If not for the strangeness of her hands, Ziqing might never have given this question a second thought.

But right now, seeing her hands perfectly intact before her, she suddenly realized something was wrong.

She had always assumed that when they entered Xuanyuan Lige’s illusion of “Sorrow of Parting,” it was their true, physical bodies that had entered — real flesh and blood.

And yet now, only now, did she realize something didn’t add up.

Whether an enchanting melody or a soul-seizing composition, both worked by controlling a person’s consciousness, their soul — everything that happened within the illusion took place entirely within the realm of consciousness; the physical body itself was never truly involved!

If that were true, then why, when they entered the illusion Xuanyuan Lige had created with “Sorrow of Parting,” had it been their physical bodies that entered? Perhaps they had misunderstood the whole thing from the start — perhaps it was, in truth, only their souls that had entered?

And now, entering the illusion of “Parting Sorrow” itself — had their souls been seized once more, or had their true, physical bodies genuinely entered this time?

If it truly was only their souls that had entered, not their bodies, then how were they meant to leave?

Ziqing kept careful track — it had now been seven or eight days since they’d first entered the illusion of “Sorrow of Parting.”

Throughout these seven or eight days, had their physical bodies remained the whole while back in the zither pavilion, in the capital of Da Zhou?

Just as Ziqing stood there, staring at her own hands, lost in thought, Xuanyuan Lige’s anxious voice suddenly rang out. “Ziqing, how are your hands?”

“Hands?” Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed, and he grabbed Ziqing’s hands to examine them — finding nothing at all wrong.

Xuanyuan Lige hurried over from the side, and seeing Ziqing’s hands perfectly intact, let out a sigh of relief at once!

“What’s going on?” Jun Beiyue asked.

Ziqing explained the situation, and Jun Beiyue, still uneasy, checked her hands over several more times before finally satisfied nothing was wrong, then asked, “Why would this happen? Could it be that we entered as souls after all?”

At this, Baili Weisheng immediately shook his head. “Impossible! If we’d entered as souls, then we would already have been souls from the moment we entered the illusion of ‘Sorrow of Parting’ — both ‘Sorrow of Parting’ and ‘Parting Sorrow’ are soul-seizing compositions! If we’d suddenly entered as souls just now, Ziqing’s hands wouldn’t have been injured at all!”

“But they’re fine now?” Ziqing murmured to herself.

At this point, Xuanyuan Lige, whose face had remained tense and drawn this whole while, finally smiled. “Ziqing, that was merely a hallucination.”

A hallucination?

Ziqing froze for a moment, and then immediately understood!

They had entered with their physical bodies both times — into the illusion of “Sorrow of Parting,” and now into the illusion of “Parting Sorrow” as well. They had always been real, flesh-and-blood beings throughout. It was only that, moments ago, while playing “Parting Sorrow,” Ziqing’s bleeding fingers, the blood flowing backward — that had merely been a hallucination brought on by the piece itself, not something truly real at all!

And so, once “Parting Sorrow” had ended and they had entered the illusion of “Parting Sorrow,” the hallucination had naturally vanished as well, and Ziqing’s hands remained, of course, perfectly fine!

“Does it still hurt?” Jun Beiyue’s entire focus remained on Ziqing’s hands, holding hers and shaking them gently. Though they hadn’t been ruined, playing for so long would surely still have taken its toll!

“I’m fine!”

Ziqing shook her hands out. Though they still ached faintly, she felt satisfied nonetheless, letting out a quiet sigh of relief, and smiled. “I suppose we misunderstood the whole thing. ‘Parting Sorrow’ isn’t a piece of grief at all — it’s a piece of tragic grandeur, one that gives rise to hope out of despair. The zither master must have brought the wandering souls of his people here, to this very place.”

“Then why is it that we, who aren’t wandering spirits, were able to enter as well?” Jun Beiyue had wanted to ask this very question just moments ago — or, more precisely, what he really wanted to ask was, “Can we get out of here at all? How exactly are we supposed to leave?”

