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

Chapter 580: Yin-Yang Eyes, Jade Pith Realm, Peace, a Good End

One hundred and thirty years had passed since Xiao Mo entered seclusion.

Then, on a certain early morning, the spiritual power within Seeking Immortality Temple grew denser and denser. Spiritual power from every direction gathered there, far beyond the ordinary.

All the spirit beasts in the temple, as if by prior agreement, looked in the same direction.

All of a sudden, a dazzling light shot into the sky. The white clouds above were scattered apart by that radiance in an instant.

Dense resonance of the Way drifted with the summer breeze, gently sweeping over mountain forest after mountain forest.

Inside Seeking Immortality Temple, Senior Sister Lin Qiaoqiao raised her head and looked toward the mountain peak where Xiao Mo had been in seclusion.

She understood in her heart.

Junior Brother Xiao was finally about to emerge from seclusion.

As that pillar of light gradually faded, inside the cave dwelling, Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes.

He drew in a deep breath and breathed out the last mouthful of turbid air filled with impurities. Then, step by step, he walked toward the outside of the cave dwelling.

Standing at the edge of the cliff, with the breeze gently stirring the hem of his robes, Xiao Mo quietly sensed the Great Dao laws circulating around him.

The world before him was utterly different from what he had seen while in the Jade Pith Realm.

After stepping into the Immortal Realm, Xiao Mo felt as if he had entered an entirely new heaven and earth.

“Junior Brother Xiao... Senior Xiao...”

Just as Xiao Mo was still adapting to the subtle changes of the Immortal Realm, Lin Qiaoqiao came to his side. She bowed with great respect, and the “Junior Brother Xiao” on her lips had already changed into “Senior Xiao.”

“Senior Sister Lin, you don’t need to be so courteous. Just call me Xiao Mo or Junior Brother Xiao as before,” Xiao Mo said with a smile.

“All right. Then I’ll be so bold as to call you by name.”

Lin Qiaoqiao also felt that calling Xiao Mo “Senior” was truly somewhat awkward.

However, according to the rules of the cultivation world, never mind “Senior,” even if Lin Qiaoqiao called Xiao Mo “Ancestor,” it would not be too much.

Moreover, she had once heard that after some people stepped into the Immortal Realm, because the heaven and earth they saw became vastly different, their state of mind would change along with it. Even their personalities might become completely different.

But now, seeing that Xiao Mo was still the same as before he entered seclusion, Lin Qiaoqiao felt an intimacy in her heart.

“Senior Sister Lin, may I ask how long I spent in this seclusion?” Xiao Mo asked.

“Reporting to Senior Xiao—cough, cough... Junior Brother Xiao, you have been in seclusion for a full one hundred and thirty years,” Lin Qiaoqiao answered truthfully after coughing twice.

“One hundred and thirty years...” Xiao Mo’s brows drew together slightly, and a few traces of concern showed in his voice. “Then Senior Sister Lin, how is Sister Liu Shui now? Has she emerged from seclusion?”

Hearing Xiao Mo mention Liu Shui, Lin Qiaoqiao could not help pressing her thin lips together. A sorrow and desolation that were hard to conceal appeared in her expression, and her voice softened.

“Junior Brother... Junior Sister Liu... passed away in meditation...”

When Xiao Mo heard Lin Qiaoqiao finally say the words “passed away,” his mind went blank. For a long while, he did not come back to himself, as if he had heard incorrectly.

Half an incense stick later...

Xiao Mo arrived at the mountain peak where Liu Shui had entered seclusion.

At this moment, the grand formation on the peak had already been shut down, and the Seeking Immortality Temple disciples who had originally remained on guard at the cave entrance had long since dispersed.

Xiao Mo slowly descended from the air and walked step by step toward the depths of the cave dwelling.

In the deepest part of the cave dwelling, on that warm jade bed, all kinds of medicinal pill bottles and jars were arranged neatly.

Some were already empty. Some had not even had their stoppers opened.

But at the very center of the jade bed, the woman who should have been sitting there cross-legged had disappeared.

She had left not the slightest trace behind, as though she had never existed here at all.

Lin Qiaoqiao also walked into the cave dwelling. She gently came up behind Xiao Mo and said in a low voice,

“After Junior Sister Liu was gone, we carefully deduced what happened based on the spiritual power she left behind in the cave dwelling.”

“In truth, Junior Sister Liu had already passed the first four trials. But when she reached the final inner demon tribulation...”

As she spoke, Lin Qiaoqiao closed her mouth. She only shook her head lightly and did not continue.

“I understand...” Xiao Mo nodded faintly. His voice was calm, yet it could not hide his desolation. “All these years, Senior Sister Lin and all our fellow practitioners have worked hard.”

