Chapter 194 — Footprints
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 7
Up ahead, Xiao Hui went plop and tumbled off Ming Li's shoulder, landing on the ground. Yet it showed no sign of pain; instead it shrieked aloud, waving its arms and stamping its feet, convulsed with laughter—now clutching its belly, now pounding the earth, now sprawling on its back with all four limbs in the air and its tail lashing. In short, it laughed as wildly as a monkey possibly could.
The more Jin Pingyue watched, the angrier she grew. She was just about to erupt when Xiao Hui suddenly leaped up, chattering "tsk-***" at her and pulling an enormous grimace. Then it dropped to all fours, darted back in two swift bounds, scrambled up onto Ming Li's shoulder, and settled itself there again, turning to look back at Jin Pingyue with a smug air and pulling yet another face.
Jin Pingyue's fury mounted; she seemed even to tremble. She bit her pearly teeth, raised her hand as if to strike—and in the warm sunlight a pale violet glow bloomed at the edge of her palm, strange and uncanny.
But the hand stopped halfway, suspended in the air. Beneath the figure of the man ahead, a faint azure radiance seemed to gather at his own hand as well.
Jin Pingyue's pupils contracted.
After a long moment she stamped her foot, lowered her hand, closed her eyes, and drew a deep breath. Her chest rose and fell several times, and her color returned to its usual composure. Ahead, the azure glow at Ming Li's hand slowly faded, and his figure, amid the shrill cackling of the gray-furred three-eyed monkey, grew distant.
Jin Pingyue steadied herself. A trace of anger still smoldered within her, yet somehow her face felt a little warm. She had always turned heads and toyed with hearts—that had ever been her forte. Who would have thought that today she would be made such sport of by a monkey?
She gave a little snort, put the matter from her mind, and was about to go on when her brow suddenly furrowed, as though something had occurred to her. She turned and walked slowly back. In a short while she had reached the spot where the fruit pit Xiao Hui had spat in provocation had landed.
The pit was an ordinary one from a wild mountain fruit, nothing strange about it. But now that pit had sunk entirely into the ground, with only a bit of its hard shell showing above the surface. And this scorched, uncanny mountain peak was not like the rest of the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains—there was no soft earth here, only hard rock everywhere.
With the force of a single spit, Xiao Hui had driven the fruit pit into solid stone.
Jin Pingyue's brow slowly knitted. She rose to her feet and looked toward the direction where Ming Li's figure had vanished. Gusts of yin wind blew from that quarter, and on the wind there still seemed to linger the shrill, eerie cackle of the monkey Xiao Hui.
Softly, as though murmuring to herself: "How is it that even this monkey has such cultivation, advancing so swiftly? This man—just who is he—"
The vast black forest had welcomed new visitors once more. Only this time, the guests numbered far more than before. A party of more than a dozen wound through the jungle, pressing on among giant trees of dense foliage and thorns tangled with creeping vines.
Only, apart from the fact that they had met none of the savage beasts they had expected, this stretch of the journey went unexpectedly smoothly.
The few at the very front of the column were no ordinary folk. Lu Xueling's brows drew faintly together and she said nothing, but Zeng Shuyan could not hold back and said to Li Xun, "Senior Brother Li, this—this place seems a little off."
Li Xun halted, swept a glance around them, then looked at Zeng Shuyan. After a moment's thought he turned back and called loudly to the Fenxia Valley disciples, "Everyone rest here a while. We'll press on shortly."
The company answered with a rumbling assent; plainly, a march like that was no light matter for anyone.