劍問蒼天 - 第188章 驚現 - 翰墨軒

Zhou Yixuan and the other three rested and tended the Wild Wolf Daoist's wounds there. When the Wild Wolf Daoist learned that his life had been snatched back from the brink by sheer luck, he felt all the more fortunate, though privately he was somewhat puzzled by his own unexpected courage in that moment. But be that as it may, after this ordeal, the bond between Zhou Yixuan and Xiaowan and the Wild Wolf Daoist had grown closer by another degree—after all, they had faced death together. Zhou Yixuan no longer spoke to the Wild Wolf Daoist with quite the same cold sharpness as before, though when it came to ordering him about for chores, he was just as he had always been. Still, the Wild Wolf Daoist was gravely wounded, so more often than not it was Zhou Yixuan who did the greater share of the work, which in turn drew a stream of complaints from the old gentleman.

Xiaowan and the Wild Wolf Daoist were much as before, except that in Xiaowan's presence the Wild Wolf Daoist seemed somewhat more fearful, and spoke to her even less than he used to. Xiaowan found this strange but did not dwell on it; over these past days, her attention had been drawn more and more into that seemingly unremarkable book with the black cover.

The Wild Wolf Daoist had never seen Xiaowan reading this book before and found it rather odd, but Xiaowan never spoke of where the book had come from, and Zhou Yixuan was vague about it as well. As the days passed, he grew used to it, though now and then he felt that Xiaowan's expression seemed to be gradually changing—yet just how it differed from before, he could not say.

The catastrophe of the beast demons arose from the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains of the southern frontier, and the first to suffer was the land of the southern frontier itself.

The people of every tribe here had been ravaged by the beast demons far more grievously than even the Central Plains. Nine houses empty out of ten—that was all but the inevitable fate of many a village and town; and now and then entire villages and mountain strongholds were left with not a single survivor.

After the catastrophe, the scattered remnants of beast demons in the southern frontier far outnumbered those in the Central Plains. Those who had survived by sheer luck often still had to endure the ravages and harassment of those remaining beast demons. Life was truly lived in utter darkness, in deep water and scorching fire.

It was under such circumstances that Ming Li once again set foot upon the land of the southern frontier.

Along the way, he found no trace of the Beast Sovereign's remnants. Instead, countless cultivators of the righteous path came swarming in, among them not a few figures from the great and renowned sects such as Qingyun and Fenxiang. All these people seemed driven mad, searching everywhere for the Beast Sovereign's whereabouts—but plainly, for all their searching, not one of them had found him.

After his defeat in the battle at Qingyun, the gravely wounded Beast Sovereign had fled and seemed to vanish into thin air; no one could find him anymore. Yet the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains of the southern frontier had always been his old home. No matter what, he would return there, would he not?

With this thought, Ming Li entered the southern frontier. Countless righteous-path disciples came with him, among them the Fenxia Valley lineage, who were in a sense returning to their homeland—after all, Fenxia Valley was in the southern frontier. But the purpose of the other righteous-path disciples was naturally not merely to help the people of the southern frontier rid themselves of those remaining scattered beast demons.

Still, be that as it may, because of these people's arrival, the remaining beast demons, who had previously run rampant without restraint, temporarily reined themselves in—after all, these righteous-path disciples would, where they could, lend a hand to slay such beast demons.