Ziqing’s first instinct matched Situ Haonan’s exactly—yet she couldn’t simply disregard Yelu Qianqian’s life either.
Hunting out in the wilderness, she naturally carried common medicines with her—she could stabilize the arrow wound itself, but this poison, she had no way to cure. She’d never once heard of leopard blood being poisonous.
But watching Yelu Qianqian’s lips gradually turning a purplish-blue, Ziqing understood at once—this poison wouldn’t be easy to cure.
“No, absolutely not, we have to go back. She’s the princess of Western Jing, a guest of His Majesty—I can’t bear that responsibility!” the Second Beast Young Master said, even more anxious than Ziqing or Situ Haonan.
Small wonder—he was the one responsible for organizing this entire hunt.
Situ Haonan and Ziqing certainly weren’t about to analyze the situation for him. Situ Haonan flatly refused. “There’s no time to go back now. Second Beast Young Master, what kind of poison is this, and where’s the antidote? Tell me right now!”
“It can’t be done, it can’t! This is a serious matter—if His Majesty and my father find out, they’ll lock me up for a year at least, and if someone dies from this, there’ll be no fixing it at all!”
The Second Beast Young Master was so flustered he couldn’t calm down at all, whistling for his horse, pulling Yelu Qianqian along to leave. Situ Haonan grabbed his shoulder firmly, saying coldly, “Second Beast Young Master, calm down. Tell me where the antidote for this poison is!”
Startled badly, the Second Beast Young Master finally settled, his frightened eyes darting between Situ Haonan and Ziqing, his lips trembling as he stammered, “This is… beast… beast venom, unique to this hunting ground, because… because…”
“I need results, not a lengthy explanation!” Situ Haonan snapped, practically at his wit’s end, his face frighteningly pale. If Yelu Qianqian could see him like this right now, surely she’d never shed a tear on whatever day she eventually married someone else.
Unfortunately, she’d already lost consciousness entirely.
“Let him explain, I want to know the reason—understanding it is the only way to figure out how to cure it!” Ziqing said seriously, having quickly regained her composure after the initial shock.
Curing the poison was the most critical matter right now—if they could get the antidote, this whole incident might still be contained.
If they couldn’t obtain the antidote, then even if the news spread and the Empress of Eastern Qin seized the chance to use it against her, Ziqing was prepared to risk everything anyway!
The Empress of Eastern Qin had come here in person, and Xuanyuan Lige had yet to show himself—this empress had clearly come specifically targeting her!
Still, Ziqing had no time to dwell on any of that right now.
Hearing Ziqing say this, the Second Beast Young Master finally found his voice. “It’s because all the beasts here love drinking from a certain waterfall deep in the mountains. That waterfall’s water is poisonous—humans who drink it aren’t affected, but beasts who drink it accumulate the toxin in their blood over time. And this particular toxin has the opposite effect on water than it does on flesh—it doesn’t harm the beasts themselves, but it’s harmful to humans.”
Ziqing nodded. “And the antidote?”
The Second Beast Young Master hurried to explain. “The antidote is a flower called Xining—applying the sap from its petals to the wound will cure the poison. Xining flowers grow in the valley near the waterfall, but that valley is guarded by a giant python. Even my father can’t tame that creature. Let’s get her taken somewhere safe first, and then go find my father to search for the antidote!”
“Lead the way!” Ziqing rose immediately. Since the beastfolk clan leader would also need to search for the medicine, she might as well go herself instead—the Second Beast Young Master was still relatively easy to coax, but the beastfolk clan leader would absolutely make this matter public.
“The giant python is extremely dangerous!” the Second Beast Young Master said seriously.
“Lead the way. There’s no time to waste. Second Beast Young Master, even if your father finds out, you won’t be able to escape responsibility either way. Lead on ahead—rest assured, I’m the one who caused this wound, and I will save her,” Ziqing said seriously, immediately grabbing hold of the Second Beast Young Master and pulling him up.
With no other choice, and seeing Situ Haonan had already gotten Yelu Qianqian onto a horse, the Second Beast Young Master didn’t dare delay any further, mounting up and hurrying ahead into the dense forest.
