The Portal of Wonderland

The bald man’s complexion changed.

He was sure that the scream that he had just heard belonged to the thin man of the Fierce Snake Tribe.

His heart shivered. He touched his waist, and a white light shot out – like an arrow from a bow – in the direction of the red blade-light.

It was a boomerang made-up of a bone; it was wrapped in a white light.

‘Tut!’ a stuffy sound echoed. The boomerang had hit a tree trunk; it clearly hadn’t hit its target.

Suddenly, the bald man’s figure flashed a few times, and appeared in front of the tree trunk. But, the attacker’s shadow wasn’t there.

The thin barbarian man lay on the ground. There was a wound on his chest; it was so huge that his body had almost been cut into two halves. There was no hope for him.

Two shadows of motionless people lay on the ground near the foot of the huge tree.

The bald man clenched his teeth and gurgled. He looked extremely angry and resentful.

Suddenly, a burst of clashing of weapons was heard. Moreover, Mang Kun’s angry roars echoed from a distant place in the jungle.

The bald man rushed in the direction of the sound. He finally arrived at that place in the jungle.

He saw that Mang Kun was busy fighting with a man.

This man had big eyes, thick eyebrows, and a resolute face. It was none other than Shi Mu.

Mang Kun eyes were closed. Some kind of a white powder could be seen on the outer corners of his eyes. He seemed unable to do anything about it.

However, his body was now twice its size; the muscles of his entire body were swelled-up. The color of his bulged-up arms had transformed into dark-green. Two curved and sharp cow horns were sprouting out of his head. The black axe in his hand was waving in a crazy manner, and making an intensive reflection. It seemed as if a hurricane was protecting his entire body.

The long blade in Shi Mu’s hand was wrapped in red flames. Suddenly, the flames transformed into thin but dense blade-shadows. Shi Mu attacked Mang Kun in a violent manner. He could clearly hear the sound of activity behind his body. But, there was no time for distraction to see who was coming.

Fierce colors flashed on the bald man’s face as he saw this scene.

“Princess Huo Wu, you’ve come at the right time. Come on; help me in killing this man!” Shi Mu’s vision flashed as he shot a glance at the bald man. Suddenly, he shouted out loudly. His voice was filled with happiness.

The bald man stared blankly as he heard this; he couldn’t understand anything. Suddenly, his complexion changed as he realized something.

Mang Kun shouted loudly in anger at the same time. A layer of black light appeared on the axe in his hand.

He waved his arms, and started to make cuts in a continuous manner. Each cut of his’ was as powerful as thunder. Seven or eight shadows of the black axe shot, and went out flying in different directions. Half of them went towards Shi Mu, and the other half went sweeping behind his body.

“Brother Mang Kun, it’s me… and not the person you think I’m.” The bald man moved backwards to dodge the shadows. His shout was filled with a sense of surprise and anger.

Mang Kun’s face revealed a surprised expression as he heard the bald man’s words. His hand movements became sluggish as a result.

A gentle ‘pop’ sound echoed. A section of black blade cut through Mang Kun’s chest. And, blood started to rush out of his wound.

Shi Mu had seized the opportunity of the opponent’s distraction. He had come close to the monster while deceiving him in order to strike him fatally.

Mang Kun’s body became rigid, and blood spouted out of his mouth.

Suddenly, a layer of red blade-light appeared around the black blade, and drew a stroke.

The red blade-light flashed, and cut Mang Kun’s body into two halves. Blood splashed. Then, his huge body swayed for a while, and fell to the ground.

Shi Mu’s complexion was tranquil. He swung his arm to throw-off the blood from his black blade. Then, he shot an ice-cold stare towards the last enemy.

The bald man’s body shook, and traces of shock flashed through his eyes. He couldn’t help, but took a few steps backwards.

“Your Excellence must’ve taken orders from the Priest of your tribe. Have you come to avenge your Young Master?” Shi Mu walked towards the bald barbarian, and asked in a dull voice.

The bald man’s expression changed as he listened to this. He drew another step backwards.

“If that’s the case… then go and see your Young Master!”

A vicious look flashed across Shi Mu’s eyes. His figure flashed, and appeared in front of the bald barbarian in the blink of an eye. The black blade in his hand flashed a red light, and issued thirteen cuts of red blade-light in layers.

The bald barbarian felt as if he was being pressed down by Shi Mu’s formidable and imposing aura. His body responded in a slow manner before the blade reached it. Then, the whip in his hand flashed with a loud howl. It flashed a vague shadow of the whip, and then covered the entire whip.

An ear-piercing sound echoed as the green and red lights collided. Shi Mu’s attack had been resisted in a forceful manner.

Shi Mu’s pupils shrank. He then urged his real Qi in his hand, and launched another strike.

Suddenly, the thirteen blade-lights transformed into a ten-feet-long flame of blade-shadow this time. It then chopped down on the bald barbarian.

A burning hot blade-air hit the bald man in his face even before the blade-light had arrived.

The bald barbarian was startled. Suddenly, a layer of green light appeared on the whip in his hand. Several thick whip-shadows emerged as he waved his arm. It forged ahead towards the flame of the blade-light.

The red-colored python totem on his right arm flickered at the same time, and red-colored thin scales began to appear on his body. He seemed to have activated his totem power.

But, he shot a glance at Shi Mu before he could complete the activation. One of Shi Mu’s hand was holding the blade. And, a half-foot-long black cylinder appeared in his other hand all of a sudden. Shi Mu aimed it towards the bald man.

A trace of fear appeared in the bald man’s eyes.

Shi Mu shook the black cylinder, and a piece of black awn was shot out. Then, a burst of whistling sound rose; it sounded like a demon’s howl. It was then shot towards the bald man’s chest with an earth-shattering power.

