A Single Thought Opens Heaven's Gate

"Wu Zhong! Wu Zhong! We're going to die!"

No one knew when it had begun, but Wu Zhong was trapped atop a giant tree, so tall it pierced the clouds.

He clung desperately to a branch and saw quite a few others hanging from the tree as well. They seemed to be his friends.

Everyone gripped the branches with all their strength. They had already been trapped for many days. When hungry, they ate apples; when thirsty, they could only wait for rain and drink a little rainwater.

But this could not go on. Someone had now collapsed from exhaustion, fallen, and been smashed into a pulp.

"Ahhh! Someone fell! If this keeps up, we'll all die!"

"Think of something! If only we had a ladder."

"Little Wu, I remember your family has a huge ladder. Hurry home and bring it over!"

Everyone stared nervously at Wu Zhong.

Wu Zhong froze for a moment. "Right, my family's ladder is really tall. But my home is pretty far away. A round trip will take at least three days and three nights. Can you hold on that long?"

The people in the tree answered with difficulty, "Even if we can't, we have to! Little Wu, we're counting on you!"

"Yeah, go quickly! You have to bring the ladder back!"

"Our lives are in your hands!"

Wu Zhong felt the weight of his mission and nodded firmly. He hurried over mountains and rivers, racing home.

After immense hardship, he finally reached home and searched everywhere.

But where was there an extra-long ladder in his house? Panicking, he searched the bathroom, kitchen, living room, and bedroom. He even checked under the sofa and inside the wardrobe.

Nothing! No ladder! Where was the ladder?

Wu Zhong searched and searched, for a very long time, until dawn broke.

He plopped down on the floor and burst into tears. "It's over! It's over!"

Suddenly, someone from the neighbor's apartment across the hall shouted, "I have a ladder! I have a ladder!"

Wu Zhong jolted. He suddenly remembered—he could borrow one from the neighbor.

So he pounded frantically on the neighbor's door. "Bro, do you really have a ladder? I really need one, or I'll fall to my death! My brothers will all fall to their deaths too!"

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

The knocking had an intense rhythm, as though it might shatter the entire world.

Everything around him blurred. Beyond the hallway before his eyes, Wu Zhong vaguely saw another scene... curtains glowing with sunlight...

Then, everything abruptly solidified and stabilized again.

The neighbor's door opened, and a minotaur poked his head out.

The minotaur carried a ladder and spoke in a babyish voice. "Wu, why are you in such a hurry?"

"?" Wu Zhong stared blankly at the minotaur.

Calling him a minotaur was not quite accurate. His face looked more like a dragon's, except he had bull horns. His body was also as sturdy as a bull's, and his limbs ended in hooves.

Strictly speaking, he was an upright humanoid monster with a dragon-like face and bull horns.

Wu Zhong said blankly, "Brother Bull, I... we're trapped in a giant tree... Give me the ladder, quickly."

After saying that, he took the ladder and anxiously prepared to rush back to the treetop.

The minotaur called after him, "Jianmu is far from here. If you run back like this, it'll take too long. Can everyone hold on?"

Wu Zhong choked up. "Yeah, it's too late. It's too far away. We're all going to fall to our deaths."

The minotaur patted his chest. "Don't panic. Divine Ji Meng foresaw this calamity of yours long ago and specially prepared a portal for you."

"Divine Ji Meng? A portal?" Wu Zhong was stunned.

The minotaur beckoned. "Come with me."

Following the minotaur's guidance, Wu Zhong carried the ladder through twisting paths. Then his view suddenly opened up, and he arrived at a vast, magnificent platform atop a mountain.

Many demons and monsters gathered there. Some had human heads and snake bodies; others had three heads and six arms; still others had beast faces and bird bodies...

Giant beasts coiled around broken mountain ranges, great serpents churned mighty rivers, and divine birds sliced through the clouds as radiance flowed around them.

This land seemed to lie amid the starry sky, with countless celestial stars shining overhead.

Wu Zhong could also see, far in the distance where heaven and earth met, hazy starlit outlines like colossal gods standing beyond the sky, overlooking the earth. They were all bizarre and fantastical, their divine majesty as imposing as mountains.

And all the gods and demons of the heavens gazed at Wu Zhong, expectant and silent.

Under the gaze of so many, Wu Zhong could not understand why he deserved such respectful, expectant attention from the gods and demons of all the heavens.

An intense sense of wrongness surged within him, and the entire world began to shake.

"Didn't you say there was a portal? Where is it? I'm trapped in that giant tree and about to fall to my death. I need to get the ladder back quickly," Wu Zhong asked.

Sensing the world's turmoil, the gods and demons present dared not speak. Their gazes turned toward a figure with a dragon's head and human body.

