In the boatman’s eyes, the man in white was very mysterious.

Because the man had been standing at the bow the entire time, hardly ever turning around, the boatman never knew what he looked like. Just seeing his silhouette, the boatman felt that such a person’s face must be something rarely seen in this mortal world. A common man like himself instinctively didn’t want to approach, shrinking far back at the stern.

The man in white rarely spoke, except at the beginning when he had asked about the people the boatman had ferried in recent days—what that sweet-smelling woman looked like, how she was dressed, what she had said and done. The boatman said he truly hadn’t seen the woman’s appearance, as her head and face were wrapped tightly, but her figure was extremely graceful, and her voice and manner of speaking were very distinctive, making her an unforgettable person. The man beside her, though his face was also unclear, was tall and slender, and also seemed to be an excellent person. As the boatman spoke, he couldn’t help but become somewhat wistful, chattering on about how that pair truly seemed to be a match made in heaven.

After he finished his reminiscing, the white-clad passenger at the bow suddenly stopped paying attention to him.

Not only did he ignore him, but whereas before he had allowed the boatman to cook at the stern, now he forbade it, leaving the boatman to eat raw shrimp and fish.

Though the fish and shrimp from the lake were quite delicious even when eaten raw, he still hoped to quickly escape this fellow who seemed particularly distant and unfathomable. Strangely, though this person clearly wanted to go to the island, he didn’t go ashore, remaining on the boat and slowly circling the island, as if waiting for something. Sometimes one could catch a glimpse of his profile—exquisite as an ice sculpture, his gaze distant, sweeping across the lush green shadows on the island.

That seemed to be the flavor of longing, yet so shallow, not wanting to be noticed by others.

Tonight was another night of drifting around the island. The boatman boredly watched the motionless silhouette in the moonlight at the bow, yawned, and turned over to prepare for sleep.

His eyelids had just closed when suddenly he felt a bright light stabbing his eyes. Opening them, he saw flames leaping up from the island.

He was startled, but even more startling was that the man in white who hadn’t moved for many days suddenly stood up!

The moment he stood, the entire boat shot out like an arrow, shooting toward the lake-heart island he had never approached.

That sudden acceleration nearly threw the boatman overboard. The boatman clung to the boat’s side with his soul flying in terror, not daring to cry out. Looking up, he saw the lake-heart island was already close at hand, with flames indeed spreading rapidly across the southern part of the island.

“Snap.” With a light sound, the boat reached shore. The man in white didn’t immediately disembark. The boatman raised his head, about to remind him that the island master had a strange temperament and he shouldn’t court misfortune, when suddenly he saw a mass of dark things rushing down from the hillside, about to engulf the bow. In the dim light, those things appeared in patches—black and dark red, with long bodies and long whiskers, densely packed claws and feet. The sight made one’s whole body shudder—it was actually a torrent of countless poisonous insects!

The boatman’s hair stood on end all over his body. Before his cry of alarm could escape, the man in white raised his hand, and a misty airflow flashed by. The terrifying sound of countless claws clashing against each other suddenly stopped, transformed into a sheet of cold white solidity.

The flow of poisonous insects became a flow of ice. The hillside was completely covered in hoarfrost. Among those crystalline solids, the boatman could even see those disgusting poisonous insects still raising their bodies and waving their grayish-black claws, frozen in their previous moment’s ferocious posture.

The boatman looked up puzzledly at the summer night’s moonlight, rubbing his suddenly cold arms, beginning to doubt whether he was still in the human world.

The ice was still forming, spreading downward along the boat. The lake surface also froze over. The lightly-clothed boatman couldn’t withstand it and prepared to jump into the water again, rolling and crawling, but when he jumped down he crashed into the ice surface—the ice had already grown thick enough to support his weight.

The boatman slid away across the ice surface, and as he ran away rolling and crawling across the frozen lake, he last saw the man in white, his robes fluttering, calmly stepping onto the island.

