We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 657: Ningxi, Oh Ningxi! And This Is Your Good Disciple!

It was noon.

Cooking smoke rose slowly from the courtyard, drifting upward until it merged with the clouds above.

Xiao Mo sat in the courtyard, letting the breeze that moved through it wash over him, watching the busy, graceful figure moving within the kitchen, taking in the whole of his surroundings, and the mountain peak rising in the distance.

In his heart, scenes very much like this one felt as though they had played out countless times before. Only he seemed to be missing a book, something he ought to have been sitting here reading.

With nothing to do and no book to read, Xiao Mo rose and moved toward the kitchen to help Ruxue with her preparations. But in no time at all, Ruxue turned him back out: "Husband need only sit and rest in the courtyard. Leave everything to this concubine."

Hearing this, Xiao Mo obediently settled back onto the stone stool, not wishing to get in Ruxue's way.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, Yan Ruxue carried the dishes out from the kitchen, setting them on the stone table. "The meal is ready. Husband, please do try this concubine's cooking, and if it is not to your liking, please do not hold it against me."

"The color and aroma are both wonderful already. It looks delicious." Xiao Mo picked up his chopsticks without delay and took a piece of braised pork, perfectly balanced between fat and lean.

"How does it taste? Does it suit husband's palate?" Yan Ruxue's eyes blinked in anticipation.

This Ascension realm cultivator who commanded the Four Seas appeared, in this moment, to be genuinely a little nervous.

"Mm, very good." Xiao Mo nodded. "I had not expected Ruxue to be such a fine cook."

"Since husband likes it, please have more."

Yan Ruxue smiled softly, placed several more pieces onto Xiao Mo's plate, and ladled out a bowl of egg-drop soup.

"Do not let me eat alone. Ruxue, you eat as well." Xiao Mo smiled, placing some stir-fried meat onto her plate. "I think you have grown thinner."

"Ha ha ha..." Yan Ruxue raised a hand to her lips. "Husband has seen me looking like this ever since we met. When exactly does husband think I was less thin?"

"Well..." Xiao Mo smiled. "In dreams, perhaps."

"This concubine cannot quite make sense of what husband is saying." Yan Ruxue moved the green pepper stir-fry a little closer to Xiao Mo. "Then in husband's dreams, what did this concubine look like?"

"That..." Xiao Mo thought a moment before answering. "About the same, I think. Just as lovely."

"Husband has certainly learned how to speak kindly." Yan Ruxue laughed softly, not dwelling on it further, and ate her rice in small, unhurried bites.

Beside her, Xiao Mo only watched Yan Ruxue quietly, with the look of a man gazing upon what he treasures most.

After the midday meal, Xiao Mo offered to wash the dishes and bowls, but was once again gently pressed back onto the stone stool by Yan Ruxue, who told him these small household tasks were hers to handle.

The afternoon came. The snow had stopped, and pale winter sunlight lay warmly across the ground. A few tabby cats sprawled along the eaves, yawning and grooming themselves. The whole village was peaceful and still.

Xiao Mo looked at the mountain peak in the distance.

It felt as though time had come to a rest here, fixed in that moment ten thousand years ago. As though the turning of years had not, after all, taken everything away with it.

"Does husband wish to walk somewhere else?" Yan Ruxue finished with the household tasks, dried her slender white hands, and came to sit beside Xiao Mo, asking softly.

Xiao Mo thought a moment, then reached out and pointed toward the mountain peak in the distance. "Does that mountain have a name?"

Yan Ruxue followed the direction of his finger, and a tenderness passed quietly through her eyes.

"It does." Yan Ruxue nodded. "That peak is called She Mountain. Does husband wish to go and take a look?"

"Let us go and see." Xiao Mo smiled. "It is called She Mountain, after all. Perhaps we might even encounter a real snake."

"But this is winter, husband. I am afraid that is rather unlikely..." Yan Ruxue said with an amused smile.

"Is it? I would not be so sure." Xiao Mo looked at the woman beside him for a long, quiet moment, then rose and smoothed the front of his robe. "Come, let us go up and see."

"Very well. Though husband, there is something I must do first before we go up the mountain. This concubine needs to visit a place and pay her respects to someone departed. Afterward, I will take husband up together."

Yan Ruxue spoke slowly.

Today, Yan Ruxue had brought Xiao Mo to the village both to give him a chance to breathe and to attend to this matter of paying her respects.

"Someone departed?" A flicker of something passed through Xiao Mo's eyes, though in his heart a quiet understanding had already begun to form. "May I accompany Ruxue?"

"Of course. Please wait just a moment."

Yan Ruxue smiled gently, then stepped into the room.

