Chapter Summaries

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.

Yin Wujou practiced Spirit Vision with the Snow Empress, who then brought him to a hidden Yanbei acquaintance to examine the lingering mark beneath her wound. The man traced it to the Spirit Vein Bureau’s secret technique, but the Snow Empress said she had survived longer than its supposed ten-year limit.

• The Snow Empress asked Yin Wujou what he could see with Spirit Vision and explained that practice would let him distinguish Spirit Lines precisely enough to cut them without harming flesh.
• The Snow Empress led Yin Wujou through a valley town to a secluded house, where a gaunt man recognized her as an old acquaintance who had fled Yanbei ten years earlier.
• The Snow Empress showed the man the faint mark beneath her collarbone and asked him to examine it while Yin Wujou listened.
• The man identified the mark as a double-strand slipknot from the Spirit Vein Bureau’s Flood Dragon Suppression Weave, used to seal dangerous spirit roots at the cost of the victim’s life within ten years.
• The Snow Empress pointed out that she had lived longer than ten years.

The Snow Empress learned that a missing Spirit Vein Bureau dossier might lead her to the person who planted the thread in her heart meridians. She and Yin Wujou set out for the capital to search government records for Pei Yuan’s whereabouts.

• The man told the Snow Empress that someone had precisely untied the slipknot in her Flood Dragon Suppression Weave and noted Yin Wujou’s rapid mastery of Spirit Vision.
• The man revealed that a dossier containing the third form of the weave had gone missing ten years earlier, and that registrar Pei Yuan had vanished with it.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left the man’s home and agreed to find Pei Yuan through archived Ministry of Personnel records.
• The Snow Empress said they would return to Daoist Yun, pack, and travel toward the capital, and Yin Wujou agreed to go with her.
• Yin Wujou used Spirit Vision to observe the Qi of people in the town and the complex spiritual Qi flowing through the Snow Empress’s meridians as they walked back.

The Snow Empress learned that a planted thread had obstructed her meridians, while Yin Wujou affirmed he would stay with her to see their formation diagram through. As they prepared to leave Daoist Yun, he gave Yin Wujou a formation diagram that could conceal his blade beneath his skin.

• The Snow Empress explained how the obstruction in her meridians had hindered her strength, sleep, and cultivation, then confirmed that she could now feel water spirit Qi flowing through them.
• Yin Wujou told the Snow Empress he did not regret joining her and refused to leave before their formation diagram was complete.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou returned to Daoist Yun’s temple, where he had prepared an old jar of yellow wine.
• Daoist Yun gave Yin Wujou a formation diagram for a blade sheath that would let his willow-leaf blade hide beneath his flesh.
• Daoist Yun revealed that he had designed the sheath for a girl he loved when he was young, and told Yin Wujou to keep it.

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left Daoist Yun and rode east toward the capital to investigate Pei Yuan’s records. She offered to teach Yin Wujou how to reroute formation diagrams during their journey, which ended for the day at an abandoned tea shelter.

• Daoist Yun gave Yin Wujou a stack of mugwort-paper diagrams, and the Snow Empress thanked him before she and Yin Wujou departed.
• At a post station, Yin Wujou hired two horses, and he and the Snow Empress set out toward the capital.
• The Snow Empress said they would ride with as little rest as possible to investigate Pei Yuan’s records and offered to teach Yin Wujou the basics of rerouting formation diagrams.
• Yin Wujou studied Daoist Yun’s scabbard formation diagram while using Spirit Vision to observe the road and its surroundings.
• Toward evening, the Snow Empress and Yin Wujou stopped at an abandoned tea shelter to eat and rest their horses.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress traveled east through the night, watching two mysterious travelers move through the woods alongside them. At an empty waystation, they rested and Yin Wujou studied Daoist Yun’s formation diagram while the Snow Empress looked it over.

• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress rested at a ruined tea shelter until moonrise, then continued east along the official road.
• The Snow Empress spotted a faint light moving through woods beside the road, and Yin Wujou used Spirit Vision to discern two travelers.
• The Snow Empress decided they should keep moving and observe the travelers, who eventually fell behind and disappeared into the woods.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress reached an empty waystation and stopped for four hours to water and feed their horses.
• Yin Wujou studied Daoist Yun’s formation diagram by moonlight, and the Snow Empress crouched beside him to examine it.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress resumed their journey after discussing his insight into Daoist Yun’s formation diagram and her recovering spirit veins. At a roadside checkpoint, Yin Wujou noticed the keeper had a scar resembling a spirit-vein puncture wound.

• Yin Wujou explained that the half-loop in the sheathing line accommodated the willow-leaf blade’s curved grip and prevented uneven wear on the formation markings.
• The Snow Empress thanked Yin Wujou for extending her life, then told him to sleep while she kept watch.
• Yin Wujou dreamed of a vast amber formation beneath a river, where the Snow Empress appeared beside him and spoke two words he could not hear.
• The Snow Empress woke Yin Wujou, and they set out toward inhabited areas as her spirit veins continued to recover.
• The Snow Empress paid the toll at a checkpoint, and Yin Wujou noticed a spirit-vein puncture scar in the keeper’s right hand.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress traveled east toward the capital, where they planned to investigate Pei Yuan. At a mountain pass, they discovered signs that someone had recently buried and removed a formation artifact.

• Yin Wujou used Spirit Vision to examine people along the road, and the Snow Empress warned him that those with old spiritual-meridian injuries could sense his scrutiny.
• The Snow Empress changed their horses at the relay station and said she trusted her informant's information about Pei Yuan only seventy percent.
• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress rode east through hilly terrain while he mentally reviewed Daoist Yun's scabbard formation diagram.
• At the mountain pass, the Snow Empress stopped when she spotted rubble blocking the exit, and Yin Wujou sensed lingering Spiritual Power in the soil.
• The Snow Empress identified the buried object as a formation artifact that had been dug up about half a day earlier, but the road beyond showed no sign of anyone passing.

The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou stopped at a roadside inn, where its elderly owner revealed that Pei Yuan was alive and explained how they could reach him. They planned to obtain a night-duty token from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s director and enter the storehouse after dark.

• Yin Wujou noticed that soil among the mountain-pass rubble had been brought from elsewhere and remembered its color and texture.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou stayed at an inn, where the old woman recognized their newly awakened abilities and learned they were seeking Pei Yuan.
• The old woman told them Pei Yuan had been kept at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau’s western storehouse since his dismissal and warned that visiting by day could get them killed.
• The Snow Empress said she could ask the bureau’s director for a night-duty token because he owed her a favor.
• Yin Wujou considered the danger of taking the token and entering the guarded storehouse to ask Pei Yuan how the dossier had disappeared and who had planted the thread.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress rode toward the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to retrieve a token, while a sweeper surnamed Pei waited there with an old booklet tied to Daoist Yun’s formation. They took a shorter dirt track toward the capital’s western outskirts.

• The Snow Empress told Yin Wujou to enter the Bureau director’s study for the token while she kept watch outside.
• Yin Wujou practiced controlling his Spirit Vision as he prepared to ride through the night with the Snow Empress.
• The Snow Empress and Yin Wujou left the old woman’s courtyard on horseback, and the Snow Empress bowed toward the woman’s newly lit window.
• A sweeper surnamed Pei waited in a Bureau storeroom with a booklet on the Flood Dragon Suppression Weave whose crossed-out author’s name resembled Daoist Yun’s handwriting.
• The Snow Empress turned onto a rough dirt track to save twenty li, and Yin Wujou followed her.

Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress followed an abandoned road to a disused ferry landing, where they discovered damaged spirit veins beneath the river leading toward the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. They prepared to swim across, leaving their horses behind.

• Yin Wujou and the Snow Empress rode along an overgrown road to an abandoned ferry landing near the capital's western outskirts.
• The Snow Empress sensed abundant water spirit Qi in the river, and Yin Wujou used his Spirit Vision to detect damaged spirit veins beneath the riverbed.
• Yin Wujou traced one spirit vein toward the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, and the Snow Empress explained that many old government offices stood on spirit vein nodes.
• The Snow Empress said they would have to leave their horses and swim across, then packed her outer robe and entered the river.
• Yin Wujou watched the Snow Empress swim ahead and began removing his outer robe.