The Portal of Wonderland

Volume 2, Chapter 459 Arriving at Qing Lan

Shi Mu watched the alien man leave then turned his gaze elsewhere, wearing an expression that seemed to be a mix between relief and contentment.

It had been two years since he had traveled between planets within Star Field dimension until he accidentally overheard a conversation about the Holy Land of Qing Lan—it was situated in a planet called East-Saint. It was the spark that had spurred his intergalactic journey through space. He was fortunate to have found the planet of his destination right before he was about to use up all of his Starstones.

He had gathered plenty of information and stories about the stars and the planets throughout his journey, several of them even obtained through books and written records. For example, he now knows that the part of the Star Field dimension where his native planet—the Cerulean Sea Star—was called the Magnum Solis, which was one of the largest Star Fields known. In each Star Field, immeasurable planets existed, boasting an uncountable number of species as well as mighty forces… quite similar to what the Azure Ape King had told him about.

As he learned, Shi Mu's horizon expanded beyond his compatriots back home—the Transcending Heaven Immortal Cult? The barbaric tribes? None of them could compare to the active forces found in these Star Fields. True, significant powers of the galaxies were those who could colonize an entire planet—and it happened more often than one would expect.

The Holy Land of Qing Lan, which was where Shi Mu was heading to, was known as one the strongest forces in the entire Magnum Solis. Together with two other locations within this single Star Field, they were known as the "Holy Three of Magnum Solis".

Legend had it that the pioneer of the Holy Land of Qing Lan, known as the Blessed Venerable Qing Lan, was one of the most ancient and powerful beings within this particular Star Field; He was rumored to possess powers rivaling actual gods and deities.

There was some information on this Blessed Venerable alright, but there was no mention of the White Ape anywhere.

Among the stars and planets and Star Fields, formidable and talented people were terrifyingly abundant. Back in Cerulean Sea Star, an Earth-rank or even a Xian Tian martial artist would have been considered as a powerful person; But when one increased the scope to the entire Star Field, an individual would have to be at least a Heaven-rank martial artist or a Sun-rank magician to barely make the mark of a powerful existence.

The reason why Cerulean Sea Star was so inadequate in producing powerful beings was because by planetary standards, it was too desolated, too poor in resources, and the total Spiritual Energy in its environment was too nebulous—in other words, the Cerulean Sea Star was considered the most inferior planets in the entire universe.

Shi Mu also knew that once a Heaven-rank martial artist or a Sun-rank magician managed to improve themselves to a level beyond that, they could incubate their own Saint Core and thus become a Saint-rank powerhouse. Even still, that was not the ultimate paragon of power…

Only Saint-rank powerhouses are considered as a being worth mentioning within the world of the Star Fields. Once one had entered this stage, a small breakthrough became exponentially grueling, as if one could not even make a single small step in their progress let alone a stride. However, similarly, every single step of progress since the onset of Saint-rank would be a dramatic spike on one's prowess, such that a Mid Saint-rank martial artist could easily stomp on several Early Saint-rank fighters.

Early Saint-rank powers would already be enough to colonize an entire planet.

So what about those who had achieved Late Saint-rank? Well, those were usually the ultimate master behind every single formidable force in the particular Star Field, and as they were the heart of a sect or a family, they almost exclusively never leave their domains.

Then there were the gods, who were those who had reached beyond Saint-rank. These were close to legends—there were scarce even when the scale was as wide as the Universe, and no one had ever seen them in person. They started to claim that these godlike beings were usually the most powerful protector and guardian of a single galaxy—and indeed, the Blessed Venerable Qing Lan was rumored to be such a being.

Shi Mu had to admit, he was really taken in by these fables and legends, but for now, he was just a lowly Earth-rank martial artist—he may be seen as a powerful presence back home in Cerulean Sea Star, but here in this vast Star Field, he was just… a small fry.

He cleared his head from his thoughts and started scanning the surrounding. East-Saint proved itself to be a far, far expansive planet than Cerulean Sea Star could ever be, so much so that even a Saint-rank powerhouse would need to fly for years just to get to another continent from where they started.

However, the same buffy alien man from before did mention that there was a city nearby where a transporter portal could teleport him instantly to Qing Lan Holy Land.

Shi Mu's body blurred as he started towards the city below. After a while, he landed on one of its streets.

"Shi Tou, you've got to East-Saint already, right? C'mon, lemme out! Lemme out!" There it was—Cai's signature shriek, pushing into the air from the Spiritual Pet Pocket tied onto Shi Mu's waist. Quite helpless, Shi Mu sighed, his one hand assuming a single handsign and the cacophonous parrot was released back into reality with a flash of technicolor.

"Gahahaha! So this is East-Saint, huh? Look at how chock-full of Spiritual Energy this place is!" Cai screamed excitedly the moment it was let out of the bag, causing heads to turn to it from the streets. It was fortunate that to these aliens, the language of the Cerulean Sea Star was no different from the un-intrusive call of a bird, which saved them from too much attention.

"Shush!" Shi Mu flicked his finger on the bird, finally bringing Cai to its better behavior as it settled down on his shoulder.

Shi Mu strode on the streets quietly.

"Shi Tou, where are you going?" Cai asked quietly, this time using the apparent lingua franca of the planets.

"Where else would I be going? I'm trying to find the way to the Holy Land of Qing Lan," Shi Mu replied as his eyes shifted to a book vendor at the curb before entering. A few moments later, he exited the shop with a few thick books piled on his hands, his eyes glinting in joy. The books were information on East-Saint. Sitting on top of the pile, however, was a jade token detailing the map of a nearby area. As he walked, he extended his mind into the jade token, and a few moments later, his eyebrow raised in excitement.

