Chapter 53 — The Strange Beast
劍問蒼天 · Page 2 of 6
Yan Fei smiled slightly. "So that is how it is. Then the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox is most likely down here at the bottom of the abyss. Senior Brother, your foresight is deep—I am truly in admiration."
The faint arrogance returned to Li Xun's face. "We are disciples of the Fenxia Valley and have received great kindness from our sect. Naturally we cannot bring shame upon it. This time I only hope heaven will bless us: that the artifact returns to its rightful owner, that it is restored to its proper place, and that the demons are vanquished."
Yan Fei smiled and said nothing. Li Xun glanced at her. "Let us go."
Yan Fei nodded. The two of them rose into the air, once more transforming into swift beams of light, and plunged down into the depths of the darkness.
Zhang Qingyue gripped the Dark Iron Staff tightly in his right hand, but his body was bound fast by that enormous tentacle, so tightly that he could almost hear the bones within him creaking and groaning. There was not a spot on him that did not ache. Carried by that giant tentacle, he hurtled downward into the depths of the earth, the wind slicing painfully across his face, stars bursting before his eyes, his mind a chaos of frightening images flashing past without end.
The length of this tentacle was truly terrifying—it had dragged him down a good five zhang or more. In his confusion, Zhang Qingyue caught a faint glimmer of light and cast a frantic glance around. Before him, the abyss had already reached its bottom. Not a blade of grass grew anywhere nearby; only on the stone wall ahead gaped an enormous cave, ten zhang high and seven or eight zhang wide, pitch-black within, its depths unfathomable.
It was from this great stone cave that the monster's giant tentacle emerged. Now, seeing its rear portion, it was even more immeasurably vast—who could say what the whole creature might look like, if indeed it was a living thing at all.
The tentacle swung Zhang Qingyue through the air in an arc, and he was being dragged, helpless, toward the mouth of that stone cave, when at that very moment a faint light flickered at the cave entrance. The Three-Tailed Demon Fox, who had been gone so long, suddenly appeared, holding the Profound Fire Mirror in her hand.
She looked up and saw Zhang Qingyue gripped fast in the giant tentacle, clearly with no strength left to resist. A flash of murderous intent crossed her soft, alluring face, and she turned back toward the cave as if to speak. But for some reason she seemed to think better of it, stopped, turned her head, and gave Zhang Qingyue—still struggling in agony, all to no avail—a long, deep look. She sighed and said softly, "Seeing how you looked at the Well of the Full Moon, you are a man who loves deeply. Enough. Enough."
With that, she raised the Profound Fire Mirror and shone it into the great stone cave, while uttering a strange, low cry—a shrill, mournful sound, like the howl of a fox in the wilderness.
A moment later, as though receiving some command, the giant tentacle gave a sharp hiss and retracted swiftly into the stone cave. Zhang Qingyue's vision went black; he could see no light at all. He was suddenly overwhelmed by a strange stench, and the surface of the tentacle coiled around him was slick and greasy, yet somehow its grip on him was immovable, so that he could not stir even a hair's breadth.
Meanwhile, outside the cave, the Three-Tailed Demon Fox heard the whistling sound and looked up. Above her, two beams of light, one gold and one white, appeared and shot down swiftly. She laughed coldly twice, flickered aside, and retreated to the cave mouth. Shining the Profound Fire Mirror into the cave, she once again gave voice to that fox-cry, similar to the one before.