We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? Chapter 663: This Tiny Little Garment Is Absolutely Not Going to Win Me Over

Less than three days remained until the New Year.

Across the whole of the Ten Thousand Laws Realm, and even into the Western Region, the festive spirit was growing thicker with each passing day. And because the Demon Realm had long been influenced by the customs of the Ten Thousand Laws Realm, quite a number of places in the Demon Realm were also making their own preparations for the New Year, and celebrating it as no small occasion.

In this way, the days surrounding the New Year amounted to the most peaceful stretch of time throughout the entire world. Even those with schemes in mind would generally choose to see the festival through before stirring up any trouble.

As for the Zhou Kingdom, the atmosphere was even more tranquil than most.

Within the Zhou Kingdom's palace, all the New Year decorations had been completed, and the whole palace was filled with festive cheer. A few days earlier, when Xue Kui had fallen through the ice at Ten Thousand Carp Lake, Yu Yunwei had actually had her confined to quarters as punishment. But as the New Year drew near, Yu Yunwei felt it was not quite right to keep Xue Kui under restriction during the festival. The sight of Xue Kui sitting alone in her room day after day with a sorrowful little face had also softened Yu Yunwei's heart, and so she relented and let Xue Kui go out and play again.

Of course, Yu Yunwei did not release her without conditions. The condition was that Xue Kui was to serve as a spy.

The ancient masters of military strategy had long said: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

Yu Yunwei was genuinely grateful that Bai Ruxue had saved Xue Kui. But one matter was one matter.

The fact that Bai Ruxue was her rival remained unchanged. She had no intention of surrendering her senior brother to anyone.

Through careful observation, Yu Yunwei had determined that Bai Ruxue seemed extraordinarily unconcerned with any of them, utterly unbothered by their existence, and would certainly not have her guard up around a small girl like Xue Kui. In that case, she would have Xue Kui get close to Bai Ruxue, cultivate her goodwill, and through Xue Kui gather intelligence on Bai Ruxue's weaknesses for use in planning future countermeasures. Xue Kui could serve as her inside source.

When Xue Kui heard that Sister Yunwei wanted her to approach Elder Sister Ruxue and act as her inside source, she felt a troubled twinge in her conscience but in the end, Xue Kui agreed.

Mainly because Xue Kui had absolutely no desire to go back to memorizing texts in her room.

Though... Xue Kui was not sure how exactly she was supposed to get close to Elder Sister Ruxue.

As Xue Kui wandered the palace grounds with Little Hundun, turning this problem over in her mind, Bai Ruxue noticed the two of them. Finding the pair rather amusing, she brought them into Ning Xue Palace, fed them some pastries she had made herself, and told them they were welcome to come and play at Ning Xue Palace whenever they liked, and that she would make more pastries for them in the future.

Upon learning that she could come and eat such delicious pastries whenever she wanted, Xue Kui's eyes lit up immediately, and Elder Sister Ruxue's image in her mind grew considerably grander than before.

In the days that followed, Xue Kui often brought Little Hundun to visit Bai Ruxue, and the two grew closer with each passing day.

As for the task Sister Yunwei had assigned to Xue Kui...

It had more or less slipped entirely from Xue Kui's mind.

Gradually, Yu Yunwei noticed something was off. She observed that Xue Kui came back every day in a bright, bouncy mood, thoroughly happy. The few times Yu Yunwei tried to ask her how things were going, all Xue Kui did was speak well of Bai Ruxue.

"Surely this child hasn't been turned by Bai Ruxue already?"

After thinking it over carefully, Yu Yunwei shook her head, deciding it was unlikely. After all, she and Xue Kui had been master and disciple in a past life, and in this life they were bound together as both master and disciple and sisters. Young as she was, how could she be turned so easily?

And while Yu Yunwei continued to deliberate over how to deal with Bai Ruxue, Xiao Mo had these past few days handed most state affairs over to the cabinet to handle. Unless a matter was of genuine importance and truly required Xiao Mo to make a decision, everything else was left to the cabinet's deliberation.

On the cultivation front, Xiao Mo had already reached the late stage of the Dragon Gate realm. Sometime in the near future, he could begin attempting a breakthrough into the Golden Core realm yet a quiet unease lingered in Xiao Mo's heart.

He felt his cultivation level was rising rather too quickly. A cultivation that rose too fast was prone to becoming unstable and hollow, and most cases of cultivators at high realms being cut down by those at lower realms could be traced back precisely to this kind of instability.

Moreover, to date, Xiao Mo had only been in a single genuine life-and-death battle, and that had been against Yan Shan'ao. Though Qingyi, Siyao, and Ruxue all trained with him regularly, they were all afraid of injuring him and always held back. More importantly, Xiao Mo himself knew, in his heart, that when he was "fighting" against them, his life was never truly at risk.

This state of affairs would have no small impact on his cultivation and on his practical combat experience going forward. He felt he needed to live through more genuine life-and-death battles. Otherwise, if he were one day cut down by someone of a lower realm, setting aside the matter of being dead, that would truly be an embarrassment beyond all bearing.

But that was a concern for after the New Year. Since the year-end had arrived, he would see it in properly.

Soon enough, the day before New Year's Eve arrived.

That morning, Xiao Mo had the palace maids deliver sets of palace robes to Lingxin Palace, Ning Xue Palace, Han Jiu Palace, the National Preceptor's residence, and Hongxiu Palace alike. These garments had all been made to measure for each of them by the embroiderers of the Imperial Artisan Bureau. A new year called for new clothes and a fresh start, after all.

Bai Ruxue, in turn, had made Xiao Mo a set of robes.

Though what surprised Xiao Mo was that she had also made a dress for Xue Kui.

Xue Kui wore the red gown Bai Ruxue had made for her and walked across the snow-white palace grounds, vivid and lovely as a blood kui flower blooming in the snow.

"Thank you for the dress, Elder Sister Ruxue." Xue Kui was absolutely delighted with the red dress, and spun around twice in cheerful celebration.

"Think nothing of it. I am glad you like it." Bai Ruxue reached out and ruffled Xue Kui's head warmly. The two of them looked very much at ease together.

Yu Yunwei, standing nearby, could not help but chew her own finger.

"That woman! Using these underhanded tactics to win Xue Kui over! How utterly shameless!"

The more she thought about it, the more irritated Yu Yunwei became, and the more irritated she became, the more she thought, until she realized there was absolutely nothing she could actually do about it.

She had, after all, also bought Xue Kui new clothes for the New Year but the difference was that hers were bought, and there was simply no comparing something bought to something made with one's own hands. After making this comparison, Yu Yunwei found she could not even bring herself to show the clothes she had purchased.

And beyond the dress for Xue Kui, Bai Ruxue had also made Little Hundun, that little round ball, a miniature padded jacket decorated with a tiger-head pattern.

At first, Little Hundun had been resistant.

She was loyal to her mistress! How could she possibly accept anything from this woman?

But before long, once Xue Kui had helped her into the jacket and Little Hundun caught her own reflection in a mirror, she concluded that keeping the garment was perhaps not entirely out of the question.

After all, her heart remained with her mistress, always and forever!

This tiny little garment was absolutely not going to win her over!