Chapter 111 — The Strange Beast
劍問蒼天 · Page 2 of 5
And the deity's body was wholly unlike a man's: upon a torso as powerful as a tiger's or leopard's there were four arms—one hand gripping a blade, one a shield; of the other two, one clutched a human body writhing in agony, the figure as though screaming at the heavens; and the last hand gently upheld an object still dripping with gore—a human heart.
The grooves, so austere and archaic before, here turned suddenly furious and unrestrained—that force, that hatred from the depths of the heart, as though bursting forth all at once. Ming Li felt with astonishing vividness and disbelief that madness surging up from the carvings.
The calm grooves in an instant ran violent, cascading down from the torso and merging at the fierce deity's lower body into roaring, blazing flame. The red light flickered and shone; a hint of a snarling grin seemed to hover at the deity's lips, as though it were about to burst from the earth and come to life!
Ming Li drew breath after deep, deep breath, and almost unconsciously merged in his mind the one who had carved this with the one who had built this altar. Who would have thought there existed in this world such a master craftsman, such a genius of godlike skill!
A single carved image, and it was as though all the world's creation had been usurped!
The grooves still ran on across the floor. Ming Li walked on without thinking, discovering a second divine image, then a third, until at last, after circling once around the red flame at the center, he had found eight divine figures carved into the floor. No two alike, yet Ming Li could be almost certain that every one carved here was a god of malice.
In these images, human beings had become wholly offerings to these deities, like food. Within the great hall there now hung a killing austerity, as though with the discovery of these images some malevolent thing were growling low in the hidden dark.
And beyond the outermost of these vicious deities ran another groove that enclosed them all, yet it was no perfect circle: now it curved inward, now it billowed outward, and Ming Li could not for the moment make it out.
At this point he had come back to the first image of the vicious god. After one deep look at that ferocious deity, he raised his head, and once more the burning "flame" appeared before his eyes.
Suddenly there was a buzz in his mind, as though something were surging up—a craving, a bloodthirsty craving, so familiar, rising in his heart. Almost at the same instant, those images of vicious gods around him seemed suddenly to come alive, flickering faintly before his eyes.
The Soul-Devourer hidden at his side, through the fabric of his sleeve, little by little began to shine.
Ming Li's breathing slowly grew heavy. Then, with a sudden violent shake of his head, he forced his mind to steady, and walked slowly on toward the flame at the center.
Only, he forgot to look at Grey, the monkey on his shoulder.
In those monkey eyes, the golden gleam had appeared once more; but behind the gold there was a greater redness, bearing that same mad, bloodthirsty look as Ming Li's, growing brighter and more dazzling until it filled the creature's eyes.
A zhang was not far. Ming Li soon drew close to the source of the red light at the center of the hall.
By now he had realized that the eight carved deities he had seen were all arranged around this source, and that all their heads were turned toward it. The heat around him was by now fierce beyond measure; an ordinary man here would likely not even have been able to keep breathing.
Ming Li forced down the waves of bloodlust surging up in his heart, and looked through the red light toward the source.
A thing like a stone well, narrow at the top and broad at the base, stood at the center of the hall. Three chi high, no more than two chi across, it was built—like the floor blocks—of that crimson rock.