Madam Jinjiao pressed both hands against the barrier, tears streaming endlessly down her face. In an instant she seemed to age, her once jet-black hair turning completely white in the blink of an eye!
Three thousand strands of white hair!
Thirty years of waiting, and what she got in return, in this single instant, was to grow old before her time — three thousand strands of white hair, and still, it could not buy her so much as a single glance from her son. Even just one glance would have been enough!
He didn’t know it — he was so close to her, and yet he knew nothing at all!
“My son… your mother is right here! Right here! My son… won’t you turn around and look at your mother, just once? My son… what must I do to make you understand that your mother is right here! My child…”
She wept until she could no longer form words, her heart utterly shattered, and yet she remained, alone and forsaken, trapped there still.
Beyond the barrier, the world outside was silent, without a sound.
At this moment, Baili Weisheng was enveloped in a faint golden glow, the illusory image of his golden scales appearing once more. In disbelief, he spread out his hands, staring at his own arm, then looking down at his own body.
Only now did he confirm — this power hadn’t come from outside; it came from within his own body. It was a power that had always belonged to him, lying dormant for a long time, only now finally called forth.
It felt exactly as it once had, back when he could summon the golden light and golden scales freely, at will, whenever he pleased.
He exhaled gently, and a golden bubble immediately floated out from his breath, drifting through the deep blue seawater — strikingly beautiful.
With a light wave of his hand, a half-ring of golden light shot out, enveloping Jun Beiyue in a half-circle, sealing him off from the surrounding water.
…
Everything truly had been restored!
Ziqing and Meng Wanyue arrived at almost the same moment, and upon seeing this, both were struck with disbelief.
“You stinking scholar, you’ve recovered!” Ziqing exclaimed, overjoyed with surprise. Yet Meng Wanyue could no longer hide the malice glinting in her eyes.
Those phoenix eyes had darkened, like a sky before an approaching storm.
Baili Weisheng!
A descendant of the Golden Jiao’s royal bloodline, the direct orphaned heir of the Lonely Isle! So it really was true!
The Meng Clan’s founding ancestor hadn’t been wrong — when the royal bloodline of the Golden Jiao clan merged with the direct lineage of the Lonely Isle, the fusion would create an incomparably powerful soul! A person like this, possessing a human-Gu constitution, even if successfully cultivated into a human Gu, would never have their soul truly tamed — no matter how skilled the Gu master, their soul could never be fully controlled!
“So it turns out you carry the royal bloodline of the Golden Jiao…”
Meng Wanyue murmured to herself. Through the Dagger of Flowing Light, she was aware of everything happening in the outside world, and she had always assumed it was simply that the Gu Nanny had failed in her cultivation of him. She had never imagined that Baili Weisheng himself already possessed an extraordinarily powerful soul from the very start!
Even if the Gu Nanny had succeeded in cultivating the human Gu, Baili Weisheng would still, one day, have awakened to full consciousness! Now, he was no longer heartless, no longer devoid of feeling — all his emotions and desires were gradually awakening.
When the bloodlines of the Lonely Isle and the Meng Clan merged, once the human-Gu bloodline was resolved, the result was a constitution like Xiong Xiaobao’s — truly immune to all poisons, with blood of the deadliest venom.
But when the bloodline of the Lonely Isle merged with the royal bloodline of the Golden Jiao, the result was the most formidable soul power of all — a human-Gu body with a free, unshackled soul!
These were the two methods for resolving the human-Gu bloodline of the Lonely Isle!
Back then, the Meng Clan’s founding ancestor had actually known this all along — he simply never spoke of it, never revealed a single word.
He let the Great Gu Master be silenced and killed by the Nanzhao royal family. He let every member of the Lonely Isle clan across the Nanzhao continent be slaughtered to the last. He let the path to the Lonely Isle be utterly destroyed by the Nanzhao royal house. He let the clan members on the isle remain cut off from the world.
Even the Nanzhao royal family never knew that, back then, it wasn’t only the Great Gu Master who wished to cultivate the human Gu — the Meng Clan’s founding ancestor did as well.
The Great Gu Master and the founding ancestor had secretly joined forces, wanting to claim the Death Barrier of the Poison Beast World for themselves, and so they had concealed the secret that the Poison Beast World was, in fact, a death barrier.
