We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real?

Chapter 496: The Face Is Gone, Who Knows Where, Yet the Peach Blossoms Still Smile at the Spring Wind

Within the bamboo courtyard, the Dao resonances around Xiao Mo grew richer and deeper with every passing moment. The river of the Dao that wound around him, half-visible and half-concealed, continued to flow and spiral without end.The fish formed of Dao resonance leapt ever more joyfully through that river, springing up into the air at one moment and plunging back beneath the surface the next, full of living spiritual grace.

Beneath where Xiao Mo sat, the pattern of the Eight Trigrams appeared of its own accord on the ground.

And directly above his head, white cloud after white cloud gathered into great spiraling vortexes, layer upon layer, as though some invisible hand was stirring the sky itself.

At last, the river of Dao resonance that had wrapped around Xiao Mo like a cocoon gradually turned to black and white, the two colors intertwining and coiling around each other, growing deeper and deeper, denser and denser, until Xiao Mo's form was no longer visible at all.

And there within that cocoon, Xiao Mo's lashes trembled faintly then, slowly, he opened his eyes.

In the very instant Xiao Mo opened his eyes, the river of Dao resonance that had enveloped him shattered and scattered in all directions. Ring after ring of ripples condensed from spiritual energy surged outward from the bamboo courtyard at the center, spreading and spreading without ceasing.

Wherever the spiritual energy reached, the spring came alive with greater intensity. Flower after flower bloomed in its wake, a riot of color carpeting the forest paths and the hillside slopes.

On the back mountain of Qianxue Peak, the buds that had only just formed moments before began to unfurl under the driving force of this spiritual energy. Peach blossom after peach blossom opened its face on the branches, standing like young women dressed in pink, proud and radiant, filling the entire mountain from base to peak.

A clean wind passed through, and the blossoms on every slope swayed with it, moving like dancers turning lightly in a dance, stirring the whole mountain's spring into motion.

"The peach blossoms on Qianxue Peak are opening?"

Yuan Xing stared at the sight before her, hardly daring to trust her own eyes and she was not sure whether it was her imagination, but Yuan Xing felt that this year's peach blossoms were more beautiful than any she had ever seen before, beautiful enough that one simply could not look away.

In the pavilion, Tushan Jingci stared at the blossoms covering the mountain with an expression as though her whole self had gone somewhere else entirely.

"Jingci, what is the matter? Is there something unusual about these blossoms?"

Feng Shan noticed the strange look on the young girl beside her and asked in a soft voice.

She had never seen this expression on Jingci before.

In those beautiful eyes, the full blaze of spring in bloom was reflected, yet they also held an emotion she could not read, something that seemed almost ready to spill over.

"Shanshan, I have something I need to attend to. I have to leave."

Coming back to herself, Tushan Jingci turned to her companion and spoke in a quick, urgent manner.

In the young girl's eyes, nervousness and joy were wound together, and the expression on her face was like something from a storybook, a wife who has thought of her husband every day and every night and has just heard from the villagers that the husband who went away to distant lands is about to return, her heart surging and overflowing, impossible to contain.

"What? Jingci, what did you say?" Shi Yang beside her opened her eyes wide in surprise.

"Everyone, I have something that cannot wait. I must go ahead. I hope you will all forgive me."

Tushan Jingci could not stay a moment longer. She rose to her feet, gave a bow to the assembled company, and her words came out considerably faster than usual.

Before anyone had a chance to ask her to stay, she had already turned and run out of the pavilion, her skirt lifting in the wind as she hurried down toward the foot of the mountain.

In a moment, the graceful, swaying silhouette of the young girl had disappeared into the sea of peach blossoms covering the hillside, leaving only the flower-laden branches swaying gently behind her in the breeze.

"What has gotten into Jingci? What is she in such a hurry for?" Chen Jue looked in the direction she had disappeared, his face full of puzzlement.

"No idea." Yuan Xing shook her head, equally at a loss.

"Though I have to say, it is the first time I have ever seen Jingci look so urgent about anything."

"Still, it is a bit much of Jingci. We all made the effort to gather here, and she just gets up and leaves like that. It does feel rather inconsiderate."

"Perhaps she simply does not think much of us."

"Well, that would not be so surprising. She is of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline. Her blood alone puts her in a different class. Now that she has passed the Worthy examination as well, thinking little of ordinary people like us would only be natural."

After Tushan Jingci left, the group began exchanging remarks one after another. Some of the young women even let a distinct note of spite creep into their voices.

They had never been able to match her in any respect, whether it was bloodline, natural gifts, family background, appearance, or learning and talent. And to make it worse, every young man whose attention they had hoped to attract only had eyes for Jingci.

Now that they had this rare opportunity to say a few words without her there, they naturally took it, if only to recover a little of their own sense of confidence.

"If Jingci left in such a hurry, she must have had a very important reason." Feng Shan heard the remarks about her companion and could not help a slight furrow forming in her brow. "What is the matter? Does Jingci need to explain herself to you before she does anything?"

"Exactly. Jingci is not the kind of person who forgets her manners." Shi Yang also stepped in with a word in Tushan Jingci's defense. "And besides, we were the ones who dragged her along in the first place. If something came up and she needed to leave, what could be more natural than that?"

"Please, everyone, let us not go on about this. We have gathered together today at some effort. Let us set this aside."

Seeing the atmosphere in the pavilion growing more and more strained and the argument threatening to escalate, a young man named Yan Zhengyi stepped in to smooth things over, hoping to prevent the gathering from being spoiled by ill feeling.

"Quite right." Lou Huo gave a nod and shifted to a lighter tone. "Even though Jingci is gone, she did finish her poem before she left. Why not take a look at what Jingci wrote? And if it is not very good, we can whisper about it among ourselves and she will never know, yes?"

"Come, come, let us see what Jingci wrote."

The others seized on the change of subject, genuinely worried that the quarrel might sour the whole gathering.

"I want to be first to look, and I will read it aloud for everyone too."

Xu Bei'er gave a soft laugh, quickly reached for the paper Tushan Jingci had written on, slightly afraid someone else might get there first.

She stood up, cleared her throat, and began to read in an unhurried voice, "Three years today within this very courtyard, a face and peach blossoms mirror each other's red."

At the first two lines, the company gave small nods of appreciation.

From just these two lines alone, one could feel something fresh and pleasing in the imagery, the mood delicate and the feeling lingering.

Though what exactly Jingci had meant by "three years" was difficult to say. Could she have been referring to three years since these classmates had last gathered?

That did not quite fit. They had gone many more years than three without assembling like this.

Everyone waited for the final two lines to be read, but Xu Bei'er stood there with the paper in her hands, blinking at the words written on it, and for a long time did not read on.

"Xing'er, what is the matter? Read on quickly. If you will not read it, I will do it myself." Feng Shan saw that Xu Bei'er had stopped mid-poem and could not help growing impatient.

What had gotten into this girl? She read the first two lines and then said nothing? Who does things like that?

Xu Bei'er slowly raised her eyes and glanced around at everyone present. She then thought back on the poems she and the others had all composed that day, and a flush of embarrassment crept onto her face, the look of someone who has been showing off before a true master and is only now realizing it.

"Three years today within this very courtyard, a face and peach blossoms mirror each other's red."

She read the first two lines again, paused slightly, and her voice dropped without meaning to.

"The face is gone, who knows where, yet the peach blossoms still smile at the spring wind."