In the distance behind him, the sounds of whistling battle rang on without end, lights flashing—clearly the three from Qingyun Sect were locked in fierce combat with other fiends in the darkness. Yet here, where Zhang Xiaofan stood, everything had suddenly fallen into an eerie silence.
Zhang Xiaofan stood there in a daze. But in the shadows, the masters of the yellow flying sword and the gray fang had witnessed that bizarre scene with their own eyes. So shocked were they that, for a moment, they did not know what to do.
“Wild Dog, I didn’t see that wrong, did I? Jiang Laosan was sucking someone’s blood, so how did it look like he got sucked dry instead?”
From the darkness, another man said in a rough voice, “To hell with this. Since when did Qingyun Sect have someone who could cultivate this ‘Great Bloodsucking Art’? Could that fellow be a disciple of our Immortal Sect?”
The first speaker spat, “Pah!” But after a while, he could find nothing to say. Annoyed, he said, “No. This fellow’s origins are too strange. We have to question him properly!”
Two masses of light lit up before Zhang Xiaofan, gradually revealing two figures. Zhang Xiaofan came back to himself with a start and, alarmed, quickly cast aside his stray thoughts and focused on facing the enemy.
In the glow, the yellow flying sword and the gray fang each flew back into the hands of the two men. The man on the left caught the flying sword. He was tall and thin, with a gaunt face, a hooked nose, and small eyes, the whites and blacks sharply distinct, gleaming with a vicious light. The man beside him was even stranger. Zhang Xiaofan was startled the moment he saw him: he was also rather tall, but his appearance was extraordinarily odd. His eyelids drooped, his nose jutted out, his ears pointed upward, his lips were a deep red, and his tongue seemed quite long, stretching out from time to time. He looked very much like a dog. When the gray fang flew back into his hand, Zhang Xiaofan immediately thought, despite himself: Could that be the tooth of some big dog?
The man called Wild Dog saw that Zhang Xiaofan could not tear his gaze away, his eyes full of astonishment, and flew into a rage. He shouted, “Hey! You little brat, why are you staring at your Lord Wild Dog?”
“Lord Wild Dog?” Zhang Xiaofan frowned. Only then did he notice that this dog-like man was actually wearing a pitch-black Daoist robe. It seemed he belonged to the same religious lineage as Qingyun Sect; who knew whether, if traced back three thousand years, there might be some connection between them.
The man who called himself Daoist Wild Dog saw the obvious contempt in Zhang Xiaofan’s expression and grew even more furious. “Brat, your Daoist lord is asking you how you killed the Vampire!”
Zhang Xiaofan froze. “What Vampire?”
The tall man beside him snapped, “The one on your back!”
Only then did Zhang Xiaofan remember that he was still carrying that corpse. At once he felt the cold, clammy sensation at his neck and, horrified, jumped away, flinging the body off. With a muffled thud, the fellow who had already become nothing but skin stretched over bones fell to the ground. Zhang Xiaofan looked at it, felt a wave of nausea, and turned his head away.
Daoist Wild Dog and the tall man glanced at the skeleton, then looked at each other, both seeing shock and suspicion in the other’s eyes. The Great Bloodsucking Art was cruel and bizarre. Though formidable, it inflicted enormous damage on the practitioner as well; after cultivating it, one became neither human nor ghost. Though they were members of the Demon Sect and had always kept their distance from it, they still knew a little about this mysterious technique.
And yet the man lying dead before them—the Vampire, known as the sole inheritor of the Great Bloodsucking Art—had in the blink of an eye been drained of all the vital blood in his body. As far as the two of them knew, such cultivation far surpassed that of the dead Vampire Jiang Laosan; even the legendary Old Bloodsucking Demon might not necessarily possess such attainment. But no matter how they looked at this boy from Qingyun Sect before them, he did not have that strange, violent aura of the Bloodsucking lineage.
Daoist Wild Dog looked at Zhang Xiaofan and said, “Are you a disciple of Old Bloodsucking… Senior?”
Zhang Xiaofan was taken aback. “What Old Bloodsucking Senior?”
Daoist Wild Dog opened his doglike mouth, and his long tongue rolled once outside. Seeing this, Zhang Xiaofan could not help thinking of Dahuang, the big dog on Dazhu Peak of Mount Qingyun. But just as that thought crossed his mind, a sharp whistle suddenly came from the rear of the cavern. A flying sword flashed, and a black-clad man tumbled out of the darkness, his face covered in blood. He struggled a few times on the ground, but it was clear he would not live.