He stood in the center of the plaza, where gales, torrential rain, lightning, and thunder raged around him.

"You're Ji Meng?" Wu Zhong suddenly asked as though struck by inspiration.

"I am the god of Light Mountain, ruler of the Rain Master Kingdom, Divine Ji Meng!" The dragon-headed man gripped the Divine Wood Staff and walked toward Wu Zhong.

Wu Zhong paused, ignored him, and turned to ask the minotaur, "Where's the door? Stop wasting my time. I'm rushing back to set up the ladder!"

Seeing the world shake, the minotaur grew anxious. "What Ji Meng holds is the divine wooden core of the sky-reaching Jianmu... Wu, use it to open Heaven's Gate."

"Once Heaven's Gate opens, you can go wherever you want!"

Wu Zhong did not care about Jianmu or Heaven's Gate. He only asked anxiously, "So it's basically a portal, right? How do I open it?"

Ji Meng handed him the Divine Wood Staff. "This item can reach all the heavens. Command it to grow toward your home, and it will punch a hole through the heavens. You may imagine that hole as Heaven's Gate."

"Huh?" Wu Zhong took the Divine Wood Staff, only half understanding.

"Why does it have to grow to my home? I need to go back to the giant tree."

The world shook even more violently. Ji Meng dared not waste any more time and said urgently, "Anywhere is fine. As long as it is somewhere you have truly been and remember deeply!"

Wu Zhong tilted his head. "Then... Mount Lu's Five Elders Peaks?"

Ji Meng and the minotaur urged him, "Fine, fine! Wherever you say! Anywhere is fine!"

Dazed, Wu Zhong gripped the Divine Wood Staff. "Heaven's Gate... open?"

With a thunderous roar, the Divine Wood Staff expanded explosively. It did not grow in place, but into space and time itself, as though it had punched directly through a dimensional barrier.

In an instant, it smashed open a hollow in the space before him.

Then some irresistible force appeared and instantly destroyed the extended divine wooden branches. Wood chips scattered through the air and vanished into nothingness.

Although the divine wood had shattered like an illusion, dissolving into a bubble.

The hole remained. The punctured dimensional barrier could not heal, standing suspended in the air like a gate through space and time, indestructible.

This gate through space and time was small, only about a meter across.

Yet immeasurable light shone from the other side, and countless currents of air surged through. A storm tore apart the sky, annihilating and blasting away countless people in the plaza.

Mountains shattered, the earth split into abyssal chasms, fierce winds swept up ash and rubble, and dark clouds rolled like an enraged sea.

That crack in the sky hung high above, orange-gold divine light pouring from it and illuminating the clouds as though molten gold flowed across them.

The sunlight was fierce, the storm terrifying. It ravaged everything, destroying all around it as the world seemed on the verge of collapse.

Yet the many gods and demons who had been annihilated suddenly flickered back into existence in the distance, their bodies reassembling as though they were immortal and indestructible.

"It's real matter! Real matter!"

Their reconstructed bodies absorbed the light and air coming from beyond the gate, becoming denser and more detailed.

Although they were quickly blown apart again by the fierce wind, they were immortal and indestructible. They continuously reassembled, absorbing this matter and growing stronger.

"It's stable! It's really stable! Heaven's Gate to the real world has been opened!" The gods and demons of all the heavens rejoiced wildly.

"Huh? What's going on? I need to go back to the giant tree and set up the ladder!" Wu Zhong shouted. All he could think about was bringing the ladder back to the tree, or he would fall to his death.

As he thought this, the Divine Wood Staff in his hand suddenly expanded again. This time, it did not break open a hole in space and time. Instead, it grew all the way forward like a wooden bridge, carrying Wu Zhong swiftly into the distance.

The long journey seemed to take only a moment in his daze. He only felt himself carrying the ladder, gripping a wildly growing branch as the surrounding scenery flashed past.

When he came back to his senses, he was already atop the original towering tree.

The Divine Wood Staff had truly brought him back in an instant.

Overjoyed, he shouted, "Brothers, I brought the ladder back! We're saved!"

Nine people hung from the tree, all wearing bronze masks of divine figures.

They exclaimed in horror, "Little Wu, what did you do?"

"The dream world and the material world are connected. Someone is going to strike back against reality."

The nine people hanging from the tree sounded urgent, as though some great calamity was about to occur.

Wu Zhong had already set up the ladder and was carefully climbing down.

Hearing this, he froze.

Then an overwhelming sense of wrongness hit him. A dream? Reality?

"Right, that's what was strange. I don't remember why I was here, or why I was trapped in a tree, or why I had to go home for a ladder just to climb down. It makes no sense. There's no logic to it. So I was dreaming."

Wu Zhong suddenly understood. He had finally woken up and realized he was dreaming.

