There Is No Need for This
The horizon had yet to break into dawn when wisps of cooking smoke rose from the small kitchen of the Sixth Peak. Duan Wangyue, who was not even as tall as the stove three years ago, was already able to skillfully chop vegetables and wield the cooking ladle.
Initially, Xiao Yuan would watch from the side. He did not harbor any feudal notions of gentlemen staying far away from the kitchen; if his disciple was willing to learn, he was willing to teach. Whatever he wanted to eat, he could also make himself, and it could help cultivate a refined sentiment.
Later on, when his disciple’s skill at tossing food in the wok and manipulating the ladle far surpassed his own, he stopped standing guard by the side.
His disciple was a half-demon. According to the settings of this kind of novel, the dragon portion of his bloodline far exceeded that of the human bloodline, and in the future, stepping onto the path of a proud protagonist would also rely on this portion of the bloodline as a foundation.
Therefore, cultivation methods meant for human cultivators were usable by Duan Wangyue, but of limited use to him.
“The fire is too small.”
Duan Wangyue sat on a small bamboo stool, glanced at the stove fire, and calmly added a piece of firewood.
Qin Ke chirped a few times, stood on Duan Wangyue’s shoulder, opened his beak, and spat out a stream of reddish-purple flames. The ordinary flames flickering feebly in the stove instantly devoured it like a potent pill, shooting high into the air.
Without waiting for Duan Wangyue to speak, Qin Ke consciously reined in a portion of the flames, keeping the stove fire consistently at a moderate size.
The uncanny reddish-purple flames cast their glow upon Duan Wangyue. He tilted his head and curved his fingers to scratch Qin Ke’s fluffy head. Because of his movement, the flames illuminated only half of his face.
The other half of his face remained hidden in the dim twilight. His black eyes, reflecting the dancing reddish-purple flames with an unreadable emotion, wore an expressionless look that caused Qin Ke’s tiny body to tremble for a fleeting moment.
The flames within the stove also seemed to sense the uneasiness of their master, fluttering a few times.
Just now, he seemed to have caught a glimpse of that person’s silhouette on the Young Master.
Duan Wangyue naturally did not miss Qin Ke’s reaction. Having cultivated for a few years, Duan Wangyue was already able to conceal his dragon horns and dragon tail exceptionally well. As long as he did not actively expose his identity, judging solely by appearance, he was no different from ordinary human cultivators.
Yet when he was expressionless and looked down at people, it would inexplicably cause others to produce an involuntary sense of oppression.
As a fellow demon, Qin Ke felt this sense of oppression even more intensely.
Noticing this, Duan Wangyue always intentionally controlled his facial expressions. Having spent so many years getting along with Shizun, he had more or less figured out what kind of demeanor Shizun liked him to have.
Gentle and refined, ideally with a constant smile on his face that made him look warm and mild like a spring breeze.
It was an image that completely matched the expectations of both the demon and immortal realms regarding righteous immortal sect cultivators.
In order to make this smile appear even more gentle on his face, Duan Wangyue would even practice facing the river surface during his sword practice breaks.
The burning firewood emitted a faint crackling sound. Duan Wangyue used the fire tongs to turn over pieces of wood that the tongues of fire had not yet reached, while the steamer gave off billowing water vapor mixed with the fragrance of food that filled the kitchen.
Duan Wangyue’s hand holding the fire tongs to turn the firewood paused imperceptibly. The next second, the bamboo door of the kitchen was pushed open, and a chilling plum blossom fragrance swept in along with the newcomer, diluting the worldly warmth inside the kitchen.
“Shizun!”
Duan Wangyue turned his head to look at the newcomer. The slightly upturned corners of his eyes curved upward, and his pitch-black, seemingly impenetrable eyes suddenly sparked with light. The corners of his lips lifted, revealing a pair of cute dimples, and his demeanor instantly became warm and approachable.
Coupled with the fact that, aside from daily cultivation, Xiao Yuan also paid extraordinary attention to his disciple’s spiritual world, assigning him cultural lessons and having him read masterpieces by mortal scholars, over time, he had actually developed a bit of a scholar’s gentlemanly demeanor.
He cut a complete picture of the model student who would help elderly ladies cross the street, just as Shizun described.
This was not Qin Ke’s first time witnessing the Young Master’s speed in changing faces, but every time he saw it, he found it astonishing, feeling that the Young Master’s skill in identifying the Immortal Venerable by sound alone was growing more refined.
Xiao Yuan entered the kitchen carrying a full body of chilliness. Duan Wangyue had a sharp nose; almost the instant Shizun drew close to him, he caught a faint scent of blood.
With an expressionless face on the surface, his heart sank slightly. Calmly looking Xiao Yuan up and down, he only saw his expression turn ugly after failing to find any wounds on Shizun’s body.
For cultivators, external injuries were very easy to heal, but internal injuries were far more severe.
Shizun, a half-step Deity Transformation cultivator who never stepped out unless necessary and loved staying in his study tinkering with formations and mechanical puppet arts, had gone where and tossed himself around so much that he managed to give himself internal injuries?
Did an unexpected accident occur while researching and testing a new formation?
Or had he encountered some stubborn opponent who launched a sneak attack?
“Mn.”
Xiao Yuan casually tossed a jade slip to Duan Wangyue. His light cyan Dharma robes flashed with subtle flowing light under the early morning sun. Standing before the stove, he lifted the lid of the steamer, and through the surging white water vapor, he caught sight of two bowls of pale pink plum blossom soup.
The fragrance of plum blossoms mixed with sweetness filled the tip of his nose, causing Xiao Yuan’s eyelashes to flutter slightly after running about on errands all night long.
Perhaps because his childhood was not particularly fulfilling, Xiao Yuan’s culinary preferences were a mix of two extremes: he loved sweet things, yet was extremely fond of spicy food.
