Alien Hotel.

Chapter 714 Dreaming Under the Stars
Mass Effect, the observation deck on one side of the mid-deck area offering views of space.

Yu Sheng let out a long sigh, then sat cross-legged on the platform, gazing at the vast, dark space beyond the protective barrier.

The dark "void star" hovered silently high above, and a light reconnaissance ship was slowly skimming across the surface of the black star. The silver-gray silhouette of the ship stood out against the dark background, and the light streams released by the engine array drew a long, arc-shaped trajectory.

"It's quiet now."

Yu Sheng sighed softly.

Footsteps came from the side, and he saw several large, furry tails appear in the corner of his field of vision. Turning around, he saw that the fox was strolling leisurely toward him.

As she got closer, she lay down and rolled on the spot into a fluffy, silvery-white little fox. Then she climbed onto Yu Sheng's lap, nuzzled his belly with her head, curled up, and hummed comfortably, looking lazy and dazed.

Yu Sheng was startled by the little fox that suddenly snuggled into his arms. After a moment, he smiled and reached out to rub the fox's head: "Are you full?"

"I'm full," Hu Li mumbled sleepily, her large tail curled up and hanging on Yu Sheng's arm. "Sleepy."

Yu Sheng smiled but didn't say anything, only continuing to reach out and ruffle the fur on the nine-tailed silver fox's head.

Hu Li's actions on the Holy Planet were extremely taxing. To say nothing of anything else, the headbutt from the orbital drop alone was almost equivalent to the amount of food she would normally eat in three meals. In addition, there were battles with cultists, the bronze knights guarding the facilities, and the Holy Throne. She didn't even have time to eat in between, as she was constantly expending her ammunition reserves.

Such enormous consumption comes at a price.

For example, the food supplies in the Mass Effect ship's cafeteria...

As for now, the girl isn't hungry anymore—she's too full to eat.

"My benefactor..."

The little fox, curled up on my lap, nudged its head again and made a drowsy sound.

Yu Sheng lowered his head: "What is it?"

"It's so quiet. I don't usually have this much peace and quiet."

Yu Sheng chuckled: "That's right, didn't Eileen excitedly run off to visit the spaceship? Would the environment be this quiet here if she were here?"

The fox's ears twitched: "Oh, no wonder."

Yu Sheng laughed, stretched out his legs, and simply changed his position to lie directly on the platform.

The silver-white fox also changed her position, lying down next to Yu Sheng, resting her head on his arm, and after dozing off for half a minute, she began to snore softly and evenly.

The fox has three good qualities: it can eat a lot, it can sleep a lot, and it's furry.

Yu Sheng looked up at the sky, listening to the little snore beside him.

The black star hung high above his head, like a corner of the universe being gouged out, leaving an undefined void—he just stared at it quietly, sometimes feeling as if the darkness was about to suck him in, sometimes feeling as if it were just an illusion reflected in the dimension of reality, and for a moment, when he stared at it, he felt as if he were looking at a mirror, with himself outside the mirror and himself inside the mirror.

Yu Sheng's mind was filled with such random thoughts. Bathed in starlight, he gradually felt his eyelids getting heavy. The soft purring sound in his ears and the warm touch of the fox fur against him were both awakening his drowsiness, and finally he unconsciously closed his eyes.

The alloy floor of the observation deck was hard, but he soon felt as if he were floating, drifting in a gentle breeze.

Then he saw a blurry, unreal figure standing in front of him, surrounded by the starlight of the distant stars.

A second later, Yu Sheng realized that there was a huge mirror in front of him, and the reflection was himself.

He frowned, realizing that he had seen the same "hallucination" not long ago.

The enormous "mirror" before us, seemingly spanning heaven and earth, is actually Black Star.

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he saw the "mirror" in front of him begin to shrink rapidly, and its edges began to show a distinct curve. It quickly turned into a dark celestial body, but the shrinking continued. After only a few seconds, the "planet" floating in front of him shrank to about the same height as him.

Yu Sheng stared blankly at the "mini planet" floating in front of him, and suddenly felt that it was not like a mirror, but like a reflection in a mirror.

...Whose shadow is it?
The "cognition" that inexplicably flooded his mind was stirring, but Yu Sheng seemed unconcerned about the noise in his head. He simply frowned slightly and took another curious step forward, reaching out to touch the surface of the black star. Ripples spread across the dark surface, so black that no details or outlines could be seen.

The next second, he saw a warm light emerge from the center of the ripple!
As the warm light drew closer, it revealed itself to be a lantern—a classic and elegant design with a frosted glass lampshade inside an iron shell. Then, a hand appeared above the lantern, and a figure emerged beside the light.

