Chapter 135 — Strange Arts
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
Lu Xueling murmured her assent. Master Shui Jing, seated to one side, looked at her beautiful disciple. Lu Xueling's face, fair as frost and whiter than snow, was as lovely and as blank as ever—yet somehow, looking at her, one felt her color was faintly pale.
Something stirred in Master Shui Jing's heart, and her two slender brows knit ever so slightly, unnoticed by anyone.
Dao Yan Zhenren did not have Master Shui Jing's years of acquaintance with Lu Xueling, and so saw nothing amiss in her. Smiling, he went on, "Xueqi, how did this journey to the southern frontier go—the visit to pay respects to Elder Yun, Valley Master of the Burning Cloud Valley?"
Lu Xueling was silent a moment, then recounted her experiences in the southern frontier one by one—save that she left out the scene of her midnight parting with Ming Li at the Tianshui Stockade.
Dao Yan Zhenren and Master Shui Jing sat without a word, listening slowly as Lu Xueling told it all. When they heard that this time Valley Master Yun Yifeng of the Burning Cloud Valley had still not shown himself, and that only Shangguan Lue, Li Xun, and the others had come out to explain, the two exchanged a glance, each with a strange look in the eye, but said nothing.
Later, as Lu Xueling recounted without expression the battle at the Miao Tribe's Qili Gorge in the southern frontier—Ming Li's appearance, the fierce struggle of all present—Dao Yan Zhenren's face turned cold at once, while Master Shui Jing seemed to think further, and knowing her disciple's heart as she did, she could not help glancing at Lu Xueling a few more times. She saw that when Lu Xueling spoke of Ming Li being struck from behind by Li Xun and wounded by the "Divine Sword of Thunder Summoning" she herself had wielded, her tone did not change, but a shadow of grief flickered once through her eyes.
Master Shui Jing sighed softly in her heart and closed her eyes.
When Lu Xueling had finished and stepped back to stand beside Master Shui Jing, Dao Yan Zhenren glanced at Master Shui Jing and gave a cold hum. "That wretch Zhang Qingyue—ten years ago we did not finish him, and now he has indeed grown into a menace."
Master Shui Jing opened her eyes, glanced at Lu Xueling beside her, whether by design or not, and said mildly, "All this is the working of fate. It cannot be forced."
Lu Xueling's face seemed to pale a little further.
Dao Yan Zhenren pondered a moment. "From what Xueqi has just said, in these ten years this man's cultivation seems to have advanced greatly."
Master Shui Jing nodded slowly. "Zhang Qingyue could, in an instant, drain the essence blood of a dozen Li warriors to death with the demonic power of the Blood-Devouring Bead, and after being wounded by Li Xun he turned at once and struck him down, so that even the Burning Cloud Valley's famed Pure Yang Jade Ruler could not withstand it. Such cultivation is no longer beneath—" She looked at Lu Xueling. "—no longer beneath that of Qi'er, or of Xiao Yichen under your own gate."
Lu Xueling's face was blank.
But Dao Yan Zhenren slowly shook his head. Master Shui Jing was taken aback. "What—does my senior brother think I have judged wrongly?"
Dao Yan Zhenren sighed. "That wretch was first struck from behind by Li Xun, then wounded by the Divine Sword of Thunder Summoning—yet not only did he not die on the spot, he could still leap up and counterattack. I reckon that what withstood the might of the divine sword must have been the true dharma of the Brahma Sound Temple, the 'Great Brahma Prajna,' and that he then used our own sect's Taiji Mystic Pure Way to break the mana array of the divine sword. When he closed on Xueqi—Xueqi says his eyes were like blood and the red glow of the Blood-Devouring demon staff blazed bright—he must have used the blood-devouring demonic power to subdue her. From all this, he has fused the true dharmas of three schools; his cultivation must by now surpass that of our disciples."