Chapter 361
Chapter 362: Null Value
Yu Sheng was not a Grand Void Spiritual Axis native, yet from Immortal Qian Ji’s words he still heard a heavy feeling in his voice: it was a complex mood that was hard to label as simple nostalgia or relief.
Immortal Yuan Ling sighed and turned to Yu Sheng, saying: “We of the Grand Void care deeply about heritage and our roots, but we are different from the Archaeological Association that also chases origins. The Terra Races once had a short refuge during the Cataclysm called the Boundless Sea. In that brief pause, the Terra sages known as Firebearers left many legacies and historical records. Those legacies are said to be sealed in the Lost Deep Lake. So the Archaeological Association knows their target clearly. They just have to find the Lost Deep Lake. We are not like that.”
He went on, saying: “The Grand Void Spiritual Axis was ‘dug out’ by the Ancient Holy Spirit from the ashes of the Cataclysm. Ninety-nine percent of civilizations in this universe were dug out in the same way. For us who were once reduced to ash, we have only what the Ancient Holy Spirit unearthed. There is no chance to learn more. Even if we searched the whole universe, no corner would still hold records of the old world that spoke of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.”
He added, saying: “My eldest senior brother’s senior uncle, Xuan Che’s senior uncle, started with the same unrealistic idea. He wanted to find traces of the old world. But after so many years, he found nothing.”
Immortal Qian Ji spoke from the side, saying: “Now you know why I rushed here. We might have found a little ‘scrap’ that fell from the old world to this side.”
As he spoke, he lifted his head and bowed deeply to Yu Sheng once more; this salute was even more solemn than before.
He asked, saying: “Mr. Yu, I want to go with you back to that desert Otherworld. May I?”
Yu Sheng nodded without hesitation, saying: “That’s fine, but that Otherworld is a little unusual.”
Immortal Qian Ji asked, saying: “Unusual?”
Immortal Yuan Ling answered for him, saying: “Every time that Otherworld opens, the inside changes, and most of the time it is meaningless chaos. So even if you go now, it’s hard to see the same desert again.”
Immortal Qian Ji’s face showed clear disappointment.
Yu Sheng suddenly spoke again, saying: “I can try. When I left, I noted the ‘coordinates’ of that desert. Maybe I can open a Door straight back to that place.”
Immortal Qian Ji’s eyes lit up at once, saying: “It works like that?” He really had something light up inside the clockwork in his head. He added with excitement: “Then I must trouble you, Mr. Yu!”
Yu Sheng did not decline. He reached into the air and focused, following his usual steps to assign a value for the Door.
A phantom Door took shape in his hand.
Qian Ji, Yuan Ling, and Xuan Che all fixed their eyes on the half transparent Door. Even the Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain cultivators working around the Assault Titans fell quiet without thinking, watching what Yu Sheng would do next.
Yu Sheng drew a gentle breath, turned the Door handle, and slowly pulled it open.
Right then, a strange “stumble” sensation spread from deep in his chest, something he had never felt before. At the same time, his hand suddenly felt empty.
The Door, just opened a crack, vanished without a sound.
Foxy’s eyes went wide as she blurted out: “Benefactor, where did the Door go?”
Yu Sheng froze, then tried again. This time he was even more focused and careful.
The same thing happened: the phantom Door silently dissolved the instant its crack opened.
Irene stared and asked, saying: “What is going on? Did your power stop working?”
Yu Sheng kept silent for a moment, brows knotted, then after several seconds he spoke with a thoughtful look: “It’s a null value.”
Immortal Qian Ji did not understand Yu Sheng’s power, but he could tell this was not normal, so he asked in a hurry, saying: “What does null value mean?”
Yu Sheng looked at his right hand and answered, saying: “It means the destination doesn’t exist. What on earth…”
Irene blinked and said: “The destination doesn’t exist? That’s even stranger than when you first failed at Door Opening into the Black Forest! The first time was because of drifting dreams, right? But even drifting shouldn’t make the destination just not exist.”
Foxy spoke too, her two big ears twitching in the air as she said: “But we really did leave from that desert by Door Opening, and before that Xuan Che could use the Door to return to the Otherworld from outside.”
Yu Sheng thought fast and said: “When he returned to the Otherworld through the Door, I was maintaining the channel on the desert side, so that ‘operation’ was very likely one way. Maybe Door Opening only works inside that Otherworld.”
Irene scratched her hair and asked, saying: “Then what do we do now?”
Yu Sheng answered without hesitation, saying: “We go to Nethermoon again and use the normal way to enter. First, we confirm whether that Otherworld still exists. Then we figure out its rules.”
Immortal Qian Ji stepped forward at once, saying: “I will go with you all. Immortal Yuan Ling, please prepare a Celestial Ship for us.”
