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The chill from the steps seeped into my embroidered shoes as I tightened my shawl, preparing to ascend. Suddenly, a warm fingertip poked the back of my neck.
Zhou Wen emerged from behind the corridor pillar, holding a glass lotus lamp, its light casting a fiery glow on the vermilion birthmark between her brows.
"Shouldn't a newlywed bride be in the bridal chamber counting heavenly cups?" she teased, brushing my earlobe with the tassel of the lamp. "Could it be that even the Xuanjie Immortal has frozen her Spirit Crane quilt into ice shards?"
I swatted away the swaying tassels, and the embroidered cuffs of my sleeves slipped down half an inch, revealing a red mark on my wrist left by the silk spun from celestial silkworms.
Zhou Wen's smile lingered at the corners of her mouth as her gaze swept over the ice silk still entangled with the Spirit Link Bracelet. Suddenly, she spun around and flung out a jade gourd from her waist.
Emerald mist surged forth, wrapping around the ice silk and retracting into a gilded box.
"My mother always says that the Immortal Pavilion's barrier is foolproof." I traced a new crack on the bracelet, watching Zhou Wen use Samadhi True Fire to burn away the seal on the box. "Yet it couldn't even stop the malice of the Xuanming Pearl."
"It's your causality thread that's too dangerous," she snapped her fingers to pin the jade gourd atop the box for protection. As she turned, her crimson hemline brushed against the jade scent on the table. "Now tell me, that esteemed Immortal Sovereign who ran off to heal his former partner on his wedding night—was it even more exciting than what was written in the tales?"
The gilded box suddenly trembled violently, and Zhou Wen swiftly pressed down on a talisman to suppress its movement.
I gazed at my mother's fading shadow in the water mirror, feeling again that taste of blood from the silence spell rising in my throat.
Last night when Xuan Yu teleported away, Wang Xuan's fish-scale skirt had indeed gotten tangled with his dark iron sword tassel.
"The life lamps of three hundred disciples are hanging in the bridal gift box." I removed a crooked phoenix hairpin from my hair and let Zhou Wen re-tie my loose bun with Spirit Link threads. "But you knew I was carrying a marriage calamity and still arranged to meet at the Mirror Flower Water Moon Pavilion."
The reflection of Zhou Wen in the diamond-patterned mirror suddenly blurred as she dipped her fingertip in cinnabar to draw an escape talisman on my palm: "Years ago, someone used three thousand lotus lamps here to set up a phoenix summoning array for Yang Lin." The last stroke of her talisman unexpectedly blurred out; when she looked up, her eyes reflected the swirling ice silk within the box. "I heard he just succeeded as the master of Tianji Pavilion last month."
The moonlight filtering through the pavilion suddenly dimmed, and I heard cracking sounds coming from within the gilded box.
I grasped Zhou Wen's hand that was drawing symbols; cinnabar smeared across my palm leaving a trail of blood.
The Spirit Link Bracelet clinked against the table, startling spiritual sparrows in the beams above to flutter away in alarm.
"Be careful of ice silkworm threads." Zhou Wen used True Fire to scorch away the frost clinging to my sleeve; suddenly, the jade gourd hung upside down and spewed forth a fountain of spirit water. "Your complexion is colder than that chilled Immortal Dew at Yaochi Banquet."
I stared at the moon's reflection floating in the spring water, momentarily seeing how Yang Lin had taught me to control water back then—the same silver-like light dancing on his sword tip.
Zhou Wen pulled off a golden step ornament and stirred up ripples on the surface of the water; sparkling waves transformed into countless falling stars that plunged into Mirror Lake.
"Xuan Yu carries Xuan Shuang's dragon soul." I reached out to catch a starry fragment as it condensed into an icicle at my fingertip. "Last night when he healed Wang Xuan, his dragon soul actually entwined with my fire phoenix spirit vein." The icicle suddenly burst into tiny points of light, startling spiritual butterflies to scatter.
A thunderclap rolled across the clouds outside the pavilion, causing Zhou Wen's compass in her sleeve to spin wildly.
She pressed down on my hand that was about to form seals and shoved the jade gourd into my arms: "At midnight during this thunderstorm, you should be..." Her voice cut off abruptly as she fixed her gaze on an ice silkworm thread that had wrapped around my waist without me noticing; her expression turned grave as if facing a formidable enemy.
That thread shimmered with a pearlescent sheen, its end tied with half of a familiar heart knot—exactly like one I had tied around Yang Lin's sword tassel years ago.
