劍問蒼天 - 第199章 情傷 - 翰墨軒

"I was not surprised—because I was made by her. If there was anyone in the world who could deal with me, who understood me, who else could it be but her? But I truly could not understand why she treated me so. I had said so many things to her—why would she not listen to a single one? Yet this time Linglong actually answered me. She said: in truth it was all her fault; to make a monster like me was her greatest mistake. Because I was born of the baleful qi of heaven and earth and carried within me the seed of slaughter from birth, if I were let live in this world, the people of the world would suffer calamity."

"I tried with all my might to explain to her—that I would not, that I only wanted to be with her and wanted nothing else. But she only gave a desolate, bitter smile, and said she believed me—that in truth, was it not that she too wished to be with me? But—but what of after she died?"

In the ancient cave, from the dim distance, it seemed someone was sighing in the darkness—for the sake of that scene of countless years ago. Yet who can say whether the tears shed that year are still remembered by anyone?

"I was stunned, my mind a blank. I knew I was deathless, but I had never imagined that Linglong would die. I still remember so clearly—through Linglong's pale smile, tears fell. Then she once more set the Eight Wicked Mystic Fire Formation in motion and trapped me within it, and once more burned away my true form. But the essence of baleful qi that I had become—that, in the end, she could not destroy."

"After the formation passed, she too was gravely wounded. But I was made by her. Amid the flames I still asked her: why do you treat me so?"

"This time, she said nothing."

"She set the formation here in this ancient cave to bind me, burning me day and night. Whenever my baleful qi had recovered a little, the blazing flame would burn that little away. At the end, she stared at me blankly, and suddenly asked what wish I still had."

The Beast Sovereign gave a low laugh. "A wish—what wish could I have? My only wish in all the world was to be with her. So I asked her: why can I not be with you? Linglong lowered her head and said slowly, because I am not human—not even a living being—and it is fated that we cannot be together."

"Then, there in the blazing flames, I turned to her and cried aloud: then make me human!"

His voice suddenly rose high; he flung his head back and cried out toward the vault of the cave.

"Make me human!"

With a boom, the four walls shook as one, and loose stones came crashing down; the sound was like a war drum, deafening to the ear.

Amid the flying dust, the Beast Sovereign slowly lowered his head.

"And after that—what happened?" came the woman's voice from the darkness.

"She seemed frozen, and for a long time she did not move at all. I endured the torment of the flames consuming me, utterly bereft of hope. But then she suddenly rose, stopped the formation, and came to my side. I stared at her dully, not knowing what she meant to do—"

"Softly, she said to me: it was she who had wronged me. And then, she—" Here the Beast Sovereign's voice, for some reason, suddenly began to tremble faintly, "—she began to chant a long, drawn-out secret spell of the Wu arts, slowly drew a knife, and began to cut herself, stroke by stroke—"

"What?" the woman in the darkness cried out in alarm.

"I was frozen too—no, scared witless, truly witless, with no notion what she was doing. Slowly, Linglong built a body and skeleton upon the ground from her own flesh and blood, even from her own white bones, and then she laid me upon that skeleton. As her incantation grew more and more urgent, I gradually merged into that body, and even my consciousness began to blur."