劍問蒼天 - 第44章 天書 - 翰墨軒

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.