Seeing Nangong Jun close his eyes and fall silent, Xinyun, though she longed to speak to him, held herself back, quietly watching him sleep—this was the last happiness she would have.
In this moment, Xinyun wished more than anything that dawn would never come.
And just then, a melodious sound of a zither drifted in from somewhere, like a lullaby—gentle, tranquil, imparting a sense of peace and calm.
Only, the sound seemed to come from far away.
Was it Bai Ziyou playing the zither?
Xinyun found herself listening intently, but as she listened, she gradually, unknowingly, lost consciousness and fell asleep.
The night was so still.
At the cave entrance, wrapped in the soul-soothing melody, Ziqing and the others had also fallen asleep without realizing it—perhaps they’d simply been too exhausted.
But Xuanyuan Lige remained awake. He lay stretched out like the others, between Ziqing and Baili Weisheng, gazing up at the glittering starry sky, listening to the melodious, tranquil tune, as if lost in thought, or perhaps waiting for something.
After a good while, he carefully sat up. Strangely, though, neither Ziqing, nor Baili Weisheng, nor Jun Beiyue seemed to notice any movement at all!
Even spirits could grow tired!
But if Jun Beiyue and the others had succumbed to exhaustion and fallen asleep, why did Xuanyuan Lige look so wide awake?
What was going on?
Could it be because of this soul-soothing melody?
But why hadn’t Xuanyuan Lige fallen asleep, why was he still so alert?
What was he planning to do? What was Bai Ziyou planning?
Xuanyuan Lige sat up, but didn’t rise right away. Instead, he gazed at the sleeping Ziqing for a long, long time before reaching out, gently brushing his fingertips across her face, lingering, reluctant, full of longing.
In the dim light, his pale, silent face carried a faint sorrow, a faint tenderness, a faint sense of calm resignation.
No telling how long he watched her, how long he gently caressed her, before he carefully took her hand in his.
Strangely, though, Ziqing didn’t notice at all, didn’t wake.
Xuanyuan Lige held her hand, tracing over it finger by finger, almost reverently, and finally pressed a light kiss to the back of her hand—the faintest, dragonfly-touch kiss. Even if it cost him his very existence, he couldn’t bear to let her go, and yet, he still let go, like a true gentleman.
“Ziqing, if in the next life our fate is still this thin, then… let’s just not meet again,” he said flatly, laughing to himself.
Setting her hand back down, he glanced at Jun Beiyue beside her, murmuring quietly, “Jun Beiyue, this time, I’m truly entrusting her to you.”
With that, he lingered no longer, standing and walking toward the depths of the cave.
But just then, Baili Weisheng suddenly muttered something in his sleep. “Xiao Lili!”
Xuanyuan Lige froze in his tracks, turning to look. Baili Weisheng was sound asleep, murmuring—heaven knew what he was dreaming about.
“Xiao Lili… heh heh, I’m not undoing your acupoints. If I let you go and you kill yourself, what am I supposed to do?”
“Heh heh!”
As he muttered in his sleep, Baili Weisheng’s smile was genuinely foolish.
He must be dreaming of the past, of when he’d saved Xuanyuan Lige and sealed his acupoints, sending him off to Mingsha Cave.
“I never wanted to kill myself…” Xuanyuan Lige murmured back unconsciously, none of the old anger left, smiling without even realizing he was smiling even more foolishly than Baili Weisheng.
But he didn’t linger, slowly turning to leave.
Yet, at that very instant, Baili Weisheng suddenly shouted out, “Xiao Lili, I’m going to take you home!”
At these words, Xuanyuan Lige’s fists clenched abruptly, all the reluctance he’d been suppressing in his heart surging up at once. His naturally cool, distant eyes suddenly welled with tears, rims turning red.
Yet, in the end, Xuanyuan Lige didn’t turn back. He stood there for a long moment, sniffed, waved a hand behind him, and murmured, “Scholar… next life, still brothers.”
With that, he strode forward into the depths of the cave. As he passed by Nangong Jun, he glanced at him, lips curving into a faint smile, but didn’t stop, continuing onward.
The deeper into the cave he went, the clearer the melodious sound became, yet Xuanyuan Lige remained completely unaffected by it.
There, Bai Ziyou sat, dragging his chains, fingers moving heavily and slowly across the strings, and yet, despite the heaviness and slowness, the music that emerged carried no trace of sluggishness or heaviness at all—only a smooth, flowing melody.
Xuanyuan Lige looked down at Bai Ziyou’s fingers, saying nothing. Bai Ziyou continued playing earnestly, likewise silent.
Only when the soul-soothing melody came to an end did Bai Ziyou look up at him, a flash of pity in his eyes, and smiled. “Aren’t you curious why I asked you to come?”
Clearly, Bai Ziyou had put everyone else to sleep, wanting to see Xuanyuan Lige alone.
But without Bai Ziyou even needing to call for him, Xuanyuan Lige had already appeared before him—and so calmly, at that.
“The soul-capturing melody—I suppose it needs my soul to break it,” Xuanyuan Lige said flatly, so direct, and yet so calm, that it made Bai Ziyou suck in a sharp breath. “You… already know?”
“Back when Ziqing finished playing Shang Li, and the Shang Li Illusion Realm still hadn’t broken, I already suspected. Now, your attitude has confirmed it,” Xuanyuan Lige said.
Xuanyuan Lige knew Lishang even better than Ziqing did, and though he wasn’t as familiar with the soul-capturing melody, the tune Shang Li had been his own composition after all!
He knew, more or less, everything there was to know. And when Bai Ziyou had said he would answer them tomorrow, he’d known it was merely a stalling tactic.
Tonight, without fail, Bai Ziyou would come looking for him.
Bai Ziyou frowned slightly, then broke into a smile. “No wonder you’re the one who could form a contract with Xuezheng!”
As he spoke, with a wave of his hand, a phantom image of Xuezheng appeared out of thin air before Xuanyuan Lige. Soon, the phantom solidified, becoming utterly real.
Xuanyuan Lige sat down, raised a hand, and gently rested it on the strings. The moment he plucked them, Xuezheng let out the sound he knew so well.
In this moment, he smiled—like a flower blooming in an instant, pure and clean, neither joyful nor sorrowful.
Xuanyuan Lige didn’t ask anything, but Bai Ziyou explained anyway. “The soul-capturing melody captures the soul. If you all hadn’t played Lishang within the Shang Li Illusion Realm, hadn’t entered the Lishang Illusion Realm, then you would only need to break Xuezheng’s strings within the Shang Li Illusion Realm, and the illusion realm would naturally shatter on its own.”
Xuanyuan Lige’s fingers froze slightly, but he said nothing.
“If you hadn’t played Lishang within the Shang Li Illusion Realm, but had played Lishang directly instead, I could send you away right now. Unfortunately… for all of you, the Lishang Illusion Realm exists within the Shang Li Illusion Realm—it’s an illusion realm within an illusion realm! So… only by first breaking your soul, breaking the Shang Li Illusion Realm, can you then escape the Lishang Illusion Realm.”
At this, Xuanyuan Lige only nodded—everything was exactly as he’d guessed.
Seeing Xuanyuan Lige so calm, Bai Ziyou’s tone suddenly turned cold as he asked, “Why must you insist on letting them leave, while you alone fade into ash and nothingness? You still have other choices.”