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

The morning after Xiao Mo’s clash with those demon book boys.

Because it was the celebration of Cold Mountain Academy’s founding, Elementary Learning Peak had been given a five-day holiday.

So today, Tushan Jingci still did not need to go to class, and Xiao Mo did not need to accompany her to the hall either.

It was precisely because of those five free days that Xiao Mo planned to face his tribulation and enter the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Even though his external injuries had not healed yet, Xiao Mo did not think it would be a problem.

Besides, today was an auspicious day. If he missed it, then for the next half year, he would not get another one this good.

He could not wait half a year.

After getting up and changing clothes, Xiao Mo planned to absorb the essence of the morning sun as usual, then go face his tribulation in the afternoon.

But when he stepped out of his room, his expression faltered.

Tushan Jingci was sitting on the stone bench in the courtyard.

Normally, whenever the school hall was on break, Tushan Jingci would sleep late.

She would not get up before the sun was shining on her backside.

Yet today, she was up this early. That was unusual.

Resting her chin on one hand, Tushan Jingci sat there with her fluffy fox tail swishing from side to side, staring blankly beyond the courtyard.

For someone who was usually so carefree, she somehow looked a little troubled now.

As if that small little head of hers were occupied with something very important.

“Young Lady is up early today,” Xiao Mo said with a smile as he walked over.

“Ah!”

Lost in thought, Tushan Jingci jumped in fright. The fur on her ears and tail puffed up all at once.

“Xiao Mo, you scared me to death!” Tushan Jingci let out a breath, patting her chest with her little hand again and again.

“Sorry, Young Lady. I didn’t mean to.” Xiao Mo smiled. “But why have you been sitting here in a daze? Is something bothering you?”

“Bothering me? No.” Tushan Jingci straightened up and shook her little head.

“Really nothing?” Xiao Mo looked into her fox eyes. “If Young Lady has something on her mind, you can tell me. Maybe I can help you think of something.”

“What could I possibly be worried about? I’m not worried about anything!”

Tushan Jingci shook her head hard, but every so often her gaze snuck back toward Xiao Mo, as if she wanted to say something and did not know how to begin.

“I see. That’s good, then.”

Xiao Mo was certain she had something on her mind.

But since she would not say it, he could hardly press her.

After a simple wash, Xiao Mo sat facing the sun and began circulating Great Dream of Yellow Millet to absorb the essence of the morning sun.

As the most orthodox of Daoist spell arts, Great Dream of Yellow Millet required one to draw in the essence of sun and moon, comprehend the truths of Heaven and Earth, and merge oneself into the natural world.

And over the course of nearly a year, the more Xiao Mo cultivated Great Dream of Yellow Millet, the more he could feel how free and unforced this technique truly was.

It had no rigid rules or binding constraints. More than anything, it followed the heart, refined the self, and nurtured one’s nature.

Because of that, Xiao Mo felt that if he cultivated Great Dream of Yellow Millet to its limit, then once one art became clear, all arts could become clear.

Sitting nearby, Tushan Jingci had long since grown used to seeing Xiao Mo glow again.

Only, the way she looked at him now seemed tinged with a childlike kind of worry.

An hour later, Xiao Mo opened his eyes and saw that Tushan Jingci was still sitting there on the stone chair in a daze.

Her upper body was draped over the table, her big fox tail swishing back and forth as she nudged pebbles across the ground again and again.

Several times, Xiao Mo could tell she wanted to say something to him.

But each time, she gave up in the end, as if she did not know how to speak.

At lunch, Tushan Jingci started saying odd little bits of wisdom to him for no apparent reason.

Things like—

“Actually, I think the most important thing is for a person to live happily.”

“The books say there are lots of things you can’t force.”

“Xiao Mo, I think you’re doing just fine now!”

“Really fine!”

Xiao Mo had no idea what she meant, so all he could do was nod along.

When she saw he had not understood her at all, Tushan Jingci puffed out her cheeks, shoveled down the food in her bowl in big mouthfuls, and stopped talking completely.

Xiao Mo had no idea how he had made her angry.

After lunch, Tushan Jingci returned to her room for a nap.

Once there was no sound from her room and Xiao Mo knew she had fallen asleep, he opened the door and walked outside.

“Going to face your tribulation and establish your foundation?”

Just as Xiao Mo was about to step through the gate of the fenced courtyard, Yueshi’s voice came from behind him.

Xiao Mo turned around and nodded. “Yes, Sister Yueshi. My Qi Refining is complete now, and I’ve also gotten the pill. It’s time to try entering Foundation Establishment.”

“Facing a tribulation is no small matter. Aren’t you going to tell Young Lady?” Yueshi asked.

“It’s precisely because it’s no small matter that I can’t tell her.”

