Chapter 257 — Summoning
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 5 of 11
After that night passed, Zhang Qingyue awoke from the nightmare of his inner demon—but before long, he was seized by a raging fever.
Given his cultivation at this level, illness of any kind should have been impossible for him in ordinary times. Yet this fever burned through his whole body, leaving him scorching hot and delirious. Lu Xueling understood well enough that this grave illness was truly brought on by the agony in his heart. Bi Li's death had been the spark, but more than anything, the heart-barrier Zhang Qingyue had clung to and endured for ten years was the true root of the sickness—and no one could cure that.
And so it proved. Though Lu Xueling exhausted every method and fed him every wonder-elixir and miracle drug she possessed, it was all like a clay ox plunging into the sea—not the slightest effect. The fever raged with unimaginable ferocity and showed no sign of breaking even after ten days. Had an ordinary person been afflicted so, they would long since have breathed their last. And now, even Zhang Qingyue had grown so gaunt he could grow no gaunter, looking very much like skin stretched over bones.
Lu Xueling was frantic with worry. For ten days and nights she watched over him without rest, and she too had visibly grown thin. Perhaps Heaven, seeing her devotion, finally opened its eyes and showed mercy: on the eleventh day, just as Lu Xueling was nearing despair, Zhang Qingyue's fever at last subsided.
The fever had broken, yet Zhang Qingyue remained unconscious. Even so, Lu Xueling let out a great breath of relief. The moment her taut nerves slackened just a little, exhaustion came surging up from every corner of her body. Forcing herself to stay upright, she straightened Ming Li's collar, then leaned against his side and sank into a deep sleep.
On her lovely face rested a faint, peaceful smile, and even in sleep her hand still grasped Ming Li's shoulder. A gentle breeze drifted through the ruins of Liu Miao Village, the green grass swaying and clustering around their bodies. Heaven and earth lay still and silent, and only in this corner forgotten by the world did there seem to be a strange kind of peace and happiness.
How long she slept, she did not know. The stars wheeled, the air was full of flowers' fragrance—surely it was a dream, for she saw everything she had once dreamed of!
To be with the one she loved, for a lifetime...
And then she woke.
The peaceful, happy smile still lingered at the corners of her mouth as she softly opened her eyes. The body beside her was indeed still there—he was sleeping quietly, his breath right there beside her.
Lu Xueling did not move, as though this were the way she loved best. She leaned quietly against his side, listening to the sound of his sleeping breath.
Suddenly, at that very moment, from the direction of Cang Lan Mountain in the distance, a violent explosion burst across the sky, and then a huge firework bloomed there. Lu Xueling's expression shifted slightly; she frowned and slowly sat up, turning her head to look.
The firework slowly took the shape of a long sword in the sky and hung there a long while without fading. It was a signal the Cang Lan Sect used only rarely—sent out to summon every disciple nearby only when some grave disaster had struck the sect and the danger was desperate. Lu Xueling was silent a moment, then turned her gaze back to Zhang Qingyue and regarded him for a time. Slowly she rose, hesitated, and at last reached out to take the Tianxuan, which leaned against a broken wall nearby, and drifted off into the distance.
The wind blew on as before, and the green grass swayed to and fro as before.
Zhang Qingyue slept quietly, peacefully, among the grass. Suddenly, from deep in the grass beside him, a head popped out—a gray-furred monkey with three eyes. It turned to look around, gave two squeaks that suggested surprise at the sudden absence of Lu Xueling, then leaped onto Zhang Qingyue's chest, scratched its head, and sat down.