Zhou Wen's nails nearly dug into my wrist bone as the jade gourd vibrated ominously in my palm.
A purple lightning bolt exploded outside beyond the diamond-patterned window lattice, illuminating that half heart knot at the end of the ice silkworm thread until it appeared pale as bone.
"Three years ago in Penglai Secret Realm, you used your life fire spirit to forge him a heart-protecting mirror." She ignited a flicker of Southern Ming fire at her fingertip; however, instead of burning through that heart knot, its flames licked along the ice silk. "Now you're willing to let Xuan Shuang's dragon soul shred this little sentiment?"
The Spirit Link Bracelet suddenly sparked; instinctively I covered its cracked surface with my sleeve.
Mist from Mirror Lake drifted into our pavilion, wrapping around remnants of paper cranes that Yang Lin had taught me to fold long ago as they fluttered chaotically between crystallized beams.
Zhou Wen suddenly broke through the mist with a golden step, and the talisman pinned to the gilded box ignited with azure smoke.
"I haven't seen it since," I said, gazing at the phoenix hairpin corroded by spiritual mist. The shark pearl embedded in the crimson gold phoenix eye was oozing tear-like luminous powder. "On Wedding Eve, the communication kite from the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion crashed against the mountain protection array."
Zhou Wen suddenly grasped my hand as I wiped the shark pearl, nearly scorching the falling veil with True Fire. "So you didn't even attend his ascension ceremony as the new pavilion master?" A half-burnt invitation page drifted from her sleeve, its gilded cloud patterns still carrying traces of thunder tribulation. "That day, Yang Lin broke through the Ninefold Restriction on the Heart-Testing Steps, collapsing half of the observation platform."
The sound of ice silkworms gnawing at the spiritual wood came from within the gilded box. I brushed aside Zhou Wen's remnants of the page and let them fall into the spiritual spring that suppressed the ice silk.
The ink blurred into a fierce ghostly face upon contact with water, resembling the totem on Wang Xuan's skirt from last night by seven parts.
"His mother came by," I said, dipping my brush in blood cinnabar from the spring to draw a soul-locking formation on the table. However, there was always one corner missing in the formation's center. "It was on the day when the immortal gate was besieged by evil spirits."
Zhou Wen suddenly knocked over a jade cup filled with moonlight dew, splashing its essence onto the soul-locking formation and causing azure purple smoke to rise.
She pulled me back to face the bagua mirror, which reflected spiderweb-like red marks on my neck, eroded by Xuanming Pearl's malice. "Did that old crone threaten you with Nine-Rebirth Soul-Returning Pills?"
A spiritual sparrow burst through the window and snatched away the Kunlun jade agate used for suppressing evil.
I looked at my palm, where a shape-shifting talisman had burned me, suddenly recalling that Soul Devouring Hairpin in Madam Yang's hair—she had used its tip to pry open my life soul lantern that day, saying that Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion could not tolerate a daughter-in-law who would offer sacrifices to the immortal gate.
"She said if I married into Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion..." The gilded box suddenly exploded with ice shards. I reflexively used my spiritual rhino bracelet to block the flying shards of jade. "Three hundred life soul lanterns would turn into soul-drawing banners."
Zhou Wen's lotus lamp abruptly extinguished, and in the darkness, ice silkworm threads wrapped around the beams like a spider's web.
She crushed a sound-transmitting jade talisman to summon twelve lotus lamps, but the firelight revealed a slip of black iron sword tassel slipping from my sleeve—it was precisely that piece torn from Xuan Yu last night.
"So you believed that Xuan family could suppress evil spirits?" She suddenly burned away Xuan Shuang from the sword tassel with Samadhi True Fire, and a dragon soul's remnant cried out in anguish among the ashes. "Don't forget their ancestors once used living sacrifices..."
A thunderclap struck down upon the bagua mirror, interrupting her words as my Heavenly Cup rolled out of my sleeve and fell to the ground.
The cup was engraved with paired birds, now pierced by cracks; entwined branches were seeping dark red liquid.
Zhou Wen caught the dripping liquid in a jade gourd, causing the spiritual spring to boil like lava.
"The immortal gate's spiritual veins have coexisted with evil spirits." I wiped away hot spring water splattered at my eyes and watched it solidify into blood amber-like crystals. "Except for Xuanjie’s utmost yin and utmost cold..."
The ice silkworm threads suddenly severed the phoenix hairpin, causing the shark pearl to fall and transform into azure smoke.
