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

Chapter 559: Monk, Open Your Eyes and Look… (2 in 1)

Early the next morning, the sky was just beginning to brighten. A few strands of morning light passed through the window lattice and quietly spilled into a room in the rear courtyard of Sikong Temple.

Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes where he lay on the bed, his vision gradually clearing.

Looking at the familiar sandalwood beams above him, Xiao Mo knew he had already returned to his courtyard at Sikong Temple.

He tried to recall what had happened last night, only to feel a faint stabbing pain in his head. His brows could not help drawing together.

Once the pain eased slightly, the memories of last night surfaced in Xiao Mo’s mind.

Everything he had experienced before he lost consciousness was still perfectly clear to him.

Even the hazy clothing Tushan Jingci had worn, and her graceful, alluring figure.

The watery softness of her as she sat in his arms.

The pure, maiden fragrance lingering at the tip of his nose.

Every detail seemed to have been carved into his mind, impossible to dispel.

Unconsciously, Xiao Mo sighed softly in his heart.

He knew Jingci would act against him sooner or later.

But Xiao Mo had not expected Jingci to be so impatient.

However, when he looked inward with his divine sense, he discovered that his primal yang was unexpectedly still intact. That surprised Xiao Mo somewhat.

Could it be that Jingci let go at the critical moment? Xiao Mo secretly guessed.

But very quickly, he shook his head and rejected that idea.

With Jingci’s personality, she would either see it through to the end or not do it at all. It was absolutely impossible for her to give up halfway and stop at the last moment.

Creak.

Just as doubts were surfacing in Xiao Mo’s heart, the wooden door of the room was gently pushed open, making a slightly piercing, delicate sound.

Xiao Mo turned his head and looked over. He saw a woman in Daoist robes holding a bowl of medicine, standing quietly beyond the threshold.

Morning light fell on her shoulders, dyeing her plain Daoist robes with a faint layer of warmth.

Xiao Mo and the woman’s gazes met.

The woman’s pure eyes were clear as water, like autumn waters without a ripple.

The entire room fell silent. Even the birdsong outside the window seemed to drift farther away.

After a brief silence, Xiao Mo looked at the woman and asked, “May I ask who you are, Miss?”

“If I said I was Jingci, would you believe me?” Gui Junmeng slowly spoke, her voice gentle and soft.

Xiao Mo smiled faintly and shook his head.

“Why?” Gui Junmeng tilted her head slightly, a trace of confusion surfacing in her eyes. “Do Jingci and I... not look alike?”

“Miss, it is not that you and Jingci look alike. You are exactly the same,” Xiao Mo said, looking at her appearance. “But Miss, you are not her.”

Hearing Xiao Mo’s words, Gui Junmeng lowered her head slightly, her delicate head dipping as though she were carefully thinking something over.

A moment later, she raised her head again. Her clear eyes quietly gazed at Xiao Mo as she rather abruptly changed the subject and asked softly, “May I come in?”

“Naturally,” Xiao Mo nodded.

“Thank you.”

Gui Junmeng lifted the small feet in cloth shoes beneath her Daoist robes, gently stepped across the threshold, walked to Xiao Mo’s bedside, and sat down sideways.

Even though she wore loose Daoist robes, the moment she sat down at an angle, the fabric still lightly clung to the full, rounded curve of her hips, outlining a soft line that made one afraid to look too long, lest it be an offense.

“My name is Gui Junmeng. I am a Daoist from Seeking Immortality Temple.”

She paused, her gaze falling on Xiao Mo’s face as she explained calmly and unhurriedly.

“You were poisoned last night. I brought you back to Sikong Temple. Sikong Temple’s abbot allowed me to stay here for now. This bowl of medicinal soup is a special toxin-clearing decoction from our Seeking Immortality Temple. After you drink it, your body should feel a little better.”

After saying this, Gui Junmeng gently scooped up a spoonful of medicine and brought it before Xiao Mo, about to feed him.

“Thank you, Miss. I can do it myself.” Xiao Mo extended both hands, accepted the medicine bowl, and slowly drank it mouthful by mouthful.

The medicine entered his throat warm, bitter, and astringent.

However, after drinking it, Xiao Mo did indeed feel much better. The heaviness and discomfort in his head gradually dispersed as well.

“Do you have anything you want to ask me?” Gui Junmeng looked at Xiao Mo, her tone calm, as though she were waiting for him to speak. “Whatever you ask, I will answer.”

“I do have a few questions.” Xiao Mo nodded, pondered for a moment, then asked, “Did Miss encounter me by chance, or did you come looking for me deliberately?”

“I came looking for you deliberately,” Gui Junmeng said truthfully.

“Then may I ask why Miss came to find this humble monk?” Xiao Mo asked again.

