Chapter 51 — The Black Stone Cave
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 6
Xiaowan watched his face closely, and suddenly saw upon Zhou Yixuan's tense and solemn features a flicker of surprise, which in an instant turned to delight, then to puzzlement, and he lifted his head in deep thought.
Xiaowan stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Grandfather, what did you see?"
Zhou Yixuan frowned. "I saw gold—as much as a mountain."
Xiaowan: "..."
Zhou Yixuan muttered to himself, "What the well water reflects is not a person's shadow at all. Strange..."
"Ah!" Suddenly a soft cry came from Xiaowan beside him. Startled, Zhou Yixuan hurried to look, and saw that at some point Xiaowan had likewise leaned over the well's edge and was peering down. Now she was lifting her head.
Zhou Yixuan stared a moment. "What did you see?"
Xiaowan shrugged. "Candied hawthorn sticks, as many as a mountain."
Zhou Yixuan collapsed to the ground.
A short while later, as the two of them walked deeper into the forest, Zhou Yixuan said quietly to Xiaowan, "I've thought it over, and I suspect this ancient well is none other than the 'Well of the Full Moon' of old legend—that at the full moon, if a person looks down into it, they see the person or thing they love most. Only, I still can't understand why the three-tailed fox demon kept asking that young man what he had seen in the well. Though now, I must say, I truly would like to know what that young man saw..."
From the outside, this patch of forest had not seemed large, but once Zhang Qingyue and the others were within it, in the vast night it gave the illusion of stretching on without end. The three of them each rode their artifacts through the darkness, closely tracking a streak of white light ahead—the trail of the three-tailed fox demon's flight.
To their surprise, that white light flickered before their eyes a few times and then suddenly vanished into thin air. Urging their artifacts on, Zhang Qingyue and the others in an instant arrived at the place where the white light had disappeared. Here the ancient trees stood dense; in a clearing in the wood was a small mound, and on one side of the mound, sure enough, was a cave mouth, the rocks beside it all black.
Needless to say, this was the Black Stone Cave.
The three halted at the cave mouth, exchanged a glance, and peered into the Black Stone Cave. Though the opening was not large, within all was pitch-black, giving one the sense of a bottomless depth. Gusts of cold, sinister wind blew out, brushing over them, and they felt their flesh creep.
Bili frowned. "This cave is dangerous and hard to fathom, and that fox demon's artifact was exceedingly powerful. We had best not take the risk of going in."
Zhang Qingyue glanced at her, but before he could speak, Shi Tou had already said loudly from the side, "Brother Zhang, when slaying demons, we must finish the job. It is easy enough to give up today, but if this fox demon emerges again in days to come, I fear the harm she does will be all the worse."
Zhang Qingyue nodded at once. "Brother Shi is right. Let us go in now."
Bili's expression changed, and she was about to flare up, when she saw Zhang Qingyue turn to her, his face earnest, and lower his voice. "It really is dangerous in there. Brother Shi and I are of the orthodox sects; duty binds us. You—you—" He paused and turned his head away, but his voice still carried back. "Your own safety matters most. Don't go risking yourself."
Though Bili could not see Zhang Qingyue's face, she could hear in his tone a measure of genuine concern, and her heart felt a sweetness she could not name. Yet aloud she said coldly, "I'll go in if I want to. Is that any business of yours?"
Zhang Qingyue was taken aback and for a moment could find no reply.
Shi Tou, watching the two of them with their strange expressions, shook his head. "Brother Zhang, let us go in."