That legendary island—mysterious beyond compare, filled with all manner of strange things, from which none returned—was like an uninhabited land beneath that man’s feet.

The boatman wondered in his heart: if going to the island was so easy, why hadn’t he gone before?

As the man in white stepped onto the island, the ice spreading across the lake finally stopped. The boatman fell into the lake water with a splash, and while swimming in the water, he saw that around that sea of fire on the island, countless black shadows had suddenly appeared.

…

Gong Yin unhurriedly stepped onto the island.

The formations on the lake-heart island naturally weren’t limited to just these poisonous insects, nor were they as simple as that boatman had thought. But after circling the island on the boat for so many days, he had already unknowingly dealt with most of the island’s formations.

He hadn’t gone to the island because he first needed to resolve these formations, and also because of Jing Hengbo.

Since this woman was hiding from him, she naturally had necessary reasons for hiding. He had made things difficult for her so many times before; now he didn’t want to trouble her again.

As she had said, learn to respect her will. Though this phrase was somewhat awkward, as long as she wanted it, he was now willing to try.

When he hadn’t found Jing Hengbo in the underground passage of the Falling Cloud Royal Palace, but had discovered those plague-infected corpses and clothing, he had vaguely guessed that this woman had probably run away again, fearing she would implicate others.

Finding her wasn’t very difficult—she would need medical treatment after all, so he could follow the trail of physicians. More importantly, she loved cleanliness and beauty too much. She could go without seeing a doctor, but not without perfume. Asking at her women’s商场would provide clues.

It was just that after the last time she had taken skincare products from the shop, she had disappeared between Falling Cloud and Floating Water. He had been patrolling back and forth in the nearby towns, carrying with him the perfume she had last taken, when he heard the boatman’s words.

Information about this lake-heart island was quickly clarified—it was actually Qiu Jinfeng’s territory. Since she had stayed, she was naturally receiving treatment.

He restrained his desire to immediately go to the island, to avoid causing disruptions to her treatment. He only had the small boat patrol around the island day after day, waiting to pick her up at the first opportunity.

Until this night when the fire broke out.

Gong Yin walked on the frost-covered road, the poisonous insects in the crushed ice beneath his feet not being trampled to pieces.

Jing Hengbo really was a trouble-maker—she could still cause incidents even on this peaceful little island that avoided worldly conflicts.

Someone came forward to meet him, looking haggard, running toward him while still turning back to look at the fire on the island’s south side.

Qiu Jinfeng must be very troubled at this moment. The island’s entry formations being breached couldn’t be ignored, but the fire on the south side was also troublesome.

He made a foolish decision, wanting to first drive away this scoundrel who had brazenly landed on the island.

Then he lost.

He had no martial arts skills. With his formations broken, his specialty in poisonous insects and drugs had little effect on someone like Gong Yin who had been poisoned for many years.

Before being subdued by Gong Yin, his slightly golden-glowing eyes swept over his entire body as he shouted ferociously: “You can’t offend me—you’re the one who’s covered in illness and needs treatment…”

Gong Yin acted as if he hadn’t heard, dragging him forward. Originally heading toward the island’s south side, both men now noticed that somehow many people had appeared on the island, moving back and forth in the firelight. Qiu Jinfeng cursed incessantly: “What the hell! Where did all these people come from! What’s going on! Are they all your lackeys?”

Gong Yin didn’t answer. Of course the people weren’t brought by him—he had been watching the island recently, and if people could land on the island, they must have arrived before him.

These people should be very good at hiding. After landing on the island they had made no moves, presumably because there were too many formations making progress impossible. But he had circled the island for several days, destroying quite a few of the island’s formations, indirectly helping these people.

Qiu Jinfeng continued his angry cursing, but Gong Yin stopped in his tracks, because he saw a shadow flickering in and out of view, rushing toward them.

That speed was beyond human capability and difficult for the eye to track. Gong Yin let out a slight breath of relief—Jing Hengbo was fine, she was coming.

“Where is your residence?”

