The Portal of Wonderland

Bai Shi and Lan Feng were fighting each other on the green platform. Obviously, they were on completely different terms as they were two months ago.

Bai Shi stood in the center of the ring. The muscles of his arms swelled-up as he bombarded several punches. Each punch created a gust of air as hot as a blazing stove. The temperature of the arena was elevated because of this.

Lan Feng’s petite body seemed extremely delicate under the pressure of his punches. However, Lan Feng moved her body in a swift manner. Her waist moved like a snake as she dodged Bai Shi’s attacks; it seemed as if a willow leaf was being blown by the wind. Her eyes were fixed on Bai Shi’s movements. It seemed that she wanted to exhaust his physical strength. In fact, she was waiting for a chance to make a counter-attack.

Bai Shi and Lan Feng were equally-matched. It wasn’t possible to determine the outcome of this battle in such a short period of time.

Shi Mu’s eyes flashed as he noticed their exquisite fighting methods. They had seemingly learnt a few cultivation arts after entering the Black Demon Sect. And, they had surely become Hou Tian level warriors.

The boxing technique that Bai Shi had displayed seemed to be the ‘Blazing-Fire Fist’; it was one of the martial arts techniques. Also, Shi Mu felt that Lan Feng’s swift movements were similar to the ‘Shadow Arts’ that he had seen in the General Library.

It could be deduced from their movements that both of them had reached the first stage of their respective Hou Tian arts. Therefore, they could easily lift a heavy weight in the competition. Also, they would have had enough condensed Real Qi in their bodies if they were at the Hou Tian level. In fact, their condensed Real Qi must be far more than Shi Mu’s.

Shi Mu let out a sigh. His wasted bloodline of the Stone Monkey had blocked his progress to acquire the Real Qi. Otherwise, he would have easily reached the second stage of the Art of Breeding Heavenly Elephants with these many pills and two months of practice.

“Brother Shi, you hardly step out of your room. I haven’t seen you for so many days.” Shi Mu heard a frank and hearty laughter. A youth with curly hair and wide mouth pushed his way out of the crowd and walked towards Shi Mu; it was Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming’s loud words attracted the attention of the surrounding people. Many turned their gazes to look at Shi Mu. A few people who had recognized him started to whisper among themselves.

“Brother Xiao…” Shi Mu smiled as he nodded to Xiao Ming.

They exchanged greetings and stood next to each other. Then, they continued to look towards the arena.

“Brother Bai is a genius. His Real Qi has reached such a degree in a very short span of two months. Perhaps… he has reached the primary stage of Hou Tian level,” Shi Mu smiled as he said.

“Brother Shi, you have keen eyes; it was a pretty good observation. Brother Bai indeed made a breakthrough to the third stage of his Yang Gong Art two days back,” Xiao Ming nodded and said with a smile.

Shi Mu was startled even though he didn’t know the Yang Gong Art mentioned by Xiao Ming. He guessed that it must be at the same level as his Art of Breeding Heavenly Elephants.

Anyone would be startled to hear that someone’s reached the third stage of the art within a period of two months. This proved that Bai Shi’s talent was far superior to Shi Mu’s.

“But, what’s the matter with Brother Bai and Lan Feng? Why are they fighting with each other?” Shi Mu asked casually as he suppressed his astonishment.

Xiao Ming’s expression changed. A trace of embarrassment could be seen on his face.

“Brother Shi would laugh at me. Actually… Brother Bai is doing this for my sake. You know that one of my Flaming Demon Tokens was captured by Brother Qu Kun on the entrance day, so…” Xiao Ming smiled bitterly as he said.

Shi Mu knitted his brows as he was aware of this matter.

“You’ve been practicing in your room. So, you don’t know that these new disciples are very haughty and ambitious. They’ve learned some exquisite Hou Tian arts. So, they can’t suppress their urge to try out each other’s strength. The winner gets a token from the loser. Miss Feng had won a token yesterday. So, Brother Bai challenged her to a match. He wants to win a token for me…” Xiao Ming continued.

Shi Mu nodded as he understood the reason behind the match.

