The dimly lit door opened out of nowhere, and Yu Sheng walked out, immediately seeing Hu Li standing in the living room, turning her head to look this way, while three Erins sat neatly on the opposite sofa.

Yes, there were now three Erins.

"Savior, you're alive again!" Hu Li ran over happily, grabbing Yu Sheng's hand and shaking it vigorously, "Are you all better now? Does it hurt anymore?"

The demon fox girl's grip was very strong, and right there Yu Sheng felt his shoulders creaking: "All good, all good, stop shaking, you're about to pull my arm off..."

Then the three Erins on the sofa spoke up, in unison, "Did you see that Hunter?"

Yu Sheng rubbed the fur behind Hu Li's ears, and tiredly walked to another sofa to sit down, and upon hearing Erin's words, he couldn't help but sigh, "Sigh, I did."

"Why are you sighing?" one of the Erins asked curiously. "What? Negotiations didn't go well? How did you talk?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand gloomily: "Shot in a second, nothing to talk about."

Erin looked puzzled for a moment before realizing what Yu Sheng meant, her brows furrowing immediately: "The Hunter shot you? That's not right... Didn't you show him the group photo? He still shot you after seeing it? Thought you were scamming him? Or did the sight bring on so much grief that it turned into hatred?"

"Not so many words," Yu Sheng sighed, and stretched out his hand to flick the forehead of Erin who was speaking, but his finger didn't move her, instead it just hurt his index finger—it seems this was the one with threads of steel mixed in her head, "I suspect he thought I was a wolf, remember how I was contaminated by Wolf Grandmother's blood? It might have been too much."

Listening to Yu Sheng, Erin's expression became a bit stiff: "...Huh? That works?!"

"No other explanation," Yu Sheng sighed wearily, leaning back on the sofa—though his physical injuries had already fully recovered after his "Resurrection," the mental fatigue from mutual contamination with Wolf Grandmother and "intervening" in the Black Forest cycle was not so easily relieved. "I didn't do anything extra, just showed him that photo, but that photo should not have been a reason for him to shoot..."

As he said this, Yu Sheng paused, unable to help frowning in thought.

That scene of an empty, invisible shell lifting the shotgun kept reappearing in his mind; that hollow hood, as if existing yet invisible gaze, that shotgun...

Not sure if it was an illusion, Yu Sheng always felt that the "Hunter's" action of shooting him wasn't that simple; he always felt that the other party wanted to communicate with him then, even... that shot seemed like his way of communicating.

But Yu Sheng couldn't understand.

He furrowed his brows deeply, and at that moment, he suddenly felt his phone vibrate.

Instinctively reaching into his pocket, Yu Sheng suddenly remembered something he had forgotten, he looked down at his screen, and sure enough, he saw messages and missed calls from Little Red Riding Hood—there were more than a dozen messages and about seven or eight missed calls.

Yu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat right then, while Erin peeked at the screen, and immediately exclaimed "Uh-oh," then started rambling: "This is it, you kicked her out straightforwardly that time, now the debt collector is coming, let me tell you, humans at the age of sixteen or seventeen are the most difficult to handle, especially girls with deep grudges who are vain and have always been stubborn since childhood, you should have known when you kicked her out of the team..."

Yu Sheng promptly pushed away the continuously babbling Beeper, resulting in the three Erins falling down like dominoes, erupting into a bunch of chirping and clever chatter—Uncle Yu was instantly drowned in triple the amount of profanities.

Yu Sheng ignored the triplet's torrent of curses, worriedly answered the phone, and before he could speak, he heard Little Red Riding Hood's voice, frantic yet unable to conceal her worry: "Why did you answer so late! Where did you die!"

Yu Sheng also felt embarrassed: "...Died in the house."

Little Red Riding Hood: "...?"

Clearly, the young Spirit Realm Detective who couldn't contact him during this time had prepared a belly full of Fragen and a mountain of complaints, but she was choked by Yu Sheng's words, leaving her speechless.

After several seconds, the phone then continued with the girl's voice, noticeably subdued by more than eight tones, hesitating: "Really... died again?"

She clearly felt especially unaccustomed to saying this, and her voice was very low, seemingly afraid of being heard by someone nearby.

"It's nothing big, you'll get used to it," Yu Sheng comforted her, "That's not important, the important thing is that we successfully killed 'Wolf Grandmother' once—after you left."

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly became silent, not saying a word for a while.

After a long time, her somewhat subdued voice came from the phone: "It's useless, it will appear again."

