劍問蒼天 - 第204章 斷劍 - 翰墨軒

The sinister shadow that had been about to crush Zhou Yixuan, Xiao Wan, and the Wild Wolf Daoist to dust was suddenly drawn back like a great whale sucking in water. The immense pressure vanished in an instant, and all three of them could not help but feel the world spinning around them, their heads swimming dizzily without end.

And in the distance, facing that radiant figure hurtling toward him, the mysterious man seemed furious indeed. The blood-red in his eyes deepened, and all at once he thrust both hands out before him, instantly congealing a wall of black shadow that met that blazing crimson light head-on and held it fast.

But with both sides fighting at full power, the boundary where crimson light met black shadow seemed to turn white-hot, giving off a strange hissing shriek without cease. Seen from afar, the scenery all around seemed to be vaporizing, waves of searing heat rolling and billowing, drifting slowly upward into the sky.

And at this moment, the forms of those two mysterious figures were already impossible to make out clearly.

On such a calm night, in such a desolate mortuary, there should be men of such profound cultivation, locked here in a duel to the death!

Suddenly, from the deepest heart of that light burst a tremendous report, like a thunderclap crashing down from the heavens. In an instant a mighty gale struck them full in the face, sand and dust rolling on every side, every object blasted outward—even the bodies of Zhou Yixuan and his two companions were sent tumbling helplessly away through the air.

And within that thunderclap there seemed to be a voice roaring aloud, like the thunder itself:

"Will you not turn back!"

The answer to that voice was a cold laugh, laden with endless contempt and arrogance.

The light and shadow wavered, then slowly dimmed and dispersed, and a great pit suddenly appeared amid the sand and dust. In the pit stood two men facing each other. One was someone Zhou Yixuan and the others had never seen—short and stout, his face full of rage, gripping a crimson immortal sword that radiated a stern majesty; only, whether from injury or not, there were already traces of blood at the corners of his mouth. The other, by his dress and bearing, was none other than the mysterious man they had just fought—but the layer of black qi that had shrouded him was now dispersed, perhaps because the duel with this stout man had been too fierce for him to maintain it.

Seen from afar, this mysterious man wore the Daoist robes of the Canglan Sect, yet his features were mild and unremarkable, with a long beard of five strands; at first glance he gave the impression of a master who had attained the Way, lofty and extraordinary. Only now his eyes glinted with cold light, red gleams flickering within them, which lent him a touch of the uncanny.

The stout man glanced toward where Zhou Yixuan and the others lay, and seeing that their lives did not seem to be in immediate danger, he looked a little relieved. Then his expression turned grave, and fixing his eyes on the Daoist, after a long while he laughed coldly and said in a chilling voice, "Did you think that with this 'Heart-Piercing Lock' art alone you could trap me?"

Red gleams flickered in the Daoist's eyes, and the murderous aura about him was so intense it seemed almost tangible, stretching and swelling without cease. "I had forgotten," he said in a dark, sinister voice, "that this art was created by the patriarch of your own lineage. But used against you, it cannot be a pleasant sensation!"

"Bah!" the fat man shouted. "You have fallen into the demonic path, and still you dare spout such nonsense. The Heart-Piercing Lock was long ago forbidden by express decree of the patriarchs of every generation. Now you ignore the ancestral teachings—have you any regard left for the patriarchs of Canglan Sect?"