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

Inside the bamboo courtyard.

The aura of dao resonance around Xiao Mo spread away from him layer by layer, like a breeze brushing across the surface of water, gradually fading until everything returned to stillness.

He slowly let out a foul breath, swept his gaze around his surroundings, then lowered his head to look at himself.

The bamboo courtyard had not changed in the slightest. It looked exactly as it had before he entered seclusion. Every blade of grass and every tree carried a familiar intimacy.

He himself, however, had grown quite a bit taller.

Besides that, his hair was a mess, his nails had grown long, and his body was caked in grime. He looked slovenly from head to toe, to the point that even he could hardly stand it.

“You’re awake?”

Xian Xichun stepped into the courtyard. He looked Xiao Mo up and down, and a pleased smile rose to his lips.

“Not bad, not bad. Three years in seclusion, and you leaped straight from the Dragon Gate Realm into the Golden Core Realm. That is no easy thing. It seems the cultivation method you practice truly suits you very well.”

“You praise me too highly, Master Xian. I was only a little luckier than most.” Xiao Mo bowed respectfully, then asked, “But Master Xian, how long was I in seclusion... exactly?”

“Three years.” Xian Xichun smiled and held up three fingers.

Hearing that answer, Xiao Mo could not help freezing for a moment.

He had assumed it had been no more than a year or so. He had never imagined that he had sat in this bamboo courtyard for a full three years.

“These past three years, thank you for guarding the way for me, Master Xian.” Xiao Mo bowed again, his tone sincere and solemn.

“In truth, I did not do all that much.” Xian Xichun waved a hand with a smile, something meaningful in his eyes. “Compared to me, there was someone else who came to see you whenever there was even the slightest chance.”

Before he had even finished speaking, Xian Xichun seemed to sense something, and the corners of his mouth curved upward a little.

“Just as expected. Speak of her and she arrives.”

“All right, I won’t disturb you two. My task of guarding the way for you is finally complete, so it’s time I went back and slept properly. In these three years, I haven’t once touched my own bed.”

With a yawn, Xian Xichun turned and strolled away.

And just after he had gone a short distance—

a young woman came running toward the courtyard from afar.

Xiao Mo lifted his head and looked at the figure drawing closer outside the courtyard. Of course he recognized her at once.

But in Xiao Mo’s eyes, surprise rose despite himself.

Compared to three years ago, the young woman before him had fully grown into herself.

Her figure and her features had both matured far beyond what they had been then. The old girlishness had faded, replaced by a kind of grace that made it hard to look away.

And if the girl he remembered had known only how to play and laugh, pure-hearted and carefree, with nothing she needed to keep in her heart—

then the one standing before him now seemed far more composed, far more poised and gentle. That quiet, settled grace only made her more moving.

Yet between her brows there lingered a faint trace of the worries that came only with growing up, as though she too carried the secret thoughts common to young women.

“Young Lady.” Xiao Mo bowed respectfully.

Tushan Jingci did not answer. She simply stepped forward, slowly, one step at a time, drawing nearer to Xiao Mo.

And when she finally stopped before him, her beautiful eyes trembled lightly. Her throat moved once, but all she did was stare at him blankly, unable to say a single word.

Xiao Mo looked back into those bewitching eyes of hers.

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but he felt that the way she looked at him had changed. It was not the same as before.

“Look at how filthy you are.” After a long while, Tushan Jingci pressed her lips together. Her voice carried emotions too tangled to name. “Go take a bath. I’ll fetch you a proper change of clothes, and afterward I’ll trim your hair for you.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Young Lady, but I can manage it myself.” Xiao Mo refused instinctively.

After all, how could he possibly let Jingci attend to him?

“What is there to that?”

Tushan Jingci puffed out her cheeks.

“When you had just started seclusion, I was the one who trimmed your hair, clipped your nails, and washed your face. It was only after you reached the middle of seclusion, when dao resonance wrapped itself all around you, that I couldn’t get close anymore.”

