All around, dead silence!

Faced with the Gu Family Head’s demand, Meng Wanyue only now slowly came back to herself, turning her head to look at him!

But as she turned, she saw not only the Gu Family Head standing before her, but also, just behind him, not far off, Jun Beiyue — standing at the doorway, having appeared there at some point without anyone noticing!

The moment they’d arrived at the Gu family gate, they’d run straight into the wife, and for no apparent reason, she’d suddenly been slapped across the face — followed immediately by that just-concluded bare-handed brawl.

All of this had happened so suddenly that Meng Wanyue still hadn’t managed to fully compose herself.

But right now, in this very moment, Jun Beiyue’s icy, freezing gaze instantly brought her back to full clarity — and in that same instant, she understood everything.

All of this, everything that had caught her so completely off guard, stripping away her usual composure — it hadn’t truly been that slap from the Gu Family’s wife. It had been her son.

Back at the foot of the mountain — no, to be precise, back in the sea, the moment he’d caught sight of Liuxian Island, Jun Beiyue had already made up his mind to scheme against her, to deal with her once and for all!

To drag her fox’s tail out into the open!

That was why he had led her here, step by step, and why he had turned a blind eye to everything that had just happened.

And now, right in front of the Gu Family Head, she had unleashed Gu family internal cultivation — power almost identical in depth to Jun Beiyue’s own. There was no way she could explain this away, not with a hundred excuses.

Meng Wanyue sank down onto the ground in defeat, staring fixedly at Jun Beiyue, murmuring inwardly to herself, “Son! Heh, my dear son — to think I would end up defeated, in the end, by your calm, unshakable composure!”

Nearby, the attendants rushed to help up the wife and Gu Meiting, and the physician behind the Gu Family Head, not daring to delay, hurried straight toward the fallen wife without a moment’s thought for the unconscious Baili Xiaosheng.

But upon getting a close look at her face, the physician staggered back several steps in fright, finally collapsing onto the ground.

Seeing the physician react like this, everyone present was startled — the only two whose expressions remained unchanged were the Gu Family Head and Jun Beiyue.

Even Ziqing and Baili Weisheng hadn’t picked up on it before, but the instant Meng Wanyue, hands immobilized, had unleashed that burst of Gu family internal power, both the Gu Family Head and Jun Beiyue had immediately understood the force behind it.

Meng Wanyue’s Gu family internal cultivation was on exactly the same level as Jun Beiyue’s — fully capable of converting vital energy and internal power into one another!

One had to understand — Gu family internal cultivation absolutely required the Gu family’s own physical constitution, and to reach a level like Jun Beiyue’s required extraordinarily powerful natural talent on top of that. And yet Meng Wanyue was a member of the Meng Clan, not the Gu family at all!

Where could she possibly have obtained a Gu family constitution, or Gu family talent?

She possessed Meng Clan barrier techniques, so there was no mistaking her identity as a member of the Meng Clan — she truly was Meng Wanyue.

So why, then, did she happen to possess internal cultivation identical to Jun Beiyue’s own, and why had she kept it hidden so well, so deeply?

What exactly was the reason behind all this?

Internal power at Jun Beiyue’s level, unleashed in a single burst of fury — the wife and Gu Meiting stood absolutely no chance against it.

Death, without question.

“Gu Family Head, my lady, she… she…”

Total silence throughout, save for the physician, trembling, stammering out broken, incomplete words.

Gu Jun stood there utterly stunned, staring fixedly at Meng Wanyue, unable to say a word for the longest time, while the attendants around them broke into a wave of shocked murmurs, moving on their own to surround Meng Wanyue.

Killing the lady of the house — this was an enormous matter. There was absolutely no way this woman would be allowed to leave.

Seeing the Gu Family Head frozen in shock, the physician hurried to check on Gu Meiting instead — but upon getting a closer look at her complexion, and checking for breath beneath her nose, his legs gave out entirely, and he couldn’t even manage to stand.

Something terrible had happened to the Gu family!

Both mother and daughter of the Gu household had perished!

Dead…

Though the whole scene had fallen into total silence, everything had spiraled entirely out of control. Only now did Ziqing and Baili Weisheng feel a chill of alarm, finally seeing the truth of the matter.

