Nan Wuyue’s motives were simple, because he had nothing to lose. Either his master would throw him off in a fit of rage, exposing his temper in front of the sect leader and losing enough face to take him away, or the sect leader would show up first, see him hugging his master like a human popsicle, and cause Mo Yixuan enough embarrassment that he’d whisk them both away.

In any case, it was a tried and true fact that Mo Yixuan prided himself on appearances and abhorred things that placed him in awkward positions. He worked hard to maintain the image of a cool and distant immortal despite having little of the qualifications; it’d taken Nan Wuyue a while to unmask him in his previous life because he’d been naive, but he was too keen to fall for the same old tricks now. So he simply clung on and waited for the inevitable, glorious fallout.

Mo Yixuan jostled briefly, but when that yielded no results, he simply gave up and stood still as a matter of habit. If you couldn’t beat the flow, better to let it wash over you until it passed. Like most unpleasant things, the strange teen was shoved to the back of his head as his gaze drifted to the flying cultivators in the air. Would he be strong enough to carry the extra weight if he flew? Could he even fly, if he didn’t have his sword handy? Where was it, anyways…

Even the clamor of his three other disciples went blissfully over his head as they shouted threats at the boy holding him fast. Thus was this scene that sect leader Fei Chenling and his companion happened upon as they caught up with the crowd.

Seeing his youngest junior brother stare peacefully into the distance brought Fei Chenling nothing but unease, but the sight of Nan Wuyue holding him captive only incensed him.

“Rascal, release your master this instant!” With a roar, he stepped forward and bodily dragged Nan Wuyue aside.

Behind him, Mo Yixuan’s senior brother Ouyang Che (歐陽澈) was quick to signal the other disciples to go, leaving the three of them standing on the path with Nan Wuyue sprawled painfully on the ground.

“Sect leader…” Nan Wuyue mumbled.

“Fool! Can’t you see that your master’s just emerged from the qi refining pool?” Fei Chenling snapped. “Leave him be!”

Nan Wuyue mentally sneered even as he widened his eyes. “Shizun submerged himself in the waters? But that’s dangerous!” Tch, it’s more likely he splashed himself with water before walking right out!

“I’ve heard about this one. Nan Wuyue, aren’t you?” Ouyang Che stepped forward, looking unimpressed. “You were personally chosen by Peak Lord Mo at the last disciple selections, but you’ve brought him nothing but trouble and disappointment. From what I’ve heard, you were the reason he went to the qi refining pool in the first place!”

Fei Chenling’s eyes narrowed at those words. “A burden upon his master and a bane upon the sect? Why haven’t we driven him out yet?”

“In the end, he’s still Peak Lord Mo’s disciple…” Ouyang Che reasoned, although he looked none too pleased.

Nan Wuyue’s gaze darted quickly between them both before resting on Mo Yixuan. Why isn’t he reacting yet? Banishment from the sect would affect both of their reputations, but Mo Yixuan was supposed to care more about such things. He should have spoken up by now!

Mo Yixuan simply brushed his sodden robes as he listened impassively to them all. Apparently the clingy teen was a personal protégée. He met gazes with the battered boy, taking in his intense stare below glancing away again. What kind of master was this Mo Yixuan to take in someone so pathetic? Or if not pitiful, then someone he couldn’t even discipline properly? If even the cultivator close to the sect leader knew of his mishaps, then what was Mo Yixuan still doing keeping Nan Wuyue around?

He searched his mind for scraps of memory, but none were forthcoming. There wasn’t even the usual chime or electronic ding associated with a magical sci-fi System that would show up in a setting like this to guide or penalize his way to the answers.

Who was he?

What was his purpose here?

There seemed no more point to this life than the last, besides the better scenery and starting point. His gaze darkened at that thought, and the sudden dip in mood sent a sudden wave of volatile qi spiraling out of his body as a tempest.

“Yixuan!”

“Junior brother!”

Both Fei Chenling and Ouyang Che cried out at the same time.

