In the great contest of beast arts, Ziqing recognized every single instrument the Beast Clan wielded, and understood the principles behind each one.

Still, she hadn’t expected that the Beast Clan could coax such astonishing sounds even from something as ordinary as a leap into the air combined with their playing.

Listening on and on, Ziqing found herself drawn in despite herself. Yet as match after match went by, for all her admiration, she gained nothing of real use.

By now she had listened through at least ten matches, some long, some short, but so far not a single passage of sound bore any connection to the melody of the Lishang’s climax.

Just then, a burst of cheering rose up from the contest grounds.

It turned out someone from the Sheng Family had stepped forward. Xiong Xiaobao, forgetting he’d been chatting with his mother, craned his neck urgently to look.

The one who had come forward to answer the challenge for the Sheng Family was none other than the young man they’d met at the docks — Sheng Zimo!

This time, though, the reed pipe in his hands wasn’t the one he’d carried before, but a fiery red one.

Seen from a distance, its shape resembled a phoenix’s tail, lifelike and striking, noble and beautiful.

The pairings for each round were decided by drawing lots. Though the Sheng Family hadn’t been matched against the Xiao Family right away, they’d instead faced several smaller families first.

But under the rules of the contest, each family could send out only one representative and use only a single instrument, and every family that took the stage brought out its most prized heirloom — the Sheng Family was no exception.

This fiery red reed pipe, known as the Phoenix Tail Sheng, was the Sheng Family’s most treasured heirloom, and the moment it appeared, it immediately drew the attention of the entire gathering.

Xiong Xiaobao watched intently, his hand tightening around the white jade flute hidden in his sleeve. And almost at the same moment, Ziqing, Jue Mingzi, and Baili Xiaosheng all turned to look at him together — even Jun Beiyue turned his head to look over.

They had all finally remembered — the Xiao Family’s treasured heirloom was in Xiong Xiaobao’s hands.

What, then, would the Xiao Family use to compete?

“Don’t tell me I have to give it back?” Xiong Xiaobao’s voice dropped very, very low.

Whether or not Ziqing and the others actually heard him, they all shot him one meaningful glance before turning away again, pretending to know nothing at all.

Xiong Xiaobao had already thought this through a long time ago. After much deliberation, he decided to keep a tight grip on the white jade flute and simply keep watching the show.

With the Sheng Family entering the contest, a wave of excitement swept over the Heavenly Lake of Jade Water Nectar, human voices and beast cries rising and falling in turn — the Sheng Family’s performance was of the highest caliber.

And yet, halfway up the mountain, within a small, unremarkable cave, a contest of an entirely different kind was unfolding — one that, in intensity, rivaled the grand battlefield atop the summit.

Meng Wanyue and Baili Weisheng remained locked in their standoff. As Meng Wanyue’s gaze kept sweeping appraisingly over his body, the flicker of panic in Baili Weisheng’s heart grew harder and harder to suppress.

He knew exactly what Meng Wanyue was searching for, and he knew exactly how dangerous it would be if she found it.

Off to the side, Xuanyuan Lige, trapped within the barrier, had long since been utterly forgotten. No one noticed that behind the anger in his eyes lay a hidden trace of unwavering resolve.

What exactly was he holding onto so stubbornly?

Meng Duo’er, meanwhile, was utterly exhausted. Her martial skill, set against Meng Wanyue’s, didn’t even deserve to be called “martial skill” at all. Her sealing arts could hold Meng Wanyue back by perhaps thirty percent at most — trapping her outright with a seal was nothing short of a fantasy.

In this situation, she had no idea what more she could do. Utterly spent, she simply stood there, wanting to draw closer but unable to manage it.

She was puzzled too — why was Meng Wanyue drawing this standoff out at all? What was she searching for?

But just then, Baili Weisheng’s gaze suddenly shifted away from Meng Wanyue’s face.

Even now, at a moment like this, he could still manage a smile. He smiled as he turned to look at Meng Duo’er, his dark, clear eyes holding nothing but a playful, carefree glint.

Meng Duo’er’s heart skipped slightly, puzzled — she suddenly felt that this smile of his carried some deeper meaning.

Could it be that he was trying to tell her something?

She and Baili Weisheng — it was already an achievement they hadn’t become outright enemies. Given the relationship between them, expecting her to share some unspoken understanding with him, to read his gaze at a single glance — how could that possibly happen?

