Chapter 280: Origin

Yu Sheng always had plenty of creative ideas—some of them brilliantly dark.

And Hu Li invariably carried out every outrageous plan of his without a shred of doubt.

So the fox girl didn't think there was anything wrong with her benefactor wanting to break off the nails of a killing machine to make a knife to stab himself. The moment she heard Yu Sheng's instruction, she happily grabbed that still-menacing arm, pulled out a big tail from behind her, rubbed the tip with her tail, and released a blinding blue foxfire. She began cutting into the iron puppet's palm with a sizzling sound.

She planned to cut off all five "nails" first, then further divide them according to Yu Sheng's request. As for disassembling the entire arm... that could wait.

Sparks flew across the living room.

The light shone on Ai Lin's face, nearly blinding the little doll.

"Stupid fox, can you cut that thing somewhere else!" Ai Lin complained loudly. "There are sofas and appliances all around here—are you trying to burn the house down?"

Hu Li stopped her work at that, thought about it, and found the other's argument reasonable. She picked up the arm and ran downstairs to the basement—she planned to take it to the valley to cut it.

Ai Lin watched Hu Li run down the stairs, then turned back to glance at Yu Sheng: "You really plan to make a knife out of that thing's 'nails'? Looks pretty sinister."

"Why not?" Yu Sheng said as he pulled out his phone, editing a message without looking up. "After defeating the monster, using the dropped materials to craft equipment is standard procedure."

Ai Lin, who had recently been obsessed with gaming, immediately shed her doubts and nodded in agreement.

Then she noticed Yu Sheng's actions, leaned in curiously: "What are you doing?"

"Sending a message to Bai Liqing," Yu Sheng said, having already sent the photo of the arm he had taken earlier. At the same time, he composed a message briefly explaining the attack during his deep-mist exploration. "She should be asleep by now, but I'll leave a message. If she happens to know what that thing we fought today is, great. If not, I'll still have to visit the Special Operations Bureau tomorrow."

Ai Lin let out an "Oh," then ran back to the sofa and picked up a black veil to examine.

It was the scarf Yu Sheng had pulled off the iron puppet's head earlier. Its overall shape resembled a "nun's cap" worn by certain female clergy, and the fabric looked quite high-end. On the thicker front part of the veil, there was a strange golden symbol, composed of two interlocking rings—one large, one small—joined at the bottom, with a golden crack running from top to bottom through the entire emblem.

During the fierce battle earlier, there had been no chance for close observation. Now Yu Sheng noticed the peculiar mark on the veil and quickly took a photo with his phone.

Ai Lin lifted the veil and curiously studied its interior structure.

To her—at only 66.6 cm tall—the thing could practically be a cloak. Yu Sheng watched from the side and barely resisted the urge to poke the little doll, wanting to see her reaction if she let go and got wrapped up entirely in the veil. But he decided against being a pain...

"Do you think that thing is a 'physical entity'?" Yu Sheng said casually. "Not a puppet from Alice's cottage, with that obvious sinister aura. The style seems like something generated in the mist."

Just as he finished speaking, Ai Lin's voice came from under the veil: "Ah—no matter where that C-Type Clasp came from, I'm now certain it's not a physical entity."

Yu Sheng was startled: "How can you be sure?"

Ai Lin struggled to flip the veil over and pointed at a corner of the lining: "Because there's a tag here, and next to it a label saying 'hand wash recommended.'"

Yu Sheng nearly jumped off the sofa on the spot: "What?!"

He leaned in and saw that the little doll wasn't lying—the veil torn from the "iron puppet's" head really did have a brand tag and a washing label inside.

Yu Sheng immediately took out his phone and searched for the brand's trademark, getting a ton of links.

It wasn't even some mysterious brand or rare haute couture—it was available almost everywhere.

Of course, what he found online was different from the actual item in hand—there were minor differences in shape, and none of the images found online had that golden double-ring emblem.

"Looks like it was bought online and modified—cut shorter on both sides and had a symbol sewn onto the forehead," Ai Lin analyzed seriously, lying on Yu Sheng's arm to look at the phone screen. "Hey, it's quite expensive."

But Yu Sheng was silent, as if deep in thought.

Ai Lin looked up at him: "What are you thinking?"

Yu Sheng's face was serious: "I'm thinking about what this intelligence means."

