Chapter 10: Blooming Again
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation
Yu Sheng crouched down in the shadowy corner of an old, abandoned temple. He was still startled by all he had learned, and in his mind, he was speaking to Irene. It sounded completely ridiculous to Irene that Yu Sheng could have lived in some strange “Otherworld” for so long without noticing a thing. But to Yu Sheng, everything in this world felt ridiculous. He couldn’t help feeling as if things were slipping out of his grasp.
“So, you’re saying that these ‘Otherworlds’ are scattered everywhere?” Yu Sheng asked quietly, his voice echoing a bit in the empty temple. He kept his gaze fixed on the dusty floor, as if that might help him make sense of it all. “They’re all around us, but most people don’t see them? Because they can’t observe them?”
“More or less,” replied Irene from inside his mind. Her voice sounded almost dreamy, as though remembering things from a long time ago. “I’m not entirely sure if this applies to the entire world, though. The world is huge, isn’t it? But at least within the borders of ‘Boundary City,’ it’s pretty common for Otherworlds to show up. That’s why people call this place ‘the Borderland’… or something like that. Honestly, my memory’s fuzzy. I’ve been stuck inside that painting for such a long time. It’s hard to remember the details.”
“The Borderland?” Yu Sheng repeated, raising an eyebrow. The name gave him a strange, familiar feeling that he couldn’t place. Then another detail from Irene’s explanation caught his attention—she had said “within Boundary City,” which meant that this enormous, never-ending city actually had an outside.
He hesitated for a moment and then asked, “What’s outside of Boundary City?”
“Outside?” Irene sounded distant, as if trying to piece together scraps of memories. “Maybe more cities lie beyond it. Or maybe an ocean, or something else entirely? I truly can’t recall. I’ve been sealed in that painting for too long. I only remember little bits and pieces about Boundary City.”
She paused, and then, sounding surprised, asked, “Wait, don’t you know? Have you ever left Boundary City before?”
Yu Sheng’s lips twitched, and he didn’t answer right away. How on earth would he know? He had only been here for about two months. He couldn’t even figure out the bus routes around his neighborhood, let alone think about the world outside. Besides, he had absolutely no idea how to explain all this to a “cursed portrait” he’d only recently met. He decided not to bring it up.
“I’ve never left,” he said, shrugging off the question. “I guess I’m a bit of a homebody… Anyway, forget about that.” He quickly switched topics. “Right now, I need to deal with the problem at hand. I need to figure out how to leave this so-called Otherworld. There is a way out, right?”
Irene fell silent for a bit, as if sorting through her tangled thoughts. After a few moments, she said, “Otherworlds… well, there are all sorts of them. Sometimes it might just be a house that isn’t marked on any map. Sometimes it’s an extra bus stop that shouldn’t be there. Sometimes it’s an entire forest or a stretch of land you can reach by opening a wardrobe door. Smaller Otherworlds usually have a steady exit or some kind of rule that lets you return to reality. But the bigger they are, the more complicated the situation becomes.”
She paused again before continuing. “I recall that there’s a whole classification system for Otherworlds, something about ‘depth levels’ and ‘danger ratings.’ But my memories aren’t clear. I’ve been trapped in that painting for too long…”
Her voice softened, sounding sad and lost. For a moment, Yu Sheng wanted to make a snappy remark about how useless this was. She’d just given him a lot of confusing talk without real answers. But when he heard how forlorn she sounded, he held his tongue. She was trying to help, and it wasn’t her fault her memories were blurred.
“Let’s just keep looking,” Yu Sheng said gently, trying to reassure her as well as himself. He turned his eyes toward the valley visible beyond the broken walls of the temple. “This place seems enormous. I see mountains on both sides and woods in the distance. Finding a way out won’t be easy.”
“Mm,” Irene agreed softly. “First, you should look carefully around the spot where you came in. Often the exit is near the place you first enter. Look for anything unusual—something that feels out of place. If you don’t see anything like that, try going higher up, somewhere with a better view, and see if you spot something reflective, like a mirror, or maybe hear a steady, continuous sound like strong wind…”
She trailed off for a moment, then added, “But even if you find something like that, don’t just rush over. It might be a trap that leads into an even deeper layer of the Otherworld. It’s hard to explain all the details. You’ll have to trust your instincts.”
“Instincts?” Yu Sheng repeated, sounding a bit skeptical.
“…Yes. It’s more like a spiritual intuition,” Irene explained. “People who investigate Otherworlds train themselves to sense this. I know you haven’t trained at all, but you have no choice now. You’ll have to try.”
She tried to comfort him. “Don’t worry too much. All intelligent beings have this inner sense, even if it’s not awakened. If you focus, you’ll feel a warning inside when something is wrong. If you really can’t figure it out, tell me, and I’ll do my best to help.”
