The wall moved back slightly, and if Yu Sheng hadn't been staring at it, he might have missed the instantaneous change—but he was sure he wasn't seeing illusions. The wall was moving backward. After being stunned for a moment, Yu Sheng raised his hand and tried to approach the wall once more. The wall retreated again, and this time the movement was even more pronounced—so much so that even Zheng Zhi beside him immediately noticed the anomaly. "Brother Yu, this thing... isn't quite right!" The young (and not yet officially turned) Special Service Bureau Officer stared blankly at the high wall in front, visibly tense, "The wall is moving backward!" This time, Little Red Riding Hood and Luna, along with Hu Li, couldn't stand still either. Several people suddenly crowded into the narrow gap between the two buildings, and under the gaze of multiple eyes, during Yu Sheng's another "test", the high wall leading to the Dark Alley retracted yet again by a few centimeters. After nearly half a minute of silence, Yu Sheng finally turned his head and looked at Little Red Riding Hood behind him: "… has this phenomenon ever happened before?" "How could it have!" Little Red Riding Hood's eyes widened, looking at Yu Sheng as if she saw a ghost, "How come you can scare an Exotic Realm into closing its doors..." Google seaʀᴄh 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝 "How could it be me scaring it!" Listening to the taunts of this outdated JK in front, Yu Sheng couldn't hold back anymore, "Not to mention I haven't done anything to it yet, even if the blame for the collapse of the 'Old Bookstore' last time was on me, such a reaction from an Exotic Realm is unwarranted, right?" Speaking of which, he heard a slight rustling sound from beside him. Turning his head reflexively, he saw the wall retreating a few more centimeters right in front of everyone—the parts of the high wall connected to the buildings left behind grey, white traces, as if torn. At this moment, everyone on site fell silent, not just Little Red Riding Hood stopping her taunts about Yu Sheng, but even Erin, who would usually chatter for hours just overhearing sneezes, became quiet, unsure how to respond. After a good while, Yu Sheng suddenly touched his chin thoughtfully: "Hey, I suddenly have an idea, you guys say if I keep approaching, how far might this wall retreat? It can't be infinite, can it—could it possibly retreat all the way out of Boundary City?" The high wall was dead silent, yet for some reason, Yu Sheng found this silence deafening. "If Exotic Realm could curse, it would be cursing horribly now," Little Red Riding Hood's eye twitching while looking at Yu Sheng, "You're really something." Yu Sheng didn't speak, he just casually pressed against the mottled, old brick wall. This time, the wall did not retreat again. Perhaps because its retreat ultimately had limits, or maybe due to some other reason... either way, the entrance to the "Dark Alley" showed no sign of opening. But Yu Sheng had his own approach. He explored the rough surface of the wall, imagining a door existing there which would lead directly to the "Dark Alley". Thus, he found a door handle. Originally, Yu Sheng didn't want to use this method because the Dark Alley is a typical "layered" structure, and its inherent spatial rules determine where each intersection leads. Recklessly "opening a door" could interfere with the entire mapping logic of the Dark Alley and might result in all exits leading out of Exotic Realm like last time, hindering exploration. But now he couldn't worry about all that—the Exotic Realm seemed to be undergoing some "mutation", its former spatial rules were likely malfunctioning. The illusory door appeared out of thin air, Yu Sheng pushed open the door and saw a dimly lit alley extending from behind it, with hazy light and deep shadows. He stepped inside, maintaining the door's open state from the other side, and the others proceeded in. The King was the first to jump in, waving his claws as he landed and summoned the Hero wielding the Village Sword and his companions into this world. Next came Zheng Zhi, Luna, Hu Li, and Little Red Riding Hood. The alley was chilly under a breeze, twilight's cold light suffused with an oppressive feeling from everywhere, like a viscous liquid so dense it couldn't disperse, permeating the air. Little Red Riding Hood felt her hair standing on end, and as she entered, a pair of wolf ears popped out from her head as a reflexive response to the dangerous environment—then she abruptly raised her head, looking at the Dark Alley's sky. Light inhaling sounds rang out in succession. A dense, crisscrossed web of black Spider Silk appeared in everyone's view. "Whoa..." the outdated JK nearly bit her tongue, seeing the entire Dark Alley covered in chaotic webs, with the already twilight sky veiled by a large net, making it even more deceitful and gloomy, and numerous disordered strands shooting out from both sides of shop rooftops haphazardly, without patterns, weaving into tangles roughly three to four meters above the ground, entangling flickering colorful light strings, blurred signage, fluttering banners in the wind, and... countless "cats". The pitch-black "cat" was entangled