The Portal of Wonderland
chapter-500-30041322

Chapter 500: An Endless Maze

Shi Mu looked around him and his heart flustered for a second.

With him as the center, there were eight passages in the fog around them. All were high-rise gray walls on both sides with a hollow appearance in the middle.

After some observation, each of the passages looked exactly the same from the other passages around the entrance, which was quite strange.

Shi Mu’s eyes condensed as he released his spirit sense out toward the passages.

However, after going deeper into the never-ending passage, his spirit sense felt like it hit a soft wall. Although there were no signs of damage, he could not move forward.

Shi Mu saw this and laughed bitterly.

It seemed that he had been overconfident, thinking this would be another easy task that he could complete without a hassle. It was expected for the azure ancestors to leave such a difficult task for him. He just did not anticipate how difficult but would be.

Shi Mu’s eyes flashed as his sight swept through the entrances of the eight passages once again. After careful observation, there was still no obvious difference that allowed him to see what was blocking his spirit sense.

Shi Mu bit his lips in frustration. After gathering his emotions, he chose a passage and walked in slowly.

It did not take him long to encounter a layer of fog in the passage. The fog walls on both sides were much thinner. With a wave of his hand, it spread out into all directions, like a vapor.

Seeing this, Shi Mu was intrigued and reached out toward the fog wall on his left. Trying to see if he could cross over it.

However, as his palm touched cane into contact with the foggy wall, he could only feel a tingling coldness. The touch was different from a physical wall.

It was obvious that these fog walls were made of fog but they seemed to be engraved with some kind of prohibition charm.

He did not intend to use force just to test it out. If it was a charm cast by the azure ancestor. Only a person with great strength and power could break it. If he tampered with it and the seal came off, who knows what kind of problems might erupt. It was definitely not worth the risk.

He made his decision and continued to move forward though he was slightly disappointed.

He walked straight through the fog passage for about a hundred feet when finally he arrived at a relatively wide area. Within the fog, there seemed to be an exit.

Shi Mu’s brows arched a little over the sighting. He quickly picked up his pace and walked over to the fog.

Shockingly, as he exited the passage, he arrived at another area. He was immediately dumbfounded.

Around him, there seemed to be another eight foggy passageways.

At first glance, Shi Mu was in awe. The passages were exactly the same as the ones he had seen before. Even upon closer observation with his spirit sense, all the passages were exactly the same.

Could it be that he had come back to where he started?

Shi Mu was shocked and his expression immediately became stern. Although he did not understand what was happening in front of him, he did not panic. He observed me his surroundings more thoroughly.

Whatever it may be, it would be better if he retraced his steps back to the original path he came from and tried out another passage instead.

With such thoughts lingering in Shi Mu’s head, he did not hesitate to turn back to the passage he initially took to go back to the original point in order to take another passage.

After a brief moment, Shi Mu walked out from the end of the passage and looked around. As expected, the situation after the first passage was generally the same.

Therefore, Shi Mu re-entered the original center again and chose the third passage this time.

…

After three hours of going back and forth, Shi Mu once again walked out of a passage.

He looked at the eight gray passages in front of him and only then realized the seriousness of the problem. Cold sweat emerged on his forehead and dropped to the ground.

He had tried to go through the eight passages. He had tried all the passages, but no matter how hard he tried, he would still be greeted by the same situation as the original center.

There was no end to all eight passages.

At this moment, he felt like he was trapped in an endless cycle, constantly bound to the same place. He was unable to leave even if he had arrived to the center where he originated.

At this moment, he was unsure of what to do next.

After all, there was a certain time limit for the Primordial spirit to leave one’s body. If it left too long, the spirit would lose its way back to the original body. It would be a huge problem if his own body was not able to leave and his spirit could not return to his body.

In his mind, he could not help but regret his hasty decision of entering the maze.

After a long time, Shi Mu let out a sigh of relief and his expression became firm again.

It was useless to regret now. The only way to go was to pass the test here. After all, if he could not get the second phase, he might forever be stuck here.

After a while, he refreshed his memory again and returned to the starting point. His eyes looked toward the eight channels right in front of him. He had decided to go into the leftmost passage.

Since he could not find the right path, he decided to try all the passages in the most primitive way, He would not believe that he could not find the correct passage.

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

Shi Mu stood in a gray passage and his face looked gloomy.

