劍問蒼天 - 第199章 情傷 - 翰墨軒

An eerie aura, borne along by waves of heat, surged and echoed through the vast, empty space. The fire dragon bared its fangs and brandished its claws, its visage savage, yet it did not swell any further—it seemed that this was already its limit. Even so, beneath that blazing flame, cracks had begun to appear on the hard ground itself; only the fire basin, crude and antique as it looked, remained untouched.

The flames blazed high, mirrored in the Beast Sovereign's eyes, as though his very gaze were burning.

From the far side of the fire came the woman's voice, a faint laugh threading through her words: "Has your power truly failed you, or are you deliberately trying to deceive me? True, this formation has no Xuanhuo Mirror to drive it, and it was damaged again when you were reborn—but its might could never be as feeble as this."

No flicker crossed the Beast Sovereign's handsome face. Calmly he said, "Since you are so wary of me, then I find myself at a loss—why was it, of all people, that you had to come and save me?"

The woman gave a cold little laugh. "Did I not tell you long ago? For one thing, I came for this wondrous formation handed down from the ancient Wu Clan; for another, I simply cannot stomach that posturing old fool Yun of the Fenxia Valley."

The Beast Sovereign smiled faintly, as though her words were of no consequence to him. "Yun Yifeng may have broken his oath, but to tell the truth, I never truly trusted him. Had I won that battle at Canglan Mountain, he would never have dared to act as he did. Kicking a man when he is down—is that not what most people do?"

The woman said, "What a pity he still does not know that you and I are not alike—you cannot be killed."

The Beast Sovereign's gaze was deep; slowly he stared at the darkness beyond the fire. The blazing flames seemed as though they could never illumine that place.

"How do you know I cannot be killed? And if I were to tell you now that I have become killable—what would you think then?"

He stared into the darkness, and though a faint smile still seemed to linger at the corners of his mouth, as if carrying a trace of challenge, and a trace of enticement, he said slowly.

The woman suddenly fell silent. In the whole of the cave, it seemed only the sound of the flames remained, yet somehow it felt more deathly still than when there had been nothing at all.

None could say how long it was before the Beast Sovereign suddenly said, "How many years has it been now, since we first met?"

After a long while, the woman said mildly, "I cannot remember. Not long after I attained the Way, I stumbled here by chance. Speaking of it—why was it that you looked upon me differently, back then?"

The Beast Sovereign smiled, slowly lowered his head, and the weariness on his face seemed only to deepen. "Even though I was not human then, I too could not bear solitude."

The woman fell silent again, as though somewhat startled. After a good while she said, "Why is it that today, you really do seem a little different? You never used to say such things."

The Beast Sovereign's shoulders trembled, and two violent coughs broke from him, yet a faint smile still lingered on his face, as though in his eyes nothing in the world mattered at all. "Have you ever seen a man near death who behaves as he always did?"

The woman answered almost at once, "But you are not a man!"

"How do you know I am not?"

The flames in the fire basin suddenly leapt high, like a silent roar from the fire dragon, then slowly sank back. The eight mysterious images of fierce deities around it also sank low, their light dimming, fading little by little into the darkness. The fire dragon gradually merged into the flame and became ordinary firelight; all around, the darkness closed in again, leaving only a little brightness near the basin.

"What have you done to yourself?" the woman asked softly, after a long time.