The Portal of Wonderland

Shi Mu felt extremely delighted as he transformed into the white ape. He couldn’t help but dance with excitement. He took a strange posture – he raised his hands and grimaced.

Then, a ‘bang’ sound resounded in his mind. Suddenly, the scenery in front of him changed. Shi Mu regained his consciousness; he found himself sitting in an open area in the woods.

Shi Mu realized that the dawn was approaching; the eastern sky was suffused with white light.

He stood up and looked at the sky. He was startled; so much so that he didn’t even pay attention to his clothes which had become wet because of the morning dew.

Shi Mu had seemingly entered his dreamland for a short while. However, an entire night had passed in reality.

Shi Mu shook his head. Then, he closed his eyes and started to recall the details of the ‘Moon Swallowing Art’ that he had seen in his dream.

The result left him dumbfounded. His mind was blank even though he tried hard to recall the dream. He remembered the name of the ‘Moon Swallowing Art’. But, he couldn’t remember the practice-method of this art.

However, Shi Mu knew in his heart that he had comprehended this art.

Shi Mu was extremely amazed as he had these strange and contradictory feelings; so much so that he couldn’t separate dream from reality.

He shook his head as he tried to calm himself down.

The sky had become bright. Shi Mu continued to ponder on it for a moment. Then, he stood up and started to walk towards his room.

He didn’t want anyone to know that he had spent the entire night outside his room.

Two days had passed. It was again a full-moon night; the sky was cloudless. The moon looked like a jade plate hanging in the sky. The tranquil moonlight illuminated the entire valley with its chilly-silver light.

Shi Mu sat cross-legged on his bed in his remote stone house; he was meditating.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes. There was a trace of excitement in them.

A bright full-moon night had finally arrived.

Shi Mu quietly pushed open the door and stepped outside. He carefully observed his surroundings for any movement, and listened cautiously for the sound of any activity.

The whole valley was calm; not a single shadow could be seen.

Shi Mu was finally satisfied. He rapidly advanced forward under the buildings’ shadows. Then, he found his way out of the residential area and arrived at the open area in the woods.

He scanned the area as he moved forward. He sat cross-legged in the grass when he was satisfied that no one was around. He felt the caressing touch of the moonlight as he adjusted his breathing to slip into the dream-like state.

Shi Mu’s body stiffened after a while. Then, his body relaxed and he became motionless; like an old monk sitting in meditation.

He then entered his dream again.

… …

Shi Mu’s consciousness was awakened by a gust of cold wind. He opened his eyes and found himself incarnated into the white ape. He stood on a strangely-shaped silver boulder; his hands were raised and he was grimacing.

The ‘Moon Swallowing Art’ – these words flashed in his mind.

Shi Mu tried to raise his head but he couldn’t move; just like his previous dream.

However, he didn’t care about this; he raised the ape’s head instead. He saw that the night sky was shrouded with dense white-light dots. This vision was slightly different from the previous one. Previously, these white luminous dots weren’t even the size of a half sesame seed. However, the size of these dots was as big as a grain of rice now. They had grown from light-dots to light-balls.

These light-balls seemed to have received a mysterious force of traction. They appeared in the sky and started to plummet down one after another into the white ape’s golden pupils. New balls of light emerged in the sky as these light balls descended downwards.

This process continued for a long time. These white lights seemed like a river that was streaming into the eyes of the white ape as it stood in a strange posture with raised hands.

The white light balls didn’t disperse once they submerged into the ape’s body. They seemed to be under the fetter of some inexplicable strength as they gathered in its mind and changed into a bunch of white fog.

These streaks of fog had previously floated inside its mind in a disorderedly manner; some groups were dense and some were thin.

But, they accumulated in the center of its mind under the effect of a strange force this time around. Then, they started to get smaller and denser. They started to form a group of milky-white clouds. They continued to revolve, and gradually contracted into a liquid-like state.

It seemed as if this cloud was acting like a vortex. It continued to pull-in the newly-incoming fog. However, the clouds maintained their initial size… but became denser.

Shi Mu felt that his brain had started to swell; as if an icy-cold thing had sneaked into his head. But then, an inexplicable sense of cool and comfort gushed from the depths of his mind. It seemed as if he had been immersed in a strange yet miraculous medicine. However, he hardly felt any mysterious change in his mind.

He didn’t know for how long this process would continue. So, he felt bored. He started to look around as he waited. Suddenly, he discovered that the boulder he was seated-on was situated on a high mountain peak’s cliff. A boundless sea of clouds surged all-around; the wind blew past these clouds gently. There were several dragon-pines; it seemed as if they were sticking out in the sea of clouds.

Various kinds of exotic plants were spread across the mountain peak. Shi Mu had never seen these plants before. A heavenly spring appeared in the distance. It emanated a sound; it sounded as if tigers and dragons were roaring in unison. The mountain was quite steep. It could be seen rising straight from the earth… as if a green sword was piercing the sky; the cliff where the white ape stood was like the sharp tip of that sword.

The green sword-like mountain was surrounded by various kinds of majestic and beautiful mountain ranges. But, none of them were even half-as-tall as this mountain peak. It seemed that one could grasp the bright moon and stars if one looked-up towards the night sky and stretched their hands.

Shi Mu was sure that this place had never appeared in his dreams before. However, the white ape had chosen this mountain to practice the ‘Moon Swallowing Art’. …Probably because this cliff was at the shortest distance from the moon.

Shi Mu observed the surrounding area.

He didn’t know how long it would take for the milky-white liquid to take the form of the small white grain in the white ape’s mind.

A layer of thin white threads continued to wrap around the bottom of the white crystal as the milky-white liquid-vortex continued to rotate. The white threads made it grow larger.

The crystal grain gradually turned into the size of a rice grain.

Suddenly, a ‘bang’ sound thundered inside Shi Mu’s mind. A burst of dizziness took over him. Then, everything before his eyes turned dark.

“Ah!” Shi Mu hurled a pitiful scream. Suddenly, he fell back onto the ground. This intense vibration had jolted him out of his dream.

Shi Mu woke up to find himself sweating profusely. His black clothes were drenched in a mix of his own sweat and the atmospheric dew.

His complexion looked pale. His face was lax; his facial muscles twitched slightly. The thunderous sound in his dream had forcefully exploded in the depths of his soul; so much so that it made his soul shudder.

Fortunately, this was a remote place. Moreover, it was close to early morning; this was considered to be the sleepiest time for the average human. Therefore, no one would discover this unusual scenario.