It was an unfamiliar woman, wearing a strangely styled black coat, which resembled a trench coat, with a heavy and solemn color and pattern, even reminiscent of graves and death.

Beneath the collar and cuffs of the coat, Yu Sheng saw layers upon layers of bandages. These strange bandages seemed to be wrapped all over the woman's body, even reaching her cheeks and covering a third of her face.

But those bandages didn't seem to be for injuries, but rather some kind of peculiar...clothing?
Yu Sheng stared in disbelief at the unfamiliar figure reflected in the black star.

Then he realized that the other person was also staring at him in disbelief.

Yu Sheng nearly flew off his feet: "Who are you?!"

The other person almost flew up too: "My God!?"

Yu Sheng was stunned. His first thought was one of surprise. He hadn't expected that this woman, whose style looked gothic, avant-garde, and a bit punk, was actually a priestess (he guessed, given the theological details in her black coat). His immediate reaction was, "Why are priestesses all like this these days? Who would wrap their nun in so many bandages? It looks like a cult..."

But he quickly remembered that he had a nun under his command who could slice people with a knife as easily as chopping vegetables (of course, there seems to be a whole group of nuns like that now). So he calmed down immediately, composed his expression, and raised his hand to greet the figure that had suddenly appeared: "Um, hello?"

The figure that had emerged from the surface of the black star seemed to have calmed down by now. She leaned forward slightly, raising her lantern as if illuminating something, her brows furrowed slightly: "...No, it doesn't seem like it? But..."

Yu Sheng noticed that the other person's figure was very blurry, only clearer within the area illuminated by the lantern. In other areas, the shadow was dim and transparent, like an illusion. Moreover, whether it was an illusion or not, as time went on, the edges of the other person's figure gradually became disturbed and shaky.

"Um, can you hear me?"

Yu Sheng frowned, realizing that the "connection" between himself and the other party seemed very unstable.

“I can hear you, but your appearance is very blurry to me; I can only recognize a faint aura,” the strangely bandaged woman on the other end spoke, her attitude surprisingly polite, even somewhat respectful. “Are you in the inner universe? What happened to you? How did you wake up?”

"How did I wake up? Eileen kicked me awake this morning..." Yu Sheng muttered subconsciously, but before he could finish, he realized that what the other person was saying was not what he was thinking. His mind suddenly clicked, and he stared at the other person with wide eyes, "Wait a minute, what do you mean? Do you know me?"

However, the figure opposite him was becoming increasingly blurry, and even the warm light of the lantern was flickering. Yu Sheng heard a cacophony of noise around him, with only a few fragmented words reaching his ears:

"...Eileen? Which Eileen?! You just mentioned..."

"Wait a minute, the signal is too bad, I can't hear you," Yu Sheng quickly moved closer to the illusion of the black star. "Who are you? Where are you from? I need to go back and ask around, at least I should know some keywords, right?! Give me some information, please..."

Unexpectedly, it seemed the other party actually heard his shout. The lantern suddenly flickered, and he heard the last few fragmented words drift into his ears: "...This is the Lost Home. We have entered the boundary of the void and are attempting to construct...an engine...the void...information is difficult to transmit...a passage needs to be established..."

Then the lantern flickered one last time, and all illusions and sounds vanished into nothingness.

Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes.

A heavy, suffocating feeling pressed down on him.

He looked down and saw the silvery-white fox lying on his stomach, its head resting on his chest, fast asleep.

It's really a bit heavy.JPG.

However, the fox girl was very perceptive. As soon as Yu Sheng opened his eyes and made a sound, she opened her eyes as well.

Those bright, golden-red eyes stared intently at Yu Sheng in the darkness: "My benefactor, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

Then she rolled off, transformed into human form, and reached out to help Yu Sheng up, muttering as she did so: "Sleeping on the ground makes it easy to have nightmares. You're different from me. We foxes can sleep anywhere... Ah, is it because I was lying on your chest that you had nightmares?"

"No, it has nothing to do with you," Yu Sheng waved his hand, quickly going over his dream in his mind to make sure he didn't forget it, and then he calmed himself down and said, "I dreamt of a woman wrapped in bandages, who said she was from the Lost Home or something, but the signal was too bad, she couldn't hear what I was saying, and I couldn't understand her either, but I always felt like she knew me... Ugh, this is all a jumbled mess of a dream, you understand?"

The fox girl still stared at him with wide eyes, her large tails swaying behind her. Then she blinked and said, "I don't understand—but I'll go with you to find Baili Qing and Master Yuanhao. They are learned."

"Okay, let's go."

(End of this chapter)