The Portal of Wonderland

Princess Huo Wu felt an extreme fear in her heart as she looked down from midair.

Suddenly, she realized that her waist had been tightly held by Shi Mu’s arm; it felt to her as sturdy as a piece of iron. She blushed and her cheeks turned red as Shi Mu’s manly smell entered her nose.

“Jin Huang’s in trouble,” Shi Mu’s eyebrows creased as he said in a cold tone.

“Eh… What’s the matter?”

Princess Huo Wu was startled. She had seen Jin Huang transforming into a streak of golden light, and rush towards the entrance of the cave at an incredible speed. Moreover, he was less than a hundred feet away from the cave’s mouth. But then, she swept her gaze once again. She noticed that the ice-crystal scorpion wasn’t pursuing him. In fact, it stood motionless. This seemed a little bewildering to her.

‘Bang!’ suddenly, a piece of massive ice-crystal exploded near the entrance of the cave.

Then, the ice-scorpion darted towards the entrance – like an arrow – amidst the ice-fog that had spread everywhere. It blocked the opening of the cave with its body. The cold air that had been curling up from its body appeared a little weaker now. But, its feeble body gradually turned into cold ice.

“Be careful of the ice!” Princess Huo Wu’s complexion turned a little unsightly.

Shi Mu’s complexion also darkened. He tightened his grip on his black blade.

Suddenly, the ice-scorpion sprang-up high into the air by supporting its two rows of short legs on the ground. It then raised a pair of its gigantic pincers in the air, and pressed them from either sides with a mighty force.

A huge pair of translucent ice-pincers flashed towards Jin Huang while carrying a burst of cold air with them. They then grabbed Jin Huang along with his golden light.

Suddenly, the golden light around Jin Huang’s body stopped glowing. It had been forcibly stopped once he was caught. He looked angry and startled at the same time. The circular blade in his hand radiated a bright-golden light as he snorted coldly. He then pounded his blade ferociously to deal with the ice-pincers.

‘Clang! Clang! Clang!’ A series of loud metal clanging sounds rang out in the air.

The rotating golden light collided with the ice-pincers.

‘Hiss!’ The ice-crumbs dispersed in all directions with a loud grating sound. The golden light resisted the pincers for a short while. Then, it also collapsed.

Jin Huang’s eyes sharpened. Suddenly, the black magic characters carved on the surface of his round blade started to flicker; as if they were alive.

‘Bang!’ a loud rumble was heard.

The golden blade transformed into a huge layer of golden light, and got ruptured. Then, the scorpion’s giant pincers transformed into a cloud of mist, and vanished into thin air – like snow vanishes under the bright sun.

‘Zi! Zi!’ a burst of sounds spread in the air.

The scorpion had spouted out a vast stretch of ice-flames from its mouth. It darted towards Jin Huang.

Jin Huang’s body flashed as he tried to escape. But, the ice-flames were extremely fast. His feet was grabbed and frozen into ice before he could understand what was happening.

His body crashed to the ground. ‘Ping!’ a sharp sound was issued as his legs from below the knees crumbled into bits of frozen ice.

“Ah!”

Jin Huang issued a blood-curdling screech as he collapsed to the ground. An expression of helplessness appeared on his face as he saw the ice-scorpion approach him.

A trace of hesitation flashed across Princess Huo Wu’s face as she saw this from midair. She then fished out a couple of silver charms from her bosom; they were glowing. She passed one of them to Shi Mu and spoke in a hurried tone, “This is the last trump card that I have. This was bestowed on me by my master. This is called the Teleportation Charm. It can teleport a person dozens of miles away in an instant. I used one of these the day I was attacked in the wasteland. Now, I’m left with only two of them. If it teleports you to another beast’s lair… then you can look for some good fortune there.”

Then, the Princess stuck the charm on her body before Shi Mu could say anything. After that, a faint-silver radiance enveloped her entire body.

Suddenly, a faint-silver radiance flashed before Shi Mu’s eyes. Princess Huo Wu disappeared into the silver light the next moment.

Shu Mu smelt the sweet fragrance that was still lingering on his arm. He tightly clenched the silver charm, but didn’t stimulate it at once. Instead, he urged the gloomy black wings that were fluttering behind his back. He then turned around, and rushed towards the silver fruit tree.

