Chapter 96: Proactive Testing

“The ‘guards’ generated in the museum won’t move across areas. We can rest in this corridor for a while,” Little Red Riding Hood said, looking at the quiet hallway ahead, addressing Yu Sheng. “After that, when we move to other areas, we need to be extra careful. We still don’t know how many ‘guards’ have been generated in the museum. If they all happen to be blocking the way to the white exhibition hall… then we’re in trouble.”

“The key is, how exactly were these ‘guards’ ‘activated’?” Ai Lin jumped down from Yu Sheng’s body, putting on a serious thinking expression. “We definitely didn’t make any mistakes, but as soon as those guards showed up, they attacked without any distinction…”

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but looked very hesitant.

Ai Lin directly asked her: “What do you want to say?”

Only then did Little Red Riding Hood speak: “Actually, the most likely explanation is that besides us, someone else also entered the museum, and they triggered the museum’s ‘clearing’ mechanism, but… in theory, that shouldn’t be the case. I checked before coming—no other investigators were scheduled to come here tonight…”

Ai Lin thought for a moment: “Maybe they came secretly? With some ulterior motive or something…”

“Very unlikely,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head. “The Special Affairs Bureau has regulations: any foreign domain opened within the borderlands must be reported in advance. Every ‘node’ has monitoring functions, forming a vast sensing network. If a foreign domain passage or space-time rift opened accidentally, it would definitely trigger an alarm.”

“Ah, yes, that’s true. We’re familiar with that.” Ai Lin nodded without a trace of shame, though it was unclear if she really took it in. Then her eyes darted and her attention fell on Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng was crouching on the floor at that moment, picking up a somewhat twisted and deformed plastic arm.

It was left behind by the “guard” that had lunged at him at the last moment as he crossed the gate. The “gate” had severed this arm. Probably because it was too far from the main body, the arm had now completely lost its vitality, just like a part fallen off a real plastic mannequin—it was completely motionless.

Yu Sheng curiously examined this “severed limb” cut from an entity, then tapped it on the ground, producing a hollow sound.

Plastic. It looked like plastic, felt like plastic, he just wondered if the texture when bitten would also be plastic…

Just as this weird thought crossed his mind, the little doll’s horrified shout came from beside him: “Hey! Yu Sheng, what are you doing? That thing is plastic! You can’t eat it!”

“Nonsense, of course I know it’s not edible. I’m not that ridiculous yet!” Yu Sheng gave the little doll a helpless look. “Even if it weren’t plastic, I wouldn’t eat it—since those ‘guards’ are humanoid, I definitely wouldn’t have the appetite. I’m just curious how these ‘entities’ can move.”

Ai Lin immediately patted her chest in relief: “Phew, you scared me… Let me tell you, even if you had pulled out a pot right on the spot and stewed that thing, I wouldn’t have been surprised, you…”

Yu Sheng looked helpless: “Is that the image I have in your mind?”

Little Red Riding Hood, on the other hand, watched with a look of horror.

She wasn’t horrified by Ai Lin shouting “You can’t eat it,” but by the memory that resurfaced of the plate of stir-fried meat she saw during her last visit to 66 Wutong Road. She even suspected that Yu Sheng had actually considered whether that arm could be eaten—or at least considered its texture.

Then she saw Yu Sheng suddenly pull out a small knife from his pocket, make a small cut on his own arm, let the blood out, and smear it on that plastic arm.

A different kind of horror and eeriness, not the same as “he was going to eat it,” rose from the bottom of her heart. Little Red Riding Hood exclaimed in shock: “What are you doing?”

“Trying to see if I can get some intelligence, establish some advantage,” Yu Sheng said casually while carefully smearing the blood. “My blood can establish connections with many things, including entities—but I’m not sure if it works on this kind of severed ‘limb.’”

Ai Lin, standing nearby this time, was much calmer. She had already developed resistance to this level of eerie operation from Yu Sheng and even explained to Little Red Riding Hood: “Yu Sheng’s blood is very strange. Hu Li and I have both been in contact with his blood…”

“So seriously, don’t you want to take a bite?” Yu Sheng turned to look at Little Red Riding Hood and stretched out his arm. “Take advantage while the wound hasn’t healed yet—let me tell you, my wounds heal really fast. If you don’t come now, it’ll be gone.”

