for the Puppet in the Painting more than once before, but had never actually settled on anything. On one hand, Yu Sheng and Eileen still lacked sufficient mutual trust and understanding; on the other hand, there were simply too many chaotic matters to deal with, and Yu Sheng had never found the time to seriously consider the issue of Eileen’s body.

But now, seeing the extraordinarily grave expression on the puppet girl’s face, Yu Sheng realized she wasn’t raising this out of a passing whim or momentary caprice.

He looked at Eileen with an inquiring gaze.

“I want to go with you,” Eileen’s answer was simple. “Think of it as having someone to watch your back.”

“Are you sure?” Yu Sheng’s expression was a little complicated. “Not that I’m doubting your abilities or anything…”

“Listen,” Eileen cut him off. She leaned toward the edge of the frame, her face occupying nearly two-thirds of the painting’s surface, her tone unusually serious. “I’m not joking with you — I don’t know exactly how you plan to deal with that ‘entity,’ but judging by the fact that you can bring back ‘souvenirs’ from it, you must have some real ability. I won’t ask what kind, but you need to understand: when dealing with the Otherworld, just being able to fight isn’t enough. At least not when facing a troublesome entity like ‘Hunger.'”

She leaned back slightly. “Make me a body. Let me recover some freedom of movement. It doesn’t have to be refined — as long as I’m free from the constraints of this damned oil painting, there’s so much more I can do. I won’t recover my full strength, but I’ll certainly be far more capable than an ordinary investigator or some so-called spirit detective or Otherworld hunter. Even if I’ve forgotten much of my knowledge, I still have the instincts of a living puppet.”

Yu Sheng stared steadily at Eileen, and Eileen gazed back at him with her crimson eyes.

“I can help you, Yu Sheng,” Eileen said earnestly. “When we went into Hu Li’s dream, we already cooperated once.”

This time, Yu Sheng thought longer than he ever had before, and in the end he had no choice but to acknowledge Eileen’s reasoning.

His mind was filled with thoughts of returning to that valley and eliminating the Entity-Hunger lurking there, but he also knew that his chances of storming in alone and destroying that monster were genuinely not high — of course, he had no fear of death, and during the process of devouring the Entity-Hunger he had gradually grown stronger, but this kind of strengthening clearly had its limits, and “Hunger”… was not easy to eliminate.

Relying on repeated deaths to slowly grind down the monster might be an option, but it was obviously the worst possible strategy. If he could genuinely have a capable partner who also understood something of transcendent power, that would surely be for the better.

All it required was placing some trust in Eileen and letting her out of the painting.

And that trust had already been established back when they fell together into Hu Li’s dream, and then woke up facing each other and promptly felt sick at the sight of one another.

“Looks like I’ll need to make a trip to the city center,” Yu Sheng exhaled softly and leaned back in his chair. “Clay, wigs, and other materials have to be bought from a specialty craft store — there’s nothing like that in the Old City District.”

The puppet girl in the painting blinked, and once she processed his words, an expression of delighted surprise spread across her face. “You… you agreed?!”

“If you don’t have high standards for the body’s quality and you trust my craftsmanship,” Yu Sheng waved his hand dismissively, “I can give it a try.”

“My standards aren’t high at all — as long as it has a human shape, I can remodel it myself. I just need you not to make any mistakes during the alchemy part,” Eileen hurriedly said, as if afraid that if she was too slow Yu Sheng might change his mind. Then she thought for a moment, and turned her face to the side with a somewhat complicated expression. “And… and if you really can’t find suitable materials…”

Yu Sheng looked on curiously. “What if you really can’t find suitable materials?”

“…Dough will work too.”

Yu Sheng was stunned for two or three seconds, and finally displayed the most shocked expression he’d worn since meeting Eileen. “What?!”

Eileen explained quietly, “The material is just a medium. What actually makes it work is the alchemy part — your blood and my soul…”

Yu Sheng was completely dumbfounded. “Okay look, I understand making do with less, but isn’t this a bit too much of a downgrade?!”

Eileen thought it over and decided to flash Yu Sheng a harmless, innocent smile to charm her way through.

It worked.

But Yu Sheng still decided to go out and buy proper materials.

“I’ll go buy some decent clay. Molding a body for you will probably need quite a bit, so let’s not waste food,” Yu Sheng exhaled, standing up and casually talking as he did. “There are also a few other things I need to buy. You just stay home and watch TV nicely. If anything comes up, call me remotely — if the TV crashes again, wait until I get back.”

As he spoke, he picked up the remote and turned on the TV for Eileen. The Eileen inside the frame gave a dutiful nod. “Oh… then hurry back.”

Yu Sheng said he would, threw on his coat, and stepped toward the entryway.

