Chapter 104: Yu Sheng's Alchemy Experiment

Sleep was out of the question. He couldn't sleep even without Eileen messing around beside him.

Maybe it was because he'd seriously experienced an Otherworld exploration for the first time, which was really exciting, or maybe it was because he'd been bombarded with too much information lately, and now it all came flooding into his mind at once. Yu Sheng couldn't stop his mind from racing. So after tossing and turning and barely managing two or three hours of sleep, he finally got up, threw a jacket over his pajamas, and quietly prepared to leave the bedroom.

The moment he pushed open the bedroom door, the little puppet on the bed suddenly sat bolt upright again, eyes still closed. "Going out? Where to?"

Yu Sheng was startled and was about to answer her when Eileen flopped back down with a thud, muttering as she fell, "Don't forget your helmet when you buy money. You and that dumb fox ate too much and didn't take me to play games..."

Gibberish sleep-talking—and why did a puppet need to sleep anyway, and even talk in her sleep?!

A strange urge to complain welled up in Yu Sheng's heart. After confirming Eileen wasn't awake, he quietly pushed the door open and stepped into the hallway outside.

The sun hadn't risen yet, and beyond the house was still boundless night. It was the quietest time before dawn. The whole place was silent, so much so that the sound of his slippers on the floor seemed unusually loud and jarring.

Yu Sheng looked around, first spotting the door at the end of the hallway. He walked over, cautiously pushed it open a crack to check inside, and seeing everything was normal, relaxed a little. Then he turned and went to the stairs at the other end of the hall.

Just as he reached the stairwell, he noticed the clothes hanging on the railing post—the jacket he'd worn when he went out last night. Since he'd come back very late, he hadn't tidied up and just hung it there casually.

The jacket was stained with large patches of blood, and a sizable tear was torn where the giant wolf had bitten it. It looked pretty scary.

Yu Sheng picked up the jacket and examined it. He hadn't looked closely when he came back, but now he figured the clothes were beyond saving. Mending it would be a lot of work, the massive bloodstains might not wash out, and it wasn't a valuable garment anyway... He might as well just throw it out later.

He just wondered if tossing a "bloody shirt" that looked like it came from a crime scene directly into the trash would scare people. The neighbors would probably call the cops.

All kinds of random thoughts swirled in Yu Sheng's head. At one moment he marveled at how much blood he'd lost, at another he regretted not smearing that blood all over the exhibition hall while it was still wet—maybe he could have gained more control over the "museum" or unlocked something new. Then he wondered what the giant wolf that crawled out of Little Red Riding Hood's shadow actually was, worrying about the girl being hunted by the wolf...

His gaze kept drifting back to the blood on the jacket. Gradually, his scattered thoughts coalesced into a single curiosity.

Blood. His own blood... What the hell was it?

This doubt had been lingering in his mind for a long time, but he never had the time or the ideas to verify or study it. Now, suddenly, new thoughts came to him. Since he couldn't sleep anyway, after a moment's hesitation, he turned and headed up the stairs to the attic.

Moonlight streamed through the windows, filling the attic with a deep blue, near-black dimness. The big table that "Eileen" had used as an "alchemy table" sat quietly in the darkness. On it were the tools he'd used to make the puppet body last time, a few old books piled in the corner, and the old desk lamp.

Yu Sheng didn't turn on the overhead light. Instead, he went over and switched on the desk lamp. In the limited but more focused glow, he slowly sat down at the table and pondered a few things.

He had used two lotus roots to reconstruct Eileen's arms. The little puppet had become a little lotus root. Eileen had protested fiercely, but aside from her fussing, there was one thing worth noting.

According to Eileen's knowledge as a "professional puppet," this kind of reckless operation should never have succeeded. Clay, flour, even dirt dug from the garden could be materials for making puppets—but not "lotus roots."

After a slight hesitation, Yu Sheng took a disposable mixing cup from the drawer, grabbed the paper knife on the table, gritted his teeth, and made a cut on the back of his hand, letting his blood drip into the cup.

He didn't have much occult knowledge. Other than the mechanical "operations" in the puppet-making process, Eileen had only taught him some basic stuff about infusing spirit, guiding, and animating—and even then, just casually mentioned.

But for Yu Sheng now, even that basic knowledge was enough to satisfy his curiosity.

After completing an Otherworld exploration with Little Red Riding Hood, he was now full of interest in the occult and desperately wanted to gain more experience and understanding in this area.

