Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Successful Reproduction, the Channel Is Controllable!

When the door slammed, the dim starlight vanished. Yu Sheng stood there for a full thirty seconds before his brain caught up with what he’d seen. Only then did he let out a long breath, cold sweat breaking across his back.

So it wasn’t just “locations” in Otherworld or random planets.

There was a chance he could open a door straight into the vacuum of space.

The range and randomness of this ability was far beyond anything he’d imagined.

For the first time, Yu Sheng felt genuinely grateful. Grateful that the first time he’d accidentally opened a “door,” he’d ended up in Otherworld—and not in deep space.

If he’d been that unlucky, he didn’t even want to imagine the outcome.

Worst case, he’d start an endless loop of death and rebirth in an environment too extreme to survive. He might never even stay conscious long enough to think, to explore, to learn. Even if he somehow endured it—or stumbled into a door back to a surface—it would still be a nightmare.

Once his heartbeat steadied, Yu Sheng forced himself to analyze what he’d learned.

When the door had opened, he hadn’t felt the terrifying pull a vacuum should create. He hadn’t felt the cold of space either.

But earlier, when he opened doors, he could hear sounds from the other side—and even feel the environment, like the scorching air from that barren planet.

Why?

Did the door have some kind of filter? When the gap between environments was too extreme, did it block physical effects?

Or was “outer space” a coordinate he could only see, not truly reach?

Or… maybe it wasn’t space at all. Maybe it was another kind of Otherworld that only looked like a starry sky.

Yu Sheng looked back at Irene.

She hesitated, watching him. “Are you still going to keep going? You looked… pretty scared.”

Yu Sheng closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was only stubborn determination.

“Yeah.”

He gripped the handle again—more carefully than before. He focused on that faint guidance he’d started to recognize as “spiritual intuition,” trying to recreate the feeling from earlier successes. Trying to… reproduce a passage.

He eased the kitchen door open.

On the other side was something ordinary: a bleak stretch of shoreline, like a desolate beach.

Not a place he’d opened to before.

So he tried again.

And again.

Door after door, opening and shutting in a steady rhythm, Yu Sheng searched for the path that led to Foxy—or, failing that, any passage he could reproduce reliably, anything that would help him grasp the pattern.

In the middle of those repeated attempts, a stray thought surfaced.

Would there be a door that opened onto the hometown he remembered?

He still remembered that morning he’d pushed open his door to leave home and stepped into this boundary city instead. He had no proof, but he was more and more convinced that had been his true first “door-opening.”

He just hadn’t recognized it at the time.

So one day… would he open a door and see his home again?

Yu Sheng shoved the thought down, hard. He had more urgent things to do. Going home could stay buried as a hope for later.

Doors opened one after another—strange and dazzling, plain and mundane, absurd and eerie, even… bustling and alive.

Countless distant worlds rushed toward him for a heartbeat, then vanished with a slam. And in that repetition, Yu Sheng felt something shift inside his chest.

This world wasn’t just the boundary city.

Outside this vast, strange interstice of a place… the universe was unimaginably wide.

So many sights. So many mysteries. So many faraway colors and shapes—always just beyond the next door, only a push or pull away.

He wasn’t trapped here.

To Yu Sheng’s surprise, Irene seemed to grow excited too. He had no idea what a portrait doll had to be excited about, but she watched the shifting scenes with him, interest building.

Since she couldn’t move, she filled the room with commentary.

“That mountain is so tall! Something’s glowing on it. Can we go check it out someday?”

“An ocean! That fish is huge!”

“Wow, it’s all snow… but why is it light blue? That doesn’t look alive…”

“…That’s a toilet. Go, go, go.”

“…Ah! There’s a ghost!”

She never shut up.

At first, Yu Sheng found it exhausting. But gradually, Irene’s constant reactions became the only fun part of the otherwise tedious testing.

Then, right before one of the openings, something clicked in Yu Sheng’s chest—like an old radio dial suddenly catching a station in a razor-thin band.

A passage he’d opened before.

Not the valley with Hunger.

But a real, familiar connection.

Yu Sheng latched onto that feeling instantly. For the first time, he actively guided it—no technique, just instinct—and leaned into the frequency.

He opened the door carefully and looked through.

