Go out for a bit?

Hu Li was taken aback by Yu Sheng's words, then quickly dried the few remaining bowls on her tail and casually grabbed another tail to wipe off the sesame sauce on her lips: "Okay, I'm ready now..."

Yu Sheng watched the girl with the corner of his eye twitching, "There's really no rush—Are you really using your tail to wipe your mouth?"

Hu Li looked down at her tail tip smeared with sesame sauce, and a belated realization hit her. She dipped her tail back into the water to scrub it clean before vigorously shaking it dry in front of Yu Sheng.

"I'm used to it…" she muttered quietly, "I forgot we had something better at home."

"It's fine, not a big deal," Yu Sheng said as he wiped his wet face, "Also, please be mindful of the people—and electronics—around you next time you shake off water."

"Ah, I apologize, Savior!" Hu Li finally noticed she had splashed water on Yu Sheng's face and immediately fumbled over in a flurry, using another dry tail to clumsily rub his face, asking while wiping, "So...where are we going? Are we going to have to fight?"

"Stop, stop, stop, I can wipe it myself—" Yu Sheng hastily blocked the tail wildly wiping his face and spat out two silver-white fluff from his mouth, "We need to go back to that valley once more, but we shouldn't need to fight this time."

Hu Li instantly stopped her movements, standing tense and rigid.

The nervousness and fear in her eyes certainly couldn't escape an observer's notice—in fact, Yu Sheng knew before he even spoke that this would be her reaction.

Yet, for this very reason, he felt it was necessary for Hu Li to see for herself the strange mutations currently occurring in that valley.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here," he stepped forward and gently pressed on the fox girl's hair, "I know you're averse to that place, but something peculiar has happened there, and I think it's essential for you to see it with your own eyes. Don't worry, you won't be trapped inside again."

Hu Li looked blankly at Yu Sheng for a long while before hesitantly and stiffly nodding her head, as if it took immense courage to make that decision.

Yu Sheng then led her back to the dining area, picked up the little doll that had been waiting for a while, and after opening the door leading to the valley in the Exotic Realm, the three (although not all humans) stepped in.

Sunlight filled the valley, and a fresh breeze blew across the valley floor. Far-off rocky mountains and barren lands bathed in daylight, everything appeared so vividly bright after night had fallen.

Even the scars left behind after that "feast" seemed... gently reassuring under the light of day.

Erin sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, widening her eyes to take in the current scenery of the valley, and after a long pause, she blurted out, "This is really like Yu Sheng stepping into an Alchemy Furnace—completely baffling…"

Yu Sheng immediately forgot what he was about to say, turning to look at Erin on his shoulder with a complex expression, "Could you not use me to make up these proverbs?"

"First you explain what's going on here—" Erin raised her hand pointing at the valley in front of her, "So the tangible Hunger has truly completely receded! I even feel this place is no longer the original 'Exotic Realm'!"

"No longer the original Exotic Realm?" Yu Sheng took note of Erin's words, his expression shifting slightly, "What do you mean?"

"The environment has entirely changed, I don't know if you can feel the difference in the 'atmosphere', this place now has a sort of..." Erin was saying, slightly furrowing her brow, she looked up and down at Yu Sheng several times before continuing somewhat hesitantly, "It has a sort of your atmosphere, or rather… the atmosphere of No. 66 Wutong Road."

Yu Sheng: "…?"

While Yu Sheng was stunned, Hu Li too was nervously surveying her surroundings for quite some time; she was tense when she first stepped through the portal, but now only confusion remained on her face—unlike Erin who had a unique and precise "perception" of the Exotic Realm, as a demon fox, she had an instinctive perception of things in the environment that had once threatened her.

The tangible Hunger had truly disappeared from here, and after such an extended period, there was no sign of it reemerging.

At this moment, Yu Sheng's words diverted both Hu Li and Erin's attention: "What I want you to see is not just this."

As he spoke, he squatted down on the spot, extending his hand towards the uneven mud-covered ground.

There, gouges and erosion marks left behind by the Hunger's tendrils remained.

Hu Li and Erin did not understand the significance but subconsciously looked in the direction of Yu Sheng's pointing fingers.

They saw the mud there beginning to stir slowly.

They heard the faint sound of friction from deep within the soil.

The ground began to heal, the gouges were gradually filled, the erosion swiftly neutralized.

Greenery sprouted amidst the soil and stones—delicate, fragile, yet enough to leave one in awe.

The valley was "recovering," that was the only descriptor that came to Erin's mind at the moment.

She stiffly turned her neck to look at Yu Sheng's face beside her.

Yu Sheng then let out a long breath, slowly standing back up.

Within a few dozen meters around him, the ground had already gradually recovered, but this was already the limit of what he could currently achieve.