Little Red Riding Hood instantly jumped off the wolf and backed away several steps: “No!”

Then she immediately turned to look at Hu Li, who hadn’t spoken at all—she had the gut feeling that this great fox demon was probably the most normal of the “inn trio” in terms of worldview: “Don’t you think there’s something wrong with this?”

But Hu Li only looked at Yu Sheng with admiration: “The immortal’s divine arts are profound. That’s how shaman blood techniques work!”

Little Red Riding Hood was dumbfounded. She had no idea what “shaman blood techniques” were—after all, she was just a high school student and hadn’t had much interaction with cultivators up to now.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Yu Sheng noticed that the blood he had smeared on the plastic arm was being absorbed at a visible rate.

“Looks like it worked,” he muttered softly.

“Really?” Ai Lin immediately leaned in, looking at Yu Sheng with eager anticipation. “What did you see? What did you see? Did you figure out why those ‘guards’ suddenly went crazy?”

“The connection just established is weak. I can’t probe such complex information yet,” Yu Sheng said while waving his hand, signaling the little doll to quiet down. Then he focused more intently, sensing the faint connection between himself and this “museum” established through the blood.

He slowly narrowed his eyes, imagining his perception extending through the void, his gaze passing through this long corridor, through door after door and exhibition hall after exhibition hall. Among the countless exhibits arranged there, he searched for the source of the arm, searched for… other auras similar to that arm’s source.

Suddenly, he sensed their presence.

He even felt as if he was among them.

He was wearing a security guard’s uniform, his body crooked, surrounded by numerous plastic mannequins also in security guard uniforms.

But this was just a brief illusion, like when he had sensed the “Hunger” in action before. Yu Sheng knew he had mistakenly taken the “information” transmitted through his blood as an extension of his own body.

The connection between him and this “museum” hadn’t reached that level yet. But if this connection continued to strengthen, whether this feeling was still an illusion would be debatable. Perhaps, just like the “feast” in that valley back then… he could truly “become” those guards standing in the exhibition halls and corridors for a short time.

“Most of the ‘guards’ are concentrated in this direction, two intersections away from us,” Yu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes and pointed in a certain direction along the corridor. “They’re all stationary now, as if they haven’t received further action orders. There are also a few scattered ones, in distant exhibition halls, all showing no inclination to move on their own.”

Little Red Riding Hood slightly widened her eyes, looking utterly incredulous.

This was the first time she had so directly witnessed Yu Sheng’s ability—their “cooperation” in the Nightfall Valley last time was more like a chaotic collaboration, and the information she had gleaned then was indeed limited.

Of course, she immediately realized how useful this ability was.

With just one contact, by taking the opportunity to “implant” his blood into the target, he could establish a stable “sensing,” gaining early intelligence on entities in foreign domains, knowing their current positions and statuses… The significance of this for psychics and investigators went without saying!

Then, Little Red Riding Hood thought of a second question: Does this ability also work on humans?

Somehow, she suddenly recalled Yu Sheng’s invitation to “take a bite.”

The girl felt a chill run down her spine, quickly suppressed the wild thoughts in her mind, shook her head, and swiftly spoke: “Then we can avoid direct contact with those ‘entities’… Can you only sense the positions of those ‘guards’? Can you also sense the conditions of the various exhibition halls? Like find the white exhibition hall…”

“No,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “The connection is still shallow, mainly established with the ‘guards.’ As for the museum’s own structure, I can barely perceive anything.”

As he spoke, he made another small cut on his arm (the previous one had already healed) and, in an experimental mindset, evenly smeared his blood on the nearby floor and walls.

The blood quickly seeped into the tiles and wall paint, but Yu Sheng felt almost no change.

“Probably not enough,” he said very seriously. “I estimate I’d need to smear this place with my whole body three or four times for it to work…”

The expression on Little Red Riding Hood’s face instantly went beyond horror.

But fortunately, Yu Sheng promptly noticed the change in the girl’s expression and, with enough common sense, judged why she looked like she’d seen a ghost. He quickly waved his hand: “Just joking, just joking. I’m a person with a spirit of exploration.”

Little Red Riding Hood: “…”

Is that what the spirit of exploration is used for?!