As the sound of hoofbeats gradually faded into the distance, rabbits began emerging one by one from the surrounding underbrush. One giant rabbit stood with its foot resting on a sharp arrow—the very same arrow Ziqing had used to pierce the leopard.
There was no such thing as pure coincidence in this world. The arrow had been in Ziqing’s hands—even if the Second Beast Young Master could control the leopard’s direction, there was no way he could guarantee the exact force behind Ziqing’s shot.
The arrow lodged in Yelu Qianqian’s body was, in fact, one the Second Beast Young Master himself had fired, in the exact same direction, an identical arrow to Ziqing’s own. Separated by a stretch of forest, how could Situ Haonan and Yelu Qianqian possibly have told the difference? And Ziqing, fully absorbed in her fierce struggle with the leopard, had no spare attention to notice anything else at all.
As the hoofbeats faded away entirely, the Empress of Eastern Qin and Xuanyuan Zhaoxi finally rode up along the mountain path.
“Mother, that idea you gave the Second Beast Young Master really was brilliant!”
Xuanyuan Zhaoxi had never dared ask, and had never been able to guess her mother’s true intentions—only now did she finally understand. From the moment the Second Beast Young Master had arranged for word to reach Yelu Qianqian that Han Ziqing was in the royal garden, drawing Yelu Qianqian into that confrontation, everything had already been set in motion.
Had there been no argument between Han Ziqing and Yelu Qianqian, Han Ziqing might never have resolved so firmly to go find the antidote herself.
“Heh heh, you should say the Second Beast Young Master’s acting is what’s truly brilliant. He’s kept this hidden since childhood—otherwise, where else would this king have found someone even Jun Beiyue trusts?” The Empress of Eastern Qin laughed heartily. Drawing Han Ziqing there, and leaving everything that followed to the Second Beast Young Master!
She was confident the Second Beast Young Master would never let her meticulously laid plans go to waste.
“Mother, why don’t we just act directly right now, taking Jun Beiyue out along with…” Xuanyuan Zhaoxi said, making a slicing gesture across her throat, thoroughly vicious.
“Heh, if we kill Jun Beiyue, how are we supposed to get the secret of the Isolated Isle? Do you think the Second Beast Young Master is some kind of saint?” the Empress of Eastern Qin scoffed coldly.
“It’s all Brother’s fault—if he’d revealed the truth sooner, we wouldn’t have wasted so many opportunities!” Xuanyuan Zhaoxi complained at once. If Xuanyuan Lige could sketch out that totem, he surely knew how it had come to be, and surely knew the secret of the Isolated Isle.
Hearing Xuanyuan Zhaoxi mention Xuanyuan Lige, the Empress of Eastern Qin’s anger flared immediately. “Has that wretched boy still not confessed?”
“No, Mother. I don’t think he’ll confess unless you personally interrogate him! If the Seventh Prince hadn’t revealed the secret of that totem, we’d still be completely in the dark, kept in ignorance by him!” Xuanyuan Zhaoxi added fuel to the fire deliberately. She was afraid—afraid Xuanyuan Lige might steal away everything that should be hers in the future. Even if Xuanyuan Lige wouldn’t live past thirty, over the course of a decade or more, who could say how many changes the world might undergo?
Every hopeful prospect for the future remained empty and uncertain—only what was firmly in one’s own grasp could truly be relied upon!
“Send word to him—if he refuses to confess, this king will destroy his demonic zither first, then destroy Han Ziqing next!” the Empress of Eastern Qin said coldly. No one understood her own son better than she did.
His dream of restoring the great Qin empire was entirely bound up in this war between Western Jing and Western Chu, in the negotiations with the Xiongnu. Beyond that, the only things that had ever truly mattered to him since childhood were his demonic zither, which never left his side, and Han Ziqing—even more important to him, perhaps, than she herself, his own mother.
To break a person’s will, one needn’t touch them at all—simply strike at what they held dearest, closest to their heart, and everything they were would crumble.
This held true for Xuanyuan Lige. And it held even more true for Jun Beiyue, in the Empress of Eastern Qin’s eyes.
…