The Portal of Wonderland

Shi Mu put-on his clothes. Then, he went to the table and sat down. After that, he took-out one luminous spirit stone from his shirt; it was emitting bright-blue light. He bent his head and stared at it closely for a moment.

He then took out the jade slip containing ‘The Sacred Book of Charm Magic’ from his clothes and placed it against his forehead. Suddenly, a complex formula popped-up in his mind; it consisted of twelve charm characters.

“‘Martial arts and Magic arts!’ Both of them are Cultivation arts. I should major in either one of these two; the other will be a secondary major. In any case… whether it is the martial arts or the magic art… if a warrior gets stuck in a bottleneck… then he turns towards another art. But, I’m different from other disciples because I know the Moon-Swallowing Art. It can support my practice. Also, practicing a magic art doesn’t take too much effort. This means that I can enhance my strength and practice martial arts at the same time. The formula arts helped me significantly in comparison with those aggressive magic arts. Now, I must successfully draw this ‘Body Lifting Charm’.” Shi Mu removed the jade slip after a moment. Then, he muttered as he looked at the blue stone in his other hand.

This blue spirit stone was a rare wind-attribute stone. Moreover, the formula that Shi Mu had just learnt from ‘The Sacred Book of Charm Magic’ was also the same wind-attribute magic charm.

As far as the wind-attribute spirit stone was concerned — Shi Mu had helped an old disciple by making dozens of low-grade paper charms on his request. So, the old man had given him this stone as a reward for his conscientious work.

But, Shi Mu had to give away his water-attribute stone to the old man in exchange for this wind stone as the wind-element spirit stone was relatively scarce.

“What a pity that I don’t possess the wind-attribute induction strength. Now, I’ll have to draw support from this stone’s strength to make this paper charm,” a trace of pain appeared on Shi Mu’s face as he thought about his loss. Then, he took-out a small bottle of red ink and a small stack of deep blue magic paper from his shirt.

The blood-red ink and the stack of paper were exuding an unpleasant fishy smell. However, a glowing twinkle could be seen inside the ink bottle, and the stack of paper looked relatively thick and exquisite in comparison with the ordinary charm papers.

Shi Mu had spent a large amount of silvers to purchase these two things.

However, he didn’t have any other choice. The more complex and powerful the formula… the higher the quality of ink and paper needed.

It was said that a high-grade ink was needed to draw a high-grade formula. It was extracted from a high-level rare beast’s blood. The charm paper was also made from the skin of some formidable beast. The skin had undergone some special processes to be used for making charm papers.

However, Shi Mu didn’t need these high quality things right now. The deep-blue charm paper was enough for him.

He spread the stuff on the table. Then, he took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down. After that, he picked-up the brush and moistened it in the ink. He closed his eyes, and then abruptly opened them.

An astonishing thing happened.

Suddenly, Shi Mu’s pupils enlarged to twice its original size; they had turned into a pair of pale- golden pupils.

The palm-sized piece of paper was magnified to the size of a table in his eyes. The fine texture on that charm paper – that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye – had become visible to the size of an earthworm. It could be said that he could see even the tiniest particles.

His eyesight mutation had started after the practice of the ‘Art of Accumulating Spirit Power’.

His eyesight had drastically enhanced when he had started to practice this art six months ago. However, he hadn’t paid much attention to this in the beginning. But, he had realized that his eyes had gone through a strange mutation with the breakthrough to the second stage of the art. Now, his pupils would turn into a pair of pale-golden pupils if he instilled his magic power into them.

This mutation had strengthened his eyesight incredibly. Moreover, it had endowed him with an unusual ability to turn his eyes into a pair of magnifiers at his discretion. Therefore, he could magnify the things he wanted to observe closely. He could enlarge anything to more than dozens of times of its original size.

He had been shocked and scared when he had discovered this ability.

But then, he had realized that this ability could be used to draw paper charms in an efficient manner.

The success of a paper charm was determined primarily by the accuracy of the drawing – the charm characters must be drawn accurately, they must be placed at the right positions, and the magic patterns must be drawn according to the authoritative book.

The charm characters in the Charm magic weren’t independent; they were connected to each other. Therefore, a Charm magician usually took a long time to draw a paper charm as even a minute mistake could ruin the entire paper charm.

However, Shi Mu could draw a charm character with utmost accuracy and precise control by magnifying things with the help of his unusual eyesight. He had far-surpassed the ordinary charm magicians with the help of this ability.

Each Charm magician possessed a different kind of spiritual knowledge and magic power. Even their element induction-force was differed from each other’s. So, their comprehension of charm magic was also different even though they’d draw the same kind of charm symbol.

This meant that Shi Mu couldn’t directly copy the magic charm given in ‘The Sacred Book of Charm Magic’. He would have to draw-up a magic charm first. Afterwards, he would successfully draw the perfect duplicate of the magic charm with the support of his eyesight’s magnification ability.

The high-grade charms were still a challenge to him. But, he had achieved eighty-to-ninety percent accuracy in drawing the low-grade charms. This had made him extremely excited.

Other Charm magicians could draw a successful paper charm after dozens of trials. But, Shi Mu’s case was different. Therefore, he had been able to earn huge resources during the past six months.

Shi Mu concentrated his eyes on the paper. Then, he sucked-in a long breath. He held the blue spirit stone in one hand, and the brush in the other. He dipped the brush in the red ink. Then, he began to draw on the blue charm paper at a very slow speed; his speed was twenty-or-thirty times slower than his normal drawing-speed. It seemed as if he was embroidering the pattern and characters. He observed every minute stroke on the paper with his outstanding eyes.

Surprisingly, he finished drawing the first character in a short time.

A faint trace of perspiration appeared on his forehead.

However, he was totally unaware of it; it seemed as if he was unconscious. He continued to draw the second and the third character in the same way…

The charm characters of the ‘Body Lifting Charm’ soon filled the entire paper. Shi Mu was sweating profusely; so much so that his shirt had plastered to his back.

A few minutes later…

The ninth character dazzled brightly as Shi Mu drew it. He realized that something wasn’t right. But, before he could do anything… the charm character ruptured and turned into a mass of blue light.

Suddenly, the entire piece of charm paper got reduced to ashes amid the glaring light.

Shi Mu wrinkled his brows as he saw this. Then, he put the brush down with an expressionless face.

He was quite familiar with these incidents. This had happened countless times in the past six months. He’d always ended up witnessing this explosive sight the first time he’d draw a new charm.

He stood completely motionless. He then closed his eyes and tried to recall every minute detail of the process. But, he couldn’t find anything suspicious. Then, he turned around in a dejected manner. After that, he sat down on his bed and started to meditate to calm his mind down.

He opened his eyes after a short while. A trace of happiness could be seen flashing across them. His face revealed a trace of clear understanding.

Suddenly, he shot his hands and sprang-out of his bed. He strode to the desk and spread-out another piece of deep-blue charm paper on the table. He thought for a moment. Then, he began to draw on the second paper charm.

His drawing-speed was a little faster than the previous time. The strokes that had previously troubled him were drawn in an extremely coherent and smooth manner this time. Eventually, the entire twelve characters had been drawn accurately on the paper; they composed a seemingly abstruse magic charm.