Gu Yunjue covered his ears from his hands and tried to divert Mu Chen's attention, "Master, calm down. The inheritance I took this time was different from that in the last time. You gotta let me explain."
Mu Chen raised his eyebrows, wearing an expression indicating that he would kill Gu for good if the explanation was not interesting. Mu Chen let go of Gu's ears, staring at Gu.
Gu Yunjue, rubbing his ear, explained hurriedly, "In my previous life, once I accepted the inheritance, and got the sword, I was kicked out of the secret boundary, and it collapsed afterwards. But this time, there was something unexpected, a small accident to be exact. The inheritance guard showed up from nowhere and asked me a question."
Mu Chen tilted his head doubtfully, seemingly calmed and composed, but a touch of curiosity was obvious in his eyes.
Gu Yunjue, however, paused and stopped explaining. He instead looked at Mu Chen, eyes full of admiration and expectation, like a rabbit that could be dealt with easily, but was kind of naughty and mischievous.
Mu Chen clenched his fist and pursed his mouth sulkily, suppressing the impulsion to kick him in the butt. He wanted to know what had happened between Gu and the inheritance guard, yet he was reluctant to ask for it directly.
Gu Yunjue thought about enough being enough and teasing his master any further would backfire, like committing suicide. So, he continued seriously, "The guard wanted to know my fundamental cause for accepting the inheritance. And, my answer was 'to protect my love.'"
Mu Chen, agitated and bashful, clenched his fist again, chewing on whether to give him a punch.
Gu Yunjue suppressed a smile and went on, "This place was once the palace of the former owner of Heaven Bell. Through the inheritance, the owner intended to find not only a descendant, but also someone who could help him to complete an unfulfilled wish—find his partner."
Mu Chen frowned and couldn't understand what Gu was talking about.
Gu Yunjue continued, "The guard and owner bequeathed me a map of the Demon Realm, and asked me to find Earth Bell there with the help of it. By then the two bells should be united and integrated into a complete Protection Soul Bell. By the way, he gave me his palace too. Now I'm the owner of this boundary." With this, Gu took out one map and handed it over to Mu Chen. Mu, however, didn't look at it, but inquired out of curiosity, "Why do you tell me these?"
Gu Yunjue narrowed his eyes, smiled, and said, "If Master doesn't not tell me who had the filthy conspiracy against you earlier, I would activate all the trapping mechanisms, and kill all the cultivators on my land, every one of them, including those seedlings of Lofty Cloudy Sect."
Mu Chen pulled a long face and said in a cold voice, "Dare you try it!" The way his damned disciple smiled and talked about killing people like killing bugs just disturbed him.
Gu Yunjue, as if being hurt by Mu's manner, grabbed his hands and complained in grievance, "Master doesn't love me anymore. How could you be such a heartbreaker?"
Mu Chen gnashed his teeth, "ME…A HEARTBREAKER?"
Gu Yunjue nodded to confirm the remark, as if he was truly heartbroken and needed some sweet consolation from Mu Chen.
Mu Chen took a deep breath, and was quite aware that the more he haggled with Gu, the more the unruly disciple would demand. Mu looked down at the map with a cold face and decided to ignore him.
To Mu's surprise, he found the map quite interesting. It looked familiar yet Mu couldn't remember when and where he had seen it before.
At the moment, the thirteen-ring glaze interlock toy was on the table and Gu Yunjue, in a try to draw Mu's attention, took two rings up and interlinked them with a "clank".
Mu Chen, lost in thought, suddenly hit on an idea when hearing the sound.
"Ah"
"What's the matter?" Gu Yunjue asked curiously.
"Nothing," Mu Chen turned his face to the other side indifferently.
Originally, Gu Yunjue wanted to make fun of Mu and only intended to distract him, so he could enjoy his master's changeable expression alongside. As for the incident happened to Mu Chen earlier, Gu could figure it out easily. There were quite a lot of memory crystals here. With them, Gu could find out whatever he wanted to know. However, he didn't expect he had gone too far and annoyed Mu Chen.
Moreover, at the moment, Mu was still in anger, and naturally would not tell him any finding. Gu Yunjue suddenly rued the teasing.
But seeing Mu Chen's appearance, Gu couldn't help but want to laugh. 'Master is demonstrating his temper? It's pretty cute.'
Mu Chen threw Gu a glance, with a slight touch of distain in his eyes. "The evil spawn looks like an idiot. I might have kicked him in the head just now. If I had known the consequences then, I would have struck him for good. A moron will bother me no more."
While Mu Chen was weighing the idea, Gu Yunjue waved his hands and a big spirit screen appeared in front of him, from which everyone in the secret boundary could be seen.
"Let's first send off the cultivators from the four major sects," Gu Yunjue thought and threw them all out of the secret boundary. As for the unorganized disciples, who was reluctant to leave and escaped from the traps, they all came with not bad cultivation and sought a lot of benefits here.
Gu Yunjue smirked, "Those cheeky bastards, I shall strip them off whatever they have had here before kicking them out."
Mu Chen saw to it that Lofty Cloudy Sect disciples were safe so he didn't care how the rest would be dealt with. When Mu Chen calmed down, he found himself a bit tired.
In a while, Gu Yunjue found it's so quiet, and looked back only to see Mu Chen, sound asleep in the chair. "How tired he is! It must have been his anger that sustained the long beating up on me."
His face was not as pale and bloodless as it was a while ago. Although it's still white, his complexion appeared ruddy. 'How lovely he is, his eyes closed, his long eyelashes curved, and his hands not pinching my ears.' Watching Mu Chen for a moment, Gu Yunjue couldn't help but shake his head. He carefully held Mu Chen up and went to the inner room.
