Chapter 62 — The Demonic Cult

Tian Lingsu gave a humph and said carelessly: "Never mind them. Let us just follow this stream! Upstream, to see whether there are any Demonic Cult wretches about, and while we are at it—" She covered her mouth and laughed softly. "While we are at it, let us see whether there are any prettier stones."

What was this, that felt like the burning of the body?

What was this, that brought the urge to throw back one's head and howl at the sky?

So it was that the demon fire of the Nine Hells burned within the heart, searing the soul within the body, thread by thread, without mercy.

He bowed his head low, and his voice had grown somewhat strangely hoarse. Softly he said: "Very well!"

The Amber Red Silk coiled at her waist, setting off her red figure and making her all the more beautiful. The two of them followed the stream and walked on another half hour.

Along the way Tian Lingsu was relaxed and cheerful, gazing all about, while Zhang Qingyue followed silently behind her.

The stream looked small, yet its length was considerable; after walking so long they still had not come to its source. Ahead they saw another low hill, and where it curved there was a ravine, and it was from there that the stream flowed out.

Tian Lingsu had walked half the day and was somewhat tired, so she turned to Zhang Qingyue and said: "Xiaofan, it is getting late. Let us go and have a look past this ravine, and if we still find nothing, we will go back."

Zhang Qingyue nodded silently.

Tian Lingsu looked at her little junior brother a couple of times more, a little puzzled at heart, but she did not take it to mind, and turning, walked on ahead.

The two soon reached the bend of the ravine, and looking in, they were startled. Behind the cliff wall ahead was a great cave, by the look of it fully ten yards high, and it was from this cave that the stream flowed out. Because the cliff wall blocked the view, one could not see this cave from the air—nor even from somewhat farther off on the ground nearby—so it was well hidden indeed.

Tian Lingsu frowned and said to Zhang Qingyue: "Shall we go in and have a look?"

Zhang Qingyue glanced at the cave. Apart from a little light at the entrance, the depths were pitch black, and his heart grew uneasy.

In these days past, especially since he had come down from the mountain, he had entered two caves—one the Ten Thousand Bats Grotto of Kongsang Mountain, the other the Black Stone Cave outside Xiaochi Town—and he had good impressions of neither. Now, seeing this cave, he felt an instinctive distaste. And his mood at present was truly foul, so he said: "Senior sister, this cave does not look as though anyone lives in it. Why not go back?"

Tian Lingsu nodded and said, "All right! That is what I was thinking too. Then let us..."

She had barely spoken half of it when suddenly a rushing sound came from above their heads, and a moment later a ceaseless *swish-swish* filled the air—a great many people were flying toward this place.

Zhang Qingyue and Tian Lingsu looked up at once, and after a moment their faces went pale. The garments of that crowd in the sky marked them as followers of the Demonic Sect, and by a rough count they numbered no fewer than several dozen.

The two exchanged a look of dismay. Tian Lingsu, being the quicker of wit, knew that the Demonic Sect had no shortage of masters, and that if they rashly took flight now, they would have little hope of slipping away. In that desperate moment she could only gamble: she seized Zhang Qingyue's hand, and the two of them ran into the dark cavern.

Darkness swallowed their two figures whole.

Before long the Demonic Sect members came down one after another, and their target was indeed the area around this mountain ravine. A short while later someone seemed to light torches, and then the whole crowd actually began walking toward the cave.

Zhang Qingyue and Tian Lingsu, who had been hiding near the mouth of the cave, had no choice but to feel their way deeper into the darkness. Their hearts now hung suspended in midair; the disparity in strength between the two sides was simply too great, and if they were discovered they would have no power to resist at all.

Fortunately, the Demonic Sect was numerous, and it seemed they had never imagined that anyone from the orthodox sects would discover this place. Along the way they made no effort to muffle their talk and laughter, and by sheer luck those sounds covered the faint noises the two of them made.

Moving a stretch, pausing a stretch, they at last reached a spacious area, and the Demonic Sect people stopped there. Those carrying torches found crevices in the surrounding rock with practiced ease and thrust the torches into them; plainly they came to this place often.

The open space within the cave was lit up.

Zhang Qingyue and Tian Lingsu stopped as well, hiding deeper within where the light did not reach, hardly daring to breathe.

Zhang Qingyue peered stealthily outward. In the distance the Demonic Sect followers had formed a rough semicircle, each finding a large rock to sit on; some of the cruder sort simply plunked themselves down on the ground.

Seen from afar, the Demonic Sect was indeed utterly unlike the orthodox sects—there were many strange-looking characters among them. Zhang Qingyue remembered him well: the Wild Wolf Daoist, with his dog-like face, was sitting among them now, and beside him were Elder Nian, Liu Hao, Lin Feng, and that beautiful young woman whose name he did not know, all gathered together.

Beyond them, moreover, there seemed to stand a young man whose face was unfamiliar—Zhang Qingyue had never seen him before.

Suddenly Tian Lingsu whispered at his ear, "Xiaofan, look—there seem to be many factions within the Demonic Sect, don't there?"

Zhang Qingyue felt a tickle at his ear, yet for some inexplicable reason his heart ached. Not daring to dwell on it, he nodded and kept looking outward. It was as Tian Lingsu had said: though the Demonic Sect members outside had roughly formed a semicircle facing one direction, where two or three men sat, the rest still sat together in clusters, the divisions between factions perfectly clear.

Just then, a low voice came from among those two or three: "Everyone, please be quiet."

At once all within the Demonic Sect fell silent, as though the owner of that voice held supreme authority.

Zhang Qingyue was rather far off and could not for the moment tell which of them had spoken, so he quietly craned his neck to look toward the open ground. Then he felt clothing brush lightly against him—Tian Lingsu too was stretching her head out to look.

The torches on the stone walls burned quietly, now and then crackling. Suddenly a tall, dark-skinned man rose from among the Demonic Sect and, facing one direction, called out in a ringing voice: "Reverent Envoy, this time the Nether King Sect summoned us to this remote island, saying that a rare beast, the Kui Ox, appears here only once every three thousand years. But we have searched for so many days now, and not only have we not found a single hair of the ox, we have drawn those tiresome meddlers of the orthodox sects down upon us, and they harry us without end. May I ask what is to be done now?"

Zhang Qingyue started, and whispered to Tian Lingsu, "What is a Kui Ox?"

Tian Lingsu thought for a while, then at last shook her head and said, "I do not know either."

The two looked back toward the open ground. Once that man had broken the silence, many others chimed in, and among them the Wild Wolf Daoist, though his cultivation was not high, seemed to have a most fiery temper, so that his voice rang loudest of all.

"He speaks sense! His venerable self, the Nether King, sits high above and naturally pays no heed to such trifles—but why should we suffer here for nothing? At the very least, someone had better give this old fellow an explanation!"