Deep night had come again.
Zhang Xiaofan tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Even the monkey Xiao Hui at his side had opened its eyes wide, blinking as it stared at him. As for his other senior brothers, they were already snoring thunderously; even Da Huang was lying on the floor, fast asleep.
Moonlight flowed in like water through the window and spilled across the floor, as white as frost and snow.
Zhang Xiaofan quietly climbed to his feet. Xiao Hui immediately darted into his arms. Holding it, Zhang Xiaofan stroked its head and walked outside.
The corridor was clear and still, without a human voice.
He smiled bitterly to himself. Ever since arriving at Tongtian Peak, he had hardly slept soundly for a single night. Thinking of the match against Lu Xueqi tomorrow, an indescribable nervousness still gripped his heart.
Just then, the monkey Xiao Hui in his arms suddenly shifted uneasily. Zhang Xiaofan looked down at it and saw, beneath the moonlight, Xiao Hui’s clever eyes fixed on a shadowed place ahead.
In the darkness, a figure seemed to flash past.
Zhang Xiaofan’s heart stirred, and he followed.
That figure did not run very quickly, and as it ran, its shoulders seemed to keep trembling, as though it were weeping. From afar, Zhang Xiaofan recognized it as Tian Linger. His heart grew even more puzzled, and seeing his senior sister crying, he felt a trace of inexplicable sorrow.
Tian Linger ran straight to the Sea of Clouds, coming to the side of the central arena. Seeing no one around, she seemed no longer able to endure it and crouched down on the ground, crying aloud.
Zhang Xiaofan had never seen his senior sister so heartbroken. His mind went momentarily blank, and he slowly walked to her side, calling softly, “Senior Sister, you…”
Tian Linger was startled. She sprang up and turned around. Seeing that it was Zhang Xiaofan, she finally relaxed. Then her heart ached again, and she could not help throwing herself into Zhang Xiaofan’s arms, sobbing loudly on his shoulder.
Zhang Xiaofan’s body instantly went rigid. From head to toe, he seemed to have turned to stone, unable to move in the slightest.
Her sobs echoed beside his ear. From his shoulder, he could feel the faint warmth of her body. It was as though a scene he had often seen in dreams had truly happened today. A faint, elusive fragrance drifted over.
Zhang Xiaofan simply stood there, looking into the distance. Though countless thoughts in his heart urged him to embrace this girl, in the end, he did not.
Perhaps, if I truly embraced you, life would be different from then on?
At that moment, Tian Linger left his shoulder. Zhang Xiaofan’s heart was suddenly empty; vaguely, he felt as though he had lost something.
His shoulder was already wet with tears.
Tian Linger rubbed her reddened eyes with her hand. Seeing Zhang Xiaofan’s shoulder soaked by her tears, her face flushed, and she said, “I’m sorry, Xiaofan.”
Zhang Xiaofan shook his head and said, “Senior Sister, what happened?”
Tian Linger was just about to speak when something at their feet squeaked twice. She lowered her head and saw that Xiao Hui had followed them as well. Silently, she bent down and held Xiao Hui in her arms.
“Never before, Xiaofan. Never before.” Standing in the night beneath the moonlight, this girl was bleakly beautiful, carrying a few traces of sorrow as she said to Zhang Xiaofan, “Father and Mother have never scolded me like this before.”
Looking at that beautiful face filled with grief, Zhang Xiaofan felt a tearing pain in his heart, as though all her sorrow had been brought upon her by him. Forcing himself to steady his mind, he said gently, “Senior Sister, what happened? Why did Master and Mistress scold you?”
Tian Linger hesitated for a moment, then raised her head and looked at Zhang Xiaofan. Since childhood, this little junior brother had always been her closest playmate apart from her parents. At this moment, in her heart, a thought seemed to surface faintly: When did Junior Brother Xiaofan begin being so gentle to me all along?
Yet that thought only flashed by. Her heart was filled with sorrow now, and in the end, she said to Zhang Xiaofan through her tears, “Isn’t it all because of Big Brother Qi Hao!”
Zhang Xiaofan’s face turned deathly pale. Involuntarily, he clenched his fists, so tightly that his fingernails dug deep into his palms.
“You still don’t know, do you?” Once Tian Linger had begun speaking, she held no guard at all toward this little junior brother. But in Zhang Xiaofan’s heart, he was screaming wildly: I know, I know, I knew long ago!
