Just how powerful that purple light truly was, even Meng Duo’er couldn’t say. She stared blankly at the sheet of purple radiance before her, knowing only that no matter how strong it was, Baili Weisheng was in tremendous danger.
Meng Duo’er had simply lived through too little, was still far too inexperienced. She had no idea what to do, her mind a complete blank, unable to gather her wits for a long moment.
But even once she did regain her senses, what good would it do? Everything had already been settled in that single instant — there was nothing left for her to change.
She stood there stupidly, until a warm, wet sensation crept up from beneath her feet, as though something had soaked into her shoes.
Only then did Meng Duo’er snap back to awareness. She looked down and very nearly screamed aloud.
Blood!
It was blood!
Blood covered the ground, spreading out in every direction from beneath the purple light, seeping all the way to her own feet.
Spreading in great sheets, it would hardly be an exaggeration to call it a river of blood.
Where had so much blood come from — how could anyone lose so much blood?
The terrible end that awaited both the Five Elements body and the one who drained its power — what exactly did that terrible end look like?
A chill shot straight up Meng Duo’er’s spine to the back of her skull, and she felt her hair stand on end.
“You insufferable scholar… insufferable scholar… insufferable scholar!”
She suddenly cried out, and without a second thought, rushed straight into the purple light. “Where are you, you insufferable scholar!”
But it was no use — she couldn’t force her way in. The purple light’s power was simply too great for her to withstand.
Every time she rushed forward, she was flung back hard. After several such attempts, Meng Duo’er grew frantic, half-mad with panic, throwing herself forward again with all her strength.
She knew that the purple light would eventually fade away on its own — but she couldn’t bear to wait.
Inside the cave, the smell of blood grew thicker and thicker, filling the air with a terrifying atmosphere.
Meanwhile, atop Yuqiong Mountain, all was still lively excitement, the crowd utterly captivated by the dazzling contest of beast arts, cheers and murmured discussions rising and falling one after another.
This was more than just a competitive contest — it was a grand concert as well, a feast for both eye and ear alike.
The contest was divided into two arenas, left and right. Among the three most powerful families — Gumo, Xiao, and Sheng — the Sheng Family had drawn the right arena, while the Gumo and Xiao families both found themselves in the left.
Without having to face the formidable Gumo Family as a rival, Sheng Zimo, representing the Sheng Family, won match after match with increasing ease, all the while playing the Phoenix Tail Sheng with such dreamlike mastery that his artistry reached a truly transcendent level.
By now, Sheng Zimo had already taken his place on the final stage, resting with his eyes closed as he awaited whichever victor emerged from the left arena to challenge him.
If one regarded this gathering purely as a concert, then without question it offered brilliant moments worth watching from beginning to end.
But if one regarded it as a competition, then there were really only two moments that truly mattered: the final match, and the contest in the left arena between the Gumo and Xiao families. Yet the left arena had, for a long while now, seen no representative from the Xiao Family appear at all.
Everyone had assumed the Xiao Family was saving its best performance for last. But wait as they might, even after Gumo Baochuan, the direct heir of the Gumo Family, had eliminated every other competitor and stood waiting for the Xiao Family, still there was no sign of them at all.
The contest followed an elimination format, and once the Gumo Family had defeated whatever opponent they’d drawn by lot, they simply sat waiting for the Xiao Family to appear.
Only six families remained in the arena, paired off two by two, with winners advancing to face each other. Two of these pairs, four families in all, were already close to deciding their outcomes — and yet, frustratingly, no one from the Xiao Family had shown their face.
Meanwhile, the murmurs among the surrounding spectators and the already-eliminated families grew louder and louder.
“The Xiao Family — are they really planning to save it for the finale?” Even the Prince of Nanzhao couldn’t keep his composure, asking in a low voice.
“Your Highness, I just saw the Xiao patriarch leave in a great hurry. If I may be so bold, I suspect something has gone wrong,” a servant answered quietly.
“Something’s gone wrong? What could possibly be more important than this? Who did the Xiao Family assign to compete?” the Prince of Nanzhao pressed further.
