As the door slammed shut, the faint starlight from the distant cosmos vanished from Yu Sheng's eyes. It took a full half-minute before he recovered from that momentary shock, then he drew a long breath and belatedly broke into a cold sweat.
Opening the door did not necessarily lead to a certain "place" in some Otherworld or on some planet. There was even a chance it could open directly into outer space?
The randomness of this "door," and the range of its randomness, far exceeded Yu Sheng's imagination!
At that moment, Yu Sheng even felt a surge of relief. He was glad that when he had accidentally opened the "door" for the first time, he had stepped into the Otherworld instead of opening it in the depths of space. If he had truly been that unlucky, he could hardly imagine what would have happened.
In the worst-case scenario, he might have rapidly and continuously died and resurrected in the harsh environment of outer space, perhaps without even having a chance to maintain a clear mind. Trying to figure out and master the ability to open the door amid that swift, unending cycle of death would have been out of the question. Even if he had miraculously endured it, or luckily opened a door back to the surface by sheer accident, what came before that would certainly have been an utterly terrifying experience.
Once his pounding heart finally calmed down, Yu Sheng immediately began analyzing the new information he had gained from opening the door just now.
When the door opened, he had not felt the terrifying "suction" caused by the vacuum on the other side, nor had he felt the coldness one would expect from outer space.
Yet during the previous times he had opened the door, he could hear sounds from the other side and sense some of the environmental effects there—for example, the scorching airflow on a barren planet.
Why was that? Did the "door" itself possess some kind of filtering property? When the environments on the two sides differed too greatly, did it actively block out part of their effects? 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 really been outer space just now, but another kind of "Otherworld" that merely looked like a starry sky...
Yu Sheng pondered this as he turned and glanced at Eileen in the oil painting.
Eileen looked over hesitantly. "Are you going to continue? You seemed pretty startled just now..."
Yu Sheng closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, only determination remained.
"Continue."
He gripped the doorknob again, but this time he was more cautious than before. He carefully sensed that subtle, delicate "spiritual guidance," while trying to recall how it had felt the previous times he had successfully opened the door, attempting to... reproduce one of those passages.
He slowly opened the door. On the other side was nothing extraordinary, seemingly an ordinary desolate beach.
It was not any door he had opened before.
After that, he tried again and again, opening the door repeatedly in search of a path that could lead him to Huli.
Or any other passage he could reproduce. As long as it let him grasp the pattern behind opening the door, it would do.
During this ceaseless process of trial and error, a fleeting thought even arose in Yu Sheng's mind at one point: Could there be a door with his familiar "hometown" from his memories behind it?
He still remembered pushing open his front door one morning and leaving home, only to arrive in this "Boundary City." Although he had no definite evidence, he increasingly suspected that this had actually been the first time he had ever "opened a door."
He simply had not realized it at the time.
Then, during some future attempt, would he push open the door and see the home from his memories?
Yu Sheng forcibly suppressed the thought that had suddenly surfaced in his heart. He knew he had more urgent things to do now. As for going home... he would treat it as a hope temporarily buried deep within his heart.
The doors opened one after another, revealing the bizarre and dazzling, the ordinary, the absurd and uncanny, and even... the bustling and prosperous.
Countless distant worlds rushed toward him during each brief opening and closing, then vanished with another slam. Amid this endless repetition, Yu Sheng suddenly felt something marvelous.
This world... truly was not limited to Boundary City.
Beyond this enormous "city at the crossroads," which seemed to possess all kinds of special properties... the world was actually so vast and boundless.
So many landscapes, so many mysteries, so many strange and varied distant places—all appeared whenever he opened the door, all within the casual pull and push of his hand.
He had not been trapped in this city.
Eileen also seemed to grow gradually excited. Although Yu Sheng had no idea what this person in the painting was getting excited about, she watched the scenery outside with him and clearly became more and more enthusiastic.
Unable to move, she began commenting on every scene outside—
"This mountain is so tall! There's something glowing on it. Can we go take a look if we get the chance?"
"The ocean! What a huge fish!"
"Wow! It's all snow, but why is it light blue... It doesn't look alive..."
"...It's a toilet. Hurry, let's go, let's go."
"...You scared me! There's a ghost!"
The doll never stayed quiet for even a moment. Whatever appeared outside, she had endless things to say about it. At first, Yu Sheng found her somewhat noisy, but gradually, Eileen's always-unexpected exclamations became a source of amusement amid the dull process of "testing."
Then, just before opening the door one time, he suddenly felt something stir in his heart. It was like tuning an old radio with a rotary capacitor while searching through a very narrow frequency band, finally "bumping" into the right frequency. He sensed a passage he had opened before—not the valley filled with hunger, but another door he had indeed opened.
