To be fair, the moment the little puppet Hu Li uttered the phrase "Unity of Heart and Mind", Yu Sheng felt it was quite difficult, mainly because most of the time he spent with Erin was when both thought the other was crazy—but he then gave it some more thought, if both of them considered each other crazy, wasn't that, in a way, a form of Unity of Heart and Mind as well?

His train of thought unconsciously expanded, veering off so far in just a few seconds that he barely recognized it, until Erin smashed her forehead into his: "I told you to empty your mind! Not let your mind wander off! At least focus on opening the gate—"

"Ah, yes, right."

Only then did Yu Sheng snap back to attention, quickly gathering his thoughts and began to earnestly execute the steps to open the gate.

But this time, he only summoned a "Void Gate" that led nowhere, and while maintaining the stability of the gate, he slowly relaxed his mind.

He felt Erin's small hand pressing on his temple.

He saw Erin's other hand raised, pointing distantly towards the gate.

Threads of black silk grew from the puppet's fingertips, silently sprouting, as if some peculiar "creature" with an independent life, rapidly interweaving, wriggling, transforming, splitting, proliferating in the air...

Some of those threads pierced into his flesh and mind, sending a bizarre and chilling sensation along his spine, chilling to the point of causing a shudder.

If this was Yu Sheng's first encounter with Erin's threads, he would have probably reflexively thrown the puppet away by now—these chilly and insidious things didn't seem harmless at all; they were more suitable for the script of "a malevolent cursed puppet finally seizing the opportunity to ambush its unsuspecting owner and coveting the top position of No. 66 Wutong Road", highly suspicious indeed.

But he was accustomed to it by now—perhaps the puppets at Alice's Cottage were just like that.

And another segment of the threads spreading in the air was extending towards that gate—their ends converged, forming a strange tentacle, cautiously touching the gate at first, then beginning to probe and pierce into the interior of the gate.

The connection was established.

However, at that moment, Yu Sheng suddenly felt a bout of... daze.

The sound of the wind through the valley disappeared, and somehow the surrounding scenery was shrouded by a dense and obscure veil, as if boundless mist filled his view. In the depths of the fog, he saw...

A golden-haired, broken doll, quietly lying amidst the ruins succumbed to darkness, along with massive shadows, fallen deep within the ruins—a dead doll with its eyes open, and through the brief illusion separated by the veil, Yu Sheng suddenly got the impression those eyes were gazing at him.

Yet all of that was fleeting, and before he could confirm whether the dead golden-haired doll was the one he had once seen in the mirror, all the illusions dispersed like smoke.

Erin's energetic yelling was all that he heard: "Hey, hey, hey! The gate's open, the gate's open! I feel it's connected, hey! Yu Sheng, take a look, did I operate it correctly..."

Yu Sheng suddenly snapped out of it, seeing the gate to the Black Forest slowly opening in his hands, countless eerie, foggy, black threads interweaving and weaving inside and outside the gate, sketching chaotic patterns, like thorny brush safeguarding the frame, while on the other side of the gate was that forest enshrouded in shadow.

The gate to the Black Forest had indeed been successfully opened.

Yu Sheng stared somewhat dazedly at the gate entwined in black "thorns", putting it frankly—it was weird indeed, but it did have a certain appeal.

However, what concerned him more were the "illusions" he had just seen.

"Erin."

"Huh?"

"Did you see anything just now? I mean, while we were mentally connected, did you see any illusions or anything?"

"Nope," the little puppet paused for a moment, then looked puzzledly at Yu Sheng, "I was just focusing my energy on helping you with the gate's positioning, fearful of any problems... What did you see?"

Yu Sheng hesitated before deciding not to keep it from the puppet: "... I saw that golden-haired doll again."

"Which golden-haired doll?" Erin didn't quite catch on at first, "Did you know other dolls outside?"

"The one I've mentioned to you before, the one I saw in the mirror," Yu Sheng reminded her, "broken to pieces, dead in some unknown place, you said we'd help her home when we got the chance."

"Ah, now I remember!" Erin finally understood, then immediately frowned, "Why did you see her again? What was it like this time?"

"... Same as the last time I saw her, but I felt her gaze on me," Yu Sheng spoke slowly, "I don't know what happened; it was just the moment when your 'threads' connected to me... I thought you might feel it too."

He and Erin looked at each other, puzzled. After pondering together for a while, they came to no conclusion.

All sorts of speculations popped into Yu Sheng's head, but with no clue to be found, all those guesses were just that—wild guesses.

He could only temporarily shift his focus back to the gate before him—only this time, that mysterious golden-haired doll had inevitably left a profound impression in his heart.

