Chapter 532: It Is Time for Me to Go

After leaving the city lord's manor, Xiao Mo made his way alone along the main street toward the courtyard where he was staying. The moment he stepped inside, he saw Xin Xiao'er leaning against the doorframe, her cool, detached eyes resting on him quietly.

"Miss Xin." Xiao Mo gave a small nod by way of greeting.

"Mm." Xin Xiao'er gave a slight nod in turn, her tone still flat and distant. "You are going to the hidden realm?"

"Yes." Xiao Mo answered with a smile. "Elder Hongxia said we would set out in two days. When does the young lady intend to go?"

"Now." Xin Xiao'er dropped those two words without ceremony, then turned and walked out of the courtyard without looking back.

Xiao Mo had already grown accustomed to her cold, frost-like manner.

The one thing that genuinely surprised him was that Xin Xiao'er's true cultivation level was the Nascent Soul realm. She had hidden it remarkably well.

"Though that makes sense. If she were not a full major realm above me, how could she be certain she could kill me?"

Xiao Mo gave a quiet, private smile, though his expression remained calm and undisturbed.

In truth, having spent this time around her, he had already come to a fairly clear suspicion that Xin Xiao'er was almost certainly the final contingency Tushan had sent to deal with him.

If he had not been "accidentally" killed by the endless succession of dangerous missions, then it was very likely this person who would have been responsible for finishing the job in the end.

Either way, Tushan had never intended to let him return alive.

Only, perhaps even Tushan had not anticipated how quickly he would reach the Nascent Soul realm and it was precisely because he had entered Nascent Soul that Tushan now felt the variables had grown too numerous to remain in control, and could no longer afford to wait before taking action.

Xin Xiao'er accompanying him into the hidden realm was the clearest possible evidence of this.

"We are all human. Why must we corner each other like this?" Xiao Mo shook his head with a wry smile, walked into the courtyard, sat down cross-legged, and entered meditation.

"Senior Xiao." About one incense stick's time later, a man's voice came from outside the courtyard, carrying a note of urgency.

Xiao Mo opened his eyes and went to open the gate. "Hongfei, is something the matter?"

"Senior, nothing serious. A letter for you arrived at the bookshop, and I hurried over to bring it to you." Zhao Hongfei held the letter in both hands and presented it respectfully to Xiao Mo.

"Many thanks." Xiao Mo accepted the letter and added casually, "Oh, and let Li Ke and Zhang Xue know that the hall will be open at the third quarter of the you hour, and that they should come to the bookshop and wait for me there. You come too. There are some things I would like to say to all of you."

"Of course, senior." Zhao Hongfei committed Xiao Mo's instructions firmly to memory and took his leave.

Xiao Mo took the envelope and turned back into his room.

He opened it gently and drew out the neatly folded letter paper inside.

On the white page, the young girl's lovely, refined handwriting met his eyes.

[Xiao Mo, I am writing to you again.

It has already been quite a long while since my last letter to you.

I have always wanted to write to you, but Elder Sister Yueshi said you must be terribly busy, and that if I wrote letter after letter it might disturb you, especially with the great battle nearly upon us.

I thought it over and felt she had a point, so I held myself back then I needed to go into seclusion, which made writing even more impossible.

But during my time in seclusion, it is not as though I did nothing at all.

Every day, I prayed for you beneath the Moon Spirit Tree with my whole heart.

I do not really know whether it makes any difference, but since the Moon Spirit Tree is Tushan's sacred tree, surely it should be of some use, should it not?

And it seems that it really has been of use after all.

And do you know? The very moment I came out of seclusion and saw your letter waiting for me, and learned that you were safe and well, my whole body felt as though it had lifted off the ground, and I very nearly burst into tears.

I genuinely cannot bear to imagine what I would become if something happened to you.

Spit, spit, I should not say such unlucky things.

You are perfectly fine after all.

As long as you are safe, nothing else matters.

Safety is the greatest blessing of all.

As for what has been happening on your front, beyond the assurances of safety you wrote in your letter, I have also heard about everything else.

Now that our Ten Thousand Demons Alliance has weathered that great battle, the combined armies of the Heavenly Demons Alliance and the Holy Demons Alliance are bound to fall apart.

And just as expected, according to news brought back by our Tushan's informants planted among them, although the Heavenly Demons Alliance and the Holy Demons Alliance are still nominally allied, in reality their pact has already been dissolved.

There should not be anything major left to worry about at the front, so you could actually come back now but who could have anticipated that some kind of hidden realm would suddenly turn up.

Xiao Mo! Whatever you do, you must not go to that hidden realm!

