Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

5. I'll Live As I Died, Alone

"Other disciples?" Mo Yixuan echoed. "Are matters between a master and his core disciple open to scrutiny for every pair of ears in the sect?"

He was unimpressed, because this was similar to something in his past life. Back when he'd mentored Shangguan Yin in the company, the two had plenty of chances to work alone on projects. But somehow, little accidents would always happen and the details leaked to various staff members! Inevitably, Shangguan Yin was always the one getting injured and Mo Yixuan being seen as incompetent at looking after his juniors—or worse, plotting his mishaps on purpose.

Eventually, Mo Yixuan discovered that it'd all been an elaborate ploy by Shangguan Yin to win sympathy for his side, but by then everything was already far too late.

So what was really going on between the injured master and his hopeless charge? A scheming mentor aiming to highlight the uselessness of his disciple? Or a crafty student leaking evidence of his teacher's misdeeds despite popular opinion supporting the elder? Perhaps it was all really nothing but a series of unfortunate accidents. Perhaps Mo Yixuan really was that meddlesome, and Nan Wuyue truly that clumsy.

None of that mattered in face of the fact that these were their affairs, not his.

Before him, Mu Yelian opened and closed her mouth a few times. It was true, there was something strange about Mo Yixuan's recent injuries after every task he undertook with Nan Wuyue. But it was equally odd that news of it spread throughout the sect every time! Cultivation was a private affair, and when it came to core disciples, matters between teacher and student were kept under wraps to preserve the secrets of the teachings. Mu Yelian didn't have core disciples of her own, but she understood the basic logic. So why were Mo Yixuan and Nan Wuyue's doings as public as city wide proclamations in the secular world?

"It's only because you're too nice!" she decided after some thought. "I had to drag the answers out of you plenty of times, and the rest came from your disciples that saw you injured and spread the word amongst themselves! It's not like Big Brother Xuan was walking around announcing his slights to the world."

He didn't have to. Things like that required subtlety to sell themselves off as sincere, and there were plenty of mouths under "Mo Yixuan's" tutelage that were willing to do the work when requested. Mo Yixuan only marvelled at the naivety of the girl before him and wondered how she'd managed to secure her position as peak lord with such simple views.

"Few see the world as straightforward as you do, junior sister," Ouyang Che remarked, giving voice to Mo Yixuan's own thoughts. "I suppose we should take this to mean that Junior Brother Mo has no objections towards Nan Wuyue, as usual?"

Mo Yixuan looked up to meet Ouyang Che's gaze. There was no expectation there, only an open-minded curiosity, leaving him free to choose. He thought over everything he'd heard so far, then compared it to what he knew about this world. In the end, the choice was obvious.

—

Sometime later, a freshly bandaged Nan Wuyue was led back to the doors of Mu Yelian's estate, where he stood waiting patiently for his master to emerge. His talk with Qing'er had went well enough that she shyly patted his sleeve in reassurance before leaving him alone.

What surprised him was that Mo Yixuan reappeared not only with Mu Yelian, but Ouyang Che as well. The regaled scholar and medical genius of Star Pavilion Sect was effectively second-in-command after the sect leader, an unreadable man who had even aided him a few times in his last life. That didn't mean he considered Ouyang Che trustworthy; no, it was more likely that the man did whatever amused him at the moment, as long as it brought no injury to the sect. But it was true that Ouyang Che harbored an intense dislike of Mo Yixuan, so to see the two men standing side by side without coming to verbal blows was a revelation.