Snow Empress didn't urge him. She simply placed the half-polished sword across her lap, and the lamplight flickered in her pupils like two small, quiet candle flames.
Yin Wujou withdrew his gaze, his fingertips tracing the edges of the yellowed pages twice before finally closing the scroll of notes and placing it on the corner of the table. "Never mind, let's figure it out first."
Snow Empress didn't press the matter. She sheathed her sword, stood up, and walked to the window. The window of Wujiu Wujou Hall faced west, and outside was a deep night, with only a few scattered lights in the direction of the main city in the distance. The night wind sneaked in through the cracks in the window, carrying the faint, fishy smell unique to Soul-Severing Gorge. Most of it was filtered out by the array set up around the Wujou Hall, and the remaining trace was so faint that it was almost indistinguishable. However, Snow Empress's sense of smell was much more acute than that of ordinary people, and she frowned slightly.
"Is the effectiveness of that formation weakening?" she asked, turning her head to the side.
Yin Wujou also came over and stood beside her by the window. He reached out and felt around the inside of the window frame, his fingertips touching an extremely fine line—a talisman drawn with a mixture of Xuantie sand and cinnabar when the array was set up, now gleaming faintly in the darkness. "It was brighter a few days ago," he said softly, "But it's definitely dark now."
He turned and walked towards the back hall, returning moments later with a celadon bowl filled with half a bowl of silvery-gray powder. He pinched a pinch of powder and sprinkled it on the talismanic lines of the window frame. The powder turned into a wisp of very faint white smoke the moment it touched the lines, and the lines lit up again, but only for a moment before dimming again.
"Not enough." Yin Wujou stared at the nearly extinguished talisman lines, a shallow frown appearing between his brows. "Ordinary Spirit-Stabilizing Sand is no longer enough. The aura emanating from that thing below is much stronger than we thought."
Snow Empress reached out to touch the talismanic thread, but withdrew her hand as soon as her fingertips touched the window frame—the thread was incredibly hot, like freshly quenched iron. "Is it attacking the array?"
"It's not an impact," Yin Wujou shook his head, "It's infiltration. It's silently, little by little, seeping its aura outwards. The formation can only weaken it layer by layer, unable to completely isolate it. At this rate, in three days at most, the last line of defense of the formation will be eroded through. At that time, ordinary people within a three-mile radius of Soul-Severing Gorge will be affected—at best, they'll suffer from nightmares and mental confusion; at worst, their yang energy will be drained and their bodies weakened."
He placed the celadon bowl back on the table, then picked up the scroll of notes, opened it, and pointed to a certain page for Snow Empress to see. Snow Empress leaned closer and saw a very simple map of the earth's veins drawn on the page, marked with densely packed small characters. Yin Wujou pointed to a location on the map marked " Soul-Severing Gorge," next to which was circled several times in red ink, and next to it was a line of hastily written words, "The secluded spring lies dormant; it must not be disturbed, must not be drilled through, and must not be explored with metal or gold objects."
"This is my master's journal," Yin Wujou said. "He came to Soul-Severing Gorge thirty years ago and noticed something was wrong down there. But he only explored to the edge of the cave before retreating and didn't go any further. He wrote that sentence in his journal and then shelved the case."
"Why did you put it down?" Snow Empress asked.
Yin Wujou was silent for a moment. "Because of the chaos in the Demon Domain thirty years ago, the main city was besieged, and he couldn't spare the manpower to deal with this Nether Spring. Later, when the chaos in the Demon Domain Realm was quelled, and he wanted to come back to deal with it, the strange phenomena on the surface of the Soul-Severing Gorge had disappeared—the dark green moss had faded, and the fishy smell in the gorge had dissipated, as if the thing below had gone back to hibernation. He thought that thing had already subsided on its own, so he didn't investigate further."
Snow Empress took the notebook from his hand and read the page by lamplight twice. Yin Wujou's master's handwriting was stiff, the strokes sharp as if carved with a knife, but the four characters "Do not disturb" were noticeably heavier than the others, almost pressing a dent into the paper. "Your master must have sensed something back then," Snow Empress said, returning the notebook to Yin Wujou. "When he wrote 'Do not disturb,' he wasn't referring to the Nether Spring itself—he was referring to what was hidden within it."
Yin Wujou nodded. "So when I used the dagger to probe that pool of liquid today, I was actually on edge the whole time. What Master didn't dare touch back then, I touched today, and the reaction below was even stronger than I expected."
He paused abruptly, his gaze falling on the sword Snow Empress had just polished on the table. The scabbard was wrapped in dark green sharkskin, gleaming with a deep, eerie light under the lamp. He reached out and picked up the sword, weighing it in his hand. Snow Empress's sword was lighter than his usual one, but its balance was excellent. The sharkskin wrapped around the hilt was glistening with sweat, showing that its owner handled it frequently.
"I need to go to the main city's Scripture Pavilion tomorrow morning." He put the sword back in its place. "Master's notes only record the surface exploration; the records of the deeper ley lines should be in the ancient scrolls on the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion. Daoist Yun, tomorrow you can first set up a temporary sealing array around the Soul-Severing Gorge, at least to slow down the speed at which that thing seeps out."
Snow Empress didn't reply. She stood by the window and looked out again. The night was extremely dark. The branches of the old locust trees in the courtyard of the Wujou Hall were bent over by the wind, rustling against the eaves. In the distance, the lights of the main city were fewer than before, and the whole land was immersed in a heavy stillness. This stillness was different from the usual night stillness—the usual night stillness was peaceful, but the stillness at this moment was like a thin layer of ice covering the surface of water, with undercurrents surging beneath, ready to crack at any moment.
"I'm going to rest." She looked away. "You should go to sleep early too; you'll be busy tomorrow."
Yin Wujou responded. After Snow Empress left, he sat alone under the lamp for another half an hour, copying down all the contents of the notebook related to Soul-Severing Gorge. When he finished writing the last page, the wick of the lamp popped, and with a "whoosh," the flame suddenly leaped up, stretching his shadow on the wall long and distorted. He looked up at the window; the night was as heavy as a huge piece of black jade, and not a single star could be seen on the horizon.
He put down his pen, blew out the lamp, and sat quietly in the darkness for a long time.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Yin Wujou awoke. A layer of bluish-gray light shone through the paper windows of the rear hall, and the sound of footsteps could be heard in the courtyard—the kitchen was preparing water. He got up, quickly washed, changed into a dark gray outfit, tucked the short sword at his waist, and stuffed several rolls of blank talisman paper and a box of cinnabar into his storage ring. When he reached the front hall, Snow Empress was already there; she had arrived even earlier than him and was sitting in the same spot as the previous night, retying her hair. She stood up when she saw him come out.
Daoist Yun also arrived. As soon as he entered, he complained that he hadn't slept well last night, saying that the pillows in the guest courtyard were too hard, and that the spiritual energy around the Wujou Hall was fluctuating violently, making him restless. Yin Wujou poured him a cup of hot tea, silencing his complaints. Then the three of them sat down at the table and went over the arrangements for the day.