劍問蒼天 - 第211章 擁抱 - 翰墨軒

Shangguan Lue took the seat below him. Though he was Yun Yifeng's junior brother, his face looked far older than Yun Yifeng's by uncounted years; yet his voice now seemed more even than Yun Yifeng's. "Since Dao Yan of the Canglan Sect could wound the Beast Sovereign so grievously in his day," he said mildly, "it is hardly so astonishing that someone today should devise a way to kill the beast demon."

Yun Yifeng was silent a long time and said nothing. But after a moment he suddenly gave what might have been a bitter laugh, shook his head, and said, "The plans of men will always fall short of Heaven's. A hundred years of heart's blood, and it comes to nothing, just like that."

Shangguan Lue pondered a moment, as though privately weighing how he ought to speak now, then said slowly, "Perhaps there are other methods recorded in the Burning Incense Jade Register..."

Yun Yifeng gave a cold snort, and Shangguan Lue fell silent at once. The atmosphere grew faintly awkward, but Yun Yifeng was plainly in a foul mood and had not the least wish to ease it; he only sat there in silence, saying nothing.

On Shangguan Lue's aged face the wrinkles seemed to deepen in the shadows, and a complicated light flickered in his eyes—what he was thinking, no one could say. After a long while Yun Yifeng suddenly called out, "Brother Shangguan."

Shangguan Lue started. "What is it?"

Yun Yifeng said mildly, "Others may not understand, but the secrets of our Burning Cloud Valley are known to none so well as you and me. Why our founding patriarch chose to establish the sect here in this remote, desolate place in the southern borderlands—surely you know?"

Shangguan Lue sighed, a note of world-weariness entering his voice. "Because the patriarch discovered here the remains of the ancient southern witch clan—the Profound Fire Altar—and from it learned the secrets of their strange and powerful witchcraft."

Yun Yifeng nodded slowly. "Indeed. And it was for that reason that the Burning Cloud Valley sect took root and sprouted in this remote corner of the southern borderlands, opened its gates and founded its lineage, and has endured to this day. The manifold mysterious arts of the ancient witch clan, together with the true methods and Daoist arts handed down by our patriarchs through the generations—these are what have given Burning Cloud Valley its present standing and renown."

Here Yun Yifeng's voice suddenly took on a note of bleakness. "And yet across these several hundred years, though our patriarchs exhausted their heart's blood, of all the witchcraft of the southern witch clan, the mightiest power of all—the heavenly fire—we have mastered only its outermost skin." His expression gradually turned angry, and he said coldly, "When I inherited the position of valley master, I swore a solemn oath before the spirits of our patriarchs that I would uncover the secret of the witch clan's heavenly fire, and make our Burning Cloud Valley line supreme under heaven and leader of all. But who would have thought that far from achieving it, we have instead lost the one key to exploring the power of the heavenly fire—the array diagram of the Eight Evils Profound Fire Formation handed down by the witch clan—destroyed; and worse still, the Profound Fire Mirror, the most vital of all, has been lost as well!"

In the darkness, Shangguan Lue's body suddenly gave a start.

"Crack!" A sharp report came from beside Yun Yifeng: in his fury he had gripped the arm of his chair so hard that he had snapped it clean off. For a moment there was no sound at all in the Hall of Mountain and River.

After a long while Yun Yifeng gave a long sigh and rose slowly to his feet. "When we were hemmed in by difficulties, I happened to learn from the ancient texts of the southern borderlands that besides the Profound Fire Altar, there still existed an array diagram in the Zhenmo Ancient Cave—and that is why we took the tiger by the tail and came to this pass today. What a pity... ai."