While Mu Chen went to practice alchemy, Gu Yuejue sent for Guan Shan.
Guan Shan had already made the whole Yanyang Palace in perfect order during ten years. When he saw Gu Yunjue, he bowed respectfully with an even more devout attitude. Though he had been forced to respect Gu Yunjue before, now he really looked up to his master. Then Guan Shan said, “Young Master.”
Guan Shan didn’t call Gu Yunjue Young Master because of who Gu Yuejue had used to be. The reason why Guan Shan called him that was because now everyone in Yanyang Palace called Gu Yunjue Young Master instead of Little Palace Master.
Gu Yuejue was drawing the back view of Mu Chen taking a nap in the bamboo forest on a fan. The rib of the fan was made of grey jade while the surface of the fan was made of white flood dragon skin, on which Gu Yuejue painted an elegant beauty who discharged his indifferent appearance and showed a lazy and sexy look occasionally in black ink. The expression on Gu Yuejue’s face was quite reverent. He drew the picture with smile in his eyes as if he could draw out the obsession in his heart by doing this slowly. After he had finished the clothes of the beauty in the painting, he said, “There’s a female devil cultivator in the auction house. She might work for my eldest brother.”
Darkness flashed in Guan Shan’s eyes, and he looked more serious.
Gu Yunjue said calmly. He seemed not too concerned about that, “Send her corpse to my dear brother and deliver him a message. This time I have cut off his claws, next time I’ll cut off his head if he gets any closer.”
With his head lowered, Guan Shan responded, “I’ll do it right away.”
“Don’t do business which involves human lives when my Master’s here afterwards. I don’t want him to get angry.”
Guan Shan realized Gu Yunjue must be talking about the ‘furnace’ boy. So he replied primly at once, “This servant will keep that in mind.”
Having grunted assent, Gu Yunjue nodded to indicate Guan Shan to leave. Then he continued to draw the beauty on his fan. It seemed that nothing in this world was more appealing to him than the person in the painting.
————
The competition among the four Sect was just around the corner. Naturally, Lofty Cloudy Sect should offer some valuable awards which all the disciples would want to compete for. So Yue Mingze asked Mu Chen to refine a bottle of Little Rebirth Elixir.
The Little Rebirth Elixir was used for curing the wound. As far as the person wounded still got a breath and he was under the stage of the nascent soul, he could recover as before. This elixir belonged to the middle level elixir and one piece of it was equivalent to another life. So using this elixir as the first prize was perfectly suitable.
For Mu Chen, this kind of elixir was easy to make. There were already a hundred pieces of the Little Rebirth Elixir in the space ring of Gu Yuejue, who would be fed a bottle of this elixir by his Master even when he tumbled. Also, refining this elixir was too boring for Mu Chen. He preferred to investigate the herbal medicine in front of him.
There were about a dozen or so spiritual herbals on the stone table in the bamboo forest. All of them were displayed in the niveous jade plate, with sparkling light covering their bodies. Clearly, they were just picked because they still had rich spiritual nimbus in their veins, with fragrance exuded from them.
Mu Chen sat by the table while pinching the herbs one after another. Having taken a look and smelled them, he put them down with his eyebrows wrinkled.
The child cultivators looked at him gingerly. When they saw Mu Chen pick the herb up, they all held their breath nervously. And when they found him put it down, they let out a sign of relief. Then Mu Chen picked the herb again, and they felt hard to breathe one more time. What an infinite loop...
Finally, being watched by all those anxious child cultivators, Mu Chen bit a piece of the herb leaf. Seeing him chewing the herb with no expression on his face to feel the pesticide effect cautiously, some of the child cultivators turned completely pale——’Our Grand Master, please bless the Master!’ The child cultivators prayed that secretly.
The moment Gu Yunjue came back he found Mu Chen tasting the medicine again. Then with sullen look in his eyes, Gu Yunjue fell by the side of Mu Chen directly. Then he grabbed the half-eaten herb in Mu Chen’s hand, sending out a rigorous signal when he was not smiling, and said, “Don’t eat that anymore. Someday you’ll get sick by tasting those things!”
