Alien Hotel.

Chapter 473 Night is deep, all is quiet

Yu Sheng, accompanied by an energetic puppet, a gluttonous fox, and a tireless artificial saintess, wandered around the big city at the foot of the mountain for an entire day, until night fell and the city lights came on.

"It's so beautiful..."

The little doll sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, tilting her head back and staring wide-eyed. She saw the lights and illusions of the pavilions and towers lighting up one after another, and huge flower boats adorned with flowers slowly flying across the sky. Small buildings were built on the flower boats, with carved beams and painted rafters, and lights like rivers rose from the distant markets and flowed through the entire city—all of this was breathtakingly beautiful, far surpassing the desolate Mo City.

Yu Sheng carried Eileen to a section of guardrail by the roadside, looked up at the city's night view, and after a long while let out a soft sigh, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Awesome."

The little doll reached out and tugged at his hair: "You're supposed to be a novelist, how come you can only come up with this after all that?"

“Nonsense, I’m exhausted, I don’t have the energy to think about words,” Yu Sheng rolled his eyes, then looked up at Luna and Hu Li, who stood on either side of him like guardians, “You guys are all inhuman…”

Eileen immediately burst into laughter, so happy she seemed about to flip over Yu Sheng's shoulders.

Yu Sheng was too lazy to pay attention to the little thing.

Hu Li thought for a moment, then sat down next to Yu Sheng and reached out to massage the latter's legs—there was no special technique, but the force was great, as if to nail Yu Sheng to this ground... An ordinary person would probably have suffered a comminuted fracture here.

Yu Sheng grimaced as the other person punched him a few times, then quickly stopped this silly fox with a strange strength in one arm. He then thought about it very seriously: "...Why don't you wait here for me for half an hour while I catch up on my thoughts—anyway, if I keep accompanying you guys to the nightclub, I'll die of exhaustion in this city."

Eileen didn't react for a moment, but Hu Li perked up her ears immediately and stared blankly at Yu Sheng: "My benefactor, isn't your method of 'getting back to normal' a little off...?"

Eileen finally realized what was happening, and the little doll looked at her with a look of astonishment: "...Are you trying to die?"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then casually ruffled the doll's head: "You actually believed me when I was just kidding."

The little doll was a bit dazed as its head was being ruffled. After a couple of seconds of hesitation, it raised its arm to block Yu Sheng's large hand while muttering, "What nonsense are you talking about? I saw your Bloodshed Disaster flash for a second, and then you took it back... You can take that back, huh?"

Yu Sheng laughed, and looked at the little one in the night, who was covered in colorful and shiny little trinkets.

It was either hair clips or shiny jade beads. Even the ominous star floating next to her head was adorned with several strings of protective jade that were said to have been blessed by a master. No one knew how she managed to keep the ball secure. But that was only part of it. At least half of the remaining fragments were stuffed into the fox's tail.

Moreover, the fox's tail was also stuffed with all sorts of food, as well as a set of farming tools that Luna had her eye on.

There was also a packet of seeds that I bought while purchasing farm tools—the stall owner confidently claimed that they were seeds of immortal herbs collected from the foot of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain, which could grow into seven or eight kinds of spiritual medicines.

...But considering that the stuff was worth 9.9 yuan a pack in the local currency, Yu Sheng didn't really believe it.

But it doesn't matter, it's just for Luna to plant for fun anyway.

Hu Li sat on the railing next to him and rubbed against him again, his big tails swaying happily behind him and patting Yu Sheng's back.

Because it was just a light, unconscious shaking, it didn't knock Yu Sheng unconscious.

Luna suddenly looked up at the junction between Ling Mountain and the city.

Amidst the banging sounds, several bright lights suddenly flew into the sky from that direction.

The next second, the star exploded, scattering light everywhere.

Flower boats gliding through the sky and the city's high-rise buildings dimmed their lights at some point. In the now clear night sky, huge fireworks burst forth like a galaxy, illuminating almost half the city.

Bright fireworks reflected on Luna's smooth alloy shell, and in the eyes of Huli and Eileen.

"Wow, awesome!" The little doll looked up and exclaimed happily.

Yu Sheng glanced at her: "Isn't your vocabulary just like that?"

Before he could finish speaking, Hu Li chimed in, "That's different. She graduated from prenatal education; her kindergarten education was all through correspondence courses..."

Eileen yelled and jumped off Yu Sheng's shoulder: "You stupid fox! I'll fight you to the death—"

Yu Sheng quickly moved aside to prevent the two kids, who hadn't even finished elementary school and those with kindergarten correspondence courses, from fighting and corrupting his college degree. Luna, who had a diploma from the village chapel, stood still, probably busy recording.

"Ah, that's nice," Yu Sheng said casually to the air beside him, sitting on the railing with his back against a lamppost in the middle of it. "Right?"

A semi-transparent phantom suddenly appeared in the air, which was none other than Yun Qingzi.

The old man looked astonished: "...How did you see me? I should have hidden it very well."

