“No!”

“These children are all so kind — why would you do this?”

“If you harm her, you won’t be able to escape either!”

…

As the whirlpool rose higher, Madam Jinjiao could no longer see Meng Wanyue, yet she kept shouting all the same. No one could hear her — only Meng Wanyue could, and Meng Wanyue paid her no mind at all!

What should she do?

This woman surely had some scheme in mind!

She had to stop this!

But what could she possibly do?

Madam Jinjiao turned it over and over in her mind, drew several deep breaths, and finally, unable to hold back any longer, closed her eyes and abruptly summoned the outer sea’s waters!

Trapped within the barrier, the only thing left she could do was summon the waters of the outer sea!

The very same act as Madam Helian and Helian Shaoze!

The already frenzied seawater, combined now with the force Madam Jinjiao added to it, instantly grew even more violent and chaotic. The whirlpool abruptly widened — and just as Meng Wanyue was about to strike, it suddenly surged forward!

It tore her and Ziqing apart in an instant!

But this time, when they were torn apart, there was no one left to shield them!

The two of them were swept into the whirlpool at once, spinning at tremendous speed under the immense force of the water!

At this, even Meng Wanyue was startled. She kept channeling her energy, trying to steady herself, but the force of the water was simply too great, too wild — even with all the martial arts she had once learned from the Gu Family Head, she was ultimately no match for the water’s force at this moment.

Below, Baili Weisheng had only just managed to grasp Baili Xiaosheng’s hand when the current immediately tore them apart again!

Faced with this sudden shift, the two men’s reactions were almost identical — at the same moment, both of them looked up toward Ziqing, only to find, helplessly, that they could see nothing at all — just an endless expanse of water!

“Master…”

Baili Xiaosheng’s voice sounded so very, very far away.

Baili Weisheng couldn’t attend to both at once. He turned back urgently, only to see that Baili Xiaosheng had already fallen to the very center of the whirlpool!

“No—”

Baili Weisheng cried out in shock, feeling as though his heart had suddenly skipped an entire beat — a sensation he had never felt before. He was panicking!

“Master, you…”

Baili Xiaosheng was calling out to him — that little girl was calling for him — and he couldn’t make out anything she said after that.

But her voice was clearly filled with terror, clearly on the verge of tears!

Ever since she was old enough to understand things, she had feared nothing under heaven or earth, and had almost never cried.

That girl was crying!

His disciple was crying!

Baili Weisheng felt as though a piece of his heart had been torn away — in an instant, everything about him felt wrong, out of place.

This feeling… he couldn’t put it into words. He had never experienced anything like it before.

He glanced at Jun Beiyue, who was about to shoot upward to find Ziqing, and abruptly moved to dive straight into the black hole of the whirlpool. But in that critical, split-second moment, Jun Beiyue stopped him!

“Go down there, and there’s only one path — death!”

Jun Beiyue was ruthless, yet he was also calm and rational!

A whirlpool black hole like this — going down meant nothing but being torn apart by the water’s force, shattered to pieces. There was no second path.

Baili Xiaosheng might very well already be dead by now!

“Death…” Baili Weisheng murmured to himself, his long narrow eyes and handsome face both marked, everywhere, by something deeply wrong.

“Go up, or you’ll die too!” Jun Beiyue said, grabbing hold of him to pull him away.

Who could have known that, at this moment, Baili Weisheng would suddenly wrench his hand free, and roar with fury, “Without my permission, my disciple is not allowed to die!”

With that, he dove down without so much as a backward glance!

Jun Beiyue, alarmed, had no time to think further and immediately gave chase to stop him.

But very soon, the scent of blood began drifting up from the black hole, bringing both men to an abrupt halt.

It wasn’t just the scent of blood — streaks of blood were also drifting through the water. Both grown men were struck utterly speechless, staring in shock — there, at the very edge of the black hole, was Baili Xiaosheng, her clothes already torn to shreds, barely covering her body, her fair skin covered from head to toe in gash after gash, nearly every inch of her body wounded, not a single patch untouched!

And worse still… even her face had been utterly ruined!

At that moment, she lay floating on her back facing them, eyes shut tight, whether alive or dead unknown, and with the whirlpool’s continuous spinning, she was on the verge of being sucked straight into the black hole!

This whirlpool trap was truly unlike any ordinary seafloor whirlpool!

Even Jun Beiyue felt a surge of pity rise in him, unable to stay calm — she was still just a child!

Without a second thought, he was ready to risk his life and dive down to pull her out. But Baili Weisheng remained utterly still, suspended within the whirlpool, his fists clenched tighter and tighter, ever tighter!

Rage!

Never in his entire life had he felt such fury!

Silver Jiao — you have gone too far, pushing people too far!!!

To dare act so recklessly before a Golden Jiao like me!

Suddenly, Baili Weisheng shut his eyes tight and let out an explosive roar — “AHHH—”

That single roar tore through the entire whirlpool, shaking the whole stretch of sea.

Jun Beiyue had already grasped Baili Xiaosheng’s hand and was about to pull her toward himself when the roar struck him, making his head spin, nearly causing him to lose his grip.

But then, just as the roar died away, a series of echoes rang out, majestic as bells and drums, sweeping in from every direction across the seafloor — wave after wave, ring after ring.

That sound, that rhythm — solemn, magnificent, sacred, noble!

As though it were a hymn to the sea god itself, it made anyone who heard it feel an involuntary reverence.

As the echoes continued to sound, the force of the whirlpool’s current began, slowly, to weaken.

What in the world was happening?

Just as Jun Beiyue stood there in disbelief, a beam of golden light suddenly pierced through from the side.

Jun Beiyue looked over sharply, and saw Baili Weisheng, right beside him, entirely bathed in a beam of golden light, sacred as a deity, untouchable in his majesty.

As the echoes rang on and the whirlpool’s force weakened, that golden light expanded ring by ring, dazzling and brilliant!

Amid the golden radiance, golden scales — the scales of a Golden Jiao — could clearly be seen growing across Baili Weisheng’s body: along his temples, his arms, his chest, and his fish tail!

Golden and gleaming, row upon row of scaled armor layered over one another, perfectly aligned and orderly!

Gradually, he slowly opened his eyes — those eyes, as clear and bright as ever, yet now carrying a trace of seasoned, hard-won maturity that hadn’t been there before.

Suddenly, he swung both hands down forcefully and let out a stern shout: “Retreat!”

At once, the golden light covering his entire body, along with the golden scaled armor, immediately scattered and dissolved into the surrounding seawater. And incredibly, at his single command, the surrounding seawater itself began to withdraw entirely!

In an instant, the water receded, the waves stilled, wind and water left no trace, and everything returned to exactly as it had been before — calm seas, peaceful winds…

The seawater was, once again, that same deep, brilliant blue. The golden radiance of the Golden Jiao Palace still shone up through the water as before. Ziqing and Meng Wanyue had landed on either side of them, Xiong Xiaobao and Henggong Fish were not far above, and Baili Xiaosheng, held by Jun Beiyue, was covered in wounds from head to toe, unconscious.

Everything was so utterly quiet!

Baili Weisheng was still simply Baili Weisheng — the golden light, the golden scaled armor, had all been nothing but an illusion, a manifestation.

The only thing that remained was that echo, still continuing on, rippling outward wave after wave, like the ripples of water — “Hmmm… hmmm… hmmm.”

The longer one listened to that sound, the more one would notice — it had a rhythm to it!

“Lishang…” Ziqing murmured under her breath.

Lishang!

Wasn’t this precisely the rhythm of the climax of the Song of Parting Sorrow?

They had… found it!