Chapter 49 — The Demon Fox
劍問蒼天 · Page 2 of 6
But Bili acted as though she had not heard, and spoke no further word. In an instant the Heartbreak Flower left her hand, flashing once, twice, and again in the air, and there came a soft "pop." In that same instant the white light dazzled the eyes, and the bright moon and clustered stars in the sky all lost their color together. Then there was only a sky full of flying petals, brilliant and blinding, their fragrance filling the nose, screaming as they came.
This was a spectacle rarely seen, yet to Zhou Yixuan's eyes it was as though he had glimpsed a ghost or demon. His face drained of color, and dragging Xiaowan by the hand he turned and ran, his right hand reaching into his robe to pull out a small yellow paper—from a distance it looked like the sort of talisman village Daoists use when they catch ghosts and work their rites.
Zhang Qingyue had seen the power of Bili's treasure down in the Dead Spirit Abyss, and seeing that Zhou Yixuan seemed to know nothing of Daoist arts, he could not bear it. In the end he stepped forward and stood before Zhou Yixuan and his granddaughter, summoning the Dark Iron Staff before him, ready to shield Zhou Yixuan from the blast.
But when Bili saw Zhang Qingyue suddenly leap out, her brows knit, and across her jade-like face there seemed to pass the faintest trace of a smile. The petals filling the sky halted abruptly in midair, hovering and dancing a zhang before Zhang Qingyue, yet advancing no further. Her face remained stern as she said coldly, "What are you doing?"
Zhang Qingyue looked at her, his confidence already three parts gone, and stammered, "They are not cultivators. Why must you make things hard for them? Let it go."
Bili gave a cold hum and waved her hand. The petals filling the sky suddenly drew back, and in their rushing, beneath the light of stars and moon, they gathered once more into a single white flower that flew back into her hand. "Then why don't you ask him what this is really about?"
Zhang Qingyue was wondering the same thing, so he turned and questioned Zhou Yixuan. Zhou Yixuan had hoped to muddy the waters, but Bili kept cutting in with cold questions, each one striking at the crux, and back and forth it went until Zhang Qingyue and Shi Tou both understood. It seemed that after Zhou Yixuan had smoothly made a profit off the plump woman, his greed was not satisfied; seeing the costly clothes Bili wore, he had ignored Xiaowan's warning glances and gone up to her.
But Bili was clever beyond measure, far beyond the reach of ordinary folk, and would never be taken in by a few glib phrases. At first, because Xiaowan read truly, she had told Bili's past aright in seven or eight parts of ten. But when Bili pressed her closely, Xiaowan could not very well tell Zhou Yixuan outright, and Zhou Yixuan, spinning lies without end, gave himself away on the spot. Bili flew into a rage and was set on teaching this old swindler and his young accomplice a lesson.
Zhou Yixuan saw that things were going badly and that he had landed himself in serious trouble. Of the cultivation arts he knew nothing at all, but he still possessed a few life-preserving tricks that Cang Lanzi had passed down in the days when he roamed the jianghu, among them the earth-escape art of Daoist talismans, and by this means he had escaped for the moment. But his cultivation was too shallow for the transfer, and he could not hold the direction, so it happened that he landed right near Zhang Qingyue and Shi Tou.
As for Bili, at first she had not been on guard against the old man having such a trick. But she was the only daughter of the master of the Underworld King Sect of the demon cult, and such petty jianghu tricks could hardly trouble her. She simply used her arts to sweep the whole surrounding country, found the old swindler's position at once, and came chasing after him in the blink of an eye.