Chapter 153 — Night Drinking
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Updated: 2008-07-31
Mount Huqi, the Cold Ice Stone Chamber.
Ming Li gazed silently at Bi Li, who lay peacefully upon the cold ice stone platform. In the curling white wisps of smoke, the sleeping woman seemed to wear forever the faintest trace of a smile at the corner of her lips. Did she still have any sense of things now? Did she still know that someone kept watch at her side?
Or was it that in her heart she had never regretted anything, and so slept thus in peace?
To these questions Ming Li had asked himself countless times, and he had never known the answers, nor dared to think them through; yet each time he dwelled on them, he seemed to suffer one more turn of torment. But his body was growing steadily worse. Though by practicing the true arts of the three volumes of the Heavenly Book he had in these days gradually come to grasp that the true arts of Buddhism, Daoism, and the Demonic Path seemed also to have a place where they merged into one, and his cultivation advanced by the day, the demonic power of the Blood-devouring Bead seemed to wander through his body every day like a specter that would not be shaken off, waiting for the final moment to perish together with him.
That chill sensation—Ming Li had long since grown so familiar with it that he could not be more so. From his youth down to this very moment, it had kept him company all along, this sensation! Even in death, he would die feeling that same chill, surely!
He gave a bitter smile at the thought, cast one last look at Bi Li—this was the third day he had kept watch over her alone.
"Rest well for a while. I will be back to see you very soon." Ming Li spoke softly. "Do not be afraid. Your father and I are only leaving for a time. Even if I die, I will come back to look at you once more before the end."
He gazed at Bi Li, smiled faintly, then turned and walked out of the Cold Ice Stone Chamber. The thin smoke drifted behind him like gossamer.
"Boom!"
The heavy stone door slowly closed behind him, and Xiao Hui, who had long been waiting nearby, shot with a swish onto his shoulder. Ming Li reached out and gently stroked Xiao Hui's head, nodded, and walked all the way outward. Along the way he reached to the walls and corners, or turned down many winding passages to work the mechanisms; as he went, every layer of the traps in the main hall of the Nether King Sect within Mount Huqi was set in motion, and the heavy stone doors alone dropped more than ten times.
Within the belly of Mount Huqi, the sound of mechanisms stirring was now everywhere, yet the only human figure was Ming Li himself; all the others had gone three days earlier, following the Nether King to the Savage Holy Hall. Mount Huqi now was cold and desolate. As Ming Li walked out from the mountain's belly and the sunlight fell upon him, bringing a thread of warmth, he could not help but shudder.
"Rumble, rumble..." The last stone door slowly closed, sealing off that vast mountain belly, and mingled with it came a faint "click-clack"—Ming Li heard it and knew it for the sound of the mechanisms locking back into place. Should anyone come hereafter not knowing how to open the traps here, and think to force their way in from outside, facing these tens of thousands of catties of giant rock, they would need cultivation rivaling that of immortals.
Warm sunlight fell upon him. Xiao Hui, sprawled on Ming Li's shoulder, stretched both arms and yawned, still yawning aloud. Ming Li turned to glance at it and smiled slightly. "What is it? You look bored half to sleep."
Xiao Hui chirped twice, rolled its eyes in its monkey face, then waved its hands and feet, pointing steadily out beyond the mountain. Ming Li laughed. "So you are bored. Hmm, now that I think of it, this place is all wilderness, with scarcely a few trees—no wonder you find it hard going."
Xiao Hui nodded frantically at once, jumped down from Ming Li's shoulder, chirping and gesturing wildly. Ming Li drew a deep breath, looked back at the cave entrance, which had now merged with the lie of the mountain so that no trace of it could be seen, nodded, and said, "All right. We have to wait a month before we go back in to see Bi Li anyway. While we wait, let us wander about and ease our hearts."
Xiao Hui was overjoyed, hopping and skipping on the ground, grinning wide. Ming Li caught its mood, and his own spirits could not help but lift. He scolded with a laugh, "Enough! Get up here, or you can just stay here by yourself."
Xiao Hui ducked its head, came darting back with a swish, and in a few scrambles climbed onto Ming Li's shoulder, chuckling. Ming Li shook his head, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth as well. His hand moved, and that familiar chill sensation rose again. Ming Li seemed to think of something and hesitated. Xiao Hui, puzzled why he had not yet taken flight, chirped twice. Ming Li glanced back at it, then smiled faintly and said softly, "Life is lonely—why trouble oneself with so much?"
Xiao Hui blinked twice, plainly not quite understanding these two sudden remarks. Ming Li said no more; with a flick of his hand, blue light surged, and the Soul-devouring Demon Staff was summoned. Bearing the two of them, man and monkey, it rose straight into the blue sky and left Mount Huqi behind.
The nearest place to Mount Huqi where people lived was a small town two hundred li to the northeast, called Sanfu Town. Sanfu Town had not many people, but there were several villages around it, so it could just barely be called lively. In former days, to keep their secrecy, the Nether King Sect generally did not go to Sanfu Town when buying grain, wine, and other daily goods, but went to more distant towns instead, lest the orthodox path or other factions of the demonic cult discover where their main hall lay. Still, before returning to the mountain, many of the Nether King Sect's disciples would stop to rest in Sanfu Town.
In the past Ming Li had passed through Sanfu Town with Xiao Hui as well. Not often, but Xiao Hui was clever beyond measure and had remembered it firmly. Now, barely out of Mount Huqi, Xiao Hui was waving its arms frantically on Ming Li's shoulder, pointing all the while toward Sanfu Town—clearly it wanted to go drink and eat there. Ming Li shook his head, but said nothing, and turned their course toward Sanfu Town.
Two hundred li was no great distance to a cultivator flying through the air. Amid blue sky and white clouds, a streak of blue light tinged faintly with black flickered and flew, slicing across the heavens.
Xiao Hui lay restlessly on his shoulder, tilting its head from time to time, its long monkey tail swinging this way and that—who knew whether it was thinking of the delicacies it would soon enjoy. Ming Li, steering the Soul-devouring Staff, looked down at the land below. The country around Mount Huqi need hardly be described—a barren stretch of bald hills. Beyond the Huqi range the terrain grew flatter, but the wilds were silent and empty, likewise without a soul. Seen from on high, only a desolate ancient road stretched out alone across the wilderness, and where it led, no one could say.
Ming Li suddenly sighed, but said nothing; only Xiao Hui, finding it strange, stole a few more glances at its master.
After less than half an hour's flight to the northeast, they had come above Sanfu Town. Far below, roofs stretched on and on, one joined to the next. Xiao Hui was already excited at the sight, chirping and pointing downward. Ming Li smiled. "All right, we go down now."
The blue light flickered, gave a sharp hiss in the air, and descended from the sky onto the streets of Sanfu Town. But the moment they landed, Ming Li's brow furrowed. Xiao Hui jumped from his shoulder, scratched its head, and looked all around, plainly puzzled as well. After a moment it seemed to sense something too; all three of its eyes lit at once, and it chirped, its expression tense.