Gripping the door handle, his first move was to steady his nerves. Only after confirming that there would be no volcanic craters, meteor showers, sulfur lakes, lightsaber-wielding little green men, or a mechanically modified elf big sister waiting outside did he take a deep breath, push the door open, and successfully step out onto the old streets of Wutong Road.

Yu Sheng suddenly found this whole situation rather interesting.

Getting to the edge of the world was easy enough for him — never mind whether he’d make it back or die out there — yet pushing open a door and stepping onto an ordinary street was, for him right now, considerably more difficult.

Walking toward the bus stop, Yu Sheng casually scanned his surroundings.

At some point without his realizing it, his state of mind when walking through this vast and unfamiliar city had quietly shifted. The oppressive unease of recent days had faded away, and as he walked down this street that couldn’t really be called his “hometown,” the feeling in his heart — beyond mere calm — contained a faint trace of… excitement and anticipation.

Even the sky, bright enough to be a little harsh on the eyes, now seemed a cheerful and pleasant kind of sunshine.

Street vendors were selling things at the intersection; scattered passersby drifted past; a child who had apparently gotten into some kind of trouble came running and hollering along the side of the street, with an adult chasing behind, cursing the whole way.

Yu Sheng wondered: among these people, would there be any of the “professionals” Eileen had mentioned? Those people working in the shadows to protect this city and resist the Otherworld — had anyone noticed the small “anomalies” hidden within this peaceful and tranquil Old City District?

His thoughts even wandered further, and he began speculating which of the pedestrians nearby looked unfamiliar, which ones might be plainclothes agents, which ones might be spirit detectives or investigators.

The uncle selling jianbing guozi at the intersection was a possibility — today’s one had switched for someone with noticeably worse technique. The auntie on the balcony across the way who was hanging laundry was also possible; he’d never seen her before. Could that noisy kid who’d just run past be one? He’d heard from Eileen that spirit detectives had “tricks” to change their appearance — truly remarkable…

As for that energetic young man squatting on the ground in a tank top with dyed yellow hair and phone blasting music — that one was definitely not. Didn’t fit the profile at all.

Yu Sheng hummed a little tune and passed through the old street, brushing past Li Lin — who was squatting on the ground in a tank top with dyed yellow hair (a wig) and phone on full blast.

A little while later, Xu Jiali — who stood close to two meters tall, and was male — wandered onto the street, glanced down at Li Lin who was keeping watch, then crouched down, lit a cigarette, and squatted alongside him like a fellow free spirit.

“Is that disguise of yours actually convincing?” Xu Jiali asked.

“Very convincing,” Li Lin said casually. “I used to dress like this whenever I was on stakeout duty. All those colleagues selling jianbing guozi got blown — I never did. I even have a cosplay outfit; that one’s even better for staying hidden. Once I had a border smuggler right there in front of me and he still couldn’t believe that a cosplayer was a Special Operations Bureau spy.”

The big man listened, looking bewildered. “What’s a cosplay outfit? Sounds like it might be some kind of force-field powered armor? Aren’t those banned in the Borderland?”

“…I can’t explain it to you,” Li Lin said with a look of disdain, scooting sideways. “Move away from me. You’re too big — you’ll blow my cover.”

“Impossible. My vibe screams ‘unemployed’ even more than yours,” the big man muttered. “Besides, you haven’t found anything all morning, have you? To be honest, I suspect that even if there really is something hidden here, it’s probably not a ‘person’ — most likely a strange entity or an Otherworld erosion point or something. That fits the clues you’ve found here so far much better. Damn, there was such a huge commotion in Boundary City last night, and we have no idea what’s happening at the Bureau right now. Meanwhile the two of us are stuck here like idiots staking out some unknown thing and spinning our wheels…”

Li Lin couldn’t be bothered to respond to this big man. He pulled out a large power bank, plugged it into his phone, and then chose to turn the speaker volume up even higher.

Two to three hours later, Yu Sheng had already finished buying everything he needed at a shopping mall in the city center.

Now, he dragged his bags and parcels to a spot where no one was around and began to ponder.

He’d bought quite a lot — the weight wasn’t a problem for him now, but hauling everything onto a crowded bus all the way back would still be a major hassle.

So he had a bold idea.

He felt it was absolutely worth attempting.

Yu Sheng raised his head, confirmed once more that no one nearby was paying attention, then quietly extended his hand and reached into the empty air beside him — a door took shape in his hands.

Three seconds later, deep within Boundary City, in a hidden “depth” somewhere, the Special Operations Bureau headquarters was jolted by the sudden blare of alarms, and countless agents, clerks, and squad leaders — along with their Director, Baili Qing — who had been working overtime until their minds had gone numb, launched themselves out of their chairs…

Yu Sheng, carrying several large plastic bags, went home.

(End of Chapter)