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

Chapter 489: What If Xiao Mo Could Actually Hear?

Without quite noticing it, three full months had passed since Xiao Mo entered seclusion.

The cool and pleasant days of spring had gradually given way to the mounting heat of summer.

Throughout those three months, Xiao Mo had remained just as he was when he first entered stillness, sitting quietly at the center of the courtyard without moving.

Were it not for the fact that his complexion remained a healthy pink and his breathing steady and unhurried, even Xian Xichun would have had cause to wonder whether this young man might have simply passed on while sitting in the bamboo courtyard.

And every day or two, Tushan Jingci would come to the bamboo grove to look in on Xiao Mo.

Each time she came, Tushan Jingci would always first go to Hanshan City to buy a jug of good wine and some tasty things to go with it, and bring them for Teacher Xian, who kept watch outside the bamboo courtyard.

Though Teacher Xian had said that his help was for Xiao Mo's sake, born of the friendship between himself and Xiao Mo, and had nothing to do with the Tushan clan, in Tushan Jingci's view Xiao Mo was hers. And since Teacher Xian was standing guard for her Xiao Mo, it was only right that she bring something to properly thank him for his trouble.

Of course, there was also another small motive behind Tushan Jingci's habit of bringing wine and food for Teacher Xian each time, and that was to distract him.

It could not be helped. Sometimes when Tushan Jingci came to visit Xiao Mo, if Teacher Xian happened to be at leisure, he would pull her aside for a lesson, or examine her on her studies.

After all, she had already been sitting in the study hall for a long time. When class finally let out and she managed to carve out some time to come and see Xiao Mo, she ended up having class again.

At that rate, was she not in class every single moment of the day except when she was sleeping?

What sort of demon could endure that?

And so Tushan Jingci had hit upon this strategy of bringing wine and food every time. If Teacher Xian was busy eating and drinking, he would naturally have no mind left to give her a lesson.

Xian Xichun had of course seen straight through the young miss of the Tushan clan's little scheme.

But he never said so aloud. He simply did as he always did, accepting the jug of wine and the food box whenever Tushan Jingci arrived, and wandering off to eat and drink alone on the other side of the bamboo grove, leaving this small patch of the world to the two young people.

In the beginning, Tushan Jingci could only watch Xiao Mo from outside the courtyard gate but over time, as she gradually channeled spiritual energy into the formation, and the formation grew familiar with Tushan Jingci's presence, she was able to enter the courtyard and draw closer to Xiao Mo.

There was one condition, of course, which was that Tushan Jingci could carry no killing intent toward Xiao Mo but then, how could Tushan Jingci have harbored even the faintest ill will toward him?

Summer deepened with the passing days.

The ninth month was the hottest time of year at the Hanshan Academy.

A vicious sun hung overhead, and the scorching sunlight poured down without cover or mercy. Even in a light, thin summer dress, Tushan Jingci found the heat difficult to endure, to say nothing of Xiao Mo.

He sat at the center of the courtyard without moving, exposed to the full force of the sun.

Tushan Jingci's heart ached terribly for him, and she wanted to hold a parasol over him, a fifth-grade dharma treasure that would have shielded him from the burning sun and made it feel as cool as early autumn but Xian Xichun stopped her.

"The Great Dream of the Yellow Millet that Xiao Mo cultivates is the most orthodox of all Daoist arts in the world. This cultivation method holds that one must merge oneself into nature and become a part of it, perceiving the changes of all things in heaven and earth, drawing from them an understanding of the Dao resonances, and in so doing stepping onto a higher path."

Xian Xichun explained patiently to Tushan Jingci.

"Right now, while Xiao Mo is in seclusion, his spiritual energy has been fully drawn inward under the method's influence. At this moment, setting aside his reliance on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for sustenance, in all other respects his body is essentially no different from that of an ordinary person."

"This is because the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet requires him to experience the changing seasons of nature firsthand, to use the natural forces that cycle through heaven and earth to temper his own spiritual energy and his heart in the Dao."

"You may intervene by ordinary means to make things a little easier on him."

"But shielding him entirely from the sun would do him harm, not good."

After Xian Xichun explained it in these terms, even though Tushan Jingci could see Xiao Mo's cheeks growing red from the heat, his very hair scorched warm to the touch, she could only hold back her aching concern and not dare to interfere beyond a certain measure.

Still, within the bounds of what would not affect his cultivation, Tushan Jingci thought of every means she could.

Sometimes she would bring several blocks of ice and set them carefully just outside the courtyard, hoping the faint coolness might drift through and offer him a small measure of relief.

Sometimes she would draw a basin of cool well water, soak a cloth and wring it out, then walk quietly to Xiao Mo's side and gently wipe down his cheeks and the backs of his hands but these ordinary methods had their limits.

Every time Tushan Jingci saw Xiao Mo's cheeks peeling from the sun, her heart clenched with a sharp pain that she could not suppress, and her eyes could not help but grow faintly red at the corners.

Sometimes on summer nights, Tushan Jingci would also slip quietly into the bamboo courtyard and sit down beside Xiao Mo.

She would keep him company as they listened together to the cicadas singing through the summer night, looked up together at the stars scattered across the sky, and then she would talk at length about the interesting and amusing things she had come across recently.

Though Tushan Jingci understood perfectly well in her heart that Xiao Mo could not hear a word of what she was saying, and that this kind of talking to herself would receive no reply, she still felt that simply saying it aloud left her heart considerably lighter.

And besides, what if Xiao Mo could actually hear?

That way his seclusion would not be quite so dull, either.

During this same period, Liu Shui also came often to visit Xiao Mo.

That Elder Sister Liu Shui came to see Xiao Mo was something Tushan Jingci had no particular feelings about.

After all, Elder Sister Liu Shui and Xiao Mo were friends. Friends caring for one another and coming to check on one another was entirely ordinary.

Only, when Tushan Jingci happened to learn that Elder Sister Liu Shui had often come in the past to help Xiao Mo clean his courtyard, an inexplicable, vague sense of discomfort stirred somewhere inside her that she could not quite explain.

This feeling puzzled Tushan Jingci greatly.

It was as though the thing she cherished and valued above all else had, without her noticing, been quietly claimed in part by someone else.

Tushan Jingci did not consider herself a petty person.

In the past, whenever she had something delicious or something fun, she would share it with Elder Sister Liu Shui too.

She had done so before, and naturally she still would now and yet, for some reason she could not name, it seemed as though in the young girl's heart, everything could be shared with others, except Xiao Mo but before long, one day Liu Shui came to the bamboo courtyard herself to say her farewell to Tushan Jingci.

"Elder Sister Liu Shui is leaving?"

Tushan Jingci looked at Liu Shui standing before her with some surprise, a flicker of reluctance showing in her eyes.