Chapter 72: Once Mu Chen got caught, we would definitely show him our good hospitality
Translator: Claire.KK
Mu Chen had always believed that invisible dangers were indeed dangerous. With that thought, Mu tried to educate his disciple, in a cold voice, “I shall get square with you when we’re out. Now behave yourself!” Contracting the fire ball into a smaller one again, Mu Chen threw it up and was going to take it with him. Should anyone try to do him any harm, he would burn him into nothing.

With Mu’s direct reply, Gu Yunjue took the hand off Master’s waist and grabbed his hand. A smile worn, Gu presented himself an elegant and righteous young man again. Seeing this, Mu Chen’s lips cramped and eyelids twitched. ‘The bastard’s face changes so fast. Hadn’t I worn the Heart Bong Ring as he did, I would have mistaken him as an ever-changing demon. Yet he would have been a pleasing one.”

After hurting and being hurt and cuddles of consolation, the two seemed to have put the kiss incident behind and got reconciled. And there was something more between them. As of what it was, Gu Yunjue was quite clear. He was beaming like bathing in the warmth of west wind. As for Mu Chen, he spoke no word and kept a cold face, his hand grabbed. Finally, his attitude softened. The master and disciple maintained the silence, with Gu holding Mu’s one hand and Mu holding the overwhelming fire ball on the other hand. They set off to search for Azure Fire Sword. It looked like everything went on well.

Mu Chen broke the silence and suddenly asked after a while, “Did you notice that there were more fights lately?” These cultivators were insane. They hailed fighting and killing, and even indulged themselves in infighting.

Gu Yunjue turned his ear, listened attentively and snickered, “Because they are too bored to stay idle. They had to do something, like killing each other.” Mu Chen threw a glance at him, “In your previous life, I guess you didn’t wreak havoc on Three Realms out of boredom?”

Eyes shining, Gu Yunjue shook Master Mu’s hand a bit, as if he was a kid who had found an enjoyable toy. “Master, don’t you agree that it’s quite interesting to see a bunch of masked bastards killing each other?”

Mu Chen put on a cold face, musing, ‘What they do has nothing to do with me. No matter who they are, gentlemen or villains, I don’t care as long as I’m not related. Should the unruly disciple want to…’

Gu Yunjue stopped, grabbed Mu Chen by the shoulder and turned around, face to face with him, saying, “However, I’ve something more worthy to be cared. Don’t you agree?” With this, Gu looked into Mu Chen’s eyes, so profoundly and seriously that Mu froze for a while. Having given him enough teasing, Gu Yunjue poked Mu’s eye lashes and chuckled, “You’re so pretty.”

Mu Chen was speechless at his frivolity and couldn’t help considering to give him a good beating, or even beating him to death. Death would make this master released for good.

With the help of Gu Yunjue’s memory of his previous life, the two easily found the Land of Inheritance. Gu looked around, nodded and said, “Among all the caves, the Land of Inheritance lies in the third one. The legacy should be inherited before the Azure Fire Sword could be taken.”

Mu Chen raised his eyebrows and demanded, “Get it straight.” Gu Yunjue replied diffidently, “One has to exercise Soul Devil Cultivation to get the Azure Fire Sword. I inherited the Soul Devil Cultivation here in my previous life. ”

Mu Chen grinded his teeth and blurted, “I should have broken your legs then, so that you couldn’t have messed around.” Gu Yunjue faked a surprise, “Should that have happened, Master would have to foster me forever?” “I’d rather do that,” snapped Mu Chen with his cold face, feeling dilemma in his heart. “Fostering him forever would be much better than seeing him wind up horribly.”

“Alas! Well noted,” said Gu Yunjue joyfully. A memory crystal ball appeared in his hand and recorded whatever Mu Chen said just now. “Master has promised to foster me through all my life. Here is the proof and I will not let it go in case you regret it.” Mu Chen was driven speechless. Talking about twisting the truth and seizing the chance, Mu was no match with his disciple.

The two moved on and called for Protection Soul Bell. Once being called, the bell suddenly appeared and then flew into the darkness of the cave. Gu Yunjue gave Mu Chen’s back a pat and smiled, “Master, please watch my back for me.”

Mu Chen waved and grumbled, “Be assured. Your Master won’t let anyone slip in, not even a fly.”

