The Mirror Lake outside the Xuan'an Bureau was steeped in the heavy, opaque shadows of night. When Gu Qinghuan stepped out of the Ghost Gate behind Pi Yanlin, the nocturnal wind carried the fishy tang of the lake water against her face.
She touched the broken-toothed wooden hairpin in her hair—the sole relic she had snatched from the burning ruins of her exterminated clan. The jagged wooden teeth pressed against the back of her neck like a thorn pricking into her flesh.
"Stop." Pi Yanlin suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Chapter 166