The disciple-taking ceremony was set for a month later. Sixth Elder suddenly asked, “You know Xiao Lin, don’t you?”
“Huh?”
“The disciple your uncle-master just took in.”
Xu Yifan’s eyes rolled. “Never met him.”
“Hmph, ‘never met him,’ and yet just now in the sect hall you were staring at him like a wolf eyeing its prey.” Sixth Elder wasn’t pleased, his tone cool. “Second Elder and the others were looking at you like you were a pile of dung. You embarrassed me.”
Xu Yifan, displeased, slapped a hand on the stone bed. “When did I look at him like a wolf eyeing prey?” He’d only glanced at him a few times, was all.
The pretty little beauty really was quite good-looking, after all, the moment he sat down beside him, Xu Yifan’s eyes seemed to develop a mind of their own, drifting helplessly toward the man. What was he supposed to do about that?
Ugh, trouble.
Just thinking about the guy made him start thinking about him all over again.
“I’m not talking to you anymore.” He suddenly stood up.
Sixth Elder watched him head for the door. “Where are you off to?”
“Going to find the pretty little beauty.”
Sixth Elder snorted. “Wretched disciple.”
The wretched disciple ignored him and strolled off on his own, hands behind his back, ambling down the mountain like some little old man out for a walk.
He felt like taking a stroll. He’d been at Xianhao Sect for a while now and still hadn’t properly explored the place.
The training grounds and lecture halls had too many disciples around, and he didn’t care to go, the sect’s disciples always looked at him like he was some kind of zoo animal, whispering behind his back the moment he passed. He didn’t want to go anywhere like that, so he thought it over and headed toward the Beast-Taming Hall instead. As luck would have it, up ahead a tall, slender, graceful silhouette suddenly appeared before him, the person’s ink-black hair drifting in the wind, even from behind a thousand different scenes seemed to unfold in that one figure.
It was Xian Qinglin.
Perhaps because his gaze was too intense, Xian Qinglin suddenly stopped and turned to look, a flash of surprise crossing his face.
Caught red-handed peeking, Xu Yifan looked away in mild embarrassment, but he couldn’t help but recall, unbidden, how that morning in the sect hall, when the man had returned the ring, he’d mentioned there was meat inside, thinking Xu Yifan might like to eat it, so he’d gathered plenty.
Mulling that over for a moment, Xu Yifan felt something was off.
How did the little beauty know he liked to eat meat? They’d never even shared a meal together.
Was it because he saw how fat he was, and figured all that meat on him must have come from eating a lot?
The more he thought about it, the more sullen Xu Yifan felt, like he’d been looked down on again.
Unwilling to just take it, he turned his gaze back and glared hard at Xian Qinglin.
Seeing this, Xian Qinglin’s mouth moved slightly. When he’d returned the ring earlier, he hadn’t said a word, and yet this man now, inexplicably, seemed rather displeased, his little mouth pursed up high. He wanted to ask why, but seemed to think of something else instead, after a moment the corner of his mouth curved up faintly, and he turned and continued on toward the Beast-Taming Hall, as if he couldn’t be bothered with Xu Yifan at all.
That only made Xu Yifan angrier. He’d traveled a thousand miles delivering pills and talismans, and the man wouldn’t even give him the time of day.
Before, he’d at least exchange a few words!
Now not even a greeting.
What kind of attitude was that??
Xu Yifan snorted hard through his nose. Anyone with a shred of self-respect would spit contemptuously at that retreating back right about now and stride off without a second glance. Xu Yifan considered himself a man of iron backbone, if he paid Xian Qinglin any more mind, he’d be a pig.
Damn it.
Xu Yifan thought resentfully.
And yet, the very next day…
Xian Qinglin was pulling weeds in the Spirit Garden. As his master’s first disciple, he was, in theory, above such menial chores, but this was a task he’d taken on earlier, and the spirit stones for it had already been spent in advance, so technically he didn’t have to finish it, the head of the Task Hall wouldn’t dare hold him to it. Still, it didn’t feel right to just abandon it, so Xian Qinglin figured he’d finish the job before going to train with Seventh Elder.
Seventh Elder hadn’t objected, in fact, he’d rather encouraged it.
Some of the spiritual herbs in the Spirit Garden were delicate, and the weeds among them weren’t ordinary mundane weeds either, spirit-garden weeds had to be pulled using spiritual power to be properly cleared without harming the nearby herbs. It was work that demanded care, with no room for carelessness. Xian Qinglin, though, was well practiced at it, practice makes perfect, and normally he could clear a plot like this in about two hours. But today, a full forty-five minutes in, he still wasn’t even halfway done.
The whole time, he kept sneaking glances, as unobtrusively as he could, toward a patch of bushes not far off, where a head stuck out awkwardly from the tangled undergrowth, someone had propped a few tree branches up in front of himself, a pair of thieving eyes fixed unblinkingly on Xian Qinglin, staring him thoroughly out of countenance. But even so, it only confirmed further what he’d already suspected.
“Boss, what are we doing right now?” Momo asked from beside him, glancing back and forth between Xian Qinglin busy in the spirit-herb plot and its own boss buried in the bushes, utterly unable to figure out what its boss was up to.
Xu Yifan glared at it. “Keep your voice down! If we get caught, you think I’ve got no shame to lose?”
“So what are we doing, then?”
