Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

13. Declaration of Intent

Before Mo Yixuan could press him for details, Ouyang Che looked out the window and clicked his tongue. "Seems like I'm running late. Let's talk again another day, junior brother!"

Mo Yixuan grabbed Ouyang Che by the sleeve before he could slip out the door. "You haven't finished explaining yet!"

"That gives me an excuse to visit again," Ouyang Che gave him a cheeky look. "Of course, nothing's stopping you from investigating the two yourself."

"Didn't you just tell me to avoid them?"

"Are you really going to listen to every single thing I say?" Ouyang Che blinked at him. "While I'm flattered, doesn't that make you seem like a fool?"

The sudden insult made Mo Yixuan start. In his last life, he'd been screwed over precisely because he took too many things spoken at face value. Why was he still repeating the same mistakes? Even if he knew nothing about this world, Ouyang Che wasn't his only source of intel!

"I'm joking!" Ouyang Che's laugh broke through his train of thoughts. By the time Mo Yixuan looked up, the other peak lord was already deactivating his sound barrier and strolling out the door. "As long as you mean no harm to the sect, I'll have no ill will towards you, Mo Yixuan."

Mo Yixuan dashed after him, but Ouyang Che was already out of sight by the time he emerged from the kitchens. A rush of irritation filled him as his eyes swept across the courtyard, finally resting on the figure of the teen dressed in black who had finished washing the dishes. Sensing his master's look, Nan Wuyue dried his hands and picked up the basin full of plates and cutlery.

"Shizun, I'm done."

"Mm." Mo Yixuan responded noncommittally.

"Then, I'll be putting these awa—"

"Hold it," Mo Yixuan interrupted when Nan Wuyue was about to move. "Let me take a look at you."

As the boy froze in his tracks, Mo Yixuan strode up to him and inspected him from head to toe. Once again, too skinny rose up in his mind as his lips curled in dissatisfaction. How was he supposed to justify beating up a waif like this? Wouldn't it just be child abuse?

Sweat had soaked through the back of Nan Wuyue's shirt and dotted his forehead as he stood rigidly for his master's examination. Once more, it was an oddly clinical process that only involved looking at him from a distance; his current master had long forsaken the head pats and shoulder squeezes so favored by the fatherly Mo Yixuan of old. Of course, he thought sardonically, the fact that I saw him as family at all shows how childish I used to be.

Everything else aside, his stomach was killing him. He really needed to use the restr—

"Still not enough," Mo Yixuan muttered, breaking Nan Wuyue from his thoughts. His head shot up, but his master was already walking away.

"Shizun?" he called out.

Mo Yixuan paused as he looked back at the thin, solitary form. Surely it wouldn't hurt to give the boy a little bit of advance warning? Ouyang Che had said to attack him by surprise, but Nan Wuyue looked as frail as a stick! The type who'd break a bone if he so much as threw a pebble at him! With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Mo Yixuan voiced his intentions.

"...I won't try to kill you today," he stated calmly. "But starting tomorrow, I'll take every chance that I get. Be prepared."

He saw the minute widening of Nan Wuyue's pupils and silently approved. Good, it seemed like the boy had gotten the message. Although, maybe I should have explained the rest of it first...