Blood Test

Eileen not only cursed viciously, but her loud shrieks were enough to make his head buzz.

Yu Sheng even wondered how she could make such a racket through an oil painting—could the entire canvas double as an amplifier?

"Don't ask me how it works. I don't know either." Yu Sheng rubbed his ear and helplessly spread his hands at Eileen. "What I can confirm for now is that I can open 'doors,' and these doors can lead to all sorts of places. They can lead to the Otherworld, or to the... distant place you just saw. Of course, I still can't determine whether that place is another world, another planet, a parallel spacetime, or something else."

He paused at that, then continued, "Maybe I should ask the person on the other side of the door about it? But that female elf didn't look to be in a very good mood just now..."

Eileen was utterly dazed. It took her a long while to react to Yu Sheng's rambling explanation. After thinking it over repeatedly, she finally asked, "Then... what about the conditions for it to work? For example, what circumstances allow you to open a door?"

"I'm still not sure. I feel like I can open one whenever I want." Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then honestly described his current impressions. "As for how to open them, there seem to be two methods. One is directly opening an ordinary door that already exists in reality. That's very easy. Sometimes I don't even realize what I've done—the moment the door opens, it leads straight to 'somewhere else.' The second is what you saw just now—"

As he spoke, Yu Sheng raised a hand and mimed pulling open a door in the air.

"A door created out of thin air. That takes more effort. I have to concentrate, sense it, and imagine it. If I lose focus while opening it, the door may suddenly disappear. The advantage is that I won't accidentally push open a door and walk into the Otherworld."

Eileen stared at Yu Sheng with her scarlet eyes, following his arm as it moved back and forth several times. After holding it in for a long while, she finally broke the silence. "...Are you human?"

Yu Sheng immediately looked displeased. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"At a time like this, you still have the nerve to say that? That line—you said it to me not long ago." As Eileen muttered and recalled the scene, she imitated Yu Sheng's tone and expression. "'If I'm not human, then are you?'"

She straightened and stared directly into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"Some humans can wield certain Supernatural Powers, but I've never seen anyone like you."

"Maybe you've seen someone like me and just forgot?" Yu Sheng stubbornly argued. "Your memory isn't exactly reliable."

Eileen stared blankly. "...Yeah, I guess?"

This time, Yu Sheng was the embarrassed one. He had only been stubborn for the sake of it, bantering with the doll out of habit. He had never expected Eileen to possess such clear Self-awareness—to accept the possibility immediately... She had actually accepted it...

He quickly adjusted his expression, coughed twice, and steered the topic back. "So, it seems my fall into that valley had nothing to do with the strange properties of this house. I probably opened the passage myself at the instant I opened the door. That means if I can recreate what I did then, I should theoretically be able to return to that Otherworld."

Once they were discussing serious matters, Eileen's expression also turned solemn. "Can you control this ability?"

"...Halfway." Yu Sheng sounded uncertain, then immediately explained, "I can basically control when I open a passage to 'somewhere else' and when I open a normal door, but I have no way of determining where it leads. There's even a chance I could open a door and fall straight into a volcano. But... I've just confirmed one thing."

Eileen hurriedly asked, "What?"

"The passage can indeed be recreated. Under specific circumstances, opening a door twice can lead to the same place," Yu Sheng said. "Like that elf you saw just now—I've already met her twice."

Eileen said, "...Oh. No wonder she reacted like that."

Yu Sheng looked a little awkward. "I'm still not sure how it happened, but I vaguely remember that 'feeling.' I think that with enough attempts and training, I should be able to reliably open those 'doors' that I've already passed through once. But the biggest problem right now is... I wasn't prepared at all when I entered that valley. I've almost completely forgotten what opening the door felt like, which makes recreating that passage very difficult."

"But at least you finally have a plan now, right?" Eileen immediately comforted him. "I used to think your idea of hurrying back to save that fox was completely delusional. But now it's become a feasible plan, hasn't it? Right?"

At that, Yu Sheng gave the doll in the oil painting a surprised once-over. Under his gaze, Eileen shifted awkwardly and shrank back in her chair. "Why are you looking at me? I already told you, you and the paper—"

Before she could finish her nonsense, Yu Sheng interrupted her. "This is the first time I've heard a few nice words from you. I always thought you only knew how to spew trash talk. I never realized you knew how to comfort people."

Eileen fell silent.

Eileen's curses were truly foul.

