Chapter 191 — The Leak
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
With that he turned and stepped back into the dark forest. Jin Pingyue was about to follow when she suddenly turned again and cast a glance below the cliff, her willowy brows knitting slightly, as though pondering something. Ahead, Ming Li walked a while and, not feeling her fall in behind him, turned and called out. Jin Pingyue came to herself, gave him a sweet smile, and said:
"What, do you miss me so soon?"
Ming Li glanced at her, turned away with an utterly indifferent face, and paid her no further heed, striding on. Jin Pingyue followed with a smile; and at the very instant she was about to enter the forest, she suddenly swept her hand—a white light flashed from her palm and flew out, swift as could be, and with a muffled "thunk" drove itself hard into a crevice in a remote corner of the cliff.
The gleam flickered faintly in that crevice: it was the Slaughtering Blade of old.
When one looked again, Jin Pingyue's figure had already vanished.
Bitter wind and wretched rain seemed once more to close in, shrouding this uncanny black forest. Far off, the vast vault of heaven over the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains seemed all gray, and who could say whether some god or demon roared and raged in that dark underworld, watching those seemingly paltry beings in the world of heaven and earth…
The wind and rain grew fiercer!
Even as Ming Li and Jin Pingyue struggled through bitter wind and wretched rain in the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains, tracking the Beast Lord, the southern borderlands beyond the range were likewise in a fervent mood.
More and more disciples of the righteous path were arriving in the southern lands, and with their clamor their coming had quickly thinned the remnants of beast-demons still drifting through the region; never before had this southern soil gathered so many men of the central plains, and most of them, moreover, cultivators.
The native peoples of the southern five tribes had always kept these outsiders at a respectful distance. And among these righteous disciples there seemed, too, to be a strange atmosphere: most, unless of the same sect or school, kept their distance when they met, and there were even occasional reports of clashes between disciples of certain sects.
As to what the trouble was over, however, no one ever seemed to proclaim it aloud.
In a sense, the Fierce Sunset Valley, the oldest cultivation house of the southern lands, naturally became the best place for many righteous disciples unfamiliar with local geography to call upon and seek guidance; and so the Fierce Sunset Valley, forsaking its former tranquility, saw an endless stream of visitors, with people coming and going every day.
It was in such circumstances that on this day three people arrived at the gate of the Fierce Sunset Valley—one man and two women—disciples of the Canglan Sect: Zeng Shuyan of the Fenghui Peak, and Wen Pei and Lu Xueling of the Xiaozhu Peak.
Of course, the Canglan Sect disciples who came to the southern lands numbered far more than these three. In truth, the Canglan Sect now claimed the title of the foremost righteous sect under heaven, and had sent countless disciples of the younger generation; yet several of its finest had been unable to come. Apart from a few who already bore heavy duties in the sect, such as Qi Hao, Xiao Yichen too had been unable to free himself, since of late the Daoist Master Daoyan had attended little to affairs and the many matters of the Jietian Peak fell largely to him to manage. As for Lin Jinghong, this time he had insisted on keeping watch in the Ancestral Master Hall, said to be guarding the spirit of a certain Qingyun elder to whom he owed a debt of deepest kindness, and so he too could not come.