CHAPTER 449: CHAPTER 449: BRIEF CALM AND TRIUMPH

Returning from the depths of death’s chaos, Yu Sheng opened his eyes in the captain’s cabin of the Otherworld Inn, but he didn’t immediately return to the ship bridge to reunite with the others. Instead, he dimmed the room’s lights and sat quietly in the chair, emptying his mind, savoring the momentary tranquility in the dimness.

The newly-revived body was robust and vigorous, but having just undergone a crisis spanning the stars, the weariness accumulated in his subconscious couldn’t be resolved by a single resurrection. Moreover, the many things learned when interacting with the Inference Star Body were still circling in his heart, making Yu Sheng’s head feel chaotic. He needed some time to sort out his thoughts.

He rested with his eyes closed in the dark for quite a while before suddenly hearing a slight sliding sound from the cabin door, followed by footsteps so faint they were almost imperceptible. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a pair of bright golden-red eyes peering at him in the darkness. Realizing she’d been noticed, the eyes narrowed slightly, and a pair of furry large ears twitched in front of Yu Sheng. The fox girl let out a silly laugh, "Hehe..."

"If my ears weren’t sharp, you’d have startled me awake," Yu Sheng exhaled, smiling as he reached out to stroke the fur behind those ears. "How do you manage to walk without making a sound?"

Hu Li squatted directly on the floor beside him, looking up happily. "I didn’t wear shoes~"

Yu Sheng: "..."

Very reasonable.

In the dimness, a furry big tail silently draped over, rubbing back and forth on the back of Yu Sheng’s hand. Hu Li looked up, "Erin said you ’came back,’ but we didn’t see you on the ship bridge. She sent me here to find you. Why didn’t you go over, Savior?"

"Taking a break and sorting out my brain—too many things have happened lately," Yu Sheng found a comfortable posture on the chair and casually tugged at the demon fox’s tail. Despite his meditation being interrupted, the warm, lazy big fox squatting beside him brought a special kind of relaxation vibe, making him instinctively sigh, "... Furry things are such a wonderful civilization."

Hu Li, still in a squatting position, moved closer to Yu Sheng. She didn’t understand what her Savior meant by the last sentence, but she happily squinted her eyes, "Well, then let’s rest for a while."

So the two of them spaced out together in the dark. Yu Sheng was still thinking about the Dark Angel, while Hu Li seemed to be in good spirits, looking around with big, bright eyes. After a while, Yu Sheng broke the silence, "Hu Li."

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember the eye that covered the sky in the valley?"

The fox tail in his hand tightened slightly, causing the fur to bristle, but it calmed down almost instantly.

"I remember," the demon fox girl nodded and nudged closer to Yu Sheng, this time leaning directly against his leg. "I heard the Special Service Bureau has given it a name, the Supervisor, also called the Supervisor Angel."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment and then said seriously, "Next time we meet, we probably won’t have to hide."

Hu Li looked up, her eyes widening as she stared at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng didn’t say much, just reached out and stroked the fur behind the demon fox’s ear again, softly muttering after a while, "Your Savior really has become an expert on fighting Angels now."

Hu Li stared at him intently, then seriously uttered a sentence, "But if we can’t win, we have to run. That eye is really scary."

"Yes, if we can’t win, of course, we run," Looking at the earnest fox girl, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but laugh. Then he took a deep breath, stood up from the chair, and said, "Alright, I’ve rested enough, let’s show up on the bridge, and then we should meet up with Yuanling, Yuan Hao, and the others—we’ve still got a lot of things to handle."

With that, he opened the door leading to the ship bridge, and Hu Li quickly pulled her shoes out from her tail and put them on before the two of them went through the door together.

The next moment, just as they steadied themselves on the ship bridge, Yu Sheng felt a blast of wind beside his ear. Before he could turn his head, a boisterous voice came from afar, closing in, "Yu Sheng! You’re finally back!"

Yu Sheng didn’t even turn his head as he casually caught the lunging Erin with one hand and then carried the wriggling little puppet over to the captain’s seat. Erin, dangling from his hand, seemed unfazed and was in quite high spirits, chattering away incessantly:

"Hey Yu Sheng, you wouldn’t believe the commotion just now. The fleet from the Taixu Spirit Hub was flying around in orbit like it was market day, all scrambling to collect those crystal fragments. Old man Yuanling kept sending messages, and I even had C-clip open the listening channel. The fleet’s public channel was as lively as that market near our place. By the way, we haven’t been back to Wutong Road in a while. Last time, you promised to take me shopping... Could you buy me a phone? A smartwatch would do. I’ve wanted one for ages. Even that silly fox has a phone, though she can’t even manage a simple game... What was up with that Inference Star Body blooming at the end? Was that your doing? Spectacular! Even more so than the Anka Aela incident. Why aren’t you saying anything, Yu Sheng?"

