Chapter 95 — Night Talk
劍問蒼天 · Page 1 of 6
The three of them fell silent for a moment. In the end it was Zeng Shuyan, lively by nature and quick of wit, who sensed the awkwardness between Lin Jinghong and Facheng and spoke first with a smile: "Junior Brother Lin, how did you get here?"
Though Lin Jinghong was not well acquainted with Zeng Shuyan, seeing a fellow disciple in such a foreign place bred a certain closeness; and knowing in his heart that Zeng Shuyan had once been close to Zhang Qingyue, he felt, he knew not why, a measure of goodwill toward him. He nodded. "Just now I was separated from my senior brothers in the miasma. I charged straight ahead, and to my surprise broke through, landing not far from here. I happened to see a flash of artifact-light in this direction, so I came to look."
Zeng Shuyan gave a chuckle and wiped the rain from his face with a hand. "Seems we were fated to meet. In a place this dangerous, the more people the better, wouldn't you say, Senior Brother Facheng?"
Facheng smiled faintly and nodded. "Indeed... hmm, has the rain stopped?"
Zeng Shuyan and Lin Jinghong started. They raised their heads and looked at the sky, and sure enough, at some unknown moment the rain that had been falling without pause had begun to thin. The sky was lightening now, and even the heavens seemed to have opened up somewhat.
Lin Jinghong drew a deep breath. The air in the forest after the rain was impossibly fresh, as if carrying a faint sweetness that seeped into the heart.
Facheng turned to look at the strange flower, now fully closed. "This place is full of strangeness, and that flower is no benevolent thing. We cannot linger. Let us leave here first."
Lin Jinghong said nothing. Zeng Shuyan smiled. "Senior Brother Facheng is right. Let us go."
With that, he turned to glance at Lin Jinghong, who nodded silently.
The three of them composed themselves and rose into the air on their artifacts.
Hovering in midair, Zeng Shuyan pondered a moment, then called out to the other two: "Senior Brother Facheng, Junior Brother Lin, this forest is astonishingly vast, and the poisonous insects and strange beasts and all manner of vicious things are beyond counting. I fear that legendary treasure lies deep within these woods. What should we do next?"
Lin Jinghong said with vigor, "Senior Brother Zeng, nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Zeng Shuyan glanced at him, then turned to Facheng, who smiled and pressed his palms together, plainly raising no objection. Zeng Shuyan laughed. "So be it. Then let us properly probe this wild, wicked land and see what treasure has emerged into the world."
The three of them were roused to spirit. They urged their artifacts on, becoming three streaks of light that flew deeper into the forest.
Night gradually descended, and the sky had gone completely dark.
Lin Jinghong and the others had searched for half a day and found nothing; of the rumored treasure there was not even a shadow. That alone would have been bearable, but this strange forest was home to all manner of monsters and poisonous insects, and they had truly seen their share—some so bizarre that even while they flew aloft past a great tree, a withered branch on it would suddenly transform into a gray venomous insect and lunge at them, jaws agape.
And so it went, one after another. The three of them, relying on their considerable cultivation—each an outstanding talent of his own sect—had mostly come through with frights but no true harm. Still, they could not help but be secretly alarmed.
Now, seeing the night deepen, they conferred briefly and happened upon a large flat rock in the forest that looked level enough, so they landed on it to rest.
Zeng Shuyan cautiously stepped to one side, concentrating his guard while sending his artifact, the Xuanyuan Sword, hovering aloft; by its faint light he kept careful watch, and after picking and choosing, he gathered some relatively dry dead branches and brought them back to build a fire.