Chapter 40 — Reunion

In midair, the black iron staff in his grip seemed almost to smile as it kindled anew with a dark-cyan radiance that lit his face.

Wherever Zhang Qingyue passed, countless yin spirits shrank aside and scattered in all directions. In a blink he had caught up with Lu Xueling — but the pig-headed beast ahead showed no fear at all of the black staff, and with a great roar came charging at him.

In his urgency, fearing for Lu Xueling's wounds, Zhang Qingyue would not retreat a step. He too gave a great roar, and calling on the Daoist arts his shifu's wife Su Wan had taught him before he came down the mountain, he loosed the black iron staff from his hand; like an arrow from a bowstring it flew at the pig-headed beast.

Seeing a single little black rod come flying at it, the pig-headed beast swung a huge forepaw to bat the nuisance aside, and then to charge in and swallow these two hateful but delicious humans and make a fine meal.

But no sooner had the paw swept out than it felt a chill in the palm — and a moment later, a chill in its breast as well. The pig-headed beast paused, looked down, and saw a small hole open in its palm, and another small hole open at the heart in its chest. Its entire body had been run clean through by that seemingly inconsequential black iron staff.

"Awoo!"

With a heart-rending, frenzied bellow, the pig-headed beast's vast body swayed once, then crashed to the earth like a toppling mountain, sending dust flying. Then it struggled a few times on the ground, black blood running from the corner of its mouth, and at last moved no more.

By then Zhang Qingyue had caught Lu Xueling — and found her whole body cold, her strength utterly spent; she had fainted. The black iron staff, having taken yet another life, flickered with its dark cyan light and came flashing back to land in Zhang Qingyue's hand.

Zhang Qingyue now felt his spirit full and his qi abundant; most of his hurts within had healed. He checked Lu Xueling's breathing and found it rapid and shallow; looking closer, he saw the skin at the wound on her left shoulder had turned black — plainly she had been poisoned.

Zhang Qingyue's heart burned with anxiety, but mindful that though two demon beasts were dead, countless yin spirits still remained, he could only turn to look — and to his surprise saw that the yin spirits had somehow already drifted away one by one, fading into the darkness. Zhang Qingyue was astonished, but this was a stroke of luck he would never have dared ask for; why think further on it? He hurriedly turned back to tend to Lu Xueling.

In truth, Zhang Qingyue did not know that all of this was owing to the "Blood-Devouring Bead" upon his black iron staff. Eight hundred years ago, the Black-Hearted Elder had glorified the demon cult's "Blood-Refining Hall" line, shaking the world — and in the underground labyrinth of the ancient cavern of ten thousand bats he had founded the Blood-Refining Hall's root and foundation.

And the Black-Hearted Elder had been a savage man; in refining this Blood-Devouring Bead he had doomed countless living things, and who knows how many wronged spirits of the slain had gathered in these depths of the Dead Spirit Abyss, unable to pass on.

In those days they had all been slain by this Blood-Devouring Bead. Though today the Bead was fused as one with the nameless, murderous staff, its shape greatly changed, its baleful and savage qi held in check—

Yet the moment Zhang Qingyue worked his arts, the Blood-Devouring Bead's savage qi showed itself at once, and these yin spirits fled as fast as ever they could, each one half certain that the fierce god of old, the Black-Hearted Elder, had risen again.

Zhang Qingyue laid Lu Xueling gently on the ground. He hesitated a moment, looking at the blackened wound, and sighed.

The seemingly eternal darkness had grown calm again — a deathly silence.

Zhang Qingyue felt a touch of dizziness, but seeing that the black qi had faded from Lu Xueling's face now that her wound was bound, he let out a breath of relief.

He kept watch beside this fainted woman, sitting quietly.

The black iron staff gave off a faint cyan glow, enfolding them both.

All around, silence!

Silence!

There was not even the chirp of insects. Beneath the Abyss of the Dead, it seemed that apart from the yin spirits and the demon beasts, there truly was no other living thing at all.

Yet just then, Zhang Qingyue suddenly heard it — the sound of footsteps, rising without warning.

Those footsteps in the darkness were soft and harmonious, but to Zhang Qingyue's ears they struck like a thunderclap out of a clear sky. He sprang to his feet, turned his head toward the sound, and at the same time tightened his grip on the Dark Iron Staff.

In the distance, within the darkness, a point of light drifted over. Then, in that light, a woman appeared — dressed all in water-green, with fine brows and delicate eyes, her jade-like skin outshining frost and snow. In that darkness she seemed to wear an uncanny splendor, possessed of a strange, heart-stirring beauty.

Zhang Qingyue's mouth fell open, and he stood speechless and staring — for this woman was none other than the green-robed girl he had met in the Shrine of Mountains and Seas in Heyin City when he first came down from the mountain.

Note One: From the "Monsters and Demons" chapter of *Records of Gods, Demons, and Strange Beings*, the Red-Eyed Pig Fiend: a pig's head on a dog's body, of immense bulk, with black fur, stiff bristles, and crimson eyes that can see in the dark. It delights in rotting flesh and dwells in damp, dark places.

Note Two: From the "Spirits and Strange Creatures" chapter of *Records of Gods, Demons, and Strange Beings*, the Tree Goblin: an ancient tree of a thousand years. Legend holds that it absorbs the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, and that it draws the power of resentful spirits and demons in foul, shadowed places, and so becomes a spirit. It takes the form of a great tree and craves living things. Other tales say it can move of its own accord.