The Sorceress' Revolt
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Ko Biji's Story
Part Four: The Heavenly Book
Ko Biji considered it a miracle that Tanshi had returned safely. Just hearing about En Kō's ferocity and cunning made her flinch. She was so overjoyed at Tanshi's return that she hugged him for a long time, crying into his shoulder. She hadn't expected him to survive.
Not only had Tanshi survived, he'd managed to copy part of the Heavenly Book. Ko Biji didn't think that was simply luck: Tanshi must be blessed by the Buddha and the gods.
After he returned to the hut, Tanshi spent a large portion of each day writing down what he'd copied of the Heavenly Book onto scrolls. But he could not read the writing, which appeared distorted to his eyes. He'd never seen any script like it, and it didn't help that the tracing he'd taken flipped the letters around to be mirror images of what they should actually be. Tanshi tried turning his rolled paper over and using the sun to see the letters properly, but that did nothing to reveal the meaning of the letters to him. Were they even letters? They weren't pictographs like kanji, but neither were they pure Sanskrit. Was this a language used in China? Would they know about it in Khitan or elsewhere? Tanshi didn't know. To make things worse, some letters were faded or missing because he hadn't gotten the pressure consistent everywhere during his tracing.
Tanshi was uneasy as he made his copy of the Heavenly Book on scrolls. Why had these characters been chosen to record the Heavenly Book's knowledge? There must be a reason. Could anyone decipher these letters? If not, then Tanshi stealing this piece of the Heavenly Book was pointless.
Discarding these thoughts with some effort, Tanshi went back to square one. If he couldn't figure out what the letters meant, he would never learn the Way of Shattering Earth. He'd risked his life for this knowledge. He wasn't about to give up.
It was autumn in the mountains. The night wind was bitterly cold. The sound of the wind blowing through the primeval forest was like a storm.
Tanshi stared intently at the flames of the fire inside the hut, weighed down by a sense of despair. Had everything he'd done thus far been for nothing?
Ko Biji was stretched out behind him, but she wasn't asleep. She may have sensed Tanshi's distress. She hadn't slept peacefully through the night for the past few days. Neither had Tanshi.
The wind outside howled like a scream.
"Let's go down the mountain," Tanshi muttered.
"Hm?" Ko Biji asked.
"There's no point in staying here any longer."
Ko Biji remained silent. She had no words of comfort or encouragement to give.
Tanshi had risked his life in the cave twice, and his efforts were for naught. Everything that had happened felt like some distant nightmare.
Tanshi turned over onto his back and stared at the dim ceiling. Ko Biji turned to face him with a thoughtful expression. "Tanshi."
"If the Heavenly Book can't be read, then getting it was useless. Pointless." His voice sounded quiet in his own ears. "Ko Biji... I have to try again."
"You will return to the cave? Are you insane?"
"No," Tanshi said. "I'm not going back to Hakūn-do Cave. I'm going to travel to the Five Sacred Mountains of the Daoists and look for a master."
"What? Why?"
"It's a long shot," Tanshi said, "and it might not help, either. But I need to try to find someone who can read the Heavenly Book. Someone trustworthy. I can't just keep on like this, or I might go crazy."
Ko Biji sat up, facing Tanshi squarely. "Is this really what you want to do?" She was about to say more, but Tanshi talked over her.
"You should return to your parents and your home."
"No."
"Why?"
"I don’t want to go home."
"But you'll be safe there."
Ko Biji considered Tanshi with a severe expression. "I won't. I have killed nine men."
"What?" Tanshi hadn't expected that at all. "You mean men who reached the rock bridge and fell into the valley below?"
"Yes."
Tanshi knew that others who reached the bridge would be killed by En Kō, based on personal experience. Only Ko Biji's intervention had saved him. "Did these men... build this hut for you?"
"Yes."
"And did you tell them to steal the Heavenly Book?"
"No, not me."
"Then who?"
No answer.
"Ko Biji," Tanshi said, stern. "Who told them to? Do they give you orders? Who is it?"
"My... mother," Ko Biji said quietly.
"Your mother?"
"Yes." She looked down, unwilling to say more. Her shoulders shook.
"But why would your mother give such orders? Tell me," Tanshi said, leaning forward.
Ko Biji looked up at him, her lips turned down in a sad sort of frown. "My mother... she believed in the rumors of the Heavenly Book."
Even if that was so, what kind of mother would order her own daughter to do something as dangerous as stealing the Heavenly Book? Hakūn-do Cave was fatal to all who set foot there. If her mother knew the rumors, why would she ask Ko Biji to go anywhere near Yunmeng Mountain?
"Who are the nine men you spoke of?"
"My mother chose them," Ko Biji said. "She asked me to watch over them and help them. If they managed to retrieve pieces of the Heavenly Book, I was supposed to take them back to her."
So if the nine men had been successful, Ko Biji and her mother would have the Heavenly Book for themselves. This partly explained why Ko Biji knew so much about Daoism and the fighting arts; she would have to if she needed to subdue these men and deliver the Heavenly Book to her mother.
Unfortunately, the nine men who'd preceded Tanshi had been killed by En Kō before ever getting their hands on even a small portion of the Heavenly Book.
"You're not telling me something," Tanshi said. "Something important. What is it?"
"My mother is a Daoist sorceress," Ko Biji said. "And she's not here right now. When I last looked for her, she had left on a long journey."
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