Chapter 40 — Reunion
劍問蒼天 · Page 3 of 6
Zhang Qingyue had no objection to offer; he nodded in agreement. The two of them backed away — but alas, for every step they took, the yin spirits in the sky followed one step, and the beast too seemed unwilling to give up, and actually came after them. So they went, stopping and starting: the yin spirits wary of Zhang Qingyue's black iron staff, and the pig-headed beast seemingly somewhat in awe of the two of them as well — yet unwilling to let the matter rest.
Zhang and Lu were already wounded, and after repeated fierce fighting here in the gloomy, damp depths of the Dead Spirit Abyss they were long since spent. Had the yin spirits and the beast not pressed them so hard, the two of them would surely have relaxed and fainted away on the spot.
But now, facing life and death, some courage and strength they knew not whence rose within them, and they had somehow held out until now.
This Dead Spirit Abyss, unknown to any of the righteous path, proved to be a chasm of astonishing size. The two had retreated for a long while and still walked only on open ground, with no sign of any sheer cliff — nor could they guess how, when they fell, they had come to land so very far from where they began.
Yet they had no leisure now to ponder such questions. Ahead and all around were beast and spirits glaring hungrily, and life and death truly hung by a thread. As Zhang and Lu stood at a loss, Zhang Qingyue suddenly felt a pain in his back — he had struck something hard.
All this while the two had not dared show the beast the least carelessness, and so had walked only backwards. At this sudden collision Zhang Qingyue started and quickly turned — and to his surprise saw a great tree. Its trunk was thick and massive; by the look of it, three men could not have encircled it with arms joined.
Only then did Zhang Qingyue set his heart at ease, and he said to Lu Xueling, who was still watching behind them, "It's nothing — just a tree."
Before he finished speaking, Zhang Qingyue suddenly felt a pain in his throat: his neck had been caught by something like a rope. His whole body was wrenched upward by an immense force.
Lu Xueling was badly startled. She turned to look in alarm and cried out, "A tree demon!"
The great tree that stood alone on this open ground — now all its motionless branches began to move like human arms, and the one that had caught Zhang Qingyue was a thick branch among them. In the darkness the tree demon's whirling, dancing limbs made it seem like a fiend of the nine netherworlds.
Zhang Qingyue felt the branch around his neck cinch tighter and tighter, and he was slowly choking. Lu Xueling had just moved to rescue him when a earth-shaking roar came from the distance; the pig-headed beast seized its chance, sprang forward, and brought its huge claw down on his head, the claw glimmering with a faint green light — surely laden with deadly poison.
Lu Xueling had no choice but to turn and fend it off, but with the beast blocking her way she tried again and again to go to Zhang Qingyue's rescue and could not, and found herself meeting peril after peril besides.
Zhang Qingyue, caught by the tree demon, felt agony in his throat, and heard the tree demon give off an ugly, whuffing sound that was likely glee. The branch around his neck dragged him backward toward the trunk, while several more branches came to bind his body; only his two hands could still move, and he could struggle no more.
Zhang Qingyue burned with anxiety. He looked to Lu Xueling and found her hard pressed enough on her own account; he turned his head and his soul nearly fled in terror — for upon the tree demon's trunk a great maw was slowly splitting open, belching forth a pungent stench of rot, and the branches were dragging him toward that maw. Surely this was the tree demon's mouth.