Chapter 210 — Doomsday

The Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon at last gazed once more upon those two human figures, and this time what burned in its eyes seemed no longer that mysterious, moist, translucent flame, but a pair of eyes filled with the complex, frantic emotions of humankind.

The dragon's head lifted, its jaws opening wide to the sky.

It seemed to be drawing a deep, deep breath!

With that motion, every flame burning in midair seemed to lose its radiance, yet the oppressive force bearing down upon Ming Li and Lu Xueling grew all the more despairing, enough to make one want to give up entirely.

From the vast maw of the Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon, a light suddenly flashed forth, not the searing glare of fire, but true, pure flame.

Without a single impurity, without a single sound, the most terrible and most pure thing in this world, capable of consuming all that exists between heaven and earth: the Flame of Pure Essence!

Slowly it poured forth.

Not a trace of heat leaked outward; it was only a pillar of fire, round and slender as a human body, pure as jade, flying toward Ming Li and Lu Xueling.

In Lu Xueling's hand, the Tianxuan slowly lowered, and beside it, the Shipo drifted gently back into Ming Li's grasp. The cyan and azure radiance slowly faded.

No power of man could withstand this irresistible Flame of Pure Essence.

The flame drew nearer, bit by bit!

Lu Xueling silently raised her head, yet she was no longer looking that way; in her eyes now there was only one figure, only that one face.

She gazed deeply, a faint smile on her lips, unwilling to let slip even the slightest bit of it, as though she would carve it into her heart, into her very soul, so that even after a thousand years and ten thousand ages, she could never forget.

The flame had drawn close!

Without the slightest warning, the sleeve of Ming Li's robe in an instant crumbled into grey dust and scattered away, and then the garments of his entire arm.

And this hand, this body, how much time remained?

So this is how it ends, he thought faintly. So this is how I die?

Only, his heart's wish could not, after all, be fulfilled...

He gave a low, bitter laugh, and what he held tightly was that soft and gentle palm.

Suddenly, the flickering light of the flame burst outward like a streaking meteor, and a spark of fire flashed violently through his mind, plunging it instantly into chaos.

Lu Xueling sensed at once that something was wrong with Ming Li and instinctively gripped his palm, and almost in the same instant the Flame of Pure Essence had reached their side, about to swallow their bodies.

Death?

Or life!

In that instant Ming Li suddenly cried out, gave a forceful pull, and dragged Lu Xueling's body behind him; Lu Xueling gave a startled cry but had not the slightest thought of fleeing alone, and instead gripped Ming Li's hand all the tighter.

And in that flash of lightning, between Ming Li's palms there suddenly appeared a tablet that was jade and yet not jade, ringed about with a circle of green jade and bearing in its center an ancient flame pattern: the Xuanhuo Mirror!

In the next instant, the Flame of Pure Essence struck the Xuanhuo Mirror.

In the distance, the statue of the Eight-Fierce Deity gave a violent shudder, and the terrifying dragon head of the vast and mighty Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon was suddenly checked as well; all things seemed suddenly to halt.

Then, as though a voice from the netherworld, a gentle and unhurried chanting echoed faintly, as if it were that gentle, exquisite woman from ten million years ago.

The Xuanhuo Mirror lit up; the crude ancient flame pattern at its center seemed now to be reborn, and beneath the burning of the Flame of Pure Essence it was as though endless vitality had been poured into it, greedily absorbing the purest essence of flame in this world.

"Ah!"

Suddenly, Ming Li let out a soft cry; the Xuanhuo Mirror had grown so fiercely hot that he could no longer hold it. Yet the Xuanhuo Mirror, having left his palm, did not fall, but slowly rose into the air, and beneath the gaze of the Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon it gently flickered.

A scorching aura slowly emanated from the Xuanhuo Mirror, accompanied by a wisp of dreamlike white smoke, seemingly the vaporized air around it, gathering about the mirror. A vast and mysterious power slowly tore at the surrounding space, and within the white, illusory smoke a beautiful woman's figure gradually took shape.

It was a woman in archaic dress, a staff in her hand, and her face was exactly the same as that of the statue of the Witch Goddess Linglong guarding the mouth of the ancient cave for suppressing demons.

"Linglong..."

It was like a heart-rending cry of despair; the Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon once more showed a look of agony, and then that mass of flame slowly detached itself from above the dragon's head, and the firelight dispersed, revealing the true body of the Beast Lord, save that now the Beast Lord appeared shriveled throughout, as though his oil were spent and his lamp guttering.

Only, those eager eyes had not changed in ten million years; he had forgotten all else in the world, and in his eyes there was only that woman within the smoke.

He flew toward that illusion, his eyes filled with utter contentment.

The Xuanhuo Mirror rotated silently, and the phantom of Linglong seemed to smile as well, opening her arms to embrace him.

They were about to come together in that embrace, when behind the Beast Lord there suddenly came a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar; the Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon, freed from its restraint, recognized its enemy at first glance, the body it had once destroyed, and by instinct unleashed its attack.

It drew a deep breath, its dragon breath long and drawn out; in the distance Ming Li and Lu Xueling both changed color, but the Beast Lord seemed long since to have forgotten everything around him, or perhaps even if he knew, how could he still care?

He lunged forward; within that smoke it was no illusion after all, and he truly did embrace that body.

Linglong...

Linglong...

He called softly, and like a child, contentedly closed his eyes. Linglong smiled and gently stroked his hair.

The giant dragon roared, and furious flame arrived in an instant!

Swallowing everything.

The two figures slowly vanished within the sea of fire, and yet there was not the slightest sorrow in it; instead, what rose little by little to the surface was a strange, otherworldly happiness.

Amid the firelight, the Xuanhuo Mirror suddenly flashed into being, plunging straight down from midair to land right beside Ming Li's hand. In the midst of the tremors, Ming Li instinctively reached out and caught it, and at that very moment, the place where the overbearing Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon dwelt seemed all at once to lose the support of some power, and that enormous rift began slowly to contract.

The Eight-Abyssal Fire Dragon let out another furious roar, full of unwillingness, yet for all its overbearing might, it seemed powerless to stop its gigantic head from being swallowed once more by that mysterious space. Only, in its final moment, filled with a hatred that would destroy all things, it spat out one last terrible blast of fire at this space.

The heavens split and the earth cracked asunder!

In an instant, all the molten rock boiled up and exploded together, the stone walls melted away entirely, the vast space collapsed in upon itself like sand, and at the same time countless mad torrents of magma came shooting out in every direction.

Ming Li and Lu Xueling watched this doomsday spectacle in despair, powerless now to escape with their lives, but just then the Xuanhuo Mirror suddenly gave forth a pure and gentle halo of light that enfolded the two of them, wrapping them within a luminous shell, and swiftly bore them upward.

And beneath them, everything was transformed into flame.