The Portal of Wonderland

Chapter 80 - A Bride Needs to Hide Herself in her Boudoir Before Wedding

“Oh, do you mean this Stone Bai is a threat to us?” A chubby youth, standing beside his sullen companion, raised his eyebrows, his eyes as cold as glass. He had a strange look on his face, it was somewhat like a smile and a smirk.

“How’s that possible!” The sullen youth sneered, exclaiming in a proud voice.

“By the way, I heard that there might be some Adepts among these newcomers, is that true?” The puffy youth suddenly thought of this problematic situation, his beady eyes glittering in suspicion.

“I believe so. Among them, there is said to be an Adept scholar who has decent fire sensing. He’s already been roped in by the Holy Spirit guys.” The sullen youth nodded.

The confirmation of this Adept scholar made the puffy youth frown. The art he was practicing was a rather aggressive one, but would lose some of its power when met by magics. It may be a problem if this guy with fire sensing challenges me tomorrow, he thought to himself.

“Wow, a new name!” The sullen youth cried out in surprise, his eyes dilating. Following his sight, the puffy youth woke from his reverie and looked towards the monument. A red name had risen rapidly from the bottom to the top thirty. The puffy youth clearly knew that today was for the newcomers to challenge other newcomers, and the weak ones would be eliminated through competition. Those ranked behind under 100 could challenge anyone of a higher rank than themselves, as long as the rank gap between them was no more than fifty. Once in the top 100, the challenging scope would be smaller. The challenged, whether defeated or denying the challenge request, would be considered failed, and thus lose the opportunity in further matches. If a primary disciple could enter the first thirties, he should definitely attract the attention of elder primary disciples like the sullen youth and his puffy companion.

“Shi Mu...never heard of this name...Have you?” The puffy young man knit his brows as if searching in his memory for Shi Mu’s name.

......

On one of the rings, Shi Mu vehemently shook his steel knife, throwing out nine blade shadows that pounced toward his opponent, who was trying to resist the shadows with a pair of swords. The attacks forced the youth to forget about attacking, or even thinking of tactics. He was doing everything he could just to block the attacks. He tried to weave a shield by rapidly waving his swords, and as the clashing of their weapons resounded, he found his arms struck numb by the huge force that traveled through Shi Mu’s knife. Though he managed to resist the nine blade shadows, his arms were now barely able to hold the handles of his swords.

Shi Mu gave the youth no time to recover. He rushed his opponent and, before the youth had realized it, punched the youth’s chest with his empty hand. The movement was too fast to capture, add in his exhaustion and the youth would have to be superhuman if he wanted to dodge the fist.

Without a doubt the fist hit home. The youth was knocked straight out of the ring by the brutal force, rolling over the ground, vomiting blood.

“Winner, Shi Mu!”

A whiskered junior disciple announced immediately, gaping at Shi Mu, the way one would gape at a monster.

Shi Mu silently sheathed his steel knife, his face completely devoid of emotion. He was only at the first stage of the Heavenly Elephant Art, but the combination of his inborn superhuman strength, his real Qi, and his advanced Wind-Blowing Blade Art and Stone-Breaking Fist, he could defeat the majority of his peers. Moreover, he did not choose his opponents blindly but chose those who were all skilled at speed. Under Shi Mu’s unreasonably keen eyes, their speed meant nothing.

Shi Mu turned his head to have a look at the monument. It was saying that the disciple he had just defeated was called White Su, a real powerful fellow among his peers, ranked No.17. Naturally, now he had lost his rank to Shi Mu.

A commotion filled the audience, who were casting astonished looks at Shi Mu. Some, who had never heard of his name, were anxiously trying to find out more about him, exchanging information with their companions. The audience was not to blame, after all, Shi Mu had barely presented himself in public since he entered the sect, except the first day, when he fought with Qu Kun in front of the stone houses. For the past three months, he closed himself in his little room, practicing his own arts the way a bride would hide shyly in her boudoir to concentrate on the sole job of making herself more beautiful before the wedding. Therefore, few still remembered Shi Mu. When he suddenly appeared within the top twenties, disciples began wracking their brains for this strange name.

“See? These kids are barely able to close their mouths. Seems that this Shi Mu guy has been hiding his strength, otherwise they wouldn’t have been so surprised.” Not far from the ring, some elder disciples had been watching the match, and one of them remarked coldly, after glancing at the audience.

“That’s no news. Such guys emerge every time we hold one of these competitions as if waiting for this chance to make themselves superstars. But this guy is a real winner. Did you see his blade art? It’s not much to brag about, as it’s only a practitioner’s low-level art, but this guy uses it at a high level. What’s more, I bet this is not all he’s got.” Another elder disciple echoed, his eyes alight with interest.

As they were talking, Shi Mu walked off the ring and headed toward another.

On the fifth ring, a challenger fell on the ground, thoroughly crestfallen. His shirt was torn and tainted by blood. On the ring a lanky youth stood, silently watching him, with a face full of equanimity, as though the sea of his emotions was not in the least disturbed by his match. He was holding a black whip, and, after some time of enjoying his feat in silence, he flickered his wrist and the whip immediately slithered back to his waist like a living thing.

Shi Mu observed the lanky youth’s action closely from the side of the ring. He had heard that this fellow’s name was Ruan Che[1], feared by many as a powerful opponent. Judging from his clean movement, his skills at soft weapons must be quite good. No wonder he was ranked ninth among all the new disciples, having defeated seven or eight challengers with efficiency. However, it was not a difficult decision for Shi Mu if ever he should try to challenge this Ruan Che. His eyes were luminous and calm when he leaped to the ring without any hesitation.

“This is Shi Mu, and, with all due respect, I would like to challenge you.” Shi Mu issued his challenge in a flat, steady voice.

Again the audience burst into an uproar. Now that most of them had refurbished their memories of Shi Mu, who would not get excited about the prospect of seeing two “high ranked” guys fighting each other?

The judge for this ring was a junior disciple with sunken cheeks and glazed eyes. But Shi Mu’s sudden appearance made his eyes dilate with cold light, though only for an instant.

Ruan Che seemed to know Shi Mu, too. After measuring Shi Mu from head to toe, he said with a serious tone, “Well, I’d like to see if your knife could win my whip!” This said, he narrowed his eyes, which now had become serious and focused. He was ready to tear his opponent to pieces.

“Begin!”

As soon as the judge’s voice fell, Shi Mu shot towards Ruan Che. The next moment, a flash of his steel knife threw nine shadows at Ruan Che’s face. Ruan Che was caught unprepared. He had never thought of Shi Mu as a quick attacker. But he did not win all of his previous matches by sleeping through them. He reacted quickly, letting out a low shout, then his real Qi wound its way through the whip, which traced a beautiful arc in the air before it transformed into nine whip shadows that stopped the nine knife shadows on their way. The clash made an explosion in the air, sending air waves rippling to all directions.

Just then, the whip whizzed out, like a viper seeking its prey, penetrating through the air with an unstoppable momentum. It slid toward Shi Mu’s chest from an awkward angle, nigh unblockable angle!

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Note:

[1]: Ruan is a family name chosen randomly by the author, whereas "Che" means as quick as the wind.

[A] - I get a kick out of how Humbert Jin doesn’t like Shi Mu. :P