"Did you leave me any space to talk? All I hear is you endlessly jabbering," Yu Sheng said with an amused expression, giving the little thing in his hand a glance before casually setting her on the armrest of the chair. Then he opened the communicator in front of him and sent a message directly to the "Taia": "I’ve rested enough. Let’s rendezvous at Qianfeng Ling Mountain—the Otherworld Inn will land at the same spot as before. I have quite a bit of intel on the ’Inference Star Body’ origins and Yun Qingzi’s latest status."

Erin sat dazedly on the chair armrest, only looking up when she saw Yu Sheng sending the message. She opened her mouth to start chattering again: "You done? Are you done? Listen to me, I wasn’t finished. Just now, my nephew sent a message saying he was as panicked as can be at No. 66 Wutong Road. Over there, when you open the door, it’s still Mo City. The battle in the city is over, but everything’s a mess. People from the Mo Family are running around putting out fires and rescuing people. There’s also wild ones running amok in the streets, and those possessed by demons streaking in the sky. He even saw two immortals fighting on an overpass, each claiming the other had entered the Demon Path, fighting fiercely until both were a bloody mess—later, Mo Ran came and hauled them away... My nephew asked when we’d fetch him out or return the door at No. 66 Wutong Road back to Qianfeng Ling Mountain. I told him to stay in the valley for now..."

The little puppet started to chatter on and on, and the peace Yu Sheng had barely managed to find in his room was instantly shattered by this noisy little thing, making his mind race again. But after a moment of helplessness, he just smiled and sighed, placing Erin back on his shoulder as usual, letting her continue to chatter endlessly in his ear.

After all, he was used to it by now, like background music in life...

Moments later, the Otherworld Inn returned to the Taixu Surface, landing once again amidst the cloud-covered mountains of Qianfeng Ling Mountain.

In front of the Queyun Palace grand hall.

True Man Yuanling had already returned to the mountain gate ahead of time. Upon seeing Yu Sheng and company riding on Hu Li, disembarking from the spaceship and landing on the plaza in front of the hall, he immediately led his senior and junior brothers and a crowd of disciples to welcome them.

Yu Sheng hadn’t even dismounted from the Nine-Tailed Fox when he saw Yuanling’s senior and junior brothers leading a massive crowd to the plaza. Before he could speak, the three True Men already solemnly raised their hands in unison, performing a deep bow.

Following them were the hundreds of Inner Sect disciples and countless Qianfeng Ling Mountain disciples gathered on the mountain roads, in front of each hall, and between the corridors—all bowing, saluting, and kowtowing in the direction of the Queyun Palace plaza along with their masters.

Had Yu Sheng ever seen such a scene in his life?

He nearly broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. He felt tenser than when the Dark Angel had pierced him everywhere and he was bleeding. The next second, he jumped down from Hu Li, dashed to old Yuanling, and said: "Hey, stop, stop—no need for this—you’re going to give me a heart attack, I’m telling you. We’re all friends here..."

Yuanling, however, maintained a stern face: "Friends aside, can the grace of saving the world go unthanked? Today, because of you, countless lives were saved between Shuji and Taixu, and it’s only right for everyone at Qianfeng Ling Mountain to offer this bow..."

No sooner had the old man finished speaking than Erin came rushing over, puppet face upturned: "Exactly, exactly, Yu Sheng, have them bow again—I didn’t get the pose right earlier. Do it again, do it again..."

Yu Sheng picked up the little puppet, despite her flailing, and stuffed her into Hu Li’s tail, then turned to Yuanling with a helpless smile: "Ignore her, she doesn’t know when to stop talking. Alright, I’ve accepted your thanks, but if there are any big gifts to follow, let’s skip those—I’m not used to this sort of scene. But you could settle the Otherworld Inn’s expenses for us afterward, treating it as a mission for the ’Inn’ to take on the task of challenging the Angel."

Hearing this, Yuanling was momentarily stunned but quickly smiled: "Of course."

As he spoke, Yuan Hao and Yuan He dispersed the crowd of disciples—half of whom had actually come out of curiosity, keen to see what kind of person was formidable enough to defeat the Dark Angel—leaving only Xuan Che by their side. Together, they made their way toward the main hall.

However, they hadn’t walked far before Yu Sheng was about to bring up the backstory of the "Inference Star Body" when a beam of rosy light suddenly shot from a nearby mountaintop.

The rosy light landed in front of True Man Yuanhe, coalescing into the figure of a Qianfeng Ling Mountain disciple clad in White Helmet and Armor.

The group came to an abrupt halt, and True Man Yuanhe frowned slightly: "What has you in such a rush?"

"M-Master!" The disciple in white armor bowed to True Man Yuanhe, speaking urgently, "The demon you locked in the tower has been struck by lightning and knocked out..."