With the door slamming shut, the dim starlight from distant cosmos vanished before Yu Sheng's eyes—It took him a full half minute to snap out of his initial shock, then he took a long breath and broke out in a cold sweat belatedly.
After opening the door, it wasn't guaranteed they would arrive at a specific "location" in some Exotic Realm or planet, and there was even a chance of stepping straight into outer space?
The randomness and range of the "door" greatly exceeded Yu Sheng's imagination!
At that moment, Yu Sheng even felt a sense of relief—he was relieved that the first time he accidentally opened the door, he stepped into the Exotic Realm instead of into the depths of space. If he had really been that unlucky, he simply couldn't imagine what would have occurred.
In the worst scenario, he might have repeatedly died and been reborn swiftly and continuously in the harsh environment of outer space—possibly without any chances to maintain a clear thinking process, let alone find out and master the capability to open doors—if by some miracle, he had managed to withstand or luckily stumbled upon a door back to the surface in one of his tries, it would undoubtedly have been a horrifying experience before that.
After his heart finally calmed down, Yu Sheng immediately began analyzing new intel he had grasped during the recent door-opening process.
When the door opened, he didn't feel the terrifying "sucking force" from the vacuum on the other side, nor did it seem cold like outer space should be.
But in the previous times the door opened, he could both hear sounds from the other side and feel some environmental effects from there—like the scorching air currents of some desolate planet.
Why was this? Did the "door" itself have some sort of filtering capability? When the environmental differences on both sides were too great, would it actively block those influences? Or was "outer space" inherently special, perhaps some kind of "coordinates" that could be seen but not truly reached? Or… maybe what he saw wasn't real outer space but another kind of Exotic Realm that resembled a starry sky...
Yu Sheng pondered, turning to glance at Erin in the painting.
Looking hesitant, Erin watched him: "Should we continue? You seemed quite startled just now…"
Yu Sheng closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, all that remained was determination.
"Continue."
He grasped the doorknob again, but this time with greater caution. He attentively sensed the subtle and delicate Spiritual Guidance while attempting to recall the feelings from his previous successful openings, trying to… emulate one of those passages.
He slowly opened the door, and the scene on the other side was just a bland landscape that looked like a desolate beach.
It was none of the doors he had opened before.
Then, he tried over and over again, repeatedly opening the door while searching for the way that leads to Hu Li's side.
Or any other replicable path—just to master the pattern of opening doors.
During these persistent attempts, there came a fleeting thought in Yu Sheng's heart—could there be a door that leads to the familiar "hometown" he remembered?
He still recalled, it was one morning when he left home by pushing a door and arrived at this "Boundary City". Though without any concrete evidence, he was increasingly suspecting that it was indeed his genuine first encounter with "opening a door".
Back then, he was utterly oblivious.
So, might there be a time in the future when he opens a door and sees the home from his memory?
Yu Sheng forcibly suppressed this sudden thought in his heart, aware that he had more pressing matters to attend to for now, and left going home as a transient hope buried in his heart.
Door after door opened—bizarre, common, absurd, quirky, and even… bustling and lively.
Countless distant worlds came rushing towards him with each brief opening and closing of the door, and in this repeated process, Yu Sheng suddenly felt a marvelous sensation.
This world… indeed had more than just Boundary City.
Outside this vast, seemingly special "Boundary City," the world was incredibly expansive.
So many landscapes, so many mysteries, so many strange and diverse faraway places—were all just a door-opening away, within his simple push and pull.
He wasn't trapped in this city.
Erin seemed to slowly get excited as well, although he didn't understand why this figure in the painting was so thrilled, she too watched the landscapes outside the door with Yu Sheng, clearly growing more enthusiastic.
Since she couldn't move, she started commenting on the scenes outside the door—
"The mountain is so tall! There's something glowing on top of it; can we go see it someday?"
"The sea! What a big fish!"
"Wow! All snow, but why is it light blue…it doesn't look like it has life…"
"...it's a toilet, let's leave quickly."
"...that just gave me a fright, it's spooky!"
The puppet wasn't quiet for even a moment, constantly babbling about anything that appeared outside the door. At first, Yu Sheng found it somewhat annoying, but gradually, Erin's ever-changing clamor became a bit of enjoyment during the monotonous "testing" process.
Later, just a moment before opening the door one time, he suddenly felt a stir in his heart, like using an old-style knobbed capacitor radio to search for a very narrow band and finally "bumping" into the right frequency. He sensed a channel that had been opened before—not the valley filled with hunger, but a door he had indeed opened.
