Chapter 41 — The Blackwater Serpent
劍問蒼天 · Page 5 of 6
Just then, on the slowly swelling Ruthless Sea, a huge wave suddenly rose high, the roar of the waters deafening. By the look of it, it stood several zhang tall; a wild wind struck them full in the face, and everyone on the shore changed color, scarce able to keep their feet.
The veiled woman, standing rearmost, turned pale on the instant and cried out sharply, "Bili, fall back!"
Bili's heart lurched. She knew this Aunt You had seen much and knew much, and even her father had always held her in respect. Without stopping to think, she retreated.
As she moved, the five yellow-clad figures fell back with her. Only Zhang Qingyue and Lu Xueling, nearest the water's edge, were caught unawares; the great wave broke over their heads on the spot, drenching them to the bone — and that bone-deep, icy chill was truly hard to bear.
Then all eyes turned to the Ruthless Sea, so suddenly transformed. On the pitch-black water, two enormous lanterns slowly kindled, glowing with a ghostly green light. Yet they were strange lanterns indeed: not round as ordinary lamps are, but long and narrow, tapering from top to bottom, and in the middle of each ran two thin dark slits, giving off a cold and savage intent.
"It's it — it's it." The veiled woman shuddered. "That beast is still not dead!"
Bili said in alarm, "Beast? Aunt You, what is this thing?"
Gazing at the two halos of light on the tossing Ruthless Sea, drawing ever nearer the shore, the veiled woman said, a faint note of fear in her voice, "That is the Blackwater Serpent."
Bili was shaken, scarcely able to believe it. "But wasn't that demon slain a thousand years ago in the Great Marsh of the West by the divine beast the Yellow Bird?"
The veiled woman said urgently, "So the tales say — yet here it is before us today, and I cannot say why. Bili, this Blackwater Serpent is an ancient demon beast, fierce beyond compare. None but its natural enemy, the Yellow Bird, can destroy it. We must fall back at once."
Bili retreated two steps, then suddenly turned her head. "But that boy—"
The veiled woman shook her head again and again. "There's no time to worry about him now. Go, quickly."
Bili still hesitated — but Zhang Qingyue and Lu Xueling, standing at the water's edge drenched by the waves, had in the space of a breath all but stopped breathing.
It drew near, and the two of them could see: those two huge lanterns, nearly the height of two men, were a pair of enormous eyes. Since entering the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto, Zhang Qingyue had seen strange and gigantic eyes without end — from the Crimson Demon Eye of Elder Nian to the huge eyes of that boar-headed demon beast — but set beside this pair, any of them was as a mustard seed to Mount Sumeru.
The sea wind came sharp in their faces, and what it brought was not the tang of salt but an overwhelming stench of fish and blood that stung the nose.
A colossal black serpent slowly rose into view before them. Its lower half was coiled, the serpent's body steeped in the seawater, and the whole company together was not so thick as three-tenths of that vast trunk; while the upper half of the Blackwater Serpent, rearing upright in midair with its head, already stood scores of zhang above the ground. Its serpent eyes, shedding a ghostly green light, gazed down from above at the whole company, who were to it as so many ants.
Zhang Qingyue had never known that such vast creatures existed in this world. He had even thought that the spirit beast Water Qilin, the Venerable One of Heaven-Reaching Peak on Canglan Mountain, was the largest spirit beast under heaven. But beside this Blackwater Serpent, the Water Qilin was in size no different from a lapdog.
Not to speak of him — even Lu Xueling at his side, even Bili and the demon-cult folk, who among them had ever seen such a monstrous beast? For a time all stood frozen where they were, unable to make a sound.