Chapter 71 — The Kui Ox

As if all at once, a deluge of rain came drifting down from the pitch-black night sky, and far out in the depths of the sea, fierce gusts of wind, like beasts breaking free of their cages, roared toward this lonely little island in the boundless ocean.

The wind drove the rain before it, sweeping over everything in a single engulfing wave, and in the blink of an eye these people were caught in the storm.

Zhang Qingyue stopped with the rest of them, raising a hand to fend off the urgent wind and rain as best he could; the drops, each the size of a soybean, struck his face with a sting that was already faintly painful.

Ahead, the sea heaved and churned beneath the storm; on this night it too seemed a giant beast woken from slumber, beginning to roar.

Before Zhang Qingyue and the others stretched a long beach, and at its far end lay the sea, now wearing a somewhat savage face. In the boundless dark of night, wave upon wave rose higher and higher, pounding heavily on the flat sand, and with every blow the very ground seemed to shudder.

One wave, and another!

As if some vicious giant beast were treading the surging billows, striding slowly toward them!

The vault of heaven stood silent, save for the muffled thunder that would not cease from within the black clouds.

Every face changed color. Such was the majesty of heaven and earth!

Tian Lingsu turned to Song Dayi in alarm: "Eldest Senior Brother, what do we do? What is that thing?"

Song Dayi was shaken as well; never in all his days had he seen such a sight, and for a moment he knitted his brows, at a loss. Zhang Qingyue, standing behind, was startled too, but because he had once seen the ancient demon beast, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent, rise from the Sea of Heartlessness beneath the Abyss of the Dead, he kept somewhat calmer. Yet remembering the serpent's might that day—a force no mortal could withstand—he could not help but feel a chill.

At that thought something stirred in Zhang Qingyue, and he glanced unconsciously at Lu Xueling beside him. The beautiful woman stood silently at his side, the wind and rain soaking her clothes and her hair, which clung to her fair face, as she gazed fixedly at the dark depths of the sea ahead, lost in a daze.

"Eh?" Suddenly Du Biyan, who stood in front, gave a cry and jabbed a finger forward. "Look there, all of you—there seem to be people!"

They all started and looked; sure enough, on the beach some dozens of yards ahead, several dozen figures had abruptly emerged from the darkness, all in black, and in the night, unless one looked closely, they were hard indeed to make out. Du Biyan, sharp-eyed as ever, had been the one to spot them.

But spotting them was one thing; at that moment the storm was sweeping down from every quarter, and the night was heavy, so they could not make out at all what those figures were doing. They only dimly saw them scatter and busy themselves across the beach.

Tian Lingsu frowned and turned her head. "Did you all see clearly? Who are these people?"

Du Biyan and Song Dayi shook their heads at once; then Lu Xueling, behind them, spoke suddenly: "They are all from the demon cult!"

Tian Lingsu started, then understood. At this moment every Orthodox sect on Liubo Mountain was locked in battle with the demon cult—how else could these dozens of men be gathered on this strange beach doing such things?

The more she thought, the more anxious she grew, and she could not help glancing back; yet of those demon cult followers who had been fighting just moments ago, not one had come out of the forest.

"What do we do, Eldest Senior Brother?"

Every eye fell on Song Dayi. He hesitated a moment, and at last decided to withdraw for the time being. "Our position is bad. Let us leave this place first and talk later."

With that he called to the others, about to turn aside and make a wide detour around the beach. But they had taken only a few steps when a long cry, like the chant of a dragon, came rumbling up from the deep sea.

In an instant the wind, the rain, and the thunder in the heavens all howled together; a bolt of lightning rent the sky, and with a deafening clap of thunder overhead, the huge waves in the sea, tall as small hills, suddenly seemed to be torn apart and parted to either side!

Countless spray flew up; amid the driving wind and rain, from the depths of the darkness, as though treading on the sound of thunder, an enormous figure burst forth from the deep sea, and after blending almost wholly into the color of the night, came down with a heavy crash.

All of Liubo Mountain seemed to quake at once!

Zhang Qingyue and the others held their breath. This was a monstrous beast of gigantic size, somewhat larger even than the Spirit Lord Water Qilin on the Heaven-Reaching Peak of Canglan Mountain; in shape it resembled an ox, its body blue-green, yet it bore no horns on its head.

But what was most incredible was this: beneath that enormous body there was only a single stout leg, growing from the very center of its belly. At a glance it looked like the one-legged act of a street performer, and beneath that ferocious exterior there lingered a touch of the comical and even the endearing.

Now the black-clad figures on the beach silently withdrew into the darkness, but along the beach, every few yards, strange objects had been planted upside down in the sand, each glowing with a faint red light, forming a great circle directly in front of the beast—a circle vivid even through the storm in the dead of night.

Among the Canglan Sect, the disciples exchanged glances, unable to guess what trick the demon cult was playing. From the look of it, they seemed to be preparing to deal with this strange giant beast, yet the trap was far too obvious—that ring of red light could be seen by anyone in the night. What they did not know was what manner of creature this beast might be.

And indeed, ever since the beast had emerged from the dark deep, it seemed to sense something; it had stood all along at the edge of the surging tide without coming ashore, only thrusting its huge head into the air again and again, sniffing.

Du Biyan suddenly started. "Bad news!" he blurted. "This fellow may have poor eyesight!"

The others understood at once. The red points on the beach were indeed quite conspicuous, yet the beast seemed blind to what lay before it. Could it be that, having lived all its days in the deep sea, it had no use for eyes and they had degenerated?

Somehow, the Canglan Sect disciples began to feel a little worried for the beast.

After a brief, breathless interval—lightning still flashing, thunder still rolling, the wind and rain still sighing, with not the least sign of abating—the beast seemed to have discovered nothing. It shook its head of its own accord, and without any visible effort, amid another peal of thunder, its enormous body rose into the air and leaped forward.

That one stout leg came down squarely on the beach of Liubo Mountain, pressing a deep footprint into the ring of red lights.

In the night, in the darkness, at almost that very instant, a mysterious chanting of incantations arose.

The sound was like the moaning of ghosts, deep and distant, drifting through the night sky and the storm. At the same time, with that mysterious chant, the points that had but faintly glowed red suddenly blazed all at once, and the black-clad figures who had just vanished returned in the same moment to the strange objects planted in the ground.

The beast suddenly raised its head, and a moment later let out a tremendous roar!

Bellow—!

The enormous sound seemed almost to take physical form, a wave of noise; countless sheets of wind and rain were sent flying outward, blasted aside by that roar like thunder fallen to earth!

But at that very moment, all the black-clad figures laid their hands upon the mysterious objects in the sand.