Yu Sheng abruptly grasped that feeling, and then, for the first time, he actively controlled his "Spiritual Guidance" without any technique, just instinctively moving towards that familiar channel—
He carefully pushed open the door and looked across.
He saw flames burning around the door frame.
He also saw a distant solemn and simple hall, with spiritual light drifting between the corridors of the large hall, and a handsome young man in brocade, as well as an old man with the appearance of an Immortal, his hair white as a youth.
The young man was being hung from the rafters by the old man and lashed.
The Old Immortal Master had a powerful voice, audible from this side—
"You've followed me for so many years and still secretly practiced the Demon Path! Explain yourself! What's this about refining creatures in the Pill Furnace and the human heads! You… you have really harmed the innocent!?"
The handsome young man in brocade twisted and shouted from the rafters: "Immortal Venerable, I'm wrongly accused! I was merely refining ordinary Spirit Storage Pills! How would I know how my junior brother saw a human head emerging from the furnace door… Ah ah, stop hitting, stop, Immortal Venerable, I'm wrongly accused!"
Upon hearing this, the Old Immortal Master almost jumped up: "No sophistry! When I previously inspected the Pill Furnace, I even glimpsed the Spiritual Essence! There definitely were living people in that furnace!"
Yu Sheng was dumbfounded, and then he saw another small figure popping out beside the doorframe, it was the young Daoist boy with the fan from earlier—The cheeky kid widened his eyes and looked towards the door, then yelled and ran towards the main hall: "Immortal Venerable! Immortal Venerable! The head has popped out again from Big Brother's Pill Furnace! It's the same one as before!"
That white-haired old man then drew out his copper buckle belt…
Of course, it might not be a copper buckle belt, it's too far to see clearly—judging by the young man's scream, that thing's intimidation was no less than a copper buckle belt.
Yu Sheng slammed the door shut with a bang. Astonishment, excitement, thrill, various emotions mixed together, and after a while, he finally turned around and excitedly shouted to Erin: "Erin! I did it! I did it!"
Erin jumped in fright: "Calm down, did what exactly?"
"That channel just now was one I had opened before! I just now controlled and opened it again—this process is controllable! It can be replicated!"
He was excited and thrilled, confirming that he could indeed control that subtle "Spiritual Guidance," which also meant he could control and replicate any other gate he had opened before, including the valley where Hu Li was!
His next step would be to try to recall the "frequency" he had sensed when he fell into the valley before, even if it was just a nearby frequency, to exhaustively search until he found it!
Erin visibly excited with Yu Sheng, but surprisingly, Puppet Miss soon regained her composure and reminded him: "How about, maybe you should first explain the situation to those people on the other side of the door... The guy hanging from the rafters is almost beaten to death…"
Yu Sheng was startled, and only then belatedly remembered this matter—he still wasn't accustomed to the controllable process of opening doors and the many things he could do.
Then, he reached for the doorknob but hesitated slightly in his heart.
Are the people on the other side easy to talk to? Could that Immortal-looking old man be the "Immortal" referred to by Hu Li? But it didn't seem like it; mainly, the style didn't seem to be the kind of Immortal who would run a travel agency. Maybe not the same system... What if the explanation goes poorly and they attack from the other side, as a mortal he definitely couldn't fight back... Should he just speak through the door? They probably can't hit him through the door... After all, even after he closed the door earlier, that Immortal-looking old man only sensed the "Spiritual Essence" and did not follow through the door...
With numerous chaotic thoughts flashing through his mind, Yu Sheng finally gritted his teeth, focused again trying to lock onto the previous door-opening frequency, and after several verifications, carefully opened the door again.
Joy of success bubbled up from within him; he successfully replicated that passage—
The Immortal-looking old man was pressing the brocade-clad young man who had been whipped for a long time, riding a stream of rosy clouds coming from afar.
Yu Sheng, standing behind the door, not daring to get too close, yelled out loud: "It's all a misunderstanding!"
Then the brocade-clad young man just fell from the clouds and almost cried out as he yelled: "Don't play like this! If there's any offense, honorable Immortal Venerable on the other side, please speak plainly!"
"I didn't mean to! I was just passing by!" Yu Sheng honestly spoke the truth, "I didn't know this was your Pill Furnace—a misunderstanding, a real misunderstanding."
Then he directly closed the door.
Mainly because he was really afraid of the Immortal from the other side coming over.
Then Yu Sheng turned back and stared in disbelief with Erin in the painting.
"...Do you think I explained it clearly?"
Erin nodded repeatedly: "I think you explained it clearly."
"...Feels like I wronged him quite a bit."
"...We probably won't run into him again, the world is so big, right?"
"Yeah, that makes sense."