He was not someone who would wrong himself, nor would he think of concealing his love for sweets and spicy food in front of his disciple. Duan Wangyue naturally had his Shizun’s preferences committed to memory.
“What is this?”
Duan Wangyue caught the jade slip in a slightly flustered manner, looking at Shizun with the jade slip in hand in puzzlement.
Xiao Yuan withdrew the hand that had lifted the steamer lid, and halfway back, gave a light tap on the forehead of the little disciple who stood waist-high to him before slowly pulling his hand back. “Foundation Establishment cultivation method.”
Withdrawing his hand, he looked at the disciple who remained short and small, feeling a momentary pang of chest tightness. Whether due to his mixed heritage or not, the little disciple’s growth spurt was exceedingly slow.
Other disciples in the sect of the same age grew as if they had eaten a growth accelerator, their heights nearly reaching his shoulder.
As a result, whenever other senior brothers and sisters came to visit and saw such a tiny little junior nephew, their paternal or maternal love would inevitably burst forth, leaving behind a stack of good things and a polite piece of advice on how to raise a disciple healthily.
Otherwise, the child would look like a little bean sprout even at eight years old.
He had no way to explain himself. Fortunately, this time when he went out, he made specific inquiries and learned that dragons are divided into the hatching stage, juvenile stage, transformation stage, and finally the mature stage.
A young dragon must experience two transformation stages before officially entering maturity, and the little dragon he was raising was a half-breed, so his transformation stage should arrive somewhat later than that of a pure-blooded dragon.
Knowing this, Xiao Yuan stopped feeling anxious about the child’s height. In the middle of the night, he openly and boldly snuck into the Demon Court’s Library Pavilion and copied a set of demon cultivation techniques.
His injury was caused by a sneak attack from the Library Pavilion’s guardian demon, a bird person entirely red in hue.
Although he was injured, that bird person didn’t get off easy either; the red feathers on its wings had been plucked clean by his modified dual-attribute water and wind talisman.
Remembering the expression of that bird person who looked ready to chew him up and swallow him whole upon seeing its bald wings, the corners of his lips couldn’t help curving upward.
He added, “It was a gift from a kind-hearted demon. Practice it with peace of mind.”
Duan Wangyue exchanged a glance with Qin Ke, and both of them caught the miserable state of that kind-hearted demon in each other’s eyes.
Yet what did that have to do with the two of them? Especially Duan Wangyue; his heart was brimming with joy. Shizun, who practically never left the Sixth Peak year-round, had actually ventured out of the Sixth Peak for his sake, going all the way to the Demon Realm and getting injured simply to find a suitable cultivation method for him.
Duan Wangyue cupped his hands in a disciple’s salute and said joyfully, “Wangyue thanks Shizun.”
He must cultivate diligently and then protect Shizun well.
Qin Ke also chirped a few times and received a fruit half the size of his own body. Pecking open the skin, the tender fruit flesh tasted so good he felt like swallowing his tongue.
Later on, Xiao Yuan finished his self-adjustment, opened his eyes, and sensed that his little disciple was standing outside the door. Rising to open it, he saw the little disciple standing at the threshold holding a basin of water.
Seeing him open the door, the little disciple set down the wooden basin, parted his lips in a smile, and called out to him in a crisp voice, “Shizun!”
Seeing this, Xiao Yuan’s brows twitched slightly, and he already had a rough guess about his disciple’s intentions. He stepped sideways to let the disciple enter.
Sure enough, after setting down the wooden basin, Duan Wangyue stood awkwardly to the side, reaching out to lightly scratch his cheek. “Has Shizun washed up yet?”
Xiao Yuan teased him, picking up the cup of tea by his side and lowering his gaze to take a sip. The cool tea liquid moistened his lips, emitting a lustrous sheen under the candlelight.
He looked exceptionally kissable, yet he himself felt nothing of the sort as he parted his lips to speak:
“Not yet.”
At that time, Duan Wangyue’s romantic sensibilities had not yet awakened; he only knew that Shizun’s lips were pretty and Shizun’s hands were pretty.
Shizun also smelled wonderful.
Duan Wangyue squatted down on the ground, reaching out to touch Shizun’s boots. He did this entirely because Xiao Yuan had once told him a public service announcement about a child bringing a basin of water for their mother to wash her feet.
Of course, Xiao Yuan had slightly adapted that advertisement to fit the cultivation world.
Xiao Yuan shifted his feet back, not letting Duan Wangyue touch them. His feet were somewhat sensitive, and being touched by others would make them feel very ticklish.
Meeting the disciple’s uncomprehending eyes, he said, “There is no need for this.”
He had told Duan Wangyue the cultivation world version of the mother-foot-washing advertisement not to make his disciple carry water to wash his feet, but to teach his disciple what it meant to respect one’s elders.
Of course, this elder referred to himself.
Do not be like the original work, failing to respect Shizun and reducing Shizun into a skeletal frame.
Duan Wangyue blinked, looking at Shizun with eager eyes. The spell concealing his dragon horns and dragon tail inexplicably failed, and his chubby dragon tail drooped pathetically on the ground, looking as though it lacked any spirit or energy.
“Shizun!”
Ever since Duan Wangyue mastered the transformation technique, Xiao Yuan rarely saw his dragon horns and tail anymore. The days of holding the little dragon cub while practicing writing and occasionally pinching his dragon tail had thus gone with the wind.
Now, only when the little cub lost control of his emotions would his dragon horns and tail briefly manifest for a short while.
Xiao Yuan lowered his gaze to conceal the struggle in the depths of his eyes, though the urge to pinch the dragon tail ultimately won out over everything else.
Surrendering to the impulse with a mix of indulgence, he said, “Then as you wish.”