Chapter 101 — The Yellow Bird
劍問蒼天 · Page 6 of 6
After yet another narrow escape, Facheng motioned the others to withdraw farther off. Once they had gathered together, he lowered his voice and said, "This cannot go on. Who knows what lies within that vault that has driven the brute into such a frenzy? With it standing guard here, there is no way for us to enter."
Lin Jinghong's face was grim as he fixed his stare on the Blackwater Mystic Snake below. Zeng Shuyan likewise looked anxious, yet clever as he was, he could devise no plan.
Just as the group was consumed with worry, it seemed the only thing left between heaven and earth was the mad hissing of the Blackwater Mystic Snake. And it was then that the sky suddenly darkened.
Zeng Shuyan and the others started in alarm. Only moments before, the sky had been clear for ten thousand li—how could it change in an instant? They could not help looking up.
What they saw left them dumbstruck. High in the ninth heaven, a great expanse of orange-yellow had slowly appeared, spanning nearly scores of zhang across, shrouding the space above their heads and even blotting out the sunlight.
Then, from the edge of the sky, there seemed to come a clear cry like the call of a phoenix.
The Blackwater Mystic Snake, maddened a moment before, abruptly fell still. Its huge head reared up to watch, and then, as though in fury, it opened its vast maw, bared its fangs, and roared at that patch of cloud.
The cloud descended, blotting out sky and sun. Though it did not look as immense as the Blackwater Mystic Snake, it was very nearly its equal.
From their distant vantage the others saw it clearly: it was a bird of extraordinary size, its whole body clad in orange-yellow feathers. It flew on spread wings, circling in the air, and toward the Blackwater Mystic Snake coiled upon the tree trunk it showed no fear at all—rather, it seemed bent on attack.
And the Blackwater Mystic Snake, facing this wondrous bird, actually put aside its overbearing manner. It drew its body into coils, its head hissing, and waited in strict readiness.
"This must be the legendary bird of the nine heavens—the Yellow Bird!" (Note 1)
Gazing at the two colossal beasts confronting each other in the distance, Facheng murmured.
Note 1: This passage is drawn from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, "Classic of the Great Wilderness: South," on the Yellow Bird of Mount Wu: There is Mount Wu; to its west is the Yellow Bird. The Emperor's elixir, eight halls. The Yellow Bird dwells on Mount Wu and keeps watch over this mystic snake.
Another note: "The Emperor" is the Heavenly Emperor; "elixir" means the elixir of the immortals, that is, the medicine of deathlessness. The "mystic snake" is the Blackwater Mystic Snake.