劍問蒼天 - 第166章 赤焰 - 清風書屋

It was at this moment that the wind pillar, descending from the sky, at last touched the sea of clouds. Instantly the white jade slabs, hard to the extreme, gave a low dull groan where the pillar struck; in moments countless cracks split open and burst apart with a roar, and countless grains of sand and boulders were shaken so violently that they flew upward against their will. And within the wind pillar there came a hissing sound, like the low growl of an evil ghost or the shriek of a yin spirit—as if answering some uncanny summons, the six enormous carcasses of the demonic beasts, which the righteous path had expended all its strength to slay, suddenly began to move again.

Every face among the righteous path changed at once!

At this moment heaven and earth seemed drained of light, a scene of utter desolation, as a dense ghostly aura rolled in. Those six giant skeletons staggered to their feet one after another; though not nimble, they were drawn by some bizarre force, dragging their enormous bodies and gouging deep furrows in the ground as they were sucked into the giant wind pillar.

One, then another, until the last—the vast skeleton of the White Bone Snake Demon—was wholly drawn into the black wind pillar and vanished without a trace. Then, like a shriek from the depths of the nine underworlds, a baleful aura surged up from the wild wind. The Beast Lord above the clouds showed no expression; standing upon the enlarged body of Taotie, he charged into the wind pillar swift as wind and lightning.

A thick stench of blood drifted over. Even the countless beast-demons beneath their feet fell quiet now, most of them crouching on the ground not daring to breathe aloud; some of the weaker ones buried their heads and trembled, frightened out of their wits.

Then suddenly the wild wind ceased, the clouds fell still, and heaven and earth were silent. And then, like the countless beasts, everyone held their breath, staring dumbstruck as the wind and clouds dispersed to reveal the monster standing bare before the world.

Above the sea of clouds loomed a brand-new and unimaginable monster. Its height and bulk were such that it stood fully three times taller than the six giant demonic beasts of before; compared with it, the people and the ordinary beast-demons were as insignificant as ants.

The stench of blood poured ceaselessly from this monster; even its body was oozing bloody water without pause. Everywhere one looked there was stark white bone; the vast skeleton made it plain at once that this was a horrifying evil spirit pieced together and remade from the corpses of those six giant demonic beasts.

And standing upon the head of this colossal monster was that Beast Lord youth. His face now looked faintly pale, but the thick killing intent in his eyes seemed only more rampant.

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The huge, hideous white-bone skull swayed slowly, giving off an eerie "kaka" sound. In its two hollow eye sockets there seemed to lurk another kind of invisible ferocity, glaring viciously at the people before it.

A foul, stinking reek struck them in the face.

This reborn evil spirit seemed to grow restless in every part of its body, growling low.

And apart from that, over the vast sea of clouds there was not a sound. Countless people held their breath and gazed out.

Before the crowd stood Dao Yan Zhenren, his dark green Daoist robe fluttering in the wind, his face austere. After the first shock had passed, countless people, near and far, quietly stole glances at him—but on that immortal, otherworldly face there was no expression at all, and no one could tell what he was feeling now.

The giant evil spirit-beast gave a low roar, and all at once the white bones over its whole body burst out with a piercing noise. Its vast body moved slowly forward; with every step the ground beneath seemed unable to bear the pressure and sank deep, and the smell of blood drifted in every direction.