Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 557: An Old Acquaintance
Yu Sheng felt that something seemed off—though he couldn’t see the "expression" of the pure white giant dragon, within those few seconds of descending towards the high platform, he could sense a frantic vibe from the dragon’s string of "deceleration" maneuvers.
The next second, he felt a "boing" in his heart, his spiritual intuition snapping, and an ominous premonition of impending death surged up.
He was all too familiar with this kind of feeling.
So with a loud "crap," without a second thought, Yu Sheng jumped straight off the dragon’s back. He flipped twice in the air, catching a glimpse of a brilliant streak of light speeding towards him, "cooing" incessantly as it flew. The light accelerated beneath him, holding him firmly.
Yu Sheng didn’t know whether he had been riding the Salt Roasted or White Cut, but this bird had evolved beyond recognition of its own mother. He grabbed onto a tuft of rainbow feathers near the neck of this "Immortal Bird," flying along the dragon’s descent path towards the high platform. Halfway there, he saw the dragon tuck in half its wings in preparation for landing—only to headbutt the ground at the edge of the platform.
The commotion really was earth-shattering.
Yu Sheng watched as the enormous beast, twice the size of Hu Li in demon fox form, let out a low growl (perhaps a yelp), crashing into a string of rocks and pillars at the platform’s edge. Like a withering force, it swept through all obstacles before colliding with the platform, flipping entirely onto its back with an astonishing momentum...
If he were still on the dragon’s back at this point, he would likely be as flat as Erin (in oil painting form).
Luckily, the people on the high platform reacted swiftly. Sensing the peculiar situation as the dragon dived down, Hu Li quickly whisked Erin to safety with her tail while Luna used shadow jumping to evade to a nearby unaffected pillar. Meanwhile, the mass-produced puppets on the platform were in chaos, scurrying around, some colliding, some rolling off, and others freezing with a "pop" before being dragged away by other puppets—miraculously, none were crushed.
The impact from the dragon’s fall even temporarily halted the relentless tide of shadows pouring from the temple ruins—a pale shockwave spread from the landing point, sweeping away the chaotic shadows nearby.
Only then did Yu Sheng, riding the White Cut (or Salt Roasted), cautiously land, hesitating for several seconds before carefully approaching, coming to the side of the pure white dragon’s head.
Erin ran over from the side, swiftly climbing onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder, looking up at the huge head for a long time before finally stuttering, "Seems like she’s not dead."
The enormous dragon head shook slightly, and those pale eyes slowly focused on Yu Sheng standing near her snout, with a confused look—or perhaps it was just too close to see clearly.
The scene was momentarily stiff.
Suddenly, Yu Sheng felt the color of those eyes and... "aura" strangely familiar.
Hu Li walked over from the side, daringly reaching out to touch the dragon’s nose: "Uh, are you okay?"
"Who are you?" Erin clung to Yu Sheng’s head with one hand, leaning forward and shouting loudly, "Where did you come from? Can you understand what we’re saying?"
The dragon shook her head again, finally breaking the silence in a muffled voice: "...It’s been too long since I last flew."
As the dragon shook her head, Yu Sheng and the others instinctively stepped back. But halfway through retreating, Yu Sheng suddenly realized, showing a surprised expression: "This voice... Baili Qing!?"
The dragon, slowly turning over to stand, suddenly paused upon hearing this. Then she turned slightly away: "No."
Erin stood up directly on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, pointing at her: "Then you’re an Ironclad Expression!"
"I am not an Ironclad Expression."
The little puppet clapped her hands joyfully, "Ah-ha! It’s really Baili Qing!"
Yu Sheng: "..."
Baili Qing: "..."
"Hold on, I’m a bit jumbled, this situation is a little bizarre."
Yu Sheng gestured with his hands, thinking his ability to accept things wasn’t bad, yet his mind was buzzing. Ultimately, it must be this world’s fault—in this crazy place, no matter how open-minded you are, there always seems to be stranger things waiting in the wings of fate...
"So what’s the story here?" He looked up at the pure white giant dragon in front of him, "Never mind how you got here, but this appearance of yours..."
"Do you remember I told you about the ’Classical Era’ of chaos in Boundary Land?" Baili Qing lowered her head slightly, seemingly returning to her usual cold and indifferent demeanor, "Before the Stable Boundary City emerged, that land was scattered with ancient and chaotic Alien City States—dragons, elves, giants, and exotic beasts once ruled those fragmented territories."
Yu Sheng blinked his eyes.
"But didn’t you say they were all..."
"Yes, they vanished with the end of the Classical Era," Baili Qing said softly, slowly turning towards the direction of the temple ruins, "but just like shells left on the beach after the tide recedes, some ’fragments’ slip through the sieve of time, landing on the side of the new world."
