The King of Nanzhao sat stunned, and the entire camp fell silent along with him.
The peace talks weren’t the focus of the day—the secret of the lonely island was what Jun Beiyue and Ziqing were truly after.
“King of Nanzhao, everyone is here now. You may begin.” Ziqing’s tone carried a certain gravity, commanding without needing to raise her voice.
At once, everyone present dropped the earlier levity and turned serious. Jue Mingzi glanced at Ziqing, a complicated look flashing through his eyes—after all these years, this secret was finally about to be revealed. He swore to himself that once they found the lonely island, he would bring Muci’s ashes there to be laid to rest.
Xiong Xiaobao sat down beside Baili Weisheng, gripping his hand tightly. Baili Weisheng tried to shake him off, but seeing the boy’s dark, earnest eyes, something stirred in him unexpectedly, and instead he gripped the small hand back.
Baili Weisheng had forgotten, but no one else in the room had forgotten what Ziqing and Jun Beiyue had sacrificed for this secret, what everyone else had given up as well.
Jun Beiyue gently took Ziqing’s hand too, his grip light, but strong enough to lend her strength, to help her stay calm.
Ziqing thought, if only Ali were here too, how wonderful that would be.
A faint trace of sorrow flickered across her lips. She said nothing, only looked toward the King of Nanzhao.
The atmosphere left even the King of Nanzhao tense. Setting aside all the unpleasantness from before, he let out a breath and finally began. “The lonely island, then…”
At those words, everyone unconsciously held their breath, even Jun Beiyue growing tense.
“The matter of the lonely island began with the Great Gu Master of the lonely island. The lonely island’s people practiced the art of raising poisonous Gu—by lineage, they were something of an offshoot of the Poison Clan. The islanders lived far off on a small island beyond the mainland, keeping out of worldly affairs, but their Gu-raising skills earned them the favor of Nanzhao’s king at the time, and gradually, Gu masters began settling on Nanzhao’s mainland as well. Later, the Great Gu Master discovered a place of great potential at Mingsha Mountain in Xijing, called the Poisonous Beast World, and requested that the Dream Clan lay down a barrier around it.”
At this point, Yelu Qianqian, overcome with emotion, tried to speak, but Situ Haonan held her back.
The King of Nanzhao continued, “The Poisonous Beast World was an exceptional place for raising poisonous beasts. Natural poisonous beasts were rare indeed in Nanzhao—even the Beast Clan couldn’t find them. At first, the royal family assumed the Great Gu Master was raising poisonous beasts purely for the purpose of raising Gu, but then, one day, the royal family stumbled upon, by chance, the Great Gu Master’s secret—that he was cultivating human Gu as well…”
At this, the King of Nanzhao paused. Ziqing and Jun Beiyue exchanged a glance but said nothing.
Everything the King of Nanzhao was describing, they had already suspected—Meng Wanyue had said as much too. It seemed their suspicions had been correct all along!
“What exactly human Gu is, I imagine everyone present understands well enough. The Nanzhao royal family, out of…” the King of Nanzhao paused again, sighing several times before continuing, “Indeed, human Gu posed a direct threat to the Nanzhao royal family’s rule—in other words, the lonely island’s people directly threatened the royal family’s authority. The royal family, rather than seeking a way to counter the human Gu physique, chose instead to silence the threat by eliminating it entirely. That year, the royal family slaughtered every Gu master of the lonely island across the entire continent of Longyuan, including the Great Gu Master himself. What’s more, they demanded that the Dream Clan destroy every entrance to the Poisonous Beast World, leaving only a single barrier entrance that couldn’t be destroyed.”
At this, the Dream Clan chief’s eyes flickered with helpless resignation.
In truth, the Nanzhao royal family had been deceived that year too—the Great Gu Master and the Dream Clan’s ancestors had known all along that the Poisonous Beast World was a dead-end barrier, but had lied to the royal family, claiming it was a living one instead.
