The Portal of Wonderland

This was a south-facing house. It had a normal square-shaped structure, but it looked somewhat dilapidated. However, the house looked fairly normal apart from that; it didn’t seem to have any issue like the floating rumors suggested…

Shi Mu had barely set foot in the courtyard when he felt as if a kind of cold and evil aura had pervaded the entire surrounding space.

Shi Mu was walking around in the courtyard in a casual manner when Cai suddenly shouted…

“Mommy!”

“What’s wrong?” Shi Mu asked.

“Shi Tou, that… there is some problem with the room over there,” Cai pointed to an independent room in the southeast corner of the courtyard.

“Oh?” Shi Mu looked in that direction, and his heart skipped a beat.

The structure of the room clearly appeared inharmonious with the main house. It seemed that it was reconstructed after the courtyard was built. In addition, the room’s door was locked.

Shi Mu’s brows snapped into a frown, and he released a wisp of his spirit sense to probe around. He sensed that a wisp of cold and evil aura was diffused in the air. And, the source of this aura seemed to be somewhere in this room.

“Shi Tou, I… I’ll go and be on the lookout for you.”

Cai fluttered his wings and flew to the top of a tall tree in the courtyard when he saw Shi Mu’s posture… After all, it seemed that Shi Mu wanted to enter the room.

But, Shi Mu didn’t pay any attention to him. He walked forward, and gave the door a gentle push. The door’s lock fell down, and the door was pushed open. A whiff of cold and evil aura hit him in his face the next moment; this aura was far stronger than the aura he had felt before.

Shi Mu swept his gaze around the room. The interior of the room appeared simple and crude. It was no better than any ordinary room. In fact, there was nothing special about this room.

Shi Mu sank into a momentary consideration. Then, he took a step and went into the room. He then turned around in the room, and his brows suddenly twitched. Then, he opened his mouth.

A golden sword light darted out of his mouth. Simultaneously, Shi Mu’s fingers moved to cast a sword art, and the golden sword banged straight against the floor in a certain corner of the room.

Bang!

The floor’s flagstone blew up, and revealed a big jet-black hole. A strong and cold aura gushed out of the hole. The intensity of this aura was several times stronger than the aura that Shi Mu had felt in this room.

Shi Mu arrived by the side of the big hole, and looked downwards.

But, all he could see below was endless darkness. However, such darkness was no big deal for him as per his present eyesight.

The pupils in Shi Mu’s eyes turned golden. And, a fairly spacious basement appeared before his eyes the next moment.

A glimmer of happiness flashed through his face as he saw this. He had been planning to build a basement somewhere around. But, he hadn’t thought that there could be a completely different world under this house. Moreover, this meant that he had a ready-made basement at his disposal. Therefore, Shi Mu decided to make a proper survey of this basement. After all, he knew that it would save him a lot of time and trouble if he didn’t find any issue with this place.

Shi Mu jumped in and landed in an underground stone room as these thoughts flashed through his mind.

A whiff of bone-chilling air welled up from all sides the next moment. It was mingled with a faint smell of blood.

A layer of red light bubbled-up on Shi Mu’s entire body. And, this reduced that chilling feeling to a great extent.

However, it must be said that these signs suggested that those rumors weren’t groundless. There was indeed some problem with this place.

Shi Mu took a step and walked forward. But, he had hardly taken a few steps when several holes suddenly split open in the surrounding ground, and several blood-red rattans broke out of them.

The sudden occurrence caught Shi Mu off guard, and tied down his feet all at once. After that, an overwhelming suction force fell upon him. It seemed that it wanted to drag him away.

Shi Mu’s body swayed a little, but there wasn’t even a trace of apprehension in his eyes. His feet exerted full force, and clung to the ground in a firm manner. And, his body didn’t budge after that.

Puff puff!

The ground shook, and seven-or-eight blood-red rattans again darted out of the ground. They pounced straight towards Shi Mu while making threatening gestures.

Shi Mu flicked his fingers, and the golden sword shot out once again. It turned into a massive golden sword-shadow, and started to hover around his body.

Consequently, the rattan that had tied down his feet were cut off in a matter of seconds along with the ones that were about to attack him. And, a spurt of blood-like bright-red and viscous fluid burst forth from the severed rattans.

Then, stuffy and rumbling sounds spread from the floor. And, more blood-red rattans emerged out of it. There were almost fifty-or-sixty of them this time. They rushed toward Shi Mu from every direction as soon as they appeared.

