Chapter 658: Yu Sheng's "Food Delivery" Plan

After first sending Hu Li and Eileen and the others back to No. 66 Wutong Road, Yu Sheng didn't waste any time. He sent a message to Bai Liqing to confirm she was in the office, then opened a door directly to the Special Operations Bureau.

Behind the spacious desk, Bai Liqing, who was flipping through documents, raised her sleepy eyes and looked at Yu Sheng as he pushed the door open. "I heard you guys pulled off another big job?"

Yu Sheng casually pulled over the chair he had long gotten used to sitting in as he offhandedly said, "Yeah, ran into a pervert, so I executed justice on Heaven's behalf..."

Then he suddenly realized something and looked up at the humanoid dragon across from him in surprise. "Hey wait, how do you know? I haven't told you yet..."

"The staff stationed at Fairy Tale Valley reported it—Fairy Tale suddenly mobilized its army, half the 'parents' went out to fight, then a large number of mass-produced Eileens teleported on the spot, vanishing into spatial rifts, and later a bunch of dolls missing limbs came back through teleports, reeking of gunpowder," Bai Liqing said calmly. "Once I asked Little Red Riding Hood and the others, I got a general idea, especially since there's an excited snake demon over there grabbing everyone to hear her tell tales of sweeping the battlefield."

"Oh right, I forgot about that," Yu Sheng said, slapping his forehead. "Then I'll have to go back to the valley in a bit..."

"You seem busier and busier now," Bai Liqing remarked, though her face remained expressionless. "—Just a little less busy than me."

Yu Sheng: "..."

Did that expressionless dragon just crack a joke at his expense?

But Bai Liqing didn't wait for his reaction and quickly continued, "Since you're back, tell me what exactly happened. I only know you encountered a Black Spot warlord and fought him. The Fairy Tale kids only know there was a big fight, and that snake doesn't even know who she was fighting."

Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice, immediately composed his expression, and looked at her seriously. "The Black Spot warlord we caught is the guy who secretly stole data from Luo's lab and sold it to the Holy Hermitage. His alias is 'Old Joe.' We got a lot of intel from him..."

Over the next while, he told Bai Liqing everything that had happened in the Darkfall Star Domain, including the situation of the victims rescued from Old Joe's lab (since they would need to get identification through the Special Operations Bureau's channels—many of them had already been removed from the rolls), and... what had happened to Luo before.

After hearing all this, Bai Liqing remained silent for a long time.

"...I always knew she was an outlier among Black Spot warlords, but I never imagined she'd been through all this," she finally said slowly. "This... explains a lot of her peculiarities."

"In a sense, Luo is strong," Yu Sheng said after a moment's thought, with a note of admiration. "I don't know if there are others like her in the Black Spot Group, but the fact that she's made it this far—ordinary people really couldn't. You should cut her some slack from now on. She's already reformed..."

Bai Liqing raised an eyebrow.

"When have I ever given her a hard time?"

"Last time, when you had her stomach pumped twice..."

"The medical department acted on their own."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"Let's talk about the Holy Hermitage," Bai Liqing said, expressionlessly changing the subject. "You mean they built a large-scale rift device called 'Eden Gate' on their capital planet, and they might have placed the Gloomy Angel 'Shadowless Skeleton' on that planet too? Just to open a passage to a 'new world'?"

"Sounds a bit ridiculous, but the intel is most likely true—unless Old Joe had the leisure to fabricate a scary story for his 'lab animals.'"

"No, not ridiculous at all. It fits perfectly with my understanding of those Hermitage followers," Bai Liqing shook her head calmly. "They're different from the Angel followers—the latter are a kind of mindless madness, but the Hermitage... they're a highly organized, goal-oriented brand of madness. This kind of group plans everything meticulously, but every plan's goal is devastating. The only good news is that this time, they might end up destroying themselves."

"Provided they don't drag everyone down with them. A single Darkfall Star Domain can't stop an awakened Gloomy Angel, and after that gate collapses, who knows what kind of monsters might come out of it," Yu Sheng said, stroking his chin. "What do you think about my concerns? I mean, the possibility that if the Special Operations Bureau amasses its forces, they might resort to desperate measures..."

Bai Liqing didn't answer immediately this time. She pondered for a full half minute.

"They will definitely do that. There's no doubt about it," she said slowly. "But to destroy the Hermitage, we have to amass our forces. So the operation must be a surprise—seize control of Eden Gate before they can react. Perhaps we can split into two groups? One unit attacks their border, but without applying too much pressure—just a diversion. Then send a small elite team to infiltrate the 'Holy Land' planet..."

Yu Sheng listened and nodded. "My view is also to deal with the threat of Eden Gate first, then launch a full-scale offensive on the entire Hermitage."

