Yu Sheng put away the phone, drew a deep breath, and glanced over at Irene. “I think Bai Li Qing has a pretty stable mindset.”
“Of course she does—she’s a Director, after all,” the little doll responded cheerfully, hopping down from the tea table as soon as she saw Yu Sheng finish his call. She started toward the Door. “Well, shall we head out?”
Without further ado, Yu Sheng opened a nearby Door, reached in, and pulled out his rusty Tetanus Staff, casually slinging it over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The three stepped out from Wutong Road No. 66 and into the swirling mist just a few steps away.
As soon as they crossed that invisible threshold, an icy, oppressive chill settled around them. The alien sensation of the Otherworld sent a small shiver through Yu Sheng. After walking a short distance, he turned to glance back. The house at Wutong Road No. 66 had beco rely a vague silhouette, looming silently through the mist like so slumbering behemoth.
His brow furrowed slightly. “Did we lock the Door when we left?”
“We did,” Foxy replied earnestly, nodding her head. “Benefactor, you locked it yourself—I watched you do it.”
Irene, sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, poked him on the head impatiently. “You looked so serious just now, and that’s what you were worried about? Are you afraid soone might sneak into our house from the mist to steal our stuff?”
“Just making sure,” Yu Sheng brushed away the little doll’s tiny hand. His attention then shifted fully to their surroundings. “Stay alert. Anything might appear out of this fog.”
In the Boundary City of reality, night had deepened; on this side—the side enveloped in mist—the Otherworld also lay beneath a shroud of darkness. The tall streetlamps faded into blurred shapes, their glowing orbs hovering eerily mid-air, appearing like ghostly eyes floating in the gloom. Further away, vague neon lights shimred indistinctly among distant buildings.
The silence was profound. Occasionally, Yu Sheng thought he heard distant horns or strains of music drifting faintly from the real world, but each ti he listened carefully, the sounds dissolved into the empty rustling of wind.
A soft, blue glow rose quietly beside him. Foxy’s tails had unfurled, and tiny flas of Fox Fire drifted serenely behind her.
“A little nervous?” Yu Sheng asked quietly, smiling gently.
The Demon Fox Maiden shook her head stiffly, but another dozen wisps of Fox Fire still escaped around her, betraying her tension.
Irene carefully studied their surroundings. “So, this really is the sa Otherworld where Big Nephew was trapped before?” the little doll murmured softly.
“It should be,” Yu Sheng confird. “The connection through blood confird it. Why the sudden question?”
“I was just thinking about how massive this foggy Otherworld must be,” Irene replied thoughtfully. “If this is truly the sa place, it stretches from Wutong Road all the way to the Wan Xiang Ji Shopping Mall—that’s not a small area. Little Red Riding Hood was right; beyond the mall, there’s a vast space covered in fog, even extending into the Old City District… Who knows how far it actually goes?”
Yu Sheng frowned, distracted by Irene’s observation. How vast was this mist-covered realm?
This fog already spanned from Old City District to the bustling comrcial areas near the city center, and it clearly didn’t stop there… What about beyond that? Where the fog was even thicker?
“Could it be as big as all of Boundary City? Or even as vast as the entire Borderland?” Irene quietly speculated.
“Wouldn’t that make it like another Borderland?” Foxy’s ears twitched attentively. “An Otherworld version of Borderland?”
Yu Sheng felt a sudden jolt within him, recalling sothing. His brow tightened further. “I rember Bai Li Qing saying once that there can’t be a second Borderland—even in the vast universe, no place identical or even closely similar to Borderland can exist. It’s like a cosmic law. She ntioned another place called ‘Terra’ as being similarly unique…”
“Did she ntion anything about ‘Otherworlds’ when she said that?” Irene interjected quietly. “Otherworlds don’t really care about rules.”
“She didn’t,” Yu Sheng admitted, pondering. “We didn’t know about a ‘Mistbound City’ then.”
While speaking, he took out his phone and checked the screen.
No signal.
Irene peered over and gave a wry smile. “Seems there’s only a signal within the boundary of Wutong Road No. 66… That really must be your house’s unique trait.”
Suddenly, Foxy halted, standing stiffly beside Yu Sheng.
The Demon Fox Maiden’s brows knitted tightly as she raised her head slightly, sniffing at the air intently.
“What is it, silly Fox?” Irene quickly lowered her voice.
“The scent of a human,” Foxy whispered cautiously, her ears swiveling delicately to track it. “A stranger’s scent. Soone passed through here recently.”
A human presence in the mist?!