Zhang Xiaofan suddenly came to his senses. His fellow disciples were fighting for their lives, yet he was standing here talking to these Demon Sect fiends. How muddleheaded! He immediately sprang upward, about to go help them.
When Daoist Wild Dog and the tall man saw Zhang Xiaofan suddenly move, both were startled, thinking he had launched an attack. They hurriedly went on guard. But they saw Zhang Xiaofan had only just moved when he suddenly grimaced in pain and dropped back down, half-kneeling on the ground, sucking in cold breaths. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
It turned out that in his urgency, Zhang Xiaofan had forgotten that the small dark-red fork was still lodged in the flesh of his shoulder. The moment he moved, pain pierced deep into his heart, and he was forced down again. The blood that had temporarily stopped now began flowing again from the torn wound.
Seeing such an opportunity, how could Daoist Wild Dog and the tall man let it pass? Better to kill by mistake than let him go. A vicious gleam rose in both their eyes, and the flying sword and fang in their hands lit up once more.
But just then, a clear whistle suddenly came from behind. Amid the assorted lights in the darkness, a brilliant, dazzling blue radiance flared to life, resplendent and blinding, instantly suppressing every other color. Within the blue light, “Tianya” proudly left its sheath. Behind it, suspended in midair, Lu Xueqi stood with peerless grace, her robes snapping and fluttering in the wind.
As Daoist Wild Dog and the tall man stared dumbstruck, the blue light of the Tianya divine sword surged explosively, transforming into a huge blue sword of light that slashed down into the darkness. At once, several beams of mixed-colored light rose to resist it, but the moment they touched that vast and pure blue radiance, they vanished into ash and smoke. Amid a chorus of strange cries, five or six figures leapt out from the shadows. With a rumbling boom, the blue sword of light struck the stone wall, sending broken rocks flying everywhere, its might astonishing. Nearly everyone who had jumped out was wounded. At the same time, the white light of Qi Hao’s Frost Ice Sword flashed, suddenly charging out from an oblique angle. Wherever the sword radiance passed, several Demon Sect followers were turned into ice pillars. Zeng Shushu, arriving immediately after with his sword flying like the wind, smashed them one by one into pieces.
The tall man and Daoist Wild Dog before Zhang Xiaofan exchanged a glance, then abandoned him at the same time and rushed forward. The yellow flying sword and gray fang were both summoned, holding off the attacks of Qi Hao and Zeng Shushu.
The cultivation of these two seemed to stand a level above the other Demon Sect members, and they immediately blocked Qi Hao and the others’ offensive. But inwardly, both of them groaned in distress.
Originally, after spying on Qi Hao and the others being attacked by bats the previous night, they had set an ambush in the depths of this ancient cavern. Their sudden assault had broken the seemingly impregnable protective halo of the “Liuhe Mirror,” after which they planned to defeat the four Qingyun disciples one by one. The scheme had indeed proceeded as planned, but unexpectedly, these Qingyun disciples’ cultivation was far higher than they had anticipated, making them difficult to deal with.
In this ambush, the Demon Sect side had been led by Daoist Wild Dog, the tall man, and the Vampire Jiang Laosan. They had also seen that Zhang Xiaofan seemed to be the weakest of the four, and so the three of them had agreed to strike together, intending to swiftly eliminate Zhang Xiaofan before splitting up to deal with the other three. But things had taken a bizarre turn. Though Zhang Xiaofan was injured, the Vampire Jiang Laosan had somehow died after being drained of all his vital blood.
Now, although they had temporarily held off Qi Hao and Zeng Shushu, there was still that beautiful woman nearby wielding a strange blue sword. Behind them, that stinking brat was wounded, but extremely odd. If those two joined the fight together, the situation would become very bad indeed. After another two exchanges, Daoist Wild Dog saw Lu Xueqi had wounded several Demon Sect followers and was turning back. He was the first to shout, “Run!”
The tall man beside him was of one mind with him. At the same moment, they withdrew their magic treasures, attached themselves to them, and with two swishing sounds transformed into two strange streaks of light, fleeing deeper into the cavern. When the other Demon Sect followers saw this, they cried out in alarm and scattered in all directions.
Qi Hao made an immediate decision and shouted, “Chase those two!” As he spoke, he rose on his sword and pursued them straight away. Zeng Shushu followed closely behind. The blue light of Lu Xueqi’s Tianya turned, and she was just about to give chase when she suddenly seemed to remember something. She was about to look back, but then saw Zhang Xiaofan riding the fire poker, which flickered with dark green light, rising into the air. Blood was pouring from his shoulder, but the small dark-red fork lodged there had already been pulled out.
