Listening to Daoist Master Yun Xi's words, Xiao Mo's gaze shifted to Gui Junmeng. His throat moved slightly, and the questions in his heart had not diminished in the slightest. If anything, they pressed all the heavier.
Gui Junmeng was Senior Gui's granddaughter.
Which meant she and Jingci were sisters.
No wonder the two of them looked so impossibly alike, as though carved from the same mold but that raised a question.
If Jingci and Gui Junmeng were sisters, why had they been separated?
And why had Gui Junmeng been taken on as Yun Xi's disciple and raised in the Daoist tradition?
What concerned Xiao Mo even more was this, that since Gui Junmeng and Jingci were sisters, her bloodline should also be that of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox and yet from her, Xiao Mo could not sense a trace of demon presence whatsoever, as though the person standing before him was simply an ordinary cultivator.
"As I thought, Senior Gui told Daoist Friend nothing at all."
Seeing the look of deep puzzlement on Xiao Mo's face, Yun Xi understood what he was thinking and gave a faint, quiet smile.
"Of course, Master." Gui Junmeng gave a nod, rose gracefully, gave Yun Xi a respectful bow, and then turned and walked out of the courtyard.
After Gui Junmeng had left, Daoist Master Yun Xi raised a hand and with a light motion laid down a formation within the bamboo courtyard that blocked all divine sense from penetrating.
Having done this, she lifted her tea cup and tilted it slightly.
A small amount of tea flowed slowly from the cup, leaving a faint damp mark spreading across the tabletop.
Using the trace of tea water, Daoist Master Yun Xi drew a single character on the surface of the table, a slender, unhurried stroke forming the character for "one."
"A very long time ago, there was a woman of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan." Her voice was slow and composed. "She was Tushan Jingci's mother, Tushan Xinhua. You have some acquaintance with her, I imagine."
Xiao Mo gave a nod, his expression respectful. "The Lady of Mount Tu has been very good to me."
Daoist Master Yun Xi smiled faintly and continued. "Tushan Xinhua was fierce and unyielding by nature, and her natural gifts were exceptional. In everyone's eyes, she was certain to become the next leader of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan in time. But fate is unpredictable, and things rarely follow the course one expects."
"Xinhua had a restless temperament. Not content to see only the Demon Realm, she wished to cross to the other side of the great boundary and see for herself what the Ten Thousand Laws Realm looked like. And so she set out to travel and gain experience there."
"And in those years of traveling, she fell in love with a human man."
Daoist Master Yun Xi's voice paused almost imperceptibly, her gaze settling on the mark left by the tea water on the table.
"Tushan Xinhua became with child."
"A union between a Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox and a human is not impossible."
"But since ancient times, whenever an ancient divine beast with a powerful bloodline joined with a human, there was always a certain possibility of producing a child with a special constitution."
"The child that Tushan Xinhua was carrying turned out to possess, unexpectedly, a Heaven-Born Dao Vessel constitution."
"A Heaven-Born Dao Vessel constitution is the rarest of sacred physiques, appearing perhaps once in ten thousand years, with a natural affinity for Daoist arts. But it was incompatible with the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline. This incompatibility caused the child to develop what is called a Divided Soul."
Daoist Master Yun Xi extended a finger and traced a line gently through the middle of the character for "one" that she had drawn in tea water on the table, dividing it in two.
"What is called the Divided Soul is the result of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline and the human bloodline failing to fully merge within the child."
"They are one person, and yet also two different people."
Her voice drifted through the night like a quiet and deep-running river.
"In order to allow his child to be born safely, the human man went alone into a barren wasteland. It is said that in that desolate place, the remnants of a great divine battle from ancient times had left behind certain ancient relics."
Daoist Master Yun Xi gave a quiet sigh, and her gaze passed through the bamboo fence of the courtyard and out beyond.
Outside the courtyard, a small cat of indeterminate origin had poked its fluffy head around the corner and was regarding Gui Junmeng with curious tilted head. The young woman had lowered her eyes slightly and was watching it in quiet stillness, the two of them simply looking at one another, the moonlight washing both their figures in a soft, gentle silver.
"In the end, when the man came out of the barren wasteland, he brought with him a dharma treasure."
"That dharma treasure was able to allow his child to be born safely." Daoist Master Yun Xi drew her gaze back, and her voice grew a little heavier. "But Junmeng and Jingci's father suffered a grave injury in the process, and his life could not be saved."
"After this man's death, Tushan Xinhua, being close to the time of birth and extremely weakened in body, returned on her own to the clan."
"Though the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan was still deeply incensed at Tushan Xinhua for taking a human husband, it was at that very time that Senior Gui arrived at Tushan."
"And it was then that everyone learned that Tushan Xinhua's husband had been a foster son whom Senior Gui had taken in within the Ten Thousand Laws Realm."
"Senior Gui stood against all opposition, protected Tushan Xinhua, and allowed her child to be safely born."
"When the child came into the world, Tushan Xinhua used the treasure her husband had obtained in his lifetime to separate the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline and the human bloodline within the child."
"In this way, the one who inherited the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline became Jingci."
"And the one who inherited the human bloodline became Junmeng."
"They are, in a sense, sisters, and yet they are also, in a sense, the same person."
"Tushan Jingci, who inherited the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox bloodline, remained at Tushan."
"And Junmeng was taken away by Senior Gui, entrusted to my care, and became my disciple."
As she spoke, Daoist Master Yun Xi paused slightly, turned her head and looked at Xiao Mo, a faint smile coming to her lips.
"That is the story of these two."
Xiao Mo had listened in silence throughout, his fingers moving slowly against each other.
He had never imagined that Jingci's origins were like this.
After a long pause, Xiao Mo raised his head and looked at Daoist Master Yun Xi, his gaze steady and earnest. "Everything that Daoist Master Yun Xi has told me today, is there something you need me to do?"
In Xiao Mo's view, what he had just heard was an extraordinarily guarded secret of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan, and even Jingci herself was almost certainly entirely unaware of it.
The fact that Daoist Master Yun Xi was sharing all of this with him now must have its reason.
Daoist Master Yun Xi turned her head, her gaze traveling past the bamboo fence of the courtyard and out toward the deep and starry sky beyond, and she began to speak in an unhurried voice. "Though Jingci and Junmeng have been divided into two and are each living safely for now, no matter how one looks at it, they are the same person. Their great path has been split in two, and their fate bears a wound."
"Within a thousand years, they must attain proof of the Dao and ascend. If they do not, the great path will not tolerate the division, and both body and path will perish."
"And though they are divided into two, their lives remain bound tightly together."
"Put plainly."
Daoist Master Yun Xi looked directly into Xiao Mo's eyes.
"If neither of them can attain proof of the Dao and ascend within a thousand years."
"If Jingci dies, Junmeng perishes."
"If Junmeng perishes, Jingci dies."