Yu Sheng nodded, drew in a shaky breath, and crept slowly toward the temple’s entrance. He could still feel that strange, watchful hunger in the air, lurking everywhere. It seeped into the valley and clung to the trees and stones. But he forced himself forward, knowing he needed to find an exit as soon as possible. Staying put wouldn’t make a door magically appear.
To steady his nerves, he kept talking to Irene in his mind. “You said the place I’ve been living in is also an Otherworld,” he said. “How could you tell? I never noticed anything was off.”
“I can sense it,” Irene replied, as if it were perfectly natural. “It’s like I said—intuition. Your house, that building, it’s strange. Even though it looks normal on the surface, something is not right. I can’t explain it any better than that.”
“Great, more guesswork,” Yu Sheng muttered with a sigh. “So basically, every time I go home, I’m stepping into an Otherworld, and every time I leave, I’m stepping back out again. I guess my home is a pretty convenient ‘friendly Otherworld,’ huh?”
For a moment, Irene said nothing. Then, in a very quiet voice, almost like a sigh, she said, “…But what if opening that door doesn’t always take you where you think it does?”
Yu Sheng’s expression froze. His heart tightened as he finally faced the truth he’d been dodging. He realized why everything about his home felt strange. It was astonishing he’d lived there peacefully for two whole months!
He shook his head, trying not to think too hard about it. By this time, he’d reached the clearing in front of the temple, the very spot where he had first been drawn into this Otherworld.
He examined it carefully and found nothing. “There’s nothing here,” he said softly, frustration creeping into his voice. “No weird object, no trick, nothing that looks like it doesn’t belong.”
“Not too surprising,” Irene said, sounding let down. “In that case, you should try going further. But remember: Don’t touch anything glowing, or anything that suddenly moves on its own. And if you can help it, don’t eat or drink anything you find here.”
“I know, I know,” Yu Sheng replied, feeling a bit uneasy. He glanced at the murky night sky. It was as if the world here didn’t want to show any sign of dawn. “Should I wait until morning, though? It feels really creepy stumbling around in the dark like this.”
“Don’t rely on that,” Irene warned. “In an Otherworld, day might never come, or if it does, it might not be any safer. The longer you stay, the more this place might change. It’s better to find an exit quickly.”
Yu Sheng sighed heavily. Every step he took away from the temple felt risky. He began walking again, trying to put some distance between himself and the old ruins. Just as he crossed the temple’s boundary, he heard something. At first, it was only a soft sound, like a muffled breath.
He spun around, following the sound with his eyes. He saw a cloud of white mist drifting upward, as though some invisible giant had just breathed out. That breath made Yu Sheng’s heart race. He heard it—and by hearing it, he made it real. He saw the mist—and by seeing it, he gave shape to something lurking in the darkness.
A massive shadow started to form in the air, about three times his size. It gained substance with each heartbeat, each breath. Soon, he could make out a dreadful, twisted figure. Its heavy breathing echoed through the valley.
In that instant, Yu Sheng knew it existed for sure—and it was hungry.
This terrible creature seemed like a blend of beasts, all melted and fused together into one horrifying shape. It had too many limbs that bent at wrong angles, and its body looked like it had been patched together from countless monsters. Half-formed maws and glaring, mismatched eyes covered its deformed flesh.
Yu Sheng looked up at it, his heart pounding so loudly he could hardly think. The presence of the beast pressed down on him, heavier than anything he’d ever faced—even more terrifying than the Rain Frog he’d once encountered.
Without warning, the creature lunged.
Yu Sheng dodged at the last possible moment, ducking just before one of its enormous jaws could snap him up. But as he avoided that gaping mouth, he moved straight into another. Teeth slammed shut around him, and in that split second, half his body was torn away.
There was no time to even feel the pain properly—it was all too sudden, too strange. Another serpentine limb snaked out from the beast, biting into his chest and tearing it open. He saw his own heart beating slowly, then vanishing into the creature’s maw.
“Screw you!” Yu Sheng choked out, clinging to the last shred of consciousness he had. He refused to die without fighting back. With every bit of willpower left, he twisted his neck and sank his teeth into whatever part of the monster he could reach. He didn’t know if it would hurt the beast at all, but he wanted to leave his mark. If he was going down, he’d go down fighting.
They struggled together, a horrific tangle of blood, flesh, and fury, until everything went dark. As his senses began to fade, Yu Sheng managed to form one last thought, and he reached out with it, silently calling to Irene, who existed somewhere in his mind.
“Irene…” he murmured, his voice faint and distant.
“Huh?” came Irene’s voice, sounding confused.
“Nothing,” Yu Sheng said softly. “I’m hanging up now.”
Irene seemed puzzled. She didn’t know what he meant, but Yu Sheng couldn’t explain and was gone just like that.