劍問蒼天 - 第252章 失心 - 翰墨軒

But Master Gui seemed not to hear him. His black-robed figure was now wholly wrapped in the radiance pouring from the star plate, his eyes fixed upon the plate suspended before him; somehow, he looked to have shed some of his usual ghostly air and gained instead a certain solemnity.

There beneath the plate's dazzling radiance, Master Gui's hand moved like the Buddha plucking a flower—unhurried, ethereal—and lightly touched the very heart of the plate's brightest light. Almost at his touch another golden character leaped forth, blazing with light, drifting gently in the radiance above the plate. And Master Gui paused not an instant; eyes fixed on the center of the light as though searching for something, in a moment he tapped four more times upon the plate's center.

Four golden characters emerged in turn. The plate's radiance swelled; the surrounding pillar of light more than doubled in girth. And in answer, the Qiankun Lock pillar above the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron in the sky abruptly swelled several times over, and with a series of light clicks began to shudder—it looked as though it might tear free of the cauldron itself.

Ming Li was badly startled. Even a fool, after the fierce battle just past, would know that the miraculous pillar on that demon visage was the only thing now holding that invincible, uncanny force in check. Should the Qiankun Lock be undone, the consequences were only too easy to imagine. He could no longer spare a thought for courtesy; in his alarm he launched himself at Master Gui, shouting, "Stop!"

But swift as lightning though he was, when he came within five feet of Master Gui and the star plate, a soft yet immeasurably abundant formless force rebounded him away. And it was just as Ming Li was blocked that Master Gui once again reached out and touched the plate.

This time, though, he seemed to touch it very slowly; his finger seemed to tremble faintly—whether from nervousness, or from exerting every ounce of his strength, who could say. The trembling finger reached into the plate's radiance, paused there for the space of a breath, and then, after a moment, with a light, clear chime, the seventh golden character slowly rose above the star plate.

This seventh golden character looked somewhat larger than the six before it, and deeper in hue. Having risen above the plate, it did not drift and bob like the others but climbed slowly and then hung fixed in midair. As the seventh character rose, the other six at once drew near and ranged themselves in a ring about it. In an instant all seven blazed with golden light, converging into a pillar of gold no thicker than a finger, shooting straight up toward the Qiankun Lock pillar above the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron.

In that vast cavern—which but moments before had been a churning tempest—a strange stillness now fell. All was quiet; even breathing ceased. Every gaze—Ming Li's, Master Gui's, Xiao Hui's, the spirit beasts' in the blood pool, even that uncanny presence hidden in the unseen—held its breath, watching what was about to happen!

"Crack!"

A very light, very light, crisp sound.

The Qiankun Lock pillar above the Dragon-Subduing Cauldron swiftly dimmed and vanished, leaving at the very center of the demon visage's brow a small hole the size of a fingertip—and the golden pillar of light shot from the star plate struck precisely upon that hole. After a moment, a pearl came rolling slowly out of the hole, deep blue in color, and fell into the golden pillar of light.

The golden pillar slowly withdrew, descending little by little, and the mysterious blue pearl descended with it, drifting toward the star plate. When the pearl came nearer the ground and could be seen more clearly, one saw that the blue within it was like a boundless ocean, endless and inexhaustible, faint mist locked within, slowly revolving like the rise and fall of tides, like sun and moon traversing the heavens, unbroken since the beginning of time.