The moonlight was cold, spilling over the mortal world.
“Senior Brother Qi Hao and I love each other. I told them that I truly, truly like him.” Tian Linger calmed a little, yet she did not notice that with every word she spoke, a little more blood drained from Zhang Xiaofan’s face.
“…But Father shouted and scolded me, saying I was ignorant. Even Mother, who has always doted on me, changed expression and stood on Father’s side. How could this happen, Xiaofan?”
Zhang Xiaofan lowered his head, not letting Tian Linger see his face, and said softly, “How did Master and Mistress find out?”
In the turmoil of her emotions, Tian Linger did not notice the slight flaw and strangeness in Zhang Xiaofan’s words at all. Her mouth flattened, and she was almost about to cry again. “I never would have thought of it either. Only later did I learn that Senior Sister Wen Min and the others from Little Bamboo Peak, who lived with me, told Martial Aunt Shuiyue, and Martial Aunt Shuiyue told my mother. I was so close to Senior Sister Wen Min and the others, and I reminded them so many times, but they still told others. I… I…”
Her eyes stung, and tears finally flowed down again.
Zhang Xiaofan said hoarsely, “Perhaps Master and Mistress are doing it for your own good. They are your parents; they would never treat you badly!”
Tian Linger wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and said loudly, “What do they understand! They only understand sectarian prejudice. They only know that Big Brother Qi Hao is the proud disciple of Martial Uncle Cangsong of Dragon Head Peak. They only know that if Big Brother Qi Hao and I are together, they won’t be able to hold their heads up in Qingyun Sect. They have never thought about me at all.”
With some sorrow, some anger, and even some resolve, she said, “Compared to my happiness, what do those matters of face count for? I truly wonder whether they value their face more, or me, their daughter?”
Zhang Xiaofan abruptly raised his head and looked at this senior sister who had suddenly become unfamiliar.
What a heartbreaking gaze that was!
Lost and helpless, like a little bird that had lost its parents standing alone in wind and rain, carrying a trace of panic within its sorrow, it stabbed into his soul like a knife!
Zhang Xiaofan was almost instantly defeated by that look. A sorrow he had never felt before rose from the depths of his heart. If he could bear this girl’s pain at this moment for her, he would willingly shoulder any hardship, no matter what it was. But he did not know what he should say, and could only call softly:
“Senior Sister!”
“I want to be with him,” Tian Linger said resolutely and decisively. Rather than saying she spoke to Zhang Xiaofan, it was more as though she spoke to her own heart, to Tian Buyi and his wife who were not here. “I must be with Senior Brother Qi Hao. We have sworn our vows to each other. Even if Father and Mother oppose us no matter what, even if we have to wait until the seas run dry and the stones turn to dust, we will still be together.”
She lifted her face to the night sky and swore thus to that bright moon. The cold moonlight quietly fell upon her. She was beautiful like a lily blooming in the night with sorrow, dazzling others with her beauty until they forgot that beside her stood a desolate shadow whose heart had died.
※※※
Standing high above, the newly risen sunlight fell warmly upon Zhang Xiaofan, warming his body but not his heart. Expressionless, he stood on the arena, facing Lu Xueqi, who stood opposite him, beautiful as a celestial maiden.
The contempt in that frost-cold woman’s eyes was so obvious. On the square, everyone knew that he had entered the top four more through luck than through strength.
Behind her, Tianya gave off a faint blue radiance. Zhang Xiaofan looked at this legendary divine object and thought faintly: In a little while, is this what I’ll be facing?
Then, in the next instant, he forgot the question. Ever since returning last night, his spirit had been drifting up and down in a daze.
Above the Sea of Clouds, only two large arenas remained now. But judging by the number of Qingyun disciples watching, those observing the match between Qi Hao and Zeng Shushu in the west probably amounted to less than thirty percent of the crowd here. Almost everyone had been drawn over by Lu Xueqi, the one with the greatest momentum in this competition, and Zhang Xiaofan, whose luck was far too good. Among the elders, the vast majority, including Sect Leader Daoxuan Zhenren, were also seated below this arena.
Only, after everyone saw Lu Xueqi step onto the arena, once the cheers in the crowd had passed, most began discussing whether Zhang Xiaofan would be defeated in one breath or in one instant.
