劍問蒼天 - 第191章 洩密 - 清風書屋

Neither Ming Li nor Jin Pingyue carried an umbrella—most likely they had none with them; but in a forest so dense, even an umbrella would only snag and catch, making every step a struggle. Xiaohui kept utterly silent, hunched up and clinging to Ming Li's shoulder. The rain dripping from the branches above had soaked its fur through, plastering it flat against its body.

There were water droplets on Ming Li's face as well, yet his expression remained as indifferent as ever as he walked on ahead, seeming not to feel the strange atmosphere around them in the least. Jin Pingyue followed him, and she too showed little sign of weariness, but her slightly disheveled hair and somewhat cold expression seemed to mirror an unhappy mood.

This forest was, in fact, the black forest she had passed through on her last visit. Jin Pingyue knew perfectly well that once out of this forest and over a few more ridges, they would reach the destination they sought; indeed, this was precisely what she had told Ming Li.

"Sha…"

Ming Li reached out and snapped off a hanging branch. It looked as tough as an ancient vine, yet in his hand it was as fragile as bean curd. Jin Pingyue, behind him, silently glanced at that palm of his, a thoughtful look in her eyes, and frowned slightly.

Suddenly Ming Li gave a cry of "Eh?", halted, then turned left and strode quickly a few paces—and all at once the view before him opened wide, bright with light. He stood on a cliff; for some several feet around the rock there was no grass or tree, and at his feet lay an empty sea of clouds, billowing and churning, shot through with a riot of five colors, quite lovely to behold.

Footsteps sounded, and Jin Pingyue came to stand beside him, her expression shifting slightly. This was precisely the place where, on her last visit, she had been ambushed by that mysterious man in black. After her narrow escape, she had by chance discovered beneath a rock on the cliff the Slaughtering Blade that had once belonged to the Monk Shasheng. But—she glanced at Ming Li—she said not a word, plainly having no intention of telling this man everything she had once found.

Ming Li gazed far out over the sea of clouds below. After a long while he shook his head slightly and said, "The colors in that mist below are so vivid—I fear it is poisonous miasma."

Jin Pingyue nodded. "That is my reading as well."

Ming Li looked at her. "How much farther?"

Jin Pingyue raised a hand and lightly wiped the droplets from her brow. After a moment's thought she said, "Not far now, I think. I remember that when I came here last time, I walked on no more than an hour or so before I was out of this black forest. Once out, two more mountain ranges and we reach the Ancient Cave of Demon Suppression." Here she paused, and said with some perplexity, "Strange. When I came here before, there were plainly many savage beasts in the black forest. Yet on this whole journey, apart from those venomous insects, I have not seen a single savage beast worth the name."

Ming Li said flatly, "I suspect those monsters you saw have all gone with the Beast Lord beyond the Ten Thousand Wild Mountains to eat men."

Jin Pingyue started, then reflected that this was very likely true, and a look of disgust came over her face. After all, even though she was of the Demon Cult, she seemed still to recoil utterly from a calamity like these beast-demons, utterly devoid as they were of human feeling or human order. Or perhaps, at that day's battle in the Viper Valley of the Central Plains, when the Mephisto Sect was wiped out to the last man—though to this day Ming Li did not know how Jin Pingyue alone had escaped, or how she had come to serve under the Underworld King—one might suppose that Jin Pingyue could bear no goodwill toward these beast-demons either.

Ming Li drew a deep breath and rallied his spirits. "Let us go."