Chapter 42 — Dead End

Bili watched for a while, and seeing that he did not appear to be putting on an act, she took a few steps to his side, looked him over twice, and — ignoring the look on his face — reached out and pressed and kneaded his arm.

Zhang Qingyue broke out in cold sweat at once. "What are you doing?" he said angrily.

But Bili was not angry; there was even a trace of apology on her face. "The bone in your hand is broken."

Zhang Qingyue snorted. Stubborn as he was, he said flatly, "The Blackwater Serpent broke it, not you. Go away."

Bili gave him a long look, said "Heh," and — to his surprise — truly said nothing more, but walked off and stood to one side, watching coldly, very much as though she expected a good show.

Zhang Qingyue had been in agony, but now he could not, whatever happened, lose face before this demon girl. So he forced himself to stand and examined himself: his body was covered in scrapes, but most were superficial wounds. Only his left hand was broken — which, all things considered, was a stroke of fortune in misfortune.

Even so, the pain of a broken bone was not easy to endure. He moved a few times, jarring the injury, and cold sweat broke out again.

Zhang Qingyue gritted his teeth. Following the general healing arts he had learned on Dazhu Peak of Canglan Mountain, he meant to splint his arm — but when he searched the ground, all he found were strange, jagged rocks; there was not a single straight stick of wood to bind his arm, and he could not help but fret.

Bili, standing to one side, suddenly spoke. "That staff of yours."

Zhang Qingyue started, then understood. The black iron staff was a chi long, just right for the purpose. He glanced at the girl, minded to say a word of thanks, but saw her face full of contempt for him, and swallowed the words. "I'd already thought of that," he said stiffly. "I didn't need you to say it."

Bili pursed her lips. "Then what were you scrounging around on the ground for?"

"I was looking for a way out!" Zhang Qingyue said angrily. "If I don't find one, are we really going to be trapped here till we die?" Then something struck him, and he started. Turning to Bili, he said, "That reminds me — did you see my senior sister from the same sect?"

Bili looked at his anxious face, paused a moment, then shook her head. "At a time like that, everyone was fighting for their lives. Who had time to notice anyone else?"

Zhang Qingyue fell silent, deeply worried. Lu Xueling had not yet recovered from the poison, and now had met with this disaster; her life might well be in danger. At the thought he gave a long sigh and lowered his head.

Bili's expression softened. Watching the young man bow his head and bind his injured arm to that ugly black iron staff, she could not help asking, "Are you and that senior sister of yours very close?"

Zhang Qingyue started, then shook his head. "No. But she is, after all, my... Why should I tell you!" He snorted, and suddenly coming to his senses, ignored her. He tore a strip from his clothes and, using his mouth to help his right hand, bound his left arm firmly in place. Then he looked again at the great pile of rubble at the cave mouth, and at last gave a sigh, turned, and walked deeper into the cave.

Watching Zhang Qingyue walk inward, Bili could not help saying, "Where are you going?"

Zhang Qingyue answered without stopping, "I'm buried alive in here, aren't I? I might as well see what's inside!"

Bili snorted. But somehow, in this dead, airless cave, she followed after all — as though with two people together, the panic was not so great.

Around the corner, Zhang Qingyue found before him a corridor much like the one he had just been in, though somewhat wider. The stone walls on either side still glowed, making the place quite bright, but the dust underfoot was very thick, so that every step left a clear footprint.

A single line of footprints led forward through the middle of the path — left, it seemed, by Bili when she had come in to explore earlier.

After walking a while, they came to the end of the corridor, but ahead lay yet another turn, and at the same time the faint sound of water came drifting to them.

Just then Bili, walking behind him, suddenly called out: "Zhang Qingyue."

"What?" Zhang Qingyue answered instinctively, but at once turned his head and said, "How do you know my name?"

Bili burst out laughing. "You told me yourself, back in He Yin City!"

Only then did Zhang Qingyue remember, and he was overcome with embarrassment. He turned his head away and walked on, saying as he went, "Why is there water ahead?"

Bili said peevishly, "Because at the end of this passage a little curtain of water drips down, and beyond that there is no way out at all. Ai! To think I should die in a place like this."

Zhang Qingyue paid her no heed and walked on. After a time the sound of water gradually grew louder, a steady hua-hua rush. Before long he indeed saw, at the end of the passage ahead, a curtain of water hanging straight down from the roof of the cave, scattering spray in all directions, crystalline and beautiful, until at last it fell into a small pool at the passage's end. Had it not been for their being in this death trap, it would have made no poor scenery.

But at such a moment, naturally, no one was in any mood to admire the view. Zhang Qingyue walked up to the waterfall and examined it closely, and his heart sank.

Behind the waterfall was solid rock, no different from the stone on either side of the passage. The little pool was clear to the bottom, and no water could be seen flowing out anywhere; so small a spot must simply seep away into the ground. And overhead, the place where the water dripped was nothing but a stretch of the cave roof, which for some reason was covered in beads of moisture that fell without cease. Where in all this was any way out?

Zhang Qingyue turned back and met Bili's gaze. The two looked at each other, and both fell silent.

For a time the cave sank into a silence like death itself.

Zhang Qingyue felt as though his mind were a tangled skein. Seeing himself trapped in a hopeless place, and anxious besides about the missing Lu Xueling, he was fretful and distracted enough; and whether because it had not been properly tended or for some other reason, the wound on his left hand came throbbing back in waves, unbearable beyond words.

Watching him, Bili felt, she hardly knew why, a little unable to bear it. She said softly, "Sit down and rest a while first! We will think of some way out, slowly."

Here in this death trap, Zhang Qingyue's hostility toward her seemed to have faded as well. In the world outside he would of course have stood implacably opposed to this demon sect witch, but in this time and place, with the two of them about to die here together, who had leisure for the quarrels of sects?

Zhang Qingyue sat down in silence, staring blankly at his surroundings, and at last looked up at the rock face above the dripping water. He thought to himself: To think that on my first descent from the mountain I should meet with so many setbacks, and now be in a place of death besides. If Master knew, he would surely curse this unworthy disciple roundly again! And if Sister Ling'er knew, who knows what she would...

Bili watched him from the side and saw his expression suddenly turn somewhat strange. She could not help saying, "What are you thinking about?"

Zhang Qingyue started awake, and his face reddened; but how could he bring himself to tell the truth? His eyes darted about, and he casually steered the subject away: "There are nothing but strange things in this Vale of Death Spirits. Look, there are a few patches of red on the rock face of this cave roof, and where the water runs over them it is dyed the color of blood..."

Bili suddenly sprang to her feet, eyes wide, her expression tense, and said urgently, "What did you say?"

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