劍問蒼天 - 第62章 魔教 - 翰墨軒

Before long the Demonic Sect members came down one after another, and their target was indeed the area around this mountain ravine. A short while later someone seemed to light torches, and then the whole crowd actually began walking toward the cave.

Zhang Qingyue and Tian Lingsu, who had been hiding near the mouth of the cave, had no choice but to feel their way deeper into the darkness. Their hearts now hung suspended in midair; the disparity in strength between the two sides was simply too great, and if they were discovered they would have no power to resist at all.

Fortunately, the Demonic Sect was numerous, and it seemed they had never imagined that anyone from the orthodox sects would discover this place. Along the way they made no effort to muffle their talk and laughter, and by sheer luck those sounds covered the faint noises the two of them made.

Moving a stretch, pausing a stretch, they at last reached a spacious area, and the Demonic Sect people stopped there. Those carrying torches found crevices in the surrounding rock with practiced ease and thrust the torches into them; plainly they came to this place often.

The open space within the cave was lit up.

Zhang Qingyue and Tian Lingsu stopped as well, hiding deeper within where the light did not reach, hardly daring to breathe.

Zhang Qingyue peered stealthily outward. In the distance the Demonic Sect followers had formed a rough semicircle, each finding a large rock to sit on; some of the cruder sort simply plunked themselves down on the ground.

Seen from afar, the Demonic Sect was indeed utterly unlike the orthodox sects—there were many strange-looking characters among them. Zhang Qingyue remembered him well: the Wild Wolf Daoist, with his dog-like face, was sitting among them now, and beside him were Elder Nian, Liu Hao, Lin Feng, and that beautiful young woman whose name he did not know, all gathered together.

Beyond them, moreover, there seemed to stand a young man whose face was unfamiliar—Zhang Qingyue had never seen him before.

Suddenly Tian Lingsu whispered at his ear, "Xiaofan, look—there seem to be many factions within the Demonic Sect, don't there?"

Zhang Qingyue felt a tickle at his ear, yet for some inexplicable reason his heart ached. Not daring to dwell on it, he nodded and kept looking outward. It was as Tian Lingsu had said: though the Demonic Sect members outside had roughly formed a semicircle facing one direction, where two or three men sat, the rest still sat together in clusters, the divisions between factions perfectly clear.

Just then, a low voice came from among those two or three: "Everyone, please be quiet."

At once all within the Demonic Sect fell silent, as though the owner of that voice held supreme authority.

Zhang Qingyue was rather far off and could not for the moment tell which of them had spoken, so he quietly craned his neck to look toward the open ground. Then he felt clothing brush lightly against him—Tian Lingsu too was stretching her head out to look.

The torches on the stone walls burned quietly, now and then crackling. Suddenly a tall, dark-skinned man rose from among the Demonic Sect and, facing one direction, called out in a ringing voice: "Reverent Envoy, this time the Nether King Sect summoned us to this remote island, saying that a rare beast, the Kui Ox, appears here only once every three thousand years. But we have searched for so many days now, and not only have we not found a single hair of the ox, we have drawn those tiresome meddlers of the orthodox sects down upon us, and they harry us without end. May I ask what is to be done now?"

Zhang Qingyue started, and whispered to Tian Lingsu, "What is a Kui Ox?"

Tian Lingsu thought for a while, then at last shook her head and said, "I do not know either."