The Portal of Wonderland
chapter-344

Chapter 344: Seeing an Old Friend in the Valley

“This isn’t good… How is this possible?!”

The grey-robed man’s face revealed a profoundly shocked expression when he saw this scene.

The crack in the yellow light-curtain started to expand in front of his eyes at a very fast speed. Then, it ruptured with a loud sound, and revealed a big hole therein.

A black silhouette shot out from inside like electricity, and appeared in front of the grey-robed man. Then, a-few-feet-long black blade-light hacked down on his head.

The grey-robed man’s complexion terribly changed. He opened his mouth, and spouted a small grayish-green shield. That small shield instantly turned into a large shield; it was several feet in size. Then, it stood in front of his body in order to block the attack.

Then, a loud explosive sound rang out!

The grayish-green shield blew up right away under the black blade-light like a paper paste.

The black blade-light then fell down on the grey-robed man’s head, and left his body stiffened on the spot. Then, a fine slit emerged on the top of his head… It slowly extended down to his chest and stomach.

The grey-robed man’s body split into two halves the next moment. The two halves fell to either side. Simultaneously, his blood spurted out, and his internal organs dispersed in all directions whilst fluttering along the way. The pungent smell of blood instantly permeated the surrounding air.

The other Star-ranked magicians hadn’t escaped far yet. Their faces got suffused with a horrified look when they witnessed this scene.

However, they didn’t even get enough time to get a clear look at the appearance of that black silhouette.

Clang Clang…

A burst of harp’s sound resounded. Then, a string of blue ripples emerged from the middle of the brown light-curtain, and rolled out in all directions. The ripples then enveloped the surrounding people from all sides.

A few of them felt as if their bodies had suddenly sunk into something as soon as they got caught up in the blue ripples… In fact, they felt as if they had fallen into a quagmire. The expression in their eyes became dull… as if they were in a trance. Their movements also became very sluggish.

Then, a golden sword-light departed from the black silhouette’s body. It turned into a dozen or more sword-shadows in a flash, and shot toward those people. These sword-shadows immediately shrouded those people.

Ah Ah! Sad and shrill blood-curdling screams spread from the sword-shadows…

The golden sword-lights dispersed and dissipated… They had left behind four more corpses on the ground. However, a young and petite magician still stood there in perfect condition. In fact, he hadn’t even received the tiniest injury on his body. Only the few stains from the splashes of others’ blood could be seen on his body.

However, that man’s complexion looked deathly white, and his legs were shaking. Even the expression in his eyes looked dull and lifeless.

Suddenly, the blue long shuttle emerged, and propped up Shi Mu and Zhong Xiu’s body. Then, it dashed in the direction of the Hidden Wind Valley. The shuttle had been passing over the corpses of the Dark Moon Cult’s disciples when Shi Mu threw his hand and grasped the neck of the only surviving disciple of the Cult — the petite young man. Then, he dragged him up onto the long shuttle.

The blue shuttle had the ability to expand to a big size, but there surely was a certain limitation to it. However, it was still strong enough to bear the weight of three people.

“Senior… please spare my life… I was only following orders. We had received an order from above to trap you two with the help of this magic array…” The whistling sound of the wind rang in the petite young man’s ears, and pulled him out of his trance. After that, he started to beg for mercy over and over again.

“Shut up!” Shi Mu shouted in a cold manner.

The petite young man closed his mouth, and didn’t dare to utter a word again.

“Tell me… which road has been used to transport the fleet of carriages to the Hidden Wind Valley? Or, can it be possible that they’ve already reached the Hidden Wind Valley?” Shi Mu asked in a low voice.

The young man’s eyes turned a few times when he heard these words. However, he didn’t speak anything.

“Shi Tou, I had just heard that grey-man saying that the mission has been completed. I think that the batch of goods has indeed been transported to the Hidden Wind Valley,” Cai flew over, and fell on Shi Mu’s shoulders at this moment. He then said.

Shi Mu’s eyes got suffused with a smear of cold and gloomy expression as he heard these words. Then, he directed his gaze at the petite young man once again.

“Senior, I’m not in-charge of this matter. I had only received an order to execute…” the young man’s petite body softened a bit as he started to speak in a pleading manner.

Shi Mu didn’t look at that petite man again. Instead, his brows tightly creased, and he turned around to look at Zhong Xiu.

“It turns out that we are still a step behind since those goods have already been transported to the Hidden Wind Valley. So, we are now left with no choice but to sneak into the Hidden Wind Valley, and recapture our goods!” Shi Mu said.

