We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 627: Steal a Man Back!

"I wonder what instruction the Confucian Academy has for us?"

Yan Ruxue's voice echoed throughout the imperial study.

To Xiao Mo's ears, Yan Ruxue's words sounded courteous enough but to Shang Qi's ears, they were nothing short of an accusatory rebuke laced with mockery.

After all, thousands of years ago, what the Ten Thousand Laws Realm had done to Xiao Mo and the Four Seas had truly been beyond excessive.

"Consort Xue, our Confucian Academy simply wishes to invite the Zhou Kingdom's scholars to study at the Confucian Academy and the Four Great Academies, and also to establish private schools within the Zhou Kingdom, to help cultivate scholars for the kingdom. That is all."

Shang Qi rose to his feet, bowing to Yan Ruxue, his tone deeply respectful.

"Not only that, the Confucian Academy cherishes talent greatly, and wishes to invite Your Majesty to the Confucian Academy as well, to pursue scholarly study, saying that should Your Majesty walk the Confucian path, you might achieve the great Dao of a Confucian sage."

Wang Yue, seated nearby, chimed in, seemingly enjoying the spectacle without concern for stirring further trouble.

In Wang Yue's eyes, Xiao Mo had always been her benefactor.

After all, thousands of years ago, had it not been for Young Master Xiao, her own husband would have died in prison and it was because of Young Master Xiao that she and her husband had been able to safely leave the Ten Thousand Laws Realm, traveling to the demon race's territory instead.

Wang Yue had once assumed that a scholar as wonderful and remarkable as Young Master Xiao would surely be admired throughout the world, destined for a happy ending.

Who could have known that those scholars and sects of the Ten Thousand Laws Realm would prove so utterly shameless!

In the end, they had brought about Young Master Xiao's death!

Wang Yue held no dislike for this elderly Master Shang, she genuinely respected his character but Wang Yue despised the Confucian Academy!

With such an opportunity presenting itself, Wang Yue naturally intended to make the Confucian Academy squirm a little.

"Oh? So the Confucian Academy wishes to take my own emperor away, does it?"

Yan Ruxue gave a light laugh, her tone carrying a faint, icy edge.

Turning her head, Yan Ruxue took hold of Xiao Mo's sleeve, the coldness in her voice receding, replaced instead by a note of pitiful vulnerability, “If Your Majesty goes to the Confucian Academy, this concubine will have to go along too. Surely Your Majesty wouldn't leave this concubine behind in the palace?"

"Don't worry, I have no intention of going." Xiao Mo patted the back of Yan Ruxue's smooth, fair hand, saying with a smile. "I'm nothing but an ordinary man. What scholarship could I possibly study? Going off to research learning would only make me a laughingstock. I'm far more comfortable staying within the palace."

"Ha ha ha..." Yan Ruxue laughed softly, covering her mouth. "Your Majesty is hardly an ordinary man. Though this concubine, too, feels there's nothing worth going to the Confucian Academy for. After all, not every scholar is a decent person."

"..."

The moment Yan Ruxue's words fell, silence settled over the imperial study.

Wang Yue laughed softly to herself nearby.

Shang Qi's face showed clear embarrassment, yet he found himself unable to say anything in response.

Xiao Mo, too, froze for a moment.

It was only now that he realized Ruxue seemed to hold an unfavorable impression of the Confucian Academy, as though harboring some grudge against it.

"Oh my, listen to what this concubine just said."

Just as the atmosphere in the imperial study grew somewhat awkward, Yan Ruxue covered her small mouth with her fair, delicate palm, as though only now realizing her own slip of the tongue, apologizing.

"Ruxue has been reading a few casual novels lately, and the scholars in them are either petty rivals belittling one another, or beasts in scholars' clothing. That's why I misspoke. I hope all of you will forgive me."

"Ha ha ha, Consort Xue, what are you saying." Shang Qi said with a smile, his composure seemingly quite thick-skinned. "It's only natural that any sect or dynasty has good people and bad people alike, but this old man still believes that scholars with the world's welfare truly at heart remain the greater majority."

With these words, Shang Qi rose to his feet, bowing to Xiao Mo, “This old man has said everything I needed to say today. I hope Your Majesty will give it careful thought. I shall be staying at the Landscape Inn within your capital for a while. Should Your Majesty change your mind, please notify me at any time."

"Elder, you are an honored guest. How could I possibly let you stay at an inn? I should arrange proper accommodations for you." Xiao Mo hurried to his feet, saying.

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all. This old man doesn't mind such things. Should Your Majesty entertain me with all manner of formal courtesies, it would only make this old man feel more uncomfortable." Shang Qi politely declined. "Then this old man shall disturb Your Majesty no further, and take his leave."

"My wife and I shall take our leave as well."

Luo Yang and Wang Yue, too, rose, bowing.

"Though, I've heard that Your Majesty held your wedding ceremony two years ago. Having nothing particularly fine to offer as a gift on this visit, I hunted a thunder-beast along the journey here. Its pelt is at least presentable. I hope Your Majesty won't think it unworthy."