Though Master has not told me much, I can sense that the place is extremely dangerous and Master has also told me that once the hidden realm closes, you will be able to come home from the front, and that the timing would line up perfectly with the Holy Woman ceremony.

After that, you will never have to go out again, and we can finally be together for good.

Oh, and I have entered the Nascent Soul realm too.

My cultivation has finally caught up with yours.

Well? Am I not impressive?

All right, I will stop here, or you will say I am being too talkative again.

I am here in Tushan, waiting for you to come back.]

Reading the young girl's letter, the corner of Xiao Mo's lips could not help curving upward.

Every line on the page was filled with a happiness and anticipation she could not hide.

"This girl is still as guileless as ever."

Xiao Mo gently folded Tushan Jingci's letter and put it away, shaking his head, murmuring quietly to himself.

"Come back, you say. If only it were that easy."

It was true that the crisis at the front had now been resolved, and the Ten Thousand Demons Alliance no longer needed to keep a large garrison stationed in Quicksand City and Xiao Mo, in the end, was still Tushan Jingci's most trusted confidant. By every measure of reason and propriety, he should be returning to her but how could the Grand Elder possibly let Xiao Mo return alive to Tushan?

Right now, the Grand Elder kept telling Jingci, over and over, that once the hidden realm closed, he would be allowed to return to Tushan and Tushan Hongxia had also told him to earn merit within the hidden realm and then return in glory.

The two of them were simply playing their parts in tandem, having clearly arranged everything in advance.

The hidden realm was his designated grave.

Putting the letter away, Xiao Mo picked up paper and brush and began writing a reply to Tushan Jingci.

Should things go as he expected, this might well be the last letter he would ever write to Jingci.

Two incense sticks' time later, Xiao Mo finally set down the brush, gently blew on the ink to dry it, and once the writing was set, carefully folded the letter and placed it inside an envelope.

He rose and began tidying his room.

After all, once he left this time, he most likely would not be coming back. It was better to have everything settled in advance, so as not to trouble anyone else later.

"Xiao Mo, my benevolent and generous Young Master Xiao, my dear Young Master Xiao."

Just as Xiao Mo was halfway through tidying the room, Xiangniang's sweet, syrupy voice suddenly rang out from the courtyard.

Following close behind, Xiangniang pushed Xiao Mo's door open without ceremony.

"Xiangniang, how many times have I told you, you must knock before entering someone else's room." Xiao Mo straightened and looked at her with a kind of resigned exasperation, the kind of sigh he had long since grown used to.

"Are you really considering me 'someone else,' sir? Is there really so much distance left between us?" Xiangniang blinked, her expression innocently artless to the point of seeming almost deliberate.

"What distance is that?" Xiao Mo asked offhandedly.

"My foot is already out the door, sir. What is left is just the last bit of distance for you to close." Xiangniang answered as though this were perfectly self-evident, the corner of her mouth curving slightly.

Xiao Mo had nothing to say to that, and only shook his head, continuing to gather his belongings.

"Xiao Mo, where are you off to? What, are you moving out?" Xiangniang came over to his side, and seeing that he had nearly cleared the room entirely, asked with genuine curiosity.

"Elder Hongxia came to see me earlier and asked me to head to the hidden realm the day after tomorrow."

Xiao Mo continued packing as he gave a casual explanation.

"And Jingci has written to me as well. The Grand Elder says there is nothing major left to worry about here in Quicksand City, and once I come back from the hidden realm, I will be sent straight back to Tushan. So I thought I would go ahead and pack everything up early, to avoid any last-minute scrambling when the time comes."

"Really? That is wonderful!"

Delight rose immediately in Xiangniang's eyes, her whole expression brightening.

"I have been thoroughly sick of this wretched place for ages now, following you around. That Xin Xiao'er acts every single day like she owns the place, and just seeing her annoys me to no end. I would love nothing more than to find a few men to take her down a peg or two."

"All right, she is a Nascent Soul cultivator after all. You should show her a bit more respect." Xiao Mo let out a sigh, a note of resignation in his tone.

Beyond being clingy and a nuisance, Xiangniang's sharp tongue was something else entirely.

Every time she started cursing someone out, it inevitably ended up involving dog demons and pig demons defiling someone's entire ancestral line. Genuinely unbearable to listen to.

"Her? A Nascent Soul cultivator? Her?" Xiangniang blinked, her face full of disbelief, her mouth opening wide enough to fit an egg.

"Mm." Xiao Mo gave a flat reply. "She has already gone ahead to the hidden realm. I will be meeting her and several other Nascent Soul cultivators outside the hidden realm and proceeding from there."

"Hmph, Nascent Soul or not." Xiangniang pursed her lips, a stubborn defiance in her eyes. "I will still take a cucumber and give her a thorough..."

