Chapter 144 — A Chance Encounter
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 7 of 8
Suddenly the whistling wind lost its voice; the whole forest seemed in an instant to stand still, and there was no sound at all. Ahead in the darkness, the dense trees and tangled thorns suddenly fell away to either side, revealing a narrow passage just wide enough for one man to walk.
A youth dressed in brilliant silken garments, his features so handsome as to verge on the bewitching, stepped out from the darkness one pace at a time. In that expanse of night he was so conspicuous that the world around him seemed to glow because of him. Mingli did not rise or stir; he remained seated on the ground, his gaze fixed straight upon the youth.
The youth looked at Mingli, then his gaze fell upon Little Gray, and he paused slightly and said, "Oh? A three-eyed spirit monkey!"
Mingli said nothing, but Little Gray suddenly began chattering "zhi zhi," looking much provoked. Almost at the same moment as Little Gray's outcry, that low growl sounded once more—except that this time the growl came directly from behind the youth.
"Grr-ah..." With that deep, powerful growl, from behind the composed youth, rising slowly from his shoulder, came a monstrous head of the utmost ferocity: four eyes, two pairs set one above the other on either side of its face, each as thick as a bronze bell. Its mouth was enormous, almost as broad as its whole face, and when it opened, the mouth could be seen packed with sharp teeth—above all the six keen fangs protruding beyond its lips, ghastly in the extreme. In the faint firelight, drops of drool could be glimpsed falling from between its teeth onto the beast's ashen-black skin, which was covered in hard, knotted scales.
Mingli's expression changed at last. He rose slowly and said coldly, "Taotie?"
The youth had not yet answered; his gaze was still measuring Mingli when he suddenly seemed to sense something and turned to look at Taotie (Note 1). He could not help starting: the vicious beast's ever-ferocious gaze now held an added tenfold greed, but its target was neither Mingli nor Little Gray—it was the wild boar roasting on the ground.
The enticing fragrance of roast meat drifted everywhere on the air.
The youth suddenly smiled and said to Mingli, "Your skill is not bad! I was wondering why Taotie was so restless tonight. To think it was you who drew him here."
Mingli said mildly, "Taotie may be an ancient vicious beast, fierce and swift, but it has always been gluttonous. One roast pig is nothing to speak of."
The youth shook his head and said, "Not so. This Taotie of mine is different from others; ordinary delicacies he scorns outright. To think your rough-looking roast should have tempted him so."
And indeed, as the youth said, Taotie seemed to favor this roast pig especially; drool poured from its jaws and ran down between its teeth. Suddenly, with a whistling cry, Taotie sprang from the youth's shoulder, turned into a black shadow, and pounced toward the flames. But quick as a flash a gray shadow darted out, and an angry "zhi zhi" rang out—it was Little Gray, leaping across the air to stand before the roast pig.
Taotie gave a low growl of "Grr-ah," dropped to the ground, and revealed its true form: four limbs armed with sharp claws, a body that looked at least four times the size of the wild boar, and strangest of all a neck of enormous length that stretched upward, nearly doubling its height.
Beside it, Little Gray was pitifully small—yet for some reason Taotie seemed somewhat wary of it and dared not be careless. Still, it could not bear to forsake the delicacy before it, and so it growled low in its throat, its expression gradually turning savage.
Mingli glanced at the two strange beasts snarling at each other over the roast pig, and said suddenly, "The boar's not even done, and it hasn't reached full flavor yet. What are you two fighting over?"