劍問蒼天 - 第199章 情傷 - 清風書屋

"That young warrior slumped in my hands, his head slowly drooping, bright red blood flowing from his body. I was stunned, and so were the others. Then they charged even more ferociously, and amid their curses and shouts I clearly heard weeping and wailing from somewhere far off—the warrior's kin, weeping! I did not know. But from the very first moment I laid eyes on blood, my body had already begun to change. That murderous impulse—it coiled about me like madness. I did not want to kill, but I could not control it, and so I struck. I killed."

"I killed many people, very many people." The Beast Sovereign lowered his head, but his voice went on.

"I stood in the pool of blood, not knowing how long I stood there, until I slowly came to my senses. Then I saw, in the distance, amid a throng of countless people, Linglong had returned. She looked at me, unblinking, staring at me fixedly, her face more ashen than words can tell. I do not know why, but I was terribly afraid. I felt I truly had done wrong, yet I did not know—I truly did not know what I had done wrong."

"Then Linglong struck. With her own hands she struck at me. I would not fight back. I wanted to explain to her, to tell her that I would never dare come out again, that I would stay in that room, that from then on I would only ever keep her company, and I would be content. Those words I said countless times, but she never once took them in."

"Her shamanic arts were beyond the reach of those common warriors. Soon my body was battered full of holes, yet each time a wound was dealt, it would of itself devour the baleful qi around it and heal, and even I could feel that each time Linglong struck me, my strength instead grew a measure faster. In the end Linglong discovered this too. Her face was like dead ashes, as though in despair."

The Beast Sovereign was still smiling, still remembering, though in the end a few shades of pain had entered his face: "Slowly I began to feel that Linglong truly hated me. She attacked me frantically with every kind of shamanic art. My body was undying and indestructible, but my heart truly ached. So in the end I ran away myself. And on the way as I fled, everyone I met was frightened out of their wits by me, until later I learned that in the eyes of those ordinary folk, the way I looked then was truly terrifying."

He gently patted the vicious beast Taotie crouching beside him and said, "The way I looked then was far uglier than it is."

"Leaving Linglong, I fled into the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains. Before long I found this cave and settled here for a time. But I wanted to go back. With all my heart I only wanted to be with Linglong. So in the end I did go back, and what welcomed me was this formation."

The flames in the brazier gave a crackling sound, as though answering the Beast Sovereign's words.

"Never had I imagined that such a fearsome power could exist in this world. Linglong used the power of the Xuanhuo Mirror to lay down the Eight Fierce Mystic Fire Formation and summoned the Eight Desolations Fire Dragon. Beneath that blazing flame that consumes all things in heaven and earth, even I, with a body undying and indestructible, was burned until my vital essence was gravely wounded and my form utterly destroyed."

"I desperately told Linglong that I wanted nothing else, that I only wanted to be with her, but she seemed not to hear a word, only to burn me to death. In the end I fled in disorder and came back to this cave. I do not know why Linglong would treat me so, but I was unwilling to accept it—I truly wanted to be with her."

"After returning here, with the aid of the baleful qi of heaven and earth unique to the Ten Thousand Desolate Mountains, I recovered very quickly. Just as I meant to go quietly seek her again, she had already come after me. She brought seven so-called heroes and pursued me to this ancient cave. She came in herself and found me."