Yu Sheng’s eyes instantly sharpened, growing solemn.
Irene perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, her eyes sparkling with excitent for so unknown reason. “Another one stuck here? Did we just get an order for door-to-door rescue delivered straight to our doorstep?”
“Not necessarily,” Foxy’s voice was unusually serious, and a hint of unease shadowed her expression. “Doesn’t feel like soone trapped… there’s a strange aura lingering nearby. I’ve never sensed it before. Definitely not human. A weird scent.”
“Weird scent?” Yu Sheng couldn’t fully grasp how the Fox Immortal perceived the world, given the barriers of their different realms of understanding. Still, he quickly deduced she ant sothing humanoid had passed by recently. Instantly alert, he muttered, “Then let’s be careful—Foxy, put your fire away. It’s too noticeable.”
“Mmm,” Foxy softly nodded, extinguishing the wisps of Fox Fire one by one, until nothing but shadow remained. She then lifted a finger, pointing silently into the depths of the fog, and quietly led Yu Sheng forward.
She moved cautiously, tracking the faint trail left by the mysterious scent. Occasionally, she stopped, crouching low and sniffing the corners of walls or the cracks in the pavent. After carefully recalibrating her direction each ti, she pressed onward with a focused professionalism.
Irene gently prodded Yu Sheng’s head and whispered teasingly into his ear, “Hey, look, our hotel has its own sniffer dog now…”
Yu Sheng’s voice was indifferent, though tinged with amusent, “If she smacks you later, I’m not stepping in.”
“Tch.”
Irene snorted dismissively, but her silence barely lasted a few heartbeats. Her voice soon returned, tinged with unease, “Is it just , or is the fog getting even thicker? Are we sure the silly fox isn’t leading us astray? Who in their right mind chooses to walk deeper into the thickest fog?”
“Maybe that’s proof we’re not following soone good,” Yu Sheng muttered back. Yet, he, too, noticed the environnt growing stranger. Quietly, he lowered the Tetanus Staff from his shoulder, gripping it cautiously, and approached Foxy. “Are we close?”
“The scent is muddled here,” Foxy halted, lifting her head with obvious frustration. “Whoever it was circled this place many tis. I can’t tell if it was intentional to hide their tracks, or if they had other business here. Either way, it’s unclear where they went afterward.”
Yu Sheng nodded once, falling silent, his gaze carefully scanning the surrounding gloom.
The mist had beco alarmingly thick, cloaking everything beyond a few ters in indistinct shapes. The shadowy silhouettes of buildings and dull, flickering streetlights distorted in the swirling fog, bending and twisting unnaturally. Distant streets appeared warped, undulating, as though the fog itself held so malign will. Neon lights flickered erratically in stairwells, their glow shifting slowly into an ominous crimson hue.
As the fog deepened, it was evident that this Otherworld was shifting—growing darker and deeper.
As if to confirm his suspicions, a shadow flickered at the edge of Yu Sheng’s vision.
It was a tall, spindly figure.
Before Yu Sheng could fully process the form, a surge of malevolence erupted from behind him!
Instinct scread at him. He lunged forward without hesitation, spun around mid-step, and swung the Tetanus Staff in a fierce horizontal arc. Without pausing to check if he’d hit, he swiftly dodged sideways.
A sharp clang echoed through the fog-filled night, sparks flying. Yu Sheng glimpsed the gleam of a slender, peculiar blade being knocked aside. In the sa instant, several more cold flashes sliced into the spot he’d just vacated.
A sphere of Fox Fire exploded into existence, clearing the fog in a burst of radiant flas. Yu Sheng finally steadied himself, eyes locked onto their assailant.
An unsettlingly graceful figure erged from the mist, towering nearly a head taller than Yu Sheng—
It bore the slender, feminine outline of a woman, but that was where any human resemblance ended. Her body was entirely encased in glossy black tal armor that seed both skin and shield. Her joints were visibly doll-like, tal hinges revealing delicate chanisms beneath, with subtle crimson glows seeping from seams and joints. Her face, disturbingly elegant, was crafted from polished white tal, frozen permanently in a cold, lifeless smile.
Most disturbing of all was the veil atop her head—a black, seemingly ceremonial garnt reminiscent of a nun’s headdress. Despite its apparent lack of defensive function, it lent her a deeply sinister aura.
She advanced slowly from the mist, her tal heels clicking softly against stone. Then, with slow, deliberate grace, she raised a hand—
Each finger was a blade more than half a ter long, gleaming nacingly beneath the shadowed sky.
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