劍問蒼天 - 第87章 看相 - 清風書屋

Zhou Yixuan was running in a panic when a figure suddenly flashed out before him and gave him a fright. A closer look showed it was that foolish young man from the daytime, and only then did he relax. He glanced back, saw the road behind them quiet and utterly empty of any living soul, and let out a long breath. Drawing up, he said to his granddaughter, "Xiaowan, stop running. Looks like the fellow didn't follow us."

Xiaowan was gulping for air, but she still clutched a skewer of candied haws in her hand; plainly she was very fond of such sweets. Hearing Zhou Yixuan's words, she ran a little further on before finally stopping, puffing and blowing without pause.

Shitou had come over by then too and stood beside Zhang Qingyue. Seeing the old and the young in such a state, like strays with nowhere to turn, he said, astonished, "What's going on?"

Zhang Qingyue had the same question, but before he could speak, Xiaowan was already complaining loudly: "It's all your fault, Grandpa! Swindling that fat woman wasn't enough—you had to go and read that young woman's fortune too. I saw it from the start: that woman's sharp as a needle. How could we ever fool her?"

Zhou Yixuan said angrily, "Then why didn't you say so earlier? Thanks to you, your grandpa got slapped by that woman, and it still hurts. If I hadn't had our founder's secret art of earth-burrowing, I'd have been done for by now..."

Before the words were out, a clear, sharp cry came suddenly through the night air: "Old swindler, where do you think you're running?"

Everyone was startled. A white light came streaking like lightning, like a bolt of silk, like something refracted down from the sky, hurtling straight at Zhou Yixuan. He knew no true methods of cultivation at all, and caught utterly off guard, with no time even for his crooked tricks, he seemed certain to be struck by the white light.

Zhang Qingyue, watching from the side, could not in the end forget the little acquaintance between them and could not leave him to die. Besides, in the urgency of the moment—though what they had just said made him dimly suspect that he too had been taken in by the pair—there was no time to think of such things. He beckoned, and the Dark Iron Staff shot out, swift as an arrow, and took the blow in his stead.

"Bang"—a great crash, and the white light was deflected back. An astonished female voice came from the air, and then, where the white light had passed, a woman alighted before them all.

A moment later Zhang Qingyue was struck dumb, for the woman was dressed all in water-green, a tiny golden bell hung at her waist and chimed crisply, and between her fingers she held a small white flower, translucent as jade. Her face wore a half-smile, half-smirk, and she had long since stopped looking at old Zhou Yixuan; her bright eyes rested only on Zhang Qingyue, and she laughed softly: "What a coincidence, Zhang Qingyue."

And who was this but that young maiden of the demon cult, Bili?