The Portal of Wonderland
chapter-445

Chapter 445: Incessant Stalker

Shi Mu could only scream out all of his exasperation in his heart.

Dismissing his Green-winged Flying Carriage with a hand sign and then summoning his gigantic flame-wings with another hand sign, he flapped his wings and disappeared on sight, leaving only a vague trace of afterimages of fire.

“Grrrraaaauggh!!!” Far away in the horizon, the golden Jiao dragon’s body broke out of the sky as it hurled a loud roar of anger. It had expected Shi Mu to be at his absolute limit of his powers, and yet all in a sudden, that little weasel show himself to be in fact, still wielding enough power to once again activate his secret technique to escape. It was just infuriating!

At the very next second, its body burst into a shower of gold as it gave chase.

On the sky above the sea, a single trail of light—apparently a mix of red and white—was tearing through the air in high speed, while a single golden yellow glow chased ceaselessly. Once again, it was a like a game of cat and mouse as the predator refused to let the prey escape from its sight.

The first trail of light was peculiar in that it was sometimes very quick while being very, very significantly slower in others. Sometimes, it was so fast it was nigh teleportation, which allowed itself to put much distance between itself and its predator; But other times, it was so much slower than the golden light chasing after it.

Indeed, this went on for three whole days without much changes in the distance between themselves. Shi Mu never managed to cast the golden Jiao dragon of his trail, and similarly, the golden Jiao dragon could not catch up to him either.

Nevertheless, Shi Mu had only growing exasperation in his heart.

By interchanging his gigantic flame wings and the Green-winged Flying Carriage skillfully, he managed to freeze the worst of his situation on this state, yet the cost was much more than he would like to admit—not only had he exhausted all of the recovering pills on him, it even cost almost all of of his High-ranking Spirit Stones.

As he needed on hand to control the flaming wings with a handsign and another hand to continuously pour powers of the white flames, he had no natural means to replenish his lost energy while in flight. Hence, without the aid of his High-ranking Spirit Stones—even if he had an abundance of Mid-rank Spirit Stones—he would no longer be able to quickly replenish his lost Real Qi while he was at the Green-winged Flying Carriage phase.

He had only three or four High-rank Spirit Stones left on him. This marked his limit at roughly half a day more.

A thought rose in him, and the flying speed of his Green-winged Flying Carriage slowed down noticeably. The sea lying before him was embroiled in violent winds and waves, a sif a calamity was brewing.

He activated his magical eyesight and peered cautiously. A few hundred miles from where he was, on a beach, droves of tenebrous nimbus about a few hundred miles long were rushing to his direction.

At first, Shi Mu was beyond shocked. After some quick thinking, however, he became greatly overjoyed.

Suddenly discarding the idea of conserving Spirit Stones, Shi Mu took out a single High-rank Spirit Stone in his hand. With a flash of red, he absorbed the energy in it quickly.

His gigantic flaming wings fanned out the instant the stone turned grey white, and his speed once again skyrocketed. He dismissed the flying Carriage and turned himself into a single dart of crimson red light zipping towards the black wall of clouds.

He was still about three or four miles away from the gathering nimbus when rumbles of thunder shocked his eardrums. From far, the cloud of black clouds were rolling and splashing wildly a sky-spanning black fabric. Then, one after another, long bolts of lightning split through the fabric like a pair of silver shears.

Shi Mu, undaunted, flapped his flame wings and dove into the wall of clouds.

Clasps of thunder roared. He had only just entered the realm of the nimbus when densely-packed rain was already pelting his face mercilessly under the goading of unbridled gales. All around him, gales of different direction cried in harrowing wails, themselves not unlike dragons charging everywhere, without a unified direction.

Shi Mu’s eyes were golden as his flame-wings flapped. He was just about to move when he suddenly kept the wings inwards, pulling his body backwards a little—

Boom!

A strike of lightning had split towards exactly where he was a few milliseconds ago, its silver flash illuminating his face into an unnatural white while his body felt an electrifying numb.

He took some time to regain his senses, and a thought sprang into his mind. Quickly, he scanned the clouds with his golden eyes, casting his gaze through the heavy layers of rains towards the center of the wall of nimbus.

Clouds were pouring into center. The winds were gaining their stings there too, all under the backdrop of increasing flashes of lightnings sometimes as thick as pillars.

In the center of it all, however, was a gigantic space about twenty to thirty yards wide where practically nothing was going on—no storm, no violent winds, no lightning nor thunder, not even rains.

“That’s it, the eye of the storm!” Shi Mu’s pupils constricted in recognition and flapped his wings, deftly maneuvering through the hazards of flying through storm clouds such as gigantic lightning and thunders and restless rain while heading towards the eye.

Boommmmmmm!

Another rumble of thunder rocked through the clouds. The golden Jiao dragon, whose pursuit had forced him into the storm, had just been struck on its back by a single bolt of lightning. A wisp of green smokes was puffing out from the spot.

Truthfully, that stroke of lightning couldn’t possibly cause any sort of substantial damage to the Jiao dragon’s flesh—it could hardly put a dent on its golden scales. However, the more it flew towards the center of the clouds, the harsher the lightnings would become—so much so that even a Heaven-rank powerhouse would no longer be able to power through.

The golden Jiao dragon formed a ring with it body as its body flashed gold. Then, its ten-odd yards long body suddenly shortened… until it once again assumed the form of a middle-aged man in golden robe.

It scanned its surrounding with a smirk, then assumed a hand sign with its two hands. In response, countless streams of gold poured out of its body until they formed a translucent golden shield.

