The Portal of Wonderland

“Alright, alright! I get it—I’ll let you eat anything you like,” Shi Mu replied with a smile.

To be honest, in hindsight, he was glad that he did not bring Cai with him during the infiltration operation of Heaven Ascension Peak. Even if the parrot could survive the deadly battle in that secret room, its body could not possibly survive in the Dead Spirit World.

After several close brushes with death in the Heaven Ascension Treasure Vault as well as his experience in the Dead Spirits World, Shi Mu had changed without even noticing. Now that he was back in the realm of men, watching crowds of alive people and hearing Cai’s endless rants somehow made him feel a little sentimental.

“Ahahahaha! Now that’s more like it! Living like a fugitive for these few days had made Yours Truly an unhealthily skinny bird,” Cai cheered.

“Let’s go there,” Shi Mu said as he walked toward one of the restaurants.

He went straight to the restaurant’s chamber on the second floor, ordering a few small dishes and some local beer. Cai swooped in almost the instant the food had been served.

“Cai, you’re gonna choke yourself eating this quickly. No one’s stealing your food, you know.”

Watching Cai chowing down its food like that made Shi Mu chuckle a little. He took a sip of his own tea and continued, “Right, I almost forgot to ask. Since you’ve been around Heaven Ascension Peak, has anything ever happened during these few days? A furor, a riot, something like that?”

“I was so scared of being caught by those demons that I never actually stayed close to the mountain. I just kinda flapped around the area… Om nom nom… But I don’t recall anything terrible happening back there. Seems that the Form Assuming Ceremony went on swimmingly… Chomp, chomp… Nope, didn’t hear any problem…. Burp!” Cai replied between bites and ended its reply with a big gulp of beer. Only then it seemed satisfied, narrowing its eyes contentedly.

“Oh, er… So, everything was normal?” Shi Mu frowned, incredulous at what he heard.

On that fateful day, the Azure Ape King had managed to escape while the solitaire of the Heaven Ascension Treasure Vault—the single item sealed by the White Ape Demon King—had been pried away by Shi Mu himself. As someone who had been waiting and planning this heist for over three hundred years only to have everything blown up in his face, combined with the fact that Huang Long and his co-conspirator were Heaven-rank powerhouses—shouldn’t they be making a large scene in defiance and frustration?

Or perhaps… something else had happened after that?

Shi Mu’s eyes twinkled as his mind raced with thoughts.

“Oh, I forgot to ask: did you get what you want after sneaking into Heaven Ascension Peak?” Cai asked.

Shi Mu nodded. He began to tell Cai his adventure since his successful infiltration as well as his experience being transported to the Dead Spirit World.

What happened on Heaven Ascension Peak was bizarre enough already, but the events that transpired in the Dead Spirit World take the cake for being the weirdest situation one could ever “accidentally” find themselves in. Cai was so absorbed in the story that as its jaw hung agape, it didn’t even notice that its food had fallen out of its mouth right onto the floor.

“Holy… That much trouble? No thanks, I’m glad I got stuck here,” it concluded, quite perturbed, before swallowing its food.

Shi Mu smiled faintly. He had been through so many similar experiences that he was already accustomed to them.

“Now that you’ve gotten your White Ape’s Blood Essence… What you gonna do next?” Cai asked.

“Something you’re familiar with—find a suitable place to cultivate it so that I may finally consummate the first level of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art,” Shi Mu replied.

“Are we heading back to Red Flame City?”

Shi Mu’s eyes glinted at the name. He was just thinking about the same thing as well.

To cultivate the White Ape’s Blood Essence as well as training with the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art, he would need an environment with intense heat energy—which was something the lava pools in Red Flame City could provide.

On the other hand, though, Leng Yue Tong was in that city as well—and to be honest, he didn’t really want to see her too much.

It was then he became aware of a sudden cacophony on the ground floor of the restaurant.

As Shi Mu was sitting next to the window, he cast his gaze outside, his expression changing instantly as he did.

Above the sky of Phoenix Haven City, a few fleets of gargantuan flying ships about twenty or thirty yards long were cruising, full speed ahead. Their decks were packed with innumerable people, and as the ships’ engine roared with an air-splitting racket, they hurled toward the northwest before disappearing into the horizon.

Bystanders on the ground were murmuring the whole time as they pointed at the flying ship.

Shi Mu frowned and turned his gaze away as he sat back onto his chair. From the flags erected on the decks, Shi Mu recognized the emblem belonging to one of the ten largest barbarian tribes.

From Yu Yi’s information back before he had left Red Flame City, Shi Mu already knew that the animosity—started by old bad blood and fueled by new grievances—between the barbarians and the demons had escalated into more and more frequent conflicts. Now, judging from the ten barbarian tribes deploying such fleets to provide manpower, their conflict was inching closer to becoming a full-blown war.

A thought arose in his mind. Shi Mu summoned one of the waiters in the restaurant and started asking him about the flying ships.

“Sir, haven’t you heard? The feud between us barbarians and those demons has been heating up for a while now. A few armed conflicts of significant proportions had already erupted at our border… Those ships you saw just now? They belonged to the Mystic Bear tribe aimed to transport reinforcement.”

Shi Mu was quite shocked at the news. He had not really expected these skirmishes to escalate into all-out wars. Judging from the way things looked, it would not be too far-fetched to think that it would continue to worsen.

