Chapter 250: The Person from Outside

To be honest, before opening the message sent to him by "Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand," Yu Sheng had considered all sorts of possibilities, even including the possibility that this "net friend," who had only exchanged a few words with him, might directly reveal the origin of the cloth strip in his hand. But the last thing he expected was for the other party to pull out another piece of cloth fragment.

The color of that cloth fragment was actually different from the one he had found in the room, but the pattern on its edge was absolutely identical!

Yu Sheng instantly became alert. He sprang to his feet and quickly typed a message on his phone: "You have one too?! Where did you get it?!"

"It's something kept by a fellow disciple of my sect, and I don't know its origin either," Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand replied quickly. "I saw it once many years ago. When I saw the picture you posted earlier, it felt vaguely familiar, and after thinking for a long time, I remembered."

Then after a while, the phone vibrated again, and a new message from Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand popped up: "After our last conversation about that object, I was held up by some miscellaneous affairs and never had time to think about it carefully. Only recently did I get some free time. Looking back now, the 'characters' on the object you discovered earlier and the patterns on this cloth fragment are about forty to fifty percent similar. It's very likely they share the same origin."

"I think so too," Yu Sheng immediately edited a reply. "This is already the second time I've found such 'foreign objects' from that strange room. The metal part I got earlier, I sent to the Special Affairs Bureau, but they haven't been able to analyze it so far."

This time, Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand's message was delayed by two minutes: "Special Affairs Bureau? Oh, you're in the Borderland?"

Seeing this reply, Yu Sheng instinctively paused for a moment. "You're not in the Borderland?"

The phone buzzed. Yu Sheng saw a new reply appear in the Border Communication message window: "I'm at the Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain."

An unfamiliar name came into view. Yu Sheng instinctively searched his memory but found no corresponding information. So he quickly swiped the screen to open the built-in search engine of Border Communication and directly entered the place name "Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain" to try to find some intelligence.

To be honest, at the moment he clicked search, he was actually a bit excited and thrilled. No other reason—just because the person named "Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand" said he came from *outside* the Borderland!!

He had never imagined that he could contact a person living "outside" through Border Communication, and "Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain" was the first "foreign place name" he had ever known.

Of course, he had known before that the world outside the Borderland was vast, and he himself had personally opened the door to the outside world. Logically, this shouldn't have made him so excited, but how to put it... knowing is knowing, and feeling is feeling. The feeling of really contacting someone far away in an unknown place through a communication tool was simply different.

While these thoughts flashed through his mind, the search page also refreshed on the phone screen. The first thing Yu Sheng saw was a red-highlighted headline:

"Warmly Celebrating the Successful Conclusion of the 337th Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain Beast Taming Summit, with Important Speech by Real Man Yuan He of the Beast Taming Peak"

Beneath the headline was a news thumbnail. A tall, thin middle-aged man with an immortal aura stood on a disc floating in mid-air, holding a whisk. The background was a fairyland of mountains and waters shrouded in mist. In front were a vast sea of disciples from various sects, all dressed in white robes and cultivation attire, so many that the end was not in sight...

Further away, faintly visible were pavilions and towers nestled among green mountains, clear waters, and auspicious clouds.

Yu Sheng frowned, glanced at the news headline again, then looked down at the thumbnail, and after understanding the amount of information on the page, he began to ponder.

He didn't know what he was pondering, but he just subconsciously started pondering.

Hu Li leaned her head over, looked at the picture on the phone screen for a while, and exclaimed, "Oh— it's quite retro!"

Yu Sheng stopped pondering and looked down at Eileen, who had also leaned her head over. "Do you think it's possible..."

Before he could finish, Eileen muttered, "The architectural style looks familiar."

"It can't be that coincidental, right?"

"W-well, that's what I'm saying. The universe is so big; there are plenty of places with similar styles. And last time when you opened the door, you only got a quick glance at that place; you didn't see the details clearly. How could it be that coincidental?" Probably sensing Yu Sheng's lack of confidence, Eileen's tone somehow became nervous. "Besides, even if it really is that coincidental, it's not a big deal. Look at the crowds on this picture—Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain is obviously a large area..."

As she spoke, she fell silent and started seriously picking at a loose thread on Yu Sheng's clothes.

Hu Li looked at Eileen and then at Yu Sheng, puzzled. Since she hadn't experienced the spectacular scene when Yu Sheng tested opening the door all night and set the entire Borderland to vibration mode, she was utterly confused at this point.

Yu Sheng remained silent for a moment, silently recalling the senior brother spinning while hanging from the roof beam, and the old man diligently swinging a copper leather belt among the immortal peaks and auspicious clouds.

