Yu Sheng always has many inventive ideas—some are quite ingenious.

Hu Li never doubts any of his outrageous plans.

So this demon fox doesn't find anything wrong with her savior wanting to remove a fingernail from a killing machine to make a knife to stab herself; upon hearing Yu Sheng's instructions, she happily took the still intimidating arm, then grabbed a big tail from behind, rubbed the tip, and released a dazzling blue fox fire, starting to slice the Iron Puppet's palm.

She plans to cut off all five "nails" first, then further divide them as Yu Sheng requested, as for dismantling the entire arm... no hurry.

The living room was suddenly filled with flying sparks.

The bright light illuminated Erin's face, almost blinding the small puppet.

"Silly fox, can't you move this thing somewhere else to cut?" Erin loudly complained, "This place is surrounded by sofas and appliances; you might set the house on fire!"

Upon hearing this, Hu Li immediately stopped her work, thought about it, and felt the other had a point, so she ran to the basement with the arm—planning to take it to the valley to cut.

Erin watched Hu Li run downstairs, then turned to glance at Yu Sheng: "You really plan to make a knife using that thing's 'nails'? It looks odd and eerie."

"Of course," Yu Sheng said as he edited a message on his phone without looking up, "After defeating monsters, using dropped materials to craft equipment is supposed to be the normal process, right."

Recently deeply engrossed in games, Erin's doubts quickly faded, agreeing wholeheartedly.

Then she noticed Yu Sheng's action, curiously leaned over: "What are you doing?"

"Sending a message to Baili Qing," Yu Sheng had already sent the photo of the arm he had taken earlier, along with a brief explanation of his exploration into the thick fog and the attack encounter, "She should be asleep now, but I'll leave a message. Maybe she knows the background of the guy we fought today—either way, I have to visit the Special Service Bureau tomorrow."

Erin acknowledged with an "Oh," then ran to the sofa, picking up a black headscarf to study.

That was the scarf Yu Sheng had previously pulled off the Iron Puppet's head—it resembles some female clerical 'nun's cap' in shape, the fabric looks quite high-end, and at the thicker front part, there is a weird golden symbol composed of two concentric circles, intersecting at the bottom, with a golden rift running from top to bottom through the entire emblem.

During the intense battle earlier, there was no time to closely observe; now Yu Sheng noticed the peculiar marker on the headscarf, immediately stepped up to capture it with his phone.

Erin lifted the headscarf, curiously examining its interior structure.

To her 66.6cm height, this thing could even serve as a cloak—Yu Sheng watched from the side and nearly couldn't resist poking the little puppet, wanting to see her reaction when she is swallowed entirely by the scarf, but he refrained...

"Do you think that guy is an 'entity'?" Yu Sheng casually asked, "Not an Alice's Cottage puppet, yet exuding such a distinct eerie vibe, the style is very much like something formed in the thick fog."

He had barely finished speaking when Erin's voice emerged from beneath the scarf: "Ah—regardless of where that C-shaped buckle comes from, I now confirm she definitely isn't an entity."

Yu Sheng was stunned: "How do you confirm that?"

Erin struggled to turn the headscarf inside out, pointing to a corner of the lining: "Because here there's a tag, accompanied by a label, recommending hand wash."

Yu Sheng almost bounced off the sofa: "What on earth?!"

He leaned over to have a look, indeed finding Erin wasn't deceiving— the scarf pulled from the Iron Puppet's head actually had a brand tag and washing label inside.

Yu Sheng immediately searched the brand's name on his phone, finding a bunch of links in the results.

It wasn't even a mysterious brand or rare couture; it could be bought anywhere.

Of course, there were indeed differences between what he found online and the actual item before him—minor variations in shape, and none of the online images carried the golden double-ring emblem.

"Looks like something modified after being bought online, shortened on both sides and then sewn a symbol on the forehead," Erin leaned on Yu Sheng's arm, carefully examining the search results on the phone, seriously analyzing, "Hey, it's quite expensive."

Yu Sheng remained silent, seemingly absorbed in thought.

Erin looked up at him: "What are you thinking about?"

Yu Sheng sounded serious: "I'm thinking about what this information implies."

"Implies that C-shaped buckle definitely isn't an entity; entities don't go shopping..."

