Chapter 478 Shadow of Omen

Deep inside the Secret Service building, in the spacious director's office, Yu Sheng pushed the door open and walked in. "I'm free—and I also happen to have a lot of things I want to ask you."

Baili Qing, who was sitting behind her desk, had obviously long been accustomed to the situation where someone would just walk in without moving. She sat there without even moving, looking up at him as he found a chair in the room. She then watched him move the chair over and sit across from her at the desk. After a long moment, she finally spoke, "What do you want to ask?"

Yu Sheng sat down on the chair and was about to speak when he seemed to have discovered something. He glanced at Baili Qing's desk and said, "Did you get a new desk?"

Baili Qing's tone was subtle: "...is this also one of the problems?"

"Um, that doesn't count. I'm just asking casually," Yu Sheng coughed dryly, then gathered his words and thought about his recent experiences. After straightening out his thoughts, he spoke, "'Omen Goddess', I'm wondering if the Secret Service has any information on this name—or any intelligence on the word 'omen'."

Almost the moment he finished speaking, Baili Qing shook her head: "No."

"...Are you so sure?" Yu Sheng was a little surprised. "Why don't you check it out?"

"I'd already checked before you came," Baili Qing said calmly. "I'm in contact with Master Yuan Ling, so I have some knowledge of what's happening in the Feiyu Star Region. You're asking about that puppet called 'Erin,' right?"

"Well, that saves me the trouble of explaining the whole thing," Yu Sheng sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Now it's not just Irene's problem. There seems to be something wrong with my house too..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his head and looked at the huge floor-to-ceiling window behind Baili Qing. The corner of his mouth twitched: "Is it necessary to roll your eyes so much..."

Baili Xue's voice reached their ears: "I think there's more to your house than just 'something wrong'."

"Okay, I admit that No. 66 Wutong Road is a little special," Yu Sheng curled his lips and turned his head guiltily in front of the pair of white eyes that were at least two or three square meters in size on the French window. "But things have been getting more and more outrageous recently. There's a special room at the end of the corridor on my second floor. You know, I fell into the mirror a few days ago, and there's a temple of the goddess of bad omen down there..."

In front of Baili Qing, with whom he had worked for a long time and who was quite familiar with the various situations in the hotel, Yu Sheng did not hide anything, but told her all about his experience in the "darkness in the mirror".

After Yu Sheng finished speaking, Baili Qing's face, which usually lacked expression, became visibly solemn. After carefully weighing her options, she looked into Yu Sheng's eyes and asked, "Do you mind if I 'take a look'?"

Yu Sheng was startled, and quickly recalled the first time he met her and her special ability. He hesitated, "...I don't mind, but the scene is quite strange. I suspect there might be contamination or something. Are you sure you want to see it?"

"We've seen even stranger things," Baili Xue said calmly, "You can trust our professionalism."

Yu Sheng was quite curious about what kind of bizarre scene the other party was talking about, but after thinking about it, he didn't feel comfortable asking. He stood up and leaned over: "Then you can watch it. Be prepared."

Baili Qing stood up from behind the desk, leaned forward and extended her hand to Yu Sheng.

But I couldn't reach it.

The two of them stared at each other for two or three seconds, each lying on the wide desk. Yu Sheng finally couldn't help but ask, "...Isn't your desk a little too wide?"

Since he was the director, Baili Qing didn't feel embarrassed at all. She just stood up calmly, walked around the table, came in front of Yu Sheng, and put her hand on his temple.

It has a slightly cool touch and is accompanied by a very light scent of perfume.

Yu Sheng only felt a moment of trance in his mind, and a "gaze" swept across the shallow memories that he deliberately let go of, and then the slightly cool touch left.

Baili Qing fixed her gaze on the floor-to-ceiling window not far away. The pair of huge, faded eyes that had been floating on the window quickly faded away. The thick fog outside the window began to boil and quickly took on a layer of muddy black texture. In just a few seconds, neatly arranged huge stone pillars, a strange and gloomy ancient temple, a crawling and twisted black figure on the stone square, and... a huge phantom of some kind of half-human, half-spider creature deep in the temple emerged from the black fog.

As the scene continued to change, Yu Sheng instantly noticed the half-human, half-spider illusion in the temple. He suddenly widened his eyes in astonishment: "Wait! I didn't see this at the time!"

"You saw it," Baili Qing's calm voice sounded from the side, "but you ignored it - this figure was hiding on the edge of your subconscious, undetectable, but still within your field of vision."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, but in the end he said nothing. He just slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the illusion in his memory reflected in the fog.

The image of the temple was once again enlarged and zoomed in. His gaze passed over the broad gate supported by four majestic pillars, observing the figure that he had subconsciously ignored.

