The Portal of Wonderland

Chapter 56 - Pick Your Arts!

“Unfortunately, words don’t have no place here, I’ve gotta check if you’ve awakened your blood. Otherwise, no entry. Don’t be nervous boy, I’ve no interest in knowing which bloodline you have. One advantage of staying in our sect is that nobody’s gonna pry about your bloodline, especially if you ain’t eager to tell about it.” The fat guy said, lethargically.[A]

With his worries eased, Shi Mu continued to ask questions in an easy manner, “so the Bloodline Sutras House is within the General House?”

“We have three General Sutras Houses, for primary, junior and senior disciples respectively, but only one Bloodline Sutras House. I can get you there from any one of the general houses. This stuff can wait, let’s examine your blood first.” The fat man shook his head and brought the conversation to an end. He turned one of his hands palm up and a bronze mirror appeared in his palm. After muttering some strange incantations to himself, he shook the mirror in front of Shi Mu.

A pillar of light, the size of a finger, rushed out of the mirror, right into Shi Mu’s body, where it disappeared. Shi Mu felt a strong vibration in his body, which stirred his blood and made it burn in his veins. Simultaneously, a buzz came from the surface of the mirror, where some dark red rays were gathering.

“So you are a bloodline warrior. Come with me.“ The fat man put away his mirror and turned toward a small gate at the back of the room. Shi Mu did not ask any questions and followed him closely.

After a short amount of time, he arrived, with the fat man, in a small room, whose floor was thickly engraved with silver ring-like patterns and some enigmatic characters. Together, the patterns and strange characters formed a huge circle. The fat man led Shi Mu to the center of the circle, then he moved one of his fingers and muttered some incantations before waving his arm in the air. A yellow paper charm appeared in his hand, and he dropped it, letting it float to the floor. As soon as it touched the floor, it turned into a ball of blazing fire, and merged into the circle on the floor.

The circle enlarged, and tiny rays of light rolled up from the floor, causing Shi Mu’s body to shimmer, and then disappear.

Seeing that his incantation was successful, the fat man murmured in satisfaction, “who knows how many more bloodline disciples are comin’. Better ask for more charms.” Hands at his back, the fat man strolled off leisurely.

Shi Mu, on the other hand, felt incredibly dizzy, because the world seemed to be spinning around him. Finally, the swirling ceased, and he found himself in an empty hall that he had never seen before. Not a soul was with him. Shi Mu started to observe the surroundings, and found that the hall was made of a certain white jade, and it was spacious enough to hold hundreds of people. A translucent light cube was slowly rotating the the air. Inside the cube, hundreds of different sized balls of light were floating around.

Just as he was staring at the screen, a cold female voice resounded.

“My name is Auntie Dream, keeper of the Bloodline Sutras House. The balls of light you are looking at are samples of all the bloodlines that have ever appeared in our sect throughout its entire history. But you’re not going to get to choose anyone you wish. You’ve got to have the particular bloodline required for each art. You may end up finding that no arts fit, if your bloodline is some rare type. Now, throw one drop of your blood up into the air, and balls of light, fit for your bloodline, will drop down for you to choose from.” The voice snapped, its source untraceable.

Though feeling weird, Shi Mu bit his finger and swung it up into the air. A drop of blood was flung into, and then seemingly absorbed into the air by an unknown force and just floated there, swirling in a circle. After a while, the cube rippled and projected a silver streak of light at the blood drop, which gradually disappeared as red characters began to emerge on the cube. One character after another, soon the cube was covered with characters. Meanwhile, the numerous balls of light, that had been floating slowly above the screen, all paused and began to flicker. Soon, two balls of light, one big and black, the other small and red, whizzed down our of the cube and into Shi Mu’s hands.

Shi Mu grabbed them tightly in his hands, and found them to be a piece of black bone and a patch of hide of some unknown animal that had glowing red fur.

