Chapter 82 – Baili Qing’s Judgment

Eileen felt that Yu Sheng always had an endless supply of strange ideas, and he was always full of energy when it came to carrying out those absurd notions—she had been certain of this ever since the time he pulled those two lotus roots out of a drawer.

And compared to “cutting a piece of meat off an entity to taste whether it’s salty” and “trying to use lotus roots to make a body for the puppet,” attempting to grow vegetables in the now-peaceful Otherworld space actually seemed far less absurd.

After wandering around the valley a bit more and confirming the existence of the “spatial boundary” from the valley’s other side, Yu Sheng’s group of three decided to temporarily return to the real world.

Passing through the door, the familiar living room and warm, bright lamplight came into view. The night outside the window was still deep. Standing before the living room window, Yu Sheng felt momentarily dazed.

“It’s still light over there,” Eileen crawled onto the windowsill and leaned forward to peer outside for a while. “I’d forgotten it’s still nighttime on this side.”

“After that ‘Twilight Angel’ left, it seems like the entire valley has been in perpetual daylight,” Yu Sheng nodded. “We spent all that time over there and never saw any change in the light.”

“There isn’t even a sun over there—where the light comes from is a mystery in itself,” Eileen jumped from the windowsill onto Yu Sheng, then nimbly scrambled down his leg to the floor, chattering as she climbed. “If that’s the case, it should really be called ‘Daylight Valley’ instead…”

Yu Sheng’s eye twitched twice as he watched Eileen’s practiced and natural climbing. “Hey, don’t you think you’ve gotten a little too good at that?”

“Y-yeah?” Eileen looked up, completely unashamed. “Practice makes perfect, I suppose?”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. He seemed about to say something more, but just then, a sudden phone ringtone interrupted his train of thought.

He pulled out his phone and, entirely unsurprised, saw Baili Qing’s name on the screen.

“Let me take this call.” Yu Sheng waved to Eileen and Hu Li nearby, then took the phone and walked to the restaurant.

The moment the call connected, before he could even say hello, Baili Qing’s calm voice came through the receiver: “You’re back?”

The tone was so flat that Yu Sheng had a momentary illusion, as if she were sitting right there in the living room, watching him with her own eyes.

“Uh, yeah, I’m back,” Yu Sheng felt an inexplicable twinge of awkwardness. “So you guys had another… ‘disturbance’ over there, huh?”

“Mm, we’re used to it,” Baili Qing said mildly, cutting straight to the point. “So, you saw Night-shrouded Valley? What’s the situation there now?”

“I saw it,” Yu Sheng immediately composed himself, and before continuing his answer, he suddenly posed a question of his own. “It sounds like you can’t monitor its condition—doesn’t the Special Operations Bureau have technical means for searching and entering various Otherworlds?”

Two seconds of silence from the other end.

“They failed,” to Yu Sheng’s surprise, Baili Qing answered his question directly and candidly after the pause. “We actually did try to send investigators after the ‘Hunger’ incident concluded, but they couldn’t find Night-shrouded Valley.”

“Couldn’t find it?” Yu Sheng instinctively latched onto this phrasing. “What do you mean they couldn’t find it? They didn’t fail to enter—they failed to find it?”

“Yes, exactly as it sounds. As far as all of the Special Operations Bureau’s ‘standard detection methods’ are concerned, Night-shrouded Valley has effectively vanished,” Baili Qing said. “So when I heard that you could not only find it but freely enter that Otherworld, I was quite surprised.”

Yu Sheng thought about it and concluded he had never actually detected anything resembling “surprise” from that stone-faced woman, but he was quite appreciative of Baili Qing’s candid attitude. “Then let me share what I’ve found on my end—first of all, I think the place needs a new name. After the thing you call the ‘Twilight Angel’ left, there hasn’t been any ‘night shroud’ over the entire valley. I think this might be what it originally looked like.

“Second, based on my observations, Entity-Hunger has disappeared. Permanently.”

Yu Sheng was certain he heard a distinct breath and a suppressed gasp from the other end of the line.

He could sense her “surprise” now.

The next second, Baili Qing’s slightly hurried voice reached his ears: “I’d like to confirm—you just said ‘permanently disappeared’? Do you… understand the operating principles of entities and Otherworlds? Don’t misunderstand, I’m asking purely out of curiosity.”

“I know—as long as the Otherworld persists, the entity endures, right? But Entity-Hunger is truly gone. And from my observations, the nature of that valley has undergone some changes as well. I don’t have your kind of professional equipment, but I believe… in a broad sense, Night-shrouded Valley as an Otherworld should also be considered to have vanished. What remains there now is just a peaceful pocket dimension. Does that make sense? It’s like…”

Yu Sheng suddenly stumbled at this point, unsure how to describe the situation to her. But soon, Baili Qing’s voice came through the receiver—

“An empty shell left behind after being devoured clean. Is that it?”

Yu Sheng blinked. Even he hadn’t thought of such a precise way to put it.