Bai Shi was a very loyal person, but it wasn’t easy to defeat Lan Feng.

Bai Shi and Lan Feng were evenly matched. Apparently Bai Shi had an upper hand. However, Lan Feng hadn’t yet displayed the full strength of her blood. Therefore, the outcome of this match was unforeseeable.

Six people were watching the match from afar.

It was clear from their clothing that they were the older disciples. Among these disciples was Qu Kun of the Blood Dragon Gang – the one who had blocked Shi Mu and other new disciples on the entrance day. He stood there with his two fellow disciples.

One of the other three people was a youth with golden hair and blue eyes; he seemed to be from a different lineage. Two of his followers stood behind him; one of them was Huo Mao.

These three people seemed to be hostile towards Qu Kun and his group.

“Brother Jin, who do you think is going to win this match?” Qu Kun sneered as he asked; he was looking at the youth with golden hair.

“I have heard that brother Qu had tested these new disciples on their very first day in our Sect. This girl with bells on her clothes had evaded your punch with a strange force that day. So, it seems that brother Qu thinks that this young girl would win…” the golden-haired youth didn’t reply directly. Instead, he asked an indirect question with a smile.

“Blood warriors are superior to ordinary warriors. Bai Shi is an ordinary martial arts warrior even though he is quite strong… Brother Jin should have a better understanding in this regard. Bai Shi might have progressed extremely fast to the Hou Tian level… but that doesn’t mean that he would be superior to the other warriors when he enters the Xian Tian level…” Qu Kun raised his eyebrows and chucked as he said.

The golden-haired youth snorted coldly. His complexion turned unsightly.

“Brother Qu, we don’t speak in code words. Bai Shi would be the new recruit for our association. We, the Holy Spirit Association, won’t get involved with Lan Feng…. We won’t try to pull her to our side. Do you have anything to say in this regard?” the golden-haired youth said in an indifferent manner.

“Perfect… that’s settled then!” Qu Kun nodded.

*** ***

Bai Shi and Lan Feng had been on an equal footing for a long time. They had exhausted their Real Qi by now. So, they were getting impatient.

Suddenly, Bai Shi let out a low sound as he heavily stamped his foot on the ground. Then, he leant his body forward and pounded a fist at his opponent.

Hot air gushed out of his fist and formed a ten feet long air wave. Then, his arm swept forward with a faint sound.

The hot air wave surged-up violently and dashed towards Lan Feng. It nearly swept away half of the ring. Lan Feng swiftly moved aside. However, she couldn’t dodge the overbearing impact of the attack and was pushed to one corner of the ring.

Bai Shi’s complexion had looked pale. However, his eyes lit-up as he saw this development. He heavily stomped his foot on the ground and shot his body forward. His palms curled-up and took the shape of a pair of claws as his fingertips emitted a cold and faint light.

“Carved Dragon Claw!”

Bai Shi’s palms formed a crafty arc as he grasped Lan Feng’s delicate throat with a low sound.

Lan Feng’s charming face turned deathly white; her beautiful pupils darkened. A fine purple light flashed in her eyes. Her hands instantaneously grabbed Bai Shi.

“Jingle.”

The bells on Lan Feng’s clothes rang as her figure got interlocked with Bai Shi’s.

Suddenly, her figure flashed and she appeared behind Bai Shi. Her charming face looked rather pale.

Her clothes were torn; a long slit had formed at her left shoulder. Five red scratches could be seen on her bare white arm. Blood was gushing-out of these scratches and dyeing her arm red.

Her eyes revealed an indignant look. She touched the ground with her tiptoes. Then, she turned around and dashed towards Bai Shi. She shook her right hand. Suddenly, a snow-white dagger appeared in her hand with a flash of a bright white light.

Then, she shouted in a delicate tone. Her dagger exuded a cold light as it was flung towards Bai Shi’s shoulder.

She didn’t aim to kill Bai Shi even though she was furious. This was because she was aware that it was just a competition.

However, Bai Shi’s expression looked strange. He looked ahead with tired eyes as his body remained in situ; it seemed as if he didn’t care about the incoming dagger.