Chapter 460: A Tailor-Made Position
Perception returned to flesh, consciousness sank into the body, and the vast information from the “star body” in the distant deep space gradually receded into the depths of his mind. After adjusting a bit more, Yu Sheng opened his eyes in the dimness.
The first thing he saw was Eileen lying horizontally across his belly, her head drooping, sleeping as if the world had ended.
He moved slightly, and Eileen rolled off his stomach, tumbled across the bed, and then sat up with a start, waving a hand with her eyes still closed: “I! Alice doll! Buy me a phone!”
No sooner had she spoken than the little doll plopped back down, her face burying in the quilt as she muttered the next line in a muffled voice: “…Or a phone watch will do…”
Yu Sheng: “….”
After confirming that the little thing was really just talking in her sleep, he let out a helpless, amused sigh, then tiptoed out of bed.
In the corner, four wooden boxes were neatly arranged. One lay open and empty, while the other three were tightly shut, with faint, steady snoring sounds coming from within.
Yu Sheng was very curious why a doll needed to snore when sleeping, and he’d been wondering about it for a long time.
The mass-produced ones didn’t—when they “slept,” they just lay down on storage racks and stayed still, a state close to being powered off.
After a moment’s thought, Yu Sheng turned his head and glanced back at Eileen, who had squirmed into a different position on the bed.
He had once worried that Eileen might not get used to these boxes—after all, when the little doll slept, she tossed and turned all over the bed, probably covering a good distance in a single night, and there wasn’t enough room in the narrow wooden boxes for her to thrash about. But now it seemed… her body in the box actually slept more soundly?
It was the same consciousness, yet it could create different “states” based on different bodies, control a bunch of mass-produced shells, develop strange abilities depending on the material, and recently she’d even managed to learn a new trick: having one body sleep while the others stayed active…
Using Yuan Hao the True Person’s pet phrase—what’s the principle behind this?
A sense of curiosity stirred in Yu Sheng’s heart, then he shook his head and casually pulled open the heavy curtains.
Sunlight streamed into the room; beyond the window, it was already early morning.
On the distant sea of clouds, the morning light glowed gold. Birds rose from the woods on both sides of the Cloud-Watching Terrace, and occasionally figures could be seen moving along the mountain path—most likely disciples of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain practicing their morning cultivation.
Yu Sheng steadied himself, and another layer of perception surfaced in the depths of his mind—the long rainy season in the equatorial region, the myriad lights of Ink City, the cold, dry polar no-man’s lands, the crystal-branch structures deep in the earth, the ancient mining platforms, and the spacecraft both large and small passing through the planet’s atmosphere.
At the same time, he could also perceive the iron body of the *Heterogeneous Inn* ship, the lush growth of grass and trees in the valley, the flow of mountain springs…
Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly, letting his consciousness slowly diffuse, then continuously gathering it and focusing it on a specific “direction.” He carefully felt the various changes in the process, practicing control over each perceptual endpoint.
This had already become his daily “exercise” recently.
After a while, he heard rustling from the bed behind him. He turned around and saw Eileen sitting up with her messy hair. The little doll stared blankly at him for a moment before finally coming to her senses: “Good morning… Why are you up so early?”
Yu Sheng waved his hand: “First wake up a bit, then brush your hair and wash your face.”
“Oh.”
Eileen muttered, and simultaneously, the three wooden boxes in the corner opened, and three more Eileens crawled out. They skillfully found tiny combs from the bedside table, climbed onto the bed, and started combing each other’s hair, tidying their clothes, then lining up to wash their hands and faces…
Yu Sheng watched this scene and suddenly felt like a father who had finally seen his child learn to take care of herself—where did this inexplicable mix of relief and regret come from?
But just as this thought crossed his mind, he heard a loud crash from the bathroom, followed by the little doll shouting from inside: “Yu Sheng! I fell into the sink!”
Yu Sheng: “…”
A moment later, Yu Sheng found a hairdryer and started drying Eileen’s clothes and body. The completely soaked little doll stood on the floor, clutching the bed leg, opening her mouth in the hairdryer’s warm air: “Ah wah ah wah wah—”
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. It took quite an effort to dry her completely, and then, while putting away the hairdryer, he casually said, “I’ll need to go to Queyun Palace later. Come along, all of you. There’s something I need to tell you.”
At that moment, Eileen walked over to the bedside table. She tiptoed, pulled down the Omen of Doom Planetoid, and placed it by her head, letting it orbit around her as she heard Yu Sheng’s words and turned back curiously: “Huh? What’s up?”
“Remember Xu Ji?”
Eileen rolled her eyes: “Of course, obviously.”
“That planet is now ‘connected’ to me—you could understand it as my new body.”
Eileen froze on the spot, her joints seeming stuck, while only the carefree little ball kept orbiting her head.
