Chapter 114 — Escape
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 7
The axe had looked enormous from the start, and now that they actually had to move it, its weight was simply inconceivable. And with the two of them having gone so long without food, by the time they miraculously accomplished this seemingly impossible task and fitted the axe into the right hand of the Ming King of Heavenly Slaughter, Zhang Qingyue dropped to the ground and gasped for breath. "You—huff—you—if you can't find a way out—huff—we could have lived three more days, and now we've only got three hours left."
Bilu too was gasping for breath, but she could not hide the excitement in her eyes. After a brief rest she walked over to the statue and observed it carefully. With the great axe added, the Ming King's statue was indeed imposing, its presence commanding. She bowed respectfully to the statue of the Ming King of Heavenly Slaughter and said, "Ming King, forgive your disciple's impertinence."
With that, she reached out and grasped the great axe, testing it with a shake—up and down, but nothing stirred. Naturally—she herself had just put it in place; if it were going to move, it would have done so already. Zhang Qingyue sat on the ground watching her strange movements and shook his head vigorously.
Bilu frowned deeply and murmured, "Something's not right. The mechanism should be right here..."
As she spoke, anxiety got the better of her, and she applied more force. She gripped the great axe and shifted it—and unexpectedly, the right hand of the Ming King of Heavenly Slaughter moved with it, just a fraction. Suddenly, within the stone chamber, there came what seemed the sound of some heavy mechanism.
Zhang Qingyue leapt to his feet, and Bilu's face lit with joy. Their eyes met. Zhang Qingyue ran over, and together they gripped the great axe and heaved. The axe, together with the right hand of the Ming King of Heavenly Slaughter, rose from its lowered position to midair. Moments later, a deafening roar filled the stone chamber.
The two of them were greatly alarmed, their ears ringing with the din and their heads splitting with pain. They clapped their hands over their ears. Another moment passed, and the roaring still thundered in their ears, but on the stone wall behind the statue, the massive, unyielding rock face was slowly sliding apart to either side, revealing a passage—stone steps ascending level by level, upward, until they vanished into the darkness ahead.
Just then the stone chamber where the statues stood began to shake violently, and rocks rained down from above. The two of them, scarcely needing words, as though their hearts were linked, ran for the stone steps at the same instant and plunged into the darkness.
In truth, eight hundred years earlier, when the demon cult's Blood-Refining Hall built the Blood-Drip Cave, they had already considered the possibility that one day, should their sect decline, enemies might breach their stronghold. So within this stone chamber, deep in the mountain's belly, they had secretly built this passage. Should enemies break in, they could escape this way—and moments later, the Blood-Drip Cave would collapse, burying both the enemies and the countless secrets of the Blood-Refining Hall together.
Zhang Qingyue and Bilu ran for their lives. Behind them the great roaring continued unabated, rocks flying every which way—one step slow and they would surely die there. They summoned the last shred of strength in their bodies and ran on. They had not gone far when all before them was pitch-black darkness. In this narrow, lightless tunnel the two of them stumbled and fell heaven knows how many times, crashed into the walls how many times, the roar and crash of rocks filling their ears on every side as though the whole of Kongsang Mountain were in a fury, shaking without cease. But at last, sustained by their desperate yearning to live, they glimpsed a faint thread of light ahead.