Chapter 46 — Pain
劍問蒼天 · Page 1 of 5
After that bout of violent raving, whether because Zhang Qingyue's constitution was hardy to begin with or because Bili's comforting had done its work, the fever that had burned so long began slowly to abate. Zhang Qingyue's senses returned by degrees; he grew lucid again, though the illness still lay heavy on him and for the most part he kept to his bed.
One day, with nothing to do, Bili wandered about the cave and at last came to the four lines Lady Golden Bell had left behind. She studied them closely and could not help sighing over them. Zhang Qingyue, sitting nearby, could not restrain himself: "What are you sighing for?"
Bili gave a cold snort. "I sigh for the lady. With such wit and such beauty, and you foul men repaid her by betraying her, so that her whole life was bitter. What a waste!"
Zhang Qingyue was struck dumb.
Bili read the lines over carefully once more, and all at once gave a startled "Eh!" — for she had found something strange. In the last line, the last character, "bitter," had its lower "mouth" radical sunk deep into the stone, quite unlike any other character. Her eyes flickered, and she grasped it almost at once. She reached down, took the Joybell from her waist, and held it up to compare. It fit exactly, no more and no less, and she could not help giving a cry of delight.
Behind her Zhang Qingyue asked in surprise, "What is it?"
Bili turned and smiled at him. "We're saved!"
Zhang Qingyue started, and at once his spirit revived. "Truly?"
Bili fitted the bell in. It gave no response. She tried turning it left and right, and after a moment there came a sudden rattle from the stone, and the rock wall shook. Bili, badly startled, clutched the golden bell and hurried back, and with a great "boom" a whole layer of the smooth stone wall came crashing down, revealing the layer beneath — carved, like the Book of Heaven in the inner chamber, with writing.
Zhang Qingyue's first reaction was joy, but then he searched the wall from side to side, and his face slowly fell. It seemed this mechanism had been set by Lady Golden Bell only to conceal the writing on the wall; there was no way out. At this he was cast down utterly.
Bili, however, was gazing intently at the wall. What Lady Golden Bell had left, hidden with such care, could not be any common thing. After a long while her expression shifted, dark and fair by turns, but wonder was heaviest in it, and she said softly, "So this is the 'Fool's Passion Incantation.'"
Zhang Qingyue, impatient beside her, came over and glanced at it, and saw that the first lines ran:
Spirits of the ninefold dark, gods and demons of all heaven,
By my flesh and blood, take me as your sacrifice.
Through three lives and seven ages, forever cast into Yama's realm,
For love alone — though I die, I do not repent.
…
At a glance he knew it for a vicious curse of the evil path, but seeing that Bili's face was mostly joyful, he could not help snorting. "Does it say where the way out is?"
Bili was taken aback. "No."
Zhang Qingyue said mildly, "Then what use is it for you to learn it?"
Bili was silent, and only after a good while said, "You don't know the history of this Fool's Passion Incantation. It has been handed down in our Holy Church since ancient times — but the tale is that no one has ever been willing to use it."
At that Zhang Qingyue's curiosity was roused. "Why?"
Bili sighed. "They say this text was grasped from the Book of Heaven long ago by a woman founder of great wisdom. But only women may cultivate it. I have heard it takes a woman's whole essence and blood and transforms them into a fierce curse of matchless power…"
Before she had finished, Zhang Qingyue cut her off, scorn plain in his eyes. "Then call it the 'Fierce Blood Incantation.' Why 'Fool's Passion'? Demons and heretics, aping refinement!"
Bili's face changed, but then she was still a moment and said quietly, "You are right. Even Lady Golden Bell herself, in the end, did not use it."