Listening to the Grand Elder Tushan Meng say all of this, Xiao Mo only raised his teacup with a composed expression and took a quiet sip, while deep in his eyes a barely perceptible thread of wariness passed through but outwardly he still maintained a degree of genuine interest, and looked toward her with a respectful yet careful tone. "What does the Grand Elder mean by this?"
"The entire Demon Realm has now descended into chaos. The various factions are attacking one another, and the Ten Thousand Demons Alliance that Tushan leads is currently being suppressed by both the Heavenly Demons Alliance and the Holy Demons Alliance."
"And to add to the trouble, there is something called the Human Alliance watching greedily from the sidelines."
The Grand Elder Tushan Meng smiled slightly, her gaze settling on Xiao Mo as she explained unhurriedly.
"And at precisely this moment, it is the time when Tushan needs capable people the most. It is also the best opportunity to render distinguished service and establish merit."
"If Xiao Mo were willing to go to the battlefield for the sake of our Tushan and earn military merit that no one could challenge, then later, once Jingci has firmly established her footing in Tushan and you have enough merit and achievement to your name..."
"At that point, even those who wish to oppose the two of you being together would find it very difficult to raise any objection that would hold."
"So, are you willing to go to the front lines?"
Xiao Mo listened to all of this and then lowered his head slightly, falling into a long silence.
After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Xiao Mo finally rose slowly to his feet, gave Tushan Meng a formal bow, and spoke. "Many thanks to the Grand Elder for being willing to give me such an opportunity. I am willing to go to that battlefield."
"Excellent!"
Tushan Meng gave a small nod, her gaze as she looked at Xiao Mo full of approval and satisfaction.
"Just as I expected. I have not misjudged you, and that child Jingci has not misjudged you either."
"Go and prepare yourself when you return. About ten days from now, you will set out together with our Tushan forces."
Tushan Meng said this and then stepped forward, reaching out to give Xiao Mo a light pat on the shoulder, her tone warm yet carrying a note of seriousness.
"With your ability, I believe you will make something of yourself on that battlefield. Do not let me or Jingci down."
"Yes. I will not fail the Elder's expectations."
Xiao Mo nodded with a serious expression, exchanged a few inconsequential words with Tushan Meng, and then took his leave.
"So? What did the Grand Elder and sir discuss?"
Halfway back to Moon Spring Peak, Xiangniang flew gracefully to Xiao Mo's side and asked softly.
"Nothing much. The Grand Elder simply offered me an opportunity." Xiao Mo gave a quiet shake of his head, a somewhat wry smile showing on his face.
"An opportunity? What kind of opportunity?" Xiangniang blinked, asking with curiosity.
Xiao Mo turned his head and glanced at Xiangniang.
Xiangniang immediately raised her hand and made a solemn declaration toward the sky. "I swear on my own great path, if I Xiangniang let a single word of this slip out, may I spend this life and all my lives alone, never to have so much as the shadow of a man near me."
"I had no intention of asking you to swear an oath." Xiao Mo could not help a faint laugh, shaking his head. "Though speaking of which, that is quite a severe oath for someone like you."
"If it were not severe, why would sir be willing to tell me?" Xiangniang's bewitching eyes flicked sideways at him, and she urged him on. "Go on, tell me what the Grand Elder said. Perhaps I can even help you think things through and offer a perspective."
"The Grand Elder told me that the Ten Thousand Demons Alliance will soon be going to war with the Holy Demons Alliance, and she wants me to go to the battlefield and earn merit through fighting. She said that once Jingci has firmly established herself in Tushan and I have enough merit behind me, no one will be in any position to object to the two of us becoming cultivation partners."
Xiao Mo held nothing back and told Xiangniang the substance of the conversation plainly.
There was nothing to conceal in the matter itself. After all, Xiangniang had always known about the connection between himself and Jingci and though Xiao Mo had not spent a long time with Xiangniang, in those days of living together he had come to feel that beneath her provocative exterior she was genuinely good-hearted.
