As a demon cultivator of Wolf, Jing Ming had retained many habits of dogs and would rush to Mu Chen for stroking as long as he saw Mu. Yet Mu didn't see Jing Ming at the moment, which made him curious.
Hearing Mu Chen's inquiry, Gu Yunjue couldn't help but snigger.
"Have you bullied him?" Mu Chen felt that Gu Yunjue's reaction was mischievous. In retrospect, Jing Ming had always helped Mu "take care of the child—Gu Yunjue", like a babysitter. However, the "child" had been so naughty and evil-minded that Jing Ming had taken blames for him. In short, Jing Ming had frequently been punished by running laps around Lofty Cloudy Sect.
Now that the "child" had grown up, yet he was still indulged in bullying Jing Ming. Mu Chen felt sorry of Jing Ming while weighting that Gu Yunjue was a big boy and very childish.
A babyish wolf howl sent over in the distance, from which Mu Chen heard grievance. Mu Chen turned his head and saw a lovely puppy run and tremble toward him. His fur was gray with dust, dirt and grass.
"Are you Jing Ming?" asked Mu Chen in surprise as he noticed Jing Ming's breath in the puppy. "How did you become like this?"
Jing Ming ran over and tried to rub against Mu Chen's leg. However, Mu Chen quickly escaped and looked at him with distain.
Jing Ming felt distressed and was angry about what Gu Yunjue had done to him. So the puppy stamped on the ground with his supple claws, shook his tail and complained to Mu Chen, "Master, it was Senior Martial Brother who transformed me into this. And he dared to refuse to transform me back! He behaves like those filthy step parents and scummy mother-in-law in comic books! Master, please expel him from our Sect and let him fend for himself!"
Jing Ming would spoke gibberish in anxiety and didn't even understand what he meant. Should Mu Chen get what he said, Mu might understand how sad he felt. But unfortunately, what Jing Ming complained to Mu Chen was nothing but whines, and wails, yelps and barks. Those were noise except for him stalking and biting his tail. Mu Chen didn't understand one word of what Jing Ming said.
To Mu Chen, however, the puppy's stupidity was kind of...cute.
"YELP," "Why doesn't Master speak?" Jing Ming was kind of driven mad.
Gu Yunjue stood by and looked quite innocent while he looked at Jing Ming jumping around.
Jing Ming looked at Gu Yunjue again, and was stunned. In a few seconds, Gu faced the moon and growled, "Aoooo!"
Gu Yunjue, "Puff! Ha, ha, ha!"
Mu Chen was amused too. He grabbed Jing Ming by his neck to pick him up and said to Gu Yunjue, "Prepare some water and give him a bath."
"It's enough to cast a Cleaning Spell." Gu Yunjue raised his eyebrows and was dissatisfied with Mu Chen's intention to bathe Jing Ming.
Mu Chen shook the puppy wolf in his hand and said with brightened eyes, "It's said that dogs are born swimmers."
Gu Yunjue suddenly felt being charmed by Mu Chen's eyes and immediately went to move a tank of water over for Jing Ming to practice swimming. Mu Chen threw Jing Ming into the water and picked him up until his fur was clear. The cub was fluffy and chubby after the bath and looked up at him with a pair of blue watery eyes. Stunned by the cuteness of the cub, Mu Chen couldn't help holding Jing Ming in his arms and caressing his head.
Seeing Mu Chen's reactions, Gu Yunjue instantly changed his face. "Shit. I was charmed by Little Master's beauty, and forget that he was fond of fluffy things, especially white ones. Jing Ming's current appearance is exactly what Mu Chen likes, like hitting his Achill's heel."
"It's not bad for him to keep such an appearance." Mu Chen looked at Gu Yunjue and said faintly, "Turn him back a few days later."
Jing Ming rubbed against Mu Chen's chest and threw at Gu Yunjue a provocative look. "LOL. I'm having Master's breath too."
Gu Yunjue curled his lips, looked at Jing Ming profoundly, and searched Jing Ming from his head to tail. Gu weighted the possibility of slaughtering the cub, stuffing it up, and refining it into a puppet without being discovered by Mu Chen.
Under the watch of Gu Yunjue, Jing Ming suddenly felt a dangerous intent flowing from his head through to the tip of his tail. He hid his tail and snapped a glance at Gu Yunjue. Then he turned his head and hid into Mu Chen's arms.
Mu Chen perceived Gu Yunjue's look, stared at Gu and said, "You, go to the door and kneel down. It's your punishment."
The smile on Gu Yunjue's face paused, and then he grabbed Mu Chen's waist from behind and said in grievance, "Master, my body aches."
Mu Chen twisted his back and failed to get rid of the plaster on his back. And Mu Chen looked at Jing Ming subconsciously, and feared their relationship could be discovered by Jing Ming. There was a kind of stress that his love affair could be disclosed to his younger generation, which at the moment shall be avoided.
Gu Yunjue blinked, his hand on Mu Chen's waist moved up slightly and pinched Jing Ming's belly without apathy.
"..." Jing Ming opened his mouth and wanted to call out "OUCH" only to find out that he couldn't make a sound. As a result he had no choice but to kick up his legs to remind Mu Chen that he was abused.
However, Mu Chen perceived Jing Ming's kick as a sign of being uncomfortable, so he reluctantly put the cub down and thought that he was wrong in holding Jing Ming in his arms as Jing Ming was an adult now. He might be shy to be held.
In response, Jing Ming lay down to show his bruised belly to Mu Chen and accused his Senior Martial Brother of abusing him. Master should get square with him.
Seeing Jing Ming accusing him, Gu Yunjue took the lead and smiled while he rubbed Jing Ming's hairy belly. Before Jing Ming reacted, Gu's wrist was caught by Mu Chen and Mu said, "Jing Ming has grown up. Do not touch him."
