Chapter 209 — The Eight Wilderness Fire Dragon

Xiaobai descended slowly from the sky and alighted on the ground. Looking at the flashing white light ahead and the bedraggled state of the Fenxia Valley crowd, she gave a cold laugh and let out a long breath. Though she had attained the Way a thousand years ago, she was by no means a merciful, magnanimous immortal; imprisoned by Fenxia Valley in the Xuanhuo Altar for several hundred years, she had let that grievance go lightly enough at the time, but that she did not seek trouble with the Fenxia Valley folk was already cause for those disciples to burn incense in gratitude. Now they had delivered themselves to her door—and it happened that, having just had a talk with Ming Li, her mood was foul. They had walked straight into the muzzle of her gun.

It was at that very moment that, all at once, a chill ran through the smug Xiaobai, and a palpitation such as she had never known rose violently from the depths of her heart; her chest gave several involuntary, violent leaps.

An ancient and savage power was slowly rising ahead, deep within this Zhenmo Ancient Cave, as though it had slumbered a thousand or ten thousand years and had now, for the first time, awakened. And merely the beginning of that awakening had already turned heaven and earth pale.

Rumbling thunder came slowly from the depths of the earth; violent tremors followed, surging in from afar like waves. The ground began to quake fiercely, and this time countless massive boulders came crashing down, as though the earth could not bear the rebirth of this vast power.

Everyone turned pale with fright. In the panic, Zeng Shuyan gathered all his strength and shouted to Li Xun, "Senior Brother Li, it is too dangerous here—we had best get out first!"

Li Xun's face was ashen. He struck away an oncoming white orb with his sword, but in his agitation he used a little too much force; after the orb was knocked several chi away, it split into two identical orbs, which halted in midair to gather strength anew, ready to charge again at any moment. Since this upheaval had broken out, however, Xiaobai seemed to have her mind on other things, and her sorcery had slowed considerably; the orbs too had slowed.

Li Xun, hard pressed all this while, his face alternating blue and white, suddenly clenched his teeth and shouted, "Everyone out! I will hold the rear."

With that he leapt into the air, and at once his sword-light blazed forth, holding back most of the white orbs for the moment. The Fenxia Valley folk had always held him in respect; hearing this and looking around at the situation, which was indeed no place to linger, they all rushed toward the cave mouth. Yet Li Xun seemed to have no intention of leaving. Zeng Shuyan flew over, blocking several impacts of white orbs for him in succession, and shouted, "Senior Brother Li, why are you not leaving?"

A flicker of hesitation crossed Li Xun's face. "But... Junior Sister Lu is still inside."

Zeng Shuyan knitted his brows and said angrily, "Junior Sister Lu is deeply cultivated and may well be unharmed. To persist like this is only to harm both yourself and others!"

Li Xun's expression shifted several times, but he saw only that the tremors around them were growing fiercer, and that after all this time the falling rocks showed no sign of abating—rather, they seemed to be worsening. He gave a long sigh, and at last flew backward.

Zeng Shuyan cast one glance into the depths of the cave, then followed him out.

Every word of their exchange fell upon Xiaobai's ears, yet to her it seemed that nothing touched her heart but a faint, cold smile. The white orbs in the cavern moved ever more slowly; after Li Xun's and Zeng Shuyan's figures swiftly vanished, the white orbs, having lost their targets, gradually came to a halt in midair, then slowly gathered, merging gently, and re-formed into a single white orb, which flew toward Xiaobai.

Xiaobai turned slowly and gazed into the depths of the cave.

That ancient, vast power was still swelling; Xiaobai could clearly sense the overwhelming force of destruction contained within it. The surrounding rock walls still crumbled and shed stones great and small, which crashed to the ground amid the rumbling; yet within three chi of her person, not a single stone could strike her body.

The white orb flew back to her side, like a tiny sprite, dancing and circling about her as though trying to fathom its mistress's mind.

And upon that mistress's lost, vacant face there was nothing but worry and desolation.

It was at this moment that, from the deep darkness, a roar burst forth with a crash, like the long cry of a giant dragon, a dragon's chant raised to the heavens.

That mysterious ancient power had at last fully awakened!

The vast stone chamber was wholly engulfed in intense firelight; the darkness of before was driven out utterly, not a shadowed corner left to be found. This radiance far surpassed any light in the world, so that it seemed even the blazing sun of the heavens, should it descend, could be no more than this.

The once-unrivaled Crimson Flame Demon Beast, set beside it, would have been a mere spark of firefly light.

Within this terrifying power, the hottest place was undoubtedly that ring of light about the Eightfold Fierce Divine Statue, still present and spinning furiously, flickering with an uncanny halo. There the flames into which the Beast Lord had once merged grew ever whiter with heat, and the mystic incantations that filled the air grew ever more urgent.

The flame-heart, ceaselessly expanding and faintly contracting and swelling, was like a crimson egg in the hatching, nurturing some dreadful thing; and as the surrounding temperature climbed ever more swiftly, that ancient and mysterious place was drop by drop gathering the power it had lost for a thousand thousand years, about to descend upon the world once more.

Lu Xueling and Ming Li had been pressed entirely back against the wall at the chamber's edge; the all-too-powerful force of the blaze seemed to be roasting their bodies and souls, wringing out every drop of moisture in them.

There was no sweat, for every drop had vaporized before it could flow; in the roaring flames their flushed faces were mirrored.

Lu Xueling suddenly sensed something and looked toward Ming Li beside her. At some point, that man had taken her hand. She felt no astonishment, no surprise—not even here, in this sea of despairing fire, facing that unknown and mysterious power.

In her palm, at her fingertips, came warmth.

She had known it once, perhaps—ten years ago it had been like this, that memory of hands clasped tight in the darkness!

Ming Li shifted, leaving the wall the two had leaned against, and placed himself before Lu Xueling. A pale cyan radiance, shot through with a faint golden sheen, flashed from beside his hand and formed a wall of light before them.

At once the searing heat eased greatly, but Ming Li's back gave a slight shudder; then he drew a deep breath.

Suddenly, the hand in his palm gripped him hard. From behind him a pale blue radiance surged up; at first it seemed somewhat at odds with the cyan light, clashing and incompatible, but soon the two radiances merged into one, forming a stronger wall of light to withstand that dreadful crimson blaze.

The man's shoulders, the man's back, standing silently before her—Lu Xueling held his hand tightly, and at the corner of her lips, beneath that sky full of firelight, there was a faint smile.

Suddenly the drawn-out incantation ceased. For a moment it was as though everything had frozen in an instant: all the flames, the firelight filling the sky, the figures of Ming Li and Lu Xueling struggling to resist, and that Eightfold Fierce Divine Statue spinning ceaselessly in midair.