Chapter 34: Successful Reproduction, The Passage Is Controllable!

Chapter 34: Successful Reproduction, The Passage Is Controllable!

As the door slammed shut, the dim starlight from the distant cosmos vanished from Yu Sheng’s sight. It took a full thirty seconds before he recovered from that instant of shock. Then he drew a long breath and finally broke out in a cold sweat.

After opening a door, one might not necessarily arrive at some “location” within an Other Domain or on a planet. There was even a certain probability of stepping directly into outer space?

The randomness of this door, and the range of that randomness, far exceeded Yu Sheng’s imagination!

At that moment, Yu Sheng even felt a sense of relief. He was relieved that the first time he had accidentally opened a door, he had stepped into an Other Domain rather than opening it into the depths of space. If he had truly been that unlucky back then, he could hardly imagine what would have happened.

In the worst-case scenario, he might have undergone a rapid and uninterrupted cycle of death and resurrection in the hostile environment of outer space. He might not even have had the chance to maintain conscious thought, let alone explore and master the ability to open doors during that continuous process of dying. Even if he had miraculously endured it, or somehow managed to open a door back to a planetary surface through sheer luck, it would still have been an unimaginably terrifying experience.

Once his pounding heart finally calmed down, Yu Sheng immediately began analyzing the new information he had obtained from that attempt.

When the door had opened, he had not felt the terrifying suction that should have come from the vacuum on the other side. Nor had he felt the freezing cold that ought to exist in outer space.

Yet during previous openings, he had been able to hear sounds from the other side and even feel certain environmental effects, such as the scorching air currents from that barren planet.

Why was that?

Did the door itself possess some sort of filtering function? When the environments on both sides differed too greatly, did it automatically block those influences? Or was there something special about outer space itself, making it some kind of coordinate that could only be seen but not truly reached? Or perhaps... that had not actually been outer space at all, but another kind of Other Domain that merely resembled a star-filled sky...

While pondering this, Yu Sheng glanced back at Irene in the painting.

Irene looked over hesitantly. “Are you still going to continue? You seemed pretty startled just now...”

Yu Sheng closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, only determination remained.

“Continue.”

He gripped the doorknob once more, but this time with greater caution. He focused more carefully on that subtle and delicate guidance of spiritual nature, while trying to recall the sensations from his previous successful openings. He attempted to reproduce one of those passages.

Slowly, he opened the door.

Beyond it was an entirely ordinary scene, appearing to be a barren beach.

It was not any door he had previously opened.

Then he tried again and again, repeatedly opening doors as he searched for the path that led to Hu Li.

Or any other reproducible passage.

As long as he could grasp the pattern behind opening doors.

During these endless attempts, a fleeting thought suddenly emerged in his heart.

Would there one day be a door that opened onto the familiar homeland from his memories?

He still remembered that he had come to Boundary City after stepping out of his home one morning. Though he had no concrete evidence, he increasingly suspected that had been the true first time he had opened a door.

He simply hadn’t realized it at the time.

Then someday in the future, would he push open a door and see the home from his memories?

Yu Sheng forcefully suppressed the sudden thought.

He knew there were more urgent matters at hand. Returning home... could remain a hope buried deep in his heart for now.

The doors opened again and again.

Some led to bizarre and dazzling sights.

Some led to utterly ordinary scenes.

Some were absurd and strange.

Some were even... bustling and prosperous.

Countless distant worlds rushed toward him during those brief moments of opening and closing doors, only to vanish again with a slam. And amid this endless repetition, Yu Sheng suddenly experienced a marvelous realization.

This world...

Really did contain more than just Boundary City.

Beyond this immense city of boundaries, a city seemingly filled with countless mysteries...

There was an expanse so vast and boundless.

So many landscapes.

So many mysteries.

So many strange and colorful distant places.

All of them lay within reach every time he opened a door.

He was not trapped within this city.

Irene gradually seemed to grow excited as well. Though Yu Sheng had no idea what exactly a doll trapped in a painting found so exciting, she watched the scenery beyond the door alongside him and clearly became more enthusiastic as time went on.

Unable to move, she began providing commentary on everything she saw.

“That mountain is so tall! There’s something glowing on top! Can we go look at it someday?”

“The ocean! Such a huge fish!”

“Wow! It’s all snow! But why is it light blue... It doesn’t look alive...”

“...It’s a toilet. Hurry up and move on.”

“...That scared me! There’s a ghost!”

The doll never stopped talking. Whatever appeared beyond the door prompted another stream of chatter. At first Yu Sheng found her rather noisy, but gradually Irene’s ever-changing reactions became one of the few sources of amusement during the otherwise monotonous testing process.

Then, just before opening one particular door, he suddenly felt something stir deep within.

It was like tuning an old rotary capacitor radio through an extremely narrow frequency band and finally hitting the correct frequency.

He sensed a passage he had opened before.

It was not the valley filled with Hunger.

But it was definitely a door he had opened once before.