Zhang Xiaofan flew forward. Lu Xueqi looked at his figure, as if stunned for a moment, before following after him.
This chase through the depths of the mountain cavern was somewhat like the scene years ago when Zhang Xiaofan and Tian Linger had chased the monkey Xiaohui on the back mountain of Dazhu Peak: winding and strange, suddenly veering left, then right, suddenly shooting up into the air, then plunging straight down toward the depths of the earth. Later, there were even branching paths all along the way, but the four from Qingyun Sect paid none of it any mind, only watching the two streaks of light ahead—one yellow, one gray—and pursuing them relentlessly.
The cavern was filled with jagged rocks and abrupt strange peaks. Zhang Xiaofan followed close behind his fellow disciples, concentrating wholly on controlling the fire poker. Later, some places grew so narrow that only one person could pass through, but Zhang Xiaofan had no time at all to be afraid or think. With a whistling rush, he actually passed through as well. The chase ahead and behind turned into six streaks of light in the darkness of the mountain cave, moving with astonishing speed. Zhang Xiaofan only felt as if violent wind and darkness were tangled together, surging ceaselessly toward his face from ahead.
They chased for nearly another half hour. Relying on their familiarity with the terrain, Daoist Wild Dog and his companion darted left and right. Though they had not shaken off the four persistent ghosts behind them, neither had they allowed them to close the distance.
Suddenly, a glimmer of light appeared in the distance ahead of them. Daoist Wild Dog and the tall man immediately flew toward it with all their strength. Qi Hao and the others pursued closely. Zhang Xiaofan followed behind them, feeling the pain in his shoulder gradually fade. Just now he had endured the agony and pulled out the small fork, and had somehow managed to keep up; even he himself found it rather unexpected. Though his shoulder hurt, the qi and blood within his body were circulating freely, as if he had inexhaustible strength. But the moment he thought of what had happened earlier, of the word “bloodsucking” spoken by Daoist Wild Dog, his heart turned cold, the chill sinking into his very bones.
The point of light ahead drew closer and closer, brighter and brighter. The six of them shot toward it like arrows loosed from the bowstring.
※※※
That light, like a bewitching flower suddenly blooming in the darkness, illuminated the scene before them. Zhang Xiaofan followed the others and leapt into the brightness. His vision lit up, and he was immediately greatly shocked by what lay before him.
It turned out that the final place they had been chasing through was a broad, straight passage. Beyond this passage was, unbelievably, an enormous space. Only a hundred zhang above their heads was the rocky cavern ceiling, while ten zhang below their feet was the ground. Not far ahead on the ground stood a gigantic stone radiating intense light, illuminating the entire space.
But what was most astonishing was not this massive stone. Behind it, in the depths of the light, lay an enormous abyss that opened abruptly. The radiance emitted by the boulder lit up the stone cavern’s dome, yet seemed unable to penetrate even half an inch into the abyss behind it. Looking down from the air, there was only pitch-black emptiness. They could not even see the far side of the abyss—only a deathly still, sinister darkness.
Before the giant stone stood three people. One was a big man with a face full of beard, one was a rather beautiful young married woman, and the last was a pale-faced youth dressed in white, his face full of an evil air. Daoist Wild Dog and his tall companion descended and stood before the giant stone. Qi Hao saw that each of those people had strange appearances and did not dare be careless. Calling to his fellow disciples, he landed five zhang away from the crowd beneath the giant stone.
Zhang Xiaofan stood steady and looked around. On that strange glowing boulder, three large characters were carved in ancient seal script with vigorous, soaring strokes:
Abyss of Dead Spirits!
Seeing the four from Qingyun Sect descend, the people standing beneath the giant stone made no move. Only the bearded big man frowned and said, “Wild Dog, Liu Gao, you two are far too useless. You ran into a few Qingyun juniors and ended up in such a sorry state, even leading them here to the Abyss of Dead Spirits!”
Daoist Wild Dog’s doglike face reddened, and he was just about to defend himself when the middle-aged young woman standing behind the big man glanced at them and suddenly said in a shrill voice, “Where is Jiang Laosan?”
Wild Dog looked toward the Qingyun Sect group and said, “Dead at their hands.”
“What?” These people, who had originally been as steady as Mount Tai, all showed alarm. But it seemed not to be because the Qingyun disciples’ cultivation was so profound that they could kill Jiang Laosan. The young woman froze for a moment, then shook her head. “Now, when the Old Bloodsucking Demon investigates this, we won’t have an easy time explaining ourselves!”
The bearded big man pondered briefly, then turned to look at the Qingyun Sect disciples and said, “Then we’ll capture these Qingyun juniors and hand them over to Senior Bloodsucking when the time comes. That will do.”
