The Grandmaster’s weird disciple [BL]

The cultivator, a late-stage of the ninth level, found the situation both amusing and aggravating.

He could see that this Xie Yi was trying hard to appear courteous and polite but his eyes were calm with nonchalance and disinterest.

As he had heard; if the youth wasn’t interested in you, he absolutely couldn’t fake it.

He was trying hard, though.

It was a fake politeness but that the boy, who couldn’t care less about the person before him, was acting polite at all was already a show of his earnestness to strike a deal with him.

Tang Jiu was a man who took great importance in courtesy and respect. It was only because he wasn’t a Master that he insisted to be called by his first name or ‘Teacher’.

Many younger disciples hated him for it but had to bow their heads in the end. If they wanted to buy something from him or borrow his forge, they had to go past him.

The brat in front of him had come to ask for a test.

He had quite directly told him what he wanted and, after five seconds of pause, added that he would pay for the help with whatever the forger wanted.

“What were you thinking of offering?”, Tang Jiu asked in curiosity. 

“Mmmmoooo…”, Xie Yi started.

Tang Jiu raised his eyebrows.

Xie Yi changed the word he was starting to say. “-...aaaaaa-”

The eyebrows lowered again.

“-terials?”, he finished.

Tang Jiu nodded in satisfaction. He did not care about money and preferred things that were more useful.

“So, I’d go fetch whatever material you need and in return, you conduct a test so I can prove to Master that I can use a forge”, Xie Yi repeated with a declarative tone.

The forger rolled his eyes. “You make it sound simple. You can fight disciples of a higher rank than you, correct? How do you handle beasts?”

“Easily”, Xie Yi honestly replied, not caring that it sounded like it was boasting. “Depends on how many at once, of course, but I’m very good.”

“Let’s see if you have the right to say that. I want a Mist Serpent’s core and eyeballs.”

Xie Yi frowned and tried to remember the beast.

A poison-user that attacked like an assassin; always hidden and hunting in silence. While usually lone hunters when mature, the younger ones often got together into larger, very troublesome groups. Of those, half would stay hidden and the other half would distract. That was why people always said to only hunt matured Mist Serpents and run when you met a little one.

If he wanted to fight one, he’d have to fight dirty.

Xie Yi felt elated - that was an opponent right to his taste!

“I’ll get it for you”, Xie Yi agreed, raising his hand.

Tang Jiu took it and shook it once with a heavy grip. “Pleased to make a deal with you.”

Xie Yi did not hesitate to run towards the main building and up the stairs. Curtly knocking at the door, he rudely barged into the room.

“Master An”, he called out when he saw no one. A rustle came from the backroom and he approached it.

As usual, Master An had retreated to her corner until someone came in.

Xie Yi watched her wrestle herself out of the mountain of blankets that she’d gather in winter and place her book away.

She gave him a wry smile and roughly smoothed out her clothes before hurrying to her actual workplace at the table.

“I gotta go out to hunt for a beast”, Xie Yi said directly, following the old woman. She did not have many wrinkles but her hair had grown white and the formerly blue eyes had dimmed down to grey.

Pushing up her glasses, she flipped through the notes in the ledger.

Already knowing the process, Xie Yi walked over and allowed her to place a small instrument against his bracelet. His information appeared in glowing letters.

“Oh, right, you have just returned from one, haven’t you? Don’t you want to take a break?”, she asked with a frown. “It’s dangerous to go out hunting if you’re exhausted.”

“No problem”, Xie Yi rejected her goodwill. “I’ll be out for a few days again. I’m searching for a specific one.”

“Which would be?”

“Mist Serpent.”

She frowned a bit and her forehead knitted. “Those live in the valley. That’s not exactly a place for-”

She stopped herself when she spotted Xie Yi’s uncaring expression and sighed. “Well, you have hunted in similar areas before. But keep in mind that this one is a bit special.”

She looked over his recent missions with a complicated gaze and pulled out a small wooden sign. It glowed shortly when she inserted her spiritual power and placed it against Xie Yi’s bracelet to link it to him.

