Chapter 034
Chapter 34: Success Recreated, Passage Controlled
As The Door slammed shut, the dim starlight from the faraway sky vanished from Yu Sheng’s sight. After a full half minute, he finally snapped out of his shock, drew a long breath, and only then felt cold sweat on his back.
[So Door Opening doesn’t always take you to an Otherworld or to a “place” on a planet. There’s even a chance you step straight into space?] The randomness and the range of The Door were far beyond what Yu Sheng had imagined. In that moment he even felt lucky. He was glad that the very first time he accidentally opened The Door, his foot landed in an Otherworld instead of opening into Deep Space. If he had been that unlucky, he could not even picture what would have happened.
In the worst case, he might have died and revived over and over in the harsh environment of Outer Space, never staying conscious long enough to think, let alone learn how to use Door Opening. Even if he somehow endured by a miracle, or got lucky and randomly opened a Door back to the surface, it would still have been a terrifying ordeal before that.
When his pounding heart finally calmed, Yu Sheng began to analyze the new clues he had noticed during Door Opening just now.
When The Door opened, he hadn’t felt the scary pull of vacuum on the other side, and he hadn’t felt the icy cold that should belong to Outer Space.
But in several earlier Door openings, he could hear sounds from the other side of The Door and feel traces of the other side’s environment, like the burning hot airflow on a barren planet.
[Why was this different? Does The Door itself filter things out? When the two sides are too different, does it block those effects on its own? Or is Outer Space special, a kind of “coordinate” you can see but can’t really reach? Or… was that not actually Outer Space at all, but another kind of Otherworld that just looked like a starry sky?]
Thinking this over, Yu Sheng turned and glanced at Irene inside the Painting.
Irene looked this way with some hesitation, then asked: “Are we still going? You looked pretty scared just now.”
Yu Sheng closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, only resolve remained, and he said: “Continue.”
He gripped The Door handle again, more careful than before. He focused on that tiny, subtle pull of spiritual guidance, and tried to recall how it had felt the last few times he opened a Door. He tried to repeat one of those passages.
He opened The Door slowly. The other side was an ordinary scene, like a barren beach.
It wasn’t any Door he had opened before.
He tried again and again, opening The Door over and over as he searched for the path that would lead to Foxy.
Or any path he could repeat. He only needed one he could reproduce to learn the rule of Door Opening.
As he kept trying, for a moment a thought flashed through his mind: would one Door open to his familiar “hometown”?
He still remembered that morning he pushed The Door and left home, then came to this “Boundary City.” Though he had no hard proof, he now suspected more and more that was truly the first time he ever used Door Opening.
He just hadn’t known it then.
[Will there be a future Door Opening where I push The Door and see my home again?] Yu Sheng forced that sudden thought down. He had more urgent things to do now. Going home could be a hope he buried for later.
The Door opened again and again: some sights were strange and colorful, some plain, some absurd and eerie, and some… bustling and lively.
Countless distant worlds rushed at him during each brief Door Opening, then slammed shut. In that repeating rhythm, Yu Sheng felt something wonderful.
This world truly was not only Boundary City.
Outside this huge “city of borders,” which seemed special in many ways, the beyond was wide without end.
So many sights, so many secrets, so many odd and different faraway places were right there each time he did a Door Opening, right at the push and pull of his hand.
He was not trapped in this city.
Irene seemed to grow excited too. He wasn’t sure what made this Portrait Doll excited, but she watched the outside of The Door with him and clearly became more and more eager.
Since she couldn’t move, she gave a running commentary on what showed up beyond The Door, saying: “That mountain is so tall! There’s a glowing thing on the top; if we get the chance later, can we go see it?”
Then she pointed out another scene, saying: “The sea! What a huge fish!”
Next she saw a cold land, saying: “Wow, it’s all snow, but why is it light blue… it doesn’t look alive at all…”
The next glimpse made her blurt, saying: “It’s a bathroom, go, go.”
And when a shadow flashed past, she shivered and said: “You scared me, there’s a ghost!”
The doll could not stay quiet for even a moment. Whenever something appeared outside The Door, she would chatter nonstop. At first Yu Sheng found it noisy, but soon Irene’s never-ending stream of new reactions became a bit of fun during the dull “tests.”
Right before one more Door Opening, his heart gave a small jump, like when an old radio with a tuning knob finally clicks onto a very narrow band. He sensed a passage he had opened before. It was not the Valley full of Hunger, but it was indeed a Door he had once opened.
