Chapter 112 — The Heavenly Fox
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 7
Moments later, a muffled sound suddenly came from overhead. Ming Li and Little Grey looked up together and saw the stone slab above slowly slide back amid a low rumble, revealing a stone opening.
Almost at the same instant, the temperature around them dropped with incredible suddenness, from searing heat to cold as ice. Against that faint red glow, one could even see threads of cold white vapor drifting down from the round hole leading to the third level.
The utmost heat and the utmost cold, existing at the same time within this Mystic Fire Altar!
A faint smile touched Ming Li's lips. He took the Mystic Fire Mirror back from the platform, tucked it into his robe, and without another word flew up again toward the highest level.
The air grew colder and colder; the heat from the crater below seemed unable to reach this place at all, so that when Ming Li set foot on the third level, he found the ground beneath him thick with ice.
Nothing here gave off light, but as his eyes slowly adjusted to the surroundings, Ming Li made out faint trails of ghostly pale blue light seeping gently from every corner.
It was ice that had frozen for countless ages, as if softly whispering something.
He walked slowly forward, the sound of his steps upon the ice echoing far into the distance, breaking the silence that seemed to have lasted since the beginning of time.
Suddenly, from deep in the darkness, a woman's voice rang out faintly—low and tinged with surprise, soft and touched with a hint of desolation: "You are not Shangguan Lue?"
Ming Li halted at once. After a moment, his eyes fixed on the deepest part of the darkness ahead, and he said slowly, "I am not?"
The voice was silent a while, then said slowly, "Who are you?"
Ming Li countered, "And who are you?"
The blue light given off by the ice around them seemed to flicker. The woman's voice fell silent. After a moment, two faintly luminous points, like eyes of unfathomable depth, glimmered and glimmered in the deepest darkness, gazing at Ming Li and Little Grey on his shoulder.
At last they settled upon the Soul-Devouring Demon Staff in his hand.
"That monkey on your shoulder—it is a Three-Eyed Spirit Monkey, is it not?"
Ming Li's heart gave a start; he did not answer. Instead Little Grey, crouched on his shoulder, bared its teeth and shrieked once into the depths of the darkness, as if in display of threat.
The woman paid it no mind and went on slowly: "That magic treasure in your hand—was it not forged from the Bloodlust Orb and the ghost-thing Soul-Stealer by the demon cult's Blood Refining Art?"
Ming Li's body shuddered, and his pupils contracted.
The woman's voice seemed to laugh softly, then said slowly: "Both Soul-Stealer and the Bloodlust Orb are the most savage and evil things under heaven; the Bloodlust Orb above all holds a violent evil force within it that invades the soul unseen. I see your cultivation is not low, but the evil force has already sunk deep into your body—sooner or later you will go mad and die."
Ming Li said coldly, "Just who are you?"
The woman ignored him and continued of her own accord: "That monkey beside you may be called the spirit of all things, and its heavenly eye is open now, but I see a hidden red gleam of savagery beneath the golden light in that eye. It must have been tainted by the Bloodlust Orb's evil force from staying at your side. In time it too will become a savage beast that slaughters living things—you might as well rename it the Three-Eyed Savage Monkey."
Ming Li was deeply shaken and for a moment could not speak. He had gradually become aware of something strange about Little Grey's body, but now that this mysterious woman had stated it so plainly, his mind was flooded with a thousand tangled thoughts, and he felt somewhat at a loss.
Little Grey, however, flew into a rage, hissing loudly and baring sharp teeth at the darkness.