Yu Sheng waved his hand, saying: “No need for a Celestial Ship. I can still Door Opening straight to that mine in Nethermoon.” As he spoke, he swept his hand through the air, and a Door formed and opened almost at once.
Across the Door, not far away, stood Su Yun, who turned in surprise. She was leading people on guard duty at the mine entrance.
She ran over at once and saluted across the Door, saying: “Master?” After less than a second of shock, she also greeted the other lordly figure present. She said: “Junior Su Yun greets Immortal Qian Ji, and greets eldest senior brother, Mr. Yu. What is happening?”
Immortal Yuan Ling had not expected Yu Sheng to open a Door so suddenly, but he reacted quickly and stepped forward to ask Su Yun, saying: “How is the entrance? Any changes?”
Su Yun nodded and answered, saying: “No changes. We just checked the threshold. It is the same as before.”
Immortal Yuan Ling nodded and said: “Mr. Yu and the others will check the Otherworld below the mine again, and Immortal Qian Ji will go too. Do not be nervous. Keep guarding the area.”
Su Yun answered, saying: “Yes!”
Yu Sheng looked back at the group and said: “Let’s go now. You all go first. I’ll go last.”
Xuan Che stepped through the Door first. Then Luna and Foxy followed. Immortal Qian Ji paused at the Door, lifted his head to study the phantom door leaf in Yu Sheng’s hand, and the clockwork in his head clicked and turned as he asked in confusion, saying: “How does this work?”
[Yu Sheng felt like he heard that question a lot lately.]
Everyone had passed through. Yu Sheng was about to take Irene across when Immortal Yuan Ling suddenly spoke, saying: “Wait.”
Yu Sheng stopped and turned his head, saying: “Ah, you want to come too?”
Immortal Yuan Ling stroked his beard and said: “I cannot split into a hundred bodies like Qian Ji and just go whenever I want.” He drew a small ancient mirror from his robe and added, saying: “Take my Lingxi Mirror with you. Have Qian Ji carry it. With his power, I will also see what the Otherworld truly looks like.”
Yu Sheng said: “All right.”
He accepted the Lingxi Mirror from Immortal Yuan Ling, then stepped through the Door.
The next second, he arrived on Nethermoon at the mine ramp that led to the Otherworld entrance.
Everyone began to prepare to enter the Otherworld.
Xuan Che was speaking to Su Yun a short distance away. She handed him some Stomach Strengthening Digestion Pills she had refined. Luna checked her blade’s edge, then clicked her arm joints apart and back together. Foxy pulled a baked flatbread from her tail and gnawed it with both hands.
Cyber Fox Immortal reloading ammo.jpg.
Immortal Qian Ji looked around in wonder, then glanced back toward the way he had come while checking the many parameters recorded by his inner mechanisms, saying: “Incredible. Truly incredible. It feels like we just stepped across a Door without any sign of spatial movement.”
Yu Sheng came up to Immortal Qian Ji and handed him the Lingxi Mirror, saying: “Immortal Yuan Ling asked you to hold this.”
Immortal Qian Ji smiled without surprise and accepted the old mirror. He set it beside him, and it floated at his side, saying: “I knew it. Of course he is curious about the Otherworld.”
Then he tapped the clear Crystal Shell on his chest a few times and simply removed it.
Yu Sheng watched in shock as Immortal Qian Ji grabbed the iron gray heart in his chest, a heart ringed by gears and shafts. He pulled it out, then adjusted the fine structures on its back with care.
Immortal Qian Ji’s face remained calm, as if this was daily routine. Yu Sheng felt a chill in his own chest and was reminded of unpleasant memories. He asked with curiosity, saying: “What are you doing?”
Immortal Qian Ji kept his head down and said: “Opening the mind apertures. My heart is refined by special means. It has special functions used to explore strange and abnormal places. This heart has nine apertures. Seven are used daily. The other two can be opened by hand to let me perform Primordial-Spirit Dematerialisation and Commune With Reality And Illusion.”
He paused, looked up, and noticed Yu Sheng’s blank face, so he explained further, saying: “It is like the Borderland Special Affairs Bureau’s Umbilical Cord technology, but mine is less general and can’t be used on people with lower cultivation.”
Yu Sheng echoed, saying: “Umbilical Cord?”
Immortal Qian Ji nodded with a smile and pushed the adjusted heart back into his chest, saying: “Yes. The Otherworld cuts off communication with the outside. This body is one of many incarnations. If I don’t prepare, the moment I enter the Otherworld this body will become a pile of scrap metal. Yuan Ling asked me to carry the Lingxi Mirror so he can use my ‘apertures’ too.”
Yu Sheng understood and said: “Oh, I get it. You’re letting him piggyback on your signal.”
Immortal Qian Ji said with mild surprise: “…That is a very precise way to say it.”