Chapter 250 — The Fierce Monkey
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 9
Countless dark red lights and shadows came converging through the air. Seen from afar, the Fulong Cauldron was like a bizarre red sun, ringed on every side by ten thousand red rays that formed a vast curtain of light. Upon that curtain, several hundred red protrusions gradually swelled into being, each a full three feet square, and a moment later a roar of "boom boom" filled the entire cavern in an instant: the several hundred protrusions had burst as one, shooting out round objects, grotesque and horrible as blood blisters, which fell from the sky like rain, hurtling down in a violent storm at Xiao Hui's descending body.
Xiao Hui threw back its head and howled at the heavens, a roar like thunder, the gold-red radiance about its body growing ever more searing. The instant its body touched the ground it flipped over and away, its agility so great it seemed to have no weight at all. The grotesque things raining down from midair smashed one after another onto the platform floor, instantly corroding the hard rock into hole after hole with a strange hissing sound that set the heart pounding to hear.
That storm-like assault had barely passed, and Xiao Hui had not even caught its breath, when the dreadful curtain of light above underwent another mutation. On the vast red curtain, several dozen protrusions swelled forth once more, but this time each was half a zhang across, and their speed was extreme; before Xiao Hui could even react, those great new protrusions had burst again, and what erupted from them was not the round corrosive monsters of before but blood-red skeletal shadows, each wielding blade or sword, or spewing venom from its mouth, or breathing fire, or freezing with ice, and more besides. Shrieking, they plunged down from midair, clawing and fanging as they hurled themselves at Xiao Hui.
Such a horrifying spectacle was like hell itself. Within the vast cavern the wind now shrieked in wild gusts, and the blood water in the pool rolled and boiled without cease. The four great spirit beasts seemed likewise in a fury, every one of them raising its head to howl, again and again.
Above the platform, several dozen giant skeletons plunged down together, yet Xiao Hui, faced with such a sight, showed not the slightest retreat in its ferocious aspect. It clenched both fists and struck its chest once with a violent blow, opened its mouth and gave a great shout, and instead of drawing back, charged forward, straight into the onrushing tide of skeletons, becoming a vast gray shadow that plunged in an instant into the blood-red array.
"Roar—"
The enormous bellowing cry burst out like a thunderclap, tearing through the mortal world. Xiao Hui plunged among the skeletons, striking left and slaying right, its giant hands flailing and dancing wildly, and in a moment it had sent several skeletons before it flying. One skeleton in front had just raised its blade to slash when Xiao Hui drove a fist at it and turned the blade back upon the skeleton's own skull; then, with a kick of its foot and a "thud," it sent that skeleton flying far away, straight off the platform and down into the blood pool.
The surrounding skeletons shrieked in chorus and came crowding in, seemingly wholly unacquainted with fear, and all manner of vicious techniques came at Xiao Hui's giant frame from every direction at once. In but a moment, five or six wounds had been burned into the gray fur of Xiao Hui's body, and some of them had already gone black in an instant—clearly virulent poison.
Beneath the searing pain, the giant ape seemed only to grow fiercer still. It wheeled and struck with one palm, like thunder and lightning crashing, a mighty wind sweeping past, and amid a rumbling roar it struck the heads of three skeletons clean off onto the ground, where they still spun a few turns; the headless bodies staggered a few steps forward before collapsing.