After Ji Yuan left the teahouse,
he immediately cast Droplet Returns to the Sea. His body turned into a wisp of barely perceptible water vapor and vanished on the spot.
When he appeared again, he was on an uninhabited hill outside the city.
He swept his Divine Sense across the surroundings. Once he was certain no one had noticed him, he vanished again.
This time, he appeared at the Spirit Vein.
Tu Yue crouched beside the Spirit Coffin, twisting her skirt between her hands.
At the sound of footsteps, she sprang up and hurriedly bowed. "Master!"
Ji Yuan waved away the formality, but his gaze had already passed over her to the Spirit Coffin.
One glance sent a jolt through him.
The Spirit Coffin had changed.
He had crafted it himself from the Spirit Vein. Its body had been clear as ice, with spiritual energy flowing ceaselessly through its walls and a soft moon-white glow radiating from it.
Now that glow had dimmed almost to nothing, like a candle guttering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
The spiritual energy in its walls flowed sluggishly. A gray haze veiled the once-translucent coffin, and it was cold to the touch, without a trace of life.
What lay inside shocked him even more.
Dong Qian lay in the coffin, but she no longer looked as though she were merely asleep.
All the skin on her body had shriveled, clinging tightly to her bones and outlining her cheekbones and jaw in horrifying detail.
Her hands, folded over her lower abdomen, were as thin as kindling. Every knuckle jutted out, and the dried-up veins beneath her skin had turned a dull purplish black.
Her eyes were sunken, her lips cracked.
Her long hair, once black as a waterfall, had grown yellow