Chapter 255 — Nestling Close
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 8
Xiaobai was silent for a long while, then said quietly, "Bili is gone."
Lu Xueling froze as though struck by lightning, rooted to the spot, her lips parted but not a single word came out, her mind humming, utterly blank.
Ahead of her, Xiaobai said quietly, "You and he are no strangers to each other. Right now he is..."
"How is he? How is he now?" Lu Xueling seemed to snap awake, her face ashen, firing off question after question, as though she could no longer stand steady.
Xiaobai was silent for a moment, then said, "He is in a very bad way. I had no other choice but to come find you."
Lu Xueling's delicate brows knitted tight, deep worry written plainly across her face. She who was always as cool as ice was now utterly thrown into disarray. She breathed softly, as though a crushing weight had suddenly settled upon her heart. Then all at once she lifted her head and stared at Xiaobai.
Xiaobai said nothing more, only gave a slight nod.
With a crash...
The window before Lu Xueling burst apart into fragments. The fair white figure seized Tianxuan and shot out, soaring skyward.
What of sect rules, what of precepts?
In her eyes there was only the glimmer of tears and a heart full of longing that could be restrained no longer!
Up into the sky, racing away on the wind!
The fierce wind cut at her face like a blade, yet it could not extinguish the flame that had smoldered so long in her heart and at last tonight blazed up fiercely.
How is he? Bili is gone—what kind of wound is that? Ten years of time, and yet it seems only she truly understood that man!
She flew into the wind, resolute and half-mad with devotion, without the slightest glance back. In the far distance, in the pitch-black depths of night, was that darkness closing in around him even now? Was that dreadful cold seeping into him even now?
She would fly there, to his side.
To be with him!
Beneath the moonlight, a shadow still lingered.
Xiaobai walked slowly to the broken window and stood gazing for a long while. Then slowly she raised her head. The moonlight from the horizon poured down silently, falling upon her.
She closed her eyes, and slowly, slowly let out a long breath, and a smile appeared on her face.
A faint smile, carrying a measure of bitterness, and yet a measure of joy as well...
The bright moon hung high; the night was cold and the stars few.
A wisp of chill rode the night wind from afar. In the ruins of Liumiao Village the weeds rose and fell beneath the moonlight, surging like the waves of the sea. The empty night was silent and still, save for the low chirping of insects that drifted now and then from nameless places all around, from deep within the grass.
In a dark corner, Ming Li still sat leaning against the broken wall in that same posture, motionless. Xiao Hui slept against his leg; as the night wind passed, it seemed to feel a touch of chill, grumbled once, turned over, curled up tight, tucked in even its tail, and went on sleeping sweetly.
Suddenly, out of the bright moonlight, a white shadow dropped from the sky with incomparable swiftness. So fast was she that when she struck the ground, the surrounding weeds with a great swish bent sharply outward in a circle centered on the white shadow, and only after quite a while did they slowly right themselves.
The white light scattered, revealing Lu Xueling's anxious face. Her gaze swept over the ruins and saw broken walls and crumbling masonry everywhere, no different from the last time she had come here. Apart from a few patches of open ground lit by the moon, most of the place lay shrouded in darkness.
She saw no sign of anyone.
She stood there a moment, then slowly stepped forward, walking into those ruins that concealed who knew how many bygone days.