Chapter 362

Chapter 362: “Null Value”

Yu Sheng wasn’t from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, yet he could still hear the emotion weighing down Qian Ji’s words—something hard to describe, not quite nostalgia and not quite relief.

“We people of the Grand Void place great weight on inheritance and roots,” Yuan Ling sighed. He turned to Yu Sheng. “But we’re also different from the Terra Archaeological Association, who are just as obsessed with tracing origins.”

“In the great tribulation of Annihilation, the races of Terra once had a brief refuge period called the Boundless Sea. In that short breath of time, the Terra sages known as firebearers left behind a great amount of legacy and historical records. Those legacies are said to be sealed in the Lost Deep Lake, so the Terra Archaeological Association knows exactly what their target is. They only need to find the Lost Deep Lake…”

He shook his head. “But we are not the same.”

“The Grand Void Spiritual Axis was something the ancient holy spirit dug out of the ash heap after the tribulation,” Yuan Ling continued. “In this universe, more than ninety-nine percent of civilizations were dug out the same way. For us, who once truly turned to ash, however much the ancient holy spirit dug out back then is how much we have now. There is no chance to learn anything beyond it.”

“Even if we searched the entire universe, there would be no corner left that still recorded anything about the Grand Void Spiritual Axis in the old world.”

He sighed again, softer. “My senior brother—Xuan Che’s Martial Uncle—once held unrealistic hopes and wanted to search for traces of the old world, but after all these years, he has found nothing…”

“So now you understand why I rushed here,” Qian Ji said. “This time, we may truly have found a bit of debris that fell from the old world into this one.”

As he spoke, he gave Yu Sheng a deep bow, even more solemn than before. “Mr. Yu, I want to go with you to that desert otherworld again. Would that be possible?”

“That’s no problem,” Yu Sheng said without hesitation. “But that otherworld is a bit special…”

“Special?” Yuan Ling answered. “Each time it opens, the inside changes. Most of the time it turns into chaotic scenes with no meaning. So even if you go again now, it’ll be hard to see the exact same desert.”

Disappointment flickered across Qian Ji’s face.

But Yu Sheng added, “I can try. When I left, I memorized the coordinates of that desert. Maybe I can open a door back there directly.”

“You can do that?” Qian Ji’s eyes lit up at once—something truly flashed inside the mechanisms in his skull. “Then I’ll trouble you, Mr. Yu!”

Yu Sheng didn’t refuse. He reached into the air, focused slightly, and began the familiar process of assigning a destination to the door.

A phantom doorway formed in his hand.

Qian Ji, Yuan Ling, and Xuan Che all fixed their gaze on the translucent door. Even the cultivators working around the Vanguard divine armament peak fell quiet, watching Yu Sheng’s next move.

Yu Sheng drew a light breath, turned the handle, and slowly pulled the door open.

A strange catch—something he had never felt before—snagged deep in his heart. Then his hand went empty.

The door, opened only a thin crack, vanished without a sound.

Foxy’s eyes widened. “Benefactor! Why did the door disappear…?”

Yu Sheng was stunned too. Refusing to believe it, he reached into the air again, focusing even harder, moving with extra care.

The same thing happened. The phantom door vanished the moment it opened a slit.

Irene stared, dumbfounded. “What the hell? Your power’s not working?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer immediately. He frowned hard, thinking. After several seconds, he spoke slowly. “…It’s a null value.”

Immortal Qian Ji didn’t understand Yu Sheng’s ability, but he could tell this was abnormal. “What does ‘null value’ mean?”

“It means the destination doesn’t exist,” Yu Sheng said, staring at his right hand. “This is ridiculous…”

“The destination doesn’t exist? Isn’t that even worse than the first time you failed to open a door into the Black Forest?” Irene blinked, remembering. “Back then it was because of dream drift. But drifting shouldn’t make the destination not exist!”

“But we did leave through a door from that desert,” Foxy said. “And before that, Xuan Che could still use the door to go back into the otherworld from outside.”

“When he used the door to return, I was maintaining the channel on the desert side. That operation was most likely one-way,” Yu Sheng said quickly, thinking as he spoke. “Maybe opening a door can only be initiated inside that otherworld. Maybe it can’t be launched from outside.”

Irene scratched her head. “So what now?”

“We go to Nethermoon again and enter through the normal route,” Yu Sheng said without hesitation. “First we confirm whether that otherworld still exists at all, then we figure out what its rules really are.”

