Chapter 58 — Heartbreak
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 3 of 7
By her reckoning, Bili had supposed Zhang Qingyue would have arrived. After what they had shared, life and death together, in the Blooddrop Cave of the Death Spirit Abyss, and then the days of traveling at each other's side, she found herself inexplicably concerned for this ordinary Qingyun disciple. One night, with the moon white and the wind clear, she suddenly could bear it no longer; she wanted only to see this Zhang Qingyue once more, and so she slipped away in secret and made her way to the Canglan Sect's quarters. She did not find Zhang Qingyue there, but was discovered by Tian Lingsu and the others and chased out.
In truth, by that time Zhang Qingyue ought to have reached Liubo Mountain. But no one could have guessed that on his first journey abroad he had muddled his way into losing himself on the eastern sea, delaying him for many days—so that Bili had actually arrived a few days before him.
And tonight, meeting Zhang Qingyue by chance on this little island, Bili had been overjoyed—and she had also felt not a little guilty for having wounded him by accident a moment before.
But when Zhang Qingyue woke, before anyone could tell whether he was hurt, she saw at once that the wretch, the moment he laid eyes on his shijie, had gone clean out of his wits, beside himself, not even knowing who he was. Bili's anger flared on the spot; her guilt was gone, and she wished only to seize the boy and give him a beating first and talk later!
Zhang Qingyue looked at Bili, saw her furious expression, then turned to look at his shijie's side, where Tian Lingsu and his two senior brothers stood with wide eyes and bewilderment on their faces.
Caught between them, he wanted to explain himself to his seniors but could not think what to say. He turned back to Bili, and at the sight of that demonic girl's rippling, water-bright gaze, a surge went through him, his chest tightened—and he spat out a mouthful of blood with a *wa*.
"Ah!" cried Tian Lingsu and Bili together.
In truth there was nothing seriously wrong with Zhang Qingyue. He had taken the full force of the four men's combined strike in midair; though his true-art protected his body and the Dark Iron Staff before him had blocked most of it, Song Dayi and the others were far deeper in cultivation than he. They had sensed something amiss and held back a measure of their power, but the blow had still smashed him down. Luckily the sea lay directly below, softening the shock; on hard ground, it would have been the worse for him.
As it was, his chest had been congested to begin with, and the awkward scene stirred him further; his qi and blood surged and a mouthful of blood burst out. But it was stale blood—dramatic in the spilling, and no great matter.
How could Tian Lingsu and the others know that? She had been close to this young junior brother since childhood, and in her worry she ran to him at once. But she had hardly stirred when she saw that the demonic girl on the other side was running over as well, her face just as anxious.
Tian Lingsu was a woman, after all, fine-grained in feeling, and she stopped short in astonishment. But Song Dayi and Du Biyan, seeing it, took it for the demon wench seeking to strike while their junior brother was wounded. With a shout, Song Dayi's immortal sword Ten Tigers swelled in the wind and came cleaving down at Bili's head.
Bili was anxiously watching over Zhang Qingyue and, in her impatience, found this great hulking fellow barring her way. Rage seized her, but the force of his charge was not to be made light of. She twisted her body, dissolved into a green radiance, and in that hair's-breadth instant slipped through the blaze of Ten Tigers. She had not flown a full fathom more when white light glimmered ahead and a strange, square-shaped magic treasure came flying at her.