Seen this way, the Lishang illusion realm was hardly a good place at all—it could be called nothing less than a prison holding the gu corpses and the Great Gu Master, this human gu, captive!
This wasn’t a place free of sorrow at all—it was, instead, a place filled with pain. Every single poison corpse here represented an unredeemable sin!
Only now did Ziqing understand why the journey from Liuxian Island had been fraught with so much hardship, so many obstacles.
Surely, all of it had been meant to block the Great Gu Master from leaving!
The Great Gu Master smiled smugly. The more Xinyun watched, the angrier she grew. “What do you have to be so smug about? After all your scheming over all these years, the farthest you ever managed to reach was the fifth mountain!”
Yet the Great Gu Master merely smiled, turning to look at Ziqing. “Hasn’t she come, though? Now that she’s here, I’ll be able to see my brother again. If he was able to imprison me, then he’ll certainly be able to let me out. My true body cannot die.”
At this, the Great Gu Master’s tone suddenly turned sharp and sinister. “I want out!”
Hearing that voice, one could easily imagine just what a hideous face lay beneath that black robe!
“What exactly are you trying to do? Why are you on Liuxian Island?” Ziqing said coldly. She knew something more must have happened within the Lishang illusion realm.
“Why is Nangong Jun locked up in there! The Nanzhao musician set up so many obstacles—there must be a reason for it!” Ziqing pressed further.
Before Xinyun could answer, the Great Gu Master cut in sharply, “Girl, that’s none of your business to know!”
“What exactly are you all trying to do?” Ziqing asked again.
Xinyun clenched her fists tightly, saying nothing at all.
“Xinyun, I order you to open the barrier, or else—” The Great Gu Master didn’t finish the sentence, instead turning to look coldly at the tightly locked palace gate behind them.
Xinyun’s body visibly trembled violently. She looked up at the Great Gu Master, and once again, fear flashed unmistakably in her eyes!
Ziqing could tell this woman was being threatened by the Great Gu Master, and the only thing that could threaten her must be Nangong Jun. Could it be that only the Great Gu Master could open that seventy-seven-lock gate?
But everything here had been created by the Nanzhao musician—aside from the poison corpses, the Great Gu Master shouldn’t be able to command anything at all!
Where was the Nanzhao musician, then?
Having finally pieced together what had happened on the isolated island all those years ago, what had happened within the Lishang illusion realm in all the years since had once again become a complete mystery!
Ziqing watched Xinyun with worry, vaguely guessing at something in her heart. Yet before Ziqing could fully confirm her own suspicion, the Great Gu Master spoke up. “Xinyun, hand this woman over to me, and I’ll definitely release him. Otherwise… heh, you know the consequences.”
Ziqing was alarmed. Xinyun slowly turned her head to look at Ziqing, her face clearly twisted with malice.
“If you’re handing me over to her, you at least owe me an explanation why!” Ziqing said coldly.
This time, Xinyun didn’t hide anything, saying coldly, “Because only you can find the Nanzhao musician. Back then, the Nanzhao musician trapped this vile woman along with a great host of poison corpses in the Lishang illusion realm—and in doing so, he also trapped me and Nangong Jun, along with some innocent Nanzhao clan members. The Lishang illusion realm was split into two parts—one part is Liuxian Island, the other is this place here. The Nanzhao musician set up layer upon layer of obstacles between Liuxian Island and here, specifically to separate her and the poison corpses from us…”
At this point, Xinyun suddenly stopped short, as if she had no intention of continuing.
The Great Gu Master laughed even louder, dripping with endless mockery. “Go on, Xinyun. Why don’t you finish? Heh, if you won’t say it, I will!”
“You were living quite happily with Nangong Jun on Liuxian Island, but you grew far too attached to the mortal world. You wanted to leave, and you schemed by every means to persuade Nangong Jun to find a way out—until my brother’s spirit entered the Lishang illusion realm, at which point you incited Nangong Jun to make trouble for my brother! You, Nangong Jun, and those clan members are all flesh-and-blood people, not spirits—you can return to the world outside once you leave this illusion realm. So you even incited the isolated island’s clan members to pressure my brother!”
Hearing this, Xinyun’s entire demeanor changed. She clenched her jaw tightly in agitation, her once pale face flushing crimson.
But the Great Gu Master continued on. “This illusion realm was created by my brother—of course he had a way to send you all out. The path out was that illusory image of the sinking isolated island beneath the cliff…”
“Enough!” Xinyun cut her off furiously.
“What, dare to do it but not dare to admit it? Is that all the courage you have?” the Great Gu Master shot back, clearly trying to provoke Xinyun. Ziqing, regardless of what the Great Gu Master’s motives were, wanted to know the truth.
She chose to stay silent.
Suddenly, Xinyun exploded with rage. “It wasn’t like that! You’re slandering me!”
“Then how was it? Heh, the reason Nangong Jun is trapped in there is entirely because of you—you!” the Great Gu Master pressed aggressively. Xinyun’s state was clearly growing unstable.
“No, you don’t know anything—you have no right to accuse me! None!” Xinyun roared. “It wasn’t me who wanted to leave—it was him! He was the one who wanted to leave!”
With these words, Xinyun suddenly collapsed to her knees, sobbing brokenly. “You’ve got it wrong, Great Gu Master. You’ve got it all wrong. He and I were never actually lovers—I simply liked him, that’s all. I followed him around like a shadow every single day. The day he came to the isolated island, I secretly trailed after him too. I never even imagined I’d end up following him all the way here.”
Xinyun’s words shocked not only Ziqing, but the Great Gu Master as well.
“He doesn’t even know that I actually died in the sea and became a spirit myself. But I knew he had someone he loved—someone waiting for him to return and marry her…” At this, Xinyun’s voice broke into sobs. “He said he wouldn’t leave, but I knew—I knew he wanted to go. He wanted so badly to leave. That’s why I made things difficult for the musician, why I incited the clan members.”
“You—!” Even the Great Gu Master was shocked. Even she had always believed Xinyun wasn’t a spirit at all!
Back then, worn down by Xinyun’s relentless pressure, the Nanzhao musician had had no choice but to take the risk of sending them away. But the exit lay within that endlessly repeating illusion of the isolated island beneath the cliff—to send them out, he had to bring them to the isolated island itself, and coming to the isolated island meant they would inevitably have to face the Great Gu Master and the poison corpses.
In truth, the Fusang Sacred Tree and the Five Mountains weren’t obstacles blocking the path from Liuxian Island to the isolated island—they were obstacles blocking the isolated island’s people from reaching Liuxian Island.
Ziqing and the others had been traveling the reverse route.
Creating the Five Mountains, the Fusang Sacred Tree, and the death vortex illusions had already consumed most of the Nanzhao musician’s spiritual power while he was still alive. By the time his spirit returned to the Lishang illusion realm, it was already extremely weak.
He simply couldn’t create anything else anymore. Under these circumstances, the best solution was to keep the Great Gu Master permanently isolated.
The Nanzhao musician had known, even while still alive, that his spirit would be very weak after death. That was why he’d gone to such painstaking lengths—leaving clues, leaving Lishang, leaving the two enchanted zithers behind—not wanting these things to fall into the wrong hands, yet hoping that some gifted soul among later generations would inherit everything he’d left behind, would find their way to the Lishang illusion realm, uncover the truth of what had happened back then, lead out the few remaining isolated island clan members, and bring Nangong Jun and Xinyun out as well.
But Xinyun’s desperate pleading had moved the Nanzhao musician’s heart, and he had chosen to take the risk—bringing Xinyun, Nangong Jun, and the clan members through the death vortex to the isolated island.
Who could have known…