Even after the Great Gu Master was killed, the Meng Clan’s founding ancestor never exposed the secret of the death barrier, nor did he ever reveal that he himself had been the Great Gu Master’s accomplice.
Instead, he avoided all suspicion, and hid away every secret — including the Dagger of Flowing Light — within the Momentary Tower, waiting for the day when someone of sufficiently high talent would appear, someone who could inherit his unfulfilled ambition: to obtain the Universe Poison Pouch, find the Lonely Isle, cultivate a human Gu, and seize control of Nanzhao!
The space within the Universe Poison Pouch wasn’t truly infinite — it was fundamentally incapable of containing the entirety of Nanzhao’s beast armies, and the poisonous beasts one could raise would, in the end, never be a match for Nanzhao’s Medicine Clan. And so, cultivating a human Gu was the only path forward!
A grandson as gifted as Xiong Bao, using mental control over the Universe Poison Pouch, would surely be able to open up far more space within it than she herself ever could — far greater in scope!
Whether it was Han Ziqing or Jun Beiyue — did they think they could destroy Nanzhao without relying on a human Gu?
Utterly impossible! A hopelessly foolish delusion!
Yet of course, Meng Wanyue would never tell them any of this — she would only ever tell them that the Universe Poison Pouch was all-powerful.
The Meng Clan, she could control entirely. But the Golden Jiao, hidden away in the depths of the Innocent Ravine — that was the very thing she was desperate to destroy! She would not allow anyone to threaten the human-Gu bloodline, nor allow this secret to ever be discovered!
That was why she had brought Han Ziqing and the others here!
Only, she had never imagined that the reason Baili Weisheng had become an orphan was that the Golden Jiao had been schemed against by the Silver Jiao — and even less had she imagined that, through sheer happenstance, they would stumble upon the secret of the Song of Parting Sorrow here of all places!
“Baili Weisheng… compared to Han Ziqing, I want to eliminate you even more urgently!”
Meng Wanyue murmured inwardly, unable to fully conceal the malice on her face — though fortunately, at that moment, no one was paying her any attention.
Baili Weisheng finally recovered from his shock, and abruptly turned to look toward Baili Xiaosheng — and it was only then that Jun Beiyue and Ziqing, too, remembered Baili Xiaosheng’s existence!
Jun Beiyue was still holding her hand, and only now did he notice — this small hand was terrifyingly cold.
The child floated there in the water, her body — even her small face — utterly covered in wounds, not a single patch of skin spared, scar after scar, so deep that several of them showed bone, blood still steadily seeping out from every wound, spreading through the water around her.
Jun Beiyue was stunned into stillness. Baili Weisheng kept drawing deep breath after deep breath, on the verge of exploding.
Ziqing immediately swam over, tore off her own outer robe, and wrapped it around Baili Xiaosheng, speaking sharply through gritted teeth, “What are you all standing there dazed for — save her!”
As she spoke, she carried Baili Xiaosheng toward the barrier of the Golden Jiao Palace.
The child was still holding her breath in a state of suspended animation — which meant she still clung to life!
Otherwise, even if the pain itself hadn’t killed her, even if she hadn’t bled out entirely, she would have drowned by now!
That she could still hold her breath this way meant that, at the very least, her will was still there, still holding on!
Ziqing held Baili Xiaosheng tightly, just as she would hold Xiong Xiaobao. The instant she entered the Golden Jiao Palace, she immediately laid her flat on the ground!
Treating the wounds and stopping the bleeding could not wait even a moment!
She had to admit — she had seen countless injured people in her life, but a child wounded this badly, aside from herself as a child, she had never once seen the like.
Perhaps once, she wouldn’t have felt such pain, such sorrow over this — but now, having become a parent herself, things were different. She now carried an extra measure of compassion, an extra measure of protectiveness toward children.
She couldn’t even imagine what she would do if this had happened to Xiong Xiaobao instead! She would surely go mad!
Ziqing fumbled frantically, tearing open the robe wrapped around Baili Xiaosheng while shouting, “Big Dumb Bear, come out here, quick!”
Big Dumb Bear’s tongue was the most useful thing for this — it had helped stop bleeding before.
But very quickly, Ziqing realized that Big Dumb Bear hadn’t followed them in!
What should she do! What should she do!