He was actually concealing a great deal—including the details of how he had triggered the “Feast,” his connection with the valley, the various changes his blood could induce, and the “vitality” that was gradually emerging in the valley at this very moment. The intelligence available to Baili Qing essentially came entirely from the reports sent back by Li Lin and Xu Jiali. But clearly… this Bureau Chief of the Special Operations Bureau possessed remarkable acuity and judgment.

“Regarding this ’empty shell,'” just then, Baili Qing’s voice came through again, “the Special Operations Bureau would like to send personnel for an on-site investigation. Of course, this would require your assistance and consent.”

Yu Sheng hesitated for a brief moment.

It wasn’t that he had any particular resistance or wariness toward the Special Operations Bureau—after all, up to this point, he’d never had an unpleasant experience with anyone from the Bureau. It was simply human instinct to guard one’s secrets, and that valley was now very closely connected to him.

Baili Qing naturally noticed Yu Sheng’s brief hesitation.

“You can take your time to think it over. We won’t force the matter. If you’re willing to open the door, we can also accept you choosing the investigators, specifying the number of personnel and time limits, and having the entire process supervised,” Baili Qing said patiently. Though her tone was still distant and flat, it sounded as if she were trying her best to demonstrate sincerity and goodwill. “We only hope to collect some critical data. After all—this is an unprecedented situation. The first Otherworld and entity in recorded history to be truly ‘eliminated.’ I’m sure I don’t need to emphasize what this means to people like us.”

With her having said all that, Yu Sheng really couldn’t refuse outright. “Alright, let me think it over the next couple of days.”

……

Watching Baili Qing standing by the window on her phone, Song Cheng couldn’t help but whisper to the slightly balding, portly middle-aged man beside him: “Hey, Director Wu, would you say the Bureau Chief has always been this agreeable?”

“You’re asking me? You deal with the Bureau Chief far more often than I do,” the middle-aged man called Director Wu kept his voice even lower. “You know how it is with our Information Center—we’re practically an invisible department. We only have any presence during summary meetings. Your Operations Division even calls us ‘server room cavemen’…”

Song Cheng immediately laughed. “I have to admit, that’s pretty accurate.”

Director Wu shot him a look, then cautiously glanced up at Baili Qing, who was still on the phone. “But speaking of which… this really is the first time I’ve seen the Bureau Chief talk to someone this patiently and pleasantly. And for this long, too—is this ‘Yu Sheng’ really that important?”

“Not important—bizarre,” Song Cheng shrugged. “Your entire department has been working around the clock until now. You mean you haven’t felt it deeply?”

“…Don’t even get me started.”

Song Cheng tugged at the corner of his mouth. He was about to tease a few more remarks when he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and his entire body went rigid in an instant.

A calm, authoritative gaze had settled on him.

“Entity-Hunger has permanently disappeared.”

This single flat statement from Baili Qing wiped every stray thought from Song Cheng’s mind clean with a buzz, leaving only a resounding “What?” echoing through the depths of his consciousness like the toll of a great bell.

He opened and closed his mouth, unable to think of what to say for a long time.

“When those two agents under your command return from leave, arrange for them to have more contact with ‘Yu Sheng,'” Baili Qing paid no mind to Song Cheng’s stunned expression and simply continued. “‘Yu Sheng’ possesses human emotions and behavioral logic. His emotional responses are genuine. We need someone to establish a relatively stable relationship of trust and friendship with him. Those two agents of yours performed well. Also, send someone to No. 66 Wutong Road tomorrow to deliver a registration form—mind the personnel choice. Don’t pick someone who treats Otherworlds and entities like mortal threats with a grim expression. Find someone sharp and likable.”

Song Cheng finally snapped back to attention. “Ah, yes, Bureau Chief.”

Baili Qing nodded, and her gaze fell on the slightly balding, portly middle-aged man beside him.

That was the head of the Special Operations Bureau’s Information Center.

“How are things on your end?” she asked.

“We’ve exhausted all possibilities. At least from a system level, there’s no reason this kind of glitch should exist,” Director Wu quickly straightened his posture. “We also tried deleting ‘Yu Sheng’s’ file and re-registering it, but none of the operations worked. Those entries just seem to ‘float’ in the database—they won’t accept any calls or modifications, and they don’t produce any error messages. Honestly… if the system doesn’t raise an alarm soon, I’m about to raise one myself.”

“Rather than calling the police, you’d be better off bringing in the Academy’s professors. The incense and binary prayers they use to soothe machine spirits are well-suited for handling this kind of bizarre problem,” Song Cheng chimed in from the side. “Last time, one of Fourth Division’s transport vehicles got depressed, and they were the ones who cured it.”

“I’ll contact the Terra side and have them send someone to take a look,” Baili Qing gave a slight nod. “But if even the Academy’s professors can’t do anything about it, we drop the matter entirely—in any case, starting today, do not attempt any further modifications to ‘Yu Sheng’s’ data in the file system.”

“Yes, Bureau Chief.”

(End of Chapter)