The windstorm gradually died down, and in the distance the soldiers resumed their excavation work. Old Meng Five watched from afar, and though clearly reluctant, urged his daughter along. “Let’s go, let’s go.”

“Go where?” Meng Duo’er, foolish as ever, asked without understanding.

“To find your Fourth Aunt!” Old Meng Five said coldly, turning to leave at once.

“Father, so you’ve given up on the dead barrier?” Meng Duo’er hurried after him anxiously.

“The seal itself is gone, and long since sealed shut — even if you found it, do you have the ability to open it?” Old Meng Five retorted, impatient.

Meng Duo’er shook her head immediately — she certainly didn’t have that kind of ability; even the Meng Clan’s own patriarch might not possess it.

“Then let’s get going.”

“Longyuan is so vast — where would we even look for Aunt?”

“The capital of Da Zhou!”

“Why the capital of Da Zhou?” Meng Duo’er stopped in her tracks, sensing her father knew far more than he’d let on. Seeing him turn back to glare at her, she quickly answered her own question. “I know, I know! You went through Fourth Aunt’s belongings — you know all her secrets, don’t you!”

Old Meng Five genuinely had no desire to waste more words on this daughter of his — if not for fearing she’d be bullied being left alone in the clan, he never would have brought along this burden at all!

Fourth Sister had originally fled because of a marriage arrangement — to put it plainly, she’d run from an arranged wedding. This had always been an absolute taboo within the Meng Clan, one even the younger generation knew nothing about the truth of.

Going through what Fourth Sister had left behind, he’d only found this secret concerning the dead barrier — he had no idea where she’d actually gone afterward.

He only remembered that Fourth Sister had possessed not only extraordinary talent but an equally lofty spirit, and had once joked that if she were ever to marry, it would have to be the most formidable man in the world.

Old Meng Five turned it over and over in his mind — the most formidable man in the world, aside from the handful of emperors across the Longyuan Continent, who else could that possibly be?

Of course, this was mere speculation, but having a lead was better than having none at all. He could only take it one step at a time…

Amid the blowing sand, father and daughter walked off into the distance, while behind them the soldiers dug on, diligently, tirelessly, day and night.

Even the Nanzhao royal family had no idea of the tornado’s true secret, no idea of the world of poison beasts’ actual nature — how much less did Xuanyuan Lige and Yelu Qianqian know?

Digging through the sand — that was their greatest hope now.

At this moment, they too were still on the road, rushing desperately toward this place.

Yet someone else was searching just as desperately for the entrance to the world of poison beasts — Baili Weisheng.

Ever since escaping from the courtyard of the Xiongnu altar’s scripture repository that day, he’d been hiding in a lake out in the wilderness. Though the bleeding had stopped, he still had no strength left to transform back into human form, lying immobile at the bottom of the pool, having lost a large patch of golden scales from his shoulder and chest — his whole body was a mess of wounds beyond description.

Reflected in the shimmering light of his golden scales, his pale, grave face took on an air of mystery, his handsome brow carrying a solemnity so noble that none dared approach him.

Since his escape, he’d been studying the three scrolls of ancient scripture he’d seized from Nanny Gu — these scriptures recorded a great many secrets he hadn’t known before, and of course, what concerned him most was how to open the gate to the world of poison beasts.

The ancient scripture’s text was written entirely in archaic script, and even though Baili Weisheng was well-versed in various ancient writing systems, it still proved exceedingly difficult to parse — every meaning, every grammatical structure required painstaking scrutiny.

He hid in the water, tending to his wounds while poring over the text.

He spent ten days and nights poring over the three scrolls without rest, until finally, upon reaching the very last page, the furrow in his brow slowly eased!

At last, everything made sense!

Though his scales couldn’t regrow, these past days had at least allowed him considerable recovery.

Closing the scripture, a self-mocking smile unconsciously touched his lips. “So that’s how it is.”

There was no denying these three scrolls of scripture had an incredibly strange origin — they recorded not only the secrets of the human Gu, but the secrets of barrier-craft as well.

These three scrolls had been passed down generation after generation by the Xiongnu’s Great Barbarian Shaman cult, whose faith had itself originated in Nanzhao.

Xuanyuan Lige could never quite work out what connection existed between the Gu-Independent clan of Nanzhao, masters of the art of Gu, and the Meng Clan, masters of barrier-craft.

But none of that concerned Baili Weisheng — what mattered to him was that he’d finally found his answer.

He’d once prided himself on knowing everything there was to know, and only today did he realize just how much he hadn’t known. Perhaps now, at last, he truly deserved to call himself all-knowing.

So this was it — the world of poison beasts was a dead barrier, not something any barrier-master had ever created. Back then, the lost island’s great Gu master had deceived the entire Nanzhao royal family, deceived everyone.

The great Gu master had invited barrier-masters from Nanzhao’s Meng Clan to lay four seals upon the world of poison beasts, letting everyone believe the whole realm had been created by barrier-masters in the first place!

In truth, the world of poison beasts was a dead barrier, its single true seal anchored beneath Mingsha Mountain, dependent on that deep pool for its existence — and that seal had remained open this entire time.

And that tornado last year — the one that struck on the sexagenary hour, day, month, and year of the cycle — had in fact been the strange phenomenon produced by the dead barrier’s seal preparing to close!

The world of poison beasts was a medicinal-poison barrier — when its seal closed, it would erupt with a burst of force, drawing in anyone immune to a hundred poisons!

Thank heavens, thank heavens he’d been far away at the time, or even he might not have escaped it!

That cunning old Nanny Gu — no wonder she’d guarded Mingsha Mountain for so long without ever leaving!

After the tornado passed, the world of poison beasts’ seal closed, and then vanished — that was simply the nature of a dead barrier, one cycle for opening, one cycle for closing, each transition accompanied by strange phenomena.

And one full cycle was terribly, terribly long — far too long for any mortal to simply wait out!

If Nanny Gu hadn’t personally delivered Ziqing into the world of poison beasts at that very critical moment, Baili Weisheng might well have despaired upon uncovering all this truth.

But since Nanny Gu had sent her in specifically to cultivate a human Gu, that alone proved that within Nanny Gu’s own lifetime, there had to be some way to bring the cultivated Gu back out.

It was precisely this conviction that had driven Baili Weisheng to force himself, with grim patience, through all three scrolls of obscure, difficult scripture, word by word, over and over, with the utmost care.

And sure enough, his guess had proven correct.

The scriptures recorded not only where the world of poison beasts’ seal would reappear, but also the method for opening it!

Only, that method…

Baili Weisheng closed all three scrolls, his long, elegant fingers gently tapping against the ancient pages. He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, lost in thought no one could guess at.

His clean, refined lips carried their usual faint curve — the same smile he always wore, a touch cynical, a touch unrestrained, brilliant and radiant even now.

After a long, long while, he finally smiled faintly. “The capital of Da Zhou!”

With a wave of his hand, he cast the three scrolls into a golden circle of light, then shot toward the water’s surface like a fish leaping upward.

Now that he knew the truth, of course he had to go save her.

The golden light gradually faded into the distance, while the three scrolls of scripture slowly sank to the bottom of the pool, soon to be destroyed entirely…