When Zhou Wen's lotus lamp reignited, I was wrapping remnants of a heart knot around the broken hairpin.
The spiritual rhino bracelet sensed dragon soul energy beginning to heat up while Xuanming Pearl suppressed within the gilded box gradually returned to silence.
Outside, thunderstorm had ceased without notice; moonlight filtered through an ice crystal prism casting star maps on the ground.
Zhou Wen suddenly lifted a golden step to tease apart my loose hair at my temples; among my strands were ice silkworm threads glowing with an eerie blue light. "So Yang Lin still doesn't know..."
"It’s time to return to Xuanjie." I interrupted her words and pressed the burning spiritual rhino bracelet against where it tangled with ice silkworm threads.
The phantom of Xuan Shuang’s dragon soul rose from the bracelet's surface, opening its mouth to swallow up the spreading blue light.
Zhou Wen opened her mouth as if wanting to say something but ultimately just stuffed a package wrapped in talisman paper containing cinnabar into my arms.
I lowered my gaze over the winding cracks on my spiritual rhino bracelet; ice silkworm threads had left fine red marks around my wrist. "Families skilled in soul-suppressing techniques are not limited to just Xuan family; can they dare sign a Blood Contract with evil spirits..." The gilded box suddenly emitted a sharp buzzing sound. Zhou Wen snapped her fingers and smeared cinnabar over its sealing spot, cutting off my unfinished words.
Her sudden bright smile reflected in the diamond mirror: "It's time for our shift." She abruptly tugged me toward the terrace, crimson veil sweeping across and knocking down papers used for suppressing spirits. "Let me show you moonlit evening primrose nourished by spiritual mist."
As the wind chime flower suddenly unfurled its leaves, delicate glimmers flowed alongside Zhou Wen's lotus lantern. She formed a seal at the eye of the carved phoenix on the white jade railing, and the spiritual patterns of the entire celestial pavilion lit up one after another, as if the Milky Way were cascading between the flying eaves and brackets.
"This is the starry track mist nourished by the tears of the South Sea Shark People." She lifted the bamboo curtain draped with moonlight gauze, revealing countless luminous Flower Buds slowly blooming beneath our feet.
Spiritual mist rose from the flower cores, coalescing into the shape of Honeydew we had once tasted in Yaochi. I reached out to touch a floating dewdrop, but its icy sensation suddenly transformed into scattering fireflies. The lotus lantern held by Zhou Wen illuminated the memories sealed within the dewdrop—our youthful selves squatting at the edge of the herb garden, roasting stolen celestial ginseng with Samadhi True Fire.
"You always said you wanted to be a carefree immortal." Zhou Wen suddenly pierced through the dewdrop illusion with a golden step, splashing light points that awakened the dormant spirit butterflies hidden in the beams above. She tugged me onto the rotating star disk, where a dark Hemline swept across the reassembling Twenty-Eight Mansions star map. "It’s not like now..."
The star disk suddenly accelerated, shredding her trailing words in the gusting wind. I steadied myself against a bronze pillar engraved with Xuanwu patterns and saw the spirit butterfly's scales condense into familiar sword technique trajectories under centrifugal force—it was indeed Yang Lin's unique Flowing Cloud Nineteen Styles.
"The Celestial Star Formation is about to activate!" Zhou Wen suddenly threw her lotus lantern towards the formation's center. The moment the glass lamp collided with the Vermilion Bird Constellation, the entire star disk erupted in Azure Gold radiance.
We slid down along the cascade of light towards a terrace filled with Rainbow Plume, startling a mythical bird resting on a coral tree. As its tail feathers brushed against my eyelashes, they carried a certain coolness reminiscent of pine and snow—a subtle overlap with the lingering Xuan Shuang scent from last night's teleportation before we departed.
I stumbled as I grasped onto a jade railing entwined with icy silkworm threads, watching Zhou Wen catch falling stardust with her compass. "Try this." She sprinkled stardust into a white jade wine vessel, and amber liquid immediately swirled into a nebula vortex. "It’s mixed with the Yaochi nectar you sent for your wedding."
The burning sensation of the wine sliding down my throat suddenly awakened memories—when Heavenly Cup shattered, Xuanjade had frozen the splattered nectar with Xuan Shuang. The sound of those ice beads rolling off the shark silk curtains harmonized strangely with Zhou Wen's hairpin clinking as she moved.
