As the final second of death approached, Yu Sheng felt an endless, immensely heavy darkness, as if some viscous liquid with substance...
He felt his consciousness rapidly dissipating, aware that the body supporting this consciousness was swiftly losing its vitality amidst gruesome injuries—as physiological functions ceased, the thinking borne by the flesh also sank and dissipated, a natural principle.
Yet at the edge of fading consciousness, a force—or rather, a strong... "thought," a strange persistence, seemed to firmly bind Yu Sheng's mind. In a daze, he remembered the frog that swallowed his heart, remembered his last "Resurrection."
What had happened at that time? What had happened to him? Why was he alive?
These questions became an obsession, propping his consciousness at the brink of endless darkness, barely hanging on without completely sinking. He really wanted to know... what exactly happened, how exactly did he "come back" after death?
The dark pressure came rolling over, its viscous texture gradually turning cold and rough. He felt as if he was being buried beneath thick layers of earth, his soul struggling to breathe under this heavy weight... But all of a sudden, that crushing pressure vanished.
In a moment of sudden realization, a thought emerged in his wavering consciousness—
In his death, death died before him.
Yu Sheng's death had perished, and so the dead Yu Sheng once again returned from the boundless darkness towards the realm of the living—he felt his "body" suddenly lighten, and begin to accelerate away from that endless darkness.
During this process, he vaguely saw something on the surface of the darkness, as if he was swiftly passing over some "layer," but before he could see it clearly, his eyes abruptly opened.
The cold night wind blew through a large hole in the wall, beyond the half-collapsed roof was the chaotic and murky sky, and in the depth of the night, the empty winds howled through the valley.
Yu Sheng sat in the corner of the ruined temple, his mind foggy, a sensation he was familiar with—he had just gone through it not long before.
But this time, he recovered much faster, almost within a few breaths, he remembered everything, including the feeling of being buried in darkness.
After adjusting his breathing, Yu Sheng slowly stood up.
He felt all his joints gradually awakening from stiffness, as if a newly born body was quickly learning how to "live," his strength rapidly replenished, his mind became clearer, and then he looked outside the ruined temple, towards the place that was previously covered in his blood.
There was nothing there now, the Blood Flesh Giant Beast seemed to have left... or perhaps just hidden, just like before.
After a moment of silence, Yu Sheng tentatively spoke in his mind: "…Erin."
Almost as soon as his words fell, Erin's excited voice exploded at the bottom of his heart: "Yu Sheng! Damn, are you okay!?"
Then she began to rattle on quickly: "Just now you suddenly stopped responding, no matter how I called you didn't react, I couldn't even feel where your consciousness was, I thought you were dead! Scared me to death, if you died no one would come fix the TV—You're really okay, right?"
A muscle on Yu Sheng's face twitched: "So what you're worried about is no one coming home to fix the TV, right?"
Erin thought for a moment: "...That's not entirely true, I was also afraid you might really be dead..."
Yu Sheng: "..."
She actually hesitated!
Striving to calm his emotions, Yu Sheng eventually managed to speak with a calm and even voice through clenched teeth: "What if I told you I really did die just now?"
Erin didn't believe it at all: "Stop joking, you sound lively and kicking..."
"...Right, I'm just kidding," hearing Erin's reaction, Yu Sheng subtly steered away from the subject, then after a pause, he asked somewhat abruptly, "How long?"
"Huh? How long what?"
"How much time has passed since I told you I had to go until now?"
"Uh... I can't see the clock in the living room from my position... I'd guess about half an hour? Not sure, I've been sealed in this painting for so many years, my sense of time is a bit dull, but judging by the unchanged sky outside, at least a night hasn't passed, it's still not dawn..."
Yu Sheng: "...aren't you being a bit too imprecise? Do you know how big the difference is between half an hour and a whole night?!"
Erin didn't respond at first, but immediately after an irritating, low snicker emanated from her end.
Erin quickly explained: "It's not me! It's this bear!"
Yu Sheng waved his hand in exhausted resignation: "I know."
Erin sounded quite pleased: "Ah, you're finally willing to trust me..."
