Chapter 188 — A Sudden Appearance
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 7
Even so, the Burning Cloud Valley was, after all, a renowned great sect, and its strength remained; for all the rumor and gossip, none dared insult it to its face. As for the valley itself, it was in truth a ruin—at least, that was what Ming Li saw when he slipped in secretly.
A valley once secluded and fair was now filled with a foul stench of scorching and rankness. Countless Burning Cloud Valley disciples hauled about all manner of rotting refuse and bones—some human, but many more the carcasses of beasts.
Observing in secret, Ming Li pondered a moment and then understood: on that night when he had slipped into the Burning Cloud Valley and was still discovered, it was not that every disciple there was of profound cultivation, but that they were skilled in rearing many strange creatures, against which no guard availed.
Yun Yifeng could lead most of his disciples to the Central Plains, but he could not take those creatures with him; and when the calamity came and that raging tide of savage beast-fiends swept through, those many creatures could hardly escape. With time the carcasses rotted, and the stench grew unbearable.
Yet now, with those grotesque creatures gone, it was to Ming Li's advantage; at least he need not fear some monster bursting out from a corner or a dark cranny to raise the alarm and betray his presence.
The Burning Cloud Valley had many disciples, but half had been dispatched to track the beast-fiend's whereabouts—what countless orthodox sects wished to do, how could the Burning Cloud Valley not wish as well? Of the remaining half, most labored sullenly in the valley clearing rubble and refuse; and though some elders and seniors remained with the valley master, figures like Yun Yifeng and Shangguan Lue could not be forever patrolling. Thus Ming Li met scarcely any difficulty in slipping into the Burning Cloud Valley.
It was only early evening now, far brighter than the deep night of his last visit to the Burning Cloud Valley—and yet his infiltration was easier by far than it had been then.
After Ming Li slipped into Fenxia Valley, he gave the matter no further thought and went straight toward the valley's vital precinct, the Profound Fire Altar. Xiaobai had been imprisoned here that day, and the Eight Fiends Profound Fire Formation had been laid out here as well, so this was naturally where he must come to search. Yet this place was, after all, forbidden ground to Fenxia Valley; in such turmoil as this, the guards and defenses about the Profound Fire Altar seemed, if anything, a shade tighter than on his last visit—whether because Xiaobai had escaped, or because an outsider had stolen in, he could not say.
But Ming Li's cultivation now was not what it had been in former days. Though Fenxia Valley kept the Profound Fire Altar closely guarded, by moving with careful stealth he at last slipped into the towering altar without a soul the wiser.
As he had expected, for all the tight guard outside, there was no one on watch within the altar. At a glance it seemed much as it had on his last visit: the strange dark-red formation still lay upon the floor, graven deep into the stone. Ming Li knew in his heart that this was the legendary Eight Fiends Profound Fire Formation, that uncanny and wondrous thing.
Still, the scars of the magma eruption that had burst forth when he and Xiaobai made their escape were faintly visible.
All about the walls were places scorched black where the magma had spattered and burned, and the spots where stone had collapsed were beyond counting. Even the Eight Fiends Profound Fire Formation on the floor showed, here and there, a slight warping from that searing fire.
Yet an ordinary place would long since have been destroyed by such a calamity; that the surrounding precinct should remain largely intact suggested that the formation had worked some strange efficacy and preserved it.