It took more time than expected to exchange information at the Special Service Bureau and wait for the lab to complete the sampling of the "umbilical cord." When Yu Sheng returned home, the sky was already completely dark—resulting in him pushing the door open and seeing a horrifically shocking scene that nearly made his heart stop:

Hu Li and Erin were huddled at the kitchen door, discussing what to cook for dinner.

Erin suggested frying eggplant slices and stewing the half-chicken from the fridge.

Hu Li suggested stewing everything left in the fridge, including two cans of newly bought chili sauce.

When Yu Sheng walked in, the two were voting—Erin raised six hands without any martial virtue.

But Hu Li raised two hands and nine tails.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng timely and successfully avoided another fox kitchen mishap, not letting the peaceful and harmonious winter night go up in flames at Boundary Land.

"Didn't I tell you both not to enter the kitchen when I'm not home!" Yu Sheng said helplessly while tying his apron, "Did you forget about the time Erin was stewed in the iron pot or the time the frying spatula got burned and deformed?"

The fox and the puppet sat side by side on chairs at the kitchen door, heads lowered, listening to Yu Sheng's nagging. Then Erin lifted her head: "I, I didn't plan to go in this time, I was just remotely directing Hu Li..."

"I can cook," Hu Li quickly raised her eyes and carefully lifted her hand, "Savior, don't you remember the dish I stewed last time was quite tasty?"

Yu Sheng was slightly taken aback, recalling the mysterious substance stewed by the fox demon girl last time, he grudgingly acknowledged her "cooking skills" but soon shook his head cautiously: "That only when I'm home—you're too easily swayed by Erin. Her 'remote directing' carries too much risk."

Hu Li immediately nodded: "Oh."

Erin: "Hey, why am I the one with too high risk in directing!"

But Yu Sheng no longer paid attention to the little puppet's protest.

He needed to quickly cook to feed the hungry Hu Li who had waited for him half the day.

While he was busy, the puppet's protests at the kitchen door quietened. After a few seconds, Erin wandered in casually, climbed onto his shoulder, and said as if unintentionally: "Seeing you like this, did the Special Service Bureau find out anything?"

Yu Sheng didn't lift his head: "They found the 'squirrel's' original name and confirmed the exact time of the Dark Angel 'Anka Aela's' initial descent—there's a slip of paper in my pants pocket, you can take a look."

Erin quickly climbed down and hung onto Yu Sheng's leg, rummaging through his pocket.

Yu Sheng glanced down at the puppet with admirably agile movements, thinking she looked more like a squirrel...

"... Eighty-six years ago, Zhao Lele, aged eight and a half when she went missing..." Erin quickly found the paper Yu Sheng mentioned, looked at it, and muttered in a quirky tone, "Tsk, from the photo you wouldn't recognize the current neurotic smoking swearing appearance."

"Eighty-six years," Yu Sheng sighed softly, "She's no longer that eight and a half-year-old child."

"Who knows what she'll become in the end," Erin muttered, quickly folding the A4 paper and stuffing it back into Yu Sheng's pocket. She then climbed back onto his shoulder, helping to turn off the range hood, "What's the plan after dinner? Head straight to the orphanage and inform Little Red Riding Hood and the other 'parents' of the current situation? Choose your words carefully, the Dark Angel is pretty scary…"

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, shaking his head while plating the cooked dishes: "No, the orphanage's lights-out time is ten thirty. I plan to tell them after they fall asleep, and after verifying the effectiveness of the 'Protection' mechanism in the 'wilderness,' everyone will feel more assured. Only then will I mention the Dark Angel, avoiding excessive tension. Before that, you and Hu Li will accompany me to the 'valley.'"

"Valley? What are we doing there?"

"Completing a previously delayed 'experiment,' time should suffice," Yu Sheng said casually, picking up the plate and walking toward the door, "Hu Li! Dinner is ready!"

...

After dinner, Yu Sheng tidied up briefly and led Erin and Hu Li to the basement first.

No. 66 Wutong Road has a spacious basement. Corresponding to the oversized attic atop the building, this underground structure covers almost half the area of the ground floor. There's a staircase in the living room leading straight down here, and aside from the wall filled with clutter, half the basement is empty.

Yu Sheng visits here less frequently than the attic.

With the light on, Yu Sheng started digging through the clutter against the wall for what he needed, while Erin watched curiously: "Hey, aren't we supposed to go to the valley?"

