leonardwarren Chapter 471: Humans and Demons
Chapter 471: Humans and Demons
After returning to the courtyard, through a series of indirect questions, Xiao Mo pieced together a general idea of what had happened.That Jingci had quarreled with those little girls on his behalf genuinely moved him but Xiao Mo felt there had not been much need for it.
How others saw him was their business.
How he conducted himself and how he regarded himself, however, was his own.
Jingci wanted to go and play. She could simply go.
Besides, Xiao Mo thought that having more time to cultivate would be a perfectly good thing.
"I absolutely refuse! We are friends. If they will not be friends with you, then I will not be friends with them!"
After Xiao Mo shared his thoughts with Jingci, Tushan Jingci puffed her cheeks and turned her small head away.
Seeing Jingci's adorable stubbornness, Xiao Mo could only smile and say nothing more but a few days later, those little demon girls came to find Tushan Jingci again.
They apologized to Tushan Jingci, and said that Xiao Mo was welcome to come along and play with them, and that they were willing to be his friends as well.
Tushan Jingci was naturally a soft-hearted and kind-natured little girl.
Seeing that they recognized their wrongdoing, had come to apologize, and were now willing to play with Xiao Mo, she found it hard to stay angry.
"Xiao Mo, are you angry at them? If you are, I will not play with them."
Back in the courtyard, Tushan Jingci asked Xiao Mo.
"It is all right, Young Miss. I am not angry. It is a good thing for the Young Miss to make more friends."
Xiao Mo said slowly. He had not taken the matter to heart to begin with and besides, what did these little demon girls really understand?
They were nothing more than following their parents' instructions, wanting to get on good terms with Tushan Jingci and establish some kind of connection between their families.
As for their dislike of humans, it was not something they had harbored from the beginning. It was simply the environment of the Demon Realm.
Children did nothing more than imitate what they saw, and so it was passed down from generation to generation.
"Humans... demons..."
In the evenings, as Xiao Mo sat cultivating in the courtyard, he turned this question over in his mind, but could not arrive at any answer.
Half a month passed.
Tushan Jingci gradually settled into life at the Hanshan Academy and because Tushan Jingci was both beautiful and warm in personality, she truly did make quite a few close little friends but Tushan Jingci did not spend all her time playing.
She listened to her mother's advice, studying when it was time to study and playing when it was time to play.
Even Xiao Mo had not expected that Tushan Jingci would turn out to be the most diligent student in the entire study hall.
Whenever Tushan Jingci encountered something she did not understand in her coursework, she would come to Xiao Mo at once, and Xiao Mo would patiently explain it to her.
Every time Tushan Jingci listened to Xiao Mo walking her through the day's lesson, her beautiful eyes would blink and blink.
She thought Xiao Mo looked wonderful when he was being serious and earnest like that and she thought Xiao Mo was genuinely impressive.
He was only listening from outside, without a teacher to answer his questions, yet he had learned the material better than she had.
In the blink of an eye, a month had passed since Tushan Jingci arrived at the Hanshan Academy.
Tushan Xinhua came at regular intervals to see her daughter.
Each time Tushan Xinhua came, she would test her daughter's studies and ask the study hall teacher about her daughter's progress.
This left Tushan Jingci somewhat unhappy.
It was bad enough that her mother was testing her, but the teacher would also occasionally report to her mother about her behavior.
The moment the teacher complained, she would feel the flat of her mother's hand.
So whenever Tushan Xinhua came, Tushan Jingci found herself hoping her mother would leave quickly but after her mother left, Tushan Jingci would find herself hoping her mother would come back to see her soon.
During this period, Xiao Mo's days consisted of going to the study hall each day to listen to the lessons, and then cultivating "The Great Dream of the Yellow Millet" back in the courtyard.
The Lady of Mount Tu had given Xiao Mo a token, and with this token he could collect whatever spirit herbs, spirit medicines, and spirit pills he needed from the Hanshan Academy's storehouse.
As a result, Xiao Mo's cultivation resources were quite plentiful, and he did not need to run himself ragged the way a wandering cultivator would, chasing after even the smallest scraps of resources and each time the Lady of Mount Tu came to the Hanshan Academy, she would spend a certain amount of time answering Xiao Mo's questions.
After a total of seven months, Xiao Mo's cultivation had reached the twelfth layer of Qi Refinement.
He was only a single step away from Foundation Building.
Over those seven-plus months, the maidservant Yueshi had come to revise her opinion of Xiao Mo considerably.
At first, Yueshi had assumed Xiao Mo would grow arrogant and imperious, using the Lady's and the Young Miss's trust as license to look down on everyone around him but Xiao Mo spent every single day conducting himself properly and without overstepping. Beyond accompanying the Young Miss in her studies and in play, he focused entirely on his own cultivation.
His scholarship was also developing very well.
The other book attendants would doze outside the study hall, but Xiao Mo alone listened attentively every day without exception.
He had even reached the point of being able to teach the Young Miss in return.
His natural gifts for cultivation were equally striking.
From the day he set foot on the path of cultivation to the point where he was on the verge of Foundation Building, it had taken no more than eight months in total.
Yueshi had begun to feel a certain admiration for the Lady's eye for talent.
This little human child was truly something special but what Yueshi felt made Xiao Mo most distinctively different was his attitude toward the demon folk.
At the Hanshan Academy, there were many human servants as well. They were all deeply afraid of demon folk, meek and submissive, terrified that any small mistake might see them turned into a dish but Xiao Mo was different. He seemed to have not a trace of fear toward demon folk.
Although Xiao Mo frequently heard the demon book attendants muttering insults behind his back, calling him a pretty-faced nobody, saying he had struck it lucky, saying that if he had not been taken in by the Mount Tu residence he would not even be fit to shine their shoes,
Xiao Mo simply did not care.
Yueshi felt that it was not that Xiao Mo did not dare to talk back. It was that he regarded those voices as nothing but the barking of dogs, and felt there was absolutely no reason to pay any attention to strays by the roadside.
"Elder Sister Yueshi, I am going to collect some pills to prepare for Foundation Building. When the Young Miss wakes from her afternoon nap, if she asks where I am, please let her know."
On this particular day, Xiao Mo felt his twelfth layer of Qi Refinement was complete, and decided to go and collect some Foundation Building Pills.
The pill chamber of the Hanshan Academy happened to be at the very top of the peak, and the round trip would not take too long.
"Go ahead." Yueshi waved him off. "Come back in time for dinner. Otherwise the Young Miss will be asking about you."
"I know."
Xiao Mo gave a nod and headed up toward the peak.
Half an hour later, Xiao Mo had collected his pills without any difficulty but just as Xiao Mo stepped out of the pill chamber's entrance, he heard shouting and cursing coming from not far away.
Xiao Mo turned to look. Several book attendants belonging to young demon lords were hurling one insult after another at a young girl who appeared to be about twelve or thirteen years of age.
The girl was terrified and kept backing away, but before long she was surrounded with nowhere to go.
The insults grew more heated, until the ringleader among the demon book attendants picked up a stone and hurled it straight at the girl's head.
The girl turned her head to the side, hunched her neck, and clenched her eyes tightly shut but for a long moment, she felt no pain.
When the girl opened her eyes, she saw a small boy standing in front of her, gripping the other boy's wrist tightly in his hand.