Watching Xinyun’s foolish smile, Ziqing’s heart ached fiercely. She seemed to glimpse Yelu Qianqian from years past in that smile—yet it wasn’t quite like Qianqian either. She seemed to glimpse herself in it too—yet it didn’t feel quite like herself either.
At that moment, she suddenly felt immensely grateful that she’d extended a helping hand to this woman back on that steep slope.
She found herself hoping, even more, that Nangong Jun would accept Xinyun, and forget all about anyone else.
Xinyun simply kept smiling that foolish smile, letting the Great Gu Master’s attack come at her from behind. Fortunately, in the nick of time, Nangong Jun swept her protectively to his side and pulled her out of harm’s way.
Only then did Ziqing realize that Nangong Jun’s speed was actually even greater than her own—roughly on par with Jun Beiyue’s, she guessed!
This group really was full of masters, every single one of them—no wonder they’d managed to survive this long under the Great Gu Master’s shadow.
With Nangong Jun and Xinyun clear, Ziqing naturally pulled back too. “Head for the cliff, quickly!”
Only a fool would keep fighting the Great Gu Master—of course they had to run.
Though still smiling foolishly, Xinyun quickly explained Ziqing’s identity and everything that had happened, in just a few brief words, to Nangong Jun. Nangong Jun pushed Ziqing forward, signaling for the two of them to go on ahead while he held off the Great Gu Master himself!
“Come with us!” Xinyun said urgently.
“Listen to me, go find reinforcements. I can hold her off!” Nangong Jun said, both serious and gentle—clearly a tender man at heart.
With just that one sentence, Xinyun obediently fell in line. However worried she was, however unwilling to leave, she obediently retreated to Ziqing’s side.
“What about your barrier technique? Why not trap her with it?” Ziqing asked curiously.
“My barrier technique can only block her—it can’t trap her!” Xinyun said in a low voice.
This only made Ziqing more curious. “How can that be? What do you mean?”
Though she didn’t understand barrier techniques, Ziqing was certain such a limitation shouldn’t exist.
“I’ve become a spirit myself. My barrier is really just a barrier of consciousness. Your minds are simply too weak, which is why I can contain all of you—but the Great Gu Master, I simply can’t manage,” Xinyun explained.
She had no wish to reveal her hand, either, because if she used her full power, Nangong Jun would see through the flaw in it—he would realize that she was already a spirit herself, that she could never leave the Lishang illusion realm together with him.
“So that’s how it is!” Only now did Ziqing understand. Of course, she wouldn’t expose Xinyun’s secret—she wondered, though, if Jun Beiyue and the others ever discovered the truth, how depressed they might feel about it.
Of course, she had no time to dwell on that. While Nangong Jun could still hold off the Great Gu Master, she and Xinyun fled hurriedly.
Meanwhile, as Ziqing and the others raced toward the cliff, Jun Beiyue was still struggling to repeat that gesture from memory, over and over.
Baili Weisheng and Xuanyuan Lige stood nearby, not daring to disturb him, yet burning with anxiety.
Finally, Baili Weisheng couldn’t hold back any longer. “Jun Beiyue, does this method actually stand any chance of working?”
Jun Beiyue looked up, brow tightly furrowed, and simply shook his head. He didn’t know either!
Baili Weisheng let out a long sigh, with nothing more to say—after all, he had no other solution to offer either.
Finally, after attempting the gesture no fewer than a hundred times, Jun Beiyue gave up!
If he’d truly had the talent for it, he would have broken through the barrier long ago. A hundred attempts later, the barrier hadn’t budged in the slightest. Whether he wanted to give up or not, he had no choice but to.
Baili Weisheng sighed again, suddenly finding himself missing someone—a woman who cried easily. This, he realized, was probably the very first time in his life he’d ever thought of Meng Duo’er of his own accord!
If only she were here, how wonderful that would be!