Mu Chen grumbled impatiently. This disciple had surely grown up and even dared to discipline his Master. However, Mu Chen wrinkled his nose and after detecting a woman’s floral fragrance from Gu Yunjue, he pulled a long face right away, asking with displeasure, “Where have you been?” He realized he had to keep this disobedient disciple in his sight. ‘How dare he fool around with a woman! What if one day...’ Mu Chen began to picture the scene of his little disciple and an ugly girl kneeling before him with a baby while asking him to perform the marriage for them. Suddenly Mu Chen felt suffocated. Damn it!
Gu Yunjue had figured out why Mu Chen was mad after several times of his sudden mood shifts. It seemed that as long as Gu Yuejue got in touch with a woman, his Master would be irritated. Did it mean that Mu Chen was being jealous? Was it possible that his Master had a thing for him in his last life? And that was why Mu Chen would keep Gu Yunjue by his side and doted on him after the time had been reversed?
Mu Chen felt that there seemed to be starlight in his little disciple’s eyes. The ardent gaze of Gu Yunjue nearly pierced Mu Chen’s soul. Then Mu Chen raised his hand in a bad mood and patted Gu Yuejue’s charming face. How could a disciple look at his Master with such a fiery gaze! He deserved the spank! “Answer my question, where have you been?”
Gu Yunjue covered his forehead which was beaten red, explaining with a smile, “I’ve met my fourth senior sister. So I spent a little time there.”
Mu Chen frowned. ‘Stupid you. Why are you so happy after being beaten? What have you done with the female cultivator in the Hongxiu Palace? You little lecher! I should beat you more!’
Seeing Mu Chen raising his hand again, Gu Yuejue grabbed Mu Chen’s finger immediately. The warm touch from the fingertip made Gu Yuejue’s heart quiver. Then he found that although Mu Chen still glared at him with a cold face, his Master had no intention to dump his hand. So Gu Yunjue moved his fingers up slowly until he grabbed Mu Chen’s hand. After that, he put a dragon design ring in Mu Chen’s hand. The black dragon pattern had a silver rim around, which looked modest and luxury with golden halo around. Mu Chen recognized that the ring was a precious piece at a glance. Then he heard Gu Yunjue saying, “Actually I have asked fourth senior sister to do me a favor. I had personally asked third senior brother to smelt a ring for me but he didn’t agree no matter how I pleaded. So I could only ask fourth senior sister to make a request.”
On these words, he held Mu Chen’s hand and put the ring on his finger toughly, “Don’t take it off, all right Master?”
Mu Chen didn’t know how to react now, asking, “Why do you want to present me this?” Gu Yuejue always gave some little gifts to his Master. There were big or small ones of all kinds. Sometimes Gu Yunjue purchased the gifts and sometimes he just made the gift himself. There had been one time he had found a beautiful leaf on the back hill when practicing swordplay. Then he had picked it up and brought it back to his Master. Now he even presented a ring to Mu Chen this time. What’s more, that was a high quality ring. According to the artifact refining skill of Mo Jinyang, this ring stood for his best work. So why had Gu Yuejue taken great pains to make this?
Gu Yuejue held Mu Chen’s neck smilingly and rubbed him, saying, “This ring called One Heart Ring. After it recognizes you as its master, I’ll be able to find you no matter where you are, Master.”
Mu Chen was touched by Gu Yunjue’s ‘filial’ gesture. Then he changed into a kindly attitude, saying, “The hill where your fourth senior sister lives is the scariest place in the whole Lofty Cloudy Sect. Don’t go there so often afterwards.” Mu Chen was afraid that his disciple was not able to catch his indigestible words, so he explained, “The fact Bai Xunrong is able to gain a firm foothold in Lofty Cloudy Sect as a female cultivator is enough to show her toughness. If you have to compete with your senior fellow apprentices, I prefer you to choose Liu Hanzhi rather than Bai Xunrong. That woman is so hard to control when she gets mad.”
Gu Yunjue nodded while agreeing with Mu Chen. Then he let someone collect the herb medicines in front of them in case Mu Chen would eat those things after a while.
Mu Chen’s mood was improved by his disciple’s coaxing. After taking over the tea served by the servant, he continued to instruct Gu Yunjue sincerely, “When you want to find a partner, you have to bring her back to me first. Pretty girls are either wicked or malicious. They are even scarier than the demon beast or the monster beast. Your third senior brother are so shallow that only values the appearance. That’s why he falls in love deeply with a monster beast like your fourth senior sister who would go ballistic easily.”
