Chapter 34: Successful Replication, Channel Controllable!

As the door slammed shut, the faint starlight from distant stars vanished from Yu Sheng's eyes—only after half a minute did he snap out of his shock, then draw a long breath, belatedly breaking into a cold sweat.

After opening the door, you might not arrive at any specific location on some alien world—even with a certain probability, you might directly enter outer space?

The randomness and range of this "door" far exceeded Yu Sheng's imagination!

At this moment, Yu Sheng even felt a surge of relief—he was grateful that his first accidental opening of the "door" had led him into an alien realm, not into the deep vacuum of space; had he been that unlucky, he couldn't imagine what would have happened.

In the worst case, he might have undergone a rapid, unceasing cycle of death and rebirth in the harsh environment of outer space, with no chance whatsoever to maintain conscious thought, let alone explore and master the ability to open the door during this swift, continuous death process—even if he somehow miraculously survived, or luckily opened a door back to the surface during some accidental stumble, it would still have been an utterly terrifying ordeal.

Once his pounding heart finally calmed, Yu Sheng immediately began analyzing the new information he had gained during the recent door-opening process.

When the door opened, he had not felt the terrifying "pull" of the vacuum on the other side, nor had he sensed the expected cold of outer space.

But during previous openings, he could hear sounds from the other side and feel environmental effects—such as scorching air currents from a desolate planet.

Why? Was the "door" itself somehow filtering these effects, actively blocking them when the environmental differences were too extreme? Or did outer space possess some special property, being a kind of "coordinate" one could only see but never truly reach? Or perhaps… what he had just seen wasn't true outer space at all, but another kind of "alien realm" that merely resembled starry space…

Yu Sheng pondered, glancing back at the painting of Ailin.

Ailin hesitated, watching him: "Keep going? You looked startled just now…"

Yu Sheng closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, only determination remained.

"Continue."

He grasped the door handle once more, but this time with greater caution, carefully sensing the subtle, delicate "spiritual guidance," while trying to recall the sensations from his previous successful door openings, attempting to… replicate one of those channels.

He slowly opened the door; the other side revealed only an ordinary scene, resembling a desolate beach.

It was not any door he had opened before.

Then he tried again and again, opening the door repeatedly, searching for a path leading to Huli's side.

Or any other channel he could replicate—so long as it helped him grasp the pattern of opening the door.

And in this endless trial, at one moment, a fleeting thought arose in Yu Sheng's heart—could there be a door behind which lay his memory of his familiar "homeland"?

He still remembered, he had arrived at this "Boundary City" after stepping out his front door one morning; though he had no concrete evidence, he now increasingly suspected that was truly his first moment of "opening the door."

But back then, he had been utterly unaware.

So, in some future opening, would he push open the door and see his childhood home?

Yu Sheng forcibly suppressed this sudden thought—he knew he had more urgent matters to attend to; returning home… would remain a quiet hope buried deep in his heart.

The door opened again and again, revealing bizarre, ordinary, absurd, even… bustling and lively scenes.

Countless distant worlds rushed toward him in each brief opening and closing, then slammed shut; and in this endless repetition, Yu Sheng suddenly felt a strange sensation.

This world… clearly wasn't just the Boundary City.

Beyond this vast, strangely unique "City of Thresholds"… lay an unimaginably boundless expanse.

So many landscapes, so many mysteries, so many strange and varied distant places—right there, every time he opened the door, with his casual push or pull.

He was not trapped in this city.

Ailin also seemed to grow gradually excited; though he didn't understand why this painted doll was so thrilled, she clearly shared his rising enthusiasm as they watched the scenes beyond the door.

Unable to move, she began commenting on each scene outside:

"That mountain is so tall! There's something glowing on top—could we go see it someday?"

"The ocean! What a huge fish!"

"Wow! It's all snow—but why is it pale blue… doesn't look alive…"

"…It's a bathroom, hurry up, let's go."

"…Holy crap, there's a ghost!"

The doll never stayed quiet; every new sight outside the door triggered a burst of chatter. At first Yu Sheng found it annoying, but gradually, Ailin's ever-changing exclamations became a small source of amusement amid the tedious testing.

Then, just before one door-opening, he suddenly felt a stir in his heart—as if tuning an old rotary capacitor radio to a narrow frequency and finally "clicking" onto the right one—he sensed a channel he had opened before—not the hungry valley, but another door he had indeed opened.

Yu Sheng seized that sensation, and for the first time, consciously guided his "spiritual guidance," with no technique, purely by instinct, steering toward that familiar channel—he carefully pushed open the door and looked through.

