The Sorceress' Revolt
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Ko Biji's Story
Part Six: Master of Daoism
When Ko Biji regained consciousness, she found herself tied up and guarded in a room near the entrance to the estate’s guardhouse. Several armed men surrounded her.
“Have you found him?” Chin Khen came over and scratched his beard.
“The boy will be caught soon. I’ll make sure he stays alive.”
Ko Biji's head was throbbing and her stomach was roiling, but she was relieved that Tanshi was safe. She felt stupid for being caught by the soldiers right before she and Tanshi escaped this place.
A guard ran over and shouted, “The boy has run away!”
A mysterious man dressed like a Daoist priest peeked out from the woods in front of the guardhouse. He was wore a kerchief over his face, with holes for his eyes and mouth. A gourd hung from his belt.
He gazed out at the burning estate. “Tch, am I late?”
“Who goes there?” a guard called out to him.
“Cease your chatter,” the man said, then walked towards the guardhouse.
The guards were startled. “Stop!” another guard called out to him.
The strange man didn’t respond and tried to go straight in. One of the guards stepped forward to prevent him.
The man slugged the guard in the stomach with one fist.
“Ugh…”
The guard collapsed and fell to the ground. The remaining guards aimed their spears at him, but they had mobilized too late.
A series of leg kicks removed the spears from the man’s path. With their weapons down, the man kicked the guards in the head, and they collapsed unconscious. It happened so fast that the guards didn’t call for help.
Unfortunately, the commotion was overheard inside, and more guards came running out of the guardhouse. When they saw their fallen comrades, they cursed the strange man. “You bastard!”
As the guards tended to their wounded, the man walked right past them, into the guardhouse.
Chin Khen moved to block his way, preparing to throw a javelin. “You’re a spy for the salt smugglers, aren’t you?”
The man rose both hands over his head, muttering a strange incantation. Flame spewed from his mouth and rushed towards Chin Khen.
This was not like a street performer belching fire; the fire expelled was more than two feet in diameter and erupted outward like an incendiary bomb. Chin Khen's entire body was engulfed in flames. He collapsed to the floor, rolling desperately to put the fire out.
The sorcerer entered the room where Ko Biji was being held and lifted her onto his shoulders without saying a word.
Tanshi and Ko Biji hadn’t met the sorcerer before, but this same middle-aged Daois priest had been standing in the crowd of Sanmenxia, his eyes filled with curiosity and portents of violence as he’d watched the pair escape.
Ko Biji prayed that this man was here to save her, not to do worse harm. He returned to the entrance of the guardhouse, still carrying Ko Biji.
A group of government soldiers were waiting for the sorcerer to come back out of the room with grim expressions on their faces. The sorcerer’s eyes lit up, and flames stretched out from his mouth like the tongue of a giant snake, licking the soldiers with fire.
“It’s hot!”
The soldiers scattered, fleeing the flames.
From her vantage point atop the sorcerer’s back, Ko Biji was terrified. “He’s using horrifying fire magic…” Ko Biji was overcome by heat and fear and lost consciousness again.
The sorcerer went outside.
“Let go of the woman.” A large number of government soldiers surrounded the mysterious man at a distance. “You demon, are you trying to defy the Emperor?”
Fearing the magic of the sorcerer’s flames, they did not approach.
An archer nocked an arrow. “Don’t take another step, or I’ll shoot you.”
The sorcerer’s hand shot up and tossed exploding fire into the archer’s hand. In the next moment, several archers were blown into the air along with multiple fireballs. The sorcerer tossed another fireball at the guardhouse for good measure, causing the outer wall to collapse in a smoldering heap of charred wood. of fire. White smoke drifted around, and a foul odor filled the air.
The soldiers had planned to capture Tanshi and Ko Biji by burning them, but now they were the ones being burned.
The sorcerer settled Ko Biji's weight over his shoulders and walked into the darkness of the surrounding night. A young man, about twenty years old, watched them leave from the shadow of a large tree. His sharp eyes were not those of an ordinary town dweller. “What a terrifying man,” he whispered.
The young man followed after the sorcerer and Ko Biji.
***
The snow that had fallen in the middle of the night had stopped, but the road was still lightly covered in white. Sei Koko was on her way back to the mountain estate, ignorant of the attack that had taken place.
“Ho there,” a soldier called out from the shadows. He was accompanied by two other men dressed in the armor of imperial guardsmen.
Sei Koko was startled, but quickly regained her composure. “Why are you stopping me, sirs? I’m not a suspicious person, nor am I wanted by the law. My name is Sei Koko. Perhaps you’ve heard of me.”
The guards surrounded Sei Koko and gave her matched unsettling smiles.
Sei Koko was sure that everyone from around here knew her as an authority figure. There might be some unbelievers among the imperial guard who didn’t know her, but no one in the province guard didn’t know of the wealthy Yang Chun. She introduced herself again, more humbly this time.
“This one is Sei Koko, who is well acquainted with Lord Yang Chun,” she said.
“We have business with Sei Koko,” the guard said.
“What?” She was shocked. Had her hidden estate been exposed? How could that have happened?
“And what might be your business with me, sirs?”
“Don’t pretend to be surprised. You’ve been hiding fugitives on your property.”
Sei Koko realized that this wasn’t about her hidden estate at all, but about Tanshi and Ko Biji. She still feigned surprise. “Fugitives? Who?”
“If you don’t cooperate, your punishment will be worse. Where did you hide Tanshi and Ko Biji?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know…”
“Hmph. Don’t lie. You had Ko Biji taken away by that strange demon.”
“A demon?”
“A Daoist who breathes fire from his mouth. He must be one of your friends, no?”
“No, I don’t know anyone like that.”
“In any case, you’re coming with us.”
Sei Koko prepared herself mentally for what was next. She knew that the two had escaped, but she couldn’t let things end like this. She raised the cloth bag she was carrying to her chest, bowed her head and said, “Understood. I will accompany you.”
“You should have confessed everything from the start.”
Just as they were about to tie a rope around her, Sei Koko's eyes flashed blue like a cat’s on a dark night.
The guards were stunned for a few seconds. Sei Koko lifted one hand from her cloth bag in a dismissive wave, and the guards retreated backward. The snow all around turned to thick steam and surrounded the guards before re-freezing, capturing them all in ice.
Sei Koko laughed.
Then, the immobilized guards saw Sei Koko floating up into the air through a gap in the steam. Her body melted into the darkness above.
That was the last thing the guards saw.
***
When Yang Chun learned what had happened, he was so shocked that he fell ill with a fever and was bedridden for days. He felt more regretful about his faith being betrayed than about the gold and silver that had been stolen.
When Sei Koko manifested the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, Yang Chun had come to the shrine to worship him. But it was never Samantabhadra at all, but a reflection of his image in a magic mirror, also known as a light-transmitting mirror. When a bronze plate with pictures or letters painted on it was cast to make a mirror, it became uneven, and when hit by a light at a certain angle, the pictures or letters would be reflected. The technique behind this was explained in Dream Pool Essays, written by the scientific author Shen Kuo in 1086 CE.
There was evidence in Sei Koko's estate of lenses made from crystal, rock salt, and quartz. She’d acquired those materials by claiming that they would be used to make elixirs. Every projection of religious figures she had ever presented to Yang Chun and her many followers was completely fake: just a reflection of an image on crystal.
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