Chapter 65 — The Past
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 6
Suddenly, behind him, a ghostly howl burst out of nowhere, piercing straight into his ears. Zhang Qingyue turned pale with fright and whirled around at once, his face draining of several shades of color. There on the path behind him, in the darkness, a skull wreathed in flickering dark-red radiance slowly kindled to life, flew up into midair, and spun without cease.
Amid that ghostly wailing, the red skull gradually came to a stop, its face turned square toward Zhang Qingyue. He saw that in those sunken eye sockets there seemed to burn a few points of ghost-fire, and could not help but shiver.
A moment later, behind this spectral thing, two figures slowly rose. Backlit by the red skull's glow, Zhang Qingyue saw that one of them was a tall, lean old man, his features hideous, his face withered and dried, little more than skin stretched over bone, so that he looked scarcely different from the red skull itself. His eyes glared viciously at Zhang Qingyue, full of resentment.
The other man looked thoroughly wretched. Though he too was rather tall, the old man held him in his grip like a chick, so that he could not move, his face full of helpless dejection.
Zhang Qingyue looked closely, and could not help starting in surprise, an "yi" escaping his lips.
The man looked familiar; indeed he was an acquaintance, none other than the Wild Wolf Daoist he had first seen beneath the Myriad Bats Grotto on Kongsang Mountain, and had met several times again these past days here on Liubo Mountain. The old withered man had him by the collar with his right hand, and his face was doleful; but in the blink of an eye he caught sight of Zhang Qingyue standing ahead, staring over in astonishment, and at once, as though seeing a savior, he pointed at Zhang Qingyue and cried out: "Ah! That's him, that's him!"
Zhang Qingyue was startled. Seeing the Wild Wolf Daoist point at him and cry out without cease, he could not tell what it meant. Then he saw the old man glare fiercely at him and, in a harsh, hoarse voice, say to the Wild Wolf Daoist: "Is this the little whelp of the Canglan Sect?"
The Wild Dog nodded again and again, saying hurriedly: "Yes, yes, that's him, Senior Vampire, it was this thousand-times-damned bastard who did in your only heir, Jiang Laosan the Vampire."
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