Chapter 38 — The Abyss of the Dead
劍問蒼天 · Page 6 of 8
Having driven Elder Nian back for the moment, Zhang Qingyue did not hesitate: he turned, and his Black Iron Staff charged at the beautiful young woman. But she only smiled lightly and gave the cord in her hand a flick, and Lu Xueqi was swung helplessly around to bar her path.
Zhang Qingyue cried out in alarm and all but could not check his stroke; he halted abruptly, and the Black Iron Staff came to a precarious stop a mere three parts of a foot before Lu Xueqi, almost casting her jade-like face in a pale blue hue.
Before he could catch his breath, two more gusts of wind rose behind him. In his alarm Zhang Qingyue lunged forward and barely scrambled clear. Looking back, he saw that the Wild Wolf Daoist and the tall man Liu Gao had seized the chance to fish in troubled waters and charged in as well; and Elder Nian, greedy for the treasure, had cast aside all dignity and come charging in too.
One man against three, Zhang Qingyue was at once plunged into a bitter fight. Had Elder Nian not been wary of the Black Iron Staff, and had Wild Dog and Liu Gao not been frightened by the dreadful sight of the staff drinking blood in the darkness, so that they dared not strike too boldly, Zhang Qingyue would long since have been defeated.
Even so, in a few exchanges, beset by three magic treasures from the air, Zhang Qingyue was already in dire peril. And worst of all was this: the beautiful young woman standing by seemed only to watch, but the moment Zhang Qingyue meant to strike back, she would shake her arm and fling Lu Xueqi into his path, and Zhang Qingyue must needs draw back and shrink away again. Blow followed blow in quick succession, and it seemed he would soon be wounded by the three fiends' hands.
Bound by the Immortal-Binding Cord, Lu Xueqi struggled with all her might to no avail. She saw the woman behind her smiling in triumph, and saw Zhang Qingyue in the field, for fear of hurting her, beset by peril upon peril; her face grew whiter still, her heart surged, and a sweetness rose in her throat as a mouthful of blood burst from her lips and spattered across her garments, dot upon dot of deep red, shocking to the eye.
Zhang Qingyue heard the sound, turned and saw, and thought that Lu Xueqi had been wounded by the Immortal-Binding Cord. In his horror he thought no more of anything else: black qi surged from the Black Iron Staff, and swift as lightning it flew at the beautiful young woman.
The woman had not expected Zhang Qingyue to lash out at the risk of his own life; caught off guard, she saw the Black Iron Staff already before her eyes and hastily shot up into the sky, barely escaping it.
But at the same moment Zhang Qingyue left his back wide open: a red beam shot from Elder Nian's Crimson Demon Eye, and the Wild Wolf Daoist's fang treasure and Liu Gao's yellow flying sword all struck Zhang Qingyue upon the back together.
Zhang Qingyue's vision went black; he nearly swooned. After a searing agony through his whole body, he felt almost nothing at all, and his whole body flew straight forward. In midair the blood in his mouth burst forth like a fountain.
Lu Xueqi saw it, and her white teeth bit deep into her lip. Suddenly she felt the Immortal-Binding Cord slacken: the beautiful young woman, distracted by Zhang Qingyue, had for the moment forgotten to control it.
Lu Xueqi gave a clear, shrill cry; her hands bent and stretched in rapid succession within their narrow space, forming the orchid-finger seals, and the divine sword Tianxuan of a sudden left its sheath of itself. Blue light swept across the vault of the cave; with two sharp cracks it forced the Immortal-Binding Cord back a full circle. Yet beneath the divine edge of Tianxuan, that common-looking Immortal-Binding Cord proved astonishingly tough — it could not be cut through, though it gave off a hissing, sizzling sound.