Chapter 130 — The Sinister Forest

She was greatly alarmed, and in that lightning instant the thought "Am I truly going to die here?" flashed unbidden through her mind. She could not help but feel a secret regret that, having discovered the mysterious connection between the Necromancer and Shangguan Lue, she had rashly chased in after them. But the next moment she suddenly realized that although the monsters were still shrieking and roaring—and from where she stood she could even glimpse beasts leaping and thrashing in the dark forest in a fury—for some reason not a single one of them stepped out of the Black Forest.

Perhaps they were beings that did not belong to this world at all, and so could only live within that uncanny forest...

This discovery finally let Jin Pingyue breathe a sigh of relief; and moreover, in the light, those black demon trees seemed to have congealed as well, making no further move to attack her.

Standing atop the rock, feeling the mountain wind blow up from the cliff behind her, faintly foul-smelling, Jin Pingyue's body went limp, and she nearly sat down.

The wind stirred her garments, and only then did she notice that her whole body was covered in filthy beast blood. No matter what else she was, Jin Pingyue was still a woman, and the discovery sickened her; she hurriedly bowed her head to tidy herself.

Suddenly, from within the Black Forest, a mighty roar erupted with a thunderous crash, drowning out in an instant the roaring of countless monsters. Before Jin Pingyue could even raise her head to look, a vast dark shadow leaped fiercely out of the Black Forest and hurtled toward her.

Jin Pingyue felt the whole sky suddenly darken, and herself shrouded within that black shadow. With a cry of alarm she instinctively raised the Violet Radiance Blade above her head. The blade's violet light had barely flared when the shadow was already upon her; a tremendous force came surging like mountains and seas, and Jin Pingyue's body was struck flying. Even in midair, blood could already be seen spurting from her mouth.

Her body tumbled through the air, and after a few turns it had flown past the rock beneath her feet and fallen away. The mountain wind howled, and in an instant her figure could no longer be seen.

"Roar!"

With a low growl, the dark shadow landed on the ground—it was none other than the vicious dragon that kept company with the Necromancer. Now it gaped its bloody maw and swept its fierce eyes in all directions, and the monsters in the Black Forest seemed to fear this dragon exceedingly; by now not a sound came from them at all—they had all slipped quietly away.

The shadow shifted, and the Necromancer, dressed all in black, drifted slowly out of the Black Forest, passed by the dragon's side, and came to the edge of the cliff. The huge dragon followed slowly at his side.

The Necromancer leaned forward and looked down over the cliff. In the colored clouds and mists below, ripples could faintly be seen stirring—clearly something had fallen into them. He turned back, gave a slight nod, and patted the dragon's body gently.

The dragon gave a low growl.

The Necromancer let out a cold laugh. Without looking back, he drifted into the Black Forest. The dragon was about to follow when it suddenly halted again and glanced toward the cliff—but all there was silence, and nothing happened.

The dragon's fierce eyes gleamed brightly. It paused a while, then at last turned its head and ran off in the direction its master had gone. A rustling sound rose in the Black Forest, then gradually sank, until it vanished.

The mountain wind blew past, lifting the fine dust from the ground and covering over the last remaining traces of blood, as though nothing had ever happened here.

A long while later, there came a faint sound, violet light flashed at the cliff's edge, and a figure clambered up from beneath the rock—it was Jin Pingyue.

The moment she landed, she gasped for breath. On that face, once white as jade, threads of crimson blood clung at the corners of her mouth—clearly she had been badly hurt. At her right side the violet radiance slowly shrank and withdrew into her sleeve. But her gaze had turned to her own left hand: at some unknown moment, a blade of strange shape had appeared there, its spine serrated like a saw, its form archaic and clumsy, its short, thick blade glinting with a cold, grim light, and upon it two characters could clearly be seen engraved—

Shasheng!

Jin Pingyue slowly raised her head and looked once in the direction the Necromancer and the dragon had gone. In the Black Forest all was stillness. She gazed for a long time, as though pondering something, and after a good while her eyes returned to that strange blade in her hand.

In her eyes, a strange light seemed quietly to turn. The mountain wind blew past, and faintly her soft murmuring to herself could be heard.

"The monk Shasheng, is it..."