Ancestral Gate Technique

A white room.

This place where walls are non-existent as the space inside expands endlessly.

The room might not have any walls or windows, but there is one exception.

In the center of the room, or what might be the center of the room, stands a towering structure. One over 10 meters in height.

Adorned with various golden symbols and red markings, stands a giant doorway.

It has two doors stuck together with a strange-looking lock.

But one might not see it as a lock, for if you look at it closely, it resembles a pattern of a palm print, the size of a human hand. As if waiting for said human to try opening it.

Normally, no one, not one soul can enter this sacred place.

Because of the solemn divinity and majestic grandeur of this doorway, one might think that even the most powerful characters would have no chance of even making it here.

Still, there is one such exception.

'Where am I?'

The round-bellied teen that was lying on the floor suddenly awoke and looked around.

Turning his head in all directions before stopping, the boy called Liu Yang started to take account the current situation, ignoring the fact that all these strange events were not normal at all. In fact, said normal people would have had no time to calm down and think.

It can be said that this trait of being calm when in dangerous situations is a precious gift to the boy currently mulling over his problems, even though he does not know it.

'If I remember correctly, after being kicked by that bastard Su Heng, I felt a sharp pain in my head and collapsed. I don't know what happened after that except that I felt the room was shaking too much before I fainted.'

Finished recalling the past events, Liu Yang took into account his surroundings.

'This is...a white room, no, a white space? Is this what they call purgatory? Did I die?'

He was slightly startled by this thought, but soon shook his head, believing it to be him jumping to conclusions. There were a number of reasons to this.

Mainly, that he did not believe in a God, much less heaven. But even if it was true, he believed he would not have a chance to even go to purgatory.

'Of course, who would let in someone as disgusting as me into heaven?'

He always believed that if the stories were true, he would have ended up in hell just because of his appearance. Cynical is his mind as he contemplates other possibilities.

'The events today are too strange. But at least I don't have to be pushed around by that arrogant prick anymore. There must be something here to tell me where I am, or at least someone to point me directions. Now what should I...'

A small smile suddenly appeared on his face as he thought that he would not have to meet Su Heng and his other apathetic classmates anymore.

As he thinks about what to do next, his eyes suddenly land on the giant structure at the presumed to be, center of the white room. Unconsciously, he gets up and starts to walk.

'Somehow, I feel lighter in this place. Is it my imagination?'

Alone with his thoughts, he notices that not only can he walk easier, he can walk faster as well. He gets overconfident and tries to run to test his speed, but...

"Urgh!?"

A sharp pain suddenly arrived, constricting all of his limbs.

Due to the sudden pressure, he reflexively stopped and fell to his knees.

And the moment he stopped, the pressure instantly dissipated like it was never there in the first place. Still, Liu Yang knows that people don't just feel overwhelming pressure if there was not anything giving off that pressure.

'This pain I feel is proof of that.'

Large beads of sweat pour out of Liu Yang's fat body as he repeatedly breathes in and out, trying to regain his normal body state. Even though the pressure went away, the excruciating pain left behind did not leave.

At least for a few minutes.

During this time period, Liu Yang repeatedly tried to stand back up but his limbs were like metal blocks stuck to him. Even his fingers were too heavy to lift.

So he just sat there, breathing heavily and letting his sweat flow out for a few minutes before feeling that the pain was gone, and he could move again.

'I'm glad I only ran for a second. If not, I wonder if my body would have been torn into different pieces? This room's pressure was too dangerous.'

A slightly gruesome vision of death passes through his thoughts, and a more than cautious fear of the strange white room imprints itself into his mind.

"Let's try walking this time around."

Cautiously saying the words in his head for the first time since he woke up, Liu Yang takes a step forward, facing the giant doorway in front of him.

'Right foot, left foot, right foot, left...'

Slowly taking equal steps, he looks down nervously at his feet, deeply afraid that the slight change in his speed of walking would trigger that pressure once more.

