NOVEL NEXT At the same time, Gu Yunjue, who hadn’t realized he had already become someone’s target, was not in a good mood either because Mu Chen suddenly received some message he didn’t know, then got rid of him and flied away. Gu Yunjue kept his freezing eyes on the back of Mu Chen and saw his little master disappear out of his sight like the wind he couldn’t catch, leaving him only to watch his Master leave away from him.
Although seeming calm on his face, even no complaints being caught in his eyes, still the killing intent extended from Gu Yunjue revealed his terrible mood now. He could catch up with his Master but he couldn’t do that because his devilish power might be exposed. In that case, he would lose the one he wanted to protect. He couldn’t afford such a heavy loss.
Sensing that threatening killing intent, Guan Shan, who had just arrived in a hurry, paused where he was immediately and dared not to get a step closer.
Gu Yunjue drew back his sight and his eyes looked dark as the ink, deep as the dark ocean whose end no one could see through, and serene with terrifying danger and killing intent hidden beneath.
Guan Shan’s heart trembled at that glance and he said hastily: “Young Master, what you asked me to investigate is all here. Please check it.” With that, Guan Shan handed a jade slip over before Gu Yunjue in a polite manner with his head lowered.
Gu Yunjue took the jade lip and read it over soon, his face, which looked fairly calm minutes ago, was now decorated with a flicker of smile, his tone sounding as usual but the killing intent hidden in his words made Guan Shan shudder out of fright.
‘I know that. I know once Young Master hears about this news, he will become furious.’
“So, I see.” Gu Yunjue slightly narrowed his eyes and crashed the jade slip into pieces. He had ordered his men to investigate the relationship between Mu Chen and Chen family, and now the result was in his hand.
‘His Master, who he cherishes with all his heart, does have such a family behind him.’
‘No wonder my little master has such a cold temperament.’
The powers controlling the Immortal World included four Sects, three Islands and five Clans, and Chen was one of the five Clans. Mu Chen’s mother – Chen Yixin was the beloved daughter of the last leader of Chen Clan, who had such an exceedingly beautiful appearance and an outstanding talent that her family placed great hope on her; but no one had expected that her spiritual vein would be destroyed when she was out learning through experience, and worse, she got pregnant before marriage and eventually gave birth to Mu Chen.
In two years after Mu Chen was born, she passed away.
However, Mu Chen’s father never appeared even when his mother died. No one knew anything about his father except for his family name, Mu.
Chen family all hated Mu Chen’s father who they even considered as the chief criminal of Chen Yixin’s death. Then, Mu Chen, who was just two years old at that time, lived alone in Chen family. Without Chen Mo, his little master’s elder cousin’s shelter, Mu Chen would have already been executed. But even so, Mu Chen had been mistreated and almost killed several times. Mu Chen managed to grow up to 13 years old with the help of Chen Mo. To have someone accompany Mu Chen, Chen Mo particularly adopted Liu Hanzhi who was ever an orphan as Mu Chen’s playmate. So Liu Hanzhi and Mu Chen lived together since very young, bound to each other much more intimate than true brothers.
As his thoughts stopped there, what was interrupted by Mu Chen when talking with Chen Mo occurred to Gu Yunjue.
‘The one who wants to see Mu Chen the last time must be little Master’s nominal grandfather, the leader of Chen Clan – Chen Xing who failed to breakthrough into Synthesis Stage and is dying.’
‘Regretting what he has done when he is about to die? Or he just misses his own daughter because little master is the only child of his daughter? Or is it a cry for help because of little master’s profound cultivation and high status?’
Then, a cold smile came up on the corner of Gu Yunjue’s mouth, and he just hummed with no expression.
————
As for Mu Chen, he left others behind and hid his own trace to the back mountain of Hanyang Palace, only to see a little one arching under leaves in a hillock with only its bare head exposed to the air.
Mu Chen stared in shock as the little spotted pig hidden in leaves crawled out, who was about the size of a palm and whose body was decorated with seven white plum blossoms in a Big Dipper form, so shining and richly dazzling in the darkness. Mu Chen immediately recognized this little pig, “Xiao Liu?”
Shaking off dusts on his body and with his eyes red, Chu Qianshuang ran to Mu Chen, so quick that his body turned into a flash of golden light, and stopped in front of Mu in the blink of an eye, “Grand Martial Uncle!” Chu Qianshuang’s voice sounded helpless like a child who lost his parents, whose weakness softened Mu Chen’s heart.
