Snow Empress listened quietly. Her expression remained unchanged, and even her breathing remained steady.
"What's at the heart of the formation—" she asked, "What is it?"
Yin Wujou looked up at her. His eyes held the light of a cornered beast, burning brightly, yet suppressed by a thin layer of something. "Whatever you put in the array's core, that's what the funnel pulls in," he said, his voice almost hoarse. "A copper ball can be the array's core, a talisman can, even a living creature can."
Snow Empress nodded. "Living things," she repeated the word.
"I wasn't thinking about it when I was drawing it—" Yin Wujou suddenly straightened up, his speech quickening, "I was squatting outside waiting for Daoist Yun to take you to the location of the array diagram, and since I was idly sketching out a structure of an ancient array that I had seen before, I tried it out, I didn't—"
" Yin Wujou," Snow Empress interrupted him.
He fell silent. She stood less than two steps away from him, the light from all the oil lamps and glass lamps in the hall falling upon her, illuminating her ashen neck and pale face clearly. She looked at him, then said, "You painted it correctly."
Yin Wujou felt as if he'd been punched in the face. He stood frozen, staring at her for three breaths, then suddenly took a step forward, grabbing her shoulders with both hands. "What did you say?" His voice was louder than before, a surge of suppressed emotion finally erupting from his throat. "You said I'm right? Do you know how much this structure, once drawn, would have to withstand if absorbed into the array diagram—"
"I know." Snow Empress's shoulders were gripped by him, but she didn't pull away. Her eyelashes drooped slightly before lifting again, her gaze calmly meeting his. "I was face-to-face with that thing in the cave for half an incense stick's time. When it absorbed the water elemental energy I released, its aura flowed back into my spiritual meridians through the array patterns. Every inch of my meridians is filled with its residual power. You told me it would subside in three to five days; you know in your heart that you were lying to me."
Yin Wujou slowly loosened his grip on her shoulders. He took a step back, his lower back bumping against the edge of the wooden table, causing the parchment to tilt by half an inch. The cinnabar lines drawn on it looked like streaks of blood seeping out under the lamplight.
"It won't dissipate in three to five days." The Snow Empress's voice was calm, as if stating a fact unrelated to him. "That residual power has seeped into my spiritual veins and become entangled with my water elemental energy. I can't wash it out. If it doesn't dissipate, I will become more and more a part of the array. After a long time, when I sit in the array's core, I won't need to deliberately activate my spiritual energy; the array will automatically pull itself away from me. Even if I don't go in then, it will still pull me away."
Yin Wujou's face was as pale as the pale, almost grayish-blue dawn light on the horizon outside the palace. He looked at her, his lips moving several times before he finally uttered a sound, "So you deliberately stayed inside and didn't leave."
Snow Empress didn't deny it. She turned her head to look out the window—the first slivers of pale blue light were already appearing on the horizon, and the pale blue flame of the ever-burning glass lamp seemed dimmer in the morning light. "After that thing was lured back, the entire array of power in the side passage was sealed, but sealing it isn't suppressing it," she said. "Its power is too profound; the suppressive force at the entrance of the side passage can only last for half a year at most. After half a year, if it crashes up from the depths again, and the array doesn't have a stable eye point to continuously output the pulling force, even if it's lured back ten more times, it won't be of any use."
"You used yourself as an eye." Yin Wujou's voice suddenly became very soft, as if afraid of startling something.
Snow Empress turned her gaze from the window to his face. "The funnel structure on the parchment is correct. Change the array diagram from suppression to traction, and change a fixed array eye to an anchor that continuously outputs power. The deeper the anchor is placed, the stronger the force pulling that thing." She paused here, the corners of her lips curving slightly, still with that extremely light and shallow smile, "You didn't know what you were going to do with it when you drew it, but you drew it correctly."
Yin Wujou suddenly turned to face the wooden table. He placed both hands on the table, his back arched in a stiff curve, his shoulder blades protruding through the fabric like two pressing stones. He stood there for a long time, until the pale blue light on the horizon outside the window gradually turned into a fish-belly white, the flame in the oil lamp flickered twice and finally went out, and the hall darkened for a moment before being filled again by the morning light.
"When I drew it, I didn't know what I was going to do with it," he said, his back to her, his voice choked with embarrassment, "But now I know."
Snow Empress stood behind him. Morning light streamed in through the window, making her bluish-gray neck even clearer—the color had spread from her shoulder, along her collarbone, and down to her chest. She glanced down at her collar but said nothing.
Yin Wujou turned around. The redness under his eyes was more pronounced than in the cave, and the edges of his eyelids were flushed a dark pink from bloodshot eyes, but his gaze was steady and almost sharp. He looked at the bluish-gray patch spreading along the side of her neck, paused for a moment, and then spoke, "How much longer?"
Snow Empress wasn't feigning ignorance. "Once the residual power in my meridians spreads to my heart, the water elemental energy within me will begin to flow back into the array on its own. On that day, I'll sit within the array's core, perfectly aligned with it, and use the funnel structure to channel the traction force deep into the earth." She paused, "Based on tonight's spread rate, it should take about three days."
"Three days," Yin Wujou repeated.
"Three days," Snow Empress said. "After three days, I will sit in the center of the array. You will then complete the funnel structure on the parchment and fit it into the corresponding position on the array diagram. Once completed, the power flow of the array diagram will reverse, and the pulling force will flow from my body along the funnel into the ground, pulling that thing downwards. After that, it will be a long period of attrition. It will be pulled deep inside and unable to rise, and my water elemental energy will be slowly drawn away by the array diagram to serve as fuel to maintain the pulling force."
"Fuel." Yin Wujou suddenly interrupted her. His voice returned to its usual flat tone, but Snow Empress noticed that his knuckles, resting on the edge of the table, were deathly white. "And after it's drained?"
Snow Empress looked at him, not answering immediately. Morning light shone from behind her, framing her silhouette with a pale gold edge, making her appear like an image enshrined in a shrine within that halo. She paused for a few moments before speaking, her voice soft. "After it's drained, there's nothing left at the core of the array. But the funnel structure is already formed, and the traction will automatically maintain itself deep underground for a long time. It's trapped underground and can't rise, so the seal on the branch entrance will remain until someone comes to repair it..."