It was only after he had extended his hand that Qingtong realised he had done something stupid. It had become a habit to put his paw into the man’s hand whenever he showed his palm, so now his body acted on reflex. Qingtong frowned and immediately took his hand back.
Mo Tianliao was a little regretful after that smooth feeling left his palm. When he noticed that his master had walked over to a lounge chair and sat down and was looking back at him coldly, Mo Tianliao immediately shook off those thoughts and hurried over.
“Is anything the matter?” Qingtong received the glass cup that one of the servants handed to him and lightly sipped a mouthful of tea.
Mo Tianliao pulled his gaze away from his master’s pink lips with some difficulty and spoke up, “This disciple has something important to report to Master.”
Qingtong set down his cup and dismissed the servants around them with a wave of his hand.
Mo Tianliao walked up to his master’s chair and kneeled down on one of the soft cushions on the floor. He then kowtowed respectfully as he said, “O Wise Master, you have already seen through this disciple’s secret… This disciple is indeed a reincarnated person. Please forgive this disciple for not reporting this to Master beforehand.”
Qingtong looked down at Mo Tianliao’s lowered head. He tilted his head to the side with confusion as he tried to understand what this person was saying. By the time Mo Tianliao looked back up, Qingtong’s usual cool facade had already fallen back in place.
Mo Tianliao was impressed by how his master remained unruffled by his declaration. As expected, his master was different from those so-called elders who liked to act high and mighty. His master’s composure was cool yet natural, and much more like an otherworldly immortal.
“This disciple’s previous identity cannot be revealed at this moment, but please rest assured, Master. This disciple will never put Heavy Cloud Sect in danger, nor harm Master.”
“Mm, you may get up now.”
Mo Tianliao couldn’t read any emotion from his master’s acknowledgement, but the tension in his shoulders still faded away. He sat up properly on the cushion. Since he had already revealed his secret to his master, he could now openly discuss his cultivation questions with Master without any reservations.
Actually, Mo Tianliao didn’t really need much guidance with regards to cultivation. He knew very well how best to cultivate at each stage. However, there were some special circumstances thanks to his current body, so he still had to make some adjustments here and there. Who better to consult than his own master?
“Everything has a spirit, and so does heavenly wood. Give it a try,” Qingtong listened to his questions about the Wood-Igniting Technique and gave him a tip.
His master’s voice was as lovely as the birds chirping in the mountains. Mo Tianliao could listen to it forever. Although he didn’t really understand what his master meant, he still nodded and memorised those words first.
“There’s one more thing…”
Since it was rare to meet his master, Mo Tianliao wanted to report everything at once.
“Lately, the second-generation disciples have handed over the administrative tasks for our abode to this disciple to manage…” He looked up at his master and noticed that there wasn’t any change of expression on his face, so he took it as permission for him to continue.
Previously, the administrative tasks had all been under the control of a few disciples. They didn’t handle things fairly, nor were they very efficient at their respective tasks. After looking at how the sect handled this, Mo Tianliao had created an administrative department to handle distributing resources, missions, and other tasks so that everything would remain fair.
Of course, he hadn’t done this purely out of the goodness of his heart. Yesterday, he had realised that he needed even more qi to cultivate than most. Just depending on the ambient natural qi alone wouldn’t be enough, he needed large amounts of spirit stones to supplement his cultivation. Furthermore, he intended to forge some spirit weapons in the future. Making weapons wasn’t cheap, he needed large amounts of resources for that. He had established an administrative department in order to keep control of the abode’s resources in his hands, so that things would be more convenient for him.
Qingtong looked at him without any trace of surprise in his clear eyes. He slowly spoke up, “You don’t have to explain, just do whatever you like.”
After that, Qingtong stood up and turned to leave with a toss of his sleeves.
“Ah, wait, Master!” Mo Tianliao quickly chased after him.
“There’s one last thing! The day after tomorrow is Yanlie-shixiong’s birthday. The Sect Master wants to host a grand celebration this year, so Master has to prepare a gift for Yanlie-shixiong.”
“You can bring this to him on my behalf.” Qingtong took out an exquisite-looking bell from his sleeve.
