Chapter 54 — The Demon's Passing
劍問蒼天 · Page 3 of 6
"But have you ever considered the feelings of the other races? Those beasts and birds your kind have killed and eaten—what do they feel? In the end, it is simply because your human race is strong. The beasts have no power to resist, and can only submit to the slaughter." The white fox's voice continued evenly: "That being so, we of the fox-demon clan are stronger than some of you humans. What of it, then, if we kill a few of you? After all, this world has always been one where the strong prey upon the weak." It smiled and looked at Zhang Qingyue. "What say you?"
Zhang Qingyue glared at it, lips pressed tightly together, and said nothing.
"And moreover, even among your human race, is it not ever thus? You cultivate the Way and refine your arts, and to this day have not attained immortality, yet you contend and struggle among yourselves with boundless zeal. This so-called orthodox path and heterodox path—in truth, are they not merely names you give in your own mouths? It is simply that the victor is king and the loser a bandit."
It smiled again, looked at Zhang Qingyue, and repeated, "What say you?"
Zhang Qingyue closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and drew a deep breath. The white fox said no more; it seemed that after speaking so much, it too felt somewhat weary.
A long while passed.
"What do you want me to say?" Zhang Qingyue said suddenly.
The white fox looked toward him and saw that he had opened his eyes. The young man's complex yet bright eyes were fixed upon it.
"One after another, you all lecture me on this principle and that," Zhang Qingyue said coldly. "It seems as though my being of the orthodox path is wrong, and your killing and wreaking havoc is right. You devils and heretics—what can you do besides bewitch men's hearts?"
The white fox suddenly furrowed its brow, a light flickering in its eyes, and said abruptly, "What? Has someone else said such things to you?"
Zhang Qingyue did not answer, but the dark blue radiance of the Dark Iron Staff had once again begun to brighten, casting his face in shifting, uncertain light. Only his voice was heard: "Demon, make your move!"
The blue light came forth, faint and ghostly, yet it seemed to overbear the omnipresent scorching red glow, sweeping down like a great mountain, hurling through the air.
The six-tailed white fox watched that pressing blue light, which in this place of molten heat still carried a trace of cold, and suddenly its whole body gave an involuntary shudder.
Just then, Zhang Qingyue suddenly heard from behind him—from the very tunnel through which he had fallen—a sound of surging and roaring.
The sound was like the wild roar of a beast, and like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses, iron hooves trampling, a momentum that shook the heavens; before the thing itself appeared, its force had already arrived. Zhang Qingyue was greatly alarmed, yet he dared not lower his guard against the six-tailed white fox before him. He could only withdraw the Dark Iron Staff at once, hold it across his chest, and concentrate his spirit to meet the threat.
And farther off, the six-tailed white fox had likewise knitted its brow slightly and was looking toward that tunnel.
Before long, Zhang Qingyue felt the heat surging from the tunnel grow fiercer still, and his breathing more difficult, until it seemed that in this cavern of molten rock a man would be boiled alive.
As he stood there alarmed and uncertain, the sound drew nearer and nearer, its force more and more ferocious. A moment later, he felt a brightness before his eyes: the dark tunnel blazed with sudden light, and from that narrow opening burst a colossal fire dragon. Once out of the passage, the fire dragon gave a long cry, soared into the air, and bared its fangs and claws. A white shadow flashed above the dragon, and a white figure drifted down—none other than that utterly soft and bewitching three-tailed demon fox.