Baili Weisheng headed toward Akbachu, while Ziqing and Jun Beiyue had just arrived at the small Mobei town.

It was midday now, fine snowflakes drifting down like goose feathers across the sky, warm sunlight blanketing the entire small town in a quiet, peaceful glow — utterly beautiful!

“This place is so much prettier than Akbachu!” Yelu Qianqian couldn’t help but exclaim. Born and raised within the royal household, this girl’s constitution had been nurtured better than almost anyone’s, and after taking a few pills Yingzi had given her, she looked even more radiant and refreshed.

Under normal circumstances, she’d certainly be pressing to head straight to the battlefield, not even wanting to return to Akbachu, eager to go see Situ Haonan at once. But given the current situation, she didn’t dare push her luck.

For one thing, this whole mess was her own doing. For another, with Jun Beiyue present, how could she possibly say a single word of complaint?

Still, she was a girl who knew how to let things go — the moment they arrived at the small Mobei town, her mood brightened at once, and she walked along kicking up little flurries of snow with each step. Ziqing and Jun Beiyue, by contrast, remained quiet.

Jun Beiyue took in his surroundings, this being his first visit to the small Mobei town, feeling a quiet sense of wonder — had Da Zhou ever, in all its history, had a place this peaceful?

As they made their way toward Xuanyuan Lige’s residence, several clan members came walking toward them. Some smiled and passed by, others eyed them with curious, awe-tinged glances, and one enthusiastic uncle even came right up to greet them.

“Hey, you’re from the Central Plains, aren’t you?”

“Are you looking for someone?”

Small towns are like that — a few unfamiliar faces easily catch everyone’s attention. But the people of the Mobei tribe weren’t ones to shun outsiders; they were warm, hospitable, and good-hearted.

“We’re here looking for something!” Yelu Qianqian blurted out, then immediately regretted it, glancing sheepishly at Jun Beiyue and pressing her lips shut.

“We’re here looking for someone.” Ziqing explained with a smile.

“Oh? Who are you looking for? Do you know the way? Tell me and I’ll take you there!” The uncle was very eager to help.

“We know the way, thank you.” Ziqing said politely.

“Good, then I won’t bother you further. Ha, you really should stay a few more days — spring’s just around the corner, and things liven up quite a bit around here.” The uncle said with a smile, then walked off.

Spring’s arrival in Mobei also meant the Lunar New Year was approaching in the Central Plains — another year gone by…

Ziqing turned to look at Jun Beiyue, only to find him already watching her.

“This place, not bad, is it?” Ziqing asked.

“A little annoying…” Jun Beiyue said bluntly, which made Ziqing suppress a laugh — the place was lovely, but it really didn’t seem to suit this particular man at all!

“I think it’d suit Situ Haonan perfectly…” Yelu Qianqian muttered off to the side, mostly to herself.

Soon enough, they made their way through the small town to Xuanyuan Lige’s courtyard. Ziqing hadn’t originally meant to disturb him — she simply didn’t know whether Wuzheng had ended up here with Xuanyuan Lige or with Yu Xiaomeng, and she had no idea where Yu Xiaomeng’s home was, so coming to find Xuanyuan Lige was her only option.

As they approached from a distance, they could hear a steady, rhythmic “da-da-da” sound coming from inside the house. Even Jun Beiyue couldn’t quite make out what it was, but Ziqing recognized it instantly as the rhythm of Lishang — a particular passage that came right after the piece’s climax!

Her heart gave a small start of surprise — that man was still working on Lishang!

Before long, as they stepped into the courtyard, the rhythmic da-da-da sound abruptly stopped.

Inside the house, Xuanyuan Lige had already sensed someone approaching — and sensed, too, that one of them possessed extraordinarily high martial skill. Puzzled, he walked outside, only to find himself immediately meeting Jun Beiyue’s deep, silent gaze.

It was him!

It was them!

