Chapter 34 — Ten Thousand Bats

The veiled woman glanced at the flower in her hand; the veil stirred lightly—she seemed to nod. "Those four are of the Canglan Sect." Her voice echoed in the garden, deep and drifting; soft as it was, it carried a ghostly edge. "The one in the lead is Qi Hao of the Dragon Peak faction. The other three I have not seen before; they look to be of the younger generation. I do not know their names."

The green-clad girl smiled faintly. "I know one of them. The one who just went past—his name is Zhang Qingyue. What a plain, rustic name."

The veiled woman glanced at her. "Bili, it has been a long time since I have seen you admire flowers."

The green-clad girl—Bili, as she was called—seemed to freeze for a moment. Then her exquisite face broke into a smile again. "Yes, Aunt You. A long time."

She lifted the flower and looked at it closely once more. Then, under the veiled woman's gaze, the green-clad girl smiled—and yet her hand clenched, firm and decisive, and crushed the lovely blossom to shreds.

The next day the four of the Canglan Sect rose and washed. Qi Hao gathered them and said, "Kongsang Mountain lies three thousand li to the east. That is no short road; we had best make haste." The other three raised no objection, and so they settled the bill and set out.

The owner of the Mountain-Sea Inn did indeed hold the Canglan Sect in esteem; the room rate, steep as it was, was cut by half, till it was nearly the same as an ordinary lodging. Zhang Qingyue watched Qi Hao laugh and reckon the accounts with the owner, while his own eyes darted about. But even as they left, he did not catch sight of the green-clad girl and her companions again.

The four traveled by air, and the three thousand li took them a full ten days. Along the way Zhang Qingyue naturally dragged the pace badly, but in the last few days, as his command of the arts of Dao grew more practiced and he became better acquainted with the "Mystic Iron Staff," he managed to fly quite respectably. In those days, soaring high through the sky, that sensation of cleaving through blue heaven and white clouds kept him exhilarated for quite some time.

At last they reached Kongsang Mountain. As they dropped from the clouds, all of them were startled: within a hundred li all around, one great mountain rose sheer and steep, but it was mostly rock and sparse of grass and trees, and at its foot there was not a trace of human habitation—a desolation entire.

It was near dusk now, the sun sinking west, and the hazy yellow light of the setting sun fell upon Kongsang Mountain as though bearing a touch of bleakness, and a touch of the fearsome too. The four came down at the mountain's foot and put away their immortal swords and treasures. Qi Hao looked at the sky and said, "I see no household here where we might lodge. Better we go up the mountain at once—hunt for that 'Ten Thousand Bats Ancient Grotto' and look for some fit place to rest the night."

Zeng Shuyan said, "Elder Martial Brother Qi speaks sense. Let us go up the mountain." Zhang Qingyue, seeing that Zeng Shuyan agreed, had no objection of his own. Lu Xueqi glanced at the sky and said nothing, but she was the first to walk toward the summit.

Kongsang Mountain could not match the absurd height of Heaven-Reaching Peak on Canglan Mountain, but it was no low hill either; and being remote and sheer, with no path to be found, the four had climbed from the foot only to the mountainside when the sky went fully dark.

The four came to a broad flat ledge, and Qi Hao called them to a halt. From his robe he drew a small bronze mirror. All three recognized it at a glance as the supreme treasure of the Canglan Sect, the ** Mirror, and for a moment they were startled, not knowing what Qi Hao meant to do.

Qi Hao held the ** Mirror in his hand and softly intoned a few words of incantation. The ** Mirror, dull and lightless before, seemed to answer, brightening gradually; then it rose from his hand and hovered two feet above his head, its radiance growing, until a pale yellow halo lit a circle some six feet around the four and held them at its center.

Only then did Qi Hao say, "Eight hundred years ago, Kongsang Mountain was a gathering place for the fiends of the demon cult. And from what I see, this mountain is bleak and strange—I fear it harbors many mountain spirits and spectral things. The ** Mirror has the power to ward off harm; we would do well to guard against trouble before it comes."

Zhang Qingyue glanced at the ** Mirror floating in the air. The little mirror looked unremarkable, yet in its archaic plainness lurked an auspicious air; it was not to be underestimated. Just then they all heard a great crash in the distance, and then a crackling, popping sound, growing ever denser, until at last not only did it grow louder and louder but the very rhythm could no longer be made out—only a vast rumbling din echoing over the desolate hills. Far off, by the little light the ** Mirror cast into the darkness, they saw a black vapor abruptly rise from behind a distant ridge, all the more uncanny in the dark—and from there came the rumbling roar.

Every face changed. Zeng Shuyan said, "The ** Mirror!"

The words had scarcely left his mouth, before the others could react, when the black cloud—growing vaster in the air by the moment—seemed to sense something and shifted toward them. A moment later, as though a piercing shriek came from within the black cloud, in an instant the whole of it wheeled about as one and rushed at the four—at the one point of light in all this dark night.

In an instant the star-strewn sky went pitch black, as though something had blotted it out. A foul stench filled the air around them in the blink of an eye, and Zhang Qingyue and the others turned pale with fright. Only Qi Hao kept some composure, though his face had gone white too. "No rash moves!" he cried. "Whatever you do, do not leave the circle of the ** Mirror's light!"

Another moment, and the shrieking and rumbling were at their ears. By the ** Mirror's glow they finally made out that black cloud—and it was a countless host of black bats, dense beyond reckoning, and by the look of their bodies more than twice the size of any bat they had ever seen. Each gaped wide its maw, and amid that sea of black the mouths were a raw crimson—hideous and terrifying.

But the pale yellow light the ** Mirror cast now showed its worth: every bat was barred outside that circle, and batter and crush as they might, the circle did not stir in the least. Nay, those near the edge, where they touched the pale yellow radiance, gave off a sizzling hiss; a moment later they dropped to the ground and thrashed there—plainly they could not live.

But the swarm was far too vast. As far as the eye could reach, the very stars of the night sky were hidden—surely millions upon millions. Those dead on the ground were perhaps not one part in a million of them. On and on the countless bats came, wave upon wave. The four were ringed in the center; for the moment they were safe, but before, behind, and on every side were those most hideous blood-red maws, and the reeking stench was enough to make a man retch.

After all, the ** Mirror was a supreme treasure of the Dao. Beneath the assault of these countless savage beasts it showed not the slightest sign of weakness or wavering. The yellow circle looked thin and frail, yet it stood firm as a mountain, and before long the bat corpses around it were piling higher and higher.

By now who could say how many black bats filled the air about the circle—not three rings deep, but three hundred rings. Yet their battering at the circle seemed gradually to slacken; it seemed they knew it was futile, and gave up the useless labor. Only, they seemed loath to forgo such a fine feast, and still they ringed them, unwilling to leave.