Chapter 124 — Black Fire
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 5
As his words fell, as if in answer, countless Li warriors howled in unison like beasts baying at the moon, and with endless frenzy threw themselves into the attack. The Miao could hold no longer, and seemed on the verge of collapse.
At that desperate moment, a low and mysterious sound suddenly rose in the valley—like a whisper, like something from the underworld—echoing and entwining through every inch of Qili Dong.
The Miao warriors' faces lit with joy at once, their spirits greatly roused; among the Li, by contrast, from the chief down, alarm suddenly showed on every face.
The great shaman whose fame overawed the southern border had appeared at last, in the Miao's most desperate hour.
A red radiance flickered amid the flames that filled the sky, then swiftly grew, spreading from the great shaman on the mountain platform out over all Qili Dong. Wherever it passed, the burning flames went out one after another.
Moments later the red light had reached the battlefield where Miao and Li struggled. Coming from behind, it left the Miao unharmed beneath its glow, but at the light's edge a sturdy Li warrior touched that mysterious red radiance and abruptly gave a miserable scream, fell to the ground convulsing, and after a moment shook all over and died, blood streaming from his seven openings.
The Li were stricken with terror and fell back one after another. These warriors were used to killing; against any strong foe or monstrous beast, told to charge, they would not so much as blink. But this kind of mysterious sorcery had always been the power most feared by the tribes of the southern border, and for a time every face showed dread.
Even the Li chief could not hide his alarm. The name of the Miao's great shaman was little short of a demon's to the other four tribes of the southern border, and at this moment he felt it to the depths.
Yet he did not order a retreat. Instead he raised his head and looked at the sky.
That expanse of flame burning in the night sky blazed fierce and vast!
Laughter rang out, loud and booming, full of contempt and hostility.
The clouds across the sky blazed bright in an instant; the burning flames seemed suddenly transparent and white-hot, taking the form of a monstrous beast in midair. Wind fed the fire, the fire surged higher, wind and cloud shifted without cease like a roaring, surging sea.
At the forefront of the clouds a figure appeared—like a deity, flames covering his whole body—looking down from midair like a proud god.
He waved his arms in midair, performing a series of strange motions, and a moment later, as if some mysterious power gave a howl behind him, flames leapt up across the sky and the clouds churned madly. A tremendous explosion followed, and in an instant countless fireballs fell from the sky, trailing roaring flame, plunging down upon the world of men.
Everyone on the ground, Ming Li and Xiaobai included, changed color. A single fireball had already struck with such force; once these countless fireballs fell, Qili Dong would surely turn to a sea of fire in moments, past all saving.
Any ordinary man could see it, and the great shaman surely knew it too. The red light in the valley blazed up almost at the same instant. From afar his face still could not be made out, but that small, thin figure, beneath the sky full of terrifying flame, seemed utterly ancient.
Now all could see clearly: that red radiance came from the great shaman standing on the mountain platform—more precisely, from a wooden staff in his hand. The staff was pitch black, and standing upright it was taller than the great shaman himself. At its tip was set a strange stone, neither metal nor jade, which under the great shaman's mysterious power gave off an ever stronger red light.
The Li suddenly stirred; countless warriors' eyes went red in an instant, and the Li chief, that giant, gave a great roar, as if bearing two hundred years of deep, unending hatred.
"Bone Jade!"