“It was nothing worth calling hard work.” Lin Qiaoqiao shook her head. Her gaze fell on Xiao Mo’s slightly bleak profile, and she said softly, “Then I’ll step outside first. If Junior Brother needs anything, call me at any time.”

“All right.” Xiao Mo bowed, his tone peaceful. “Take care, Senior Sister.”

Lin Qiaoqiao turned and left the cave dwelling, no longer disturbing Xiao Mo.

She understood in her heart that the relationship between Xiao Mo and Liu Shui had not been ordinary. At this moment, he needed to be alone and quiet for a while.

Left alone in the cave dwelling, Xiao Mo slowly walked forward. In the end, he sat down on that jade bed.

“Young Master... I like you...”

“Young Master, I know. I know my talent is no good... But... I don’t want to stop here. I want to try. I want to try breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm.”

“If I can emerge from seclusion smoothly this time and step into the Nascent Soul Realm, Young Master... can I... become your concubine?”

The words Liu Shui had spoken in the past echoed beside Xiao Mo’s ears, one sentence after another, so clear it was as though she were right beside him.

Xiao Mo had always known Liu Shui’s feelings for him.

It was precisely because he knew that every time Liu Shui expressed her admiration for him, he had chosen to refuse her.

First, because Xiao Mo truly had always regarded Sister Liu Shui as a kind older sister from next door. In his heart, there had been no romantic love between a man and a woman.

Second, because Xiao Mo understood that the things he was going to do could never have a perfect ending. He could not hold her back.

But was this “not holding her back” of his truly not a kind of holding her back?

He sat on that jade bed, gazing at the empty cave dwelling, and did not rise for a very long time.

In the end, Xiao Mo shook his head.

He stood from the jade bed and slowly raised his hand, forming hand seals.

A long river where yin and yang circulated quietly appeared around him, rippling outward like water.

After stepping into the Immortal Realm, the long river of yin and yang that Xiao Mo manifested through Great Dream of Yellow Millet was now connected to karma.

For a moment, sun and moon reversed, and stars shifted in their courses. The stars filling the sky changed positions again and again, as though an invisible hand were rearranging them.

Inside Seeking Immortality Temple, quite a few disciples sensed something. One after another, they raised their heads and looked toward the same mountain peak.

Above that mountain peak, a long river woven from black and white was constantly flowing backward, converging, and merging.

...

“Temple Master, this... this is...”

A disciple stood beside Daoist Yunxi, staring up at the phenomenon above that mountain peak, her face full of amazement.

“Huangye, in your view, what exactly are the divination arts?”

Daoist Yunxi gazed into the distance and asked unhurriedly,

“Do you think fate is fixed from the beginning and never changes?”

“If fate is fixed and unchanging, and what divination deduces is a predetermined result that cannot be altered, then what meaning would a person’s efforts still have?”

“This...” The disciple named Huangye was at a loss for words and did not know how to answer.

Of course she knew what divination arts were.

To put it simply, they were peering into the secrets of Heaven, seeing another person’s future fate, and foretelling good fortune, misfortune, calamity, and blessing.

But the questions the Temple Master asked afterward were things she had never thought about in that way.

However, before Huangye could answer, Daoist Yunxi had already naturally given the answer herself.

“What is called divination is to deduce and calculate continuously according to the entanglement of countless karmic threads in the world and according to existing laws, ultimately arriving at a result.”

“That result is not unchanging. It is the current situation, or the direction most likely to occur in the future.”

“Since the result can possibly change, a diviner’s every word and action may have a deep or shallow effect on the future fate of the person seeking a divination. As for whether that person is willing to listen to the diviner’s advice, that is the other party’s own choice.”

“Only, every person’s karma involves the hidden secrets of the Heavenly Way. This is what is meant by ‘Heaven’s secrets must not be revealed lightly.’”

“If a person divines for another, and the karma involved with the other party is too great, then the Heavenly Way will backlash against the diviner themselves because of it.”

“So, some diviners, even after calculating the secrets of Heaven, will choose silence in order to avoid the Heavenly Way’s backlash. They will pretend they know nothing.”

“However, if the difference in realm between the diviner and the one seeking divination is extremely vast, and the karma involved with the seeker is not too heavy, then the diviner can rely on their own strength to influence the other person’s future and reverse the direction of their fate.”

“And this phenomenon is what the mortal world calls ‘immortals toying with the human world.’”

“Xiao Mo has now reached the Immortal Realm. The cultivation method he practices, Great Dream of Yellow Millet, happens to be able to do exactly this.”

