Chapter 206 — Demon Beast
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 5
A vicious aura surged in from every direction, and that familiar feeling seemed to begin faintly seething in his blood once more; he could even dimly recall that last time, at the Mystic Fire Altar of Fenxia Valley, that bitter and savage battle.
Ming Li did not move. He only gazed deeply at the overweening beast before him.
The Crimson Flame Fiend Beast, claws bared and fangs bared, slowly turned its head; a scorching wave of heat washed over them, and those eyes that seemed themselves to burn beheld Ming Li, and the three-eyed spirit monkey Xiao Hui on his shoulder.
The Crimson Flame Fiend Beast's enormous head paused for a moment, and then of a sudden it let out a shattering, earth-shaking roar!
In that roar was fury, venomous hatred, and a fierce longing for vengeance!
In an instant the searing flame seemed to burst apart, its crimson light turning almost pure white; countless sparks of fire leapt into the air and formed blazing balls of flame that spun faster and faster without cease, and the terrifying head suddenly opened its vast maw and, with a roaring bellow, bit down.
Before the head even reached the ground, the earth all around had cracked apart; endless sheets of flame, like a blazing sun fallen to the mortal world, howled down and in an instant drowned Ming Li's figure.
That flame which erupted in an instant, like the climax after a human revel, bloomed in dazzling splendor!
Yet behind the fire, in those weary eyes, there was only indifference, without the least trace of human sorrow or joy.
All around was darkness, and stillness on every side. Lu Xueling and the others had been walking in this ancient cavern for a long while, and though they had kept up their guard the whole way, they had met no attack or trouble of any kind.
In the darkness, that beautiful figure cloaked in soft pale-blue radiance—Lu Xueling's cool, clear features, gazed at from out of the dark, seemed more lovely and pure than words could tell, and against the blackness she seemed to gain a trace of mysterious, secluded chill.
It was as though she were that black lily of legend, blooming quietly in the darkness, growing for a thousand years and flowering for but a single moment.
The gaze that kept resting on her from behind and then turning away was impossible to shake off, yet Lu Xueling seemed wholly unaware of it; her bright eyes were fixed only on the way ahead. Though there was nothing there but endless darkness, deep within that darkness there seemed to be something she hoped to see.
She walked on, and did not look back.
The darkness drew silently aside before her, then slowly closed again behind her; so gentle a figure seemed so striking and radiant in the dark that she even eclipsed the light of those behind her, and she looked as though she walked alone.
Suddenly, she stopped.
The others halted behind her at once. Li Xun cast a wary glance around, stepped forward, and was about to speak when he gave a start: a complicated expression had come over Lu Xueling's face, and in it there seemed to be the utmost vigilance.
Just then, the darkness ahead, which had been silent all this while, abruptly changed: a faint, barely perceptible tremor seemed to spring up out of the dark, then slowly began to churn, to swell, to grow strong...
In the darkness, something seemed to be slowly gathering—like a wailing, like a roaring, yet all of it was utterly silent.
A moment later, it came, it came...
From some unknown place far off, a violent quaking, accompanied by a low wailing sound, came rumbling toward them from the distance, then swiftly swelled—as though deep within this cavern some overweening, colossal spirit beast were howling at the heavens!
The darkness all around, silent until now, seemed to be set alight, beginning to seethe; from the depths of the dark, who could say how many wailing cries came surging in from every direction, and for a moment every face changed.