Chapter 251 — The Monster

The pain was no small matter: Xiao Hui's giant body tottered. And the blood-qi giant in the sky seemed to feel not the slightest pity; another layer of blood-flame came surging down to blanket the heavens. It looked as though Xiao Hui would be smashed to pieces in that flame. The giant ape howled to the sky, and from somewhere far beneath there seemed to come a few answering roars of fury—but plainly they were useless.

The searing blood-flame swooped down headlong, and in Xiao Hui's three eyes all seemed to turn to the red of that flame. At this critical moment, a long cry suddenly came from behind—like the cry of a dragon—and a ray of azure radiance streaked across the sky like a rainbow, carving an arc through the air, swift as thunder, urgent as lightning, arriving just in the nick of time. In an instant it formed an azure shield of light before Xiao Hui. Within the blue glow sharp points glittered, and a taiji symbol emerged, radiant and resplendent. With a thunderous crash, it stopped the blood-flame—which the blood-qi giant had seemed all but invincible—dead in its tracks.

It was Ming Li, arriving in the very nick of time.

Yet though the blow was blocked, Ming Li's body was violently shaken, and his vision actually went black. Not only was the light-shield he had conjured all but dissipated—his body too was nearly smashed down into the blood pool. Fortunately his cultivation ran deep; as he fell he caught the edge of the stone platform, and his whole body rose again, sweeping to the giant ape's side. His gaze swept swiftly over Xiao Hui, and without another word he seized the monkey directly. With a low shout, he actually lifted Xiao Hui's enormous frame off the ground with one hand.

Xiao Hui let out a cry of pain as its body lifted into the air; its bones all gave out a creaking, crackling sound in midair, and moments later its frame rapidly shrank. In the blink of an eye it had returned to its usual size—the small gray-furred monkey once more.

Now the blood-qi giant overhead seemed all the more enraged that someone had suddenly blocked its blood-flame, and its target shifted to Ming Li. It opened its vast maw with a thunderous boom, and a blood-flame fully five zhang long came gushing forth, like a fire dragon descending from the heavens, burning straight toward Ming Li.

Ming Li seized Xiao Hui and set it on his shoulder. "Hold tight!" he called, and at once his body rose again. His speed in advancing and retreating was far nimbler and swifter than Xiao Hui's. Though the blood-qi giant's flames were utterly formidable, he threaded and wove and flitted through the gaps between them, and looked far more at ease.

Xiao Hui, for its part, was not idle either. Now back to its usual size, it clutched a fistful of Ming Li's collar with one hand and, letting Ming Li dart up and down through the air, sat perfectly steady. With the other hand it hurriedly grabbed up its own feet to look at them, its face twisted with pain, chattering *zhizhi-zhizhi* without cease. Then it kept fanning the air with its hand as though with a fan, wafting cool breezes over its two little feet—probably because the soles were scalded and unbearable.

Yet hearing Xiao Hui carry on like this, and catching its antics from the corner of his eye, Ming Li actually felt calmer at heart. To be able to fan itself and cry out in pain—so it seemed that apart from some superficial wounds it had not been gravely hurt. Slightly reassured, Ming Li flew with even greater ease. Those blood-flames were mighty indeed, but for all their force they were slow, and in his eyes no longer much to fear. And seizing the chance, in the intervals between dodging the flames, he began to look around and observe the blood-qi giant itself from afar.

Beneath his feet lay a depth like an abyss, and yet the blood pool below the abyss presented a most uncanny sight—especially when Ming Li saw the four spirit beasts soaking within the pool, and was struck dumb for a moment. Of the four great spirit beasts, apart from the primeval Torch Dragon, which he had never encountered, the other three had all been close to him. To think they should all be imprisoned here.

And in his heart he suddenly recalled how the Netherworld King had spent these years exhausting the full strength of the entire Netherworld Sect—from the Kui Ox ten years ago at the earliest, down to now, when all four great spirit beasts had been gathered. So all of it had been to lay down this bizarre formation here?

A thought stirred in him, and he jerked his head up to look at the blood-qi giant. A blood-flame came crashing down at him head-on, the air around scorched like fire; Ming Li's figure, like a phantom, flashed several zhang away in an instant and evaded it. The blood-flame struck the stone wall behind him with a roar, sending rocks flying wildly and leaving a crater several zhang wide in the hard rock.

Ming Li hovered in midair, gazing far off. The giant's whole body was formed of blood-red spiritual qi, its crimson radiance seething and surging like cloud-vapor, rolling unceasingly. In its two enormous eyes the blood-light burned especially fierce, blazing like roaring flame, fixed intently upon Ming Li's figure. It opened its mouth and another blood-flame came crashing out. The spiritual qi of this giant seemed inexhaustible, endless.

Ming Li just barely evaded again, but this time a sharp light flickered in his eyes and he did not linger where he was. Instead, following the direction of the blood-flame, he charged upstream, keeping less than three chi from the searing flame—charging straight at the blood-qi giant itself. Xiao Hui clung to Ming Li's shoulder, watching the dreadful giant draw nearer and nearer, yet showing not the slightest fear—rather, it chattered *zhizhi-zhizhi* in great excitement, brandishing its little fist, quite full of the spirit to fight to the death.

The blood-qi giant seemed not to have expected Ming Li's sudden counterattack; besides, its own body was too vast, and naturally too slow to react. In an instant, Ming Li became a streak of azure shadow, shooting like an arrow loosed from the string into the giant body formed of blood-qi.

The moment he entered, Ming Li felt a heavy pressure rushing at him from all sides, and his figure slowed at once. At the same time his ears filled in an instant with frenzied wailing and howling, like the weeping of ghosts in hell, and his qi and blood surged. Before his eyes all was a hazy sea of blood-mist; nothing could be seen. He furrowed his brow, and a flash of golden qi passed over his face. His mind turned, his thought moved, and the wondrous dharma was born: a solemn golden radiance lit about his whole body, majestic in bearing, and in an instant it forced the blood-qi back three chi. The discomfort within his body eased as well.

But then the blood-qi around him shifted once more. In the vast red haze of blood-mist, countless human faces suddenly appeared all around Ming Li—some laughing, some grieving, some enraged, some savage, in endless variety, like ten thousand ghosts gathered together, encircling him.

"Save me!"

"Give me your life!"

"Don't go..."

"Die!"

Countless sudden voices came surging at him like a flood. A thousand, ten thousand crimson arms reached out from the blood-mist, grasping toward Ming Li—a horror beyond all words to describe. Yet this art of ghostly illusions, which against others was a peerless and irresistible dharma, had met its natural nemesis in the "Great Brahma Prajna" that Ming Li carried—the Buddha-dharma famed for stilling the mind.