Recaps

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress discovered a living creature beneath a pool of contaminated demonic vein essence in Soul-Severing Gorge, then returned to Wujou Hall with Daoist Yun to consider what it might be. That night, Yin Wujou began telling the Snow Empress what he had thought when she caught his wrist, but the chapter ended before he finished.

• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress descended through a fissure into a cavern where a dark red pool pulsed beneath writhing green growth.
• The Snow Empress identified the liquid as demonic vein essence contaminated by a living creature’s bodily fluids, and Yin Wujou’s blade drew a scaled tentacle from the pool.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress withdrew, and Daoist Yun warned that the mass below might be an ancient thing stirring from a long slumber.
• Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun rode back to Wujou Hall and agreed to discuss the matter the next morning.
• After dinner, Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress quietly read and polished her sword, then Yin Wujou began telling her what he had thought when she caught his wrist.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress discovered that the formation around Wujou Hall was failing as a dangerous presence seeped from a nether spring beneath Soul-Severing Gorge. At dawn, Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun prepared to investigate the old records and slow the seepage.

• The Snow Empress noticed the formation weakening, and Yin Wujou found that ordinary Spirit-Stabilizing Sand could no longer hold back the presence from below Soul-Severing Gorge.
• Yin Wujou explained that his master's notes warned against disturbing the dormant nether spring and that probing it with his saber had triggered a stronger reaction.
• Yin Wujou planned to visit the main city's scripture repository with the Snow Empress while Daoist Yun laid a temporary sealing formation near Soul-Severing Gorge.
• Yin Wujou stayed up copying his master's notes, then rose at dawn and prepared talisman supplies.
• The Snow Empress and Daoist Yun joined Yin Wujou at Wujou Hall to discuss their plans for the day.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress discovered that a creature beneath Soul-Severing Gorge was likely an ancient demonic flood dragon that had completed seven molts and could assume human form. They returned to the gorge, where Daoist Yun was building a sealing formation, and prepared to descend below.

• Daoist Yun took Yin Wujou’s formation flags and went to seal the outskirts of Soul-Severing Gorge.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress entered the scripture repository and found an earth-vein map marked with seven molts beneath the gorge.
• Yin Wujou read a warning that a demonic flood dragon descendant could take human form, beguile minds, and crave spiritual Qi.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress realized the creature might already know them, and Yin Wujou decided to go down into the gorge with her.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress reached Soul-Severing Gorge and saw Daoist Yun planting the third formation flag.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress returned to the cavern beneath Soul-Severing Gorge and found the Demonic Flood Dragon Remnant awakening. After Yin Wujou’s Fuxi Trigrams Mirror provoked it, they retreated as the creature watched them from the darkness.

• Daoist Yun examined Yin Wujou’s scroll, identified the creature as a Demonic Flood Dragon Remnant, and gave Yin Wujou three copper coins carved from lightning-struck wood.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress descended into the cavern while Daoist Yun stayed above to watch the formation flags.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress found the red pool expanded, the purple wall slime writhing, and a huge scaled form with an opening slit hanging overhead.
• Yin Wujou activated his Fuxi Trigrams Mirror and aimed its golden light at the creature, causing the cavern to shake and black mist to attack them.
• The black mist recoiled from the mirror’s light but cracked it, and Yin Wujou retreated with the Snow Empress as the creature watched them through its slit.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress discovered that a living Demonic Flood Dragon was rising beneath Soul-Severing Gorge and would break through to the surface in about seven days. After returning to Daoist Yun, they learned its corruption was already seeping through the soil and began examining the earth-vein map for a way to stop it.

• Yin Wujou stirred the corrosive pool with a silver cord and sensed many creatures swimming beneath it.
• Yin Wujou sent a paper crane into the fissure and saw a Demonic Flood Dragon coiled in a shaft below the cavern.
• Yin Wujou told the Snow Empress that the Demonic Flood Dragon was rising and could reach the surface in about seven days.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress left the cavern, and purple liquid burned and blistered the back of Yin Wujou's neck.
• Daoist Yun showed Yin Wujou that purple corruption had seeped into the soil and warned that it would spread further within three days.
• Yin Wujou spread out the earth-vein map and explained that the pool formed from demonic vein essence and the dragon's bodily fluids served as its source of nutrients.