“Hehe, good for you, boy. You’d got two pieces! Put them against your forehead and you’ll get introductions to these two arts.” The female voice came again, as cold as before.

Shi Mu nodded and first put the smaller hide against his forehead. Suddenly his heart itched, and vivid pictures began to spring out in his mind. The first picture was of a mini monkey born in a ball of fire; the second one of a bigger red monkey, bathing in magma near a volcano; the third one showed the red monkey spouting fire from its mouth, turning a monster of black smog into rolling waves of fire. In the last picture a pair of fire wings grew out of the red monkey’s back while it overlooked a gang of monsters, standing on a high hilltop.

After these pictures fleeted across his mind, some words began to appear in his mind.

The Sutra of Red Ape: This cultivation belongs to the quality of yang, and was refined by imitating the ancient ape that could fly in the sky and exhale fire from its mouth.

[Fit for highly intelligent Houtain warriors. Requires a sacred land with a lot of high-quality fire and a large amount of yang pills. Dificulty - Average]

{50 Black Fire Tokens}

Shi Mu’s spirits fell after reading this. Without second thought he removed the hide and tried the black bone piece. 50 Black Fire tokens was a large number he could never manage to gather in a short time.

The bone piece felt slightly cool as it touched his skin. Simultaneously, he felt his brain exploding with a loud boom, and picture sprang to his mind: a black huge ape was beating its chest. But the picture flashed past and was replaced by a paragraph of words:

The Art of Strong Ape: This cultivation is an inheritance from the ancient strong demon ape. There are nine levels to it, each mutating one’s bones and vessels to enhance physical strength. But the process is excruciating; the warrior will experience pains like a million knife cutting into his skin.

[Fit for warriors with a strong will. Requires corresponding art. Requires Devil-Killing Real Qi Difficulty - Easy]

{6 Black Fire Tokens}

Shi Mu thought for a short while after reading through the introduction. Unhesitatingly, he removed the bone piece and shouted excitedly to the air, “Auntie Dream, I shall choose this art!”

“Oh, are you sure? Don’t say I didn’t warn you later. The number of Black Fire tokens needed for this art is small, as you can see, so there must be a defect to it. As far as I’m concerned, though it does not need much to begin, the further you go the greater the pains become, as your bones and vessels are mutated. Ever since our sect included this art, there have been three disciples who took it. The two of them quit halfway, unable to bear the great pain. The third one had real guts, but let me tell you, he ended up committing suicide at the fifth level by exploding his body with real qi. All because of the pain. Besides, the art only needs an ordinary bloodline of any ape type at the beginning stage, but the demand for purer blood increases as the level goes higher. Generally speaking, from the fifth level up, a bloodline of a holy ape is needed to continue the training. So the current price for the art can only cover the first three levels. If you are good enough to reach level four, the sect may reward a prize to you.” Untie Dream’s voice resounded again.

Shi Mu’s heart grew cold after hearing such a warning. But, after giving it some thought, he still insisted on the art, “Thank you for your instruction, Antie Dream. I’ll do my best. If I’m not pure enough I’ll just practice the first three levels.”

“If you are so sure, then good! Throw the bone piece and six tokens into the air, I’ll give you a copy of the art.” Untie Dream replied in a stony voice, not trying to dissuade Shi Mu anymore.

Shi Mu answered and threw the required things high into the air with all his strength. The bone piece flashed once and disappeared into the cube, whereas the six Black Fire tokens vanished into nowhere as soon as they left Shi Mu’s hand.

Shi Mu did not have to wait for long. A pink jade slip fell from the air and Shi Mu reached out and grabbed it.

“Remember, boy, the jade slip will destroy itself in three days. Memorize the contents, no telling them to any other disciples. Otherwise you’ll be either be have your cultivation destroyed or be executed.” Antie Dream’s voice rang out once again.

NOTES:

[A] - Please tell me I am not the only one who imagines this guy is speaking with a Cajun accent?

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