The night wind on Mount Langjuxu, thick with grit, whistled as it whipped against Shen Xitang’s veil. Her palm, clutching the half-piece Tiger Tally, was slick with sweat; the concave Big Dipper pattern on the tally seemed to faintly echo the Kui Pattern scar on Xiao Heng’s back. Three days ago, hidden inside a bronze pillar broken open in the ruins of the Xiaoling Guard, they had found a yellowed sheepskin map—marked with seven "star-holes" of the Mobei dragon vein, which now glowed with a dark, blood-like red under the moonlight.
"Lord Thousand-Householder, can you smell the scent of the Return to Void Gu?" She suddenly pulled on the reins, the silver silk at her wrist tangling around Xiao Heng’s sleeve arrow.
Xiao Heng’s black cloak snapped in the wind. At her words, he drew his broken blade with a backhand motion. The blade reflected the fresh arrow wound on his brow, a souvenir from an encounter with Tatar scouts three days and nights ago. "The caravan that passed by at the hour of the Monkey, the third quarter—their camels' hoofprints were mixed with dragon-marrow incense ash."
Chapter 118