Chapter 132 The Cold-billow Labyrinth

Xiaoyue looked deeply at him in silence, her gaze bespoke the doubts and suspicions swirling deep within her. The Flying-cloud Stone reached the barren and desolate desert after four hours of flying. Even the passing of summer did little to decrease the blistering swelter of the desert that stretched far into the horizon; a flat wasteland of death and despair.

"Amitabha..." Xu Gu chanted morosely as he peered off the edge of the flying slab and saw bones being uncovered by the swirling dust and sand.

Before long, they noticed the silhouette of the Wuwang Wind Cloud City amidst the vague mist of the desert, the only sign, and the concentration of life across the expanse of hundreds of miles that festooned with nothing but deathly emptiness.

As they approached, dark clouds loomed ominously over the entire city. The pall of gloom enveloped the city in a wretched shade, hardly giving off any sign of rain. "Senior Xu Gu," Xiaoyue asked, "Do you see anything wrong with the city?"

"Alas, I had noticed just moments earlier. The Earth Spiritual Meridian that passes through here has been blocked off and bound. What I see now only confirms this."

The rest of the crowd seated aboard the flying conveyance began to shift uneasily. Who would have such might and power to be able to block off and seal an Earth Spiritual Meridian? This would explain the death and despair that now tormented the surrounding areas. What a hateful act that the person had done to claim the Earth Spiritual Meridian for his own use that the rest of everywhere was condemned to rot and decay.

At Xu Gu's suggestion, everyone agreed to land the flying conveyance. They would approach the city on foot to prevent alerting the enemy. It was a trek hardly a little more than ten miles; yet with every step they took, Xiao Chen sensed that the sinister feeling of the strong evil Qi emanating from the city only grew stronger and stronger.

Besides the disturbing feel of the evil Qi, he could also pick up the stench of decay. His extraordinary sensitivity towards the deathly Qi tingled his spine even as the rest of the others had yet to feel anything. An unutterable foreboding dread hung over him as they drew closer and closer to the city.

Slowly, they filed through the city gates and found the city lively and noisy, overrun by merchants and hawkers peddling their wares and calling out to prospective customers with burning fervor. It was a scene no different from any other cities and towns outside. But they swiftly noticed an odd-looking fortress protruding proudly atop a precipice at the west, overlooking the entire city. It was there, they could distinctly feel, that the strong evil Qi emanated from.

"Amitabha..." Xu Gu chanted again, "I'll recommend diplomacy first; we should first meet and greet the master of the fortress."

With everyone else's nodding assent, they moved towards the hill. As they walked up the hill, towering trees flanked either side of the path on their way up, bearing strange and peculiar-looking fruits. The company enjoyed the soothing of rich Spiritual Qi that filled the atmosphere around them as they walked until their trek was barred by a magical barrier. But there was yet any proof that the master of the city had anything to do with the Devil's Practice, and destroying the defenses of the barrier would do little to help diplomacy.

Just when the company was troubled at what to do, two figures, one white and the other black, appeared. They perched atop a hanging branch, dressed in identical clothing save for their contrasting colors, peering down smugly at the group. From their demeanor, they appeared to be the watchers of the fortress.

Xu Gu stood before the company, with his palms clasped together respectfully. With a bow, he spoke to them, "I am a student of the Wuyin Monastery. My name is Xu Gu." He paused and gestured towards Xiaoyue, saying, "And this is Master Xiaoyue of the Thousand Feathers Sect." He paused again before continuing, "We wish an audience with the master of the city. Can you please convey to your master of our visit?"

The man clad in white standing on the left snorted coldly and hissed, "The Master will receive no guests for three days!" The man in black beside him uttered in an equally steely voice, "Begone to where you came from!"

How dare you!" Ye Wuhen snarled, resisting his urge to pounce upon the two wardens. Over 10 people standing here were the young elites of all schools of martial sects of the land, yet the two watchers showed them nothing but insolence and contempt. Only Xiaoyue, Xiao Chen, and a few others remained silent and calm, watching with impassive stares.

Xu Gu chanted another "Amitabha" and implored, "Please, gentlemen. We have come a long way to discuss grave matters with your master. Please convey our wish to meet him. We will not keep him from his business for long."