Xiao Mo smiled and shook his head.

“Young Lady may be innocent and carefree, but she still knows what a tribulation means. If I tell her, it’ll only make her worry more.”

“So rather than that, it’s better not to say anything. But if I don’t come back, please tell Young Lady for me that I’m grateful for all the care she’s shown me.”

“Heh.”

Yueshi let out two cold laughs and tossed a vial of medicine to Xiao Mo.

“This was given by Madam. She told me to hand it to you when you went to face your tribulation. If you feel you’re about to die, take it. Maybe—and I can only say maybe—maybe it can save your life.”

“As for all that gratitude you want to pass on to Young Lady, you can tell her yourself.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Yueshi turned and walked into Tushan Jingci’s room without even waiting for Xiao Mo to thank her.

“Another debt owed...”

Looking at the vial in his hand, Xiao Mo let out a soft sigh, tucked it into his sleeve, and walked out of the courtyard.

Inside the room, Yueshi looked at her young mistress, who was sitting in the chair, and asked in confusion, “Young Lady, you really aren’t going after him?”

Tushan Jingci had not actually fallen asleep. She knew that after Xiao Mo got the Foundation Establishment Pill yesterday, he would definitely take advantage of today’s free time to go face his tribulation.

“No.” Tushan Jingci shook her head. “If I go with him, he’ll only get distracted.”

“And I already told him so many things this morning, but none of it got through to him at all. Honestly... why go through any tribulation? What if he dies? Things are fine just as they are now...”

Tushan Jingci muttered softly, a small note of anger in her voice.

Listening to her, Yueshi very much wanted to say, Young Lady, when you put it that indirectly, how is anyone supposed to know what you mean?

But Yueshi also knew that the reason her young mistress had not said it plainly was because foundation establishment was something Xiao Mo truly wanted to do.

And anything Xiao Mo wanted to do, Young Lady had never once tried to stop.

“Sister Yueshi...” Tushan Jingci raised her head and looked at Yueshi with serious eyes. “Xiao Mo will definitely be fine... right?”

Circulating the Wind-Following Art from Great Dream of Yellow Millet, Xiao Mo covered a hundred feet with each step and quickly made his way to a barren mountain within Cold Mountain Academy called Reed Mountain.

Cold Mountain Academy covered an enormous area, and not every mountain within it had been developed.

Among them were several desolate peaks rich in spiritual power, with very little human activity.

Reed Mountain was one of them, and it lay extremely far from the academy’s main peaks.

In Xiao Mo’s view, it was the ideal place for crossing his tribulation.

He walked to a broad flat clearing in the mountain, set up the spell formation he would need for the tribulation, lit incense as an offering to Heaven and Earth, and then swallowed the Foundation Establishment Pill to begin.

After patting the dust from his clothes, Xiao Mo sat cross-legged in the middle of the clearing, slowly closed his eyes, and released every restraint on his spiritual power.

At the same time, Xiao Mo entered a mysterious state.

Though he had closed his eyes and could see nothing,

he could feel every blade of grass and every tree around him, sense the heavenly lightning gathering above without yet being released, and almost touch the ineffable resonance of the Dao at his side.

BOOM!

A fierce wind swept across the mountain, and the thunderclouds split apart.

A vast tribulation bolt descended from the sky and came crashing straight toward Xiao Mo.

At the same time, in a courtyard on Elementary Learning Peak, Xian Xichun, who was leafing through a Confucian classic, lifted his head and looked in Reed Mountain’s direction. Then he withdrew his gaze and continued reading.

Only the corners of the scholar’s lips curled faintly, as if murmuring to himself.

“Not bad.”

On Cold Mountain Academy’s main peak, Cun Caiguang, the headmaster of Cold Mountain Academy, was lying in a rocking chair, swaying at an unhurried pace.

A breeze carrying a faint weight of thunder drifted past, and the old headmaster slowly opened his aged eyes.

But very soon, he closed them again, smacked his lips, and went back to sleep.

A book lay across his chest.

The author of that book had already been erased from the Ten Thousand Arts world.

No one mentioned that name anymore, and no one dared to.

And on the cover of that Confucian classic, written in neat regular script, were the words:

A Unified Exegesis of Knowledge and Action.

From afternoon to dusk, from sunset until nightfall.

In the courtyard halfway up Elementary Learning Peak, the little girl who usually loved catching butterflies did not even chase a single one.

The girl who normally ate three big bowls at every meal only ate a little tonight.

When she sat down to do her homework, she kept staring blankly at her book. She did not even notice the ink dripping onto the page, one drop after another.

The more time passed, the more worried the little girl became.

Had Xiao Mo succeeded in crossing his tribulation?

If he had succeeded, then why had he still not come back?

What if Xiao Mo had failed?

If he failed, he could die.

