The Sword Questions the Heavens - Chapter 250 — The Fierce Monkey - 翰墨軒

The four pillars shot down from high in the air above. Having shrouded the four great beasts, they soon set the dark red glow flickering, and thread upon thread of fine white spiritual essence was drawn out of the beasts and drifted silently upward.

At such a sight Xiao Hui understood everything. It jerked its head up, its three eyes wide, and above all the golden eye at the center of its brow, where golden light pulsed and strange radiance flowed. Seen from below, the dark red pillars shrouding the four beasts slowly narrowed as they rose; higher and higher they went, until at last they issued from a strange cauldron suspended in the void a good dozen yards above even the platform in midair.

Xiao Hui fixed its gaze on that strange cauldron and suddenly loosed a shrill cry. Pushing off with both feet, it left the Taotie's head and sprang straight toward the Kui Ox. The other beasts all watched as Xiao Hui glided through the air—but its body had plainly begun to change: the golden eye at its brow blazed with golden light, casting a glare that stung the eyes, while from within its frame came a violent "ge ge ge ge" sound, as though its very bones were rattling.

A distance of some yards Xiao Hui cleared in a single leap. By the time it landed on the Kui Ox's huge body, it was wrapped in a layer of golden radiance and had grown to more than twice its ordinary size. But plainly this was not the end. Xiao Hui barely paused on the Ox; with cry upon shrill cry it sprang again, its body rising once more into the air—and this time it leaped toward the stone pillar.

And in this second flight its body changed again. From the depths of the golden radiance a layer of eerie red light suddenly welled up and in an instant interwove with the gold; with a "boom" like thunder and whistling wind, the Three-Eyed Spirit Monkey's body swelled monstrously, as in the transformations of legend, and it had plainly become a giant ape more than a dozen feet tall, its three eyes red as blood, sharp fangs sprouting from its jaws, terrible in its majesty, its lethal aura surging.

"Pu!"

With a great crash the transformed Xiao Hui slammed into the stone pillar, and the whole vast column shook without cease. Without an instant's pause Xiao Hui roared on and on and climbed swiftly upward.

The pillar stood some tens of yards high, but now to the giant ape's hands and feet it was only a short stretch; in a moment Xiao Hui's huge body had swung up over the platform and come down upon the ground with a thunderous crash. Raising its head to the Fuxing Cauldron suspended in midair, the giant ape beat its chest with its fists and roared skyward: "Hou!"

That roar was terrifying in its might; at a single cry it seemed the very wind and clouds changed color, and the silence that had held the vast cavern was at last utterly shattered. The roar carried far, and the dark red glow in the air trembled; the ring of light upon the Fuxing Cauldron shook as well, and then those streaks of red radiance, as though they had wills of their own, slowly turned toward it.

Facing this eerie formation and this unknown thing, Xiao Hui bared its teeth, its face all savagery, and roared with head held high. A moment later it suddenly kicked off from the ground, and in an instant the giant ape's body hurtled into the air; over a height of a dozen yards it flew with a boom, dreadful and awesome in its power. The red shadows scattered before it all along the way, and it seemed about to smash into the Fuxing Cauldron.

But the Four Spirits Blood Array was no trifling matter after all. Just as Xiao Hui was about to strike, a sphere of blood-red light suddenly appeared around the Fuxing Cauldron. The giant ape's bulk crashed into that barrier, and such tremendous force was dissolved into nothing; it could not advance a single inch, and fell back again.

And hard on the heels of that, the Four Spirits Blood Array had already begun its counterattack.