On the way back to his courtyard, Mo Tianliao examined the fist-sized bell closely. The outer part was made of stone and there was a glass pearl on the inside. It made a cheery tinkle when he shook it and it looked beautiful, but… as exquisite as it looked, it was just a normal bell… Indeed, this bell wasn’t a spiritual weapon… It was just a normal bell!
This was the present that a Half-Immortal stage elder had prepared for a Soul stage junior… A big, beautiful bell!
Mo Tianliao felt that this gift was like a hot potato.
Perhaps there was some hidden meaning to it? As someone who had just entered the sect, he couldn’t possibly know of some of the deeper secrets of the sect. Mo Tianliao scratched his head and kept the bell carefully. It was time to continue training in the mountains.
After he had succeeded in absorbing qi, the third chapter of the <Wood-Igniting Technique> had appeared. The third chapter had described three strange types of trees in the mountains, and how he had to chop them down for firewood and roast some wild birds over the fire.
After Mo Tianliao had swung his axe a few times and made a dent in one particularly thick tree, he narrowed his eyes as he noticed some green specks of light floating out from the cuts he had made.
“Everything has a spirit, and so does heavenly wood…”
Perhaps what Master meant wasn’t spiritual consciousness, but spiritual qi.
Mo Tianliao looked up at the tall tree he was trying to chop. It was a thousand-year-old Sinking Wood tree. The wood of this tree was very heavy and would sink immediately in water, thus its name. It was an excellent material for forging throwing weapons. Even a hundred-year-old tree would be able to sell for a good price, and this one was already a thousand years old!
What made spirit stones valuable was the qi trapped within them, so it was natural that the more expensive materials for forging weapons contained qi within as well. However, while the qi contained in spirit stones didn’t belong to any particular element, the qi in wood and herbs were wood element qi, which humans weren’t able to absorb.
Mo Tianliao frowned slightly. Humans might not be able to absorb this qi, but he wasn’t a normal human now. Since he could see the green wood qi, maybe…
He lifted up the axe and chopped the tree once again. When he spotted the green specks of light floating out of the tree, Mo Tianliao immediately circulated the qi in his body. The qi from the thousand-year-old Sinking Wood tree whirled in the air and formed a snaking line as it quickly entered his body through his fingers. Although humans couldn’t make use of the qi from heavenly wood, his divine wood body could absorb it for him.
He wouldn’t even need to meditate to absorb qi then, he could just cultivate while chopping trees! He wouldn’t need to waste time trying to absorb only the elements he needed, since chopping wood would definitely release wood qi!
Thus, Mo Tianliao happily chopped trees for the whole day.
When he had finished chopping down the Sinking Wood tree and was slowly cutting it down to smaller pieces for firewood, a white cat had somehow appeared on a rock nearby. The sleeping kitten’s white fur was dyed orange from the light of the setting sun.
Mo Tianliao walked over to the cat and dusted off the wood bits on his hands before picking up the cat. The sun was in the midst of setting, so the rock would turn cold soon.
The normally alert kitten didn’t wake up even after he held it in his arms, and continued sleeping soundly. Mo Tianliao’s smile faded and he carefully slid it into his inner shirt. He then squatted down to start the fire. While waiting for the fire to grow, he used his axe to pare down some wooden needles, making them about three inches long.
A master toolsmith could make anything even with the simplest of tools. The crude axe turned into an agile little carving knife in Mo Tianliao’s hands. In what seemed like no time at all, a bunch of sharp and smooth needles was formed. He played with one in his hands and let it pass between each of his fingers.
Cluck cluck cluck… Not too far away, there were five colourful wild junglefowl scratching around in the dirt.
The needle spinning between his fingers came to a stop. Qi gathered at his fingertips, before the needle abruptly shot out from his hand, piercing right through a junglefowl’s wing and nailing it to the tree behind it.
“Xiaozhao, we’re going to have meat tonight!” Mo Tianliao looked down at the now-awake little furball peeking out of his shirt collar and brought him along as he went to retrieve the junglefowl.
Since the <Wood-Igniting Technique> had so many tasks which required roasting wild game, Mo Tianliao had started storing all sorts of seasonings in his small storage bangle. He pared down a few more logs of Sinking Wood down to long, thin sticks, which he then used to roast the drumsticks over the fire. Mo Tianliao sighed. Although Sinking Wood wasn’t particularly expensive, it was a rare and rather good material. Unfortunately, his storage bangle was already full of seasonings and clothes, so he couldn’t keep any of the wood. He had to make a new storage tool tomorrow, after attending Yanlie-shixiong’s banquet.
