Chapter 628: Long Legs ×8

In the wee hours of the night, a strong wind blew through the old district—although there was no heavy snow in the real world, the wind howled mournfully outside the window, inevitably reminding one of the wind and snow howling outside that parking lot.

Ai Lin (1.67 m) was lying on the living room windowsill, peering outside at the deserted streets and desolate streetlights. On top of her head sat a small clay doll, while three other dolls (66.6 cm each) were lined up on the windowsill beside her. Just she alone occupied the entire originally spacious window area.

"Yu Sheng, why aren't you back yet..."

The blonde doll shook her head out of boredom, then glanced back at the living room. Seeing Hu Li already asleep on the sofa and Luna nowhere to be found, she immediately broke into a series of sighs and grumbles. "So boring... there's nothing worth wandering around outside in the middle of the night. Then didn't I grow to 1.67 meters for nothing... Dumb fox, can you stop sleeping? I finally grew taller!"

The fox girl, who had curled herself into a giant fluffy ball on the sofa, stirred for a moment. She poked her head out from a pile of tails, looked sleepily at the large doll by the window, and said: "...Who are you?"

Ai Lin: "..."

"Oh, right, Ai Lin. I'm half-asleep," Hu Li rubbed her eyes, stretched out on all fours with a big yawn, and muttered while stretching, "Didn't Luna just say that master is in the Soul Wilderness and won't be back for a while... If you're really bored, go binge some shows. No one's fighting you for the TV now."

"Have you heard this saying?" Ai Lin turned around and walked over. The several 66.6 cm tall bodies on the windowsill also jumped down almost simultaneously, then scrambled and climbed all over her like a mess. "Something like... if you grow taller and don't go out to show off, it's like wearing... uh, wearing something expensive... and walking at night where no one sees it..."

Hu Li was already drowsy, and when she heard this incoherent string from Ai Lin, she became even more confused. She blinked for a long moment before finally realizing: "Are you trying to say 'Returning home rich is like wearing fine clothes in the dark'?"

Ai Lin thought hard, then clapped her hands: "Yeah, that works too."

"Maybe you should read some books, or at least look at picture books," Hu Li sighed, her ears and tail drooping together. "Master is, after all, a literary man writing books and biographies. Being by his side, you're practically half-illiterate."

Ai Lin almost lost it when she heard that. "Write books and biographies my ass—he's a pit-digging writer who never fills them. Dumb fox, aren't you putting too much of a filter on when you look at Yu Sheng? Do you know his computer already has 'New Folder (7)'?"

"Creative flow and procrastination aren't mutually exclusive," Hu Li bared her teeth. "When master finally fills those pits one day, he'll stun the literary world..."

Before she even finished speaking, a presence suddenly appeared beside them. Yu Sheng reached out and rubbed her head a couple of times. "Ah, Hu Li understands me."

His sudden appearance startled the fox girl so much that her fur stood on end. She let out a yelp and leaped straight off the sofa. When she landed, her tail fluffed up like a peacock's display. Ai Lin, who happened to be walking by the sofa, couldn't dodge in time and was knocked spinning like a top by Hu Li's big tail—the several small dolls on her body clattered to the floor.

The living room fell silent for an instant, and then a bunch of Ai Lins started a symphony of cursing. The four small ones and the big one surrounded him, chattering and scolding in a cacophony, a 4.1-channel burst of low-quality profanity where everyone talked at once with a rich vocabulary. Yu Sheng couldn't even find a chance to cut in.

Even Hu Li felt a bit resentful. After picking herself up from the floor, she pressed down on her fluffed-up tail fur while nudging Yu Sheng's arm with her head. "Master, you scared me! Appearing out of nowhere like a ghost..."

As if she were actually afraid of ghosts.

Yu Sheng raised his hands in surrender. After finally calming Ai Lin down, he sighed in relief and sat down on the sofa, letting out a long breath.

His newly born body was healthy and strong, full of energy like the rising sun, yet he still felt that only when he got home and collapsed onto the sofa could he truly relax.

There was no helping it—Yu Sheng knew it was a bit affected, but he couldn't change it. No matter how long he rested elsewhere or what condition his body was in, he had to let go of some part of his heart at home to truly end his tension.

Hu Li and Ai Lin instinctively exchanged a glance (normally it wasn't easy for them to make eye contact like this), and then the former habitually sat down beside Yu Sheng and draped one of her tails over his lap. Amid crackling static electricity, Yu Sheng's hair stood on end.

Winter, huh... So Hu Li was charging herself by pressing down on her tail fur earlier.

But Yu Sheng was somewhat used to it by now, since Hu Li's grounding tail wasn't always effective. The temperature had dropped these past two days and the climate was especially dry, so he could see this girl padding around the house all furry all day, and at night when the lights were off, sparks and lightning flew—she was like a lightning cultivator. He just twitched the corner of his mouth and continued to stroke the fox fur as if nothing had happened, while his gaze fell on the blonde doll across from him.

