Yin Wujou didn't reply. He reached into the leather tube beside him, took out the cinnabar ink jar, and placed it beside him. He then spread a spare blank piece of leather paper on his lap. He dipped his brush in the ink and slowly drew something on the paper. The brush tip moved very lightly and slowly across the leather paper, creating dense, flowing lines. Snow Empress turned her head to look. He was drawing the shape of the bluish-gray veins on the side of her neck. The fine, hair-like lines stretched out from the center of her collarbone, and every branch was drawn with perfect precision.
"Why are you drawing these?" she asked.
"Remember it," he said, his pen still moving. "After the Separation Pattern are gone, take it out and compare it to see if it's completely clear."
Snow Empress didn't ask any more questions. She buried her face back in her knees, closed her eyes, and listened to the deep, even hum of the array of light orbs. As she listened, the sound gradually became a kind of hypnotic rhythm, and the tension in her body relaxed layer by layer, her consciousness slowly sinking into a warm, blurry state. She was awakened by a slight shaking— Yin Wujou touched her shoulder.
"It's been half an hour," he said.
She opened her eyes and found herself having slid down the stone wall, almost half-lying on the ground. She pushed herself up and sat up, taking a deep breath. The amber light of the array flickered before her eyes and then stabilized. The ball of light was still spinning, its pull steadily and continuously flowing into the depths of the earth.
"How much longer?" she asked.
Yin Wujou glanced at the small water clock strapped to his wrist. "About half an hour. You should stretch your legs first."
Snow Empress leaned against the stone wall and stood up, taking a few steps to loosen her stiff legs. She walked to the edge of the circular pit and looked down at the black stone slab at the bottom. A thin layer of moisture condensed on the surface of the slab, giving it a damp, dark glow in the light of the array. In the center of the slab was a fist-sized indentation, where she had carved it before—the keyhole of the array. She took out the jade box and placed it on the flat ground at the edge of the circular pit, then loosened the sash of her outer robe, took it off, folded it neatly, and placed it next to the jade box.
Yin Wujou watched her take off her outer robe. Underneath, she wore only a thin white inner shirt. The inner shirt was so thin that the bluish-gray veins on the side of her neck and the dark color that spread to the center of her chest were clearly visible through the fabric. That color was approaching her heart, like an open blue palm pressing on the center of her sternum, with the fingertips probing towards her heart.
"How much longer?" she asked again.
Yin Wujou glanced at the water clock again. "One quarter."
Snow Empress nodded. She sat down at the edge of the circular pit, her legs dangling over the inside of the pit wall, the tips of her boots tapping lightly against the stone. She loosened the collar of her inner garment slightly, revealing the area just below her collarbone where the densest blue-gray veins were—beneath the panel there, it looked as if a fine net was buried, with blue and gray threads intertwined and slowly spreading outwards.
"When the time comes, push me down," she said. "If I sit down by myself, I won't have enough strength and will easily veer off course from the center of the formation. Give me a push, and I'll be right in the middle."
Yin Wujou stood half a step behind her, staring at the back of her head. "Understood."
Neither of them spoke. The humming of the array grew clearer in the cave, and the rotation of the ball of light slowly accelerated. The dark red line at the end of the funnel structure, pointing towards the center of the circular pit, grew brighter and brighter, like a dark red river rising from the edge to the center. Snow Empress's breathing also began to change—the bluish-gray veins on her chest began to glow faintly under the light of the array, and a very faint light seemed to flow within the bluish-gray lines, echoing the light of the array across the air.
Yin Wujou watched as the last drop of water fell from the water clock.
"We've arrived," he said.
He placed his hands on Snow Empress's shoulders, his palms pressed against her shoulder bones through her thin inner shirt. The panels on her shoulders were slightly cool, and the outline of her shoulder blades was clearly visible through his palms. She did not move under his hands, quietly sitting with her legs dangling on the edge of the round pit, waiting.
Yin Wujou took a breath. "Let's go."
He pushed forward with both hands. Snow Empress's body slid down the edge of the circular pit. She didn't make any effort to maintain her balance, and fell straight down to the bottom. The hem of her inner garment was lifted and rolled up by the airflow, revealing a small section of pale, almost transparent panel at her waist. Her falling posture was like a Yezi being plucked from a branch and placed in the wind, going with the flow without struggle. Yin Wujou stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at her landing on the black stone slab at the bottom. The moment she landed, her feet gently touched the stone slab to steady herself, and then she squatted down, pressing her palms into the indentation in the center of the stone slab.
The array diagram lit up.
Amber light surged forth from the patterns along the outer edge of the circular pit, exploding outwards in all directions from the tip of the funnel structure. The rotating sphere of light crashed down vertically from above the pit, pouring into her head. The dark red of vermilion and the warm gold of amber intertwined on her body, forming a dazzling pillar of light. Within the pillar of light, her outline became blurred, leaving only a white shadow, the boundary between her inner garment and the panel completely swallowed by the light.
Yin Wujou crouched at the edge of the pit, looking down. The beam of light was too bright; he could only vaguely make out her crouching posture—her hands were still pressed into the indentation, her entire body slightly lifted off the stone slab by the power of the array. The bluish-gray veins on the back of her neck flickered violently in the beam of light, like a snake whose tail had been grabbed and was twisting desperately. The faint light within those bluish lines grew brighter and faster, surging wildly towards her heart.
There was nothing he could do. He could only squat by the pit, staring intently at the white shadow inside the pillar of light. The water clock was placed at his feet, ticking away, each drop of water sounding as long as an hour. The humming of the array rose half a tone, crashing back and forth between the cave walls, making his eardrums ache deep inside.
Suddenly, Snow Empress, inside the pillar of light, stirred. Her crouching posture remained unchanged, her hands still pressed into the indentation, but her head jerked back—at an angle as if someone had grabbed her hair from behind and forcibly pulled her up. From Yin Wujou's angle, he could see the vein in her neck taut, her Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Then she slowly straightened her head and lowered herself back down.
Another long silence followed. The light within the pillar continued to flow steadily, pouring into her head and flowing out from her palms pressed against the array's core, circulating within her body. Yin Wujou noticed the change in the bluish-gray veins on the side of her neck—the finest lines at the very edges were fading piece by piece, like a burnt cotton thread turning ash from the tip towards the center. Where those fine threads had faded, the surface returned to its original pale white, the bluish hue receding inch by inch.