“This...” Xiao Mo still felt it was inappropriate, but for a moment he did not know how to answer.

“All right, all right. Hurry up and go. You’re filthy. You stink.”

Her mouth spoke in disgust, but her pale, delicate hand reached out without the slightest hesitation, took hold of Xiao Mo’s wrist, and led him out of the courtyard.

She brought him to a spring deep within the bamboo grove and told him to bathe in the pool there. Then she turned and left to fetch him a clean set of clothes.

Using her spiritual power, she carried the clothes through the air and set them down lightly at the edge of the pool from a distance.

After bathing, Xiao Mo changed into them.

To his surprise, the clothes fit him extraordinarily well.

They did not look like ordinary ready-made garments bought casually at a market. They felt more like something tailored specifically for him, every part fitting with perfect precision.

After they returned to the bamboo courtyard, Tushan Jingci insisted on trimming Xiao Mo’s nails, but no matter what she said, he refused to agree.

After Xiao Mo held firm again and again, he ended up clipping them himself.

As for his hair, however, he could not win against Tushan Jingci. In the end, he sat down on a stone stool in the courtyard and let her tend to the long hair that had gone uncut for years.

Strand after strand drifted softly down from Xiao Mo’s head and scattered across the ground.

The young woman’s boneless-soft hands moved slowly through his hair, and between the scissors and his dark strands came the crisp, delicate sound of snip, snip.

Only, Xiao Mo gradually began to feel that Jingci was standing far too close.

Her hair brushed his cheek from time to time, carrying a faint fragrance.

What left him even more at a loss was that, every now and then, he could feel the soft, snowy fullness of her chest—light as cotton, separated from him by nothing more than the thin fabric of her dress—brushing against his shoulders and back, there and gone again.

Xiao Mo straightened a little, wanting to put some distance between them, but the young woman immediately pressed a hand to his head.

“Don’t move around. If I cut it badly, it’ll look awful.” She pouted, her tone carrying a trace of reproach.

“...”

Xiao Mo had wanted to say, Young Lady, you’re standing too close.

But Jingci herself seemed not to notice anything at all. If he pointed it out, it would only make things more awkward, so he could only pretend to know nothing and sit there obediently without moving.

And in truth, as Tushan Jingci trimmed his hair, how could she possibly not notice that his head brushed against the front of her body from time to time?

Her cheeks had long since flushed red in secret. She was only forcing herself to stay silent.

Perhaps Tushan Jingci herself gradually began to feel that the atmosphere had grown a little too subtle, because she took the initiative to speak and began telling Xiao Mo, piece by piece, about the things she had experienced over the last three years.

Only then did Xiao Mo learn that Sister Liu Shui had already left Cold Mountain Academy three years ago, though she was now on her way back.

He also heard Jingci speak of her friend Xu Bei’er’s story.

What surprised him even more was that Jingci had truly passed the examination and become one of Cold Mountain Academy’s Worthies.

Even if a Worthy of Cold Mountain Academy did not carry the same weight as one in the Ten Thousand Arts world,

it was still an extraordinary accomplishment no matter how one looked at it.

That thread of literary fortune around her could not fool anyone.

Besides that, Tushan Jingci went on and on about many other small, trivial matters.

In the bamboo courtyard, sunlight fell quietly, and only the young woman’s gentle voice drifted softly through the spring breeze.

She spoke.

He listened.

Though the two of them had not seen each other in three years, there was not the slightest trace of distance between them, as if time had never flowed between them at all.

But as she spoke, Tushan Jingci gradually lowered her head. Her gaze fell upon him before her, and her voice softened.

“Xiao Mo...”

She held the scissors in her hand, her fingers tightening slightly around them.

“There is something... I want to tell you.”

“What is it? Young Lady, just say it.” Xiao Mo answered.

“I...”

The young woman pressed her lips together without realizing it. Her heartbeat quickened little by little, and the blush on her fair cheeks deepened more and more, like the loveliest shade of peach blossom in spring.

“I think... I have someone I like...”