The Portal of Wonderland

“The third move!”

A dull voice spread from the huge black python’s head. Ao Kui didn’t rely on any magic spell or Real Qi this time. Rather, he had resorted to the most primitive style of attack. But, this attack was the more powerful than the others.

You Can’s complexion sank. He issued a loud shout, and a spurt of green radiance burst forth on his body. Then, the shadow of a massive green python emerged behind his body; it was hundreds of feet in size. It then flashed and stood in front of You Can’s body as a shield.

Then, a loud “Bang” sound echoed. It was so loud that the earth almost shook. The air issued a thunderous sound by the impact.

The green python’s magic image collapsed and dispersed as soon as it collided with the body of Ao Kui’s black python. Then, it turned into green fluttering fireflies and drifted away.

However, Ao Kui’s body had also halted for a moment by the impact of this collision. As for You Can… his complexion had turned deathly pale, and a trickle of blood had rolled down the corners of his mouth. However, his facial expression remained unchanged. Suddenly, a golden human-shaped puppet emerged in his hand with a flash of golden light.

He then opened his mouth, and spouted a mouthful of blood on the puppet.

The blood blended into the human puppet’s body, and the puppet’s eyes suddenly opened up. Blood-red lights were gleaming in its eyes. In addition, there was an expression in its eyes that was similar to that of a human.

A shrill whistling sound spread from the golden puppet’s mouth. Then, it started to dazzle with a golden luminescence like that of a small sun.

Then, the human puppet’s body began to inflate under the golden light at an astonishing speed. It turned into a gigantic silhouette which was nearly thousand feet in size, and stood in front of You Can and Pang Yu as their shield.

The massive golden human-shaped puppet looked around. It was a wooden-carved military officer that wore a suit of golden armor. There was no infuriated expression on its face. It was emitting bursts of majestic and dreadful aura. Its overall appearance looked somewhat strange except for its blood-red eyes.

Ao Kui’s python head looked like a small hill. The huge head pounded below in a ferocious manner. In this meantime, a long and thick bolt of black lightning spurted out on his head, and wrapped around it. After that, his python head looked like an extremely big and powerful hammer of lightning falling down from the clouds of Ninth Heaven.

A cluster of black thunder balls flew out of Au Kui’s body at the same time. Then, they started to hover around him in a circle; each one was ten-feet in size. Then, these thunder balls shot towards You Can and Pang Yu in a manner that made it seem as if these balls had their own intelligence.

The thunder balls streaked across the void with a stuffy and droning “Zhi Zhi” sound. It was clear that they were very powerful since they were tearing through the void with ease.

You Can’s expression profoundly changed. He waved his hands, and a series of green lights darted into the golden armored puppet’s body.

The golden-armored puppet moved into action, and pounded its two huge fists forward to receive the python’s head. Meanwhile, a golden light shone on the surface of its huge fists. This made its fists appear like the sun.

On the other side… a glaring green radiance shone on You Can’s body, and took the form of a protective shield. Then, it enveloped him as well as Pang Yu.

Boom! A loud and earth-shaking sound of collision rang out.

Rays of two colors of light shot up to the sky– one golden and one black! This left the spectators incapable of seeing the situation inside.

Then, one black halo and one golden halo proliferated in the surrounding area at a very fast speed. They were surging around in a violent manner like a mighty billowing sea. In fact, a circle of ripples had emerged in the surrounding void; they could even be seen with the naked eye. Also, the surrounding area in the radius of a hundred miles revealed a strong earthquake-like vibration.

This astounding collision had shaken up the entire Peaceful Sun City… so much so that it seemed as if the solid ground of the city had turned into the surface of a raging sea.

The waves caused by the two haloes pounded against the protective curtain around the city with overwhelming force.

This made the protective curtain tremble in a violent manner. Simultaneously, the light flashed crazily on its surface. The light-curtain could withstand the impact only for a few seconds. And, a big hole burst open in it with a loud rumbling sound after that.

However, the intensity of the haloes didn’t reduce a bit. Instead, they proceeded to knock against the city walls.

Consequently, the solid walls of the city collapsed almost instantaneously. And, fragments of bricks scattered in all directions. Many of the surrounding people didn’t get enough time to evade it, and got drawn into it. A series of painful screeches started to rise from all directions as a result.

Even some low-ranked demon beasts outside the city got pulled into this disaster. After all, they hadn’t had any protection in front of them either. In fact, the damage that they suffered was far more serious than that of Peaceful Sun City. The fact was that nearly one-thousand low-ranked demon beasts had been engulfed in the aftermath, and had turned into meat pulp in a fleeting moment.

