At this early hour of dawn, such an urgent knock could only mean something serious.

Jun Beiyue opened the door to find Yingzi’s face full of panic, and his heart sank at once—Yingzi had gone to chase down Shiliang!

“What happened?” Ziqing asked, suspicion in her eyes.

Yingzi, both flustered and guilt-ridden, rushed forward in a single breath—but the moment he saw the princess consort, he remembered the poison-raising matter had to stay hidden from her forever.

“What is it—has the Beast Clan’s Second Young Master woken up?” Jun Beiyue, quick as ever, spoke first, mild and even.

“Yes, yes, exactly! Prince Nanzhao wants my lord to come at once—they’re about to begin the interrogation!” Yingzi added hastily.

“Ziqing, will you come?” Jun Beiyue turned to ask.

Just as he’d expected, Ziqing’s mind was entirely occupied with Lishang, her interest in the Second Young Master long since faded. “No, I need to rest. You two go ahead.”

Jun Beiyue gave a few instructions before hurrying off with Yingzi. They hadn’t gone far before Yingzi suddenly dropped to his knees. “My lord, this subordinate deserves death ten thousand times over—I’ve botched the whole affair!”

“Xuanyuan Lige took her?”

Yingzi didn’t dare look up at his lord’s face—the tone of that voice alone was enough to chill him to the bone. He knew this master’s temperament all too well; the leniency shown in front of the princess consort was strictly an exception.

There was no way Shiliang could have escaped right under Yingzi’s nose. Someone must have helped her.

Besides Xuanyuan Lige, who else could possibly have beaten him to it?

“No, my lord. It was a man in black, black hair, extremely skilled—but he kept dodging and evading the entire time, clearly hiding his true strength, careful not to reveal which school he trained under!” Yingzi explained hastily.

Jun Beiyue’s brow furrowed sharply. It was him—the same man in black who had appeared at the Qinse Sea Valley on Liuxian Island, and again in the back courtyard of the Bai Shi household!

He had actually tracked them all the way here—and had set his sights on Shiliang, of all people!

She was nothing more than a servant girl. If he didn’t know her worth, why would he bother abducting her?

This man in black was proving to be quite an interesting character indeed.

“My lord, this subordinate deserves to die!” Yingzi understood full well the consequences of losing Shiliang—it meant the entire poison-cultivation plan had come to nothing.

His lord had been willing to keep the princess consort in the dark for the rest of his life just to see this through—which showed just how important the matter truly was.

Yingzi had assumed he was finished, but to his surprise, Jun Beiyue didn’t fly into a rage at all. Instead, he let out a cold, faint laugh and said flatly, “Get up. Go prepare for our departure. Tomorrow, have Situ Haonan come see me. Don’t let him slip away first.”

With that, he turned and walked off, leaving Yingzi utterly baffled. What on earth was going on? His lord wasn’t even angry! And what business could he possibly have with Situ Haonan…

Yingzi’s story about the Second Young Master having awakened had been a lie—but as it happened, in that very moment, the Second Young Master truly was awake.

He was locked away in the deepest reaches of the heavenly prison, isolated from every other prisoner, surrounded on all four sides by walls that never saw the light of day. These walls were forged from a rare, mysterious dark iron—no matter how great one’s abilities, without a key, escape was impossible.

No one had been imprisoned here in a very, very long time. Legend had it that, long ago, this had once been the place where people of the lone island were kept.

In the darkness, the Second Young Master relied on his keen senses to locate the direction of the door, his cold eyes fixed and gleaming.

Suddenly, with a clang, the dark iron over the entrance slid open, and light immediately spilled through the bars. The Second Young Master instinctively raised a hand to block it—he didn’t even need to look to know who had come.

“So you’ve finally come,” he said with a cold laugh, looking for all the world like a trapped beast in the shadows, poised to retaliate at any moment.

The figure at the door laughed softly and, with an easy motion, cast off the black cloak. Beneath it was a robe of dreamlike, noble purple, three thousand strands of silver hair falling loosely about his shoulders—even in this filthy darkness, nothing could diminish his peerless elegance one bit.

It had been so long, Xuanyuan Lige.

