Chapter 60: Hu Li’s New Home

Chapter 60: Hu Li’s New Home

Irene lowered her head and looked at her fully restored right leg. First she cautiously rotated the joint from side to side a few times, then she put her sock back on and slowly stood up while holding onto Yu Sheng’s hand.

“Are, are both legs the same length?” The little doll looked straight up at Yu Sheng. “This time I didn’t guide the reshaping process. I only infused spirit and fused everything together. Take a look for me...”

Yu Sheng rolled his eyes. “Of course they’re the same length. I only repaired the surface. It’s not like I cut it off and sculpted a new one.”

Irene let out a relieved breath and took a few short-legged steps back and forth across the table. At last, a smile appeared on her face.

“I can run around again! Yu Sheng, your craftsmanship wasn’t bad this time. Maybe you really have a talent for making dolls?”

“Thanks for the compliment...” Yu Sheng replied casually.

Then he watched as the newly mobile Irene strapped the picture frame back onto her back. In just a few movements she jumped from the table onto a nearby empty chair, climbed backward down from the chair to the floor, and began darting wildly around the attic in circles.

Previously, every time Irene ran around like this, Yu Sheng found her excessively noisy, especially because she always crashed into things and left the house in a mess. But for some reason, watching her race around this time did not irritate him at all. Instead, a strange sense of accomplishment gradually rose within him.

“A talent for making dolls...” Yu Sheng muttered.

He lowered his head and looked at the scraper in his hand, along with the nearly empty jar of repair putty. For a moment he could not tell whether Irene’s praise had been polite flattery or genuine admiration.

He was not sure whether he had any talent for making dolls.

What he suddenly thought of instead were those two lotus root segments that he had carelessly tinkered with and somehow successfully infused with spirit.

It seemed Irene had completely forgotten about that incident.

Just then, a set of footsteps coming from the staircase interrupted Yu Sheng’s wandering thoughts, as well as Irene’s running around the attic.

Turning his head, Yu Sheng saw a pair of fluffy white ears appear over the top of the staircase, followed by Hu Li, who was looking around nervously and curiously.

The demon fox girl wore a set of pajamas that looked somewhat too large for her. Her silver-white hair was still slightly damp. She had probably followed a scent trail to find the place. The moment she saw both Yu Sheng and Irene, a delighted smile appeared on her face.

“Ah! Benefactor, and Irene, you’re both here!”

Then she noticed that Irene’s limbs had already “healed,” and her eyes immediately lit up with surprise.

“Irene, your hand grew back?”

“Yu Sheng fixed it!” Irene happily raised both hands for Hu Li to see, then bounced up and down in place. “My legs are fixed too!”

“Benefactor’s immortal arts are amazing,” Hu Li said, staring blankly at the fully restored doll. When she turned to Yu Sheng, there was even admiration on her face. “You can use Netherworld Passage, reshape bodies and restore life, and even know how to craft puppets.”

Yu Sheng thought about it. The Netherworld Passage she mentioned was probably his ability to open doors.

And apparently she had mistaken Irene for a puppet doll he had created.

As expected, Irene immediately reacted and began shouting.

“What do you mean puppet?! I’m a living doll from Alice’s Cottage! A blessed one, understand? If you don’t know what you’re talking about, don’t make things up, you wild fox!”

Hu Li listened blankly to the little doll’s shouting. Then she lowered her head.

“Oh. I don’t understand. I won’t make things up anymore.”

Halfway through her outburst, Irene abruptly fell silent.

She looked completely bewildered.

She was used to bickering with Yu Sheng. This was the first time she had encountered someone so honest who did not argue back or engage in nonsense. All the prepared responses in her head suddenly became useless, and she froze in place.

Then Yu Sheng suddenly noticed something else.

He stared behind Hu Li in astonishment.

“...Where’s your tail?”

Irene also realized it a moment later and finally noticed that all of Hu Li’s tails had disappeared.

“I put them away,” Hu Li said with a smile.

She turned slightly to the side.

Then came a sound like a treasured sword leaving its sheath, Weng.

Radiant light suddenly burst forth behind the demon fox girl, and a huge mass of fluffy tails exploded outward. Bang!

“The doorway was narrow, and I kept bumping into things, so I put them away.”

Standing right beside her, Irene cried out and was instantly launched through the air by the sudden eruption of tails. She tumbled and rolled several metres across the floor.

Hu Li immediately let out a startled cry and hurried over, fumbling as she pulled the cursing Irene back to her feet.

Yu Sheng watched in a daze.

His first reaction, however, was relief.

“You scared me. I thought you’d launched all your tails like projectiles...”

Then another strange question occurred to him.

“...Why does your tail make a Weng sound when it comes out?”

Hu Li thought for a moment.

“It can also be Bang.”

Even Irene, who had just been pulled up and was preparing to resume her ranting, froze.