"Doing some preparation work," Yu Sheng said, not looking up, "I remember seeing it here… Oh, found it."

Saying this, he finally found what he wanted among the dusty clutter. Erin watched in bewilderment as Yu Sheng excitedly bent over and forcefully lifted up a wide object—

It was a worn wooden door complete with its frame...

Erin was dumbfounded: "What do you need this thing for?!"

"Let's see if we can build a permanent door," Yu Sheng said as he walked out of the pile of miscellaneous items with the door in hand. "Didn't we talk about this last time? Right now, getting in and out of the valley relies on me opening a door, which is pretty inconvenient. Now that we have some time, I want to verify if my previous idea will work."

While speaking, he had already propped the door against the blank wall at the end of the basement. Then he grabbed a cloth and roughly wiped off the dust on the door before taking out a pen and starting to doodle on the nearby floor.

Erin immediately recognized that Yu Sheng was drawing a simple Spirit Injection Alchemy Array — the only alchemy magic technique he knew.

The little puppet suddenly understood his intention.

"You're planning to use a physical door as a medium to solidify the 'teleportation gate' you opened as an alchemy effect?!"

Yu Sheng nodded: "That's the plan."

The little puppet opened its mouth as if not knowing what to say for a moment, then instinctively turned to glance at Hu Li, curious about what the "silly fox" thought. As expected, Hu Li didn't disappoint — his eyes lit up upon hearing Yu Sheng's plan, and he clapped his hands, saying, "Our savior's path of artifact refining is free-flowing, following the principle of simplifying to trace back to the source..."

"Seriously?" Erin looked at the fox with suspicion. "You don't even understand alchemy."

Hu Li turned his head and retorted, "Do you understand our savior's Netherworld Pass?"

Erin: "..."

The little puppet was stumped by the Fox Demon's question and could only wave her hand before turning to see Yu Sheng still drawing. Finally, she couldn't help but step forward: "Alright, alright, let me help. You can't just draw like that — this size of alchemy array is already considered medium-sized. Simply enlarging the small array I taught you won't work. Each node requires additional amplification... I'll show you how."

Yu Sheng hesitated before handing over the pen, watching as the puppet began to adjust and enhance the rough and simple alchemy array, muttering while drawing: "Actually, just drawing it like this isn't enough. Formal alchemy requires using special ink for larger arrays, but with your blood as the material, the lack of it shouldn't affect too much... Pay attention to these runes; they are the amplifying nodes. When the array's complexity doubles, you need to add these patterns at each crossing point..."

Yu Sheng listened in awe as he watched Erin struggling to hold the somewhat oversized pen. Suddenly, he heard hurried footsteps coming from the stairs — the other two Erins were also coming down, each holding a pen, and they started helping as well.

The three little puppets ran around Yu Sheng, and the huge, intricate alchemy array quickly took shape.

It felt like... The guy was quite happy.

Then Erin extended some of the runes onto the old door's frame, finally finishing up.

"Done!" Erin turned triumphantly toward Yu Sheng, carrying an artboard. "The basic array is ready, got it? From now on, anything with a radius over a meter needs this kind of amplification... Why are you staring at me?"

"Uh, just felt like you're suddenly quite reliable," Yu Sheng said honestly, "like a real alchemy expert."

"I am an alchemy expert! And when was I ever unreliable?!" Erin said, glaring with her crimson eyes, sounding displeased. "In any case, I've finished drawing the array for you, but whether it will succeed I can't guarantee — no one has tried your idea before, and I don't really know the essence of your 'teleportation gate.' Just don't blow this place up..."

Yu Sheng quickly waved his hands: "Don't worry, I have it all under control. I can precisely perceive the entire process of opening the door. If anything feels wrong, I can stop anytime."

As he said this, he took out his phone.

First on his contacts list, Baili Qing.

Looking at the name, Yu Sheng curled his lips, hesitated for two seconds, and then dialed the number.

The call was answered quickly.

"Ahem," Yu Sheng cleared his throat twice, "Director Baili..."

Unexpectedly, before he could finish, a cool and calm voice came from the earpiece: "Experiment?"

Yu Sheng: "....Yeah."

"How long?"

Yu Sheng: "About two to three hours..."

"Okay, arrange it and let me know when you're done."

Yu Sheng was stunned, instinctively saying, "Oh, thank... Wait, how did you know I wanted to..."

"You coughed — an honorific. You don't normally act so polite when opening a door."

Yu Sheng: "..."

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