Chapter 87: The End of the World

I had fallen asleep with my head on the table, and when I woke I found myself lying on a hard bed. Rubbing my dry eyes, I put on my shoes and got up. Qin Tian and Yu Jing were already waiting in the hall. Qin Tian was counting out a table full of bullets, and when he saw me come out he hurriedly handed me a cigarette.

"Old Li, I’m running low on bullets. When are we setting out?"

I stretched and cast aside every worry. "Today, then. If it weren’t for the Demon Spirit Sect, we’d have been in Phoenix Blue City long ago." The Demon Spirit Sect—one day I would make you pay blood for blood.

"Let’s leave after lunch. I caught a young wolf this morning," Yu Jing said, pointing to the little wolf on the ground. It was a gray wolf, about half the size of a full-grown one. Its four legs had been tied together, and it lay there on the floor looking at us pitifully.

"Let it go." All living things have feelings; sometimes human beings are more terrifying than beasts.

For the first time, Qin Tian did not object to my words. He walked over and untied the little wolf. Several women were busy in the kitchen. I went out alone and leaped onto the roof. I don’t know how long it had been since I last saw the sun; the sky was a sheet of dull gray, and the air seemed even murkier than before. I lay down, and for some reason I felt exhausted—not the exhaustion of the body. With my hands tucked beneath my head, I gazed at the horizon, and Xu Qinghuan’s face kept rising before my eyes. Lost in thought, my eyes grew wet again. I hurriedly gathered my wounded heart and sat up. I had to be strong. Life and death, parting and reunion, are all ordinary things in the end. It seemed I was just another vulgar man.

Enough of that. Everything would pass. Those beautiful things could only be buried deep in memory. Just then, by chance, I saw a faint glimmer on the horizon. I fixed my gaze on it, and there truly was light. I quickly opened my heavenly eye, and once it was activated, everything came into perfect clarity. It was a burning object, descending at tremendous speed. I hurriedly leapt down from the house and called everyone over. In just a short while, the enormous fireball had already neared the ground. Its searing heat set the leaves alight, and before long the trees for miles around were burning.

"Jesus, no way. The end of the world?" Qin Tian’s eyes went wide.

Everyone gathered in the yard. The fireball drew closer and closer, larger and larger. Standing on the ground, it felt as though a mountain were bearing down on one’s head. It seemed this lunch would not be happening after all.

"Don’t panic, everyone. Come with me."

I calmed the crowd. Many of the people from the Azure Dragon Gang were terrified, and they all began running back into the house. At a time like this, we had to stay calm. A meteor striking the earth had long since been reported in the news; there was nothing to fear. We only needed to find a safe place to hide.

But where was safe now? Everywhere was blazing with fire. Even the house where we had been resting had caught fire. Under the scorching heat, even my breathing seemed to grow heavier. I gathered everyone to my side and formed a protective barrier. With no time to waste, I led the crowd toward the back mountain. I remembered there were many ravines there; perhaps we could shelter in one for the moment.

The two-kilometer journey, if it were an ordinary day, would take me just ten seconds. But now I had to keep pace with the crowd, and there were ordinary people among us, so naturally I had to slow down. As we advanced, we also had to dodge the fireballs crashing down from above. The enormous blazes obscured half the sky, and from time to time burning fragments of stone flew toward the earth.

Ten minutes later, we finally reached the back mountain. The terrain there was complex, with the mountains stacked in layer upon layer. Between them were wide gaps, and in some places the peaks joined together above while leaving a vast open space below, like one temporary tent after another. Before a cave entrance, I signaled everyone to stop. The cave sloped downward, and no one knew how deep it went. Since I was unfamiliar with the terrain, I decided to go in and look first, while the others waited at the entrance. The mouth of the cave faced another mountain soaring into the clouds, and there was enough space at the opening to withstand the fireballs. I stepped out of the protective barrier and entered the cave, then looked back and said to everyone, "I’m going in to take a look. I’ll be right back."

Then I turned around and suddenly realized I had already moved away from the crowd, yet the barrier had not disappeared. I had never seen or tried anything like this before. Could the barrier be transferred onto another person? If so, that would be ideal. But there was no time to study it now. Sword of Frost in hand, I walked into the dark cave.

A faint breeze drifted through the cavern, so it probably was not very deep. I called for everyone to come in. Before they could all enter, however, a huge chunk of stone came crashing down. It rolled straight to the mouth of the cave and sealed the entrance completely. Worse still, the stone was still wreathed in fierce flames. It was impossible to get near it, let alone break through. Qin Tian and the brothers of the Azure Dragon Gang had not made it inside and were still outside. I shouted several times, but there was no response at all.

Yu Jing hurled his short sword. It struck the rock and burst into a spray of sparks. "Old Li, what do we do? Qin Tian won’t be in any danger, will he?" Yu Jing asked, catching the rebounding blade.

Damn it all. I pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a drag. "Maybe there’s another exit ahead. Let’s keep moving and see."

We had no choice but to keep going. I prayed there would be an exit further in. Following the downward slope, we walked on. Aside from a few bats, nothing along the way posed any threat. Then, all at once, the path ended. Damn it—the way ahead dropped straight down into a shaft, like a dried-up well. There was no ladder, and no one knew how deep it went. The ordinary folk of the Azure Dragon Gang were trapped outside, while the few of us here could descend. The problem was: what if there was no exit below?

"Old Li, let me go down and take a look first," Yu Jing said, bending over to peer into the bottomless opening. His cultivation had now nearly reached the level of a martial sovereign, and he was not far behind me at all. Although I had absorbed the energy in the blood pool, more than half of it was suppressed within my body and could not be fully brought into play. Murong Xue had no idea why that was. Letting Yu Jing scout ahead would be fine. Surely this time another boulder wouldn’t suddenly crash down and seal the opening again. I refused to believe we were cursed with such rotten luck every time.

Yu Jing went down. Through my heavenly eye I could see what lay inside, and as for the nine-tailed fox and Murong Xue, there was no need to mention them—they could probably see even more clearly than I could. The shaft continued downward, and along its edges there were some jagged stones with enough protrusions to use for leverage. Seeing no danger, I was just about to call the two women down when Yu Jing’s anguished cry echoed up from below.