Chapter 112 — The Heavenly Fox
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 7
Across from him, upon the flame totem behind the beast, the eight fierce deities also glimmered faintly, as if answering the bloody, murderous aura that rose from him.
At this moment Ming Li seemed to have become a cruel and savage beast himself, locked in confrontation with the flame beast before him. The great hall was scorching hot, and even the air seemed to burn.
"Roar!"
Suddenly the flame beast gave a low growl, and for the first time it seemed to feel a trace of unease.
Little Grey descended from the air and landed before Ming Li.
The eye upon its forehead glittered with golden light, and from countless places across Little Grey's body came the simultaneous crack-crack-crack-crack of joints shivering and snapping violently. Then, beneath the gaze of both Ming Li and the flame beast, Little Grey began to transform.
Upon its originally slight frame, countless thick, sturdy muscles suddenly bulged. Amid the cracking of its joints, Little Grey's body slowly grew larger. In a span of time the human eye could follow with perfect clarity, a monkey that had stood less than half a man's height swiftly swelled amid rapidly multiplying muscle and bone, and in the blink of an eye had actually surpassed Ming Li in size.
Muscle by muscle, mass bulged across Little Grey's arms, chest, and belly; its head grew larger, and long, sharp fangs even appeared in its mouth, stark white and coldly gleaming, jutting out beyond its huge jaws. The palms once meant for plucking fruit now grew keen, sharp claws.
At last, when this monkey, transformed into something utterly terrifying, had become a savage beast nearly as tall as the flame beast itself, it slowly opened its eyes—the two eyes beneath that third one.
A crimson, blood-devouring gaze, shot through with golden light, blazed forth.
The vast altar hall, which had been spacious enough, now suddenly held two such gigantic monsters, and at once became cramped beyond bearing. Little Grey's eyes were full of murderous light as it glared at the flame beast opposite, roaring without cease.
The flame beast slowly turned its huge head. In its eyes there was nothing to be seen but flame, no expression or emotion whatsoever. Yet it was plain that, facing this enormous ferocious ape that had transformed so abruptly, it too felt some measure of wariness.
Suddenly Little Grey roared, and the third eye upon its brow blazed with golden light; a beam of golden radiance shot out, and the flame beast, with a low growl, dodged aside.
The golden light struck the ground with a thunderous boom, blasting a great crater in the hard crimson rock.
Before the flame beast could react, Ming Li, who had been standing behind Little Grey all along, had already leapt into the air. In an instant a strange radiance cloaked his whole body, and the Soul-Devouring Demon Staff before him shot toward the flame beast with a whoosh.
Almost at the same instant, Little Grey pounced at the flame beast as well.
The flames in the beast's eyes turned blazing hot in an instant...
Suddenly, just as Ming Li, his heart flooded with slaughter and bloodlust, was throwing all his strength into attacking the beast opposite, the Mystic Fire Mirror on his right arm seemed to wake with a start, bursting forth with a pure yang force of incomparable intensity, far surpassing anything it had ever produced before, and charged at the savage aura of the Blood-Devouring Bead that filled the meridians of Ming Li's body.