"Yes, it will appear again, but we are weakening it with every encounter, the next time you face it, it might not be as dangerous. And more importantly, I have now successfully found some clues 'behind' the Black Forest," Yu Sheng calmly said, recalling the scenes he saw in his most severely Wolf Poison eroded dazed state, those intertwined, vein-and-nerve-network-like branch structures on the "other side" of the Black Forest, "I've successfully implanted a 'backdoor' in the 'circulatory system' of the Black Forest, we made big gains today."

A slight inhalation of breath came from the phone.

Yu Sheng immediately continued, "I have a question now."

"You ask."

Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, "When you were dealing with that 'Hunter'... did he ever shoot at you?"

"The Hunter shot at you?!"

"You think, how did I ultimately die," Yu Sheng sighed, "it was from his bullet that blasted me."

"… Hunters only shoot at 'wolves', usually referring to Wolf Grandmother," Little Red Riding Hood hesitated, "But theoretically, if Wolf Grandmother has already been killed by you, then the Hunter should disarm, usually his desire to attack isn't that high..."

"What if I was contaminated by the blood of Wolf Grandmother at that time?" Yu Sheng immediately asked, "Could the Hunter have misjudged and thought I was also a wolf?"

Unexpectedly, Little Red Riding Hood's response was very direct and certain, "Of course not."

"That certain?"

"Hunters can accurately identify 'wolves' and won't misjudge just because of blood, although I don't know the exact principle behind their judgment, but their accuracy is certain," Little Red Riding Hood said decisively, "I have been pointed at by the Hunter's gun many times, swallowed by Wolf Grandmother, swallowed by Evil Wolf, and contaminated by their blood, in terms of 'wolf' ingredients, I'm definitely higher than you, but the Hunter's bullets have never made a mistake…"

Yu Sheng silently listened to the information conveyed by Little Red Riding Hood, and after a long while, he nodded slowly, "I understand, it seems that I still need to think about this matter carefully."

Then he talked a few more sentences with the other party, confirmed each other's safety, and endured the girl's few complaints before hanging up the phone.

At this time, the three Erins had crawled back onto the sofa as if nothing happened, one of them leaned in, "So what's the meaning of that shot from the Hunter?"

Yu Sheng shook his head, opened his mouth as if to say something, but suddenly felt an itch in his throat.

He coughed twice, but instead of alleviating, the itch in his throat became even more unbearable.

He started coughing violently, uncontrollably, as if he wanted to cough out his heart, as if to tear out his lungs and trachea.

Erin and Hu Li next to him were startled by Yu Sheng's violent cough, and instantly rushed over to pat his back to help him breathe, Hu Li's tail was so anxious that it bristled, "Savior, are you alright! Savior, are you allergic to my tail..."

Erin also looked quite anxious, vigorously patting Yu Sheng's back and making noises, "Damn, I feel like you're going to cough yourself to death! What's with this sudden... Is it going to be a death again? You just came back to life!"

Yu Sheng coughed fiercely, and after several hard retching episodes, he finally managed to pause, then waved his hand at Hu Li and shrugged off Erin's arm, his voice hoarse, "Stop patting, you'll pat me to death... next time you're not allowed to pat my back with this body, who uses rebar to hit people."

As Erin was about to protest with her eyes wide open, she saw Yu Sheng catching his breath while straightening up his body, then opening his right hand.

It was something he had just coughed up from his mouth during the severe cough.

Hu Li looked at the small metal lump in confusion, "What's this?"

Erin looked a bit dazed, "... A bullet?"

Yu Sheng remained silent, just regulating the discomfort in his chest while staring intensely at the object lying in his palm.

It was indeed a bullet, its surface still stained with bright red blood threads, but its appearance was somewhat strange—a short, thick bullet with spiraled ridges on the head, neither resembling a regular rifle bullet nor like a shotgun's pellets, and even larger than a handgun bullet, with intricate patterns on its tail and waist which seemed machine-pressed yet not merely decorative, but carrying a certain... sense of extraordinary power like a symbol.

The discomfort in his chest gradually disappeared, and his breathing became smooth.

Erin, grasping Yu Sheng's hand, looked up, "So this is..."

"A 'message' from the Hunter," Yu Sheng murmured softly.

Erin frowned, "Then how should we deal with this..."

Before the puppet could finish speaking, Yu Sheng had already picked up his phone.

Taking a photo, editing the message, and sending it to Baili Qing—all done in one go.

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