Chapter 207 — The Chase
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 5
Fearing the strange woman might change her mind, she at once flashed forward into the darkness ahead. How could Li Xun and the others let this murderess escape them a second time? They were just about to launch themselves in pursuit when a flash of white radiance shone out, and in an instant a curtain of light sprang up before Xiao Bai, blocking the way utterly. A moment later Jin Pingyue's figure was already gone.
Li Xun ground his teeth in fury and turned on Xiao Bai. "Just who are you, and why would you help that demoness?"
Xiao Bai smiled faintly; Li Xun's anger seemed only to please her the more. "Me? Who I am is no concern of yours! And as for why I help her—for no other reason than that I cannot abide the sight of you Fenxia Valley people."
Li Xun and every Fenxia Valley disciple behind him were struck dumb, and for a moment none could speak. Li Xun could not refrain from asking, "Lady, have we met before, perhaps? Or have we somehow given you offense?"
Xiao Bai shook her head, rolled her eyes slightly, her gaze rippling like water, a faint, soul-stealing smile at the corners of her mouth. "We have never met, and you have never offended me. But I..." She smiled, and seemed very pleased indeed. "But I simply cannot abide the sight of Fenxia Valley. So what are you going to do about it?"
Li Xun and the others were itching with rage to the very roots of their teeth. Without waiting for Li Xun's order, Fenxia Valley disciples had already charged forward with angry shouts; Li Xun did not stop them. For a woman to insult and provoke them so—if she were not taught a lesson, Fenxia Valley would have no face left to show the world.
In the darkness, a dozen figures or more leaped out one after another and hurled themselves at that curtain of white light; and behind the curtain Xiao Bai's smile remained as it was, only with a little more mockery in her eyes.
Wind, with the swiftly passing figures, turned to a keen, thin whistling that screamed unceasingly at the ear; how much road slipped away beneath their feet, none could say. Lu Xueling sped through the ancient, dark cavern, onward toward the unknown mystery ahead.
Somehow, though she still did not know what awaited her ahead, there was in her heart a kind of fevered emotion, burning like the fiercest flame within a heart cold as frost and snow.
And so she flew, heedless of all else.
The figures behind her had long since scattered. When she had swept past one spot earlier, she had sensed, almost instinctively, that a silhouette seemed to be hiding in the darkness there—yet the feeling was gone in an instant, lasting only that flash between lightning and spark. The hidden figure seemed to stir, then, as if discovering something, it vanished once more.
Far behind her, in the wind that whistled past in gust after gust, was there perhaps a faint sigh?
Lu Xueling did not know.
She did not take that feeling to heart in the slightest.
In a life like this, how many things, or people, are worth casting everything aside for?
If there were none, perhaps that would be sorrow?
If there were, then cast everything aside for them!
The Celestial Dipper Divine Sword gripped in her hand blazed with ever-greater radiance, like the most surging tide of the heart, crashing forth in a thunderous flash.
That patch of blue figure flew farther and farther away, and yet it seemed, somehow, to be drawing nearer and nearer!
The wind was still blowing, the road ahead was still dark—but in the end, there would still be someone waiting at the end of that road.
She flew, flew, flew on...
A beam of green light slowly kindled ahead. Lu Xueling at last saw the first gleam of light in the darkness—far off, in the dark, wandering gently like a lonely ghost.