But for some reason, he suddenly remembered the first time he saw her by the cold pool—back then, her hair was a bit longer than it is now, and standing by the water, she resembled a sword tempered in cold iron, exuding a sharp and unapproachable chill. Now, however, she sat in the sunlight, and the blade of that sword had been dulled by something, looking like an old object that had been used many times and then placed on a shelf, still shapely and elegant, but exuding a sense of weariness from its very core.
"Why don't you lie down for a while longer?" Yin Wujou said.
Snow Empress shook her head. She put the jade box back into her bosom, stood up, walked to the wooden table, took out the parchment, and spread it out. Then she asked Yin Wujou to bring over the calculations he had made on the old paper yesterday. "I'll look at it again," she said, "And you walk it out for me."
So Yin Wujou explained every line on the parchment again. He spoke slowly, explaining the flow of force and the basis for calculation at each turning point, word by word. He would stop and go over the calculation again whenever she asked a question. She asked about three places, all of which were the connection points of the two most strained joints in the middle of the funnel structure. After he finished speaking, she was silent for a moment, nodded, and then reached out and lightly drew a mark on the paper with her fingernail.
"This is where the stress is greatest; if it pushes upwards from below, this joint will be the first to loosen," she said. "We'll fix it tomorrow, overlapping it by an inch with the main groove."
Yin Wujou glanced at the spot where her fingernails had traced and memorized it. Then she rolled up the parchment and handed it to him, standing up and brushing off non-existent dust from her clothes. "Let's go, go down two hours early. I want to check the funnel's rotation one more time before we go in."
Yin Wujou slung the leather tube over his shoulder and retrieved two more luminous pearls and a sufficient amount of cinnabar ink from the bronze box. This time, he didn't bring the short blade—it was already tucked into his sleeve. When the two of them walked out of the Wujou Hall one after the other again, Daoist Yun was sweeping the courtyard. He stopped sweeping when he saw them come out, his lips moved, but he only nodded slightly at them. When Snow Empress passed by him, she paused for a moment and glanced at him sideways.
" Daoist Yun," she said, "if Yin Wujou and I haven't come up from underground by tomorrow morning's prayers—"
"I understand," Daoist Yun interrupted her, his voice gruff. "I've refilled the water in the copper ball, lit the incense on the offering table, and done everything I was supposed to do. Why are you worrying about these things?"
Snow Empress didn't say anything more, turned around and continued walking forward. Yin Wujou behind and went out of the courtyard gate. When he looked back, Daoist Yun was still standing in the courtyard holding a broom, his hunched back bent into a small mountain in the morning light.
The underground passage was no different from the day before. The eerie blue light of the luminous pearl flickered on the walls as the two walked down, their footsteps staggered. Yin Wujou walked half a step ahead, with Snow Empress following behind. Halfway down, Yin Wujou noticed that her breathing was slightly heavier than before, but he didn't turn around—she would stop when she needed to, and the fact that she hadn't stopped meant that she could still hold on.
The array inside the cave was still in operation. Amber light rose from the patterns on the ground, illuminating the entire cave with a warm glow. The ball of light above the circular pit was still rotating, at about the same speed as when they left yesterday. The funnel-shaped cinnabar patterns on the edge of the array snaked towards the center like a dark red snake. Snow Empress squatted down by the circular pit to carefully examine the state of the ball of light, then stretched out her palm to test the attraction it emitted, before standing up and walking around the outermost edge of the array.
She walked slowly, each step carefully placed between the patterns, her boots avoiding the glowing lines. Yin Wujou stood at the edge of the circular pit, watching her slowly walk around the array. Her gaze remained fixed on the patterns beneath her feet, occasionally stopping to bend down and touch the ground with her fingers to sense it for a few moments before standing up and continuing. It took her about half an hour to complete the entire loop, and when she finally returned to the edge of the pit and stood before him, a thin layer of sweat covered her face.
"It's more stable than yesterday," she said. "The flow rate of the main pattern hasn't decreased, and the cinnabar has completely fused in. This array itself is alive; it has accepted the funnel structure and is now operating as if it were part of itself."
She took out a jade box from her bosom, opened it, and took out one of the crystals, placing it under her tongue. A faint blue light peeked out from between her slightly parted lips for a few breaths before gradually fading away. She put the other one in her mouth as well, closed her eyes, stood there for a moment, and when she opened them again, the cloudiness in her eyes had cleared considerably, and the bluish-gray veins on the side of her neck had faded a little, but the area where that color was located had moved down almost an inch compared to the morning, now approaching her heart.
After she finished swallowing the crystal, she sat down by the circular pit, leaning against the cave wall, hugging her knees and resting her chin on them. Yin Wujou sat down next to her, and the two of them faced the circular pit in the center of the array and the rotating ball of light. The light from the array clearly illuminated their silhouettes, and their shadows were cast close together on the stone wall behind them.
"The principle of the Separation Pattern," Snow Empress suddenly spoke, her voice lower than usual, as if her throat was hoarse from holding something in her mouth, "When dismantling the Spirit Line, you must start from the tip and work your way up to the root. Each Spirit Line is a living pull; when you dismantle it, it will retract, retracting back to the source of the manipulator. If that source is a living person, after the Spirit Line retracts, that person will know that their puppet has been manipulated. But if the source is something that has been dead for a long time—"
"The retracted line is empty," Yin Wujou said.
Snow Empress nodded. " The Demonic Flood Dragon has been suppressed by the array for three hundred years; the Spirit Line it left on it should have withered long ago. But I have to do the final step of closing the Separation Pattern myself. I need to check each thread one by one to make sure it's empty before I can break the last lock. After that, I'll come out." She paused, "If even one thread is still alive during the check—"
"I'm using a funnel outside to pump traction deeper," Yin Wujou continued, picking up where she left off. "You said that before."
"Hmm." Snow Empress nodded, burying her face in her knees. After a while, she said again, "If it still doesn't come out after we've given it to her—"
"Then let's drink it a little longer."
She turned her head to look at him. The light from the luminous pearl and the array pattern overlapped and reflected on his face, clearly outlining the contours of his cheekbones and nose. His face was expressionless, his eyes fixed on the ball of light, his lips pressed into a straight line. She looked at him for a couple of breaths, then turned her head back to look at the swirling light again.
"You," she said, her voice muffled and murky, "Are even more stubborn than I thought."