Chapter 212 — Return
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 6
You Si murmured assent and watched the Nether King walk off into the distance. Only when that figure had vanished did she turn back—and suddenly started. The mysterious shadow at her side had, at some unknown moment, disappeared. Beneath the black veil, You Si's fine brows slowly drew together, and a complex expression flickered in her eyes.
Outside the cold-ice stone chamber deep in the mountain caverns, all was utterly unlike the bustle outside. Here there was no clamor, only the same stillness as of old—though perhaps in some eyes, what dwelt here was better called loneliness.
The Nether King stood a long time before the door of the cold-ice chamber, facing that stone door; somehow he never reached out to open it. The heavy stone slab barred his way, yet his gaze seemed already to have pierced through that seemingly impenetrable block of stone.
Beyond the stone door, in that place of piercing cold, was his daughter still lying peacefully?
Could a man as strong as he have a moment of weakness too—a moment when he shrank from facing his own daughter?
How long passed, none could say; time slipped quietly by, and the Nether King stirred. Slowly he reached out and worked the mechanism; a low rumbling came, and the stone door before him slowly opened.
A gust of cold air struck his face from beyond the door, and faint wisps of white vapor drifted through the chamber. The Nether King stepped inside, and the stone door closed again behind him.
Nothing had changed.
That peacefully lying figure—and even the man who, in memory, had always sat at her side.
Ming Li did not turn to look, not even once; he still only gazed at Bi Li. And the Nether King said nothing either, but walked silently to the other side of the ice platform and gazed at his daughter.
Bi Li's expression was still that same calm touched with a faint, contented smile as she lay quietly; between the hands crossed before her, the wondrous demon cult treasure, the Hehuan Bell, rested quietly in her palm.
A faint golden radiance seemed to refract from the bell's body, giving off rays of uneven length. In the silent stone chamber, somehow, one could not help but have the illusion that somewhere a clear bell note was echoing low—yet listen closely and its source could never be found; only that faint glow forever flickering on the bell's body, like a pair of gentle eyes watching over the two men in the chamber.
"While I was away, has she been well?" the Nether King asked mildly; from the moment he entered the chamber, his gaze had not left his daughter.
Ming Li slowly raised his head and looked at the Nether King; the Nether King too drew his gaze from Bi Li and looked at Ming Li.
The eyes of the two men met in midair, as though with silent thunder and lightning.
Between them, in Bi Li's hand, the light on the Hehuan Bell flowed gently.
"She is well," Ming Li said mildly, rising to his feet.
The Nether King nodded. "With you here, I am at ease."
He paused, then said, "On this journey to the southern borderlands—did you find any word of arts to summon back the soul?"
A flicker of gloom passed over Ming Li's face, and he shook his head. Ming Wang was silent; he lowered his gaze to Bi Li and sighed softly. In truth, the chief purpose of Ming Li's journey to the Southern Frontier this time had naturally been to track the Beast Sovereign and, under Ming Wang's secret orders, to seize the strange beast Taotie that attended him—yet at this moment, in their conversation, the two seemed long since to have forgotten the matter entirely.
In the stone chamber, silence fell once more.
At last Ming Wang's expression turned grave, and he said mildly, "There are still some matters I would speak of with you, but this is no place for it. Let us go out."