"What is wrong with you, monk?" The man in white chuckled coldly, "I have said very clearly. Be it the Wuyin Monastery or the Thousand Feathers Sect, your presence is not wanted here! Leave now at once and never return!"

"You insolent pup!" Ye Wuhen bellowed, his eyes flaring with anger. Fueled by what happened before, he harbored intense hatred to the name of the Wuwang City. "Senior Xu Gu!" he yelled, "Why are you being so polite to them? We have so many of us here! We need not be afraid of a puny Wuwang City! We should just charge on ahead since they refuse to meet us!"

"Hahahaha!" The man in black guffawed loudly, throwing his head back. "You can try! Be my guest!" He flailed his sleeves, and with his companion, they disappeared into thin air.

Xiao Chen eyed Ye Wuhen angrily and cursed his foolishness quietly. Did he forget about how easily he was defeated by Leng Ningfeng? Xiao Chen turned to Xu Gu and asked, "What do you think we should do now, Senior Xu Gu?"

Xu Gu remained silent, pondering about other options. But Xiaoyue remarked, "We have come a long way. There's no turning back until we've seen this matter resolved." She was implying that we should storm our way up, Xiao Chen noticed.

That was not without reason: she, Xu Gu and Yu Yifeng were the strongest among the rest of the company. Mu Chengxue, Ye Wuhen, and the others were nowhere near their levels of strength.

Moreover, the rest of the company agreed to what she said. Being the younger crop of elites in the land, each of them walked and talked with a note of pride in their voices. Never would they so easily admit defeat to two mere wardens and withdraw without a fight!

But suddenly, a hollow but deafening voice, booming from the mountaintop, echoed down the slopes towards them. "Hail, friends from afar. The Master of the city welcomes you all..." The voice had barely faded and the magical barrier before them immediately dissipated.

This was strangely irregular. It was a definite show of disdain at their visit earlier. What had prompted the sudden reversal? Was the Master unnerved by the might of the company? Ye Wuhen snorted contemptuously, taking the first step ahead.

"Everything still feels strange to me," Xiao Chen spoke, "It's prudent that we maintain constant vigilance and be wary of traps." Ye Wuhen overhead him and turned back, shooting him a cold and angry glare. With another scoff, he marched uphill.

The rest of the company filed behind him, following his lead up the path. About seven to eight miles into their hike, the lush and tranquil surroundings earlier at the middle of the hill gave way to rough and uneven terrain with rocks and gravel littering the path. Dried and shriveled thorns and briars lined along the path, encroaching into their way like serpents that threatened to snap at their ankles. It was as if they had walked through a wormhole and reached another world, for there was nothing but lonesome bleakness around them.

A good many of the female disciples that came along had the hems of their skirts torn by the thorns that their shins could be seen through the tattered fabric. They would have been bleeding if not for the protection of their True Qi.

Xiao Chen went to the front and took the lead. With the Unsullied, he hacked and hewed at the thorny branches, clearing a way for Mu Chengxu and Luo Shangyan behind him. The female disciples, seeing this, smiled at his chivalrous gesture.

But the dire conditions of the road did not improve as they climbed further; the pebbles and gravel began to grow larger in size, further aggravating the company's walk uphill and the branches and stalks of the thorns and briars seemed stronger and sturdier now that they began to entangle themselves upon anyone who walked near like ravenous vines.

Even Ye Wuhen's clothes were frayed and ripped by the barbed vegetation lurching in on the company slowly. Incensed, he began yelling loudly, "Did you not want to meet! Come meet us then! Enough with the cloak and dagger!"

But the same hollow voice echoed from the mountaintop once more, saying, "You have before nightfall to escape the Cold-billow Labyrinth. Fail to do so, and you'll remain here for eternity and serve the bidding of the City Master!"

"What are you talking about? What Cold-billow Labyrinth!" Ye Wuhen shouted into the air as any vestiges of the voice's presence swiftly retreated with the wind, "Show yourself and explain!"

If Ye Wuhen was indeed awaiting a reply, only the frosty howling of winds responded. He could bridle his anger no more, punching with rage at several boulders, reducing them to bits and pieces.

"Amitabha..." Xu Gu muttered again, "Please be calm, Brother Ye. There's no need for distress and anger. We'd better start thinking of a way to escape this place..."

