Chapter 478: You Have to Tell Me First
The next day after classes ended, Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci went into Cold Mountain City and bought a spirit-root testing stone.
Then, on the recommendation of the owner of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion, they also bought several cultivation manuals suitable for human cultivation.
The shopkeeper praised those manuals to the skies, and the prices were far from low.
Still, since it was the young lady of the Tushan clan herself coming to buy things, they did not dare butcher her like a fat pig.
Fairly speaking, though these manuals were indeed marked up to a degree, each one was a complete set, and their grade truly was not low.
But if someone wanted to cultivate all the way to the Nascent Soul Realm on the strength of these manuals alone, that would be rather difficult.
After all, the Nascent Soul Realm was known as the realm of “earthly immortals,” the kind of existence capable of founding a sect and establishing a school.
In fact, for many cultivators, the upper three realms were things they had never even heard of. They believed the end of a cultivator’s path was the Nascent Soul Realm.
So cultivation manuals capable of leading all the way to the point of founding a sect were basically impossible to find circulating through an ordinary market.
Unless someone’s fortune was absurdly heaven-defying—so much so that they bought what looked like an ordinary scrap of hide, a turtle shell, or perhaps some common-looking bone, only to discover that inside it was a peerless cultivation art that led straight to the Great Dao.
Not long after Xiao Mo and Tushan Jingci returned from town to their courtyard, Liu Shui came again, having finished spreading medicinal herbs out to dry for the pill room.
Xiao Mo took out the spirit-root testing stone and tested her natural foundation.
Liu Shui’s natural foundation was not especially exceptional, but it was decent enough.
If she cultivated diligently, reaching the Golden Core Realm in the future should not be a problem.
If she wanted to go any farther than that, however, then she would need more opportunities, along with cultivation methods of a higher level.
Xiao Mo gave Liu Shui the cultivation books.
Liu Shui knew only a limited number of written characters, and when it came to the beginning stages of cultivation, she was even more completely at sea.
But Tushan Jingci said Liu Shui could come whenever she wanted.
If she had any questions in cultivation, both Xiao Mo and Yueshi could answer them for her.
Yueshi was not especially willing to teach a human girl like Liu Shui.
But an order from her young lady was not something she dared disobey.
And in Xiao Mo’s view, with Yueshi’s frequent guidance, Liu Shui’s cultivation would progress much faster.
After all, Yueshi herself had originally been nothing more than an ordinary cat demon, with no bloodline inheritance at all.
She had relied entirely on herself to cultivate step by step, until in the end she achieved a sixty-percent atavistic return to the bloodline of a Huan and reached the Golden Core Realm.
The experience she had earned through bitter cultivation was equally precious to a human.
Day after day, time passed.
Once the matter with Wang Zhong ended, all the book boys, though they still looked down on Xiao Mo in their hearts, no longer dared show it, much less provoke him.
And Xiao Mo continued, day after day, to accompany Tushan Jingci to lessons, then cultivate on his own after class.
Every one or two days, Liu Shui would also come to Tushan Jingci’s courtyard, bringing her jujube cakes, and helping with household tasks and cleaning the yard for her.
When Liu Shui sought Yueshi out for guidance in cultivation, Yueshi might look unwilling on the surface, but once she actually began teaching, she was exceptionally serious.
Two months passed, and Liu Shui successfully entered the first layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
From that moment on, Liu Shui could be said to have truly stepped onto the path of cultivation.
As for Tushan Jingci—
Other than attending class every day, she spent her time going out to play with the close little friends she had made in the hall. And every time she went out, she always brought Xiao Mo along.
To be honest, Xiao Mo did not really want to attend the tea gatherings of his young lady and her friends.
That was because the book attendants of all her little girlfriends were female demons as well.
So among a whole crowd of little demon girls, Xiao Mo stood there as the only male, while the other little demon girls kept sneaking glances at him from time to time, which really was a little awkward.
But as time went on, Xiao Mo gradually got used to it.
Two years. Three years. Four years...
In the blink of an eye, another five years passed at Cold Mountain Academy.
Tushan Jingci, who had once been only as tall as the stone table in the courtyard, had now reached the age when girls wore their hairpins, and her figure had gradually begun to grow like the first stretching of a willow branch.
Especially in terms of height.
Tushan Jingci had perfectly inherited her mother’s build and had a pair of long legs.
And the age of hairpins was exactly the stage when girls grew fastest.
So Tushan Jingci’s height seemed to change almost month by month.
One of Tushan Jingci’s favorite things to do was compare heights with Xiao Mo.
At first, she had been a bit shorter than him.
But later on, she became the same height as Xiao Mo.
Then gradually, she grew half a head taller than him.
Then a whole head taller.
This made Tushan Jingci extremely proud.
Every time she saw Xiao Mo, she would tilt her chin up and smile down at him with great satisfaction from her “lofty” vantage point.
One day, Xiao Mo woke up and cultivated in the courtyard as usual.
By the time the sun had climbed high, Tushan Jingci happily skipped out of her room, ran over to Xiao Mo’s side, and stared at him with blinking eyes.