Yu Sheng immediately seized upon the feeling.

For the first time, he actively guided that subtle spiritual intuition, relying entirely on instinct and no technique whatsoever as he moved toward that familiar passage.

Carefully, he pushed the door open and looked through.

He saw flames burning around the doorframe.

In the distance stood a solemn and ancient hall. Brilliant spiritual radiance drifted among its flying eaves and pillars. There was also a handsome young man dressed in magnificent robes, along with an elderly man whose appearance radiated the bearing of an immortal, white-haired and youthful-faced.

The young man was currently hanging from a beam while being beaten.

The old man was full of vigor, his voice carrying clearly all the way over.

“You’ve followed me for so many years, and yet you secretly cultivate the demonic path? Speak! What is this business of refining living beings in your pill furnace? And what’s with the human heads? You, you, you... you’ve truly harmed innocent people!”

Twisting about while hanging from the beam, the handsome young man shouted, “Master, I’ve been wronged! I was only refining ordinary Spirit-Nurturing Pills! How was I supposed to know why Junior Brother saw a person emerge from the furnace fire gate... Aaaah, stop hitting me! Stop hitting me, Master! I’ve been wronged!”

The old immortal master nearly jumped into the air.

“Stop arguing! I inspected that furnace myself before, and I even sensed the spiritual nature of a living being within it! There really was a living person inside your furnace!”

Yu Sheng stared in astonishment.

Then he saw another small figure appear beside the doorframe.

It was the fan-carrying Daoist child from before.

The little brat widened his eyes at the sight of the door, then immediately ran toward the hall while shouting.

“Master! Master! Senior Brother’s furnace has another human head sticking out of it! It’s the same one as before!”

The immortal-looking elder pulled out what appeared to be a copper-headed belt...

Or perhaps it wasn’t a copper-headed belt. It was too far away to see clearly.

Judging from the young man’s immediate screams, however, the thing’s intimidation factor was no less than that of a copper-headed belt.

Bang!

Yu Sheng slammed the door shut.

Shock, excitement, exhilaration, all sorts of emotions tangled together.

Only after quite a while did he suddenly turn toward Irene and shout joyfully, “Irene! I did it! I did it!”

Irene jumped in fright.

“Calm down. Did what?”

“That passage was one I’ve opened before! I deliberately controlled it and opened it again just now. The process is controllable! It can be reproduced!”

He was thrilled.

Confirming that he could truly control that subtle guidance of spiritual nature also meant he could control and reproduce any other door he had previously opened.

Including the valley where Hu Li was trapped.

What he needed to do next was recall the frequency he had sensed when he first fell into that valley.

Even finding a nearby frequency would do.

He could search through them one by one until he found it.

Irene was clearly excited as well. Yet this time, Miss Doll unexpectedly regained her composure rather quickly.

“Um, shouldn’t you explain the situation to the people on the other side of that door first? The guy hanging from the beam is about to get beaten to death...”

Yu Sheng froze.

Only then did he remember.

The previous openings had all been random. He still wasn’t accustomed to the idea that doors could now be controlled and deliberately revisited.

He reached for the doorknob again, but a trace of hesitation flashed through his mind.

Were the people on the other side easy to talk to?

Could that immortal-looking elder be one of the immortals Hu Li had mentioned?

Then again, he didn’t seem like the sort who would run a travel agency. Maybe they belonged to entirely different systems...

What if the explanation went badly and they attacked him?

As an ordinary person, he definitely couldn’t beat an immortal.

Maybe he should just say a few words through the door?

The people on the other side probably couldn’t attack through it, right?

After all, when he had closed the door before, the immortal-looking elder had merely sensed the spiritual nature of a living being rather than tracking him through the door.

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

Finally gritting his teeth, Yu Sheng concentrated once more and attempted to lock onto the previous frequency.

After confirming it several times, he carefully opened the door.

Joy surged up from the depths of his heart.

He had successfully reproduced the passage once again.

The immortal-looking elder was escorting the thoroughly beaten young man through the sky on a cloud of rosy light.

Remaining well back from the doorway, Yu Sheng shouted loudly through it.

“It’s all a misunderstanding!”

The richly dressed young man immediately fell off the cloud.

Sounding on the verge of tears, he cried out, “You can’t do this to me! May I ask which Immortal Senior is on the other side? If I’ve offended you somehow, please just tell me!”

“I don’t know either!” Yu Sheng answered truthfully. “I’m just passing by! I didn’t know that was your pill furnace. It’s a misunderstanding. Really a misunderstanding.”

Then he immediately shut the door.

Mainly because he was genuinely afraid the immortals might attack through it.

Afterward, Yu Sheng turned around and stared at Irene in the painting.

“...Do you think I explained it clearly?”

Irene nodded vigorously.

“I think you explained it clearly.”

“...I still feel kind of sorry for him.”

“...You probably won’t run into him again. The world’s huge, right?”

“Yeah. Good point.”