Atop the cliff, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue both sank into their own private thoughts.

If it came to leading troops into battle, charging fearlessly into the fray, navigating the treacherous world of martial arts and factions — Xiong Xiaobao would surely handle it all on his own, needing no support from anyone.

But having him face down that pack of cunning old foxes at court — that was a different matter entirely, one that gave real cause for concern.

After all, the boy was still so young. From the day he was born until now, he had always been sheltered, protected. He might have a touch of cunning, a bit of scheming instinct, but he had never once truly faced the depths of court intrigue, the viciousness and cruelty that came with it!

The two of them fell silent, the weight of what mattered most already clear enough in both their hearts.

They had never set out to find the deserted island in the first place — they had merely wanted to see what Xuanyuan Lige had left behind for them, and yet somehow, here they now found themselves.

And now, laid out before them, was not only the entire truth of the deserted island, but also… the question of how, and when, they might possibly leave this place!

Deep in thought, Ziqing suddenly seemed to sense something, and abruptly turned her head to look — only to find nothing there at all, the space beside her utterly empty.

“What’s wrong?” Jun Beiyue asked.

Ziqing said nothing, her brow furrowing slightly as she rose and walked over, circling around a large boulder — only to find that side of the cliff just as empty, nothing there at all. She let out a breath.

“What happened?” Jun Beiyue asked, following after her.

“I thought there was someone there just now, for a moment. Probably just the wind — I must have misheard,” Ziqing answered.

In that instant, she had felt, quite suddenly, as though someone were watching her — and yet, when she turned to look, there had been nothing there at all, utterly empty!

Even here on Liuxian Island, within the illusion conjured by the Nanzhao musician, surely there should be no one else present besides the wandering souls of the deserted island’s people. Jun Beiyue scanned their surroundings once more as well, and only relaxed once he’d confirmed there was no one else about.

And yet, had Jun Beiyue possessed any training in the arts of concealment barriers, he would surely have noticed a barrier hidden not far from where they stood — and it was there, within that very barrier, that the person who had just been watching Ziqing lay concealed.

By the time Ziqing and Jun Beiyue made their way back around the boulder, Xuanyuan Lige and Baili Weisheng had already returned.

“How did it go?” This time, it was Jun Beiyue who spoke first.

Xuanyuan Lige shook his head, disappointed, and Baili Weisheng shrugged — neither of them had found anything at all.

Seeing Ziqing’s furrowed brow, Baili Weisheng said with absolute certainty, “I can confirm — within five hundred li of these waters, there’s no deserted island to be found anywhere!”

Ever since the golden Jiao spectral form had first appeared to him, his ability to command everything across the ocean’s surface had grown dramatically — within a range of five hundred li, he could say this with full confidence.

Xuanyuan Lige nodded as well, having likewise found nothing. “This stretch of ocean is identical, in every way, to the real East Sea!”

“And the Death Vortex?” Jun Beiyue asked.

“I went and had a look. Found nothing at all,” Baili Weisheng said, helpless.

For a moment, everyone was left utterly baffled.

The only thing they could say with any certainty was that Liuxian Island could not possibly be the deserted island itself. Could it be that the illusion the Nanzhao musician had conjured with “Parting Sorrow” wasn’t the deserted island at all, but was, in fact, Liuxian Island itself?

There was no reason for that to make any sense at all!

“Let’s go take a look on the island itself!” Jun Beiyue decided at once — better to go and search for themselves than to keep speculating blindly.

The four of them set off toward the forest at once. But as they made their way through the trees and reached the eastern cliff, gazing down over the entirety of the island, something entirely unexpected happened!

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Baili Weisheng cried out in utter disbelief.

The other three were struck equally speechless. The scene before them was something none of them could possibly have guessed, no matter how hard they tried.

It was breathtaking!

Utterly spectacular!

None of them had ever imagined Liuxian Island could hold such beautiful scenery!

Across the entirety of Liuxian Island, whether hills or flatlands, harbors or streets and estates — everything was blanketed in a soft, pale purple, an endless sea of lavender, stretching on and on like a hazy purple mist. Combined with the island’s overall tranquility, it created the illusion of standing within some ethereal realm of flowers!

