Chapter 29: Cold Night is Approaching
“How was it? That old man didn’t make things too difficult for you, did he?”
Su Yanjun saw Liu Sheng come out and cautiously asked.
She had actually heard vaguely from the doorway and comforted her, “It’s fine. He’s just a bit foul-mouthed. Just bear with it. When I entered the Weaving Institute, he also jabbed at me a few times, but who told my aunt to be the Yuan Zheng’s sister-in-Law? He couldn’t chase me away either. It’s just that, since the monthly salary passes through his hands, it’s still best not to offend him.”
Liu Sheng’s expression was calm, and she shook her head, “No matter.”
“Where to next?”
Su Yanjun checked Liu Sheng’s face, and seeing that she truly didn’t seem to care much, she felt admiration.
“Come on, I’ll take you to get your uniform. The Ten Thousand Affairs Hall has specific attire. Then I’ll take you to the Courtyard.”
…
In the evening, Liu Sheng took a bath in her new Courtyard, washing away the dust and fatigue of a day’s travel.
She changed into her nightclothes, drying her hair, and looked at the Ten Thousand Affairs Hall uniform that was already hung up.
It was a set of pink embroidered blouse and skirt, which brought out the fresh colors of a female Menshi.
She didn’t want to do this, but what choice did she have?
Firstly, she had no money, and secondly, if she left the Weaving Institute, she didn’t know what she could do.
To become an Artifact Refiner, she would need a venue and money for Materials, which was simply unrealistic for her current situation.
Moreover, it was even harder to obtain Cultivation-related knowledge and information outside. With the Weaving Institute’s token, she could at least enter the Weaving Institute’s library. Given the scale of Qinghe Weaving Institute, its library must contain a vast collection.
The library of Li County Weaving Institute was pitifully small, and she had long since read it cover to cover. Now that she had the opportunity to read more books, she naturally didn’t want to give it up.
Furthermore, she needed more books to feed “the world” so it could learn and upgrade.
“Mommy” saw that Liu Sheng was in a bad mood and reached out to gently rub her face.
After the Li County Pear Blossom Lantern Festival, it had become a bit thinner. It had been full from eating Guai Qi, but that last big move had depleted its Guai Qi again.
Liu Sheng lovingly stroked Little Tentacle.
She also thought that if she truly left the Weaving Institute, it might be even harder to frequently encounter the strange, and wouldn’t Little Tentacle always be hungry then?
Although being a Menshi didn’t necessarily guarantee exposure, at least she was still within this circle, and she could still think about how to get involved in cases.
However, she also needed to figure out how to Cultivate herself. She couldn’t just be a Menshi forever, could she?
She wasn’t like Su Yanjun, a native of Qinghe, from a decent family, who could just muddle along with a meager salary.
With that thought, she took out the seven profound token again, put on the dark white rabbit fur cloak her mother made, and climbed onto the roof.
On the adjacent rooftops, three women were already seated, meditating and Cultivating towards the Supreme God.
The Courtyard Liu Sheng now lived in was a small Courtyard with four rooms, unlike her previous Courtyard in Li County, which was just a brick house divided into two small rooms.
Su Yanjun went home after settling her in, as she had a local home and didn’t need to stay in the Courtyard.
She hadn’t met the other three when she moved in, so she hadn’t had a chance to get to know them yet.
She didn’t expect to see them on the rooftop now.
However, they all had their eyes tightly closed, with spiritual light flickering around them, clearly deeply engrossed in their Cultivation.
Liu Sheng naturally wouldn’t disturb them. She had plenty to worry about herself.
Liu Sheng sat down and began to attempt to enter a meditative state, tightly gripping the seven profound token in her hand.
After repeated attempts during this period, Liu Sheng was already well-versed and quickly entered the state.
The night was deep, the starlight sparse, and the god's face was compassionate.
Liu Sheng quickly felt herself being pulled by an invisible force into a bottomless, all-consuming vortex in the air. Her consciousness seemed to Transmigrate through the endless Void Realm, finally arriving in a mysterious, vast, and profound Universe space that defied description.
Here, all Laws seemed to be twisted, and time and space were interwoven into an incomprehensible Chaos.
The colossal God before Liu Sheng stood coldly, as if separated by an endless dark Void Realm, very far away.
Yet, it also seemed close at hand, as if she could be annihilated by its Divine Might at any moment.
The image of the Supreme God defied description. When Liu Sheng first “saw” it, she could only feel that it seemed to be a human form, vast to the extreme, transcending imagination.
But as Liu Sheng continuously attempted to communicate with the divine recently, inadvertently entering this Void Realm multiple times, she increasingly felt that the Supreme God was not as the world described it…
The Supreme God seemed to be composed of extreme darkness and nothingness, covered by a layer of writhing light.
She could feel profundity, majesty, transcendence, complexity…
And indescribable terror, despair, and fear.
What lay beneath the Supreme God’s skin?
But whenever she tried to focus and gaze at the Supreme God, attempting to think, her consciousness would instantly be expelled from this Void Realm.
And when she awoke, her head would ache terribly. She wondered if this was a punishment for blasphemy.
But she had already decided that this time, she would persevere.
She wanted to see a little more before being expelled.
Just a little bit more would be fine.
The seven profound token in Liu Sheng’s hand seemed to glow faintly with spiritual light due to her will, and a strong sensation of coolness surged upwards, the chill instantly clearing her mind.
When that familiar expelling force reappeared, Liu Sheng concentrated all her willpower, like a magnet, anchoring herself to where she judged the Supreme God to be, clinging tightly to it.
As her will became clearer and closer, the writhing light began to intensify, as if countless lives were struggling, undergoing Fusion, and dissipating within it.
That unfathomable darkness and nothingness gradually began to reveal its true form. It transcended all known forms and concepts, it should not exist in the world, yet it permeated all things from beginning to end.
The contradictory and complex nature of this existence filled Liu Sheng with unprecedented shock. Just as she was trying to understand this existence more deeply, a familiar but infinitely more powerful force than before suddenly acted upon her consciousness.
She felt as if she was being tightly gripped by a giant hand, then ruthlessly thrown out of this Void Realm.
In the past, when she was kicked out, because her consciousness was always very unclear, she would instantly return in a daze.
But this time, she seemed to witness the entire process of returning. Although there were many things she couldn’t understand or describe, she still tried her best to keep her eyes wide open, watching, watching…
When Liu Sheng’s consciousness completely returned to her body, she felt an intense dizziness, as if her head had been struck hard by a heavy hammer.
Then a rush of blood surged up, and she let out a “waa” sound, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, before she fainted on the rooftop.
Her body rolled down the sloping tiles, and just as she was about to fall off the roof, fortunately, the women who were Cultivating nearby heard the sound and woke up, rushing over to catch her.
Liu Sheng didn’t know that the Supreme God’s eyes in the sky seemed to be looking in her direction, half-closed, as if containing anger.
Liu Sheng vaguely felt her body being placed on a soft surface, with several overlapping figures in front of her. The sound of voices seemed to come from a very distant place, not a single word audible.
Was what she saw before her real? Or were the dark, twisted, terrifying images she saw at the very end the true reality?
A phrase surfaced in her mind: Cold Night is approaching.
Then, she completely fell into a coma.