Yin Wujou discovered an old formation that could suppress the Demonic Flood Dragon and found a way to repair it without harming the creature. He planned to lure the dragon into the formation with concentrated water spiritual Qi from Green Needle tea.

• The Snow Empress pointed out an unmarked branch passage on the earth-vein map, where Yin Wujou found a damaged ancient formation that could suppress the Nether Spring for a hundred years.
• Yin Wujou considered using part of the Demonic Flood Dragon to repair the formation, but the Snow Empress warned that cutting it would enrage the creature and put them in danger.
• Yin Wujou returned to Wujou Hall with the Snow Empress and Daoist Yun, and they searched ancient records for another way to repair the formation.
• Yin Wujou found a parchment instructing them to lure the dragon into the old formation with a foreign thing rather than kill it or take its flesh and blood.
• Yin Wujou found a record that Demonic Flood Dragons were drawn to pure water spiritual essence and proposed steaming first-flush Green Needle tea to create concentrated water spiritual Qi.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress prepared a plan to use Green Needle tea and Spirit-Gathering Guides to draw water essence Qi toward the old formation before something emerged in seven days. After the Snow Empress bought most of the city’s spring tea, Yin Wujou found a sun kindler to dry it overnight.

• The Snow Empress left at night with Yin Wujou’s spirit stones to buy Green Needle spring tea, while Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun continued working on the formation diagram.
• The Snow Empress returned with two baskets of tea after buying seventy percent of the city’s spring supply.
• Yin Wujou explained that he would fill twelve Spirit-Gathering Guides with dried tea powder and place them along the route to the old formation.
• When drying all the fresh tea seemed too slow, Daoist Yun prompted Yin Wujou to search his master’s belongings for a device.
• Yin Wujou found a sun kindler and began drying the tea overnight with help from the Snow Empress and Daoist Yun.

Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun prepared tea-filled bronze spheres to guide Water Spirit Qi toward the old formation beneath Soul-Severing Gorge. As they laid the spheres through an underground tunnel, Yin Wujou found a warning scratched into the rock: “Danger. Stop.”

• Yin Wujou explained that his master had gathered knowledge about the formation and the demonic flood dragon while traveling alone after his wife died.
• Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun roasted Green Needle spring tea, filled twelve bronze spheres, and planned to reach Soul-Severing Gorge before noon.
• The three entered the narrow fissure at Soul-Severing Gorge and found a tunnel where Yin Wujou sensed an underground pulse in the earth veins.
• Yin Wujou began placing the bronze spheres twenty zhang apart, linking them with silver wire to create a guiding path for Water Spirit Qi.
• At the seventh sphere, Yin Wujou uncovered the words “Danger. Stop.” carved into the tunnel wall.

Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun reached an ancient underground formation and discovered that its central stone pillar had broken, weakening the formation that suppressed something beneath it. Yin Wujou decided to use the final bronze sphere to temporarily reconnect the broken node, but the danger below remained.

• Yin Wujou followed his master's blood-carved warning deeper into the passage, where the earth's pulses grew stronger and the stone warmed beneath his feet.
• Yin Wujou and his companions found a vast cavern containing an ancient formation and a circular pit with a broken stone pillar at its center.
• Yin Wujou touched the pillar's fracture, triggering a violent pulse from underground, and the Snow Empress pulled him away.
• Daoist Yun identified the formation as one designed to suppress something below and explained that the broken pillar had caused its power to collapse outward.
• Yin Wujou decided to embed the final bronze sphere in the broken pillar so its water spirit Qi could draw the formation's power back toward the center.

Yin Wujou, the Snow Empress, and Daoist Yun devised a way to lure the Demonic Flood Dragon by restoring the formation diagram with water spirit Qi. The Snow Empress took the dangerous place at the formation eye, and the formation began to reactivate.