Beneath the star-filled sky,

the little girl paced back and forth outside the courtyard gate.

Summer cicadas cried joyfully through the woods.

Usually, the little girl found that noise unbearably annoying.

But right now, she could not care less about the sound of the cicadas.

“Young Lady, it’s late. The summer wind is cool now. Let’s go back inside and sleep first.”

Seeing the anxious look on her mistress’s face, the maid Yueshi stepped forward and spoke.

“Sister Yueshi, I can’t sleep...” Tushan Jingci shook her head and looked up at Yueshi uneasily. “Sister Yueshi, why hasn’t Xiao Mo come back yet? It’s already been five hours.”

“For demons and humans alike, foundation establishment is a matter of life and death. Some people need only half an hour. Others need a full day and night. There’s no fixed rule to it.”

Yueshi explained patiently.

“But Xiao Mo is someone Madam thinks highly of. His natural foundation and temperament are both excellent. I’m sure Xiao Mo will be fine.”

Although Yueshi said that, inwardly she had very little confidence.

Because no matter how gifted a person was, or how noble a demon’s bloodline might be,

when faced with foundation establishment, failure was always possible, even total death and ruin on the path.

No one could guarantee that they would definitely survive a Foundation Establishment tribulation.

Hearing Yueshi’s words of comfort, Tushan Jingci lowered her eyes gently and pinched the hem of her skirt in her little hands. “Then Sister Yueshi, you should go sleep first. I’ll wait a little longer.”

“Then I’ll wait with Young Lady,” Yueshi said.

“It’s okay. Sister Yueshi, you go sleep first. Don’t worry about me. I promise I won’t run off...”

Lifting her little arms, Tushan Jingci pushed at Yueshi’s narrow waist, nudging her back into the room before shutting the door.

Then she returned to the front courtyard and sat alone on the chair, knees together, hands resting on her lap, facing outward into the yard and staring earnestly into the deep night.

But as time passed second by second,

Tushan Jingci grew sleepier and sleepier. Her little head kept dipping forward, as though she might fall asleep at any moment.

Watching her through the window, Yueshi could not help sighing.

The nobler a bloodline was, the more sleep was needed in childhood.

That was because only during sleep would the bloodline within gradually awaken and nourish the body and soul in return.

And demon children would also gradually comprehend the innate divine abilities imprinted in their souls while they slept.

So for demons of noble bloodline, there was no need to cultivate spell arts in childhood at all, because sleep itself was the best cultivation.

Not to mention that Young Lady belonged to the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan.

That was why she dozed off in class, why after a midday nap she could sleep straight through until dark, and why she went to bed early at night.

All of that came from the instincts of her bloodline. It was not something her own will could overcome.

Sure enough, not long after, Yueshi saw that her young mistress could no longer hold out. She fell asleep on the cool stone table, shoulders rising and falling with steady breaths.

Yueshi stepped out of the room and came to her side, intending to carry her back to bed.

But just then, as if sensing something, Yueshi lifted her head and looked outside the courtyard.

Under the moonlight, a ragged little boy pushed open the fence gate and walked in.

At the sight of Xiao Mo’s return, Yueshi let out a breath of relief. “You established your foundation?”

“There were some twists and turns, but the result was good enough.”

Xiao Mo had not expected his foundation establishment to take this long.

Mainly because after enduring the lightning tribulation, perhaps due to the spell art he cultivated, Xiao Mo had another great dream.

In the dream, he had become a bird, flying through the thunderclouds.

By the time Xiao Mo woke from that great dream, he had already entered Foundation Establishment, and the sky had gone dark.

“Why is Young Lady asleep out in the courtyard?” Xiao Mo asked, puzzled, looking at Tushan Jingci lying across the stone table.

“Why else? Young Lady knew you were going to face your tribulation, so starting from this afternoon, she kept waiting for you to come back. She waited all the way into the night. Just now, she couldn’t hold out any longer and fell asleep,” Yueshi said with a sigh.

“...”

Xiao Mo remembered all those little “lessons” Jingci had tried to tell him during the day.

So that was it. She had been worried he would fail his tribulation. That was why she had said all those things, and why she had seemed so burdened.

“Xiao Mo... Xiao Mo, when are you coming back...”

Just as Xiao Mo and Yueshi were speaking, the sleeping little girl’s lips parted and she murmured something light and drowsy in her sleep.

Xiao Mo and Yueshi looked at each other. Then Xiao Mo walked over to the little girl’s side, slowly crouched down, looked at her sleeping face, and said softly, “Young Lady, I’m back.”

“Back...”

The sleeping little girl kept breathing evenly. The corners of her small lips curved upward slightly, and even her closed eyes seemed to carry a smile.

“It’s good that you’re back...”

“Really... so good...”