After Becoming a High-Risk Master, I Flipped the Script Chapter 183

Mo Xuanli held Gu Baiqing tightly, burying his head in the blue-black hair that carried a cool plum fragrance. He was clearly so unwilling to part with this person, yet he had no choice but to leave his side.

He needed distance to restrain himself, fearing that like tonight, a moment of carelessness would make him unable to suppress himself, even drawing out his demonic nature.

He hoped that he and Master acting separately would show everyone that their master-disciple relationship was not that close, that they were gradually distancing themselves. That way, even if his identity were suddenly exposed one day, the damage to Master would be much less.

The demon race who knew his identity were watching him, ready at any moment to expose him and drag him into demonic corruption. He no longer had the right to continue pretending, to bury his head in the sand while hiding in Zixiao Sect, hiding behind Master, thinking he could take things slowly, thinking it would be fine if he was never exposed for an entire lifetime.

He knew very clearly that the war between immortals and demons was gradually drawing back the curtain. The time left for him was not much. Aside from gathering all the fragments to change himself, he had no second path. Perhaps on this mission, either he would succeed in changing his bloodline and return to Master’s side, or his identity would be exposed and he would fall into eternal d*mnation. What kind of future he and Master would have then, he did not dare imagine.

All of this weighed heavily on his shoulders, leaving him unable to think of any better way to protect this person other than temporarily distancing himself from him.

But still… he truly could not bear to leave this person, not even for a moment.

He allowed himself this indulgence, coming over and doing something improper.

He had thought that even if he begged Master, acted spoiled, cried, Master would not easily soften, would not allow him to harbor possibly impure thoughts and hold him like this on the bed.

He had thought he would be kicked away the instant he embraced him, struck and sent flying.

But none of that happened. Master merely gave him a small shock, neither painful nor itchy, something that could even be twisted in his mind into flirtation, into coy resistance.

In the end, Master still tacitly allowed his actions, quietly letting him hold him and release his reluctance to part.

How could he be this soft-hearted?

Why did he have to be this soft-hearted?

He truly wished Master could be a bit crueler to him, so that he could leave more cleanly.

With the alcohol still in his system, resentment welled up in Mo Xuanli. He suddenly murmured, “Master, you made another mistake. I said it before, don’t be so good to me. You should have told me to get lost.”

Gu Baiqing had not expected Mo Xuanli’s long silence to suddenly produce such a sentence.

As expected of someone drunk. His words were contradictory. He was the one who had shamelessly crawled in, and now he had learned to turn the tables.

Gu Baiqing said irritably, “Then get lost.”

“…I won’t.” Mo Xuanli hugged Gu Baiqing, nuzzled the back of his neck, and still couldn’t resist lightly making the motion of a kiss, though he didn’t dare actually kiss Gu Baiqing’s neck. At most, he brushed against the dark hair in front of him.

Gu Baiqing snorted coldly and couldn’t be bothered to respond to the little drunk pup.

The warmth behind him was comforting. There was actually nothing particularly suggestive about it. Gu Baiqing gradually got used to this kind of contact. He had already been overthinking all day, and with a familiar person beside him, he gradually grew sleepy. At this point, he didn’t have much energy left to deal with Mo Xuanli’s adolescent emotions.

Perhaps in Mo Xuanli’s eyes, they were about to be separated for a very long time, but to Gu Baiqing, that wasn’t the case. At most, it would be a brief separation. After that, for the sake of the mission, he would definitely go find Mo Xuanli again. It was just that the way to go about it would be a bit troublesome.

“Master, do you regret taking me as your disciple?” Mo Xuanli suddenly asked.

Gu Baiqing couldn’t even be bothered to open his eyes and instead replied, “Have you done anything that would make me regret taking you as my disciple?”

Mo Xuanli paused, seeming unsure how to answer. There was, after all. The secret of his mixed blood, his rebellious thoughts.

Gu Baiqing didn’t hear an answer from Mo Xuanli and could only say, “So far, you’ve performed quite well, so no, I don’t regret it.”

Mo Xuanli was silent for a while before saying, “Then don’t regret it in the future either. No matter what happens, don’t regret having taken me as your disciple.”

