Chapter 98 — The Giant Tree

The sky was gradually growing light.

The rain had stopped and the wind had died; the first faint glimmer of morning light filtered down through the dense clouds and the drifting mist of the Dead Marsh.

Everywhere the forest lay in silence, yet slowly, with that glimmer, it began to stir and murmur. Somewhere unknown, the first birdsong rang out. All at once, as shafts of radiance spilled through the gaps in the branches, the whole forest seemed to wake from the deep sleep of night; near and far, joy broke out on every side, greeting the new day.

Now the woods were full of mist as thin as white gauze, drifting everywhere, so that walking through it one felt a faint dampness on the face. Add to that the air's peculiar freshness, drawn into the lungs, and one truly felt the chest expand.

Ming Li drew a deep breath of the morning air, his face expressionless as he gazed ahead, and even Little Grey, draped over his shoulder, stretched out in a long, lazy yawn.

Some dozens of yards ahead—precisely in the direction of last night's pillar of golden light—the mist had suddenly thickened, hazy and obscure, so that nothing could be seen clearly. Yet this mist was not like the miasma at the marsh's edge; its color was not grey but pure white. Seen from afar, it drifted gently among the trees, thread upon thread, layer upon layer.

Perhaps that was where the wondrous treasure lay!

Ming Li slowly turned his head and looked to his side. Lu Xueling stood a couple of yards away, her white robes like snow, silently contemplating the expanse of mist ahead.

In the end, they had not come to blows.

The whole night long, after that first moment of shock and the faint, hidden tremor of emotion at seeing each other again, there had been only a long silence between them.

Barely three feet separated them, yet it was a chasm vaster than the abyss of the Spirit of Death itself, carved deep between them—and deeper still in their hearts.

Even when that brilliant, resplendent pillar of golden light had shot up into the sky, and they turned to gaze at it, their faces lit by the golden radiance overhead, a careful glance in that strange, foreign place revealed something coldly distant in them too.

The past, after all, had changed...

Lu Xueling seemed to sense something and turned her head, meeting Ming Li's gaze. Her eyes were clear as water; perhaps deep within them there were still faint ripples, but now no one could see them anymore.

She looked at the man before her, standing there in the woods beside her. Now, studying him closely, she finally realized that he was no longer the youth he had once been!

That once-familiar face now held more of the world's weariness and a settled stillness; it held less of innocence and of smiles.

She lowered her head slightly, her gaze like water coming to rest on the Heaven Jade Divine Sword she held in her hand, as though pondering something. After a moment, her voice soft and wandering, she suddenly said, "Come back."

She did not raise her head, made no movement, did not change her expression in the slightest; only her hand upon the Heaven Jade, its long pale fingers, slowly tightened.

"...Junior Brother Zhang!" she said, softly, ever so softly.

Come back...

Those four words, drifting on the morning wind, encircled him, then, like so many pebbles, fell one by one into the field of his heart.

Ming Li drew a deep breath and closed his eyes. The cold Soul Devourer in his sleeve rested against his hand, like the most loyal of friends, never once having forsaken him!

A long while passed.

When he opened his eyes, a faint smile was on his lips, and he said slowly, "I haven't used that name for a long time."

Lu Xueling's lips moved; slowly she raised her head, but in the end she said nothing, and fell silent.

They stood thus for a long time, yet the distance between them seemed now to have widened a little more. The morning light spilled over the face of that peerlessly beautiful woman, slowly radiating a beauty that stirred the soul; the faint, floating mist of the woods seemed drawn to her, too, and swirled softly around her.

In that instant, her face seemed to blur a little as well.

Lu Xueling turned, took a step, and without another word walked deeper into that shroud of mist, leaving the man behind her.

Only, just as her figure was fading into the mist, the voice of the man behind her came drifting, slow and measured: "Will you kill me?"

Her figure vanished into the white fog; no one could see her eyes anymore, her expression, her body.

In that silence-bound morning, how long it was before her wandering voice came from the mist, none could say: "I will. So when you can kill me, don't hold back either..."

The day was now fully bright, yet walking within the mist still felt dim and murky. The fog in this place was far thicker than anywhere else, and one's sight could not reach far.

Walking through the woods, Ming Li had already noticed that apart from the fog, this place, though still forest, was vastly different from the world outside. Aside from the tall trees still standing erect within the mist, the ground held little of the dense brush and brambles of the outer forest—perhaps because the fog here was too thick and the sunlight could not reach through.

But the strangest thing of all was that the countless venomous insects, fierce beasts, and rare flowers and herbs that had once covered the Dead Marsh woods had suddenly vanished. Ming Li had walked this stretch of forest for at least half an hour and had not seen a single venomous insect.

It seemed there was no animal life here at all—a dead, lifeless desolation.

Ming Li frowned and walked on. Little Grey on his shoulder had fallen quiet now, its paws clutching tightly at his clothing, though its bright, clever eyes still darted this way and that, ceaselessly scanning the surroundings. With no brambles or brush, and none of those troublesome poisonous insects and strange beasts, walking on the ground felt much easier. Since entering the inner marsh, this was the first time.

Lu Xueling had entered the mist before him; Ming Li had deliberately lingered outside it for a long while before going in, and now he had no idea where she might be.

Yet as he walked on through the woods, carefully watching for any strange movement that might appear, her white-robed figure kept slipping unbidden into his mind.

"Come back..." Ming Li murmured to himself, in a voice only he could hear, softly repeating those four words.

Canglan Mountain, Dazhu Peak, the Shoujing Hall, the little courtyard, the bamboo grove...

His lips moved slightly, bringing forth a faintly bitter smile, and he said, "I can't go back anymore, can I, Little Grey?"

"Cheep cheep!" The monkey Little Grey gave two soft cries; what it meant, no one could tell.

Ming Li reached out and stroked Little Grey. A moment later he suddenly rallied his spirits, gave a carefree laugh, and strode on into the depths of the mist.

Another small half-hour of walking, and the trees in the forest grew thicker and thicker, until nearly all around there were giant trunks too big for two men to encircle. Ming Li surveyed his surroundings, secretly alarmed.

In these ten years, spurred by that battle on Canglan Mountain and subtly shaped by the Blood-devouring Bead and the Soul Devourer at his side, he had not only devoted himself to cultivation until his temper grew ever more savage and bloodthirsty, but had also studied other disciplines under the Underworld King. And this generation's Underworld King was truly a talent the world rarely produced—not only was his cultivation marvelously high, but his mind held a vast erudition, encompassing all things.