Once the man and cat had both finished the well-roasted junglefowl, they slowly made their way back down to Mo Tianliao’s courtyard.
Suwen had already been waiting in the courtyard for some time. When he saw that Mo Tianliao had returned, she immediately walked up to him and presented him with a tray, “Shishu, this is the present that this disciple has prepared, is there anything else we should add?”
Mo Tianliao had to go to attend Yanlie’s banquet the next day, so he naturally had to present a gift on behalf of their abode. Since he had just entered the sect and wasn’t familiar with Yanlie, he didn’t have to send something particularly valuable. A set amount of spirit stones and useful herbs would do, and all these could be taken out from the abode’s shared resources.
Mo Tianliao looked over the tray and saw that there wasn’t anything missing. He nodded and said, “Keep these for now, you’ll accompany me there tomorrow.”
Surprise flashed across Suwen’s eyes, “Understood, shishu!”
After sending Suwen away, a few of the white-clad servant girls from Qingning Palace came over.
“Jiejie, is there anything I can help you with?” Mo Tianliao smiled as he welcomed the servant girls into his room. These servants weren’t considered disciples of Woqing Abode and their cultivation wasn’t very high. They were just servants meant to serve the Branch Master.
The kitten curled up in his shirt tried to peek out, but was pressed back down by Mo Tianliao. Magic beasts were too valuable. His cultivation was too low right now, so he wouldn’t be able to protect Xiaozhao. He couldn’t let anyone catch sight of his little kitten now.
The little furball scratched him to express his displeasure. Those servant girls hadn’t reached a hundred years in age, yet this fellow was actually calling them older sisters! How shameless!
“We have come here under the orders of the Branch Master to send you a few sets of clothing.” The servants placed a few trays on the table, which held three sets of black Chinese-style clothing with wide sleeves.
“Black?” Mo Tianliao picked up one of the shirts and frowned. Most of the disciples in Woqing Abode wore white. Wouldn’t he look like one of Master Xuanji’s disciples instead if he wore black?
“Our Heavy Cloud Sect doesn’t have any rules regarding clothing, there’s no need to mind the colour.” The servant girls explained, before bowing and leaving.
Mo Tianliao thought back to the day he had entered the sect. When he had met the first-generation disciples in the main hall of the Heavy Cloud Sect, they had indeed been dressed in all sorts of colours. They could probably form a rainbow from the variety of colours they wore. However, the second-generation disciples of Woqing Abode were all dressed in roughly the same clothes, all in white. Perhaps to win the favour of their master?
The next day, Mo Tianliao wore one of his new sets of clothes. The black robe was matched with a jacket embroidered with silver cloud patterns. He wore a silver-inlaid black dragon crown on his head, giving off a striking aura. Since he had only worn normal cotton clothes previously, he hadn’t stood out at all. Now that he had changed into a proper set of clothes, his handsome looks were on full display.
The little furball sitting on the bed looked up at Mo Tianliao.
Finally, this idiot looks a little more presentable.
The cat then jumped onto Mo Tianliao’s shoulder and shook his tail.
Mo Tianliao lifted the kitten off his shoulder and placed him back on the bed. “Be good, stay here and play by yourself. I’ll come back later in the afternoon.”
The banquet would be filled with people. He couldn’t risk having someone notice his kitten.
Mo Xiaozhao wasn’t happy with this at all. He let out his claws and scratched at the bedsheets.
Mo Tianliao walked out into the courtyard and called out to Suwen, who was waiting outside, “Let’s go now.”
Suwen’s eyes were opened wide. She stared at her incredibly handsome shishu with her mouth agape. It wasn’t until Mo Tianliao called out to her again that she started stumbling along and following after him.
Carpenter: Shixiong, this present is from my master.
Disciple A: That must be some sort of treasure, maybe the sound of the bell attracts souls?
Disciple B: It must be some kind of key! Maybe the bell can open some secret training grounds?
Sect Master: Oh, this bell looks so pretty. Come, disciple, hang it around your neck!
This is what the colourful junglefowl look like:
Did you know that the junglefowl is the ancestor of our domesticated chickens? So… this meal must taste literally like chicken! XD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junglefowl