"Imprisoned in Master Ye," says Wei Wuxian, his mouth dry despite the excellent wine. "Did it...eat at you?" he asks, struggling for the words to describe all that the Stygian Tiger Seal had visited on him.

"Hollow you and live in the shell," he breathes. "Make room for all of it and none of you, make you a...a husk?" He takes a longer, deeper pull of the flower wine. Ye Zun is too modest, it burns deliciously. "Master Ye, are you free of it now?"