When Mo Tianliao returned to the inner palace, Xuanji was squatting by the bedside staring at the soundly asleep Qingtong.
When the little brother he had struggled to raise had been taken away during childhood by this demon, it was sort of understandable, after all, he was still young. But now he was a Great Beast at the Half-Immortal stage and he had let himself be abducted again, and by the same person no less! How could he not get mad as an older brother?! Xuanji was determined to give Qingtong a good scolding, he would demonstrate to him the dignified authority of an older brother.
Seemingly sensing his presence, Qingtong opened his eyes a bit, glanced at the sullen Xuanji, and yawned, making some tears appear at the corner of his slightly red eyes. Then, while looking at Xuanji with those teary eyes he said, “I want some water.”
Mo Tianliao had made a pot of tea before leaving and he had left it on the small table by the bedside. Reflexively, Xuanji reached for it and poured some into a cold jade cup, he blew on it and handed it to Qingtong.
Qingtong did not even get up, he merely lifted his head and drank the tea from Xuanji’s hand, then he lay back, his eyes narrowed in contentment.
Xuanji shook his head and chastised himself, wasn’t he intending to demonstrate the dignified authority of an elder brother? He could not fail to reprimand his younger brother just because he looked so cute. So he cleared his throat, took a deep breath, put on a fierce expression and said, “Qingtong!”.
“Hm?” The groggy Qingtong, who wanted to go back to sleep, pried open his eyelids and looked at him.
“If that bastard dares to mistreat you, just tell shixiong.” Somehow, the words that he had meant to say seemed to change by the time they got to his lips. Xuanji choked and his face went red with embarrassment, so he only managed to squeeze out this sentence.
“Hm,” Qingtong answered, closing his eyes and going back to sleep.
“Do you intend to stay at the Mo Palace with Mo Tianliao?” With Qingtong’s icy pupils not currently visible, Xuanji’s mind managed to clear up a bit so he began to earnestly persuade him, “You mustn’t. You can’t go running after some guy just because he asked you to, things easily obtained are rarely treasured.”
Qingtong slowly opened his eyes and looked at Xuanji, he was silent for a moment and then said, “I know.”
Mo Tianliao was standing just outside the door holding his breath and hiding his presence by turning into wood. His heart caught in his throat when he heard this exchange.
“The truth is, I myself decided to return to the Mo Palace with him.” Qingtong reached out and patted Xuanji’s head. “Otherwise, I feared he would just decide to deliver himself to my doorstep as my own personal scratching post.”
Xuanji was rendered speechless. That wasn’t the point!
Mo Tianliao ended up spitting the breath he had been holding when he was surprised into a laugh, the two people in the room immediately noticed that he was outside the door.
Xuanji was startled, he could not figure out how that man had gotten so close.
Putting a fist to his lips and coughing softly to mask his reaction, Mo Tianliao soberly walked over, sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up one of the slender, white hands resting on the thin blanket. “I knew that Master would not let me down.” Once he said this, he slowly lowered his body and leaned close to the drowsy Qingtong, then gently rubbed his face against his.
Qingtong purred and licked his chin; his cat was always unusually good-tempered whenever he felt sleepy.
Xuanji covered his eyes, turned around and walked away in silence, then he crouched on the ground and hugged his shell.
Mo Tianliao coaxed Qingtong to sleep before walking out of the bedroom. He squatted next to Xuanji and said, “I know what you’re worried about.”
“Oh?” Xuanji turned his head, seeing him stroke his chin as if savouring a delicious memory, he had to struggle not to throw his shell straight at that disgustingly handsome face.
“I won’t make a blood pact with Qingtong, and I won’t find another Demonic Beast,” Mo Tianliao said seriously, looking into Xuanji’s beady eyes. “Even if I’ve returned home, I’m still a member of the Woyun Sect, so if you ever need anything, just ask.”
Only then did Xuanji put away his shell, he stood up and patted his clothes. “I’ll choose to believe those words.”
Mo Tianliao smirked and stood up as well. “We are family now. Come along, second shixiong, I’ll give you something nice,” He said, walking ahead.
Crack!
The hard tortoise shell hit Mo Tianliao squarely on the back of the head, making him stumble.
“Who the hell are you calling second shixiong!”
The pair of them bickered all the way until they reached an exquisite octagonal pagoda on the outer palace.
“That’s where I hid my treasures,” said Mo Tianliao, pointing to the pagoda standing on a cliff.
These past years, because of the conflicts between the demonic sects and the righteous path, it had been difficult for the two factions to work together, so not many of the tokens that could be used to cross the barrier had been issued. This in turn created a bottleneck that led to his Mo Palace being essentially undisturbed for 300 years, miraculously preserving Mo Tianliao’s lair.
Xuanji gazed up at the seven-storey-high, exquisite octagonal pagoda, which towered into the clouds. It stood atop a protruding cliff and was made of precious stone, casting a colourful halo under the rays of the sun. There was no way to reach it other than flying, but if one were to get near, a tremendous repelling force would appear, making it impossible to enter.
