劍問蒼天 - 第184章 密令 - 清風書屋

No one answered. Ming Li said no more, only slowly turned his body and stood quietly facing a certain spot. After a while, someone sighed: "In just a few days, I never imagined the young master's cultivation would advance so greatly. Truly admirable!"

A shadow flickered, and from deep in the woods stepped a man in black—none other than Mr. Ghost.

This man seemed always so mysterious and unfathomable, forever appearing in places no one could anticipate.

Ming Li regarded him with a level gaze. Though he showed no great loathing, he plainly did not hold much fondness for the man either. "You waited for me here. What is it?"

Mr. Ghost's eyes wandered; first he looked at Xiaohui on Ming Li's shoulder, lingering for a while especially on the third eye on the monkey's forehead, and only then turned to Ming Li. "What, is the vice sect master unwilling to see me?"

Ming Li gave a snort and said nothing.

Mr. Ghost nodded. "As you like. But this time it is not I who have something to say—a few days ago the sect master, Ming Wang, sent me word, bidding me pass a message on to you."

Ming Li frowned. "What matter?"

Mr. Ghost said, "When Sect Master Ming Wang learned you were injured before the Illusory Moon Grotto-Heaven in the Canglan Mountains, he was deeply concerned, and gave strict orders that our people hidden in the Central Plains must find you and relay his words on his behalf. If, after finding the vice sect master, you are unwell or injured, you may return to the Wildlands to recover—your health comes first. But if by good fortune the vice sect master is unharmed, then there is one matter on which he must trouble you."

Ming Li was silent a moment. "Speak."

Behind the black veil, Mr. Ghost seemed to smile faintly, his laugh low. "Sect Master Ming Wang already knows that the Beast Lord was routed and fled in this great battle at Qingyun. That brute slaughtered countless of our Holy Church's followers in his day—an enemy we can never share heaven with—and now the chance to slay him comes but once in a thousand years. In this flight he will surely have fled to the Southern Border, which he knows well, and among the Church only the vice sect master is passingly familiar with the Southern Border. Thus he hopes the vice sect master will go to the Southern Border in pursuit—count it a great service to our Holy Church."

Ming Li was silent a moment, then nodded. "Very well. I will go."

Mr. Ghost nodded slightly, but now suddenly stepped forward a few paces to stand before Ming Li, and lowered his voice: "But on this journey, the sect master specially instructed me to tell you in private that slaying the Beast Lord, though urgent, is not the most urgent matter of all. There is one thing even more pressing."

Ming Li started. "What?"

Mr. Ghost's eyes flickered. "The sect master's orders: at the Beast Lord's side there is a vicious beast, the Taotie. No matter what—even if the Beast Lord escapes—that vicious beast Taotie must be captured alive and brought back to the Wildlands.

This matter bears enormous consequence. The vice sect master must remember, must remember!"

Ming Li's brow knit tightly; he looked deeply at Mr. Ghost. "What does the sect master want with the Taotie?"

Mr. Ghost straightened, his tone returning to normal, and said mildly, "That is beyond what I could know."

Ming Li gazed at him a long while, then suddenly turned and, without a backward glance, shot off like lightning, vanishing in an instant—leaving Mr. Ghost standing where he was, watching the direction Ming Li had gone. After a good while he suddenly murmured to himself:

"Strange—how could his cultivation advance to such a degree in so few days?"

"And those men in black who saved him that day—who on earth were they?"

The low whisper scattered on the wind, echoing quietly through the dense forest, and at last faded away.