Chapter 247 — Waiting
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 4 of 5
Mr. Gui took the astrolabe. It was warm to the touch, and a soft pale-white radiance seeped from it, drifting gently before his face and mirrored in both his eyes. Mr. Gui gazed at the astrolabe in silence, his look traveling over it inch by inch, as though he meant to see straight through this treasure.
Silence fell over the stone chamber, so complete that even the sound of breathing seemed to have faded to nothing.
On the other side of the caverns of the Underworld King Sect in Mount Huqi, after Ming Li had departed with Mr. Gui, the icy stone chamber had sunk back into its wonted stillness. White cold vapor drifted quietly through the room, carrying with it a touch of loneliness.
In the empty chamber, that green figure still lay quietly, motionless, a serene expression on her face and a faint smile at the corners of her lips, as though everything were exactly as it had been ten years ago. Time had not left the slightest trace upon her features.
She was as beautiful as ever—yet who could say whether, somewhere in her heart, there lay a faint sorrow, or a quiet regret?
The white cold vapor drifted like thin smoke, growing gradually hazier to the eye, like a dream dreamed too long, a shadow half-visible within the dream.
"Ding!"
Suddenly a sound, exceedingly clear, fine yet distinct, rang out in the icy stone chamber. An invisible wave of sound swept past like a gentle breeze, and the pale mistlike cold smoke drifting in the room all at once quivered faintly.
"Ding!"
Another soft chime, clearer still this time. The sound came from the small Bell of Union clasped between Bi Li's pale hands.
In the stone chamber, the once-scattered thin smoke seemed to quicken its drifting, and the sweet echo of the bell rebounded from the stone walls on every side, each note following on the last without cease, weaving itself into a faint, lingering melody—now joyful, now sorrowful, now stirring, now a sigh.
"Ding!"
The third chime, ringing of itself, suddenly soared high. In an instant the white vapor in the chamber reversed its flow entirely, churning up and down like the waves of a sea of clouds. A single clear cry split metal and stone, pierced the clouds, and shot straight upward—and a faint golden light, unmistakably, was seeping out from between Bi Li's hands.
Within the stone chamber came faintly the sound of wind and thunder; but after a moment it seemed to lack strength, the force failing, and the keen clear note slowly sank. The golden light seeping from between Bi Li's fingers likewise dimmed little by little.
The sound of the bell slowly died away in the icy stone chamber. The white vapor returned to normal, drifting gently, as though nothing at all had happened, leaving not the slightest trace behind.
Stillness returned to the stone chamber.
How long passed, none could say, when the stone door of the icy chamber suddenly gave a low rumble and slowly opened. The figure of the Underworld King appeared in the doorway and came slowly inside. He walked slowly to the side of the icy stone platform, looked at his daughter, and after a long while said in a low voice, "Yao'er, Father has come to see you."
Bi Li's expression showed not the slightest change—just as in every moment of these ten years.
The Underworld King had clearly long since grown used to such an outcome. His gaze upon his daughter was filled with tender affection, not a trace of ferocity remaining. He sat down lightly at the side of the stone platform, raised his head, and looked at the white vapor drifting in midair within the chamber.
"Yao'er... ten years. Before anyone knew it, you have slept like this for ten years." He suddenly gave a small laugh, a hint of bitterness at the corners of his mouth, and said softly, "If you woke now, would you perhaps no longer know your father?"