"No, it's not just that," Yu Sheng slowly shook his head. "It also means that the thing is not alone—there are humans behind her, possibly a companion or an owner."

Erin was momentarily puzzled, "Why?"

"Because her claws can't do needlework," Yu Sheng glanced at the puppet whose brain stalled at a critical moment. "Not to mention there's this symbol, which clearly has some special meaning..."

Just as he was speaking, his phone rang loudly.

The caller was Baili Qing, who was still awake at eleven thirty in the night.

Yu Sheng was surprised, but he quickly reacted, putting the phone to his ear before he had time to speak, only to hear a cold and slightly urgent voice from the other end: "Were you attacked by an enemy that resembles a black metal puppet? Is her form a tall and thin female?"

"Ah, yes," Yu Sheng immediately knew that Baili Qing was certain to know something. He didn't have time to ask why she was still up and quickly responded, "Looks about the same height as Xu Jiali, covered in iron shells, face ghostly pale, fights like she's dancing, too fast to follow, and her weapons are fingernails—each nail is a blade. Oh, and she's wearing a head veil, kind of like..."

He didn't finish before Baili Qing spoke, "A nun?"

"...Yes, a nun, but one of an Evil Cultivator style," Yu Sheng said as he sent over the photo he had just taken, "I tore off her veil earlier, there's a mark on it... does this mean you know her origin?"

Baili Qing was silent for a few seconds, probably checking the image, then Yu Sheng heard a slight intake of breath.

"You encountered the 'Artificial Saint' of the Venerate Saints Monastery."

Yu Sheng was stunned for a few seconds, vaguely recalling having heard of the "Venerate Saints Monastery," seemingly a grassroots group against the rule of law, but he didn't know the details.

"Does this mean... a formidable thing?" he tentatively asked, "something you shouldn't encounter under normal conditions?"

"A very powerful killing machine, responsible for protecting important assets or key personnel of the monastery," Baili Qing's voice sounded particularly serious. "It usually requires a fully armed deep diver team to deal with. The survival rate for normal soldiers alone or even in small groups against the Artificial Saint is zero—did you say that thing appeared in the 'fog,' and suddenly attacked you?"

"Yes," listening to Baili Qing, Yu Sheng's expression quickly turned serious. Although he wasn't clear about what the "Venerate Saints Monastery" did, he could infer from the few words over the phone that this was not on the same level as the sneaky Angel Sect, and the appearance of the "Iron Puppet" probably meant this issue was quite significant. "We walked into a region where the fog was particularly dense, and the surrounding environment had visible abnormalities—then that thing suddenly came out from the fog."

"Did you activate the environment recording function of Border Communication at that time?" Baili Qing suddenly asked, "The Special Service Bureau's custom phone is equipped with various special sensors that can record many environmental parameters."

"Ah, it was on, I turned it on right after leaving."

"Good, I'll have someone retrieve the environmental data from the backend shortly," Baili Qing said swiftly, then quickly followed with a question, "Where exactly were you attacked?"

"Around the area north of the old city and adjacent to the commercial street," Yu Sheng recalled uncertainly, "But the streets in the fog felt very strange, especially after entering the thick fog area, many buildings' positions, sizes, and even orientations seemed to have changed. Where we started fighting, the ground in the distance was even 'rolled up,' so my memory is only to be a reference."

Here, he paused for a moment and added: "Also, I confirm that the fog in the old city is connected to the fog in the Wanxiang area—although we didn't directly walk over, I can... uh, 'feel' it. The scope of this 'Exotic Realm' is probably quite large, maybe even as large as Boundary City."

"Hmm." Baili Qing responded simply, without much surprise, as if she had expected this possibility.

Then she paused for less than two seconds and spoke in a deep voice: "Can you come to the Special Service Bureau now? Bring the 'samples' you secured from the Artificial Saint."

Yu Sheng instinctively glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was nearly midnight.

"At this time?"

"Sorry, it's urgent."

"Ah, it's okay," Yu Sheng heard the sincere tone and quickly replied, "I'll head over right now—by the way, are you still at the bureau?"

"Yes."

"Uh, must be tough..."

Baili Qing's voice was as consistent as ever, "It's alright, I'm used to it."

Yu Sheng: "..."

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