Delayed Effect?

Yu Sheng thought, It seemed his blood couldn't affect Eileen—or perhaps the oil painting serving as the seal medium had prevented the blood from seeping through. It was also possible that Eileen, being a person in the painting, was simply immune to the blood. More likely... Huli, who had been affected, was the special case.

After waiting for quite a while with nothing happening, Eileen in the oil painting lost patience. She looked up at the top of the frame and muttered, "Then wipe the blood off, will you? This is where I live, after all. Having so much blood on it is really unlucky..."

Yu Sheng: "...You're a weird person in the painting sealed inside an oil painting, and you still have the energy to complain about that?! You standing here is already plenty unlucky, okay!"

Eileen immediately took offense. "Who says I'm unlucky?! I'm this pretty—how could I be unlucky? Some people even put an entire wall of plastic figurines in their rooms. You're leaning against a wall with an oil painting of a beautiful girl and calling that unlucky?!"

Yu Sheng was left dumbfounded. He couldn't imagine how this woman had managed to combine all those points into a single speech.

Still, he waved his hand. Muttering, "How is that the same thing?" he stood up, pulled out a wet wipe, and prepared to clean the blood off the frame.

It wouldn't come off.

Yu Sheng froze for a moment. After seeing that the wet wipe had no effect, he rubbed the frame harder—though he didn't dare use too much force on the canvas, afraid of damaging it. Yet the bloodstains remained completely unmoved.

But compared with the blood that wouldn't come off the frame, Yu Sheng paid more attention to the wet wipe itself—there wasn't even the slightest red mark on it.

No matter how difficult blood was to wipe away, it couldn't possibly be like this!

Eileen couldn't see what was happening to the wet wipe. She only looked up at Yu Sheng, who had suddenly gone still, and immediately felt uneasy. "Uh, what happened?"

"It won't come off," Yu Sheng said blankly, staring at the bloodstains that seemed to have become part of the frame. "It didn't seep in. It's more like... this is simply the frame's original color."

Eileen didn't respond.

Yu Sheng lowered his head in confusion and saw the person in the painting staring at him blankly, as though her mind had suddenly disconnected. Two or three seconds later, her expression gradually changed from blankness to terror, as if she had suddenly remembered something. She abruptly raised a hand and pointed at Yu Sheng, letting out a shriek: "Aaaah! Yu Sheng, you—you're de-de-dead..."

Yu Sheng was stunned for a second, then immediately understood what had happened. Seeing that Eileen was still screaming, he calmly sat down in the chair opposite her. "Don't say 'dead' so many times. It's unlucky—even though the actual number of times is indeed a little high."

Eileen stopped at once, glanced at Yu Sheng, and then continued screaming.

Yu Sheng had no choice but to stand up and find a way to soothe the terrified person in the painting—she was far less composed than that fox.

However, verbal reassurance clearly had limited effect. He didn't know whether the delayed activation of the blood had caused an impact that was simply too violent, but she seemed exceptionally agitated.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng suddenly had a flash of inspiration and came up with an idea.

The next second, he grabbed Eileen's oil painting, swung it violently around in the air, and finally tossed it spinning into the air. After catching it, he swung it around two more times before placing it back on the table.

He watched as Miss Person in the Painting struggled for quite some time before climbing onto the chair covered with a red velvet cushion.

Eileen stopped screaming.

Eileen started cursing horribly.

This time, however, Yu Sheng was well practiced at calming her down. He finally got the person in the painting to settle down, then, amid Eileen's muttering and cursing with lingering anger, managed to clarify exactly what had happened.

At the same time, he finally confirmed that his blood was also effective on Eileen while she was sealed. Although it seemed that the blood had only acted on the oil-painting frame, for some unknown reason, Eileen had genuinely been affected by it and experienced the same thing as Huli: she had recalled the "event" of witnessing Yu Sheng's death.

So far, however, Yu Sheng still hadn't sensed Eileen's "thoughts" and "memories" as he had when he was with Huli.

He looked up at the still-angry person in the painting. He hadn't had the heart to say that he actually suspected Eileen was rather lacking in both of those things...

Eileen was still puffed up with anger, but no matter what, Yu Sheng's "return from the dead" had affected her far more than the "roller coaster" just now. Her attention remained focused on Yu Sheng's "resurrection."

"You said... this isn't the first time?" She stared at Yu Sheng, disbelief still evident in her voice.

