Chapter 34 — Ten Thousand Bats
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
The veiled woman glanced at the flower in her hand; her veil stirred lightly, as though she had nodded, and she said, "Those four are of the Canglan Sect." Her voice echoed through the garden, deep and drifting—soft, yet with a ghostly air. "The one in the lead is Qi Hao of the Dragon Peak line. The other three I have not seen before; they look to be of the younger generation, names unknown."
The girl in green smiled faintly. "I know one of them. The one who just passed by is called Zhang Qingyue. What a rustic name."
The veiled woman glanced at her and said coolly, "Bili, it has been a long while since I have seen you admire flowers."
The girl in green—Bili, as she was called—seemed to pause for a moment; the next instant, a smile returned to her lovely face. "Yes, Aunt You. A very long while."
She raised the flower and looked at it closely once more. Then, under the veiled woman's gaze, the girl in green, still smiling, closed her hand with resolute finality and crushed the beautiful blossom to fragments.
The next day, the four of the Canglan Sect rose and washed. Qi Hao gathered the four and said, "Kongsang Mountain lies three thousand li to the east. It is no short journey; we had best be on our way." The other three raised no objection, so they settled the bill and set out.
The owner of the Shanhai Inn did indeed hold the Canglan Sect in esteem, and gave them fully half off the already steep room rate—almost the price of an ordinary room. Zhang Qingyue watched Qi Hao jest and reckon the accounts with the owner, while his own gaze stole about the place; but even as they departed, he never again saw the girl in green or any of her party from the night before.
The four of them flew through the air, and the journey of three thousand li took a full ten days. Zhang Qingyue, naturally, slowed them down a great deal along the way; yet in the last few days, as his grasp of Daoist arts grew more practiced and his command of the "Mystic Iron Staff" more sure, he even began to fly with a certain flair. Each day, soaring high and far across the sky, that sensation of cleaving through blue heaven and white clouds kept him elated for days on end.
At last, on this day, they reached Kongsang Mountain. The four descended from their clouds and all started in astonishment: within a hundred li in every direction rose a single steep and towering mountain, but it was mostly bare rock with little grass or timber, and at its foot not a trace of human habitation could be seen—a desolate waste.
By then it was near dusk, the sun sinking westward, and the hazy yellow light of the setting sun fell upon Kongsang Mountain as if bearing a touch of bleakness, and something of dread as well. The four landed at the mountain's foot and put away their immortal swords and treasures. Qi Hao glanced at the sky and said, "I see no household here where we might lodge. Better that we go up the mountain at once, and while we search for that 'Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Grotto,' look also for some suitable place to rest the night."
Zeng Shuyan said, "Senior Brother Qi speaks sense. Let us go up the mountain now." Zhang Qingyue, seeing that Zeng Shuyan had agreed, had no objection of his own. Lu Xueqi glanced at the sky, said not a word, but was the first to set off toward the summit.
Though Kongsang Mountain could not compare with the absurd height of Heaven-Reaching Peak on Canglan Mountain, it was by no means low; and being remote, steep, and trackless, by the time the four had climbed from the foot to the mountainside, the sky had gone completely dark.
The four came onto a broad flat ledge, and Qi Hao called them to a halt. From his robe he drew a small bronze mirror. All three recognized it at a glance as the Canglan Sect's supreme treasure, the ** Mirror, and for a moment they were taken aback, not knowing what Qi Hao meant to do.