Chapter 114 — Breakout
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 7
The axe had looked enormous from the first, and now that they actually had to move it, its weight was beyond all imagining. And with the two of them long since out of food, when they somehow miraculously accomplished this seemingly impossible task and fitted the axe into the right hand of the Heaven-Slaying Ming King, Zhang Qingyue dropped flat onto the ground, gulping for air, and said, "You—huff—you—if you can't find a way out—huff—we could have lived three days, and now we've only got three hours left."
Bili was panting hard as well, but she could not hide the excitement in her eyes. After a brief rest she walked over to the statue and observed it carefully for a while. With the great axe added, the Ming King's image was indeed imposing, its aura bearing down on all who beheld it. She bowed respectfully to the statue of the Heaven-Slaying Ming King and said, "Lord Ming King, forgive your disciple's impertinence."
With that, she reached out and grasped the great axe, testing it with a shake—up and down, this way and that, but there was no response at all. Naturally—she had put the axe there herself; if there had been any reaction, it would have shown earlier. Zhang Qingyue sat on the ground watching her strange antics and shook his head vigorously.
Bili frowned deeply and murmured, "What's wrong? The mechanism should be right here..."
As she spoke, her anxiety grew and her grip tightened. She gave the great axe a push—and unexpectedly the right hand of the Heaven-Slaying Ming King's statue shifted with it by a fraction. Suddenly, within the stone chamber, there seemed to sound the heavy clatter of some mechanism.
Zhang Qingyue leapt to his feet, and Bili's face lit up with joy. The two exchanged a glance; Zhang Qingyue ran over, and together with Bili he seized the great axe and heaved. The axe, joined to the Ming King's right hand, rose from its lowered position until it was held aloft in midair. A moment later, a deafening roar filled the stone chamber.
The two were greatly startled; the roaring din in their ears was nearly unbearable, and they hastily pressed their hands over them. Another moment passed, and the roar still thundered at their ears, but on the stone wall behind the statue, the massive, unyielding rock was slowly sliding apart to either side, revealing a passage—stone steps climbing level by level, upward and onward, until they vanished into the darkness ahead.
Then the stone chamber where the statue stood began to shake violently, and stones rained down from above. The two scarcely exchanged a word; as if their minds were linked, they ran for the stone steps at the same instant and plunged into the darkness.
In truth, eight hundred years earlier, when the Blood-Refining Hall of the demon cult built the Blood-Dripping Cave, they had already considered the possibility that one day they might weaken and enemies breach their gates. So they had secretly built this passage deep within the mountain belly, here in the stone chamber: should enemies break in, they would flee by this route, and moments later the Blood-Dripping Cave would collapse, burying the enemy and the countless secrets of the Blood-Refining Hall together.
Zhang Qingyue and Bili ran for their lives. Behind them the roar went on without cease, stones flying through the air; a single misstep, they feared, would mean death on the spot. They truly summoned the last shred of strength in their bodies and ran on. Before they had gone far, all before them was pitch black. In that narrow, dark secret passage they lost count of how many times they stumbled and how many times they crashed into the walls. All around them the roar of collapse thundered, stones hurtled through the air, and it seemed as though all of Kongsang Mountain were in a fury, quaking without end. Yet at last, borne up by their thirst to survive, they saw a faint glimmer of light ahead.