If there was any clue to be found regarding what had happened to Jiang Hao, or Bai Chen, or even the rest of the ferry, that clue more than likely lay within the spiritual imprint. It was right there—just within spitting distance—yet that did little to ease Yang Qing's anxiety as he approached it, fearing it might slip through his fingers, as it very well could.
What he was dealing with now wasn't some inanimate object like the rune, where he had the luxury of interacting with it however he pleased. This was a spiritual imprint which, by design, was sentient and ephemeral, and this made it a slippery thing to deal with.
Spiritual imprints were like the soul's "prints." They carried the user's will and intent, hence their sentient nature. One forms their spiritual imprints when in the core formation realm, though at that stage they are only half-awake—'half-dead,' so to speak. Beyond marking ownership over something, they didn't serve much purpose.
