Chapter 252 — The Loss of Heart
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 6
Ming Li stood a long while, grave-faced. Then he walked slowly to the edge of the platform. The ground beneath his feet, caught up in the violence of the battle just past, had been laid waste—the once-solid stone now pitted and uneven, riddled everywhere with great and small craters, some eaten away by corrosion, others smashed by main force. He stood at the platform's rim and, as Xiao Hui had done at the first, bent and looked down.
Xiao Hui, perched on his shoulder, now drew back its gaze from the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron as well and gave a few low, mournful cries, as though pleading—begging Ming Li to save the Taotie and the other spirit beasts below. Strange lights flickered in Ming Li's eyes and his brows knitted tight. He had sensed something amiss when he first glimpsed the four great spirit beasts below in the confusion; now, looking closely, he saw plainly that these four so-called ancient spirit beasts, relics of the primordial wild, had all suffered grievous loss of vital essence—nine parts in ten of the spiritual power on which they relied to rampage through the world was gone.
Ming Li had never before heard of such a venomous art of devouring spiritual essence existing in this world. Plainly the strangeness lay in the mysterious array laid down throughout this vast cavern—and in that Dragon-Subduing Cauldron overhead.
He could not help hesitating. This venomous Four Spirits Blood Array inspired in him not the slightest liking, and of the four spirit beasts below, three had no small connection to him, ties of some depth; by reason and feeling alike, it seemed only right to help them break free. But he was long since no longer the simple youth of former days. On second thought, he realized that an array of such power as this—to say nothing of all the rest—must surely have cost the Nether King untold pains to set in place. If he acted rashly and ruined the Nether King's great design, would that not be as good as falling out with him?
In truth, if it were merely a falling-out with the Nether King, Ming Li felt no fear at all; fall out they would. But there was Bi Li lying there between them—ten whole years...
At the thought of Bi Li, the light in Ming Li's eyes dimmed. He sighed softly, slowly straightened, and silently shook his head at Xiao Hui on his shoulder. Xiao Hui grew frantic at once, scratching its ears and cheeks, waving both hands, its face all entreaty—plainly it wanted Ming Li to save the spirit beasts below. Ming Li's brows drew tight; his face shifted between light and shadow, and his heart wavered.
Just then a clear, crisp sound came from behind them. Ming Li and Xiao Hui both started and turned to look. There stood Master Gui in his black robes, who had somehow come to be on the platform behind them—and that ancient divine artifact, the star plate, was blazing with light, rolling radiance surging like waves, gathering about the plate into a pillar of light that shot straight up into the sky and, wonder of wonders, echoed the miraculous pillar atop the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron.
And the star plate, within that dazzling pillar of light, had conjured beneath it countless pure white petals, joined one to another like the lotus throne beneath a bodhisattva of the Buddhist faith, translucent as crystal, arching around the plate. Above the plate, amid billowing auspicious radiance and precious aura, a golden ancient character lit up, glowing brightly, floating and sinking within the light—but this time the golden character did not dim again; instead it grew brighter and brighter.
As the golden character blazed, the dagger-like radiance that bound the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron brightened in answer.
Ming Li's heart clenched. He stepped forward and said sharply, "What are you doing?"