Chapter 69: The Mysterious White Bronze Pillar

When Gu Qingcheng stopped her long howl, not a single pane of glass remained intact within the window frames; all had shattered and fallen away. The fresh air from outside rushed in, sweeping away the scent of sandalwood ash and abruptly pulling Guan Wen’s thoughts back to face the scene of devastation.

"Sister Gu, you frightened us," Xiao Huo said with a bitter smile, handing over a half-spilled water bottle. He was composed and calm at all times, unshaken even if Mount Tai were to collapse before him.

"I’m sorry. I just couldn't control my emotions. My lungs and chest were filled with a nameless fury; if I hadn't cried out, the suppressed emotions would have rebounded and caused internal injuries. Did I really destroy that window? What a pity, what a terrible pity." Gu Qingcheng’s emotions finally stabilized, and she lowered her head, looking like a child who had done something wrong.

Once the window was broken, the meditation room was completely ruined. This was entirely the will of heaven, impossible for human strength to prevent.

Guan Wen could not describe the regret deep within his heart. The moment the morning sun first broke, the myriad rays of light blanketing the treasure bell had delivered an overwhelming shock to him. He believed that, given time, he too could achieve sudden enlightenment within that meditation room.

"What is done cannot be undone. Things have reached this point, so it’s too late to say anything now," he sighed deeply.

A person cannot suppress themselves for long. He understood Gu Qingcheng’s frame of mind because he had experienced the exact same feeling inside the black hole at Cliff of the Beheading. However, a true hero should remain indomitable, never becoming depressed or collapsing due to unfavorable circumstances, always maintaining inner harmony, concealing and biding one's time, just as the great Song Dynasty statesman Fan Zhongyan wrote in his timeless masterpiece, *Account of Yueyang Tower*: "Not rejoicing in external gains, not grieving over personal losses."

"Sister Gu, don't blame yourself too much. I just noticed that Miss Baoling’s eyes were flashing with an indescribable light of wisdom. She stayed here the entire night; whatever was meant to be comprehended was already comprehended. What couldn't be comprehended wouldn't make any progress even if she stayed for ten or a hundred more nights. Therefore, our most urgent task is to head to the library first, isn't it?" Xiao Huo suggested.

"I feel as though a beam of light suddenly illuminated this place," Gu Qingcheng said, pointing to her forehead. "When Kaler asked us what we pursued in this life, I didn't know how to answer him. Now, I have the answer. In a person's life, taking time as the horizontal axis and action as the vertical axis, we progress step by step, extending forward. Thus, we don't need to ask ourselves what we are pursuing at all; our actions have already explained everything. In other words, being eloquent is inferior to being capable of action. Never be a giant in speech and a dwarf in action."

Guan Wen frowned. He hoped Gu Qingcheng could summarize her feelings in a single sentence to save time and hurry to the library together.

"That light came from the east, strong and distant, extending all the way from the western part of the Chinese mainland to Nepal. At that very instant, I understood. That light is a guide, and my entire life will develop step by step according to its guidance, right up to the present. Therefore, I can no longer muddle through blindly; I must go back there..." Gu Qingcheng strode toward the window, pointing to the mountains in the northeast.

"Where is there?" Guan Wen asked.

"There is Lhasa. I must return to Lhasa," Gu Qingcheng answered with absolute resolve. "That is the resting place of my soul."

Her forehead shone brightly, and her gaze became clear and pure, completely different from her frantic and uninhibited state just moments before.

Guan Wen and Xiao Huo exchanged a glance and breathed sighs of relief at the same time. As long as they crossed the Zhangmu Port and returned to Tibetan territory, anything could be easily handled. One Baoling had already driven everyone to the brink of a nervous breakdown; they certainly didn't need Gu Qingcheng added to the mix.

"Xiao Huo, stay with Qingcheng. I'll go check on Baoling," he said as he walked out. All along, he had considered Gu Qingcheng strong and Baoling frail—the former able to take care of herself while the latter required his protection. Because of this, he felt safe leaving the ruined meditation room behind.

The globe in the library had been restored to its place. At this moment, Baoling was standing right in front of it, gazing intently at the names of various countries labeled in English upon its surface.

"Any updates?" Guan Wen asked Kaler.

Kaler stood pressed against the wall, lowering his voice as he replied, "Nothing... She's just been staring at the globe the whole time."

A globe was something found everywhere across the world, whether it was a simple teaching aid pasted together from cardboard or a priceless golden globe housed in the British Museum in London. Its basic meaning remained the same: to completely and faithfully depict the planet humanity inhabits. Every globe strives for accurate labeling and clear national borders, absolutely avoiding any confusion for the learner.

Suddenly, Baoling reached out both hands, pressed them against the sphere, and exerted sudden force, sending the globe spinning counterclockwise.

Kaler muttered in bewilderment, "This isn't some interesting toy; what's the point of spinning it around and around? She's already spun it three times over..."

Baoling took a step back, leaning her upper body forward while listening intently, and then spoke: "There is something inside it."

