Should this be called a successful declaration of war, or a successful clearing of the truth? Either way, there was still one more objective to this trip: rescuing the Meng Clan.
Letting Prince Nanzhao go off to prepare for battle didn’t worry Ziqing and Jun Beiyue in the slightest.
The couple stood back to back, alert to everything around them.
The moment Prince Nanzhao left, the Jiaoren’s scaled warriors, the Medicine Clan’s poisons, and the Beast Clan’s fierce beasts closed in, surrounding them completely.
“Don’t waste time fighting—search the temple,” Jun Beiyue said quietly. The temple wasn’t especially large; even searching floor by floor from the bottom up, they had to find the Meng Clan’s people.
“Mm,” Ziqing replied just as quietly. Compared to the combined strength of the three great clan heads, their own strength was truly outmatched.
But they hadn’t come here to fight the three clans head-on in the first place. Avoiding direct combat with the three clans while they searched was well within their ability.
The couple fought back to back, dodging as they moved toward the temple’s second floor.
“Prince Yao, Consort Yao, now that you’ve come today, don’t think you’ll be leaving, let alone taking the Meng Clan with you! Let me tell you—this entire temple has long since been surrounded,” the Medicine Clan head kindly warned.
“Head of the Medicine Clan, worry about actually catching us first,” Jun Beiyue said coldly—as if they needed such a warning.
The Medicine Clan head’s eyes darkened, and with a light flick of his fingers, several strands of invisible, colorless poison shot out, all aimed straight at Jun Beiyue.
Ziqing spun around to block in front of Jun Beiyue, taking several doses of poison head-on without flinching, saying coldly, “If you have real skill, come at me instead.” The Medicine Clan head wasn’t so foolish—he immediately switched positions with the Jiaoren clan head, who charged straight at Ziqing in his full scaled armor, while the Medicine Clan head launched another attack at Jun Beiyue.
Meanwhile, the Beast Clan head, positioned at the outer edge, wasn’t idle either. Even though he had ties of friendship with Ziqing and the others, he showed no mercy in his attacks.
Just as Ziqing and Jun Beiyue, the Medicine Clan head and the Jiaoren clan head, were locked in fierce combat—one defending, the other attacking—countless vultures suddenly poured in through the temple’s surrounding windows.
Fierce and vicious, their claws and beaks sharp as blades, they flooded in one after another, no one could tell how many there were, and soon the entire temple was thick with them.
Everyone inside the temple was surrounded, and finally, all that could be seen was a dense black mass of vulture wings, all that could be heard was the constant beating of those wings.
No one could tell what kind of brutal battle was unfolding beneath that cloud of black feathers.
Many of the vultures that flew back out had blood coating their sharp claws and beaks.
The Beast Clan head stood at the outer edge, watching in silence, his cloudy eyes showing neither cruelty nor pity, but a faint trace of helpless resignation.
Baili Xiaosheng had known when he led the combined forces of the Sheng family and Beast Clan toward the temple.
That girl had even tried to flee with the phoenix-tail sheng in hand, fortunately caught in the act by his wife!
Left with no choice, he’d had to lock her up—the only way he could repay their kindness was to keep Baili Xiaosheng out of this war entirely.
Just as Elder Sheng’s mind wandered, he suddenly heard the Jiaoren clan head cry out in alarm, and immediately, the entire flock of vultures scattered apart all at once, as if startled by something.
Elder Sheng was shocked. He was the one summoning the vultures here—yet they seemed panicked and unsettled, refusing to press forward.
And soon, another layer of vultures suddenly retreated into the air, scattering apart.
What was going on?
Elder Sheng immediately began playing his sheng—he couldn’t command the phoenix-tail sheng, but an ordinary sheng he could still control, and these vultures should have been no different.
But to his shock, the scattered vultures didn’t press forward at all. Instead, the vultures that had originally surrounded Ziqing and Jun Beiyue kept scattering further and further, and quite a few even fell dead to the ground.
Elder Sheng’s face showed pure shock, and very soon, every last vulture had scattered.
All that remained on the ground was… utter carnage.
The Medicine Clan head was pinned by Ziqing’s grip locked tight around his throat, clearly poisoned, while the Jiaoren clan head was covered head to toe in blood, restrained by the shimmering, iridescent dagger in Jun Beiyue’s hand.
