“......”
As he listened to Daoist Yunxi’s words, Xiao Mo’s gaze turned toward Gui Junmeng. His throat moved slightly, and the doubts in his heart did not lessen in the slightest. Instead, they only grew heavier.
Gui Junmeng was Senior Gui’s granddaughter.
In other words, she and Jingci were sisters.
No wonder the two of them looked so alike, almost as if they had been carved from the same mold.
But then came the question.
If Jingci and Gui Junmeng were sisters, why had they been separated?
And why had Gui Junmeng been taken in as Daoist Yunxi’s disciple, being someone of the Daoist path?
What Xiao Mo cared about even more was this: if Gui Junmeng and Jingci were sisters, then her bloodline should also be that of a Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox.
Yet from her, Xiao Mo could not sense the slightest trace of demon qi. It was as if the one standing before him was only an ordinary cultivator.
“As expected, Senior Gui told you nothing at all, Fellow Daoist.”
Seeing Xiao Mo’s look of deep confusion, Daoist Yunxi knew what he was thinking. She smiled faintly, her tone gentle.
“Junmeng, there are some matters I would like to discuss with Fellow Daoist Xiao Mo alone. Would that be all right?”
“Yes, Master.”
Gui Junmeng nodded, rose gracefully, and bowed to Daoist Yunxi. Then she turned and left the courtyard.
After Gui Junmeng departed, Daoist Yunxi lifted her hand and waved lightly, setting up a spell formation in the bamboo courtyard that isolated it from divine sense.
Once she had done that, she picked up her teacup and tilted its rim slightly.
A little tea slowly flowed out of the cup, spreading into a faint water stain across the tabletop.
Dipping her finger in the tea, {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Daoist Yunxi slowly wrote a single horizontal stroke on the table, the line thin and spare.
“A long, long time ago, there was a woman in the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan.” Her voice was soft and calm. “She was Tushan Jingci’s mother—Tushan Xinhua. You should know something about her as well.”
Xiao Mo nodded, his expression respectful. “Madam Tushan has treated me well.”
Daoist Yunxi smiled faintly and continued, “Tushan Xinhua was born with a fierce and unyielding nature, and her talent was extraordinary. In everyone’s eyes, she was certain to bee the future clan leader of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan. But fortune makes fools of people, and matters in this world often refuse to follow human wishes.”
“Xinhua’s temperament was rather free and unrestrained. She was not satisfied with seeing only the scenery of the demon-race world. She also wanted to go beyond the Ten-Thousand-Li Great Wall and see for herself what that Ten Thousand Arts world was truly like. And so, she set out for the Ten Thousand Arts world to temper herself through experience.”
“And it was during those years of travel that she fell in love with a human man.”
Daoist Yunxi’s tone paused slightly, her gaze falling on the water mark across the table.
“Tushan Xinhua became pregnant.”
“It is not that a Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox and a human cannot join together.”
“It is only that ever since ancient times, whenever an ancient extraordinary beast with a domineering bloodline joined with a human, there was a certain chance that their descendant would be born with a special constitution.”
“And the child Tushan Xinhua carried turned out, unexpectedly, to possess an innate Dao-seed constitution.”
“The innate Dao-seed constitution is a sacred constitution rarely seen once in ten thousand years. It has a natural affinity with dao arts. Yet it repelled the bloodline of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox, and that repulsion caused the child to develop ‘double souls.’”
Daoist Yunxi extended a finger and lightly drew across the middle of the horizontal stroke she had painted in tea, splitting it into two.
“So-called ‘double souls’ means that the bloodline of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox and the human bloodline failed to merge pletely.”
“They are one person, yet they are also different people.”
Her voice slowly flowed through the night like a quiet, deep river.
“In order to let his child be born safely, that human man went alone to the desolate land. According to rumor, in that desolate land, there are ruins left behind from the ancient divine war.”
Daoist Yunxi sighed softly, her gaze passing through the fence of the bamboo courtyard and looking beyond it.
Outside the courtyard, a little cat that had slipped in from who knew where poked out its furry head. Its head was tilted as it curiously examined Gui Junmeng, who stood there.
The young woman lowered her eyes slightly as well and quietly looked at the little cat. Human and cat simply stared at one another in silence, and the moonlight dyed both their figures in a soft layer of silver-white.
“In the end, when that man emerged from the desolate land, he brought back a magic treasure.”
“That magic treasure could allow his child to be born safely.” Daoist Yunxi withdrew her gaze, and her voice gradually deepened. “But Junmeng and Jingci’s father was gravely wounded because of it as well, and did not have long to live.”
“After that man died, Tushan Xinhua was close to giving birth, and her body was extremely weak. So she took the initiative and returned to the clan.”
“Although the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan was still furious over Tushan Xinhua’s marriage to a human man, it was at that time that Senior Gui came to the Tushan clan.”
“Only then did everyone learn that Tushan Xinhua’s husband was actually an adopted son Senior Gui had taken in the Ten Thousand Arts world.”
“Senior Gui overruled all objections, protected Tushan Xinhua, and allowed her child to be born safely.”
“After the child was born, Tushan Xinhua used the treasure her husband had obtained before his death to separate the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline and the human bloodline within the child.”
“In this way, the one who inherited the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline was Jingci.”
“And the one who inherited the human bloodline was Junmeng.”
“They can be considered sisters, but they can also... be considered the same person.”
“Tushan Jingci, who inherited the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox bloodline, remained in the Tushan clan.”
“As for Junmeng, she was taken away by Senior Gui, entrusted to me to raise, and became my disciple.”
As she spoke, Daoist Yunxi’s tone paused slightly. She turned her head, looked at Xiao Mo, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of her lips.
“That is the story of the sisters.”
Xiao Mo listened in silence, his fingers rubbing against one another without pause.
He had never imagined Jingci’s origins would be like this.
After a long while, Xiao Mo raised his head and looked at Daoist Yunxi, his gaze steady and serious.
“Daoist Yunxi, is there something you need me to do, now that you have told me all this today?”
In Xiao Mo’s view, this should have been an extremely secret matter of the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox clan. Perhaps even Jingci herself knew nothing about it.
And Daoist Yunxi telling him all of this now had to have a reason.
Daoist Yunxi turned her head. Her gaze passed over the fence of the bamboo courtyard and continued toward the deep starry sky as she slowly said,
“Although Jingci and Junmeng were divided in two and are now each safe and sound, living in peace, no matter how one puts it, they are the same person. Their Great Dao was split in two, and their fate has been damaged.”
“They must testify to the Way and ascend within a thousand years. Otherwise, the Great Dao will not tolerate them, and their bodies will vanish as the Way collapses beneath them.”
“And although they were divided in two, in truth, their lives remain tightly connected.”
“To put it simply.”
Daoist Yunxi looked straight into Xiao Mo’s eyes.
“If the two of them do not testify to the Way and ascend within a thousand years...”
“Jingci dies, and Junmeng perishes.”
“Junmeng perishes, and Jingci dies.”
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