Chapter 207 — The Chase
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 1 of 5
Only at this moment did Jin Pingyue's face betray utter exhaustion, as though she had just come through a great battle and was drained to the bone. Yet even so, facing these disciples of the righteous path, she still wore a smile that could stir the heart; in the darkness she looked, if anything, all the more pitiable and lovely.
"Naturally it is I. And you, young master of Fenxia Valley—what, have we met but a few times, and already you cannot put me from your mind?"
Li Xun flushed red and took a step back. "Who cannot put you from their mind?" he snapped. "You demoness—you were the death of my junior sister Yan Fei, and today I mean to collect that blood debt."
With that, Li Xun waved his hand, and his figure flashed like lightning as he swept toward Jin Pingyue. Behind him Zeng Shuyan frowned, opened his mouth as if to speak, and said nothing. The Fenxia Valley disciples at his side hesitated a moment, then, with shouts and cries, surged forward in a crowd, and for a time the commotion was immense.
Jin Pingyue gave a cold little laugh, and a glint of mockery flashed in her eyes. Yet with so many enemies rushing at her at once, and worn out as she was, she was in no mind to stand and fight. Across her soft, alluring face there suddenly passed a flash of hardness, as though she had made up her mind; at the same moment she gave a low cry, and along the edge of her right hand violet light bloomed, and killing intent rose thick and heavy.
Li Xun had crossed blades with Jin Pingyue several times and knew well the danger of this demon sect sorceress, so he kept his guard up at once—and then he noticed the whish of wind behind him, and that a number of his junior brothers had come swarming up. His alarm was no small thing. He shouted at once for them to stop, and the others, startled, checked their steps one after another. But in that instant of slight confusion, the violet glow ahead, where Jin Pingyue stood, suddenly surged high, sweeping in like a mass of violet flame. Li Xun gave a great shout, planted himself before the others, and brought out the immortal sword in his hand, blocking the violet radiance.
Yet this spell, which had seemed so immeasurably powerful, once Li Xun had blocked it, made him frown and freeze in astonishment: the force he had expected shattered like a sheet of thin paper at a touch. The art that had looked so formidable dissolved in an instant, and behind the violet light Jin Pingyue's figure had, at some unknowable moment, vanished once more into the darkness.
Li Xun's face went livid. "Crafty demoness—she has tricked us again. After her, quickly!"
With that he gave chase first, and the Fenxia Valley disciples behind him, naturally taking his lead, hurried after. Zeng Shuyan's mouth was half open, as though he wished to say something, but watching the shadows flicker to and fro, he shook his head helplessly, sighed, cast a careful glance about him, and slowly followed.
Li Xun seemed to harbor a bitter hatred for Jin Pingyue, and pursued her the whole way without slackening for an instant. In truth, given Jin Pingyue's cultivation and skill, at any ordinary time or place, had she plotted against Li Xun first, slipping away so utterly unseen would not have been so very hard for her. But now she was thoroughly out of luck. For one thing, this ancient cave seemed to have only the one passage, leaving nowhere to hide; for another, not long before, she had just fought a bout of spells with that mysterious woman who had appeared out of nowhere—the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, Xiao Bai. She had not been injured, and had barely managed to slip free while Xiao Bai was entangled with Ming Li, but that strange sorcery of Xiao Bai's had drained a great deal of her power.