“How could that be?” Jun Beiyue asked, puzzled. Even as someone with no musical training, he could tell the melody just now had sounded very similar.
“Very similar, especially the sheng’s notes. But… the xiao doesn’t sound quite right,” Ziqing said flatly.
Jun Beiyue didn’t understand. She turned instead to look at Xiong Xiaobao and said quietly, “This was improvised, with no written score, so by rights it shouldn’t have any connection to Lishang’s climax. And yet the melody they played happens to resemble it so closely—there’s only one possible explanation…”
“The white jade flute and the phoenix-tail sheng…” Jun Beiyue immediately caught on.
Ziqing nodded seriously and was about to speak when Jun Beiyue continued, “Because the white jade flute is fake, the melody only resembles Lishang without actually being it—which is why the poison beast hasn’t appeared.”
Ziqing smiled. This outsider wasn’t so much of an outsider after all.
If she wasn’t mistaken, this final section of Lishang’s climax, though produced artificially by the sheng and xiao, could still be considered a kind of natural sound.
It appeared to be improvised, but it was in fact heavily constrained by the instruments themselves. If the white jade flute took the lead, the sheng’s notes would be constrained not only by the phoenix-tail sheng itself but also by the white jade flute, leaving very little room to choose the melody.
The same held true in reverse, if the phoenix-tail sheng took the lead instead.
The duet between the sheng and xiao was constrained both by the two instruments themselves and by the rules governing how such a duet had to be played.
In other words, no matter who played these two particular instruments together in improvisation, the resulting melody would come out largely the same.
“Ziqing, in my view, it’s unlikely to be because of the instruments. If it were, anyone who’d heard the duet before would have noticed something wrong with the white jade flute long ago,” Jue Mingzi said seriously.
If the instruments themselves constrained the melody of the duet, then regardless of who played them, every performance on these two instruments should produce an identical tune. How could no one have noticed the difference before?
“I’m certain of it,” Ziqing said firmly, turning to Jue Mingzi to explain. “The reason no one noticed is that the same musical piece, the same note in the same position, sounds different depending on whether it’s played on the sheng, the xiao, or both together. A single piece contains countless notes, and the possible combinations of how they’re played number in the thousands. Unless someone is deeply versed in music theory, they simply wouldn’t be able to tell.”
Ziqing’s explanation made everything click for Jue Mingzi, and he couldn’t help but admire his daughter’s ear for music.
He thought that in the whole world, only Ziqing and Xuanyuan Lige possessed such an ability.
He wondered where Xuanyuan Lige was right now.
Prompted by Ziqing’s words, Jue Mingzi made an effort to set aside the timbre and focus only on the melody itself—and sure enough, he began to hear the resemblance.
Except that what resembled the earlier melody was only the phoenix-tail sheng’s notes; the white jade flute’s part seemed to follow no coherent pattern at all.
“If I’m not mistaken, though the phoenix-tail sheng has thirteen pipes, only four are actually used—the same number as the four holes on the white jade flute,” Ziqing said calmly. Having reached this point, she finally allowed herself to relax her concentration and let out a soft breath.
She’d found it!
The final natural note was precisely the duet between the white jade flute and the phoenix-tail sheng—constrained by the instruments’ own limitations and by the rules of the duet itself, which together happened to shape out this particular melody.
Ziqing let out a sigh of relief, and beside her, both her husband and her father did the same. All three of them turned, as if by silent agreement, to look at the treasure in Sheng Zimo’s hands.
As for the white jade flute, they had no intention of giving it back—but this phoenix-tail sheng, they would have to borrow.
Now that they’d uncovered the final secret, nothing else about the Jade Water and Nectar Heavenly Lake mattered in the slightest anymore.
Jun Beiyue sat at ease, lifting his teacup, while Ziqing lounged languidly in her chair, watching Sheng Zimo play, her eyes rolling this way and that—no one needed to guess what she was thinking.
As for her precious son, his dark eyes were rolling about just as much. If Ziqing’s left hand hadn’t been pressing firmly on his sleeve the whole time, this little troublemaker would surely have lost patience long ago and exposed the head of the Xiao family’s scheme.
Every piece must end eventually. As the sheng and xiao once again neared their conclusion, the protests from below grew louder and louder, clearly all directed at Sheng Zimo.
Anyone with sense could see it plainly: the head of the Xiao family had the correct white jade flute, yet he intended to shift the blame for failing to summon the poison beast onto Sheng Zimo.
Time slipped away bit by bit, and gradually the melody grew fainter. This time, the head of the Xiao family, having prepared for it in advance, gave Sheng Zimo no chance to continue at all.
With one final low note from the jade flute, the duet finally came to an end.
The poison beast did not appear. The surface of the Heavenly Lake rippled only faintly from the wind—not a single wave.
It was over.
Sheng Zimo stood stunned on the high platform, utterly dumbfounded. The head of the Xiao family put on an innocent expression, but deliberately turned to look at the head of the Sheng family. “How could this have happened?”
“Sheng Zimo, get down from there! He’s not fit for this!”
“It must be that Sheng Zimo’s cultivation isn’t strong enough, and he’s dragged the head of the Xiao family down with him! Get him down!”
…
Below the platform, wave after wave of protest broke out.
Had there been no result at all, perhaps someone would have spoken up for Sheng Zimo. But now that the poison beast had failed to appear, it meant the beast itself had rejected the summoning melody.
If even the noble poison beast rejected the summoning tune, who else would dare vouch for it?
Just as the head of the Xiao family had calculated, no one suspected him, and no one suspected the white jade flute in his hands. Sheng Zimo was destined to be the scapegoat.
Amid the swirling accusations, the head of the Sheng family stood dumbfounded as well, utterly unable to believe the fault could lie with Sheng Zimo.
He had trained this child with his own hands. Others might not know it, but he understood perfectly well that the boy’s cultivation had long since surpassed his own.
If the fault truly lay with Sheng Zimo, then even if he himself had performed the duet today, the poison beast still wouldn’t have been summoned.
The head of the Sheng family’s mind went blank. He had no idea how to respond, and couldn’t think of any other explanation.
Up on the platform, Prince Nanzhao, the head of the Medicine Clan, and the old Beast Clan elder were conferring in low voices, while Xiong Xiaobao, unable to hold back any longer, muttered, “Mommy, that old man from the Xiao family is far too vicious!”
Ziqing, brow furrowed, was about to speak when, at that very moment, Sheng Zimo—ignoring the crowd’s condemnation and rejection entirely—suddenly raised the phoenix-tail sheng and began to play once more.
And this time, he wasn’t facing the head of the Xiao family at all, but standing alone, facing the Jade Water and Nectar Heavenly Lake directly.
The sound of the sheng rose, mournful and desolate, yet within its restless unease there was a power that could still a troubled heart.
Before long, many were once again drawn in by the sound.
Without the duet, it was no longer the melody of Lishang—and yet the mood remained exactly the same. Without another instrument to blend with, the tone came through even more clearly. So this was the true sound of the phoenix-tail sheng.
What was Sheng Zimo trying to do?
Everyone grew uneasy, yet no one dared to interrupt him.
“That sound… I’ve heard it before.”
Suddenly, Baili Xiaosheng, who had been silent all this while, murmured to herself.
“What is it?” Xiong Xiaobao asked, puzzled.
Just then, a sudden rumbling roar erupted from within the Heavenly Lake—a sound like an arrow shooting up from the lake’s depths. As the sound drew closer, the entire surface of the lake began to churn…