Catching the faint fragrance drifting beside him, Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes, the corner of his lips lifting without his noticing.
“Has Young Lady thought of something again?”
As Tushan Jingci grew older, Xiao Mo discovered that she was forever coming up with some strange new idea or other.
And whenever Jingci had a thought she wanted to tell him, but found him with his eyes closed in cultivation, she would stand there and stare at him like this.
Because she did not want to disturb his cultivation, but also wanted to tell him at the first possible moment, she would simply wait quietly at his side.
“Xiao Mo, Xiao Mo, listen,” Tushan Jingci said happily, looking at him. “From now on, you shouldn’t call me ‘Young Lady’ anymore.”
“Not call you Young Lady? Then what should I call you?” Xiao Mo asked, not understanding.
“Obviously you should call me big sister.” Tushan Jingci’s eyes curved into crescents.
“???”
Question marks practically appeared over Xiao Mo’s head.
“Look, look.” Tushan Jingci gestured once above Xiao Mo’s head, then above her own. “Tell me—aren’t I taller than you?”
“Yes,” Xiao Mo said with a nod.
“See? I’m taller than you, so doesn’t that mean you should call me big sister?” Tushan Jingci said as if it were only natural.
Xiao Mo froze, then laughed.
“But Young Lady, I’m one month older than you.”
“So what?”
Tushan Jingci planted both hands on her slender waist and puffed out her cheeks.
“Big sisters are taller than little brothers. I’m taller than you, which means I’m your big sister. It has nothing to do with age. Hurry up—call me big sister so I can hear it.”
Xiao Mo: “...”
“Are you going to [N O V E L I G H T] say it or not?” Seeing Xiao Mo fall silent, Tushan Jingci grew a little unhappy.
“No,” Xiao Mo said, shaking his head.
“Are you going to say it or not!” Tushan Jingci demanded, pretending to be angry.
“No.” Xiao Mo felt he had to maintain at least some principles.
“Xiao Mo, I’m going to get mad.”
Tushan Jingci’s little mouth stuck out so far it could have hung a bottle.
“Even if you get mad, no—”
“Xiao Mo... just call me big sister one time. Just once...”
By the end, her anger dissolved into clinging to Xiao Mo’s arm and acting spoiled without pause, a faint mist gathering at the corners of her eyes until Xiao Mo felt as though he had committed some unforgivable crime.
All one could say was that the fox clan truly deserved to be called the fox clan—especially the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan. Even at the age of hairpins, every word and every gesture was already a soft blade that shaved flesh from bone.
“All right then. Just once.”
Xiao Mo let out a sigh. In the end, his heart softened after all.
“One time is one time. You say it first and let me hear it. When you’re taller than me someday, I’ll call you big brother if I have to,” Tushan Jingci said, her eyes bright with sunlight the moment she saw him relent.
“Big...” Xiao Mo resisted the embarrassment with all his strength and called softly, “Big sister...”
Hearing Xiao Mo’s voice, Tushan Jingci froze for a moment, then deliberately pretended otherwise.
“I didn’t hear that clearly, Xiao Mo. Say it again.”
“Big sister!” Xiao Mo raised his voice a little.
“I still didn’t hear it clearly. A little louder, Xiao Mo~” Tushan Jingci blinked at him with innocent-looking eyes.
“Young Lady, this is too much...” Xiao Mo closed his eyes.
“Heeheehee, what a good little brother, what a good little brother...”
Having gotten what she wanted, Tushan Jingci’s eyes curved with delight. She lifted a hand and patted Xiao Mo on the head.
“How about from now on, little brother calls me big sister once every day?” Tushan Jingci pressed her advantage shamelessly.
“No,” Xiao Mo refused at once.
“Huh? How can you be like that? Just once a day. Just one time... all right?”
Tushan Jingci kept acting spoiled, her voice drifting through the courtyard.
The boy deliberately ignored her.
In the blink of an eye, two more years passed.
The girl had already reached the age of budding youth.
The willow branch that had once only just stretched now began, little by little, to put out leaves.
Tushan Jingci had also graduated from Elementary Learning Peak and entered Cloud-Soaring Peak.
The teacher was still the same Master Xian Xichun.
Only now, Master Xian no longer taught the elementary subjects of childhood instruction. Instead, he began to teach them Confucian learning in a systematic and truly meaningful way.
And Xiao Mo noticed that when this Master Xian lectured, he often seemed to slip in a good deal of his own private views, quietly guiding his students into thinking about “demon and demon,” “demon and human,” and “the demon-race world and the Ten Thousand Arts world.”
Sometimes, this Master Xian would also tell folktales and legends from among the people.
Some were about loyalty and righteousness. Others were about love.
Some belonged to the demon-race world. Others belonged to the Ten Thousand Arts world.
“Today,” Master Xian said with a smile near the end of class one day, “I’m going to tell you a story about a human and a demon.”
“The story took place in our demon-race world.”
“Once, a very, very long time ago... well, for those of you with long lifespans, perhaps it doesn’t count as all that long. Let’s say about a thousand years ago.”