Flames licked around the doorway.

In the distance stood a solemn ancient hall. Spiritual light drifted among pillars and eaves, shimmering like fog. In the courtyard, a handsome young man in embroidered robes was hanging from a beam—while an old man with the aura of an immortal whipped him with absolute fury.

The old man’s voice carried all the way to the door.

“All these years with your master, and you still dared to secretly cultivate the demonic path! Speak! What is this about refining living beings in the pill furnace?! What is this about a human head?! You—you—you… did you truly harm the innocent?!”

The young man twisted on the beam and yelled back, “Master, I’m wronged! I was refining ordinary spirit-nurturing pills! How was I supposed to know Little Junior Brother would see a person coming out of the furnace gate—Aah! Don’t hit me, Master! I’m wronged!”

The old immortal nearly jumped out of his skin. “No more sophistry! Your master inspected the furnace earlier and sensed living spiritual essence! There truly was a living person in your furnace!”

Yu Sheng stared, dumbfounded.

Then a small figure popped up near the doorframe. It was the same daoist kid with the fan. The little brat gawked at the door with huge eyes, then squealed and sprinted toward the grand hall. “Master! Master! Senior Brother’s pill furnace is spitting out a human head again! It’s the same one as before!”

The immortal old man reached for something that looked very much like a belt with a heavy metal head—

Or maybe it wasn’t a belt. Yu Sheng couldn’t see clearly from this distance. But judging by the embroidered-robed young man’s immediate scream, it was every bit as terrifying as one.

Yu Sheng slammed the door shut.

Shock, excitement, and pure joy tangled together in his chest. A moment later he spun toward Irene and shouted, “Irene! I did it! I did it!”

Irene jumped. “Calm down. Did what?”

“That passage just now—I’d opened it before! I controlled it and opened it again. The process is controllable. It’s reproducible!”

He couldn’t stop smiling. If he could guide that subtle spiritual intuition and recreate a connection, then he could do it with any door he’d opened before—including the valley where Foxy was.

Next, all he needed was to remember the “frequency” from when he first fell into that valley. Even getting close might be enough. He could brute-force it until he found it.

Irene looked excited too—but she recovered quickly and pointed out, “Uh… shouldn’t you explain to the people on the other side? That guy hanging from the beam is about to get beaten to death.”

Yu Sheng froze.

He’d been so used to randomness that he hadn’t even processed what it meant to have control—or that he might be able to interfere.

He reached for the handle again, but hesitation flashed through him.

Would they be reasonable?

Could that old immortal be the “immortal” Foxy mentioned?

It didn’t feel like it. The vibe didn’t match. Foxy had described someone like an immortal running a travel agency—this place felt like a completely different system.

And if Yu Sheng explained badly… what if they attacked? He was a mortal. He wouldn’t stand a chance.

Maybe he should just speak through the door. Surely they couldn’t strike through it, right?

Besides, earlier, after he’d shut the door, the old immortal had only sensed “living spiritual essence.” He hadn’t come searching.

Yu Sheng’s thoughts spun. Finally, he clenched his teeth, focused, and locked onto that same frequency again. After confirming it in his gut, he cracked the door open.

He’d reproduced the passage again.

This time the old immortal was dragging the embroidered-robed young man across the courtyard on a cloud of rosy light, like hauling a sack.

Yu Sheng didn’t dare get close. He just shouted through the doorway, loud and desperate, “It’s a misunderstanding!”

The embroidered-robed young man immediately fell off the cloud like a rock. He nearly sobbed as he shouted, “This is too much! Venerable Immortal on the other side, if junior has offended you, just say it!”

“I don’t know!” Yu Sheng yelled back, and it was the honest truth. “I’m just passing by! I didn’t know that was your pill furnace! It’s a misunderstanding—really!”

Then he shut the door.

Mostly because he was terrified the immortal would take that as provocation and attack.

Yu Sheng turned to Irene. The two of them stared at each other, wide-eyed.

“…Do you think I explained it clearly?” he asked.

Irene nodded hard. “I think you explained it clearly.”

“…I feel kind of bad.”

“You probably won’t run into them again,” Irene said, trying to reassure him. “The world’s huge, right?”

Yu Sheng exhaled. “Yeah. You’re right.”