Chapter 238 — Fear

Master Pude shook his head silently. Ming Li was taken aback, at a loss. A moment later he heard Master Pude's hoarse, low voice: "I have kept this treasure by my side for several decades, pondering it day and night, and to this day I have only seen that it can penetrate the mysteries of transformation and fix the soul for rebirth. But I have never fathomed just how this strange treasure is to be invoked and used."

It was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over Ming Li's head; he was chilled from head to foot. He looked at Master Pude in disbelief, then slowly turned to the Venerable Pu Cheng.

The Venerable Pu Cheng sighed and said, "Benefactor, this is the very reason my junior brother Pude and I have hesitated all along. The Universe Reincarnation Disc does indeed have the wondrous power to reverse Heaven and Earth and turn back cause and effect, but no doubt because that power is too contrary to Heaven's will, ordinary men cannot fathom its mysteries."

Ming Li sat dumbstruck, unable to speak, his heart in chaos. A thousand words surged up in him, and in the end only a wordless bitterness remained.

After a long while he suddenly gave a bitter laugh, shook his head, and said, "Be that as it may, I beg you two Masters to lend me the treasure all the same. Whatever else, it is still a hope."

The Venerable Pu Cheng and Master Pude said together, "Amitabha."

Fa Cheng, standing by, could not bear it. He stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Benefactor Zhang, I am truly sorry..."

Ming Li shook his head silently. Suddenly he smiled at Fa Cheng—though in Fa Cheng's eyes that smile was bitter beyond words—and said slowly, "Brother Fa Cheng, there is no need to comfort me with kind words. In truth, this is not the first time for me. There was a time when a great hope lay right before my eyes, and yet it failed at the very last step..."

His voice suddenly sank low; a look of extreme anguish flashed across his face and was gone. He said no more, but cupped his hands to the Venerable Pu Cheng and Master Pude in deep thanks, then turned sharply, without a backward glance, and strode out.

Watching Ming Li's retreating figure, the Venerable Pu Cheng's eyes held a complex light. Pressing his palms together, he murmured softly, "Amitabha. The Buddha is merciful. His karma clings to him; truly his whole life will be one of sorrow."

Master Pude was silent a moment, then softly echoed, "Amitabha!"

Mount Huqi, the headquarters of the Hall of the Nether King.

Xiao Bai had been back at Mount Huqi for three days now, and in those three days the space between her brows seemed never once to have relaxed. Again and again during those three days the tragedy had played out before her eyes: watching those disciples of the Hall of the Nether King die in madness, and the others around them sinking ever deeper into terror, plainly on the verge of being driven mad by that dreadful atmosphere even if they did not go mad of themselves—Xiao Bai was now wholly certain that something strange and terrible had happened within this Mount Huqi.

Yet what puzzled and infuriated her most was precisely this: in such circumstances, she could not even get to see the Hall Master, the Nether King.

From the disciples of the Hall she learned that the Nether King had suddenly ordered a closed cultivation long ago and would receive no outside guests; even ordinary disciples could not see him. Several times Xiao Bai had disciples go and announce her, but the word that came back was always much the same: either the disciple sent could not find the Hall Master, or the Nether King sent word asking Miss Xiao Bai to wait a few more days, that he would soon come out of seclusion—in short, he would not come out to see her.

Though Xiao Bai's cultivation was profound, placed as she was in such an eerie atmosphere as this Hall of the Nether King now had, there was no way her mood could be good. And each day she could not help but see someone nearby go mad and die; the horror of such a place of madness was beyond all words.

In truth, with her thousand years of cultivation, Xiao Bai had already vaguely sensed that behind this vast and seemingly magnificent cavern in the mountain's belly there lay a most strange and bloodthirsty power, swelling without cease. Especially each time she witnessed someone die in madness, that peculiar reek of blood grew ever more intense.

Three days ago, when she had first arrived at Mount Huqi and met the first disciple of the Hall, Old Li, dying in madness, she had by chance discovered a mysterious figure hidden in a certain corner, from whose body this blood-reek poured forth most strongly of all. But when she went after him, the mysterious figure had already vanished, and from that day to this had not appeared again.

And at this very moment, Xiao Bai felt her patience was nearly worn away!

In the stone chamber Xiao Bai sat alone. The thick stone walls around her, though likewise seamed with cracks that had not been there before—a sight to make the heart start—could still shut out most of the noise and enclose within this chamber a quiet that now seemed precious beyond measure. Yet Xiao Bai's face showed nothing of quiet; on the contrary, the anger in it grew stronger by the moment. What had happened before her eyes these past days had wholly overturned her former impression of the Nether King. His disciples were mired in terror, and yet the Hall Master had simply vanished from sight—he would not even come out to say a word to steady men's hearts, let alone take any measure to deal with the situation.

This was a thing unheard of. Xiao Bai had even wondered whether some great event had befallen the Hall of the Nether King during her absence—whether some powerful figure had secretly done away with the Nether King, and this was the chaos that followed. Otherwise, with the Nether King's former grand strategy and great ability, how could such a state of things have come about? Yet turn it over as she might, Xiao Bai always felt that a figure as formidable as the Nether King could never have been betrayed and murdered by his own subordinates. And she still cherished the bond of those years when her sister Xiao Chi had been the Nether King's wedded wife; she did not wish to make things too strained, and so could only wait patiently—and that wait had stretched to three days and three nights.

"Pa!"

Xiao Bai's face was dark as water. She struck the bed beside her, then rose and walked straight to the door of the stone chamber. Three days—at last she could bear it no longer, and was resolved to go and see the Nether King and have it out with him. Otherwise she would simply leave this place; in such an eerie spot as this, she truly did not wish to stay a single day longer.

Just as she was about to reach the stone door, Xiaobai's slender brows suddenly knit. She seemed to sense something and halted. Sure enough, a moment later a stir came from beyond the stone door, and then a respectful voice called in: "Is Miss Xiaobai there?"

Xiaobai stepped forward and opened the stone door. Outside the chamber stood a disciple of the Hades Sect, around twenty, still quite young in appearance, though the skin around his eyes was somewhat dark and a weariness he could not hide lingered on his face. One could well imagine that he, too, had been plagued by the eerie happenings all around.

Seeing Xiaobai standing there, the Hades Sect disciple's expression grew all the more deferential. That Xiaobai shared an extraordinary bond with both the Hades Sect's Sect Master, Hades, and its Vice Sect Master, Ming Li, was known to everyone in the sect, and so they naturally treated her with the utmost respect.

Xiaobai glanced at him. "What is it?"

The young Hades Sect disciple said, "This disciple has been sent by the Sect Master's command to request that Miss Xiaobai come and meet with him."