Just as Ziqing and her companions were making their way toward Wuxie Ravine, Xuanyuan Lige had already set his sights on the same place.

Of course, he wasn’t there for the ruins and secrets of the Solitary Island—he knew nothing of all that. If Meng Wanyue hadn’t revealed it, Ziqing and the others, with no leads to go on, likely wouldn’t have found it so easily either.

Xuanyuan Lige’s interest in Wuxie Ravine was undoubtedly connected to West Chu!

Even if he currently had the strength to launch a military campaign against West Chu, he lacked both the power and the timing to secure passage through Da Zhou’s territory.

Which meant the Xiongnu were essential to his plans.

Once the old Xiongnu Emperor died and Minhan Mude’er ascended the throne, he’d be more than happy to work closely with this young, impulsive, and ambitious new emperor!

Of course, the Xiongnu were only one part of his plan. Wuxie Ravine was another.

“Your Highness, the wind is fierce here. Perhaps we should head back,” Nanny Qin said with concern. She had asked His Highness many times how he had recovered from his illness, but unfortunately, each time, he simply pretended not to hear.

Though he now looked nothing like a sick man, Nanny Qin’s greatest worry remained his health.

His Highness had already been standing here for three days and three nights straight, seemingly lost in thought, or perhaps searching for something within Wuxie Ravine.

“Your Highness…”

Just as Nanny Qin was about to speak again, Xuanyuan Lige immediately raised a hand to silence her. “Stay here and keep watch. I’m going down to take a look.”

At these words, Nanny Qin was alarmed. “Your Highness, down there is a bottomless abyss—absolutely not!”

“Bottomless abyss? Didn’t Chu Tiange fall in once and still manage to walk out alive?” Xuanyuan Lige said dismissively.

“Your Highness, have you forgotten how many troops West Chu had to deploy to rescue Chu Tiange back then, and how long it took them to find him!” Nanny Qin urgently reminded him.

Wuxie Ravine had existed since ancient times. The original Great Qin Empire had once spanned a vast territory, encompassing not only what were now West Chu and East Qin, but even the Three Realms territory now held by Da Zhou. Unfortunately, after internal strife tore apart the Great Qin capital, the Three Realms territory was annexed by Da Zhou, permanently severing any direct border between West Chu and East Qin—forever separated instead by Wuxie Ravine, a chasm stretching from the Xiongnu’s southern frontier all the way to Da Zhou’s Three Realms territory!

This ravine was said to be bottomless, and for centuries, anyone who fell or ventured into it had almost never returned. Chu Tiange’s case had truly been an exception.

As for exactly where Chu Tiange had landed back then, only the West Chu royal family knew.

The ravine’s depth was unfathomable, and its width, even at its narrowest point, still spanned five or six li—with current engineering techniques, building a bridge across it was simply impossible.

Facing Nanny Qin’s urgent concern, Xuanyuan Lige remained expressionless. In the past, he had never been this way with Nanny Qin, but now, he seemed coldly, distantly detached, almost devoid of feeling.

After a long silence, he finally spoke. “This ravine is wider at the top and narrower toward the bottom. Perhaps the two lands could be connected down below.”

At these words, Nanny Qin couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, “Your Highness, you…”

Connecting the two lands from below the ravine—did this mean His Highness intended to dig a tunnel?

Xuanyuan Lige’s idea was completely beyond anything Nanny Qin had imagined, and yet, the more she thought about it, the less far-fetched it seemed!

Building a bridge across the ravine was absolutely impossible, but digging a tunnel beneath it—that wasn’t entirely out of the question!

The tunnel’s entrance would sit on East Qin territory, its exit on West Chu territory, spanning the two lands, cutting straight through beneath Wuxie Ravine…

Digging downward from East Qin’s territory, all the way through to the bottom of Wuxie Ravine, then digging westward from there, breaking through into West Chu’s territory!

Though the project would be massive in scale, it was technically entirely feasible—as long as there was a sufficiently large flat area somewhere within the ravine’s depths to accommodate the excavation crew.

Yet even amid her excitement, Nanny Qin couldn’t help but voice a concern. “Your Highness, if this were the East Qin of the past, we’d certainly have had the manpower and resources for such a thing. But as things stand now…”

Before she could finish, Xuanyuan Lige let out a disdainful snort. “Wait and see.”

With that, he leaned forward and leapt off the cliff, plummeting downward like a streak of purple, carried away by the wind.

In truth, Xuanyuan Lige had conceived of this plan years ago. He had even calculated the project in meticulous detail—the time required, the manpower, the resources needed!

He had thought through every countermeasure needed to keep the project concealed from prying eyes. It was simply that, back then, he hadn’t had the heart to burden East Qin’s people with it.

Such a massive undertaking would require far more able-bodied men than any war effort.

And so he had delayed descending into Wuxie Ravine, time and time again.

And yet today, he had finally come down. Today, his heart held only one person, one dream, nothing else besides!

Wuxie Ravine stretched so impossibly deep. Xuanyuan Lige faced into the wind, letting his purple robes and his three thousand strands of silver hair whip freely about him, snapping and howling in the gale. He slowly closed his eyes and spread his arms wide, like a hawk soaring through open sky.

If he could stay aloft forever, never touching ground again, spending the rest of his life in flight like this—what a blessing that would be!

So Xuanyuan Lige mused, the corner of his mouth curving into a smile, and then he suddenly burst into loud, hearty laughter. It had been so long—not once since returning from the Nanzhao harbor had he truly laughed like this.

But just then, amid the howling wind in his ears, came the sound of cries for help.

“Help… please… I beg you, spare me!”

“Help me… ah… no, get away! Get away!”

“Boo hoo… get away, just kill me already!”

…

As Xuanyuan Lige descended further, the voices grew louder and clearer, completely shattering his brief moment of good spirits. He snapped his eyes open and saw, on a jutting ledge protruding from the cliff face, several men in silver garb assaulting a woman, her clothes torn and scattered wildly in the wind.

No anger, no urgency, not even the faintest trace of sympathy—Xuanyuan Lige steadied himself in midair, his brows arching slightly with nothing more than curiosity.

They were already hundreds of zhang down here, and yet, unexpectedly, there were still people to be found.

A playful smile curved at the corner of his mouth. With lazy nonchalance, he sent a blade of wind cutting through the air, aimed straight and true at the back of the man’s skull, currently violating the woman!

Unexpectedly, all that followed was a sharp “clang”—the wind blade failed to shatter the man’s skull, and instead, it was the man’s head that deflected it!

How could this be?

What sort of people were these, that their skulls were so impossibly hard? Xuanyuan Lige had only ever encountered this once before—also in Wuxie Ravine, and it had been because of the Flowing Light Dagger in Ziqing’s hand!

Xuanyuan Lige was stunned and immediately dove down. At the same moment, the men on the cliff ledge spun around in alarm—aside from their concealing silver garb, they appeared no different from ordinary men.

The man who had been struck seemed to want revenge, but was quickly pulled back by his companions. The group fled like startled prey, leaping one after another into the abyss below, moving with astonishing speed—Xuanyuan Lige couldn’t even stop them.

Just as he was about to chase after them, the terrified, tear-streaked woman beside him cried out in alarm, “Young Master, please don’t go down there!”