...

Inside the cave dwelling, the light was dim, and all was silent.

Xiao Mo slowly opened his eyes.

However, what he saw now was not the ordinary stone walls and stalagmites inside the cave.

In Xiao Mo’s field of vision, a long river of yin and yang flowed quietly beneath his feet, black and white interweaving, never drying up.

The white yang river and the pitch-black yin river continuously blended and converged, like two ancient torrents meeting again here, finally condensing into a vast, boundless river of time.

This was the river of time Xiao Mo could step into after entering the Immortal Realm, by using Great Dream of Yellow Millet to connect with the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

Xiao Mo searched along the river of time, his gaze passing through countless flowing lights and shadows.

In the end, he found a faint point of light.

Xiao Mo slowly walked forward and carefully stretched out his hand, wrapping that point of light with the warm spiritual power inside his body.

This point of light was not a soul.

It was “karma.”

“Sister Liu Shui... I’ll send you on your way...”

With the support of Great Dream of Yellow Millet, Xiao Mo followed the bank of the river of time, walking forward step by step.

Through that faintly gleaming river of time, Xiao Mo saw the lights and shadows of one ordinary household after another reflected from the surface of the river.

Although he could not tell whether these households’ shadows came from ten years, a hundred years, or a thousand years in the future, he could use Great Dream of Yellow Millet to deduce roughly what kind of life Sister Liu Shui would live if he sent her into different households, and what kind of result she would most likely have.

In the end, Xiao Mo stopped outside the gate of one household.

He stood outside the courtyard gate, his fingers lightly forming seals as he secretly deduced.

In the end, Xiao Mo obtained an answer—

“Yin-Yang Eyes, Jade Pith Realm, peace, a good end.”

“Let it be here, then,” Xiao Mo murmured.

He passed through the courtyard gate and gently sent the point of light in his hands, the one that represented “karma,” drifting into the courtyard.

...

Roughly three thousand years later.

A clear infant’s cry suddenly rang out from within this courtyard.

“She’s born, she’s born... It’s a daughter!” The midwife ran out the door with a face full of joy and shouted to the plain, honest man who had long been pacing in frantic circles outside.

The moment that man heard it, he rushed into the room.

The honest man carefully picked up the tiny child in the swaddling cloth. His wife leaned weakly against the head of the bed, the corners of her lips holding a happy smile as she asked softly, “Give our daughter... a name...”

“Ning Wei...”

The honest man’s face was full of joy.

“I’m not educated, so I specially went to the city and asked a teacher to choose one. We’ll call her Ning Wei... What do you think?”

“Ning Wei...” His wife softly repeated her daughter’s name. A gentle smile spread over her lips, and she nodded lightly. “It sounds very nice...”

Time flowed like water, silently passing day after day through those plain and ordinary days.

The little girl named Ning Wei also gradually grew up, becoming an obedient and adorable child.

One day.

Ning Wei went out to play while holding her beloved cloth doll, only for several mischievous children to snatch it away from her.

They tossed the cloth doll back and forth between them.

Every time she was finally about to catch up, the cloth doll would be thrown to another side again.

The little girl with two braids had reddened eyes and her small mouth pressed tightly together. She looked as though she was about to cry from worry.

At last, the grievances piled up in the little girl’s heart could no longer be held back.

She crouched down, buried her little face in her knees, and her tears fell patter-patter, soaking into her skirt.

“You can’t get it, you can’t get it!”

“Crybaby, you can’t get it!”

“Ning Wei is a crybaby... shame, shame!”

The children circled around the little girl, clapping their hands and laughing as they mocked her.

Just then, a man wearing a long saber at his waist strode forward and rapped each child hard on the head.

“You’re not allowed to bully other people, especially when she’s a little girl. Aren’t you ashamed?”

The man snatched the cloth doll back and scolded them sternly.

When those children saw that an adult had stepped in—and that he had a long saber at his waist—they scattered in fright, running far away.

The man walked forward, crouched down, and handed the cloth doll back to the little girl. His voice softened at once. “Here. This is yours.”

“Thank you, big brother...” The little girl raised her head and sniffled. Teardrops still hung on her eyelashes, and her voice was soft and tender.

“No need to thank me.” The saber-wearing man looked at her eyes, and his expression could not help going blank, as though he had seen something unusual.

“Little girl, what is your name?” the man asked softly.

“Ning Wei... Ning as in peace, Wei as in rose...” The little girl blinked, wiped away her tears, lifted her face, and looked at him seriously. “What about you, big brother?”

“Me...”

The man smiled gently.

“My name is Xiao Mo.”

“Xiao as in desolate, Mo as in ink.”