Chapter 83 — Ten Years
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 7
"How he's faring now..." Suddenly it was again the voice of the mysterious man in the corner, carrying a faint trace of world-weariness.
Zhou Yixuan turned his head and looked at the man sitting in the shadows. "What—do you know, brother?"
The man was silent a moment, then said slowly, "Of course I know. Only, even if some of you had once met him, by now I daresay you'd not recognize him..."
Outside, the wind and rain swept heaven and earth, and seemed to grow a shade more bitter...
Kongsang Mountain, the Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Cave.
Eight hundred years ago, the Demonic Sect elder known as the Old Man of the Black Heart had founded here the age of glory of the Blood Refining Hall lineage, commanding the Demonic Sect and overawing the world. But now the later disciples were unworthy, and the place lay desolate and decayed, very dreary.
And beside that Nether Abyss hidden deep in the underground depths of the Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Cave, the place was now occupied by countless foes who had come suddenly upon them.
Beside a great boulder carved in flourishing ancient seal script with the three characters "Nether Abyss," the last remnant of the Blood Refining Hall lineage had gathered, their backs to the stone. A few steps further back lay the fathomless, dark Nether Abyss.
And their number had dwindled to fewer than ten. Among them were Elder Nian, Liu Gao, the Daoist Wild Wolf, and others, every one of them wounded, their faces dejected and fearful. On the ground before them lay dozens of corpses, strewn every which way. Black-clad men several times their number had them surrounded, and every one of those men had a skull embroidered over his breast.
Elder Nian drew a deep breath and forced his mind to steadiness. He opened his mouth to speak, then suddenly realized his voice had gone hoarse at some point: "Friends of the Underworld King Sect—we of the Blood Refining Hall are but a small faction within the Holy Church. We have never dared offend the Underworld King Sect. I—I don't know why the Underworld King's elders would treat us so?"
"Hmph!" A cold snort came from among the countless black-clad men, and one of them stepped forward, the skull on whose breast was embroidered in gold, utterly unlike the others. He looked to be a leader. He said mildly, "Elder Nian, the situation within the Holy Church is plain enough now. The Underworld King Sect Master has written to you several times, yet you still waver like grass on a wall—today you humor us, tomorrow you bow under the gate of the Longevity Hall. Could it be you don't hold the Underworld King Sect Master in your eyes at all?"
Elder Nian's face paled with dismay. He knew that within the Holy Church the infighting among the four great factions had grown crueler by the day, and every small faction must needs attach itself to one of them; from time to time one heard of some faction wiped out by mysterious figures. Now the Underworld King Sect had come down on them in force, and the strength he had painstakingly built in the Blood Refining Hall over many years had been all but destroyed at a stroke. And the situation before his eyes was plain enough.
Sure enough, the black-clad man sneered. "Elder Nian, I'll say it once more: the Underworld King Sect Master is a man of great vision, and the unification of the Holy Church is only a matter of days. It's because he thinks highly of you that he wants to take the Blood Refining Hall under his banner. Don't be so blind as to fail to appreciate it."
By the end, his voice was thick with menace.
Elder Nian's forehead was covered in beads of sweat. The situation was clear enough—his little Blood Refining Hall could not possibly stand against the Underworld King Sect. But was the foundation handed down from the patriarchs to be destroyed in his own hands?
Such a resolve was truly hard to make!