Just as the show had reached its most thrilling point, being interrupted like this was thoroughly deflating.
“The name submitted was the Xiao Family’s youngest young master, Xiao Yu,” the servant reported.
“Xiao Yu? A boy of thirteen or fourteen — what could he possibly accomplish? Don’t tell me he’s gotten cold feet halfway through?”
The Prince of Nanzhao seemed to hold little regard for that young master of the Xiao Family. The servant, unable to say for certain, could only withdraw to go ask the Xiao household directly.
The match had a strict time limit — once it passed, failing to appear would count as forfeit.
Once the guard had withdrawn, Xiong Xiaobao, who had kept his head lowered the whole time, finally lifted it cautiously.
He glanced over at his father, whose expression was stern and distant as he watched Sheng Zimo. He glanced at his mother next, her face utterly serious, fingers resting on the railing, tapping absently now and then as though searching for some rhythm. He looked at Baili Xiaosheng too, who seemed lost in thought about something, her eyes unfocused, her mind wandering elsewhere. He pressed his lips together, and finally cast a glance at Grandfather Jue Mingzi, who hadn’t noticed him at all either. With that, he settled back with an easy conscience, kept the Xiao Family’s precious white jade flute tucked safely in his sleeve, and went back to watching the contest.
Back on the road to the Meng Clan, when they’d run into the Xiao Family siblings, Xiao Xue and Xiao Yu, blocking their path, his mother had taught him this: a person must learn to keep their composure.
Xiong Xiaobao decided he would hold that composure all the way down, silently, to the very end.
With the matches between the Sheng and Gumo families now finished, the once-electric atmosphere of the gathering gradually began to settle. The Prince of Nanzhao invited Jun Beiyue to retire to the pavilion within to rest.
Meanwhile, the servant who had been sent out was nowhere able to find the Xiao patriarch.
The Xiao patriarch had, in fact, left the contest grounds long ago, and was at that very moment venting his fury in his private chamber within the pavilion.
Every object in the room lay shattered, the whole place in utter disarray. The young master Xiao Yu and the seventh young lady Xiao Xue both stood rigidly against the wall, arms hanging stiffly at their sides, neither daring to lift their heads before their furious father. Where now was that arrogant, domineering air they usually carried?
“Look me in the eye! Do you hear me!” the Xiao patriarch roared.
Only then did the two siblings lift their heads together — but the instant their eyes met their father’s bloodshot gaze, they lowered them again at once, not daring to look.
“You two—!” the Xiao patriarch snapped, furious, raising his hand sharply to strike. Though he’d meant to slap his son, at the very last moment his hand swung instead toward his daughter, striking her hard.
With a sharp crack, the blow sent his daughter reeling. “Are you going to tell me the truth or not! Where is it!”
Struck like that, Xiao Xue finally broke down sobbing uncontrollably — and her crying set off her younger brother Xiao Yu as well.
“Still crying! How dare you still cry!” The Xiao patriarch was so furious he nearly coughed up blood. He had always been immensely proud of his younger son’s talent — the boy had been able to command the white jade flute from birth, almost entirely self-taught.
Such extraordinary musical talent had, despite his young age, secured the boy a position of real weight within the Xiao Family, one that qualified him to represent the family in this contest.
But it was only moments before the match was set to begin that this wretched boy had told him the white jade flute was lost.
Xiao Yu had always been permitted to access the white jade flute whenever he wished, but he was absolutely forbidden from ever taking it outside the Xiao household.
And now, of all things, the boy was telling him it had been lost.
“You took the white jade flute outside, didn’t you! And that sea serpent disturbance out on Meng Clan Island last time — that’s connected to this too, isn’t it!” The Xiao patriarch’s fury boiled over completely. Without the white jade flute, how could they possibly compete? Were they really going to forfeit, at a moment as critical as this?
And what’s more, the white jade flute concerned not only the fate of the Xiao Family, but the venomous beasts within the Jade Water Nectar Lake as well.
…