The Portal of Wonderland

Night fell. Shi Mu stood in the middle of the verdant woods, his eyes boring through the sylvan surrounding and into the farthermost distance.

It took him two days of restless journey to finally reach Mang Gu Jungle. Here, every single tree was a giant, growing up to at least a few hundred yards tall while their trunks were a few yards wide; Their lush, green leaves were inscribed with esoteric glyphs that somehow conjure a feeling of uneasiness.

He examined his surroundings for a good few minutes before he averted his gaze, looking at one of the gigantic trees at the very edge of the jungle before leaping into one of its high branches.

The battles and journeys he had gone through for these past few days had been taxing, and now Shi Mu was steadily progressing into the kernel of the entire secret territory. He planned to take one last time to rest enough for what lies ahead.

Through telepathy, Shi Mu had requested Cai—who remained at a very high altitude—to heighten its sense of vigilance to keep a lookout for him. Then he took out his green cloak and placed it on himself before dozing off.

The entire night passed without any troubles. It went on like that until around dawn, when Shi Mu could hear Cai’s voice echoing in his mind, “Shi Tou, we got company!”

Shi Mu’s eyes bolted open. He bent his body a bit and stared through the small openings between the densely-packed leaves.

Through the hazy light from the slowly-approaching morning, he saw two individuals who had passed through the same tree he had temporarily claimed as his own—two Demon race youths, to be exact.

They looked sufficiently similar to humans like himself, with the exception that their barren body was covered with fan-shaped scales. The one who was walking ahead had a body of blue scales and a power level of Early Earth-rank; while the one behind him had a body of scarlet red scales and a power level of Mid Earth-rank. It was quite an easy guess to make that these two must have hailed from the very same origin, and judging from the direction they were heading, they were planning to cross into the deepest part of Mang Gu Jungle as well.

“Second Elder Brother, hurry! According to the news from our Seventh Little Brother, most of the family is rushing towards the center of the jungle as we speak!” The blue-scaled youth urged as he advanced.

“Maybe they noticed something amiss, too… Surely you did as well, Brother. The situations we had encountered on the outskirt of the area were so different from what our ancestral records had depicted that I really don’t think we should be confident enough to enter the center of the jungle alone,” The scarlet-scaled one replied. “Maybe we should rendezvous with our brothers and adjust our plans… After all, the whole point of us being here is to join Qing Lan Holy Sect.”

“Right, I get you, Second Elder Brother. But I just… I can’t help but think that maybe, some sort of ultimate, legendary treasure had revealed itself in the core of this jungle, you know? If we lagged behind, they are not gonna leave us any spare change, are they?” The blue-scaled youth may defer to his scarlet-scaled brother, but it was clear from his tone that he was complaining unhappily.

“Hahaha, impatient as usual, aren’t you? If there really were a treasure, we’ll just let those who fancy themselves as martial art geniuses and whatnot to crack their heads fighting over it first, so that they exhaust each other’s strength for us—” the scarlet-scaled youth replied before he suddenly let out a cry, “No, Little Fourth, look out!”

The scarlet-scaled youth hopped into the air with a long, scarlet spear already in his hand in a flash; He brandished it while hovering in midair, and a large crimson flower blossomed and shot out from the tip of the spear in a spinning fashion.

The blue-scaled youth, meanwhile, looked up frantically.

A white unidentified object, about two to three yards large, had dove downwards at them from midair before bursting with a loud racket in mid-journey into interweaving milky white threads—it was a gigantic, white web enough to cover an area of ten yards!

The web had appeared so abruptly without any sign—and neither was it making even a wisp of noise as it dove down gracefully and lethally. By the time the scarlet-scaled youth had noticed its presence, the web was already about five yards above them!

The blue-scaled youth was initially stumped, but he reacted quickly as soon as he snapped back to his senses. Knowing that it was impossible to escape it, he turned his palm and a large turquoise saber appeared. He gritted his teeth and clutched onto the hilt, his hand blurred as he projected a large, overshadowing web of blue blade mirages working hand-in-hand with the crimson web his brother had unleashed earlier.

Their attacks met with the white web, but neither of them succeeded in severing a single thread; Instead, all they had created was a loud explosive cacophony.

Pfwah! The white web landed on both the blue-scaled youth and a tree lying ten-odd yards away from him. The scarlet-scaled youth, meanwhile, was saved by being quick enough to notice the ambush.

The thread became sticky and thick the moment it met with the blue-scaled youth’s body, causing his actions to become forcibly sluggish. Appalled, he struggled, and was just about to come up with any idea to escape from this—

“Kru kru kru kru….”

There was first a string of unsettlingly bizarre cries. Then there was an enormous grey monster plummeting downwards in a blur.

Towering at a height of three yards and dark grey skin, it had the frontal torso of a praying mantis but the bottom of a spider, with its snowy white abdomen spawning six lance-like legs. Then, from its chest, a pair of scythe-like arms sprouted, glowing in a sinister glow of green as if they were scythes made out of green jade.

“A Late-Earth rank Spider-mantis!” The scarlet-scaled youth blurted in panic, his face twisted in alarm.

He raised his spear into the air and conjured a drove of searing flames from its tips, which orbited around it before merging into a large fiery pillar of flames racing towards the large, grey beast.

The Spider-mantis, hovering in midair, opened its jaw wide and spewed out a ball of milky-white thread.

Bwang!

The ball exploded into another large white web catching the flaming pillar right in its middle without any trouble.

“Just! Use! Your! Watery Vault Heaven Jade!” Panicked, the scarlet-scaled youth screamed.