"It means that C-Type Clasp definitely isn't a physical entity—physical entities don't go shopping..."

"No, it's more than that," Yu Sheng slowly shook his head. "It also means that thing wasn't alone—there are humans behind it. Could be companions, could be a master."

Ai Lin didn't get it at first: "Why?"

"Because those claws can't do needlework," Yu Sheng glanced at the doll whose brain had stalled at a critical moment. "Besides, there's this symbol. It obviously has some special meaning..."

Before he could finish, his phone rang loudly.

The caller was Bai Liqing—it was already eleven-thirty at night, and she hadn't gone to sleep.

Yu Sheng was surprised, but he quickly snapped to attention, picked up the phone, and put it to his ear. Before he could speak, he heard a crisp, slightly rushed voice on the other end: "Were you attacked by an enemy that looked like a black metal puppet? Was its appearance a tall, thin female?"

"Ah, yes," Yu Sheng knew immediately that Bai Liqing must know something. He forgot to ask why she was still awake and quickly responded, "She's about the same height as Xu Jiali, all iron shell, face deathly pale. Fights like she's dancing—too fast to follow. Her weapons are her nails—each one is a blade. Oh, and she was wearing a veil, kind of like..."

Before he could finish, Bai Liqing spoke: "A nun?"

"...Yeah, a nun, with a heretic vibe," Yu Sheng said, sending the photos he had just taken. "I tore off her veil—there's a mark on it. Sounds like you know where she's from?"

Bai Liqing was silent for a few seconds, probably looking at the image, then Yu Sheng heard a faint intake of breath.

"You encountered the Holy Sanctuary Hermitage's 'Artificial Saint.'"

Yu Sheng was stunned for several seconds before vaguely recalling having heard the name "Holy Sanctuary Hermitage" before. It seemed to be one of those private groups that opposed a law-based society, but he didn't know the specifics.

"Sounds... like a big deal?" he ventured. "Is it something I shouldn't normally run into?"

"A very powerful killing machine, responsible for protecting the Hermitage's important assets or key personnel," Bai Liqing's voice was unusually serious. "It usually takes a fully armed squad of divers to handle one. The survival rate for regular combatants—solo or even in a squad—encountering an Artificial Saint is zero. Are you saying that thing appeared in the 'mist' and suddenly ambushed you?"

"Yes," Yu Sheng's expression quickly turned serious as he listened to Bai Liqing. Though he still didn't know what the "Holy Sanctuary Hermitage" was all about, from those few sentences on the phone, he could tell it wasn't a group on the same level as those sneaky Angel cultists. The appearance of that "iron puppet" probably meant this incident was quite serious. "We walked into an area with very thick mist. The surroundings were already showing visible anomalies—then that thing suddenly came out of the mist."

"Did you have the border communication environment recording function on?" Bai Liqing suddenly asked. "The Special Operations Bureau's custom phones have multiple special sensors that can record many environmental parameters."

"Ah, yes, I turned it on when I left."

"Good. I'll have someone pull the environmental data from that time from the backend later," Bai Liqing said quickly, then pressed further, "Where exactly were you attacked?"

"Roughly by the area where the old city meets the commercial street," Yu Sheng recalled uncertainly. "But the streets in the mist felt really weird—especially after entering the dense mist area. The positions, sizes, and even orientations of many buildings seemed to change. Where we fought, the ground in the distance was even 'curled up.' So my memory is just a rough reference."

He paused, then added, "Also, I can confirm that the mist in the old city is connected to the mist from the Ten Thousand Markets. We didn't walk directly there, but I could... uh, 'sense' it. The scope of this 'exotic domain' might be pretty large—maybe even as big as the Border City ."

"Mm." Bai Liqing responded simply, without much surprise, as if she had already considered the possibility.

Then she was silent for less than two seconds before speaking in a low voice: "Can you come to the Special Operations Bureau now? Bring the 'samples' you seized from that Artificial Saint."

Yu Sheng instinctively glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was nearly midnight.

"At this hour?"

"Sorry, it's urgent."

"Ah, no problem," Yu Sheng said, seeing her sincerity, quickly replied. "I'll head over now. By the way, are you still at the bureau?"

"Yes."

"Uh, hang in there..."

Bai Liqing's voice was as calm as ever: "It's fine. I'm used to it."

Yu Sheng: "..."