• Daoist Yun warned that the copper sphere at the formation eye would be the first target of the Demonic Flood Dragon, and Yin Wujou proposed staying there to maintain the water spirit Qi.
• The Snow Empress objected to Yin Wujou risking himself, and Daoist Yun suggested that she sit at the formation eye and gather the water spirit into a focused stream.
• The Snow Empress agreed to take the position, explaining that her water spirit body would make her better suited and safer there, and Yin Wujou reluctantly accepted.
• Yin Wujou fitted the final copper sphere into the broken pillar, causing the formation diagram to flash and release jade-green mist.
• The Snow Empress sat in the round pit, absorbed the water spirit Qi, and channeled it through the formation diagram.

Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun finished setting the copper balls and silver wire to lead the Demonic Flood Dragon toward the ancient formation while the Snow Empress condensed water spirit Qi. The creature began following the path and probing the rock above them, leaving the group waiting for its next move.

• Yin Wujou worried that he had been rash to bring the Snow Empress into Soul-Severing Gorge and place her at the formation eye, and Daoist Yun reminded him that his master had worked alone because no one was waiting for him at home.
• Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun adjusted the remaining copper balls and silver wire until dawn, completing the water spirit Qi path.
• The Snow Empress continued channeling water spirit Qi into the formation and sensed the Demonic Flood Dragon moving upward along the fork toward them.
• Yin Wujou confirmed that the creature's pulses were shifting toward the passage as it followed the water spirit Qi.
• The ground shook as the Demonic Flood Dragon struck and probed the rock layer, while Yin Wujou plucked the silver wire and felt the last copper ball tremble.

Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun watched as the Demonic Flood Dragon entered the cavern and approached the Snow Empress at the formation eye. After inhaling the water spirit Qi from the jade-green orb, the creature began to retreat toward the passage.

• The Snow Empress asked Yin Wujou whether she could leave after suppressing the Demonic Flood Dragon, and he assured her she could withdraw once the formation activated.
• Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun hid at the cavern’s edge as violent tremors shook the cavern and the Demonic Flood Dragon emerged from the passage.
• The Demonic Flood Dragon approached the formation eye, stopping with its snout near the Snow Empress’s jade-green orb.
• The Demonic Flood Dragon inhaled the water spirit Qi from the orb, then lifted its head and retreated toward the passage.

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou returned to Wujou Hall after the reactivated formation forced the Demonic Flood Dragon back underground. Yin Wujou realized the Snow Empress had paid a dangerous physical price to sustain the formation.

• The Demonic Flood Dragon retreated underground as the formation sealed the branching passage, and the Snow Empress emerged from the formation eye exhausted.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress returned to Wujou Hall with Daoist Yun, intending to record the formation lines they had learned.
• Yin Wujou urged the Snow Empress to rest, but she insisted that she could still recall the formation’s flow and asked him to spread out the hide.
• Yin Wujou confronted her about the formation draining her blood Qi, and he noticed unnatural blue-gray skin spreading along her neck.

Yin Wujou examined the Snow Empress's formation backlash and secretly mapped a branch that could redirect the formation's power. He revealed that the branch would pull whoever stood at the formation's eye into the depths beneath the earth.

• Yin Wujou saw blue-gray discoloration spreading from the Snow Empress's neck to her shoulder, and she explained that formation backlash would fade in three to five days.
• Yin Wujou drew the formation lines from memory while the Snow Empress rested nearby.
• The Snow Empress noticed a branch ending in a cinnabar-filled circle on the parchment and realized Yin Wujou had drawn it in the cavern before she entered the formation's eye.
• Yin Wujou admitted he had drawn the branch and explained that it would gather the formation's power and drag whatever occupied the eye deep beneath the earth.

The Snow Empress explained that the formation diagram’s living eye had bound its power to her meridians, and she planned to use herself as an anchor to trap the creature beneath the forked passage. She revealed that she had about three days left before the formation began draining her Water Spirit Qi, leaving Yin Wujou to face the cost of completing the funnel structure.

• Yin Wujou admitted that the formation eye could be a living thing, and the Snow Empress told him he had drawn the funnel structure correctly.
• The Snow Empress revealed that the creature’s residual power had entwined with her Water Spirit Qi and that she had deliberately remained in the formation eye.
• She explained that the current suppression would last at most half a year without a stable anchor and said she intended to become that anchor.
• The Snow Empress estimated she had about three days before the residual power reached her heart and the formation began drawing her Water Spirit Qi into the diagram.
• She instructed Yin Wujou to complete the funnel structure in three days, explaining that it would pull the creature deep underground while consuming her Water Spirit Qi as fuel.