Below the stage, Tian Buyi’s brows were tightly furrowed. Though he knew Zhang Xiaofan’s foundation quite clearly, hearing the contemptuous discussions behind him still made him very uncomfortable. Su Ru, who sat beside him, was looking all around for her daughter. After the great quarrel last night, Tian Linger had run off crying, and this morning she had vanished. With her understanding of her daughter as a mother, she feared that this stubborn girl had gone to the arena where Qi Hao was competing.
She shook her head. Though she dearly loved this only daughter, this time she stood completely on her husband’s side. Perhaps this was a mother’s instinct: she always felt that the people of Dragon Head Peak were not very good.
She turned her head and looked toward the stage. At the same time, Zhang Xiaofan on the stage was also looking over expressionlessly. Their gazes met in the air. A moment later, Zhang Xiaofan looked around beside her, as though he had not found the person he was looking for, then silently withdrew his gaze.
Su Ru frowned slightly and said to Tian Buyi, “Xiaofan’s expression today seems a little wrong. He looks lifeless.”
Tian Buyi said lightly, “He’s just nervous. A child who hasn’t seen much of the world—nothing strange about it.”
Su Ru fell silent and said no more.
Zhang Xiaofan withdrew his gaze and let it fall upon Lu Xueqi’s face opposite him. That peerlessly beautiful face shone brilliantly in the newborn sunlight, radiant and dazzling. Very quickly, Lu Xueqi sensed Zhang Xiaofan’s gaze upon her, and contempt appeared in her eyes once more.
But this time, Zhang Xiaofan did not avoid it. He did not even sense the mocking gaze from the other side. That beautiful countenance, at this moment, had completely lost all meaning to him. Only deep in his heart, low and painful, did one sentence echo: “She isn’t here. She went to watch Qi Hao’s match!”
As intelligent as Lu Xueqi was, she quickly discovered that this opponent was only looking at her with his eyes, while in that hollow gaze he was clearly thinking of something else, completely ignoring her existence. This was almost the first such experience in her life, and a faint trace of surprise seemed to appear in her eyes.
“Dang!”
Bells and chimes rang together, echoing across Tongtian Peak. All around, silence quickly fell.
Lu Xueqi straightened her body and drew a deep breath. As long as she won two more matches—just two—she could realize her own dream and her respected master’s hopes. Behind her, the blue radiance of Tianya gradually brightened.
“Lu Xueqi, disciple of Little Bamboo Peak. Please instruct me.”
Zhang Xiaofan seemed to wake from a dream. His first reaction, however, was not to return the courtesy, but to look toward the stage below with immense expectation. There, heads surged, and all eyes were fixed upon the arena, yet there was no sign of the person he wanted to see.
Lu Xueqi’s expression changed. The Qingyun disciples below the stage also burst into an uproar. This was the first person ever to be so discourteous toward Lu Xueqi. Tian Buyi and Su Ru glanced at each other, both realizing at the same time that something truly was wrong with this young disciple today.
Zhang Xiaofan slowly turned his head back. His face was ashen as death, and he said faintly, “I am Zhang Xiaofan of Big Bamboo Peak. Senior Sister, please by all means do not show mercy.”
Lu Xueqi was startled. Though the words spoken before a match were usually no more than courtesies, this Zhang Xiaofan seemed extremely strange. Where was there anyone who would say not to show mercy? It sounded like mockery, but looking at him, it did not seem so.
But Lu Xueqi was, after all, the proud disciple of Master Shuiyue. Her mind was firm. The expression on her face did not change in the slightest, and she said nothing more. With a gesture of her right hand, “Tianya” behind her slowly rose.
Zhang Xiaofan watched as that blue light grew deeper and larger, illuminating even his body in blue, yet he could no longer find the slightest trace of nervousness. Instead, deep within his heart, he faintly seemed to be anticipating something.
He took out that black, ugly fire poker.
A burst of laughter came from below the stage. Compared to the grand, noble, immortal aura of “Tianya” opposite him, the fire poker was like an ugly worm on the ground.
And at this moment, it was also a worm whose heart was dead with grief.
A cold sensation once again filled his entire body. For some reason, today this fire poker seemed to possess a spiritual nature and was especially excited. That icy feeling flowed much faster than usual. Zhang Xiaofan even felt that if not for the sense that he and this fire poker were connected by flesh and blood, if not for the fact that he was holding it, it would probably have charged toward Lu Xueqi on its own long ago.