Sensing that things were turning for the worst, Nan Wuyue wasted no time in throwing himself at Mo Yixuan again. “Shizun, please don’t get angry!”

This time he latched onto his master’s arm. Mo Yixuan immediately attempted to throw him off, but Nan Wuyue held on stubbornly. An errant lash of qi struck him in the shoulder, leaving a nasty looking welt. Mo Yixuan glared at him in exasperation.

“Let go,” he finally growled between gritted teeth.

Nan Wuyue firmly shook his head. “Where shizun goes, this disciple will follow!”

Mo Yixuan’s lips thinned into a flat smile. “Would you follow me if I jumped off a bridge?”

Before Nan Wuyue could reply, his master had already stepped to the very edge of the mountain path and leaned over backwards. There were two ways down the summit from the crystal crystal: the forested path taken by the three disciples who’d been shooed away, and the narrow one that overhung a steep drop. Now Nan Wuyue’s grip on his arm was the only thing keeping him from plummeting down into the rocks below.

“Shizun!” Nan Wuyue didn’t have to fake his alarm this time. What kind of scheme is he plotting this time?

“Let go,” Mo Yixuan repeated.

“No!” Fei Chenling butted in.

“Don’t be rash!” Ouyang Che exclaimed.

Cultivators could fly by channeling their qi into a medium such as swords or other implements, but few could manage the feat on their own. The realms of cloud stepping and air walking were the stuff of Immortals, not humans cultivating on their way to the divine! If their junior brother fell now, he’d simply crash to the rubble below!

Mo Yixuan swept his eyes over them all, his eyes distant and aloof. With the vortex of errant qi swirling about his features, his robes and hair had just about dried, leaving him looking solemn and imposing. Once more, he tugged on his arm, but Nan Wuyue was still holding fast.

“Yixuan, if he vexes you that much, I’ll get rid of him personally!” Fei Chenling burst out, his furious eyes on Nan Wuyue. “Can’t you see that your master wants you to release him?”

Nan Wuyue shook his head stubbornly. “Shizun must still be affected by the qi refining pool. He wouldn’t put himself in danger like this!” No, he cherishes his worthless life too much for such tricks.

“Miscreant!” Fei Chenling abruptly unsheathed his sword and stalked forward. “Watch me chop your hands right off!”

At the same time, Mo Yixuan took advantage of their distraction to give a mighty wrench, loosening Nan Wuyue’s claw-like fingers. There was a ripping noise as his sleeve tore before he went tumbling over the edge.

As the cries of the three men followed after him, Mo Yixuan simply shut his eyes. They were so noisy. He thought he’d found peace, yet there was nothing but a racket here. Maybe if he died again, he could go back to where he came from. In the end, all he wanted to do was rest…

—

Two things happened shortly after Mo Yixuan fell off. First, Nan Wuyue leapt off the cliff after him and grabbed him around the shoulders. His reasoning was simple: if he was going to do something this crazy, at least his master could be a human cushion when they landed on the rocks. Then he’d be able to salvage the situation by playing off the “loyal to the point of idiocy” disciple he’d managed so well before.

Secondly, Mo Yixuan stopped falling. The tempest of qi around him died down, freezing him in an eerie calm. As soon as Nan Wuyue touched him, he instinctively sought to stand up and get away from the boy. Inexplicably, his body obeyed until he soared into the air with the youth hanging off him. At this point in time, Nan Wuyue was still shorter than his master, so his feet were left dangling in front of Mo Yixuan’s shins. It was unpleasant having a human-sized weight dragging at his robes, so Mo Yixuan automatically moved his arm to circle around his disciple as ballast. As a result, it looked like he was embracing the teen.

Fei Chenling and Ouyang Che took in the sight of the duo in the air and couldn’t decide how to react first.

“Junior brother’s cultivation,” Ouyang Che began, “Has really advan—”

“That little rascal’s got his hands on Yixuan again!” Fei Chenling sputtered. “The nerve of him! I’ll chop off his arms, too!”