Yin Wujou devised a way to keep the Snow Empress alive while separating her from the formation eye, using ice marrow to sustain her as the pattern ran. The Snow Empress added a final connection that would let the formation continue operating after she was freed.

• The Snow Empress explained that the formation was assimilating her, and she and Yin Wujou agreed she had only three days.
• Yin Wujou gave her three ice marrow crystals, which could replenish her water spirit Qi and buy time at the formation eye.
• Yin Wujou described his plan to attach a Separation Pattern to the funnel structure and use the ice marrow to prevent a backlash.
• Yin Wujou drew the Separation Pattern, explaining that he had developed it from a thread-severing method used in puppet techniques.
• The Snow Empress added a half-arc connecting the pattern's endpoint to the funnel's center, allowing the formation to keep running after she left the eye.

Yin Wujou completed checking the Snow Empress’s funnel structure, and the two went to the cavern at night to trace it onto the formation diagram. They continued drawing it together through the third ring, where the test remained unfinished.

• The Snow Empress fell asleep while Yin Wujou checked the formation’s force paths, and he worked through the parchment until dusk.
• Yin Wujou noticed the blue-gray mark had spread across the Snow Empress’s collarbone, then told her he had verified every turn of the structure.
• The Snow Empress decided they should test the structure in the cavern that night, and Yin Wujou gathered the parchment, night pearls, and cinnabar ink.
• Yin Wujou began tracing the funnel structure onto the formation diagram, while the Snow Empress corrected his path and pointed out the force’s direction.
• The two continued drawing the structure together through the third ring as Yin Wujou’s wrist began to ache and the cinnabar ink ran low.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress completed a funnel structure that could channel the formation diagram’s power into the depths to seize the Demonic Flood Dragon. As the Snow Empress prepared for the formation to draw her in by nightfall the next day, Yin Wujou remained awake, quietly watching over her.

• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou confirmed that the funnel structure could draw power from the formation diagram and pour it into the depths, and she said aligning her spiritual meridians would triple its pulling force.
• The Snow Empress warned that the ashen-blue residual power would reach her heart before nightfall the next day, when the formation would draw her in.
• The Snow Empress asked Yin Wujou whether his hands were steady enough to remove the Separation Pattern’s spiritual threads, and he said they were.
• The Snow Empress told Yin Wujou to direct the funnel’s pulling force into the depths without worrying about her if something went wrong when the formation drew her in.
• Yin Wujou stayed awake beside the sleeping Snow Empress, memorizing her breathing rhythm and handling the rolled parchment without unrolling it.

Yin Wujou watched over the Snow Empress through the night, then shared breakfast with her as they faced the final day of her remaining time. The Snow Empress tested one of the ice-blue crystals, which slightly weakened the tracery spreading across her body, and said about four double-hours remained.

• Yin Wujou secured the jade box beside the sleeping Snow Empress, prepared luminous pearls and a hidden blade, and stayed half-awake through the night.
• The Snow Empress woke before dawn, studied the formation diagram, and accepted Yin Wujou’s offer to make breakfast.
• Yin Wujou cooked rice congee with jujubes and dried meat, and he and the Snow Empress ate quietly together.
• The Snow Empress said it was the last day, then used one ice-blue crystal to slightly fade the tracery on her neck.
• The Snow Empress said about four double-hours remained as she sat in the sunlight holding the jade box.

The Snow Empress reviewed Yin Wujou’s calculations, then accompanied him underground to inspect the formation and prepare for the Separation Pattern. As her condition worsened, she explained the danger of the final step and the plan Yin Wujou would follow if she could not escape.

