The Hanshan Academy, Confucian Wind Grove.
This place of spiritual depth, where nearly all the Confucian literary fortune of the Demon Realm was gathered, was now suffused with a solemn and ancient bookish atmosphere.
Every one of those who had passed the Worthy examination had come to this grove to receive the blessing of Confucian literary fortune.
Though the Confucian forebears had been of the human race, the great path they opened faced the ten thousand things of the world, making no distinction of kind.
And so even those of demon descent who devoted themselves earnestly to Confucian learning and achieved something in it would naturally be nourished by Confucian literary fortune, finding their cultivation aided and strengthened.
After all, teaching without distinction of student had always been a principle of the Confucian way.
"Xiao Mo..."
"I think... I may have someone I like..."
Tushan Jingci, sitting cross-legged on a branch of an ancient tree, was still turning those words over and over in her mind, the words she had said to Xiao Mo not so long ago.
Xiao Mo had also asked Tushan Jingci who this person was but Tushan Jingci said nothing, only turned away with flushed cheeks and ran.
And the very next day, the newly titled Worthy of the Hanshan Academy had come to the Confucian Wind Grove to receive this two-month immersion in Confucian literary fortune.
Three deep, unhurried strokes of the bell rang out through the grove, the lingering tones winding on and on without dispersing.
The Confucian literary fortune that had been wrapped around Tushan Jingci gradually settled. The young girl slowly opened her bewitching fox eyes.
"The time has come." Dean Cun Caiguang stood among the trees and addressed the assembled Worthies in a measured voice, deep as a great bell. "The Dao enlightenment of the Confucian Wind Grove concludes here. I ask that all of you return and take proper time to absorb and reflect on what you have gained and understood in these days. Study and cultivate diligently. Do your scholarship with your feet on the ground. Do not be impatient."
"Yes."
The Worthies seated throughout the grove rose and gave a respectful bow.
After leaving the Confucian Wind Grove, Tushan Jingci let out a long, slow breath, feeling as though the stagnant air that had been pressing on her chest had eased considerably.
The bottleneck she had been at, with the Dragon Gate realm at its peak, seemed to have shifted and loosened slightly under two months of Confucian literary fortune but Tushan Jingci felt it was not enough.
She had a vague sense that she was still missing something, some final piece that would allow her to break through that threshold entirely and step into the Golden Core realm.
"Well, no use thinking about it now. Cultivation cannot be rushed anyway. I should just go and see Xiao Mo first."
Tushan Jingci, who had never paid much attention to her cultivation realm to begin with, quickly pushed the thought aside and turned her full attention to going to the bamboo courtyard to see Xiao Mo but she had only flown a short distance before the words she had said to Xiao Mo two months ago drifted back into her mind of their own accord. "I think... I may have someone I like..."
Those words were like some kind of incantation. No matter how she tried not to think of them, she kept thinking of them, and every time they surfaced, Tushan Jingci's cheeks would flush crimson all over again.
"If Xiao Mo asks again who the person is, what am I supposed to do?"
Tushan Jingci slowed her flight, murmuring to herself.
"Perhaps I should just tell Xiao Mo directly who I like?"
"No, no, absolutely not." She immediately shook her head, and the tips of her ears turned red with the thought. "If I just come out and tell him, that is completely without restraint."
"But I do like him. Why should I not tell him? Is it not the most natural thing in the world, to like someone and then say so?"
Tushan Jingci was flying slower and slower without realizing it, both small hands working against each other, her fingertips twisting together with a restless energy. She bit lightly at her lip, her brow furrowing slightly, that clear and lovely face written all over with inner conflict.
In this moment, she seemed almost to have gone back to the artless, carefree, pure-hearted young girl of three years ago and faintly, a kind of exasperation with herself was building in the young girl's heart. She had made up her mind long ago that when Xiao Mo woke, she would tell him everything.
So why was it that now, when the moment was finally right there before her, she had gone timid again?
Holding back like this, flinching at the last step, was that anything like the person she used to be?
"Miss Tushan!"
Just as Tushan Jingci's thoughts were tangled and her heart full of indecision, a voice came from not far away, unfamiliar yet somehow familiar.
Tushan Jingci raised her head, and surprise and delight flashed together in her eyes. "Elder Sister Liu Shui!"
"My respects to Miss Tushan."
Liu Shui was also surprised to encounter Tushan Jingci. She flew to where Tushan Jingci was and gave a bow.
"They really are identical..."
Liu Shui looked at Tushan Jingci and thought quietly to herself.
How was this possible? Could the young woman she had seen that day in Chuncha City truly have been Miss Tushan?
"Elder Sister Liu Shui, what is the matter?" Tushan Jingci looked at Liu Shui with a puzzled expression. She had the sense that the way Liu Shui was looking at her was a little unusual.
"Oh, it is nothing." Liu Shui came back to herself and shook her head with a smile. "I just feel that three years without seeing you, Miss Tushan, you have become even more beautiful. Even I, another woman, feel as though you might have carried my soul away."
"Ha ha ha..." Tushan Jingci covered a light laugh with her hand. "What is Elder Sister Liu Shui saying? Elder Sister Liu Shui is more beautiful than ever too."
"Speaking of which." Tushan Jingci blinked her eyes and looked at Liu Shui. "Elder Sister Liu Shui has only just come back and seems to be in such a hurry. Where are you off to?"
"I..."
At Tushan Jingci's question, Liu Shui lowered her head, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.
"I only just returned to the Hanshan Academy when I ran into Teacher Xian. He told me that Young Master Xiao has come out of seclusion. I wanted to go and see him, and also... also to say something to him."
Liu Shui's voice was soft, carrying a careful, tentative quality, and by the end it had grown quieter still.
"I see..." Tushan Jingci could not help lowering her own head in turn, her long lashes trembling faintly, her expression impossible to read and in the next moment, Liu Shui looked at Tushan Jingci with a faint nervousness in her gaze, carrying uncertainty and a quiet hope at once. "Miss Tushan, there is something I would like to ask you, if I may."
"Of course you may." Tushan Jingci raised her head and gave a soft smile, her tone as gentle as always. "Elder Sister Liu Shui can say it directly."
"Well, the thing is..."
Liu Shui lowered her head, and the fingers of both hands twisted of their own accord, the tips going faintly white. The blush on her cheeks spread little by little, and before she had quite noticed, it had already reached the tips of her ears.
"I want to tell Young Master Xiao... how I feel."
At the words, she lowered her head still further, her voice as light as a feather settling on the surface of water.
"Miss Tushan, Xiao Mo has always been at your side, and you must understand him far better than I do."
She paused, as though gathering every last measure of courage she possessed.
"Miss Tushan..."
"Would Xiao Mo like a woman like me?"