"Ahem, ahem, ahem!" Xiao Mo coughed loudly several times, quickly cutting her off.

"Fine, never mind then."

Xiangniang let it drop sulkily, then turned and plopped herself down without ceremony on Xiao Mo's bed.

Her long legs beneath her skirt crossed over each other, her dangling foot tapping lightly, again and again, against Xiao Mo's calf.

"I actually came to find you today to ask whether you would like to go together to the hidden realm and seek some fortune there too." Xiangniang tilted her head, her gaze shifting playfully. "Since sir has already been assigned, I will not need to ask. I will simply go along with sir."

"I can go, but you cannot." Xiao Mo reached over and tapped Xiangniang's knee, moving her long leg aside, his tone growing serious. "This hidden realm is not as simple as it appears."

"Not as simple as it appears? Sir, what do you mean?" After being given that warning, a faint suspicion was already forming in Xiangniang's mind.

"In short, nothing in this world comes that easily." Xiao Mo explained simply. "How could you possibly know whether an ancient hidden realm like this is a blessing or a curse? If it truly were such an extraordinary opportunity, why would they make a public announcement and invite the entire world to come and claim a share of it?"

He paused, his gaze settling on Xiangniang's face, his tone grave. "Just stay here in Quicksand City and be safe. Do not throw your life away chasing after some elusive, illusory opportunity."

"Then sir is still going? Why not... sir, you should not go either, then." After hearing this from Xiao Mo, Xiangniang stood up at once, worry rising in her own heart, her voice full of unease.

"It is fine. Have I not escaped death every other time?" Xiao Mo smiled lightly, his tone calm. "And besides, there will be other Nascent Soul cultivators going this time too. We can look out for each other."

With that, Xiao Mo extended his hand toward Xiangniang.

Xiangniang looked at his outstretched hand, tilted her head slightly, a flicker passing through her eyes, and then placed her own small hand into his palm.

Xiao Mo gently shook her hand away. "I was asking you to give me your merit jade tablet."

"Oh? Right, here you go." Xiangniang paused for a moment, then understood, and quickly drew the tablet from her waist and handed it to him.

Xiao Mo ran a finger lightly across his own tablet, transferring fifty percent of his accumulated merit onto Xiangniang's tablet entirely.

"Sir, this is..." Xiangniang blinked in confusion.

"For you."

Xiao Mo handed the tablet back into Xiangniang's hand, his tone earnest as he gave his instructions.

"Xiangniang, you are now at the early stage of the Golden Core realm. Take all this merit and exchange it for natural treasures. It should be enough to carry your cultivation to the Nascent Soul realm. Once you are back in Tushan, find a place to enter seclusion and cultivate properly. Do not concern yourself any further with the troubles of the world."

"Xiangniang, the truth is, your natural talent is not low at all. It is only that your heart has never been able to settle."

"And I have a fairly good idea of why."

"Most of your fox clan place their faith in dual cultivation. But your own nature is such that you would never lightly entrust yourself to just anyone, and you could never bring yourself to share a bed with one man tonight and run off to another's courtyard the next evening."

"And yet, when you see other foxes whose natural gifts are inferior to yours reaching the same cultivation level as you through dual cultivation alone, it is only natural to feel a measure of unfairness inside."

"I would never deny the validity of the dual cultivation path, because the Daoist tradition values it too, and it is a perfectly legitimate and honorable path in its own right. But I also believe that, relying entirely on your own strength, you can go just as far, and stand just as high."

"I only hope that going forward, you will not concern yourself with what others say, and simply look clearly at the path beneath your own feet and walk it, one step at a time."

"Sir..." Xiangniang pushed her lips out, her eyes growing faintly red, an uneasiness building in her heart. "Why does it feel as though you are... settling your final affairs?"

She raised her head and fixed those fox eyes directly on Xiao Mo, the light in them flickering. "Tell me the truth. Is this hidden realm extremely dangerous? Or, sir, perhaps we genuinely should not go at all. No fortune is worth more than your life."

"There are some things I must do, and some places I must go." Xiao Mo gave a gentle smile, placed the tablet softly into Xiangniang's palm, and closed her fingers over it.

"All right, I still have some things to take care of, so I will go now. I will... not be coming back." Xiao Mo put his belongings into his storage ring and turned to walk toward the door.

"Sir!"

Xiangniang watched Xiao Mo's figure growing more distant, her eyes shaking, her voice trembling faintly.

"Are you leaving today, then?"

"Leaving?"

Xiao Mo stopped walking, raised his head, and looked at the clear blue sky overhead, the corner of his mouth curving upward slightly.

"It is time."

"I truly... should be going."