• The Snow Empress identified a weak joint in Yin Wujou’s funnel calculations and told him to increase its overlap by an inch.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left Wujou Hall early, and Daoist Yun agreed to take care of the duties if they had not returned by morning.
• The Snow Empress inspected the formation, confirmed that the funnel had merged into it, and used crystals to lessen her symptoms even as the discoloration spread closer to her heart.
• The Snow Empress explained that she would check the spirit threads from within before severing the final lock, while Yin Wujou would pour pulling force into the formation if any thread remained alive or she could not get out.
• The Snow Empress called Yin Wujou stubborn after he promised to keep pouring the pulling force if she remained trapped.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress activated the Separation Pattern to remove the blue-gray network spreading across her body. As the formation’s light coursed through her, the network began to fade, but the procedure was still underway.

• Yin Wujou drew the network on the Snow Empress’s neck so he could compare it after the Separation Pattern ran its course.
• The Snow Empress prepared beside the circular pit and asked Yin Wujou to push her into the formation eye when the time came.
• When the water clock ran out, Yin Wujou pushed the Snow Empress into the pit, where she pressed her palm against the formation eye.
• The Separation Pattern poured amber and cinnabar light through the Snow Empress, and she jerked her head back before lowering herself again.
• Yin Wujou saw the outer threads of the blue-gray network fade away, returning the Snow Empress’s skin to its original pallor.

Yin Wujou restored the fading formation after the Snow Empress’s spirit threads retreated to a single point beneath her heart. She prepared for the final, delicate cut, using his awakened Spirit Vision to guide the blade.

• The Snow Empress fell onto the stone slab as most of the blue-green threads faded, but a tiny light reappeared over her heart.
• Yin Wujou redrew the formation’s fading markings with cinnabar, restoring its power and stabilizing it.
• The Snow Empress explained that the last thread was rooted in her heart meridian and had to be severed from outside with a blade by someone who could see spirit threads.
• Yin Wujou revealed that he had awakened Spirit Vision and showed her the willow-leaf blade.
• The Snow Empress slowly opened her inner robe, exposing the lone blue-green point beneath her heart for Yin Wujou to cut.

Yin Wujou freed the Snow Empress from the Demonic Flood Dragon’s spiritual thread, allowing the formation to stabilize and her condition to improve. They returned to the courtyard, where Daoist Yun learned the procedure had worked, and the Snow Empress quietly spoke to Yin Wujou beneath the evening sky.

• Yin Wujou used Spirit Vision to cut the spiritual thread at the Snow Empress’s heart meridian, and the thread vanished.
• The formation diagram flared and settled into a steady flow of power as the Snow Empress’s wound began healing and her strength returned.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress climbed out of the pit and walked back through the passage, where she asked when he had awakened Spirit Vision.
• Yin Wujou told the Snow Empress that Spirit Vision had awakened while she slept, and she explained what he would now be able to see.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress emerged into the courtyard, where Daoist Yun asked if it had worked and then hurried to bring them food.
• The Snow Empress looked up at the first star and said something softly to Yin Wujou.

After the Snow Empress’s spiritual threads were removed, she shared a warm meal with Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun. At dawn, she woke free of pain, and Yin Wujou asked what she planned to do next.

• The Snow Empress put away the jade box containing two colorless crystals and joined Yin Wujou and Daoist Yun for pork rib soup.
• Daoist Yun proposed buying yellow wine and braised beef for the next day, and the Snow Empress and Yin Wujou agreed to drink with him.
• The formation diagram’s hum swallowed the bronze sphere’s ticking as the Snow Empress slept.
• The Snow Empress woke and found that her meridians were clear and the pain around her heart meridian was gone.
• Yin Wujou saw Daoist Yun splitting wood in the courtyard and asked the Snow Empress what she planned to do that day.

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left Daoist Yun’s home to seek an information seller who could identify the person who planted a spirit thread in her heart meridians. They set out down the mountain, intending to return before dark.

• The Snow Empress thanked Daoist Yun, then shared breakfast with him and Yin Wujou.
• The Snow Empress explained that the two stones were a lead to an old acquaintance who could read spirit meridians.
• The Snow Empress revealed that the spirit thread in her heart meridians had been deliberately planted and that she wanted to learn why.
• Yin Wujou recognized that the thread’s slipknot had been precisely woven, confirming her suspicion.
• Daoist Yun urged the Snow Empress to eat before the journey, and she and Yin Wujou left for town.