Even the high-rise building where Shi Mu stood shook in a terrible manner. But, it didn’t seem to have any effect on Shi Mu. Conversely, Shi Mu’s heart overwhelmed with surging emotions when he witnessed such an intense battle.

The strength of both sides involved this battle had exceeded his expectations by far. Shi Mu had experienced several close combats with Earth-ranked powerhouses so far. He had even killed three or four of them with Yan Luo’s assistance.

However, the Earth-ranked warriors that he had previously dealt with had been in the primary stages of the Earth Rank. But, Ao Kui and You Can were on a completely different level. In fact, there was a tremendous gap between those Earth-ranked primary stage warriors and these two men.

Shi Mu could also reach the Earth-rank once he switched into a beast mode through his totem technique. But, this only provided him with a short period of explosive strength. So, he couldn’t continue to fight for too long in case he bumped into a real confrontation and the battle prolonged. Perhaps, Shi Mu was far from being a proper opponent to any of these two men.

Of course, the situation would’ve been altogether different if Yan Luo agreed to lend a hand in the battle.

“The Western Continent indeed has a good reserve of latent talent,” Shi Mu was swaying in the tide of such thoughts. Simultaneously, he was considering his future plans.

Outside the city… the black and the golden rays of light finally dimmed, and revealed the situation inside.

The golden-armored puppet’s arms and head had disappeared. Also, several big cracks could be seen all over its huge body.

But, it had still succeeded in resisting Ao Kui’s attack. On the other side… only a thin layer of the green protective shield had remained around You Can and Pang Yu. But, it had still blocked the bombardment of the thunder balls.

You Can waved his hand, and a cluster of green lights shrouded the two people. Then, they shot a hundred or more feet behind, and stood firm.

“The three moves have passed. We were lucky enough to have received all moves successfully. So, I request Friend Ao Kui to keep his promise,” You Can said.

The electric lights around the python’s huge head had disappeared by now. Also, his scales seemed to have suffered some damages. The gigantic python took a glimpse of the two people, and a faint radiance flickered in his eyes.

“What? Could it be that Your Excellency wants to renege on his words?” You Can’s cold voice spread. Then, he slipped his hand into his sleeve.

Pang Yu’s facial expression had also returned to normal by now. She stood beside You Can with vigilant eyes. Also, her body was radiating bursts of grey light.

A ray of light flickered in Ao Kui’s eyes. Then, a black light flashed on his body, and his huge snake torso started to shrink at lightning speed until it returned to the human form.

“Humph! I will respect my promise since you’ve received all three of my moves,” Ao Kui said in a cold manner. Then, he turned around and flew away.

The crowd of demon beasts below saw this scene, and went after him in succession. They soon disappeared into the distant horizon… like a furious dragon drifting far away.

You Can finally heaved a sigh of relief. He then waved his hand, and shot out a streak of green light.

A light flashed on the golden-armored puppet that was in a severely damaged state. It started to reduce in size at an extremely fast speed until it resumed its original shape. However, the surface of its body had almost damaged, and there was not the slightest trace of golden light on it. So, You Can would obviously have no other choice but to discard it as scrap.

He let out a sigh in his heart. Then, he collected the golden puppet, and flew back to the city with Pang Yu.

Everyone in the Peaceful Sun City burst into cheers as they saw them return. They started to praise both the golden-crowned City Lord and Pang Yu.

“Good, we won!” Cai also shouted in excitement.

Shi Mu also felt much relief when he saw the outcome of the battle. He then flew down the building, and disappeared into the crowd. He reappeared on a small street after some time.

“Shi Tou, that snake demon has retreated. What’s our next plan? Do you want to seize this opportunity to step out of the city?” Cai asked.

“Yes, the snake demon has retreated. But, there’s no guarantee that the snake demon won’t come back again. I naturally want to leave this land of self-righteousness as soon as possible. But, we can’t leave this place right away,” Shi Mu replied.

“What do you mean?” Cai didn’t understand the meaning of his words.

“Let’s find a place to stay first. We will leave from here after three days,” Shi Mu pondered for a moment before he said.

Cai naturally had no objection to this plan.

Shi Mu swept his gaze over the excited crowd on the street. Then, he threw a glance at Pang Yu and You Can in midair. After that, he turned around, and walked toward the depths of the street.

… …

The second day…

There was a small inn somewhere in a remote side of the Peaceful Sun City. A certain room’s window on the second floor was shoved open. It revealed a person’s silhouette; it was Shi Mu.

He took a long and deep breath while looking at the street outside through the window.