No, perhaps not toward Lu Xueqi, but toward Tianya. That inexplicable feeling was like that between two enemies who bore a deep and irreconcilable hatred.
At this moment, Lu Xueqi’s expression also changed slightly. Tianya’s radiance was too intense; perhaps even she herself found it somewhat strange.
But Zhang Xiaofan had no desire to ponder it further. He gazed at the beautiful woman within that blue brilliance and suddenly discovered that she seemed like Senior Sister. Yet “Senior Sister” bore an icy gaze and looked at him coldly.
On the arena, something unexpected happened. Zhang Xiaofan and Lu Xueqi actually did not make a move. They merely stared at each other, motionless.
Below the stage, an uproar rose, and discussions broke out everywhere.
Lu Xueqi abruptly came back to herself. Just now, Tianya, which had always been spiritually connected with her, had suddenly shown an unusual movement it had never displayed before, making her heart feel strange. Yet when she examined Tianya with her will, there was nothing abnormal; it only seemed as though Tianya faintly had an eager, restless feeling.
Sensing countless strange gazes from below the stage, Lu Xueqi frowned and steadied herself. With a cold snort, she expelled all distracting thoughts from her mind. With a light cry, Tianya’s blue light burst forth and soared into the sky, though it still did not leave its sheath.
Since the Seven Meridians Martial Meet began, Tianya had become the focus of everyone’s attention. But until now, Lu Xueqi had defeated every opponent one by one without unsheathing it. This had also made everyone speculate as to who exactly could make her draw the divine sword. At this moment, everyone guessed that it would surely have to wait until the final battle; only someone with Qi Hao of Dragon Head Peak’s level of cultivation could accomplish that.
Blue light reflected on Zhang Xiaofan’s face, yet it could not illuminate any expression on it. The black fire poker emitted a faint green light, slowly leaving his palm and stopping before him.
Though they had already taken this fire poker and examined it before, the people of Big Bamboo Peak, including most of the spectators, were seeing Zhang Xiaofan cast a spell for the first time. Du Bishu snorted and said, “If I weren’t seeing it with my own eyes, I truly wouldn’t believe that the foolish little junior brother from two years ago had suddenly become a born genius.”
On the stage, Lu Xueqi’s face was solemn, her spell gesture held firm as a mountain. In midair, the radiant Tianya suddenly turned and, swift as lightning, charged toward Zhang Xiaofan with the force to split mountains and cut seas.
The fire poker immediately went up to meet it. Dark green light collided in midair with that boundless blue radiance. Its momentum seemed not the least bit afraid.
The next instant, under everyone’s stunned gaze, Zhang Xiaofan seemed utterly unable to withstand a single blow. As though heavily injured, his entire body flew backward. The fire poker’s light dimmed even more, and it spun through the air, dark and murky, flying back toward its master.
For a moment, everyone from Big Bamboo Peak stood up. The more impatient ones, such as Du Bishu, even cried out involuntarily.
Zhang Xiaofan’s back crashed into one of the arena pillars, and he fell down. Sweetness rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. It splashed onto the returning fire poker, staining it with traces of crimson. Then, unseen by anyone, Zhang Xiaofan’s blood swiftly seeped in.
Tianya’s might was so great that everyone was stunned!
Lu Xueqi’s face was cold as frost. Without the slightest hesitation, blue light flashed, and Tianya mercilessly slashed down from midair. Just then, black vapor suddenly surged from the fire poker, especially at the tip of the staff, where the green light blazed even brighter. Blood hanging at the corner of his mouth, Zhang Xiaofan slowly stood. His face was pale, but his eyes were like blood, and his appearance unexpectedly carried a few traces of ferocity.
In the time it takes to tell, the fire poker rushed toward Tianya again amid black vapor and green light. The instant the two magical treasures touched in midair, they immediately rebounded from each other. Lu Xueqi and Zhang Xiaofan, standing behind them, both trembled violently.
In midair, blue light flickered and green light shone brilliantly, crisscrossing through the sky. Wherever they passed, the incredibly hard giant timbers of the arena scattered like scraps of paper. Peals of thunderous explosions rang out like thunderclaps on a clear day, deafening the ears. The nearly thousand Qingyun disciples watching all changed expression. Since the grand competition began, no match had ever been as intense from the very start as today’s, nor had any scene been as magnificent. In only a short while, such a vast arena had already been torn apart for the most part by these two incomparably powerful magical treasures.
