The Portal of Wonderland

Shi Mu was in a black crater. A golden serpent the size of a house was lying in the pit.

Judging from the previous signs, the golden serpent that he swallowed through the power of the totem should be a new soul that was derived from the original serpent. Otherwise, he might not be able to defeat it so easily.

After observing for a while, Shi Mu walked to the side of the serpent and grabbed the horn in the middle of its head with both hands. He let out a sigh and slammed it hard with his arms.

Rumble!

A burst of muffled sounds could be heard as he dragged and slammed the golden serpent out of the pit with such force that he caused a stone to collapse in the pit.

After a while, Shi Mu looked at the house-sized serpent and took a step forward, walking around while examining it.

As the serpent was hit by his left hand, the surface of its scales was mostly broken and the skull was now covered with cracks. However, the golden skull was still a treasure and many precious spiritual materials could be extracted from it.

After Shi Mu circled for three laps around the serpent, he stood resolutely and had a rough plan in his heart.

He used his Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife and began to unravel the serpent’s fine limbs. Its scales, keel, and blood were not wasted and had been taken into his storage ring.

…

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

Shi Mu sat next to the Darkwater Lake, regaining his gaze from the pale red waters.

The lake remained still ever since Yan Luo entered, while Wu Ye had been guarding it without even a slight movement.

Shi Mu shook his head while standing up, turned around and walked out.

However, there was a sizzling sound behind him.

Shi Mu was curious so he turned around to look where the sound was coming from. He could see the surface of bloody red water began to ripple and swirl in a circle.

“Hua la la…” The sound gradually became louder as did the ripples on the water, turning into waves that rolled continuously.

In the middle of the lake, a swirling vortex gradually began to form. In the center of the vortex, a white figure rose from it.

The scene was the blooming of a bloody flower, revealing a cluster of innocent white flowers.

“Yan Luo, are you alright?” Shi Mu asked through telepathy as he watched with excitement.

Yan Luo turned around to look at Shi Mu and shook her head, indicating that she was fine.

Shi Mu’s sight condensed as he saw Yan Luo had now been covered by silver armor. The cracks on the surface of the armor had completely vanished. Even the breath and qi radiating from the body had already recovered.

Yan Luo stepped on the shore of the bloody lake and glanced around. Wu Ye, who was nearby, also stood up.

Yan Luo’s gaze fluttered and once again locked on Shi Mu. She looked at him from head to toe and turned around, walking in another direction.

Wu Ye saw this and followed her.

“Yan Luo, are you leaving?” Shi Mu asked.

“It’s safer for you to stay here,” Yan Luo said with a clear telepathic voice as she continued to walk on.

Shi Mu chased her and asked. “What are you going to do?”

It seemed that Yan Luo did not hear a single word Shi Mu said. She did not answer nor acknowledge his question.

Shi Mu had already become accustomed to Yan Luo’s stone-cold demeanor and was not angry. After a little thought, he decided to follow her.

Yan Luo did not say anything to stop Shi Mu from following her. She simply kept moving forward.

So it was that Yan Luo, Wu Ye, and Shi Mu all left the lake together.

The Dead Spirit corps that had been stationed on the outskirts of Darkwater Lake opened up a pathway for all three of them to pass as soon as they approached.

Yan Luo would constantly stop for a moment to adjust her direction before moving forward again. Her pace had gotten faster and faster each time.

Shi Mu did not speak and followed behind silently.

His intuition told him that Yan Luo might have something important to attend to. As long as Yan Luo did not oppose, he intended to follow her to find out for himself. He planned on taking this opportunity to learn more about his own Subjugated Spirit favor.

The altar needed its offerings, and with the strength he possessed now, it would be impossible to build.

He might not have survived his battle with Liu An if Yan Luo had not arrived. If he left, it was unknown when they would see each other again.

Either way, there would be a ray of protection at the altar. It would be impossible for the dead spirit to cause him any harm.

They had been walking for almost half an hour when Yan Luo suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned around towards them. Wu Ye who had been walking behind her also stopped.

Shi Mu saw this and stopped too.

Yan Luo looked at Shi Mu and explained through telepathy.

“When you were looking for me, I was chasing a bone bird. I’m going to look for it now.”

“Good! I will go with you then,” Shi Mu said without hesitation.

Yan Luo looked at Shi Mu with flickering eyes. She did not say anything nor did she refuse his help.

She turned around as her wings began to flap, rising high before flying away.

Following behind was Wu Ye. He too had jumped up on a cloud of fog, flying towards Yan Luo’s direction.

