The Portal of Wonderland

Jin Xiao Chai gawked at Shi Mu, stunned, as an expression of complicated sentimentality crossed her visage.

Shi Mu’s eyebrow was raised in surprise as well. Knowing how trigger-happy Jin Xiao Chai was in the past, she shouldn’t hesitate to punch him in the face right there and then even if they weren’t enemies.

But now that they had slumped into an awkward staring contest, he didn’t really know what to say without Jin Xiao Chai breaking the ice first.

She stared at him for a long while before finally tearing her eyes away as she started, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Me neither, Sister Jin. In fact, I’m surprised that you raided the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult’s troops,” Shi Mu replied. “I thought the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult and the Heavenly Demon Sect are working together?”

“Working together? We don’t even share the same conviction—we’re just using each other,” Jin Xiao Chai replied flatly.

Shi Mu wasn’t shocked at that answer. He merely nodded.

“Anyway, where have you been, you little punk? Why hasn’t there been any news about you?” Jin Xiao Chai changed the subject sharply as soon as she composed herself.

“Well, you already know that I got my name etched on the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult’s hit list, so naturally I looked for a way to leave Dongzhou and went to the Western He continent…” Shi Mu started to recount his experience briefly, though he was careful not to let slip any of his more private experiences.

“So you really had traveled to the Western He continent following the Dark Moon Cultists’ exodus…. I heard that it’s a bountiful land boasting far more resources than old Dongzhou Continent. That’s the reason behind your progress, isn’t it?” Jin Xiao Chai remarked, her beautiful eyes twinkling.

“Sister Jin is doing quite fine as well, really. You’re now in Late Xian Tian, and with just one small push you’ll break into Earth Rank in no time,” Shi Mu replied, nodding happily.

“Please, as if it means anything when compared to you.” Jin Xiao Chai laughed a little self-depreciatingly.

“Yoohoo, is that you, Big Sister Jin?” Suddenly, out from Shi Mu’s sleeves came a muffled voice. “Shi Tou, lemme out!”

Shi Mu’s eyebrow raised, and with a wave, a colorful blur zipped out from his sleeves. It was Cai. It circled in the air for a while before landing on Jin Xiao Chai’s shoulder.

“Oh my, look at you, Big Sister Jin! You’re getting more and more ravishing if I do say so myself! There has not been a day in these years when I didn’t miss you!” Cai exclaimed loudly, rubbing its head on her cheeks as if it was always her personal pet.

“You flattering bird, I can’t believe your mouth is still this buttery!” Jin Xiao Chai feigned anger as she giggled, her eyes brightening up with joy as she started to caress the parrot’s technicolor feather with her fair fingers.

They played with each other for a while before finally settling down.

“Have you only returned to Dongzhou Continent recently?” Jin Xiao Cai asked, wearing a strange expression.

“Yup, about a month ago.”

“Oh really? Well, it’s not in your cards to see her, then!” Jin Xiao Chai giggled.

“Her…?” Shi Mu’s brows creased.

“Ximen Xue earned a seat at the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult’s main ship and took off a month ago, which makes her the quickest disciple to make the Ascension list in centuries,” Jin Xiao Chai answered.

Shi Mu’s pupils seemed to have constricted a little at the news, but his expression remained the same, to the girl’s surprise.

“You don’t look too upset that your little crush flew away. Aren’t you sad at all?” Jin Xiao Chai asked, but her words sounded as if she meant to say something else altogether.

“Ximen Xue and I had long discarded that sort of relationship. After all, she is so devoted to training, I guess relationships and love would only be an impediment for her cultivation,” Shi Mu said, shaking his head.

A very brief flash crossed Jin Xiao Cai’s eyes.

“Besides, I’m pretty sure the whole ‘transcending to immortality’ is just bunkum for the ignorant. The more plausible story is that Ximen Xue merely left the Cerulean Ocean Star,” Shi Mu added.

Ever since he knew about the starfields and the Cerulean Ocean Star from the Azure Ape King, as well as the personal history between the White Ape Demon King and the Nine-headed Golden Jiao Dragon, Shi Mu had long questioned the validity of the Immortal Cult’s “transcending mortality” story.

“Cerulean Ocean Star…? What are you saying?” Jin Xiao Chai froze before asking.

Shi Mu hesitated for a little before finally confiding everything he knew from the Azure Ape King—the star fields and the Cerulean Ocean Star—to the girl. On her end, Jin Xiao Chai was quite stupefied by the knowledge, to the point that she was close to disbelieving it—she only took them in because Shi Mu didn’t seem to be joking about them, and she knew that it wasn’t in him to joke like that either.

“Now that you mention it, the Transcending Heaven Immortal’s claim of transcendence reminds me of some other holes I found,” Jin Xiao Chai’s beautiful eyes twinkled.

“Holes?” Shi Mu’s expression changed slightly.

“To be honest, a few days before Ximen Xue’s Ascension, I snuck into the Immortal Chamber where she had been shutting herself in for cultivation. I overheard a few of their high-ups’ talking, mentioning that they had jacked up their efforts in locating more spirit stone quarries and that they’re going to send a heap of them with Little Xue through some sort of transmission array…” Jin Xiao Cai said, her delicate brows creasing slightly.

Shi Mu’s expression changed. It’s about those spirit stone quarries again!

The Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult had been digging out every single Spirit Stone they could find all over the land because someplace out there—accessible only through a transmission array—needed it. Not only that, but they were also transporting a few of their most gifted Earth Rank disciples altogether.

This “immortality transcendence” operation was looking increasingly like a smokescreen for something else.

