Chapter 44 — The Book of Heaven

She sighed, yet still nursed a hope, and looked along the racks one by one. Every shelf was empty. Perhaps Heaven did not disappoint the diligent, for in the very last compartment she found a small iron box still there. But this rack had no label, and she could not tell what was inside.

Bili's heart leaped with joy. Cautiously she reached out and picked up the box; it felt quite heavy in her hand. She shook it gently a few times, but no sound came forth.

Bili pondered a moment, then set the iron box on the ground, drew a deep breath, and gathered her mind in guard. Her right hand swept out, and at once white light blossomed in the stone chamber; a jade-like flower appeared in midair, giving off a faint, delicate fragrance.

Bili's expression was grave. She turned her right hand over, and the little flower hovering in the air blazed brighter; it flew above the iron box, and its white light enveloped the whole of it.

Only then did Bili cautiously reach out to open the little box. The moment her fingers touched the lid, she felt that the box seemed not to be locked. Her brow knitted; the wariness in her eyes deepened. She bit her pearly teeth, steeled herself, and opened the lid.

There was a faint click, and before she could see what lay within the iron box, a wisp of black vapor came seething out.

Bili's face changed drastically. She flung herself backward as though struck by lightning, and the little white flower above the iron box swooped down at once. The black vapor was caught in the white light and, though it surged again and again, could not escape. After a moment the black vapor gradually withered away — while the jade-white flower slowly turned black, for it had drawn that black vapor into itself.

Only when the black vapor had wholly dissolved did Bili wait a good while before coming back. She bent her mind upon her little flower. The wondrous treasure her father had spent such great pains to refine for her alone — the "Heartbreak Flower" — now had petals that had been white as jade turned wholly purple-black, and looked somewhat savage.

Bili's face shifted slightly. "Corpse poison of the ancients!" she murmured. "The Blackheart Old Ghost was blackhearted indeed — to refine a thing like this!"

Cursing the Demon Sect elder, the Blackheart Old Man, under her breath, she turned her eyes into the iron box.

It was very simple; in that small iron box lay only one thing: a little bell of golden hue, as flawless as one could wish.

Bili was struck blank. She had not expected that a thing so rare and poisonous as the "corpse poison of the ancients" should have been set to guard only such a little bell. She looked it over this way and that, but could find nothing strange about it. After a moment's thought, she slowly reached out and picked up the bell.

"Ding-dang."

A clear, crisp note, as though echoing in the heart of a person, rang out in that secret stone chamber that had been silent for eight hundred years.

Bili held up the bell. Its clapper was exquisite and fine, and a slender iron cord was tied to its body. At the slightest shake the clapper struck softly against the sides, and again it gave forth sound.

"Ding... ding-dang."

Watching it, Bili, with a young girl's heart, was much taken with it, and the disappointment of a moment before was diluted considerably. She examined it once more carefully, and truly there was nothing strange about it; it seemed only an ordinary bell, cunningly made.

And yet, since the Blackheart Old Man had kept it so mysteriously and with such care, the bell must have something uncommon about it. When she had a chance to get out, she would ask her father.

With that thought Bili composed herself; but the more she looked at the little bell, the fonder she grew of it. She tied it at her waist and turned about, and indeed it gave forth a ripple of crisp notes, exceedingly sweet to the ear. Bili was delighted and nodded again and again.

Afterward she searched the stone chamber once more, but gained nothing further; she even went through that heap of refuse, and found nothing worth noticing, to say nothing of any way out.

When she had finished, Bili rose slowly. It was time to go and see how that foolish boy was faring.

Before leaving the chamber, she cast one last look back. The stone chamber was still in disarray; the heap of refuse, after she had rummaged through it, was in even worse disorder, all sorts of weapons scattered over the floor, and that great axe flung carelessly in a corner.

Then she walked out of the chamber.

The tunnel on the left, into which Zhang Qingyue had gone, was much longer than the one on the right that Bili had taken. Bili walked a good while before she saw light brightening ahead, but she still could not make out the situation within, and for some reason no sound at all came from inside. A faint, vague worry stirred in her heart. There were many strange and cruel things in the Demon Sect, uncanny and hard to fathom — could it be...

Unconsciously she quickened her step and entered the stone chamber. One careful look, and her heart was set at ease: Zhang Qingyue was standing in the middle of the chamber, gazing at the stone wall, lost in a daze.

Bili breathed a sigh of relief, and only then did she carefully observe the chamber. It was considerably larger than the one she had just left, but it was empty — nothing at all. Yet on the hard stone wall were carved dense ranks of inscribed characters, and it was at these that Zhang Qingyue was now staring, his brows tightly knit.

Bili frowned and went forward. She looked, and at once her face lit with delight: at the very beginning of the whole inscription were carved two large characters.

The Book of Heaven!

"The Book of Heaven — this is the Book of Heaven!" Bili could not help crying out in joy.

Zhang Qingyue started, and only then realized that Bili had come to his side; but his attention seemed fixed only on her words. "The Book of Heaven — what is this Book of Heaven?"

Bili glared at him. "How would I not know? This 'Book of Heaven' is the classic of our Holy Sect, handed down from ancient times to this day. All the divine powers of the disciples of the Holy Sect were comprehended from this Book of Heaven."

Zhang Qingyue started again, and great bewilderment came over his face. He turned his head and stared at the carvings on the wall; after a long while he said, in a low voice, "It cannot be. It is impossible!"

Bili's face darkened. "This is the classic of our Holy Sect, our utmost secret. Did you not say we were heretics and demons? Why, then, do you steal a look at it?"

Zhang Qingyue seemed not to hear her; his eyes held only those things carved upon the wall.

"The Book of Heaven, Volume One"

The fashioning of heaven and earth: in the time of chaos, when dark and light were not yet divided, sun and moon held their radiance within, heaven and earth were mingled in one body; then vastness changed, and the clear and the turbid were set forth.

Heaven and earth endure long and last because they do not live for themselves; therefore they can endure. Yet all things in heaven and earth have their appearances, and the multitude of beings are sunk in delusion, bewitched by the appearance of self, the appearance of person, the appearance of beings, the appearance of a lifespan; and because of these appearances the mind gives rise to the three poisons, the three fears, the three terrors, and cannot endure.

The forms of heaven have no shape; the Way is praised but has no name. Therefore it is said: no self, no person, no beings, no lifespan — and one reaches the light. Hold to the one true Way, behold the self-nature within, and heaven and earth take the root as their heart.

Therefore when movement rests within the earth, the heart of heaven and earth is seen.

Therefore there is neither the real nor the void.

Therefore heaven and earth accord with nature, acting not and making not.