Leadership's encouragement and empty promises might not alleviate the exhaustion of working overtime in the Exotic Realm, but paid leave certainly would.

Two unlucky Special Service Bureau Officers walked out of the office with a smile, leaving Song Cheng sitting behind the desk, exhaling deeply, and continuing to frown at the computer screen.

Right at that moment, he noticed an icon at the corner of the screen suddenly start flashing, and the next second, a video window abruptly appeared.

A young woman in a white dress suit with her gray-white hair tied into a ponytail appeared on the screen, her pale gray pupils seemingly colorless, looking into Song Cheng's eyes through the screen: "Are you done?"

A higher-up leader had arrived.

"Director," Song Cheng straightened up instantly, his expression tense, "Have you not gotten off work yet?"

"I am working overtime today," Baili Qing said indifferently, her voice as flat as her faded eyes, devoid of fluctuation, "I saw the documents transferred from the archives just now and wanted to hear your opinion."

"Regarding 'Yu Sheng'?" Song Cheng slightly frowned, pondered for a moment before shaking his head, "I don't think we can make any judgement at this point; we need a formal encounter with him to assess what kind of... entity he truly is. But the challenge lies whether to interact with him as a 'human' or as an 'entity'..."

"As a human," Baili Qing said without hesitation.

Song Cheng looked slightly surprised.

"Because his self-awareness is of a human," Baili Qing explained calmly and patiently, "regardless of whether he is human or not, we must ensure he continues to think that way."

"…Maintain the target's self-awareness, is that it?" Song Cheng pondered thoughtfully, seeming to grasp the Director's intent, "Do you think... if this entity's self-awareness shifts, it could lead to severe consequences?"

"We still can't determine what abilities the target has, nor his potential impact on the future of the Boundary Land, but having one more on the side of 'humans' rather than 'non-humans' is beneficial, especially since he's been 'living' in the Boundary Land for a long time—we should see this as fortunate."

Song Cheng nodded immediately: "Alright, I understand, Director. I will arrange a meeting plan with 'Yu Sheng'... I'll personally go."

Baili Qing on the screen nodded slightly, then added: "Regarding the newly appeared 'Dark Angel,' the Council is already aware. We can now confirm it's a new one."

Song Cheng's pupils contracted momentarily.

"Not in old records?" He leaned forward instinctively, his expression incredibly grave, "What about records from other forces?"

"We've already inquired with the Algered Astrological Association and the 'Academy,' their official records never mentioned the massive eye-like Dark Angel covering the sky mentioned in the report. We haven't heard back from the Bamasa Hermit Association yet, but if it's not in the Academy's records, it's probably not with the Bamosa people either," Baili Qing shook her head, "Although we can't rule out the possibility of some minor powers having encountered this Dark Angel, it is... unlikely."

Song Cheng's eyebrows knitted tightly, looking rather anxious.

"This is not good... a new 'Angel' with no existing records, escaped before we could collect any intelligence, and on such a large scale," he muttered, "stretching across the entire sky above Nightfall Valley... official information from Nightfall Valley suggests that this thing has probably been parasitizing that part of the Exotic Realm for a very long time..."

"Yes, high-level disguise, deep parasitism, to the extent that early investigators who entered the valley even believed that this was simply how the sky there looked, thus naming it Nightfall Valley," Baili Qing spoke slowly, "Simply based on physical dimensions, this newly emerged 'Dark Angel' could probably rank among the top three among all known Angels."

Song Cheng fell into thought, after a brief contemplation he said: "…According to information collected by two team members on my side, the demon fox who calls herself 'Hu Li' next to Yu Sheng might have been trapped in Nightfall Valley for a long time; she might know something related to that 'Dark Angel'?"

"That's a breakthrough, but be cautious in the investigation."

Song Cheng slightly bowed his head: "I understand."

Baili Qing ummed, seemingly ready to hang up the video.

But Song Cheng suddenly spoke up: "Oh, Director, there's one more thing."

"Go ahead."

"…I plan to take a 'train' trip," Song Cheng said with a Serious expression, "to see if I can gather information related to 'Yu Sheng' on the 'train.'"

"…Approved—but be cautious, even relatively sensible and friendly entities require caution when interacting."

"Understood."

...

Yu Sheng, who was tidying up the bed for Hu Li, suddenly sneezed several times strongly, startling Erin who was walking like on a balance beam at the footboard of the bed and nearly causing her to fall.