Then, Mu Chen offered his hand to let Chu Qianshuang lie on his palm; and staring at this little spotted pig who had ignored the boundary to send pills to him in his previous life, he just felt thousands of feelings springing up in his heart.
‘This little pig was somehow the last one I could count on most at crucial moments. What had I ever done to him that he would give his faith in me? Chu Qianshuang believes me, so does Jing Ting and Jing Ming. What is it in me that attracts such little ones with pure souls to come close to me?’
After casting a body-cleaning spell on Chu Qianshuang, Mu Chen asked: “What happened?” A few minutes ago, Chu Qianshuang sent a message asking for help and asked him not to tell anyone, not even Liu Hanzhi. And now looking at Chu Qianshuang’s poor situation, Mu Chen was naturally worried, “You feel sad because your Master finds who you really are?”
Chu Qianshuang shook his head, “Master has already known it.”
Hearing his reply, Mu Chen felt confused and waited his explanation with his eyes still on the little golden pig in his palm.
“Master abandoned me. Grand Martial Uncle, Master let me leave!” Chu Qianshuang said with his tail dropping down.
Obviously, Chu Qianshuang was so frightened by his Master’s words that he turned into a little pig because that gave him a sense of security.
With his eyes wide open in shock, Mu Chen thought, ‘Although looking cold and strict, Liu Hanzhi still loves his little disciple and has never planned to take a new one. Chu Qianshuang may act naughty sometimes but still is obedient and thoughtful. Then, what on earth has Chu Qianshuang done that irritated his Master to such an extent?’
With that in mind, Mu Chen kneaded his pig ears and comforted: “I’ll escort you back. It’s better to speak it out if there is any misunderstanding.”
Chu Qianshuang shook his head as he dared not go back.
“Then, what about coming to Yanyang Palace with me?”
“No. I don’t want to go there either.” Chu Qianshaung would rather stay at hills in cold winds than go back to Yanyang Palace with Mu Chen at the thought of Gu Yunjue’s eyes that would freeze his blood the moment he got close to Mu Chen. “Grand Martial Uncle, could you put a good word for me in front of Master and tell him not to drive me away? I promise I will never say no to his words and will show my filial piety to them.” Chu Qianshuang thought, ‘Master often does what Grand Martial Uncle asks. As long as Grand Martial Uncle opens his mouth to ask, Master has to follow.’ Chu Qianshuang was picked up in Lost Forest and adopted by Liu Hanzhi since he was very young, so Chu Qianshuang depended on and loved Liu Hanzhi very much. When he realized he was going to be abandoned by Master, a strong feeling of hopelessness overtook him.
‘Hanyang Palace is my home and if Master abandons me, then where could I go?’
“Them?” Hearing this, Mu Chen got confused again and thought, ‘Why is there one more person?’ When realizing this person might be the main cause to Xiao Liu’s fear, Mu Chen held him up and looked into his eyes, asking: “Does it have anything to do with your Second Martial Uncle?”
Chu Qianshuan’s shocked eyes proved it all.
When his speculation was verified, Mu Chen found it both funny and annoying. Duanmu Feng was gentle in nature with a fine and attentive mind, while Liu Hanzhi hated to speak out his real thoughts, so Liu Hanzhi wouldn’t ever say it out bluntly if he loved someone. In the last life, both of them didn’t open their heart to each other for over one hundred and fifty years. And there had been a time, because of Mu Chen’s intimacy with Liu Hanzhi, when Duanmu Feng got the latter wrong and refused to talk to Liu Hanzhi for over twenty years; they almost became strangers. Mu Chen hadn’t realized that his close relation with Liu Hanzhi would cause a serious misunderstanding between the two.
‘Then, it seems many misunderstandings already exist between them.’
“Master became angry when he saw me return from second martial uncle’s palace. He said to me, ‘Go to Qiyang Palace and never come back.’” Chu Qianshaung looked discouraged with his ears down, “I eat a lot. Master must hate that.”
Mu Chen fell into silence, feeling quite speechless.
‘You’ve eaten much for so many years. He never said anything before. Apparently, Liu Chanzhi vented his anger on his disciple who was not to blame.”
Staring at the direction toward Hanyang Palace for a while, Mu Chen blurted in a sudden: “Idiot!”
‘Tell him if you like him. Otherwise he is prone to getting you wrong. You even vent your anger on your disciple now! Such an idiot!”