Both the Great Gu Master and the Dream Clan’s ancestor had wanted to claim this dead-end barrier, the Poisonous Beast World, for themselves—more precisely, they’d both wanted to possess the Qiankun Poison Pouch.
Unfortunately, before the Great Gu Master’s plan could be carried out, the Nanzhao royal family had him killed, while the Dream Clan’s ancestor feigned complete ignorance and continued serving the royal family faithfully.
The Dream Clan’s ancestor left this secret to future generations, along with instructions to seize the Qiankun Poison Pouch, cultivate human Gu, and revive the Dream Clan’s glory—which was how Meng Wanyue’s actions had come to pass.
The Dream Clan chief, of course, had no intention of revealing the Dream Clan’s own secrets to the King of Nanzhao—that was all in the past now.
The Qiankun Poison Pouch had ultimately ended up in Xiong Xiaobao’s hands, which was, in its own way, the best possible outcome.
Now, the most important question was—where exactly was the lonely island, and how many of its people still remained?
Like the Dream Clan chief, everyone present cared about nothing more than this.
“And then?” Ziqing asked coldly.
“And then…” The King of Nanzhao was clearly struggling!
“Don’t tell me the Nanzhao royal family didn’t even spare the lonely island itself!” Ziqing flew into a rage, slamming her hand on the table and standing up. The King of Nanzhao’s hesitation left her uneasy, left her afraid!
The King of Nanzhao’s brow furrowed deeply, and still he hesitated to speak.
“Are you going to say it or not!” Ziqing’s patience had run out entirely. Steeling herself, she issued a cold warning, “King of Nanzhao, if I don’t get an explanation from you today, this consort will demand the Nanzhao royal family pay in blood for blood!”
The King of Nanzhao flinched, no longer daring to hold anything back. “The lonely island itself… this king genuinely doesn’t know where it is!”
“What?” Jue Mingzi was startled. How could that possibly be?
At once, everyone grew uneasy. What did the King of Nanzhao mean by that? How could he possibly not know where the lonely island was?
If even he didn’t know where the lonely island was, then who in this world still knew its location?
Ziqing shot to her feet, shouting in fury, “King of Nanzhao, so you had no sincerity in this at all!”
Everything the King of Nanzhao had said up to this point, they had already guessed. There was no need for him to explain any of it—what they truly wanted, the secret, the truth they were after, was the lonely island’s location.
The lonely island—where was it!
At this, Jun Beiyue too slowly rose to his feet, his expression blank, though fury lurked in the depths of his dark eyes.
Was the King of Nanzhao trying to play them for fools?
After all that talk, and he didn’t even know where the lonely island was?
Seeing both Jun Beiyue and Ziqing on their feet, the King of Nanzhao couldn’t stay seated either, rising along with them. “Prince Yao, Consort Yao, I won’t hide it from you—aside from King Gulu, who destroyed the lonely island all those years ago, no generation of Nanzhao’s royal line since has known its location. All that’s known is that it was an island, reachable only after a full month’s sailing with favorable winds.”
Seeing the faces before him growing darker and darker, the King of Nanzhao swallowed hard, forced to press on regardless. “Back then, after King Gulu destroyed the lonely island, he destroyed every record concerning it, forbidding anyone from putting out to sea for a long stretch of time afterward. Even within the royal family itself, no one was permitted to speak of the lonely island. Over these three hundred years, the matter of the lonely island has been known only to the royal family’s men and the chiefs of the three great clans—but as for the island’s actual location, no one knows it any longer!”
At this point, fearing Jun Beiyue and Ziqing wouldn’t believe him, the King of Nanzhao added hastily, “Both the late king and I ourselves have secretly gone out to sea before, searching for the lonely island. But no matter which port in Nanzhao we set out from, no matter which direction we sailed, within a month’s range of sea travel, there was no trace of the lonely island to be found anywhere.”
Having said this much, the King of Nanzhao didn’t dare continue, and at that moment, the entire camp fell into a terrifyingly heavy silence…