"You scared me!" the little doll glared with wide eyes.

"My nose is itchy," Yu Sheng rubbed his nose and casually grabbed Erin down to throw her onto the bed, "Stop just watching, come help—sit in the middle of the bed, I need to stretch the bedsheet."

Erin made a sound of acknowledgment and happily ran to the middle of the bed to sit cross-legged, looking up at Yu Sheng bustling around next to her.

Hu Li stood a bit further away, somewhat at a loss, watching her Savior tidy up her bed.

"Savior... I can help too," the demon fox girl rubbed her hands, her tail swaying nervously behind her, "Cleaning the room, it's simple, I learned it!"

"From now on you can clean up the room by yourself, don't worry about it today," Yu Sheng said without looking up, "I'm almost done."

Hu Li acknowledged quietly, suppressing the uneasy feelings arising from being taken care of, and curiously and cautiously observed her new room.

This was the room on the second floor that had been cluttered with various items but now those boxes storing miscellaneous items had been moved to the basement, and after a simple cleanup, the room was back to a livable state—although to say it was livable, the room's furnishings were still very sparse; apart from the bed and a table that were originally in the room but previously obscured by items, the only other "furniture" left was a chair in the corner of the room.

For this reason, Yu Sheng had earlier retrieved a foldable wardrobe from the basement and with Erin's help had spent quite some time figuring out how to assemble the metal tubes and canvas and placed it in the corner as the room's fourth piece of furniture.

But Hu Li now didn't have much clothing to put inside it—she almost had no personal belongings, only the ripped "skirt" she had brought from the valley, which was almost a bundle of rags by now. She couldn't bear to throw it away, so she washed it and neatly folded it, placing it at the very bottom of the ugly foldable wardrobe, marking it her first possession in this "home."

However, even such a plain and modest little room made her exceedingly happy.

She could sleep on a bed now, and having lain down for a moment earlier, it felt more comfortable than the softest, smoothest pile of dry grass; there was a complete roof overhead and walls to block the wind—the room was warm, unlike the valley where it was cold everywhere, and she didn't need to hug her tail to keep warm while sleeping; also, there were bright electric lights, brighter than Fox Fire.

And most importantly—no matter what she did here, it wouldn't attract that monster, and if she was hungry, she could find food at any time.

Now there was plenty of food in her tail.

Hu Li sat down on the floor with a happy smile on her face.

Yu Sheng finished spreading the bedsheet, turned his head, and saw the demon fox sitting on the ground laughing foolishly: "Why are you sitting on the floor again, there's a chair right there—what are you giggling about?"

"Oh," Hu Li got up from the floor and sat on the nearby chair, "Happy."

"Well, it is something to be happy about." Yu Sheng nodded his head, then straightened up his body, and with a sense of slight achievement, surveyed the surroundings.

The room's furnishings were simple, but it had taken quite a lot of effort to clean up, at least it was the result of over two hours of hard work.

—But it was still a bit too simple.

"I'll go to the mall tomorrow and buy another set of four bedding replacements for you, plus two clothes, and eventually, we could change these curtains since they are ripped... We'll temporarily use this wardrobe, buying a new one is quite expensive and I'm not very flush with cash right now," Yu Sheng planned, "Hmm, we could also get a bedside table later, put a table lamp on it."

"No need, no need for so many things," Hu Li hurriedly waved her hands, somewhat helplessly saying, "It's very good as it is now."

"Don't mind it, they are just everyday items, we should have what we need," Yu Sheng waved his hand nonchalantly, "After all, you're going to be my top enforcer, the conditions can't be poor."

Hearing this, Erin, who was sitting in the middle of the bed, raised her head and glanced at Yu Sheng: "Before you consider buying furniture, you should first think about how you're going to get someone to deliver it to your place at 'No. 66 Wutong Road'—it looks like you shouldn't hope too much for a new TV, definitely can't get it delivered, or else… are you planning to open a 'big' door, carry a bunch of furniture home yourself?"

Listening to this small doll's nagging, Yu Sheng's enthusiastic "planning" suddenly cooled down.

His expression also became slightly serious.

Yu Sheng recalled what those two Special Service Bureau Officers had told him before they left.

...Yes, delivery is still an issue, after all—

No. 66 Wutong Road does not exist.

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