The annual sand-worship ceremony at Mingsha Mountain always fell not long after the Spring Festival. Ziqing had long puzzled over that date, but so far, she had made no progress at all!
Among the clues about the isolated island, Mingsha Mountain was an extremely important location!
But other than being the day when the northwest wind blew strongest, and the day the singing sands could be heard, the day of the sand-worship ceremony held nothing else out of the ordinary!
And as for the ruins beneath Mingsha Mountain, aside from the method for cultivating a human Gu, there seemed to be nothing else to discover.
It had no direct connection to “Lishang.”
But all of this was only the surface, because Ziqing and Jun Beiyue still hadn’t been back down to the hidden chamber beneath Mingsha Mountain—the chamber that neither Yanzi nor Yelu Chenyi knew about!
The true secret of Mingsha Mountain had to lie within that chamber!
Thinking of this, Ziqing couldn’t help but think of one person—Baili Weisheng!
That shameless liar. The last time, after Jun Beiyue exposed his true identity at Duku, he’d told them quite a few secrets. But even Jun Beiyue couldn’t be certain which of the things that fellow had said were true and which were false.
They had originally agreed to meet on Yaoshun Island a month later, but that plan had been thrown into disarray by Yelu Qianqian’s meddling. The western frontier war had broken out, the Xiongnu had gotten involved, and the fighting had dragged on until now.
And at present, neither Ziqing nor Jun Beiyue could spare the time to deal with Baili Weisheng.
Once the war ended, Ziqing believed, the secret of the isolated island would finally come to a close—Mingsha Mountain and Yaoshun Island would give her the answer.
“Perhaps we’ll be listening to the singing sands right as we negotiate peace with Wanyan Lie and Min Han Muder!” Ziqing said with a laugh, and quickly gave the order to move out!
Meanwhile, far away beneath Mingsha Mountain, Baili Weisheng had been asleep for several days now!
“Master, Master! Wake up!”
“Master, wake up—if you keep sleeping like this you’ll really sleep yourself to death!”
The little medicine boy tried every method he could think of, but nothing could wake him. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he summoned all his courage, lunged forward, and whispered softly, ever so softly, right into his ear: “Gu-born…”
For Baili Weisheng, those two words were an absolute curse he could never shake off for the rest of his life!
He shot upright instantly, slammed straight into the tree trunk above him, bounced back down, and landed on the ground—only then fully awake.
The little medicine boy grinned at the sight. Baili Weisheng climbed up, rubbing his handsome face with icy-cold hands to clear his head. He glanced sideways at the boy and said coldly, “Find that funny, do you?”
“Master, I just wanted to tell you—your little Qingqing has become famous…” the medicine boy said, looking utterly innocent.
“She was already famous,” Baili Weisheng said irritably.
“Master, Princess Consort Yao killed the Lord of Nangong City, wiped out two armies from Xiliang and the Xiongnu, fought her way from Mobei into Xiliang territory, and circled around behind Wanyan Lie. In less than five days, she’s bound to join forces with Situ Haonan from inside and out, and force Wanyan Lie to surrender!” the medicine boy narrowed his eyes and rattled it all off in one breath.
Baili Weisheng’s face grew darker and darker. “Say that again!”
“To sum up, Mingsha Mountain is bound to fall into your little Qingqing’s hands sooner or later. Even if it doesn’t become hers, by then she’ll be able to come and go as she pleases—she could even dig the whole place up if she wanted! If you don’t think of a way to stop it, it’ll be too late!”
“Not that part—the part before that!” Baili Weisheng suddenly snapped, his voice sharp.
Having followed his master for so long, the medicine boy of course knew his temper. Startled, he quickly repeated, “Princess Consort Yao killed the Lord of Nangong City, wiped out two armies from Xiliang and the Xiongnu…”
Before he could even finish, Baili Weisheng slapped his own thigh violently. “Damn it!”
With that, he rushed to head outside, but the medicine boy hurriedly blocked him. “Master, you can’t go out! The fighting on the northern frontier still isn’t fully over, and that old woman might not have left yet!”