Shi Mu saw this and smiled. As the flames flashed behind him, two shivering wings stretched out from his back. His whole body turned into a ray of red light and flew in Yan Luo’s direction.

…

The terrain of the Dead Spirit World had changed a lot. Not long before Shi Mu arrived with Yan Luo, he had discovered that the mountains were everywhere. Sometimes the valleys were vertical and horizontal, and sometimes a river from the bloody lake streamed through small areas.

Around these lakes, there were always a few dead spirit creatures.

Yan Luo made the whole journey by wing. She occasionally stopped to adjust her direction before she continued flying.

After a day and night of flight, the three of them arrived at a hilly area.

As soon as Yan Luo landed, she raised her head and looked at somewhere in front of her, like she sensed something around.

Shi Mu saw this and looked in the same direction.

Before him was a bloody lake and half-submerged within it was a gray bone bird around 20 feet.

The bloody mist from the lake seemed to be seeping into the bone bird’s body.

“Is that the bird you’re looking for?” Shi Mu asked as his eyes turned gold.

“Yes,” Yan Luo said without a doubt.

“Hold on,” Shi Mu’s voice sank slightly.

Yan Luo was puzzled. She immediately turned around to look at Shi Mu. She was clueless as to what he was trying to say or do.

“You said that you have been chasing this bird. It is not easy to catch it. If we rushed at it, I’m afraid that it will immediately turn and flee. Instead, we should balance the dynamic with static,” Shi Mu suggested…

“How?”

“Follow me,” Shi Mu said as he walked in another direction.

Yan Luo turned to look in the direction of the bone bird hesitantly before following Shi Mu.

After a quarter of an hour, the two circumvented the lake where the bone bird was located and came to another bloody lake that was hundreds of feet away.

There was a group of undead spirit creatures here that were not so strong. After seeing Yan Luo, these creatures had long since disappeared and went back to whatever they were doing.

Shi Mu walked to the lake and calmed his breath as took out the Heavenly Meteoric Black Iron Knife, gripping it tightly in his hand. With one hand down, the tip of the black knife was now on the ground. He rotated his wrist, making an arc on the ground.

At the end of the arc, Shi Mu turned his wrists again and the arc immediately turned back in another direction.

As Shi Mu’s wrists turned, a pattern appeared on the ground. It was not a complex image, and it showed itself within a short time.

Shi Mu held up the black knife, rolled his hand and took out several pieces of spirit stones. He inserted them into the circle and proceeded to take out three different charms.

He held onto one of the yellow charms in his hands and placed them in the center of the squad. A yellow ray of light began to glow and the charm disappeared.

Shi Mu once again picked up the remaining two blue charms and they fell on the sides of the pattern. The two sides of the charm lit up two blue rays of light and then disappeared as well.

Shi Mu looked at the array and began to chant. The runes on the charms started to rush into the array.

A ray of light inlaid in the squadron flashed and the entire array completely disappeared.

This was a kind of phantom character array, a type of yin-attribute magic art that Shi Mu learned from the charm book on the Heaven-Trigram. It was an auxiliary type of cold charm, which could cover up magical fluctuations.

The array itself was an extension of the charm and adding it was not complicated. Shi Mu had made some minor changes directly and arranged it here.

Subsequently, Shi Mu went to the remaining three locations of the blood mist lake and set the same array with the charms.

When the last array was completed and the charms had been placed, Shi Mu stood up and exhaled.

He pointed out that the dark surface of the pendant on top of the suspended ceiling had brightened and a black light swept out. The translucent dwarf skeleton that he had previously conquered emerged.

“Bi Ling, you’re going to hide here.l,” Shi Mu commanded. Bi Ling was the name Shi Mu had given to the crystal skeleton that excelled in assassination. The name meant ghost holding a dagger.

The spirit heard his command and said nothing. It immediately crouched down as its eyes flashed, its translucent bones gradually becoming more transparent. In a second, it vanished without a trace.

With just one or two breaths, the spirit had disappeared in front of Shi Mu’s eyes.

If it wasn’t for Shi Mu who discovered the power and strength the crystal skeleton possessed, it would have been hard to capture the bone bird. Such a task would undoubtedly suit an actual assassin better.

Shi Mu saw this and nodded with satisfaction.

From the beginning until the end, Yan Luo stood not far away watching Shi Mu’s every action. The fire in her eyes trembled from time to time as if she was in deep thought.

Shi Mu looked at the fading bloody mist lake and walked in front of Yan Luo.

“Based on my observation, if there are no unexpected accidents, the lake will lose its rol