Gui Junmeng nodded. After thinking for a while, she answered seriously and briefly, “I want to take you to Seeking Immortality Temple.”

Xiao Mo’s tone was mild. “But Miss, I am a monk.”

Gui Junmeng blinked those beautiful fox eyes. Her tone seemed to carry a bit of little-girl innocence. “You have been a monk until now. You can be a Daoist from now on.”

“Then why does Miss wish to have me become a Daoist?” Xiao Mo asked calmly.

Gui Junmeng lowered her head again and thought seriously for a moment.

This seemed to be her habit.

Whenever she had to answer a question, she would always lower her head and think carefully for a while, as though she wanted to weigh every single word clearly.

“In the past, it was because you and I had a marriage contract, and I wanted to practice dual cultivation with you.” She raised her head, her clear gaze looking straight into Xiao Mo’s eyes, her voice soft. “But now, I only want to be with you.”

“How long ago is this ‘past’?” Xiao Mo asked again.

“One lifetime,” Gui Junmeng answered honestly without hesitation.

“I see...” Xiao Mo smiled faintly and said no more. “Then Miss Jingci and I should also be tied by karma from a past life, correct?”

“...” Gui Junmeng lowered her head and did not answer.

No answer was as good as agreement.

“I understand. Thank you for sending me back yesterday, Miss.”

Xiao Mo did not ask anything else. Instead, he turned and got off the bed, picked up the monk’s robes placed nearby, put them on calmly, and prepared to walk out of the room.

“Are you willing to come with me?” Gui Junmeng stood up, a trace of barely perceptible urgency in her voice.

Xiao Mo stopped, turned around, pressed his palms together, and bowed respectfully.

“Miss Gui, this humble monk is still... a monk.”

After the words fell, Xiao Mo turned around and walked out of the room step by step.

Gui Junmeng stood where she was, watching Xiao Mo’s back as it gradually receded, her eyes blinking softly.

After leaving the courtyard, Xiao Mo went to the front hall.

From far away, he saw Xujing holding a broom and sweeping the ground absentmindedly while hugging a Buddhist scripture and chanting with exaggerated motions, his little head bobbing back and forth along with the words.

“If you are sweeping, then sweep properly. If you are reading, then read properly. If you sweep the ground while reading scripture, in the end you will read the scripture poorly and sweep the ground poorly as well.” Xiao Mo walked up, reached out a finger, and lightly knocked Xujing’s smooth little head.

“Senior Brother!” The moment Xujing saw his senior brother, his eyes immediately lit up.

But very soon, a little confusion surfaced in the young novice’s eyes. “Wait, that is not right, Senior Brother. Why did that pretty older sister not come looking for you today? Did you bully that pretty sister and make her angry?”

“More or less.” Xiao Mo smiled and nodded.

“Senior Brother, that will not do...” Xujing sighed like a little adult, putting on an old and experienced expression as he said seriously, “As the saying goes, ‘A good man does not fight with women.’ You should yield a little more to that female benefactor.”

“You are misusing sayings again.” Xiao Mo smiled and lightly knocked his smooth little head again. “All right, I will not talk with you anymore. Your senior brother is going to find that pretty older sister.”

“Senior Brother...” Xujing’s eyes widened at once. He shouted at the top of his voice toward his senior brother’s back, “You finally admitted she is pretty! Senior Brother, this is the first sign of your downfall! Senior Brother, you must hold fast to your original heart and not be bewitched by feminine beauty. Only then can you behold the true face of the Tathagata!”

“Senior Brother... do not forget, the two of us senior and junior brothers still have to carry Sikong Temple forward together and open many, many branch temples!”

“Oh, right, Senior Brother!” He suddenly thought of something else and hurriedly added, “The abbot will not allow me to use the name ‘Sikong Temple’ for the branch temples. What should we call the temples we open in the future?”

As Xiao Mo walked forward, he waved a hand. His voice drifted back lazily from ahead, carrying a teasing smile. “Senior Brother sees that you chant Buddhist scriptures every day, yet you cannot even memorize the first two pages of the Amitabha Sutra. Every word is an empty recitation—so why not simply call it Kongnian Temple?”

“Senior Brother! Even you are making fun of me! When Xuchen and the others speak ill of you in the future, I will never speak up for you again!”

Xujing angrily waved the broom in his hand at his senior brother, but all he saw was his senior brother’s figure walking farther and farther away, gradually disappearing around the corner of the front hall.

“Kongnian Temple... Kongnian Temple...”

Xujing repeated the name his senior brother had casually made up, growing angrier the more he thought about it, and thinking about it more the angrier he became.

“What kind of terrible name did Senior Brother come up with? I refuse to call the temple Kongnian Temple!”