“So, it’s true,” Shi Mu said, sighing.

Jin Xiao Chai hesitated a bit before asking, “What’re you gonna do next?”

“I had planned to go to Lu Shan Kingdom, but it seems unnecessary now,” Shi Mu said, looking a little tired.

“Then where else could you go? And what about those Immortal cultists?”

“Look, this whole deal with the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult is a gigantic web that neither of us could escape safely if we ever get truly trapped—which is why I’m advising you to not involve yourself, Sister Jin. At least for now, Ximen Xue is most likely safe. There’s no need for you to get involved,” Shi Mu replied. “If you’re interested, Sister Jin could return to the Heavenly Demon Sect and obtain more information on the Demon Yang Ceremony, as that would be an even more fruitful endeavor. Now, I still have a few errands to run, so I’d best be on my way. We’ll cross paths again if it’s fated to be, but for now, goodbye.”

With that said, a bright green light flashed and lifted his body up before sending him to the distant horizon. In the span of a few seconds, Shi Mu was gone.

Jin Xiao Chai had not expected Shi Mu to leave so soon and so instantly. She stomped her feet, flustering a little out of frustration.

When she had finally calmed down, a forlorn expression surfaced as she stared at the remaining trail of green hanging in the sky, her mind racing with Shi Mu’s last few words.

On the horizon, a single dart of green zipped through the skyline.

On the Green-Winged Flying Carriage, Shi Mu’s expression belied complicated feelings. Judging by what Jin Xiao Chai had told him, the connection between the forces among the Starfields and the Immortality Cult was stronger than they had ever let on; Meanwhile, Xu Lu had mentioned that the mysterious woman who had abducted Zhong Xiu was likely someone from the outer Starfield as well.

He had been hesitant to leave the Cerulean Ocean Star, but now he began to feel compelled to do so.

…

Half a month later, on the barbarians’ wasteland…

The terrain of the sprawling wasteland rose and fell, dotted with sand dunes of varying height jutting out of the earth, their crests marring the otherwise boundless blue above all the way to the unseen edge of the wasteland where the sky and the earth seemed to have finally met.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past the earth, scooping dust up into the air before ruthlessly plunging them back down. At that moment, the world seemed to have darkened.

Amid the smog, a single dart of green dashed through the skyline from afar—it was the Green-Winged Flying Carriage. On it, an adult man with a bamboo hat stood, his green cape billowing noisily against the wind. Perched on his shoulder was a technicolor parrot that was trying to block the wild gale of the desert from its face with one of its wings.

The man was none other than Shi Mu, who had now concealed his presence in order to disguise himself as a normal Xian Tian level barbarian. He had pulled his bamboo hat low to cover half of his face.

As he stood in midair, his eyes took in the scene of the wasteland, and he frowned a little.

The wasteland didn’t look very different from ten years ago. It was still as barren and desolate as ever, the sole difference being the spiritual energy in the air, which was decreasing a lot more than before.

It reminded him of traveling through this place in the past—he had witnessed so many of those abandoned quarries on his way.

“Man, this crappy place never changed huh, Shi Tou. Great, the wind’s getting stronger—pfft! Paaahhh!” Cai seemed to have swallowed quite a mouthful of sand when it tried to talk.

As the flying carriage passed through broken walls and cliffs marred by frequent winds, humanoid silhouettes below increased.

Shi Mu’s eyebrows raised as he turned his attention downward.

These people seemed to have gathered in different directions. They started out scattered around the area until slowly they converged into a significant passel heading in the same direction.

It was a huge group of barbarian riders, whose mounts kicked up a trail of smog.

Judging from their appearance alone, they seemed to be the totem warriors of each tribe, including both the peaceful ones and the war-seeking ones. Upon closer inspection, the peaceful barbarian riders were still putting quite an obvious distance between themselves and their more pugnacious counterparts.

From there, one could infer that even after all these years, the peaceful barbarians and the war barbarians were still on unfriendly terms. In fact, if it wasn’t for something big happening, the two factions may likely never ride together like this.

Recognizing these barbarians, Cai suddenly blurted, “Hey Shi Tou, where do you think these people are hurrying to?”

“If their direction is any indication, I’d guess they’re heading to the barbarians’ sacred White Horse Mountain. Maybe something devastating is looming for the barbarians,” Shi Mu replied, his eyes twinkling.

…

Fifteen minutes later, somewhere in the wasteland…

A troop of about seventeen or eighteen barbarians with terrifying faces donning silver armor rode a pack of grey wolves. They howled and hollered as they rode, kicking up a mild storm of dust in their path.

Before them, a few lone barbarians instantly got out of their way the moment they saw them.

At the end of the road was a sharp turn into a mountain pass. But just as they made the turn, the troop encountered an adult man standing in the middle of the road, his beefed-up arms crossed before his chest while a single black meteoric blade was strapped to his back.

The mount the leader was riding, out of surprise, let out a piercing howl before stopping in its tracks. It almost made the leader fall.

“Who is this gentleman blocking us Sky Wolf tribesmen, huh? Do you wanna get out of the way or get out of your life in general?!” the leader shouted in anger.

A tall, muscular man next to the leader steered his ride ahead, “Lord Commander, lemme slay that piece of meat for your pleasure!”

Just like that, the man lifted his broadsword and swung it toward Shi Mu.

Shi Mu lifted his head a little and stared into his opponent’s eyes before a flash of gold scintillated from his pupils—

The large barbarian felt a pang sure into his brain before he and his ride toppled about half a yard from Shi Mu, his eyes rolling up, already unconscious.