Chapter 51 — The Black Stone Cave

Xiaowan gave a huff, ignored him, and turned to look toward the clearing. Suddenly her brows knitted. "Grandfather, look—they seem to have gone after her again."

Startled, Zhou Yixuan hurried to look. Sure enough, Zhang Qingyue and the others seemed to have exchanged a few words before turning toward the darkness deep within, in the very direction where the three-tailed fox demon had vanished. Shi Tou led the way. Zhang Qingyue took two steps, then, feeling that Bili had not moved, turned back to face her, as though he wished to say something—but for some reason the words would not come, and his face flushed red.

Bili, though, only smiled faintly, seemed to scold him in a low voice, and went on ahead. Zhang Qingyue was taken aback a moment, shook his head, and followed.

Zhou Yixuan stood dumbfounded, then stamped his foot. "These young people truly have no regard for life or death! With the Mystic Fire Mirror in that fox demon's hand, how do they dare chase after her?"

Xiaowan, at his side, took a bite of her candied hawthorn stick (from the very beginning she had never once let it go), and said imperturbably, "Didn't you say so yourself, old man? Her cultivation isn't deep enough to unleash the Mystic Fire Mirror's true power. In that case, her having it is as good as not having it—so what do these youngsters have to fear?"

Zhou Yixuan was struck speechless, as though choked, and for a long while could find nothing to say. After quite some time, he suddenly seemed to recall something and said hurriedly, "Quick, we must go too!"

Xiaowan was startled by him in turn. "Go? Go where?"

Zhou Yixuan strode forward. "To slay the demon, of course."

Xiaowan followed with a cold laugh. "In the past, whenever we ran into all those great demons and small demons and neither-great-nor-small demons, I only ever saw you run—I never saw you charge in to slay any of them."

Zhou Yixuan's old face reddened. "We who wander the rivers and lakes—the most important thing is to know one's own limits... Eh?"

Halfway through his words he suddenly stopped short, his gaze caught by something else. Xiaowan, behind him, followed his eyes—and saw that what Zhou Yixuan was looking at was the ancient well, which from the very beginning had sat there quietly without the slightest stir.

By now Zhang Qingyue and the others had vanished into the darkness, and the countless demon creatures that had seemed to be about a moment ago were now nowhere to be seen. Only Zhou Yixuan and Xiaowan remained in the forest. The moonlight, cold and clear, shone in silence upon the ancient well, glinting off its green moss and age-old grooves, lending it a touch of weathered desolation.

Zhou Yixuan drew a deep breath and walked over. Xiaowan followed behind him, unable to keep from feeling nervous. "Grandfather, what are you doing?"

Zhou Yixuan frowned. "I mean to see for myself what strangeness lies in this well, and why the three-tailed fox demon kept asking that young man what he had seen in it."

Xiaowan stopped three paces from the ancient well, her heart creeping with unease. All around was silent and dark, yet in the darkness it seemed a wind blew past, and she could not tell how many eyes in the shadows might be peering at her.

Zhou Yixuan walked to the edge of the well, raised his head to glance around, and seeing nothing amiss, made to look down. Behind him Xiaowan suddenly grew tense. "Grandfather, be careful."

He glanced at her and smiled slightly. "It's nothing." With that, he looked down—down into the well.

Xiaowan watched his face closely, and suddenly saw upon Zhou Yixuan's tense and solemn features a flicker of surprise, which in an instant turned to delight, then to puzzlement, and he lifted his head in deep thought.

Xiaowan stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Grandfather, what did you see?"

Zhou Yixuan frowned. "I saw gold—as much as a mountain."

Xiaowan: "..."

Zhou Yixuan muttered to himself, "What the well water reflects is not a person's shadow at all. Strange..."

"Ah!" Suddenly a soft cry came from Xiaowan beside him. Startled, Zhou Yixuan hurried to look, and saw that at some point Xiaowan had likewise leaned over the well's edge and was peering down. Now she was lifting her head.

Zhou Yixuan stared a moment. "What did you see?"

Xiaowan shrugged. "Candied hawthorn sticks, as many as a mountain."

Zhou Yixuan collapsed to the ground.

A short while later, as the two of them walked deeper into the forest, Zhou Yixuan said quietly to Xiaowan, "I've thought it over, and I suspect this ancient well is none other than the 'Well of the Full Moon' of old legend—that at the full moon, if a person looks down into it, they see the person or thing they love most. Only, I still can't understand why the three-tailed fox demon kept asking that young man what he had seen in the well. Though now, I must say, I truly would like to know what that young man saw..."

From the outside, this patch of forest had not seemed large, but once Zhang Qingyue and the others were within it, in the vast night it gave the illusion of stretching on without end. The three of them each rode their artifacts through the darkness, closely tracking a streak of white light ahead—the trail of the three-tailed fox demon's flight.

To their surprise, that white light flickered before their eyes a few times and then suddenly vanished into thin air. Urging their artifacts on, Zhang Qingyue and the others in an instant arrived at the place where the white light had disappeared. Here the ancient trees stood dense; in a clearing in the wood was a small mound, and on one side of the mound, sure enough, was a cave mouth, the rocks beside it all black.

Needless to say, this was the Black Stone Cave.

The three halted at the cave mouth, exchanged a glance, and peered into the Black Stone Cave. Though the opening was not large, within all was pitch-black, giving one the sense of a bottomless depth. Gusts of cold, sinister wind blew out, brushing over them, and they felt their flesh creep.

Bili frowned. "This cave is dangerous and hard to fathom, and that fox demon's artifact was exceedingly powerful. We had best not take the risk of going in."

Zhang Qingyue glanced at her, but before he could speak, Shi Tou had already said loudly from the side, "Brother Zhang, when slaying demons, we must finish the job. It is easy enough to give up today, but if this fox demon emerges again in days to come, I fear the harm she does will be all the worse."

Zhang Qingyue nodded at once. "Brother Shi is right. Let us go in now."

Bili's expression changed, and she was about to flare up, when she saw Zhang Qingyue turn to her, his face earnest, and lower his voice. "It really is dangerous in there. Brother Shi and I are of the orthodox sects; duty binds us. You—you—" He paused and turned his head away, but his voice still carried back. "Your own safety matters most. Don't go risking yourself."

Though Bili could not see Zhang Qingyue's face, she could hear in his tone a measure of genuine concern, and her heart felt a sweetness she could not name. Yet aloud she said coldly, "I'll go in if I want to. Is that any business of yours?"

Zhang Qingyue was taken aback and for a moment could find no reply.

Shi Tou, watching the two of them with their strange expressions, shook his head. "Brother Zhang, let us go in."

Zhang Qingyue answered, then could not resist another glance at Bili—only to see her give a huff, and with a flicker of movement she darted ahead of the two of them into the pitch-black Black Stone Cave. Zhang Qingyue was startled and hurried after her, the wind whistling past his ears as Shi Tou, he supposed, followed at his back.

In the darkness, the Heartbreak Flower at Bili's side slowly began to glow, its soft white light illuminating some five feet around them. Zhang Qingyue looked about and saw that the surrounding rock walls were all of strange black-as-ink stone, hard as iron and cold beyond measure.