At the final second as death descended, Yu Sheng felt a boundless, immeasurably heavy darkness, like some viscous fluid that had taken on substance—"darkness."
He felt his consciousness rapidly dissipating. He knew the vessel sustaining it was swiftly losing vitality amid grievous injuries—as physiological functions ceased, the thoughts carried by the flesh sank and scattered; this was the natural order.
Yet at the edge of his dissipating consciousness, a force, or rather a strong… "thought," a strange obsession, seemed to firmly bind Yu Sheng's mind. He vaguely recalled the frog that had devoured his heart, and his previous "resurrection."
What had happened then? What had happened to him? Why was he alive?
These questions became an obsession, letting his consciousness cling to the edge of endless darkness, even as it tottered, never fully sinking. He truly wanted to know… what had happened, and how, after death, he had come "back"?
The darkness pressed down, the viscous texture growing cold and rough; he felt as if covered by a thick layer of earth, his soul gradually unable to breathe under the weight… but suddenly, the heavy pressure vanished.
In a moment of sudden epiphany, a thought arose in his wavering consciousness—
In his death, death died before him.
Yu Sheng's death had died, and so Yu Sheng—the one death had claimed—returned once more from the boundless darkness toward the land of the living—he felt his "body" suddenly lighten and begin accelerating away from that endless darkness.
In the process, he vaguely saw something on the surface of the darkness, as if swiftly skimming past some "surface," but he had no time to make out the scene before he snapped his eyes open.
Cold night wind blew through a large hole in the wall; beyond the half-collapsed roof lay a chaotic, murky sky, and in the depths of night, the hollow wind of the valley howled.
Yu Sheng sat in the corner of the ruined temple, his mind muddled—a familiar feeling, for he had just experienced it not long ago.
But this time he recovered faster—after only a few breaths he remembered everything, including the feeling of being buried by darkness.
After steadying his breath, Yu Sheng slowly rose.
He felt every joint gradually awakening from stiffness, as if a newly born body were rapidly learning how to "live"; stamina quickly filled him, his mind gradually cleared, and only then did he look outside the ruined temple, to the place where he had lain in a pool of blood.
There was now nothing there; the giant beast seemed to have left… or perhaps it was merely hiding, as before.
After a moment of silence, Yu Sheng tentatively spoke in his mind: "…Irene."
Almost the instant his words fell, Irene's flustered voice exploded in his heart: "Yu Sheng! Are you all right!?"
Then she began chattering rapidly: "Just now you suddenly stopped responding. No matter how I called, no reaction. I couldn't even sense where your consciousness was—I thought you'd died! You scared me to death. If you died, no one would fix the television—are you really all right?"
Yu Sheng's facial muscles twitched. "So all you care about is that no one will fix the television at home, right?"
Irene thought for a moment. "…Not exactly; besides, I was also afraid you'd really died…"
Yu Sheng: "…"
She had actually hesitated!
Struggling to calm himself, Yu Sheng finally gritted his teeth to make his voice sound calm. "What if I told you I really died just now?"
Irene didn't believe him at all. "Cut it out, you sound lively and well…"
"…Right, I was just joking." Hearing Irene's reaction, Yu Sheng smoothly changed the subject without changing expression. Then, after a silence, he spoke somewhat abruptly: "How long has it been?"
"Huh? How long what?"
"From when I told you I was kicking the bucket to now, how much time has passed?"
"Uh… I can't see the living room clock from here either… I estimate about half an hour? Not necessarily accurate. I've been sealed in this painting for years, so my sense of time is dull, but the sky outside hasn't changed much—at least a full night hasn't passed, it's not dawn yet…"
Yu Sheng: "…Isn't that a bit too inaccurate? Do you know how big the difference is between half an hour and a whole night?!"
Irene was silent for a moment, but then a harsh, low laugh came from her side.
Irene immediately explained: "Not me! It's this toy bear!"
