Chapter 159 — Loneliness
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 1 of 6
Low, guttural roars came from all directions. On the plains two hundred li from Canglan Mountain, more and more monstrous beasts of the southern wilds were gathering, and from time to time some of the creatures raised their heads and howled at the sky. Mingled among the herd were six or seven demonic beasts of especially vast bulk, far exceeding the ordinary monsters around them; they stood amid the pack, turning their heads and growling low, and the surrounding beasts seemed to hold them in particular dread.
The rain drizzled and the mist hung thick; in the sky the clouds grew ever heavier, and gradually at the far edge of the horizon faint flashes of light began to flicker within the cloudbank. After a moment, at last, the rumble of thunder came.
Heaven and earth lay shrouded in blackness, and there was a desolation of years beyond all telling.
Lightning streaked across the sky, throwing into relief a lithe, powerful shadow: a giant bird demon, just returned from the walls of Heyin City, descended from the heavens. By the lingering glow of the lightning the beasts all saw that the great bird's talons gripped two men. At once hundreds of beasts near and far roared aloud, and the sheer force of their clamor was enough to make the flesh crawl.
Huge wings beat and drifted through wind and rain. The great bird circled above the herd a while, then suddenly opened its talons, and the two figures dropped like stones. Yet though in midair the figures tumbled, they did not flail or struggle as men would; they were stiff and rigid, and it seemed most likely that somewhere along the way these two poor souls had already been unable to withstand the brute strength of the giant bird demon, and had perished in the grip of those two great claws.
The roaring from the beasts on the ground surged in an instant, a chorus of grinding teeth rising and falling, and within moments at least dozens of beasts sprang up and lunged forward. In the bleak rain and murk there was only a faint glimpse of red, and then at last it vanished from sight.
The great bird circling in the sky gave two shrill cries, flew on a while longer, then, as if it had discovered something, folded its wings and dropped from the sky, descending toward the depths of the dense, swarming herd. Just as its vast body was about to strike the ground, its broad wings suddenly spread wide once more with a whoosh, and the fierce wind of their beating flattened several of the nearby beasts, who howled piteously.
A strong gust swept up, and the great bird went gliding on over the herd. All along its path countless beasts bowed their heads and shrank aside in awe; now and then it passed the several great demonic beasts of equal strength, and they too seemed to glare at one another, neither yielding. The great bird glided on, its body rising and dipping, now skimming over the crowns of the beasts, now leaping past the tips of the trees, and sometimes, encountering a monstrous beast so vast and terrible as to defy belief, one like a giant elephant, it passed directly beneath the elephant-beast's body.
Wind and rain lashed and swayed; thunder and lightning clashed at the horizon. The great bird's silhouette in the storm seemed to drift like duckweed on water, until at last it gave another shrill cry and dropped down out of the sky.
That was the deepest heart of the beast herd. Amid the black, heaving masses of unnatural monsters, beneath the flash of lightning from the heavens, an oilcloth umbrella suddenly stood revealed, its blue-green canopy painted with a few sprays of peach blossom, swaying gently in the wind and rain.