in the crisscrossing black spider webs suspended in the air, trembling and writhing like a caught insect in the chaotic web. The disjointed sense unique to such physical activities created a dizzying misalignment across the entire web, as if every second a cat escaped from it, yet in the next instant, just as many cats were caught by the web, hanging in mid-air. —This scene was exactly as the blind seer Kongdaman described: on the great spider web called "End," the end of all things has long been measured out and marked. …Who is the blind seer Kongdaman? Yu Sheng was in a daze for a moment, always feeling as if some inexplicable sentences had just popped into his mind, but the next second, those contents turned into some rapidly dissipating "impressions." He felt someone tugging at his hair, turning to look, and saw Erin, who was looking nervously and anxiously into his eyes. Zheng Zhi's voice came from the side: "Yu… Yu… Yu…" "Don't keep saying 'Yu' so much, it sounds like driving cattle," Yu Sheng interrupted Zheng Zhi's stuttering noise. He wasn't sure if it was just a delusion, but the moment he spoke, the oppressive, glue-like chill in the air seemed to dissipate a lot, "Don't ask me, I don't know what's going on either." "I could hardly catch my breath just now," Hu Li took a deep breath and then frowned, looking into the air, "The threads here…" The demon fox girl hadn't finished speaking when the little puppet hurriedly waved its hand in a panic: "It wasn't me!" "I know it wasn't you," Yu Sheng pressed Erin's head and looked at the threads with a serious expression, "It seems this is the reason for the changes happening in the 'Dark Alley'…" "It looks like the 'erosion' has expanded further since we last left," Little Red Riding Hood quickly responded and recalled the eerie scene when Yu Sheng and the King saw after digging a big hole in the old bookstore during their last exploration of the Dark Alley, "Previously, these spider webs were only wrapped around the 'Dark Alley's' boundary, now they're almost covering the whole alley." Yu Sheng instinctively exchanged glances with the King, and after holding back for two or three seconds, he spoke with a slightly ambiguous expression: "…Could it be because of the hole we dug last time?" The King wore a heavy expression on its cat face and shook its head after a moment: "I know nothing, I can't bear such a big responsibility for a cat…" Yu Sheng was at a loss for words, then turned to look at the little puppet on his shoulder: "Can you control these spider webs?" "I, I'm trying," Erin was obviously still a bit nervous, but holding onto Yu Sheng's head made her feel a bit more secure. She raised her hand and swiped twice in the air, strands of black thread extended from her fingertips, moving slowly and cautiously towards the spider web in the air of the alley, "Seems like it doesn't work well, I can 'feel' these threads but they aren't listening to me… They're too stiff and won't budge." Yu Sheng frowned, but his gaze involuntarily fell on Erin's head. "What about that ball of yours?" "Omen Wandering Star?" The little puppet was momentarily stunned, "I left it at home, I'm training it to fetch takeout…" Yu Sheng instantly had a black line across his face: "You have free time, you might as well get it over here to try doing something useful." With that, he casually pulled open a small gate leading to No. 66 Wutong Road in the air beside, and a moment later, Erin on the other side of the door ran over with the Omen Wandering Star, tossing the stone ball this way. The Omen Wandering Star visibly… "lagged" for a moment when passing through the small gate, lingering mid-air in confusion. But the next second, it sensed Erin on this side, instantly realigning its target, and circled around the little puppet's head in loops. Erin blinked, soon realizing the change. "Hey! Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng, these threads are starting to listen!" Her eyes lit up as she looked up at the crisscrossing black spider webs over the Dark Alley, "It's really working—how did you know this method, Yu Sheng?" As they spoke, everyone saw a faint gleam spreading across the spider web covering the Dark Alley—this gleam, originating from the threads in Erin's hand, expanded its area rapidly as if invading and taking over control! "I didn't know either, but I thought it was worth a try," Yu Sheng waved his hand, but his gaze remained fixed tightly on the Omen Wandering Star circling Erin's head, "At least it's another trinket, you might as well consider it a bonus." He said this casually, but the little puppet apparently took it at face value, her eyes lighting up: "Oh, oh, that's great! So what do we do next?" "Find a way to bring these 'cats' down," Yu Sheng quickly said, "and then have the King check out the situation." The little puppet agreed happily, then began trying to control the spider webs in the Dark Alley that trapped the "cats." After several unskilled attempts, she finally managed to make some of the spider threads in mid-air loosen and hang down toward the ground. A captured "cat" entity broke free from the spider web, flipped to the ground, turned toward the group, and arched its back high.