Chapter 126 — The Witch Demon

Ahetai stared at the pearl a few times and could not help growing tense. Though he had said he did not fear this mysterious man in black, the witch demon—however modest his shamanic power—had always been one of the Beast Demon's most important and capable lieutenants, and no one knew what strange secret arts he might possess.

Just as he was secretly weighing whether to attack at once and not let the man in black play his tricks, the man's palm closed, and he made an even stranger movement.

His hand clenched, and with a crack the black pearl was crushed outright. A moment later the fragments, like sand, slipped down from his palm.

Ahetai was startled by the gesture and gathered himself on guard; he had heard before of the witch demon's art of poison. But the mountain wind blew past, and the fragments scattered with it—and the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from him. He waited a while longer, yet nothing happened at all.

Ahetai laughed aloud. "What trickery are you up to? Do whatever you like—what can you do to me..."

Before the words were out, his voice abruptly broke off, as though something had suddenly lodged in his throat.

Almost at the same instant, a light suddenly flared in the darkness, illuminating the surroundings, dazzlingly bright. And the source of this light was, astonishingly, shooting out from Ahetai's own body.

In an instant came a series of muffled thuds—"puff, puff, puff..."—and more than a dozen rays of light burst from within Ahetai's body outward. At a glance he looked almost as though a dozen holes had been opened all at once in his body—both absurd and horrifying.

Ahetai could not utter another word. His mouth hung open; he slowly raised his head, an expression of terror and disbelief on his face.

The man in black floated coldly before him and said slowly, "His Eminence the Beast Sovereign long ago foresaw that you could not be trusted. When he transmitted the black fire to you, he deliberately kept back this Black Fire Essence Pearl. Destroy the pearl, and the power of the black fire must turn back upon its master—and you die by the very art His Eminence the Beast Sovereign gave you!"

Ahetai's eyes were full of terror and remorse. His mouth gaped wide, but only a hoarse rasping came out. A moment later the muffled thuds came again in succession—"puff, puff, puff"—and with a boom the black fire came roaring out from within his body, swallowing his whole frame, blazing fiercely.

In a short while, this ambitious man had been reduced to ashes.

Only the Bone Jade Black Staff remained, lying quietly in the ashes.

The man in black floated over and beckoned with his hand; the Bone Jade Black Staff was drawn through the air into his grasp. He gave a cold laugh and was about to leave when he suddenly turned his head and looked toward the darkness on the other side of the valley. "Who is it?" he said in a low voice.

In the darkness, after a long silence, a figure slowly stepped out—grey robes, white beard, a face deeply lined. It was none other than Shangguan Lue of Fenxia Valley.

At this moment he gazed at the man in black, then at the two crimson fires behind him, full of hostility. At last his eyes came to rest on the Bone Jade Black Staff in the man's hand.

In that look, he seemed to have aged thirty years in an instant.

Clearly the man in black had not expected to meet Shangguan Lue here, and from his manner, he and Shangguan Lue were in fact old acquaintances. After the first moment of astonishment, the man in black was silent a while, then said slowly, "Eighty years since we last met, is it not, old friend?"

The lines on Shangguan Lue's face looked deep as though carved with a knife. "You people," he said, one word at a time, very slowly, "have finally been unable to restrain yourselves from coming out, have you?"

The black robes of the man in black billowed in the night wind, yet his figure hung motionless in midair—just as his voice was unhurried: "His Eminence the Beast Sovereign has grown impatient with waiting."

Shangguan Lue said slowly, "Back then, I and my senior brother Yun Yifeng, before His Eminence the Beast Demon, said to his face..."

The man in black cut him off suddenly: "Those words your valley-master senior brother spoke—do you yourself believe them?"

Shangguan Lue fell silent.

The man in black smiled faintly. "Old friend, you and I each serve our own masters. The road ahead is perilous. Take good care of yourself!"

With that, he tucked the black staff into his breast, and his whole body retreated backward. In the blink of an eye he vanished into the darkness.

Shangguan Lue's eye twitched; his body stirred as though he would do something. But in the darkness across from him the two crimson fires suddenly blazed brighter, and the roars abruptly grew loud.

The voice of the man in black came from afar in the darkness: "Old friend, your cultivation is deep and far surpasses mine. But I have the foul dragon, and with the Black Staff and the Bone Jade besides, you cannot stop me. For the sake of our many years of friendship, let us spare each other some face!"

Shangguan Lue's figure halted abruptly. A moment later the two crimson fires too faded gradually into the darkness.

Between heaven and earth, only he remained, standing alone in that bleak, cold valley. After a long while came the long, drawn-out sound of his sigh.

The night grew deeper.

In Qili Tong, the land that had once been prosperous and fair was now drowned in a sea of fire; everywhere was the sound of weeping. The Great Shaman of the Miao, revered as a god, was gravely wounded, his life or death uncertain; Ahetai of the Li, on whom such hopes had rested, had suddenly vanished; and into Qili Tong had suddenly come many outsiders, among them a figure like a malevolent ghost.

In such circumstances neither Li nor Miao had the heart to fight. The Li gradually withdrew from Qili Tong, and the Miao had no mind to pursue them, scattering instead to aid the wounded in their homes, while countless eyes, full of hostility, watched the outsiders still in Qili Tong.

But those people paid no attention at all to the Miao around them. In their eyes at this moment there was only the red and blue light clashing in midair.

The outstanding young cultivators of the new generation, of the Orthodox and the Demonic paths of the Central Plains alike, in this strange valley in a foreign land—a place touched faintly with desolation—fought one another to the death.

Lu Xueling's Tianxuan blue light grew ever more brilliant, sweeping across earth and sky, shrieking as it came, as though at the mere flick of her white hand the heavens turned and the earth stirred, the wind howled fierce, and all ghosts fled before her—an unstoppable majesty.

Beneath her sword-light one could dimly glimpse that resolute, haggard face, without the least expression, and her strikes showed not the slightest mercy.

Sword after sword, the wind of them, the shrill keening through the air, covering heaven and earth, surging madly in from all directions and dying away again.

Ming Li laughed wildly, galloping and soaring through the rain of swords. The Blood-Devouring Pearl seemed almost sentient, its excited red radiance blazing ten thousandfold, like a malevolent ghost howling at the sky, clawing and fanging as it fought.

That sword like frost and snow, drifting down; someone uttered a long cry and rose against heaven.

Tianxuan devours blood,

Blood devours Tianxuan!

Behind that peerless, heaven-and-earth-shaking merciless artifact—whose eyes, and what manner of gaze, followed after?

Lu Xueling did not know. Layer upon layer, wave upon wave, like billows, like towering swells, like ghosts wailing, like demons shrieking, the blood-devouring red radiance came roaring down, and its venomous demonic power nearly drew the very essence and blood from her whole body.