Once his eyes adjusted to the light, the Second Young Master lowered his hand and looked at Xuanyuan Lige coldly. What was the Empress of Eastern Qin, in the end? The one he truly respected was Xuanyuan Lige.

He had always known that Xuanyuan Lige would eventually turn against that tyrannical empress—he simply hadn’t expected it to happen so soon!

“What is the secret of the Guyue Cave?” Xuanyuan Lige asked mildly.

He had done all of this for two purposes alone: first, to use the hands of the Empress of Eastern Qin and Chu Tiange to destroy Jun Beiyue; second, to uncover the secret of that totem—the secret of the lone island.

“And you’re so certain I know it?” the Second Young Master raised an eyebrow, his manner arrogant.

“Either you die here, or you tell me,” Xuanyuan Lige replied, even more arrogant than he was, looking down on him from on high as he always had.

The Second Young Master knew even more than the Beast Clan’s own chief; his beast-taming arts even surpassed the chief’s. He must have coveted the secret of the lone island for a very long time.

He had even broken into the Guyue Cave itself—could he really have seen nothing of note?

“Get me out of here first, or you’ll get nothing from me at all!” The Second Young Master was no fool; he laid out his terms immediately. He had wounded the Jiao Clan’s chief—the pettiest, most calculating man of the three clan chiefs—and there was no way he’d let that go. He had uncovered a secret that not even all three clan chiefs fully understood; how could Prince Nanzhao possibly spare him?

He had only one path left now—escape from the kingdom of Nanzhao! Otherwise, even if his father managed to save his life, he would spend the rest of it locked in this iron cage.

Negotiate terms? Xuanyuan Lige didn’t even bother to answer. He gave a cold smile and turned to leave.

The Second Young Master had no choice left. He called out at once, “I’ll tell you!”

Only then did Xuanyuan Lige stop, turning back to look at him in silence, waiting.

“Exactly as I’d already discovered before—there are two musical scores hidden in the cave. Have Consort Qin take you to find the divine musician named Siyu—she’ll tell you everything,” the Second Young Master said earnestly.

He himself had never had the chance to enter the Guyue Cave; only that divine musician, who had walked through the cave alongside Consort Qin and Chu Feiyan and the others, could truly discern what the scores actually were.

If he hadn’t bribed the divine musician guarding the Guyue Cave, he never would have been so certain there was a secret hidden behind that wall.

Hearing this, the faint smile at the corner of Xuanyuan Lige’s silent mouth deepened just slightly. Such a cold, aloof man—and yet whenever he smiled, it always carried a strange warmth.

He nodded, offered no further response whatsoever, and turned to leave at once.

“Xuanyuan Lige, the moment you get what you need, get me out of here!” the Second Young Master called after him urgently.

But Xuanyuan Lige, without so much as turning his head, spoke in a tone as light and indifferent as if remarking on something utterly unimportant. “There’s no need for you to come out anymore.”

The voice faded, the figure gone. The dark iron door slowly slid shut, and only after a long delay did a furious, beastlike roar finally erupt—though no one but Xuanyuan Lige ever heard it.

Outside the heavenly prison, Consort Qin’s carriage had been waiting for some time. With Chu Feiyan having fallen out of favor, Consort Qin’s standing was now second to none—coming and going from the prison was well within her power.

The moment she saw Xuanyuan Lige emerge in his black cloak, the heart she’d been holding suspended finally settled back into place.

She didn’t care in the least what secrets were involved. In a low voice, she said, “Let’s go back to the palace. We can’t linger here.”

A woman as beautiful as a flower, still in the full bloom of youth—how could she ever be willing to serve an old king out of true devotion?

Consort Qin’s heart belonged entirely to Xuanyuan Lige. She was utterly infatuated, willing to do anything for him, even willing to die for him.

“Go find the divine musician Siyu and get what she has. Tell her the Second Young Master sent you. Have it delivered to me outside the city,” Xuanyuan Lige said mildly.

“You’re leaving?” Consort Qin asked anxiously.

Xuanyuan Lige didn’t answer, only adding one more instruction. “Bring Wuzheng along too.”

With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Consort Qin gazing after him, lost in a daze…

…