“Peeping! Isn’t it obvious?” No matter how stubborn he was, Xu Yifan had to admit, the more contact he had with Xian Qinglin, the more he found himself uncontrollably missing the man, even after just a day apart.
“Peeping?” Momo’s two tender green leaves shook, its voice anxious. “Boss, this makes us look really disgusting!”
“I know.” Xu Yifan sighed, looking thoroughly troubled. “But he’s really just too good-looking. One day without seeing him and I’m about ready to claw the walls. But you know, if I openly stare at him, he’ll definitely realize I’m interested, and once he knows a talent like me, with such outstanding aptitude and exceptional bone structure, someone destined for a great cataclysm cultivator’s path, has taken a liking to him, won’t he get all conceited? I can’t stand the thought of him getting full of himself.”
Xian Qinglin: “…”
Xian Qinglin’s expression was practically indescribable, gradually freezing in place.
“Boss, that’s really thought-provoking, quite reasonable actually, but if we get caught doing this, what reputation would we have left? They’d definitely think we’re a pair of perverts, how are we supposed to get by in the sect after this! Besides, you can peep once, but can you really peep for a lifetime?” Momo said solemnly.
Xu Yifan was troubled too. “I know all that, but the little beauty really is too good-looking, don’t you think?”
Momo had no sense of aesthetics, but after turning it over in its not-terribly-clever little head, it nodded in agreement.
Back in the village, and then later at the sect, it had seen plenty of cultivators, it counted itself a rather well-traveled demonic plant, but it truly had never seen anyone as pretty as the little beauty.
But how could someone with that equipment be so pretty?
“Boss, Momo thinks he might actually be a young lady.”
Xu Yifan rolled his eyes.
“What lady, obviously a man at a glance, are you blind?”
“Not blind, not blind, but someone with that equipment shouldn’t be able to be that pretty. Boss, you go.”
“Go do what?”
“Go take his underwear off and check.”
Xu Yifan: “…Why isn’t it you going? Your boss here is upright and honest through and through, do I look like the kind of person who’d do something like that?”
“Boss, I feel like you’re joking.”
Xu Yifan: “…”
Xian Qinglin pressed his lips together, feeling the urge to rub his temples.
Momo raised its vine-tip, glanced left and right for a moment, the Spirit Garden was completely quiet, it was normally heavily guarded, off-limits to unrelated disciples, only accessible to Elixir Peak disciples and those holding a permit to tend the garden. Momo, seeing this, said excitedly, “Boss, look, there’s not a single soul around us right now.”
Xu Yifan gave it a look of charitable pity for the intellectually challenged. “I know. Do I need you to point that out?”
“With no one around, it’s the perfect time to do something shady, hehe.” Momo said eagerly. “Boss, why don’t we tie him up, drag him into the bushes over there, and then you can go at it with him, get it on with him, and he’ll fall in love with you.”
Xian Qinglin’s whole body stiffened, breath quickening, fingertips trembling, still pretending he hadn’t heard.
Xu Yifan: “…”
Xu Yifan looked at Momo beside him, chattering away excitedly, its two little leaves flapping nonstop, his expression beyond words.
What kind of savage nonsense was this? He’d never taught Momo any of these crooked ideas, yet it seemed to have picked them up entirely on its own.
No wonder this thing had been struck by lightning the moment it was born. There really was a reason for that.
And this, at such a young age, already dreaming up schemes this depraved, once it grew up, wouldn’t it bring chaos to the whole world!
Still…
“Gotta admit, that’s actually not a bad idea.”
“Of course it’s not, I racked my brains thinking this one up.” Momo said, eager to act. “Boss, I’ll go tie him up right now.”
Xian Qinglin suddenly shivered, his vision darkening for a moment, unsteady on his feet, the weeds in his hand scattered to the ground. Would Xu Yifan really do something like that?
He didn’t dare think further.
“But after we get it on, will he really like me?” Xu Yifan felt this plan didn’t seem too reliable.
Momo’s vine-tip bobbed up and down. “Really, really, Boss, Momo wouldn’t lie to you.”
Xu Yifan scratched his head, weighing the feasibility of the plan for all of two seconds before a shudder ran through him, his chubby cheeks quivering, a vague sense of guilt welling up in his chest, and a wave of cold dread swept over him.
He figured that if he really dragged the little beauty into the bushes, judging by that cold, aloof demeanor of his, he probably wouldn’t fall in love, he’d more likely just slap him across the face and then try to kill him.
Much as he was hungry for the little beauty…
Damn it, what was he doing? Bending over to pick something up? And that butt was pointed right at him, that full, smooth curve, drool-worthy, was… was actually pretty nice-looking too.
Damn it.
Stirred up by that little display, Xu Yifan’s mind went hazy, blood pumping hot, and he couldn’t help but think, if he touched it, it’d definitely feel soft. His own was soft, the little beauty’s was surely even softer, probably like cotton.
This was a test for him!
He stared unblinking at Xian Qinglin for a good while, a few strands of Xian Qinglin’s hair hung loosely over his chest, his outer-sect indigo robes making his delicate brows and elegant, straight nose look especially striking, an overall aura of beauty that seemed to transcend gender entirely.
This person was so radiant, so bright, Xu Yifan couldn’t help but be drawn to him. Once he’d laid eyes on Xian Qinglin, his gaze seemed to stick to him and simply refuse to move away.