She stared blankly at Hu Li.

“...You added the sound effect yourself?!”

“Before a fox reveals its tails, it should make a sound to warn nearby people to move away,” the demon fox girl said as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Her speech was already much smoother than when they had first met, though strange pauses still occasionally appeared. “But you didn’t move away.”

Irene instantly exploded.

“How was I supposed to know about those weird rules?! Just what kind of fox are you?!”

Hu Li thought carefully.

Then she shook her head sadly.

Her ears drooped along with her mood.

“I... don’t remember.”

This time it was Irene’s turn to freeze.

The little doll awkwardly looked away.

“Don’t take it seriously. I was just saying it casually...”

Yu Sheng walked over to Hu Li’s side.

After thinking seriously for a moment, he spoke just as seriously.

“Don’t be too upset. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll never get back. Maybe someday you’ll find your home.”

Hu Li’s ears instantly perked up again.

“Benefactor’s Netherworld Passage can send me back?”

“If one of his doors can open anywhere, maybe one day it’ll open to your hometown,” Irene said from the side, hands on her hips. She looked so proud that it was as if the ability belonged to her. “Sometimes he opens a door and ends up sticking his head into someone’s alchemy furnace. Maybe someday he’ll open one that leads to where you’re from. Or at least somewhere that knows about it. It all feels like part of the same system anyway...”

As she spoke, she suddenly thought of something and turned to Yu Sheng.

“Hey, should we go check that alchemy furnace again? There were immortals over there and everything. Maybe that’s Hu Li’s hometown. Or maybe they’ve heard of it. The whole thing feels connected...”

Yu Sheng immediately looked troubled.

“Given what happened last time... they would probably attack us on sight.”

“Oh, right. Fair enough. If I were on the other side of that door, I’d want to kill you too.”

Hu Li listened as Yu Sheng and Irene talked. Her gaze moved back and forth between them, her face full of confusion.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng cleared his throat.

“We’re discussing who we should ask about your origins. Don’t worry. I’ll help you look for answers little by little.”

“Benefactor need not worry too much,” Hu Li said softly, finally understanding this time. She gently shook her head. “If I can find it, that’s good. If I can’t, that’s okay too. After all... I don’t remember what my hometown looks like. Even if I went back, there wouldn’t be anyone I know there.”

As she spoke, she reached into her tails and rummaged around before pulling out the two sharp canine teeth.

A gentle, comforting smile appeared on her face.

“I’ve already found my father and mother. It’s okay if I don’t go back.”

“...It’s good that you can think that way,” Yu Sheng said softly after letting out a breath. He nodded to the demon fox girl. “Then what are your plans from now on? Have you thought about the future?”

A trace of confusion appeared in Hu Li’s expression.

After hearing Yu Sheng’s question, she stood there blankly for a long time before slowly shaking her head.

“I... don’t know.”

She spoke quietly, sounding as uneasy as a young animal leaving its nest for the first time.

“This is the first time I’ve left that Valley. Everything here is good, but everything is strange. I... don’t understand any of it. I don’t even know where to find food. Mother said foxes must never forget kindness, but I don’t know what I can do to help Benefactor.”

Her words were still somewhat disjointed.

Yet Yu Sheng understood every bit of it.

He smiled and comforted the anxious fox.

“Then stay here from now on. I still have spare rooms, and plenty of food, so you don’t need to worry about going hungry. As for what you can do... help me fight. For now, that’ll do.”

After thinking carefully about it, Yu Sheng realized he did not actually know what abilities this fox possessed. Stories always said that a demon fox repaying a kindness could change someone’s destiny, but judging from appearances, asking her to write C code, draw illustrations, or make PowerPoint presentations was probably unrealistic.

On the other hand, her near-supersonic headbutts and that terrifying tail-launching move were undeniably powerful.

When dealing with Other Domains in the future, she would be an invaluable high-level combat asset.

Irene could handle crowd control, Hu Li could charge in and beat people up, and he could safely stand nearby cheering them on.

A wonderful arrangement indeed.

Hu Li, however, looked confused.

“Fight?”

“In the future we’ll encounter more Other Domains, just like that Valley,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “There are many similar anomalous spaces in this world. Various dangerous entities hide inside them. Maybe there are people trapped in them, just like you were. Maybe other people will ask us for help for various reasons. And I myself have reasons to continue dealing with Other Domains and entities. In short, I need helpers.”

Hu Li listened.

Then she suddenly looked nervous.

“Then... will people get trapped again?”

Yu Sheng was briefly stunned.

But the demon fox girl’s unusually genuine reaction soon brought a smile to his face.

“Did you forget about my Netherworld Passage?”

Hu Li blinked.

Then a smile gradually spread across her face.

She nodded happily.

“Okay. I’ll help Benefactor fight!”