Qiu Jinfeng arrogantly rolled his eyes and ignored him, but unfortunately his old servant had already tremblingly opened the door from a courtyard and come out to welcome them.

Gong Yin dragged Qiu Jinfeng into that courtyard, closed the courtyard gate, entered the house and shut the door. Then he heard Jing Hengbo rushing about outside, shouting: “Qiu Jinfeng! Where are you!”

Gong Yin stood quietly by the window listening. The anxiety in Jing Hengbo’s voice couldn’t be concealed even by the wind.

Qiu Jinfeng looked at his silhouette and suddenly laughed mockingly.

“How do you feel?”

Gong Yin ignored him.

“She looks like she wants to find me to save someone. That companion of hers is deeply poisoned. When he arrived, he was already at the end of his strength, just holding on so she wouldn’t notice. Now it’s her turn to carry him, coming to beg me in the middle of the night. This pair—they really have deep affection and heavy sentiment.”

Qiu Jinfeng smiled maliciously, waiting for this iceberg of a man to explode.

The fire grew larger and larger, reflecting red light that flickered in the sky, casting shadows on Gong Yin’s face without a trace of warmth.

“Speaking of which, this person is also truly devoted to her, worthy of her running about for him in the middle of the night, not hesitating to set fire to the mountain, putting on an attitude of ‘I’ll fight you to the death if you don’t treat him.'” Qiu Jinfeng spoke even more eloquently: “I arranged for her to stay in the ghost courtyard, and he built a bamboo hut outside the courtyard to keep watch. He got up many times each night to drive away those peering half-mad patients for her. Since she moved in, all her meals have been personally prepared by him—for this my kitchen has nearly been emptied. He would taste her medicine first, fearing I might poison it. If she was sleeping and those patients in the courtyard made too much noise, he would drive them away with stones. He also wouldn’t allow those people to get too close. Sometimes when she wanted to share food with the patients, he would rather make another portion for her to avoid her catching those people’s diseases. Not to mention the countless other daily life details he worried and labored over. For a man to do such trivial things for a woman—though I don’t think much of it, I do admire it greatly, because I couldn’t do it.” He asked Gong Yin with a smile: “Could you do it?”

Could you do it?

In that instant, this question also echoed once in Gong Yin’s heart.

He pressed his lips tightly together, knowing there was no answer.

His vision had always encompassed Jing Hengbo’s path as a ruler—family, country, and world; imperial ambitions and hegemonic enterprises; and how to survive in this man-eating world.

For her, he arranged schemes of power and strategy, planned imperial enterprises, composed chapters of blood and fire, and calculated the chess game of the world.

Those trivial matters of daily life, the details of human existence—in his tumultuous life, there was no time to attend to them.

His mental energy had already been entirely devoted to meeting or deflecting those storms and waves for her.

But perhaps those warm aspects of daily life—the constant consideration and delicate care—were what a small woman who longed for love and had no great ambitions truly wanted.

“Can you do it? Looking at you, you definitely can’t.” Qiu Jinfeng’s voice continued, persistent: “I’ve observed her for several days and think she’s quite a kind and delicate woman. For such a woman, what do you think she truly needs?”

What does she truly need?

The firelight reflected in his eyes seemed to burn in his heart as well, blazingly hot.

Qiu Jinfeng was laughing, quite pleased with himself: “What’s the point of you coming to the island? To watch others’ mutual affection? Don’t blame me for not warning you—I’ve been watching for many days!”

He suddenly called loudly to the outside: “What are you trying to do!”

A figure flashed in the courtyard, and Jing Hengbo, who had been searching everywhere, had already flashed inside. Her head was covered in sweat, her face full of black ash, red and black like a plateau woman. She carried Yelu Qi on her back and shouted loudly: “Qiu Jinfeng, come out and save someone!”

“I swore an oath not to save him!”

“If you don’t save him, I swear to make you die badly, along with your family members, clan members, and everyone related to you!”

“Is this your attitude toward your savior?”