She paused, slightly tilting her head towards Yu Sheng: "Boundary Land gathers the universe’s most peculiar phenomena and various races, hiding some surviving ’ancient aliens’... shouldn’t be too surprising."
The viscous shadows are spilling out from the ruins of the divine temple, and the briefly halted "tide" starts surging once more.
Hu Li and Luna immediately approached, while a group of mass-produced Puppets rushed to the edge of the platform, trying to suppress the "black tide" flowing out from the ruins.
"Alright, we’ll discuss the details later; right now we need to tackle the trouble here," Yu Sheng quickly focused on the task at hand. "To put it simply, we’ve found the ’source’; it’s at the center of that pile of ’remains’ — that’s the Omen Goddess’s remains. Beneath it, there’s an object that resembles an ancient mechanism, which should be the control center for the ’World Bridge’."
Baili Qing: "Do you have a way to destroy it?"
"Or perhaps shut it down," Yu Sheng said swiftly amid the flickering Fox Fire that lit up again around them. "I’ve established preliminary contact with that thing, but it’s not enough. To exert significant influence, I need ’direct contact’. I need you to get me close to that ’ancient device’, we were so close earlier."
"It’s very difficult," Baili Qing replied straightforwardly. "The closer to those remains, the more dangerous it becomes, especially after those ’eyes’ appear. The spiritual contamination will cause me to lose control — I’ve already injected an extremely high dose of Sanity Blocker that even a giant dragon can barely withstand, but I still cannot get too close to those ’glances’."
"Hey, what about that thing you spat out earlier?" Erin said urgently while commanding the mass-produced Puppets at the scene, "Just that one ’whoosh’ at the end, spewing everywhere like an ice storm. I noticed that thing seemed to temporarily suppress the activity of those remains in the temple. What is it?"
Baili Qing glanced down at the little Puppet, and perhaps it was an illusion, but there seemed to be a hint of embarrassment in her pale gray vertical pupils. Yet she spoke, "That’s the Anti-Eileen Crystal."
The little Puppet was "gobsmacked" for a moment.
Then came a flurry of artistic and poetic rambling — until Yu Sheng grabbed them and covered their mouth.
"Given the situation, I think that thing should be called Anti-Omen Crystal, but let’s not dwell on details," Yu Sheng said hurriedly to Baili Qing while holding onto the struggling Puppet in his arms. "Anyway, that thing seems very effective against the Omen Goddess’s remains, do you have any more?"
"Yes, I brought plenty; they’re stored within me," Baili Qing nodded. "But their suppressive effect is limited to the creatures near the remains, I can’t handle the close-range spiritual contamination."
Images of countless scarlet eyes splitting open from the surface of the Omen Divine Corpse involuntarily surfaced in Yu Sheng’s mind.
Chaotic and mad.
He frowned in contemplation.
Below the platform, shadows were surging, Fox Fire blazed fiercely, and beams swept across.
Unable to hold back, Baili Qing muttered, "You..."
"Hold on, hold on," Erin freed herself from Yu Sheng’s grip on her mouth and yelled while struggling, "He’s got another idea."
Even before the little Puppet finished speaking, Yu Sheng snapped back and raised a hand, "Luna—"
A black shadow "swish" dashed over, and before Baili Qing could react, she saw a glint of a blade and a long cut appear on Yu Sheng’s arm.
In the next instant, Luna ran off without looking back.
Yu Sheng then extended his arm toward Baili Qing, "Here, lick it."
Baili Qing was stunned, though this expression was hard to discern given her face was harder than any human form, "...Huh?"
Nearby, the little Puppet was frantic, "Don’t just ’huh’, quickly drink; this will increase resistance!"
"Drink it up; over at Fairy Tales, everyone’s had a taste, no harm," Yu Sheng explained hurriedly. "I call this process ’Blood Transfer’, and after the transfer, you gain some special abilities from me..."
Before he finished speaking, the pure White Cut giant dragon had already lowered its head without hesitation and extended its tongue to lick his arm.
Truth be told, that tongue was about as large as he was, and with a gentle lick, it was akin to a hammer coming down; half of Yu Sheng’s arm went numb on the spot.
But the bond through blood was indeed established, even faster than when he performed blood transfusions for others in Fairy Tales.
Yu Sheng was momentarily bewildered.
Because he distinctly remembered that even when he had mastered the process and control of the Blood Transferring Ceremony, after performing it on those kids at Fairy Tales, it took a while before it took effect. This thing... should have a delay.
Yet with Baili Qing, the process concluded instantly.
Almost as if... the blood had originally soaked within her, now simply being reactivated.
