Chapter 134 — Baleful Aura
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 6
Ming Li's gaze swept slowly over them. Many faces he knew, for many of them were the ones whose small Demonic Cult factions he had destroyed, folding those forces under the Nether King Sect's banner. Now the former elders of the Blood-Refining Hall, the year-old leader and the rest, also stood among the crowd.
Only that Daoist Wild Wolf was absent—was he still roaming the world with that fortune-teller Zhou Yixuan and his granddaughter?
The Nether King Sect's power seemed to grow ever greater.
The mountain wind blew past, lifting someone's garments to flap and whistle. Deep in the belly of the mountain, a dark shadow seemed to stir faintly.
Ming Li withdrew his gaze. Though he could not see clearly, he knew who stood in that darkness—Mr. Ghost!
That mysterious figure seemed forever hidden in the dark, lurking behind the Nether King.
"This young lady—is she a friend of yours? You brought her back?" the Nether King asked mildly, no trace of anything unusual upon his face.
Ming Li hesitated. "She says she is an old friend of yours, and wished to come back and visit you."
The Nether King started; the answer was far beyond his expectation. He could not help studying Xiaobai a few more times, but could not recall when he had ever known such a woman. "Young lady," he said in surprise, "have we met before?"
Xiaobai stepped forward, sighed, then smiled faintly. "How is Xiaochi? Is she still as before—drifting off in a daze now and then, staring at a flower and losing herself in it, silly and spellbound?"
The Nether King's whole body shook, and a look of rare astonishment came over his face. Nor was it only him; behind him, Qinglong, Yousi, and the others who had followed him so long all changed countenance at once, disbelief written plainly on their faces.
The Nether King stared at Xiaobai. After a long while he said, "Just who are you, that you know of Xiao... of Xiaochi?"
Xiaobai's gaze drifted past the crowd and rose lingeringly upward. In the dusk, the shadow of Huqi Mountain loomed desolate and towering, casting a peculiar air of bleakness.
How much time had slipped away like sand between the fingers...
"Do you still remember," she said softly, "how this mountain came by its name?"
The Nether King's eyes lit up, his gaze sharp and bright, yet his astonishment only deepened. "You are Bai—"
Xiaobai said calmly, "I am the White Fox!"
The mountain wind swept past with a wail, lifting the light dust from the ground and bearing it silently into the distance.
In the secluded stone chamber the furnishings were simple: table, chairs, bed—plain, unadorned furniture. This was the bedchamber of the Nether King Sect's master.
The one somewhat striking item was perhaps the red sandalwood desk set against the stone wall, upon which lay three thick stacks of books in neat array. On the desktop stood a white jade brush-rest holding a small weasel-hair brush, and beside it an inkstone whose ink was not yet fully dry. A little further off was a blue-and-white brush-washer, bright and translucent, half filled with clear water.
All of this lent an air of refined elegance, not the least suggestion of what the world would imagine the master of a great Demonic Cult faction to be.
The Nether King and Xiaobai now stood in this room, and apart from them there was no third person present.
On the stone wall of the chamber's other side hung a gold-traced painting in fine brushwork: a beautiful woman bending close to examine a blossoming flower, with a pair of butterflies fluttering at the flower's edge. Yet the woman in the painting looked so closely, so intently, all her spirit fixed upon the blossom, that she took no notice whatever of the butterflies beside her.
The brushwork was delicate, the meticulous line and slow tracing peculiar to the fine style rendered to the fullest by the painter's hand; the woman in the painting seemed almost to breathe, and the absorbed, foolish devotion in her face fairly sprang from the silk.