劍問蒼天 - 第38章 死靈淵 - 清風書屋

Zhang Qingyue went pale with fright. The huge thing was bearing down on his head, and he had no strength to withstand it. Heedless of all else, he kicked off with all his might and flew backward — but even as the mountain came down he still had half his body beneath it, about to be crushed in two, when suddenly his collar was seized from behind and he was yanked bodily out.

Zhang Qingyue looked back. It was Qi Hao who had saved his life. At that moment of life and death, an inexplicable bitterness suddenly welled up in his heart, but he still said in a low voice: "Thank you, Senior Brother Qi."

Qi Hao had no way of guessing what was in the boy's mind. His face grave, he gave only a slight nod. He had been standing a little farther back and had retreated faster; seeing Zhang Qingyue right beside him, he had simply reached out and pulled him along.

But that great hill, sprung up so suddenly, was a monstrous headache. It crashed down with a roar, and in an instant the ground shook violently, the stone walls trembled, and even the rocky vault a hundred zhang above began to rain down rubble. The sheer force of it was breathtaking.

Zeng Shuyan had also fallen back, his face all astonishment. "The Mountain-and-River Fan!" he cried. "That's the prized treasure of the Venerable Wind-and-Moon of Jieshi Mountain — how did it come into this man's hands?"

Everyone was startled. Zhang Qingyue was one thing, but Qi Hao was widely traveled and knew that this Venerable Wind-and-Moon was a noted cultivator who had long practiced in seclusion on Jieshi Mountain in the east. His cultivation was profound and his name well known on the path; in his dealings he stood between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, committed no great evil, and sought no quarrel with the world, so neither the righteous nor the demonic had ever troubled him. They had never imagined that this young man would appear among these fiends bearing the Venerable Wind-and-Moon's prized treasure.

While all stood startled and uncertain, the great mountain rose into the air once more, utterly without mercy — and who could say what manner of power it took to lift such a colossal thing?

Behind them was the stone wall; there was nowhere left to retreat. Upon the great hill the rocks fell like rain, thunder cracked and lightning flared. At this critical pass, as the Canglan Sect group stood in anguish, Qi Hao set his jaw and was about to throw himself forward, to shield them all with the ** Mirror and try to withstand that mountain of ten thousand catties by main force — when a flash of blue light appeared, and Lu Xueqi suddenly stood before the three of them. She gave a clear, shrill cry, and blue light surged; the divine sword Tianxuan sang like a dragon as it left its sheath, ten thousand threads of immortal qi shooting straight for the vault of the cavern.

Above, the thunder grew fiercer. The great mountain came down with invincible force, and it seemed the four of them would be crushed to paste. Lu Xueqi's face was frost, her long hair streaming and dancing in the wild wind — like a fairy of the nine heavens! The blade of Tianxuan quivered faintly, as if sensing its master's heart, and like an angry dragon leaping at the sky it soared upward. Ten thousand beams of blue light in an instant lit the whole vast cavern, then merged in midair into one, and with a single stroke she cut at the mountain!

"*Zheng!*"

Sand flew, stones scattered, the wind howled. All gazed into the air, and saw only a mighty current of air, almost as though it had taken bodily form, surging wildly out on every side. Lu Xueqi hung in midair, the color gone from her face, and the whole of her was driven straight into the stone wall by the tremendous recoil.