The person the Nanzhao Emperor had planted at Xuanyuan Lige’s side was none other than the Beast Clan’s Second Young Master — Young Beast Master.

The Beast Clan chief had begged desperately, swearing on his position as clan head that Young Beast Master remained entirely loyal to the Nanzhao royal family and would never reveal so much as a hint of the lost island’s secrets. With Consort Qin’s whispered support added on top, this young master of the Beast Clan had finally been given a chance to redeem himself for his past offense. Only, the Nanzhao king could never have dreamed that Young Beast Master had already long since been Xuanyuan Lige’s man!

At that moment, the two stood before the massive pit Yelu Qianqian and her people had previously excavated.

To describe their prior relationship more precisely, it wasn’t really one of master and servant at all — it was a partnership!

Young Beast Master wanted to uncover the secret of the lost island, wanted to break free of the Nanzhao royal family’s decades-long dominion over the Beast Clan. Xuanyuan Lige, too, wanted to learn the lost island’s secret — and so the two had joined forces.

Only, Young Beast Master had later ended up imprisoned, while Xuanyuan Lige had walked free — a clear enough indication of where the true balance of power between them lay.

Now it was Xuanyuan Lige who had gotten Young Beast Master out — yet this second young master, far from feeling any gratitude, remained just as ambitious as ever.

“Xuanyuan Lige, aren’t you afraid you’ll regret setting me free?”

The Nanzhao king and his court might not understand Xuanyuan Lige well, but Young Beast Master understood him perfectly — including this man’s true identity, his capabilities, his methods.

“If I regret anything, it’ll be the whole affair — not you.” Xuanyuan Lige gave a cold snort, meaning: Young Beast Master, you think far too highly of yourself.

“With that body of yours halfway into the grave already, how much longer do you think you’ll last? Aren’t you afraid that by the time we dig out the entrance to the world of poison beasts, you’ll already be…” Young Beast Master offered this as a helpful reminder.

“Rest assured — until I see the person I need to see, I will absolutely outlast you.” Xuanyuan Lige either responded with cold silence or gave no quarter whatsoever. Before departing, the head of the Medicine Clan had kindly given him some medicinal powder — it wouldn’t do much, but at least it kept the coughing at bay, and he didn’t look quite so frail for it.

This immediately infuriated Young Beast Master, who couldn’t stand that a man half-dead could remain so composed, so unbothered, right in front of him.

“What gives you the right!” Young Beast Master snapped angrily.

“I’m looking for my person, you’re looking for your poison beasts — we have no conflict there, do we?” Xuanyuan Lige shot back.

This left Young Beast Master at a loss for words, though inwardly he sneered coldly — Xuanyuan Lige, when the time comes, whether it’s the poison beasts or the person, this young master intends to have both!

Of course, to control the poison beasts, one had to secure the person first!

Someone immune to a hundred poisons was, after all, the natural nemesis of poison beasts!

Young Beast Master simply refused to believe that, once the entrance was finally dug open, Xuanyuan Lige and Yelu Qianqian would have any strength left to contest him for it.

Young Beast Master said nothing further, and Xuanyuan Lige fell silent too, both men staring at the massive sand pit, each harboring his own private thoughts.

This girl Yelu Qianqian, who looked like she couldn’t accomplish anything at all, had actually proven remarkably effective when entrusted with tasks in Xijing.

A nation as insular as the Nanzhao royal family naturally had limited understanding of the outside world.

Yelu Qianqian had manufactured a rumor of water shortages at the new capital; Young Beast Master had sent a secret letter passing the false information to Nanzhao; the Nanzhao king had believed it entirely, and Xuanyuan Lige had smoothly deceived Yelu Qianqian herself, mobilizing troops to dig for a water source under that pretext.

The sand-digging army was already en route. At that moment, Yelu Qianqian and Yingzi stood on a distant dune, watching Xuanyuan Lige and Young Beast Master from far away.