Yu Sheng, exhausted in body and mind, waved a hand. "I know."
Irene sounded pleased. "Ah, you finally believe me…"
Yu Sheng was too tired to deal with this sealed doll, and didn't care to tell her that he didn't actually believe her, but rather felt—she was already asking for a beating just by talking.
As it turned out, before Irene's sharp tongue, the toy bear's mocking laugh at most added fuel to the fire…
Turning useless thoughts in his mind, Yu Sheng once again walked out of the ruined temple.
Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt his stamina was even better than before he had "kicked the bucket" just now; his steps were light, his movements strong, even his gaze… seemed a little better.
He seemed to be adapting here—adapting to this darkness, these rugged ruins, and the pervasive malice and hungry stares.
He walked toward the clearing before the ruined temple, toward the woods across the clearing, toward the depths of this "foreign domain."
He knew he might die again, perhaps on the very next step, the very next second.
"Yu Sheng," Irene's voice sounded in his mind again. "Are you really all right?"
"I'm fine. Just a small injury. It's healed now."
"Well, why don't you stay put for now, or find a safe place to hide? I'll try to remember—maybe I've encountered that 'valley' you mentioned before…"
"Then go ahead and remember. I'll keep wandering here," Yu Sheng said casually.
"Huh? That might be danger…"
"Irene," Yu Sheng directly interrupted her. He had already reached the clearing. Now he drew a deep breath of the cold, eerily fishy air of the valley, gazing at the dim, gloomy woods in the distance, and suddenly he smiled. "Do you know, these past days I've been muddling through in a daze."
Irene clearly couldn't keep up. "Uh… ah, should I know?"
Yu Sheng didn't care about her reaction, just continued. "…Just now I heard you mention 'foreign domains' and some incidents of stumbling into them. Do you know what my reaction was?"
"What reaction?"
"Gladness."
"Huh?"
"Gladness. I'm very glad," Yu Sheng stood in the night, unable to stop laughing. "You say, some people accidentally open the wrong door, or just step on the wrong floor at some extremely low probability, and fall into that ghost place called a 'foreign domain,' right? And you said that those who fall into foreign domains, if lucky enough to find its rules, still have a chance to return…"
"That's what I said…" Irene said hesitantly. "But it really depends on luck. Professional investigators are fine, but ordinary people without training basically die once they fall into a foreign domain…"
Yu Sheng muttered softly. "It's fine. Die enough times and you'll figure it out…"
Irene: "…What?"
"Nothing. I just suddenly found something to do," Yu Sheng softly exhaled, as if expelling the stale air he'd been holding in while muddling through this world for the past two months. "Let's start here. It might take more time, but I will definitely get out of this place."
"I don't know your situation, but it sounds like you're… cheered up?" Irene said hesitantly. "Well, at least that's a good thing, right? Go for it? Try not to die… we're still waiting for you to come back and fix the television… and find me a body…"
"Fine. When I get back I'll figure out a body for you," Yu Sheng said casually. "I've had some exposure to sculpture and modeling before. Trying should work."
This time Irene was genuinely surprised. "Ah? You have dollmaker experience?! Why didn't you say so earlier? How good are your skills? What level of doll or model can you make?"
Yu Sheng hesitated, then frankly admitted. "More or less like watching experts work clay in online videos. Then after watching, my brain tells my hands I can do it, but my hands don't believe it."
Two seconds later, Irene cursed terribly.
But Yu Sheng's mood completely relaxed. A strange sense of ease—he couldn't tell if it was appropriate or not—bolstered his confidence. He walked forward and raised his head again in the night, wanting to look toward a tall mountain to one side.
A fleshy giant beast several meters tall, as if fused from the limbs of countless twisted beasts, stared at him by the roadside.
Yu Sheng stopped, thought for a moment, and hailed the doll in the painting who was cursing up a storm: "Irene."
"What is it?"
"…Nothing. I've got to kick the bucket again."
"Huh?"} ,
Chapter 11