The Portal of Wonderland

Shi Mu was exhilarated. He hadn’t been accumulating this moonlight crystal grain for a long time. However, he had still been able to promote his Art of Accumulating Spirit Power to such an extent. Thus, this attainment had far surpassed his expectation.

Shi Mu also felt that the magic power in his body had grown exponentially. He was about to stand up. However, his complexion abruptly changed.

He felt as if his body had frozen; so much so that he couldn’t even budge an inch.

Then, the shadow of the full moon behind his body suddenly started to tremble. It then began to issue a buzzing sound. It also began to emit an attractive force.

After that, numerous white luminous dots began to emerge from the moonlight; they emerged in midair outside the window. They then started to integrate into Shi Mu’s body.

These luminous dots gradually grew denser. And, they also started to increase in number. They eventually took the shape of a washbasin-sized white light ball. After that, they rushed forward in a crazy manner with the intention to seep into Shi Mu’s body.

Shi Mu was still unable to budge. But, his mind was still active. So, he felt quite surprised to find that the shadow of the moon had appeared behind his head at this time.

He would often practice the Moon-Swallowing Art even though he had already attained its consummate stage. However, he had always seen the dream of the white ape with a full moon’s shadow behind its head whenever he had practiced this Art. Moreover, the ape in his dream had been able to absorb a great amount of moonlight at once. And, this would always leave the moon gloomy. However, this was the first time that the shadow of the moon had emerged directly behind his own head. Moreover, he could clearly feel that his current speed of absorbing moonlight was ten-times faster than usual.

However, the originally bright and clear moon outside the window had dimmed very significantly by now.

The moonlight continued to merge into Shi Mu’s body. But, it didn’t condense into a crystal grain this time. Instead, it turned into the purest form of magic power. After that, the magic power circulated in his entire body, and subsequently blended into his lower abdomen.

His magic power saw a tremendous rise within his lower abdomen as a result. And, it didn’t take long before he reached the peak of the tenth stage of the Art of Accumulating Spirit Power.

However, the escalation of his magic power didn’t show the slightest signs of coming to a stop. Instead, it started to attack the eleventh stage!

Shi Mu’s heart blazed with excitement. He couldn’t understand the ongoing situation. But, he knew that this was a great achievement for him.

The eleventh stage of the Art of Accumulating Spirit Power was the base of the Star-grade magicians. The fact was that Shi Mu could step into the realm of Star-grade Magician if he advanced a step further!

He then calmed his mind, and started the operation of magic power in his body.

The pure magic power travelled through the meridians in his body, and converged in his lower abdomen.

The Qi Palace had already captured half of the space in his dantian. So, a very little amount of space was left for the storage of his magic power.

The magic power grew more and more vigorous as the flow of pure magic power continued to rush forth into his lower abdomen. And, it eventually reached its limit.

Bang!

The vigorous magic power underwent a sudden change. It ruptured and transformed into a small whirlpool of magic power.

After that, the whirlpool started to absorb the wisps of surrounding magic power in quick succession. And, the whirlpool continued to grow bigger as this happened.

His stored magic power was gobbled-up by the whirlpool in its entirety. In fact, it was almost as if the whirlpool was a bottomless pit. After that, this whirlpool took the shape of a very stable whirlpool. And, this new whirlpool was almost as big as his Qi Palace’s whirlpool.

The two whirlpools happened to be rotating in an opposite direction at this time. But, they didn’t disrupt each other’s motion. In fact, their mutual non-interference seemed to be an embodiment of the Yin and Yang elements.

A quarter-of-an-hour had soon passed after the magic power had taken the form of a whirlpool in his lower abdomen. Suddenly, his spirit sense began to billow-and-roll in his mind in a crazed manner.

His spirit sense was originally in a dispersed and disorderly manner. But, it soon started to converge in the middle. And, it gradually started to take the shape of a cluster of clouds.

After that, several luminous dots gradually bubbled-up in that cluster of clouds… they looked like innumerable stars in the night sky. They then formed a regular pattern with seven stars in total.

One of the stars gradually brightened, and started to exude glistening rays of light.

However, the other six stars were still bleak.

Shi Mu’s body quivered a little, and the shadow of the full moon disappeared from the back his head. The moonlight had also stopped gathering in his body by now. Moreover, the control of his body had also returned to his hands.

He opened his eyes, and an ecstatic look flashed through them.

He sensed that his spirit sense had also condensed in his mind. In fact, it had taken the shape of a Star Palace. This represented that he had finally advanced to the Star-Grade Magician’s rank!