Gu Baiqing felt that after getting drunk, Mo Xuanli really was a bit childish. He absentmindedly soothed him, “Alright.”

After quite a while longer, Gu Baiqing was truly about to fall asleep when a voice sounded again from behind him.

“Master… don’t follow me… don’t come looking for me.”

Gu Baiqing jolted instantly, most of his drowsiness vanishing.

“I’m serious… don’t come… I’ll properly complete Taixu Hall’s assignment, I’ll also gather all the fragments, and I’ll be careful. When everything is done, I’ll come back to find you.”

Gu Baiqing thought to himself, is this kid really that resolute? Although he had no intention of showing up in front of him, hearing this still made him feel a little uncomfortable, as if he were being rejected by his own disciple.

“If you still insist on following me, I’ll think that your kindness toward me has crossed the line of a master-disciple relationship. When that happens, don’t blame me for… misunderstanding you again, and don’t blame me for being unable to sort out my own feelings. You can only blame yourself… so don’t follow me!”

Hearing this, Gu Baiqing wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the other party sounded as if he were gritting his teeth, like a vicious warning.

He was even using this kind of threat. He was clearly determined not to let Gu Baiqing appear before him for a while.

Perhaps he should feel relieved, even praise it. At least it proved that Mo Xuanli himself also felt that his feelings toward him were off, which was why he was so determined to sort things out.

Gu Baiqing silently sighed, his mood somewhat complicated.

Probably because he hadn’t heard a response for a long time, Mo Xuanli softly called out, “Master?”

“I won’t,” Gu Baiqing said in a low voice.

“…Thank you, Master,” Mo Xuanli replied softly.

Heh. You didn’t sound this polite just now.

Gu Baiqing was in a poor mood and didn’t want to speak anymore.

After that, Mo Xuanli also seemed to have nothing more to say, simply holding him quietly.

Eventually, Gu Baiqing fell asleep. In a hazy state, he vaguely felt that dawn had come. The person behind him moved, gently adjusting him into a flat position.

A chill came from his side as air slipped in. Gu Baiqing instinctively reached out and grabbed the sleeve that was about to leave.

The person who was caught paused.

He was already reluctant to leave, and this nearly finished Mo Xuanli off.

He had never known he could hate the morning sunlight so much. He also hated that feeling of being powerless to stop the passage of time.

Only when the countdown to separation began did Mo Xuanli deeply feel, through the ache in his heart, just how much he liked this person.

But this person didn’t know.

Mo Xuanli recalled what Gu Baiqing had once said to Ao Hang, that it was youthful confusion that led to misguidance. Yet Gu Baiqing didn’t know that even if it had begun as misguidance, Mo Xuanli had long since fallen deeply and was unable to extricate himself. But he couldn’t say it, and he didn’t dare say it.

Mo Xuanli took a deep breath, gently pulled free his sleeve, and couldn’t help leaning down. Summoning his courage, he brushed his lips against Gu Baiqing’s, touching and leaving in an instant. He didn’t dare go too far. He knew Gu Baiqing wasn’t unconscious and could wake at any moment. Sure enough, when he lifted his head, he saw Gu Baiqing’s eyelashes tremble slightly, his brows faintly knitting together, though he still looked half-asleep.

Mo Xuanli softly called, “Baiqing.” It was barely more than a breath of sound, only to satisfy himself.

Then he whispered a sentence into Gu Baiqing’s ear. Only after that did he rise, lift the bed curtain, and leave without looking back.

In truth, he didn’t dare think lightly about the worst possible ending. Only by forcing himself not to think about it could he keep the demonic nature from overflowing and driving him to impulsive actions.

Leaving the main house, taking Ao Hang and Three Bean with him, leaving the small courtyard, he met Li Xiuran at the agreed location. He didn’t know how Li Xiuran had said goodbye to Ji Chuling. In any case, Ji Chuling didn’t come to see him off.

Li Xiuran brought Mo Xuanli disguise talismans from the Hidden Gods Clan, which could mask their entire aura as that of ordinary cultivators. Cloaked, they descended the floating island together with teams from other sects, silently blending into the lands below, then hurried westward.

