Cultivation Retirement Plan (BL)

Nan Wuyue regretted it as soon as he spoke, but Mo Yixuan had already heard him. He cocked his head back inquisitively, looking like an attentive servant with a tray in his hands. Only the indifferent gaze in his eyes spoiled the illusion.

“Yes?” Mo Yixuan asked.

Nan Wuyue wet his lips. Why had he called out just then? It was an impulse born from pure instinct—an urge to make sure his master didn’t leave. But he’d rather die than use that excuse.

“T...tomorrow, will I start training again?” he asked instead.

Mo Yixuan only fixed him with a long look. I see. So in the end, he’s still concerned about his cultivation. Better let him get to it. “Yes.”

Nan Wuyue furrowed his brows. “Then shizun...I’ll follow the old schedule.” He waited to see if Mo Yixuan had any objections, but only felt a twinge of disappointment when his master nodded without a word. I see. So in the end, he put on this whole act just to throw me back in the mud again!

How could Mo Yixuan have any idea what the old “Mo Yixuan” liked to do to his core disciple? He could only keep up this identity while gradually adapting it to himself. Although he had no qualms about jumping off a cliff the first day, Mo Yixuan...was starting to like this life in spite of himself. Ouyang Che was right: there were worse places than Star Pavilion Sect if he wanted to find some peace.

As he stared at Nan Wuyue’s uncertain expression, Mo Yixuan assumed that he hadn’t made himself clear enough. “Just do as you used to,” he affirmed.

Nan Wuyue lowered his head to hide his dimming eyes. “Yes, shizun.”

“Mm.” And Mo Yixuan gracefully made his exit before the boy could say another word.

—

As it turned out, Nan Wuyue’s original training started at 4AM. That was Mo Yixuan’s own estimate, at any rate—he didn’t have any clocks here beyond that of the natural world. For the past few days, he’d been spending his nights meditating in his study after discovering it granted him rest similar to sleep. Outside, the world was still dark and the birds hadn’t even started chirping, yet he clearly heard the sounds of physical exertion coming from the courtyard.

Mo Yixuan paused just long enough to peek out the window: there, as expected, was his disciple Nan Wuyue, running through a series of exercises as a fine sheen of sweat graced his brow. He wasn’t alarmed by the sight, as plenty of martial artists in his world had similar grueling schedules. But he did take in the thin silhouette of the boy and resolved to make him a proper breakfast later.

With that, Mo Yixuan went back to meditating.

As soon as Nan Wuyue felt the presence studying him disappeared, he subtly changed his movements into the standard techniques for all Star Pavilion Sect disciples. Years ago, Mo Yixuan had taken him aside as a core disciple and given him “exclusive teachings” for him to train in secret. He was to get up well before dawn everyday and complete the entire set 10 times, then go off to alternate between various chores and qi exercises all morning.

Who would have thought that all of those teachings were fake?

Who would have known that Mo Yixuan told him to keep things secret simply because he was teaching him the wrong things on purpose?

Those exercises not only impeded his cultivation, they made it impossible for him to properly control and circulate his qi! He foolishly tried to fix it by practicing even harder, which worsened his condition and nearly crippled him psychologically with the heart demons that came with each successive failure. By the end of his last life, even channeling the smallest bit of energy caused him massive pain and effort.

Mo Yixuan’s methods were nothing but poison! A lesser disciple would have succumbed to cultivation insanity, but Nan Wuyue had miraculously survived. Yet with a useless body and no cultivation skills, he was better off dead!

And yet, after all his care, Mo Yixuan had told him to do “as he used to” last night.

He’d be an idiot if he repeated the same mistakes! Just then, he had sensed his master checking in on him—Mo Yixuan was certainly more vigilant than in the past, when he’d slept through the early morning hours while he was sweating up a storm. But that would only work as long as Nan Wuyue didn’t leave his sight!

He had plenty of ways to deal with his master’s shoddy instruction on his own.

Mo Yixuan, don’t think you’ve gotten the best of me! This time I’ll break free of your trap and cage you in it instead!

—

While a certain disciple was silently vowing vengeance against his master for the nth time, the sun rose up and Mo Yixuan finished his meditation with spirits refreshed. He strode out the side door and headed straight for the kitchens, admiring the early morning mists enveloping the surrounding mountains.