She only wanted to improve herself. She had never had any truly malicious intentions.
Xiangniang listened until Xiao Mo finished, and her expression showed a faint pause of surprise, after which she fell into a quiet silence.
After some time, Xiangniang raised her head, her expression entirely serious as she looked at Xiao Mo. "Sir, do not tell me... you have already agreed to this?"
"I have already agreed." Xiao Mo gave a nod.
"Sir, you are being foolish!" Xiangniang heard this and her voice immediately rose several degrees with agitation. "Sir, do you actually believe what the Grand Elder told you?"
"The Grand Elder is dangling a carrot in front of sir's face just to make sir keep moving forward."
"Sir, you do not know our Grand Elder's nature. In her heart, nothing matters more than Tushan's interests, and when she acts, she is utterly ruthless."
Xiangniang's small hands gripped her skirt tightly, her words coming out in something of a tumble, pouring out everything she knew all at once, desperate to talk Xiao Mo out of this.
"Sir, do you know how our Grand Elder reached the Ascension realm?"
"At that time, our Grand Elder also had a cultivation partner, and the two of them were well-matched and very much in love. But at that time, our Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan had no Ascension-realm cultivator to stand watch, and the highest cultivation level in the clan was no more than the peak of the Immortal realm."
"And sir would also know that the land our Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan occupies is one of the most abundant with spiritual energy in the entire Demon Realm. Which sect or clan would not look at it with hungry eyes?"
"And so later, seven sects and kingdoms joined together and surrounded Tushan in a combined attack."
"I have heard from my great-grandmother that in the critical moment when Tushan was on the verge of being broken through, the Grand Elder lifted her own sword and killed her own partner with her own hand. She then took out his demon core and swallowed it on the spot."
"It was that very day that the Grand Elder stepped into the Ascension realm, and with the support of the Tushan great formation, repelled all seven of the attacking sects and kingdoms on her own."
"And afterward, every one of those seven sects and kingdoms, from their rulers and sect masters down to the lowest of their common disciples and people, was slaughtered down to the very last person. Not a single survivor was left."
Listening to Xiangniang recount this piece of history, even Xiao Mo felt a measure of surprise. It was the first time he had ever heard of this unknown past of the Tushan Grand Elder.
"So you see, sir, our Grand Elder is someone who values Tushan's interests above everything in the world. How could she possibly genuinely and wholeheartedly agree to you and the Young Miss Jingci being together?" Xiangniang let out a heavy sigh. "What I am afraid of is that the Grand Elder is..."
"She intends to use another's hand to do the killing, is that right? Her best outcome would be for me to die quietly on the battlefield without a sound. That way, whether for Jingci's sake or for Tushan's, it would all turn out to be the most convenient arrangement."
Xiao Mo took over the sentence and finished it with a smile.
Xiangniang said nothing, only lowering her head in acknowledgment.
"Xiangniang, everything you just said, I am perfectly clear on myself." Xiao Mo looked at Xiangniang with a calm smile.
"Then why is sir still running off to that battlefield where the odds of survival are so slim?" Xiangniang grew more and more anxious inside.
How could sir be so impossibly stubborn?
"It is precisely because I understand the Grand Elder's intentions that I need to do this even more." Xiao Mo smiled faintly, his gaze reaching forward into the distance. "And beyond that, I must do it."
"Oh, my dear sir! I know that Young Miss Jingci is exceptionally beautiful, beautiful to the point where even I feel no desire to compare myself with her. But sir, you must look clearly at the reality before you."
"The gap in your standing and the Young Miss's is simply too wide. Tushan will absolutely never allow a human to be with a fox."
"I am not saying sir has done anything wrong in wanting to reach for something so far above, but even if you want to reach for it, you must have your life intact first, must you not?"
"Would sir not do just as well to have a litter of little fox cubs with this one? Actually... this one is not entirely without her looks either."
Xiao Mo shook his head. "This has nothing to do with appearances."