Shouldn’t Jun Beiyue be on the battlefield at the Northern Frontier right now? And yet here he was!

Startled as he was, Xuanyuan Lige’s expression betrayed nothing at all. He simply drew out, slowly, from behind his back, an unfinished zither with only two strings.

Ziqing was about to speak when, without warning, Xuanyuan Lige suddenly leapt straight into the air — and in that same instant, Jun Beiyue released Ziqing and shot up after him!

“What are they doing!” Yelu Qianqian cried out in shock. Ziqing watched in silence, saying nothing.

In the blink of an eye, the two figures in the air were already locked in fierce combat!

Xuanyuan Lige struck wind blades off his zither strings, while Jun Beiyue swung his sword, likewise summoning wind blades of his own. Ziqing could tell — Jun Beiyue was treating this fight against Xuanyuan Lige with even greater seriousness than he had against the Lord of Nangong City.

Wind blade after wind blade tore wildly through the air. The two figures, one black, one purple, flashed and darted across the sky. Their three-thousand-strand hair, one black, one white, whipped and streamed as their speed built and built, until, looking up, it seemed as though two roaming dragons were locked in an aerial dance — flickers of motion, glimpses of shadow, no clear form, no discernible movement at all!

Yelu Qianqian watched, utterly dumbstruck — she had never seen anyone this formidable before in her life!

And Ziqing, the longer she watched, the more absorbed she became, the more intently she studied them. She’d never imagined Jun Beiyue’s martial skill had advanced so far, nor that Xuanyuan Lige’s frail body could hold up under such strain.

The sheer skill of these two men, if truly matched head to head, would surely rival even the Lord of Nangong City, the foremost master of the martial world!

Ziqing had always assumed the Lord of Nangong City had left out of anger simply because he feared that group of archers. Now, seeing this, it was clear Jun Beiyue was a formidably powerful adversary in his own right!

And what about her?

Her own martial skill was probably a little above Yingzi’s, roughly on par with Situ Haonan’s. How could she not wish to grow stronger, to earn the right to truly stand shoulder to shoulder with Jun Beiyue in matters of combat? Had she never tried? But her body’s constitution was simply too weak.

And this particular body lacked any real talent for martial arts to begin with.

She had recognized this long ago, which was why she’d chosen the path of poison arts instead — after all, no amount of raw martial power could withstand poison arts honed to their absolute peak!

And so, she’d used her body’s immunity to every poison to cultivate herself into a poison master — she had no need to conceal poison anywhere on her body, because every inch of her was already poison itself!

Unfortunately, given her particular identity, she couldn’t fully make use of such an extraordinary constitution.

If it were possible, she would rather have cultivated herself into a human Gu, to spare herself from being coveted by so many. But even now, she still didn’t fully understand all the secrets of the isolated island, didn’t know what Gu-cultivation truly entailed, or what kind of existence a human Gu really was!

Just as Ziqing’s mind was drifting, everything in the air suddenly stopped. At the sound of Yelu Qianqian’s startled cry, Ziqing snapped back to attention and looked up, to find Jun Beiyue’s sword pointed straight at Xuanyuan Lige’s hand, while Xuanyuan Lige’s hand rested against the zither strings.

The two of them were locked in a standoff — if Jun Beiyue struck down, Xuanyuan Lige’s hand would surely be crippled; but if Xuanyuan Lige struck out a wind blade, given the angle, it would strike straight into Jun Beiyue’s eye.

It came down to a simple question of who was faster — but both of them had come to a complete stop.

Which of them was truly faster — perhaps only the two of them knew, or perhaps neither of them knew at all.

It could only be called a draw — no clear victor, no clear loser!

Neither of them had yet moved apart when Jun Beiyue turned his head to look back at Ziqing. It had to be admitted — this had been the perfect opening. Xuanyuan Lige could have struck. But he hadn’t.

He had never been a good man, but he was a man of honor.

He lowered his zither and slowly descended to the ground. Jun Beiyue landed as well.