Before long, she reappeared in the doorway with a bamboo basket over her arm, inside which rested incense, candles, and paper offerings. Beyond this, she had also carefully packed the extra dishes cooked earlier into a separate basket.

"Husband, let us go." Yan Ruxue's eyes curved with a warm smile.

"Mm."

Xiao Mo nodded, and walked out of the courtyard alongside Yan Ruxue.

He took the baskets to carry for her. Yan Ruxue did not refuse, only smiled and passed them over.

The two walked on, speaking from time to time, as Yan Ruxue pointed out the places they passed, telling Xiao Mo which were the peach orchards, which fields belonged to which family, and how that family was getting on. Passing the frozen little stream, she told him how in spring and summer, the village children would come in great numbers to catch fish and shrimp with their bare hands, coming home covered in mud, and how much they could earn taking their catch to sell in the city, and how many measures of rice that might buy.

It all seemed as though the young girl had lived through every moment of it herself.

Listening to her speak, Xiao Mo felt a smile rise to his lips without his quite noticing. Into his mind drifted a memory of Ruxue catching fish in this very stream once, coming home with mud all over her, the bright delight in her lovely peach-blossom eyes, calling out happily, "Xiao Mo, tonight I can make fish soup to nourish you!"

She had not cared in the slightest that river mud had tangled and clumped in her dark hair. It seemed as though, in that young girl's eyes, the thought of herself had simply never entered her mind.

"Truly a foolish girl."

Watching Yan Ruxue's profile, Xiao Mo let out a soft, quiet sigh, moved in his heart.

One incense stick's time later, the two arrived before two grave markers, standing close together, their stonework showing the weathering of considerable years. Yet Xiao Mo could still make out the faded characters carved into them.

Village Chief of Stone Bridge Village, Wang Can, Resting Place.

Wang Can's Wife, Chen Hong, Resting Place.

Looking at these two grave markers, Xiao Mo stepped forward without thinking and reached out to touch the stone.

"Village Chief, I want to study!"

After the little white snake's injuries had healed well enough for the boy to see her off, he ran to the village chief's courtyard and announced this with great conviction.

"Study what? What good is studying? Better to apprentice at a blacksmith's shop in the city. At least you can feed yourself, find a wife who will bear you strong, healthy sons. Is that not worth more than anything?"

Village Chief's wife Chen Hong looked up from what she was doing and gave the boy a look.

"What sort of thing is that to say? I think Xiao Mo is a boy born to study. He will surely make something of himself!" the Village Chief argued.

"Make something of himself? Like you, a penniless scholar?" Chen Hong gave a cold laugh.

"I... I..." The Village Chief's hand trembled with indignation. "Only women and petty men are difficult to raise!"

"Difficult to raise? Who are you calling difficult to raise? Who?" Chen Hong seized her broom and went after him.

"Ow, ow, I said nothing! Wife, you must have misheard me! Ow, wife, do not hit, Xiao Mo is still here!"

The Village Chief twisted and dodged away from his wife's broom, calling out in considerable disarray.

The small boy stood to one side, quite uncertain what he ought to do.

"Husband... husband..."

Just as Xiao Mo was lost in the memory, Yan Ruxue's soft voice reached him from beside him.

"Mm? Ruxue, what is it?" Xiao Mo came back to himself, answering softly.

"What is it? This concubine has been calling husband and there was no answer at all." Yan Ruxue looked at him with gentle concern.

"I am fine, truly. What could possibly be the matter?" Xiao Mo shook his head, then turned to ask the woman beside him, "Who are the two resting here?"

"Uncle Wang was once the village chief of Stone Bridge Village. Aunty Chen was his wife."

Yan Ruxue smoothed her skirt and knelt down, arranging the offerings with careful, steady hands.

"Both Uncle Wang and Aunty Chen were good people. This concubine received no small amount of care and kindness from their family once upon a time. After they passed, whenever this concubine has the time, she comes to pay her respects. Though there are times when things cannot be helped and this concubine cannot come every year. I do not know whether Uncle Wang and Aunty Chen would hold it against me."

"They would not." Xiao Mo shook his head. "The Village Chief and Aunty Chen would never hold it against you. If they knew of your life from wherever they rest now, they would only worry about whether you are getting on well."

Hearing Xiao Mo's words, Yan Ruxue was still for a moment, then nodded slowly, with a look of quiet understanding. "Husband is right."

"Let me help Ruxue clean the graves."

Xiao Mo picked up a broom and swept away the snow that had gathered across the burial mounds and markers. Yan Ruxue laid out the food and wine, set the brazier in place and filled it with a layer of earth, then together they wiped down the face of the markers and cleared away the dried weeds growing nearby.

