Baili Qing has been the director of the Special Service Bureau for 100 years. To be honest, she feels that all the weird things she's seen in those 100 years combined might not be as challenging as the current situation.The heavy and solemn black triangular door still stands on the ground. Faintly visible on its heavy doors are ancient and mysterious red patterns. However, the lower part of one of the doors now has a hole with a rotating structure — not only is it a revolving door, it's even automatic.
She turns to look at the Star Sea Witch standing next to her and sees the Ancient Saints also staring in a daze.
They remain stupefied for a good 10 seconds. Lucrecia finally blinks, maintaining her usual elegant and calm demeanor as she looks at Yu Sheng: "Uncle Yu, are you sure…this will work?"
Yu Sheng thinks for a moment then nods: "I believe it will."
"Could you be a bit more reliable!" Erin starts to shriek, "God gives the Gate of Death a revolving door and that's supposed to solve the one-way traffic issue of life! I mean, your authority as Death God is literally…"
Just as Little Puppet was halfway through her rants, she hears the sound of flapping paper cranes nearby. Lucrecia silently folds another paper crane, which circles the witch's finger twice then flies straight toward the door Yu Sheng just crafted.
Then, to everyone's eyes, the paper crane flies into the revolving door, circles on the narrow, barren space opposite, and returns through the door...
Lucrecia raises her hand, and the paper crane lightly lands on her finger, then swiftly returns to being a sheet of colored paper.
The Star Sea Witch reflects: "...What's the principle behind this?"
Hu Li, however, doesn't question at all, just nodding like a fox, "Anyway, Savior must have his reasons for doing this."
Erin's little face is all wrinkled together: "No, I still can't quite accept this, even from a conceptual standpoint…"
Yu Sheng then smiles as he squats down and rubs Little Puppet's head, raising his finger to point to the revolving door: "What if I told you this door is called Reincarnation?"
Erin: "…?"
Little Puppet dumbfoundedly looks up, seeing Yu Sheng running over to the large door, seemingly studying something, while others gather around to watch the revolving door rotate circle after circle. She hesitates for a few seconds and finally runs over, setting off again: "You must have some major issues! Such a lofty thing, how did you end up with this contraption…"
Yet no one pays attention to her excited noises, because everyone's focus is on that door named 'Reincarnation'—have to admit, though it's quite surreal to see it rotating, having a safe passageway through the ancient 'End' door is indeed practical.
Just now, Red threw a tiny bat made of solidified blood into the door. It also rotated through the door and returned safely to this side—the door's safety has been preliminarily validated.
"Next is to go over and check it out," Yu Sheng surveys the surroundings, "I definitely need to go in first, who else wants to come along?"
As soon as he finishes speaking, Hu Li and Luna raise their hands, followed by the bouncing and shouting Little Puppet—the travel agency's loyal group of four as always.
Then Lucrecia steps forward too.
"If the other side really leads directly to the Old World, I might be able to help," the Star Sea Witch smiles faintly, "Father should also be interested in the information I bring back."
"I'm going too," predictably, Baili Qing follows closely behind, "The shadow of years in the Boundary Land suddenly vanished, perhaps the answer is just across this door."
"I wanted to follow Ah Qing, but…need someone to guard this side," Red smiles, "Anyway, Ah Qing can handle things on her own now, this 'old aunt' shouldn't go over and cause trouble—don't you agree, Little Xue?"
As soon as Red finishes her sentence, everyone hears a "huh!" of surprise in the air, followed by a certain eye spirit trying to hide suddenly rushing out, hiding under Baili Qing's collar: "I never said that! I really never said that!"
"Ahem, alright, just us then," Yu Sheng clears his throat twice, turns to move toward the door, not forgetting to lead the way and remind, "Be careful, this door is automatic, don't get your arms caught…if we can't fit everyone this time, go next round…hey, watch your steps, and Hu Li tidy up your tail, it takes up too much space…"
Erin struggles to keep up with her short legs beside Yu Sheng's feet, listening with difficulty to the advice from above, grumbling along the way: "I don't want to admit at all…"
Lucrecia lowers her head with a smile: "Don't want to admit what?"
"Don't want to admit I'm following Death God to reverse-reincarnate at the world's end…"
Next to her, Hu Li suddenly opens her eyes wide in surprise: "You can say things like this?!"