...

After leaving Sikong Temple, Xiao Mo walked alone down the stone steps, one step at a time.

And just as he had descended Mount Sikong, on that most ordinary and familiar path down the mountain, a woman was standing still with both hands folded before her, quietly gazing in the direction Xiao Mo was coming from. No one knew how long she had been waiting there.

She was completely different from before.

Today, the woman was no longer wearing the coarse hemp clothes of an ordinary farm woman.

She had changed into a snow-white long dress. Its hem was spotless, lightly following the lines of her figure, and a plain sash was tied around her slender willow waist, making her graceful, delicate posture seem even more soft and alluring, slim enough to gather in one hand.

Her waterfall-like long hair fell over her shoulders, just reaching her waist.

Among her strands of hair, a slender, delicate hair ornament had been inserted at an angle.

When the clear breeze passed by and stirred the woman’s hair, that hair ornament gently swayed, adding a few more degrees of liveliness to her.

And on that already flawless, perfect face, she had drawn the faintest, faintest trace of makeup.

Only that slight touch of powder and rouge made the woman’s thin lips seem even more tender and dewy, and made her eyes and brows all the more moving and pitiful.

Today, she seemed even more beautiful than before.

“Miss Jingci.”

Xiao Mo walked forward, pressed his palms together, and bowed.

Tushan Jingci gazed deeply at the man she loved. Her faintly trembling eyes were filled with tenderness and love. “That female Daoist—what did she say to you, Monk?”

“Miss Gui told me that she wanted to take me to Seeking Immortality Temple and have me become a Daoist.” Xiao Mo smiled faintly and continued, “She also said that she knew me one lifetime ago.”

“Did she say anything else?” Tushan Jingci continued asking. “For instance... anything about me.”

“I did not ask further.” Xiao Mo gently shook his head.

“Then... do you want to hear it?” Tushan Jingci bit her thin lip, her voice trembling slightly.

Xiao Mo did not answer.

Looking at his silent appearance, Tushan Jingci suddenly laughed softly.

That smile was very beautiful, beautiful enough that one could not look away. Yet for some reason, it faintly made one’s heart ache.

“Monk, do you still remember the story I told you about the fox and the book boy?” Tushan Jingci quietly looked at him. “That story... was true, and also false...”

“The true part is that the fox and the book boy loved each other. They privately pledged themselves to one another and promised to grow old together.”

“The false part is that after the book boy grew up, he became a great cultivator. He wanted to accumulate military merit and fame, then go in glory to marry that Young Lady of Tushan. But in the end, he died on the battlefield, leaving that fox all alone.”

“Everyone told the fox that he was dead, that he had been reduced to ash and scattered smoke, that even his soul was gone...”

“Everyone urged the fox to give up.”

“But the fox did not want to give up. The fox believed that his soul must still be there, that she would definitely see him again, because he had said it...”

“He had said it with his own mouth...”

“He would be with her forever. He would not deceive her. Never. Never ever...”

“And so, the fox searched and searched, searched and searched...”

“Finally, Heaven opened its eyes. Eighteen years ago, the fox sensed that his soul had reincarnated and entered the demon-race world once more...”

“So the fox searched and searched again, searched and searched again...”

This time, the fox spent another eighteen years.

Tushan Jingci smiled as she looked at the man before her, tears glimmering in her eyes, yet she smiled with such joy.

“The fox finally found a foolish monk.”

“The fox pretended to be a woman who had fallen down a mountain slope and deliberately approached that monk.”

“She tried every possible way to seduce that monk every day. She thought of every method she could.”

“At first, the fox thought that since she was born so beautiful, even if he was a monk in this life, he was still a hot-blooded young man in the end. As long as she curled her finger lightly, would he not obediently lose himself beneath her skirts, return to secular life, and follow the fox in a daze?”

As she spoke, Tushan Jingci laughed lightly, her tone carrying a little coquettish annoyance and a little helplessness.

“But who could have known? That monk was simply far too stubborn. He was just like the stones on that mountain, cold and hard! He truly infuriated this fox to death!”

After the words fell, the woman raised her fine head. Her fox eyes, glimmering with crystalline tears and morning light, stared straight at him.

“Tell me, Monk, is that fellow not someone who doesn’t know what’s good for him? He does not even want such a beautiful wife. Is he not terribly stupid?”

Xiao Mo still pressed his palms together, his eyes lowered, silent and unmoving.

“Hey... Monk...”

“Why are you not saying anything?”

The woman’s fair, jade-like fingers tightly gripped her sleeve. Her voice carried a heartbreaking tremble, and tears silently slid from the corners of her eyes.

“Open your eyes and look...”

“The girl standing in front of you...”

“Is she beautiful...?”