As twilight pressed down upon the walls of Jinling, Xiao Heng’s Broken Blade was wedged firmly into a gap between the blue-stone bricks. Rainwater trickled down the blood grooves of the blade, forming crimson rivulets. By the last vestiges of daylight, he identified the carvings on the stone: a partial, fragmented map of the Big Dipper, identical to the secret runes discovered three days ago in the underground palace of Qixia Temple.
"Lord Thousand-Householder certainly knows how to pick his moments."
A hem of white silk brushed past his blood-stained boots. Shen Xitang hovered the shard of the Ziwei Sword over the Big Dipper map. Suddenly, the golden liquid seeping from the cracks in the sword surged, manifesting in mid-air as a projection of the celestial map from the Hongwu era.
Chapter 105