Neither of them used their spiritual energy. They worked slowly and carefully, attending to every corner.

Less than half a quarter of an hour later, Xiao Mo and Yan Ruxue knelt before the graves. The light of burning paper offerings in the brazier cast its warmth across both their faces. The incense set in the burner trailed thin threads of pale smoke, weaving into the breeze.

"Ruxue... is that you? I have come to bring you something."

A woman's voice called out from some distance away as the paper was burning, waving toward Yan Ruxue.

"Aunty Zhou, it is me." Yan Ruxue rose at the sound, calling back.

"Ruxue, go and see her." Xiao Mo said.

"Then husband wait here a little. This concubine will return shortly." Yan Ruxue said.

"Take your time. We have no other business today." Xiao Mo nodded.

Yan Ruxue inclined her head gently, then gathered her skirt and made her way over to Aunty Zhou at a light run.

After Yan Ruxue's departure, there was no one left before the grave markers but Xiao Mo alone.

"Village Chief... Aunty Chen..."

Looking at the resting place of those who were gone, Xiao Mo drew a stack of paper offerings from the bamboo basket and placed them gently into the brazier, the warm firelight reflected softly on his face.

"Little Mo has come to see you."

…

Within the restricted grounds of the Feiyu Kingdom's palace.

Before a great tower, a stone statue suddenly opened its golden eyes.

Within those eyes burned an expression of utter disbelief.

The statue closed its eyes again, sensing with great care.

It sustained what remained of its own soul with what little divine power it still possessed.

Before long, the blurred form of a woman gradually became linked to the great Dao's laws of heaven and earth.

Soon, it saw the mark within the Dao.

Wherever a being of the human race had harmed a divine spirit, it was recorded within the laws of heaven and earth, and in time such records formed this kind of mark. Such marks never vanished, regardless of how many times their bearer had died. So long as that person's soul still existed, so long as they recalled something concerning the divine spirits, or were connected by some other thread of karma, that mark would reach out and connect to them once more.

"Sister..."

Touching that mark, the statue called out in a trembling voice.

It had seen it. Seen how, ten thousand years ago, a man on the verge of death had revealed his identity to a white dragon, transgressing against the laws of heaven and earth, and his sister had sensed it at the time. Through that sensing, a thread of karma had been established anew between them. And now, with that man reborn and having recovered the memory of that life, the karma had reconnected itself, like a severed rope made whole.

It felt it. Felt that he was now in a place somewhere beneath the heavens, in a village, kneeling before two grave markers.

"Zhou Kingdom... Stone Bridge Village..."

From the mark, it received at last these five characters.

Then the statue snapped its eyes open.

"Come here! I have orders for you!"

The sovereign of the Feiyu Kingdom was still within his favored consort's chambers, just on the point of paying her his attentions, when a voice rang out within his mind. He dared not delay so much as a breath, and dressed himself at once.

"Your Majesty, where are you going? We haven't even started yet! Your Majesty..."

Paying no heed to the complaints of the consort behind him in her revealing attire, the sovereign of the Feiyu Kingdom ran at full speed toward the tower.

"Master!"

Moving as fast as he could, the sovereign of the Feiyu Kingdom arrived before the stone statue and dropped to one knee.

"I have found him!"

The statue's voice carried an excitement it could no longer contain.

"In the Ten Thousand Laws Realm! The Zhou Kingdom! Stone Bridge Village! He is right there! I need you to find him! Go! Go quickly!"

…

Deep within the ice plains.

In an ice cavern that had existed for who knew how many tens of thousands of years, an ice sculpture suddenly opened its crimson eyes.

"Xiao Mo! Ha ha ha! Xiao Mo!"

The ice sculpture's voice rang out across a radius of many li.

"I have finally found you! I will tear you apart! Xiao Mo!"

"Go!"

"The Zhou Kingdom's Stone Bridge Village! Go find him!"

As the ice sculpture's words fell, one white demonic beast after another surged away into the distance.

"Ningxi, oh Ningxi! And this is your good disciple! Ha ha ha ha! Your good disciple! Nowhere left to hide now! Ha ha ha!"

The ice sculpture's voice grew colder and colder.

"Do not worry! The debt you are owed, I will collect it on your behalf as well!"

At the same time, in the desolate and uninhabited quiet of places scattered across the world, in ancient ruins, and even in certain unknown abysses within the Four Seas, one sealed existence after another suddenly sensed the presence of a particular person, and each let out a burst of laughter.

They laughed not only because they themselves were about to return.

They also laughed at everything that man had brought upon the divine race so long ago.

The time to repay it had come at last.