"We should go soak in the spiritual spring." Zhou Wen suddenly pulled apart my hair bound with icy silkworm threads, letting it fall into the pool water floating with evening primrose. She ignited a horn lamp by the poolside using Fingertip fire from Southern Ming Li, startling Jade Essence that had been sleeping at the bottom of the pool.
Luminous spots climbed up along with rising steam, and my wrist submerged in spring water suddenly throbbed painfully. The Spirit Xi Bracelet was absorbing Jade Essence, light veins of Rouge dancing through its cracks.
Zhou Wen playfully stirred evening primrose on the water's surface and smiled, "This pool can reflect..." Her voice was abruptly swallowed by surging spring water as countless light spots converged into a star chart on the surface.
I gazed at the flickering red glow of Tian Shu position; it was composed of soul lamps from celestial gates forming Weiyue Yan constellation. As mist enveloped my collarbone, ice crystals suddenly formed on my shoulder—just like Han Shuang that fell on my eyelids during that night when Xuanjade's dragon soul went berserk.
"Try this." Zhou Wen pressed a warm Kunlun Jade Agate against my nape; it instantly heated up upon touching my skin. The spring water suddenly reversed flow to form a whirlpool, distorting my reflection into Wang Xuan's flirtatious gaze, adorned with that Soul Devouring Hairpin in my hair.
Zhou Wen yanked me out of the water; Samadhi True Fire melted away the parasitic insects that were devouring my reflection. "The insect tide at Xu time Three Quarters has arrived early." She threw her lotus lantern over the spring eye; however, what emerged in its shadow was indeed Xuan family crest—the very same Xuan pattern I had removed from his sword tassel last night.
I clutched the soaked cloak and retreated to the Bagua Mirror, its surface reflecting the web-like patterns spreading beneath my collarbone. The malevolent energy of the Xuanming Pearl flowed along the icy silkworm threads, tracing a totem on my skin reminiscent of Wang Xuan's skirt.
Suddenly, Zhou Wen pressed a fingertip coated with Cinnabar against my Glabella, commanding, "Focus!" At that moment of excruciating pain, a rush of Cold Pine Resin surged into my spirit platform. Countless fragments of memory floated around me, infused with the essence of Xuan Shuang, finally crystallizing under last night's red candlelight—when Xuanjade cut into my palm, letting the Dragon Soul's blood drip into the Heavenly Cup; the frost patterns on my Glabella perfectly aligned with the position of my Vermilion Birthmark.
The Bagua Mirror suddenly cracked open, and Zhou Wen's lotus lamp extinguished in response. I staggered to steady myself against the table, watching as moonlight pierced through the mist and illuminated the Lingxi Bracelet. The light weaving through the cracks coalesced into a miniature star map, where the star of Jiuyue Yan was slowly being devoured by a moving dragon shadow.
"It’s time," Zhou Wen said, tossing me a dried cloak. The crimson fabric shimmered with a fire-warding spell that glinted with a Golden Gleam. "The Immortal Pavilion needs to close its doors to cleanse the malevolence."
We stepped onto the terrace, treading on the dissipating spiritual mist as evening primrose began to close its petals. Zhou Wen suddenly slipped something into my sleeve pocket. "It can only be opened after being burned with Li Fire." She smiled like she did back when she helped me hide my failing divination board, but her gaze swept over a frost mark at the edge of the terrace.
Leaning against the jade railing alone, I felt the Lingxi Bracelet suddenly heat up around my wrist. I gazed at the auroras swirling outside the Immortal Pavilion and reached out to catch falling ice crystals. At that moment when Xuan Shuang's essence gathered in my palm, a dragon shadow suddenly swept across the peak of a distant snow mountain, startling all the Star Seed in the sky.
My fingertip unconsciously traced Xuanjie Talismans on the icy silkworm threads; by the time I regained my senses, mist had formed into a tall figure on the water's surface. An ice crystal from my hair suddenly fell into the pool, and as ripples spread out, a cold yet striking visage flickered in the moonlight.
I leaned against the icy jade railing, my fingertip absentmindedly rubbing over the cracks in the Lingxi Bracelet. The chilling air from afar enveloped the terrace as Zhou Wen's Cinnabar talisman froze into fine Shattered Ice crystals. The frequency of Xuan Shuang's Dragon Soul moving within the bracelet grew increasingly frantic, as if sensing an impending crisis.
"The young lady should set off now."
When a servant from the Immortal Pavilion appeared holding a gilded warming stove, I was just using icy silkworm threads to tie up my disheveled hair into a bun. The warm mist from dragon's saliva in the stove brushed against my ice crystal-laden hair, condensing into Water Droplets that rolled down my neck.