It was a huge leap for a magician to advance from the Spirit-Grade to the Star-Grade. An ordinary person needed to spend an unimaginable amount of resources and dozens of years of practice. Only then would the-said individual witness the existence of such a possibility.

A freak combination of factors had enabled Shi Mu to achieve such tremendous growth… and that too in one fell swoop! He had drawn support from the unfathomable Moon-Swallowing Art and the Spirit Strengthening Pill to achieve this exemplary feat.

It wasn’t only his magic power that had made an inexplicable escalation. But, his spirit sense had also exhibited an immense change.

Magicians would pay more attention to tempering the potency of their spirit sense in comparison to the martial warriors.

An idea suddenly streaked across Shi Mu’s mind. He shrank that cluster of clouds in his mind. Then, he immediately inflated it.

A wisp of his spirit sense poured out of his mind as a result. It then proliferated in all directions.

Magicians could release their spirit sense from their bodies once they had advanced to the realm of a Star-Grade magician.

However, Shi Mu’s spirit sense could only spread for two-hundred-feet-or-so in radius; it couldn’t move beyond this range.

Shi Mu closed his eyes. However, the trace of a smile hung around the corners of his mouth.

His eyes were closed. But, everything that fell within the scope of his spirit sense appeared clearly discernible to him… so much so that they currently appeared clearer than they would’ve during visual observation.

Even the finest details were discernable! The traces on the wooden door… a feeble stream of air stemmed from a mosquito’s fluttering wings… earthworms within a dozen or more feet of area… Cai asleep on the roof…

All these things appeared incomparably vivid in Shi Mu’s mind at this moment.

Even the situation in a few houses around his inn appeared very clearly in his mind. However, this also left his brows creased.

He could clearly see that Jin Xiao Chai was sitting cross-legged on her bed. She was almost a hundred feet away from his room. Her hands were placed on her knees, and she was breathing in a slow-manner.

Suddenly, Jin Xiao Chai opened her eyes, and swept her gaze around like an electric current.

Shi Mu was startled by this, and his heart skipped a beat. He then hurriedly retracted his spirit sense.

Jin Xiao Chai’s brows creased into a frown as she looked around for a while. Then, the trace of a puzzled look appeared on her face.

She shook her head and closed her eyes again the next moment.

Shi Mu opened his eyes, and let out a breath in a gentle manner.

Jin Xiao Chai indeed wasn’t an ordinary Xian Tian Warrior. She wasn’t a magician, but she could still feel the weak fluctuations of his spirit sense in the periphery.

Shi Mu remained silent for a moment. But, his face revealed a hint of excitement.

He had just realized the wondrous use of spirit sense. In fact, probing into the enemy’s territory had now become quite easy for him.

Moreover, it would also be a huge advantage to have this spirit sensing ability in battle.

Shi Mu would detect anything once he’d sweep his spirit sense around. So, something like a camouflage or a hidden weapon wouldn’t be a threat to him anymore.

He shook his head, and sucked in a deep breath to suppress his overwhelming excitement.

He stood up after a long time. His eyes had also resumed their normal state by now. He then went straight to the window.

Shi Mu recited an incantation. He pointed his foot on the ground, and sprang out of the window.

A white cloud of Qi appeared around his body. Then, it started to fly while carrying his body.

Shi Mu was flying at a very slow speed. But, the fact was that… he was flying!

Shi Mu’s face gleamed with satisfaction.

This technique was called the Art of Condensing Qi Clouds. Shi Mu had grasped a new magic art as soon as he had ascended to the eleventh stage of the Art of Accumulating Spirit Power. So, he could now condense a cluster of Qi clouds by using his magic power.

The white cloud of Qi flew a short distance ahead while holding his body. It had soon covered about five-hundred meters of distance. After that, the cloud began to dissipate. Shi Mu lost his balance, and was about to fall down.

However, the white cloud of Qi hadn’t disappeared completely yet. In fact, it was dissipating at a very slow speed.

Shi Mu’s brows creased. His stature flashed the next moment, and he landed on the roof in a gentle manner without making a sound.

The Art of Condensing Qi Clouds was unable to support a real flight. Moreover, it could be maintained only for a short-distance flight — almost five hundred meters or so.

Even so, it could play a miraculous role in many situations. Moreover, this magic art didn’t require an enormous consumption of caster’s magic power.

Shi Mu’s face revealed an elated look. He again pointed his point foot and started to read an incantation. The white clouds of Qi bubbled-up again. They then carried his body back towards the ground.