The ice-scorpion issued an intense whinny sound in rage. It seemed to have discerned Shi Mu’s intentions. Then, it struck its gaze at Jin Huang; the man was near the place where it stood. His feet were drenched in blood. The scorpion then pondered for a moment. After that, it moved its stinger, and started to crawl towards Jin Huang in a menacing manner.

Shi Mu’s body was shrouded by a thin layer of golden light. He was getting closer to the silver fruit tree. But, he was also aware of the situation behind him. Meanwhile, the shadow of his black wings grew faint; so much so that it was on the brink of becoming transparent.

Shi Mu heard a heart-rending cry; he was less than three meters away from the tree now. Suddenly, another ice-boulder ruptured near the freezing cold pond. The ice-scorpion then dashed towards Shi Mu while carrying a burst of strong gale along with it.

Then, a translucent shadow of ice-pincers pounced on Shi Mu with a strong cold gale.

Shi Mu clenched his teeth, and decided to ignore the approaching attack. He then grasped three Green Frost Fruits, and turned around. The black blade in his hand radiated a magnificent red light. Then, thirteen fiery-red blade shadows fled from his blade, and collided with the massive shadow of the ice-pincers; as if a fiery snake was making threatening gestures in the air.

A series of crackling sounds was heard.

The thirteen fiery-red blade shadows were routed and dispersed as they clashed with the pincers. However, they succeeded to resist the gigantic pincers of the scorpion for a little while.

Shi Mu seized this opportunity. He turned around, and grabbed the last Green Frost fruit. A group of dazzling silver lights sprouted up at the same time, and engulfed his entire body.

‘Bang!’ a crashing sound was heard.

The giant frozen pincers fell on the silver radiance around Shi Mu’s body. This caused a sudden burst of gold, silver, and white lights. Shi Mu’s silhouette became fuzzy at the same time. Then, it started to quiver. After that, he vanished into thin air.

*** ***

A burst of silver light appeared on a low-lying land in the mountainous area of the Central Region. Shi Mu’s figure tumbled down from inside the light. He rolled on the ground for some time.

Shi Mu’s face was contorted in agony. But, he quickly crawled-up to his feet, and regained his composure.

Shi Mu hadn’t been able to resist the last strike of the ice-scorpion in its entirety. His body had felt nearly half of the formidable strength of the scorpion’s pincers before his teleportation.

Fortunately, he had been able to resist most of it with his Thirteen Series of Gale-Force Blade Art. Moreover, he was under the protection of the Golden Armor Charm at that time. The Yin Qi inside his body had also played an important role. It had resisted most of the effect of the fierce and cold air that the scorpion had carried along with itself. Therefore, Shi Mu hadn’t been severely injured by the scorpion’s attack.

Shi Mu’s heart was overwhelmed with joy as he looked at the four Green Frost Fruits.

He noticed that his present surroundings were entirely different. There wasn’t the slightest trace of ice-laden mountains around him. Moreover, this place seemed to be a peaceful land since there was no trace of ominous beasts in its periphery.

However, Shi Mu had no idea where the Princess had been teleported to…

He let out a soft sigh. He then took out a Rejuvenation Charm, and pasted it on the wound that he had received on his back.

Shi Mu arrived at the top of a huge mountain after a quarter-of-an-hour. He was holding the animal-hide map in his hand.

This map was substantially different from the original crude map that Shi Mu had received. Also, many new places could be seen on this map.

However, this map wasn’t a different one. Shi Mu had updated the old map by adding several new places on it since he had secretly memorized these new marks from Mo Lang’s map.

Shi Mu had been practicing the Moon-Swallowing Art for a long time. Therefore, his memory had improved along with the extreme enhancement of his spiritual power. He was very close to achieving a retentive memory.

Shi Mu compared the surrounding terrain with his map, and identified his current location. He was currently in the north-western direction, and was around forty-five kilometers away from the Snow Mountain. His current location was also close to the lair of a multiple-headed python.

Shi Mu looked at the map carefully. He then descended from the mountain, and started to proceed towards the spot.

*** ***

A dense forest was located almost thirty-five kilometers further in the western direction from the mountain peak.

‘Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!’

Dozens of black round nuts were shot toward a running girl; as if several arrows were being shot.

This girl was none other than Princess Huo Wu. Her face was raging with fury. Her entire body was wrapped in a layer of a faint-green light shield. She was swiftly shuttling her way through the dense woods. It seemed as if she was flying rapidly in the woods.