Following the methods Eileen had taught him that he remembered, he set up the candles for the spirit-infusing ritual on the table, placed his blood at the "foci" of several concentric circles and connecting lines, and then tried to stir his own "spirituality," channeling that power into the blood that had left his body.

Eileen had said that "blood" was an excellent "natural alchemical wonder material." The flow of blood symbolized "life," the greatest miracle in the universe. It was the substance most likely to react in alchemical rituals. Even the most clumsy novice could use it to complete many tests.

But Yu Sheng ran into a problem right at the first step.

He didn't know how to stir his "spirituality." Although he'd been able to feel the presence of "spiritual intuition" more and more clearly lately, he still couldn't perceive or control that "spirituality," said to originate from the essence of the human soul, as a concrete, controllable "element." He couldn't feel any supernatural "energy" in himself, so naturally he couldn't channel it into the blood that had left his body.

He could only give free rein to his imagination, and then he almost fell asleep from the effort.

After ten minutes of fiddling, he saw the blood in the cup starting to coagulate, so he gave up on that line of testing.

Maybe he needed some "auxiliary materials"?

Yu Sheng thought a moment, opened the drawer again, and took out a bag of clay.

This was the clay he'd bought after the last batch ran out. Considering Eileen might have an emergency needing limb repair in the future, he now kept these "materials" on hand at home.

After all, he couldn't use lotus roots every time—though he really wanted to try, Eileen would probably go crazy.

Clay sculpting was the only alchemical experiment he could successfully "operate" so far.

He directly mixed the blood from the cup into the clay, kneaded it evenly, then meticulously added "auxiliary materials" like tea powder and rose oil in the proportions Eileen had taught him. After careful preparation, he earnestly began shaping the lump of clay into the form of an arm.

He figured, since he was at it, he might as well practice his "craft" of making puppets, so that every time Eileen recalled the "reconstruction" process, she wouldn't complain about how ugly his creations were.

Thinking this, Yu Sheng put twelve percent patience and care into shaping the arm. Using a scraper and a rod, he made a small hand at the end of the clay lump. After really working at it, he found... it was still ugly.

But at least it was better than last time—at least there were five fingers now.

He'd never dared to mention to Eileen that the first body he'd made for her actually had six fingers on each hand... Anyway, after she completed her self-restoration, it had returned to normal, and she hadn't noticed.

After finishing this, he placed the arm back in the center of the alchemical array. While imagining the connection he had with the arm through his blood, he slowly moved his right hand, trying to make the arm on the table move along with it.

But it didn't budge.

Yu Sheng frowned, poked the arm with the scraper, and, finding it completely unresponsive, reluctantly set it aside for now.

The faint light of dawn was beginning to seep through the slanted window into the attic, brightening the surroundings.

But Yu Sheng was already immersed in what he was doing, so much so that he didn't even notice the sky gradually lightening.

He drew more blood and prepared more clay.

Doing handicrafts was an addictive thing.

Since he'd already made an arm, why not make a complete body? He'd set aside the question of whether alchemy would work. Practicing his sculpting skills would be fine too, as a spare body for Eileen. Even though she said she'd need a few months before she could replace her body, this time could be used for good practice.

Would give the little puppet a nice little surprise.

Thinking this, Yu Sheng's enthusiasm gradually grew. Releasing large amounts of blood didn't make him feel uncomfortable at all; instead, he felt more energized. He made a new torso, arms, and two legs. Then he opened a new bag of clay and began trying to make the puppet's head.

He felt he had improved a lot. Compared to last time, the body he was making now was symmetrical, with all limbs, arms and legs properly shaped.

Making the puppet's head was more mentally demanding than the body. Not only did he need to carve the facial features as delicately as possible, but he also had to consider a more complex makeup process. Yu Sheng wasn't sure if he could manage it. The first time he'd made a body for Eileen, he'd skipped the "face makeup" step entirely, letting Eileen grow her face on her own. But this time, he wanted to challenge himself with something more difficult.

Anyway, when he bought the clay last time, he'd also bought a set of small tools for applying makeup to puppets and figurines, so it would be a waste not to use them.

Yu Sheng was deeply absorbed.

In fact, he was so absorbed that he didn't even notice—

The finger of the arm he had initially made was gently twitching.

And the puppet torso placed on the edge of the table was rising and falling almost imperceptibly.

(End of chapter)