Outwardly, he nodded. “Well, I’ve been shutting myself in for my cultivation for these few days, so I’m not exactly up-to-date. Tell me about the frontline, please. Surely it’s not going to affect us here, yes?” He asked.

“This young one has no news from the demon’s side, but I do know that three of the largest barbarian tribes had already dispatched their larger troops to the border,” came the answer. “In fact, I heard that there were already millions of men gathering at the frontline.”

After a few more questions, Shi Mu dismissed the waiter with a few low-rank spirit stones and looked outside the window, eyes twinkling while his mouth remained shut.

Seeing that Shi Mu was lost in thought, Cai knew better than to disturb him and turned to wolf down the food on the table.

“Let’s go.” After a while, Shi Mu stood up and started toward the stairs.

Cai instantly stuffed every last bit of food into its mouth before flapping to Shi Mu’s shoulder. “Um, where are we going exactly, Shi Tou?”

“To investigate the matter between the barbarians and the demons.”

“But where do we do that?”

Shi Mu answered with a faint knowing smile. A few moments later, he had arrived at the front door of a nondescript material vendor

“What are we doing here, Shi Tou?” Cai asked again, confused.

“Scouting for intel, of course. Don’t be fooled by the place’s modesty—this is actually one of the rendezvous points for the Heavenly Wu Chamber of Commerce.”

Back when he was running errands for Zhong Xiu in Rising Sun City, Shi Mu managed to obtain a lot of insider’s information about the prestigious trading house itself. Zhong Xiu even showed him the location of the Heavenly Wu Chamber of Commerce’s rendezvous point.

Cai’s face brightened up as the realization hit.

“You should hide, Cai. I’m probably being offered a bounty by the Heavenly Wu Chamber of Commerce—an obvious visual cue like you would probably betray my identity at first sight,” Shi Mu added.

Cai nodded and flew into Shi Mu’s sleeve.

Shi Mu strutted into the shop.

…

Half an hour later, Shi Mu exited the shop, his face a little gloomy. The conflict between the barbarians and demons was far direr than he had ever expected.

The ten most prominent barbarian tribes were already itching for a war, while the demon races had already started dispatching their best commanders and generals—including two Heaven-rank ones—to the front line. As each side buffed up their numbers, it seemed that a horrible war was about to brew.

“Shi Tou, it looks like the demons and barbarians are truly going for a massive bloodbath. We should avoid getting into their affairs, right? After all, this has nothing to do with us,” Cai remarked as it left Shi Mu’s sleeve and perched on his shoulder.

“No doubt about that. But once the war begins, I’m not optimistic that Red Flame City won’t be involved… So, I guess we won’t be able to go back there,” Shi Mu added.

Red Flame City and its surrounding territory may enjoy a special status, but its location at the intersection point between the two races would mean that if war broke completely out of control, the city was likely going to suffer as well.

He had already sent a message to Yu Yi and Hou Sai Lei through the Heavenly Wu Chamber of Commerce, mostly telling them to remain in Red Flame City as they collect intel.

Meanwhile, he sent a message to Leng Tue Tong as well, this time telling her that Liu An had died—although he had chosen not to disclose the details of his death.

Back in the shop, he managed to overhear that the Dark Moon Cult was acting strangely as well. As the barbarians’ greatest and most stalwart ally, the cult was unnaturally quiet and unresponsive, offering not even a single bit of help or reinforcement.

Shi Mu knew the reason behind the Dark Moon Cult’s change, of course. He could tell that this was due to Liu An, the most important player of the Eastern Dark Moon Cult. His absence was plaguing the cult.

“Now what? Where should we go?” Cai asked.

Shi Mu thought for a while and took out a map.

Seeing this, Cai pushed its furry head close to Shi Mu’s as well.

…

Times passed quickly, and in a flash, two years went by.

Somewhere close to the Western He continent lay a colossal black island about a few hundred miles in area. Its primary geography seemed to be mostly mountains, the largest of them being a gargantuan black summit where thick smog sputtered out of its tip while a roaring thunderous clasp echoed through the sky. It was, in fact, a live volcano.

At the bottom of the black mountain lay an underground cave, its wall lined with streams and streams of crimson lava before pooling into one searing lake. Heatwaves were constantly emitted from the surface of the lake in bursts, while the lava rolled into waves, not unlike the tides of the ocean. Sometimes splashes of the infernal magma would sputter into the air.

The pool of lava reflected a burning glow of red, turning the entire underground cave into a world blazing with only redness.

In the center of the lava pool was a large black rocky monolith jutting out from the surface, like a lone isle in the middle of an ocean of red. It was quite a bit taller than the lava splatter could reach.

On its surface, a man in a green robe was sitting cross-legged. He was a tall, imposing figure with a dark complexion. The features on his face were clear and chiseled, giving him a strong indomitable mien.

The entire area was completely filled with choking, maddening heat, yet it seemed to have no effect on him. Faint glows of red emanated from him as fine strips of redness entered his body from the surrounding air.

The exposed skin of his left arm was completely blackened as if it had been charred in an inferno before.

It was none other than Shi Mu. He had escaped the war between the barbarians and demons in order to further his cultivation quietly.

He muttered an incantation quietly under his breath, his scorched-black arm slowly glowing white.

Phewwwww!

As the glow became stronger, it burst into blazing white flames.