Erin triumphantly places her hands on her hips: "Who do you underestimate? I recently started reading many famous web novels' free chapters…"
As Yu Sheng walks out the door, he watches as the little puppet proudly following the door turns back around…
A few stand in silence on the open ground on the other side of the door, waiting for a while, watching Erin turn back through the door. As Little Puppet rushes out, she cries in frustration: "Yu Sheng what's with this broken thing you made, it doesn't wait for me, I just went through and that light bulb head came over asking why I'm back again…"
Watching the little thing scampering around, shouting and yelling, Luna couldn't help but sigh, murmuring to Yu Sheng, "I thought she'd be a bit more mature, having experienced one more cycle of reincarnation than us."
Yu Sheng: "..."
The Holy Lady is certainly devious in her quiet way.
Fortunately, this minor incident didn't affect anything. After casually picking up Erin and putting her on his shoulder, Yu Sheng's attention remained on the surrounding environment.
This didn't resemble the expansive "world" that Yu Sheng imagined — all he could see was a desolate clearing about the size of half a football field. The clearing was scattered with stones large and small, and a towering triangular gate stood quietly to the side. Apart from this, the clearing was surrounded by dense fog, as thick and heavy as endless high walls.
Fog stood at the edges of the clearing around the gate, so solid and heavy that nothing could be seen within. The edges of the fog showed some kind of movement, but it was slow and stagnant, as if bound by some force.
"...Is this the Old World? There's nothing here, really mundane."
Erin blinked, curiously observing the surrounding scenery.
"But we indeed have arrived in an unknown time and space." Baili Qing's eyes had somehow acquired a layer of hazy glow, and she scanned the dense fog with a slight frown, "There seems to be something in this fog, yet my eyes can't see through it..."
Yu Sheng's gaze fell on Lucrecia, who spread her hands open: "The Old World in my memory wasn't like this... Although that world was indeed quite narrow and closed compared to the current universe, it wasn't just a small piece of clearing shrouded in dense fog."
Yu Sheng approached the edge of the dense fog. After a moment of hesitation, he cautiously extended his hand towards the heavy "fog wall."
He felt a slight chill, but otherwise, the fog seemed no different from ordinary fog.
"According to my past movie-watching experience, going into this dense fog would surely make us lost in it," Erin said seriously, stroking her chin, "Markings would disappear, ropes would break, splitting up means dying separately, staying together means all over..."
"I'm not worried about this and that." Yu Sheng waved off the little puppet's constant chatter, casually pulled out a blood grenade, armed it, and tossed it into the dense fog.
Within the fog came faint flashes and sounds of an explosion, followed by a crimson spreading rapidly through the fog.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the dense fog wall was invaded by the blood mist, spreading faster than Yu Sheng had anticipated — then, as Yu Sheng's mind willed it, the infected fog slowly dissipated to the sides.
As the fog cleared, what appeared before everyone was an expansive and bizarre forest!
Towering trees stretched endlessly, residual fog flowed among twisted branches and leaves, while coiled vines grew along trees and branches, some hanging down from treetops' edge. The forest was filled with thick roots spreading from unknown places. These roots seemed part of nearby giant trees, yet some roots transformed into other bizarre forms during their spread — turning into bushes, flowers, and even mimicking wild beasts and birds with strange tumor-like shapes.
This forest, exuding an eerie aura, suddenly appeared before them as the fog faded away. Upon first glance, Yu Sheng didn't notice, but soon he felt as if the forest ahead wasn't an assemblage of numerous plants, but rather... the entire forest was a single entity!
The spreading roots, twisted vines, and towering trees were all infinite mimics produced by a single plant during its growth!
A moment later, everyone realized what this was.
Tree Angel.
They witnessed the Tree Angel's essence — this ancient Dark Angel was indeed here! Right across the Fault, opposite the "Gate" at the Old World!
Yu Sheng raised his head and looked around.
In a way, this could be considered the Old World's foyer — and this foyer is now blocked by a colossal Dark Angel.
Those present exchanged quick glances, then Yu Sheng took the lead, walking towards the eerie "forest."
After taking just a few steps, he cautiously stopped again.
"Have you noticed? The roots and vines on this side show no signs of wilting..." Yu Sheng pointed at the surrounding plants with his hand, "It's still alive."
"If it's alive, why doesn't it greet me," Erin blinked her eyes, "I've walked right up to the old tree's face... Perhaps it doesn't recognize me because I'm using my original body now?"
"Even though you're using your original body, you've got your ball with you," Hu Li beside her said, "And it hasn't paid attention to you, nor has it paid attention to us. When did Dark Angels become so silent?"
Yu Sheng looked around, his brow slowly furrowing: "That's right, Dark Angels aren't supposed to be this quiet..."