A breeze drifted up from below, carrying with it a faint, delicate fragrance that filled the senses, instantly clearing the mind and lifting the spirits.

Seeing this scene before her, Ziqing couldn’t help but think of that line once more: “‘Parting Sorrow’ will take you home, where there is no sorrow.”

A place this beautiful, this dreamlike — surely there could be no sorrow here at all.

Women, more often than not, couldn’t help but be drawn to such things, and in that instant, Ziqing found herself forgetting everything else entirely, gripped by an instinctive urge to simply stay.

And yet, what truly left them all so utterly stunned wasn’t the vast expanse of lavender at all, but rather, standing within that hazy sea of purple, a single towering tree, rising skyward, planted firmly at the center of that flat, endless field of flowers.

This tree was inconceivably tall, taller even than Liuxian Island’s highest peak, Liuxian Mountain itself.

From their vantage point — and this cliff was itself the second-highest point on all of Liuxian Island — the tree’s trunk alone reached this very height; looking upward, they couldn’t even glimpse its top, had no idea just how tall it truly was, only that clouds and mist swirled endlessly around its upper reaches.

“Is this the road to heaven?” Ziqing murmured, half to herself. Could one climb this great tree all the way up, and reach paradise itself?

All of this was extraordinary, and impossibly beautiful.

It was utterly unlike the Liuxian Island they had known before — Ziqing distinctly remembered that Liuxian Island had never held a tree of such towering height!

Was this great tree merely an illusion, conjured out of nothing — or had it once truly existed, only to have fallen since?

As everyone stood there in shock, Jun Beiyue’s brow slowly furrowed, and he spoke two words quietly. “Fusang…”

At these words, Ziqing was struck with sudden realization. “Fusang?!”

“You mean this is the Fusang divine tree?” Baili Weisheng was equally stunned — they all knew the legend of the Fusang divine wood!

When they had first begun searching for clues about the deserted island, one of the three major leads they’d uncovered had been precisely this Fusang divine wood!

Legend held that only a ship built from Fusang divine wood could ever reach the deserted island!

Though it was merely legend, in the early days, with so few leads to go on, Ziqing had kept this legend firmly in mind. But once she’d reached Liuxian Island and discovered that the Fusang divine wood belonging to the Bai family concealed the score for “Parting Sorrow” within it, she had come to dismiss the legend as false.

She had assumed the only secret the Fusang divine wood held was, simply, the score of “Parting Sorrow,” nothing more.

And yet now, looking up at this towering, magnificent tree before her — a true, genuine divine tree — Ziqing’s very first thought was, unmistakably, that old legend!

“Let’s go take a look!”

As Jun Beiyue spoke, he swept Ziqing up into his arms and leapt toward the Fusang divine tree at once, with Xuanyuan Lige and Baili Weisheng quickly following after.

The Fusang divine tree stood on the eastern side of Liuxian Island. Having come from the west, they had essentially crossed the entire island, from its westernmost point to its easternmost — having, in effect, toured nearly the whole of Liuxian Island along the way.

Just as they had suspected, there wasn’t a single soul on Liuxian Island — it was an entirely empty island!

And yet, one question after another kept arising. Why would the Nanzhao zither master have gone to such trouble to conjure an illusion of an entirely empty island?

Liuxian Island seemed to serve no purpose at all in this!

Liuxian Island was neither particularly large nor small, and by the time Ziqing and the others reached the base of the Fusang divine tree, night had already fallen!

The already-silent, empty island grew all the more still with the coming of night, not a single lit window or household to be seen anywhere, only the vast, pressing canvas of stars overhead, and a thin crescent moon, far too faint to illuminate much of anything.

None of the four of them carried any means of making fire, and with no flint stones to be found, and Xuanyuan Lige holding no dominion over this particular world belonging to the Nanzhao zither master, they had no choice but to stop and rest for the night.

Would anything happen tonight, one wondered?