We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 484: I Simply Do Not Want to Go Back

In the early morning, Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes in the courtyard.

He had not slept at all through the night, spending every hour using the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet to trace the identity and motive of the assailant.

By all reasoning, he felt that using the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet to trace cause and effect should have yielded something, even if not the full picture, at least some faint thread to follow but the assailant's causal threads seemed to have been severed by someone's deliberate hand. There was simply nothing for Xiao Mo to follow.

"Well then... I will take it one step at a time."

Xiao Mo let out a slow breath and could only set the matter aside for now.

He straightened his robe and walked out of the courtyard.

Today Tushan Jingci had classes at the study hall, and as her book attendant, Xiao Mo needed to accompany her.

One incense stick's time later, Xiao Mo had only just arrived at Tushan Jingci's courtyard when he saw her standing at the gate, peering eagerly into the distance.

The moment she caught sight of Xiao Mo, Tushan Jingci's fox eyes lit up at once, and she came running toward him with delight. "Xiao Mo, you are finally here. Let us go, we are heading to the study hall."

Seeing how animated she was, Xiao Mo could not help but smile.

In the past, whether it was on Qianxue Peak or Yunxiao Peak, every morning on the way to class the Young Miss would make her way there with a face like a condemned prisoner, head lowered, dragging her long legs forward with great reluctance.

This was the first time the Young Miss had ever been so willing.

"I have always enjoyed studying, for your information."

Tushan Jingci shoved the two Confucian classics she had brought for the day's lessons into Xiao Mo's arms and leapt up into the air.

High in the clear blue sky, with each step Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci took forward, a green leaf fell and settled beneath their feet.

The two of them stepped from leaf to leaf as though walking along an ordinary path, making their way toward Yunxiao Peak.

A high wind swept through, rippling softly through the hem of Tushan Jingci's dress and lifting the strands of her hair, carrying with it a faint and gentle fragrance, like gardenias coming into bloom.

"Xiao Mo, these past few days living in your new courtyard, have you been settling in well?"

Tushan Jingci clasped her pale hands behind her back and looked at Xiao Mo's profile with a smile as she asked.

"Well enough, I suppose." Xiao Mo replied. "Each day it is nothing but cultivation and reading. There is a rare kind of ease to it."

"Hey! What do you mean, a rare kind of ease?" The young girl was immediately displeased, her soft pink lips forming a small pout. "Are you saying I was bothering you before?"

Looking at the young girl's bewitching eyes, Xiao Mo neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply looked at her with a smile.

"Hmph."

Under Xiao Mo's gaze, Tushan Jingci felt a prick of self-consciousness. She turned her head away and quickened her pace, her muttering drifting back from somewhere ahead.

"Wretched Xiao Mo, saying I was a bother, I am not speaking to you anymore. Wretched Xiao Mo! Wretched Xiao Mo!"

Watching the Young Miss's sulky retreating figure, Xiao Mo smiled and picked up his pace to follow.

Two quarter-hours later, Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci arrived at Yunxiao Peak.

"In two more years, the Young Miss will sit the examination for the title of Worthy at the Hanshan Academy. Two years is not short by ordinary standards, but for cultivators such as us it passes in the blink of an eye. I ask that the Young Miss listen carefully in class and not be careless about it."

Before entering the study hall, Xiao Mo spoke to Tushan Jingci with a serious expression.

"I know, I know." The still-pouting Tushan Jingci complained, "You have not even been living with me anymore and you are already bossing me around more than my own mother."

With that, Tushan Jingci turned and walked toward the study hall.

"Young Miss." Tushan Jingci had barely taken a few steps before Xiao Mo called from behind her.

"What!" The young girl turned around.

"You forgot your books." Xiao Mo said, helpless.

"Oh!" Tushan Jingci ran back to Xiao Mo, snatched the two books from his arms, and marched off toward the study hall in a huff.

"Young Miss." Watching the young girl's indignant manner, Xiao Mo called again.

"What!" Though Tushan Jingci had declared she was not speaking to Xiao Mo, every time he called her she turned around dutifully.

"Actually," Xiao Mo smiled and said slowly, "these past few days without the Young Miss around to bother me, I have found it rather strange."

Hearing his words, Tushan Jingci gave a small start, and her hands tightened of their own accord around the books she was holding.

"I offer you peace and quiet and you do not even want it. You are insufferable!"

A moment later, Tushan Jingci caught herself, spun around, and ran into the study hall but beneath the proud, delicate tip of her nose, her soft lips had curved upward ever so slightly.

That sweet smile wanted to hide itself, yet somehow it simply would not stay hidden.

Before long, all the young lords and young ladies of the Yunxiao Peak study hall had arrived on time.

Outside the study hall, a row of book attendants stood waiting, Xiao Mo among them.

When they were young, these demon book attendants had made no effort to conceal their contempt for Xiao Mo, a human. But now that they had all grown up, even those who still harbored dislike for him had learned to keep it buried beneath a civil surface.