Luo Yang gestured to his wife.

Wang Yue drew a long box, a full zhang in length, from her storage pouch.

The box opened, revealing the thunder-beast's pelt within, still faintly crackling with blue lightning.

A wild, fierce demonic aura still lingered upon it.

"Master Luo, this is truly far too precious a gift." Xiao Mo tried to decline.

"Not precious at all."

Luo Yang shook his head.

"Beyond this, I've noticed a faint sword-qi radiating from Your Majesty, suggesting you cultivate swordsmanship. I happen to have a treatise on sword insight as well, recovered from a certain ancient ruin, called the Sword Domain of the Azure Moon. Your Majesty might browse through it in your spare time, and perhaps gain some insight from it."

"Your Majesty should accept it." Yan Ruxue beside them said with a smile. "Whatever else one might say, it represents his sincere goodwill. To refuse would hardly be proper. After all, what host would ever make a guest carry his gift back home?"

"Since that's the case, then I shall thank Master Luo." Seeing that the other party was genuinely insistent, Xiao Mo no longer stood on ceremony.

"I hope Your Majesty won't find my humble gift too crude."

Luo Yang cupped his hands in a bow.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Luo Yang and the other two departed the imperial study but just as the palace maids led Shang Qi and his party out of the palace.

Suddenly, the maid guiding them froze in place, motionless.

The air around them seemed to freeze in that same instant, the entire world turning black and white.

The next moment, an overwhelming dragon-majesty descended, blanketing everything.

The three of them raised their heads, and saw that woman in the plain white gown walking toward them once more.

"Greetings, Senior Bai."

With no outsiders present, Wang Yue bowed to Yan Ruxue, no longer needing to conceal her true feelings as she had within the imperial study.

"Miss Bai, it's been a long time." Luo Yang, too, formally greeted Yan Ruxue.

"Indeed, it has been a long time since I've seen either of you." Yan Ruxue smiled faintly at Luo Yang and his wife, then turned her gaze toward Shang Qi.

Shang Qi, sensing something amiss, hurried to bow, “Greetings, Dragon Ruler."

"Why so formal, old Master Shang?" Yan Ruxue said slowly. "I couldn't exchange proper pleasantries with you earlier, in the imperial study. How has your daughter been?"

"Jiuli is as she always is, though she does think of you quite often, Miss Bai." Shang Qi said. "Should you have some free time, perhaps you might visit White Deer Academy sometime."

"If I have the time, I would genuinely like to revisit some old places with my husband."

Yan Ruxue smiled, but her voice quickly grew colder.

"But that your Confucian Academy would even have the nerve to come seek out my husband, your shamelessness truly knows no bounds!"

"What, do you think my husband, having been reincarnated and forgotten everything, can simply be bullied all over again?"

"Miss Bai truly misunderstands." Shang Qi straightened, his expression appearing genuinely aggrieved. "What the Ten Thousand Laws Realm did to Xiao Mo, thousands of years ago, even this old man finds utterly detestable, honestly speaking! Our own dean feels deep remorse over it as well, and so we wish to make amends."

"Amends?"

Yan Ruxue stepped forward, those peach-blossom eyes seeming to hold frost within them.

"Can what you all did possibly be made amends for?"

"Or does your Confucian Academy believe that granting the Zhou Kingdom a hundred slots at the Four Great Academies every four years, along with two new schools, could possibly make up for everything you've done?"

"And you even want my husband to come study at your Confucian Academy? Where do you get the nerve?"

As Yan Ruxue's three questions rang out in succession, her eyes turned golden, a mountain-like dragon-majesty pressing down upon Shang Qi.

Shang Qi felt his own old bones nearly rattling apart.

In his heart, he already regretted having agreed to take on this thankless task from the dean.

Sipping tea, reading books, teaching other scholars back at the academy, wasn't that a perfectly comfortable life? Why had he come all this way just to get scolded like this?

"Tomorrow, you will return to your Confucian Academy at once, and tell Kong Sheng that within two years, he must move that phoenix tree from the academy to the Zhou Kingdom!"

Yan Ruxue did not continue interrogating Shang Qi further, instead stating her own demands.

"Beyond this, Great Zhou must have a hundred scholars traveling to the Four Great Academies to study every single year. Your Confucian Academy's instructors must establish schools of learning in every major prefecture throughout Great Zhou."

"Do you understand what I've said?"

Shang Qi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, answering, “Understood. The moment I return to the Confucian Academy, I will convey this to the dean at once."

"Good, that you understand." Yan Ruxue withdrew her gaze, walking step by step into the distance. "Remember, this is merely the smallest fraction of what you owe. Should you dare show even the slightest hesitation, I will personally come to your Confucian Academy to collect it myself!"

The moment Yan Ruxue's voice fell silent, that white-clad figure vanished from before them entirely.

The black-and-white world faded, returning to its natural colors.