And that realization caused the entire world to blur.

In his haze, one side of his vision held the bizarre world of colossal trees and mountains and seas, while the other held the curtains of his home, sunlight reaching his eyes.

And amid the blur, the people in bronze divine masks still hung from the tree, roaring, "Little Wu! You have to close the gate, you must close it... Don't go, don't go!"

Knock! Knock! Knock! Powerful, rhythmic pounding came from somewhere.

Someone was knocking on the door, calling him to get up.

Then a feeling of weightlessness struck. Wu Zhong failed to steady himself on the ladder, and both he and the ladder tilted and fell from the giant tree!

Weightlessness! Weightlessness!

"Ow!" A violent feeling of awakening swept over him, and he felt his body.

Wu Zhong woke with a start and fell out of bed, his face slamming into the floor.

He clutched his head and climbed up, groggy and confused. It felt as though he had dreamed something, but he could not remember it.

There was only one thought in his mind: Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, sleepy! I want to die just thinking about getting up!

Knock! Knock! Knock! He heard the knocking again. "Get up, Little Wu! Are you awake?"

Wu Zhong hurried over and opened the door. Outside stood Xiao Zhang, a professional wake-up caller.

Wu Zhong had booked a "real-person wake-up service" for seven in the morning, and the man had come early to wake him.

"Why were you sleeping so deeply today? I called you for over a minute, so there's an extra charge. Send me twenty yuan." Xiao Zhang looked anxious.

Wu Zhong's head throbbed as though it were splitting apart. Leaning against the doorway, he yawned. "Sorry, sorry. I worked overtime too late yesterday and only slept three hours. I really want to die."

"Forget the twenty yuan. We're in the same line of work, and we know each other so well. Forget it, forget it."

Xiao Zhang kept a straight face. "How can we forget it? Is it easy for me to make money?"

"We wake-up callers earn hard-earned money. We get up early and stay up late providing wake-up services, while customers all drag their feet getting out of bed... When I run into someone with morning grumpiness, I get cursed at too."

"You've done this job before, so you know that. Honestly, if you can't bear to spend the money, don't book a real-person wake-up service. I could call you every day instead and wouldn't have to make the trip myself."

"Hurry up. If you keep dragging this out, it'll be two minutes, and that'll be forty yuan."

Wu Zhong scratched his messy hair. "Sigh... I had something urgent today, and I was afraid a phone call wouldn't wake me..."

He pursed his lips. Not daring to delay any longer, he hurriedly transferred twenty yuan.

Xiao Zhang turned and left, rushing into the stairwell. Clearly, he still had to go wake up other people.

But he left behind one more sentence. "Oh, right. Today's your birthday. Happy birthday."

Hearing the reminder, Wu Zhong's bleary eyes widened. He remembered that today was August 17. It really was his birthday.

"Ah... thanks..."

Seeing that Xiao Zhang had already disappeared, Wu Zhong scratched his head and closed the door.

"My birthday? Tsk, I've been muddling through every day that I even forgot about it."

He went to the bathroom and washed his face to wake himself up. Looking at his slovenly, dispirited reflection in the mirror, he unusually gave himself a shave and combed his hair.

Normally, he would just brush his teeth, splash some water on his face, and leave.

His main job was as an auto mechanic, often working overtime repairing cars, and he also worked part-time as a wake-up caller. His schedule was irregular.

He had worked until late last night and still had to get up early today because his grandfather, who was in the hospital, needed an examination. A family member had to be there. If he did not want to take leave from work, he could only get it done as early as possible before rushing to work.

As everyone knew, once a person fell asleep, they could not wake up on their own without external stimulation, so they had to be woken up.

The profession of wake-up caller had existed since ancient times. Nowadays, with the invention of mobile phones, wake-up callers usually did not need to make the trip in person.

Wu Zhong normally booked the one-jiao phone wake-up service. His phone would only ring for half a minute, and it was ineffective. He always stayed in bed.

But in order to arrive before the doctors started work at eight today, he had spent ten yuan on a real-person wake-up service and had a wake-up caller come to his home to get him out of bed.

All he could say was that a service guaranteed to get someone out of bed was genuinely painful.

And the longer it took to wake him, the more he had to pay. The moment he thought about the fee rising geometrically the longer he delayed, all his drowsiness vanished. He did not dare stay in bed.

"Damn it, the hospital is far away. I need to get out the door fast."

Wu Zhong completed washing up, getting dressed, and using the toilet at lightning speed in five minutes. Finally, he grabbed a bag of trash and headed out... His days were always the same.

What did a birthday matter? He had graduated from vocational college at twenty-one and come to the city to work. It had already been three years since he had cared about such things.

At most, he would treat himself to a bowl of spicy hot pot tonight.