Seeing Ziqing turn back, the heart that had been suspended in midair inside Consort Yiqing finally settled. At the very least, she could be certain now that Han Ziqing would spare her.
Ziqing deliberately walked back and sat down. Jun Beiyue watched, rubbing his chin with amusement, and sat down some distance away without a word, giving nothing away. He knew that Ziqing had a reason for pushing Consort Yiqing to the very brink like this.
Consort Yiqing glanced at Jun Beiyue before finally speaking. “The origin of the Charm Incense and the secret of the emblem are both bound up in a single object.”
As she spoke, she offered no further explanation, but instead drew out from her sleeve something she had kept hidden close to her body all along, presenting it to Ziqing with both hands.
It was an exquisitely small box, no bigger than half a palm, gleaming gold all over, carved with a design of a dragon and phoenix intertwined. It looked very much like a rouge box, yet it seemed a bit too small for that purpose.
Ziqing eyed it with suspicion, took it, and opened it to look inside — the interior was extremely shallow, nowhere near enough space to hold anything of substance. What exactly was this, and what did Consort Yiqing mean by giving it to her?
Judging from the style of the carving, there was no way to tell where it had come from, nor even what era it belonged to — such patterns and materials were far too common. All she could tell for certain was that it must have come from a wealthy household.
Ziqing glanced at Consort Yiqing, and caught a flicker of smugness in her eyes. Consort Yiqing had expected to be questioned, but to her surprise, Ziqing said nothing, continuing instead to examine the small case carefully — until, before long, she turned it over to look at the underside.
And that was when things got interesting.
The base of the case bore none other than that very same mysterious emblem!
“This is… the box that holds the Charm Incense?” Ziqing blurted out, guessing as much — and even Jun Beiyue beside her was startled.
Though resentful, Consort Yiqing couldn’t help but feel a flicker of admiration for Ziqing. “As expected, you’re clever. This case is indeed the box that holds the Charm Incense — obtained from Yaoshun Island in the eastern sea.”
At those words, Jun Beiyue finally spoke up. “Eastern Qin’s Yaoshun Island!”
Ever since the age of fifteen, he had not only had the entire political landscape of the Longyuan continent memorized in full, but had also thoroughly studied the temperaments, preferences, histories, and achievements of every ruler across all the nations. Yaoshun Island had been a major turning point in the life of the Empress of Eastern Qin — of course he knew of it.
“Precisely Eastern Qin’s territory. The Charm Incense is something unique to that isolated island — no one knows how to decipher its formula, and no one has ever managed to replicate it. Very few genuine samples remain in the world. I spent a full five years searching for it before I finally found some,” Consort Yiqing said flatly.
“How did you find it?” Jun Beiyue’s eyes narrowed slightly. He was already an extraordinarily dangerous man, and with his deep eyes narrowed like that, an invisible, bone-chilling sense of menace radiated from him.
“It’s a long story. In any case, I found it!”
Consort Yiqing didn’t dare meet Jun Beiyue’s eyes directly. Her desire for Jun Beiyue’s death wasn’t something that had developed over a day or two, nor even over a year or two. Ever since Jun Beiyue had ridden a thousand miles alone at the age of fifteen to quell the rebellion in the northern territories of Youyun and earned Emperor Tianhui’s trust and favor, Consort Yiqing had harbored murderous intent toward him.
But killing Jun Beiyue — how could that possibly be easy?
Never mind Jun Beiyue’s own martial prowess — just the shadow guards constantly at his side, and Nangong Haonan who was so often with him, were more than enough to keep Consort Yiqing’s hired assassins from daring to even approach.
Assassination was essentially out of the question!
As for using someone else’s hand to kill him — in Da Zhou, the only person with the authority to execute Jun Beiyue was Emperor Tianhui himself, and Emperor Tianhui was no senile fool easily manipulated by Consort Yiqing.
So poison was the only option left!
But poisoning Jun Beiyue wasn’t easy either — he maintained the closest relationship with the Poison Clan of Nanzhao out of anyone in Da Zhou, indeed out of anyone on the entire Longyuan continent. What poison in this world could possibly stump the Poison Clan of Nanzhao?
