Chapter 133 — Resurrection

Only the shaman—his figure hidden in the darkness—felt the formless demon dancing wildly before him, felt the reborn soul and the coursing blood.

That feeling seemed almost to consume him…

"BANG!"

With a great crash, a colossal force smashed a deep pit into the hard ground. Jin Pingyue was flung backward, barely dodging the blow that had come stabbing from behind, her face draining white despite herself.

The stone-maiden figure had seemed almost to possess a magic of its own, drawing in all her spirit and soul until she forgot everything outside herself; only when the wind rushed above her head did years of hard-won instinct jolt her awake, and she hurled herself out in the barest sliver of a moment, snatching back her life by sheer luck.

Jin Pingyue had scarcely caught her breath when a sharp wind rose behind her—the fierce spirit had already clung to her like a burr. Though its body was nothing but formless white vapor, the great sword and shield in its hands it wielded as lightly as a child's toys.

Jin Pingyue knew how formidable it was and dared not block head-on. With a flash she hurried backward—but beneath those two sword strokes the fierce spirit had already driven her several zhang away from the mouth of the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression.

The moment her feet touched ground, Jin Pingyue turned her right hand and violet radiance sprang up: her treasure, the Violet-Edge Blade, was already out and in her grasp. Against this savage ghost she dared not be careless in the least.

Yet though she gathered herself in guard, the fierce spirit, having driven her three zhang from the cave, pursued no further. Its formless body still drifted beside the stone maiden.

"Who are you, to dare come to this land of demons, and to dare defile the shrine of the Shamaness?" The fierce spirit glared with its great copper-bell eyes and spoke coldly.

Jin Pingyue breathed a silent sigh of relief, steadied herself, and said clearly, "You misunderstand. I meant no offense to this… Shamaness's image. It was only that at first sight she was so beautiful that I could not help but touch the stone."

The fierce spirit snorted, its expression softening somewhat—plainly it too knew the stone image possessed a strange power—but its voice remained as cold as before: "You are young, and this is your first offense, so I will not hold it against you. This is a land of demons and ghosts, no place for you. Be off at once!"

Jin Pingyue frowned. In her heart she reckoned that, having trailed the shaman so long, the greatest secret must surely lie within this Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression—yet here at the cave mouth stood so formidable a fierce spirit on guard, which was truly troublesome. And to force her way in would likely stir the shaman or whatever monsters lay within, to say nothing of the fact that this one fierce spirit before her would be hard enough to deal with.

As she brooded over this, the fierce spirit saw the woman's gaze sweeping between itself and the Shamaness's image, and from time to time glancing toward the dark depths of the cave behind, plainly scheming after the cave. Its expression changed abruptly.

"Hah!" The fierce spirit barked angrily. "Girl, I advise you not to seek trouble for yourself. Within this cave is a demon of peerless power; to enter is to seek your own death. And I guard this ancient cave—I will never let an outsider pass. Give up this notion at once!"

Jin Pingyue gave a cold little laugh, unwilling to abandon it so easily. "That man in black just now—did he not go in all the same?"

The fierce spirit started, and its eyes blazed with light. "So you came following that man?"

Jin Pingyue read its face and privately began to guess at the relationship between the two, but she went on aloud, "Of course. That creature who is neither man nor ghost… ah, I don't mean you—don't be angry!" she hastily added to the infuriated spirit, having nearly let her tongue slip, and then continued, "That man in black stole the Miao sacred relic of the southern lands, the black staff—and on it, the Li people's sacred relic, the bone jade. He has only just gone in. I wanted to see what he was actually up to—"

Before the "to" had left her mouth, the fierce spirit, its expression utterly transformed, let out a heaven-shaking roar that drove her words back down her throat and shook the color from her face.

"What did you say—he carries the black staff and the bone jade?" The fierce spirit's whole body began to tremble violently.

Jin Pingyue was somewhat taken aback. "Yes."

The fierce spirit threw back its head and howled at the sky in utter grief and fury, then whirled around—and by its look it meant to charge straight into the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression, reckless of all, to find that shaman and perish together with him.

But at that very moment, Jin Pingyue and the fierce spirit both started at once.

The cold wind that blew from the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation, as though it would never stop, suddenly ceased.

Between heaven and earth, it was as if something had all at once been taken away; the silence was extraordinary.

In an instant the malevolent spirit's face turned ashen.

His mouth gaped wide, as though he would speak, or as though he would summon all his strength to cry out—yet no sound whatsoever came forth.

Then, slowly, he turned and looked toward the stone statue of the woman. Suddenly his whole frame convulsed; his enormous body went limp, and there before the stone woman he dropped to his knees and wept aloud.

Jin Pingyue was startled. Born into the Demonic Sect, she had witnessed more uncanny things in her life than she could count, yet a malevolent spirit of such tremendous cultivation suddenly wailing in grief before her was truly something she had never seen. And seeing how utterly heartbroken that spirit was—his vast body trembling without cease, though composed only of white vapor—even his sorrow seemed to stand before her, vivid and alive.

Jin Pingyue quietly edged closer, and the malevolent spirit did not notice her at all. When she had drawn near the stone woman and was just about to take the chance to slip stealthily into the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation, her body suddenly gave a jolt. Her gaze fell upon the stone woman, and she too was struck dumb.

Upon the cold stone, that gentle, beautiful woman.

Two clear streams of tears slipped quietly down from the statue's eyes.

So it was—a thousand years of time, and still it could not wipe away one deep, lingering strand of grief...

Jin Pingyue stood dumbfounded behind the malevolent spirit, gazing at this sorrowing statue.

Behind her, deep within the cave, came a low moan from far away—like something waking from a long slumber and uttering its first sound.

The cold wind rose again, its voice more shrill and desolate than before.

Even the sky overhead, the very hue of the heavens, dimmed to such a gloom.

A bolt of lightning pierced the black clouds.

A clap of thunder burst across the sky.

Thunder and lightning roared, tearing the heavens asunder in an instant. Countless black clouds, as if boiling, surged in from the skies above the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains and gathered over the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation.

A torrential rain came crashing down, mingled with enormous hailstones, pocking the ground with craters.

Jin Pingyue was startled; she dodged left and right, drifting amid the wind and rain. But the malevolent spirit abruptly raised his head and looked to the sky. All the wind and rain and ice seemed to have no effect on him, yet his eyes were filled with despair.

"Ah!..."

He cried out to the heavens.