In fact, as early as when he learned that dangerous yet pervasive phenomena called "foreign domains" existed in this world, and that this colossal "Jiecheng" was a special place known as a "boundary zone," Yu Sheng had realized there must be groups of people who dealt specifically with such phenomena—not just lone stragglers fighting on their own (though such individuals certainly existed), but large-scale, professional, and even regular organizations.
Some official, and perhaps some private as well.
Yet, just as Irene had said, under normal circumstances these people would never interact with ordinary folks.
Foreign domains lay beyond common sense, at the edge of sanity. They were countless tiny, perilous apertures in the seemingly stable mountain of reality. Ordinary people might live their entire lives without ever crossing paths with the sights buried deep within those holes, but an unlucky soul who accidentally caught a fleeting glimpse escaping from them could never turn back.
This was the "knowledge" Irene had shared with him right from the start. From these descriptions alone, Yu Sheng could deduce that anyone who dealt with foreign domains for a living would do everything possible to keep ordinary people from learning anything related to them, including their own existence.
Yet if something really did happen, they ought to have their own response mechanism...
Yu Sheng looked up again, gazing at the desolate street outside the window.
"Seriously, how long does it usually take for those 'professionals' of yours to react?" he asked uneasily.
"I don't know, I can't remember clearly... but in my impression, it was very fast," Irene said, hugging her teddy bear as she rocked back and forth on her chair, looking somewhat obnoxious. "They have tons of methods for sensing anomalies. Their surveillance should be all over the boundary zone. It was like that before I was sealed, and it's bound to be even more impressive now."
Yu Sheng said nothing, merely staring at the doll in the oil painting.
"O-Of course, professionals are human too, and humans can run things like a shoddy circus. Maybe they're a bit slow on the uptake once in a while?" Irene immediately sounded guilty. "Or maybe they just haven't noticed the anomaly on your end... even though you made quite a racket here..."
"Doesn't sound very reliable," Yu Sheng said, frowning before letting out a sigh. "According to you, my whole house is a 'foreign domain,' yet no one has come knocking on my door. I seriously doubt just how professional your 'professionals' are... Sigh, I suppose in the end, I'll have to rely on myself."
Irene blinked. "I-Is that so?"
Then she asked curiously, "What do you plan to do? From the sound of it... are you still planning to deal with that valley and the entity inside it?"
"It's not that I want to deal with it, but that it'll come looking for me sooner or later. I have a feeling," Yu Sheng said, his lips twitching as he thought back to that eerie freezing rain and the frog within it. "Besides, didn't you say it yourself? Once you've dealt with a foreign domain, there's no turning back—and I've probably been in contact with 'foreign domains' earlier than you think."
"Well... all right, you have a point. A lot of people who deal with foreign domains were just unlucky ordinary folks dragged into incidents at first," Irene muttered. "If I remember right, about one in ten ordinary people end up turning into 'domain' experts, either willingly or unwillingly, after coming into contact with a foreign domain. After all, getting haunted by dirty things comes with the territory..."
Hearing this, Yu Sheng couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Only one in ten? What about the other nine-tenths? Did they smoothly return to normal life?"
Irene tilted her head up. "They died, of course."
Yu Sheng: "..."
"Th-There are survivors too! A lot of people get rescued every year," Irene hurried to explain upon seeing his expression, only to add, "Of course, it seems more of them die."
"...Irene." Yu Sheng stared at the doll in the oil painting.
"Huh? Yes?"
"If you don't know how to speak, you don't have to."
"I-Is that so?"
Yu Sheng sighed and slowly rose from the dining table.
"Dying or not doesn't really matter all that much to me, but I definitely need to find a way to learn more about foreign domains. As for those 'professionals' you mentioned... if they won't come to me, I'll have to seek them out," he said while pondering. "After all, your memory and experience are truly a bit unreliable."
"Seek them out?" Irene didn't seem to mind the second half of his comment, looking cheerful as ever. "Then... how about you actually go check the utility poles around here to see if any domain security companies posted little ads?"
Yu Sheng looked exasperated. "...I'm being serious."
"I'm being serious too," Irene said, blinking. "They really do leave contact information like that so ordinary people who've encountered a foreign domain and managed to make it back alive can reach out for help. Normal people usually can't see those contacts since they're treated with 'technical measures'—but people who've had contact with a foreign domain are different. They undergo some degree of 'spiritual awakening,' giving them a strong chance of noticing the 'cryptic sigils' that are normally hidden."