“Monster beast...” Gu Yuejue nodded while laughing. He was obsessed with Mu Chen’s look which was trying to scare him. Was his Master afraid that he would fall for another person? Then maybe he had guessed it right. ‘Master had done so many things for me with no regret in my last life and tried to protect me at the cost of his life when everyone in the immortal world wanted to kill me. Could it be possible that he has fallen for me?’
Seeing Mu Chen waiting for his answer, Gu Yunjue squinted his eyes and rubbed Mu Chen’s cheek, saying in a soft and meaningful voice, “I have you, Master. I don’t need any partner. And I will never fall in love with a woman.”
Mu Chen kneaded Gu Yunjue’s head, feeling that his disciple was so tame at this moment by listening to everything he had said. Although Mu Chen knew that it was unrealistic for Gu Yunjue not to find a partner and his disciple had only been childish and impulsive to say that, he still felt satisfied as a master that his disciple would not become a demon and knew how to respect his master.
What Mu Chen didn’t see was the deep affection and possession in the eyes of the young boy in his arms.
As they were enjoying the tender moment, there was a crashing sound coming from the gate of the mountain. Mu Chen looked over doubtfully and saw the air was filled with smoke as if there had been an attack just now. After that, Jingming ran over hurriedly and said with excitement, “Palace Master, a fat guy at the gate of the mountain just challenged the Head of the Sect.”
Challenge Yue Mingze?
Mu Chen snorted with coldness on his face. The competition among the four Sects on every 20 years was about to begin. And this year the competition was held in Lofty Cloudy Sect. So all these free cultivators who wanted to make a fame badly now wanted to challenge Yue Mingze, the kid who was also the Head of the Sect. Did they really think that Lofty Cloudy Sect was so easy to bully?
Gu Yunjue took over the kerchief which was passed over by the servant and rubbed the herb juice on Mu Chen’s hand away. Then he followed his Master out of Yanyang Palace rapidly. Gu Yunjue stood in the air above the gate of the mountain and found so many people there. There were lots of disciples of the third generation and a few elders. Chu Qianshuang had already rushed over to watch the fun. When he saw Gu Yuejue and Mu Chen flying over, he approached Mu Chen intimately.
Then Gu Yuejue held Mu Chen’s hand and pulled his master near him.
Having only caught the air, Chu Qianshuang saw Mu Chen and Gu Yunjue holding hands so spontaneously and then imagined the picture of himself holding hands with his own Master. Then somehow, he shook his body with sweats on his back. ‘I’ll be dead if I do that! I will be chopped to death!”
Although both his grand master and his master were tight-lipped and poker-faced, they still gave Chu Qianshuang totally different feelings!
On the square in front of the gate of the mountain, a sturdy guy, with his two black hammers on his shoulders, was standing proudly on the place where the young boys had been tested. He pointed at those disciples of the second generation while mocking in a voice which made the eardrums of all the people there rumble, “Are the elders too scared to let your disciples to die for you? In that case, I’ll show no mercy with my hammers!”
A young adult who wore uniform of the second generation disciple held his junior fellow apprentices behind his back and said in a serious look, “You are no match for him. I’ll take the challenge.”
Mu Chen knitted his eyebrows. He recognized that the guy who wanted to challenge them was already in the demigod realm. With a power of that level, this guy must possess a fame in the immortal world. However, Mu Chen also felt that the spiritual power on that guy was strong but unsteady. Then Mu Chen realized that this guy must have just reached the demigod realm with the help of medicine. This guy was just being an idiot by stopping practicing in his own place to consolidate his power and coming to challenge other Sect. Nonetheless, this disciple of the second generation couldn’t beat this guy. Thinking of this, Mu Chen took a step forward.
Right at this moment, a green light flew here with the scolding of a woman, “Which riff-raff dared to come here? Get the hell out of here if you want to live!”
Bai Xunrong was here!
Mu Chen who had intended to tested the power of that guy now turned around to look at his disciple with a thoughtful look on his face, saying, “Pretty female cultivator might be transformed by a monster beast. Your fourth senior sister was about to show you that.”