Hu Li approached, gripping Yu Sheng's arm uneasily.

"The gate to the Black Forest is open," Yu Sheng comforted her, rubbing the fluff behind the demon fox girl's ears, "You'll come with me when we go in."

Hu Li nodded immediately: "Mhm."

"Erin, you stay here," Yu Sheng said to the doll on his shoulder, "Observe the scene as we pass through the door. Hu Li and I will stay on the other side for a few minutes, and then we'll come straight back through the door—if all goes well, our 'landing point' should still be here when we return."

"Don't I need to go in with you?" Erin looked a bit worried, "What if you get lost in there? Won't you need me, the 'dream expert,' to help?"

"There's no need for your 'navigation' when returning to reality from the Black Forest side," Yu Sheng explained, "On the contrary, it's more secure for you to stay outside as a 'safeguard' for Hu Li and me."

"Okay," Erin found his reasoning sound and didn't waste words, and jumped right down from Yu Sheng's shoulder, "Then I'll guard this place for you—remember, only a few minutes, don't you go dying in there..."

No sooner had the little doll finished speaking than Hu Li clenched her fists tightly, a serious look on her face: "I will protect the Savior with my life!"

Erin waved her hand dismissively: "That's not necessary; just take good care of yourself since Yu Sheng's life isn't worth much..."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth but after a long moment couldn't think of any retort.

What further depressed him was that even Hu Li didn't object...

"I must've owed you two in my past life."

This was all he could sigh before he turned around and led the fox girl through the door.

After a moment of dizziness and a sensory reset, they were standing in the familiar Black Forest.

Distant and faint howls of wolves, the hollow sounds of the wind blowing through the forest, the dark skies between dusk and nightfall, omnipresent shadows, and those shrubs that seemed to always hide something sinister.

Everything was as he remembered, as the Black Forest seemed to always stay the same.

Hu Li, standing beside him, widened her eyes and looked around alertly. It was her first time here—she had already heard a lot about the forest from Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood, so at this moment she was very vigilant, her tails standing up behind her like a Sword Tomb, her ear fluff slightly puffed.

After a brief check on their surroundings, Yu Sheng called out in his mind: "Erin, we're in."

"I saw you guys go in," the little doll immediately responded, "The door on this side has disappeared, looks no different from when you usually 'open doors.'"

"Did our bodies also go through the door?" Yu Sheng asked, "Are they not left outside?"

"No, you went through the door physically."

Hearing the little doll's reply, Yu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief and looked down at his hands.

Indeed, after a series of "exploiting glitches," he had successfully physically entered the Black Forest—and even brought a cyber-immortal fox with him.

Everything was as he had anticipated. For the Black Forest, the boundary between "consciousness" and "body" was not so clear. The products of the Black Forest could be transferred to the real world in material form, and under specific conditions, materials from the real world could also be brought into the forest. He might not understand the principles behind this yet, but for him, this conclusion was enough.

Yu Sheng's biggest fear was that the Black Forest truly was a pure "consciousness" world, or, more bluntly, a conceptual, ethereal thing.

Conceptual and ethereal entities are the toughest to deal with, as this means you can only confront them with similar abstract and ethereal methods—and humans are creatures that ultimately live in reality, and battling "abstractions" is not humanity's forte.

Anyway, Yu Sheng considered himself as belonging to "humanity," so he would think according to human logic.

But since the Black Forest could establish a connection with the "material world" through "exploiting glitches," everything became much simpler.

It meant it had a health bar.

Yu Sheng liked things that had health bars.

"Savior, what shall we do next?" Hu Li cautiously approached and asked in a low voice, "Are we going to fight those wolves? Or wait for that 'squirrel' you talked about?"

"The Wolf Pack is incorporeal, and that Evil Wolf has its own conditions to appear and is not easy to deal with at the moment," Yu Sheng shook his head, "We didn't come here to fight, nor are we looking for that squirrel."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and opened a door once again.

This time, the view on the other side of the door wasn't a chaotic darkness. Instead, it vividly reflected the scenery of the valley.

He could even see Erin standing on the other side of the door, with eyes wide open in surprise, looking back.

"Hey, Yu Sheng, I can see you!"

"It looks like after physically entering the Black Forest, we can open normal doors here," Yu Sheng smiled and nodded at the little doll on the other side of the door, then turned his head to the fox girl beside him, "Get ready to leave—but before leaving we have to 'greet' the entity behind the Black Forest."

"Eh? Greet?" The demon fox girl was momentarily puzzled, "What kind of greeting?"

"The kind that involves twenty chicken legs."

"…Alright!"

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