3 Back Door to Another World (2)

If anything, Jiang Nan had assumed that the door would either show a brick wall, perhaps a dry riser or something of the sort or even leading to some alleyway outside. Even if it showed him some towering mountains or castles like that of the Hobbit, he wouldn't have been that surprised. After all, people had become conditioned to scenarios such as this one with books, for example, the Chronicles of Narnia.

However, behind that door was actually another shop. Well, it couldn't technically be another shop, because it was a mirror copy of his shop, which was now behind him. Everything was exactly the same, even the powder that he accidentally let fall on the countertop from the instant noodle seasoning packet was there.

He began to walk into the parallel copy of his shop and peered through its floor-to-ceiling glass windows to look outside. The first thing he noticed was that the shop opposite was most definitely not a Laundromat. It was styled like one of those archaic shophouses during ancient times, with a roof that curved and slanted and hanged over the top. It had bronze and copper fixtures, windowsills and stone statues of lions and dragons all over. It screamed: You have gone back to ancient times!

Jiang Nan whipped out his phone and began to take photos, spamming the button like mad. The photos showed up good - it wasn't an illusion. Jiang Nan pulled down the menu bar and found out that there the Wi-Fi bar showed "No Signal". Considering that he was within a busy city, there was almost absolutely no way that there was no signal unless his service provider had crashed.

Jiang Nan looked behind him, half-expecting the door back to his world to have closed, trapping him inside this new world. Thankfully, it was still half-open. Jiang Nan walked to stand at the door frame so that half of him was inside each world. He looked back and forth, left and right, and found that it was exactly the same as each other. It was like one of those "find the difference" games, except that the only difference was the scenery outside.

Even the crinkles in the plastic packaging, the slight misplacement of a tin of biscuits or the water droplets condensing inside the steaming machine were exactly the same. "What IS this?" Jiang Nan thought. As he was thinking this, the doorbell sounded. Jiang Nan hurriedly turned his head - it came from the ancient world side.

"Shit!" Jiang Nan swore as he slammed the grey door shut, looking at his new visitor. It was an ancient, wizened-looking old man with a skin full of timeworn wrinkles and a flowing white beard. He wore the traditionally-ancient robes with enormous sleeves that people of ancient times enjoyed stuffing things into, and the robes drooped onto the floor, trailing behind his footsteps.

Jiang Nan immediately went behind the counter and with a conditioned reflex towards helpless-looking customers, asked: "Excuse me, do you need help?"

---(Change in P.O.V to "Wei Jun")--

I am the former Marshal of the Tang Dynasty, an Early Eighth Realm Cultivator. Even after I've retired, I can still change the direction of the Imperial Court, summon the rivers and construct mountains in the Kingdom, and have wealth of over millions of Spirit Stones from my countless exploits.

Often, I wander the Capital in my boredom, and today, I came across an interesting shop. I don't remember seeing this shop before, so it should have been newly open. Curious, I come to take a closer look.

The walls are made of high-grade glass. You can tell that it's expensive from the lack of distortions, bubbles and cracks, as well as the smoothness of the cut of the glass. It's something that probably only the top officials can afford. I don't remember seeing any of those rich nobles buying a property on Jie Street. After all, this is a road for the not-so-rich commoners, and they wouldn't buy expensive and unpractical antiques or poems which the rich normally sell.

I got closer to the wall, and just as I'm about to touch it, it splits open. A wave of cool air overwhelms me. I cannot sense any Cooling Formation or Sensing Formation even with my Eighth Realm Cultivation, so either the person who built the formations has a higher cultivation than me, or his mastery in formations is so good it exceeds the Consummate Realm.

I know that none of the three consummate grandmasters has undertaken any tasks in the past year, and I'm familiar with all of the Eighth Realm Cultivators. There's only sixteen of them in this Kingdom after all. The Emperor, the current Marshal, the Royal Advisor, the Former Emperor, the Admiral, me, the Leader of the Sun and Moon Sect, the Leader of the Yin-Yang Sect, the Leader of the Bear Mountain Clan, and so on, but none of them have made any major movements. Could it be that I've missed something?

I was so deep in thought that I didn't see a young man, not more than twenty, walk past me. He gave me a small shock by asking: "Excuse me, do you need help?"

He used an extremely casual tone. Is it possible that someone not in the Eighth Realm can see through my concealment, and not only that, not recognise me?