‘Crackles! Snaps!’

These nuts were harder than stones. These nuts crushed the trees’ barks every time they hit them. In fact, they even uprooted the smaller trees.

These black nuts were several in number. They possessed a great force. But, none of them had been able to hit the Princess so far.

Princess Huo Wu’s figure was shuttling through the woods in an extremely nimble manner – like a cotton wad floating in the wind. She continued to evade the numerous attacks throughout the way in this manner.

Twenty or more grey apes were jumping crazily from tree to tree behind the Princess in her pursuit.

Each of these apes possessed the strength of a Hou Tian middle-stage beast. All of them were clenching several black nuts in their hands. And, they kept on throwing them at the Princess from time-to-time.

The apes and the Princess covered a distance of hundreds of feet in this manner.

Suddenly, a hairy ape issued a sonorous and shrill scream. The entire body was of this ape was covered in a layer of black fur. The other apes stopped moving as soon as they heard the scream. Some of them neighed towards Princess in an angry manner. But then, they started to go back from the route that they had come under the leadership of the black-fur ape.

Princess Huo Wu continued to run for some more time. She finally stopped as she noticed that the apes weren’t pursuing her anymore. She heaved a sigh of relief.

However, her elegant eyebrows were slightly wrinkled. She noticed that there were several bruises on her body; even her clothes had been smudged red.

Unfortunately, she had been transported to a den of grey apes; these apes were considered to be strong ominous beasts. She had quickly induced that the situation wasn’t propitious. Therefore, she had deployed a Body-Lifting Charm in order to escape from the converging attacks of the apes. But, she hadn’t been able to escape their attacks in their entirety; she had received some minor injuries as a result.

The Princess took out a green charm, and stuck it on her body.

A green light flashed after a moment. Then, several wounds on the Princess’ body started to heal at a rapid rate. In fact, the wounds that could be seen by the naked eye were also healed.

Princess Huo Wu took a deep breath. Then, her figure flashed as she leapt towards a certain direction.

*** ***

There was a mountain-valley in the Central Region. A stream of limpid water meandered through the canyon in the valley.

The environment of the mountain-valley was quiet and beautiful. There were green hills and clear water; it was indeed a conspicuous landscape to behold. The entire mountain-valley was crowded with various kinds of trees and bushes. Several gigantic and broken statues stood upright on the mountain. These statues appeared half-human and half-beasts.

Shi Mu would’ve recognized these statues right away if he had been there. These statues bore a resemblance to the statue that he had seen earlier.

A tall and a short figure could be seen advancing towards this place at a remarkable speed. They were following the stream to reach the place. Then, they stopped near the statues scattered in the valley. These two people were Saintess Xiang Zhu and her companion Su Gu – the man with a fishtail.

“It should be here…” Xiang Zhu looked at the blue crystal ball in her hand. The pointer inside the crystal ball was quivering and pointing towards the depths of the valley.

She then kept the crystal ball safely. Her vision got pulled towards the giant statues scattered in the valley. Her face beamed with excitement. She started to walk towards the mountain-valley.

Suddenly, a thick streak of white light bolted out of the valley, and pounced on Xiang Zhu at a lightning speed.

“Saintess, watch out!”

Su Gu’s complexion changed. He was only a few steps behind the Saintess. He knew that he didn’t have enough time to protect the Saintess from the shadow. Therefore, he shouted loudly in order to alert her.

Xiang Zhu hadn’t expected this attack. But, she responded quickly. She pointed her foot on the ground, and took a quick rotation. She then moved several feet towards a side – like a cotton wad flying in the wind. Fortunately, she was successful in escaping the white light.

However, the white light also took a quick rotation… almost as if it was alive. Then, it leapt towards her once again.

‘Bang!’ A dull thumping sound was heard.

Su Gu had caught-up with the white shadow by now. The trident in his hand emitted a blue light, and this light collided with that strange white light.

The white light possessed a mighty power, and forced Su Gu to take a step backwards. His complexion turned pale. He was still holding the trident in his hand. But, his hands felt numb from to the impact of the collision.

Su Gu needed a moment to respite. But, he was shocked to find that his trident couldn’t move. It had got stuck in the white light.

His face turned ghastly pale. He stared at the white light. He had finally realized what it was…

It turned out to be intertwined strands of a spider’s silk; these strands were as thick as a human arm!