Chapter 257 — Summoning
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 11
Zhang Qingyue slept on, quiet as before—only beside his right hand, his fingers twitched faintly.
About the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea later, a soft sound came from the entrance to the ruins of Liu Miao Village, and then Lu Xueling's white figure appeared there, walking toward the place where Zhang Qingyue lay sleeping. The little gray monkey on his chest made a face at Lu Xueling, jumped down, and squatted to one side, looking this way and that.
"Xiaofan... something terrible has happened." Her voice sounded hollow and utterly drained of strength as she murmured, "Just now I saw our sect's urgent summons for its disciples and went to look. It seems that while we have been here, great events have unfolded in the outside world. The Nether King Sect you once belonged to—that sect master, the Nether King—has somehow come into possession of some foul and uncanny treasure that can steal men's minds and bend them to his service. And worse still, they say he hides himself within a vast crimson shadow of blood-light, and wherever that crimson shadow reaches, whether common folk or cultivators who have attained the Dao, all are reduced to mindless living dead, driven at his command."
Lu Xueling's face was pale, and her hand tightened gently around the Tianxuan, but the look she bent on Zhang Qingyue was still all tenderness and aching regret, full of the pain of parting: "The righteous sects launched several campaigns to surround and destroy him, but every one of them was wiped out to the last soul. It was not merely that each sect was gravely weakened—the most terrifying thing is that most of those people... had their minds stolen by his crimson light and became the Nether King's slaves and thugs, turning to slaughter the righteous sects in their stead. By now the righteous forces of the world are in full rout, and in recent days the Nether King has advanced to the very foot of Cang Lan Mountain, unleashing his demon arts, so that every common soul within a hundred li of Cang Lan Mountain—in Heyang City and all the towns and villages great and small—has had their minds bewitched. Counting those taken before, their number must be no less than a hundred thousand, and at any moment they may storm Cang Lan Mountain."
She stared blankly at Zhang Qingyue's face, and suddenly two streams of tears slid from her eyes, falling and landing on the back of his hand.
"I wanted to cast all caution aside. Time and again I thought only of staying with you, of spending a lifetime at your side—even if the whole world reviled me and my sect punished me, I would not have cared. But now, but now..." Her lips trembled faintly and she slowly lowered her head. "But now Qingyun is in peril! The Cang Lan Sect raised me from childhood; the sect master loved and taught me—my debt of gratitude is as heavy as a mountain. If it were only a matter of us being together, I would willingly bear their scolding and their scorn. But now that they are in danger, I... I can only go back and stand with them."
Lu Xueling gazed deeply into Zhang Qingyue's face and did not look away for a single moment, as though she begrudged giving up even one glance. A breeze came, and her collar fluttered gently.
"Perhaps you do not yet know—the Cang Lan Sect has been torn by hidden strife, and the 'Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation' that was once invincible under heaven can no longer be activated. This battle is only... I fear it is truly more ill than fortunate, and I do not know whether I can ever come back to see you."
Lu Xueling drew a deep breath and reached up to wipe the tears from her face. Then a faintly bitter smile touched the corners of her mouth, and looking at Zhang Qingyue she said in a low voice: "Xiaofan, I do not know whether it is Heaven's will that we are always fated never to stay together for long. But," she paused, and a moment later went on quietly, in a low and steady voice, "but I have never once regretted it!"