…

The Dead Spirit World…

The sky was packed with numerous muddy and grey-colored clouds. This gave off an extremely depressing aura to the setting…

There was a puddle in the middle of a basin. Yan Luo stood there alone in an unyielding manner; it held a long spear in its hand. It was looking towards a black mountain peak that stood several miles away towards the front. The peak was shrouded in a layer of greyish-black mist.

Two-hundred or more armored skeleton soldiers stood behind Yan Luo. But, they stood in such a manner that they made a square-shaped formation.

Some of the skeleton-soldiers held a bone shield in their hands. Moreover, three of the skeletons were cavalrymen. They had a formidable and imposing aura around them. Also, a pale-blue soul flame could be seen in these three skeletons’ eyes.

Suddenly, the dark-blue soul flame throbbed in Yan Luo’s eye sockets a few times. Its stature moved the next moment, and dashed towards the black peak while taking the lead. The two-hundred skeleton-soldiers also dashed behind it.

Half an hour later…

Intermittent bursts of metal clanging sound rang out in the periphery of the several-hundred-feet-high black mountain peak. This was also accompanied by frequent explosive and ear-piercing sounds.

There were three-hundred or more zombies and skeletons in the opposite party… they composed an army of the undead. But, the two-hundred skeleton-soldiers still maintained an enclosed square-shaped formation. Both sides seemed to be absorbed into a fierce battle at this time.

A shriveled grey zombie pounded its fist in a slow manner somewhere in the periphery of the square-shaped formation. And, a group of grey fist shadows darted out and pounded on the edge of the formation. A skeleton soldier held up its shield to block the attack when this happened.

“Ping!” a muffled sound rang out.

The bone-shield shattered into four pieces at once. But, the momentum of the fist’s shadow didn’t weaken. It advanced and smashed against that skeleton’s body. The skeleton-soldier crumbled into pieces with a loud ‘Ka-cha’ sound.

An opening was eventually made in the square-shaped formation of skeleton-soldiers. After that, three grey skeletons gushed in from the periphery; they held a pair of blades in their hands.

One of the grey skeletons thrust its bone-blade towards a bone-spear head-on. Its right leg moved a step forward at the same time, and it wielded its right-hand blade.

“Ka-cha!” a shrill bone-cracking sound was heard.

The armored skeleton that held the spear was cleft in two parts. But, the soul flame in his eyes didn’t extinguish for a while. Instead, the upper half of its body still tried to crawl forward on the ground. It seemed that it still wanted to attack the opposite party…

However, the pair of blades fell on its body a number of times from two directions. And, they chopped the skeleton into several pieces. The soul flame finally faded away from its eyes as a result.

Then, a skeleton-cavalryman sprinted over from inside the formation; it approached while riding a bone-horse. It hadn’t even arrived when it wielded the bone-spear that it held. An edge of the bone-spear suddenly emerged. Then, it flashed and appeared in front of the grey skeleton that held a pair of blades.

The soul flame throbbed in the eyes of that grey skeleton, and a layer of white radiance bubbled-up on the surface of both its blades. Then, the blades flashed and blocked the bone spear’s edge.

“Bang!” a loud rumbling sound was heard.

The edge of the spear exploded, and a mighty air force rushed forth. This force then crushed the blades into pieces.

A shrill ear-piercing sound rang out in the air!

Suddenly, a grey fist-shadow was shot towards the skeleton-cavalryman’s face. The shriveled grey zombie approached the cavalrymen at a slow pace as this happened.

The soul flame in the skeleton-cavalryman’s eyes flickered in a violent manner. And, a line of magic characters appeared on the surface of its long spear. Then, a burst of white blame flared up and enveloped the bone spear in its entirety.

The skeleton-cavalryman wielded its hands, and a large spear-shadow was formed. This spear-shadow then took the shape of a huge fiery whirlpool. It then received the grey fist-shadow.

“Bang” a loud sound was heard.

The flaming whirlpool and grey fist-shadow were dispersed as soon as they came in contact with each other. The skeleton-cavalryman drew three-or-four steps back by the impact. Then, it regained its stability.

However, more zombies and skeletons flushed-in through the opening that had just been left by the skeleton-cavalryman. Another two skeleton soldiers in the formation fell prey to their blades, and crumbled into pieces as a result.

The disparity between the two sides was too large on the basis of number and strength. Those two-hundred skeleton soldiers in the formation were clearly in a disadvantageous position since they were constantly being crushed and shattered by the opposite party. The square-shaped formation broke apart soon enough…