The moment Meng Wanyue said this, Ziqing immediately shot up from her seat, shouting furiously, “What did you just say?”

Meng Wanyue, anxious, missed the fury in Ziqing’s voice entirely, thinking she simply hadn’t heard clearly, and hurried to repeat herself. “There’s a Jinjiao woman locked in a barrier cell — she’s very likely Baili Weisheng’s mother. I heard her voice, I saw her with my own eyes, I’m not lying to you — only I can save her! No one else can save her but me!”

Meng Wanyue kept emphasizing her own value, over and over — she knew that if she had no value left, Baili Weisheng would kill her without hesitation.

She had to find some way to get them back to the Innocent Abyss — that was her last chance, and she had no choice but to gamble everything on it.

Hearing the word “mother,” Baili Weisheng’s entire mind went blank. Everything had come far too suddenly — he hadn’t even had time to prepare himself, hadn’t even sorted out that flicker of emotion stirring in his heart, when the word had suddenly come tumbling out of Meng Wanyue’s mouth!

His mother!?

“Meng Wanyue, you disgust me!” Ziqing said, utterly enraged. She hadn’t originally intended to lay a hand on her, had held back out of consideration for Jun Beiyue’s relation to the woman, had taken into account the blood tie between mother and son — but now, she truly couldn’t restrain herself any longer.

Ziqing snatched up the spoon, scooped up a full ladle of the filthy waste water, seized Meng Wanyue’s mouth, and forced it in without mercy!

“Let… mmph… don’t… I beg… cough…”

Meng Wanyue struggled and retched, but Ziqing showed no reaction at all, spoonful after spoonful, forcing it mercilessly into her mouth!

How could there be such a disgusting person in this world! Disgusting enough to enrage gods and men alike!

She truly didn’t deserve to be called a mother!

A wicked person could at least be wicked with some principle — but this woman had no principles at all.

If the one trapped in that barrier cell was truly a Jinjiao, truly Baili Weisheng’s mother — how anxious must she be!

Watching her long-lost son come to her, then watching him leave again — how heartbroken, how helpless must she feel!

The Jinjiao woman’s anguish and desperation within that barrier — it was unimaginable!

Ziqing threw down the spoon, not even sparing a thought for the musician’s legacy map Jue Mingzi had mentioned, and said urgently, “You foul-mouthed scholar, let’s go. We’re heading back to the Innocent Abyss!”

At this, the stunned Baili Weisheng finally snapped back to himself, his mind a total blank, and immediately followed after Ziqing.

Enduring her nausea, Meng Wanyue shouted at once, “You won’t be able to see her! You don’t know where she is — only I know! Only me!”

Ziqing stopped dead in her tracks. Baili Weisheng immediately moved behind Meng Wanyue, demanding furiously, “Where is she?”

“On the stone pillar at the front gate — there’s a barrier there, and only I can open it! Not even Jun Beiyue, with all his talent, could ever see through it!” Meng Wanyue insisted.

“Move! If you dare tell even half a lie, I’ll skin you alive!” Baili Weisheng said coldly, immediately releasing her from the chains and dragging her out the door.

Jue Mingzi watched and listened from the side, only half understanding, but seeing how urgent Ziqing was, he didn’t dare ask too many questions, simply following quietly behind.

The Innocent Abyss — it truly was an important location marked on the musician’s legacy map!

Leaving the prison, Ziqing didn’t have the Shadow Guards report to Jun Beiyue right away — instead, she ordered them to delay the report.

However venomous this birth mother might be, she never wanted Jun Beiyue to watch her fall so low without stepping in to help, and even less did she want Jun Beiyue to be the one to kill his own mother.

This wasn’t cruelty toward Meng Wanyue — it was mercy toward Jun Beiyue. He would carry that burden for the rest of his life otherwise, forever weighed down by the torment of his own conscience.

So many things happen outside the bounds of morality — and yet people always live within it.

The only solution was to avoid the confrontation entirely.

Ziqing knew that Jun Beiyue’s original intention had been to keep Meng Wanyue permanently on the Isle of Lingering Immortals, within a scope he himself could control. But now that the Jinjiao were involved, given Baili Weisheng’s temperament, there was no way he’d let this woman off easily.

Ziqing had no idea what choice Jun Beiyue would make, facing Baili Weisheng’s ruthlessness — if there had to be a choice made, if it had to be faced, she would face it in Jun Beiyue’s place.

Just as they were about to enter the water, Ziqing said flatly to Jue Mingzi, “You and Xiaosheng both stay here.”

No title, but no formal courtesy either — as though they’d known each other for years, entirely familiar.

Baili Xiaosheng had wanted to follow along, but seeing her master turn and shoot her a cold look, she immediately backed off.

“I’ll come along too — in case something goes wrong, an extra hand won’t hurt,” Jue Mingzi said, pulling out several silver needles and stepping forward to seal several acupoints on Meng Wanyue’s wrists, as well as several on her ankles. “These needles ought to be more than enough to keep her in line — no funny business out of her.”

Ziqing and Baili Weisheng exchanged a glance; seeing him nod, she agreed to let Jue Mingzi come along.

Baili Xiaosheng had followed her master for so long, and this was the first time she’d ever seen him look so terrifying, so deadly serious that he barely seemed like her master at all. She didn’t dare speak to him, instead tugging at Ziqing’s sleeve, whispering, “Auntie Ziqing, you all have to come back. Me and Xiong Bao, and Prince Yao, we’ll be waiting for you to come back.”

“We will, don’t worry. Make sure Xiong Bao and his daddy don’t worry either,” Ziqing said softly, then, without a backward glance, disappeared into the seawater alongside Baili Weisheng.

But no sooner had they left than Jun Beiyue and Xiong Bao came rushing over right behind them!

Xiong Bao stamped his feet in frustration. “That awful mommy, she’s a liar! She’s a cheater!”

Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed deeply, his sculpted features chillingly stern. He gave the order at once, “Someone — send word to the Dream Clan, tell the clan leader to come at once!”

The Shadow Guard departed to carry out the order, while father and son remained standing at the water’s edge, neither willing to leave.

By now, Ziqing and the others had already plunged into the deep waters of the Innocent Abyss, racing upward through the depths!

Everyone was shielded by Baili Weisheng’s golden radiance, like a streak of golden light cutting through the pitch-black depths, gradually drawing closer to the Jinjiao Palace!

At that moment, the Jinjiao Palace lay utterly silent — everything remained exactly as it had been two days earlier, unchanged.

The handful of Silver Jiao guards had already fled without a trace the moment the vortex had appeared!

With the Helian mother and son dead, the place was now steeped in deathly stillness.

Madam Jinjiao still sat slumped dazedly on the ground. Anyone able to see the barrier would surely have noticed it now covered in crimson handprints — the marks left by Madam Jinjiao’s own desperate pounding.

She’d been so close to leaving soon, but thanks to Meng Wanyue, she had no idea how much longer she’d be trapped, no idea when her son might ever return, or whether he’d ever discover her at all.

She stared blankly at the calm stretch of water before the Jinjiao Palace gates, longing so desperately to see that dazzling golden light again — that light belonging to the noblest of all the Jinjiao.

She even began to hallucinate, seeing the golden radiance burst forth, lighting up the entire sea, seeing her son escorting Meng Wanyue back, having finally found her…