Jun Beiyue had never been a man of patience, never one willing to wait.
He stared coldly at the second and third elders, murderous resolve plain in his eyes!
The matter of the stone lock and the shimmering dagger could wait — first, he had to deal with these two worthless excuses for elders!
To think they’d dared to lay a hand on him while he lay unconscious — after everything he’d suffered, every ounce of effort he’d poured into breaking through the shackles on his chest, and they’d had the nerve to pour oil on the fire. That alone was asking to die.
Jun Beiyue’s palm dropped sharply, clearly gathering force.
Old Fifth Meng, shoved forward by the second and third elders, wanted to intervene, yet felt reluctant to — caught in an awkward bind, at a complete loss for what to do.
But in the end he was too soft-hearted a man. Helplessly, he said, “Prince Yao, isn’t there some misunderstanding here? Whatever it is… let’s talk it through calmly. After all, however you look at it… they are your elders.”
Old Fifth Meng genuinely couldn’t bring himself to say the word “uncle” aloud. Though the Meng Clan’s bloodline was a noble one, and Jun Beiyue could, in theory, use this connection to draw closer ties with the Nanzhao royal house — as if Jun Beiyue were the one currying favor with them — for some reason, looking at this man, Old Fifth Meng couldn’t shake the feeling that it was the Meng Clan doing the reaching, not the other way around.
“Misunderstanding? That can wait until after this prince has taken two lives,” Jun Beiyue said coldly, and the second and third elders’ legs went weak with terror.
“Now, now… ah, Prince Yao, don’t be like this, let’s talk it through properly!”
Old Fifth Meng grew anxious too. To this day he still hadn’t worked out what these two had been doing in the Great Zhou imperial palace in the first place — with their limited abilities, how could they possibly have discovered the Death Barrier’s seal on Jun Beiyue’s chest?
“Under the pretense of saving me, they set a seal on my chest at the very moment I was breaking through the Five Elements Seal!” Jun Beiyue said coldly.
At those words, Old Fifth Meng immediately stared at Jun Beiyue’s chest in disbelief. “On your chest…”
“There’s been a Five Elements Seal sealed on my chest all along. It should have already been broken through, and yet my pulse keeps pounding on regardless.”
Jun Beiyue told him the truth plainly. He had seen through the second and third elders’ scheme easily enough, but he still couldn’t understand why his own pulse continued to throb so violently even now — it seemed genuinely tied to the dagger, to the Poison Beast World itself.
Just moments ago, some inexplicable force had drawn him here.
“The Five Elements Seal…”
Old Fifth Meng murmured to himself, drawing closer to Jun Beiyue without quite realizing it. The second and third elders didn’t dare follow, hanging back timidly to the side.
As Old Fifth Meng approached, Jun Beiyue was visibly on guard — but to everyone’s surprise, Old Fifth Meng suddenly burst into tears.
At first he hadn’t been entirely certain, but now, examining Jun Beiyue’s pulse more closely and glancing again at the stone lock, he finally understood everything!
“Prince Yao, don’t be alarmed. My fourth sister and I were close as children, hand in hand through everything — the very reason I came to the Longyuan continent this time was to search for her! There’s still a seal on your chest!”
At those words, even Ziqing was startled. She had grown used to staying quiet whenever Jun Beiyue was present, but now she couldn’t hold back, crying out, “Old sir, what exactly is going on!”
“If I’m not mistaken, that dagger belonged to your mother, didn’t it?” Old Fifth Meng asked Jun Beiyue.
“It was left to me by my mother-consort,” Jun Beiyue said with a nod.
“And this dagger — it once pierced your chest?” Old Fifth Meng asked, deeply earnest.
Both Ziqing and Jun Beiyue were startled — how could this stranger possibly know that?
Quite a number of people had known Jun Beiyue was injured at the Court of Judicial Review, but very few indeed knew such a specific detail as this!
It had been Ziqing herself, after all, who had driven that very shimmering dagger into Jun Beiyue’s chest back then!
Jun Beiyue said nothing, only nodded.
“Then that explains it!” Old Fifth Meng slapped his thigh and immediately launched into an explanation. “The moment that dagger pierced your chest, the Five Elements Seal on your body had, in fact, already broken!”
The more everyone listened to Old Fifth Meng, the more bewildered they grew — even the second and third elders looked baffled. Could it be they’d been wrong about something?
“Your mother-consort didn’t just place a Five Elements Seal on your chest — she also laid down a ‘Guide,'” Old Fifth Meng said seriously.
“A Guide?” Jun Beiyue didn’t understand.
But the second and third elders understood at once, both of them gaping in disbelief — they’d never imagined Meng Wanyue possessed such skill. The technique of the “Guide” existed only in the ancient scrolls, a method of manipulating Death Barriers itself — to this day, no one in the entire Meng Clan had ever managed to achieve it!
“If I’m not mistaken, your mother-consort discovered long ago the secret that the Poison Beast World was a Death Barrier, and that it was, in fact, a Universe Poison Pouch. While sealing the Five Elements Seal on your chest, she simultaneously laid down a ‘Guide’ — one timed so that after the cycle completed on the year, month, and day of Jiazi, the Poison Beast World’s seal would transfer. It was because of that very Guide that the seal shifted onto your chest.”
Hearing this explanation, Jun Beiyue murmured in disbelief, “My chest?”
The seal had been on his chest all along!
Which meant — ever since the tornado, the seal had been residing there the entire time!
Both the second and third elders had been wrong all along — the seal on his chest wasn’t the Five Elements Seal at all, but the Death Barrier’s own seal!
“That’s right. The power within you is precisely the power of that Guide — it’s what allowed you to recover,” Old Fifth Meng said earnestly.
And yet, even hearing this much, no one quite grasped the full picture.
Baili Weisheng suddenly slapped his thigh. “Now I understand! The Poison Beast World’s seal was on his chest — I was the one who broke the Poison Beast World’s seal and brought everyone here. The ‘Guide’ on his chest is still active even now, which is why his pulse keeps pounding on to this day!”
Old Fifth Meng nodded repeatedly, looking at Jun Beiyue with eyes growing misty. He understood now — Jun Beiyue would only be able to draw strength from the “Guide,” restoring his vital energy and steadying his pulse, by contending with it directly. But the process must have been agonizing, far beyond what an ordinary person could endure!
And this man had silently borne it all — even the woman at his side would likely never know just how difficult that struggle had truly been.
Now, at last, everything made sense.
The Five Elements Seal on Jun Beiyue’s heart had long since been broken by the shimmering dagger; the “Guide” upon it remained active even now.
The Poison Beast World’s seal, meanwhile, had been the one Baili Weisheng had broken open.
For a moment, everyone’s attention turned to the shimmering dagger still hovering in midair.
Only one question remained now — why couldn’t the stone lock, which should have been simple to destroy, be touched by anyone at all? Why could only the shimmering dagger carve into it?
Where did the shimmering dagger’s power come from?
At that moment, Ziqing spoke up, puzzled. “Fifth Elder — why can the dagger break through the Five Elements Seal in a single strike? And what does it have to do with the ‘Guide’?”
Old Fifth Meng smiled. “Because the barrier master who laid down the Five Elements Seal and the ‘Guide’ in the first place is hiding inside that very dagger. She sealed herself within it.”
At those words, the whole group erupted in astonishment, everyone’s eyes turning at once toward the shimmering light — no one had imagined it could possibly be this.
And it was the second elder who cried out in shock, “Impossible — this dagger is—”