That warmth made me vaguely recall how last night, when joyous candles burst into flames, Xuanjade's dark iron sword tassel had swept across that same spot.
As we passed through twelve moon gate doors, the servant’s glass lantern clinked against hanging icicles. When the seventh lantern was pierced by an unexpected ice spike, I finally formed a seal to freeze the writhing dark energy beneath the eaves.
A Liuli Fragment embedded itself in my palm; before Blood Pearl could fall, it was completely absorbed by the Lingxi Bracelet.
"Let’s take the rejuvenation corridor to the south," I crushed an Ice Shard between my fingers and watched as Frost Flowers spread across the phoenix patterns embroidered on my sleeve. "Please arrange for me to be taken to Ice Abyss Crossing by Qingluan carriage."
The servant’s pupils suddenly glimmered pearl white as his fingers holding the stove emitted crisp sounds like cracking ice layers.
As I grasped the crown of his head with my hand, a strand of icy silkworm silk was emerging from his ear, its end tied to a shard of blood-stained Heavenly Cup—exactly the cup I had deliberately shattered that morning.
"Tell Zhou Wen that the Heart-Eating Gu is useless against me." I crushed the shard to drive back the icy silk, watching as the attendant collapsed softly beneath the frost-covered scarlet window.
The Lingxi Bracelet suddenly grew hot, and the Xuanming Pearl, suppressed within its gilded box, began to tremble through the storage pouch, shattering the Frost Flowers that had condensed on the Window Lattice into powder.
Taking a shortcut through the plum grove, several petals of Cinnabar Plum stuck to the fur collar of my cloak, quickly turning frost-white from the white mist I exhaled.
I crushed an Icicle lying across the stone path when I suddenly heard the faint sound of jingling bells coming from an angle.
In that moment when the Xuan Shuang dragon spirit surged wildly around my wrist, I instinctively spun around and unleashed a gust of palm wind.
"Be careful, Sister!"
Wind Fei's alarm mixed with the sound of shattering ice erupted around me.
As I hurriedly withdrew my hand, the residual wave of Samadhi True Fire had already scorched half of her flowing cloud sleeve.
She fell beside a pine tree covered in Frost and Snow, and the Gilded Shoe Box she was holding tumbled open, spilling out a pair of soft satin embroidered shoes adorned with East Pearls.
"What are you doing here?" I formed a seal to extinguish the sparks on her sleeve, but the dragon spirit's afterimage lingered on the pearls of her shoes.
The newly worn silver bracelet with dragon patterns on her wrist pressed painfully against my palm; it was a talisman my mother had hidden at the bottom of my dowry box on the night before my wedding.
Wind Fei bent down to pick up the scattered East Pearls, and as an ice crystal pendant from her hairpin brushed against my hand, she said, "The Xuanjie attendant said that the Ice Boat at the ferry is broken. I came to bring you your Cloud-Soaring Shoes..." Her voice suddenly trembled as one East Pearl rolled between her fingers and fell into a crevice. "The Xuan family has sent people to urge three times; Mother insisted that I must..."
Her silver bracelet suddenly emitted a buzzing sound, and only then did I notice the countless needle marks on her fingertips.
The edge of a talisman paper exposed within her embroidered shoes was clearly drawn in blood—a trick I had taught her years ago to cheat during divination examinations.
"Look up."
I held her chin firmly to force her to meet my gaze, but the golden Incantation swirling in her eyes sent chills down my spine.
That was the mark of Xuanjie Puppet technique, now spreading from her pupils to the corners of her eyes like last night's strange totem on Wang Xuan's hemline.
Suddenly, Snowflake Children began to fall in flurries; the shoe box in Wind Fei's arms made a brittle sound as if ice layers were cracking.
I pulled out several strands of her hair and wrapped them around the Lingxi Bracelet; at that moment when the dragon spirit's phantom surged violently, the Incantation in her pupils dissipated like receding tides.
"Go back and tell Mother." I stuffed an East Pearl into her cold palm and left a Fire-Separation Talisman in her secret pocket within her sleeve. "The snow from Xuanjie is most dangerous when it melts."
As she stumbled to her feet, the golden-threaded shoelaces happened to loosen right at the tip of an Icicle.
In the distance came the horn of a Xuanjie dragon boat; its long echo startled snow from Plum Branches above, cascading down onto her unfastened embroidered shoes.
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