We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 560: In the End, He Still... Broke One of the Precepts...
Previously on We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?...
“Monk, say something...”
Tushan Jingci still stood where she was, those tear-bright eyes gazing at him in a daze.
Her voice carried a sobbing plea as it drifted through the mountain forest, startling several birds perched on the branches into flight.
Xiao Mo remained silent. Only the leaves across the mountain rustled in the wind, like sighs, one after another.
The woman’s skirt was lifted gently by the breeze, that snow-white long dress clinging to her soft, graceful, alluring curves.
A faint fragrance came from her in the wind, and even that scent seemed stained with a few traces of bitterness.
Only after a long time did Xiao Mo finally open his eyes and calmly look at the woman before him.
He spoke word by word. His voice was not loud, yet it fell clearly into the woman’s heart.
“Miss... you are very beautiful.”
“Am I?” Tushan Jingci smiled softly. In that smile, there seemed {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} to be traces of self-mockery and aching bitterness that could not quite be named. “Then, monk, what if I want you to leave with me?”
Tushan Jingci took one step forward, her skirt lifting slightly in the wind.
“I want you to come with me! Come back to Tushan with me!”
“Monk! As long as you are with me, you will have endless rare cultivation treasures to enjoy. I can help you rise all the way, straight into the upper three realms!”
“From now on, no one will dare harm you! I am the Tushan holy daughter, the future leader of the Tushan clan. The whole of Tushan will one day be yours!”
“Monk...” Her burning gaze fixed on him, and her voice held one last thread of hope. “Are you... willing?”
“But Miss Jingci...” Xiao Mo shook his head gently. His voice was low and slow, yet it carried a resolve that could not be shaken. “I... am a monk...”
“So what!”
The moment Xiao Mo’s words fell, Tushan Jingci cried out in a clear, delicate voice and abruptly swept her wide sleeve.
In an instant, more than a hundred trees to the left were uprooted and leveled into an expanse of flat ground.
“I do not care whether you are a secular man or a monk! I do not care whether you are a Daoist or a sword immortal!” Her voice was bright and resolute, filled with longing and unwillingness. “You are you! And I only want you!”
Tushan Jingci’s tone was almost crazed. Her eyes were already red at the corners.
As though every word Xiao Mo said next would challenge the very limits she could endure.
“I am sorry... Miss...” Xiao Mo still shook his head.
He pressed his palms together and bowed low. His voice carried a measure of apology, but also an unshakable firmness.
“This humble monk has already said what should be said... Please, Miss, take good care of yourself...”
When his words fell, Xiao Mo turned and walked step by step back up the mountain.
But in the next instant, Tushan Jingci’s figure vanished from where she stood and suddenly appeared before him, blocking his path.
Xiao Mo stopped.
A long sword gleaming with cold light was already pointed at his neck.
Tushan Jingci’s hand trembled slightly around the sword. That originally light, pleasant voice now carried a sob she could no longer suppress, as well as a nearly obsessive determination.
“Come with me! Otherwise... I will kill you!”
Xiao Mo lowered his head and glanced at the long sword pressed before him.
He did not retreat. Instead, he took one step forward.
The sword tip cut through his skin. Bright-red beads of blood slowly seeped out, sliding continuously down the cold blade.
Xiao Mo continued walking forward.
With every step he took, the sword in Tushan Jingci’s hand drew back a little.
In the end, Xiao Mo brushed past Tushan Jingci.
And Tushan Jingci seemed to have had all her strength drained away. The long sword slipped from her hand and fell to the ground with a clang.
She lowered her head and stood where she was, only hearing Xiao Mo’s footsteps grow farther and farther away, lighter and lighter.
“Monk...”
Tushan Jingci’s voice came from behind him, drifting softly into Xiao Mo’s ears. Every word carried a lost, broken desolation.
“You said... you monks do not speak falsehoods, right...”
“Yes.” Xiao Mo stopped and answered in a low voice.
“Then let me ask you one last thing...” The woman clenched both hands tightly, her ten fingers clasped together, her rosy nails almost digging into her palms.
“In your heart... have you ever liked me?”
Silence once again fell between them.
As though at this moment, everything in the world had stopped.
No one knew how long passed before Xiao Mo finally spoke slowly.
His voice was not loud, but every word was like a heavy mountain stone, pressing down on Tushan Jingci’s heart one after another.
“This humble monk has always only regarded Miss Jingci as a friend. In my heart... there is no love.”
When his words fell, Xiao Mo stepped forward and walked up Mount Sikong without looking back again.
The woman stood there blankly, unmoving, like a statue that had lost its soul.
No one knew how long she stood there.
RUMBLE...
Above the firmament, dark clouds gradually gathered, pressing heavily downward and covering the last trace of sunlight.
Rain poured down in torrents. Raindrops struck the leaves, soaked the earth, and drenched that plain white dress.
...
“It’s raining! It’s raining!”
Inside Sikong Temple, the young monk Xujing, who had still been sweeping with his head lowered, hugged a Buddhist scripture in one hand and gripped a broom in the other as he hurried toward the eaves of the great hall.
But because he failed to watch his step, Xujing ran headfirst into someone.
“Abbot...” Xujing quickly steadied himself and bowed properly. “Were you not annotating scripture? Why did you come out?”
“Can this old monk not come out for some air?” Master Yuankong smiled and lightly tapped Xujing on his smooth little head. Then he raised his head and looked at the curtain of rain pouring down from the vast firmament.
“Grandpa Abbot...” Xujing lifted his face and asked with curiosity all over it, “Just now, there wasn’t a cloud for ten thousand li, and everything was perfectly fine. Why did such heavy rain suddenly start falling?”
“Because...” Yuankong sighed softly, his tone distant and desolate. “This is the Buddhist Way lamenting.”
“Lamenting?” Xujing scratched his smooth little head, his face full of confusion. “Lamenting what? Grandpa Abbot, why are you always so vague when you speak? I don’t understand any of it.”
Listening to his young disciple’s bellyful of complaints, Yuankong did not grow angry. He merely asked calmly, “Xujing, let me ask you—the ten precepts of the Buddhist school. What are they?”
“This disciple does know that much.” Xujing seriously counted on his fingers as he recited, “Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not engage in sexual acts. Do not speak falsehoods. Do not drink alcohol. Do not wear adornments. Do not sing or dance, nor watch or listen to such entertainments. Do not sit or lie on high, wide beds. Do not eat at improper times. Do not hoard gold, silver, or treasures.”
“That is correct.” Yuankong nodded, his gaze still fixed on the rain pouring across the sky.
“And this Buddhist Way...”
He paused. His voice drifted leisurely into the sound of wind and rain, carrying a few traces of a sigh.
“Is lamenting...”
“Lamenting that a monk with limitless prospects in the Buddhist Way, a monk who had always strictly upheld the precepts, in the end still... broke one of them...”