Yu Sheng seized that feeling. For the first time, he tried to steer his own spiritual guidance on purpose. He had no real method, only instinct, but he leaned toward that familiar passage, then carefully pushed The Door and looked to the other side.
Flames burned around The Door frame.
Far off stood a solemn, ancient hall. Spiritual light drifted among the eaves and pillars of the Grand Hall. A handsome young man in brocade stood there, and so did an old man with the look of an Immortal, white haired and child faced.
The young man was hanging from a beam while the old man beat him.
The old man’s voice rang out full and strong, clear even from here, as he scolded: “You followed me for so many years, but you secretly practiced the demonic path! Speak! What is with Refining living beings in the pill furnace? What is with the heads? You… you truly harmed the innocent!”
The handsome young man twisted on the beam and yelled: “Master, I’m wronged! I was refining plain old Spirit Infusing Pills! How would I know that a person would pop out from the fire in the furnace… ow ow stop, stop, Master, I’m wronged!”
The old Immortal almost jumped when he heard that and shouted: “No more excuses! I inspected the furnace earlier and even caught a glimpse of a living spirit! There was a living person in your pill furnace!”
Yu Sheng stared, dumbfounded. Then he saw a small figure pop up beside The Door frame. It was that fan-waving Daoist page boy from before. The little rascal stared wide-eyed toward The Door, then turned and ran toward the Grand Hall, yelling: “Master! Master! A head just popped out of Eldest Senior Brother’s pill furnace again! The same one as before!”
The Immortal-looking old man pulled something out like a Copper Headed Belt. [It might not have been a Copper Headed Belt. It was too far to see clearly. But judging by the young man’s instant scream, that thing was just as scary.]
Yu Sheng shut The Door with a bang. Shock, excitement, and joy tangled together. After a long moment, he whirled toward Irene in the Painting and shouted in delight: “Irene! I did it! I did it!”
Irene jumped, then said: “Calm down. Did what?”
He could hardly hold back his grin as he said: “That was a passage I opened before! I just controlled it and opened it again. The process is controllable. It can be repeated!”
If he could truly steer that subtle spiritual guidance, then he could also control and repeat any other Door he had opened, including the one that led to the Valley where Foxy was.
Next, he needed to recall the “frequency” he felt in his heart when he fell into the Valley. Even a close match would do. He would try them all until he found it.
Irene caught his mood and got excited too, but Miss Doll surprisingly calmed down fast and reminded him, saying: “Maybe explain things to the people on the other side of that last Door… the one hanging from the beam is about to get beaten to death.”
Yu Sheng froze, then finally remembered. Before, each Door Opening was random. He hadn’t yet gotten used to this new, controllable state where he could actually do things.
He reached for The Door handle, then hesitated. [Will they be easy to talk to? Is that Immortal the one Foxy mentioned? It doesn’t feel like it. He doesn’t look like the kind of Immortal who runs a travel agency. Maybe he’s from a different system. If I explain badly and they attack, I’m just a mortal and I’ll lose. I can just talk across The Door, right? They shouldn’t be able to hit me through it. When I shut The Door earlier, that old Immortal sensed a living spirit but didn’t follow the trail here.]
His messy thoughts flashed by. Yu Sheng finally gritted his teeth and focused, trying to lock onto the earlier frequency. After checking it several times, he carefully opened The Door.
Joy rose from deep inside. He had repeated the same passage again.
The Immortal-looking old man was flying back from the distance on a cloud, pushing the brocade-robed young man along with him.
Yu Sheng stood on his side of The Door and didn’t dare get closer. He cupped his hands and shouted: “It’s all a misunderstanding!”
The young man dropped right off the cloud and almost cried as he yelled: “You can’t do that to people! Senior Immortal Sovereign on the other side, if I offended you, please just say it!”
“I’m not from your path! I was passing by!” Yu Sheng told the truth, saying: “I didn’t even know that was your pill furnace. It’s a misunderstanding. Truly a misunderstanding.”
Then he shut The Door at once.
He was mainly afraid the Immortal on the other side would throw a strike.
He turned back, and he and Irene in the Painting stared at each other wide-eyed. He asked: “Do you think I explained it clearly?”
Irene nodded hard, saying: “I think you explained it clearly.”
He sighed and said: “I still feel bad for him.”
She thought about it and said: “We probably won’t run into him again. The world is big, right.”
He nodded and said: “Yeah, that makes sense.”