The indicator for the place he was looking for had been marked unambiguously clear in the map, hence he found it almost instantly—just as the alien buff guy had said, it was situated at the east of the city.

"Let's go," Shi Mu urged before bringing Cai to the direction of the city gate.

"Goddamnit, we just got here! Can't we at least, I don't know, go shopping for some local delicacies and all that first>?" Cai moaned.

Ignoring his complaints, Shi Mu walked out of the gate and summoned his Green-winged Flying Carriage before stepping on top of it. With a "Go!" and its responding handsign, the flying carriage shimmered brightly before turning into a single dart of light fleeting towards the east.

...

Somewhere within East-Saint was a patch of thick, dense woods, where ancient sycamore trees scrapped the sky above with their towering branches and magnificent height. Here, every tree seemed to be at least a few hundred yards tall with lush, densely-packed leaves adorning its incredibly thick branches resembling, shockingly, the hills from the Cerulean Sea Star. It was as if one had found themselves in the Kingdom of Gigantic Trees.

Deep in the woods, a city stood. It was guarded by a chain of magnificent mountains, while its city interior was about a few thousand square-miles large. At this point of the day, its residents were already up and about with their usual activities, rendering the city its bustling spirit.

On the mountains, among the hundred-yard large trees, there was a single skyscraping ancient tree. It was so tall and above the canopy of leaves that it was visible at any given location in the wood. The tree's roots, meanwhile, had extended so deeply into the chain of mountains that even a single extension of its roots would look like the back of hill as well.

Its trunk stood tall into the clouds. If one stood by the base of the tree and looked up, they could only see a few of its leaves occasionally when the clouds parted. However, nobody could really see its full look entirely because the top of the tree was always shrouded by the clouds. It was so tall that it towered the mountains around it, making them looked small in comparison.

This was the location of the Holy Land of Qing Lan. This large tree was the birthplace of the sect—well-known in East-Saint as the sect's sacred tree. As for the city guarded by the mountains close-by, it was called Qing Lan City—one of the most famous cities of the entire planet.

Outside the city, on a hill mound, a single of green light zipped through the air before stopping. When the light receded, it revealed a man in a green robe who looked quite worn-out and dusty from a long journey as well as a technicolor parrot.

It was none other than Shi Mu and Cai.

They had been rushing through their journey these few days.

"Whoaaaaa! So this Qing Lan City, huh? Look at its magnificence! Its attitude! Oh man, Heavenly Yu City, Rising Sun City—all of those places got nothing on this one!... Whoa, check out that bloody large tree back there! It must be the legendary Sacred Tree of Qing Lan!" Apparently, Cai was in its motormouth commentator mode, as usual. "This is so huge! Like, is it even a tree? It can't be a tree anymore when you're that huge, right?!"

Shi Mu turned his attention to the mountains and studied the large tree that was almost covering the sky from the inhabitants of the city, his heart thumping. He wasn't impressed by the size of the tree—he was impressed by the enormous outpour of Spiritual Energy springing out from it, as if every single Spiritual Energy Vessel in the land had redirected to this one single entity.

"This is truly a divine tree that could only be crafted by the joint hands of the forces of nature," He muttered under his breath, "No wonder the Qing Lan Holy Sect would choose here."

Shi Mu took a deep breath and started towards the city gate.

It was noontime. Shi Mu wasn't the only one who had arrived at the city gate with a dazzling flash of light—there were many such arrivals as the city seemed to be no stranger to visitors of every shape and size, most of the flooding in passels. Most of them appeared to be excitable youths, who sometimes brought a few adults of their own kinds with them.

These adults were, comparatively, much more mature and calmer. They let out a countenance of wisdom and stability gleaned from age as well as tremendous martial prowess.

Most of them appeared to be demonic or foreign races. Regardless, every visitor stood in several long, extensive queues stretching out from the gate.

"Shi Tou, what's with the influx of youths, eh? All here for some kind of school trip?" Cai asked.

"Nah," Shi Mu chuckled and said, "A few days from now would be Qing Land Holy Sect's ten-year-once Disciple Entrance Tournament. Every noble family and race across the Star Field is sending out their very best here right now so that they may stand a chance to be taken in by the Holy Sect."

"Where did you even get this info from?" Cai asked quizzically.

In response, Shi Mu shook the books in his hand.

Reeling back in realization, Cai managed to remark, "Gosh, your luck strikes again. What a great coincidence that you manage to arrive right before the big event!"

Shi Mu nodded in agreement and turned his attention the Sacred Tree in the distance. For a moment, his eyes were filled with a profound sense of longingness…

"Heh heh. Look at this human dreamer punk over here. You dare enter the tournament despite being an Early Earth-rank fighter alone?" Suddenly, a condescending voice crawled into Shi Mu's ears from a side.

His face fell instantly as he turned his back towards the source.

There, about seven or eight yards away from him was a group of men in red robe. They all had a mop of fiery, flame-like red hair where scarlet red eyes peered below it as pointy ears hung on each side of their face. They emitted a faint demonic scent, which meant they were probably from the Demon race.

As they were waiting on the queue, one of the youths had made the snide remark after overhearing Shi Mu and Cai's conversation, causing a few people around them to erupt into a fit of giggles and laughter.

Ever since stepping foot on East-Saint, Shi Mu realized that although he could find all kinds of Demon races here and even more strange, unique aliens—there was very little humans like himself in sight. Due to biological and genetic reasons, the gap between an average Demon race and an average human was very large. In fact, on some planets, Shi Mu managed to find Demon race individuals who were born with Xian Tian level of prowess—imagine, being this powerful since birth!

Hence, it wasn't too far-fetched to see why these Demon race fancied themselves as the apex species of the galaxy, while the smaller, slower humans were regarded as the clumsy, inferior species.

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