"Sounds like a nearly impossible mission..." Bai Liqing looked up at Yu Sheng, but before she could finish, he laughed.

"Digging a planetary parasite out of the core and blowing it up was also an impossible mission. We'll only know how feasible it is once we go take a look."

Bai Liqing said thoughtfully, "You're right. After all, we know almost nothing about that 'Eden Gate,' let alone how to seize control or shut it down... What does Luo say? It is originally her technology after all."

"I did ask her, but there's too little intel. She doesn't dare make any judgment," Yu Sheng admitted. "Mainly because the Hermitage side wouldn't leak that kind of intel to Old Joe. But Luo did say the principles are common, and with the data the Special Operations Bureau collected before, she can try to reconstruct some key parameters of Eden Gate from that... That's the best we can do at this stage."

Bai Liqing rubbed her forehead. "In the end, we still need to get direct data on Eden Gate."

Yu Sheng was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke after thinking. "How's the news about the Angel Catalyst spreading? Any movement from the Hermitage?"

"The news is spreading smoothly, and it's certain that the Hermitage has noticed this intel," Bai Liqing nodded. "The Special Operations Bureau's early warning system recently detected some unusual detection signals near the border areas and a few special space jump points. Most likely it's the Hermitage's spies scouting."

Having said that, she shook her head again. "But the bad news is they're more cautious than we thought. Even though Eden Gate's situation might be very bad, they aren't reckless enough to barge into the Special Operations Bureau's territory to snatch it. Most importantly, there's no way we can openly send that thing out—that would make our intentions too obvious."

Yu Sheng stroked his chin. "I wouldn't be so sure."

Bai Liqing: "...?"

"The key isn't how to deliver it, but who delivers it," Yu Sheng said as he thought. "If I were a thief, and you, a cop, suddenly came up to me one day with a bag of stuff and said, 'Check out this treasure,' I'd definitely turn and run. But if you were also a scar-faced, one-eyed, two-armed guy with two carps tattooed on your arms—a real street brother—and you told me you had some good stuff, I'd at least go over and take a look..."

Bai Liqing's eyelid visibly twitched, unsure if she was stunned by Yu Sheng's cultured and excellent metaphor. "You mean..."

"Old Joe," Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "He had 'business' with the Hermitage."

"But Old Joe is dead."

"The Hermitage doesn't know that," Yu Sheng's lips curled up. "At least not yet. And on the other hand, Old Joe also has plenty of reason to go to the Hermitage to negotiate a new deal—because he just screwed up the last one."

Bai Liqing was thoughtful.

"Can we pull it off? What do you think the success rate is?"

"It can't be worse than the current situation," Yu Sheng spread his hands. "The Hermitage is still hesitating, but we don't have much time to waste with them. Who knows when their Eden Gate might blow up big? After all, those cultists might pull a 'wipe out their own whole family' stunt at any moment."

Bai Liqing thought Yu Sheng had a point.

So she casually pulled out a few packets of instant coffee from a nearby drawer, poured them into her mouth with warm water, and after perking up, said seriously, "Then we should discuss a more solid implementation plan next."

***

Fairy Tale Valley, Teleportation Hub Hall.

A door leading to Black Rock Space Station was quietly pushed open. Then after two seconds, a head cautiously poked out from the door—one furry cat ear and one mechanical cat ear simultaneously twitched in the air. Mo Mo looked at this unfamiliar place with extreme caution.

A hint of surprise appeared in the cat-girl's vertical pupils.

In the vast hub hall stood one door after another, but the entire hall still felt somewhat empty. Occasionally one could see some doors pushed open, with people from Shuji, Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, or the Special Operations Bureau appearing in the hall. Other than that, the most numerous figures visible here were the mass-produced dolls pushing mini mops or carrying brooms as they ran around.

The cat-girl let out a small gasp.

It seemed someone behind her urged her on, so Mo Mo finally gathered her courage and stepped out of the door. Then, passing through the door behind her, came Luo's figure.

"Pretty impressive, right? This place is the real headquarters of the 'Hotel.' You'll be even more shocked when you get outside," Luo patted Mo Mo's shoulder, a hint of pride in her voice. "By the way, don't mess with those red-eyed dolls here—they maintain order in the headquarters. Provoking them would be very dangerous..."

Mo Mo nodded hastily.

"Also, don't provoke an old man who comes out for a stroll carrying a back scratcher. Provoking him would be very dangerous!"

"Mm hm."

"And don't provoke a giant female snake demon... also very dangerous."

"Uh, yeah."

"And don't provoke some that look like children... uh, children. Provoking them is also dangerous..."

"..."