Mo Tianliao, his eyes glittering, unlocked the door with his mind and the repelling force instantly disappeared. The two of them walked easily onto the ground floor of the pagoda.
Xuanji was so overwhelmed by the methodically arranged contents of the place that his jaw dropped. He had thought that Lord Duantian’s treasure trove would have walls covered with top-quality spiritual swords, jade boxes filled with rare and precious materials, countless treasure-like pills, and flying vessels that were spiritual treasures littered everywhere.
But… just what the hell was all this!
A chipped jade bowl, a threadbare little quilt, a badly scratched piece of FuSang wood, and even… fuzzy little trinkets made out of fur.
Mo Tianliao delightedly held up a fuzzy kitten that was only about the size of a palm, it had two translucent Liuli beads embedded in its snow-white fur for eyes and a pink little nose that was carved in such a way that it looked precisely like Qingtong’s when he was little.
“Doesn’t it look just like him? It’s made from what he sheds when his coat changes every year,” boasted Mo Tianliao, “I’ve made a whole set.”
So saying, he opened a cabinet and there they were, a whole row of “Mo Xiaozhaos”, some sleeping, some eating, some playing with Liuli beads, each and every one vividly crafted.
Xuanji’s jaw practically reached the floor, it remained that rinkets quite a while. Right now, he really believed that Mo Tianliao would treat Qingtong well. This was not love, it was clearly a mental illness!
Mo Tianliao showed off his various treasures in front of Xuanji before taking him to a door which led underground.
The actual treasures turned out to be underneath the pagoda Xuanji realised, following Mo Tianliao down. The neat and tidy treasures above had led Xuanji to believe that Mo Tianliao was a well-organised person, but when he saw the situation underground, he was immediately disabused of that notion.
This place was indeed worthy of the title of “Demonic Lord’s Treasure Vault”, with a dazzling array of precious magical weapons. However… they were all laying haphazardly on the ground like rubbish!
“The Sunset Sword!” Xuanji picked up an orange spiritual sword from the junk heap. This was the Sunset Sword which was once famous in the righteous path, a fire-attribute spiritual sword with an aura like a setting sun over a deep blue river, too beautiful to look at it head-on. Qingyun Sect’s Chi Xia Zhenren had taken it with them when they had ascended.
“Since there actually were a pair, the second one can fetch a good price once it’s sold,” Mo Tianliao said breezily, rummaging through his rubbish heap.
Xuanji’s mouth twitched, looking closely, there really were quite a few famous artefacts from the Taixuan continent which Mo Tianliao had probably tossed here because they were “rare commodities“.
“Now people suspect Liuyun Sect of deception, but there’s no way to hide my return, people will notice soon enough. Mo Tianliao finally pulled out a sack and threw it at Xuanji’s feet. “Shixiong should go back as soon as possible, before people think that the Woyun Sect is colluding with Duantian.”
Xuanji looked at the sack at his feet, he opened it at Mo Tianliao’s indication and then stared at its contents wide-eyed, it was a sack full of ten-thousand-year-old Mysterious Hemp!
This hemp grew in bitterly cold places, it was perfectly black and as solid as obsidian, it could even be thrown into a furnace to make weapons. With a ten-thousand-year-old Mysterious Hemp one could make a top-grade spiritual weapon!
“The hemp rope I weave is not very good. Shixiong, take this with you and weave it yourself. Once it’s done, bring it here and I will make a spiritual weapon for you.” Mo Tianliao put the sack into Xuanji’s arms, picked up the Sunset Sword and led him out.
Mo Tianliao sent Xuanji away but had the tiger and bear stay behind to help out.
He had no minions at present, so he needed Mo Xiong to spread the word around once he went back to being a Half-Immortal. Meng Hu stayed to serve as a rug for his cat.
The tiger carried around the “Sunset Sword” given to him by his shidi and his face remained stuck in an expression of awed happiness for a whole day, he said goodbye to his shibo while wearing a big smile and ended up being severely scolded by Xuanji for being “heartless”.
There were still a few Woyun Sect disciples inside trap arrays, Xuanji went inside them and pretended to rescue them, then he carried them out and they escaped the Mo Palace. The disciples shed tears of gratitude and quickly returned to the sect with Xuanji.
Mo Tianliao had taken a look at Liu Bi and the others who were still struggling inside the trap array and found that many people had already died. He did not care about them; however, Liu Bi was still alive and well. He moved a few more large arrays around the trap array, ensuring that those people would not be able to get out for at least a year. Then he happily returned to the inner palace, jumped into bed and rubbed himself against Qingtong, who had just woken up.
“Baby, people will soon realize that I’ve come back,” Mo Tianliao said apprehensively. “When that happens there will be another bloody battle, but my cultivation is still at the Nascent Soul stage. Therefore…”
“Therefore?” Qingtong raised his eyebrows.
“Therefore… We should take advantage of this time to dual cultivate a lot!”
“…”
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Guys I need to go to the hospital for a possible blood clot as a consequence of my fall. I’m going right now after posting this so please be patient while waiting for the next chapter.