Yu Sheng has already couldn't be bothered with the sealed puppet, he was too embarrassed to tell her that it's not that he believed her, but rather he felt—if she really wanted a beating, she wouldn't even need to be happy about it, her talking was irksome enough as it was.
Indeed, in front of Erin's annoying mouth, that bear's cheap smile could at best contribute to adding fuel to the fire…
With some useless thoughts swirling in his mind, Yu Sheng stepped out of the ruined temple again.
He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he felt that his physical strength was even better than before he died once—his steps were light, his movements strong, and even his gaze… seemed to have improved a bit.
It seemed like he was adapting to this place, to its darkness, its rugged ruins, and the pervasive malice and hungry gazes everywhere.
He walked towards the clearing in front of the ruined temple, towards the forest on the other side of the clearing, deeper into the "Exotic Realm."
He knew that he might die again, maybe even in the next step or the next second.
"Yu Sheng," Erin's voice rang in his head again, "Are you really okay just now?"
"I'm fine, just a minor injury, it's all good now."
"Well then, maybe you should just stay put for now, or find a safe place to hide. I'll try to remember, maybe I've come across that 'valley' you mentioned before…"
"Then you just keep trying to remember, I'll continue to walk around here," Yu Sheng casually said.
"Ah? That might be a bit danger…"
"Erin," Yu Sheng interrupted her, having reached the clearing, he took a deep breath of the chill and eerie, bloody smell of the valley air, looked at the distant shadowy and ominous dense forest, and suddenly pulled the corners of his mouth into a smile, "You know, I've been muddling through these days."
Erin apparently couldn't keep up with Yu Sheng's train of thought: "Um… ah, should I know..."
Yu Sheng ignored whatever Erin's reaction was, just talking to himself: "… When you mentioned the 'Exotic Realm' just now, and some incidents of people accidentally wandering into the Exotic Realm, do you know what my reaction was?"
"What reaction?"
"Happy."
"Ah?"
"Happy, I'm very happy," Yu Sheng stood in the night, unable to suppress his laughter, "You said, some people accidentally opened a wrong door, or just under a very low probability, stepped on a wrong floor tile at certain times, and then they fell into the so-called 'Exotic Realm,' right? And you also said that those who fall into the Exotic Realm, if lucky enough to discover the realm's patterns, actually have a chance to return…"
"That's what I said…" Erin said with some hesitation, "But it's really up to luck, professional investigators are okay, ordinary people without training are basically waiting to die after falling into the Exotic Realm…"
Yu Sheng murmured softly: "No problem, dying and dying will figure it out…"
Erin: "… What?"
"Nothing, I just suddenly found something to do," Yu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, as if he wanted to spit out all the stagnant air he has been holding back in this world for the past two months, "Let's start here then, it might take some more time, but I'm sure I can get out of this place."
"Although I don't know what's going on at your end, it feels like you've… perked up?" Erin hesitated, "Well, at least that's a good thing, right? Keep it up? Try not to die… I'm still waiting for you to come back and fix the TV… and find me a body or something…"
"Okay, once I'm back, I'll try to solve the body issue for you," Yu Sheng said offhandedly, "I've had some experience with sculpture and modeling, trying it should be possible."
This time Erin was genuinely surprised: "Ah? You have experience as a Puppet Master?! Why didn't you say so earlier! How good are your skills? To what extent can you create puppets or models?"
Yu Sheng hesitated for a moment, then honestly confessed: "Pretty much just watching videos of masters modeling clay online, after watching I tell myself I've got it, but my hands don't believe it."
Two seconds later, Erin's cursing was quite unpleasant.
But Yu Sheng's mood was completely relaxed, a kind of lax attitude he himself wasn't sure was right, buoyed his confidence, he walked forward, and looked up into the night sky towards a high mountain.
A Blood Flesh Giant Beast several meters tall, seemingly formed by the fusion of numerous twisted beasts' limbs, eyed him from the roadside.
Yu Sheng stopped in his tracks, thought for a moment, and called out in his mind to the foul-mouthed puppet in his mental image: "Erin."
"What's up?"
"… Nothing, I'm about to go down again."
"Ah?"