Meng Duo’er knew Baili Weisheng had something to tell her, and something very important at that — but she couldn’t guess what.

She stared straight at Baili Weisheng, the first time she’d ever looked so directly into his eyes — her heart steady, her face not even flushing, though she herself hadn’t noticed either fact.

As she kept looking, somehow, though there was plainly laughter in Baili Weisheng’s eyes, what she saw was sorrow.

It wasn’t heavy, only faint — and yet it was precisely that faint sorrow, that look of grief hidden beneath a smile, which made Meng Duo’er’s heart suddenly clench, aching so terribly.

A thought surfaced in her mind unbidden: this insufferable scholar seemed to be saying goodbye to her.

What did he mean by that!

Goodbye?

“No…”

Meng Duo’er cried out silently in her heart — how could Baili Weisheng possibly die!

Even if everyone else in the world died of old age, surely he wouldn’t die too!

What did it mean, to say goodbye!

Meng Duo’er couldn’t help but take a step back — she understood now, she finally understood!

She finally understood exactly what Meng Wanyue had been searching for all along.

Baili Weisheng should have died long ago — it was the Golden Scale Phantom that had saved him.

Long ago, it had been the Meng clan chief who used sealing arts to seal his physical body, triggering the manifestation of his Golden Scale Phantom.

Once the sealing power within him was broken, the Golden Scale Phantom would no longer be able to manifest, and could no longer protect him.

So in truth, Meng Wanyue could kill him after all.

Just then, Meng Wanyue suddenly let out a sinister laugh. “Baili Weisheng, this time, I really won’t be playing along with you anymore.”

With those words, her sword fell away, and from her hands, raised into the air, purple light immediately began to stream forth.

“Don’t!”

Meng Duo’er cried out in alarm, throwing herself forward without a second thought — and almost at the same instant, a rustling sound erupted from every direction throughout the cave.

On the stone walls, across the floor, even overhead — in an instant, countless tiny black insects surged into view everywhere, a black so unnatural that anyone could tell at a single glance these had to be venomous insects.

Each one no bigger than an ant, but their numbers far exceeded even a whole ant colony.

Baili Weisheng, after all, was no mere merfolk — he was also the most mysterious and most masterful practitioner of poison arts within the Medicine Clan, the Elder of Duku.

He had kept his venomous creatures hidden until the very last moment, saving them for precisely the critical strike. He meant to leave Meng Wanyue no spare strength to summon a barrier against the venomous insects and protect herself.

All of this happened in a single instant.

In that instant, Meng Duo’er threw herself forward, using her own body to block Meng Wanyue.

In that instant, the venomous insects surged toward Meng Wanyue like a raging flood.

In that instant, Meng Wanyue had already summoned the flowing light that would break the clan chief’s seal, and there was no calling it back now.

In that instant, Baili Weisheng had, in truth, already made his peace with sacrificing himself — trading his life for this one instant of time. He was certain his venomous insects would strip Meng Wanyue down to nothing but bone.

Dealing with this old hag required cunning — without it, both he and Meng Duo’er would die.

He had calculated everything perfectly — so why in the world had that fool Meng Duo’er thrown herself forward like that?

The purple light was sinking straight toward his chest — once the clan chief’s seal broke, not even the highest of immortals could save him.

And yet in that very instant, he was still smiling — just as he had the first time he’d met Ziqing, a gentle, refined smile, pure as a lotus.

Not dying had once been the thing that troubled him most. Now, with death right before him, he suddenly found himself reluctant to let go — he hadn’t yet brought little Qingqing home.

Even now, he still hadn’t figured out why he’d been so stubbornly set on bringing her home. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand it — it was that he’d never let himself think about it at all.

There would be no chance now. No chance left to ever understand it.

The purple light drew ever closer to his chest. Meng Duo’er, having fallen beside Meng Wanyue, reached out to grab her hands, but it did no good at all. At the same time, the black insects all around were on the verge of crawling up onto Meng Wanyue’s body.

Everything was about to reach its end.

But then, at that very moment, Meng Wanyue suddenly let out a fierce shout, her hands twisting into a lotus-seal formation, and forcibly redirected the purple light she’d unleashed — sending it slamming instead into Xuanyuan Lige beside her.

And at the very same moment, something utterly unbelievable happened.