Chapter 51 — The Black Stone Cave
劍問蒼天 · Page 5 of 6
Zhang Qingyue answered, then could not resist another glance at Bili—only to see her give a huff, and with a flicker of movement she darted ahead of the two of them into the pitch-black Black Stone Cave. Zhang Qingyue was startled and hurried after her, the wind whistling past his ears as Shi Tou, he supposed, followed at his back.
In the darkness, the Heartbreak Flower at Bili's side slowly began to glow, its soft white light illuminating some five feet around them. Zhang Qingyue looked about and saw that the surrounding rock walls were all of strange black-as-ink stone, hard as iron and cold beyond measure.
This Black Stone Cave was much like the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto of Mount Kongsang that day: once past the entrance, the path plunged straight down into the earth, and the slope was even steeper than that of the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto. Whether the villagers had dug it out or it was simply so by nature, there was no telling.
The three walked on a while and were already deep underground, yet all around was utterly silent, without the least sign of living things—unlike the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto, with its countless dreaded bloodsucking bats. As Zhang Qingyue walked, his thoughts could not help drifting back to the day he had first descended into the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto, and from there naturally to that time when he and Bili had been trapped together in the Blooddrop Cave beneath the Dead Spirit Abyss.
Just then Bili, ahead of him, suddenly halted with a soft cry. Thinking some danger had appeared, Zhang Qingyue's heart leaped and he rushed forward to stand at her side. Bili paused a moment and turned to look at him.
There was no path ahead.
A sheer cliff lay before them, and below the cliff all was black, but far off in the depths of the darkness something seemed to flicker unceasingly, like wisps of ghost fire. Zhang Qingyue's body gave a start, and in a daze he thought himself back before the Dead Spirit Abyss.
Yet plainly this place was far inferior to the Dead Spirit Abyss—in sheer space alone it was smaller by a hundredfold at least. Zhang Qingyue frowned and turned to look at Shi Tou. By now Shi Tou too had reached the cliff's edge; he took one look, pondered a moment, and said, "Brother Zhang, it seems we have no choice but to go down."
Zhang Qingyue nodded. "Brother Shi, be careful yourself."
Shi Tou's face was grave. "You too." With that, he pointed a spell sign, and the golden Demon-Breaking Staff rose before him. He leaped upon it, drew a deep breath, and slowly descended.
Zhang Qingyue turned and glanced at Bili, but this time said nothing (no doubt having been snapped at by her just before), and then summoned the Dark Iron Staff and followed down.
Behind him, Bili suddenly smiled, a smile full of delight.
Three spheres of golden, blue, and white light descended slowly from the cliff, the black rock still all around. There was nothing else remarkable, and the surroundings remained silent as before—only one odd thing: the farther down they went, the higher the temperature around them seemed slowly to rise.
They descended another stretch, and by the light of the three artifacts Zhang Qingyue gradually made out his surroundings. Beyond the cliff there was no path at all, only a sheer wall of jagged, grotesque rock. The place where the three of them were now seemed, in the whole, like an ancient well magnified a thousandfold, dropping straight down.
Suddenly Shi Tou, at the lowest point, cried out urgently, "Careful!"
Startled, Zhang Qingyue and Bili hastily braced themselves, and saw that on the rock wall not far below was a small stone hollow, within which two small, bright, deep-set eyes were gazing at them.
Shi Tou signaled to them, then slowly edged closer. Zhang Qingyue and Bili both held their breath and watched intently.