The others all nodded in agreement. Seeing how arrogant they were, Qi Hao became even more cautious and said in a low voice to the three behind him, “These people seem to be the leaders of the Demon Sect here. I’m afraid their cultivation is above those people from earlier. Everyone, be careful.”
Zhang Xiaofan answered, then turned his head. Suddenly, he saw Lu Xueqi’s gaze sweep across the wound on his shoulder. He was slightly startled, and Lu Xueqi immediately looked away.
At this moment, the big man stepped forward and said to the Qingyun Sect disciples, “I advise you to surrender obediently. Otherwise, when we make our move, your bones will be shattered, your tendons broken, and you’ll have to suffer the pain of flesh and blood.”
Qi Hao snorted, but before he could speak, Lu Xueqi’s cold voice sounded from behind him. “Demonic clowns, still daring to act rampant. Today will be the day you die.”
Qi Hao and Zeng Shushu struck their palms together and said, “Junior Sister Lu said it well. Exactly so!”
The big man’s expression changed, his face frosty as he said coldly, “You are courting death yourselves!”
He did not seem to make any movement; he merely glared toward the four of them. Zhang Xiaofan was concentrating on his guard when he suddenly saw that, among the big man’s originally normal eyes, the right eye abruptly enlarged to twice its size and turned crimson. That enormous eye appeared on his face, at once terrifying and ridiculous.
Just as Zhang Xiaofan was feeling puzzled, a red beam suddenly shot from the big man’s crimson giant eye, streaking toward them. The Qingyun disciples had long been on guard after seeing his strange appearance. Qi Hao immediately summoned the Frost Ice immortal sword. With two cracking sounds, two walls of ice formed before him.
Unexpectedly, the red beam seemed to contain a fierce baleful force. A moment later, when it struck the ice walls, it instantly melted a small hole through them, piercing straight across. Without a sound, it surged forward as if breaking through rotten bamboo.
Qi Hao was greatly shocked. With no time to react further, he immediately moved the Frost Ice immortal sword to block in front of everyone. The red beam struck the Frost Ice immortal sword and flickered twice, then vanished without a trace within the sword’s white light. But Qi Hao’s body trembled, and he glimpsed that on his Frost Ice immortal sword, the originally pure-white blade had now actually been stained in one small spot with a faint dark-red color.
The body of the Frost Ice Sword trembled lightly, as if it had been harmed by an evil thing. Qi Hao looked at it with unbearable heartache; after all, among cultivators, who did not regard their own magic treasure as extremely important? But now he had no time to think further. The red beam had only just disappeared when, in the distance, another red beam shot from the big man’s crimson giant eye, rushing toward them. When it collided with the two ice walls, it likewise silently pierced two holes through them without losing the slightest momentum, striking toward the four.
Qi Hao’s brows knitted tightly. The Frost Ice Sword flashed with white light and rose through the air to meet it. In the blink of an eye, it dissolved the red light into nothingness, but another red mark appeared on the Frost Ice Sword’s blade.
In the distance, the big man said nothing. From his crimson giant eye, red beams shot continuously like arrows, each one moving extremely fast and arriving in an instant. Qi Hao blocked them one by one, but he could see the dark-red color increasing, while the white light of the Frost Ice immortal sword gradually dimmed.
The three beside him all saw that things were going badly. Zeng Shushu was the first to charge out, commanding his magic sword “Xuanyuan” and intending to rush up from the side. Unexpectedly, the big man merely turned his head slightly, and another red beam shot from the crimson giant eye toward him. Zeng Shushu had no time to dodge and could only summon the Xuanyuan immortal sword into the air to block this strange red beam.
In midair, the Xuanyuan immortal sword glowed with a pale purple radiance, immediately dissolving the red beam. Yet on the blade, just like a maggot clinging to bone, a red mark appeared as well. The Xuanyuan immortal sword instantly gave a low tremor.
Zeng Shushu felt a baleful aura suddenly transmit from the sword, as if it wanted to invade his body. Fortunately, the distance was considerable, so its power was not strong, and auspicious qi immediately rose from the Xuanyuan immortal sword itself, canceling out that baleful force.
Even so, he could no longer advance another step. Looking at the big man in the distance, who merely stood leisurely where he was, slightly moving his head as that crimson giant eye continuously fired red beams, pinning both Qi Hao and Zeng Shushu in place, unable to advance an inch. And as the red marks gradually increased, the two of them felt the baleful aura coming from their immortal swords grow heavier and heavier, slowly invading their bodies through the sword blades as a medium.