The Meng Clan!

By the time Jun Beiyue had decided to travel with his wife and child to the Meng Clan, he had already thoroughly investigated them!

Or rather, from the moment Jun Beiyue first suspected that Meng Wanyue’s seizing of the Universe Poison Pouch was for the purpose of cultivating a human Gu, he had already been on his guard.

Call it heartless if you must, call it cruel if you must!

This was his birth mother — but she was also the birth mother who had abandoned him since childhood.

He had never once begged her to give birth to him. It was she who had selfishly brought him into this world, only to immediately abandon him — and worse still, abandon him within the most heartless family of all: the imperial household!

The debt of giving birth — what debt was there in merely giving birth? It was raising a child that constituted a true debt of gratitude!

From the moment he was born, still a helpless infant crying for milk, he had had to struggle for survival within the palace, step by step, day by day, year by year. Every other imperial prince had a mother consort to shield them, had maternal relatives with power and influence behind them. He had had nothing at all — his lowly status as a child of a concubine of no standing meant he hadn’t even had friends.

Not until the day he turned fifteen, riding alone across a thousand miles, did he finally establish a foothold in the capital of Great Zhou. Before that, his entire existence had revolved around just three words: “Stay alive.”

His mother had always existed only as a memory, and nothing more.

All of his feelings, too, remained reserved solely for that mother who lived in his memory.

That was why he could stay so composed — even back when Meng Wanyue had still been trapped within the Universe Poison Pouch, he had already been coldly, calmly on guard.

He had once imagined it, too — that day Ziqing had prepared a cup of tea for him, urging him to offer it in the ritual of acknowledging his mother, he had felt something stir within him.

And yet, that stirring had come from Ziqing — an orphan just like him, someone who, just like him, had longed for family, longed for parents.

Helplessly, on that very day of the tea ceremony, Meng Wanyue had looked down so contemptuously on Ziqing, had looked down on everything he had been preparing so carefully, working so hard toward — the promise he intended to make for Ziqing’s wedding!

She surely had no idea — this was Jun Beiyue’s single greatest, most untouchable sore spot!

Whoever crossed that line, he would never, ever forgive them!

“You won’t say it — is that it?” Jun Beiyue said coldly.

Regarding the matter of the Meng Clan’s ancestors, Meng Wanyue had clearly lied. She knew exactly where the Dagger of Flowing Light had come from — that was precisely why she had led them into the Innocent Ravine, and had even deliberately handed the Dagger of Flowing Light over to Ziqing!

“I… I…” Meng Wanyue fell silent, at a loss for words — she hadn’t expected this matter would be uncovered as well!

“Will you say it or not?!”

Finally, Jun Beiyue’s fury exploded, his fists clenched so tight they cracked audibly.

Meng Wanyue instinctively stepped back, genuinely afraid Jun Beiyue might actually strike her, and hurriedly reminded him, “Jun Beiyue, I am your mother! I’m the one who suffered through ten months of pregnancy to bring you into this world! Without me, there would be no you!”

“Who asked you to give birth to me? Did I?” Jun Beiyue shot back coldly.

“You!” Meng Wanyue choked with anger. “Absurd — how dare you… if you lay a hand on me, heaven will strike you down!”

“Then let it come!”

Jun Beiyue let out a disdainful, cold snort, advancing step by step. Meng Wanyue, terrified, threw all caution to the wind and suddenly struck first, sending a palm strike violently toward Jun Beiyue!

Jun Beiyue instantly stepped back, then burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Hahaha, my mother! You’re my mother! You’re Jun Beiyue’s own mother!”

His laughter echoed across the entire mountainside, ringing on and on without end. Jun Beiyue laughed until tears very nearly spilled from his eyes.

“Because you’re willing to strike at me — that’s exactly why you’re so convinced I’ll strike back at you.”

“Consort Wan, let me tell you something — I won’t lay a hand on you. Don’t lecture me about heaven striking me down. If anyone deserves to be struck down by heaven, it’s you.”

The moment he said this, almost simultaneously, a peal of thunder rolled across the sky, and lightning split the heavens.

Illuminated by that flash of light, Jun Beiyue’s stern, godlike face looked awe-inspiring, commanding reverence.

