Chapter 45 — The Golden Bell
劍問蒼天 · Page 1 of 5
Bili froze for a moment and read the four lines again. The strokes were finer and more delicate in their force than those of the Book of Heaven carved in the stone chamber, plainly the work of another hand.
And as for the sense of the words, they read like the plaintive speech of a woman deep in love. Only, how had they come to be here, in this stronghold of the demon cult, in the "Blooddrop Cave"? Truly strange.
She pondered a long while and still could make nothing of it. She shook her head and was about to give it up and think no more of it, but as she turned, she saw to her astonishment that Zhang Qingyue had at some point come silently out of the stone chamber and was standing behind her. His face was strange, seeming both grieved and startled, with something of bewilderment besides; his brows were knotted, the muscles of his face faintly twisted, almost hideous.
Bili gave a great start and could not help crying out "Ya!" as she stepped back. The little bell at her waist trembled softly, giving out a clear, sweet "ding-dang" that echoed through the cavern.
At the sound of the bell Zhang Qingyue shuddered, as though suddenly woken, and his face slowly calmed — only to be replaced by bewilderment.
A moment before, he had been in the stone chamber, brooding over the Book of Heaven. Then all at once the dark iron staff at his hand had seemed to wake: it had not only begun to shine, but a cold sensation had spread through his whole body almost in an instant. After that he had walked out as though by instinct, until he saw the heap of shattered bones.
Zhang Qingyue looked at the dark iron staff bound to his left arm. It was still shining, giving off a faint blue-green light, pointed straight at the collapsed, shattered skeleton, as though mourning an old friend.
Zhang Qingyue did not know why such a thought had come to him, but looking at the skeleton, something in the depths of his heart was grieved. He knew perfectly well that whoever had died here must have been a person of consequence in the Blood Refining Hall of the demon cult — perhaps, as Bili said, the Blackheart Old Man himself — yet somehow he felt a certain closeness to these bones.
The staff's radiance slowly dimmed and returned to its ugly black, motionless. Zhang Qingyue, however, still gazed at the skeleton, and then, under Bili's watching eyes, slowly walked toward it.
Bili gave a cold snort and darted in front of him to block his way. "I've no love for the old devil Blackheart," she said with a sneer, "and we're of different factions besides. But we are both disciples of the Holy Cult, and we both swore mighty oaths before the Holy Mother of the Dark and the Bright King of Heaven's Wrath. If you mean to show disrespect to his remains, I'll not permit it."
Zhang Qingyue glanced at her and could not help answering, "He's ground to dust and bone now — I'd say that's your doing, isn't it?"
Bili flushed, but gave not an inch. "Of course I'll repent before the Holy Mother and the Bright King," she said firmly. "But I'll not suffer you to be sacrilegious either!"
Zhang Qingyue looked at her and suddenly said, "That's not what I meant."
Bili was taken aback. Seeing his calm expression, with no trace of hatred in it, she felt that this youth of the Canglan Sect was utterly unlike the righteous folk she had met before, forever spouting benevolence and moral virtue. As she hesitated, Zhang Qingyue walked past her. She paused a moment, then turned to look after him.
Zhang Qingyue came to the heap of bones. They were very old; the ghastly white bone had taken on a faint, ghostly green sheen. Bili's blow had scattered everything below the chest, and only the skull remained whole, resting atop the pile, its two hollow eyes fixed straight on Zhang Qingyue.