The early morning Cangzhen Pavilion was enveloped in a thick mist as heavy as unliquefied ink, like an isolated island cut off from the world. The mist coiled among the dark green tiles and flying eaves, blurring the carved window lattices into hazy silhouettes, and even the century-old locust tree in the courtyard seemed draped in a pale shroud of the dead. When the wind passed, the locust branches swayed, looming vaguely in the mist like countless withered arms scratching in the empty air.
Shen Mingyue, dressed in plain white garments, sat quietly at the desk. The ink in the inkstone had formed a thin skin on the surface; she tightly grasped a wolf-hair brush, its tip suspended just above the yellowish Xuan paper, lingering and unfallen. Her gaze was fixed dead on the mysterious patterns of the Heart-Clearing Formula fragment before her, as if she would carve them into the depths of her soul.
The edges of the fragment were frayed from repeated touching, and across the yellowed paper, those tadpole-like ancient seal scripts gave off an eerie, dim light, echoing the Holy Tribe Bloodline mark that shimmered faintly on her wrist. Every single pattern seemed to silently recount ancient and dangerous secrets. After a long while, the brush tip finally descended slowly, the ink blooming into tiny ripples on the paper, perfectly mirroring her turbulent, wave-like emotions at this moment.
Chapter 129