In an instant, Ziqing’s silver-white mask was torn away!
This mask was something Jun Beiyue had crafted with his own hands, staying up all night that one evening — a hollowed-out design shaped like half a butterfly wing, painstakingly made from delicate, lightweight silver-white material.
To Ziqing, this butterfly mask was even more precious than the antidote to the seduction poison.
In this entire world, aside from Jun Beiyue, she would allow no one else to remove it for her.
In that instant, Ziqing exploded with fury. Catching Yelu Chenyi off guard, she wrenched his hand away and, with a swift, nimble dodge, seized him by the throat instead.
“How dare you!” she said coldly, fury blazing within her. If Yelu Chenyi had committed fully to opposing them, or fully surrendered to their side, perhaps she wouldn’t have despised him so much.
But this man — when Xijing had fallen, he’d surrendered on his own initiative and offered goodwill. And now, he’d traveled all this way to conspire with the Empress of Dongqin and provoke them here in Nanzhao!
A man so utterly without principle — did he even deserve to be called a man?
Ziqing, gripping Yelu Chenyi’s throat in fury, forced him backward, slamming him hard against the wall. Compared to Ziqing, Yelu Chenyi’s strength was far, far greater — but in that moment, he had no capacity to resist at all. His entire body seemed as though struck by lightning, frozen in shock, his mind utterly blank.
What was he seeing?
He could hardly believe his own eyes. How could this be?
This woman’s hideous, terrifying face had been restored — but the scar on her face was supposed to be incurable, permanent for life, unless she were transformed into a human Gu!
But that was impossible!
In such a short amount of time, there was no way she could have been transformed into a human Gu — there was no way her scar could have simply vanished!
Her face looked so beautiful now, like a flawless piece of jade, an unmistakable air of fierce authority radiating beneath the beauty, a mysterious nobility, commanding without needing to raise her voice — and now, blazing with fury, she seemed all the more formidable.
“What are you staring at?” Ziqing said coldly. “What do you want Prince Nanzhao to see?”
She said this, turning to look at Prince Nanzhao, who had only just begun to recover from what Yelu Chenyi had said.
Han Ziqing — a direct-line orphan of the Isolated Island? Someone immune to all poisons, the perfect vessel for raising a human Gu?
Yanzi and Yelu Chenyi had conspired together to abduct Han Ziqing to raise her as a human Gu?
What explosive news this was!
This was practically half of the single most important secret of the Isolated Island!
How did Yelu Chenyi know all this?
How could he possibly know?
Prince Nanzhao, too overwhelmed to think clearly, immediately fixed his gaze on Han Ziqing the moment she turned around, staring intently, unconsciously stepping forward as if to touch her face.
But seeing Ziqing’s furious expression, and glancing beside her at Jun Beiyue, whose eyes were dark and murderous enough to kill, Prince Nanzhao didn’t dare step any closer.
Still, he could say with certainty — Han Ziqing was not a direct-line orphan of the Isolated Island, nor was she someone immune to all poisons!
The secrets of the Isolated Island were many, but the greatest of them all was the secret of raising human Gu.
The constitution needed to raise a human Gu came in two forms, yang and yin. The yang form didn’t require direct bloodline descent, but the yin form absolutely required someone of the Isolated Island’s direct bloodline, someone immune to all poisons.
And by “direct bloodline,” it didn’t mean descent through the mother’s line — it had to be descent through the father’s line, specifically from the Isolated Island’s direct lineage.
Han Ziqing was the illegitimate daughter of the Han Prime Minister’s household in Da Zhou, the daughter of Prime Minister Han — and the Han Prime Minister’s family had been well known in Da Zhou’s capital for generations. How could she possibly carry the Isolated Island’s direct bloodline?
Furthermore, anyone immune to all poisons would bear a totem-like poison scar on their cheek — a scar fused with the skin itself. Even disguise couldn’t remove this scar; the only way to erase it was to be transformed into a Gu.
Once the Gu was complete, the scar would vanish!
There was no way Han Ziqing could be such a person!
Although, once a human Gu was fully formed, if the Gu’s spirit was strong enough, there was still a chance it could break free of its master’s control.
But that chance was only one in ten thousand.
Han Ziqing was clearly a normal person, with her own thoughts, her own personality — how could she possibly be a human Gu?
Prince Nanzhao quickly averted his gaze from Ziqing’s face, glancing briefly at the equally shocked Empress of Dongqin, before saying coldly, “Crown Prince Yelu, what exactly do you mean by this? What nonsense are you spouting?”
There were plenty of people present.
Even if everything Yelu Chenyi said were true, he had to make it false!
Hearing this, Jun Beiyue’s figure flickered, and in an instant he was upon them, his movements so swift and sharp that no one could follow what happened — only the result. With one hand, he pulled Ziqing protectively behind him, and with the other, he seized Yelu Chenyi’s throat in Ziqing’s place!
No matter how much strength Ziqing had, she could never match Yelu Chenyi’s raw power.
But now, even if Yelu Chenyi summoned every ounce of his internal energy, he still couldn’t match even thirty percent of Jun Beiyue’s Gu-clan internal power.
In taking this final, desperate gambit, Yelu Chenyi had never expected to leave this place alive.
But Jun Beiyue had no intention of letting him leave alive — nor did he intend to let him speak another word.
The force in Jun Beiyue’s grip was something only Yelu Chenyi himself could truly feel — not a fraction too much, not a fraction too little, poised precisely on the edge between life and death, hanging on whether he opened his mouth again.
The moment Yelu Chenyi felt that force, it was as if cold water had been poured over his head. He knew — he had failed completely.
Jun Beiyue didn’t even spare him a glance, turning his furious gaze instead toward Prince Nanzhao. The savage look in his eyes made even Prince Nanzhao flinch, involuntarily stepping back twice, offering an explanation before he’d even been questioned.
“Beiyue, this is absolutely not what you think. I never doubted you — I only…”
“Not doubted me?” Jun Beiyue demanded coldly. “About that naval battle, you sent letter after letter questioning me, suspecting me of colluding with the merfolk. And now, you’ve conspired with Yelu Chenyi and the Empress of Dongqin to insult and frame my consort. Prince Nanzhao, is this your Nanzhao’s idea of fairness and impartiality?”
“It was a misunderstanding — I had no idea Yelu Chenyi would…”
Prince Nanzhao realized he couldn’t explain himself to Jun Beiyue at all, and simply gave up trying, turning instead to angrily confront Yelu Chenyi. “Crown Prince Yelu, you came here over the matter of Princess Xuanyuan’s body. I’m telling you now — Dongqin’s naval battle has absolutely nothing to do with Nanzhao’s Jiao clan, and whatever grievances exist between Xijing and Dongqin are none of Nanzhao’s concern either. But today, on Nanzhao’s own territory, you disrespected my consort, openly spread wild lies in my very hall, and violated Nanzhao’s taboos and laws — you… you! What punishment do you think you deserve for this?”
Yelu Chenyi tried to argue back, but with his vocal cords crushed under Jun Beiyue’s grip, he couldn’t make a sound — he simply couldn’t speak at all.
Prince Nanzhao took a deep breath and continued furiously, “Yelu Chenyi, let me tell you this — the Isolated Island is indeed one of Nanzhao’s secrets, but this so-called Mingsha Mountain, this Yanzi, this human Gu — all of it is complete nonsense! And let me tell you something else — there is no such thing in this world as a person immune to all poisons! To frame my consort with such an absurd excuse is nothing short of insulting the intelligence of everyone present! Your crime is unforgivable!”