劍問蒼天 - 第198章 迷局 - 翰墨軒

Beneath the firelight, pressed close against him and nestling at the Beast Sovereign's side, was that monstrous beast of hideous shape, the Taotie. Now the Taotie's huge eyes were wide open, its jaws slightly parted to show dreadful fangs, its breath seeming to rasp without cease as it glared savagely through the firelight of the brazier before it at that distant point of dark red light, which had by now grown unremarkable.

Pale as the Beast Sovereign's face was, his expression was wholly calm, and a faint smile even clung to the corners of his mouth. "You cultivated for a thousand years," he said, "and was it not all to become human? Hearing me say so, you ought to be glad."

The woman's voice fell silent and for the moment said nothing; it was that point of dark red fire that suddenly brightened.

The Taotie seemed to grow alert at once, a low growl issuing from its throat as it stared at the dark red light.

The flame slowly began to move, and its course led straight toward where the Beast Sovereign sat. The Taotie's face grew more hideous still, and it rose slowly to its feet—when suddenly a hand reached out from beside it and patted its head lightly, and only then did the Taotie slowly quiet down.

The Beast Sovereign drew back his hand and turned to look; the flame had drifted leisurely to a stop before him, and there it hung not far away, like an eye, fixed upon him.

The Beast Sovereign regarded the dark red fire for a long while, then suddenly laughed. "Our acquaintance is a thousand years and more; though I would not call us friends in life and death, still we may count as old friends. And here I am gravely wounded—why do you keep such guard against me?"

The dark red fire flickered a few times, then suddenly gave a shrill whistle and withdrew with incomparable speed, sweeping over the brazier as it went and even pressing the flames in the brazier down flat, so that all around was plunged into darkness for a moment before recovering. By then, that point of dark red fire had vanished into the darkness.

The woman's cold voice rang out at the same moment: "I do not trust you, just as your Taotie does not trust me."

The Beast Sovereign gazed at the darkness before him and suddenly laughed aloud. "Good, good, good—well said. But there is one thing I cannot fathom: if there is no trust between us, why have you come to aid me now?"

The woman's voice was indifferent. "Because the thing I want, only you can give me now."

The Beast Sovereign smiled faintly. "Only for that—these ugly images carved on the stone walls and on the ground?"

He waved a hand. The smile remained, but the weariness on his face seemed to have deepened another degree.

The flames in the brazier suddenly leaped high with a crackling sound, swelling to several times their former size out of nowhere; in an instant the light blazed bright, and the heat around them swiftly grew unbearable. Yet neither the Beast Sovereign nor the Taotie nor that mysterious figure still hidden in the shadows of the dark showed the slightest reaction.

The flames burned, stretching slowly in the darkness as though coming to life; even the shapes within the firelight began slowly to swell and change, lengthening from a rounded mass and gradually cohering into the faint form of a dragon.

In the darkness, gazing at that slowly forming shape of the fire dragon, the woman's voice said slowly, "These ugly images, as I recall, are what held you trapped for countless years, are they not?"

The Beast Sovereign smiled faintly, but in the firelight one could no longer tell whether it was a bitter smile, a mocking smile, or a cold one—

For in the very instant he smiled, the fire dragon above the brazier had taken shape, claws and fangs rampant in the flames, and it suddenly raised its head toward the darkness and loosed a soundless roar.