The globe was still spinning, and the colored blocks used to distinguish the continents and oceans on its surface blurred into ribbons of brilliant and eerie hues. Any object permitted into the library must be extremely precious; the craftsmanship of this globe was exceptionally refined, its axis turning with utmost flexibility. Under the high-speed rotation, only the rushing sound of wind could be heard.

"How could that be―" Kaler dragged out his tone deliberately, his face full of disdain.

Understandably so: he, Gu Qingcheng, and Xiao Huo had stood outside the meditation room the entire night, their legs aching, their eyes strained, and their minds utterly exhausted. Once dawn broke, their greatest desire was to return to their rooms to catch up on sleep; they no longer had the leisure to listen to Baoling's talk.

"What is it?" Guan Wen asked.

"I don't know yet, but if we simply cut it open, won't everything become crystal clear?" Baoling replied.

"Cut it open? You can't be serious! Every single item in this villa has commemorative significance; they are all the relics of Princess Zhaoge. Once the globe is cut open, won't it just become scrap?" Kaler shouted in opposition, his breath reeking heavily of alcohol.

Guan Wen smiled. "Since it has been abandoned here, it was already scrap to begin with. Kaler, I'm sure Baoling must have gained some inspiration from the globe to make such a request. Haven't you always wanted to uncover the secrets of the Summer Palace? Now, we are here to help you; you mustn't put the cart before the horse."

Kaler thought for a moment, then laughed with hazy, drunken eyes: "Yes, yes, I really forgot. It was I who took the initiative to contact Xiao Huo and invite you all here. Fine, I'll go get an axe. I'll go get an axe..."

He backed out, pushed open the nearby door, and quickly returned carrying a gleaming, short-handled tactical battleaxe. Swaying slightly, he stepped forward and brought the weapon down with a heavy blow onto the spinning sphere.

Guan Wen had been prepared; he pulled Baoling back, dodging the wood splinters flying out from the sphere.

Kaler possessed formidable martial arts skills. Even in a half-drunken state, a single swing of his axe possessed enough power to split the sphere in two. Half of the globe spun away, crashing into a bookshelf and shaking the top-tier classics down in a clattering cascade across the floor. The other half of the sphere remained on the shelf, revealing a cylindrical white bronze inner core a foot long and half a foot in diameter.

Kaler froze, dropped the axe, scooped up the white bronze pillar with both hands, and laughed wildly: "There really is something inside! There really is something inside!"

Ancient building treasures and generation-to-generation secret inheritances had long become stale plot tropes. Unfortunately, this was a white bronze pillar rather than a golden one, so it wouldn't be terribly valuable. Moreover, the Kanna family was nearly as wealthy as a nation and rarely paid much mind to such worldly fortunes.

The booming sound of the globe shattering also attracted Gu Qingcheng and Xiao Huo. Xiao Huo, quick-handed, immediately stepped forward to help Kaler steady the white bronze pillar to prevent him from accidentally dropping it.

"What is engraved on it?" Gu Qingcheng had sharp eyes and noticed the shallow relief carvings on the white bronze pillar.

Guan Wen glanced at it and immediately read the two place names at the very bottom of the white bronze pillar: "Pengtang Jiqu Temple" and "Cairixi Naozhuoma Temple." The characters were in traditional Chinese, executed with the vigor of silver hooks and iron strokes, meticulous and sharp.

"These seem to be the characters from the *Tibetan Demon-Subjugating Map*. Look, Qingcheng, those are the names of two temples, two of the wing-subjugating temples on the *Tibetan Demon-Subjugating Map*," Guan Wen immediately reminded her.

Historical records state that one king and two princesses built the Pengtang Jiqu Temple on the right palm of the she-demon. Pengtang is a place name in central Bhutan; Jiqu is the name of a river that flows past the west of Luozha, through the Mela Gajun Mountain in the southwestern corner of Luozha, and into Pengtang in Bhutan. This temple was located on the banks of the Jiqu River in Pengtang, hence the name Pengtang Jiqu Temple. It was said that famous artisans from Tokharia were invited to design and build it at the time.

As for the Cairixi Naozhuoma Temple built on the left sole of the she-demon, it was located within the current Ladakh region, which was formerly under Tibetan jurisdiction.

Xiao Huo pulled Kaler back and placed the white bronze pillar on the desk by the window.

The five people present were all exceptionally knowledgeable; without needing excessive explanation, they understood that what was engraved on the surface of the white bronze pillar was precisely a simplified version of the *Tibetan Demon-Subjugating Map*. Not a single name of the demon-subjugating temples was missing, save for the omission of the naked rakshasa demoness herself. Inscribed on the left cross-section of the white bronze pillar was a line of Nepali text, while the right cross-section featured a narrow, elongated keyhole.

Kaler immediately read the meaning of the inscription: "Imperial decree: The heart-blood seal of Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal—Princess Bhrikuti? Could this be the seal of that princess who traveled to Tibet for a political marriage a thousand years ago?" In an instant, he answered his own question: "Who else could it be? Where else in Nepalese history is there a second Princess Bhrikuti? But how could her seal appear in this place? This keyhole... this keyhole..."

