Skull-Piercing Nails

Skull-Piercing Nails
Type	Nails
Name
Chinese (Simplified)	出刺颅钉
Pinyin	Chū Cì Lú Dīng

Skull-Piercing Nails (出刺颅钉, Chū Cì Lú Dīng) are, as their name suggests, embedded into the skulls of high-level Fierce Corpses to strip them of their consciousness and the ability to act and think on their own.

Description

The nails used on Wen Ning are black, an inch long, and as thick as the red strings used on jade pendants. They have intricate, complex lines carved into it.

The nails used on Song Lan are also black in color, but they are thinner in width than the ones used on Wen Ning, and are carved from a different material.

Use

When Wen Ning is captured and experimented on, two nails are bored into his skull in an attempt to render him subservient. However, Xue Yang remarks that despite his efforts, it was extremely difficult to make Wen Ning obey his commands. Years later in Yueyang, Wei Wuxian pulls the nails out of Wen Ning's head, restoring Wen Ning's free will.

In Yi City, Wei Wuxian observed that Song Lan has the same type of nails pierced into his head. After learning of what happened in Yi City via Empathy with A-Qing, Wei Wuxian orders Wen Ning to pin Song Lan down so he can take out the nails. In the aftermath, Song Lan loses consciousness for a while, but he woke up later in complete control of himself.

Animation Divergence

In the novel, while Wei Wuxian had observed that the nails in Wen Ning's head had patters carved into them, there was no mention of him recognizing them to be the handiwork of any specific clan. But in the animated series, after removing the nails from Wen Ning, he quickly notices that the nails are created by both the Lanling Jin Clan and the Gusu Lan Clan.

Skull-piercing nails are also said to be able to control the living, used on the Qishan Wen Clan remnants to destroy the Yin Tiger Tally while they still lived, and to compel Qin Su to take her own life.

Audio Drama Divergence

The Audio Drama refers to these nails as "Soul-Locking Nails."

Gallery