He saw flames burning around the doorframe.

He saw, in the distance, a solemn, ancient hall, with spiritual radiance drifting between its eaves and pillars, and a handsome young man dressed in brocade robes, alongside an elderly immortal with a crane-like white beard and transcendent aura.

The young man was being whipped by the old man, hanging from the rafters.

The old immortal's voice boomed clearly even from this side—

"After all these years with your master! You've secretly cultivated demonic arts! Speak! What's the meaning of the living beings you've been refining in your furnace? Where did those human heads come from? You—you—you've truly doomed the innocent!?"

The handsome young man in brocade robes twisted and screamed: "Master, it's a frame-up! I was only refining ordinary Soul-Nourishing Pills! How was I to know my little brother saw a human head pop out of the furnace's fire? Aaah! Stop! Stop hitting me, Master! It's not true!"

The immortal master nearly leapt up: "Don't lie! I inspected your furnace myself—I even glimpsed the spiritual essence of living beings! Your furnace definitely contained a living person!"

Yu Sheng stared, dumbfounded; then he saw another small figure emerge beside the doorframe—it was the Daoist acolyte with the fan, the little brat, eyes wide, glancing at the door and sprinting toward the hall yelling: "Master! Master! Big Brother's furnace is spitting out another human head again! It's the same one as before!"

The immortal with the crane-like aura pulled out his copper-headed leather belt…

Or maybe it wasn't a copper-headed belt—it was too far to see clearly—but judging from the young man's instant scream, whatever it was, its intimidation factor rivaled a copper-headed belt.

!.

Yu Sheng slammed the door shut, stunned, excited, elated—emotions tangled together; after a long moment, he spun around to Ailin and shouted in delight: "Ailin! I did it! I did it!"

Ailin jumped: "Calm down! What did you do?"

"That channel just now—I opened it again, consciously controlling it! This process is controllable! Reproducible!"

He was thrilled and excited; having confirmed he could control the subtle "spiritual guidance," it meant he could now control and replicate any other previously opened "door"—including the valley where Huli was!

Next, he needed to recall the "frequency" he had sensed when falling into that valley—even finding a similar frequency would do; he'd exhaust every possibility until he found it!

Ailin clearly grew excited with Yu Sheng, but this time the Young Lady surprisingly regained her composure quickly, and reminded him: "Uh, shouldn't you explain the situation to the people on the other side first? That guy hanging from the rafters is about to die…"

Yu Sheng froze, belatedly remembering—he was still unaccustomed to the idea of controllable door-opening, to the possibility of doing things beyond mere random access.

He reached for the door handle again, but a flicker of hesitation crossed his mind.

Would the people on the other side be reasonable? That transcendent-looking old man—could he be the "immortal" Huli mentioned? But he didn't seem like it; the aesthetic didn't match the kind of immortal who ran a travel agency. Maybe they weren't from the same system… What if he explained poorly and the old man came through to attack? He, a mortal, couldn't possibly win… Should he just speak through the door? Could they not follow the door's path to attack? After all, when he closed the door before, the immortal had only sensed "spiritual essence," not followed it here…

A whirlwind of chaotic thoughts flashed through his mind; finally, Yu Sheng gritted his teeth, focused again, and locked onto the previous door-opening frequency, confirmed it several times, then carefully opened the door.

Joy at his success welled up from the bottom of his heart — he had once again successfully reproduced that passage—

An immortal-looking, Dao-boned old man was escorting the richly-dressed youth, who had been dragged along for half the day, riding a stretch of rosy clouds as they flew in from afar.

Yu Sheng, separated by the door, didn't dare approach, and just shouted at the top of his lungs: "It's all a misunderstanding!"

Then that richly-dressed youth simply dropped straight off the rosy clouds, and shouted as if about to cry: "That's not how you play this! I don't know which immortal lord or senior is on the other side — if this junior has offended you in any way, just say so plainly!"

"I don't know either! I was just passing through!" Yu Sheng honestly told the truth. "I didn't know this was your alchemy furnace either — a misunderstanding, really a misunderstanding."

Then he simply shut the door.

Mainly because he was genuinely afraid the immortal on the other side would come over and attack.

Then Yu Sheng turned his head and stared wide-eyed at Aileen in the oil painting.

"…Do you think I explained it clearly enough?"

Aileen nodded vigorously: "I think it was explained clearly."

"…I feel like I really owe them an apology."

"…We probably won't run into them next time, right? The world is so big, after all."

"Mm, that makes sense."

(End of chapter)