He stroked the white bronze pillar, the muscles in his cheeks twitching nervously. At times he tilted his head back toward the ceiling, murmuring to himself; at other times he leaned down close to the keyhole, staring with wide eyes to peer inside. The keyhole was only half an inch wide, making it impossible to discern the internal structure with the naked eye alone. Yet after repeating this peering motion five times, he suddenly leaped to his feet and sprinted away, leaving not a trace of his drunkenness behind.

"Kaler is a top-tier tomb raider globally, and his lock-picking skills rank among the top ten in the world. Whether it's the most ancient golden-wire lock of the Great Pyramid of Giza or today's most advanced American pulse-time lock, none can stop him. I guess he's gone to fetch his tool kit and will be back shortly." In the face of such a major discovery, Xiao Huo remained as calm as ever.

Gu Qingcheng nodded. "Indeed, I suspect that's the case."

She and Xiao Huo were both figures of the pugilist underworld and were thoroughly versed in its ways.

Inside the globe, aside from this white bronze pillar, there was nothing of value—just wood, alloy framing, plastic filler, and the like. This enormous sphere had sat day after day in the library; without Baoling’s discovery today, this secret would have remained buried for who knows how many more years.

Gu Qingcheng pulled out a digital camera and pressed the shutter continuously from various angles against the white bronze pillar, capturing first-hand documentation.

It wasn't until Kaler came sprinting back carrying a yellow deerskin tool kit that Baoling slowly spoke up: "Don't bother wasting your effort; you cannot open it. The keyhole has been subjected to a seal, transforming a simple physical structure into an infinitely complex metaphysical structure. Without the power to lift the seal, no matter how advanced your tools are, it's merely scratching an itch from outside the boot—completely meaningless."

Kaler refused to listen to any explanation. He dropped his tool kit, intertwined his fingers, and cracked his knuckles with continuous left-and-right twists to warm up.

"Kaler, you should listen to other people's opinions—" Xiao Huo said.

"Other people's opinions? Ever since I entered the trade at eighteen, studying under five different masters successively, I've never known what someone else's opinion was. Right now, I'm standing here safe and sound, while those five masters of mine have already been buried within different ancient tombs. A true warrior is never swayed by the opinions of others..." Kaler replied with a cold sneer.

"Yet, this entire matter reeks of the bizarre—never mind, if you want to try, go ahead. These are things belonging to the Kanna family; you have the right to decide." Xiao Huo shook his head and silently withdrew from the library.

Having finished his warm-ups, Kaler impatiently pulled two half-foot-long silver lock-picks from his bag, inserted them into the keyhole, and began manipulating them in rapid succession.

The principle of any keyhole is "pins filling gaps to jam the rotation of the lock cylinder." As long as the lock-picker finds the exact position of the pins and pushes them back to their initial position, the lock cylinder can rotate freely. In other words, no matter how many pins were inside the core, a master like Kaler could pinpoint their positions one by one, inserting three or more picks to crack them all. All of this required was simply giving him enough time.

Baoling turned around and nodded to Guan Wen: "The air in here is very bad. Accompany me outside for a walk."

The two descended the stairs, exited the main entrance, and stood upon the withered lawn.

Having stayed up all night, Baoling’s complexion was poor, and her eyes were webbed with crisscrossing bloodshot lines. Furthermore, her mood was exceptionally low, describable even as "despondent."

"Do you remember the white bronze key I lost when we first met? Now I know that key is what opens this lock. Actually, even before opening the globe, I knew that obtaining the white bronze pillar would be useless because I carelessly lost that key. This is a tremendously complex grand cyclical process: I guessed the ending correctly, but lost the beginning. If I hadn't lost the key, I never would have met you; if I hadn't met you, there would have been no journey from Tashilhunpo Monastery to Lhasa, from Lhasa to the thousand-year-old walnut tree cellar, from the cellar to the black hole on Mount Niseri's Cliff of the Beheading, and from the black hole to today's Summer Palace Manor..."

She didn't continue, yet Guan Wen could easily imagine what followed: *"—and without coming to the manor, there would have been no sudden enlightenment in the meditation room; without enlightenment, I couldn't have discovered the white bronze pillar inside the globe, and precisely because the white bronze pillar was discovered, I realize just how regrettable it was to have lost that key in the first place."*

"Nobody has hindsight, and besides, you were robbed while traveling alone in Tibet—that wasn't your fault," Guan Wen could only comfort her this way. He naturally remembered the scene of their first encounter, which was the origin of all major events.

Tashilhunpo Monastery and the Summer Palace were worlds apart. The key could no longer be found; to keep blaming oneself would only cause self-inflicted pain and accomplish nothing.

"A dead loop... This is a dead loop with a head but no tail..." Baoling sighed softly.

"You say that since the white bronze pillar bears the seal of Princess Bhrikuti, could it have been left behind by the princess herself in the past?" Guan Wen changed the subject.

"That's right. The inspiration I gained inside the meditation room was to open the globe and obtain the great secret within the white bronze pillar. Unfortunately—" Baoling replied with helplessness.