Chapter 34: Success Recreated, Passageway in Hand!
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
With a loud bang, the heavy door slammed shut, and the faint starlight—like a distant, shimmering galaxy—vanished from Yu Sheng’s sight. For nearly half a minute, he stood there utterly stunned, his mind racing to catch up with the shock of what had just happened. When at last he managed to steady himself, he let out a long, trembling breath. Only then did he realize that cold sweat had broken out across his back.
He thought about it carefully: after opening that door, it hadn’t necessarily led him to some Otherworld, nor had it promised to deliver him safely onto another planet. In fact, there was even the horrifying possibility that it might have opened straight into the icy emptiness of outer space! This door, with its unpredictable destinations and baffling rules, was far stranger and more dangerous than anything Yu Sheng had ever imagined.
At that thought, a wave of relief washed over him—pure gratitude that the first time he’d opened the door by accident, it had led him into an Otherworldly place rather than tossing him into the deadly vacuum of space. Had his luck been worse that first time, he might have found himself drifting helplessly among the stars, suffocating and freezing, dying only to revive and die again, without a chance to stay alert or learn how to control this mysterious door-opening power. And even if by some miracle he’d managed to create another door leading back to Earth, that struggle would have been a nightmare beyond words.
As his heartbeat finally slowed, Yu Sheng drew in a deep breath and turned his attention to analyzing what he had learned from this latest attempt. In that moment just before the door slammed shut, he hadn’t felt the powerful suction one would expect from the vacuum of space. Nor had he felt the bone-chilling cold of the cosmos. Strangely, every time he’d opened the door before, he could always hear sounds drifting through or feel the distant winds and heat—like the scorching blasts from that barren world. But this time, he’d sensed nothing at all. It was as if the door had gently filtered the environment on the other side.
Why was that? Could the door itself be doing something special, blocking out extreme conditions when things became too dangerous or too strange? Or perhaps what had looked like outer space wasn’t truly space at all—maybe it was just another kind of world that resembled a starry sky, not a real cosmic void. Or maybe some worlds were simply beyond his current understanding, existing as “coordinates” he could glimpse but not truly enter.
Still caught up in these thoughts, Yu Sheng glanced over at Irene, who was trapped inside the oil painting. The painted doll-girl watched him with careful eyes. Seeing that he looked a bit shaken, she hesitated before asking softly, “Do you want to keep going? You looked terrified just now…”
Yu Sheng closed his eyes for a moment, centering himself, and when he reopened them, there was a steady resolve shining there. “Let’s keep going,” he said firmly.
Placing his hand on the door’s handle again, he proceeded with far more caution than before. This time, he tried to focus on the faint, almost invisible spiritual tug he had felt in previous successful attempts—some guiding thread that connected him with these countless worlds. He wanted to recall the subtle feeling from the times he had reached known places, to find a way of recreating one of those familiar passageways.
Slowly, he pushed open the door. On the other side, he found only a bleak, deserted beach—a scene he had never seen before. He sighed and closed it again. This was not what he sought.
Again and again, Yu Sheng tried, opening and shutting the door, searching for a pattern that would lead him back to a world he had visited before, or at least teach him to shape the path. If he could just learn how to pick a certain door—like tuning into a familiar radio frequency—he could claim some control over this astonishing power.
In the midst of these endless attempts, a sudden thought bubbled up in his mind. He wondered if there might be a door that would lead him back to his old hometown, back to where he once belonged. He remembered that morning when he’d opened his front door and found himself in Boundary City. At the time, he hadn’t understood what was happening. But now, the more he considered it, the more convinced he became that it had been his very first time “opening” the door between worlds.
If that was true, might there come a day when he could open a door and find his real home on the other side? He longed for that possibility, but he forced himself to push it down, deep inside. There were more urgent matters at hand right now. Daydreaming about returning home wouldn’t help, not yet.
So he kept going, opening and closing the door over and over. He caught glimpses of countless worlds—some bizarre and silent, others vibrant and busy. Some were horrifying, some were ordinary, and some brimming with strange life he couldn’t even begin to understand. In that exhausting cycle, Yu Sheng suddenly realized that the world was far greater than just Boundary City. It stretched out in all directions, with endless varieties of landscapes and wonders. Different realities lay within his grasp, waiting just beyond the next door.
He was not truly trapped in this isolated city at the world’s edge. The truth made his heart feel lighter. Even Irene, the doll confined within her painted prison, seemed to share in his excitement. Though she couldn’t leave the painting, she seemed delighted to witness these ever-changing scenes. She couldn’t hold back her exclamations:
“That mountain is enormous! Look at that glow on its peak—maybe we could climb it someday?”
“That’s the ocean! Look at that gigantic fish jumping out of the waves!”
“Snow everywhere! But why does it have that pale blue color? It looks so cold, I can’t imagine anything living there.”
“Er… that’s a bathroom. Let’s just… move on quickly.”
“Ah! That’s a ghost! Goodness, that frightened me!”