Mu Chen was somewhat unhappy. "How could the unruly disciple grope his Younger Martial Brother? There is an old saying in Lofty Cloudy Sect, which goes 'watch out for fire, for burglar and for elder martial brothers.' As a Senior Martial Brother, Gu shall keep a distance from his your younger martial brothers."
Gu Yunjue was amused by Mu Chen's thought and said fondly to him, "Since you like kids so much, I will give you one tomorrow."
"What are you going to do? Stealing children will be condemned by Heaven. Don't mess around."
"I won't steal or rob. Instead I promise you that the child is completely yours."
Mu Chen was surprised and asked, "Are you going to give birth to one?"
Gu Yunjue, "...I can conjure a child."
Mu Chen approached Gu Yunjue with a cold face, pushed him aside and ruthlessly said, "You'd better go to take the punishment."
*
A few bright crescent lamps hung in the room, and sent out soft light which illuminated the space. Mu Chen sat at the table and read through Jing Ming's medicine formulas, after which he curled lips and shook his head. "Boy, he dared to try to fly before acquired how to run properly. He could create quite a few formulas yet all of them have problems to some extent. Fortunately, he didn't try to make it out and tasted them himself."
"Jing Ming, come over. Stand here." Mu Chen pointed to the table and ordered. Mu Chen planned to walk Jing Ming through the basics again of pills concocting.
Jing Ming budged over with melancholy and stretched his neck to look at the table. He didn't dare to get too close to Mu Chen out of sheer fear that Gu Yunjue would transform him into a puppy again. Jing Ming took blames for Gu Yunjue's mischiefs in his childhood, was bypassed by others and served as Gu's younger martial brother in his youth, and now being bullied by Gu in his adulthood. What's more, Jing Ming found he had no way of getting an upper hand over Gu as Gu's cultivation had developed so fast that it was impossible for Jing Ming to catch up.
Mu Chen reached out, grabbed Jing Ming and pulled him close, while Mu turned a blind eye to Yunjue's occasional wicked ideas. In their previous life, Gu Yunjue was fond of mocking Jing Ming. Gu would wear a gentle smile and drive Jing Ming crazy. However, Gu would come to Jing Ming's savior when he was in danger.
Now Gu Yunjue was reborn, and was not young if the ages of his two lives added up. Yet Gu still enjoyed making fun of Jing Ming. Could it be because of staying around Mu Chen, which made Gu never grow up? Mu Chen sighed silently, and accepted the fact that he might not be a good master.
He pushed the handbook to Jing Ming and said in a cold voice, "I'll teach you only once. Listen carefully."
"The main materials for creating Rejuvenating Powder are coagulating grass, bone-growing flower, bamboo grass, lotus fruit, and spathe root. You shall not miss one. As for spirit-recovering crab apple, it's a key ingredient for making Spirit Replenishing Pill, but it's not appropriate to use it in making Rejuvenating Powder. It doesn't help in supplementing one's soul power. In fact, the spirit-recovering crab apple downgrades the quality of Rejuvenating Powder. That's why it shall not be used here. Understand?"
Jing Ming quickly nodded his head. "No wonder Master's Rejuvenating Powder is so effective. Spreading a little bit of it on wounds could stop bleeding, while it took a bowl of what he made for Jing Ting to do that."
Mu Chen shook his head and felt that teaching disciples like Jing Ming was quite tiresome.
"In essence, Hallucinating Pill is used to hallucinate a person and the pill is mainly made of dreaming grass, illusionary flower, and hallucinating Buddha. And all of the materials shall be over a thousand years old. If you want to use the pill for self-defense, you may add ferocious candle grass, which could result one dying in his nightmares." Mu Chen explained bout the formulas and their effects with a soft voice, yet what he said had stunned Jing Ming and made him widen his eyes. "Oh, my! It can be used to kill people!"
"Forget it," Mu Chen shook his head and couldn't help but think, "The child gets no talent in making medicine. When I taught Gu Yunjue, he could draw several inferences from one instance, and even could tell how to make the enemy die without power fighting back. Sure enough. It's a matter of gift."
In a while, Mu Chen lost his patience and threw the notebook to Jing Ming and said impatiently, "Go and read it. Turn to me when you don't understand something. You shall learn all of these before you leave to save the trouble of harming yourself or others."
"Yes, Master." Jing Ming took his notebook and walked away to read it.
Mu Chen frowned and ordered, "Go back to your room."
Jing Ming quickly stood up and cheerfully ran out.
Mu Chen shook his head helplessly and grumbled, "Poor kid."
Mu Chen felt a little bit thirsty after talking to Jing Ming and picked up the teacup on the table only to find that the tea turned cold. He put it down, stood up and called Gu Yunjue. After a few breaths, there was no response and Mu Chen walked out only to find that Gu Yunjue, who had been kneeling in the corner, had disappeared.
"Hasn't he really gone to steal other's child?"
With the thought, Mu Chen trembled and thought, "Evil disciple! Should he dare to do that, I would break his leg."
Just then, there was a sudden "Bang" in the room. Mu Chen looked back and suddenly was shocked.
A baby in its four or five was putting a cup of hot tea on the table. Because of his height, the baby tiptoed to reach for the table. The baby was small with short limbs; his skin was so fine and tender like high grade mutton-fat jade. His beautiful eyes slightly tilted up, with a pink mole over the corner of his eye which made him more attractive when he smiled.
Mu Chen was dumbfound by the baby and stumbled as if his body was out of control. He was so angry that his eyes were completely red. "Evil disciple! How dare he to have an illegitimate child with somebody?"