No one knew what Meng Wanyue was thinking, but Old Meng Five glared resentfully at little Xiong Bao, thinking to himself: how could such a young child possibly understand the true importance of the Qiankun Poison Pouch?

So whatever promise she’d made him—no matter how sincerely, no matter in front of how many people—it was surely just meant to placate him for the moment.

After all, the Qiankun Poison Pouch directly affected their standing against Nanzhao.

If the founding ancestor had truly left such a legacy, then now that the pouch had resurfaced, the Meng Clan was bound to take action regarding it.

Whether now or in the future, when it came to confronting Nanzhao, the owner of the Qiankun Poison Pouch could never possibly be a small child!

That was simply too unreliable!

Besides, little Xiong Bao’s power was far too limited—he couldn’t possibly fully open the pouch on his own!

Old Meng Five began calculating in his head, thinking that in a little while, he’d have his fourth sister go speak seriously with Jun Beiyue and his wife about this matter.

Let Han Ziqing herself persuade Xiong Bao to hand over the Qiankun Poison Pouch. That way, they could get the pouch, and it wouldn’t damage Fourth Sister’s image in her grandson’s eyes either.

However mischievous this bear-cub of a child might be, he’d still listen to his mother in the end.

Old Meng Five had thought this through quite thoroughly, though he had no idea what was actually going on in Meng Wanyue’s mind.

Meng Wanyue simply smiled, warm and affectionate, pointing to her other cheek and saying cheerfully, “What about this side?”

From a distance, the grandmother and grandson made quite the heartwarming picture—one gentle, one boisterous.

Xiong Bao, ever generous, planted another enthusiastic kiss, his eyes crinkling into thin lines from smiling, even happier than Meng Wanyue herself.

He happily showered her with flattery. “Grandma, you’re the best, best grandma in the whole world!”

“Oh my…” Meng Wanyue laughed until her face flushed slightly.

“Grandma, you’re the most generous grandma in the whole world!” Xiong Bao declared very seriously.

“You little rascal! So you do know how good Grandma is.” Meng Wanyue kept laughing along.

“Grandma, now that you’ve given me the Qiankun Poison Pouch, you won’t ask for it back, will you?” Xiong Bao’s tone shifted, circling right back to the pouch.

Meng Wanyue didn’t answer immediately. She merely smiled faintly, but eventually had to say, “Of course not.”

“Great! I knew you were really the best!”

Xiong Bao immediately gave her a big hug, then promptly followed up with another question. “Grandma, then you’ll definitely teach me how to open the Qiankun Poison Pouch and make it bigger, right!”

No one present understood the Qiankun Poison Pouch better than Meng Wanyue—having spent twenty years studying the thing, how could she not?

“Sweetheart, the amount of space inside the Qiankun Poison Pouch depends on the strength of its owner. If you want it to grow bigger, you need to work hard every day to make yourself stronger—your willpower, your martial arts—because these are what determine your mastery over the pouch!”

Meng Wanyue said this very earnestly, and it wasn’t false either.

She continued, letting out a faint sigh. “Sweetheart, to make the Qiankun Poison Pouch big enough to hold an entire army of Nanzhao’s beast forces, or to raise a poison-beast army strong enough to rival Nanzhao’s beast army, you’d need to become like your father. That’s the only way it could be done.”

At these words, Ziqing privately cursed Xiong Bao as a fool—he’d already successfully claimed ownership, so why stumble at this final step?

Just as Ziqing had feared, Meng Wanyue soon continued, “Sweetheart, Nanzhao is our enemy, you know—they destroyed your mother’s entire people. Don’t you want your father to defeat Nanzhao?”

“I do…” Xiong Bao blurted out without thinking.

Beside them, Ziqing, Baili Weisheng, and Baili Xiaosheng all silently cried out in unison, “Uh oh!”

But then, unexpectedly, Xiong Bao added, “But not right now!”

As he spoke, he let go of Meng Wanyue and slid down, climbing into Jun Beiyue’s arms instead. “Daddy, not right now, right?”

When had little Master Xiong Bao ever handled things without thinking them through? Don’t forget—he had an Ounce Great Beast by his side, one that had lived longer than anyone else present, and even beasts grow wise with age!

Jun Beiyue nodded thoughtfully and simply replied, “Mm.”

“Daddy, don’t worry, when it’s time to deal with Nanzhao, Xiong Bao definitely won’t embarrass you!” Xiong Bao’s young voice carried genuine conviction—this was no joke.

“Mm.” Jun Beiyue nodded seriously.

“Daddy, it’s a promise between us!” Xiong Bao extended his little pinky finger.

“Mm!” Jun Beiyue still gave only that single response, offering no other opinion, hooking his large finger around Xiong Bao’s small one with utmost seriousness.

Father and son completely set Meng Wanyue aside, as if the Qiankun Poison Pouch no longer had anything to do with her at all.

Watching this, Ziqing couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—one grand schemer, one small schemer, truly father and son through and through!

And so, the question of the Qiankun Poison Pouch’s ownership, along with its intended use, came to rest entirely within the private pact between Jun Beiyue and little Xiong Bao, with no one else able to get a word in.

At this point, Baili Weisheng aptly steered the conversation back on track.

They’d been discussing the Solitary Island just moments ago, before Xiong Bao’s antics had derailed everything.

“Fourth Elder, so that’s the truth of it. Then surely you must know the whereabouts of the Solitary Island?” Baili Weisheng asked tentatively.

Meng Wanyue, however, shook her head firmly. “Young man, what makes you so certain? Everything I know, I learned from within the Xuyu Pagoda. Back then, our founding ancestor only learned the truth when the King of Nanzhao personally invited him to break the seals—and by then, it was already too late… he didn’t know the Solitary Island’s whereabouts either.”

“Fourth Elder, surely with so many contacts across the Longyuan continent, you must have gathered at least some information,” Baili Weisheng pressed further.

Meng Wanyue smiled. “Of course—without knowing where the Solitary Island is, there’d be no point in trying to clear its name! What I did learn is that, back in the day, a member of the Solitary Island’s people had blended into the Nanzhao royal court as a musician. He encoded the secret of the Solitary Island’s location, very obscurely, into a musical piece.”

At these words, everyone present immediately perked up!

Meng Wanyue, oh Meng Wanyue—she truly knew a great deal!

Meng Wanyue continued, recalling as she spoke, “It’s said this piece was composed by borrowing sounds from nature itself. Back then, that musician gathered several fragments of natural sound—one from Nanzhao’s Sacred Music Grotto, one from Liuxian Island, and one from the border between West Chu and East Qin on the Longyuan continent, from within Wuxie Ravine.”

“Anywhere else?” Even Jun Beiyue finally lost his usual composure, asking urgently.

“That’s all. Those are the only ones I know of,” Meng Wanyue said with certainty.

“Wuxie Ravine!” Ziqing was stunned!

The Sacred Music Grotto and Liuxian Island’s natural sounds—she had already heard both, and had found the corresponding missing notes in the Lishang musical score.

If there were only two missing notes left to find in the Lishang score—along with Baili Weisheng’s secret of the yang totem!

“Wuxie Ravine…” Baili Weisheng murmured to himself. If the final two missing notes could be found within Wuxie Ravine, then… they’d have only one step left before reaching the Solitary Island!

Wuxie Ravine…

This was the most natural barrier between East Qin and West Chu, a divide the two nations could never cross—unless one borrowed passage through Da Zhou’s Three Realms territory…

At that very moment, Xuanyuan Lige was far away on the northern highlands of East Qin, pondering over this very place called Wuxie Ravine…