Days of cooking for Nan Wuyue had seen him amass a sizable store of ingredients up in Mt. Jingting, enough to feed a growing boy. He selected a few and was soon on his way to making millet porridge and warming up some steamed buns on the side. The aroma of cooking food reached Nan Wuyu in the courtyard, who stopped to sniff the air in spite of himself. When his stomach growled, he only scowled and put more force into his next punch—all while keeping carefully out of his master’s sight.

It wasn’t until Mo Yixuan had laid out all the dishes on a table in the courtyard that he went to find his disciple. Seconds before he rounded the corner, Nan Wuyue was back to training according to his master’s “secret instructions” once again.

“Come eat breakfast,” Mo Yixuan stated simply.

“Yes, shizun.” Nan Wuyue didn’t protest and simply followed his master back. But his eyes couldn’t help but narrow at the modest feast laid out before him. Notably, there was only one pair of chopsticks to go with the plate and bowl.

Seeing his disciple stand around staring blankly, Mo Yixuan suppressed a sigh and said, “Have a seat.”

Nan Wuyue obediently sat down, but he didn’t do anything to the food besides stare.

“It’s millet porridge and meat buns,” Mo Yixuan explained patiently.

“Shizun made them yourself?” Nan Wuyue finally asked. He’d sensed no one else around when he smelled the cooking, so that had to be it, but it still flabbergasted him. He’d never seen Mo Yixuan cook in his life.

“Doubting your master’s skills?” Mo Yixuan asked.

“It’s not that, but…” How am I supposed to know you didn’t slip something else inside?

“You’ve been doing nothing but eating my cooking for the past few days,” Mo Yixuan went on. “There’s nothing special about today’s breakfast, either.”

He stated it so casually that Nan Wuyue almost forgot to be surprised. But when it hit him, his head whipped up. So Mo Yixuan had cooked for him more than once! He thought Qing’er or someone else had been providing all the meals.

How foolish. Who would think twice about a waste like him? Then again, why did his master start making meals when he’d never bothered in the past?

“But I’ve recovered,” Nan Wuyue could only say dumbly.

“You have,” Mo Yixuan nodded. “But you’ve yet to be ‘well.’ Now eat.”

Nan Wuyue’s first reaction was that there was a plot afoot! But when he recalled the dragon pearl, he felt better. If anything tried to act up in his body, at least the treasure would buy him time to act. As before, Mo Yixuan patiently watched Nan Wuyue finish his food. Days of observation had given him a good gauge of how much the boy could eat without stuffing or starving himself. Since he was going to train today, he’d make sure to fill the meatbuns full of protein to give him strength.

Mo Yixuan silently nodded when Nan Wuyue finished, then rose to collect the plates. “What are you working on this morning?”

“First was physical training, now comes qi manipulation and meditation,” Nan Wuyue listed neatly. It was what “Mo Yixuan” had always told him to do.

“Mm.” As Mo Yixuan made to leave, Nan Wuyue quickly caught up and took the plates from him.

“It’s alright, shizun, leave these chores to me!” He dashed to the kitchen before Mo Yixuan could protest, eager to get rid of any traces from the bowl and plate. Who knew what someone could do with these samples? More had been done with less in the case of cultivators’ blood, hair, or other trace vestiges.

Not thinking much of it, Mo Yixuan simply used the free time to think up a menu for lunch instead.

Having washed and dried the breakfast things, Nan Wuyue made his way to the clearing in front of the bamboo woods where he’d been training that very morning. Mo Yixuan was already present, sitting on a rock. He nodded at Nan Wuyue, indicating he could began when he was ready.

It wasn’t strange for his master to supervise his training, so Nan Wuyue went straight to channeling his qi without a murmur—of course, by using the faulty methods that “Mo Yixuan” had always taught him. He assumed that the man would leave after a few minutes of inspection, but Mo Yixuan was still sitting on the boulder after ten minutes had passed. Moreover, his expression had grown increasingly intense until he was now frowning with furrowed brows.

Nan Wuyue was too busy cursing his master to guess what he might be thinking. With Mo Yixuan here, he couldn’t revert to the correct training methods! He could only attempt the wrong ways taught to him by this bastard over and over again! Just as all traces of his grudging goodwill from the surprise breakfast vanished, Mo Yixuan opened his mouth.