A huge female body, a terrifying spider-like half-body, and behind it seemed as if there was a huge web. The web extended infinitely in the dimness, and it seemed to have even exceeded the physical structure of the temple itself, spreading in a way that violated the laws of geometric space.

A pair of faded eyes quietly emerged in the black fog. They were Baili Xue's eyes.

She "entered" the temple carefully and slowly approached the huge half-human, half-spider phantom, as if she wanted to observe the other party directly and closely.

However, just as she entered the temple gate, the huge figure that was only extracted from Yu Sheng's shallow memory and was theoretically just a shadow, or even just an "impression" suddenly raised its head - a scarlet gaze suddenly looked at the gate, and the faded eyes that were about to sneak in were instantly as if hit by an invisible force and quickly faded.

The next second, the faded eyes reappeared in a coffee cup on the desk. Baili Xue's voice came from it, sounding frightened: "You scared me to death."

Yu Sheng turned his head and took a look, his gaze returned to the temple, but saw that the "phantom" had returned to its original posture, as if nothing had happened just now.

Baili Qing raised her hand and gently clenched her fist towards the floor-to-ceiling window. The thick fog outside the window immediately surged and boiled again. The darkness receded, and the gray-white mist quickly swallowed up the illusion of the temple.

"Are you okay?" She glanced at her sister.

"It's okay," Baili Xue's voice rang out, her eyes returning to the French window again, "I was just startled."

Baili Qing nodded gently, and after a moment's hesitation, she looked at Yu Sheng: "...Is there anything wrong with that doll called Irene recently?"

"She's become even more noisy after acquiring the 'Ominous Wandering Star,' huh?" Yu Sheng spread out his hands. "Other than that, she's still the same as before, except for a new hobby of walking her ball every day."

"I'll contact Terra's 'Academy' to see if they have any information about the 'Goddess of Bad Omens,' but don't hold your hopes too high. Also..." Baili Qing said, but suddenly paused and shook her head. "No, nothing."

Yu Sheng certainly noticed the other party's momentary hesitation, but based on his understanding of the female director, he didn't ask any further questions. Instead, he immediately brought up another matter: "Also, there is a strange celestial body called the 'Black Star'... or perhaps it is an astronomical phenomenon. I hope you can pay attention to it."

"Black Star?"

"Yes, it's an anomalous celestial body that's completely black, but surrounded by a large, faint background. Yuan Hao encountered it. It seems to be connected to an alien dimension deep within it, and it's suspected to be connected to that strange empty room in my house... He was the one who gave it the name 'Black Star'."

Yu Sheng told the Baili Qing sisters a lot of things.

About the black star, about the derivative star body, about the current situation of the Feiyu star field and "Shuji", and even the wonderful experience of being a living planet.

At first, he just wanted to exchange information with the Secret Service, but later he was completely immersed in the narration - after all, there are not many opportunities to make a man with a steely expression stunned.

After a long time, Yu Sheng left.

The spacious office fell silent again. Baili Qing stood in front of the French window and pondered for a while. Then he returned to his desk, rubbed his brows and breathed a sigh of relief.

"...It's eye-opening." Baili Xue's voice sounded in her heart.

Baili Qing raised her eyelids and glanced at the pair of eyes that were wandering around the room.

"You've been too 'eye-opening' today," she said, her tone slightly accusing. "Could you please refrain from suddenly doing such risky things in the future? Even illusions extracted from memory can sometimes be very dangerous."

Those eyes dropped: "Oh."

Baili Qing breathed a sigh of relief, then glanced at the phone on the table.

"Perhaps, it's time to contact Ms. 'Marlene'."

"The 'messenger' sent from Alice's cottage?"

"Well...professional matters should ultimately be left to professionals."

…

At the entrance of No. 66 Wutong Road, in the "Stay Away" area, Irene was squatting on the ground, holding the Ominous Star in both hands and grinding it on the ground.

Halfway through the polishing, the little doll suddenly raised its head and shrank its neck.

Hu Li, who was eating happily with his lunch box beside him, turned his head in confusion: "What's wrong?"

"It's chilly," Irene muttered, continuing to grind her stone ball on the ground. "Maybe someone is saying something bad about me behind my back... Let me know I'm dead."

"Oh," Hu Li continued to shovel the rice into his mouth, but suddenly turned his head, "By the way, why are you grinding it so hard?"

"It's scratchy and it scratches my hand," Irene said seriously, "I want to make it smoother."

“…I don’t understand, but I respect.”

Irene thought for a moment, her scarlet eyes fixed on Hu Li: "Silly fox, I suspect you are also saying bad things about me in your heart!"

"I don't have any," Hu Li shook his head and shook the lunch box in his hand, "The braised pork rice is delicious."

"Yes, really?"

(End of this chapter)