When he switched back to the page and saw the ID "Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand" on the communication interface, he felt more and more something was off. His association ability went wild—Could it really be this coincidental? Could it be even more coincidental?

But in the end, he managed to control his wild thoughts. Setting aside the coincidence for now, he first replied with a message: "Sorry, I was just looking up information. This is my first time dealing with someone outside the Borderland. Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain seems like a nice place."

Actually, he wanted to probe indirectly for further identity information, like what their surname and given name were and what they specifically did at that place called "Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain." But after a brief consideration, he suppressed the thought. After all, he wasn't that familiar with this "Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand" — only having chatted a few times. Asking too much would be too suspicious.

The other party replied quickly: "That's normal. Most people using 'Border Communication' are from your Borderland. Outsiders rarely use it, especially here at Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain—especially my fellow disciples, who are busy with their own affairs and lack broad horizons..."

Seeing that the other party was still chatting with him as usual, although Yu Sheng knew there was nothing to be nervous about, he still inexplicably felt relieved. Then he quickly steered the topic back to the two cloth fragments: "You said earlier that the 'cloth piece' in your possession belongs to a fellow disciple, but you don't know its origin? Then your fellow disciple should know, right? Why not ask him?"

"He..." Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand's reply this time seemed a bit hesitant. The "typing" indicator flashed several times before the message came through. "Sigh, he went on a wandering journey many years ago. If I could find him, this matter would be simple."

Then after a while, a new message came from the other side: "My senior brother has always loved to wander. In his early years, he traveled the four seas and often brought back many strange and bizarre objects, even causing quite a few troubles in the sect. Compared to most of the exotic items he brought back, this piece of cloth is one of the few that is relatively 'docile.' It just lies obediently in the Treasure Pavilion, not making noise, not fighting with other exotic items, and never tricking or bullying the sect's disciples. Because of this, I've been managing his Treasure Pavilion for many years and almost forgot about this cloth piece pressed in a box."

"I was also curious and asked my senior brother why he would keep such an ordinary 'mundane object' in the Treasure Pavilion. I also asked him what its spiritual wonder was. But at that time, my brother was heavily drunk and didn't wake for three years. After asking several times without an answer, I forgot about it. Thinking about it now, it's truly regrettable."

Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand sent a long message in one breath, telling the origin of that "rag." After reading it carefully, Yu Sheng's first reaction was—what kind of stuff did that wandering senior brother usually collect?!

What kind of normal phenomenon was a brawl breaking out among the collectibles in the Treasure Pavilion?!

As for "not waking for three years," he didn't react much—these were cultivators, cultivators! Could immortal matters be measured by common sense? He had a fox fairy beside him who could eat more than twenty steamed buns in one meal...

Yu Sheng complained inwardly for a while, but he figured this might just be their "regional characteristic." In the end, he didn't feel comfortable asking too much and just sent a message: "If your senior brother comes back, or if you find out more about this cloth from other channels, could you let me know?"

The other party replied quickly: "Naturally. Although I'm not as fond of wandering and collecting exotic items as my senior brother, I've also become interested in this object. We are far apart, and the Borderland is the strangest and most bizarre place in this universe. Now similar objects appear in both our hands. This is very, very strange."

Then Yu Sheng chatted a few more words with "Scoundrel Disciple Three Thousand" on the phone before they said goodbye to each other.

He looked up again and saw that it was already broad daylight outside.

"Well... It's already dawn," Yu Sheng got straight out of bed, took a deep breath, and shook his head helplessly. "In the end, I still haven't found out anything... Instead, I've come across a lot of information I never expected in other directions."

While saying this, he stretched, but found that he wasn't very tired—even though he had only slept about three or four hours total last night, he was actually in good spirits.

Yu Sheng thought about it carefully and figured it was mostly thanks to those two bowls of "Fox Stew." Forget about the appearance and taste—that thing really had a strong aftereffect.

He casually rubbed the fur behind Hu Li's ear, then walked to the window and looked at the sunlit street outside.

Eileen came pattering over, climbed onto the windowsill, and looked outside with him. After two seconds, she looked up and asked, "Do you want to go to that Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain?"

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded: "How did you jump to that conclusion?"

"You've never been outside, but you're interested in the outside. You didn't know anyone from outside, but now you know one. You never knew what places were on the other side of your doors, but now you know a specific location," Eileen counted on her fingers. "To sum it up, you want to go see Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain."

Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed, exchanging looks with the little doll.

This little thing's train of thought sure jumps a lot.

...But her intuition was also really outrageous.