Chapter 706: Chapter 559: Monk, Open Your Eyes and Look...

Xiao Mo didn’t ask again. Instead, he got off the bed, picked up the Monk’s Robe that had been set aside, and calmly put it on. Then, he started to walk out of the room.

"Are you willing to come with me?" Gui Junmeng asked, standing up. There was a faint, almost imperceptible urgency in her voice.

Xiao Mo stopped and turned around. He put his palms together and bowed respectfully.

"Miss Gui, I am... still a Monk."

With that, Xiao Mo turned and walked out of the room, step by step.

Gui Junmeng remained standing there, watching Xiao Mo’s back as he walked away, her eyes blinking softly.

Leaving the courtyard, Xiao Mo made his way to the front hall.

From a distance, he could see Xujing. The boy was holding a broom and sweeping the ground absentmindedly, all while clutching a scripture and reciting it aloud. His little head bobbed and swayed with every line he read.

"If you’re going to sweep, sweep properly. If you’re going to read, read properly. If you try to sweep and read scriptures at the same time, you’ll end up doing a poor job of both." Xiao Mo walked up and gently tapped Xujing’s smooth, shaven head with his finger.

"Senior Brother!" Xujing’s eyes lit up the moment he saw him.

But soon, a look of confusion crept into the Little Novice Monk’s eyes. "Wait a minute, Senior Brother. How come that pretty lady didn’t come looking for you today? Did you bully her and make her mad?"

"I suppose so," Xiao Mo said with a smile and a nod.

"Oh, Senior Brother, that’s no way to be..." Xujing sighed, putting on a worldly, grown-up air despite his young age. "As the saying goes, ’a gentleman doesn’t pick fights with a lady.’ You should be more accommodating to her."

"You’re misusing the proverb." Xiao Mo chuckled and tapped his bald little head again. "Alright, I’m done talking with you. I’m off to find that pretty lady."

"Senior Brother..." Xujing’s eyes went wide. He yelled at his brother’s retreating back, "You finally admitted she’s pretty! Senior Brother, this is a sign of your downfall! You have to remain true to your heart and not be tempted by worldly beauty! Only then can you see the true face of the Buddha!"

"Senior Brother... don’t forget! The two of us are supposed to make Sikong Temple prosper and open lots and lots of branch temples together!"

"Oh, right, Senior Brother!" He suddenly remembered something else and quickly added, "The Abbot won’t let me use the name ’Sikong Temple’ for the branch temples. What should we call the temples we open in the future?"

Xiao Mo waved a hand dismissively as he walked on, his voice drifting back, laced with a teasing laugh. "I see you chanting every day, but you haven’t even memorized the first two pages of the *Amitabha Sutra*. It’s all just empty recitation—chanting in vain. So, why don’t we just call it ’Kongnian Temple’?"

"Senior Brother! You’re making fun of me too! Next time Xu Chen and the others say bad things about you, I’m not going to defend you anymore!"

Xujing angrily waved his broom in his senior brother’s direction, but all he could do was watch as his brother’s figure grew more distant, eventually disappearing around a corner of the front hall.

"Kongnian Temple... Kongnian Temple..."

Xujing repeated the name his brother had just blurted out. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and the angrier he got, the more he stewed on it.

’What a terrible name Senior Brother came up with. I’d never want to be part of a ’Kongnian Temple’!’

...

After leaving Sikong Temple, Xiao Mo walked down the mountain alone, descending the stone steps one by one.

Just as he reached the bottom of Sikong Mountain, he saw a woman standing on the common, familiar path. Her hands were folded before her, and she was quietly gazing in his direction. It was impossible to know how long she had been waiting there.

She looked completely different from before.

Today, the woman was no longer wearing the coarse linen clothes of a common village girl.

She had changed into a snow-white gown, its hem immaculate. The dress clung gently to her frame, cinched at her slender waist by a simple sash. It perfectly accentuated her graceful figure, a waist so slim it looked as if one could wrap their hands around it.

