Going down was the only option.
Baili Weisheng seemed about to say something more, but a single glance from Ziqing silenced him. Meng Wanyue hadn’t been wrong—with the world so vast, knowing something, anything, was still better than knowing nothing at all!
“We’ll go down. Even if I have to search it inch by inch, I will find it!” Ziqing declared with determination.
Nanzhao’s ancient conspiracy, Xiong Bao’s constitution—all of that had already been sorted out. The Lishang score was her final remaining task!
Only two missing notes and one yang totem left. She was so close, so very close, to the last secret of the Solitary Island.
For the Solitary Island—her true family, the countless clanspeople whose unspoken grievances had been buried beneath the passage of time!
For the wedding—her happiness, the ceremony Jun Beiyue had already promised her!
Never mind a single ravine—even if it meant searching the entire world, she was determined to find it!
“Four great poison beasts, come forth!”
At Ziqing’s command, the four great poison beasts hidden away—the Ounce Great Beast, the Nine-Tailed White Fox, the Henggong Fish, and the Howling Rabbit—all appeared together, massive forms materializing in midair before everyone.
In the past, without a certain degree of skill, descending into Wuxie Ravine would have been an extraordinarily difficult undertaking. Jun Beiyue and Chu Tiange had once clashed amid the ravine’s fierce crosswinds all those years ago.
Now, with the four great poison beasts to help them, they could fly straight down to the very bottom of the ravine!
Even the ocean had a floor somewhere—surely a landmass would too?
Ziqing simply refused to believe they couldn’t find the bottom of Wuxie Ravine!
The moment the four great beasts appeared, everyone quickly climbed aboard. Xiong Bao moved fastest of all, leaping straight onto the Ounce Great Beast’s furry back. A flicker of hesitation crossed Meng Wanyue’s eyes as she too moved to leap toward the Ounce Great Beast, but unexpectedly, Baili Weisheng suddenly stepped in front of her—by which point Jun Beiyue had already claimed his spot.
Though the poison beasts could fly, given the crosswinds, none of the four great beasts could afford to carry too much weight.
Ziqing settled onto the Nine-Tailed White Fox, while Baili Weisheng flipped himself lazily onto the back of the Howling Rabbit. Baili Xiaosheng quickly followed, which left Meng Wanyue with only the Henggong Fish as her remaining option.
The Ounce Great Beast and the Nine-Tailed White Fox took the lead, clearing the way, while the Howling Rabbit and Henggong Fish flew close behind. Xiong Bao, thoroughly excited, shouted, “Let’s go!”
Streaks of figures shot downward into the wind.
The further down they went, the fiercer the crosswinds became, the steeper the cliff faces grew, and the narrower the gap between the two walls became. Before long, all four great beasts were flying in nearly a full dive—and given their considerable flight speed combined with the steep descent, anyone not gripping tightly to their beast would have been flung off long ago!
Yet even holding on tight, looking down was still a heart-stopping ordeal, more than most ordinary people could bear!
Jun Beiyue, Ziqing, and Xiong Bao, the family of three, rode up front. Xiong Bao, naturally bold, had already curled up tight in Jun Beiyue’s arms this time, not daring to look down anymore, shrieking continuously, forcing the Ounce Great Beast to slow its pace.
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue kept their full attention below, scanning everything around them without pause. They’d already descended over three hundred zhang. Along both cliff faces, aside from a few recessed caves, there were only occasional small jutting ledges.
Jun Beiyue mused to himself that when Chu Tiange had fallen all those years ago, it must have been sheer luck that he’d landed on one of these ledges—otherwise, having already fallen three hundred zhang, no matter how strong his martial arts or how good his fortune, falling any further would surely have shattered every bone in his body.
While Ziqing and Jun Beiyue remained utterly focused, Baili Weisheng’s attention was fixed entirely on Meng Wanyue—he simply couldn’t figure her out!
Meng Wanyue was, by all accounts, someone with only middling martial ability, and quite advanced in years besides. Though forceful in her youth, she’d become notably gentler with age. Yet facing an environment this treacherous, plunging almost straight down into the abyss, this old woman showed absolutely no reaction whatsoever—utterly composed, gazing intently downward!
Baili Weisheng genuinely wanted to ask her, “Auntie, doesn’t this make you dizzy?”
“Master, why are you staring at her again?” Baili Xiaosheng asked impatiently.
“Don’t you think there’s something off about her?” Baili Weisheng shot back.
“Is there? Xiong Bao’s been pestering her the whole way, and she hasn’t lost her temper once—she even taught him how to master the Qiankun Poison Pouch. That’s not bad at all,” Baili Xiaosheng said.
“That little rascal opened the pouch again?” Baili Weisheng asked, puzzled.
“Mm, he opened up a bit more space. Not enough to fit the big silly bear, but enough for some smaller creatures. If he weren’t worried about accidentally diving in and getting eaten by a sea serpent, he’d have gone off catching beasts by now—otherwise, how could he possibly be this well-behaved?” Baili Xiaosheng replied.
“She really taught him…” Baili Weisheng muttered suspiciously, finding this old woman even more inscrutable than before.
The whole way down, there was nothing worth stopping for.
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue’s plan was to first reach the bottom of Wuxie Ravine and begin their search from there.
But when they’d descended to roughly five hundred zhang, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue both called out at almost the exact same moment, “Stop!”
The Ounce Great Beast and the Nine-Tailed White Fox halted abruptly, and the Henggong Fish and Howling Rabbit followed suit. The stop was so sudden that Baili Weisheng, momentarily distracted, nearly went flying off—fortunately his reflexes saved him just in time.
He glanced toward Meng Wanyue again and saw the old woman hadn’t moved an inch!
“Something’s off! Definitely off!” Baili Weisheng muttered to himself.
“Master… Master, look, quick, look!” Baili Xiaosheng cried out, and only then did Baili Weisheng notice the strange sight around them.
Heavens—there was a ring of walkway-like ledges embedded right into the cliff face here!
Ziqing and Jun Beiyue were already studying their surroundings intently. This ring of ledges ran along both the eastern and western cliff walls, stretching north and south as far as the eye could see, with no visible end in either direction. Its sudden appearance within Wuxie Ravine was strange indeed.
“It seems like some kind of watershed boundary. There must be some difference between above and below this line,” Jun Beiyue said, brow furrowed in thought.
“Let’s go—follow this ring of ledges first and take a look,” Ziqing suggested.
“Let’s split up to search, or this will take too long. You and Jun Beiyue take the east side, and I’ll go with… Auntie Meng on the west side. How’s that?” Baili Weisheng suggested urgently as well, the term “Auntie Meng” coming out remarkably sweetly.
Meng Wanyue, sprawled atop the Henggong Fish, indicated no objection.
And so, the group split up to search separately. But after a quick sweep, no one found anything at all—barren cliff faces with nothing but rock upon rock, utterly desolate, with nothing but the howl of the wind.
Everyone regrouped, debating whether to continue further down, when Meng Wanyue suddenly flicked her hand lightly behind her back, sending a blade of wind straight into the cliff face nearby, instantly knocking a chunk of rock loose! As the old flame of the Solitary Island’s leader, she had, back in the day, thoroughly mastered the art of the wind blade herself.
“What was that sound!”
Jun Beiyue and Ziqing both turned almost simultaneously—their attention wasn’t on the falling stone at all, but on the cliff face itself, which seemed strangely hollow!
Ziqing stepped forward at once. “Beiyue, lend me your sword.”
Jun Beiyue was just reaching to draw his blade when Meng Wanyue immediately offered the Flowing Light Dagger instead. “Here, this will be more convenient!”
…