These chains—placed on himself, by himself?
To prevent his soul from scattering?
Hearing Nangong Jun’s explanation, everyone’s guard finally relaxed. Seeing the musician in this state, they couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity, of compassion.
What crime had the musician committed, to end up in such a state?
“Heh, if you’d arrived even a few steps later, you might never have seen me at all!” Bai Ziyou said with a smile.
Ziqing found that this musician’s temperament was quite similar to Nangong Jun’s—both gentle and prone to smiling, both tender men.
Ziqing could clearly tell that Bai Ziyou had been studying her all along. After hesitating a moment, she finally spoke up. “I… have I heard your voice somewhere before?” At this, Bai Ziyou smiled. “Perhaps in a dream.”
Ziqing frowned deeply. She could tell Bai Ziyou was joking, but she said nothing, simply frowning at him.
“It was I who brought you back here. Your gift for music, your spiritual strength—they can break through every barrier I’ve set,” the Prince of Nanzhao’s musician finally said seriously.
“You mean…” Ziqing’s first thought went immediately to time-travel, but seeing that Bai Ziyou hadn’t said it outright, she kept her mouth shut as well.
After all, explaining something like time-travel would be far too complicated, and she didn’t want Jun Beiyue to worry.
“My strength won’t hold out much longer. Fortunately, you’ve arrived,” Bai Ziyou said, utterly serious.
The atmosphere, which had been light and joking a moment ago, suddenly turned heavy.
His strength wouldn’t hold out much longer—then could he still send them away? Could he still maintain the Lishang Illusion Realm?
Could he still keep the Great Gu Master contained?
After all, once the Great Gu Master’s spirit left the Lishang Illusion Realm and found her true body, she would become a true human-gu—body and soul merged. That was something Baili Weisheng and Nangong Jun working together could never suppress!
Though it was said that Nangong Jun and Baili Weisheng had jointly subdued the Great Gu Master, at its core, it was still Bai Ziyou who had trapped her.
Bai Ziyou’s earnestness weighed heavily on everyone. Looking at his weakened spirit, his body bound in chains, they couldn’t bring themselves to press him further.
And yet, Ziqing had one question she’d been holding onto—she had to ask it now.
“I suppose I should call you great-grandfather,” Ziqing said flatly. She wasn’t even sure exactly how many generations removed he was—the word “great” seemed to cover it well enough.
Bai Ziyou laughed. “Girl, if you’d rather just call me Bai Ziyou, I’d be happy with that too.”
Such an approachable elder. And yet Ziqing didn’t smile, asking with great seriousness, “I want to know—why did it have to be me you brought here, why did you wait for me specifically? The people of the solitary island clan are all dead, the Great Gu Master is trapped here—this place isn’t heaven, it’s full of danger, full of sorrow. What did you bring me here for?”
The dozen or so musical notes Bai Ziyou had left behind back then had said that Lishang would bring them home, to a place without sorrow.
But in reality, everything was completely different!
“Don’t tell me you only wanted me to come see everything that happened back then, to see the truth!” Ziqing pressed on.
She had originally thought she might find the people of the solitary island clan still alive, that she might be able to save them!
But everything had turned out nothing like she’d imagined.
If it was only about revealing the truth, why hadn’t the Prince of Nanzhao’s musician passed it down to his descendants back then? Why could he pass down both Wuzheng and Xuezheng, but not the truth itself?
This was something Ziqing had been unable to figure out ever since seeing everything in the Lishang Illusion Realm and learning the truth of the solitary island.
The moment Ziqing said this, Jun Beiyue glanced at her silently. Though his expression remained unchanged, he too had the same question.
For a moment, the already-silent cave grew even more silent.
Xinyun looked at Ziqing for a long while, feeling a stirring admiration—she had been on the solitary island for so long, yet she’d never once considered this question.
Then, amid the silence, Bai Ziyou suddenly laughed. “What if I told you it was for a selfish reason of my own—would you believe me?”
“What selfish reason?” Ziqing asked seriously.
“I wanted him to leave.” As Bai Ziyou spoke, he looked toward Nangong Jun—and that look, Xuanyuan Lige understood at once. It was the look shared between kindred spirits, between soulmates who understood each other.
Nangong Jun had originally had nothing to do with any of this—simply because he could accompany Bai Ziyou in duet, he’d been dragged into it for no reason, bound to it for a lifetime.
How could Bai Ziyou bear to trap him here for a lifetime, to ruin his whole life?
Lishang was Bai Ziyou’s own composition, so when he played it, he himself was unaffected—but Nangong Jun would inevitably be drawn into the Lishang Illusion Realm.
So when he invited Nangong Jun to play Lishang together, he had already planned everything, hoping that a descendant would eventually come to the Lishang Illusion Realm.
Back then, Xinyun had begged and pleaded desperately for Bai Ziyou to let Nangong Jun leave—but in truth, Bai Ziyou had already intended this all along!
Otherwise, imagine how cautious a person Bai Ziyou was—would he really have risked opening the exit of the Lishang Illusion Realm on a whim?
His agreement to Xinyun’s plea had been nothing more than an excuse.
He himself had wanted Nangong Jun to leave.
Whatever Nangong Jun went on to do once he left, Bai Ziyou didn’t care—he only wanted Nangong Jun gone; he didn’t want to hold him back.
Jun Beiyue, Baili Weisheng, even Xinyun—all listened with expressions of disbelief, never imagining that after going in such a huge circle, this was the actual reason!
And yet, Xuanyuan Lige understood, and Ziqing understood too—only those who truly knew music, who were kindred musical spirits, could understand this.
Ziqing smiled. “I can accept that reason!”
Bai Ziyou smiled too—it seemed he hadn’t chosen the wrong person.
But a complicated look flashed through Nangong Jun’s eyes. He smiled helplessly along with them, saying nothing.
At this point, Jun Beiyue, who had remained silent all along, spoke up. “Elder, what I want to know more is how to break the soul-capturing melody, and how to break the illusion melody.”
Clearly, this was the matter Jun Beiyue cared about more.
“So you already know about the soul-capturing and illusion melodies,” Bai Ziyou said, glancing at Xuanyuan Lige.
The distinctive aura carried by the owner of Xuezheng, the owner of Wuzheng—he could smell it.
At this, Xuanyuan Lige stepped forward and explained to Bai Ziyou the melody he had composed, Shang Li, and the whole process of how they had entered the Lishang Illusion Realm.
As Bai Ziyou listened, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter, and he glanced toward Xuanyuan Lige from time to time. When Xuanyuan Lige finished, he remained silent, his expression giving nothing away, impossible to read.
Xuanyuan Lige, being like this, suddenly gave Ziqing a sense of distance. Ziqing felt a vague unease, sensing something was wrong, but unable to put her finger on it.
“If we leave the Lishang Illusion Realm, how do we then leave the Shang Li Illusion Realm?” Jun Beiyue asked again, with great caution.
Everything concerning the solitary island had been resolved—their group couldn’t afford any missteps now. After all, none of them had ever lived solely for the sake of the solitary island.
But Bai Ziyou, brow still furrowed, suddenly smiled. “Don’t worry, you’ll all make it back. Let me think it over—how best to do it.”