A triumphant, cold smile curved at the corner of Bai Feiyao’s lips as she met Ziqing’s gaze head-on with open provocation, as if to say, “Go ahead, stare all you like — however great your abilities, you still won’t be able to take the field.”
She was itching to pick a fight with Han Ziqing right then and there — on this stage, Han Ziqing had absolutely no way to touch her.
But to everyone’s surprise, Ziqing’s gaze remained perfectly calm. She glanced at her once and immediately lowered her head again — but in that very instant her head dropped, a thunderous “BOOM” suddenly erupted from the west, shaking the very heavens!
For a moment, everyone panicked, scrambling to their feet at once. A blast of this magnitude felt like a thunderclap, like an earthquake — no one had ever experienced anything like it before. What was happening?
Soon, a Bai clan guard came rushing in, crying out in alarm, “My lord! The main estate has collapsed — it’s on fire!”
“What!”
The Bai patriarch abandoned all pretense of dignity, springing up from his seat at once. “Who did this?!”
“My lord, you must go see for yourself right away — no one knows what happened, there was suddenly a tremor and then a fire broke out, as if struck by lightning, but there was no thunder to be heard! The flames spread instantly, impossible to put out! If nothing is done soon, the entire estate will be lost!”
Hearing this, the Bai patriarch couldn’t possibly remain seated any longer. Without even a word to the two Qinse elders, he hurried off at once, and Bai Feiyao, equally frantic, dared not delay a moment longer either. “Elders, this is a sudden emergency — I beg you, please suspend the finals!”
With a battle on one side of the arena and her own household burning down on the other, no one could possibly stay focused — Bai Feiyao herself was in no position to trouble Ziqing and the others any further.
The two Qinse elders rose together, gazing toward the west, and sure enough saw billowing black smoke rising from the direction of the Bai estate.
“This…” Elder Qin hesitated. Under the rules of Liuxian Island’s newly-risen-power ranking battle, there had never been any precedent for suspending or postponing the finals!
And of course, a competing clan’s own household catching fire mid-tournament had certainly never happened before either!
The Bai clan’s main forces were all here at the arena — but that hardly meant the Bai estate was empty of people. No lightning had struck, no earthquake had occurred — so what exactly had happened?
Even if someone had deliberately set the fire, no one should have had the ability to bring down an entire main hall and ignite such a raging blaze all at once!
Of course, that wasn’t what the two Qinse elders needed to consider right now. What they needed to decide was whether the ranking battle should be suspended on account of the Bai clan.
“Elders, this is a matter of grave importance. I suspect deliberate arson — I beg you to postpone the competition and investigate thoroughly!”
The moment Bai Feiyao said this, the Yu patriarch immediately rose to his feet. “Young Feiyao, what kind of talk is this? The newly-risen-power ranking battle has never once been postponed for any reason. The collapse of the Bai clan’s estate has nothing to do with the rest of us — that’s the Bai clan’s own private affair, while the ranking battle concerns everyone here. What right do you have to demand a postponement just because you say so!”
“You—!” Bai Feiyao was left speechless with fury, unable to find a retort.
Unable to hide his satisfaction, the Yu patriarch pressed on with his mockery. “Of course, the Bai estate remains the foundation of your clan. If the Bai clan wishes to forfeit in order to fight the fire, none of us would have any objection to that at all. And if there’s anything we can help with, please, do speak up.”
Bai Feiyao trembled with rage. “Don’t you dare!”
The Yu patriarch, full of contempt, glanced over toward the Gu clan’s side instead, and said with a smile, “Patriarch Gu, how much longer must we wait? Jun Beiyue still hasn’t shown up — surely he hasn’t gone off to… fight a fire himself, has he? Ha ha!”
Whatever the Hai clan’s brilliant record, the Yu patriarch didn’t think much of them at all — after all, however formidable an obscure minor clan might prove, it could never swallow whole a century-old great house in a single bite.