“Yingzi, why do I get the feeling neither of these two is trustworthy? Is the truth really as Xuanyuan Lige claims?”

“I can’t vouch for Young Beast Master, but Xuanyuan Lige… he wouldn’t gamble with the Princess Consort’s safety,” Yingzi said seriously. He knew seeking out Xuanyuan Lige carried considerable risk, given how ruthlessly this man had once treated Prince Yao — but he’d had no other choice.

In truth, after so many months of searching, both Yelu Qianqian and Yingzi were exhausted, simply longing for someone to tell them what to do.

Yelu Qianqian sighed. “Yingzi, do you have any idea how long the digging will take? Ziqing… she won’t be in trouble, will she?”

Yingzi gave no answer, but he understood full well — if this much time had already passed and the Princess Consort truly was somewhere in the world of poison beasts, then… being cultivated into a human Gu was all but inevitable.

Yingzi knew Xuanyuan Lige had already reached that same conclusion in his own mind — as had Young Beast Master, and even the Nanzhao royal family itself.

Everyone was simply going through the motions of a hollow truce, waiting like hunters for the moment the entrance was finally dug open.

The Nanzhao royal family wanted to destroy the entrance; Xuanyuan Lige wanted to enter the world of poison beasts.

Confronted with this brutal reality, Yingzi had no idea what to do. He almost found himself hoping the Princess Consort simply wasn’t in the world of poison beasts at all.

But if she wasn’t there, there was only one other possibility left — she had already died in that violent windstorm.

Yingzi sighed again and again. At times like this, he couldn’t help thinking of his master — if only Prince Yao would wake up now, how wonderful that would be!

“Yingzi, don’t sigh like that. Even if Ziqing has been cultivated into a human Gu, we absolutely have to save her! Don’t we?” Yelu Qianqian asked earnestly.

Yingzi turned to look at her, astonished — he never expected Yelu Qianqian to say such a thing!

“Yingzi, even if she is a human Gu, even if we… even if there’s nothing we can do about that, we still have to at least keep her contained, make sure she doesn’t fall into anyone else’s hands, make sure she doesn’t do anything she’d regret. At the very least… at the very least we owe it to Jun Beiyue to watch over her.”

Yelu Qianqian’s voice caught as she said this. Just yesterday they’d received word that Prince Yao wasn’t going to wake anytime soon.

Yelu Qianqian had consulted specialists to estimate — three thousand zhang deep, with this many workers, the fastest they could reach it was half a year, the slowest, a full year.

So if Ziqing truly had become a human Gu, the two of them — guilty as they were — absolutely had to watch over her, on Jun Beiyue’s behalf.

“Yingzi, we have to atone for this!” Yelu Qianqian said, utterly earnest.

Yingzi’s heart warmed, and he found himself at a loss for words. He wanted so badly to say: Yelu Qianqian, I honestly never much liked you before — but now, I truly, genuinely like you!

“Yingzi, we don’t just need to watch out for Nanzhao — we need to watch out for Xuanyuan Lige too. If Ziqing really does become a poison Gu, he’ll definitely go into the world of poison beasts to be with her — we need to find a way to get her out ourselves!” Yelu Qianqian continued earnestly, and this remark struck a chord with Yingzi — even having sought Xuanyuan Lige’s help, they couldn’t afford to depend on him for everything.

Before long, the sand-digging army arrived, and everything proceeded smoothly.

Across the entire Longyuan Continent, an uneasy peace held. Every nation, its resources depleted, busied itself with postwar recovery, while the Nanzhao royal family kept one eye on the progress at Mingsha Mountain and puzzled over the origins of that tornado.

Meanwhile Baili Weisheng had gone to the Xiongnu, Jun Beiyue remained recuperating in the capital of Da Zhou, Situ Haonan lay still unconscious… and all across every corner of Longyuan, everything continued unfolding quietly with the passage of time.

Time flew by like a startled colt glimpsed through a crack in the door, and in the blink of an eye three months had passed. On this day, Ziqing was about to go into labor…