Mo Yixuan simply felt a flicker of annoyance as he glanced at the boy glued to his shoulders.

“Shizun…” Nan Wuyue mumbled quietly. He looked like a kicked puppy—an ugly one, given the state of his swollen eye.

Mo Yixuan didn’t reply. Instead, he made his way back to the mountain path and landed, disciple and all, in front of the sect leader and Ouyang Che. He wasn’t sure what to do with his arms, so he simply left one hanging by his side while the other rested around Nan Wuyue’s waist. It was this hand that Fei Chenling stared at before something clicked into a horrible, unpleasant revelation in his head.

His junior brother Mo Yixuan had always been an unpredictable, moody child with a will of his own. As the youngest boy of their late master’s five disciples, he’d been cared for by the rest of his senior brothers throughout his cultivation life. After growing up, he’d turned distant and indifferent, but his pride was as strong as ever. Anyone who insulted him or his disciples earned a terrible, blistering wrath. Few dared to cross him after that. The only exception…

The only exception was this child, Nan Wuyue! A youth with remarkable latent talent, he’d been discovered by Mo Yixuan on one of his sojourns and led to Star Pavilion Sect’s disciple selection ceremony, where he was taken under Mo Yixuan’s wing as his first and only core disciple! He was destined to outshine his peers, and yet all he brought his master was disappointment. Failure to master even the most basic of qi channeling techniques, a dunce at everything else—the only thing the child had any skill in was cooking, cleaning, and normal martial arts. He could have excelled in the secular world with that alone, but they were piddling skills in the world of cultivation! Eventually, Nan Wuyue became a subject of ridicule even as his master turned into a topic of pity. Lament the proud Peak Lord Mo and his useless waste of a disciple!

Despite this, Nan Wuyue strove his hardest to please his master, even enduring all sorts of humiliation to defend his namesake as a core disciple. Fei Chenling wasn’t completely blind to internal affairs within the sect—he saw and recognized Nan Wuyue’s loyalty, even if brought nothing but grief. He truly believed that the boy would have a better life if he didn’t cultivate at all. An excuse to chase him off the mountains would be perfect to get him away, especially since Mo Yixuan himself seemed in no rush to banish the boy. No, perhaps his pride prevented him from toying with the very notion.

But what was this now?

Mo Yixuan had obviously advanced in his cultivation and jumped off the cliff to test his useless disciple’s convictions. Anyone with common sense would have seen it as a death wish, but the little fool had actually leaped off after his master! Then Mo Yixuan had saved Nan Wuyue and carried him back up the mountain to stand before him as a united front.

Just look at the two of them hugging each other like father and son! A stubborn junior brother and his hopeless charge—what was he to do about them?

In truth…

Mo Yixuan felt another flicker of annoyance pass through his head. His disciple’s grip was really something else. Try as he might, he couldn’t get free. Wasn’t he supposed to be the master in this relationship? Where did he get a student with such sticky fingers?

For the third time that day, Mo Yixuan knitted his brows and glared at Nan Wuyue. “Let. Go.”

Surprisingly, Nan Wuyue actually obeyed, looking a little lost. But by the next second, he’d grasped Mo Yixuan’s free hand with his own. An odd noise rose in front of them; looking up, Mo Yixuan witnessed Fei Chenling’s face go through a series of interesting expressions before finally settling on an angry resignation.

“You two…!” he raised an accusing finger before trailing off with a huff. “Hmph, do as you want! I won’t interfere anymore!”

As Mo Yixuan blinked, Fei Chenling turned on his heel and stalked off. Ouyang Che gave them an appraising glance before nodding a farewell.

“Junior brother, take care not to channel qi again for a few days. I’ll be paying a visit to you soon.” He completely ignored Nan Wuyue as he turned to trace the sect leader’s steps down the opposite side of the mountain.

Now only the two of them were left. Nan Wuyue peeked up at Mo Yixuan worriedly, his face a flawless mask of concern. “Shizun, I…”

“I’m not your shizun.” Mo Yixuan cut him off abruptly.