Chapter 102 — Little Grey
劍問蒼天 · Page 5 of 9
By now the matchless, overbearing Blackwater Mystic Serpent was covered in wounds; on that huge body, once so invincible it seemed a demon god's, great gashes showed one after another, dark red blood flowing without cease, dyeing the trunk beneath it a dark red. A beast of that order was naturally hard as stone all over, and only talons and beak like the Yellow Bird's could wound it.
Yet though the Blackwater Mystic Serpent was sorely hurt, the Yellow Bird was hardly better off. Its plumage, once as bright and fair as a phoenix's, had been bitten by the Blackwater Mystic Serpent several times in the fight, and countless feathers had come away; there were several wounds on its body too, deep enough to show bone, blood welling out and dyeing the feathers near its breast red.
Now both beasts paused in their attack: the Blackwater Mystic Serpent crouched atop the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, the Yellow Bird alighted on a nearby branch, and the two faced each other; the black serpent roaring, the Yellow Bird crying, as though each sought to overawe the other, neither showing the least intent to withdraw.
But to all appearance the Blackwater Mystic Serpent had the worse of it. After all, the terrain here was against it—it hung alone in the high air, able only to coil tight upon the trunk, while the Yellow Bird could fly on beating wings and strike from every direction, greatly to its advantage. Moreover the Yellow Bird was by nature the mortal enemy of demon-beasts like the Blackwater Mystic Serpent, and was born with the power to resist its poison and venom; though it still feared them, once bitten it suffered no hurt to its vitals, nothing fatal.
One of the Blackwater Mystic Serpent's greatest powers was all but useless before this Yellow Bird, and with the terrain against it, disaster seemed near. It seemed to sense this too, and flew into an even greater rage. Its huge eyes glaring wide, it suddenly turned its head, and while the Yellow Bird still rested far off, savagely rammed down upon the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House.
The Yellow Bird was enraged; with a clear cry it beat its wings and rose again.
But that blow had gathered all the Blackwater Mystic Serpent's strength, crashing down; to say nothing else, the great trunk beneath it shook violently, and upon the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House cracks spread in an instant—even the huge stone door was split by that blow into several fissures.
It was as though, after holding out against the Blackwater Mystic Serpent's dreadful strength through countless blows, the mysterious power within the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House had at last begun to give way.
In the distance, Fa Cheng and the others stared at one another, and drew in a breath of cold air.
The Yellow Bird gave a sharp cry, flew up into midair, then suddenly plunged down, its beak like a huge arrow loosed from the string, shooting toward the Blackwater Mystic Serpent.
In an instant heaven and earth changed color, the wind and clouds shifted, and a violent gale seemed to rise, forming a vast vortex that looked like a tornado, and within that fiercely spinning wind the Yellow Bird plunged down.
The Blackwater Mystic Serpent roared loudly, and from its enormous serpent eyes shot endless ferocity and a savage glare; ignoring the Yellow Bird's attack from above, it once again recklessly drove its huge head against the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House.
"Boom!"
In a flash, sand and stones flew, dust billowed, and a rending sound of "crack, crack, crack" rang through heaven and earth, until at last, with a thunderous crash, the vaulted wall of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House collapsed, smashed open by the Blackwater Mystic Serpent's unmatched strength.