This man’s rage — his true fury reached all the way to heaven!

“Unfilial son! For the sake of some woman, how dare you treat your own birth mother this way!”

Meng Wanyue rose up into the air, her true face finally, completely exposed. If it weren’t for Han Ziqing standing in the way, she would have long since told Jun Beiyue everything about her plans — she was confident that her son, Jun Beiyue, shared the very same ambition she did.

But all of this — all of it was because of that Lonely Isle orphan, Han Ziqing!

“Son, my good son — you said you wouldn’t lay a hand on me!”

Meng Wanyue let out a cold snort, her figure abruptly shifting course, lunging straight toward Ziqing!

Jun Beiyue truly didn’t strike her — but he shielded Ziqing and Xiong Bao behind him, dodging with effortless ease.

“Do you really think you can dodge me forever? Don’t forget — whatever you can do, I can do too!” Meng Wanyue sneered coldly.

Jun Beiyue’s expression, however, remained utterly unmoved. “And you seem to have forgotten — this is Liuxian Island.”

With that, he swept his hand through the air, and instantly, countless Shadow Guards appeared out of nowhere. At the same moment, attendants of the Gu, Bai, and Mu clans all came swarming in from every side, surrounding Meng Wanyue completely!

Beyond that, a thousand archers appeared as well, encircling the outermost ring!

The Innocent Ravine wasn’t Jun Beiyue’s territory — that was precisely why he had been so eager to leave.

He had originally planned to leave the Innocent Ravine and wait until they returned to Great Zhou before making his move. He hadn’t expected they would end up on Liuxian Island instead — but Liuxian Island had long since been his own private domain. Here, a single call from him would summon a thousand responses, as easy as breathing.

Seeing this, Meng Wanyue’s face filled with shock, staring at Jun Beiyue in disbelief, shouting furiously, “You… you… you planned all of this! You calculated every single step of this!”

Jun Beiyue paid her no mind, scooping up Xiong Bao from behind him and turning to leave.

“Jun Beiyue, stop right there!”

“What exactly do you want!”

“I am your mother! I am your mother! I am your mother…”

Meng Wanyue, like a woman gone mad, repeated the words over and over, again and again, desperately lunging toward Jun Beiyue — but with every step she took, the arrows drew a step closer, and the swords of the Shadow Guards around her closed in a step nearer as well.

Jun Beiyue himself wasn’t striking her — but that didn’t mean his men wouldn’t!

He had only said that he wouldn’t personally lay a hand on her — nothing more!

“Jun Beiyue! I’m your mother! Are you going to kill me? Do you want me to die right in front of you? I am your mother!” Meng Wanyue screamed, shouting at the top of her lungs, yet not daring to advance any further. Watching Jun Beiyue’s retreating figure grow further and further away, she finally collapsed onto the ground in despair. “Son, Mother was wrong!”

“Son, Mother truly was wrong. Just give Mother one chance!”

“Son, Mother admits her mistakes. Mother will tell you everything she knows — please, forgive Mother!”

…

At this, Jun Beiyue finally came to a stop.

Meng Wanyue’s heart leapt with joy, a flicker of malice flashing through her eyes as she gathered her strength and crawled forward several steps, pleading urgently, “Mother knows she was wrong. It’s all Mother’s fault, every bit of it. Please forgive Mother — just this once, forgive Mother just this once, and Mother will help you. Mother will do everything in her power to help you both!”

“My birth mother died long ago. I personally carried her funerary urn into the Gu family’s ancestral hall with my own hands. I don’t know you. Stop insulting my mother’s memory.”

Jun Beiyue’s voice was no longer icy cold, but instead quiet and flat, carrying a trace of weariness — yet also an unmistakable, unshakable finality.

“Guards — take her away. Interrogate her.”

Jun Beiyue said this quietly, then gently gathered the silent, deeply troubled Ziqing into his arms, letting Meng Wanyue’s anguished wails and cries fade behind him as he turned, without a backward glance, and walked into the main hall.