Yu Sheng seized that feeling. Then, for the first time, he actively controlled his own "spiritual guidance," drawing closer to that familiar passage purely by instinct, without any technique at all—
He cautiously pushed the door open and looked toward the other side.
He saw flames burning around the doorframe.
He also saw a solemn, ancient hall in the distance, spiritual radiance drifting between its eaves and pillars. There was a handsome young man dressed in splendid brocade robes, as well as an old man with white hair and a youthful face, exuding the air of an immortal.
The young man was being hung from a roof beam and whipped by the old man.
The old man's voice was full of vigor, and Yu Sheng could hear every word clearly from this side.
"You've followed your master for all these years, yet you secretly cultivated demonic arts! Speak! What's the meaning of refining living beings in the Alchemy Furnace? What's the meaning of the human heads? You—you—you... you really harmed innocent people!?"
The handsome young man in brocade robes twisted around on the beam and shouted, "Master, I've been wronged! I was only refining ordinary Spirit Nourishing Pills! How was I supposed to know Little Junior Brother would see a person emerge from the furnace's fire opening... Ow, ow, stop hitting me, Master! I've been wronged!"
The old immortal almost leaped into the air at that. "Stop making excuses! When I inspected the Alchemy Furnace earlier, I even caught a glimpse of living beings' spiritual essence! There truly were living people in your furnace!"
Stunned, Yu Sheng then saw a short figure emerge beside the doorframe. It was unmistakably the child attendant with the fan from before. The little brat widened his eyes and glanced toward the door, then ran toward the hall while shouting, "Master! Master! Another human head has popped out of Big Senior Brother's Alchemy Furnace! It's the same one as before!"
The old man with the air of an immortal then pulled out a copper-headed leather belt...
Of course, it might not have been a copper-headed leather belt. It was too far away to see clearly—but judging from the young man's instant scream, its intimidating power was no less than that of a copper-headed leather belt.
Yu Sheng slammed the door shut. Shock, excitement, and exhilaration tangled together inside him. After a long while, he suddenly turned to Eileen and shouted in delight, "Eileen! I did it! I did it!"
Eileen jumped. "Calm down. Did what?"
"That passage was one I'd opened before! I just controlled it myself and opened it again—the process is controllable! It can be reproduced!"
Excited and thrilled, he confirmed that he really could control that subtle "spiritual guidance." That meant he could also control and reproduce any other "door" he had opened before, including the valley where Huli was!
What he needed to do next was find a way to recall the "frequency" he had sensed in his heart when he had fallen into the valley. Even finding a similar frequency would do. He would keep trying every possibility until he found it!
Eileen was clearly getting excited along with Yu Sheng, but this time, the doll unexpectedly regained her composure rather quickly. She reminded him, "Um, shouldn't you explain the situation to the people on the other side of that door first... The one hanging from the roof beam is almost beaten to death..."
Yu Sheng froze, only then belatedly remembering that matter. The main issue was that every door had been random before, and he had not yet adjusted to having control over the process and all the things he could do with it.
He reached out and gripped the doorknob, but a trace of hesitation flashed through his heart.
Were the people on the other side easy to talk to? Could that old man with the air of an immortal... be the "immortal" Huli had mentioned? But he did not seem like the sort of immortal who would run a travel agency. The style was completely different. Perhaps they did not even belong to the same system... What if he failed to explain himself and they attacked him? As an ordinary human, he definitely could not beat them... Should he just say a few words from behind the door? They probably could not attack through it, right? After all, once he had closed the door, that old man had merely sensed the "spiritual essence of living beings" instead of following the door to find him...
All sorts of chaotic thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind. At last, Yu Sheng gritted his teeth and focused again, trying to lock onto the frequency from before. After confirming it several times, he cautiously opened the door.
The joy of success rose from the depths of his heart. He had successfully reproduced that passage once again—
The old man with the air of an immortal was flying over from the distance on a bank of rosy light, escorting the handsome young man in splendid robes who had been whipped for so long.
Yu Sheng did not dare approach the door. Standing behind it, he shouted, "It's all a misunderstanding!"
The young man in splendid robes immediately fell from the clouds and rosy light. He shouted as if he were about to cry, "Don't play like this! I don't know which immortal senior is on the other side, but if I've offended you, please say so directly!"
"I don't know either! I'm just passing by!" Yu Sheng told the truth. "I didn't even know this was your Alchemy Furnace—misunderstanding, it really is a misunderstanding."
Then he immediately closed the door.
The main reason was that he was genuinely afraid the immortal on the other side would attack him.
Yu Sheng turned around and stared wide-eyed at Eileen in the oil painting.
"...Do you think I explained myself clearly?"
Eileen nodded vigorously. "I think you explained it clearly."
"...I feel kind of bad about it."
"...You probably won't run into them again. The world is so big, right?"
"Mm, that makes sense."
Before you continue