Chapter 12 — The Mutation
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 7
Yet the strangeness was not over. Almost at the same moment the blue vapor regained its freedom, a great crash rose from the center of the pool, and at once wind rose and clouds gathered, the broken stones in the pool shooting out in all directions with a rattle of thumps. The emerald water heaved into waves that spun furiously around the center, forming a great whirlpool. And from the whirlpool, through the spray and gaps in the water, a thing slowly rose, wreathed in black vapor—it was that rod of profound black, some two feet long, neither metal nor iron, a baleful aura striking at the face.
Zhang Qingyue gave a great cry and fell backward. The Blood-devouring Bead seemed stuck to his palm; he could not fling it off, and within it he glimpsed a faint trace of blood color slowly flowing from his own body into the bead.
With a whistling shriek, amid the crash of waves, the black rod suddenly shot forth, hurtling at the blue-blazing Blood-devouring Bead. A moment later came a tremendous boom as the two objects of deepest malevolence smashed together. Zhang Qingyue, struck as if by a great shock, was flung a full ten feet into the air, and beneath him the earth of the clearing was blasted into a great crater by the force of it.
Zhang Qingyue fell back to the ground, blood streaming from every orifice, his head swimming. Yet the pain within his body seemed somehow to have eased. He saw all before him in a haze of blood—his eyes were bleeding too—and wiped at them with all his strength. He saw that the strange black rod had struck the Blood-devouring Bead, and thread upon thread of black vapor poured endlessly forward in attack. The Blood-devouring Bead, as though possessed of spirit, knew its foe was mighty: it drew back its blue vapor and resisted with all its force. The two were locked in a standoff, and the icy cold and nausea in Zhang Qingyue's body gradually receded.
Zhang Qingyue gasped for breath, his soul still shaken. He shook his hand by reflex, but those two uncanny things seemed a part of his palm; he could not shake them off, and black vapor and blue light still fought without cease.
Fear seized Zhang Qingyue; he wanted only to get as far from these two uncanny things as he could. He gathered all his strength and climbed to his feet, but before he had taken a single step his head swam; his whole body swayed, his legs were weak, and he toppled sideways to the ground again. Before his eyes the blue bead and black rod wound their two vapors together, battling with abandon, but the black vapor billowed and seemed to have the upper hand.
After a moment, sure enough, the black vapor pressed home its assault and the blue light fell back step by step, seemingly powerless to resist. Just then Zhang Qingyue felt a sharp pain in his palm. He looked, and his heart nearly leapt out of his mouth. Around the rim where the Blood-devouring Bead clung to his palm, dark red blood was seeping out through the skin, ceaseless, little by little gathering into a great drop.
Zhang Qingyue shuddered from head to foot, all color gone from his face. In answer, the Blood-devouring Bead, bathed in that drop of blood, suddenly blazed with blue light and counterattacked with all its force, not only turning the tide but slowly overwhelming the black vapor.
As more and more blood seeped from his hand, Zhang Qingyue gradually lost consciousness. The bright red blood crept upward, slowly reaching the junction of the black rod and the Blood-devouring Bead, where it stopped flowing, while blue light and black vapor fought on without cease. After a moment it seeped in at that spot, little by little dyeing red the part where the tip of the rod touched the bead.
A faint smell of blood drifted on the air.