Uncanny Immortal 11

Chapter 11

Mo Jiangxue fell silent, standing quietly to the side.

Her silence must be a silent refusal. Xie Qingzheng withdrew her gaze and pressed her lips together. “Alright, it’s okay if you don’t like me. I’ll just be sad by myself for a little while and I’ll be fine.”

Mo Jiangxue watched her coldly. “I don’t like you, nor do I dislike you. Whether you are sad or not has nothing to do with me.”

Xie Qingzheng was quiet for a moment, then said bluntly, “But I like you very much. You healed my eyes and brought me out of Wen Family Village. When I was sad and crying, you would play the qin to comfort me, although maybe it was because you found my crying annoying… You healed all my external injuries, and you even cured my chronic illness… You are kind-hearted, and you are very good to me. I know this.”

She was worldly-unwise. The word “like” was spoken with complete openness. She had no understanding of the word “subtlety,” nor did she know how to hide her inner thoughts, blurting everything out at once.

Although it was not adoration, but merely a child-like, innocent reliance, Mo Jiangxue could not bear such direct, sentimental words. She turned her gaze away and said indifferently, “I have not been good to you.”

Xie Qingzheng swallowed the rest of her words.

Having her expressions of goodwill rejected time and again was already disheartening. After pouring out so many heartfelt words, only to have a basin of cold water thrown on her by Mo Jiangxue, she now felt even worse.

Her attitude was too cold, her expression a mask of indifference that kept others a thousand li away.

Xie Qingzheng, frozen by her coldness, hung her head and said nothing for a long while. After some time, she finally managed to squeeze out, “I don’t believe you. You are good to me.”

Back on West Mountain, although she had brought the blood-soaked Mo Jiangxue back home, she didn’t feel that it counted as saving her life.

Even without her, Mo Jiangxue would have woken up after lying on the ground for a few days. Besides, the herbs she had applied could only temporarily stop the bleeding and couldn’t provide a complete cure.

On the contrary, it was Mo Jiangxue who had completely cured her eye disease and her ailment of heat and cold, allowing her to live like a normal person.

She was grateful to her from the bottom of her heart.

Xie Qingzheng opened her mouth, wanting to say more, but the little fox in the pool leaped out. With its tail held high, it circled her legs, its wet fur dripping water, seemingly in high spirits.

Xie Qingzheng looked at Mo Jiangxue, her eyes full of expectation.

Mo Jiangxue formed a hand seal and waved her sleeve. The moisture on the little fox’s body instantly evaporated. Its fur became dry, looking fluffy, clean, and soft.

Xie Qingzheng held up the little fox and smiled faintly. “Let’s thank Elder Mo together.”

Her voice sounded a little hoarse.

Mo Jiangxue turned away, no longer looking at the girl and the fox. Her gaze swept over a stone table by the side of the pool.

There was tea on the table.

The fox was quite clever. It leaped out of Xie Qingzheng’s arms, went around to the side of the stone table, and yipped twice to get her attention.

Xie Qingzheng gave a soft cry and followed it over.

She had run a long way and spoken a great deal. Her throat was so thirsty it felt like it was smoking. Seeing the teapot on the table, she pressed her lips together but didn’t touch it without permission. She asked politely, “May I please have some tea?”

Mo Jiangxue nodded in agreement.

Only then did Xie Qingzheng pour a cup of tea and gulp it down, relieving the dryness in her throat.

The tea was ice-cold. As it went down, it carried a refreshing scent of plum blossoms.

Xie Qingzheng suddenly remembered hearing Senior Sister Min He say that she would accompany the Sect Master and Vice Sect Master to Ethereal Peak to collect snow from the plum blossoms for tea.

She had once worried if drinking snow from plum blossoms would give one diarrhea…

Looking around, she saw only verdant green bamboo, no plum blossoms.

Xie Qingzheng was very curious and asked, “I heard from Senior Sister that Ethereal Peak has a Ten-Li Plum Grove. Where are all those plum trees planted?”

Mo Jiangxue looked towards the summit. “On the mountain.”

Xie Qingzheng stood on her tiptoes and looked up at the peak.

The dense bamboo forest blocked her view, and she couldn’t see anything.

She said wistfully, “I haven’t seen plum blossoms in many years. I’ve forgotten what they look like. I must go and see them when I have the chance…”

Her current cultivation level was too low for her to go to the summit. The peak was too cold, covered in snow that never melted year-round, and the biting chill was formidable.

Outer sect cultivators with insufficient cultivation generally only moved about at the foot of the mountain. But for inner sect cultivators who had reached a certain level, they needed to circulate their energy to resist the cold when walking above the mountainside, and they also needed to resist the cold when sleeping. Whether walking or resting, they were constantly circulating their energy. Over time, their cultivation would also advance more quickly.

“Wait a moment.” Mo Jiangxue tapped her toes and left on her sword.

Xie Qingzheng didn’t know where she had gone. She sipped her tea, stroked the fox’s ears, and waited obediently where she was.

With her gone, there was no one to talk to. By the cold pool, only the faint sound of flowing water and the rustling of bamboo leaves remained.

The scenes of her time with her replayed in her mind, one by one. Pleasant, subtle, and soft emotions filled her chest. Xie Qingzheng thought, if she could stay by her side forever, would she be this happy every day?

Before she had finished her cup of tea, a cold fragrance wafted to her nose. Xie Qingzheng looked up and saw Mo Jiangxue appear silently before her, holding out a branch of red plum blossoms.

She took the branch and turned it over and over, looking at it endlessly.

The carmine petals, as thin as a cicada’s wings, were layered upon each other, still dotted with melted snow.

Holding the branch of red plum blossoms, she was so overjoyed she lost all sense of direction, wishing she could be like the little fox and dive into the cold pool for a few laps.

She smiled and muttered softly, “I told you so. You are kind-hearted, and you are very good to me…”

She said she wanted to see plum blossoms, and she immediately broke off a branch for her to see.

Mo Jiangxue shot her a sideways glance, brushed the snowflakes from her shoulder, and said coldly, “Whether I am good to you or not, do not keep saying it.”

As her words fell, her expression suddenly changed. Fine beads of sweat formed on her forehead, as if she were in great discomfort.

She turned away, her back to Xie Qingzheng. She loosely clenched her left hand into a fist, enduring it until her knuckles turned white, and said calmly, “There are people outside looking for you. You should go out first.”

Xie Qingzheng didn’t notice her abnormality. She placed the plum blossom on the stone table and sighed. “It’s probably that rude person who’s come looking for me. I’ll go take a look.” She then stroked the little fox, which was licking its fur by the tea table. “You stay here for now. Don’t go out.”

The little fox gave a low cry, as if in agreement.

Her cheerful mood interrupted, Xie Qingzheng sighed and walked out of Ethereal Peak alone. Seeing the dark mass of people outside, she was stunned.

Ten cultivators, with swords and flutes hanging from their waists, were all senior sisters and brothers from Green Pine Peak. Seeing her emerge from Ethereal Peak, they all placed their hands on their sword hilts and glared at her furiously.