In the woods, liu tells his son that he is not done with his revenge. He tells him that he has sacrificed himself for him, but that he deceives even his own people. He says that the antidote to the poison in the snake's mouth is the same as the antidote in the dead person's body. The dead person should not talk so much, the antidote says. The antidote is meant to monitor whether the person wearing the mask is alive or dead. The only one who knows about the antidote is the dead liu. She says that she has a "primordial qi seal" in her body and that her family will come for her. She tells her son that the deputy governor of Lu'an county is a "titled nobleman" and that the ancestral altar has been broken. The ancestral altar is a talisman made by a master of pain. It starts to blur when the master enters the trial area. He is not on the altar, he says, because someone has blocked the surveillance and stomped upon his ashes. He asks the academy to explain the death of his son.