“A thousand years ago, there was a little demon in the demon-race world. What should we call this little demon? Let’s call him Little Feng.”
“This little demon had rather good talent, and his bloodline was not bad either. He was the child of a great family with a noble lineage. He never lacked cultivation resources. You could say that from the day he was born, everyone believed he was destined to become one of the upper three realms.”
“As time passed, this little demon slowly grew up. He always thought himself invincible and went everywhere seeking people to spar with.”
“Later, he found it dull to spar with people just for the sake of sparring. So he simply left his family and went off to temper himself. He became a bounty hunter. People paid him, and he killed for them—but only strong opponents.”
“And oddly enough, Little Feng truly had never lost even once.”
“Until one day... Little Feng met a person.”
Master Xian drew his sleeves together and went on.
“It was a rainy night. Little Feng was walking at the foot of a mountain when he came to a tavern and decided to rest his feet and drink a little wine to warm himself.”
“And just as Little Feng was drinking in the height of enjoyment, a woman walked into the tavern.”
“This human woman had short hair that fell to her shoulders. She wore a swordswoman’s skirt, and in her hand she carried a black longsword.”
“But when Little Feng looked carefully, wasn’t this very woman the person he had been sent to kill?”
“And what Little Feng did not know was that he himself had also been marked by a bounty. This woman had come to kill him as well.”
“So the two of them fought.”
“But neither could do anything to the other. For a time, it was impossible to tell who had the upper hand.”
“And in the days that followed, the two of them tracked each other and fought often.”
“Eventually, Little Feng proposed that since neither of them could kill the other, they might as well take other bounty jobs together for the time being. The two of them would travel together, and along the way either one could strike at the other whenever they pleased. Whoever lived or died would be left to fate and skill.”
“The woman agreed.”
“And so from that day on, the two of them journeyed together. They killed demons together, killed humans together, and schemed against one another as well. But little by little, feelings began to grow in both their hearts.”
“Thirty years passed, and then a letter came from Little Feng’s family, ordering him to return home, marry a woman he did not like, and one day inherit the position of clan head.”
“But how could Little Feng possibly agree? So he cut ties with his family and planned to run far away with the one he loved.”
“When his father, the clan head, heard that his son had fallen in love with a human woman, he flew into a fury and sent people to hunt them down.”
“They evaded one pursuit after another, but in the end, they still could not escape the net cast by the family.”
“The woman was captured. Little Feng’s father told him that if he would return home and marry as the family commanded, he would spare the woman.”
As he spoke, Xian Xichun’s words paused slightly, and a trace of recollection passed through his eyes.
“Master, what happened after that? Did Little Feng agree?”
“Did Little Feng really marry someone he didn’t like?”
“Obviously he did. How could a demon be with a human?”
“That’s what I think too. We demons should have the pride of our own kind.”
The girls in the hall all began chattering at once, eager to hear the ending of the story.
Quite a few of the boys, meanwhile, felt that the demon named Little Feng should never have married a human woman to begin with.
But just then, the bell for the end of class rang out, echoing through the mountains.
Xian Xichun put away his scroll and smiled slightly.
“That is where the story ends. I never drag class past dismissal. You’re all dismissed.”
“Huh?”
“Master, finish the story...”
“Master, how can you do this...”
Hearing the students’ complaints, Master Xian merely smiled. After offering them a formal salute, he carried his books out of the school hall.
After classes ended, on the way back to the courtyard, Tushan Jingci kept her head lowered, thinking over the story Master Xian had told that day.
“Xiao Mo, what do you think the ending of today’s story was? Will Little Feng and that woman end up together? Will they have a good ending?” Tushan Jingci lifted her head and asked.
“Well... they probably won’t—” Xiao Mo had just started to answer when he turned and saw the expectant look in Tushan Jingci’s eyes.
“Little Feng and the others probably ended up all right. He may not have agreed to the family marriage after all. My guess is that later he rescued the woman he loved, and the two of them ran away together.”
Xiao Mo gave her a happy ending.
“Right? Right? That’s what I thought too.”
The moment she heard Xiao Mo’s answer, the faint gloom in Tushan Jingci’s expression vanished and brightened at once.
“All loving hearts under Heaven ought to become husband and wife in the end! If I ever have someone I like in the future, then no matter who tries to stop me, it won’t matter!”
“Then what kind of person will Young Lady like in the future?” Xiao Mo asked with a smile.
“What kind of person would I like...” Tushan Jingci thought seriously for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know what kind of person I’ll like.”
“But...”
The girl walking ahead suddenly turned around, her hands clasped behind her back.
At that moment, a mountain breeze happened to blow past. The hem of her skirt lifted lightly and fell again. Loose strands of hair brushed over her cheek, dyed faint gold by the setting sun.
“In the future, if I do have someone I like...”
“I’ll definitely tell you first.”
The wind stirred the ends of her hair as she tilted her head very slightly and looked over at him.
“But you have to promise me too—if you ever have someone you like, you have to tell me first.”
“All right?”