Chapter 563: Husband, It Has Been a While

"Elder Martial Brother."

The moment Xiao Mo stepped out of the main hall, Xu Jing's tearful voice suddenly called out behind him.

The little monk chased after him, wiping away his tears.

"Xu Jing, what is it?" Xiao Mo stopped and turned around, smiling at his young junior with reddened eyes.

"Elder Martial Brother, are you... are you truly returning to lay life? Are you... truly never going to be a monk again?"

Xu Jing raised his small face, looking at Xiao Mo with deep reluctance, his voice carrying an undisguisable sorrow.

"Mm." Xiao Mo gave a gentle nod. "From today, I am no longer a monk, and no longer your elder martial brother."

Hearing his elder martial brother say this himself, even though Xu Jing had just witnessed the entire ceremony of his return to lay life with his own eyes, his heart still found it difficult to accept.

"Xu Jing." Xiao Mo reached out and gently patted Xu Jing's smooth little head, his gaze carrying both feeling and hope. "Actually, your Buddhist talent is quite good, no less than your elder martial brother's."

"It is only that you are still young, and sometimes find it hard to settle your mind."

"But elder brother believes that if you cultivate diligently, given time, your achievements in the future will certainly be no less than elder brother's, and perhaps even no less than Master's."

"And Xu Jing, you are Master's closing disciple. Once I am gone, you will be Master's only disciple."

Xiao Mo looked at Xu Jing, his voice earnest and full of feeling.

"Master is growing old. From now on, you will need to look after him well. Listen carefully to whatever Master tells you, think it over, and remember it firmly. Do you understand?"

Xu Jing wiped his tears hard and nodded earnestly. "I understand, Elder Martial Brother! Do not worry. I will surely take good care of Master!"

"And, Elder Martial Brother." Xu Jing sniffled and added, "Once I become abbot someday, I will surely build up our Four Void Temple as well! And when that day comes, Elder Martial Brother, you must come back and visit often!"

"Of course, elder brother will be waiting."

Xiao Mo gave a light smile, reached out and gave Xu Jing's smooth little head another gentle tap, then straightened and turned to walk out of Four Void Temple.

Watching his elder martial brother's figure grow smaller and smaller, Xu Jing could no longer hold himself back and called out loudly, "Elder Martial Brother! I will study the Dharma diligently! I will become as remarkable a monk as you and Master!"

Xiao Mo, with his back to Xu Jing, raised a hand high in a wave, his figure gradually growing more distant, until it finally disappeared beyond the mountain gate.

At the same time, in Cloud Village at the foot of Four Void Mountain.

Tushan Jingci sat alone in her courtyard. Ever since Xiao Mo left the day before, she had returned to the courtyard and had been sitting there in a daze the whole time, unmoving.

The courtyard gate was pushed open gently, and Yueshi stepped inside.

Looking at her Young Miss's despondent, haggard state, Yueshi felt as though her heart had been cut with a knife.

"Young Miss." Yueshi walked forward gently and called softly.

Tushan Jingci still sat with her head bowed, her voice coming out word by word from her lips, carrying a note of hoarseness and exhaustion. "Is there any news?"

Yueshi bit her lip, momentarily uncertain how to begin but after some hesitation, she finally said, "Young Miss... this servant has heard that Xiao Mo... broke his precept of chastity. Abbot Yuankong offered him a chance to repent, but Xiao Mo still chose on his own to return to lay life. Now... he has already left Four Void Mountain together with Gui Junmeng."

"So he simply left, then."

Hearing the news of Xiao Mo's departure, Tushan Jingci's eyes grew faintly red at the rims.

"Do you dislike me so much?" The woman raised her head, looking out into the distance, her voice so low it seemed like a murmur to herself, or perhaps a question directed at him. "Even after returning to lay life, you did not want to see me again, and you would rather leave with her instead?"

"Young Miss..." Yueshi gripped her sleeve tightly, a thousand words of comfort caught in her heart, yet in this moment she could not bring herself to say a single one of them.

"Let us go." Tushan Jingci rose slowly to her feet.

"Young Miss, where to?" Yueshi asked hurriedly.

"He has already left. What point is there in my staying here?"

The woman looked in the direction Xiao Mo had gone, her voice suddenly dropping, carrying an almost obsessive resolve.

"What of it, if he has left?"

"I will not let him leave me. Not in this life, nor in any life to come."

"Even if it means death, I will be with him."

…

The day after Xiao Mo's departure.

Four Void Temple opened its doors to pilgrims as usual, and the monks went down the mountain as always, driving away evil spirits, offering blessings, and treating the sick for the villagers and townspeople nearby.

Everything seemed to remain exactly as it had been, with no change at all.

Only, the little monk Xu Jing's expression looked considerably more downcast than usual, unable to summon much enthusiasm for anything.

At a certain moment that day, Master Yuankong, who had been quietly reading through the sutras in the rear courtyard, suddenly raised his head slowly, his gaze deep and fixed on a particular direction.

In less than half an incense stick's time, thick clouds of demonic presence, nearly solidified in density, gathered and churned continuously in the sky above Four Void Temple, descending in a black mass that blotted out the sun.

Master Yuankong set down the sutra in his hands, rose to his feet with a calm expression, and walked at an unhurried pace toward the front hall.

Within the temple, nearly every monk sensed the same thing simultaneously, raising their heads to look at that darkened, oppressive sky, bracing themselves as though facing a formidable enemy.

"What... what is happening?" Xu Jing looked up, cold sweat beading on his forehead without his meaning it to.

He saw thousands of demon cultivators surrounding the sky above Four Void Temple, leaving not a single gap.

These demons looked down coldly upon the temple beneath them, their eyes filled with an undisguised, chilling killing intent.

"Abbot." Xu Jing caught sight of Master Yuankong approaching and ran up to him in a panic, his voice trembling. "Who... who are these people?"

"There is no need to worry." Yuankong gave a faint smile and rested a hand gently on Xu Jing's shoulder, his tone gentle and assured. "Leave everything to this master. Go back to the courtyard and recite the sutras properly."

With that, Yuankong walked at an unhurried pace through the front hall, arriving before the temple gate, standing quietly there, as though waiting for someone.

A moment later.

A woman, cold as frost, who appeared to be in her early forties, walked step by step toward Four Void Temple.

Her stride was neither hurried nor slow, yet it carried a suffocating air of authority.

Behind her, nine snow-white tails swayed gently in the wind, like nine ribbons of pure silk.

The Tushan Grand Elder Tushan Meng arrived before the monk, her cold fox eyes fixed on him, as though gazing across a thousand years of time.

"Amitabha. This old monk, Yuankong, pays his respects to the benefactress." Yuankong gave a bow, hands pressed together.

"It has indeed been a long time."

Tushan Meng spoke slowly, her voice cold as though it came drifting up from the deepest abyss.

"Husband."