Chapter 133 — Resurrection
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 5
Jin Pingyue read its face and privately began to guess at the relationship between the two, but she went on aloud, "Of course. That creature who is neither man nor ghost… ah, I don't mean you—don't be angry!" she hastily added to the infuriated spirit, having nearly let her tongue slip, and then continued, "That man in black stole the Miao sacred relic of the southern lands, the black staff—and on it, the Li people's sacred relic, the bone jade. He has only just gone in. I wanted to see what he was actually up to—"
Before the "to" had left her mouth, the fierce spirit, its expression utterly transformed, let out a heaven-shaking roar that drove her words back down her throat and shook the color from her face.
"What did you say—he carries the black staff and the bone jade?" The fierce spirit's whole body began to tremble violently.
Jin Pingyue was somewhat taken aback. "Yes."
The fierce spirit threw back its head and howled at the sky in utter grief and fury, then whirled around—and by its look it meant to charge straight into the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression, reckless of all, to find that shaman and perish together with him.
But at that very moment, Jin Pingyue and the fierce spirit both started at once.
The cold wind that blew from the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation, as though it would never stop, suddenly ceased.
Between heaven and earth, it was as if something had all at once been taken away; the silence was extraordinary.
In an instant the malevolent spirit's face turned ashen.
His mouth gaped wide, as though he would speak, or as though he would summon all his strength to cry out—yet no sound whatsoever came forth.
Then, slowly, he turned and looked toward the stone statue of the woman. Suddenly his whole frame convulsed; his enormous body went limp, and there before the stone woman he dropped to his knees and wept aloud.
Jin Pingyue was startled. Born into the Demonic Sect, she had witnessed more uncanny things in her life than she could count, yet a malevolent spirit of such tremendous cultivation suddenly wailing in grief before her was truly something she had never seen. And seeing how utterly heartbroken that spirit was—his vast body trembling without cease, though composed only of white vapor—even his sorrow seemed to stand before her, vivid and alive.
Jin Pingyue quietly edged closer, and the malevolent spirit did not notice her at all. When she had drawn near the stone woman and was just about to take the chance to slip stealthily into the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation, her body suddenly gave a jolt. Her gaze fell upon the stone woman, and she too was struck dumb.
Upon the cold stone, that gentle, beautiful woman.
Two clear streams of tears slipped quietly down from the statue's eyes.
So it was—a thousand years of time, and still it could not wipe away one deep, lingering strand of grief...
Jin Pingyue stood dumbfounded behind the malevolent spirit, gazing at this sorrowing statue.
Behind her, deep within the cave, came a low moan from far away—like something waking from a long slumber and uttering its first sound.
The cold wind rose again, its voice more shrill and desolate than before.
Even the sky overhead, the very hue of the heavens, dimmed to such a gloom.
A bolt of lightning pierced the black clouds.
A clap of thunder burst across the sky.
Thunder and lightning roared, tearing the heavens asunder in an instant. Countless black clouds, as if boiling, surged in from the skies above the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains and gathered over the Ancient Cave of Demon Subjugation.
A torrential rain came crashing down, mingled with enormous hailstones, pocking the ground with craters.
Jin Pingyue was startled; she dodged left and right, drifting amid the wind and rain. But the malevolent spirit abruptly raised his head and looked to the sky. All the wind and rain and ice seemed to have no effect on him, yet his eyes were filled with despair.
"Ah!..."
He cried out to the heavens.