Alien Hotel.

Chapter 376 Towards the Border
Outside the teahouse, it rained all night, the street lights reflected the wet reflective ground, above the distant tall buildings floated the illusion of fairy mountains and auspicious clouds, cranes whose authenticity was difficult to distinguish danced gracefully between the neon lights and rain clouds, gorgeously decorated flower boats flew slowly between the buildings, and the sound of stringed instruments could be heard in the rain. This city street scene from a distant alien planet looked real yet distant through a hazy light curtain at the edge of the awning.

The black-robed monk was holding a cup of hot tea, not noticing that the tea had been on the table for a long time but had not cooled down at all. He recalled and thought in a daze, answering one question after another raised by Yuan Ling Zhenren.

"…We don't know who the 'enemy' is. The benefactor says it has left, but sometimes he suddenly gets angry and says that thing is always hovering around, hiding in the shadows of the stars and in the orbits of the stars. He says that people are too stupid to see the danger that is right in front of them…

"The Emperor's relics... are hidden in a very deep place. One must pass through layers of illusions. One cannot go directly through the real world, but there are many cracks in the real world that lead to the depths. Taiyou? Yes, there are cracks in Taiyou. There are also cracks on Taixu Lingshu, and there are also cracks on Hanguang and Handing stars, but the passages there are not very stable.

"Yes, they are distributed throughout the Feiyu Star Region..."

The sound of rain became more intense, and the night rain on the street outside the shed gradually turned into a rainstorm, and then closer to a storm. The violent rain poured down from the sky above the city like the sky and the sea hanging upside down, and the sound of it hitting the awning of the teahouse was like thunder. The rain curtain that washed down blurred the distant scenery. The flower boats, covered boats and mechanical birds flying in the city could no longer be seen in the rain. Even the tall buildings lit up by neon lights became increasingly abstract and blurred outlines in the rain curtain.

The whole world seemed to be reduced to this alien rainstorm scene. In the endless darkness, only the rainstorm kept falling. The small teahouse and the awning outside the teahouse became the only "foothold" in the whole world. In this increasingly disturbing environment, the black-robed monk's answer seemed more and more confused.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly stopped his rambling and looked up at the outside of the awning.

"The rain is getting heavy," he said to himself, "It seems like it has been raining for a long time... You are from outside the rain, do you know what it is like in places where it doesn't rain?"

Yuan Ling Zhenren seemed not to have heard what the other party said, but took the opportunity to further guide: "Is it raining like this where Senior Yun Qingzi lives now? He also lives in 'Shu Ji'?"

The black-robed monk's brows gradually furrowed, as if recalling the incident itself was bringing a huge burden to his mind. Along with the difficult memories, distant and low thunder was heard in the heavy rain outside the teahouse.

"The benefactor...is not in Shuji, but nearby. It is indeed raining there all the time. He...he occasionally goes to Shuji, but never..."

An exceptionally loud thunderclap suddenly exploded, and the strong flash and loud noise tore through the heavy rain and long night outside the teahouse. The alien city scenery briefly reflected in the lightning was crumbling.

The black-robed monk suddenly stopped, his face turned pale by the lightning, and then his eyeballs shook violently.

The next second, Yu Sheng seemed to hear a roar from the sudden thunder, and seemed to see a pair of angry eyes from the lightning in the night sky. Then a terrifying pressure descended from the rainstorm and rushed straight towards the teahouse.

But Master Yuan Ling had anticipated all this. Before the interrogation began, he knew that a powerful person had placed a restriction in the heart of the black-robed monk. As the "heart examination" deepened, no matter how ingenious the setting of the Heart-Searching Pavilion was, it was only a matter of time before this restriction was triggered. So when he saw the trace of thought that Yun Qingzi had left deep in the black-robed monk's mind emerge, he immediately pushed it out with a palm!
This palm pushed towards the air, but it seemed to shake the entire space. In an instant, there was a huge earthquake inside and outside the teahouse. Then, the endless night rain dissipated, and the street scene of the alien city briefly appeared. Then, the towering neon buildings retreated silently and fell down, turning back into the foggy forest and muddy paths at the beginning. Then the forest retreated again and turned into an endless quagmire.

The teahouse once again became a simple roadside teahouse. Yuan He and Yuan Hao, who were sitting in the corner, stood up at the same time and pointed their fingers outside the shed.

In the misty rain outside the tea shed, a blurry figure stood out, as if it was "shocked" out by the three Yuanling brothers, and a trace of Yun Qingzi's thoughts suddenly emerged.

This blurry figure glanced into the tea shed. Even though it was just a thought separated from the main body, this glance still made everyone feel an almost tangible sense of oppression.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but Yu Sheng always felt that the figure’s gaze finally fell on him.