Though they hadn’t been gone even ten days, he’d made certain arrangements before leaving the Imperial Study that day, enough to cover an absence of at least a month. But they’d never anticipated that playing “Parting Sorrow” would lead to all of this — and they hadn’t left a single word of explanation with anyone at the estate!

It amounted to disappearing without a trace, without so much as a farewell — and thinking of this, the very first person to come to Jun Beiyue’s mind was Xiong Xiaobao!

Knowing Xiong Xiaobao as he did, that boy would absolutely not stay in Nanzhao for long. If he returned home to find no one there, what on earth would he do?

“How exactly are we supposed to leave?” Ziqing murmured, voicing the very question Jun Beiyue had left unspoken.

At these words, everyone was startled into awareness — there was no denying it: not only had Ziqing and Jun Beiyue failed to consider this question, but Xuanyuan Lige and Baili Weisheng hadn’t given it any thought either!

And now, having entered the illusion, they found themselves with no idea at all where the path back home might lie.

This… was a truly serious problem!

For a moment, all four of them fell silent. This wasn’t a question they could simply reason their way out of, after all — none of them had any real familiarity with any of this!

Even Xuanyuan Lige only truly understood enchanting melodies — he had no real knowledge of soul-seizing compositions at all.

The silence grew heavier and heavier with each passing moment. Neither Ziqing nor Jun Beiyue wanted to dwell on the consequences of never being able to leave this place — the thought was simply too terrifying!

After a long while, it was Baili Weisheng who finally broke the silence. “Alright, alright — since we’re already here, might as well make the best of it! Worst case, we drag someone out and ask them a few questions! I’d bet the Nanzhao zither master himself is somewhere around here!”

Though the Nanzhao zither master hadn’t perished alongside the rest of the deserted island’s people, it was he who had composed “Parting Sorrow” — and if, after his death, his own soul had entered the illusion of “Parting Sorrow,” that shouldn’t be difficult to imagine at all!

The moment Baili Weisheng said this, Ziqing and Jun Beiyue both turned to look at Xuanyuan Lige at once, as though struck by the same thought.

And at the very same moment, Xuanyuan Lige seemed to understand as well, murmuring to himself, “Could it be that, because of my bond with the enchanted zither… my soul, after death, never truly scattered into nothingness at all, but instead remained here, within the very soul-seizing illusion I myself had created!”

This theory, chilling as it was, offered a reasonable explanation for why Xuanyuan Lige existed within the illusion of “Sorrow of Parting” in the first place.

And if this theory held true, then without question, the soul of the Nanzhao zither master must also exist somewhere within the illusion of “Parting Sorrow” — right here, in this very world alongside them, as its true master!

At once, everyone grew tense with excitement!

Everything about the deserted island, all the truth they had struggled for so long to uncover, the mystery they’d never been able to unravel — even the question of why the three of them, still very much living and breathing, had managed to enter this soul-seizing illusion at all, and how they might possibly leave it — it all seemed, suddenly, to have an answer!

And that answer lay with the Nanzhao zither master!

At once, the heavy atmosphere lifted, growing brighter with renewed hope. Xuanyuan Lige looked around at everything surrounding them — the mountains and forests, the cliffs, the ocean, all of it as real as the true world itself — and let out a relieved, easy smile. “This journey certainly won’t have been for nothing!”

“The souls of his people must surely be here as well. I’ve always wondered — if souls could be gathered into an illusion like this, how could an entire island, a real, physical piece of land, simply vanish without a trace from the middle of the ocean? Ha, once we find that zither master, we’ll have to give him a proper interrogation!” Baili Weisheng said with a laugh. As a member of the Jiao clan himself, being unable to explain something that had happened out on the ocean was, admittedly, more than a little embarrassing!

At this point, Jun Beiyue spoke up thoughtfully. “Doesn’t this place seem oddly familiar to you all?”

“Is that so?” Ziqing wondered, puzzled. They stood atop a high mountain cliff overlooking the sea, forest behind them, a vast expanse of white ocean stretched out before them — this kind of scenery was common enough, nothing particularly distinctive about it at all!

As she spoke, she walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down — and the moment she did, she froze, crying out in shock, “How can this possibly be here?!”