Because there was no specific destination, only a vague directional sense, the two could only ride horses while traveling and searching at the same time. Wherever fragments of the God-Slaying Sword were located, there would inevitably be anomalies, unless they were suppressed by something with even stronger spiritual energy. Thus, they only needed to look for places with especially strong spiritual energy or unusual conditions, investigate them, and then continue westward.

Gu Baiqing had actually woken naturally not long after Mo Xuanli left. After sitting up, he was dazed for a long time, because he remembered Mo Xuanli saying something by his ear. The words had come somewhat abruptly, and Gu Baiqing couldn’t make them out clearly. He could only look puzzled, suspecting that he’d been half-asleep and misremembered, or that it had simply been a dream.

Those words were, “Though I am young and once confused, I will grow, and I will also, amid confusion, choose a direction and move forward with resolve.”

And the final sentence: “Wait for me to come back.”

Gu Baiqing scratched his head, feeling a bit irritable. He turned, about to get out of bed, when his hand pressed against something hard.

Turning his head, he saw that it was a box.

Gu Baiqing’s expression changed slightly. The box looked familiar. It was the one he had taken out during the interrogation, used to hold—

Gu Baiqing quickly opened it. Inside, lying quietly, was a ring made of black xuan jade. The pattern of the God Nine Transformations looked very similar to the one he had crafted himself. The red bead storing fire-element spells gave the black xuan jade ring a warm glow. Held in the hand, it even transmitted warmth to the fingertips.

Gu Baiqing remembered Mo Xuanli saying that this was a magical artifact meant to be used together with spatial techniques, originally crafted due to a misunderstanding as an exchanged token of affection.

Afterward, he hadn’t had the nerve to give it as an ordinary gift, yet he still left it behind before departing. What was this supposed to mean? Clearly, he himself no longer wanted to wear the ring Gu Baiqing had given him, so what was the point of this gift exchange?

Gu Baiqing couldn’t quite understand what he was thinking, and could only put the ring back into the box and store it away.

He got up and went outside. The sky was clear, the air fresh, birds singing and flowers fragrant, yet the courtyard was terrifyingly quiet.

Gu Baiqing looked around. Everything was gone. The sudden sense of loneliness made him deeply uncomfortable, and he could only go bother Fu Zhiyi to pass the time.

He had already thought it through. While escorting the other young disciples back to Zixiao Sect, he would look for a chance to slip away.

He just didn’t know whether he would get his wish.

As it turned out, just as he stepped out of the courtyard gate, he ran headlong into the hurried Fu Zhiyi.

“Make preparations. In a bit, you’ll take people back.”

Gu Baiqing looked at Fu Zhiyi with some surprise. “So urgent? What happened?”

Fu Zhiyi’s face seemed to glow with a layer of holy light, like someone on the verge of liberation. “We just received news. Senior Sister has come out of seclusion.”

Gu Baiqing’s eyes widened instantly.

Sect Master… Senior Sister? Song Xingkui!

The person Gu Baiqing was most familiar with? Also the person he trusted the most?

Everyone said Gu Baiqing was an orphan taken in by the previous sect master, but that wasn’t actually true. It was Song Xingkui, who had gone down the mountain with the previous sect master for training, who found him in a pile of corpses and saved him.

The original Gu Baiqing had a cold personality and kept people at a distance. He only showed a bit of warmth toward this senior sister. Compared to the few senior junior brothers he had only gotten familiar with after transmigrating, Song Xingkui was an entirely different kind of existence.

So Gu Baiqing looked at Fu Zhiyi and said, “How about you go back, and I stay here? You seem to really miss Senior Sister. Go see her?”

He was a little afraid to face Song Xingkui, worried she might notice some flaw.

“I do miss her. I miss her to death!” When Fu Zhiyi heard this, his emotions surged immediately, but he said through gritted teeth, “The kind of missing where, once I see her, I have to beat her up.”

Gu Baiqing twitched at the corner of his mouth as he looked at Fu Zhiyi. It seemed that managing their group of martial brothers along with all the affairs of Zixiao Sect had really put him through h*ll.

