The candlelight in the side hall of the Xuan'an Bureau flickered unsteadily in the draft. When Pi Yanlin spread the Fragment of the Book of Life and Death across the desk, his knuckles were still trembling slightly.
The searing pain from having his spiritual body pierced by Bai Wuchang's Judge's Brush back in the Yellow Springs had not yet faded, but the silver-dusted slip of paper inside his tunic burned hot against his chest. This was the authentic trace he had managed to wrench from a crevice on the seventh page of the Yellow Springs, risking the very destruction of his soul by the Underworld guards.
"Look." He pressed his fingertips against the yellowed paper, golden runes crawling toward a specific line with his movement. "Madam Liu, born on the twenty-seventh day of the third month in the year of Dingwei, died seven days ago during the third quarter of the Hour of Wei, in the back lane of the West Market apothecary, poisoned to death."
Chapter 83