“The Hidden Wind Valley is the Sub-altar of the Dark Moon Cult. And, we don’t know anything about the situation inside. So, it’ll be too dangerous to rush in there in a reckless manner.” Zhong Xiu said.

“Don’t worry about that.” Shi Mu looked at the petite man with a smile on his face.

The petite young man was dumbfounded, and his complexion turned white in response.

“There’s only one way to save your life. I need to know everything in detail… whether it is the topographic map of the Hidden Wind Valley… or the details of all the formidable people therein. Tell me everything or I’ll throw you down from here,” Shi Mu said in a faint voice.

The petite young man’s complexion turned pale, and he lowered his eyes to look below.

The blue shuttle was currently flying at an altitude of thousands of feet above the ground… They were so high that only the whistling and howling winds surrounded them at the moment. The young man looked below… All he could see was the rolling mountain ranges, strange rocks, and unfathomable valley.

The young man was only a Two-Star magician, and his body was very frail. On top of that, he didn’t know any flying magic technique. So, he knew that he would die if he was thrown down from such a high altitude… even having ten lives wouldn’t be enough for him.

“Senior, I’ll tell you everything as long as you spare my life,” the petite young man forthwith made a decision in his heart, and said.

…

Half an hour later…

There was a huge valley in the Crying Crane Mountain Ranges. It was permeated with a layer of grey mist at this time.

The howling sound of wind that was spreading from the mouth of the valley made it seem as if someone was sobbing and crying.

The terrain in the valley was smooth and even… There was a wide street. It extended from the valley, and meandered into the distance along with that ancient road in the Crying Crane Mountain Range.

A city could be seen in this valley… The scope of this city was much smaller than that of the Cloud Wing City. But, it was clearly superior to small and ordinary towns.

There was a gigantic city-gate-tower at the entrance to the valley. And, the city’s gate was right below it. Also, there were precipitous walls on either side of the gate which were treated as the city walls.

There were hundreds of buildings of varying heights in the city. However, the majority of them were greyish-black in color.

Some relatively small buildings could be seen in the outermost area of the city; they were seemingly the residences of ordinary disciples. A cluster of palaces was set-up in the middle area of the city. And, a towering building stood erect in the innermost part of these palaces. It was apparently the Sub-altar of the Cult.

A blazing flame had been ignited on top of that altar… It seemed as if a torch was soaring to the sky. The flickering and dazzling brilliance of this flame was illuminating the entire palace.

The sky had started to darken now. So, lights were lit everywhere in the valley. Also, a huge stream of people could be seen on every street of the city; all these things constituted a beautiful image of a bustling city.

There was a small mountain peak near the valley. Three silhouettes stood behind a boulder on this peak… They were watching the situation in the valley from afar; they were Shi Mu and the other two people.

Cai wasn’t perched on Shi Mu’s shoulder at the moment. He had been sent by Shi Mu to hover around the peaks near the valley. Cai was obviously helping him to examine the situation in the city. However, he was also keeping watch over the fleet of carriages in order to make sure that the carriages didn’t get transferred elsewhere without them noticing.

Shi Mu looked towards the city. He had already found out a lot of things about this place from that petite young disciple of the Dark Moon Cult.

The Hidden Wind Valley was the Sub-altar of the Dark Moon Cult. However, it was located in the central region of the Crying Crane Mountain Range. This city was like a stronghold in a natural moat. Many outsiders could be seen in this place. Moreover, many passing caravans would often stay over here for some time before setting out again. Therefore, it was too difficult to sneak into this city.

“Respected Seniors, this present scenery will explain everything that I’d just shared with you on the way. Would you please set this insignificant man free now?” the petite man bowed to them, and said in a reverent manner.

“Of course… with great pleasure… but not now!” Shi Mu said, and hit his fingers between the eyebrows of that petite man like a flash of lightning.

The petite man’s eyes rolled back, and he tumbled backwards to the ground. Then, he lost consciousness.

Shi Mu’s strike had contained a little psychic force. This force was enough to keep this person unconscious for two or three days… Shi Mu wouldn’t have to kill this man if he could leave him incapable of leaking information for the time being.

After all, Shi Mu didn’t like to kill people… However, he wouldn’t hesitate to do so if he felt compelled.

“Miss Xiu, let’s go… Stay behind me once we step into the city.” Shi Mu said to Zhong Xiu who stood beside him. Then, he jumped down the peak, and entered the city. Zhong Xiu also followed him, and flew down.

