Chapter 102 — Little Grey

The Heaven Emperor's Treasure House was, to be sure, a place of wonders from ages past, but at this moment, first, it was aged beyond reckoning, and second, who could say how many times the Blackwater Mystic Serpent had rammed it that day? And the strength of such an ancient demon-beast—how could it be compared to anything ordinary? Had this been an ordinary hill instead of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent would long since have leveled it.

Now all around came sharp crackings and burstings, and everywhere echoed the sounds of hard wood twisting and groaning in agony, enough to make the heart leap with fright; the treasure house rocked violently, and Little Grey gave a shriek and nearly fell from Ming Li's shoulder again, while Ming Li and Lu Xueling both felt heaven and earth swaying around them, and could scarcely keep their footing.

By rights, under such violent battering, even if the stand and cup were one body, the elixir in the cup should have spilled out. Yet just as it shook so violently, the stone floating on the liquid in the wooden cup suddenly sent up a thin thread of golden light, shooting straight upward to shine upon that veil of radiance, which at once was dyed wholly gold, and then the light flared bright.

Under the shining of that veil, the wooden stand, which had seemed about to stir, suddenly fell still amid the violent upheaval all around. Only when the surrounding tremors gradually subsided did the golden splendor slowly dim and return to its former state.

Ming Li and Lu Xueling exchanged a look, and in their eyes were astonishment and admiration: such workmanship was surely beyond the reach of human skill.

Ming Li looked around again, and by the light of that wondrous stone saw that apart from this wooden stand there seemed to be nothing else in the treasure house. Yet this stone, crystalline and translucent with an immortal aura coiling within it, was certainly no common thing; it seemed the rare treasure they had sought these many days was this very object.

At the thought, his heart warmed, and he reached out toward the veil of light over the wooden stand.

"Do not touch it!" Lu Xueling's voice suddenly turned cold, sounding at his side.

Ming Li's hand stopped in midair, then slowly drew back; he turned and faced Lu Xueling.

The two stood face to face, less than three feet apart; yet the warmth that had faintly been between them a moment before now suddenly went cold, replaced by the chill behind silence.

Ming Li looked at Lu Xueling and said slowly, "I want this thing."

Lu Xueling looked into the man's eyes and said quietly, "I will not let you have it—unless you kill me first."

Ming Li said no more.

That faint light in the darkness flowed gently on, shifting through the seven colors—as if it too were trying to say something.

"Boom!"

Another earth-shaking crash, the same heaving of ground and mountains, but greater this time than before. Though the wondrous stone sent up golden light to shield the wooden stand, the walls of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House around them seemed no longer able to hold.

With a hoarse, rending sound, a huge beam of wood suddenly fell from overhead. Ming Li and Lu Xueling sprang apart at the same instant, and then crash followed crash without cease: outside, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent seemed to have gone mad, ramming the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House without pause, while amid its roars the phoenix's clear cry grew ever more furious and shrill.

Outside, it seemed, a world-shaking battle to the death was also being fought.

The whole Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, pressed by that vast outside force, at last began slowly to deform; on every side the walls began to cave inward, and broken fragments of wood fell thick as rain.

In such straits, Ming Li and Lu Xueling could for the moment only dodge the falling beams, and had no thought to spare for the wooden stand.

It looked as though the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House was about to collapse; but just then, as if by the power of some ancient god, the wondrous stone suddenly sent up a golden light far broader and more dazzling than before, abruptly forming a pillar that shot straight up to the sky. And this time it broke through the veil that wrapped the wooden stand and shone directly upon the dome of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House.

Within the treasure house there suddenly arose a mysterious, distant sound, like the secret chanting of Brahma in a sacred mountain paradise, or like the soft whispering of lonely souls in the Nine Depths. As that golden pillar of light pressed against the dome, the whole Heaven Emperor's Treasure House seemed to be held up by some mighty support, and ceased to cave inward; the falling beams too gradually stopped.

Then, before the eyes of Lu Xueling and Ming Li, across the whole dome of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, there in that dazzling golden radiance the mysterious voice suddenly rang out, as though chanting for some purpose, and golden characters the size of bushels, lit by the golden light, appeared one after another in midair:

Heaven and earth are heartless, and take all things as straw dogs!

Ming Li's whole body shook.

A moment later those nine characters slowly faded, but the mysterious chanting only grew louder and fuller, and in an instant the dazzling golden pillar seemed to burst forth, blazing with unbearable heat into every corner of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House; upon the surrounding walls, under the golden light, golden characters appeared one after another in midair, their strokes vigorous and forceful, as though all in flight.

Around Ming Li and Lu Xueling, amid the roaring, they circled and flew!

Ming Li and Lu Xueling were stunned by that soul-stealing spectacle, but then were drawn in by the mystery all around them; they gazed as eagerly as the starving, forgetting everything else.

And Ming Li's heart beat faster and faster; at this moment a voice seemed to be crying out in his heart:

"The Book of Heaven! The Book of Heaven! This is the third volume of the Book of Heaven!"

Outside the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, Fa Cheng and the others had withdrawn far off into the high air, watching the struggle of the two ancient beasts atop that wondrous tree, and despite themselves their faces had gone somewhat white.

The great trunk, once so full of life with flourishing branches and leaves, ringed by countless vines and blossoms, now looked as though it had met a catastrophe that comes once in ten million years: broken branches and withered flowers everywhere, a scene of ruin.

And before the trunk, outside the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent coiled tight about the stone door, its huge head roaring at the sky, while the divine beast Yellow Bird flew on beating wings; each sweep of its wings raised a great gale, so that even Fa Cheng and the others watching from afar could feel its force.

The Yellow Bird was clad in orange-yellow feathers; with wings spread it was nearly a hundred zhang across, with a sharp beak, keen eyes, and talons likewise sharp and enormous. Now it swooped down again and again, attacking the Blackwater Mystic Serpent with beak and claws. And the Blackwater Mystic Serpent spat poison without cease from its mouth, shaking its head, fangs sharp, counterattacking with all its strength, and from time to time ramming the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House beneath it.

So fought the divine bird and the giant serpent, until sky and earth went dim and wind and cloud changed color; and it was well that this was a desolate, uninhabited place, for with the strength of these two ancient beasts, even the busiest city would have been destroyed.