But the frantic screams from one of the female disciples robbed their attention. Everyone looked back, peering down the path which the company had come from and found everything behind them had vanished. They could no longer see the dense and placid forest they had come out from, as if the company had been cut off from the world, trapped in another dimension.

"What is happening to us?" Panic cries began to arise. A young man drew his sword, and was about to step on his sword to fly. But his sword clattered to the ground helplessly. There was a magical enchantment here that restricted anyone from flying!

A few other swordsmen followed suit, drawing their swords and trying to fly, yet none of them could resist the strength of the enchantment and fly! Some began to panic. Being cut off from the rest of the world, not even their jade notes could work; there was no way they could send word to their own respective schools and sects to call for help.

"Please remain calm," Xu Gu beseeched everyone, before turning to Xiaoyue and Yu Yifeng, "Master Xiaoyue and Junior Yu, I suggest the three of us lead the way to cut a path. Everyone else will follow behind and be careful not to do anything rash."

With them three spearheading the front, the rest of the company that followed behind peered intently at the thorny patch around them, although everyone failed to note anything out of the ordinary. Xiao Chen gripped the Unsullied tightly, walked closely beside Luo Shangyan warily. The wardens mentioned about three days, he remembered suddenly. Was the Master of the city trying to hold them off for at least three days here while he planned to accomplish something? He noticed Mu Chengxue's dazed look and whispered softly to her, "What's wrong, Miss Mu?"

"N-no... Nothing..." Mu Chengxue replied, shaking off her lethargic drowsiness, "I just felt slightly dizzy..."

Xiao Chen nodded, saying nothing. He felt something strange about her ever since entering this city. The company continued searching for their way out for another hour and slowly found their way out of the vast thorny briar patch to discover a completely different scenery unfurled before them. They had wandered into a lush gorge filled with blossoming flowers that bloomed lavishly despite the beckoning autumn season. The tender and refreshing scent of wild flora and fauna filled the air, while birds chirped cheerily of love and romance around the gorge.

The gentle gurgling of a flowing brook could be heard from afar as they ventured deeper into the valley. A majestic ring of mountains encircled the gorge, looming like silent sentinels that watched over the palace complexes that stood in the thick of a forest paradise. Xiao Chen took a deep breath, taking in a refreshing gulp of air as he contemplated the difference between the harsh tangle of thorns and spikes that tormented them earlier and this bizarre utopia that they had stumbled upon. But when he turned his head, Senior Sister Luo who was supposed to be at his side was missing!

He turned another round, and found everybody had vanished! He was alone! He began yelling for everyone but got no reply, save for the echoes of his own voice resounding off into the gorge.

"What is going on? Where am I?"

He had been careful all the way, still, he did not know how he fell into the trap, although he was certain that nothing of what he could now see and feel was not part of the Wuwang Wind Cloud City.

All of a sudden, he heard the sound of someone crying.

"No... Please... They are my Senior Sisters... I cannot kill them..."

The voice sounded oddly familiar to him. He crept towards the voice and saw the figures of a few strangers ahead. An aged Taoist priestess, looking grim and cold, had a little girl, looking about thirteen to fourteen of age, standing her. It was Xiaoyue in her early teens! Before them both, stood a pair of female disciples that looked slightly older than the little girl.

Xiao Chen instantly understood: the gorge he had found himself in was the surroundings of the stronghold of the Thousand Feathers Sect. The entire company had fallen into an illusory enchantment, including him. He was witnessing the inner-most secret of Xiaoyue, the one memory that she had hidden within herself, away from the knowledge of anyone else.

He had never liked Xiaoyue since the moment she had callously expelled Chen Nianxue from her order when they had first met at the Widespread Wintriness Sect. But he could not help feeling sympathetic towards her now. Did she also have a painful past that she did not wish to speak of?

He instinctively began to wander closer. The old priestess and her students made no notice of him. "Such are the rules," Xiao Chen heard her saying, "These are the unbreakable tenets set by our founder thousands of years ago. They have broken the laws and they are to be executed. Perform the coup de grace and spare them of any more pain; else they would suffer even more if I were to exact judgment myself!"

This must be Perfected Immortal Su Nian, Xiao Chen gasped with surprise, momentarily stunned. What ruthlessness, he grimaced, that she was now forcing Xiaoyue to execute her own beloved seniors with her own hands.