Chapter 603 - 491: What You Just Said, That Is What Liking Is

For the rest of the winter, Tushan Jing Ci visited Xiao Mo’s courtyard ever more frequently.

Whenever her lessons were finished and she had a free moment, she would appear deep within the bamboo forest, right on time, no matter how fierce the blizzard. She would tread through the deep snow to reach Xiao Mo’s side.

The bamboo forest was actually quite beautiful on snowy days, but Tushan Jing Ci longed for the winter to end with each passing day.

It was because of something Xiao Mo had once said.

That when he awoke, he would give her a mountain full of peach blossoms.

And the peach blossoms at Cold Mountain Academy all bloomed in the spring.

Which meant Xiao Mo would awaken in the spring.

And so, Tushan Jing Ci counted the days, one by one, eagerly awaiting the spring that would belong to her and Xiao Mo.

As the young woman waited in eager anticipation day after day, winter finally came to an end.

One morning, the mountain mist had yet to disperse, hanging thinly through the forest like a layer of translucent gauze.

Dewdrops clung to the pine needles, and every so often one would fall, pattering softly on the dead leaves below.

The stream flowed shallowly over the stones, revealing the sand and pebbles on the bottom. A few small fish rested against the rocks, their tails swaying gently.

On the sun-drenched slopes, blades of tender green grass were sprouting in clumps.

The mountain wildflowers were in full bloom, their pink and white petals, damp with dew, littering the stone steps.

A cool breeze swept through, carrying the earthy-sweet scent of the soil and the fragrance of wildflowers, which lingered faintly in the air.

Spring had arrived.

From then on, every day for Tushan Jing Ci was filled with a mix of anxiety and anticipation.

To her, it felt as though Xiao Mo might awaken the very next day.

But early spring passed, and still, Xiao Mo did not awaken.

The peach blossoms had even bloomed on many of Cold Mountain Academy’s peaks—all except for Shallow Study Peak, where Xiao Mo was in seclusion.

Tushan Jing Ci, who had once loved spring more than any other season, now looked upon this long-awaited yet joyless spring.

She suddenly felt that she didn’t like this season so much anymore.

Meanwhile, some students at the academy began to whisper amongst themselves: why hadn’t the peach blossoms on Shallow Study Peak bloomed yet this year?

But a few days later, no one cared about that anymore.

Instead, the female students who knew Tushan Jing Ci well began to notice a change. That girl, Jing Ci, seemed calmer and more mature than before.

They couldn’t quite put their finger on how to describe it.

It was just that...

In the past, as Jing Ci had grown older, she had simply become more beautiful, more charming and alluring in appearance.

But now, Jing Ci no longer seemed to be just a little girl who had grown up in appearance but remained immature at heart.

The sorrow in her eyes gave her the distinct charm of a mature woman.

Yue Shi also keenly noticed this change in her lady.

Before, her lady had always needed someone to supervise and remind her just to get her to settle down to read or practice her calligraphy.

But ever since Xiao Mo had entered seclusion, although her lady still ran to the bamboo forest every day to visit the man who sat silently, unawakened, she had, without anyone realizing it, become exceptionally self-disciplined.

Whether it was reading, cultivating, or completing the assignments her tutors set, her lady no longer needed anyone to say a single word. She would quietly and diligently finish everything on her own.

Soon, several more months passed. Summer, autumn, and the cold of winter all slipped away.

A full two years had now passed since the day Xiao Mo began his seclusion.

The Dao rhyme surrounding Xiao Mo grew ever thicker and more profound.

The faint, river-like stream of Dao rhyme coiled and swirled around him without end, eventually enveloping his entire body. It was like the silver threads spun by a silkworm, layer upon layer weaving a massive, mysterious cocoon.

It was also in this year that the young woman turned eighteen.

If a sixteen-year-old girl is a flower bud, delicate and unripened, waiting to bloom—

—then Tushan Jing Ci, at eighteen, had fully blossomed, her figure growing ever more graceful and elegant.

Simply standing there, she was as beautiful as a painting. Her temperament was cool and aloof, carrying a subtle air of distance that discouraged others from approaching too easily.

But the moment she curved her lips into a smile, it was as if all the color in the world drained away.

It was as if she didn’t belong to the mortal realm, but had descended from the heavens.

The Eldest Prince of the Celestial Demon Country, Chen Jue, and the others became even more captivated by Tushan Jing Ci.

When they were younger, they had only found Tushan Jing Ci cute and had wanted to get close to her because of the Tushan Clan’s power.

But now that they had grown up, the more they looked at her, the more beautiful they found her to be.

Tushan Jing Ci’s beauty was no longer mere cuteness; it was a stunning allure that could truly move a person’s heart.

And so, they secretly expressed their intentions to their respective Sects and families, all hoping to marry Tushan Jing Ci.

It wasn’t as though these Sects and Dynasties hadn’t proposed marriage to the Tushan Clan.

However, Lady Tushan politely refused them all, saying only that her daughter’s affairs were for her daughter alone to decide.

This left Eldest Prince Chen Jue of the Celestial Demon Country, Eldest Prince Lou Huo of the Fire Demon Country, Lei Qiu, the closed-door disciple of the Thunder Roar Sect’s Sect Leader, and a host of other young masters from Noble Families feeling that the situation was rather tricky.

’If they had what it took to win Tushan Jing Ci’s affection, they would have done it themselves long ago. Why would they need to rely on the power of their families?’

’But the problem was, they couldn’t do it...’

’And it was precisely because they couldn’t that they had to turn back and seek help from the Noble Families and clans that backed them.’

As things stood, Tushan Jing Ci was polite and courteous to everyone.

But beneath that courtesy, there was a clear, invisible distance.

She maintained a perfectly measured distance from everyone.

Not a single man had managed to truly get close to her, let alone win her affection.