With the Bai clan in a panic and the Gu clan’s people still absent, the Yu clan had landed an enormous stroke of luck. Given how things stood, the Yu patriarch thought to himself, even without any help from the distinguished figure backing him, he could easily claim first place and become Liuxian Island’s new leading house of the next generation.
Ignoring his son beside him, who kept shaking his head in silent disapproval of this sudden change in him, the Yu patriarch declared loudly with a laugh, “Elders, the ranking battle is Liuxian Island’s most sacred contest — no excuse, whatever it may be, should ever suspend it. Please, let the drawing begin!”
But no sooner had those words left his mouth than, once again, an identical sound rang out — “BOOM, rumble…”
A thunderous crash, shaking the very heavens, like thunder and like an earthquake, and yet unlike either — as though something had come crashing down from the sky above, or something had violently burst upward from beneath the earth, with tremendous force.
This was an “explosion” — the power of gunpowder detonating. Unfortunately, in this world, no such word existed, and no one had ever even heard of such a thing as gunpowder.
This particular blast had come from the southeast — precisely where the Yu clan’s estate stood!
At once, the smile on the Yu patriarch’s face froze solid. No one even needed to report it — his triumphant expression simply locked in place, because from the southeast, in the wake of that explosion, a great black cloud of birds suddenly burst skyward — and that direction was, without question, the Yu family estate.
A frantic flapping sound followed, and a black eagle came swooping down to land on Yu Xiao’s raised arm, half its wing burnt away, leaving everyone present utterly stunned.
Fire! The Yu clan’s estate was on fire too!
Only then did the entire row of Gu clan members finally come back to their senses, turning one after another to look at Ziqing, who still sat with her head bowed.
Sitting furthest away, Gu Meiting felt a chill run down her spine, finally understanding what Han Ziqing had meant back on the back mountain — “Whoever bothers me, I’ll take it out on them.”
Whatever fighting spirit Gu Meiting had left died completely in that moment. This woman — how utterly ruthless!
And Situ Haonan, sitting closest to Ziqing, was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He never would have imagined Ziqing would resort to a move like this — this woman was even more ruthless than Jun Beiyue!
Letting everyone stare, Ziqing kept her head bowed, brow slightly furrowed — though the handkerchief clutched in her hand had already been wrung into a shapeless mess.
Stalling for time was nothing at all for her. Ever since coming down from the mountaintop, her entire mind had been fixed on Jun Beiyue.
Their enemy resorting to a lure-the-tiger-from-the-mountain scheme proved they weren’t strong enough to face them head-on — Jun Beiyue’s safe return was only a matter of time. And yet Ziqing still couldn’t help worrying, torn back and forth again and again over whether she should leave to go find him herself.
She had no idea when it had started, but he’d simply always been by her side — and now that he suddenly wasn’t, she genuinely felt unsettled without him.
Ziqing continued taking advantage of the chaos, retreating into her own quiet inner world, while everything around her descended into utter pandemonium.
“Father! Fire! Quickly!” Yu Xiao cried out in alarm, immediately soaring into the air like an eagle himself, flying straight toward the southeast — with no thought left to spare for the ranking battle at a time like this.
“Yu Xiao, come back! Come back!” the Yu patriarch tried to stop him, but it was already too late.
Not even showing up in the first place was one thing, but abandoning the arena mid-proceedings without so much as a word to the judges was an entirely different matter altogether.
Seizing the opportunity, Bai Feiyao immediately spoke up coldly. “Yu patriarch, what exactly is this attitude Yu Xiao is showing? Is this a forfeit?”
The Yu patriarch broke into a cold sweat, torn between worry for his own estate and reluctance to let go of such a golden opportunity in the ranking battle. Though his own triumphant words from moments ago still rang in everyone’s ears, he had no choice but to swallow his pride, bowing with clasped hands before the two Qinse elders. “Elders, this is a sudden, unforeseen emergency — two clans struck by fire back to back, there must be something behind this. Just as with the Bai clan, the Yu clan begs you to suspend the ranking battle, investigate the fires thoroughly, and only then resume the competition!”