She chattered constantly, never tiring of offering commentary on every new glimpse of another world. At first, Yu Sheng found her running commentary distracting, but before long, it became a bright spot in his otherwise repetitive and stressful testing. Her voice cheered him on, and her curiosity reminded him that he wasn’t alone in all this strangeness.
At last, just as he was about to try yet another attempt, Yu Sheng felt something—like a gentle click inside his mind. It was as if he had finally found a secret rhythm, a familiar hum that he recognized. He grew very still, focusing on that feeling. Slowly, carefully, he guided his thoughts and energy toward it, as if tuning an old radio dial until the static cleared and a beloved song finally came through. He opened the door again.
On the other side, he saw flickering firelight dancing around a doorframe. Far off in the distance stood an ancient, grand hall, with shimmering spiritual lights glinting among carved eaves and tall pillars. In that hall, a handsome young man in fine robes hung from a rafter, tied up, while an old man with white hair—and an air of someone truly extraordinary—floated nearby, whipping the young man fiercely. The sound of the whip cracking through the air startled Yu Sheng.
The old man’s voice rang out, high and stern, echoing through the hall, “All these years you’ve studied under me, and still you dare to dabble in demonic arts! Speak up! Why were there living beings in your alchemy furnace? What about that human head I saw? You have committed a terrible crime!”
The young man struggled weakly, his voice rising in panic, “Master, I’m innocent! I was only refining a regular spirit pill! How was I to know that the furnace’s flames would show a human head? I swear, I don’t know anything about it! Ow—ow—please stop hitting me! I’m telling the truth!”
The old man’s eyes blazed, and he thundered back, “How dare you lie? I checked that furnace myself and saw a living spirit inside! You put a living person in there, didn’t you?”
Yu Sheng could hardly believe what he was seeing. Just as he tried to process the scene, a small figure darted out from behind a pillar—a child disciple waving a fan. The child glanced at the open doorway and then, eyes going wide, shouted toward the old master: “Master, Master! Your senior disciple’s furnace is acting up again! Another head is showing, just like before!”
At that, the old man let out an outraged cry and raised something that looked suspiciously like a leather belt—or perhaps a magical tool of some kind. Either way, it had a fearsome authority. The young man’s voice rose in desperate wails.
Yu Sheng, terrified of being caught in this bizarre misunderstanding, shut the door at once. Heart pounding, he stood there and then suddenly spun toward Irene, practically leaping in excitement. “I did it, Irene! Did you see that? I actually did it!”
Irene jumped slightly at his sudden shout. “Calm down! What do you mean, you ‘did it’?”
Yu Sheng was nearly shaking with excitement. “That door just now—I recognized it! I’ve opened it before, and I’ve managed to open it again on purpose. I can actually control which passageway I connect to! I can reproduce a specific doorway!”
This newfound ability meant that if he could recall the feeling of a specific world—like the one where Foxy was—he could try and try until he recreated that exact doorway. He was no longer a leaf tossed about in the wind. Now, he could steer, at least a little.
Irene looked delighted, but then she quickly cleared her throat. “Er… that’s wonderful, but shouldn’t you maybe explain yourself to those poor people on the other side of the door? That young man looked like he was about to get beaten to death!”
Yu Sheng froze. In all the chaos and surprise, he hadn’t considered how to handle the situation he had just stumbled into. He knew opening that door again could be risky. The old immortal, if that’s what he was, seemed volatile and powerful. What if he blamed Yu Sheng for this strange intrusion and decided to attack?
Yu Sheng took a steadying breath and placed his hand on the handle once more, carefully focusing on that familiar frequency. He found it much easier now that he knew what to look for. He opened the door a crack and peered through. Yes, there was the same hall, the same old master, the same frightened disciple. The old master was now hovering on a swirl of glowing mist, dragging the beaten young man along as he approached the mysterious door in the wall.
Without stepping through, Yu Sheng called out as loudly and clearly as he could, “I’m so sorry! It’s all a misunderstanding!” His voice echoed strangely in that grand hall.
The handsome young man nearly slipped off his cloud in surprise and wailed, “Who are you? If I’ve offended you, great senior immortal, just tell me what I’ve done!”
“I truly didn’t mean to cause any trouble,” Yu Sheng shouted back honestly. “I was just passing by! I had no idea it was your alchemy furnace—this is all one huge misunderstanding!”
And with that, he snapped the door shut again before the old master could respond. He let out a shaking breath and turned to face Irene, who had watched the whole thing in wide-eyed astonishment.
“…Do you think I explained things clearly enough?” Yu Sheng asked uncertainly.
Irene nodded with enthusiasm, her painted face bright. “Oh, you were very direct! Perfectly clear, I’d say.”
“…I feel a bit guilty,” Yu Sheng admitted, his expression troubled.
Irene shrugged lightly, or at least gave the impression of doing so from inside the painting. “They’ll probably never see us again. The world is enormous, right?”
Yu Sheng glanced at the closed door and then at the painting. He smiled, still feeling exhilarated. “Yes,” he agreed quietly. “It really is.”