Qian Ji stepped forward at once. “I will go with you—please ask Yuan Ling to prepare a celestial ship…”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary.” Yu Sheng waved a hand. “We don’t need a ship. I can still open a door directly to the mine on Nethermoon.”

As he spoke, he raked his hand through the air. A door formed and opened almost instantly.

Beyond it stood Su Yun, leading people at the mine entrance, standing guard. She turned in a daze as the doorway appeared.

“Master?” she blurted, eyes snapping to Yuan Ling on the other side. Then she hurried forward, bowing across the threshold. “Junior Su Yun greets Immortal Qian Ji… and Senior Brother, Mr. Yu… What is this?”

Yuan Ling hadn’t expected Yu Sheng to open the door so suddenly, but he recovered quickly. He stepped up and asked, “How is the entrance? Any changes?”

Su Yun nodded fast. “No changes. We just checked the threshold area. It’s the same as always.”

“Good.” Yuan Ling nodded. “Mr. Yu and the others are going down again to investigate the otherworld below the mine. Immortal Qian Ji is also going. Don’t be nervous. Keep your people guarding the area.”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s go now,” Yu Sheng said, glancing at the others. “You go in first. I’ll go last.”

Xuan Che went through first, followed by Luna and Foxy. When Qian Ji reached the door, he paused and stared at the phantom doorway Yu Sheng held. The mechanisms in his skull whirred. “…What kind of principle is this?”

Yu Sheng felt like he’d been hearing that sentence a lot lately.

Just as everyone crossed and Yu Sheng was about to carry Irene through, Yuan Ling spoke. “Wait.”

Yu Sheng stopped and turned. “Huh? You’re going too?”

“I’m not like Qian Ji, with avatars by the hundreds. I can’t come and go as I please,” Yuan Ling said, stroking his beard. He took out a small, ancient mirror from his robe. “Take my spirit-link mirror with you. Let Qian Ji carry it. By using his connection, I can also see what that otherworld truly looks like.”

“Okay.” Yu Sheng nodded. He took the spirit-link mirror, then stepped through the door.

In the next moment, he arrived above Nethermoon, at the mine ramp leading to the otherworld entrance.

Everyone began preparing to enter.

Xuan Che spoke with Su Yun in the distance as she handed him some Stomach Strengthening Digestion Pills she’d refined. Luna checked the edge of her blade, clicking as she disassembled and reassembled the joints in her arms. Foxy pulled a baked flatbread from her tail and started chewing quickly with both hands, as if she were loading supplies before a fight.

Immortal Qian Ji kept marveling at the surroundings. He glanced back the way they’d come and checked parameters recorded by his inner mechanisms. “Unbelievable… truly unbelievable. It’s as if I only stepped through a door, with no sign of spatial movement at all…”

Yu Sheng walked over and handed him the spirit-link mirror. “Yuan Ling wants you to carry this for him.”

“…I knew it. He must be curious about what’s in that otherworld too.” Qian Ji smiled, accepted the ancient mirror, and set it aside. It floated beside him.

Then he raised a hand and tapped the transparent crystal shell on his chest a few times, removing the casing completely.

Yu Sheng watched in shock as Qian Ji grabbed the iron-gray heart inside his chest—surrounded by gears and shafts—and pulled it out. Holding it in front of his face, he adjusted intricate structures on the back like this was routine maintenance.

Qian Ji looked calm as ever. Yu Sheng, on the other hand, felt an involuntary chill in his own chest. Some unpleasant memories surfaced, uninvited.

He cleared his throat. “What are you doing?”

“Opening the heart apertures,” Qian Ji said without looking up. “My heart was refined with a special method. It has certain functions for exploring strange and abnormal places. This heart has nine apertures. Seven are used normally, and the other two can be opened manually, allowing the spirit to become intangible and commune with reality and illusion.”

He glanced up, saw the blank look on Yu Sheng’s face, and added, “Oh. It’s like the Borderland Special Operations Bureau’s umbilical cord technology—just not as universally applicable. It can’t be used on people with lower cultivation.”

“Umbilical cord?”

“Exactly.” Qian Ji smiled and pushed the adjusted heart back into his chest. “An otherworld cuts off communication with the outside. And this body is only one of my avatars. If I don’t prepare, the moment I enter the otherworld, this body will become a pile of scrap iron.”

He tilted his head toward the floating mirror. “Yuan Ling told me to carry the spirit-link mirror because he wants to borrow my heart apertures as well.”

Yu Sheng finally understood. “Oh. You’re letting him piggyback on your signal.”

“…That is a remarkably precise way to put it.”