The crowd that had originally gathered below the stage retreated some distance. They saw that Zhang Xiaofan and Lu Xueqi were now both floating in midair. Lu Xueqi held spell gestures in both hands, controlling with all her strength, her posture solemn yet graceful. But looking at Zhang Xiaofan, something seemed rather strange. Though the power of the fire poker was far greater than anyone had expected, he was not holding spell gestures like Lu Xueqi. Instead, he was in midair, flailing his hands and feet, while that fire poker unexpectedly followed his will, swift as lightning, battling Tianya with great vigor.
Even so, Zhang Xiaofan was suffering in silence. Tianya’s power was far beyond his imagination. Every time the fire poker collided with Tianya, the meridians throughout his body shook violently. If he had not secretly cultivated Tianyin Temple’s “Great Brahma Prajna” alongside the Taiji Xuanqing Dao since childhood, strengthening his channels, and if he did not have the Great Brahma Prajna protecting his body, barely holding back Tianya’s divine power, he would have long since vomited blood and lost his life. But looking at Lu Xueqi ahead, she seemed not the least bit affected. Under her control, Tianya’s blue radiance grew ever brighter, its might ever greater, gradually suppressing the fire poker’s green light and black vapor.
Here, Zhang Xiaofan was overwhelmed with bitterness. On the other side, Lu Xueqi was also greatly shocked. Not only did the opponent’s unremarkable fire-poker magical treasure possess spiritual power capable of contending with Tianya, it also seemed faintly to have a kind of sucking force, constantly drawing at the spiritual power and blood essence within her body. If her foundation were not solid, she feared she would have been the first unable to suppress the surging hot blood within her.
At this thought, Lu Xueqi’s qi and blood churned again. Her body floating in midair almost lost its balance. Shocked, angry, and anxious, she judged from the exchange that her opponent’s cultivation in the Taiji Xuanqing Dao was actually not very high, far beneath hers. Yet for some unknown reason, when he used this strange magical treasure, its power was so great that even Tianya could only gain the upper hand on the surface.
Lu Xueqi clenched her silver teeth, killing intent appearing on her delicate face. Her garments drifted without wind. In midair, Tianya struck heavily against the fire poker, and Zhang Xiaofan’s entire body shook violently. The fire poker also slowed for a moment.
Seizing this moment, Tianya suddenly flew back. Lu Xueqi swiftly reached out with her right hand and grasped Tianya. The instant her jade-like palm touched Tianya, countless rays of blue light erupted, swallowing her figure. Tianya’s sword body trembled, giving off a dragon-like roar, and soared upward. Lu Xueqi seemed to merge with Tianya, human and sword as one, rushing into the sky, straight up into the blue heavens.
By now, Zhang Xiaofan had already forgotten all worldly matters. He only felt that the flesh-and-blood connection between himself and the fire poker in front of him in midair had grown even stronger. He could even sense that the fire poker was like a living thing, now incomparably excited, a nameless baleful aura rushing straight into his mind.
In midair, he raised his face to the heavens and let out a long howl.
The sound shook the four fields; heaven and earth changed color!
Black vapor and green light shot straight into the sky. The wind howled wildly, and the clouds boiled!
Suddenly, blue light flashed. A piercing whistle came from far away to near, swiftly swelling from almost inaudible to deafening, until no one could hear any other sound. Countless rays of blue light at this moment merged into one, forming a giant pillar of light that struck down from above. Judging from its force, it seemed almost as though it wished to cleave the Qingyun Mountains in two.
Zhang Xiaofan’s face twisted. In that instant, blood suddenly flowed from all his features and orifices. Yet in his expression, there was not the slightest trace of fear. His gaze burned brightly, and he likewise reached out and grasped the fire poker. In an instant, the sky full of green light and black vapor seemed to be held in his hand as he met the descending blue pillar of light head-on.
At the perimeter, the young Qingyun disciples all held their breath and stared wide-eyed. No one held any contempt for Zhang Xiaofan any longer. Among the elders and branch leaders of the older generation, faces also changed one after another.