“You treating me was just being forced—I don’t need to feel grateful to you. Now just answer me one thing: will you save him or not?”

“I wouldn’t mind facing a queen’s threats, but to make me break my oath, what will you give me in return?”

After Qiu Jinfeng asked this question, he winked at the expressionless Gong Yin and whispered: “Want to know the weight of another man in the heart of the woman you like?”

Outside, Jing Hengbo’s unhesitating answer had already come: “Whatever you want, as long as I have it!”

Qiu Jinfeng smiled happily, glancing at Gong Yin. He felt that the inexplicable frustration he’d been suffering recently had been partially repaid.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t see this iceberg’s expression, but judging from the dropping temperature, it probably wasn’t too pleasant.

Qiu Jinfeng decided to add more fuel to the fire.

“What if I want you to give up your throne? Would you be willing? I heard your throne didn’t come too easily.”

“If you can sit on it, I’ll give it to you.”

“What if I want you to kowtow and apologize to me?” Qiu Jinfeng sneered.

Then he felt killing intent, sharp as a sword against his back, and heard Gong Yin say coldly: “If you make her knees soften even a bit, I’ll make sure you can never get hard again for the rest of your life.”

Qiu Jinfeng really couldn’t imagine such a threat coming from this snow-and-ice-like man’s mouth, but had to admit it was truly devastating. He hadn’t married or had children yet!

Outside, Jing Hengbo said matter-of-factly: “You’re worthy of my kneeling!”

“Listen to that, listen to that—such deep affection and heavy sentiment, at any cost.” Qiu Jinfeng chuckled at Gong Yin: “Since ancient times, men have loved their kingdoms more than beauties, but now there’s also a beauty who loves a man more than her kingdom. This matter is enough to be written into story books and passed down forever in Dahuang.”

Gong Yin glanced at him, and though Qiu Jinfeng hadn’t wanted to shut up, he suddenly clamped his mouth shut.

That chill was too terrifying—he felt that if he said one more word, his bone marrow would definitely freeze.

Then he felt he was being too boring.

This man in front of him was different from Yelu Qi. His gaze was too determined, towering like mountains. Perhaps he could cause him small irritations, but could never shake his will.

His understanding of love and persistent will.

“Finished talking?” Gong Yin asked him. “If you’re finished, bring the patient in.” He paused and said, “Don’t let her come in.”

Qiu Jinfeng called out: “I’ll settle accounts with you later. For now, leave the person and go help me put out the fire!”

Jing Hengbo wanted to say something more, but Qiu Jinfeng’s impatient voice urged her again: “Get out, get out, don’t delay my treatment!”

Jing Hengbo was uneasy. She always felt something was strange. Qiu Jinfeng might not have bad character, but his nature was extremely proud and stubborn. He had sworn not to save Yelu Qi, yet now because she had set a fire and made a few threats, he was willing to save him?

She had originally thought she would at least really have to kowtow and apologize.

The old servant tremblingly said behind her: “Miss, after all this time, don’t you know my young master’s character yet? If he doesn’t agree, he doesn’t agree. But if he agrees, no matter what, he won’t harm anyone.”

Jing Hengbo sighed. At this point, she could only try.

She grabbed the old servant in one hand, smiled at the frightened old man, and with a wave of her other hand sent Yelu Qi into the house, calling loudly: “I’m leaving the person with you—you’re responsible for curing him for me. If you play any tricks, I’ll slaughter your old servant. He’s been living with you on this lonely island, so he must be very important to you!”

She narrowed her eyes, looking at the wooden house’s door. Just now when she sent Yelu Qi through the door, she seemed to have seen something…

“I now think you’re indeed suitable to be a queen—suspicious, despicable, and ungrateful!” came Qiu Jinfeng’s scolding voice.

Hearing him scold her, Jing Hengbo felt relieved instead. She shrugged and flashed out of the courtyard with the old servant in tow.

In the house, under Gong Yin’s supervision, Qiu Jinfeng took Yelu Qi’s pulse. At first his expression was quite relaxed, but gradually his face changed, with fine beads of sweat appearing on his nose.

