At this moment, the entire icy surface of the Jade Water and Nectar Heavenly Lake was melting. To anyone unaware of how salt could melt ice, everything happening before their eyes would seem utterly miraculous.
But to Ziqing, none of it was strange at all.
She watched in silence, lost in thought, until—
“Whooo…”
The sound of the flute rose!
“Whooo… hiss…”
As the flute began, the sheng joined in—the joint performance had begun.
The two instruments blended together with remarkable skill, without the slightest sense of clash, so naturally intertwined.
If one didn’t know the sound of the xiao or the sheng, one might mistake it at first for some other single instrument, never guessing it was a duet.
“Whooo… whooo…”
“Hiss… hiss hiss…”
The two sounds, sharing one rhythm yet different in timbre, carried the same mood—lofty and desolate, tinged with a bleak emptiness.
Especially as the crowd gradually fell silent under the spell of the duet, the more silent it became, the more the sorrow of the piece stood out.
Yes.
This was no lively ceremonial music—it was a mournful melody.
Amid the sheng and xiao, many faces showed grief, but Ziqing had gone rigid.
This… wasn’t this exactly the final section of Lishang’s climax?
How could this be?
She gripped Jun Beiyue’s hand tightly, both startled and elated, forcing herself not to think too much yet—she needed to listen carefully first, to find the missing note.
As far as she knew, this duet had no written score; it was entirely improvised.
For a master musician, improvisation alone was nothing remarkable. But an improvised duet was another matter entirely.
At least one player had to yield to the other’s lead.
One was creating on the spot, while the other had to play along and adjust at the same time, or the whole thing would fall apart.
Ziqing could tell that in this duet, the head of the Xiao family held the lead, while Sheng Zimo was on the defensive, constantly chasing after him.
At several points the head of the Xiao family deliberately shifted key to make things difficult, yet Sheng Zimo, no one to be underestimated, caught up with precision each time.
As she listened, by all rights Ziqing should have found it easy to pick out the missing note from natural sound alone—this kind of instrumental melody had a far clearer structure than natural sound, and should have posed no difficulty for her at all.
And yet, the longer she listened, the less at ease she felt. Her brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
Anyone who had heard the climax of Lishang before couldn’t say for certain whether this tune was truly part of it, but they could tell it bore an extremely close resemblance.
Seeing Ziqing’s expression, Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed too. Not understanding the reason, he dared not interrupt her.
Xiong Xiaobao and Jue Mingzi listened attentively as well. No one noticed that something was quite wrong with Baili Xiaosheng beside them.
She seemed utterly captivated by Sheng Zimo, as if her very soul had been drawn out of her, staring at him in a daze.
The sound of the sheng and xiao filled the entire mountaintop. Unlike Ziqing and the others, most of the people present were there for the poison beast.
A good while had passed, yet there was still no sign of movement in the Heavenly Lake’s water.
Up on the platform, a dark malice lurked in the eyes of the head of the Xiao family, as though he regarded this duet purely as a contest, with no concern at all for whether the lake below stirred.
Sheng Zimo was different. Even as he struggled to respond to the other man’s deliberate challenges, he kept watching the lake’s surface.
At first he had been brimming with confidence, but as so much time passed, he too began to grow uneasy.
By rights, the water should have shown some sign by now.
He hadn’t missed a single note in matching the head of the Xiao family’s rhythm—it would be more accurate to say he himself had composed this piece, rather than merely accompanying it.
The head of the Xiao family was improvising freely, while Sheng Zimo had to follow along, constantly making adjustments, even using his own melodic choices to rein in the other man’s playing.
Sheng Zimo was confident in his own ability. So why hadn’t the poison beast appeared yet?
At last, amid Sheng Zimo’s mounting worry, murmurs began to spread around the Heavenly Lake, and gradually, up on the platform, even Prince Nanzhao grew puzzled.
“This is taking rather a long time,” Prince Nanzhao murmured.
Seated nearby, the old Beast Clan elder, who had said nothing until now, finally spoke. “Could it be that Sheng Zimo…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone understood his meaning.
At that moment, the head of the Sheng family stood off to the side, brow tightly knit as he watched Sheng Zimo, saying nothing.
There had been no mistake in this duet—there was no reason for the poison beast not to appear.
He didn’t know the cause either. All he could do was wait.
And by now, the piece was clearly drawing toward its close.
The murmuring lasted only a moment before, as the piece neared its end and the lake’s surface remained undisturbed, everyone grew tense together.
Could the summoning be about to fail?
The entire piece ran only about forty-five minutes, and the remaining fifteen minutes passed swiftly.
The closing of the piece had to be led by the head of the Xiao family, since he held the dominant role. Gradually the sheng and xiao grew softer, the piece nearing its end.
At this point, everyone’s attention fixed on the surface of the Heavenly Lake, their hearts hanging in their throats.
The piece was ending, and the lake remained just as calm—it seemed everything was about to be settled.
This duet had failed.
“Whooo…” The head of the Xiao family slowly brought the piece to a close.
But unexpectedly, this time Sheng Zimo did not follow along. Instead, right as the other man’s final note faded, he suddenly raised his pitch. “Hiss…”
Everyone looked up in shock. What was Sheng Zimo doing?
This sudden shift in key, though unexpected, wasn’t jarring—it forced the head of the Xiao family to abandon his closing note and follow Sheng Zimo’s lead instead.
What was Sheng Zimo trying to do?
After the initial shock, a wave of murmuring broke out at once.
“Clearly Sheng Zimo’s cultivation isn’t strong enough to summon the poison beast! What does he think he’s doing now?”
“Good for Sheng Zimo! Turning the tables like that—the head of the Xiao family has no business as an elder making things this hard for a junior!”
“If he can’t summon the poison beast, there’s no way the Sheng family can hold onto the position!”
…
All at once, opinions and voices of every kind erupted. Standing on the high platform, all they could hear was chaos and clamor rising from below.
The head of the Xiao family hadn’t expected Sheng Zimo to possess such refined skill, nor had he expected such nerve from him. For a moment he didn’t know what to do and could only keep playing along.
Still, no matter what happened, he wasn’t afraid.
Even if the head of the Sheng family himself stood here playing with him today, no poison beast would ever be summoned—because the white jade flute was a fake!
“Could it be something to do with the white jade flute!”
At that moment, Ziqing murmured softly to herself, her voice so low that even Jun Beiyue couldn’t quite make it out.
She had been gripping Jun Beiyue’s hand tightly; now she slowly let go.
“What is it?” Jun Beiyue finally dared to ask.
But Ziqing’s answer was completely unexpected. She said, “It’s not Lishang.”
Not Lishang!
Jun Beiyue was startled. How could that be, when the melody was so similar?
Calling it a coincidence seemed unlikely.
Ziqing kept listening intently, but she was certain—this was absolutely not Lishang…