Consort Yiqing had racked her brains over this, even hunting down all manner of poisons — because some poisons were so potent that even the Poison Clan itself couldn’t cure them!
But in the end, Consort Yiqing still didn’t choose an ordinary poison, because — even if the Poison Clan might not be able to cure it, there was still at least some hope of a cure.
Consort Yiqing wanted to leave Jun Beiyue with not even a shred of hope. She was determined he would die, absolutely.
In the end, she settled on the Charm Incense — a substance that no one, apart from the people of the isolated island who created it, could ever hope to cure.
The isolated island was one of Nanzhao’s forbidden places, the most unfamiliar region — and people — on the entire Longyuan continent. Only that could guarantee Jun Beiyue would have no hope of a cure whatsoever.
And the Charm Incense could be transmitted through intimate relations between a man and a woman. Consort Yiqing had specifically taken aim at Jun Beiyue’s habit of never touching a woman. She had even gone so far as to risk bribing women within Prince Yao’s estate — the purest, most untouched of them — to seduce and poison him through the Charm Incense at the first opportunity.
She never could have imagined that he wouldn’t even return to his estate that night, but would instead go to the most exclusive pleasure house in the capital, the House of National Beauty.
And what she least expected of all was that he would end up with Han Ziqing there. And even less expected than that — that Han Ziqing would turn out to possess a constitution immune to all poisons, reacting to the Charm Incense entirely differently from an ordinary person!
“You obtained it from Yaoshun Island?” Ziqing asked earnestly.
“Yes! The Charm Incense truly does come from Yaoshun Island. The emblem on the back of that case is the very emblem found in the Sea Goddess’s temple on Yaoshun Island,” Consort Yiqing said, having finally revealed both secrets in exchange for her own life.
Ziqing turned the small case over in her hands, and looked over at Jun Beiyue.
Yaoshun Island, like Liuxian Island, could not be entered on a whim — its rules were even far stricter than those of Liuxian Island. The entire island was ringed by cliffs so tall they seemed to pierce the clouds, with only a single narrow harbor allowing entry. It was a sacred island with a small population, devoted to worship of the Sea Goddess, ruled by the High Priestess of the Sea Goddess’s temple. Even though it had nominally submitted to Eastern Qin’s rule many years ago, it remained subordinate in name only, never truly conquered. Yaoshun Island was extremely insular — even the Eastern Qin imperial family couldn’t set foot on the island simply because they wished to.
Everything Consort Yiqing described, Ziqing already knew. Whenever Jun Beiyue had free time, he would pull out maps and tell her about every corner of Longyuan, so of course she was already familiar with this island.
Yaoshun Island wasn’t a place one could simply visit at will — even getting close to the people on the island, or obtaining news from it, was no easy matter.
Where on earth had Consort Yiqing found the means to obtain something from Yaoshun Island?
Seeing the look in Ziqing’s eyes, Jun Beiyue smiled. “Consort Yiqing, tell us — what did you trade for Jun Beichen’s life?”
If Han Ziqing ever went into business, she would undoubtedly become an extraordinarily shrewd merchant!
Consort Yiqing had come to surrender of her own accord for two reasons: first, she truly had no one else who could save Jun Beichen, and second, of course, she’d been running her own calculations too.
Two secrets in exchange for three conditions — and once they couldn’t gain entry to Yaoshun Island themselves, wouldn’t they eventually have to come begging her instead?
And just now, even though Ziqing had been desperately eager to learn the secrets, she had put on an air of utter indifference, as if to say “take it or leave it, makes no difference to me” — completely exhausting the last of Consort Yiqing’s bargaining leverage. One couldn’t help but admit just how shrewd Ziqing truly was.
Consort Yiqing had originally planned to reveal her leverage herself and gloat a little, but instead Jun Beiyue had beaten her to it, leaving her chest tight with frustration. She said dejectedly, “It was a strange old man who arranged it for me. I spent every last coin of the harem’s cosmetics allowance for five years just to get my hands on it!”
Hearing this, Ziqing — who never usually let her emotions show — finally revealed a flicker of urgency. “Who was that old man? Where is he now?”