"It is simply that I once made Jingci a promise, to protect her for the rest of my life. Since those words have already been spoken, I will see them through."
Xiao Mo looked at Xiangniang with a gentle gaze, his voice quiet yet carrying a certainty that admitted no argument.
Even if it required a method Jingci would not like.
…
Crescent Moon Peak, at the summit.
After Xiao Mo departed, the Grand Elder Tushan Meng was still holding her watering can, tending to the flowers and grasses in the courtyard.
After a moment, Tushan Meng spoke slowly, as though to herself. "Xiao Mo has gone, and he has also agreed to join that battle."
Tushan Xinhua descended lightly from the air and walked to her master's side, speaking in a low voice. "Xiao Mo... does he truly have to die?"
"Ha ha ha, it has already come to this point, and you are still talking nonsense?"
Tushan Meng turned and looked at her senior disciple with eyes as calm and undisturbed as still water.
"Do you not remember how you yourself reached the peak of the Immortal realm? Was it not after your own husband died? Were it not for the damage to your spiritual roots in those years, with your gifts, entering the Ascension realm would not have been impossible."
"And in that battle when Tushan was surrounded, I suffered terrible injuries and have few years left. Our Tushan must have a next Ascension-realm cultivator to hold things steady."
"And it is not only for Tushan. It is also for Jingci's sake. What, do you want to wait until a thousand years from now and watch your own daughter's lifespan run out, a white-haired mother burying a black-haired child?"
"Tushan Xinhua! Do not forget, Jingci's great path has been damaged. She has only a thousand years to live!"
As she reached the end, Tushan Meng's voice grew louder and louder, until it carried something close to a rebuke.
Tushan Xinhua's hands gripped her skirt tightly, the expression on her face still full of reluctance.
"You... aah, you have always been too soft-hearted." Looking at her disciple's manner, Tushan Meng let out a sigh, then spoke toward the outside of the courtyard. "Xiao'er, I have something for you to do."
The moment Tushan Meng's words fell, a young woman's figure emerged quietly from the shadows and knelt on one knee before Tushan Meng, saying respectfully, "Grand Elder, please give your instructions."
"In this coming battle, I will have the Fifth Elder go to the battlefield personally to oversee things. Deliver this letter to the Fifth Elder and make certain she acts precisely according to what I have written within."
Tushan Meng looked at the young woman named Xiao'er and gave her instructions in a steady tone.
"At the same time, I want you to go to the battlefield with the army and stay close to Xiao Mo's side. Within ten years, I want to hear that word of his death has come back to us. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Grand Elder!" Xiao'er gave a firm nod, and in the next instant her figure flashed and was gone from the courtyard.
"Xinhua, do not worry. Xiao Mo's death will have nothing to do with you or me."
Tushan Meng gave her disciple's shoulder a pat and spoke in a gentle tone.
"I will see that Xiao Mo dies in a completely natural manner, with no trace of anything suspicious. Jingci will never know the truth of what lies behind it, and she will not come to hate us for it."
"And once Xiao Mo is gone, our Tushan clan will welcome a successor whose cultivation far surpasses my own."
"Grand Elder." Tushan Xinhua raised her head and looked at Tushan Meng, asking softly, "Then what of Junmeng? What is to become of her?"
"That child has no need to attain the Dao through love. In time she may find a cultivation partner better suited to her."
Tushan Meng's voice went cold.
"And even if she never does, what of it?"
"Xinhua, she carries human bloodline in her veins. She has little to do with our Tushan to begin with. And of the two of them, you know yourself well enough. You can only choose to keep one."
"That is enough. I am tired. I am going back to my room to rest."
Tushan Meng said nothing further, turned, and walked directly back inside.
Standing alone in the courtyard, Tushan Xinhua thought for a very long time.
At last she raised her head, her gaze reaching out into the distance.
"Can only one be chosen..."
Without meaning to, the young man's words from that time came back to her mind, the ones he had spoken to herself and to Yun Xi.
"Whether it is Jingci or Miss Gui, I will not let either of them die."