And with Xiao Mo having entered the Dragon Gate realm, a cultivation level that surpassed all of them, they had come to regard him with an additional measure of wariness.

They understood that if Xiao Mo continued cultivating at this rate and reached the Nascent Soul realm, he would one day become a retainer of the Mount Tu household. And retainers of Tushan, whether human or demon, held no small degree of standing and authority.

Not long after, class began, and the voice of Teacher Xian drifted out from within the study hall as he taught.

Each time Teacher Xian lectured, he would intentionally raise his voice a little, so that Xiao Mo and the others waiting outside could hear. But the demon book attendants still did not take in a single word, each one simply waiting for their own young lord or young lady to be done. Only Xiao Mo listened with genuine attention.

The morning passed.

Class let out, and Tushan Jingci came walking out.

"How did the Young Miss find today's lesson?" Xiao Mo asked with a smile, taking in her slightly dazed expression.

"Same as always. Every word the teacher said I could understand on its own, yet somehow when they were all put together I could not follow any of it."

Tushan Jingci let out a sigh, then lifted her head and pushed out her lips. "Xiao Mo, do not scold me. I was listening very carefully. I simply could not understand it. What am I supposed to do about that?"

Xiao Mo shook his head. "What the teacher covered today was genuinely rather complex. It is not easy to follow. It is not the Young Miss's fault."

"Exactly, exactly. That is what I thought too." Tushan Jingci nodded in vigorous agreement.

"Then Young Miss, shall we head back?" Xiao Mo said.

"Ah, back already..."

Tushan Jingci fidgeted with her sleeve between her fingers, pursing her lips, her eyes shifting back and forth. She looked very much as though she did not want to go back at all.

After a long pause, as though something had just come to her, Tushan Jingci looked up at Xiao Mo. "Xiao Mo, come with me to Hanshan City."

"Hanshan City? Does the Young Miss need to buy something?" Xiao Mo asked, puzzled.

"Something like that. Let us go."

Without giving Xiao Mo a chance to refuse, Tushan Jingci had already flown off in the direction of Hanshan City.

They arrived at Hanshan City.

Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci walked along the lively streets.

Because Tushan Jingci was so exceptionally beautiful, every passing person, young or old, man or woman, would look her way without exception.

Even the young women draped over the balcony railings of the pleasure house run by the Harmonious Union Sect lowered their voices when they caught sight of Tushan Jingci, their usual calls for customers falling quiet.

These women, whose trade depended on their looks, were normally very confident in their own beauty. But standing before Tushan Jingci, they felt themselves to be nothing more than the most ordinary of wild grasses, while she was a flower blooming in proud and effortless splendor.

They ate lunch at a restaurant.

They bought tanghulu from a street vendor's stall.

They lingered at the market, playing with small dogs and cats.

Tushan Jingci moved through the city like a lively butterfly.

Xiao Mo realized the Young Miss had not actually needed to buy anything. She had simply wanted to come to Hanshan City and wander around.

Two and a half hours later, just as Xiao Mo thought the Young Miss had had her fill of the outing, Tushan Jingci announced she also wanted to go and play at Clearspring Peak.

Xiao Mo glanced at the sky. The sun had already begun to set in the west, sliding toward the horizon.

He felt it was not early and that he ought to take the Young Miss back.

And beyond that, his cultivation of the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet had recently entered a new phase. Under its influence, Xiao Mo found that no matter how much he slept he never felt fully rested, and he was prone to fatigue with uncommon ease, much like a serpent approaching its winter dormancy, never knowing quite when sleep might take him. After a full day of wandering about, that exhaustion pressed down on him all the more heavily.

But just as Xiao Mo was about to speak, he noticed Tushan Jingci's bewitching eyes looking at him with a pleading softness, like the world's gentlest blade sliding quietly into his heart.

It left him at a loss for what to say.

In the end, Xiao Mo could only agree.

By the time the two of them arrived at Clearspring Peak, the sun had sunk completely behind the mountain ridges, leaving only a soft and blurred halo of light tracing the edges of the peaks.

The red glow at the horizon was deep and rich, like pigment that refused to dissolve, layered over and over until it had soaked through nearly half the sky.

That red light poured down from above, and everything in the world was draped in a warm, suffusing crimson.

The forest stood quiet on the hillside, each tree wrapped in that red veil. On the ground between the trees, the thick carpet of fallen leaves, already golden on their own, glowed even warmer and heavier under the red light, soft underfoot, giving off a faint, gentle rustle with every step.

Birds heading home for the night swept urgently across the sky, their wings stirring what seemed like wisps of red light as they flew, arriving in twos and threes into the shelter of the trees with short bursts of cheerful noise.

A waterfall tumbled down from above and crashed onto the rocky bed below, its sound deep and resonant, yet clear and bright, echoing ceaselessly through the forest around them.

