劍問蒼天 - 第134章 煞氣 - 翰墨軒

Xiaobai gazed silently at the woman in the painting. After a long while she sighed softly. "Your skill is truly remarkable, to paint Xiaochi so faithfully—seeing the picture is like seeing her in person."

Behind her, the Nether King's gaze too rested on the painting, and in his eyes surfaced a tenderness he had never shown before outsiders. He shook his head silently, and after a moment said in a low voice, "My only grief is that I could not save her!"

Xiaobai's eyes did not leave the painting. "I never knew," she said softly, "that the one Ming Li is so set on saving is the daughter of you and Xiaochi."

The Nether King smiled a bleak smile. "When Xiaochi passed, I could not reach her in time to see her last face. All these years, whenever I think on it, my heart feels cut with a knife. Now she has left nothing behind—nothing but Bili... and yet Bili too has..."

Xiaobai said calmly, "She did not misjudge her man. To have chosen you was her blessing. I think that before she died, she surely had no regrets."

The Nether King was silent.

Xiaobai stepped forward and reached out gentle fingers, her fingertips brushing lightly over the delicate, beautiful face of the woman in the painting. A faint crystalline brightness slowly gathered in her eyes, carrying a measure of sorrow, a measure of tender pity.

The monkey Xiao Hui gave a strange screech and leaped onto the bed. Back in Ming Li's bedchamber on Huqi Mountain, which it had not seen for so long, it seemed to feel not the least unfamiliar; it bounced and hopped a few times, then suddenly recalled something, reached back and hauled the wineskin around, pulled the stopper, and took another great gulp of strong liquor.

After a pause the monkey let out a long breath with a "hoo," squinted its eyes, and wore an expression of blissful contentment.

Ming Li stood before the bed watching the monkey's face, silent and wordless. Slowly he shook his head, sighed, turned to the door, pulled it open, and stepped out, drawing it shut behind him.

The corridor plunged deep and stretched on before him. He walked slowly through the tunnel inside the mountain, and all along the way, those who saw him bowed their heads in salute. Yet his face was blank, his eyes fixed only ahead, as though some place was calling to him.

Past the corner, past the passage, the figures of the Nether King Sect disciples gradually faded from sight. When he came before that familiar chamber of cold ice and stone, he saw only a silent figure, ghostlike and still.

The black veil over Yousi's face stirred; she turned and looked at Mingli.

Mingli's gaze brushed past her veil and came to rest on the stone door behind her. The next moment, without the slightest hesitation, he walked over, pushed the door open, and entered.

The stone door swung slowly shut behind him. Yousi stood motionless, alone at the threshold.

Inside the chamber, upon the cold ice platform, amid the rising wisps of white vapor and pale smoke, that beautiful woman lay peacefully, and at the corners of her mouth there seemed to linger a faint smile.

Mingli leaned his back against the stone door, and suddenly his coldness and his fortitude seemed to loosen all at once, bit by bit giving way, bit by bit peeling away. What remained was only a desolate figure, who walked slowly forward and sat down beside her.

"I've come back, Bili…"

The pale smoke curled upward, rising from the cold ice platform, so that Bili's body seemed to carry a touch of unreality. Her features were so beautiful, her smile so warm—could it be that she, too, knew this man had returned?

"You're going to be saved, Bili." His voice was low, trembling faintly. "Ten years. Ten whole years."

"To think I let you lie here like this for ten years. I'm useless, truly useless. You must resent me for it… No, you wouldn't. How could you ever resent me? At most you'd only smile at me, wouldn't you?"