Shi Mu pinched his fingers to cast a spell. Simultaneously, he mumbled something, and the golden sword inflated to the size of a door’s plank. Then, the large sword quivered in a fierce manner.

After that, dozens of densely-packed golden sword-lights burst out with a “Chi Chi” sound. They then transformed into thin sword-shadows, and dispersed in all directions.

The entire basement dazzled with golden light as the sword-shadows flew everywhere in a crisscross pattern. A bright-red liquid splattered in the air wherever the sword shadows went.

The fifty-or-sixty blood-red rattans were cut off in a matter of few breaths. Not a single one of them had been able to approach Shi Mu’s body. The floor had almost turned into a pool of blood.

However, Shi Mu hadn’t even heaved a sigh of relief when the floor of the entire basement suddenly cracked and caved in.

Shi Mu was again caught off guard, and fell down along with the floor.

He issued a low shout while he was falling, and a wisp of blue light departed from his body. It transformed into a blue jade shuttle, and appeared under his feet to support his body.

The surrounding gravels continued to fall for a few breaths before they eventually stopped.

Then, a huge hole burst open in the ground once again; it was several feet in size. And, Shi Mu fell into an even deeper underground cavern. The bone-chilling air in the surrounding was pressing. Shi Mu felt the slight chill in the air seeping into his skin even though he had stimulated the operation of fire-spirit Real Qi to protect his body.

He looked around, and couldn’t refrain from revealing a flabbergasted look on his face.

He saw a huge blood-red rattan-like monster; it had occupied a rocky wall of the cavern.

This blood-red monster was hundreds of feet in size. And, a hundred or more blood-red rattan tentacles were growing all over its huge body; there were also a few blood-red flowers in the middle of its body. In addition, a circle of teeth could be seen in the place where its stamen was located.

However, a part of this monster’s tentacles had already been cut off by the golden sword a moment ago. And, a blood-red liquid was gurgling out of the severed parts at the moment. It seemed that this injury had affected its strength rather considerably.

Suddenly, the blood-red rattan monster revealed a pair of pale-blue eyes in the center of its body. The blue eyes looked at Shi Mu who was floating in the air, and an ominous glint flashed across them.

The monster issued a loud and hoarse cry, and its blood-red flowers shone with magnificent red radiance. Then, the flowers’ petals swirled out of the monster’s body, and shot straight toward Shi Mu. It seemed as if innumerable sharp arrows had left the bowstring.

Shi Mu’s complexion changed. He pointed his hand, and the golden sword gleamed with a magnificent golden light. Then, a burst of golden light gushed out, and knitted a wide-spread net in front of Shi Mu to act as a shield.

The blood-red petals shattered into countless pieces, and showered down like a wide-expanse blood rain as soon as they came in contact with the golden sword-net. In fact, not even a single petal was able to pass through the net.

Shi Mu’s face got smeared with a hint of satisfaction as he saw this scene. Shi Mu had restored most of the golden sword’s strength by now. He had been nurturing it in the warmth inside his body for a while now. Therefore, the golden sword seemed to have become substantially powerful.

Suddenly, a muffled sound spread from the ground under his feet. Then, three blood-red corollas burst out of the ground, and made a biting gesture toward Shi Mu… like three big wide-open mouths. Moreover, each one was a few feet in size.

In addition, a thick and sturdy blood-red vine also extended from the ground; it was connected to the blood-red corollas from below.

Shi Mu was still floating on the blue jade shuttle. There wasn’t a trace of startled look on his face. He flicked his sleeves, and three big fireballs emerged before his body. Each one was almost the size of a lower millstone.

Then, those fireballs darted out straight toward these three blood-red corollas. It seemed as if they had their own eyes, and had set their attentions on the corollas.

The corollas felt the scalding heat of the fireballs, and quickly moved aside to dodge them. But, the fireballs were very persistent. They also changed their direction, and relentlessly chased after the corollas.

Boom! A powerful collision occurred between the two sides the next moment.

The three corollas were burnt black to varying degrees. They appeared to be in an extremely miserable state at the moment.

Meanwhile, Shi Mu pointed his hand, and a golden light flashed on the surface of the golden sword. And then, the golden sword turned into a golden virtual shadow, and hacked towards the blood-red rattan monster’s main body like a thunderbolt.