He took it from her hands and placed it into his satchel. If he died on a mission, the corresponding one here would break as well. Other than that, it was pretty much used only to prove that he had permission to leave the sect.

He gave her a short bow and turned around to the door when he heard her voice.

“Xie Yi”, she called hesitantly and he stopped to glance over his shoulder.

Her lips were pursing. She clearly opened her mouth to say something but ended up shaking her head, instead. “It’s nothing. Take care of yourself.”

“I will”, Xie Yi perfunctorily agreed as he left.

After informing Xu Yan, he went to convince Mingtian not to follow him.

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t come along”, the puppy growled. “Only idiots reject a safety measure. If I don’t need to intervene, great! But don’t you think I should be around?”

“No”, Xie Yi firmly rejected. “I’m going alone.”

“Give me a good reason.”

“If I’m going out anyway, I might be able to catch a rat. The more others are around, the less likely to catch it.”

Mingtian’s tiny white teeth showed. “Xiao Tian, you-”

Xie Yi smirked. It was involuntary but he made no effort to pull his lips down. They were dragging up high enough to let his eyes form slit moons.

“I want him to come out”, Xie Yi sang, the excited quiver breaking through his voice. “I want him to give me a reason to hunt him. He is pissing me off, MingMing. I want to crush him.”

The unusual expression softened. Xie Yi flexed his fingers that he had cramped into tightened fists.

“Well, I won’t, though. At least not like I want to. Shi Yue always says that retaliation is alright, but it has to stay at an appropriate level. Right now, I want to teach him a lesson. I can’t rely on you with that. If I can’t handle myself with him, it’ll be impossible with those damned old men.”

He smiled sadly and smoothed Mingtian’s raised fur. “I might be making a mistake, but-”

“No. I’m sorry. You’re right”, the beast interrupted him. With his rough tongue, he licked the palm in front of him. “It’s a bad idea for me to try to keep you safe all the time. If you can’t make your own mistakes, you can’t learn how to deal with them. And if I always accompany just because I’m worried something might go wrong, you won’t be able to grow.”

“So you’re letting me go?”

“Hm. Go and see what happens. Maybe things will go perfectly well. If they don’t, you always have me and Shi Yue.”

“Un”, Xie Yi hummed. “I know.”

He leaned on his arms in thought. Mingtian wagged his scorpion tail, looking very much like an unassuming puppy.

“I’m really quite bloodthirsty, aren’t I”, Xie Yi commented, his eyes a bit dazed.

“Oh, Xiao Tian”, Mingtian sighed. “Aren’t we all, deep down.”

“...?”

“I’m telling you, most people would love bashing someone’s head in. Wanting to get rid of annoyance is a common reaction. As long as you don’t actually do it, it’s no one’s business. So go ahead and tear him apart in your head. Just not in reality. ...Yet.”

“Even Xue Hua?”, Xie Yi asked with raised eyebrows. He could not imagine the bird wanting to kill someone for stupid reasons.

Mingtian laughed a wolfish laugh, making it quite the funny sight. 

“Him? I’ll tell you something. When we were younger, there was a beast around who believed that everyone should bow down to him. He took a fancy to Xue Hua and in his eyes, that meant that Xue Hua had to obediently get married off to him.”

His head bobbed up and down as if he was quietly laughing to himself.

“One day, that guy tried to push Xue Hua down - ...ah, meaning, he tried to force Xue Hua into doing it with him. The next day, he left the village. Turns out that Xue Hua’s reaction was to make sure he wouldn’t be interested in forcing himself on anyone ever again.”

The wheels turned in Xie Yi’s head for a while as he went through what he knew about the process and fast ways to cause a man to lose interest without being drugged like himself.

A thought popped into his head that went well with Mingtian’s gleeful expression. He winced. Not that he could understand the emotional pain, but he sure knew that this was a very sensitive area.

“That’s… an, uh, interesting way to retaliate.”

“And very appropriate. If anyone tries to force themselves on you, Xiao Tian, feel very free to crush their balls. Bastards don’t deserve anything else. And if it’s a woman… Hmmm, have to think about that.”

“Crush their balls. Got it”, Xie Yi obediently nodded.