Xiong Xiaobao, too, remained silent throughout, stealing a glance up at his father — and for the first time in his young life, he understood a kind of love called aching for one’s father…

Chapter 1016 [1018]: You Foul-Mouthed Scholar, Who Are You Thinking Of?

The shouting and anguished cries gradually faded into the distance, and inside the main hall, silence still reigned.

The Gu Family Head and the physician didn’t come forward right away, and Jun Beiyue made no move to hurry them along either. He remained seated in the seat of honor, holding Xiong Bao, gently patting the boy’s back. Xiong Bao stayed as obedient as a little rabbit, not daring to move, not daring to look, his eyes squeezed shut.

Off to the side, Baili Weisheng, uncharacteristically quiet, pursed his lips, and for the first time, found himself seriously thinking about his own parents.

He’d had the thought before, but had never once dwelled on it. This time, for some reason, he found himself unable to stop.

To be precise, it seemed as though, for quite some time now, he had already sensed something was not quite right with himself.

He could feel sorrow, feel anger, feel grief — and now, he even found himself capable of longing for something!

These emotions had never existed within him before. He had broken free of the Gu Nanny’s control, and yet he had never fully healed.

Could it be that his soul was finally on the verge of complete recovery?

But how could that be possible? No matter how strong someone’s willpower, a person raised as a human Gu could never truly heal completely.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand emotion — it was that he couldn’t feel it, knew of its existence in the abstract while knowing full well it had nothing to do with him.

And yet, now, things seemed different somehow. Looking at the still-unconscious Baili Xiaosheng in his arms, Baili Weisheng found, to his own surprise, that his heart ached with genuine distress — and he even found himself wanting to gently pat the girl’s back, the way Jun Beiyue did with his own son.

Baili Weisheng immediately averted his eyes, not daring to look.

Turning his thoughts to his own parents, he reasoned it through: he was of the Golden Jiao, and also a child of the Lonely Isle — which meant, without question, one of his parents had been Golden Jiao, and the other a Lonely Isle orphan.

Only, the Golden Jiao clan had already been wiped out during the great war in Nanzhao — even the Silver Jiao within the Innocent Ravine had said the Golden Jiao had perished long ago. So where, then, had he come from?

He had been an orphan somewhere near the Xiongnu territory bordering the Innocent Ravine, found by the Gu Nanny when he was only a few years old. Because of the human-Gu cultivation process, even his own childhood memories had grown hazy and indistinct.

The more he thought about it, the deeper Baili Weisheng’s frown grew, sinking entirely into his own private world of thought.

Meanwhile, watching Jun Beiyue’s ever-blank expression, Ziqing felt her heart ache as though carved by a knife. She knew Jun Beiyue wasn’t angry so much as he was grieving. In her entire time knowing this man, she had almost never seen him this sorrowful before.

Why, why did Meng Wanyue have to be so heartless, so despicable?

Every parent under heaven claims to love their child — and yet, it was precisely one’s own parents who could wound a child’s heart more deeply than anyone else.

Ziqing rose and walked over, sitting down beside Jun Beiyue, gently taking hold of his hand.

Jun Beiyue seemed to only now surface from his own private world, offering her a faint smile. “It’s alright. Don’t worry.”

These words only made Ziqing’s heart ache all the more.

This man — always the same, always shouldering everything entirely on his own.

“Silly man, how could it possibly be alright?” Ziqing said helplessly, hooking her arm through his and leaning against his shoulder, though she managed a small smile. “But you still have me, don’t you? And your son too. So… it really is alright now, see?”

This drew a smile from Jun Beiyue. He released Xiong Bao, wrapping his arm around Ziqing’s shoulder instead, gently patting her, and said with a faint smile, “There was never anything wrong to begin with. You’re the silly one.”

Seeing this, Xiong Xiaobao finally found the courage to relax. When Mommy turned serious, he was genuinely afraid, and always obeyed without question.

But when Father had turned serious just now — this was probably the first time ever — even he had been frightened. Now, seeing his father and mother joking with each other again, that little heart of his, which had been hanging suspended in midair, finally settled back down.

His dark, glossy eyes rolled thoughtfully as he glanced once or twice at his affectionately reconciled parents. Seeing that neither of them had noticed him at all, he carefully, secretly reached out his small hands, wrapping them around Jun Beiyue.