This match had unexpectedly become a struggle of life and death.
Yet for some reason, no one stepped forward to stop it.
“Boom!” Like thunder from the edge of the sky exploding in the mortal world, it seemed as though the entire Tongtian Peak trembled violently. The blue light folded back. Lu Xueqi appeared in the sky, gripping Tianya tightly, but a line of fresh blood slowly flowed from the corner of her mouth.
Below the stage, Master Shuiyue abruptly stood up.
In midair, Zhang Xiaofan could hear only the roar of the raging wind beside his ears. Everything before his eyes was blurred, and crimson blood almost covered his vision. If he could have heard the shouts from the outside world, he would have heard the startled cries of everyone from Big Bamboo Peak below him.
The color had drained from Su Ru’s lips. Looking at that young disciple in midair who had almost become a man of blood, she said to Tian Buyi in a hurried, low voice, “Buyi, make Xiaofan concede. Quickly, make him concede.”
Tian Buyi’s body trembled. He stared fixedly into midair, then slowly shook his head.
He could no longer feel pain. In that ever-changing sky, such a thought suddenly flashed through Zhang Xiaofan’s mind. He even suddenly thought: After I die, will Senior Sister come to see me? Many years later, when she is living a happy life, will she have forgotten me too?
He reached out and wiped away the blood at the corner of his eye, and water!
Lu Xueqi only felt intense pain throughout her body. Her qi and blood clashed everywhere within her violently trembling meridians, as though they wished to break out of her body and rush forward with cheers toward that fearsome, ferocious demon amid the green light and black vapor.
This was already a moment of life and death!
This was already an eternal instant!
This beautiful woman stood proudly in the raging wind, letting the wind cut like knives, yet refused to retreat even half a step. She raised her head and looked to the sky.
The wind suddenly stopped, frozen in midair.
Heaven and earth suddenly fell silent, stopping at this moment.
“Rumble!” A low howl seemed to come from the edge of the sky, echoing between all heaven and earth.
Lu Xueqi reversed her hand and drew the “Tianya Divine Sword.”
At once, the blue light filling the sky dispersed, contracted, and seemed to be sucked, like a dragon drinking water, into the blade as clear as autumn water.
Tongtian Peak fell utterly silent!
The Tianya of legend, after a thousand years, was finally unsheathed!
Lu Xueqi’s face was like cold frost. Holding the sword incantation, she unexpectedly stepped according to the Seven Stars while suspended in the air, taking seven steps in the void. The long sword suddenly stabbed toward the heavens. In an instant, not the slightest trace of blood remained on her jade-like face, and she chanted:
“Mysterious evil of the Nine Heavens, transform into divine thunder.
With the sword, I summon the resplendent might of heaven!”
In but a moment, the originally clear blue sky darkened. Dark clouds suddenly appeared on the horizon and churned without ceasing. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed constantly along the edges of the black clouds, racing between heaven and earth. A murderous chill filled the air, and the gale rose wildly.
A great wind rushed against his face. Zhang Xiaofan slightly opened his mouth. This scene seemed to have appeared once before in memories from long ago. On the ground, from Daoxuan Zhenren down to the branch leaders and elders of every lineage, every face was filled with indescribable shock, and all stood up together, then turned to look at Master Shuiyue of Little Bamboo Peak.
After a long while, Tian Buyi said hoarsely, “What a fine disciple you have taught!”
Master Shuiyue ignored everyone completely. For the first time, worry appeared on her always indifferent face as she looked at the two people in the sky.
“Divine Sword Thunder-controlling True Art!” Daoxuan Zhenren slowly withdrew his gaze, his heart greatly shaken. He had not expected that among the younger generation beneath Qingyun Sect, there would actually be such an extraordinary talent.
Only, looking at that female disciple’s complexion, though she had forced herself to display such a peerless wondrous art, her body trembled and her face was as pale as paper. He feared she was unequal to the task.
In the sky, the thunder grew more urgent. Zhang Xiaofan clearly felt that from the moment Tianya was unsheathed, an incomparably abundant force had immediately surged up from the fire poker in his hand, as though this magical treasure connected to him by flesh and blood was shouting from the depths of its heart.
As though it had been waiting for this moment for a thousand years!
The sky grew even darker. Dark clouds pressed down overhead, and within the thick layers of cloud, a vast vortex slowly appeared.