“OK, then. Don’t leave, Master. And don’t be soft-hearted when engaged in a fight. I’ll leave Black Egg to you…”

“Get lost,” Mu Chen growled and kicked him into the cave. ‘The older he is, the noisier he becomes. I should have fed him more rice cakes. It’s said that they make kids reticent.’

After Gu Yunjue disappeared in the cave, Mu Chen stood rigid for a while and suddenly loosed up in a relief. ‘My disciple is hopelessly twisted, which is different from his previous life. I have raised him up for two lives, painstakingly, yet he has yearned to marry me! There are few female cultivators in Immortal Realm as the further they go, the more difficult they are to lift up their cultivation. It’s too easy for females to get distracted and too many of them have got stuck in Late Nascent Soul Stage. Therefore, male cultivators tend to find a male partner to walk along the long treacherous road to immortality. A master-disciple romance does exist but is extremely rare, for it’s against the ethics of human relations.’

Mu Chen couldn’t not help but recall what he had done that could possibly result in his disciple’s affection. ‘Am I a pervert? Hadn’t I seduced an innocent young man? Am I robbing the cradle? Me, in my one hundreds, him, in his twenties!’ Mu Chen rued adopting a disciple at such a young age. Cultivators usually apprenticed disciples at least when they were over 500 years old. But how lonely would they be for them to do so then?

Mu Chen rubbed his chin, caught and entangled with deep thoughts. ‘As a Master in the relationship, I should have taken the lead in keeping the distance. My disciple, however, has been too passionate. He has been pestering to act like a spoiled child and ask for kisses. Have we agreed on keeping the distance? Why have things gone wrong?’ Mu Chen was caught with uncertainty, as if there was a mouse crawling up and down his heart.

At the moment, a red arrow shot up into the sky and exploded into a piece of red cloud a hundred miles away. It’s the signal asking for help, by the disciples from Lofty Cloudy Sect! Warmth in Mu Chen eyes disappeared immediately and the familiar indifference returned. He calmed down finally. In no time appeared another signal from the same spot. Mu frowned a bit, ‘Something is not right.’ In a while, quite a few arrowed shot up at regular intervals, urging for a rescue.

Mu Chen was frozen. At one hand, they were disciples of Lofty Cloudy Sect and their pleading shall be answered, while at the other hand, his own disciple required for protection and he could not leave. As for the signals, they seemed to be intentionally fired and to lure someone into a trap. However, who would save those from notable sects apart from Mu Chen in such situation?

*

A hundred miles away, over a dozen disciples from Lofty Cloudy Sect were enclosed in a magic formation, each of them injured to some extent. Around the formation, however, there hid dozens of unorganized cultivators, waiting for someone coming for the rescue. Should anyone show up, he would be attacked, subdued, caught and closed in the magic formation immediately. It was well understood that, compared with disciples from the famous sects, these unorganized disciples had to deal with enormous difficulty to lay their hands on cultivation resources. They, therefore, had picked up acrimony and atrocity in their way of living. Seedlings from those notable sects like Lofty Cloudy Sect were no match for the unorganized ones who had much experience in the wild. To make things worse, among those Ying Lixun was at Early Demigod Stage.

An elder with red beard placed his bloody flag well and suppressed a smirk on his face, “With the Devouring-Soul Formation, we could slay any cultivator, even someone at the Synthesis Stage. Once we catch the so-called Mu Chen, we should show him our hospitality, and invite him to share whatever he has with us.”

Ying Lixun leered, a lust flashing through his eyes, ‘The master and disciple must have well had some treasures which enabled them to move ahead of us. They must have kept secrets between them. Robbing him of each piece of resource is a sure thing. But most of all, I’ll revenge on him for discrediting me. This time, they shall stay here forever or die. Once Mu Chen is caught, I would definitely show him my warm hospitality.’

*

As for Gu Yunjue, he had to take the road of inheritance again as he did in his previous life. At the threshold of the cave, he overlooked the path ahead, where stone poles lined intermittently, separated by about every ten meters. Gu recalled clearly that there were seven poles in total with each representing an emotion, Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Fear, Love, Hatred, and Regret respectively. What he had to do was to conquer his the emotions, after which the pole would be enlightened. As long as he enlightened all the seven poles, he could enter the Main Hall to receive the inheritance. Afterwards, Azure Fire Sword should be bequeathed.

