The Fusang sacred tree had fallen. But rather than dwelling on why it had finally toppled, Ziqing and the others were far more curious about just how long the tree actually was.
The four of them moved in perfect coordination, following the trunk onward without a word. Xinyun sneered inwardly, trailing behind them.
She thought to herself that this group could never guess just how crucial the Fusang sacred tree truly was! They would never imagine that without Han Ziqing, no one—no matter how much strength they possessed—could ever have felled the Fusang sacred tree!
Only once the Fusang sacred tree fell would the true gateway to the illusion of Lament of Parting finally open!
She had waited for this very day for over twenty years, and at long last, it had come!
Ziqing and the others moved with their lightness skill along the way, Jun Beiyue in the lead, with everyone else practically chasing after him—one could only imagine how fast they were moving.
And yet, puzzlingly, several hours passed, and they still hadn’t reached the tree’s end!
Along the way, the fallen tree had crushed a good deal of farmland and quite a few houses—which was to be expected. What was truly astonishing, though, was that the enormous trunk had crashed straight over several mountains, its length continuing to pour upward and onward.
Suddenly, Jun Beiyue came to an abrupt halt, and those behind him nearly collided with him.
At that moment, the trunk beneath their feet stretched out like a massive staircase, rising from the base of the mountain, reaching up toward the clouds, with no end in sight.
“Beyond this mountain lies the west coast,” Jun Beiyue said, pointing it out. This very mountain had been their first stop when they’d originally arrived.
Everyone exchanged glances, all understanding that the trunk was now balanced on this final mountain as its fulcrum—beyond this point, they would likely have to climb all the way into the clouds.
At this moment, Xinyun walked over, asking curiously, “How strange, could it be that felling the tree to build the boat requires everyone to work together?” Surely they weren’t meant to build a boat from this entire massive trunk—they’d need to cut off a section to actually build one.
“Ziqing, try it yourself,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly at this point.
Ziqing, equally puzzled, nodded and was about to act. But just then, the entire trunk suddenly tilted with astonishing speed, using the nearby mountain as a fulcrum, swinging rapidly to the other side like a giant scale!
Jun Beiyue quickly grabbed Ziqing’s hand, Ziqing grabbed Baili Weisheng’s, and Baili Weisheng grabbed Xuanyuan Lige’s—together, they managed to steady themselves and avoid falling.
Xinyun, inevitably overlooked once again, fortunately used her barrier to steady herself on the trunk, narrowly avoiding being flung off by this sudden upheaval!
The trunk tilted with incredible speed, and before long, a thunderous boom rang out as the tree’s crown plunged into the water, sending up a spray of shallow waves, while the trunk’s far end shot up into the sky!
Ziqing and the others were standing at that very end. They had been on the eastern side of the mountain, and as the trunk swung, they were now tilted toward the western side. The group quickly released each other’s hands, leaping into the air one after another!
Yet before they could even catch their breath, everything before their eyes stunned them once more! Even though the crown of the Fusang sacred tree had already come down from the sky, they still couldn’t see its treetop—not even a corner of it!
Because, at this very moment, the tree’s crown had plunged straight into the ocean, causing a massive whirlpool!
Looking down from the air, the whirlpool looked like an enormous black hole, a bottomless abyss, or perhaps a tornado spinning within the sea itself!
Staring at it too long made one dizzy, made one afraid, terrified of a single misstep sending them plunging in, never to emerge again!
If Ziqing had paid closer attention, she would have surely noticed the barely concealed excitement and delight on Xinyun’s face at that moment.
Faced with such a dramatic upheaval, faced with such a terrifying scene, she showed no shock at all, no fear—only happiness, as if she understood everything about what was happening perfectly well.
But at this moment, Ziqing and the others had their attention entirely fixed on that massive whirlpool!
This whirlpool looked strangely familiar, as though they’d seen something like it somewhere before!
“The death whirlpool!” Baili Weisheng suddenly exclaimed. At these words, everyone remembered at once—this was the same whirlpool they’d once encountered in the boundless deep sea beneath the Innocent Ravine!
Only this whirlpool before them now was ten times larger than the one in the boundless deep sea!
Utterly terrifying—the high-speed spinning at the whirlpool’s center gave anyone who stared too long the feeling their very soul was being drawn away. And the whirlpool seemed to keep expanding outward, drawing in all the surrounding seawater, which then formed yet another ring of whirlpool!
If this continued, Ziqing and the others feared Liuxian Island itself might eventually be destroyed by such a massive force of water!
“Could there really be a connection?” Baili Weisheng murmured. The only survivors of the isolated island were the Nanzhao musician’s own lineage—Ziqing and her line—so where exactly had his own father come from?
Could this death whirlpool have any connection to that? Had his father lied to his mother, all those years ago?
What exactly was this death whirlpool? What connection did it have to the merfolk? And why would such a whirlpool appear in these very waters?
Baili Weisheng was full of doubts, unable to make sense of it—and the very same questions were exactly what Ziqing and the others were pondering too.
“Could it be…”
At that moment, Jun Beiyue and Xuanyuan Lige both spoke up at exactly the same time. Seeing the other about to speak, both fell silent again in unison. But Ziqing said, “Could it be that this legend was referring to this very sea route?”
Only a boat built from the Fusang sacred tree could reach the isolated island!
If it were an ordinary sea, any boat could sail through it—so why did it specifically require Fusang wood?
Jun Beiyue nodded. Xuanyuan Lige said with certainty, “As things stand, that’s the only possibility!”
Hearing their conclusion, Xinyun was quite satisfied. She couldn’t fully read this group, but at least she hadn’t misjudged them—they clearly possessed considerable information, and each one was sharper than the last!
“Let’s build the boat first, and worry about the rest later!” Jun Beiyue decided decisively.
This time, though, no one else helped—they let Ziqing try on her own. And sure enough, through her strength alone, she managed to successfully cut off the thickest section of the Fusang sacred tree’s trunk.
“Everything here was conjured by the Nanzhao musician’s illusion. Could it be… that only a direct descendant of the isolated island can touch any of this?” Xuanyuan Lige speculated.
“If that’s the case, then the secret of Lament of Parting really would be useless in anyone else’s hands!” Ziqing said with a smile.
Though they still didn’t understand what the Nanzhao musician had truly intended, they knew that given such an elaborate arrangement, his spirit was likely still within this illusion somewhere—and even if he wasn’t, he must have left something behind here for future generations to find.
Once the tree was cut, everyone began puzzling over how to build the boat.
“I don’t know the first thing about this. I’ll go scout ahead!” Baili Weisheng said.
“No, it’s too dangerous!” Ziqing immediately objected.
“That stretch of ocean below can indeed summon a death whirlpool. I suspect the one on the surface is connected to it below. Don’t worry, nothing in the sea can hurt me!” Baili Weisheng said with a smile.