Gong Yin’s expression also didn’t look good. He had already recognized this as the toxicity left by some powerful yin-poison technique from the Snow Mountain’s secret cache. This kind of technique wasn’t something just anyone could practice, and naturally wasn’t easy to eliminate either.

Qiu Jinfeng squinted and looked for a long while before saying weakly: “Half his liver is already ruined, and the blood in his body has also been affected…” Glancing at Gong Yin, he continued: “It’s somewhat similar to your problem, except yours is concentrated in one place while his circulates throughout the body. Once it attacks the heart, death is certain.”

“The method.”

“There’s no method.” Sweat rolled down Qiu Jinfeng’s forehead: “I can risk trying to open his abdomen and remove that half of the ruined liver. This kind of surgery I rarely perform—after all, few people dare to try. My old servant could assist me and knows how to do it, but he’s been kidnapped. Additionally, I need an expert who can continuously protect his vital energy with internal power during the surgery and find ways to force the poison from his blood. The true power consumed in the process would be enough to cripple a master… Who would be willing to expend their lifetime’s power and risk becoming crippled to save an unrelated person?”

He suddenly grinned, staring at Gong Yin.

“You are indeed a qualified expert. Even your ice-type internal power could maximally help me clean the environment, kill the poison and harm, and protect him from infection. But—are you willing?”

Looking at Gong Yin’s expression, he slowly added another sentence: “Are you willing to risk becoming a cripple to save your romantic rival, then powerlessly watch the romantic rival you saved steal away your woman?”

“Are you willing?”

The distant fire had gradually been extinguished.

The gradually dimming red light flickered on and off in the pitch-black island, reflecting Gong Yin’s eternally cold and frozen eyes like ice crystals.

He stood by the window, but was thinking about Jing Hengbo from just now.

Disheveled hair, face covered in ash, sweat on her nose tip from urgency or exhaustion, flowing down her skin and washing out grayish-black streaks in the dirt.

Someone who loved beauty so much, forgetting her own bedraggled state.

He had even seen her slightly reddened eye circles in that moment.

Gong Yin slowly closed his eyes.

Behind him, Qiu Jinfeng sighed in frustration while feeling somewhat triumphant, still persistently asking:

Are you willing?

…

Jing Hengbo tied up the old servant and threw him in a hidden cave, then ran to fight the fire herself.

Through this period of treatment, she felt her plague had recovered. Qiu Jinfeng had a sharp tongue and was difficult to deal with, but he had integrity in his actions. She could feel that those medicines not only wouldn’t harm her child, but were even beneficial. As long as she could resolve Yelu Qi’s poison this time, she could leave.

But somehow, she always had a strange feeling in her heart, feeling that things wouldn’t be resolved so perfectly—ever since she became this wretched queen, nothing had ever been resolved smoothly.

She looked up at the fire over there. It had actually diminished and hadn’t spread to the courtyard where the patients lived. This made her breathe a sigh of relief. That group of strange nobles in the courtyard had been very caring toward her recently. Living together day and night, she had developed some affection for them and pitied their tragic circumstances. She had been planning that if possible, when leaving she would take away a few whose conditions were relatively mild. Even if they couldn’t recover their former glory, it should be time for them to return to the human world and live ordinary lives.

Suddenly there were shouting voices ahead, and the sound of blades clashing. Jing Hengbo’s heart tightened—she remembered there were no weapons on this island.

A black shadow rushed over like fire and wind, long hair flying, a cold gleam flashing at the corner of the mouth—actually holding a blade between the teeth.

This posture was really familiar. Jing Hengbo was stunned for a moment. Before she could call out, she saw many more people whooshing out from behind.

These people had excellent lightness skills, were neatly dressed in black from head to toe, with bows, crossbows, blades and swords complete on their backs. At a glance they were clearly well-trained people—if not assassins, then elite soldiers.

