Chapter 14 — A Prodigy
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 5
Seeing that Lin Jinghong was unhurt, Qi Hao relaxed and smiled from the side. "My master has said that my junior brother's gifts are extraordinary and that he will surely become a great vessel; it is only fitting that he be cultivated with all care."
Tian Buhui's face grew uglier still.
By now the Amber Crimson Silk and the Dragon-Slaying Sword were locked in a standoff. Tian Lingsu's lovely eyes went wide; she flung out both arms, red robes fluttering, and her body rose slowly into the air. Crossing her hands before her breast in the orchid-finger gesture, she cried, "Bind the Spirit!"
At her word the radiance swelled. The Amber Crimson Silk, which a moment before had been but three feet long before her, suddenly drew back and flew to hang before her; then with a sharp report the light blazed up and it grew at the wind's touch, swift beyond compare, swelling in an instant to unknowable length until it filled the whole space above the Shoujing Hall, pressing the blue light of the Dragon-Slaying Sword down beneath it. A moment later it split into tens of thousands of silken cords that rushed at Lin Jinghong and wrapped him round, thick as a wall.
Su Wan rose and called into the air, "Ling'er, you go too far!"
But even as she spoke, the myriad silks had wrapped Lin Jinghong tight. Not only could no one see him—even Tian Lingsu's figure in midair was hidden behind layer upon layer of red silk.
Zhang Qingyue stared, dumbstruck, marveling at the wonder of it, when he heard someone behind him sigh in praise, "The Amber Crimson Silk—truly worthy of its name!"
He turned. It was Qi Hao, his eyes fixed on the scene, murmuring to himself, not a trace of worry in his face.
Just as Tian Lingsu's victory seemed certain, everyone heard a piercing "hiss-rip," and a gap tore open in the layered red silk, through which a speck of blue light showed.
Tian Buhui and Su Wan both paled.
"Roar!" A mighty sound, like an angry dragon's furious hiss, shook the nine heavens. In an instant the gap widened a hundredfold, the blue light blazed up again, and bursting out through the torn silk, Lin Jinghong—man and sword as one, a faint dragon shape coiling about him—shot at Tian Lingsu like an arrow loosed from the string, irresistible.
Everyone paled. Tian Lingsu alone, though startled, was not flustered; she swept her hands before her breast, tracing a taiji diagram in the empty air, and in a moment the layers of red silk returned before her and became countless barriers. The sound of tearing came without cease as the Dragon-Slaying Sword pierced through layer after layer of silk; its momentum slowed a little, yet that onrushing force did not abate in the least, and it seemed the two of them would settle life and death between them.
Clang!
A chill swept past, and the Dragon-Slaying Sword, as if striking rotten cotton, was flung back. Lin Jinghong's face changed in alarm; he looked up and saw that a wall of ice had formed between him and Tian Lingsu in that brief instant, its cold piercing, and though the Dragon-Slaying Sword's power was fearsome, it could not break through. And Qi Hao, he knew not when, had already reached his side and pulled him a full zhang back.
On the other side, Tian Lingsu's face was pale, but Su Wan had in the blink of an eye darted forward and gathered her into her arms, retreating to Tian Buhui's side.
The two immortal treasures in the hall, deprived of control, gradually lost their light and flew each back to its master's hand.
In the Shoujing Hall there was dead silence.