Gu Yunjue was quite at ease with his maneuvers and lightened up the first four poles, Joy, Anger, Sorrow and Fear. Things went well till the fifth one, love. He laid his hand on it, closed his eyes and read a familiar image. It was eighteen years ago when he realized what kind of romance he had craved for. That was when Mu Chen, bathed in water, eyes pure, soft in the smooth moonlight, reached out to him. At the very moment, Gu Yunjue’s nerves were incited and it came to him that what he had always wanted from Mu Chen was not a pure mentorship, but a romantic relationship.

The image quietly invaded Gu Yunjue’s mind, while the man in the water walked toward him, step by step. The clear eyes carried smile, and the exposed skin was covered with water drops, reflecting in the moonlight. The perfect body gradually became clear in front of him. Gu paused for a moment, and then stroke with his hand, full of disgust deep in his eyes. Although the created image was quite engrossing and entertaining, it was a fake at its first place. After all, if he dared to get close when the young Master was taking a bath, Gu would definitely be beaten by his fireball for good.

After being broken, the figure turned into drops of water, which then agglomerated again into Mu Chen, dressed in red. This time, the surrounding changed into the Yanyang Palace which was adorned and decorated in red, and surrounded by auspicious clouds. Mu Chen’ face was so tender with a touch of faint pink, and his eyes were slightly hooked with a thin anger. Seeing Gu Yunjue arriving late, he was dissatisfied, “Why haven’t you changed your clothes? Hurry up. The guests have gathered. It’s about the auspicious time. Dare you let the guests wait for you?”

Gu Yunjue sighed and was awed by the test. The fake scenario was indeed very powerful and progressive, as it grasped all the weaknesses in his mind. If only he hadn’t been determined and hesitated a bit, he would be enchanted and immersed in the illusion forever.

He passed the test of Love quite easily in his previous life because he didn’t understand love at all. Now Love turned to be his Achilles heel, as he had fallen into it. Although Gu Yunjue knew it was an illusion, he shivered anyway when he penetrated the fake Mu Chen with a sword. Even though the shivering was unobvious, the scene suddenly changed! Gu froze and knew that he was fooled again by the test.

The scene changed again and this time it was quite tormenting. In the Spirit Suppression Pagoda, a gaunt white silhouette sat there with his legs crossed, limbs skinny, and waist chained by black steel. His soul and spirit were suppressed, and grilled by fire toxin. He appeared to be at his last gasp. The man was kept and tortured and there seemed no way for prison break. He should rot there. However, he managed to straighten his backbone in light of the black steel and showed no weakness. Sensing Gu Yunjue’s arrival, he opened his indifferent eyes with a touch of anxiety appeared inside. He said, in a cold voice, “You shouldn’t come. Off you go!” Being aware of its unreality, Gu was enraged though, his eyes turned red, and his mind was captured by rage, desire and cruelty. He would like to kill and destroy everything.

*

Having been kept waiting in front of the cave for a whole day, Mu Chen was suddenly overtaken by agitation. ‘It’s been a day and night and my disciple has still not shown up. How slow he is! I shall give him a good spanking when it’s over.’ As for the signals for help, it had stopped for six hours. Mu Chen found out that they shot up an arrow every two hours and altogether six arrows were fired. Everything was quite clear. It was him that the enemy intended to draw over. He was quite aware of that and stayed put. The disciples would be safe as long as he didn’t show up.

Mu Chen didn’t stand idle while safeguarding the cave. Over a dozen white fire balls floated around him, each of which were over one meter in diameter and filled up with condensed spirit power. A collision would trigger an explosion. One of such fire balls was powerful enough to destroy a hill. At the moment, there were a dozen of them.

His control over spirit power was beyond imagination. Under his maneuver, a dozen fire balls lined up around him, steady and still. In a minute, Mu created another fire ball, then he crumbed a high grade spirit stone, to supplement for his consumed soul power, and created another fire ball. Another day past, and the unorganized cultivators and Ying Lixun couldn’t wait but yelled out, “Mu Chen, if you want disciples from the Lofty Cloudy Sect alive, come over now!”

Meanwhile, there had been thirty or so fire balls floating over Mu Chen’s head.

The Author has something to say: An irresponsible little drama.

Gu Yunjue, “It was said that there would be a story about philter for us. Where is it?” [Excited!]

Mu Chen, “I don’t know either.” [Searching for a scissor.]

Black Miao (Cat), “I’ll tell you if you don’t cut him now. Tomorrow you shall meet the uncertainty.”