Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

9. Master Chef

He wasn't the sheep in the tiger's lair, but the fox let loose in the henhouse!

Nan Wuyue's gaze darted around the well-furnished room and its elegant details. He was lying on a large bed surrounded by fine gauze curtains next to a large window (currently closed from the cold). Multiple candles illuminated the bedroom, giving it a cozy feel despite the wide, empty spaces. There was a single table set up neatly with brushes, ink, and a blank piece of paper, ready for its owner to start writing at anytime, and shelves filled with Mo Yixuan's favorite collection of empty bottles and vases.

Star Pavilion Sect had only been founded one hundred years ago and was considered young for its age. Its first sect leader had led his five disciples to claim the Nine Heavens Range and its valley after a fierce fight against their enemies. Later on, four more cultivators joined their number, each of them taking a mountain and becoming one of the sect's nine peak lords. After the sect master passed away, the eldest senior brother Fei Chenling assumed leadership and gave his peak lord position to his strongest disciple atop Mt. Linglong (綾龍). Second Senior Brother Ouyang Che, on the other hand, became the primary peak lord in Fei Chenling's place.

Nan Wuyue was too young to witness the founding of the sect, but he knew that Mo Yixuan had played a part in it too. Peak Lord Mo possessed three key treasures that helped him in battle: his sword, a life-saving dragon pearl, and the mystical guqin currently stored in one of his rooms. Finding his sword was impossible—as a weapon with a will of its own, it kept out of sight until Mo Yixuan needed it, but he hadn't used it since an intersect competition almost 50 years ago. The guqin was in a different area of the house, and as for the life-saving dragon pearl...

Nan Wuyue only knew that it was plucked from the claws of a dragon—not by Mo Yixuan himself, but an ancient hero—and granted the user temporary immortality for a time when activated. Like his master's other two treasures, it had been all but abandoned after Mo Yixuan became a peak lord, and was currently stored in this very room. The rumors went that Peak Lord Mo collected so many empty containers because he was always putting the pearl in a different one everyday, but Nan Wuyue didn't believe it. The more someone tried to make a fuss, the likelier he was trying to hide the true story. Steel-gray eyes swept across the room, passing over the bottles lining the shelves and walls before resting on a small crowd of them at the side of Mo Yixuan's table.

He carefully listened for any signs of his master, then peeled himself off the bed to make his way towards the table. They rested in a corner just beyond the calligraphy brush stand, 10 separate bottles left in a haphazard circle instead of the neat shelves and rows. Five were made of jade, two of porcelain, one of ivory and one a beautiful silvery bronze. All of them vied with each other in terms of beauty and exquisite details—all, that is, except one.

Nan Wuyue's eyes settled on the smallest, plainest bottle with a triumphant smile.

Target acquired.

—

When Mo Yixuan left the bedroom, he realized belatedly that he had left his outer robes on the bed. But seeing as how he'd dry off easier without an extra layer, he simply kept walking. At the front door, he collected the bag that Qing'er had left behind yesterday and peeked at the contents: the medicine was all in neat bottles, while the food she had mentioned was actually a box containing a bowl of still steaming porridge. Mo Yixuan gave it a sniff, then an experimental taste: it seemed fresh despite all the time that had passed.

Cultivators. They had the answer to everything, didn't they?

His next step was to go right back, but the sight of the wet footprints he'd left around the house alerted Mo Yixuan to the fact that he was still dripping wet. With a sigh, he meandered through the house before reaching another room—this one for bathing. More importantly, there was a mirror on the wall. For the first time since transmigrating to this world, Mo Yixuan gave himself a good look.