Chapter 79: Changes

Chapter 79: Changes

Going out?

Hu Li froze for a moment when she heard Yu Sheng’s words, then immediately used her tails to dry the remaining bowls at high speed before casually grabbing one tail to wipe the sesame paste from her mouth.

“Alright, I’m ready...”

The corner of Yu Sheng’s eye twitched as he looked at her.

“It’s not that urgent. And you wipe your mouth with your tail?”

Hu Li looked down at the sesame paste on the tip of her tail. Only then did she realize what she had done. She quickly dipped the tail into the sink and scrubbed it clean, then vigorously shook it in front of Yu Sheng.

“I’m used to it...” she muttered quietly. “I forgot there are better things to use in the house.”

“It’s fine, not a big issue.” Yu Sheng wiped the water off his face. “Though next time, be careful who you’re shaking water at. And the electrical appliances too.”

“Ah, sorry, Benefactor!” Only then did Hu Li realize she had sprayed water all over him. She immediately rushed over in a panic and began rubbing his face haphazardly with a different dry tail. While wiping, she asked, “So... where are we going? Do we need to fight something?”

“Stop, stop, stop, I can wipe myself!”

Yu Sheng frantically pushed away the tail rubbing all over his face, then spat two silver-white hairs out of his mouth.

“We’re returning to that valley, but we probably won’t need to fight this time.”

Hu Li instantly froze.

Her entire body tensed rigidly where she stood.

The anxiety and fear in her eyes were impossible to miss.

In fact, Yu Sheng had known she would react this way before he even brought it up.

But that was exactly why he felt she needed to see the strange changes in the valley with her own eyes.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m here.” He stepped forward and gently patted the fox girl’s hair. “I know you hate that place, but some very strange changes have happened there. I think you need to see them for yourself. Don’t worry. We won’t get trapped inside again.”

Hu Li stared blankly at him.

Several seconds passed before she finally nodded stiffly, as though the decision had required immense courage.

Yu Sheng led her back into the dining room, picked up the little doll who had already been waiting for quite a while, and opened the door leading to the Valley Other Domain.

The three of them, though only marginally qualified as people, stepped through.

The sunlit valley unfolded before their eyes.

A fresh breeze drifted across the valley floor. The distant mountains and barren land basked beneath daylight. With the night curtain gone, everything seemed bright and vivid.

Even the devastation left behind after the feast somehow appeared gentler and more reassuring beneath the sunlight.

Sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, Irene stared wide-eyed at the scenery.

After standing there dumbfounded for half a day, she finally blurted out:

“This is really like Yu Sheng climbing into an alchemy furnace, unbelievably bizarre.”

Yu Sheng instantly forgot whatever he had been about to say.

He turned and looked at Irene with a complicated expression.

“Can you stop using me to invent folk sayings?”

“Then explain what’s going on here first.” Irene pointed at the valley ahead. “The aura of Hunger has completely faded! This place doesn’t even feel like the original Other Domain anymore!”

“It doesn’t feel like the original Other Domain anymore?” Yu Sheng immediately noticed her wording, and his expression changed slightly. “What do you mean?”

“The environment has completely changed. I don’t know if you can sense the difference in atmosphere,” Irene said, frowning slightly. She studied Yu Sheng up and down several times before continuing hesitantly. “It has your atmosphere. Or rather... the atmosphere of Wutong Road 66.”

Yu Sheng: “...?”

While he stood there bewildered, Hu Li also spent a long time nervously examining the surroundings.

She had been completely tense when she first stepped through the door, but now confusion had replaced most of her fear.

Unlike Irene, she did not possess a strange and precise ability to perceive Other Domains.

But as a demon fox, she instinctively sensed anything in her environment that had once threatened her.

Hunger had truly disappeared.

And after so much time had passed, there was still no sign whatsoever of it regenerating.

At that moment, Yu Sheng interrupted both of their thoughts.

“That’s not the only thing I wanted to show you.”

As he spoke, he crouched down and extended a hand toward the uneven patch of earth before him.

The area was covered with trenches and corrosion scars left behind by Hunger’s feeding tendrils.

Neither Hu Li nor Irene understood what he was doing, but both instinctively looked where he pointed.

They saw the soil beginning to stir.

They heard faint scraping sounds coming from deep underground.

The earth began healing.

The trenches gradually filled in.

The corruption rapidly vanished.

Green shoots appeared among the dirt and stones.

Delicate.

Fragile.

Yet those tiny traces of green were enough to leave one stunned.

The valley was healing.

That was the only description Irene could think of.

Her neck turned stiffly as she looked toward Yu Sheng’s face beside her.

Yu Sheng let out a long breath and slowly rose to his feet.

Within a radius of several dozen metres around him, the ground had already begun recovering.

