“You insufferable scholar!”

Ziqing cried out in alarm, immediately rushing forward to help him up — but the moment she grabbed Baili Weisheng’s arm, her heart lurched violently in shock!

How could this be happening!

This man had absolutely no strength left in his body at all — like a limp, empty sack of skin, hardly feeling like a living body at all!

“Baili Weisheng…”

Ziqing froze, and as the coldness gradually seeped into her hand, her mind went completely blank with fear!

What was going on, how had this happened so suddenly?

Why did holding Baili Weisheng up feel exactly like holding onto an ice-cold corpse?

Jun Beiyue and Fifth Elder Meng also rushed over to help — but just like Ziqing, the moment they touched him, they both instinctively wanted to pull their hands away!

Baili Weisheng kept his head lowered the entire time, his expression unreadable, though it seemed he was still conscious.

“You insufferable scholar, are you all right!” Ziqing called out anxiously. For some reason, the image of him first appearing in the Poison Beast World suddenly flashed through her mind — his smile so pure, so radiant, yet so terribly pale.

What on earth was wrong with him?

“Hey, say something, can you hear me?”

“Insufferable scholar, quit fooling around, all right?”

…

But no matter how much Ziqing called out to him, even as Jun Beiyue helped seat him back in the chair, Baili Weisheng remained motionless, head bowed, showing no response at all.

“Summon the imperial physicians!” Jun Beiyue finally cried out in alarm as well. This insufferable scholar clearly wasn’t joking around — something was genuinely wrong.

The physicians arrived quickly — a full ten of them — yet none could determine what was wrong with Baili Weisheng, leaving Ziqing so frustrated she wanted to strangle someone.

That evening, even when Xiong Bao came looking for her, Ziqing barely paid him any attention, letting the giant beast take him off to play elsewhere.

Of course, Xiong Bao didn’t actually leave. He obediently perched himself up on the roof beam, keeping watch.

This scholarly uncle was the very first human he’d ever encountered in the Poison Beast World, aside from his own mother. He’d secretly treasured him in his heart ever since.

Baili Weisheng had already been settled into a bed. He remained conscious, eyes open, and aside from his ghostly pale complexion, he seemed entirely normal.

But his body was anything but normal. In the physicians’ words, this man’s body was on the verge of dying.

Everything had happened so suddenly that no one had any idea what to do.

Jun Beiyue and Fifth Elder Meng sat nearby in complete silence. Baili Weisheng was a human-gu — though his consciousness hadn’t been controlled, his body was, fundamentally, a human-gu’s body.

A body like that shouldn’t die. It shouldn’t even be easily injured at all.

“Could it be…”

Suddenly, Fifth Elder Meng spoke up. “His vital energy and blood have been severely depleted, his heart meridian failing — could this have been caused by forcibly breaking the seal on the Poison Beast World!”

At these words, Ziqing froze, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on Baili Weisheng, feeling as though something had suddenly taken a bite out of her heart — not just painful, but as though an entire piece of it had gone missing.

You insufferable scholar, didn’t you say you came here to bring me home?

We haven’t even found Lone Island yet — how could you possibly collapse now?

Ziqing hesitated for a moment, then abruptly stood up. “Find Physician Gu! Have him take a look and figure out what’s wrong!”

Physician Gu had extensive knowledge of poison-immune constitutions. Under normal circumstances, Ziqing would rather die than ever go begging to him for anything — but for Baili Weisheng’s sake, she was willing to do exactly that.

But just then, Baili Weisheng’s eyes suddenly began to move — dark, glossy eyes, purer and more clear than even a child’s, rolling faster and faster, as though trying to convey something to them.

Ziqing let out a joyful cry. “Insufferable scholar, are you awake? Can you hear us talking?”

Baili Weisheng immediately blinked — just three times, then stopped — and instead, his eyes narrowed into a smile. Setting aside his complexion, those eyes alone were remarkably lively, strange and mysterious, nothing at all like someone on the verge of death.

This eternally optimistic man — was there truly anything in this world capable of dimming those bright, ever-smiling eyes of his?

Seeing this, Ziqing’s anxious tension suddenly eased, and she couldn’t help but find herself smiling along with him. “You insufferable scholar, aren’t you afraid of dying at all! What exactly happened to you!”

If he could still smile, surely nothing too serious could be wrong.

Baili Weisheng pursed his lips slightly, about to speak. Ziqing immediately leaned in close, her ear pressed near his mouth.

Watching from nearby, Jun Beiyue’s expression grew complicated. Seeing Ziqing lean in so close, he finally couldn’t help himself, pulling her back and leaning down to listen himself.

To everyone’s surprise, Baili Weisheng’s first words were, “Prince Yao… you really have no manners.”

At this, Jun Beiyue’s face darkened instantly. He straightened up immediately, saying coldly, “Baili Weisheng, still running that mouth of yours. Looks like you’re in no danger of dying after all.”

Baili Weisheng only kept smiling. “I… I was thinking… the same thing, heh heh.”

His voice was faint, barely audible, giving off an ethereal, insubstantial quality, as though he might vanish at any moment — yet his words remained so casually optimistic.

Watching him like this, Ziqing suddenly felt a strange sense of distance, as though this man simply didn’t belong to her world at all. He felt impossibly far away, someone she could never truly understand, never truly reach.

“What exactly is wrong with you?” Ziqing asked anxiously. Certain matters, she truly couldn’t afford to joke about.

“When I opened the seal… lost too much… too much blood.” Only now did Baili Weisheng’s voice grow slightly louder. He paused, still smiling with apparent ease, as though this were nothing serious at all. “I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

“How do you feel right now?” Ziqing asked again. The calmer Baili Weisheng remained, the more anxious she became. Watching from the side, Jun Beiyue couldn’t help but privately admire the man’s composure, though he also found it rather baffling — he genuinely wondered whether this scholar would still be able to smile if he were truly facing death.

“Aside from… having no strength left, everything’s fine,” Baili Weisheng said.

“That’s nonsense. If having strength means everything’s fine, then having no strength obviously means something’s wrong!” Ziqing couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “Do you realize you could die?”

Though Ziqing didn’t fully understand Baili Weisheng’s condition, she knew that once someone was cultivated into a human-gu, their body underwent permanent changes. Male human-gu were nowhere near as powerful as female ones — while male human-gu didn’t age and their bodies wouldn’t naturally die, if their poisonous blood ever ran completely dry, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Human-gu blood couldn’t be replenished by any ordinary medicine!

If Baili Weisheng’s usual cheerfulness had simply been part of his nature before, then maintaining it now, in this state, surely meant there was a reason behind it. Though, in truth, he’d always loved smiling, always been carefree and content — he himself hadn’t even realized just how happy Ziqing’s anxious concern was making him feel.

He gazed at Ziqing, and gazing at her, found himself drifting into a daze.

Ziqing looked back at him just as intently, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper the longer she watched.

The insufferable scholar had promised to bring her home. On the journey to find Lone Island, on the journey to find home — he absolutely could not be missing from it!

Ziqing suddenly turned to Jun Beiyue. “Beiyue, let’s find the Gu Nanny!”

The Gu Nanny was a gu-cultivator — surely she would have a way to help.

“The Gu Nanny… the same gu-cultivator you and Haonan encountered?” Jun Beiyue’s handsome brow furrowed slightly.

“Yes, the Grand Priestess of the Xiongnu — Min Han Gu Xin!” Ziqing said seriously. This gu-cultivator had once been Baili Weisheng’s master — he’d told her about her before.

And the two of them had actually met her a few times before, though at the time, they’d had no idea of any of this!