Having wrapped his arms around him, he still didn’t dare move right away. After waiting a moment, seeing that his father and mother remained lost in their own tender world, he grew bolder, and, just as his father had once patted him, began gently, carefully patting Jun Beiyue’s back with his small palm, one pat at a time.

After patting for a while, seeing that his father hadn’t noticed, Xiong Xiaobao grew even bolder, patting away with great seriousness and focus, murmuring softly to himself, “Don’t cry, Daddy. It’s alright now, it’s alright. Xiong Bao is here too.”

Of course Jun Beiyue had noticed the small movements behind him. He shot Ziqing a meaningful look; she glanced over as well, unable to hold back a smile. Jun Beiyue immediately clapped a hand over her mouth, and the couple exchanged a warm, knowing smile, their hearts both filled with quiet warmth.

Parents and children — that, too, was a kind of destiny.

Since their own bond with the previous generation hadn’t been strong enough, then they would simply strive to be good parents themselves, pouring every last bit of that missing fortune into their precious little Xiong Bao instead.

Comfort from a child was often the frailest, most fragile kind — and yet, at the same time, it was also the most powerful.

The commotion outside gradually faded away, and Jun Beiyue’s heart, too, slowly settled back into calm.

Before long, the Gu Family Head returned, bringing the physician with him, looking as though his very soul had been drained out of him, utterly wilted.

The death of his wife had struck him, evidently, far less hard than the shock of Meng Wanyue’s deception.

Ziqing had no idea how to judge a man like this. She only felt that today’s outcome hadn’t truly been caused by Jun Beiyue at all — it had simply been the final conclusion of that doomed, ill-fated affair between him and Meng Wanyue, all those years ago.

The passing of his wife, the truth finally laid bare — for him, perhaps, this was actually the beginning of finally living with clarity.

The physician had already walked right up to Baili Weisheng, and yet that fellow remained utterly unresponsive, seemingly lost somewhere far away, a faint trace of sorrow lingering on his handsome, refined face.

Ziqing thought she must be seeing things — but looking more closely, it was, in fact, entirely real.

“You stinking scholar, what’s… wrong with you?” Ziqing asked timidly, giving him a nudge.

Only then did Baili Weisheng come back to himself, looking at Ziqing in confusion.

“Are you… are you alright? Who were you thinking about?” Ziqing asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

Baili Weisheng froze for a moment, then immediately jumped up, saying with irritation, “I was thinking about a girl, obviously — who told you to interrupt my sweet dream!”

Ziqing immediately rolled her eyes, snatching Baili Xiaosheng away from him, too annoyed to bother arguing further.

Only then did Baili Weisheng notice the physician had arrived. He looked immediately embarrassed, pursing his lips awkwardly, and said nothing further.

Had he really looked like he was thinking of someone, just now?

The physician examined Baili Xiaosheng’s injuries carefully. Ziqing didn’t mention the Innocent Ravine at all, simply saying the girl had been injured by the force of water in a whirlpool at sea.

“I see. Only… this force of water seems rather…”

The physician didn’t quite know how to put it. This was the first time he’d ever encountered a patient injured by water force to this degree. He checked her pulse again, repeatedly, before finally speaking again. “This is troublesome, quite troublesome!”

“What exactly is wrong — just say it plainly!” Baili Weisheng had no patience left. He had already checked Baili Xiaosheng’s pulse himself earlier and found everything normal; the wounds had all been treated. He had assumed it was simply blood loss, depleted vital energy, damage to her core essence — the kind of condition that, with sufficient medicine and proper care, could still fully recover.

After all, Ziqing had channeled true energy in time to protect her heart meridian!

“Her vital essence has been damaged. For a child this young, I’m afraid a certain medicinal herb will be needed — otherwise, she won’t wake easily,” the physician said earnestly.

“Could you please just say the whole thing at once? What medicine, exactly?!” Baili Weisheng demanded urgently.

Ziqing, meanwhile, felt a growing unease. She knew this physician was no ordinary doctor — he was the most skilled physician on all of Liuxian Island. If even he was calling this troublesome, it was bound to be genuinely serious.