Her long, dark hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall, stopping just at her waist.

Tucked into her hair at an angle was a delicate Step Shaking Hairpin.

When a gentle breeze rustled her hair, the hairpin would sway delicately, adding to her ethereal charm.

And on her face, already so perfect as to be flawless, she now wore the faintest touch of makeup.

Just that light touch of cosmetics made her lips seem all the more plump and delectable, and lent a heart-wrenching charm to the arch of her brows.

Somehow, she seemed even more beautiful today than ever before.

"Miss Jing Ci."

Xiao Mo walked forward and put his palms together in a bow.

Tushan Jing Ci gazed deeply at the man she loved, her shimmering eyes filled with tenderness and affection. "What did that Daoist say to you, Monk?"

"Miss Gui told me she wants to take me to Seeking Immortal Temple and have me become a Daoist," Xiao Mo said with a small smile. "She also said she knew me before this life."

"Did she say anything else?" Tushan Jing Ci pressed. "For example... about me?"

"I didn’t ask," Xiao Mo said, shaking his head gently.

"Then... do you want to hear it from me?" Tushan Jing Ci asked, her voice trembling slightly as she bit her lip.

Xiao Mo didn’t answer.

Seeing his silence, Tushan Jing Ci suddenly let out a small laugh.

It was a beautiful smile, so beautiful you couldn’t look away. But for some reason, it was also faintly heart-wrenching.

"Monk, do you remember the story I told you about the fox and the Scholar’s Attendant?" Tushan Jing Ci asked, gazing at him quietly. "That story... it’s both true and false..."

"The true part is that the fox and the Scholar’s Attendant fell in love. They secretly pledged themselves to one another, promising to spend the rest of their lives together."

"The false part is what happened after the Scholar’s Attendant grew up. He became a Great Cultivator and wanted to build his reputation and earn glory in battle, so he could marry the young lady of Tushan with great fanfare. But in the end, he died on the battlefield, leaving the fox all alone."

"Everyone told the fox that he was dead, that he had been annihilated, body and soul..."

"Everyone urged the fox to give up."

"But the fox refused. She believed his soul had to be out there somewhere, and that she would surely see him again, because he had promised..."

"He promised her himself..."

"That he would be with her forever. He would never lie to her. Never..."

"So the fox searched, and searched, and searched..."

"Finally, the heavens took pity on her. Eighteen years ago, the fox sensed his soul reincarnating, entering the Demon Race’s World once more..."

"And so the fox searched, and searched, and searched again..."

This time, the fox spent another eighteen years.

Tushan Jing Ci smiled at the man before her. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, yet her smile was one of pure joy. "And the fox finally found a clueless Monk."

"The fox pretended to be a woman who had fallen down a hillside, all to get close to this Monk."

"Every day, she tried new ways to seduce him. She tried everything she could think of."

"At first, the fox thought to herself, ’I’m so beautiful, and even if he’s a Monk in this life, he’s still a young man full of Blood Qi. All I have to do is crook my finger, and he’ll surely fall for my charms, renounce his vows, and follow me away in a daze, right?’"

As she spoke, Tushan Jing Ci let out a soft laugh, her tone a mixture of playful complaint and fond exasperation.

"But who would have guessed? This Monk is incredibly stubborn, just like a stone from the mountain—cold and hard! It’s enough to drive a poor fox mad with frustration!"

With that, she lifted her head, her crystalline, fox-like eyes catching the morning light as she stared right at him. "Tell me, Monk, isn’t that man a fool who doesn’t know what’s good for him? To reject such a beautiful woman? Isn’t he just the biggest idiot?"

Xiao Mo remained silent, his palms pressed together and his eyes downcast.

"Hey... Monk..."

"Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Her fair, delicate fingers clutched tightly at her sleeve. Her voice held a heart-shattering tremor as tears began to slide silently from the corners of her eyes.

"Open your eyes and look at me..."

"The girl standing in front of you..."

"Is she beautiful...?"

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