The medicine boy couldn’t understand why his master wasn’t worried about Mingsha Mountain, but instead was in a panic over Han Ziqing killing the Lord of Nangong City.
“I don’t care about any of that—Little Qingqing is in danger!” Baili Weisheng said coldly.
The medicine boy still clung tightly to his arm. “Master, what danger could she possibly be in? You’re the one in the most danger!”
“Idiot!” Baili Weisheng roared. “She killed the Lord of Nangong City—do you think Situ Haonan is going to let that go? Do you have any idea what the Lord of Nangong City was to Situ Haonan?”
“That has nothing to do with you anyway,” the medicine boy said calmly.
“The Lord of Nangong City raised Situ Haonan, brought him up—he was father, mother, and master to him all at once, and also his closest friend across the generations! You could say he was the only true blood family Situ Haonan ever had! If the Lord of Nangong City agreed to let Madam Situ intervene in Princess Qianqian’s affairs, it was certainly for Situ Haonan’s sake too!” Baili Weisheng explained.
“Master, what is Jun Beiyue to Situ Haonan?” the medicine boy shot back.
“Let me tell you something—if it had been Jun Beiyue who killed the Lord of Nangong City today, Situ Haonan would turn on him just the same! Brotherhood be damned! I hid out in Mobei for all those years—do you think I don’t know what Situ Haonan’s one unforgivable line is? I’m telling you, the moment this war ends, Han Ziqing is finished!”
Baili Weisheng was worked up, but the medicine boy still held on to him, unwilling to let go. “Master, if she’s finished, that’s not the same as you being finished! Master, weren’t you always worried about Mingsha Mountain? Well, this works out perfectly—if Situ Haonan turns on Han Ziqing at a moment like this, Xijing can finally break free of Da Zhou’s control!”
“She’ll be in real danger!” Baili Weisheng said, his voice heavy, each word deliberate.
“Master, Situ Haonan is no match for Han Ziqing,” the medicine boy said, shaking his head helplessly, unable to see where the danger was.
“Little Qingqing has a fatal weakness! Damn it!” Baili Weisheng was practically shouting now.
Han Ziqing had worked so hard for so long, all for the sake of Mingsha Mountain, all for the sake of bringing Xijing to submission. Once Situ Haonan turned against her, he would inevitably side completely with the Xijing royal family, and Ziqing could never possibly give up Mingsha Mountain—which meant another conflict was coming!
The medicine boy seemed to grasp it then, murmuring to himself, “Situ Haonan can’t beat her in a fight, but he’s got dirt on her…”
Muttering to himself, the hand he’d been hiding behind his back tightened around a large brick, and without warning he swung it hard, striking Baili Weisheng squarely on the back of the head!
“Thwack!”
“You! You little bea—”
Before he could finish cursing, Baili Weisheng’s vision went black and he collapsed in a heap!
The medicine boy let out a long breath and said seriously, “Master, if you won’t kill her, fine—but you can’t very well stop someone else from killing her either. Only if she dies will you truly be safe! And even if I let you stop someone else from killing her, that old witch outside still hasn’t left, so you can’t go out anyway! Hate me if you want, Master—I’ll take it!”
The blow the medicine boy had dealt was vicious. Dark blood slowly seeped from the back of Baili Weisheng’s head, and wherever it touched, even the soil turned black and scorched. No one could say when he might wake up.
Meanwhile, far beyond Akbachu, at the edge of the Gobi, the Gu Matron still hadn’t left.
She had exhausted every method she could think of, yet she still couldn’t manage to draw Baili Weisheng out. In truth, she understood better than anyone that that boy had almost no weaknesses—or rather, being as heartless as he was, he had nothing to be attached to at all!
The most terrifying kind of person was one with nothing to be attached to—solitary, doing exactly as he pleased, bound by nothing and no one, and therefore without a single weakness.
“Matron, shouldn’t we be heading back? The war on the northern frontier is about to end!” a guard couldn’t help but remind her. Prince Min Han had already sent word urging her back, twice now.
Yet the Gu Matron paid it no mind. She turned away, flipping through an ancient scripture, and seemed to have discovered something. She murmured to herself, “Mingsha Mountain, the day of the singing sands…”