After that, he turned into a single dart of golden light as he dashed forward.

…

A few moments later, Shi Mu finally shot passed the last of the cloud barrier and arrived at the eye of the storm. Many parts of his shirt had been torn or singed, barring his dark skin underneath while making him looked a bit too embarrassingly shabby, but from his expression one could easily tell that he was glade he made it.

The eye was quiet, unlike the violent gales and storms happening around it.

The wall of nimbus had turned into a wall around this empty space, making the space looked like a twenty to thirty yards sized cylinder devoid of storm clouds reaching all the way to the turbulent surface of the sea below.

Shi Mu studied his environment for a while and produced five purple charms from his bosom. He tossed them into the air then made a flurry of hand signs with his both hands, ending it with a point towards them.

The five charms, as if being driven by an unseen force, coursed towards five directions until they were floating on top of the sea connected to the storm cloud wall.

Shi Mu turned to the direction of where he came. Then, with a flap, he heaved into the wall of clouds again. He hadn’t even left long enough before a soft “whoosh” echoed as Ao Zu had made its way through the wall of clouds and into the eye.

Due to its golden barrier, its body was nowhere damaged—saves for its expression, probably, which was beyond an upset grimace.

“Where do you think you’re going, punk?!”

A flash of gold lit up in Ao Zu’s eyes. It was just about to power through the wall before it when it felt a very soft, tickling sense of spiritual pulse around it. It reflexively struck out a single blow.

Bang.

It wasn’t exactly a loud snap as the golden Jiao’s attack smashed one of Shi Mu’s purple charms into smithereens. Small courses of sparks leaped out from within as it happened, before melting into the wall of clouds around it.

Bang. Bang, bang, bang.

Four more echoed as the other four charms were shattered with the same fine sparks escaping into the walls around it in a blink-and-miss fashion.

These charms were known as Thunderforth Charms in the Charm Book on the Heaven-Trigram, categorized as normal mid-range techniques. Shi Mu had only made five of them casually as he thumbed through the book. Usually, these charms could only be used during a storm with disproportionately underwhelming effects. Hence, it was pretty much seen as scrappy.

However, right here, these tiny charms had the benefits of optimal environment.

Shi Mu, who had passed through the clouds of winds, turned his head back to the eye and watched.

The wall of clouds were suddenly expanding in a horrifying speed, squeezing towards the empty space as it did until there was only five yards left of the space. Meanwhile, bolts of pillar-like lightnings had changed the direction of their strikes towards the center.

Bomm!

Came the first lightning splitting into the empty space. Then, as if it had set off some kind of chain, the second came, and the third, the fourth…

Lightnings were blasting into the empty space of the storm, wrecking its own havoc.

Shi Mu smiled as he looked. Then, very quickly, he extended his wings and fled to the edge of the clouds.

“Auchhh!”

Fifteen minutes later since his escape, a single draconic cry echoed from within the tenebrous clouds. Then, a ten-odd yards long golden Jiao dragon suddenly burst through the walls and into the sky. Its golden scales were battered and shattering, while the protective barrier around it shook awkwardly as it hung on its body. It was not a pretty sight.

…

A day later.

On an unknown area above the sea, strong gales were blowing as tidal waves rolled like mobile mountains. They shoved among each other ferociously, making muffled booms as they went along.

A single dart of red and white suddenly appeared on the edge of the sky before zipping through it. In a few flashes, it landed on a single spot on a black coral reef. It was none other than Shi Mu.

His face was pale as paper. The wings flashed and shrank back into his body as he panted. Turning back to where he came from, he seemed to be exhaling a breath of relief through his pants, too.

He took out a High-rank Spirit Stone and started to recover his Real Qi.

A day before, he had used a sea storm to his advantage, pouring much distance between himself and his pursuer while making his pursuer suffered a little. Still, it wasn’t enough to dampen the Jiao dragon’s motivation.

On his end, however, his Real Qi had once again reached critical low, and now he was bout to use his very last High-rank Spirit Stone. Still, there were about two or three days yet before he could reach the island where the Azure Ape King may be.

Shi Mu was desperate. He felt that he was being pushed to a corner, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He had used almost every technique he could come up with, but his pursuer just wouldn’t give up!

It was then when a low growl came to where he was standing—it was baritone, yet none of the loud cries of tidal waves could mask it.

Shi Mu’s eyebrow raised before turning into a single dart of black darting towards that direction.

Around this part of the sea were myriads of black coral reef of different sized. Some of them could be up to twenty yards tall, like a hill out of the water.

Shi Mu had landed quietly on one of these hill-like reef and stared forward.

Colors drained from his face. Before him, the sea was rolling with tidal waves which then proceeded to spin into whirlpool of different sizes. It was as if the surface of the sea was boiling as white steams escaped into the air.

Nearby the mist and the whirpool, a gigantic black head of an ocean beast bopped out of the water occasionally, sprouting water into the air.

These beasts were about seven or eight yards large, their heads as unsightly as a toad. Coupled with its black skin full of bumps, they were just plain ugly animals.

Shi Mu froze, “Great… Toadphins!”

Toadphins were incredibly rare sight, even on their own habitat. In fact, Shi Mu had only known these oceanic beasts through some apocryphal books somewhere. It was said that they had gone completely extinct around the Western He continent, but today, he saw a school of them here.

Being a strange group of social animals, these beasts were incredibly ferocious and cruel towards other not of their own. Each of them possessed powerful venom in their body strong enough to kill even a powerful warrior, rightfully earning them the title of “lethal encounter”.