The lands further away he could sense a subtle connection with himself but was unable to simply and directly "activate" or "reshape" them like this.

Even so, he could feel that what he was doing now was impacting the entire valley, as if he had planted a seed, initiating a slow and sustained reaction. He sensed the entire valley was gradually waking up and slowly recovering its vitality.

"How did you do that?" Erin finally couldn't hold back and asked.

"I'm not clear on the specific principle, but this should also be a connection established by 'blood,'" Yu Sheng said slowly while contemplating, "After the last incident ended, I felt that I had established a certain stable 'connection' with this valley. Maybe because I've died here too many times, I've bled enough to water the land... Anyway, from a certain moment onwards, I felt it, just like this."

He pointed to the patch of land beneath his feet that had healed.

Erin looked stunnedly, even with a tinge of horror, into Yu Sheng's eyes and managed to blurt out after a long pause: "What sort of wicked thing is your blood?!"

Then she realized something: "Wait! You also used your blood to mold a body for me and smeared it on my picture frame, doesn't that mean you could also control..."

"No, I can't," Yu Sheng immediately sighed in response, "If I could, would I have to endure getting kicked all night while sleeping?"

Erin thought about it and let out a relieved breath: "Oh, that's true."

She then turned to Hu Li, who had been silent all along: "Your family practices Cultivate Immortality, you have a different perspective, what do you think?"

Hu Li looked admiringly at Yu Sheng: "Savior, Immortal Law is profound, able to communicate natural transformations, one could be a landscaping Immortal!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

He couldn't quite be sure if the fox girl was complimenting him, but he decided to take it as a compliment.

"I shouldn't have expected you to have any insight," Erin sighed after hearing Hu Li's reply, and poked Yu Sheng's forehead, "Anyways, let's set aside the 'connection' you have with the valley for now; what's most crucial is the 'entity' that's taken hold of this place—it hasn't regenerated in such a long time, it could be that it's really gone."

"Has this really never happened before?" Yu Sheng was somewhat skeptical.

"Of course not, at least I've never heard of it," Erin replied without hesitation, "The entity is an 'inevitable phenomenon' in the operation process of the Exotic Realm, not a destroyable individual. While the Exotic Realm exists, so does the entity. But then again—"

The little doll paused for a moment, her gaze subtly glancing around.

"Now the whole 'atmosphere' of this valley has changed, at least from my senses, it is indeed no longer the Exotic Realm that fostered the entity—Hunger. So if that's the case, the entity—Hunger might indeed disappear permanently..."

Miss Doll's brows were tightly furrowed as if she found a logical explanation, but she couldn't bring herself to truly believe it was possible.

Hu Li, on the other hand, didn't understand what Erin was agonizing over; she only understood one thing: that monster is never going to come back.

She tugged on Yu Sheng's sleeve: "There won't be that monster hurting people anymore?"

"It seems so," Yu Sheng pondered and then lightly nodded, "Unless this valley breaks away from its connection with me and is able to revert to its previous state."

Hearing this, Hu Li stared blankly at Yu Sheng, lost in her thoughts for a moment.

Then suddenly, she pounced forward, hugging Yu Sheng tightly—the force was so great that it even made Yu Sheng, whose body was currently many times stronger than a normal person, creak under pressure. And that wasn't all; she even tangled a whole bunch of tails around him: "Savior, this is wonderful! Wonderful!"

Yu Sheng had not expected this at all; the air in his lungs was almost squeezed out. Forget about feeling the warmth of the demon fox's embrace, he felt as if he was being wrapped by seven or eight hydraulic clamps from all directions: "Loose... loosen up... I'm dying... tails..."

Only then did Hu Li realize, quickly releasing her grip and hopping aside in shock: "Ah! Apologies, Savior—I just got too excited..."

Yu Sheng barely survived the ordeal, supporting himself on his knees and gasping for air, it took a while before he had the strength to wave his hands: "Your... your tails are also so strong!"

"It scared me too!" Erin protested vigorously, "One tail of yours swept over, and I nearly got knocked down!"

Hu Li was earnestly apologizing, her ears nearly pressed flat to her scalp...

But it was clear, she was still very happy.

It was a joy that even surpassed the complete and reassuring happiness she felt when she first escaped from the Exotic Realm.

By now, Yu Sheng had finally caught his breath (and incidentally healed a few minor bone fractures), he raised his hand and patted Hu Li's hair, calming the girl down, then stood straight up and looked into the distance.

Erin immediately noticed the change in Yu Sheng's actions and expression.

The little doll quickly said to Hu Li: "I think he's got an idea again..."

"Shall we take a walk further away?" Yu Sheng indeed spoke, "What do you think, what could be beyond this valley?"

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