"Nonsense, you've made me spit blood all over my face, how could you possibly hide it from my senses?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow and said casually, "Didn't you say you couldn't tell?"

Yun Qingzi chuckled awkwardly, "That's what I was thinking, but I couldn't resist sending out a wisp of my divine sense to see what the Taixu Spiritual Pivot would look like a thousand years from now—my primordial spirit is still in the valley." "That's good too." Yu Sheng nodded with a smile.

Then Yun Qingzi gradually lost her composure and probably went to wander off somewhere else.

Yu Sheng got up from the railing, stretched, and turned to look at the fox and doll who were still playing around—mainly Eileen was being beaten up, and her small arms and legs, without using the power of the "black spider silk," were no match for the nine-tailed fox: "Alright, alright, stop fooling around. Still going to the nightclub?"

"I'm not shopping anymore," Eileen said, instantly darting out of the swarm of fox tails and nimbly climbing onto Yu Sheng's shoulder. "I'm sleepy!"

……

Eileen seemed genuinely sleepy—though the reason was unclear, the little one, who had seemed to have boundless energy all day, became so sleepy almost immediately after returning home that she was slumped over. Her doll-like body, which clearly didn't need rest, showed genuine signs of fatigue. This time, without any prompting, she climbed into the box in the corner of the master bedroom and quickly fell into a deep sleep along with the other bodies.

Of course, she still left one body on the bed this time—as if she was very determined to assert her "territorial rights" in the bedroom in this way.

She tossed the ominous star back onto the bedside table, cushioning it with a leather band to prevent it from rolling around.

Yu Sheng, however, did not sleep.

After confirming that the little doll was asleep, he quietly left the bedroom and went alone to the empty room at the end of the second-floor corridor.

The empty house remained as it always was, with the old wallpaper seemingly covered in dirty shadows in the night. Where Eileen's oil painting once hung, a lonely mirror now hung on the wall, reflecting the dim scene in the room.

Yu Sheng moved a chair from outside, sat in the center of the room, and then casually picked up the piece of fabric.

The fabric, of unknown craftsmanship and raw materials, is decorated with mysterious and complex patterns along its edges. The torn pieces of fabric have jagged edges and seem to retain a trace of... cool touch.

Yu Sheng silently stroked the fragment, lost in thought in the empty room.

Fragments of the ominous banner.

Although many mysteries remain, at least now he finally knows what it is.

Black Star, a bizarre "space" deep within Black Star, seemingly the other side of a mirror, where a figure wanders, holding a banner of ominous signs, calling himself "Kondaman," the messenger...

A jumble of thoughts swirled in my mind until very light footsteps came from behind, interrupting those somewhat troublesome thoughts.

Yu Sheng turned around and saw a pair of bright, golden-red eyes staring at him in the dim light, and a pair of large, furry ears twitching.

"You're not asleep either?" Yu Sheng said casually, reaching out to stroke the fox's tail.

The fox spirit girl squatted down beside him, nuzzled his arm with her head, and then looked up at the piece of cloth in Yu Sheng's hand with curiosity.

"So this thing is a fragment of the ominous banner," she muttered to herself.

Yu Sheng raised his eyebrows: "Weren't you and Eileen studying those consecrated amulets when I was chatting with Yuan Hao?"

“My hearing is very good,” the raccoon said proudly, squinting its eyes. Its two large, furry ears twirled nimbly in the air, pointing in different directions. “And I can hear in two directions at the same time!”

Yu Sheng: "...Okay, that makes sense. So you heard everything? What I talked about with Yuan Hao..."

“Yes, I heard everything,” Hu Li nodded. “Black Star, the Messenger, Kondman and all that. Luna probably heard it too—her sensors are very sensitive.”

Yu Sheng's eye twitched slightly: "You've been quite calm all day, joking around with Eileen. I thought you weren't paying attention to anything except eating."

Hu Li didn't speak, but stared at the "fragment of the ominous banner" for a long time before whispering, "My benefactor, Eileen might not be an Alice doll."

Yu Sheng remained silent.

“Eileen cares a lot about this,” Hu Li said, while casually pulling a piece of bread from her tail, breaking it in half, giving one half to Yu Sheng, and eating the other half herself. “Also, I saw her staring blankly at the Ominous Wanderer for a few minutes this morning… Do you think she’s starting to have doubts herself?”

“…She’s not really stupid,” Yu Sheng sighed, but then stroked his chin. “Okay, maybe she is a little stupid, but probably not that stupid. As for you, it turns out you actually care about her quite a bit—weren’t you two always fighting?”

"That's because she provoked me!" Hu Li puffed out her cheeks. "She even called me stupid—I'm much smarter than her!"

Yu Sheng didn't say anything, but after a few seconds of tension, he couldn't help but laugh and reached out to stroke the downy hair behind the fox spirit girl's ears.

"It's alright, don't think too much about it. I'll figure out what that black star and the 'ominous sign' are all about. As for you guys—eat and sleep as usual, the sky isn't going to fall."

(End of this chapter)