"Why did he flaunt his superiority in front of me since he was so tired? Oh, dear Master, you never show your weakness."
Putting Mu Chen softly into the bed, Gu Yunjue looked at Mu's face and couldn't move his eyes. Simply, Gu Yunjue lied down by his side and watched him quietly. Mu Chen, however, sensed the familiar breath and moved a bit in the bed and pressed his face close to Gu's chest. It might have given Mu Chen more sureness and security so he immediately fell fast asleep.
Gu Yunjue saw Mu Chen huddled up like a defenseless tame cat,, which made Gu smile involuntarily. 'Young Master might be unaware himself that I have been his most trusted person.' Gu Yunjue suddenly came up with an idea that it wouldn't be bad if they two stayed in this secret boundary, accompanied each other day and night, and cared nothing about secular affairs.
It suddenly came to Gu what was told about love and now he understood the true meaning of it, 'No matter how wild one is, there always will be someone coming up one day who makes the other put everything down willingly. Be it desire, aspiration, or ambition. If, however, he can't let it go, it suffices to say the love is not deep enough.'
*
When Mu Chen woke up, it was raining heavily with lightnings and thunders. Mu recovered and was refreshed physically and mentally, while Gu Yunjue stood by the window, hands at the back, looked through the window and was lost among the flying raindrops. Mu Chen couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, 'Little disciple appears no different from the Devil Lord he was in his previous life. The only difference is that he withdraws all his teeth and claws while I'm around.' Mu Chen felt a little better, and his appearance became much more relaxed.
Having sensed Mu Chen's observation, Gu Yunjue turned around and looked at him with a smile, "Feeling better now?"
Mu Chen nodded to him, but with a cold face.
Gu Yunjue knew well that Mu Chen had not accepted the physical connection they had that day, and it took time for him to cool down and deal with their relationship. There would be room for maneuver as long as Mu responded to him. With the thought, Gu put on a smile, walked to the bed and sit by Mu, "Hungry? I'll make you some food."
Mu Chen was soothed by his docile manner, and his rigid face got softened a bit. In response, Mu shook his head and denied the offer. He had long stopped taking in any food since the fasting started. Having food or not made no difference to him. Why his disciple bothered inviting him with food again and again.
The rain felt odd. Mu Chen sniffed the air and smelled Melting-soul Powder in it. He frowned and asked Gu Yunjue, "You did it?"
Melting-soul Powder was deadly poisonous. Once taken, it would melt into one's Dantian (an acupoint in Chinese Medicine, 2~3 inches under nave; refers to elixir field, where cultivation is stored), ruin his meridians, and damage his cultivation. Now Mu Chen figured out that the powder was dissolved into the rain, and anyone exposed in the rain would be poisoned. Even boundary settings wouldn't work, as the powder would be attached to moisture, hence touching one's skin and entering his body with each of his breathes. How cruel Gu Yunjue was! Mu Chen had made a lot of such poisonous pills, which were intended to enable Gu, when he was a kid, to protect himself. Mu didn't expect he would use it now in this way.
As expected, Gu Yunjue approached Mu Chen, eyes twinkling with a smile. "I have warned them beforehand, but they would rather have their lifelong cultivation destroyed than retreat. What a pity! You can never talk sense into the insane minds. None of them is willing to leave my palace spontaneously."
Ever since his inner demon got removed, Gu Yunjue adopted a quite merry temper and his eyes were ever brighter.
Looking into the bright, smiling, lovely eyes, Mu Chen felt enchanted. The pair of eyes were dangerous. Mu pushed Gu Yunjue a bit away to keep the distance and grumbled, "Now that you want to get rid of them, why not simply kick them out? Why do you bother poisoning them? Are you plagued with too much leisure?"
Gu Yunjue chuckled, "We have nothing to do anyway. It's kind of funny."
Mu Chen said, "Kick them out when you have enough fun. We shall set out to Snow City. Don't waste our time on those nobody."
Weighing Mu Chen's word, Gu Yunjue felt a sense of pleading. He rapidly approached to him, kissed him on his face and swiftly kept a safe distance before Mu Chen could took any reaction. Then, Gu "generously" threw all of the unorganized cultivators out of the boundary.
As for their whereabouts afterwards, Gu Yunjue didn't know, and didn't care.
Nor did Mu Chen.
Now that they got rid of outsiders from their 'secret garden', the master and the disciple left the boundary right away. Standing in the air, Gu Yunjue made a decision and exercised his power. The Green Red Valley began collapsing, dusts flying and red rocks broken. In a minute, the low areas were buried. From now on, the Secret Boundary fanfare would spread no more.
Mu Chen looked indifferent and uninterested. He was not willing to react. To divert his mind, Mu Chen took out Black Egg and the spirit egg from the pet pocket. The egg hadn't been hatched after eight years of incubation. Mu moved them to the window to take sunbathe. He gave the egg a thorough check to see if it got rotten or grew molds. He even planned to daub some grinded medicines on the egg to make it bug-proof.
Black Egg hopelessly lied on the egg, belly up, basking in the sun. There was about it nothing of a bird. "Palace Master, what on earth is in the egg?" asked Black Egg in a low voice. He even had a glimpse of Gu Yunjue, fearing that he would be beaten by Gu for the philter incident.
Mu Chen poked the egg shell, thought for a while, and answered in hesitation, "A cat? Maybe a dog. Anyway, it should be something hairy."
Black Egg stroked his belly, and felt proud that as a male bird, he could incubate an egg into a four-leg creature. 'What a genius I am!'
As they talked, the small Yanyang Palace suddenly shook.
Mu Chen raised his eyebrows in surprise, and Black Egg hurried on its feet and offered, "Let me go to check it out."