They landed in a certain corner of the city near the mountain wall. Shi Mu immediately got a clear understanding of everything in the surrounding area without being discovered by anyone with the help of Cai’s field of vision.

Shi Mu heaved a sigh of relief, and calmly walked forwards with Zhong Xiu… as if nothing had happened. They soon came to a street, and got mixed into the stream of people.

They had gathered a lot of crucial information from that Dark Moon Cult’s disciple. According to him — there were two Earth-ranked powerhouses in the Sub-altar of the Dark Moon Cult. In addition, a large number of Xian Tian-ranked and Star-ranked disciples were also there.

Both Shi Mu and Zhong Xiu were formidable fighters in their respective fields. However, confronting so many enemies at the same time was still impossible for them. Therefore, they needed to be attentive at all times. Moreover, they had to keep a low-profile.

“This is the outermost part of the city. So, I think we might not find any useful information here. We’ll have to find a way to approach the central area. We should grab an attendant of the Cult so that we can inquire about it,” Shi Mu said.

Zhong Xiu naturally had no objection to this proposal.

The two people then restrained their aura, and advanced towards the depths of the city.

Several people were walking on the street at this time, and most of them wore various kinds of apparels. As for Zhong Xiu… she was clad in a cloak with a hood on her head. Even her face was covered with a fabric veil. However, both of them still didn’t look eye-catching in the crowd in any respect.

There were only a few streets where the outsiders could look for a dwelling place. The two soon arrived in the central area of the city. This area belonged exclusively to the Dark Moon Cult.

They saw a few disciples of the Dark Moon Cult standing at a crossroad. However, none of them looked towards these two strangers.

Shi Mu and Zhong Xiu exchanged a glance… They seemed to have sensed that these ordinary guards couldn’t pose a threat to them.

Two shadows flashed in the sky the next moment, and the two flew past those guards… These guards couldn’t notice them drifting away.

Shi Mu and Zhong Xiu evaded the security of the outermost area without any difficulty. Then, they submerged into the depths of the city.

They didn’t feel anything strange when they were in the outermost area of the city. But, they realized that the scope of the Sub-altar wasn’t so small now when they visited this place themselves.

The fact was that there were altogether seven or eight big and small paths in front of these two people. And, all of them were connected like the meridians of a human body. Moreover, these paths extended to the depths of the city.

These roads of varying sizes were lined with all kinds of buildings on either side. In addition, these roads were decorated with a variety of flowers, plants, and trees. The decoration looked quite artistic and creative.

Shi Mu’s brows slightly wrinkled at this moment. The presence of so many roads was somewhat giving him a headache since he had no idea which one to choose.

“Big Brother Shi, someone is coming.” Zhong Xiu gently pulled Shi Mu, and pointed her finger in the front direction.

Then, a sound of footsteps spread from the crossroad ahead.

Shi Mu and Zhong Xiu looked at each other once. Then, they simultaneously moved aside, and sneaked into the nearby bush. They also suppressed their aura.

“What a group of idiots you are… You can’t even handle a few small tasks. You almost made a ruckus in the neighborhood, but still failed to complete your task. You left plenty of stuff for this Elder to take care of. You people are indeed good-for-nothing,” a voice spread from afar; it contained a hint of arrogance.

Shi Mu’s brows twitched upward as he heard this voice. The fact was that this voice gave him a kind of familiar feeling. Also, a person’s face emerged in his mind from his old memories.

The group of people had gotten close to them by this time. Shi Mu saw that there were seven or eight black-robed disciples of the Dark Moon Cult in that group. And, all of them had clustered around a young man who stood in the middle.

The person in the middle seemed to be in his twenties; he wore a black robe which was embedded with golden edges. His clothes were ample to indicate that his identity was different from the masses.

That person was reprimanding the disciples around him with a stern and unbridled look on his face. Also, a trace of annoyance could also be seen peeping through his face at the moment.

As for the other disciples around him… they all looked very timid and obedient. All of them were nodding repeatedly.

Shi Mu’s eyes fell on the face of the man in the middle, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t refrain from revealing a trace of a smile.

That golden-edged black-robed man was none other than Hou Sai Lei!

It seemed that this man had also become one of Liu An’s followers after having reached the Western Continent. There was a saying — one must dress like the places they are in.

However, Hou Sai Lei’s strength didn’t seem to have progressed much. In fact, he was still in the realm of a Star-ranked magician even though a few years had passed since then.