It retreated very slowly. He stared at the veins for a long time, and stopped after retreating about the length of a finger joint. After a while, it started to retreat again, this time faster, with several parallel thin lines breaking off segment by segment from the tip to the center. The dense blue grid on the center line of her chest was also loosening, like a cocoon being dismantled, with the threads breaking, turning gray, and dissipating one by one.
Yin Wujou's heart was pounding wildly. His hands clenched and unclenched on his knees, his nails digging into his palms without him feeling any pain. His entire Divine Capital fixed on the receding blue lines on the side of her neck, watching them retreat inch by inch from her heart, past the center of her collarbone, past the collarbone, back to the base of her neck, until only a few traces remained, like a few withered leaves scattered on the branch after a vine has been cut down.
Then it stopped.
Yin Wujou stared at the few remaining thin blue lines at the base of her neck. They no longer receded, nor did they flicker as before; they lay there listlessly, gray and motionless. During the few breaths he was watching, the light of the entire array suddenly flickered slightly. The dark red patterns of the funnel structure dimmed segment by segment from the end, like a piece of paper being burned through from the edge to the center. Within the pillar of light, Snow Empress's body trembled violently—her hand, which had been pressed against the indentation, loosened, and she fell from her slightly floating state onto the stone slab, lying there motionless.
" Snow Empress!" Yin Wujou called out.
She didn't answer. Her body, which was lying on the stone slab, curled up slightly, and her fingertips scratched at the stone slab before letting go. The light of the array became more and more intense, and the amber-colored patterns on the outer edge of the circular pit rippled violently like water. The vermilion patterns in the funnel structure faded away from the edge to the center in sections, leaving only grayish-white dried grooves after the dark red faded.
Without hesitation, Yin Wujou grabbed the cinnabar ink jar and brush he had prepared at his feet and flipped directly down the edge of the circular pit. The pit was only a little over a meter deep; he landed with a slight bend in his knees to steady himself, then took two steps to Snow Empress's side and squatted down. She was lying there, her face pressed against the stone slab, her eyes open, the pupils reflecting the flickering light of the array. Her lips were moving as if she were saying something, but her voice was too soft to hear.
" Snow Empress." He called again, reaching out to turn her over. The instant he turned her over, he saw the condition of her neck—the few remaining thin blue lines were still at the base of her neck, lying there listlessly, but a very faint blue light reappeared on the midline of her chest near her heart, as if something suppressed had raised its head again from the depths.
She reached out and gripped his wrist tightly. "There's another one inside—" her voice was forced out through clenched teeth, her lips turning white from the force, "the deepest one, it's retreated, retreated below my heart, I can't reach it—"
Yin Wujou looked down at the blue light that had rekindled in his heart. It was small, only the size of a fingernail, Youyou. Meanwhile, the light from the array was still waning; the dark red of the funnel structure had mostly died out, leaving only the last few feet near the circular pit barely glowing, like the last wick of a dying candle.
He reached for his brush, dipped it in vermilion ink, and began to draw directly on the ground—on the stone slab beside her. He unfolded the structural diagram on the parchment in his mind, meticulously retracing the fading lines at the end of the funnel structure. When the vermilion touched the stone slab, it hummed and connected with the remaining power of the array, the dark red spreading outwards from the bottom of the pit, following the fading grooves upwards. He drew quickly and accurately, the brush almost never stopping, his entire body prostrate on the ground, perfectly copying the lines in his mind.
"Steady, you said you were steady." Snow Empress lay beside him watching him draw, her voice broken. Her hand was still gripping his wrist tightly, her whole arm trembling slightly.
"Stable," Yin Wujou said.
He finished drawing the last few turns in a row, the dark red cinnabar spreading from the bottom of the pit all the way back to the edge of the array, reconnecting the patterns that were about to go out. The array shook twice and then lit up again, the light spheres from their scattered state regrouping and taking shape, and the funnel structure began to slowly rotate once more, pouring traction into the depths. The patterns on the ground stabilized.
Snow Empress lay down beside him and let out a long sigh. The hand that had been gripping his wrist slowly loosened, leaving a ring of pale finger marks where the hand that had been gripping his chest had been. She looked down at the small blue light, about the size of a fingernail, on her chest; it was still there, flickering, slightly brighter than before.
"There's only one left," she said, her voice so hoarse it was almost unrecognizable. "The deepest one is stuck in my heart vein; it's retracted, I can't reach it. Someone has to pull it out from the outside."
Yin Wujou put down his pen and squatted down beside her, watching her. Her face was as white as a stone slab, her lips were bloodless, and her forehead was covered in sweat. The blue light throbbed in her chest, reflecting the faint rhythm of her pulse.
"How do I take it out?" he asked.
Snow Empress looked at him, her gaze shifting from his eyes to his hands—she stared for several breaths before slowly looking away. "Use a knife," she said. "The final technique in Separation Pattern, using the knife as a finger, enters below the collarbone, tracing the edge of the pericardium to sever the line. But this technique requires the person using the knife to be able to see the Spirit Line —if they can't, the cut will miss."
Yin Wujou reached into his sleeve and drew out a thin, willow-leaf-shaped blade. The blade reflected a cold glint in the light of the array.
"I can see," he said.
Snow Empress looked up at him. His eyes gleamed faintly in the light of the array, and something moved deep within his pupils. After staring at him for a few moments, she suddenly smiled softly. The smile was very faint; the corners of her mouth moved only Sisi before disappearing.
"When did you develop Spirit Vision?" she asked.
"After you fell asleep that night," Yin Wujou said. He twirled the short blade between his fingers, rubbing it against the light of the array. "I wasn't just saying I had a steady hand."
Snow Empress lay motionless. The blue light on her chest was still pulsating. After thinking for a moment, she began to untie the ties of her inner garment. She untied them slowly, her fingers becoming somewhat unresponsive. When she reached the third tie, Yin Wujou reached out and untied the rest for her. The collar of her inner garment opened, revealing the entire panel below her collarbone and above the midline of her chest. The blue light shone Youyou beneath the panel in the center of her chest, like a blue nail embedded in her flesh, no longer spreading outwards, just that one solitary nail, deeply embedded.