Eventually, Mu Chen still accompanied Chu Qianshuang back to Hanyang Palace.
Sensing that Mu Chen didn’t hide his own traces, Gu Yunjue, who had been playing I-Go with his left hand against his right hand in Mu Chen’s room, immediately dropped the black piece down to the chess board, rose up and darted out of Yanyang Palace.
Gu Yunjue arrived at Hanyang Palace, only to see Mu Chen and Liu Hanzhi floating overhead in the sky, one in the east and the other in the west. Both of them just stared at each other with no talk as if two mutes were fighting with eyes, their faces looking colder than each other and the atmosphere around them so freezing as if next second they could put the world into lightning and thunders.
Liu Hanzhi’s cool look was his normal life while Mu Chen looked cold when he was furious.
No one knew how these two managed to get along with each other.
All at Hanyang Palace watched them with anxiety, fearing that they might start a fight next second so powerful that the sky or the ground might be split into pieces, the sun and the moon might be eclipsed, and even Hanyang Palace might be destroyed.
Gu Yunjue only stood in the distance and had no intention to get closer, but he read some feelings out from Mu Chen’s expressionless face: disliking, despising, and scolding the ‘idiot’ facing him.
But what was on Liu Hanzhi’s face was only embarrassment.
Finally, after a period of having a cup of tea (roughly ten minutes), Mu Chen hummed angrily, and called him: “Idiot!”
Hearing that, Liu Hanzhi’s cold face twisted.
Finishing his scolding, Mu Chen pulled Chu Qianshuang who was hiding behind him out and threw him straight to Liu Hanzhi, “How very capable of you to scare a little kid with such low IQ!” Hearing that Mu Chen said he had low IQ, Chu Qianshuang dared not to refute. And upon seeing Liu Hanzhi’s emotionless face, Chu Qianshuang couldn’t help feeling scared and naturally shrank his neck, looking quite poor and pitiful.
After his last word fell, Mu Chen came next to Gu Yunjue and walked away with his disciple hand in hand.
Sensing his Master still in anger, Gu Yunjue reached his hand to pat Mu Chen on the back, asking in a gentle tone: “Master, are you still angry?”
Mu Chen hummed, “Idiot!”
Gu Yunjue actually felt furious and hadn’t let it off when he found his Master deliberately get rid of him. But now seeing Mu Chen’s lively expressions, Gu Yunjue was amused. His little master really possessed magic charms and could easily bewitch him with one simple expression.
But those expressions on Gu Yunjue’s face didn’t fall into Mu Chen’s eyes because the latter walked in front. With the most intimate person beside, Mu Chen became rarely more talkative and huffed: “Man must know clearly what he wants. Never put on airs and never take the other’s mistake too seriously because you may not find the one you love back if you lose the other. If you want someone, grab the one tightly and firmly, don’t let the one go and don’t give up halfway! If you don’t want the one, let her go and never turn back. Doing it neatly will do good to anyone!”
“It would be such a fool to discard the one you’ve fought hard to get, regret after giving up and then repursue the other again.”
“Keep the one you love in your arm’s length but give no concern to the other’s true heart, and order the other to do whatever you want, or calculate and take advantage of the other’s love, that kind of person is scum.”
“Then, true love is here but you torture each other because of the fear of losing face, that is an idiot!”
“To be concluded, an idiot is much worse than a fool or scum because the former knows his own feelings but he refuses to think for his own sake. So, if you have a crush on someone in future, you must say it out loud. Never regret when you lose her, like this idiot out there.”
The Sect Elder Liu who was called ‘idiot’ turned livid.
Noticing Gu Yunjue staring at himself in shock when he finished his words, Mu Chen exhaled a long breath in anger, “You may not understand what I said just now. But you will know it when you grow up.”
“Master.”
“Hmm?”
“If I meet someone I love, I will never let the other go.”
Mu Chen frowned: “If the other person doesn’t like you, you can’t force her. That is not what a man does.”
Gu Yunjue smilingly squinted his eyes, “Master, you’re right. I won’t force the one I love.”
‘I will vie for him. No one can escape from me once I like him. I will take him body and soul. If he disobeys me, I will tie him up. That’s what Master said just now, to grab my love tightly and never let go of him. Little master is so cute. He does have the same vision of love as I do.’
When they came back to Yanyang Palace, the child cultivator was waiting at the door, looking rather nervous. Mu Chen had already seen what was in his hands from a far distance, his look becoming more frozen.
‘Why do I have such a bad day?!”