Faced with Ziqing’s ferocity, Baili Weisheng finally quieted down, looking at the woman rather sheepishly. He knew she wasn’t just angry — she was anxious too.

Honestly, at this point, there was no reason left to hide anything.

Except — he truly didn’t know why he’d done it!

“Ugh, fine, I just wanted to get you out, so the two of us could go find the lone island together. All the secrets about Lishang are in your hands — reaching the lone island depends entirely on you. However you look at it, the two of us are practically kin — even without a direct blood tie, we’re at least half-family, aren’t we!”

Rather than have Baili Weisheng agonize over the “why,” it was far easier to just let him make something up on the spot.

But what he’d said wasn’t entirely a lie either — he genuinely did have that intention!

Searching for the lone island together with Han Ziqing made sense, after all — this woman had far more resources at her disposal than he did, and more importantly, this woman wasn’t afraid of the Gu Nanny!

Hearing Baili Weisheng’s explanation, Ziqing finally felt she had a grasp on things — the reasoning was solid enough.

As an orphan of the lone island himself, she could understand why Baili Weisheng wanted to find it — not just for a sense of belonging, but likely to find his closest kin as well.

Seeing Ziqing nod, Baili Weisheng brightened up and quickly asked, “So — you didn’t turn into a human gu?”

He’d wanted to ask that just now, but somehow, as if possessed, he’d blurted out that he’d come to take her home instead.

Ziqing let out a soft sigh, then finally pulled the little one, who had been sitting quietly off to the side, into her arms.

It was only then that Baili Weisheng noticed the child’s existence!

He was so shocked his eyes went wide, staring in disbelief at the little one.

But the little one had already been staring at Baili Weisheng with equal disbelief for a very, very long time.

At first, he’d thought this man might be his father — though he fell quite short of what he’d imagined, nowhere near as tall and imposing as he’d pictured, nowhere near as commanding and domineering, and nowhere near as devastatingly handsome.

Still, the man looked decent enough, especially when he smiled — practically a dark-hearted little demon of a man.

But then, listening to the conversation between Mommy and Baili Weisheng, he grew more and more suspicious.

This man clearly wasn’t his father. And if he wasn’t his father, how dare he go around hugging Mommy? Was he tired of living?

The little one, a stickler for principles, curled up in Ziqing’s arms, glaring viciously at Baili Weisheng, hostility written plainly across his tiny face.

He was absolutely certain — this was Daddy’s love rival!

Already thoroughly bewildered, Baili Weisheng, upon seeing such open hostility from a child this small, grew even more confused.

“This… this…”

For once, the ever-glib man found himself at a loss for words. What in the world — it hadn’t even been two years yet, and somehow a baby had already popped out?

Those features, especially those dark, sharp, spirited eyes — they were practically a carbon copy of Jun Beiyue. Anyone who saw the child would know instantly whose seed he was.

“My son,” Ziqing said simply, and proceeded to recount everything that had happened to her in the Poison Beast World.

Listening to it all, Baili Weisheng’s head practically spun — this was simply too unbelievable!

“So you’re saying all these anomalies are because of this child?” he asked timidly.

Ziqing could only nod — if it weren’t because of this child, she couldn’t think of any other explanation.

She should have been cultivated into a human gu by now, and yet, aside from her stamina improving, she was otherwise not all that different from before.

As for this child, human-gu blood flowed through his veins, yet his mind remained perfectly normal — a state comparable, in its own way, to Baili Weisheng’s own.

The difference was that Baili Weisheng had been cultivated into what he was, while this little troublemaker had been born this way naturally.

“Truly one of a kind,” Baili Weisheng remarked, reaching out to pat the little one’s head — only for the child to dodge away instantly, narrowing his dark eyes, an air of danger radiating from his entire small body.

Baili Weisheng’s hand froze in midair. “You don’t like Uncle, hm?”

“Hmph!” the little one scoffed, wriggling free of Ziqing’s arms and walking over toward the Silly Bear, which immediately lay flat to let the little one climb onto its back.

Seeing this, Baili Weisheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry — this really was Jun Beiyue’s cub, so full of attitude at such a young age!

Baili Weisheng couldn’t for the life of him understand why the child was so strange, though this clearly wasn’t the moment to dig into it.

He grabbed Ziqing’s hand and said urgently, “Quick, take me to the biggest lake around here — this Death Barrier has another secret to it!”

That secret about the Death Barrier was written on the very last page of the Three Ancient Scrolls, something Baili Weisheng had spent days puzzling over before finally cracking it!

This Death Barrier, it turned out, was in fact an ancient divine treasure that had fallen into the Longyuan continent and transformed.

The Poison Beast World was, in truth, a Universe Poison Pouch — a bag much like a coin purse. Once the cycle of order was broken and the seal was forcibly opened, all one needed to do was destroy a certain stone lock inside the Poison Beast World to become the master of the Universe Poison Pouch!

At that point, the entire Poison Beast World would shrink down into a pouch small enough to carry in hand or tuck into a sleeve, and its master could enter and exit at will.

Though the Universe Poison Pouch appeared small on the outside, the space within it was boundless — capable of holding all manner of poisons and poison beasts.

This was the true source of the Poison Beast World’s power, and also its true horror.

Even the royal family of Nanzhao knew only the barest surface of the Poison Beast World’s secrets, nothing close to the full truth!

Back then, the great gu master of the lone island, in order to conceal all of this, had almost certainly colluded extensively with that barrier master from the Meng Clan.

Once a human gu was fully cultivated, it too became a form of poison, one that could be tossed into the Universe Poison Pouch and carried anywhere — that, surely, was the great gu master’s true purpose all along!

Baili Weisheng couldn’t care less about Xuanyuan Lige or Jun Beiyue, but he did know that several of the Meng Clan elders had also made their way into the Poison Beast World. He had no idea where they’d landed — if they discovered the secret of the Poison Beast World first and found that stone lock before he did, that would spell disaster!

Such a magnificent treasure — Baili Weisheng had no intention of handing it over to the Meng Clan without a fight.

Hearing Baili Weisheng’s explanation, Ziqing felt a jolt of alarm, while Zizhu the Great Beast, standing nearby, spoke up first. “It’s over by the streak of light and the dagger!”

“The streak of light and dagger?” Baili Weisheng asked, puzzled.

Ziqing had no time to explain further. She didn’t know exactly what force had been drawing the shimmering dagger to keep striking that cliff wall, but going by what Baili Weisheng had said, the largest lake was right there.

That cliff wall — it wasn’t the seal at all. It was the stone lock!

“Come on. You’ll see when we get there.”

With that, Ziqing leapt onto Zizhu’s back and headed off toward the great lake.

“Hey, wait for me!” Baili Weisheng called out urgently, turning back to find only the Silly Bear and the little one left behind.

He gave the little one and the Silly Bear a friendly grin. “Give me a lift, would you?”

The little one sat with his arms crossed atop the Silly Bear’s neck, raising an eyebrow and eyeing Baili Weisheng coldly. “Of course,” he said flatly.

Baili Weisheng suddenly found this little old-soul of a child utterly adorable, and cheerfully hopped up to sit behind him.

But before he’d even settled in properly, the little one, without so much as turning his head, said very seriously, “By the way — you’re not going to fight my mommy for the Universe Poison Pouch, are you?”

At those words, Baili Weisheng very nearly toppled right off the bear’s back!