Chapter 52 — The Fire Dragon
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 7
Further down, the situation seemed to shift somewhat: the openings in the stone wall were still slowly growing larger, and the creatures within were larger than those in the caves above—now plainly bigger than an ordinary man. But here the three unexpectedly found that nearly half of the stone caves were empty. And in the air, which had all along been fairly fresh, there now seemed to come faintly the smell of blood.
The three exchanged a glance, wariness in every eye; yet even so, they did not slow their descent.
In the boundless darkness beneath their feet, something seemed to glimmer faintly—like starlight, like a spark of fire.
Above the abyss, Zhou Yixuan and his granddaughter Xiaowan had at last, by the light of their torches and with their hearts in their throats, made their way to the cliff's edge where Zhang Qingyue and the others had leaped down. Gazing at the cliff that barred their way ahead and the fathomless abyss beneath their feet, Zhou Yixuan was struck dumb, unable to utter a word.
Xiaowan, young after all—though at her tender age she had already roamed the wide world with her grandfather—could not help but feel afraid, there in the dark and silent Black Stone Cave. She poked her head over the cliff's edge for one glance, then at once drew it back and whispered to Zhou Yixuan, "Grandfather, is there any way you can get us down?"
Zhou Yixuan rolled his eyes this way and that, then said dejectedly, "We don't know any Daoist arts, and we've no rope ready. Now we're really in a fix."
Xiaowan, however, breathed a sigh of relief and patted her chest. "Thank goodness, thank goodness."
Zhou Yixuan glared at her. "Thank goodness what? Maybe there's a mountain of gold and silver down there, of agate and jade, waiting for us! Now we've—we've—we've lost out big!" His voice was full of bitter regret.
Xiaowan gave a sniff, lifted the candied hawthorn skewer in her right hand, and took a bite. "A mountain of gold and silver, is it? I say it's more likely a mountain of corpses and bones waiting for you! All right, since we can't get down, let's be off quick. Otherwise, if we run into a demon or two, you—the famous thirteenth-generation heir of Patriarch Canglan—will go and disgrace your patriarch's name all over again."
Zhou Yixuan flew into a rage. "Nonsense! What sort of man is Zhou Yixuan, that he would disgrace his patriarch's—"
Before the words were out of his mouth, there came from the darkness along the path behind them, in that silent cave, two soft whishes—and two streaks of light flashed past, swift as lightning, and in the blink of an eye had landed before the two of them.
Zhou Yixuan cried out in alarm, pulled Xiaowan back, thrust his right hand into his robe, and seized the yellow paper talisman, meaning to work a spell and flee. But the two streaks of light swayed twice and revealed two figures, whose movements were as swift as ghosts; before Zhou Yixuan could even draw out his talisman, there came a crisp "hiss," and something cold pressed against his neck, setting every hair on his body on end, and he groaned inwardly with dismay.
After a moment's calming, Zhou Yixuan realized the other party had not struck to take his life, though whatever it was at his neck had not been withdrawn either. Summoning his courage, he looked at the two—a young man and a young woman. The man's face was like polished jade, exceedingly handsome; the woman's face was like a lotus blossom, of unmatched beauty.