She was looking this way!

That terrifying old woman who had come to drag Master back was looking this way!

In the silence, the apprentice could hear his own heart pounding wildly.

What should he do?

If the old woman was here, did that mean Master hadn’t managed to escape — that Master was still inside the secret chamber! There was only one exit, after all!

No — he had to find Master right away and tell him what was happening!

“Ah…!”

The apprentice let out a startled cry — silently, in his heart, of course — and immediately turned to run back the way he’d come.

Master, oh Master, where are you? Have you seen this old hag yet?

Was it because you saw her that you couldn’t escape?

Do you even know that the poisonous lizard has found you out?

Master, oh Master, if you catch that old hag, you’re truly done for!

And if you’re done for, it doesn’t matter — but what’s your poor disciple supposed to do all alone?

A flood of questions, worries, and wild imaginings surged through the apprentice’s mind. He lost all sense of direction and quickly vanished into the darkness of the secret passage.

Meanwhile, the Gu Nanny, dragging the poisonous lizard along, slowly made her way toward the entrance of the secret chamber.

She, of course, knew everything about this secret chamber — hadn’t Baili Weisheng learned of it from her own scriptures in the first place? That wretched brat, he really did have some skill, daring to hide out here of all places!

The Gu Nanny was nearly certain Baili Weisheng was inside the underground chamber. But just as she reached the entrance and was about to go in, the poisonous lizard suddenly gave her hand a light nip.

Its teeth hadn’t truly bitten down — it had merely closed its mouth around her finger gently.

The Gu Nanny frowned at once, watching as the lizard gave its tail a light flick — meaning it wasn’t this direction, meaning it wasn’t quite sure whether it was left or right.

“Not inside?” the Gu Nanny asked suspiciously.

The poisonous lizard immediately nipped at her finger again.

“Outside!”

Realization dawned on the Gu Nanny, and she immediately took off in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Baili Weisheng — that scholar who supposedly knew everything — was, at this moment, utterly oblivious to all of it. He was standing on the far side of Mingsha Mountain, facing into the northwest wind, head held high like a man about to deliver a stirring battle speech, chest out proudly, letting the northwest wind lash freely against his face.

This year’s northwest wind seemed different somehow — a bit damp, unlike the usual dryness of past years, and the wind force seemed a bit stronger too.

“How strange…”

Baili Weisheng murmured to himself, but no matter how he thought it over, he couldn’t figure out why one could hear the howling northwest wind even inside the secret chamber. Could it simply be that the wind was unusually strong this year?

Puzzled, Baili Weisheng finally dropped his exaggerated proud posture, rubbing his chin with one hand, mulling it over for a long while without any answer — and finally he simply gave up trying.

At a time like this, he had no time to spare for such things anyway.

He didn’t even know how many days he’d been unconscious, nor what the current situation was in Xijing, nor in the northern frontier.

He gazed far off toward Akbachu, and seeing it as calm and quiet as it had been when he first went underground, he had a rough sense of the current state of things.

Never mind whether the peace conference had convened — even if Situ Haonan had returned in triumph, if the Emperor of Xijing wasn’t celebrating grandly, Yelu Qianqian would certainly be raising a fuss about it.

The quiet of Akbachu meant Situ Haonan hadn’t yet returned!

At the thought, a shadow of worry crept across Baili Weisheng’s brow, and without further hesitation, he hurried off toward the west.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Mingsha Mountain, the Gu Nanny, still dragging the poisonous lizard, still couldn’t pin down a direction — the lizard kept swinging east then west, until finally, in exasperation, the Gu Nanny nearly strangled it.

After mulling it over for a moment, the Gu Nanny muttered to herself, “Forget it, forget it. I’ll spare that brat for now. Once this old woman finds that girl, we’ll see if he still doesn’t show himself!”

No one understood the innate kindness in Baili Weisheng’s nature better than the Gu Nanny.

Baili Weisheng had the means to find the yin-natured person immune to a hundred poisons — but he wouldn’t search for her. And even if he did find her, he wouldn’t kill her.

That was exactly why the Gu Nanny was so certain the girl must still be alive.

Before long, the Gu Nanny turned and headed back into Mingsha Cavern. She had to press on, racing to complete the cultivation of the parasite and locate the girl before the day of Jiazi Year, Jiazi Month, Jiazi Day — the day of the great sand sacrifice ceremony.

Miss that window, and there would truly be no turning back.

The most mysterious secret of all was, likely, known only to the Gu Nanny — the secret within the ancient scripture, something perhaps even the Nanzhao royal house had no knowledge of.

If Baili Weisheng had ever chanced to leaf through that particular scroll, back in those years, perhaps he would have understood it all long ago.

But as fate would have it, that was the one scroll he never happened to open.

Right now, he was like a wild beast of the desert, running desperately across the sands for the sake of his little Qingqing.

Yet the one he was searching for had already arrived at Longxi City on the western frontier.

As dusk approached, Ziqing and Yelu Qianqian climbed down from their camel cart, looking out at the sea of tents before them, and exchanged a knowing smile.

“He must be worried sick looking for you!” Yelu Qianqian suddenly said with a sly laugh.

Ziqing blinked, faintly puzzled — the remark sounded odd.

“If you’d gotten lost, Jun Beiyue would absolutely never let him hear the end of it!” Yelu Qianqian explained, giggling. Just thinking about suddenly appearing at Situ Haonan’s side and surprising him made her grin so wide she could hardly contain herself.

After all, their parting back then had been so willful, and at the same time so helpless, so painful, so final!

When she’d left, she had waited and waited, but he never came after her — and she had truly given up any hope of ever reconciling.

Not until she heard news that he’d gone to the battlefield did she realize just how deliriously happy that news made her.

“Let’s go. It’s probably past mealtime by now, and there shouldn’t be too many people around,” Ziqing said, taking Yelu Qianqian’s hand as they walked, chatting and laughing along the way, considerably closer than before.

“Hehe, should I go in first and then pretend to be an assassin? Or maybe pretend to be a soldier, or maybe…”

For a woman, there is no happiness quite like this.

Giving the man she loves a surprise — and that surprise isn’t some gift, isn’t some piece of good news, isn’t any object at all, but simply herself!

Suddenly appearing before him, beyond his expectations, bringing him joy — what a wonderful thing that was!

Yelu Qianqian chattered on and on, not really expecting Ziqing to answer — she was too caught up in her own internal battle of excitement.

Ziqing couldn’t help but smile quietly to herself. Only now did she realize — happiness really was something you could see.

Suddenly, she wondered — what if she herself appeared before Jun Beiyue right now?

For a moment, she forgot entirely that Jun Beiyue had said he would come find her. She no longer wished for him to suddenly appear before her; instead, she found herself thinking how wonderful it would be to surprise that man herself.

Just as the two women were smiling foolishly to themselves, a low, aged voice suddenly drifted over from nearby. “Your Highness the Princess Consort, you’ve finally arrived. This old one has waited for you so long he’s practically sprouted roots…”

Ziqing startled, whipping her head around — and was astonished to see, beside a nearby rock, an old man sitting cross-legged on the ground, utterly still, like a statue.

Ziqing felt this old man was intensely familiar, and yet for the life of her she couldn’t place him. She knew she recognized him, yet at this crucial moment, his name simply escaped her.

Seeing Ziqing’s furrowed brow, the old man shook his head helplessly. “Princess Consort Yao, this old one is Sha Qiuzi. Prince Yao sent this old one to deliver a letter to you — this old one has been waiting here for you for several days now!”