Su Yan ran three steps before coming to a halt. Ah! He couldn’t just go back, could he? Never mind that Nie Chang might still be cultivating, that wasn’t how Dou Fang Hai behaved. Nie Chang, uh, no, his Master had said that they couldn’t act out of character so he should do whatever Dou Fang Hai would do!

He ran back and looked around until his gaze landed on the tuft of grass he had almost dug out. "Hehe. Perfect!" He crouched down and this time he used his hands to dig the rest of the plant out. He happily examined the grass. It didn’t look different from a normal tuft of grass at all. There was even a little snail sitting on one of the stalks. Ah, this was perfect!

He got up again and ran the way back up to the palace.

In the forest, Xue Chang Fu turned to Yue Mu Gang. "He just ran away to dig out a stalk of grass before he returned to his Master. Do you still think this isn’t Xiao Hai?"

Yue Mu Gang tightened his lips and turned away.

The Sect Master hurried after him. "You know you can say it. It won’t hurt your dignity to admit that you were wrong."

"You just want to hear that you were right."

"Yes!" Xue Chang Fu linked arms with the Elder and grinned. "You know me too well. I can’t keep anything a secret."

"It’s because you have the bad habit to blurt everything out that comes to mind."

"That’s just because you’re always on my mind. I can’t keep any extraneous thoughts there so I have to say them out loud."

"Mn. Since nothing is wrong with Xiao Hai, you should go and prepare for the mission."

"Tch. Unromantic."

Yue Mu Gang pulled his arm back, took out his flying sword and sped off, leaving the Sect Master alone.

Xue Chang Fu pursed his lips while he watched him fly away. "Let’s see if you can still be like this after this evening!" He harrumphed and returned to his own peak to do what Yue Mu Gang had said.

While the two of them only needed a few moments until they reached their destinations, Su Yan had more trouble to get back. Never mind that he couldn’t fly, he also didn’t have any spiritual energy at his disposal so he had to climb up the peak like a normal person.

By the time he made it back, Nie Chang had long stopped cultivating and was searching for him everywhere in Ziju An’s palace.

Su Yan watched his boyfriend run around like a headless chicken and grinned. It seemed he had done a good job at pretending to be Dou Fang Hai. Just look how flustered Nie Chang was! That was called causing mischief! He was surprised that Nie Chang wasn’t doing a better job though. He didn’t seriously believe that a reclusive Master like Ziju An would get this panicked just because his disciple vanished, did he? Ah, he should go and give him some hints for the remainder of the time they had to stay here!

He sneaked over as quietly as he could before jumping beside him. "Master! Look what I found!" Then he pushed his hands up and in front of Nie Chang’s face, his lips curling into a mischievous grin.

Nie Chang stared at the muddy tuft of grass with the snail on it and raised his brows. He took a deep breath to calm down and turned to Su Yan. "So my little darling went to get a tuft of grass?" Without telling me no less, so that I would be worried to death? He didn’t dare to add that sentence but the way he tightened his lips probably communicated his mood quite well.

Su Yan pursed his lips and raised his chin. "No! Look at it! I obviously found a magical snail. It’s my contracted spiritual beast now."

"Your …" Nie Chang sighed and rubbed his brow. Alright, he should give it up. There was no way to win against Su Yan. He shouldn’t even try. "Well, it’s good that you’re back. I was worried."

Su Yan pouted and put the tuft of grass with the snake down on a cupboard, before jumping into Nie Chang’s arms and cleaning his fingers on the pristine white robe. "It’s really cute that you’re worried about me but you have to be careful! With how panicked you were looking when I came back, everyone would have figured out that you’re not Ziju An."

"Mn. You’re right. Your boyfrie—"

Su Yan smacked his hand onto Nie Chang’s mouth. "Careful! You can’t just casually say something like that. You’re my Master now."

Nie Chang nodded, regretting that he had brought up staying in character. Shouldn’t this be alright when they were alone? He didn’t speak up though. His little darling was obviously very much into his role now. He couldn’t disappoint him.

Su Yan lowered his hand with a satisfied smile. Ah, staying here for a while wasn’t too bad! After he managed to reach the fifth level, they should come here again and explore a bit more. Speaking of that … "Ah Chang, I think I found a way to cultivate!"

"Really? That’s great!" Nie Chang didn’t bother to remind his darling that he shouldn’t be calling him 'Ah Chang' either if he didn’t want anyone to know that he wasn’t Ziju An. As long as he was careful when others were around, it should be enough. "Then how about you train a bit while we wait until it’s time to go to the city?"

Su Yan pursed his lips. "Don’t you want to know what I came up with?"

Nie Chang looked at the spatial ring that held the flying sword he had wanted to try using. If the Sect Master and that Elder Yue came over to leave together and he fell from his sword, wouldn’t they know what was up? It seemed he’d have to thicken his face.

"Darling, I would naturally love to hear everything about it. But, you see, something like cultivation … I’m afraid I won’t understand it if it isn’t through such a simple method as Ziju An’s way of cultivating. Explaining your well-thought-out method to me would be like playing the qin to a cow. I really can’t allow that. No, it would be better for you to train while you have the time. After all, we’ll have to go to the city soon and then return home as fast as possible. When else will you get the opportunity to cultivate?"

"That’s right …"

"See? So you shouldn’t lose any time! Don’t worry. I won’t bother you. I’ll go and take a look around so I won’t be acting out of character later on."

Su Yan nodded happily. "Alright! You better look very closely! We can’t have you make another blunder!" He tiptoed and kissed Nie Chang on the lips before hurrying back to the study and sitting down on Ziju An’s very special chair. Ah, he really wanted to cultivate!