"Yeah. In fact, it started before I met you." Yu Sheng thought for a moment and recalled the frog in the rain. "But don't ask me about the principle. It's like that door just now. I only know that it happened; I have no idea why..."

"Are there any aftereffects or a price?" Eileen immediately asked.

"So far... I haven't found any." Yu Sheng hesitated before answering cautiously. He put away his usual unconcerned attitude toward this matter. "I haven't noticed any problems, physical or mental."

Eileen continued staring intently into Yu Sheng's eyes. "Then you should still try to avoid this kind of 'resurrection' as much as possible in the future."

Yu Sheng sighed helplessly. "Of course I know that."

"The aftereffects may appear in the distant future, and the price may come in a way you can't imagine." Eileen seemed afraid that Yu Sheng hadn't truly understood the warning and patiently explained again, "All things in the world tend toward balance. Anything that exceeds reason and order will eventually face the 'backlash' brought about by reason and order. And coming back from the dead... is truly the most outrageous situation among all supernatural events. Although you said you haven't noticed any problems, I don't really believe it."

She paused, then explained solemnly, "It's not that I don't believe you. I don't believe in the 'appearance' of this matter."

"I understand, I understand." Yu Sheng nodded seriously, but then spread his hands helplessly. "But putting that aside, do you think any of the times I died were voluntary?"

Eileen: "...That's true."

"I just have a good mentality. There's nothing I can do about it. Given what happened in the valley, I could only keep a good attitude." Yu Sheng sighed. "I understand your concern. Don't worry. I know my limits."

Eileen stared at him for a long while before finally looking away and muttering, "Fine. Just remember that... I'm still waiting for you to get me a body."

Yu Sheng let out a sigh of relief.

He had to admit, this person in the painting was remarkably good at accepting things. Something this absurd, and she had ultimately accepted it so easily...

Eileen suddenly raised her head again, unable to hold back her expression of disbelief. "Wait, no, I'm seriously baffled. Are you even human?! You're really sure you were born to human parents, ate human food, and grew up normally? Can't you think back and remember whether anything happened when you were a child..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

He took back his earlier thought. This person in the painting apparently wasn't that good at accepting things after all.

After casually brushing off a few of her questions, Yu Sheng paid no attention to her subsequent muttering. Once he had finished testing the matter of the "blood," he still remembered his original plan.

Continue familiarizing himself with the ability to "open doors" and its properties, find a way to reproduce the passage, and accurately determine the "landing point."

Until he could open the door leading to the valley.

To bring food to Huli.

Eileen finally quieted down. Watching Yu Sheng grasp the kitchen door handle, she hesitated again and again before asking, "Even if you really find the 'door' back to that valley, have you thought about how to deal with 'Hunger' afterward?"

Yu Sheng slowly turned the handle, sensing the subtle feeling that came from the depths of his so-called "spiritual intuition." He slowly replied, "I'll deal with it one step at a time."

"Then you haven't thought it through at all, have you?!" Without turning around, Yu Sheng knew Eileen must have widened her eyes again. "Are you going to deliver food to Huli, or to that monster?!"

"What I mean is, if I can beat that monster, I'll fight it. Being able to temporarily destroy Hunger's physical incarnation would be good too, and there's a high chance it would help Huli escape Hunger's influence. If I can't beat it, I'll find a way to bring Huli out through the 'door,' but that would have aftereffects, and Hunger might continue targeting her. If the second method doesn't work either, then I'll at least send some food in so Huli can suffer a little less. As long as I have a stable way to open the door, everything can be considered at length."

"What I mean by taking it one step at a time is that I'll choose one of these three plans based on the circumstances. But as for how exactly to deal with that 'physical entity'... I really don't have any ideas right now."

"Fine. Since you've planned things to this extent, that's all right," Eileen said, sounding relieved. "As long as you're not blindly rushing in to deliver food to that monster."

Yu Sheng thought about it, but still didn't say, "After it eats me, the monster's mouth and stomach won't add up." Once he said that, who knew how much more the person in the painting would nag...

With this unimportant thought turning in his mind, he slowly opened the kitchen door.

An endless darkness appeared before his eyes. Dim stars flickered in the distant darkness. Apart from that... there seemed to be nothing outside the door.

Yu Sheng stared at the empty scene opposite the door in confusion. A moment later, he suddenly realized what he was seeing and slammed the door shut.

"Holy shit, it's outer space!"