Chapter 252 — The Loss of Heart

The golden pillar gradually dimmed; the seven golden characters above the star plate too faded, and at last vanished. But the wondrous deep-blue pearl that had been taken forth hung there half a foot above the plate and slowly began to turn. The dazzling pillar of light around the plate receded swiftly, drawn back into the plate itself, and soon the plate returned to its former appearance, suspended in midair, giving off only a faint, gentle glow; the tiny jade pieces at the disc's center, like scattered stars, still raced and glided on without end. The one difference was that above the plate there now hung a beautiful blue pearl, slowly revolving—as though the star plate were the vault of heaven, and all the stars of the sky revolved around that single, lovely, deep-blue star.

The ultimate truths of heaven and earth, through the endless ages of a billion years, seemed in that one instant to reveal themselves faintly within this tiny star plate.

Silence filled the cavern, as though everything had been struck dumb by that magnificent and wondrous sight—yet this stillness lasted only a moment.

"Boom!"

An indescribable, tremendous roar, carrying the wild exultation of a thousand, ten thousand years since ages past, erupted as boundless blood-red radiance burst forth within the vast cavern. Every place steamed with dense blood-mist, every corner howled with crimson light and shadow, and a bloody stench too thick to disperse soared skyward. High above, suspended in the heavens, the Coiling Dragon Cauldron drank in countless streams of blood-energy rushing madly toward it.

Upon the ancient, clumsy cauldron, the pale mysterious inscriptions lit up one by one, pulsing with a strange rhythm and transforming into characters of blood. A mysterious, uncanny voice arose in midair, like an ancient, desolate demon spirit chanting verses forgotten for a thousand years.

Red—blood-crimson—spread like a tide surging over the entire Coiling Dragon Cauldron, turning it into a blood-shining monstrosity. At last all the blood-energy converged around the demonic face on the cauldron's front, and from the chin began to encroach upward, bit by bit. It reddened the lips, drowned the nose, devoured the eyes.

Finally, as though all the blood-energy shrieked in unison, the whole Coiling Dragon Cauldron trembled; every frenzied blood-light and shadow screamed together within the vast cavern, piercing wails echoing without end. The blood water in the pool began to boil, the earth shook and the mountains swayed, and falling rocks rained down like drops from the sky...

Blood-energy, surging like an irresistible flood, spilled across the hollow where the little blue pearl had once rested, and dyed the entire demonic face red.

"Rumble!"

Above Mount Huqi, the winds and clouds changed color; divine thunder descended, exploding at the mountain's summit beneath the sky!

A great gale rose, sweeping away boulders and smoke and dust alike. Between heaven and earth, bleak and desolate, stretched a scene of solemn slaughter!

Within the cold-ice stone chamber inside the Huqi caverns, the floor and stone walls quaked once more with violent tremors, rocks tumbling down in profusion—yet the Nether King seemed not to notice. At this moment his eyes had turned wholly blood-red, uncanny in the extreme.

Amid the trembling chamber and the falling stones, he slowly raised his right hand and looked at it. There in the palm, plainly surfacing now from flesh and blood, was a blood-crimson inscription shaped like an ancient cauldron, vigorous and forceful, tinged with something strange and sinister.

The Nether King stared fixedly at the cauldron-shaped inscription in his hand. After a moment he began to laugh, slowly, and the laughter was full of savagery, tinged with madness, even hysteria...

"It worked, it worked... it finally worked! Ah..." He drew a deep, ragged breath, his voice long since gone hoarse beyond recognition. The muscles of his face twisted, his complexion red as blood, and he looked utterly grotesque.

Suddenly he clenched his right hand into a fist, and in an instant a mighty force burst from his body. Faint traces of blood-light could almost be seen dancing about his hand like tiny lightning, ceaseless and agitated, while the surrounding stone walls, as though yanked by an immense power, collapsed in a great sheet all at once, rubble flying everywhere.

"Hahahaha... hahahahaha..."

Amid the wild laughter, mad and exultant, the Nether King strode toward the chamber entrance—only there he suddenly paused. Into the madness and savagery on his face there crept a flicker of hesitation; his body shifted slightly, as though he wished to turn and look at something.

Behind him lay Bi Li's still, quiet form.

Yet after that brief moment's hesitation, the Nether King did not turn back after all. The massive, unyielding stone door before him suddenly split asunder and was blasted away. Through the violent quaking and the rain of flying stones, with a savage resolve, the Nether King strode out of the cold-ice stone chamber.

"Boom!" The violent quaking kept up its strange clashing din, and the falling rocks grew ever larger, as though about to swallow this place whole. And that slender green figure lay quietly upon the stone platform, solitary and still, touched with a faint desolation.

"Ding... ding..." The clear, crisp sound of a little bell echoed softly through the stone chamber—only to be drowned out, all too soon, by the greater roar and crash of falling rock and collapsing stone.