Ai Lin, covered in a bunch of Ai Lins like a Christmas tree, blinked her eyes on the opposite sofa.

To be honest, that look was somewhat surreal.

Yu Sheng had no idea what mental journey that silly doll had gone through to stack herself like this; he was more concerned about the condition of her blonde body.

"Any signs of shrinking?"

"Hmm... not yet?" Ai Lin (clay) scratched Ai Lin (blonde)'s head, while Ai Lin (dark iron) on the other shoulder touched her chin seriously and said, "I've been keeping an eye on the original body's condition like you said. So far, aside from being a bit tired, I haven't felt anything else wrong."

"A bit tired?"

"Yes, but I can't really describe it. As time goes on, I feel less and less like moving, and resting doesn't help," said Ai Lin (blonde). "I'm thinking... maybe after a certain level of tiredness, it'll start shrinking?"

Yu Sheng didn't speak, just thoughtfully rubbed his chin. After a long moment, he suddenly spoke again. "What about your other form? That spider from the fight earlier..."

Before he finished speaking, he saw the large doll on the opposite side raise her hand to the side.

A phantom spider leg materialized in the air out of nowhere, curved around the sofa and coffee table, and lightly rested on Yu Sheng's shoulder.

The translucent black limb was covered in countless arcane runes. Though it appeared just a phantom, it exuded a tangible chill, enough to make ordinary people feel uneasy or even panicked. But what Yu Sheng felt more was a subtle... familiarity and calm.

As if in his eyes, death was merely a peaceful curtain.

"I can't fit the whole thing here, so I just extended one leg," Ai Lin said while adjusting herself into an arrogant pose on the sofa, her expression smug. "I'm telling you, my legs are longer than your life now..."

"Nonsense. There are plenty of things longer than my life," Yu Sheng waved away the spider leg poking at his shoulder. "Put it away first—come with me to the valley."

"Huh? What for?"

"What else? You can't fit it here—find a spacious place and figure out what's going on with you."

"Oh."

...

At that moment, the outside world was still in the deepest part of the night. The valley, of course, was still under the night sky, but that wasn't a problem for Yu Sheng—the Pivot Pyramid was brightly lit and had plenty of spacious areas.

Thanks to someone's philosophy when building this pyramid—"big is good" and "add more layers regardless of usefulness"—at least half of this massive "wonder" structure was empty. Yu Sheng had never been able to figure out what to do with these empty halls, but now they finally came in handy.

The vast, empty Pivot Pyramid was large enough to accommodate the "Spider Goddess" shell, and most floors here were enclosed, so there was no worry about scaring the kids outside—though whether those super kids would be scared was another matter.

Yu Sheng led Hu Li and Ai Lin (blonde) to a hall on an upper floor.

This area was right next to the "Alchemy Floor" used to mass-produce Ai Lins. Part of the hall was partitioned off to temporarily station some standby dolls. The remaining area was roughly rectangular, with nothing except lighting fixtures on the ceiling.

"This is it," Yu Sheng looked around to gauge the space, then clapped his hands and turned to the blonde doll beside him. "Release your other form."

Ai Lin didn't waste words. She simply raised her hand and waved—as if parting a curtain visible only to her, or as if high-fiving another "herself" in the void.

The next second, the blonde doll dissolved into the air. Her final afterimage fell toward the ground, as if falling into a mirror, and in the next instant, the reflection in the mirror "cut" into reality—a gigantic black spider appeared before Yu Sheng.

To be honest, although Yu Sheng had seen this scene before when fighting those Hermit Society followers, the situation back then was chaotic, and he hadn't seen the details nearly as clearly.

Watching Ai Lin suddenly transform into this form, he even felt a belated... sense of awe.

The majestic carapace, mysterious runes, awe-inspiring sharp limbs, and the female upper body that seemed to possess a certain divinity, looking down from above—her black hair fell to her waist, eyes scarlet like blood. Her face was very similar to Ai Lin's usual appearance, just a little more mature.

She lowered her head, her long lower limbs gently skimming the ground, but a bright smile bloomed on her face. Her scarlet eyes curved into crescents, and the combination formed that familiar silly look Yu Sheng knew.

And then she started babbling: "Hey, from this angle, you two look so short. Hu Li, you look like a mop... The C-clip isn't here, she can't even reach my shoulders now... I told you I have long legs, but you never believed me. Now do you accept it? Not only do I have long legs, but I have so many legs... eight, right? Huh, feels weird. I didn't notice during the fight. How do you walk with these? Which leg goes first—left front or right front?! Yu Sheng, move aside, I'm going to try hopping forward..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

What could he say? The hard-won sense of majesty and awe had vanished, leaving only that endless chatter echoing in the air.