CHAPTER 1418: FROM DOORWAY TO GATEWAY

Thankfully for Zhen Liu, it looks he wasn’t going to have to look for some absurdly rare and obscure treasure aether flame just yet.

’Alright. Three, two, one, go!’

With a single gesture, and a whole lot of mathematical equations in his head, Zhen Liu brought together all seven [Flames of Vice] and his own [Ghost Flame] to create a composite flame that merged together the remnants of the[Key to Nowhere] with it’s new components.

BOOM!

Needless to say, such an action brought about a rather loud explosion. On the plus side, the incredibly ominous aura that was being produced by having all of these weirdly vicious components together was completely blown away by the aforementioned explosion.

"Holy shit!" Zhen Liu heard Antonio and Lythero simultaneously scream at the exact same time.

=Congratulations milord, you have fully finished fixing and upgrading the [Key to Nowhere] into the [Key to Which Way].=

’Why does everything I seem to involve myself suddenly exp—wait, what kind of name is that?’

The [Key to Which Way] was significantly bigger than the [Key to Nowhere], and had an aura to it to match.

Since the original [Key to Nowhere] was a [Chaos] treasure as opposed to an aether treasure, it didn’t follow the same ranking rules of Bronze tier to Diamond tier.

Not even Logos and Pathos knew exactly how to rank such items, they just knew how to make them.

But if one were to put a gun to their head and ask them to compare how much of a difference there was between the [Key to Nowhere] and the [Key to Which Way], they would probably say that the gap was equivalent to what was seen between a Bronze treasure and a Gold treasure.

Of course, that gap could be as big as a canyon or like a small pothole when it came to [Chaos].

Either way, Zhen Liu’s brand spanking new key wasn’t going to get broken because of a spatial explosion...again.

’Now, you guys are sure this thing won’t get rattled or broken because of a spatial accident/explosion? I’d rather not end up in the underworld or something when I use this thing.’

No worries, milord. We made sure to include plenty of redundancies and shock absorbers to prevent such things from happening again.

=The only way to damage it now is with the energetic equivalent of a supernova. Only a handful of aether warriors can produce an attack that powerful, and at least a third of them were sealed away personally by previous Kaijin Lords.=

’That is so reassuring to learn,’ Zhen Liu commented with as much sarcasm as his body could muster, which was enough to poison an elephant. ’Now, does this new key of mine still require a door or for me to draw one?’

Actually, no.

=We managed to upgrade its functionality so that it’s a bit more flexible about what the key considers a door. But this is one of those things that are better explained via live example instead of just words.=

’Make sense...I’ll go call the others and get this thing going.’

...One montage later...

After gathering his allies and Kaijin, Zhen Liu decided to go over the instructions of his new key one last time with Logos and Pathos before committing to opening a new gateway to the [Library of Nowhere].

This gave the relevant parties time to converse for a bit about their return trip home.

[Oh, right! This is the first time you two will be seeing the place that we all call home,] Screamira realized as she conversed with the Doll Twins. [Maybe this will be the stimulus you two will need to become fully fledged Kaijin.]

[Yay!]

[Fully realized names, here we come!]

This time also gave certain parties time to answer the interrogative questions of their friends and family. Despite how unnecessarily intimate these questions were.

[Depth Strider, I need you to be completely honest with us,] Pegasoar declared in an uncharacteristic manner.

[Okay...]

[How did you get a hickey on your neck?]

[Wait, what?]

[Right there dude,] Rail Horn answered while tapping on the right side of his neck. [You got a big bruise, right there.]

Depth Strider’s skin was essentially made of tempered steel, so the fact that there was a dark blue bruise was mildly shocking to say the least.

Although, it wasn’t as shocking as the answer he gave.

[Uh...let’s just say that Chaos can apparently amplify sensitivity more than anticipated.]

[Bruh.]

...Meanwhile...

Lyona and Taurna were staring at Maggie with shocked looks of concern.

The gazelle Bloodliner, and the person that they both thought to be the most stoic and matronly, was currently looking like she was totally baked out of her gourd.

^Big sis...are you okay?^ Taurna asked with a worried expression on her round face.

Emphasizing this question, Lyona proceeded to snap her fingers in front of Maggie’s face to bring her attention back to the present.

^Huh? Oh, hey girls,^ Maggie managed to eventually answer in an incredibly dreamy sounding voice.

^Alright, what the fuck happened while you were in there with big brother Depth?^ Lyona asked point blank, given the nature of the moment.

Maggie was silent for a moment as if it took significantly more brain powered than normal to answer the question.

Needless to say, neither Lyona nor Taurna were ready for the answer that they were about to be given.

^Depth Strider shlonked my shit stupid style.^

^What the fuck?!^

^I am now more than justified in swearing off other men for the rest of my life.^

^Too much information!^

...Now back to the more SFW part of the Chapter...

...and that should be the last of it. Anything else?

’No,’ Zhen Liu assured the curator spirits. ’However, I would like to point out that this is key is suspiciously big.’

=Meh, don’t worry about it. The enemies you face use more than darkness as a weapon.=

’Great...’

Taking the [Key to Which Way] in his hands, Zhen Liu began to channel [Chaos] and aether into it as he aimed the key at the opening of an abandoned mine shaft.

The upgraded key no longer needed a "door with a key hole", and could not technically work at anything that counted as a "gateway".

In other words, Zhen Liu couldn’t use the door of a carriage or the opening of a jar to create a gateway to the library, but he could now use the openings of caverns or the threshold of large hallways to open a way to the [Library of Nowhere].

[Open, the gate!] Zhen Liu declared once he had fully saturated the key to the appropriate power level.

A beam of light and a surge of energy flew out of the key and made contact with the mineshaft’s opening, causing it to suddenly ripple.

The power of aether energized the frame of the opening, while [Chaos] reshaped reality and transformed it.

[Still impressive very time I see it.]

^Whoa...^

^The power coming off of this key is...off the charts.^

Gone was the abandoned mineshaft entryway, replaced with an ornate gate that led to the inside of an ancient library that radiated with an aura associated with knowledge that was lost to the ages.

The Kaijin was used to such sights and felt as if they were staring at a long awaited homecoming.

This also applied to Zhen Xing and Zhen Tai, who were looking forward to taking a break at home before heading back here for additional training.

"I never thought I’d missed taking a shower up until now, but baths just don’t hit the same anymore."

"Are you sure that feeling has nothing to do with the fact our shower comes with a built-in cultivation treasure?"

"Maybe."

As for the natives of Dozing Salamander: Lythero, Antonio, Maggie Lyona, and Taurna, they were... completely flabbergasted at the sight.

This was the first time they’ve ever seen Zhen Liu use this sort of treasure before, so the concept of something truncating the distance between themselves and some city in the middle of nowhere was incredibly shocking.

Then again, they did spend most of their lives in situations where their heads were in the metaphorical sand.

^That smell is so...oddly soothing.^

^I had doubts about this place having all the knowledge of the world...but maybe that claim carried more truth than I thought...^

^Maybe I can finally find a reference book to fully translate Zhen Liu and the kaijin...^

Amongst this group, though, the Ignarii warrior Olstenna was the most excited.

^Finally...after all this time...^

Olstenna has not participated in the rebellion, nor assist in finding Zhen Liu out of the goodness of his heart or because he was friends with the man.

No.

The only reason he came along and participated was because he was promised a proper one-on-one fight with the Kaijin Lord, once he was fixed up and returned to the library.

’He’s gotten stronger, but so have I. The battle between us is going to be legendary!’ Olstenna mentally cackled.