“The Qinse Sea Valley, the ancient music cavern of Nanzhao—what did you find there?” Yanzi couldn’t help but interject, unable to wait any longer to learn whether those remnants of the Lone Island had left behind any trace of Lishang’s secret!

The relic she herself guarded had left behind nothing at all!

For generations, all her family had ever known was that they must guard that place for Nanzhao’s sake—guarding a secret called Lishang, guarding a secret about cultivating Gu—and nothing more!

Yet a place with nothing at all had, for some reason, required generation after generation of her family to guard it!

Hearing Yanzi’s words, Xuanyuan Lige was greatly alarmed inwardly, forcing himself with great effort to conceal his shock!

From what he had learned from Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang, he knew that the guardians of the Lone Island’s remnants were each guarding a portion of Lishang’s secret—guarding the true musical score itself!

Jiao Cha guarded those twelve characters, those thirty scrolls of wave sounds; Mu Fusang guarded the musical notation carved into the trunk of the sacred Fusang tree; and the Nanzhao royal family, who guarded the ancient music valley, also held two more sections of the score!

Even if Yanzi didn’t know exactly what secret lay within the score, she surely should at least know that a score existed at all!

Could it be that the relic she guarded had no score at all?

What exactly was the place she guarded—and what exactly was she protecting?

The scores Ziqing had found so far already numbered sixty scrolls. All he himself knew of were the two sections from the ancient music cavern of Nanzhao; as for what Jiao Cha and Mu Fusang had given Ziqing, he had never even seen those.

With his own abilities, discovering the missing sections within Lishang’s climax was simply beyond him.

In truth, when it came to this score of Lishang, he knew he understood far less than Ziqing did.

How could he draw the truth out of Yanzi’s mouth?

The climax held only forty scrolls in total. No matter how unusual Lishang was, it still could not defy the fundamental laws of musical theory—divided according to those laws, these forty scrolls could only be split into two parts.

Which meant there were still two missing sections within Lishang.

He had once believed these two sections would be found at Mingsha Mountain in Xijing, and on Yaoshun Island out in the Eastern Sea!

But Yanzi’s appearance had cast doubt on his own assumptions!

Either Yanzi came from some relic entirely unknown to them—

Or Yanzi came from either Mingsha Mountain or Yaoshun Island, and that particular place simply had no score at all!

Xuanyuan Lige glanced toward the corner, then drew from his sleeve a hand-copied musical score—nothing other than Lishang itself, which he had later written out entirely from memory!

The moment he spread it open, Yanzi grew immediately excited. “This is Lishang!”

“Yes, take a look…”

As Xuanyuan Lige spoke, the black-clad man, who had been standing in the corner with his back against the wall and arms crossed, walked over as well.

It was a remarkably clean copy of the score, with no corrections at all—only a few breaks marked in vermilion red.

A calculating gleam flickered in Xuanyuan Lige’s eyes as he said earnestly, “Every place I’ve marked is where the score has a missing note. The missing sound is the secret itself!”

The marks Xuanyuan Lige had made were all simple red dots—even someone well-versed in music theory would have no way of knowing what these marks actually represented.

How much less could Yanzi, who had little familiarity with either Lishang or music theory in general, hope to understand?

She counted carefully. “Seven places—which means you’ve already found seven notes? Found at the Qinse Sea Valley and the ancient music cavern?”

“Yes, these relics all hold genuine records of the score. Just one more note remains to complete the set. That note is either at the imperial family’s Mingsha Mountain in Xijing…”

At this point, Xuanyuan Lige deliberately paused.

“Or where?” Yanzi asked at once.

“Or, on Yaoshun Island!” Xuanyuan Lige said, then immediately added, “Wherever it is, there’s no time to lose—whoever gets there first, gets it.”

This time, Yanzi didn’t answer right away. She shot the black-clad man a wary glance—just a glance, but Xuanyuan Lige caught it nonetheless.

Seeing that neither of them spoke, Xuanyuan Lige slowly rolled up the score of Lishang and said flatly, “I’ve told you everything I intended to. Yanzi, shouldn’t you now tell me what exactly it is you guard?”

So-called allies were nothing more than people who hadn’t yet become enemies—nothing more than people who still held some use for the moment!

Yanzi understood this principle well, and Xuanyuan Lige understood it even better than she did!

Knowing full well that Yanzi wouldn’t answer, Xuanyuan Lige asked anyway.

Yanzi skillfully sidestepped the question, asking instead, “These seven notes—what are they?”

Just as he suspected—she only knew that the emblem on the face represented immunity to all poisons; she had no idea that what Lishang lacked were the two emblems of yin and yang.

Xuanyuan Lige generously wrote out the seven ancient musical symbols, then beside them wrote the six characters “Yaoshun Island” and “Mingsha Mountain.” The black-clad man glanced over, and only then did he look directly at Xuanyuan Lige. “What do these represent?”

“A single character’s difference can mean a world of difference. After the New Year comes the imperial ceremony of Xijing’s royal family, praying for rain at the sands. Perhaps we should go to Xijing first,” Xuanyuan Lige continued probing, tapping his finger on the three characters “Mingsha Mountain.”

Yanzi was about to speak, but a single glance from the black-clad man made her swallow whatever she had been about to say. She smiled instead and said, “Wherever we go, we need to leave this place first before discussing it further!”

With that, she immediately gave the order. “Everyone, withdraw!”

It happened so quickly that Xuanyuan Lige had no time to react at all. Yanzi, despite her near-mad obsession with Jun Beiyue, was by no means a mindless woman—and this black-clad man was even more cautious still.

“Go with him.” Yanzi smiled with apparent innocence—one had to admit, if not for that venomous heart of hers, she truly would have been a captivating woman.

“What about Han Ziqing?” Xuanyuan Lige asked.

“Already sent ahead long ago,” Yanzi said, smiling with apparent innocence.

Xuanyuan Lige was faintly startled—these two truly were thorough and meticulous in their work, having already sent Ziqing away long before!

“Let’s go too,” Yanzi said, giving Xuanyuan Lige a push. “Don’t worry, you’ll see her again. You understand how to cultivate a Gu—I need your help.”

Of course he understood—otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to invent that reasoning about the Gu-cultivating body needing to remain unwounded, in order to stop Yanzi from harming Ziqing.

Xuanyuan Lige had never once held any real hope of managing to spirit Ziqing away right from under the noses of two top-tier masters while gravely wounded himself. He could only rely on outside help—and the only one who could provide that was Jun Beiyue!

The black-clad man was clearly leading them further and further down. Following along like this, he would leave behind no clues whatsoever—even if Jun Beiyue managed to find this place, he would find no one here at all!

What could he do now?

“Let’s go. Wherever it is, we’ll figure it out as we go,” Yanzi said, turning to urge him on.

Only then did Xuanyuan Lige follow. Behind his back, his hands tore off a portion of the paper on which he’d just written the notes and the two locations, leaving behind the half bearing the three characters “Yaoshun Island.”

This was something he had deliberately done while writing out the notes—a last resort with no better option. Even though he had learned nothing useful from his probing, he was determined to lead them toward Yaoshun Island regardless!

At the very least, on Yaoshun Island there was Nanny Qin, and there were forces loyal to him there!

If Jun Beiyue ever found this scrap of paper, at least he and Ziqing would still have a chance at survival!