Beside the clear spirit spring, Tushan Jingci rolled up her sleeves, gathered up her skirt, slipped off her embroidered shoes and stockings and set them neatly to one side, then stepped into the spring water with a light and carefree step.

The water came just to her ankles, clear enough to see the bottom, and her slender ankles shimmered with a soft glow in the afternoon light.

With each step she took, the water rippled gently past the delicate curve of her ankle, sending small rings spreading outward.

She paused and let the water wash over the tops of her feet. Her small toes curled slightly, as though testing the temperature of the water, or as though the smooth stones on the spring bed were tickling her.

Crystal drops of water slid slowly down her pale calves, following the curve of her ankle, running across the top of her foot, and falling at last from the tip of her rounded toe back into the spring.

The fish that had been startled away gradually drifted back, swaying lazily around her feet for a moment before darting off again.

"Xiao Mo, come in and play too." The young girl called to Xiao Mo from where she stood in the water.

Xiao Mo shook his head. "I will stay out."

"Come on, come on..."

"Young Miss, truly, it is all right."

"Oh? Elder Sister Yueshi, when did you get here?"

Tushan Jingci suddenly lifted a hand and pointed at something in the distance.

And the moment Xiao Mo turned to look, the fluffy white fox tail at Tushan Jingci's back wrapped around him, and with a loud splash, dragged him straight into the spring.

The spring water soaked through Xiao Mo's robes.

Just as Xiao Mo moved to stand, the young girl cupped both hands together, scooped up spring water, and splashed it directly at his face.

Xiao Mo wiped his face clear, and the moment his vision returned, he found the young girl bent forward, tongue stuck out, pulling a cheeky face at him. "Silly Xiao Mo, come on then, try and catch me!"

"Young Miss, you leave me no choice then." Xiao Mo got to his feet with a helpless air, intending to return the favor.

"Catch me first and then we will see."

"Bleh!"

The young girl skipped lightly away, gave her lower leg a kick, her fair, rosy foot stretched into a pretty arc before lifting up, and the spray of water kicked up by her foot splashed squarely across Xiao Mo's face.

Half an hour later, night had fallen over the sky.

The darkness was complete, and one by one the stars had emerged to scatter across the heavens.

Beneath the night sky, a campfire had been lit beside the spirit spring. Xiao Mo had caught a few spirit fish, threaded them onto branches, and set them over the fire to roast.

When the fish were nearly done and the fragrance of the roasting flesh rose up into the air, Xiao Mo pulled the branches from the fire and passed one to Tushan Jingci.

The young girl held the branch at both ends and ate in small, careful bites.

Perhaps because the spirit fish tasted rather good, the young girl's pretty eyes narrowed from time to time, carrying a gentle, contented warmth.

"Young Miss, now that you are eating your fish, we really ought to head back. Elder Sister Yueshi will actually be upset if we do not." Xiao Mo said.

"I know..." Tushan Jingci lowered her eyes, and suddenly felt that the fish in her hands was not quite as delicious as it had been a moment before.

After finishing a little under half her fish, Tushan Jingci looked up and noticed that beside her, Xiao Mo's eyelids had drooped to half-mast, his head dipping forward from time to time.

Just like herself falling asleep in class.

"Xiao Mo, are you all right?" Tushan Jingci asked, concern in her voice. "You look so exhausted."

"It is nothing." Xiao Mo shook his head and roused himself a little. "It is a matter of the cultivation method. I have recently reached a critical point in my practice, so I have been prone to drowsiness. It is not a serious problem. It will pass after a while."

"I see." The young girl's eyes shifted, as though a certain "mischievous" thought had just crossed her mind. "Then Xiao Mo, wait for me to finish this fish, and we will go back."

"Very well." Xiao Mo gave a nod, his voice carrying a faint heaviness. "But Young Miss, why did you seem so reluctant to go back today? Has something happened?"

"Hmm? No, nothing at all." Tushan Jingci shook her head with a faintly guilty air, then went back to eating her fish.

Tushan Jingci did not say, and Xiao Mo did not ask again.

The drowsiness brought on by the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet crept over Xiao Mo once more.

Beside him, Tushan Jingci was eating her fish more and more slowly, her eyes stealing glances at Xiao Mo from time to time.

When Xiao Mo's eyes finally closed and his body began to tip forward, Tushan Jingci quickly reached out with her tail, wrapped it around him, and drew him gently to her side.

In the moonlight, Tushan Jingci looked at Xiao Mo bundled in her tail, watching his slow and steady breathing. She reached out a finger, dabbed it in a smear of ash from the fire, and began drawing circles and little turtles on his face.

When she had finished, the young girl looked at her own handiwork and patted her hands together with satisfaction.

"Why do I not want to go back?"

"Wretched Xiao Mo, does that even need to be asked?"

The young girl reached out and tapped the tip of his nose gently with one finger, her lips forming a small pout.

"Because once I go back, I cannot see you anymore."