But that was the limit of what he could currently accomplish.

He could still sense the subtle connection between himself and the more distant land, yet he could not directly activate or reshape it so simply.

Even so, he could feel that what he had done was affecting the entire valley.

It was as though he had planted a seed and initiated a slow, ongoing chain reaction.

He could feel the entire valley gradually awakening and steadily recovering its vitality.

“How did you do that?” Irene finally asked.

“I’m not sure of the exact mechanism, but it’s probably another connection established through blood,” Yu Sheng said slowly as he thought. “Ever since the last incident ended, I’ve felt some kind of stable connection with this valley. Maybe it’s because I died so many times in this dump. I bled enough to irrigate the place. Anyway, after a certain point, I started sensing it. Like this.”

He pointed toward the restored ground beneath his feet.

Irene stared into his eyes with a mixture of shock and horror.

After holding it in for a long time, she finally blurted out:

“What kind of cursed thing is your blood?!”

Then another realization struck her.

“Wait! You used your blood to create my body too. You even smeared it on my picture frame. Doesn’t that mean you could control...”

“No.”

Yu Sheng immediately sighed.

“If I could control you, would I still get kicked all night while trying to sleep?”

Irene thought about it.

Then she visibly relaxed.

“Oh. Fair point.”

Afterward she turned toward Hu Li, who had remained silent the entire time.

“You come from a cultivation background. Your perspective should be different. What do you think?”

Hu Li looked at Yu Sheng with complete admiration.

“Benefactor, your immortal arts are profound. You can influence the transformations of nature itself. You could become an immortal specializing in landscape gardening!”

Yu Sheng: “...”

For a moment, he genuinely could not determine whether she was praising him.

He decided to take it as praise.

“I never should’ve expected a useful opinion from you,” Irene sighed, then poked Yu Sheng’s head. “Anyway, we can set aside your connection with the valley for now. The important thing is the entity that used to occupy this place. If it still hasn’t regenerated after all this time, it may really be gone.”

“Has something like this never happened before?” Yu Sheng asked skeptically.

“Of course not. At least I’ve never heard of it,” Irene answered without hesitation. “Entities are an inevitable phenomenon produced by the operation of an Other Domain. They’re not independent creatures that can simply be eliminated. If the Other Domain exists, entities exist. But then again...”

The little doll paused and looked around with a strange expression.

“The entire atmosphere of this valley has changed. At least from my perspective, it’s no longer the Other Domain that gave birth to Hunger. If that’s true, then Hunger really could disappear permanently...”

Miss Doll’s brows were tightly furrowed.

Logically, she had found an explanation.

Emotionally, she still could not believe it was real.

Hu Li, however, had no idea what Irene was struggling with.

She understood only one thing.

That monster seemed like it would never return.

She tugged on Yu Sheng’s sleeve.

“So in the future, that monster won’t hurt anyone anymore?”

“Seems that way.” Yu Sheng thought for a moment and nodded gently. “Unless the valley somehow breaks its connection with me and changes back into what it used to be.”

Hearing that answer, Hu Li simply stared at him.

No one knew what thoughts were passing through her mind.

Then she suddenly lunged forward and wrapped him in a fierce embrace.

The force was so great that even Yu Sheng’s body, now far stronger than any ordinary human’s, immediately began creaking. Not only that, but a whole mass of tails wrapped around him as well.

“Benefactor, this is wonderful! This is wonderful!”

Yu Sheng had not seen this coming at all.

The air was nearly squeezed out of his lungs.

Forget appreciating whether a demon fox’s embrace was warm or not. He felt as though seven or eight hydraulic clamps had closed around him from every direction.

“Loosen... loosen... I’m dying... tails...”

Only then did Hu Li realize what she had done.

She immediately released him and jumped backward in alarm.

“Ah! Sorry, Benefactor! I got excited and...”

Yu Sheng, having narrowly survived the ordeal, braced his hands on his knees and gasped for breath.

It took quite a while before he could even wave a hand.

“Y... your tails are that strong too?!”

“It scared me too!” Irene protested loudly. “One sweep of a tail nearly knocked me off!”

Hu Li stood there apologizing repeatedly.

Her ears had practically flattened against her scalp.

Yet it was obvious she was still happy.

It was a joy more complete and reassuring than even when she had first escaped the Other Domain.

By this point, Yu Sheng had finally caught his breath again, and incidentally healed several minor fractures.

He raised a hand and patted Hu Li’s hair, helping her calm down.

Then he straightened and looked toward the distant horizon.

Irene instantly noticed the change in his expression.

The little doll immediately turned to Hu Li.

“I think he’s got another idea.”

“How about we head farther out?” Yu Sheng asked, exactly as Irene had predicted. “What do you think lies beyond the valley?”