“Is it that surprising?” Yu Sheng gave her a look. “Didn’t the valley and the ship come about the same way before?”
Eileen thought it over: “Yeah, I guess?”
…
“So that’s the situation with Xu Ji.”
In the main hall of Queyun Palace, Yu Sheng spoke earnestly to Yuan Ling and Yuan Hao.
Beside him sat Hu Li, while Luna stood silently behind him as usual. Eileen, unable to bear the boredom, had already run to the palace entrance, playing with her little ball by herself.
Yuan Ling sat across from him, stroking his beard with a subtle expression.
Yuan Hao sat beside his junior brother, slightly tilting his head toward the palace’s crossbeam, doing calculations with one hand and muttering to himself. After half a day of deducing celestial secrets, he finally blurted out: “…What’s the principle behind this?”
Yu Sheng couldn’t help but laugh. He’d expected that line from the handsome old master since this morning.
“Don’t look at me, I can’t explain the principle either,” he waved a hand at the two immortals. “I’m just telling you the current situation. After all, Xu Ji was your property, but this is an irreversible process… Honestly, it’s a bit awkward.”
“To be frank, this situation did not occur to us brothers,” Yuan Ling said thoughtfully, his expression serious. “Can I understand it this way—you are now Xu Ji?”
“Mo Ran used a term called ‘Body Transforms into the Universe,’” Yu Sheng said. “That’s her understanding.”
Yuan Ling and Yuan Hao exchanged a glance, as if making a decision.
After a few seconds, Yuan Hao tentatively spoke: “Since it has come to this, then I’ll ask… would you simply become the ‘Star Guardian’ of Xu Ji?”
Yu Sheng’s expression froze solid.
After a couple of seconds, he opened his mouth: “…Ah?”
“As you know, the original Star Guardian elder of Xu Ji, ‘Dao Heng,’ was killed by the Derivation Star. Now that great calamity has just settled, that position remains vacant,” Yuan Hao said seriously. “And you resolved the Derivation Star calamity. Now, with your body transforming into the universe within Xu Ji, if you think about it, there’s probably no one more suited for the position of ‘Star Guardian of Xu Ji’ in all of Feiyu Star Domain.”
“Wait, hold on, I need to consult,” Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand. “Star Guardian—what exactly is that position? Is it okay to let an outsider do it?”
“The Star Guardian is a position specially set for remote planets. As the name suggests, it is someone who ensures the safety of that planet,” Yuan Hao nodded. “Due to the unique nature of ‘cultivators,’ the Star Guardian does not directly participate in local planetary management, nor is it responsible for the ‘public order’ of any specific city or the order on the planet. What the Star Guardian protects is the ‘planet’ itself—natural disasters, external enemies… When there are no such calamities, the Star Guardian actually doesn’t need to do anything.”
He paused there, then looked into Yu Sheng’s eyes: “As for letting an ‘outsider’ do it… In fact, it’s no longer a question of whether it’s possible—you already *are* the Star Guardian of Xu Ji in practice. Putting aside everything else, if a meteor large enough to move mountains and fill seas were actually to strike Xu Ji, would you stop it?”
“Of course I’d stop it… ah,” Yu Sheng finally caught on. “Alright, if you put it that way, I understand.”
“Exactly,” the handsome old master across from him smiled. “Not only do you already have the reality of a ‘Star Guardian,’ you might even be the most worthy ‘Star Guardian’ in the history of Feiyu Star Domain. It’s no longer a matter of whether the Taixu Spiritual Pivot recognizes it—it’s a fact as solid as a mountain. And for private reasons, I must add: if you are willing to accept this ‘title,’ it would truly be a good thing for the millions of people on Xu Ji right now.”
Yu Sheng stroked his chin, lost in thought.
“Xu Ji is in turmoil right now. For cultivators, what many fear isn’t lack of food or clothing, but the very planet beneath their feet. At a time like this, having a great power who resolved the Derivation Star calamity willing to return and continue protecting Xu Ji is enough to stabilize the hearts of hundreds of millions—even if you do nothing, they will have the courage to continue living on that planet,” Yuan Ling stroked his beard. “And you’re not really doing nothing… you’re genuinely holding up the mountains and rivers for them.”
Hearing this, Yu Sheng let out a soft breath.
He looked at the two opposite him, and after a long moment, finally nodded slowly.
“Since you’ve brought it this far… let’s go with what you say. Compared to my actual situation now, it’s just adding the title of ‘Star Guardian.’”
Yuan Ling and Yuan Hao exchanged a glance, and a hint of a smile appeared in the corners of their eyes.
Then they both stood up simultaneously, cupping their hands in a bow to Yu Sheng: “Then we thank Mr. Yu for being willing to take on this great responsibility…”
“Stop, stop, stop! You two are pulling that routine again!”