In the past two months, he had persevered. He had tried every single passage available and there was a total of no less than 10,000 passages available. Shi Mu had even mapped out the passage at this point. However, he still did not manage to find out even the slightest information to help him escape from this labyrinth. Whenever he arrived at a passage, he would be greeted by another seven passages that looked exactly the same.

…

At the same time, Shi Mu closed the door to the secret chamber outside.

Cai was lazing on one of the giant trees outside the secret chamber. He squinted his eyes, as if he was about to doze off at any moment.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard. Cai sobered and looked up.

A tall, middle-aged man with a fat body like a ball came over. He had a small round hat on his head. It was none other than the attendant that was in charge of the management of the residence, Qi Feng.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Cai flew down from the roof and said.

“Master Cai, it’s almost the end of the month. There are some issues I would like to report to the young master. Would you mind sending him the message?” Qi Feng bowed respectfully and said.

Ever since Cui Huan had been cultivating, all the management was handled by Qi Feng.

“Oh, what’s the big deal?” Cai asked.

“It is actually not much of a big deal. Some of the herbs planted in the spiritual land are already partially mature. I was wondering what young master would like to do with them,” Qi explained.

“Shi Mu has been in his retreat recently. Small issues like this can surely be done by you,” Cai said impatiently.

Qi Feng saw that Cai seemed to be in a bad mood and quickly ended the conversation to retire.

After ushering Qi Feng away, Cai flew back to his original spot and closed his eyes to rest. However, he felt slightly anxious.

Since Shi Mu’s retreat ten days ago, the connection between them had been more unstable. Whenever he passed down some information to Shi Mu, there was never a reply.

This situation had never happened before. Even when Shi Mu was in his retreat back in the spirit fountain, Shi Mu would still respond to him. However, this time, it had been completely different. It made him quite worried. What if something had happened to Shi Mu and he knew nothing about it…

…

Imprisoned and stuck in the labyrinth, Shi Mu had once again went back to the center origin. He quickly say down on his knees while looking at the eight passages right in front of him without saying a word, as if he was concocting a plan in his head.

He had completely calmed down now. After many attempts, it dawned on him that it was absolutely impossible to get out of this labyrinth with brute force.

Now that he had been away for nearly 20 days, his time was running out and he must seize the mystery of this labyrinth.

Shi Mu closed his eyes and all the situations that he encountered in the labyrinth these days emerged.

Every passage and unpredictable terrain crossed his mind, forming a complex pattern.

After a quarter of an hour, Shi Mu opened his eyes and his face was full of excitement. The golden light flashed in his eyes and he looked at the eight passage in front of him. He quickly went toward the second passage on the left and stepped in.

Shi Mu walked into the passage at an ordinary speed. His eyes shone as he looked around his surroundings from time to time.

This time, he had walked for almost half an hour before he arrived in front of the eight identical passages.

There was a smile on his face and the golden awns flashed in his eyes. He looked at the eight passages again for a moment and began to mouth something, as if he was calculating something.

This time, he watched for an hour and finally locked on to the second channel on the right and stepped in.

Stepping forward, his eyes swept away and his heart was filled with excitement.

He took a deep breath and continued to move forward.

After a quarter of an hour, he came to the end again and there were another eight space passages in front of him.

The golden light in Shi Mu’s eyes flashed. He flexed and stretched the fingers of both his hands and began to calculate again.

He stayed in front of the passage for a longer period of time. After a full two hours, he made a choice and stepped into a passage.

At the moment, he had a shallow confident smile across his face as he strode forward.

In the following time, the same situation appeared one after another. Altogether including the origin point, he had made a total of seven choices.

“There should be a final layer to this…” Shi Mu sighed with relief, whispering in his mouth and continuing forward.

After a quarter of an hour, the passage had reached an end. He gazed as a huge space appeared in front of him. There were another eight passages in front of him.

Shi Mu’s face changed. It was not due to the eight passage but a young man in a green robe in front of him. He was going back and forth trying to figure out which passage to take.

This person’s figure was thin and his face was clear and handsome. There was a sense of beauty exuded within him.

Shi Mu’s appearance obviously could not go unnoticed. The young man suddenly turned around and looked at Shi Mu. His expression showed he was somewhat puzzled yet furious.

“Who are you? How was it possible for you to find this place?”