...Can such a "restriction" left in the black-robed monk's heart still recognize me?
Yu Sheng was surprised for a moment, but before he could make any response, he saw the figure floating in the mist and rain slowly disappear.

The black-robed monk sitting across the table shook his body, and his foggy eyes gradually regained clarity: Although the three Yuan Lings helped him block the killing power of the forbidden restriction in his heart, the impact just now inevitably "woken him up".

"The rain finally stopped..."

The black-robed monk muttered something to himself, and the decades-long mind-troublesome illusion created for him by the Heart-Searching Pavilion finally faded away silently.

The misty scenery and the small roadside teahouse disappeared, and the surroundings once again turned into an empty prison cell with only a bed. The black-robed monk was sitting on the bed, and Yu Sheng, Irene and Yuan Ling were standing opposite him.

"It seems that your 'benefactor' doesn't trust you very much either," Yuan Ling Zhenren said casually, "The restrictions he left in your hearts are very powerful."

The black monk was quiet for a few seconds. The moment he woke up, he knew what had happened. He realized that he had said a lot of things he should and shouldn't have said. His face was visibly gray, but after a brief silence, he just shook his head: "...We all volunteered." "You're still stubborn," Irene muttered as she sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, and then she hugged her arms and shivered, "I was slow to react just now. If I had been quicker, I would have tied up the shadow that showed up at the end and we would have interrogated him directly."

"You're pretty stubborn," Yu Sheng glanced at the little doll, "You were shocked when that shadow appeared just now."

Irene was immediately furious: "I, I was just fighting! Do you understand fighting spirit?"

The black-robed monk sitting on the bed turned a deaf ear to the noise around him. He now had an aura of self-abandonment. Then he suddenly sighed, "I have told you everything I know. You can do whatever you want with me from now on. Kill or chop me as you please."

"That won't work. Qianfeng Lingshan is a reputable and upright sect. Even if they sentence you, they have to investigate your other crimes and punish you accordingly," Yuan Ling Zhenren said calmly, and then changed the subject, "And have you really 'told it all'? Not necessarily."

The black-robed monk raised his head and looked at Yuan Ling Zhenren angrily: "What else do you want to ask?!"

"For example, which 'entrance' did you enter the foreign land from? How many entrances are there in the foreign land? Where are they located? Do you have a way to control your stable entry into the foreign land's specific 'scene'? How many people are there in the world? What are your plans for the next step?" Yuan Ling Zhenren said with a dignified face and a serious tone. "The following are the key points."

Hearing this series of questions, the black-robed monk's body tensed up visibly, but he still gritted his teeth and said nothing.

Yuan Ling Zhenren was not surprised by this, and just nodded expressionlessly: "Well, if I ask you and you answer, although it saves a lot of trouble, it will not look good on you. You have to go through some procedures."

As soon as the word "process" came out, the black-robed monk's face twitched noticeably, and then Yuan Ling Zhenren turned to the door of the room and said, "Linlang, send someone to prepare the next round of pills, and feed the young master the medicine on time this afternoon."

The young woman responded from outside the door: "Yes, Master."

……

After a while, Yu Sheng and Master Yuan Ling and his party left the "prison cell" and returned to the courtyard outside the Wenxin Pavilion.

Even after coming out, Irene kept looking back.

Yu Sheng felt very strange: "What are you looking at?"

"That man's expression at the end was a bit desperate," Irene muttered while holding onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, "I think he wanted to hold out until the honey trap at first - but he didn't expect this place to be a pharmaceutical factory..."

"What the hell are you talking about!" Yu Sheng almost spit out his anger, raising his hand to pull Irene back, "Alright, stop looking. There will definitely be no more results today."

Irene then withdrew her gaze in dismay, while Yuan Ling Zhenren, who was standing beside her, had been in deep thought since just now. At this moment, he suddenly broke the silence and said, "This interrogation has confirmed many of my previous speculations."

"Yeah, for example, regarding that 'Yun Qingzi'," Yu Sheng exhaled, "there really is such an 'old senior' behind this matter - should we find a way to find that person next? Otherwise, with his mental state... I always feel that something big is going to happen next."

Master Yuan Ling did not speak, but silently looked at his senior brother (Xuan Che's uncle).

The latter was stunned for a moment: "Why are you looking at me?"

"You are quite familiar with the Shuji area," Yuan Ling Zhenren said. "Just now, the evil cultivator mentioned that although Yun Qingzi is not in Shuji, he is nearby. In addition to the few illusions guided by the Heart-Searching Pavilion in the last stage, do you have any ideas about this?"

Yuan Hao thought for a moment, then spoke thoughtfully: "I have been to Shuji several times. It is a planet with continuous rainfall near the equator, but the polar regions are quite dry and cold. But if there are any other places near that planet that are suitable for seclusion and also have year-round rain... I really don't know."

(End of this chapter)