劍問蒼天 - 第213章 心魔 - 清風書屋

Hades walked toward Taotie with steady, unhurried steps. Little Gray, perched on Ming Li's shoulder, turned its head to watch Hades's receding back, gave two "squeak-squeak" cries, and suddenly fell silent.

Taotie, sprawled on the ground, seemed to sense something. Its massive head shifted to one side and lifted, and its huge eyes opened with it; two baleful gleams fell instantly upon the approaching Hades, and a low, rumbling growl rolled faintly from its great maw.

"Grrr..."

The once calm and peaceful air of the chamber turned abruptly and inexplicably tense. The iron-hard plates of armor behind Taotie's skull tightened one after another; its great jaws slowly parted, baring a fearsome array of sharp teeth.

Hades faced this terrifying beast without a trace of fear on his face; rather, in the eyes turned away from Ming Li, strange lights flickered without cease, and among them a wild joy and hunger that could not be concealed.

He faced the beast, now plainly enraged, and did not even slow his steps. Behind him, Ming Li watched his back, brows already faintly drawn together.

Taotie plainly could not endure such provocation. Its ferocity showed in full; its great eyes were gradually turning red, and its enormous body slowly rose to its feet, assuming a posture of attack. Hades, by contrast, seemed utterly to ignore the beast's reaction, all his attention fixed upon observing the condition of Taotie's body.

At last, when Hades drew near and set one foot within three feet of it, Taotie could hold back no longer. With a savage roar that set the surrounding stone walls trembling faintly, its huge body suddenly launched into the air, claws and fangs bared, and pounced upon Hades.

Within the once placid stone chamber a gale rose abruptly with that enormous body; the neatly arranged tables and chairs were instantly swept away, and with a series of "bang bang bang" crashed against the walls and broke into pieces. In that instant, quick as a word and quicker than a blink, the colossal beast was already bearing down upon Hades's head.

In the distance, the monkey Little Gray let out a few cries. "Squeak, squeak..." Yet they seemed to carry no worry, but rather a certain gloating; it appeared this monkey, long since quick with understanding, held no fondness for Hades, who now stood in such peril, and rather wished Taotie would crush the fellow dead with a single blow.

Ming Li, however, plainly did not share Little Gray's view. His brows, already faintly knit, now, after a few flickers of barely perceptible doubt in his eyes, drew still tighter, as though in that instant he had glimpsed something he had not foreseen.

The enormous body came crashing down with the gale, a sight to make the heart quail — yet in but a moment, like a ghost or a specter, Hades's form vanished clean away from a place where escape seemed utterly impossible. Taotie's devastating pounce met only empty air.

In the next instant, Hades's gray figure appeared abruptly behind the momentarily stunned Taotie. He reached out and, swift as lightning, seized the flesh at the back of Taotie's neck; by the look of him, he meant to use his own magic power to hoist this beast that all the world feared as one might lift an ordinary house cat or a puppy.

The grab looked none too quick, yet Taotie could not evade it. With a low howl and a roar, Taotie's neck was seized — but Taotie was, after all, a beast of another order. Seized though it was, it showed not the least intent to submit; instead it seemed only the more furious, bellowing again and again, its whole body of iron plates tightening at once until it seemed to swell by a full third. Hades's expression changed; at the same time he felt a sharp sting in his right hand — the palm guarded and infused with the true arts of the Demonic Sect could not, it seemed, withstand the beast's monstrous strength.

Hades did not hesitate; he released his grip and retreated three steps in succession.