Most of the pedestrians on the street were in a hurry. It was obvious that they had been affected by the siege of the demon beasts yesterday. There were perhaps a lot of people who wanted to leave the Peaceful Sun City as soon as possible.

The trace of a smile hung on Shi Mu’s face.

This was even better for him. After all, he could mix in with the crowd, and leave the city once he was assured of his safety. Also, this wouldn’t pull people’s attention toward him.

A burst of wings-flapping sound was heard at this moment. Cai was flying over from afar. Shi Mu’s brows creased when he noticed a hint of anxiousness on Cai’s face.

“What happened?” Shi Mu asked.

“Shi Tou, the situation doesn’t look good. Many people left the city today as you had anticipated. However, some of them disappeared without any reason right after they left the city,” Cai shouted.

“They disappeared without any reason…” Shi Mu nodded in a slow manner. It seemed as if he was thinking of the reasons behind these people’s disappearance.

“All of those demon beasts haven’t returned to the Swamp of Snakes. A large number of them seem to have taken shelter thirty miles away from the city. In fact, some people have even seen that Earth-ranked Dragon General Kui lingering outside the city,” Cai said.

Shi Mu’s complexion sank as he heard these words.

“This Dragon General is very abhorrent. He had clearly agreed that he would retreat with his army if he lost the bet. How shameless he is!” Cai shouted.

“He is not a shameless person. The demon beasts are only thirty miles away from the city. And, he does comply with the agreement by doing so,” Shi Mu forced a bitter smile.

This Ao Kui had completely disrupted Shi Mu’s plan by popping-up.

The City Lord’s headquarters…

You Can was seated on the main seat, and his brows looked tightly knitted at the moment.

Pang Yu also sat in the side. Her complexion had regained its original state after she had taken rest. But, she didn’t appear to be in a good mood at the moment.

“Ao Kui is keeping watch thirty miles away from the city. So, we can’t say that he has violated the agreement. All we can do is… blame yesterday’s bet. I couldn’t draw up an appropriate bet. Instead, I ended up allowing him to take advantage,” Pang Yu said in a self-deprecating tone.

“Dear Friend Pang, you don’t have to blame yourself for this. This man seems very crude and careless. However, he has a very sharp and meticulous mind. And, it’s sharp intelligence is accompanied by an inhuman physical strength. So, we couldn’t have done anything even if he had reneged on his promise yesterday,” You Can said.

“What should we do now? Should we have a talk with Ao Kui again?” Pang Yu asked.

“I’m afraid that it’s useless. Ao Kui has already abandoned his self-respect since he has resorted to such a rogue move. So, I don’t think we would obtain any fruitful results if we were to go there,” You Can said.

“We are left with no choice in the present scenario. We can only persuade our people to not leave the city for the time being. Ao Kui is unlikely to stay there forever. He will eventually return,” You Can said after a momentary hesitation.

Pang Yu nodded in a slow manner after she heard the plan. This was the only way they had to deal with the present situation.

The City Lord’s headquarters soon posted a notice in order to notify the people about the situation outside the city.

The notice got surrounded by a large number of barbarians and humans right after it was displayed.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we believe that everyone is already aware of the situation outside the city. The people of the Demon Race are still keeping watch outside the city. So, it is too dangerous to go out of the city at the moment. Therefore, everyone is advised to stay in the city. We won’t stop you if you want to leave the city even after knowing the current situation. However, we won’t interfere if any mishap befalls on you afterwards,” an Elder of the Fierce Snake Tribe stood before the public notice, and read in a loud voice.

These words had barely faded when they sparked off a tumultuous situation in the surrounding area. Everyone started to talk about this matter.

“The Demon Race can’t stay outside the city for too long. We will have to endure it for a while for the sake of our own safety,” that Elder of the Fierce Snake Tribe continued.

Shi Mu stood behind the crowd in a hidden corner. He wore a conical bamboo hat on his head in order to cover his face. Cai squatted on his shoulder as usual.

He took a glance at the notice. Then, he turned around and walked away.

“Shi Tou, what should we do now?” Cai said.

“What can be done? We are left with no choice but to stay here for the time being,” Shi Mu hesitated a bit. Then, he said.

Ao Kui stood on guard outside the city. So, Shi Mu couldn’t think of rushing out of the city without careful consideration. It would certainly be terrible for him if he were recognized by the opposite party by any means.

Therefore, he would rather choose to stay in the city, and try to enhance his strength as far as possible. After all, his prime goal was to head to the Rising to the Heavens Mountain Peak which was the Holy Land of the Demon Race. And, this goal seemed too difficult to achieve with his current level of strength.