Chapter 178 — An Ill-Fated Bond
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 6
Fa Cheng's voice echoed slowly on. "That night Uncle-Master Pu Zhao woke suddenly from his meditation and found that a black-clad sorcerer had slipped into Willow Temple Village, meaning to carry off a boy of rare natural gifts. Uncle-Master Pu Zhao could not stand by and do nothing; he struck out and saved the boy. But the affair was strange: the black-clad sorcerer was vicious and cunning, and had used the boy only as a screen—his true aim was Uncle-Master Pu Zhao himself. He had hidden on the boy's person the deadliest venom under heaven, the Seven-Tailed Centipede, and with one stroke poisoned Uncle-Master Pu Zhao; then, while his mind was in confusion, he struck him down with the demon cult's sorcerous arts. Only then did Uncle-Master Pu Zhao understand: all the black-clad sorcerer's cruel devices had been for the sake of that creature of utmost ill omen sealed upon his person—the Blood-Devouring Bead."
Ming Li's shoulder moved, but he did not raise his head; from within his sleeve came faintly the familiar chill breath of the Blood-Devouring Bead...
When a thousand feelings and ten thousand loves and hates all rise at once in your heart—what then is it that you feel?
He was silent, wordless; only his whole body drew taut, and in spite of himself he trembled slightly...
"Cunning and cruel as the sorcerer's arts were, Uncle-Master Pu Zhao's cultivation was, after all, very deep. Grievously wounded as he was, the old master still brought the great powers of the Buddha's teaching to bear, and in the fierce struggle both were shattered; though he himself was hurt nigh to death, he yet succeeded in driving the sorcerer off for a time. But in the course of it Uncle-Master Pu Zhao discovered, to his amazement, that the man knew the Daoist true arts and strange powers of the Canglan Sect; plainly he had a thousand ties to Canglan Mountain."
"While Uncle-Master Pu Zhao fought the sorcerer, for some reason the boy whose life he had saved that day had crept quietly into the ruined shrine; in the clash he was caught up in it and fainted away. After the fight, Uncle-Master Pu Zhao had driven the black-clad sorcerer off, but he too was spent and deathly hurt, and had no choice but to swallow a Three-Day-Death Pill he had chanced upon years before, to prolong his life."
"For one thing, the old master knew he must die; his mind was in turmoil and he could no longer deal calmly with matters. For another, he feared the sorcerer would surely come back to silence all witnesses; he himself did not fear it, but the many villagers of Willow Temple Village—he dreaded lest they be slaughtered to the last by that savage villain, and then what monstrous sin would be his. He had it in mind to seek help from Canglan Mountain, but the sorcerer plainly had the deepest roots there; should things go amiss up on the mountain, he did not fear his own death, but would he not again be the death of many more?"
Fa Cheng's face was bleak, as though he too grieved for the hopeless pass Pu Zhao had come to. He sighed. "Years before, Uncle-Master Pu Zhao had wandered the world, and in the great marshes of the west he had chanced to subdue that creature of utmost ill omen, the Blood-Devouring Bead. In his heaven-given mercy, by the powers of the Buddha's teaching he **suppressed that evil thing, and carried it on his person day and night, lest it bring harm to the world. But the Blood-Devouring Bead's malevolent nature was inborn; though the Buddha's teaching shielded him, it had still crept quietly into Uncle-Master Pu Zhao's mind and will. Only, with the Buddha's power to uphold him, it did not show."