The blood-red rattan monster was shocked to see this. So, it pulled all of its rattans in front of its body in order to resist the attack. Simultaneously, a spurt of blood-red fog gushed out its body, and condensed into a blood-red fog screen in front its body.

Shi Mu let out a cold snort as he saw this. He then mumbled something, and waved his hand a few times.

The speed of golden shadow took a sudden leap in response. Then, it flashed and submerged into the blood-red rattan.

Several gigantic golden sword Qis emerged the next moment. They then hacked at the rattan both vertically and horizontally. Consequently, the entire underground cave seemingly got flooded with golden sword-shadows for a moment.

A loud wailing sound rang out in the underground cave. And, a blood-red liquid splattered on the ground at the same time.

It turned out that the tentacles of the blood-red rattan monster had scattered everywhere after being chopped into several pieces.

The scattered parts of its body twitched a few times before they turned completely motionless.

Shi Mu stimulated the movement of the blue jade shuttle, and slowly landed on the ground. Suddenly, the ground in the vicinity of the rattan monster burst open. And, several white skeletons were revealed as a result. The appearances of these skeletons made it seem as if some of them were beasts’ skeletons. However, the majority of them were humans’ skeletons.

Shi Mu had grasped the crux of the story in an instant. This rattan monster was the one who had killed all these people. And, this was why this house was considered haunted.

This rattan monster wasn’t very formidable. However, it had an extremely favorable location to draw support from while launching its sudden attacks. Therefore, not even Xian Tian warriors or Star-ranked magicians could guard against this monster… let alone Hou Tian-ranked ordinary martial warriors. Consequently, many people had fallen prey to it.

Shi Mu sighed and gathered these skeletons in one place for a proper burial. He then gazed into the depths of the underground rocky cavern, and a hint of curiosity glinted in his eyes.

The underground cavern appeared very deep at a glance. Also, the walls of the cave were emitting a pale-green light. These features made this cave appear like naturally-formed cave.

His eyes flickered, and he walked towards the depths of the cave.

His plan was to use this place for his seclusion practice from now on. So, he naturally wanted to explore every inch of this place before taking that step.

The road to the underground cavern was rather complicated with lots of twists and turns. Also, the cave gradually became wider. In fact, it looked very spacious after he had covered a hundred or more feet of distance towards its depths.

Shi Mu had walked over a hundred feet further when he saw that the underground cave had reached its dead-end. The fact was that it was a small cave that was hardly a few hundred feet in size since its dead-end had already arrived.

Shi Mu sized up the surrounding area, and couldn’t help but expose an astounded look on his face.

He saw that a round stone table was set up in the middle of the ground at the end of this cave. And, a few rough stone benches were arranged beside it. In addition, a white corpse sat upright on one of the stone benches; its body rested against the corner of the stone table.

The structure of this skeleton looked very broad. It should have been a great figure before its death. After all, it was emitting a majestic aura even though it had died long ago…

A green cloak was draped over its body. That cloak was damaged, but it was still emanating a faint green radiance.

Shi Mu was shocked to see all these things. He let out a soft breath, and allowed himself to calm down after a moment. Then, he walked to the side of the corpse in a slow and cautious manner.

Fortunately, nothing strange happened.

Shi Mu heaved a sigh of relief. Then, he stood beside the corpse, and sized it up.

The other clothes on the corpse’s body had already decayed. However, the green cloak was still in a good condition… except for a few big holes.

The positions of these big holes happened to be on the chest and the abdomen of the corpse. A few bones were also broken in those two areas.

Shi Mu nodded. Apparently, this person had been pierced to death by some kind of a weapon. After all, such places were convenient to inflict fatal injuries.

An idea popped into his mind, and he released his spirit sense towards the corpse in order to examine it.

However, the green cloak emanated a faint-green light as soon as his spirit sense touched it. And then, Shi Mu’s spirit sense was dispelled by a gentle force that had seeped out of the cloak.

Shi Mu’s face got suffused with a look of astonishment when he noticed this. He then picked up the green cloak in a careful manner.

The cloak felt cold and smooth to the touch… In fact, it seemed as if he was touching a liquid.

His face beamed with exultation since he had noticed that this cloak was a treasure that could dispel an opposing caster’s spirit sense.

Shi Mu could put it on to conceal himself… Then, the other people wouldn’t be able to discover him even if they probed with their spirit sense.

However, it was very unfortunate that there were several big holes in this cloak. And, this meant that it couldn’t be used until he had found someone who could mend it.