Chapter 248 — The Hidden Door

"Rustle, rustle—rustle, rustle..." With a strange dragging sound, under the watching eyes of Ming Li and Master Gui, the gray-furred monkey came running out from the inner chamber of the Nether King's stone room, clutching a scroll in its hands while most of the painting's paper trailed loose and dragged along the ground, hauled by the monkey from the inner room all the way to Ming Li's feet.

Both Ming Li and Master Gui were stunned for a moment.

Xiao Hui clutched the painting tightly and ran up to Ming Li, chirping "chee-chee-chee-chee" without pause. Ming Li frowned, reached out and took the painting, unrolled it—it was a tiger crouching in the brush, finely painted and powerfully brushed. He looked it up and down twice, then turned to Xiao Hui and said, "What did you bring this painting out for?"

Xiao Hui bounced up, waving its arms and legs, its face alight with excitement, hands gesturing—now pointing at the fierce tiger in the painting, now tracing some strange pattern in the air, now pointing toward the north—busy as could be, until Master Gui, watching from the side, was dazzled. Learned as he was beyond compare in this world, of the monkey language of this three-eyed creature he understood not a whit; full of doubts, he could only turn his eyes to Ming Li.

To his surprise, Ming Li's face too showed a trace of astonishment. Watching Xiao Hui's gestures and its ceaseless cheeping, Ming Li glanced once more at the painting, hesitated, and said, "You... could it be you think the thing in this painting looks a lot like Da Huang, and so you want to take it away and give it to Da Huang later?"

Xiao Hui nodded vigorously at once.

Though Ming Li was in a poor mood just now, he still could hardly keep from laughing. It was true the tiger in the painting was lifelike—but its majesty was fierce and fierce, and even crouching in the grass it radiated awe; how could it compare to that big dog on Mount Dazhu, whose coat was glossy but who was incomparably lazy, greedy, and sleepy? And besides, look as he might, Ming Li truly could not see a single point in which this fierce tiger resembled Da Huang.

Truly, a monkey's eye and a man's are worlds apart!

Yet after his astonishment and amusement, Ming Li found himself thinking of Da Huang, a thousand li away, and of that mountain peak that in memory carried a warmth about it. After a moment of silence, a faint smile touched the corner of his mouth, and his expression softened greatly. He said in a low voice, "This painting belongs to the Nether King. It's not convenient to take it now—but rest easy, when the time comes I'll ask him for it on your behalf." So saying, he gently rolled up the scroll of the crouching tiger and set it aside.

Master Gui could not help asking, "Who is Da Huang?"

Ming Li paused, then gave Master Gui a flat glance and said, "A dog."

Master Gui was struck dumb for a moment, unable to say anything; then he coughed once and said no more, turning his gaze back to the star plate before him. Ming Li patted Xiao Hui's head and softly admonished it a few words—nothing more than telling it not to go running about anymore—then likewise turned his attention back to the star plate. In his heart, after all, penetrating the star plate was the foremost matter at hand.

Xiao Hui sat beside the two of them for a while, and soon grew bored again. In truth the monkey could hardly be blamed; anyone who spent three days and nights beside two men doing nothing but watching them do the same thing over and over would grow bored—let alone a monkey by nature so restless.

At that moment Master Gui seemed to discover something; suddenly he pointed at the little jade pieces moving in the center of the jade disc and said to Ming Li, "I think the crux of this treasure lies in these ceaselessly sliding jade pieces."

Ming Li nodded slowly, plainly in agreement, but then his brows knitted slightly and he said, "But we've watched for three days and still can't see why these jade pieces slide of their own accord. Does the master have any insight?"

Master Gui pondered a moment, then said, "Have you noticed that the paths these jade pieces trace are rather like the movements of the stars across the vault of heaven?"

Ming Li's body gave a start; then he fixed his gaze tightly on the star plate, and after a long while clapped his hands and said, "There's something to that indeed."

Master Gui said, "In truth this old man is not certain either, but that is my feeling—and yet, even if these jade pieces move as the stars of heaven do, there remain many riddles yet unsolved. I believe that if one is to penetrate the most essential part of this treasure, it must lie in the ancient characters upon these jade pieces."

Ming Li nodded slowly. The two talked on, questioning and answering each other, and soon sank once more into the star plate treasure. Xiao Hui sat for a good while beside them, then turned and left again.

From the stone chamber came the low, intermittent murmurs of Ming Li and Master Gui. Xiao Hui looked this way and that for a time, and, bored to tears, quietly slipped into the inner room once more.

On the stone wall from which it had just torn the scroll there now showed faint traces, subtly different in color from the surrounding stone, suggesting the painting had hung there for some time. But in this inner room, apart from the four paintings on the wall, there was nothing but the wooden bed, table, and stools—nothing else of interest. Xiao Hui poked and patted about, and soon grew bored again.

Just when its boredom reached its peak, the monkey's three eyes suddenly lit up, as if it had discovered something, and with a hop and a skip its whole body suddenly leaped onto the Nether King's wooden bed; paying no heed to dirtying the bedding, it began to roll and tumble about on top of it. The furnishings in this stone chamber, though plain, were spotlessly clean, and one assumed the Nether King was himself a man who liked cleanliness. Who knew whether, upon returning to see this sight, he would be so furious that smoke would rise from all seven orifices of his head.

But at this moment Xiao Hui cared nothing for such things; no one was watching it anyway, so it romped about on the bed to its heart's content. Amid its jumping, it suddenly seemed to strike something in some corner of the bed, and the whole bed gave a sudden shudder.

Then, on the stone wall hard against the bed, a great crack silently split open, and slowly, soundlessly, the two sides drew apart, revealing a large opening wide enough for a single person to pass through.