Chapter 196 — Merit

The spirit smiled a wan smile. "And yet in the end I failed the Goddess's great trust. I was deceived by that beast, and wrought a great disaster—the demon revived, and the living things of the world were plunged into misery..." His voice trailed off toward the end. Then, as though steadying himself, he went on, "I had given up all hope, thinking no one in the world could stop this demon from ravaging the living. But some time ago, he returned grievously wounded. The Central Plains are rich in talent and spirit—that there should still be a master who could wound him so—that was far beyond my expectation."

The corner of Ming Li's eye twitched slightly. Suddenly he gave a cold laugh. "You need not take it so much to heart. The Beast Lord was defeated, yes—but the one who defeated him is hardly better off!"

The spirit started slightly, not knowing what Ming Li meant by that, but at such a moment he had no mind to probe. "If this demon can be slain, nothing could be better. I have harbored that wish for no less than several thousand years. My only grief is that even in the days before he awoke, I could do nothing against him. You come from the Central Plains; perhaps you can succeed where I could not. If you truly do—" The ghost qi around the spirit abruptly drew inward, and he opened his vast eyes wide, crying aloud, "Then I shall thank you here on the Goddess's behalf!"

With that, he slowly shifted his body aside, opening a path and revealing the deep, bottomless ancient cave behind him.

Ming Li gazed once into the depths of the cave, then turned and gave the spirit a long, deep look. The spirit was gazing at him as well.

Ming Li nodded slowly, said no more, and walked slowly inside. As he passed the spirit, the little monkey Xiao Hui on his shoulder suddenly lifted his head, looking with some curiosity at the spirit's enormous body, his three eyes unblinking.

The spirit suddenly called out loudly after Ming Li's retreating figure, "One more thing—you must beware. That day the Beast Lord did not return alone. Besides the savage beast Taotie at his side, there was another demon of exceedingly high cultivation. You must be careful."

Ming Li's steps paused. "As far as I know, all thirteen of his beast demons have been wiped out."

The spirit shook his head. "Not one of the thirteen. Before this, even I had never seen that demon. You must be careful."

Ming Li nodded slowly and continued deeper into the ancient cave.

Afterward, Jin Pingyue slowly followed. The two figures and one monkey gradually dissolved into the darkness, swaying forward deep within the shadows, slowly, until at last they could be seen no more.

The ghost qi around the spirit's body gradually blurred as well, but his vast eyes remained fixed on the darkness deep within the cave. Suddenly, toward that deepest dark, he let out a roar like crashing thunder—a wild cry that surged forth like a mighty flood overturning mountains and seas, so that even the bitter cold wind seemed to flow backward, and the hardest rock walls boomed aloud as though heaven and earth were splitting!

Amid that wild roaring, the spirit's immense form slowly faded into the darkness.

Yet as the spirit vanished, he did not notice that outside the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression, behind the sacred image, a black figure faintly appeared—none other than Black Wood, who had that day incited the civil strife among the five tribes of the Southern Border and seized back the five tribes' sacred vessels to revive the Beast Lord.

A black, voluminous robe, as always, shrouded Black Wood's whole body, giving off a cold aura. But in his eyes flickered an exceedingly complex light as he gazed into the depths of the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression. Only after that spirit—his own elder brother, once—had vanished did he slowly withdraw his gaze, and it came to rest anew upon the sacred image of the Witch Maiden Linglong beside him.

In the shivering cold wind, he seemed to be murmuring too: "Goddess..."

At the same time, far from the charred black peak where the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression lay, at the edge of that vast black forest, a party of a dozen or so slowly emerged. At their head was a woman robed in white like snow, of peerless beauty, a blue Tianxuan Divine Sword in her hand, her face like clear frost, yet in her eyes a sorrow and weariness beyond words, as she gazed silently toward the distant charred black peak.

The Central Plains. Thirty li outside He Yin City.

On the great road, after so long, most of the refugees had already returned to their homes in the south. This place lay not far from the foot of Canglan Mountain, yet ragged folk could still be seen from time to time trudging painfully along. Still, there were now more peddlers and small traders coming and going, and things were better by far than in the months when that great calamity struck.

"The immortal points the way—read the fortune of half your life!" Suddenly a loud cry rang out on the great road, breaking the silence there and sounding exceedingly harsh.

"Wealth, office, marriage, whereabouts; feng shui, physiognomy, character divination, bone reading—nothing I cannot master, nothing I cannot fathom. Come one, come all, only five taels of silver each—a bargain!"

Zhou Yixuan came striding along, holding aloft his bamboo pole with the sign "The Immortal Points the Way," crying his wares all the while, and every passerby turned to look.

The Wild Wolf Daoist followed behind without a word, carrying all the luggage as usual. But little Wan behind him seemed to start; she raised her head from the black-bound, wordless book she had been studying closely all along the road, and said with some astonishment, "Grandpa, what did you just say—how many taels each?"

Zhou Yixuan turned back with a chuckle, looking as ethereal as an immortal descended from heaven, and held up five fingers, gravely and solemnly: "Five taels of silver."

Little Wan frowned. "But yesterday you were asking three taels. And what has gotten into you these past few days? Three days ago we were fine, just as before—five qian of silver from each client who came for a reading. But you—you have been leaping and bounding the price up: five qian to one tael, then the next day two taels, the day before yesterday three taels, and today you have simply gone and called out five taels!"

Little Wan walked up to Zhou Yixuan and looked him up and down carefully. Zhou Yixuan, unnerved by her scrutiny, stepped back and cleared his throat. "What are you staring at now, you little girl?"

Little Wan ignored him and reached out toward Zhou Yixuan's forehead. He gave a start and stepped back again to dodge. "What are you playing at, all mysterious like that?"

Little Wan spat. "You are the mysterious one. I am checking whether you have a fever and your brain has gone addled!" With that, she turned to the Wild Wolf Daoist behind them and asked, "Daoist, would you say my grandpa has been a bit muddled lately?"

Since it was daytime, the Wild Wolf Daoist wore a strip of cloth around his face as usual, but his two eyes shone bright and clear. Now, meeting Little Wan's look, he chuckled twice and at once nodded. "He—er, I mean the elder—is getting on in years, so it is only natural he is a little..."

"Bullshit!"

Zhou Yixuan leapt up in front, furious.

Little Wan rolled her eyes at him. "Grandpa, why so worked up? I just think the Daoist makes perfect sense. The way you have been these past few days, I am afraid you really have gone a bit senile."

Zhou Yixuan seemed to particularly hate the words "gone senile." Even angrier, he cried, "What do you two know? How old are you, how much of the world's ways do you understand? If I had not—"

Little Wan cut in, "Is that so? Then tell me, why are you so bent on raising the price?"