The ensnared blue-scaled youth was faintly glowing in a blue as he swung his turquoise saber repetitively in every angle and rending method he could think of. He was doing everything he could to break out of the web, but he plainly ignored his brother’s words.

The Spider-mantis was not kind enough to give the youth another chance to escape. It waved its frontal scythe-like arms and projected two arcs of spinning, emerald-colored energy blades crisscrossing each other as they hurled downwards—

“Nooooo!” The blue-scaled youth was desperate. The only defense he could think of was to stick the large, turquoise saber before himself…

Pwang-krang! The saber shattered immediately upon contact with the emerald-colored energy bursts, which then proceeded to cleave through the blue-scaled youth. At the very last millisecond, the youth had even managed to spring more of his own blue scales all around his body, but the energy bursts melted into his skin without being deterred at all.

Chirrplat!

The blue-scaled youth was cut into four pieces. His innards spilled out of his body with a fountain of blood.

Watching among the branch not far from the scene, Shi Mu took in a sharp inhale. This was the strongest demon beast he had ever met ever since entering the secret territory—this was one horrifying monster!

Cai, who had found its haven on Shi Mu’s shoulder, was so terrified of what it was seeing that it was as frozen and silent as a statue as if any movement or any sound would attract the Spider-mantis to them.

Once the blue-scaled youth was killed, the Spider-mantis’s polygonal eyes fell onto his scarlet-scaled brother.

In a flash and a display of terrifying dexterity, the Spider-mantis propelled itself towards the youth with a forceful push from its three lance-like legs! In a blink of an eye, it had locked itself into a melee with the scarlet-scaled youth!

The scarlet-scaled youth was formidable, displaying incredible powers and skills in his fight as well as being aided by a powerful spirit tool, but even at his best he was merely a Mid-Earth rank fighter. Now, facing the full brunt of a Peak-Earth rank monster alone, it didn’t take a long time before he started to struggle.

He held off for a while, but it was apparent that he didn’t stand a chance to take the creature out. And so, gritting his teeth, he took an opening to crush the Watery Vault Heaven Jade that had longed been nested in his hand.

A shroud of glistening water emerged and engulfed him. Then, as if being swallowed by the void, he disappeared, leaving only a single Qing Shan Order falling onto the ground.

…

The enormous Spider-mantis froze for a while, dumbfounded that its dinner had stood it up. Then, rubbing its gigantic scythe-like arms together with its polygonal eyes shimmering in red, its six legs started scrambling towards the deepest part of the jungle in a grey blur.

In a blink of an eye, it was gone.

“Good riddance!” Shi Mu relaxed while Cai let out a long-held breath.

He stood in his spot for a good few minutes, however, before being very sure that the worst of the danger had really, really left, before letting Cai fly into the air once more. Then, very carefully, he jumped down from the branch and onto the ground, deciding to quickly find the two fallen youths’ Qing Shan Orders and leave immediately.

He started towards the one where the scarlet-scaled youth had dropped—

He didn’t even travel much distance when his peripheral vision caught sight of a flash of ashen grey enough to make a man’s blood run cold—and it was striking right at him!

Shi Mu stomped the earth forcefully and sprung forward like a released arrow, narrowly missing the cold, grey silhouette before landing skillfully on a nearby tree.

The grey silhouette flashed through the tree behind the one Shi Mu was at, causing its trunk to hum and vibrate gently… before the entire tree toppled in a loud crash. The single blow dealt on its trunk was apparently clean, rounded, and smooth.

Boooooooom!

Leaves around him were mangled into shreds by an explosive burst of wind, and from the chaos the grey Spider-mantis emerged, landing on another tree that was not far enough from where Shi Mu was. Its six humongous legs clawed around the trunk, easily burrowing deep into the trunk and scrapping out a spray of wooden debris while carving out deep marks on the trunk.

Its red polygonal eyes were boring through Shi Mu with its callous redness.

At the next second, the grey Spider-mantis’ feet shuffled—and it once again turned into a single dart of grey blur hurling at a frightening speed.

Shi Mu glowed in a deep scarlet red aura as his flame wings sprouted, allowing him to soar straight up into the air and evaded yet another attack.

That Spider-mantis was a melee master, and it was armed with a pair of scythe-like arms so sharp Shi Mu actually thought against using his own otherwise-strong body to brace its attack. Worse, this monster was so bloody quick in its feet that it threw the option of turning it into a game of cat-and-mouse with the cover of the jungle completely out of consideration.

Whatever Shi Mu planned to do—the most important thing he had to do first was to put as much distance between himself and that thing pronto.

Zzzip, zzzip!

The grey Spider-mantis let out a bizarre call from its jaw as if it was furious at itself for not being able to land its hit twice in a row.

Then, its enormous grey body blurred and it vanished from sight.

A look of alarm crossed Shi Mu’s visage. Then, with a flash of grey above its head, the Spider-mantis broke down from the air and swung its scythe-like arms downwards at Shi Mu’s head, as if it was going to cleave him into parts.

Shi Mu was far from panicking, however—instead, he was calm. With a flash of black light, mirages of the Black Meteorite Iron Blade and the short rod had surfaced to meet the Spider-mantis’ attack.

Clannnnnggggg!

Shi Mu’s arms numbed before a large force knocked him backward from midair, slamming him downwards into the jungle floor below like a meteor.

The Spider-mantis’ body, meanwhile, flew backward over a few yards as well, only managing to stabilize its footing after rocking uncontrollably for a while.