The first time was bearable, but he would pass on a second time.

He might literally feel the pain of a thousand cuts if that happened.

'Besides, it's not like it would be the same thing every time. What if something more dangerous came out and killed me in a split second.'

By then, he would not have known how he died. That's how scary this place is.

'Please just spare me from that..hmm, what's that?'

Interrupting his thoughts, something appears in front of him.

'An altar?'

Something that he was sure that was not there before, was a small, decrepit stone altar.

He could have sworn that there was nothing here except the towering structure, but he decided it was not wise to apply logic to this place, seeing the dangers from before.

He was curious about the out of place object, but he already learned to be conscious of unknown dangers, and would not let his curiosity get the best of him now.

So he decided firmly in his heart, that he would not touch the altar.

He would not even dare to come close to it, so tried to go around it, as it only took a few seconds to do. Changing the direction of his feet slightly while maintaining his normal pace from before, he resumes moving towards the doorway.

But just as he had passed the small stone altar, his sigh of relief was interrupted as he discovered that he was walking in place. No matter what he did, he could not, for who knows what stupid reason, move forward.

He tried moving backwards, and he could do it easily.

But as soon as he tried to move past the strange altar, the same scene would repeat itself.

'Aaaah, is this room really trying to kill me!?'

Liu Yang screamed inwardly, as he was not an idiot.

He quickly realised that he had to go to the stone altar regardless of his will to avoid it.

Liu Yang wanted to cry, but no tears would come out.

Also thinking of going the opposite way instead, he quickly predicts the outcomes.

But, he soon placed his face on his two open palms as he thought about the underlying dangers of either choice. He was trapped by this godforsaken place.

If he wanted to move forward, he had to take a closer look at the creepy looking altar.

'Who knew what strange creature would come out of there!?'

Screaming inwardly, he shook his head repeatedly calming his erratic heart rate.

As for the other choices, it was either to go into the opposite direction where nothing could be seen for miles and miles, and starve to death, or he could just stay here forever.

In this spot, spending the rest of his days till he dies.

It was truly being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

A few minutes were spent deeply thinking about his choice.

But it soon ended as Liu Yang abruptly showed a rare resolute face, looking at the altar.

"If I'm gonna die either way, I might as well find out what sort of thing is in that altar!"

This time, he yelled out his despairingly flag-triggering thoughts, and rushed to the stone altar with reckless abandon. Of course, 'rushed' did not mean that he ran, as that would be tantamount to suicide. He was still walking at a slight pace, but his mind was in rapid motion as he quickly burned and buried all the warnings in his head, telling him to stop.

It could be said that he was completely throwing caution to the wind as he finally arrived in front of the small stone altar. Breathing deeply, he placed his hands on the stone handle of the compartment below, hoping for the best...

'Please don't be a hand...please don't be a head...'

As he remembered the various horror movies that he had watched, he sincerely prayed that the thing inside the altar was not something that was trying to kill him.

*Shh*

*Creak*

As the dust dispersed through the air while the compartment door opened, Liu Yang swore he could hear his heart beating inside his chest, mostly due to extreme fear.

He endlessly worried if what he found was a bloody knife or something like that.

But he would soon be strangely disappointed to find that this was not to be.

As for what he did find...

".....A...book?"

He could not help voicing out his thoughts seeing the unexpected object.

It was a strange, aged, black book with golden characters on its cover.

Slowly reaching out his hand, he dusted off the accumulated ash on the book.

As he held it in his hand, the black book suddenly shined, blinding the unprepared Liu Yang for a few moments as the room felt like it was filled with an ancient light.

When the light disappeared, Liu Yang opened his eyes to see that the golden characters on the book's cover had changed. Before, he could not read it at all. But now, the characters had changed into familiar symbols. It was in Chinese, his native language.

As to the words written on it...

"...Ancestral Gate..Technique?"

Liu Yang read it out loud with a puzzled expression.