The fire grew fiercer and fiercer, the crowd of onlookers growing larger and larger by the moment, and soon enough, the clan elder and several tribal elders came hurrying over!
Seeing Madam Yu sobbing and wailing, seeing Xuanyuan Shang’s brow furrowed tight, and then looking at Jun Beiyue — expression icy cold, arms crossed over his chest, watching the raging inferno without so much as sparing Madam Yu a single glance —
The clan elder was thoroughly outraged, snapping harshly, “What exactly is going on here? Do you think the people of Mobei are so easy to bully?”
This, it could safely be said, was the single most unpleasant incident the Mobei tribe had ever experienced, and the most unreasonable group of Central Plains people they had ever encountered.
Madam Yu immediately rushed over, choking back sobs. “Clan elder, you must see justice done for me! I never hid anything of theirs, yet they insist I did! They wouldn’t believe me, and they burned down my house!”
As she spoke, she turned to the gathered crowd and cried out loudly, “Fellow villagers, you must all bear witness for me! You saw it with your own eyes — they’re nothing but bandits, coming here to Mobei to bully us! Just because they think we Mobei people are easy targets!”
“Where in the world does such a thing happen — such barbaric, lawless people, and no one to stop them?”
…
Madam Yu was an elder, and a Mobei tribeswoman besides, and on the surface, it certainly did look as though Jun Beiyue and the others were the ones bullying her. In no time at all, public sentiment turned firmly in Madam Yu’s favor, and the crowd began voicing their discontent, condemning Jun Beiyue’s actions one after another.
Madam Yu, who had originally been wary of Xuanyuan Lige holding her secret over her head, no longer cared about any of that now.
If Xuanyuan Lige exposed the fact that she’d poisoned that Central Plains girl, she would simply expose right back, in front of everyone, that he’d said he wanted to marry Yu Xiaomeng. After all, everyone in the tribe already knew Yu Xiaomeng couldn’t quite let go of her feelings for this man — with him standing right here, she might as well air it all out in the open!
She simply refused to believe word of this wouldn’t reach that Central Plains girl’s ears eventually.
She glared at Xuanyuan Lige, thinking to herself — you struck first without mercy, so don’t blame me for showing none in return. If you’d just married Xiaomeng and settled down here in Mobei for good, wouldn’t that have been perfectly fine? But no, you had to go and hurt Xiaomeng instead — so now you’ll pay the price for it! Get out of Mobei!
Though the crowd’s murmuring and growing discontent continued to swell, the Mobei clan elder was, in the end, a reasonable man. Though he found the arson thoroughly excessive, he wasn’t about to take Madam Yu’s word alone as gospel. He had some of the villagers work to put out the fire while turning to question Jun Beiyue.
“Young man…”
But before he could even finish speaking, Jun Beiyue cut in coldly, “No one is to put out this fire!”
The instant he spoke, several Shadow Guards materialized out of thin air, blocking off the area around the courtyard.
“You!” The clan elder drew in a sharp breath, finally losing his composure, snapping furiously, “Young man, if you want to run wild, you’d better pick the right place for it! This is Mobei, territory shared between the Xiongnu and the Kingdom of Xiliang, under Nangong City’s protection — we won’t tolerate this kind of recklessness here!”
He drew another sharp breath, then barked out coldly, “Someone, report this to Nangong City at once!”
Mobei had no army of its own — the place had no need for soldiers or officials. Nominally, it was jointly administered by Xiliang and the Xiongnu, but in practice, neither truly governed it — in reality, it fell under Nangong City’s protection.
Hearing the clan elder’s words, Jun Beiyue’s deep, unfathomable gaze finally shifted away from the raging inferno, turning toward the elder.
“Young man, if you’d just now…” The clan elder assumed he’d been rattled, that he was reconsidering. But to his surprise, Jun Beiyue said coldly, “Since you’re reporting this to Nangong City, go ahead and tell the Lord of Nangong City — Jun Beiyue is here.”
Jun Beiyue!
At first, the name didn’t seem to register with most of the crowd. But then one of the elders — the most learned scholar among the tribal elders — suddenly cried out in shock, “Da Zhou’s Prince Yao, Jun Beiyue!”