The distance was so less that it was impossible to avoid this attack.

A loud sound echoed.

The black awn’s shadows penetrated through the red-colored scales on the bald man’s body without any difficulty.

The bald man’s body was hit so hard that it went out flying upside down, and fell heavily several feet away.

Countless small holes appeared on his chest, and his torso ended-up looking like a beehive. Blood started to gush out of the holes moments later.

The bald man’s body twitched as he stared at Shi Mu with immense bitterness. The radiance from his pupils gradually started to dissipate. Finally, he became motionless.

Shi Mu let out a sigh; he seemed to be tired.

He had just confronted five high-level opponents. He couldn’t have prevailed over such opponents if he hadn’t used a certain number of tricks.

He had to pay a little price for his opponents being too strong. Now, he didn’t wish to deal with a multi-headed ominous python of the Xian Tian realm.

This series of attacks had exhausted his mental and physical energy. His mind couldn’t support his Qi even though his real Qi hadn’t been consumed-up much.

He stood-up, and started to breathe slowly.

The tiredness on his face slowly started to reduce after a long while, and his face started to regain its usual calmness.

He quickly gathered the soul bags from the corpses of the five barbarians.

Several beast souls were filled in the five beast soul bags. However, he only had one day to enter into the forbidden area which was the residing place of the powerful beast souls.

Shi Mu was falling short of time. He quickly poured the beast souls into his own bag.

Then, he turned his eyes towards the spoils of the war.

There were five weapons including the long green-colored whip of the bald barbarian, and the black axe of the huge man. Several charm characters were imprinted on the surface of the black axe. It seemed to be a magic weapon. There were three other ordinary weapons.

Shi Mu also found a thick stack of gold foliage apart from the weapons. Moreover, he found two animal hide magic charms from the bald man’s body.

Same kind of witch characters were engraved on both the magic charms. They seemed to be the same kind of magic charms. Both were emitting intense magic power; their might seemed to be quite strong. It was a pity that the bald barbarian hadn’t gotten the time to use them to kill Shi Mu.

Shi Mu took the two magic charms, and kept them for himself. He started to think about how and when he could use them.

He also collected all the gold foliage. However, he only picked-up the green-colored whip out of the five weapons since it was easy to carry. He threw away the rest of the weapons.

Shi Mu took some rest for a short while. Then, he started to walk towards the canyon.

*** ***

Several hours passed.

Shi Mu climbed-up to the top of a huge tree in a gloomy forest. His pupils turned golden as he started to look into the distance.

He crawled down from the big tree after a while, and started to walk towards the north with quick steps.

He still seemed to be away from the Central Region. But, it was less than one day’s journey. He could only find a multi-headed ominous python of the Xian Tian realm after he had entered into the Central Region.

Shi Mu inhaled a deep breath as this thought crossed his mind. He started to feel distraught and anxious.

Suddenly, he was startled as he felt that something was wrong; he stopped in his tracks.

Shi Mu realized that he didn’t know his surroundings since everything had been shrouded in a layer of mild-red fog. Moreover, it was obvious that the fog was getting denser with every passing moment.

Shi Mu was surprised. He raised his head, and looked-up into the sky through the trees. He saw that the sky had become blood-red.

He wrinkled his brows. He immediately recognized this red fog from the information he had gathered in the past.

Priest Yan Ya of the Green Tooth Tribe had mentioned about some dangers of the forbidden area before he had set out on this journey.

This kind of a sudden red fog was one of those dangers.

A person couldn’t survive in this land of ominous beasts unless he was a Xian Tian Warrior; no matter whether he was a totem warrior or not. This blood fog could make one lose one’s natural instincts, and transform a person into a violent killer.

Moreover, the blood fog could shroud-up the distance of up to five kilometers. And, the person could only restore his consciousness once he had left its coverage area.

Several thoughts started to run in Shi Mu’s mind. He took out an animal hide magic charm from his robe without a thought. He then gently patted on it, and the charm changed into a group of green lights.

Shi Mu then hit his foot on the ground, and his entire body became as light as a dead leaf. After that, he rushed through the blood fog.

However, the blood fog in his surroundings didn’t diminish even a little with the passage of time.

Shi Mu tried extremely hard to hold his breath, but he sucked in the blood fog. His mind couldn’t help, but became more and more twitchy. A blood-thirsty urge started to increase in his heart.

Suddenly, Shi Mu got overwhelmed with shock, and lost his self-control. He couldn’t help, but feel extremely anxious in his heart.

Suddenly, the sparkling and translucent bead – that he always hid in his chest – started to shake.

Then, a cool layer drilled into his body, and started to rush inside his body. It made his mood settle down. The red light that had appeared in his eyes gradually diminished.

But, Shi Mu didn’t get enough time to be happy. A shadow flashed in the corner of his eye, and his left hand became white, sparkling and translucent. Then, a white line struck out of it.

‘Bang!’ A loud sound echoed.

‘Hummm!’ the mournful howl of a beast was heard.

A wolf-sized shadow of a beast went out flying.

A black blade-light flashed at the same time, and a couple of shadows were shot. Then, a reeking smell of blood filled the entire sky.

Then, several howling sounds were heard from all directions. More shadows appeared, and encircled Shi Mu.

Suddenly, Shi Mu realized that these ominous beasts were initiating an attack on him. These fox-looking ominous beasts were more than a hundred in number. Their entire bodies were covered in grey hair. All of them had no less than an initial-level Hou Tian warrior’s strength. In fact, some of them had the strength of a middle-level warrior.

These fox-looking ominous beasts had blood-red eyes. Saliva was dripping from their mouths. They seemed to be blood-thirsty.

What was even worse was that the red fog was still curling-up from a distant place. More fox-looking ominous beasts had started to appear; their howling silhouettes were springing-up from everywhere.