“Stop,” he said simply.

Nan Wuyue dropped his concentrating stance, secretly relieved he didn’t have to keep doing the faulty exercises. But he soon tensed as his master stood up and glided in front of him. As Mo Yixuan bent down, Nan Wuyue subconsciously took a step back to increase the distance between them.

Seeing this, Mo Yixuan remained where he was, still knitting his brows. “You…”

Nan Wuyue immediately bowed forward. “Disciple is slow and stupid, may shizun forgive my incompetence!”

No, Mo Yixuan thought, This isn’t something like that. Although he hadn’t studied cultivation, he could see the way Nan Wuyue was channeling his qi was completely wrong. Each step forced the flow of energy in the opposite direction it was meant to go, not only compounding his efforts but also creating undue stress on his meridians—or whatever cultivators called the vein-like pathways that extended through the body. The more he watched, the more certain he was that Nan Wuyue was doing his training completely backwards.

“How did I use to teach you?” Mo Yixuan asked.

“....” Nan Wuyue only stared at him blankly. You have the gall to ask me that now? You know full well what you’re doing to me!

To Mo Yixuan, the boy’s silence only confirmed that he had no idea what was wrong. Luckily, fixing the mistake was as basic as reversing his movements.

“Can you sense qi?” he asked. When Nan Wuyue nodded, Mo Yixuan gestured to himself. “Follow my lead.”

Like Nan Wuyue, Mo Yixuan mentally reached for his dantian area, located in the abdomen, and slowly drew out a tendril of qi. He waited until Nan Wuyue followed suit, then led the boy on a complete circulation cycle of the energy around his body until he got it himself.

Nan Wuyue had been reluctant at first, but soon picked up the pace and started circulating the qi in perfect tandem. Satisfied, Mo Yixuan stepped back to watch his disciple work and nodded when he completed five rotations on his own. Now the qi flowed freely and easily, even repairing some of the damage it had done against the meridians from before. His gaze flickered up to Nan Wuyue’s face, only to catch the boy staring at him with an unreadable expression.

Ouyang Che had mentioned more than once how “Mo Yixuan” despaired at having such a useless core disciple, but he had just corrected a simple problem that was obvious at a glance. Just how little had the original host done for this boy? How much had he tried to sabotage instead, and why? The curiosity lingered in his mind until Mo Yixuan shelved it aside. He was only here to pay off a master’s debts, not create lasting connections.

“This is how I’ll teach you now,” he said when Nan Wuyue finished the exercise.

His disciple’s gaze flashed with an expression too fast to catch before he murmured, “Why…”

Mo Yixuan waited for him to finish the sentence, but the words seemed stuck in Nan Wuyue’s throat. He arched a brow at that as he clasped his hands behind his back.

“You said I know your wrongs,” he intoned. “It’s time I started to fix them.”

Nan Wuyue’s stare intensified. Mixed feelings swept through his head as he looked at the man before him who had suddenly morphed into a stranger. Was this the same Mo Yixuan who had ruined his cultivation base and nearly left him to the beasts? Or was he the cool but patient caretaker that fed him, taught him, and admitted his mistakes?

Did his master mean him well, or ill?

Nan Wuyue found himself unable to decide. Perhaps the best choice was to find a way to test him for good…

“Am I interrupting something?”

A new voice reached the clearing, making both master and disciple look up. Mo Yixuan’s expression grew bland when he saw Ouyang Che languidly making his way into the bamboo clearing. The man had arrived so silently that he hadn’t sensed him at all. Nan Wuyue immediately cupped his fists and made a polite bow.

“This disciple greets Peak Lord Ouyang!”

Mo Yixuan made no such overtures as he leveled Ouyang Che with a look. “What do you want?”

Today, Star Pavilion Sect’s Primary Peak Lord was playing with a leaf between his fingers as he sauntered over to them both. It was the perfect expression of his character: relaxed and lazy, yet somehow sharp. His slender digits smoothed out the item in his hands before placing it between his lips to toot a truly awful sounding note.

“I’ve been hearing the most fantastical rumors about you cooking,” Ouyang Che said, ignoring Nan Wuyue in favor of giving Mo Yixuan a grin. “How about having me over for lunch?”

---

Nan Wuyue's breakfast, millet porridge with steamed buns: