Chapter 97 — An Omen
劍問蒼天 · Page 3 of 6
Xiao Yichen was, after all, the foremost disciple of the Canglan Sect today, his attainment beyond the compare of ordinary folk. Where the Seven Stars Sword's radiance reached, it stretched out in midair into a vast blade of sword-light and came cleaving down upon her head. The woman frowned, not daring to underestimate him; and seeing another woman behind him whose attainment seemed no low thing either, she had no choice but to drift back, while her right hand moved in rapid succession—suddenly she snatched at the empty air, and in the void a purple radiance blazed forth, dazzling the eye, as a strange purple artifact wreathed in auspicious vapor was set before her, meeting the Seven Stars Sword and the Azure Spirit Stone in a heavy collision.
"Bang!"
With a muffled report, the woman drifted backward, while Xiao Yichen and Yan Fei alighted beside Fajing. Xiao Yichen asked him in a low voice, "Senior Brother Fajing, are you all right?"
Fajing's face was flushed, and he gasped for breath in great gulps; only after a good while did he recover enough to say, "Senior Brother Xiao, be careful—this woman is Jin Pingyue, the sorceress of the Demonic Sect's Soul-Bewitching Faction. She is formidable in the extreme!"
Xiao Yichen and Yan Fei were both startled at heart. In these past years Jin Pingyue had been a figure of great prominence within the Demonic Sect, ranked among the Three Young Masters alongside Qin Wujiu and Ming Li, and regarded by the righteous-path cultivators as a mortal threat. To meet her today and find her a woman of such peerless beauty—yet at the memory of that violent enchantment when he had first laid eyes on her, Xiao Yichen knew that this was very likely indeed Jin Pingyue, of the Soul-Bewitching Faction's line.
Jin Pingyue stood before them, genuinely rather annoyed. After entering the inner marsh of the Dead Marsh she had searched it for many days without finding a trace, and today she had come upon the lone monk of the Brahma Sound Temple, Fajing; one word had led to another, and they had come to blows.
Fajing had cultivated for many years, and his Buddhist dharma was such that among the Brahma Sound Temple's younger generation, apart from the heaven-gifted Facheng, none could be reckoned his equal. Yet this Jin Pingyue was more formidable still: she had opened with eyes like silken threads of enchantment, and for all the depth of Fajing's Buddhist resolve, he had been caught off guard by the "Art of the Enchanting Heart," that secret teaching of the Demonic Sect's Soul-Bewitching Faction, and suffered grievous loss in an instant; his heart wavered, and of his full measure of dharma not six parts in ten remained.
Thereafter, beneath Jin Pingyue's assaults—seemingly casual, in truth fierce—Fajing strove with all his might to defend himself, guarding a single thread of clarity upon his spirit-terrace, enduring in bitter straits. Had Xiao Yichen and Yan Fei not arrived in time, Fajing would likely have been subdued this day by Jin Pingyue, all his years of cultivation wasted, enslaved by this strange art of enchantment, and for the rest of his life obeyed Jin Pingyue's commands like a walking corpse.
Now Jin Pingyue looked Xiao Yichen up and down, and suddenly smiled. Her voice was soft and gentle as she said, "What grudge does this young gentleman bear me, I wonder, that he should strike so heavily at the first meeting and seek to put this little woman to death?"
Xiao Yichen glanced at her, and saw her bright eyes clear as water, glistening and sparkling; seen in this twilight hour they shone like stars in the night sky, and truly set the heart to pounding.
Xiao Yichen's palms broke out in sweat. He forced himself to steady his spirit and no longer look her straight in the eye, then said in a clear voice, "You must be Jin Pingyue, the renowned sorceress of the Demonic Sect's Soul-Bewitching Faction! Your fame has long preceded you!"
Jin Pingyue smiled faintly. "Oh! You know me?"