Chapter 239 — Hope
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 5
"Destroy it? Hahahaha..." The Ghost King laughed aloud, as though he had just heard the most absurd words imaginable. His expression shifted again, from gloom to sheer arrogance in an instant. He threw back his head and gave a long cry to the heavens. "What do you understand? It is precisely because Xiaochi's heart's blood is in this enterprise that I have tended it with such care. One day you will see me unite all under heaven and rule the world, and then you will know my methods. Hahahaha..."
His laughter was wild, his manner soaring, utterly unlike his usual self, with none of his customary composure. Even Xiaobai was taken aback. As the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, she was reasonably kind in her daily dealings, though she did not necessarily set great store by human life. Yet seeing the Ghost King in this state, utterly heedless of the countless lives of the Ghost King Sect's disciples, even she—a demon in human eyes—found it excessive. Xiaobai felt that she had truly come back at the wrong time. Everyone around her seemed on the verge of going mad; those not yet mad were nearly as good as mad, and this Ghost King before her had turned from his usual self altogether, truly infuriating and bewildering. In her fury, Xiaobai shouted, "Have you gone mad? Those people are your own disciples—how can you disregard their lives?"
The Ghost King had still been laughing wildly at the sky, but the moment the word "mad" reached his ears, his expression changed at once. The muscles of his face twisted slightly, his laughter stopped short, and his gaze turned sharp as a blade, fixed straight on Xiaobai.
Seeing the Ghost King's sudden change, a faint killing intent seeming to leak from him, Xiaobai was shaken. Almost at the same moment, with the keen senses of a fox demon of a thousand years' cultivation, she discovered something else—something that made her body tremble slightly. She raised her head in astonishment and looked at the Ghost King.
Within the stone chamber, soundlessly and imperceptibly, a faint, eerie smell of blood had begun to rise. And this strange power—though Xiaobai's heart refused to believe it—was unmistakably seeping slowly from the Ghost King himself...
"What... did... you... say?"
The Ghost King stood there, staring at Xiaobai. His voice had grown low again, and he squeezed these words out slowly through his teeth.
Xiaobai did not answer. She only looked at the Ghost King, and the expression on her face slowly calmed from its first astonishment, becoming blank, until at last a faint, strange mockery even seemed to lurk in her eyes. She was silent for a long while, then raised her head and said mildly, "I was short-tempered just now, and spoke wrongly. Pay it no mind."
These words were plainly far beyond the Ghost King's expectations. Even with his composure, a flicker of surprise crossed his face. But however that might be, once Xiaobai had spoken, the unexpectedly taut atmosphere in the stone chamber relaxed at once, and that mysterious, eerie smell of blood seemed to fade slowly as well.
Xiaobai looked at the Ghost King deeply and said, "As I said, I came looking for Ming Li. Since he isn't here, I can't be bothered to wait. I'll be going now."
The Ghost King was seen to hesitate a moment, his brows knitting slightly, as though he still had not worked out the reason for Xiaobai's sudden change of manner. Even his speech faltered briefly. But Xiaobai gave him no more time to think, saying directly, "If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave." With that she turned and walked toward the stone door.