Shen Nyan's taile

Final preperations

He sits on the roof of a building and looks down at the older disciples as they continue with their studies or chores. It's a good day; the weather is sunny.

Today, Jiu-ge will be returning with the young disciples from a hunt, and, well, let's just say that he too has accomplished a great deal while his ge has been away during the last few days.

He has been more successful at sneaking around during these few days than in the entirety of the few months he has lived there.

The reason for that is the peak lord meeting is very soon, and right behind that is the disciple selection, where Luo Binghe will show up.

Of course, there was his chat with Shang Qinghua; they had talked about what's going on at the moment, just in general. They're too far from any actual important plot development to plan too far ahead.

The thing is, as a beast who isn't even an official member of Qing Jing Peak, it'll be hard to affect how Luo Binghe is treated. However, he has been trying to make a point to Jiu-ge to treat the disciples better.

However, he has been preparing a few things that he can probably sneak to Luo Binghe to help, like some blankets and a pillow, since the poor child will be sleeping in a woodshed.

Also, a few changes of disciple robes, since they're bound to get torn up during the bullying. God, he's so pissed off that he probably won't be able to stop that.

While yes, those were a hassle to get, reading through every book that Jiu-ge has just to find an extra cultivation manual that the disciples use was probably the most difficult task.

He had to steal a disciple's cultivation manual to know what he's looking for, and then he had to manually search for one amidst Jiu-ge's books. And there are a lot of books.

But now that's all done, he has hidden them in a little hole in the forest. Now he can just laze around since there's no one forcing him to do meditation or some other cultivation exercise every second.

He has perhaps had the most human interaction with people besides Jiu-ge during these few days. Disciples would come up to him, pet him, or give him treats.

The sound of the disciples gathering snaps him out of his thoughts, and he turns to look over. They're greeting their Shìzūn. Jiu-ge is back.

He should go see him too; it feels weird to admit, but in a way, he missed him. Well, more like it's been strange without him since he hasn't had pretty much any privacy before.

Shen Yuan sits up and stretches a bit before jumping down from the roof, landing on a railing below and walking along it before dropping all the way to the ground. He's not even sure how he can move in such an agile way; maybe it's just this body's muscle memory?

He runs over to the small crowd of disciples and gets swooped up by Jiu-ge, whom he didn't even notice. The man holds him up by the armpits before carrying him like a normal person would.

Now it's subtle, but he notices the way Jiu-ge slightly smiles. He can't really say anything as a greeting while in beast form, so he just brushes his head against Jiu-ge's sleeve.

All the disciples that had taken part in the hunt seemed a little tired, but none are injured, so he assumes it was a success.

-

He had been a bit worried, leaving Xiao Yuan alone even if it is only for a few days, and it makes him relieved to see that Xiao Yuan is at the peak, hasn't lost any weight, and isn't hurt.

Ning Yingying looks at Xiao Yuan with excited eyes, and he has mixed feelings about it.

Somehow he's happy; he won't deny that Ning Yingying has always been a personal favorite out of all his disciples, but it also somewhat irritates him how many times Ning Yingying tries to get close to Xiao Yuan.

"You all, get back to work. Those who have just returned, go to the dormitories and then help with chores. Don't be lazy."

He then walks away, and any disciples on the way move aside so that he can walk through. He's not interrupted and reaches their bamboo hut with Xiao Yuan still in his arms.

Once they're inside, he is met with Xiao Yuan's not-so-scary glare, now back in human form again. "The children have been hunting and traveling for two days, and you're telling them to get back to work and not be lazy?"

Xiao Yuan continues to ramble about how he should've given them time to rest as he proceeds to dress. Seriously, the issue with transforming and clothing needs to be addressed.

What if his Jing suddenly needs to transform while out? He certainly doesn't want Xiao Yuan out there in human form, and he definitely would murder anyone who looks at him while nude.

He has tried looking into it, but the problem is that qi is energy that is in everything that lives.

Now, the simple fact is that even though clothes are made from things that may have once been alive, it'd be impossible to use qi to change them along with Yuan's form.

It might be possible with the methods that demons use to cultivate, but that's obviously out of the question.

"Jiu-ge, you told me to pick an instrument to play since you're not letting me use swords for reasons I still think are quite weak," he hummed to show that he's paying attention.

"Which do you think would fit me better, a xiao or a dizi?" Xiao Yuan asked while putting on the final layer of clothing.

"Xiao Yuan, this isn't something you can just decide that easily. You should think about it more and come to a conclusion by yourself."

He crosses his arms and sighs. He could probably tell him that the dizi is a bit easier to learn, but he doesn't want Xiao Yuan to pick the dizi just so he can put in less effort.

Xiao Yuan just nods at that. "Did something happen while I was gone from the peak?" Ge hadn't noticed anything amiss, but it's still good to ask.

"No, nothing." That makes him ease up and sigh. He wasn't even aware that he was worried about it to that extent.

"There's going to be another peak lord meeting." He's still not sure if he'll be taking Xiao Yuan, though, since last time didn't go all that well.

Well, that's what he thought, but when Xiao Yuan perks up and looks at him. "Can I come with you?" He really doesn't want to say no.

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Mama bird is back and he has no idea that the baby has flewn out of the coop meanwhile.