The guiding maid, too, knew nothing of what had happened, continuing to lead Shang Qi's party out of the palace.

Only, this maid noticed that the elderly gentleman kept sighing heavily throughout the latter half of the journey, uncertain what troubled him so.

Having stepped outside the palace gate, Luo Yang and his wife bid farewell to Shang Qi, wishing to wander leisurely through the capital.

"Husband, do you think the dean of the Confucian Academy will agree?"

Along the streets of the Zhou Kingdom's capital, Wang Yue raised her head, asking her husband.

Wang Yue was no longer the naive little rabbit who had once understood nothing of the world.

Over these years, Wang Yue had witnessed a great deal, and knew that the phoenix tree at the Confucian Academy had once been personally planted by the Confucian sages of old, capable of concentrating one-tenth and a half of the entire world's literary fortune, one of the Confucian Academy's own treasured guardians.

Should this tree be planted within the Zhou Kingdom, Great Zhou would gain at least one-tenth and a half of the world's literary fortune.

Beyond this, the Zhou Kingdom would send a hundred scholars to the Four Great Academies every year, and the Confucian Academy would need to establish schools throughout every major prefecture of the kingdom.

These measures all amounted to carving away at the Confucian Academy's own literary fortune yet the entire world's literary fortune amounted to only so much...

"Ha ha ha... whether that dean of the Confucian Academy agrees or not, agree he must."

Luo Yang smiled, gazing off into the distance.

"With the demon race's territory having rested and rebuilt its strength for so long now, and that ruler of the Nine-Tailed Kingdom growing ever more restless, should another war between humans and demons break out, without the Four Seas' help, the outcome truly is hard to say."

…

The Western Region, the Ten Thousand Dao Sect.

Yu Yunwei, master of the Ten Thousand Dao Sect, sat within her courtyard atop Karma Blood Peak.

Beside Yu Yunwei sat a small girl dressed in a red skirt.

This little girl was the very embodiment of that blood kui flower.

Her name, too, was "Xue Kui".

"'To learn and to practice regularly, is that not indeed a pleasure?'" Yu Yunwei pointed at the textbook, teaching her word by word. "Repeat."

"'To learn and to practice regularly, is that not indeed a pleasure...'" Xue Kui repeated after her, her clear, delicate voice drifting slowly across the mountaintop.

"'When friends come from distant lands, is that not indeed a joy?'"

"'When friends come from distant lands, is that not indeed a joy.'" Xue Kui continued repeating.

"'To remain unbitter though others fail to understand you, is that not indeed the mark of a noble man?'"

"'To remain unbitter though others fail to understand you, is that not indeed the mark of a noble man...'"

Yu Yunwei recited a line, and Xue Kui repeated it after her, line by line but before long, a butterfly flew past before Xue Kui's eyes, and her attention immediately drifted, wanting to catch the little butterfly instead.

"Ow..."

Just as Xue Kui's mind wandered ever further after that butterfly.

A thick ruler struck the top of her small head.

Xue Kui's eyes welled with tears, looking utterly aggrieved, but could only continue reciting alongside Sister Yu.

Watching Xue Kui's reluctant, unwilling expression, Yu Yunwei could not help but sigh inwardly.

She thought to herself that her own master seemed to dislike reading even more than she herself once had.

When her senior brother had once taught her to read, she had been far more well-behaved than this.

"Continue." Yu Yunwei turned the page. "'Each day I examine myself on three points: whether, in planning for others, I have failed to be loyal, whether, in dealing with friends, I have failed to be trustworthy, whether I have failed to practice what I have been taught.'"

"'Each day I examine myself on three points: whether, in planning for others...' Sister Yu, look over there."

As she recited, Xue Kui raised her head, calling out.

"What did you see this time? Focus." Yu Yunwei said, reaching for the ruler once more.

"No, Sister Yu, a bird's flying over, and it's such a strange bird!" Xue Kui said hurriedly, clutching her head defensively.

"What's so strange about it?"

Yu Yunwei raised her head, looking.

Indeed, a mechanical bird was flying toward them.

At last, the mechanical bird landed upon the table.

Recognizing it as the message-bird Xiangniang carried, Yu Yunwei hurried to open its abdominal compartment, drawing out a slip of paper.

Yu Yunwei read the black characters on the white paper, over and over again.

Xue Kui noticed Sister Yu's fingers trembling faintly, her eyes gradually veiling over with a thin mist of tears.

"Sister Yu, what's wrong? Are you all right?"

Xue Kui shook Yu Yunwei's sleeve worriedly.

"I'm fine..." Yu Yunwei put away the slip of paper. "Xue Kui, no lessons for today."

"No lessons? Yay!" Xue Kui jumped up joyfully but before long, Xue Kui sensed something was off, asking with puzzlement, “Sister Yu, if we're not doing lessons today, then what are we doing instead?"

Yu Yunwei reached out, pinching Xue Kui's nose gently, joyful tears welling in her eyes. "We're going to the Central Plains! To the Zhou Kingdom! To steal a man back!"