At this point, Irene paused, eyeing Yu Sheng up and down with an uncharacteristically solemn expression. "Haven't you felt any... changes in yourself?"
Changes after coming into contact with a foreign domain?!
Hearing the doll's words, Yu Sheng's heart stirred. He quickly asked, "By changes, do you mean getting strong enough to crush stones, recovering from a blade slash after catching your breath, perceiving other people's memories and thoughts, and incidentally coming back from the dead?"
Irene listened in total bewilderment, staring at Yu Sheng as if he were an alien. "What?"
"...That doesn't happen?"
"At most, people just see things they couldn't normally see! Are the things you mentioned even human? You've practically swapped species—could you stop watching so many anime and reading so many novels?"
Yu Sheng: "..."
Seeing the doll's reaction, Yu Sheng decisively dropped the topic.
His situation truly was abnormal. Even within the realm of the "supernatural," it seemed a little too supernatural.
Fortunately, Irene didn't seem to think much of it—likely because she had been sealed away for too long, leaving the doll's brain rather slow.
Yu Sheng let out a breath and looked up toward the kitchen.
A subtle flicker of conflict and hesitation crossed his face, after which he curled his lips into a faint smile and walked toward the kitchen.
In the oil painting, Irene immediately leaped down from her chair. "Hey, making breakfast already?"
Why this fellow who couldn't eat anything at all got so excited at mealtime was beyond him.
"I'm going to deal with the 'local specialty' I brought back," Yu Sheng said without looking back.
Holding her teddy bear in one hand, Irene waved the other. "Oh, go ahead, go—"
The doll stopped abruptly.
Her mind, dulled from being sealed for so long, finally realized something.
...Since when did foreign domains have local specialties?!
"Wait a minute!" Irene suddenly shrieked, the noise nearly making Yu Sheng jump as he reached the kitchen door. "What kind of 'local specialty' is that supposed to be?!"
Stepping into the kitchen, Yu Sheng paused, turned around, and smiled faintly. "Guess?"
Irene's eyes went wide. Staring at Yu Sheng, who had already begun tying on an apron, a hint of shock and a look of "has this guy lost his damn mind?" crept into her scarlet eyes. "W-Wait, what are you doing? You're not planning to... No, wait, did you really tear that thing off that entity?! How could an ordinary person do that?! Hey, you're not really going to—"
Yu Sheng decisively shut the kitchen door, locking the chatterbox's racket outside.
A moment later, Irene's muffled shouts drifted from the dining room: "Hey, don't close the door! At least come help me restart the TV first! I can't watch TV anymore!"
Yu Sheng no longer paid her any heed.
Approaching the sink, he removed the pot lid resting on that piece of "meat." The severed tail in the sink seemed to have quieted down completely, save for the occasional faint twitch at the severed muscle.
He silently gazed at the severed tail that had once burrowed inside his belly, feeling once more that "appetite" that seemed to seep from the depths of his very bones.
Yet this time, that appetite was not as violent as before; it merely pulsed gently, carrying a pleasant sense of anticipation and just the right touch of restlessness.
Was this really okay? Was this normal? Was he still normal?
Yu Sheng turned these questions over in his mind, but his thoughts did not cause his hands to hesitate in the slightest.
Setting out green onions, ginger, and cooking wine, he brought out the cutting board and cleaver. Yu Sheng carefully rinsed the severed tail with clean water, scraped off the scales, laid it on the cutting board, and sliced down with his knife.
It cut more easily than expected—though it had been as hard as stone on the monster, the feel of the knife slicing through it now was like dense beef.
What was more, there were no bones inside.
Yu Sheng had thought about it: the first time he felt his body undergo "enhancement" was after biting into that monster.
And after that, during his second clash with the creature, he had also torn into its flesh, feeling his strength increase even further afterward—though the increase was noticeably smaller, the change was real.
This fostered a bold and... delicious thought in his mind.
What would happen if it were cooked?
Yu Sheng deftly portioned the meat, his mood gradually brightening.
Even Irene's fussing outside the door didn't seem so noisy anymore.
He didn't know whether what he was doing was normal... Most likely it was off, considering even a doll sealed in an oil painting found it thoroughly uncanny.
Yet compared to coming back from the dead, a piece of suspicious meat was hardly a big deal.
"I've already eaten it raw," Yu Sheng murmured to himself as he sliced the meat. "First time raw, second time cooked..."
Chapter 21