Just as Ziqing was starting to panic, her hand suddenly froze, stopping right at Baili Xiaosheng’s lower body.
The fierce force of the water had all but shredded her clothing, leaving her barely covered, unable to conceal herself at all.
As Ziqing examined the wounds carefully, she suddenly realized something was off.
This…
This… this child was actually a girl!
At that very moment, Jun Beiyue and Baili Weisheng arrived, and Xiong Xiaobao’s panicked cries could be heard as well.
“Xiao Sheng! Xiao Sheng, what’s wrong with you!”
“Mommy! What happened? What’s wrong with him?”
…
Compared to Baili Xiaosheng, Xiong Xiaobao was such a fortunate child — he had been protected, sent away first, and knew nothing of what had happened down in the whirlpool.
He rushed anxiously into the barrier — anxious, yes, but still with no idea just how brutal the truth actually was.
But just as he was about to rush over, Ziqing suddenly wrapped Baili Xiaosheng tightly in the outer robe and lifted her up in her arms, cradling her sideways.
At that moment, Baili Weisheng stepped forward immediately, his expression uncharacteristically blank, his tone icy cold. “I’ll carry her.”
But Ziqing, in a low, calm voice, said simply, “Let me. She’s a girl — no matter how young, she must have her dignity.”
She would not allow this girl to appear before this group of grown men and a young boy with her body left uncovered.
She would not allow her — covered in wounds, her face marked with injury — to appear before this group of grown men and a young boy!
Absolutely not!
Seeing how serious Ziqing was, even though he didn’t understand exactly what had happened, Xiong Xiaobao obediently kept quiet, not daring to make a sound.
And Ziqing’s words left Baili Weisheng stunned — for the first time, he realized that, as a man, he truly had no idea how to care for a young girl. Back when he had first rescued this child, so heartless at the time, he had never once considered the responsibility of raising her — perhaps it had merely been convenient to have someone by his side. As a master, he truly… hadn’t been fit for the role.
He glanced once more at Baili Xiaosheng’s pale, wound-covered little face, a flash of hatred crossing his eyes, then immediately turned and shot straight out of the barrier.
Helian mother and son — if I, Baili Weisheng, don’t strip the skin off both of you, my name isn’t Baili Weisheng!
Baili Weisheng shot outward. Jun Beiyue and Xiong Xiaobao waited by the entrance, while Meng Wanyue followed Ziqing further inside.
Once away from Jun Beiyue and the others, Ziqing laid Baili Xiaosheng flat again, and immediately summoned Howler Rabbit.
“I have no medicine on hand — find a way to help stop her bleeding.”
Ziqing gave the command coldly. If Big Dumb Bear’s licking could stop bleeding, surely Howler Rabbit, another beast, could manage the same.
Howler Rabbit glanced over, and upon seeing it was a young girl, felt a flicker of surprise — but seeing Ziqing’s stern expression, it didn’t dare say a word.
In the Poison Beast World, whether it was one of the Four Great Poison Beasts or Big Dumb Bear and Xiong Xiaobao, they had all long since learned the same lesson — when this female master turned serious, it was best to simply obey without question, without asking too much.
“Master, don’t worry.” Howler Rabbit gave Ziqing a firm answer, then immediately bent its head to tend to Baili Xiaosheng’s wounds.
Ziqing personally took Baili Xiaosheng’s pulse — if she had lost too much blood and it had damaged her vital energy, that would be a serious problem!
But very soon, Ziqing noticed something was wrong!
Looking closely, she realized — even after entering the barrier, this child was still holding her breath!
This…
Having lost so much blood, something even an adult would struggle to manage — and yet she had actually done it!
This was entirely beyond what her body should have been able to endure — she was surviving purely on willpower alone!
She didn’t want to die!
Her desire to live was overwhelmingly strong!
Ziqing’s heart clenched, a wave of bitterness rising up within her. She carefully leaned closer, gently stroking Baili Xiaosheng’s small face, and murmured softly, “Child, I’m sorry. I forgot that you’re still just a child too.”
Her attention had truly all been fixed on her son, and she had overlooked the fact that this, too, was just a child.
Back there in the raging current, she still didn’t understand exactly how it had happened — this child had ended up in the current’s path before her. Had the water’s force simply been too great for her to hold her ground?
…