This large group of people were all chasing the one person in front. Seeing Jing Hengbo suddenly appear, the leader exclaimed “Eh?” and raised his hand to stab at her with a blade.

Jing Hengbo dodged with a flash and struck back with her blade straight at the opponent’s waist. She was angry that the other party attacked with killing intent without distinguishing right from wrong, so her counterattack was also merciless.

The opponent dodged sharply with a “rip” sound as his waist clothing was slashed, vaguely revealing the earthy yellow leather belt inside with fire patterns printed on it. Before Jing Hengbo could see clearly, the person whose clothing was slashed had already become furious, shouting low: “There’s another one here! Finish them all together!”

A group of people swarmed up with a whoosh. Jing Hengbo frowned—when had so many people appeared on this well-defended island? How did they get here?

Wind sounded behind her as someone lunged over, shouting low: “If you’re chasing me, chase me—don’t drag unrelated people into this!”

Hearing this voice, Jing Hengbo was stunned and called out: “Zuoqiu Mo?”

The figure suddenly turned around. In the remaining firelight, her features were androgynously handsome—it was indeed Zuoqiu Mo.

Seeing Jing Hengbo, she was also startled, then said joyfully: “Your Maj—”

She stopped halfway through the shout, warily glancing at those people. Jing Hengbo quickly joined forces with her and asked: “What’s going on? How did you catch up? Who are these people, and why does it look like they’re trying to kill you, even chasing you to the island?”

“When you left with Ge Lian at the Falling Cloud city gates, you left clues for me, so I followed all along, protecting you from afar. After you went to the island, I first dealt with Ge Lian, then followed to the island. As soon as I entered, I was trapped by formations. Until today, the island’s formations mysteriously all broke and a fire started. I broke out of the formations and rushed toward the fire, originally wanting to find you. Who knew I’d encounter this group of people,” Zuoqiu Mo paused and said coldly, “They are Floating Water’s Heavenly Net Guards, subordinate to the Floating Water royal family, specializing in eliminating dissidents for the royal family, carrying out assassinations, punishing traitors, and investigating and monitoring officials. They are Floating Water’s most powerful secret elite military force.”

“How did they target you?” Jing Hengbo pulled Zuoqiu Mo along as they left, flashing several times to escape their pursuers. She headed straight for her madhouse, thinking that with such an evil force on the island, the island’s tranquility was destroyed, and she must immediately notify those people to leave.

“I don’t know. Earlier when fighting, their leader said I killed their Second Prince.” Zuoqiu Mo’s face was full of anger: “I’ve never even seen Wu Weiyan. Running away from marriage is one thing—when have I ever killed him!”

Jing Hengbo was startled, remembering Wu Weiyan in Falling Cloud trying to collude with the Crown Princess Consort to harm her, only to be caught when she withdrew to attack the camp, fleeing in panic. At that time she was rushing back to the arena to save Yelu Qi and hadn’t pursued this person’s whereabouts. Now it seemed he had been killed?

The Floating Water Second Prince was killed, causing the Floating Water royal family to dispatch their elite secret forces to hunt down Zuoqiu Mo, even pursuing her to this secret lake-heart island… Jing Hengbo sighed, thinking there must be someone playing tricks in all this.

“Speaking of which, it’s also strange,” Zuoqiu Mo continued, “Originally there were more people chasing me, but after the fire started, somehow it seemed many people suddenly disappeared…”

Jing Hengbo’s heart suddenly shuddered.

If Floating Water’s royal military force had landed on the island, then those imperial concubines, princes, generals, and county princesses in the great courtyard who had irreconcilable hatred with the Floating Water royal family… She suddenly pulled Zuoqiu Mo harder: “Hurry!”

Zuoqiu Mo followed her in confusion, running down through the woods, over the fence. Not far ahead was that courtyard, and from a distance Jing Hengbo could see the courtyard gate was wide open, her heart jumping again.

She quickly swept over, and just before approaching the gate, suddenly her foot went soft and she tripped over something.