Of course, Jun Beiyue hadn’t come through unscathed either—his black robes were torn to shreds by claws and beaks, covered in wounds.
Only Ziqing remained completely unharmed, without so much as a single scratch.
It was this man who had protected her—otherwise, how could she possibly have escaped without a single wound amid such a dense swarm of vultures’ claws and beaks?
“Elder Sheng, look what you’ve done!” the Medicine Clan head roared furiously.
The Jiaoren clan head had never expected Jun Beiyue to be wearing black Jiaoren scale armor, and the Medicine Clan head had never anticipated that Han Ziqing was not only immune to all poisons but also a master of poison herself.
Yet just as they realized these two facts and tried to retreat, the vultures had already surrounded them, blocking their escape.
The moment Han Ziqing used poison, the vultures had started scattering.
Never would they have guessed that even combining the strength of all three of them, they still couldn’t subdue this couple.
The Beast Clan head hadn’t anticipated this either, and seeing his two companions subdued, he had no idea what to do.
In truth, it wasn’t that they were incapable of dealing with Han Ziqing and Jun Beiyue—it was that they had been far too careless, far too underestimated their opponents. They had miscalculated badly.
Now that Ziqing and Jun Beiyue had captured the Medicine Clan head and the Jiaoren clan head, they had no intention of letting go easily.
The Medicine Clan head was deeply skilled in poison research, but Ziqing was confident that the poison she’d used, there was no way the Medicine Clan head could undo.
To capture the bandits, first capture their leader—with Prince Nanzhao gone, these three clan heads were naturally now their targets.
They had the Beast Clan head to thank for this excellent opportunity.
Jun Beiyue seized the Jiaoren clan head and stood up, his entire body covered in wounds and bloodstains, yet completely unbothered.
Ziqing pulled the Medicine Clan head up as well, and seeing the wounds on Jun Beiyue’s body, her heart ached so much it felt like it might shatter. Even though it was Elder Sheng standing there, she said angrily, “Elder Sheng, this debt between us and your Beast Clan is far from settled.”
Jun Beiyue had never needed anyone to stand up for him, but nothing pleased him more than hearing this woman do exactly that.
He’d been about to speak, but now he held back, secretly delighted, choosing silence instead.
Sometimes a man had to stand in front of a woman, shielding her from everything. And sometimes, a man had to stand behind a woman, staying silent for her sake.
Ziqing glanced at Jun Beiyue, and seeing him smiling despite being covered in wounds, she couldn’t help but feel a flash of irritation, dragging the Medicine Clan head forward with a firm grip.
The sudden advance caught Elder Sheng completely off guard, and he instinctively stepped back.
“Elder Sheng, release the Meng Clan’s people, and withdraw every soldier stationed outside—otherwise, every single wound on my husband’s body, I will make the Medicine Clan head pay back, one for one.”
The moment Ziqing said this, the Medicine Clan head, already weakened from the poison, nearly buckled at the knees. Han Ziqing was settling her score with the Beast Clan by taking it out on him instead?
Elder Sheng hesitated. Whether or not to release the Meng Clan wasn’t his call to make, and whether the three clans’ forces outside withdrew or not was even less within his authority.
Yet just as he hesitated, Jun Beiyue spoke up—even now, this man could still manage to smile, teasing, “Elder Sheng, wounding this king means nothing, but angering my woman—this king wouldn’t mind returning every one of these wounds, blade for blade, to the Jiaoren clan head.”
As Jun Beiyue spoke, before the Jiaoren clan head or Elder Sheng could even react, he plunged his blade savagely into the Jiaoren clan head’s shoulder.
“Ahh…!”
The Jiaoren clan head cried out in shock—he had no idea what kind of dagger Jun Beiyue wielded that could pierce straight through his scale armor.
All he knew was that a single stab like that was pain no ordinary person could possibly endure.
Elder Sheng stood in shock, and the Medicine Clan head, seeing blood pouring endlessly from the Jiaoren clan head’s shoulder, was frightened out of his wits.
Jun Beiyue had never been fond of verbal warnings—he preferred direct action instead. No sooner had one blade fallen than another followed.
“Aah… Elder Sheng, release them! Release them now!” the Jiaoren clan head cried out.