Chapter 291 — The Heavens Above

The azure face in the sky was immense, seeming to be made of smoke, light and faint, yet as it hung down from the heavens it gradually grew distinct. Fine cold sweat broke out on the Shaman Lord's forehead, and he bowed his head lower still, not daring to raise his eyes to look.

"Heaven Above.

.

.

" A distant, ethereal voice came from the air: "I know. " The Shaman Lord stood bent where he was, motionless.

The golden summit of this divine mountain was bitterly cold, yet the beads of sweat on his brow began to fall, drop by drop.

After a good while he stealthily lifted his eyes and looked up, and saw a blue sky washed clean; the face had vanished at some unknowable hour.

The Shaman Lord let out a breath, then fled down the mountain in frantic haste, putting that place far behind him.

A long while later, the radiance on the golden summit drifted thin and dim, rippling like water. When the radiance stilled, two golden-eyed suanni came driving out of it, drawing a jeweled carriage.

At the carriage's center rose a canopy, from which hung a curtain strung of jewels and precious beads; atop the canopy was a three-tiered golden roof, round and squat, each tier smaller than the one below. Four golden pillars, each the thickness of a forearm and seven chi in height, upheld the canopy, and beside every pillar stood a beautiful young girl, a ring of primal qi behind her head, sashes and ribbons streaming, each clad in a different color - green, red, yellow, white.

The girl in green bore a jade vase on her palm; the girl in red cradled a seven-stringed qin; the girl in yellow held a sword in both hands; the girl in white embraced a pipa. And beneath the canopy, glimpsed through the strings of jewels, a man in purple robes sat bolt upright, of uncommon bearing. The two suanni were wreathed in flowing light, their feet treading auspicious clouds, and they hauled the jeweled carriage with the speed of wind and lightning toward the Middle Land. This carriage was not so cautious as the Shaman Lord: he had shunned the vast Desolate Ruins, whereas this carriage drove straight in, tracing a streak of flowing light across the sky as it raced for the Kingdom of Jingping - those within the carriage seemed utterly indifferent to the perils of the ruins.

Night fell, darkness shrouding the Desolate Ruins, and the two suanni gave off sky-flooding flames that blazed bright even in the dark as they drew the carriage through.

In the darkness surges of demonic qi churned, suddenly taking shape as a black-sunken palm that rushed at the light cast by the carriage and the suanni; wherever it passed, light was devoured, leaving only darkness.

By the time that black palm reached the carriage, no light could be given off at all - and just then the beaded curtain stirred, the girl in red plucked her strings, and the qin rang twice, ding and dong. At the sound, the black palm hesitated a moment, then drew back. "Heaven Above?

" came a hoarse voice from the darkness. The girl in red nodded.

"Star Lord Qiao of Heaven Above. " The demon in the dark withdrew and vanished without a trace, and thereafter nothing monstrous in that darkness troubled the carriage again.

Perilous beyond measure as the Desolate Ruins appeared by dark, at night it was in fact rather clamorous; all manner of dreadful things stirred in the night, and all manner of eerie happenings came to pass again and again. The carriage drove east, neither hurried nor slow, and beneath the canopy Star Lord Qiao looked upon the ruins as they now were and shook his head.

"The remnants are not yet cleansed; the poisoned dregs still linger.

" The carriage flew through the sky, cleaving the darkness, and from the dark ruins below, one looking up seemed to see a star moving neither swift nor slow.

Night in the Desolate Ruins was shrouded in darkness; no stars hung in the sky, no moon, and many a strange beast hidden away in the scattered relics, and the people in their villages, could not help lifting their heads to stare dumbly at a spectacle never seen before.

Suddenly that star plunged wildly, streaking down from the sky into the ruins, and those beasts and people who witnessed the marvel all sighed inwardly with regret.

Boom! The carriage came plunging down slantwise from the sky as though out of control.

Below lay the source of the Yong River, and in the darkness two mountain peaks stood like a gateway; it was between those two peaks that the carriage fell. The two suanni strove desperately to master the carriage but could not govern it at all, and were so frightened that they roared again and again.

The four girls on the carriage were in a panic too, and only then did they discover that at some unknown hour they had turned into withered bones! The four girls looked ahead, and saw that the two suanni drawing the carriage had likewise become two running skeletons of white bone.

They looked into the carriage, and a skull sat there. The skull, unhurried, gave a cold snort.

"To drag my carriage down - is Fengdu's thieving heart still not dead? " Ahead, gray gloom and mist stretched vast and dim; shadowy shapes loomed enormous within the fog, and red lights kindled in it, lanterns that moved as the carriage moved.

They were no lanterns, but eyes, pupils one and all.

The shadows in the mist withdrew one after another, and the red lights went out one after another. Flesh and blood grew back over the two suanni, and feeling the carriage no longer so heavy, they hastily put strength into their feet and hauled it up into the air.

Seeing flesh and blood restored to their bodies, the four girls on the carriage all breathed sighs of relief.

Star Lord Qiao's body likewise returned to its usual state, and he said mildly, "Fengdu, who will not submit to the governance of Youdu, and dares even to affront Heaven Above - it should long ago have been wiped out. " The carriage traveled on along the Yong River, and when the sky grew bright they saw the end of the Desolate Ruins, only a little more than a thousand li distant.

Suddenly a sword light rose from below and soared upward, bursting open in midair; the snow-bright sword radiance exploded in an instant, dazzling beyond compare, outshining the glory of the sun.

The suanni and the four girls on the carriage hastily shut their eyes, and when they opened them the four girls cried out in astonishment: the earth-shaking sword light of a moment before had vanished, and before the carriage stood a majestic expanse of mountains and rivers, towering peaks and sheer ranges, unbroken and endless.

Strangely, this landscape had not been there at all a moment ago, and moreover it floated in a sea of clouds, as though it had grown up out of the cloud layer itself.

From among the high crags came the rumble of a river rushing forth, and they saw waterfalls pouring down the cliffs and precipices, flying jade and spilling pearls. This green mountain and blue water floated amid the clouds, betraying no trace of anything amiss, not like a mirage.

"Stop," said Star Lord Qiao slowly from within the carriage.

The two suanni hastily halted.

Star Lord Qiao rose and looked toward the far end of this landscape, and saw that the mountains and rivers were still extending, as though growing of themselves; the peaks in the clouds were vast and grand, and range after range, river after river, kept surfacing from beneath the cloud layer. And at the edges of this landscape, sword lights flickered, hard to catch, yet unable to escape his eyes.

This sight was as though someone had used a sword for a brush and painted, in the clouds, a scroll of magnificent mountains and rivers. "Old cripple, so you are still alive.

" Star Lord Qiao smiled and said softly, "Go down. An old acquaintance of mine resides here.