At this, Xuanyuan Lige, who had remained silent all this while, spoke up calmly. “I heard Meng Duo’er always used to follow you around. Why is it that this time…”
Baili Weisheng pursed his lips and said nothing. Xiong Xiaobao had told him Meng Duo’er had returned to the Dream Clan, and that he himself had personally seen her off—yet he couldn’t remember any of it at all.
Jun Beiyue’s brow remained tightly knit, gazing in the direction where Ziqing had vanished, saying nothing at all.
The three men could do nothing but wait. Never in their lives had they all felt so thoroughly stifled at the same time.
Baili Weisheng was the one least capable of staying quiet. Before long, he spoke up again. “Why hasn’t the Nanzhao musician shown himself yet, do you think? Could something have happened to him?”
“There must be some kind of grudge between the Great Gu Master and the Nanzhao musician,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly.
“Everything here was created by him—he’s the creator of this whole world. There’s no reason for him not to appear,” Baili Weisheng added.
A complicated look flickered through Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes. He seemed about to say something, then held back—he’d wanted to say it just a moment ago, too.
“What are you thinking about?” Baili Weisheng asked, seeing straight through him at a glance.
“This entire illusion realm is, in essence, all the musician’s own spiritual power made manifest. Once his spiritual power is exhausted beyond a certain point, he’ll lose the power to create, and lose his hold over this whole world as well. The Lishang illusion realm is so vast, every corner of it so intricately woven—I’m worried the Nanzhao musician simply can’t sustain it,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly.
At these words, not just Baili Weisheng but Xuanyuan Lige himself turned to look down over the cliff, at that endlessly repeating illusion of the isolated island—it looked so much like a mere illusion, so insubstantial and ethereal.
Could it be some kind of unfinished construct?
Just then, a sudden thought struck Baili Weisheng, and he exclaimed in alarm, “Do you think Ziqing might actually be able to get down there!”
At these words, everyone seemed to realize something at once, exchanging glances, all utterly stunned.
But just then, a commotion sounded from not far away. The three of them quickly looked over, to see Ziqing dragging Xinyun along, running as if possessed, while behind them, not far off, a dark shadow and a blue shadow grappled together, locked in fierce, inseparable combat.
It was clear that the blue figure had been retreating the whole time, dodging constantly, barely attacking at all—yet his pattern of retreat and evasion, his footwork, clearly held the dark figure in check to some degree.
Undoubtedly, this was a very clever man, seemingly buying time to let Ziqing and Xinyun escape. Who was this man, and who was the black-clad figure!
Before the three of them could even process what they were seeing, Xinyun suddenly slashed viciously through the air, and in an instant, the barrier shattered!
Jun Beiyue was practically instantaneous in flashing to Ziqing’s side, with Baili Weisheng and Xuanyuan Lige arriving right behind him.
“What’s going on?”
“The black-clad figure is the Great Gu Master—she’s a human gu! The Nanzhao musician is on the isolated island—run, now!” Ziqing said, concise and to the point.
At these words, all three of them—Jun Beiyue, Baili Weisheng, and Xuanyuan Lige—froze for a moment. The words “human gu” struck them as utterly unbelievable, and just as Ziqing had reacted earlier, they too found it hard to fully grasp.
“We have to hold her off, and we absolutely must make sure everyone can jump down to the isolated island together with me!” Ziqing said earnestly.
Jun Beiyue and the others understood at once. Nothing else mattered right now—this was the most important thing.
“You two go on ahead.”
Almost simultaneously, Jun Beiyue, Baili Weisheng, and Xuanyuan Lige all spoke up, saying the exact same thing.
Ziqing paid them no mind. She knew these three men would find a way. She pulled Xinyun along, hurrying toward the edge of the cliff, watching the roiling, storm-tossed sea while waiting for them to catch up.
And the three men, having been stifled for so long, all flashed toward the Great Gu Master at once without a word, Baili Weisheng shouting loudly, “Blue robe, get out of the way!”
The moment his voice rang out, the three of them…