Meng Wanyue — she truly was no ordinary woman.

A single burst of internal power, and two people were dead — even Ziqing and Baili Weisheng themselves might not have been capable of such a feat!

Ziqing couldn’t help but feel a wave of retrospective fear. Keeping this woman close by was nothing short of keeping a ticking time bomb at their side.

And yet, even now, Jun Beiyue, the one truly orchestrating everything, still said nothing at all, watching coldly.

Suddenly, the Gu Family Head, as if driven mad, rushed forward and seized Meng Wanyue by the collar, roaring furiously, “You deceived me! Back then, you deceived me! You lied to me!”

The Gu Family Head had finally figured it out. Regardless of how Meng Wanyue had come to possess Gu family internal cultivation, at the very least, it proved one thing — back then, her meeting him hadn’t been mere chance, nor had it been love at first sight blossoming into deeper feeling by the second meeting. It had all been deliberate, on her part.

She had set her sights on Gu family internal cultivation from the very start, and had deliberately sought him out!

“Meng Wanyue, say something! Say something! Why! Why did you deceive me! Do you have any idea, these past twenty-some years, I’ve been searching for you the entire time! Do you have any idea how much unhappiness I caused between my wife, my children, and myself, all because of you!”

“Meng Wanyue, say something, say something!”

…

The Gu Family Head, as though driven to madness, kept yanking violently at Meng Wanyue’s collar, shoving and shaking her without pause.

Meng Wanyue, however, didn’t so much as glance at him, her gaze fixed instead on Ziqing.

She had lost, thoroughly and completely — lost to Jun Beiyue, and in a certain sense, lost to Han Ziqing.

This woman from the Lonely Isle hadn’t needed to do a single thing, and yet she had already won.

“Say something!”

The Gu Family Head roared like a madman. “You gave birth to Beiyue with an ulterior motive too, didn’t you!”

The moment he said this, Meng Wanyue’s gaze finally shifted to settle on Jun Beiyue’s face.

And Jun Beiyue was, at that very moment, walking toward her, step by step.

“You tampered with the Five Elements Barrier. You knew everything that happened around me. And you possess the very same Gu family internal cultivation that I spent my entire childhood painstakingly training in.”

Jun Beiyue looked down at her from above, his voice cold and distant, utterly forbidding.

If Meng Wanyue was a member of the Meng Clan, then the only possible way she could have obtained Gu family internal cultivation was through that Five Elements Barrier.

This mother of his had, in fact, never once truly left his side.

For as long as the Dagger of Flowing Light had been near him, she had been near him too; for as long as it had been near Ziqing, she had been near Ziqing as well!

But it hadn’t been companionship at all — it had been surveillance.

Knowing everything all along, and yet pretending to know nothing at all!

This woman wasn’t a mother at all. Giving birth to him had been nothing more than a means to an end!

Jun Beiyue’s words plunged the entire scene into stunned silence. Even Ziqing and Baili Weisheng were shaken, while Xiong Xiaobao’s face had turned deathly pale, gripping Ziqing’s hand tight in disbelief. How terrifying! What exactly had this woman ever seen his father as?!

In the silence, Meng Wanyue stared at Jun Beiyue, utterly unable to offer any explanation. Having unleashed genuine, undeniable Gu family internal cultivation right in front of Gu Jun himself, any excuse or pretext she might offer would be effortlessly shattered — there was no way she could talk her way out of this.

She looked at Jun Beiyue, opening her mouth, but had no idea what to say.

But then, at that very moment, Jun Beiyue suddenly roared with fury, “Say something!”

The entire scene flinched in shock, and Meng Wanyue, trembling with fear, finally managed to murmur, “Beiyue… it’s not what you think! Mother never had any intention of harming you at all. Mother only… Beiyue, the Five Elements Barrier was meant to protect you — Mother merely made use of it, that’s all. There was absolutely no intent to harm you!”

“Beiyue, listen to your mother explain, Mother truly…”

Before she could finish, Jun Beiyue cut her off coldly. “The Meng Clan’s ancestors established their sect on the Meng Realm islands three hundred years ago — not two hundred years ago. Did you truly think I know nothing at all about the Meng Clan?”