Lishang’s greatest secret lay within Qinse Valley!

At these words, Ziqing turned at once to look at Jun Beiyue, who was already looking back at her. Both of them thought, in the same instant, of those twelve strange musical notes.

The ones carved into stones, arranged as seats scattered around the valley.

Within Qinse Valley, apart from the sound of the waves, those twelve strange notes were the only thing worth investigating.

Nothing else there had anything to do with music at all.

Without a word, Ziqing immediately pulled out the note bearing those twelve symbols. At the sight of it, Jiao Cha froze for a moment, then broke into a smile. “You really are clever!”

“The greatest secret is hidden in these twelve notes?” Ziqing asked, deadly serious. She’d studied these twelve notes extensively — no matter how she arranged them, they never formed a coherent melody. Clearly, these were notes deliberately set apart from any musical sequence — otherwise, anyone with even a basic grasp of music theory could arrange any random handful of notes into something coherent!

And yet these twelve notes simply wouldn’t fit together no matter what. She’d even tried inserting them into the climax of Lishang itself, testing every position, one by one — none of them worked.

From the score found in Nanzhao’s ancient music cavern, she’d learned that the emblem on her face represented a yin note, and that there was a corresponding yang note as well — but that yang note wasn’t among these twelve notes either.

How could this possibly be the greatest secret?

Shouldn’t the greatest secret be the yin-yang emblem itself?

“What exactly is going on?” Ziqing pressed, growing anxious.

“Cure us first, and we’ll tell you everything we know,” Mu Fusang said earnestly.

To her captors’ shock, Ziqing refused to budge an inch. Her temper flaring, she grabbed the torch again at once. “Are you going to talk or not?”

Mu Fusang startled violently, while Jiao Cha beside him didn’t dare speak up either, cowed into silence. Jun Beiyue, meanwhile, couldn’t help himself and turned away, laughing.

Trying to negotiate terms with this woman — these two fools clearly had no idea who they were dealing with!

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” Mu Fusang — a grown man — looked like he was about to cry at the mere sight of the flame. Fire truly was his one great weakness.

“I don’t know where the isolated island is, and I don’t know why the island’s people vanished. My ancestors were entrusted by the royal house of Nanzhao to secretly guard this mulberry sacred tree on Liuxian Island, generation after generation. All I know is that the isolated island had a descendant who once served as the divine musician of Nanzhao’s Earth King faith, unmatched in musical mastery. He composed a sacred piece called ‘Lishang,’ and all the secrets of the isolated island are hidden within that piece’s climax.”

Mu Fusang spoke earnestly. Seeing Ziqing’s darkening expression, Jiao Cha couldn’t help but jump in first. “Same here, same here! The black shark elite troops were sent by the shark clan of Nanzhao. My family has had only a single heir for generations, and it’s me. The royal house of Nanzhao had an agreement with Qinse Valley — Qinse Valley actually belongs entirely to the Nanzhao royal house. Qinse Valley itself doesn’t even know the secrets hidden within the sea valley; it merely manages the place on the royal house’s behalf and keeps the whole matter secret!”

“So what exactly do these twelve notes represent?” Ziqing asked urgently.

“All the secrets of the isolated island are contained within these twelve notes. They’re notes, yes, but they’re also a kind of code. Only by figuring out what each code means can you understand what the whole message says!” Jiao Cha answered quickly.

“A code!” Jun Beiyue started. He knew exactly what that meant — between rival nations, spies were common, especially during wartime, and messages were often written in coded form to prevent their contents and the identities of those involved from being exposed if intercepted by the enemy.

Such codes could take the form of images, emblems, musical notes, numbers, or even meaningless strings of characters when arranged together. Only by knowing what each element of the code represented could one decipher the true meaning of the whole message.

To anyone unaware of the code, it would appear entirely meaningless.

He and Ziqing had always assumed these were simply musical notes — never once suspecting they were actually a set of coded symbols.

“What’s the connection between this and Lishang?” Ziqing pressed urgently.

Hearing this question, Mu Fusang and Jiao Cha exchanged a glance, both looking helpless.

Jiao Cha spoke up first. “The climax section of Lishang wasn’t actually composed by that divine musician — he heard it somewhere. The sound of the waves in Qinse Valley is one part of it.”

At this, Mu Fusang spoke up as well. “There’s a musical score on the mulberry sacred tree itself — carved into the grain of the trunk, beneath the bark. If I hadn’t told you, you’d never have found it in a thousand years.”

“What exactly is the connection between Lishang and the whereabouts of the isolated island?” Ziqing asked again.

Jiao Cha smiled. “All I know is that the key to deciphering these twelve notes lies within Lishang itself. Beyond that, I don’t know anything else. I have no talent for music — I can’t help you further there.”

Mu Fusang merely shrugged, indicating the same.

A complicated look flickered through Ziqing’s eyes. So neither of these two men knew that the Lishang score itself was missing sections.

She glanced at Jun Beiyue, and seeing him nod, flipped the note over — revealing, on the reverse side, none other than that mysterious emblem.

“Have either of you ever seen this before?” Ziqing asked earnestly.

Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang both studied it seriously, then shook their heads in unison. “Never seen it.”

“This looks like it might be something from Nanzhao.”

“Could it be connected to the isolated island somehow?”

Ziqing lowered her eyes, murmuring to herself, “Perhaps it has something to do with these twelve notes as well.”

At this, Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang exchanged a bewildered glance, while Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed sharply, as though he’d suddenly grasped something.

Could it be that once they learned which note the emblem represented, and placed it alongside these twelve notes, they might discover something entirely new?

Jun Beiyue immediately gave the order. “Yingzi, send word back to Youge Pavilion in Da Zhou. Find someone who can decipher codes!”

Just as with the emblem — the world held countless emblems, and no shortage of people skilled at interpreting their symbolic meaning. And the world held countless codes as well, with plenty of scholars who specialized in the study of cryptography!

As long as there was even the faintest glimmer of hope, they couldn’t afford to give up on it.

Having said all he had to say, Jiao Cha could no longer bear the itching, and begged urgently, “Great Princess Consort of Yao, I beg you, please, hurry and cure this poison — this humble one will kowtow to you!”

Only then did Ziqing have Situ Haonan bring over the antidote. Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang both let out a sigh of relief, though neither knew whether their choice had been the right one. They had betrayed the mission passed down by their ancestors — but perhaps, by following Han Ziqing, they might finally learn the true nature of the secret they had guarded for generations.

What reason could there possibly be for the mission they’d been born into — to kill any descendant of the isolated island who appeared — to demand such bloodshed in the first place?

This round’s gains were, without question, an unexpected windfall. Jun Beiyue rubbed his chin, quietly relieved, secretly congratulating himself.

Had Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang not lost their nerve and acted rashly first, his original plan had been to cause a great disturbance across Liuxian Island in pursuit of Qinse Valley and the Bai clan’s sacred mulberry tree — and that would surely have drawn the attention of the Nanzhao royal house.

The Prince of Nanzhao might appear old and frail, but a weak ruler didn’t mean a weak clan, let alone a weak nation!

Unless absolutely necessary, he had no intention of provoking open conflict with Nanzhao.

It seemed the matter of the newcomers’ ranking tournament would need some fresh planning after all.