The moment those words left his mouth, it was as though a bomb had gone off. The once-clamorous crowd fell utterly silent in an instant, everyone staring at Jun Beiyue in sheer disbelief, no one able to say a single word!
Even — even Madam Yu was completely dumbstruck!
Da Zhou’s Prince Yao?!
The small Mobei town was remote and largely disconnected from worldly affairs, but even they knew of the events that had unfolded across the Longyuan continent over the past six months!
Da Zhou had gone to war with Dongqin, swallowed up more than half of its territory, and was pushing ever closer to Xiongnu lands. The Xiongnu’s Crown Prince Minhan, holding the Dongqin Empress hostage, had been steadily retreating, still not daring to strike back!
And that wasn’t all — Da Zhou had also allied with Xijing, and in several recent battles had beaten back the fierce offensive of Xiliang’s Crown Prince Wanyan Lie!
It could truly be said that Mobei’s two great pillars of protection, the Xiongnu and Xiliang, both held Da Zhou in a certain degree of wary regard!
And now, Da Zhou’s very own prince, Da Zhou’s War God himself, was standing right there before them. What made it all the more absurd was that the clan elder himself had, just moments ago, threatened him while leaning on Xiliang and the Xiongnu as if they were untouchable shields.
The clan elder was so mortified he couldn’t even bring himself to meet Jun Beiyue’s eyes. If he’d known that the Lord of Nangong City himself had just recently been driven off in defeat by this very man, he might have wished for a crack in the ground to swallow him whole.
Those who had been about to go report to Nangong City froze in their tracks as well, utterly at a loss for what to do — a figure of this magnitude, here in Mobei of all places!
Jun Beiyue paid no mind to the clan elder’s mortification, nor to the stunned disbelief of the crowd around him, nor even to Xuanyuan Lige standing off to the side, his expression darkly clouded. He simply turned and fixed his gaze on the raging fire.
He was only waiting for the flames to burn everything down, for Wuzheng to be revealed.
He had no time to spare for any of this, no patience for such leisurely theatrics — all he wanted was to get Wuzheng back for Ziqing as quickly as possible.
With Jun Beiyue’s cold, silent demeanor, the whole scene gradually sank into an awkward tension.
It took Madam Yu, the one who’d started this whole mess, quite a while to recover her senses. She stared at Jun Beiyue, suddenly unable to say another word!
Only now did it truly sink in — just how significant a figure she had offended!
What now?
Madam Yu looked around at the silent crowd, then at the clan elder’s furrowed brow and complicated expression, her heart sinking further and further, growing more and more timid by the moment.
In the end, she had no idea what to do at all!
All she knew was that, even if it killed her, she would never admit the zither was in her possession. Let it burn along with her house, then.
She hadn’t taken it, and that was that — even if they burned the house down, what more could they possibly do to her?
The only other person who knew about the zither was Yu Xiaomeng, and she would absolutely never let them find out where her daughter was.
Madam Yu’s calculations seemed sound enough to her. Without quite realizing it, she found herself standing in silence alongside Jun Beiyue, watching the blaze.
The Yu family’s house had always been small, a crude and simple thatched cottage to begin with. Soon enough, the flames began to dwindle, gradually shrinking, gradually dying out.
A field of ash was all that remained.
At last, once the very last flicker of flame had gone out, Jun Beiyue, without a word, strode straight toward the thick layer of ash!
The crowd looked on, baffled. The house was already burned down — what more did he want?
The clan elder couldn’t help but speak up. “Prince Yao, everything must be governed by reason. You claim Madam Yu took something of yours, yet you haven’t offered a shred of proof. The house is already burned — surely you don’t mean to kill someone over this too?”
The clan elder spoke with righteous indignation, but unfortunately, Jun Beiyue paid him no mind whatsoever. His sharp, cold eyes lowered, he searched through the thick layer of ash, kicking and stirring it with his foot, sending ash flying everywhere.
At that moment, Xuanyuan Lige, who had remained silent all this while, spoke up flatly. “No need to keep looking. It’s over there.”
Jun Beiyue turned, following the direction he pointed, and there, not far off, amid a mound of ash, something ancient and weathered in color peeked through…
…