But Yu Sheng was in an excellent mood now. He could even treat Eileen's cursing as background music in his life.

He looked at his hands, waved them through the air a few times, then rose from beside the dining table and paced in circles around the dining room, looking full of energy.

Seeing this, Eileen stopped her stream of colorful abuse. Her gaze followed Yu Sheng as he moved back and forth. "You're not planning to start... uh, 'training' right now, are you?"

"It's better to start sooner rather than later. I slept all day, so I'm wide awake now." Yu Sheng spoke as if it were only natural. "And this kind of practice doesn't take up any space."

"Then take it easy. If you open the door and see that elf again, she might fire a huge fireball through it—and you'll splatter me with blood again."

That trash talk was exactly what Yu Sheng had come to expect.

Yu Sheng waved dismissively, his gaze settling on the kitchen door nearby.

Opening a door out of thin air consumed extra energy. For practice, it was naturally more suitable to use an "existing door" that cost him almost nothing.

But before that, Yu Sheng suddenly thought of something else.

"What did you just say?" He turned around and looked at the person in the painting on the dining table.

Eileen thought for a moment. "...That you should take it easy? To prevent that elf on the other side from firing a huge fireball through?"

"I mean the more irritating part."

The corner of Eileen's mouth twitched. "Don't splatter me with blood!"

"Right, that's the one. I want to test this first." Yu Sheng grinned as he walked to the dining table. He reached out and picked up a small fruit knife lying on it. "My blood."

Eileen visibly jolted. Clutching the teddy bear, she leaped straight out of her chair. "Hey, what are you doing! I was just saying it! Is there any need to pull out a knife? I'm warning you, I'm extremely easy to provoke! You don't need to use a knife! Put that thing down! One slash across the canvas and I might split apart..."

Whenever the doll panicked, she babbled out a long string of nonsense. Yu Sheng couldn't help frowning. "Why are you so nervous? I never said I was going to cut you."

Before he finished speaking, he had already pressed the small knife against one of his fingers—but after hesitating, he moved it to the back of his hand instead. Then he gritted his teeth, shut his eyes, and sliced. A line of blood immediately appeared.

It barely even hurt.

Eileen stared in shock as Yu Sheng brought his steadily bleeding hand toward her. She repeatedly backed away, crying out as she went, "What are you doing! Wait... Don't tell me you believed that blood-recognition nonsense from novels? I told you not to read so much..."

"First, I'm a novelist myself. I'm not doing very well, but I do take issue with the fact that you have an issue with novels." Yu Sheng glanced at the terrified person in the painting. "Second, this has nothing to do with blood recognition. I'm just testing a few theories. When Huli came into contact with my blood in that valley, both she and I underwent some changes. I want to see whether something similar will happen to you."

Yu Sheng was referring to how Huli had suddenly become able to sense his "death" after coming into contact with his blood, as well as how he had gained the ability to perceive some of Huli's thoughts and memories. He also suspected that the silver-white demon fox's projection appearing in his dream world was related to that "blood connection."

Eileen froze slightly after hearing Yu Sheng's explanation. She immediately noticed how serious he was. Although she didn't understand exactly what was going on, she gradually quieted down. Even though she still seemed somewhat unwilling—mainly because she didn't trust Yu Sheng's suspicious procedure—she nevertheless decided to cooperate.

Of course, the main reason she cooperated was that she couldn't escape. Sealed inside the oil painting, there was nothing she could do normally besides babble loudly, and Yu Sheng had already more or less grown accustomed to her loud babbling...

But honestly, Eileen wasn't a suitable "test partner."

After all, her "constitution" was rather special.

Yu Sheng found it difficult to determine whether his blood had been applied to Eileen or to the oil painting serving as the seal's medium. He smeared his blood onto the frame, then squeezed a few drops onto the canvas while the wound had yet to heal. But no matter which method he used, he had no way to let his blood come into direct contact with the doll's true body inside the oil painting, as it had with Huli.

Eileen looked up at him. Yu Sheng had no idea what her perspective inside the oil painting was exactly—but she had clearly sensed the contact with the blood.

But that was all.

The oil painting did not "absorb" Yu Sheng's blood the way Huli had licked up the blood back then.

"How do you feel?" Yu Sheng waited for quite a while before asking uncertainly.

Eileen thought about it. "...Warm? But it's cold now."

Yu Sheng said, "...Then I guess it didn't work."