Chapter 103 — The Fish Monster

The keen azure light descended from the sky, trailing a fierce wind, skimming over the green grass and the ponds. The invisible wind pressed the sea of grass and the pond water aside, raising ripples across the surface.

Soon Ming Li caught sight of the mustering place of the Hades King Sect's forces. Many people were still gathered there, and it seemed at least most of them were safe and sound. Half his worry eased.

By then the Hades King Sect disciples had spotted Ming Li descending from the sky, and rose to their feet one after another.

Ming Li landed and stood upon the ground, but his first reaction was to knit his brows even tighter. The smell of blood here was overpoweringly thick—clearly, the scent he had caught high in the air had come from this very place.

The Hades King Sect disciples around him stood with heads bowed and hands at their sides. In these years Ming Li had not killed wantonly, but his cultivation of the demon path had greatly changed his temper, and a coldness often radiated from him unbidden. Within the Hades King Sect, apart from the sect master himself, the one the ordinary disciples feared and revered most was this rising man.

At that moment one man stepped out from the crowd—a young man with sword-shaped brows and starry eyes, quite handsome. It was Yan Hui.

He came forward, bowed to Ming Li, and said, "Vice Sect Master, you have returned."

Ming Li nodded. "What has happened here?"

Yan Hui hesitated, at a loss for words, and signaled with his eyes. Ming Li understood and walked forward. Yan Hui glanced around and said loudly, "The Vice Sect Master has returned! Everyone hold your posts—there is no need for alarm."

At once the company answered in unison, and then dispersed.

Yan Hui quickened his pace to catch up with Ming Li, and said in a low voice, "Follow me, sir."

With that, he strode off toward a secluded spot to the right. The two walked a while and came to a place where the grass grew thick, the wild growth standing half a man's height, and though there was no one about, the smell of blood in the air grew ever heavier.

Ming Li looked at Yan Hui, whose own face had gone slightly pale. In a low voice he said, "See for yourself." And stepping to the edge of that thicket, he reached out and parted the grass.

Ming Li walked slowly forward and peered into the grass, and in an instant his expression changed utterly. From the outside the thicket looked no different from the ground around it, but its heart had been dyed a brilliant crimson with human blood, and the stench of it struck the nostrils and turned the stomach. There beneath the dense growth lay thirteen human skeletons, their deaths too horrible to look upon; almost every body had been hacked into several pieces.

For all that Ming Li had dwelt these years among the Demonic Cult and grown used to seas of blood and storms of carnage, such cruelty as this he had never seen.

He closed his eyes and steadied himself, and his face returned to calm; then he went slowly forward and examined the remains one by one.

Yan Hui followed behind him and said softly, "These disciples were posted here last night as sentries. This place lies farthest from where our main force is camped; it was the farthest outpost we set, and these men were seasoned and capable. Yet in a single night, without a sound, every one of them was slaughtered."

Ming Li's face was grim, his gaze growing colder by degrees. Slowly he said, "Who did this? Have you any notion?"

Yan Hui did not answer at once, but said, "Deputy Sect Leader, come over here and look."

Ming Li glanced at him, and saw Yan Hui stepping over those hideous corpses and walking deeper into the grass. Farther in there lay another body, but this one was comparatively whole, save that the left hand was gone, no one knew where.

The corner of Ming Li's eye twitched slightly. He knew this man: Xu Chonghai by name, one of considerable cultivation among his subordinates—and now dead here as well, beyond all expectation.

Yan Hui came to Xu Chonghai's side and said, "Look here."

Ming Li stepped close and looked down at the ground, and there beside Xu Chonghai's head he saw, traced in the mud by the one right hand that remained, two characters:

Fish—monster.

The character "fish" was still fairly clear, but the second, "monster," had run wild and shapeless; plainly Xu Chonghai had been at the very end of his strength.

"Fish monster?" Ming Li knit his brows.

Yan Hui nodded. "I don't know what it means either. Can there be some fish-monster demon lurking nearby? But after we found them today I searched the whole neighborhood at once, and found no trace of any such creature."

Ming Li turned slowly and walked out of the thicket, and Yan Hui followed. The foul stench in the air was still heavy, yet by comparison with the inside of the grass it seemed almost fresh.

Ming Li drew a deep breath and suddenly said, "Where is the Killing Monk? Why is he not here?"

Yan Hui was silent a moment, then said, "When he saw this sight this morning he flew into a fury. Then, from the way Xu Chonghai's hand had moved, he somehow made out that these mysterious fish monsters had gone south, and set off after them alone. I argued with him, but he would not listen. And besides..."

He broke off midway.

Ming Li glanced at him. "What?"

A flicker of hatred crossed Yan Hui's face. "You had strictly ordered, Deputy Sect Leader, that before your return we were not to clash with the Enchanting Soul Sect or the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect. But with a butchery like this before dawn, I thought it must be their doing, and so I secretly took men to their camps to find out the truth. If it was indeed their work, then vengeance was only proper."

Ming Li said mildly, "The thing came without warning; you were not wrong. And after you went—what came of it?"

Yan Hui hesitated, then said, "That, sir, was far beyond anything I expected. The Ten Thousand Poisons Sect's people had already, the day before, withdrawn from the Death Marsh entirely, no one knows why. And as for the Enchanting Soul Sect..." He looked at Ming Li and said quietly, "It seems the same thing befell them as befell us. More than twenty of their number are dead."

Ming Li's expression shifted slightly. "Is that so?"

Yan Hui said, "It is. I scouted it out myself before I came back."

Ming Li said nothing, standing there as though sunk in thought.

For a time Yan Hui dared not disturb him, but at length, seeing that Ming Li still had not spoken, he could not refrain from saying softly, "Deputy Sect Leader, what are we to do now?"

Ming Li did not answer directly. Instead, as though something had suddenly occurred to him, he turned to look at Yan Hui and said, "Before my return—did the Sect Leader of the Underworld King come here?"

Yan Hui's face changed, and then he nodded. "Yes."

A faint light flickered in Ming Li's eyes. "What did he say?"

Yan Hui said, "The Sect Leader came with the two Holy Envoys, Azure Dragon and Vermilion Bird. He looked over the situation here, and his face was very dark; but in the end he said only one thing—'All matters here are to be handled by the Deputy Sect Leader'—and then left with the two Envoys."

Ming Li's face showed no expression, and again there was silence. Yan Hui, of course, did not yet know of the subtle turn that had come between the Underworld King and Ming Li, and could only stand watching him from the side.

After a moment Ming Li nodded and said, "You have handled this well. The business in the Death Marsh is now concluded. From this moment, take your men and leave this place at once; return to Mount Huqi."

Yan Hui nodded. "And you, Deputy Sect Leader?"

Ming Li turned away and gazed at the drifting white clouds along the horizon, whiter than white, without a stain—and who could imagine how much bloodshed was unfolding beneath them?