ebonymovies Chapter 486: If You Are Not Afraid of Death, Come and Try!
Chapter 486: If You Are Not Afraid of Death, Come and Try!
"Really... really?"Tushan Jingci tilted her face upward slightly, her eyes blinking as she gazed at Xiao Mo, her expression carrying a faint daze mingled with an eagerness that filled her completely.
"Xiao Mo, you are truly not deceiving me?" The young girl sought confirmation from the young man before her, afraid she might be taken in.
"Truly." Xiao Mo smiled gently, his tone warm and certain. "If the divination art of the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet has not deceived me."
"All right... then I will wait for you, and you must not break your word!" Tushan Jingci extended her slender little finger and held it straight out before Xiao Mo, her eyes carrying a childlike seriousness. "We will make a pinky promise."
"I would not dare break my word." Xiao Mo smiled and extended his hand.
One thick finger and one slender one hooked lightly together.
A moment later, Xiao Mo loosened his hold on the young girl's finger and stepped back. "Young Miss, it is getting late. I will take my leave now. Please take good care of yourself during this time."
"I... I will wait for you..."
Tushan Jingci pressed her small hand gently to her own chest, her beautiful eyes fixed straight on Xiao Mo, as though she were tracing every detail of him, little by little, into her heart.
Xiao Mo smiled and gave a nod, straightened his sleeves, bowed deeply to Tushan Jingci, then turned and walked away at a measured pace.
Tushan Jingci remained where she stood, her gaze following that retreating figure as it grew more and more distant.
Without thinking, she took a step forward, as though she meant to go after him, but in the end she held herself still.
As Xiao Mo's figure shrank to a tiny point, the young girl could not help rising onto her tiptoes, lifting her chin slightly, straining to see as far as she could.
Even after that tiny point vanished entirely at the edge of her vision, the young girl continued to look in that direction.
A long, long while passed before she finally bit gently at her lip and slowly drew her gaze back.
"Elder Sister Yueshi..." Her voice carried the faintest tremor, almost imperceptible. "Will there be any danger in Xiao Mo's seclusion this time?"
Yueshi looked quietly at the Young Miss beside her for a moment, then shook her head gently. "For anyone, whether human or demon, entering seclusion always carries a certain degree of risk."
The moment those words fell, Tushan Jingci lowered her head, and the worry in her expression deepened by several shades.
"But please do not be troubled, Young Miss." Yueshi looked at her young lady's manner and could not help but feel a quiet ache of sympathy. "I believe Xiao Mo will come out of seclusion safely, and he promised the Young Miss he would. He will certainly keep his word."
"Mm..."
Tushan Jingci raised her head once more and looked off toward the direction where Xiao Mo had disappeared.
"He said he would never deceive me."
"Since he promised me, he will certainly not break his word."
...
Coming down from Qianxue Peak, Xiao Mo made his way to Liu Family Village.
He had intended to say a word to Liu Shui, letting her know she need not come to his courtyard anymore to wash clothes and cook meals but as it turned out, Liu Shui was not home.
Xiao Mo asked a neighbor and learned that she was at the market with her mother selling goods and would not return until later.
So Xiao Mo wrote a letter and asked the neighbor to pass it along to Liu Shui, then turned and walked back to his bamboo courtyard.
Returning to the courtyard, the first thing Xiao Mo did was take out a series of formation flags from his storage pouch and carefully plant them one by one around the perimeter of the courtyard.
These flags would help Xiao Mo gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and also served a certain function as early warning.
Though of course, if Xiao Mo entered a state of complete seclusion, and the flags attempted to rouse him, the interruption to his cultivation could cause him injury but regardless, having them was better than not.
Once all his preparations were made, Xiao Mo swallowed a few pills to replenish his spiritual energy and vitality, then sat cross-legged at the center of the courtyard and quietly regulated the spiritual energy within him, bringing himself to the best possible state to meet the seclusion ahead.
The whole night passed without a sound. The sun rose in the east, and the distant horizon brightened with the pale grey of early dawn.
Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes.
Xian Xichun had already arrived outside the bamboo courtyard. He brushed down his blue robe and sat cross-legged on a smooth stone, giving Xiao Mo a small nod.
"I am sorry for the trouble, Teacher Xian."
Xiao Mo spoke quietly, then closed his eyes once more.
The instant Xiao Mo entered the Dao, a gentle wind moved through the bamboo grove, setting off a soft and delicate rustling.
A squirrel among the bamboo lifted its head and looked curiously at the human sitting in the courtyard with eyes closed, then sprang away with a sudden leap into the distance.
Threads of Dao resonance drifted outward from all around Xiao Mo, gradually coalescing into a great winding river of the Dao.
Black and white intertwined into the twin fish of yin and yang, leaping up within the river of Dao resonance and plunging back in again with a splash, cycling endlessly.
"Only the Dragon Gate realm, yet on his first seclusion he already calls forth such a Daoist phenomenon." Xian Xichun gave a satisfied nod, appreciation showing clearly in his eyes. "This young man is truly something."
Before the last word had left his lips, Xian Xichun's divine sense stirred, and a longsword fell into his palm in an instant.
With a single turn of thought, the sword was already drawn, a flash of sword light cutting through the air.
Deep within the bamboo grove, a figure dressed in black fell from midair and struck the soft earth below. Blood spread outward, staining the young bamboo shoots just beginning to poke through the soil and soaking into the wet ground around them.
"This matter is no concern of yours, Teacher Xian. Must you really meddle in what does not involve you?"
Through the open bamboo grove, a voice of indeterminate gender drifted forward, low and unhurried, laden with killing intent as cold as bone.
"I do not care how much Tushan has paid you," Xian Xichun said with a composed tone that nonetheless carried an authority admitting no argument. "While he has not yet come out of seclusion, anyone who wishes to lay a hand on him must first get past my sword."
The words had barely settled before Xian Xichun sent another sword strike out.
The pupils of the figure who had been speaking from the shadows contracted sharply.
By the time they reacted, it was already too late.
The sword light passed through their body and split them cleanly in two in an instant.
"Though I have spent several hundred years reading books and cultivating my temperament," Xian Xichun flipped the blade and drove it straight down into the soil at his side, then tilted his head back and took a long drink of wine, "that does not mean I have lost my temper entirely."
His gaze swept cold and clear across the bamboo grove in all directions.
"If you are not afraid of death, come and try!"
"..."
Teacher Xian's voice echoed through the bamboo grove, then gradually faded away.
The surroundings fell into complete silence. Not a single voice answered for a long while.
After some time, the bamboo stems around them trembled faintly, and one by one the dark shapes hidden in the shadows withdrew without a sound, taking even the bodies of their fallen companions with them as they left.
"With so little courage, and you call yourselves assassins. Laughable."
Xian Xichun gave a cold smile, tilted his head back, and went on drinking from the jug in his hand.
"Though speaking of which..."
Xian Xichun lifted his gaze toward the path that led up to the halfway point on the mountain, and could not help but smile.
"The ones who ought not to have come have come. But when will the one who ought to come, come?"
"Elder Sister Yueshi..."
In the courtyard in the early morning.
Tushan Jingci had woken before sunrise and was shaking Yueshi by the arm.
"Just let me go down the mountain..."
"Elder Sister Yueshi..."