“But she specifically named you and told you to come back, so you have to go. And I can’t leave either. The current matters aren’t something she can take over on short notice. You go back and have her properly manage the sect. Don’t let her randomly cultivate and get struck by lightning again. Given the current situation, we can’t afford her going into seclusion for another few years. I’m exhausted to death!” Fu Zhiyi complained.

Gu Baiqing’s brow jumped. “Does Senior Sister want me back for something? Why do I have to go?”

“Who knows with her. Ever since she got obsessed with observing celestial phenomena, she’s been acting all mysterious. Maybe there’s something she wants you to do, or maybe she just misses you. Didn’t she raise you like a son?” Fu Zhiyi teased.

The moment Gu Baiqing heard this, recalling how the original body reacted to such remarks, his expression turned so cold it nearly froze over.

The original Gu Baiqing at most regarded her as an elder sister, yet she went around saying she had raised him with great hardship. He had even heard Half-Step Mad say before that he wrote Song Xingkui’s personality like that of a modern woman, which was probably understandable.

In his memories, Song Xingkui’s personality really was lively and unrestrained. She should also have been an extremely gifted cultivator. The reason she hadn’t ascended seemed to be her indulgence in worldly pleasures holding back her path to immortality. Before Gu Baiqing transmigrated, among the high-cultivation elders, only Song Xingkui had a cook stationed in her pavilion.

He could only hope that this time she truly was just simply missing her junior brother. With his memories, Gu Baiqing could still put on an act. If he couldn’t, he’d quickly find a chance to slip away. And Gu Baiqing suddenly realized that since Song Xingkui had already come out, Zixiao Sect no longer needed him to hold the fort. He could leave with complete justification.

Because Fu Zhiyi urged him so anxiously, he was probably afraid that if his message wasn’t delivered, Song Xingkui would act recklessly again, get struck unconscious by heavenly lightning, and drag him down with her.

Gu Baiqing only had time to say goodbye to Baili Jingcheng. Only then did he learn that Jingzhan had already taken on the task of searching for and investigating the Spirit-Gathering Array and departed. He also learned that Si Chun had successfully entered the second team to infiltrate the demon realm, still harboring some unresolved feelings regarding her master’s matter.

He had wanted to greet Ji Chuling as well, but it seemed Ji Chuling had gone into seclusion.

In the end, Gu Baiqing led the young disciples aboard Zixiao Sect’s flying vessel and departed Taixu Hall in grand fashion.

This journey, however, was far from comfortable.

The disciples sharing the same flying vessel with Gu Baiqing all held him in awe. Even when appearing before him to serve tea or water, they were taut with tension, which made Gu Baiqing quite uncomfortable as well. He could only choose to enter meditation to pass the time.

But every time he finished meditating and opened his eyes, he would no longer see those familiar figures. Inside or outside the room, those moving about, standing guard, or meditating alongside him were all gone.

Three Bean was gone too… leaving only him alone.

One day… two days… three days. Gu Baiqing’s emotions grew increasingly restless. When he finally snapped back to himself, he realized he was using the master-disciple bond or the spirit beast contract to sense their locations, as if only then could his emotions settle.

Or he would check Mo Xuanli’s data through the system, looking at his cultivation progress and whether his demonic value had changed. Although the results were always good, he would still feel waves of emptiness.

Sure enough, bonds formed through daily companionship were deeply affecting. Abruptly becoming alone like this truly left Gu Baiqing ill at ease.

Three days later, they finally returned to the territory of Zixiao Sect, allowing for a change of mood.

Yet as soon as he arrived, he saw Luo Nianyi with a grave expression.

Gu Baiqing naturally knew why she had come. Although Yun Yue was not a personal disciple, she was still a disciple of Luo Nianyi’s Flying Crane Pavilion.

“Third Senior Sister, I’m sorry…” Gu Baiqing said.

Luo Nianyi seemed to want to snap angrily, but in the end said nothing. She merely accompanied Gu Baiqing to see Song Xingkui, and in the end could only helplessly complain, “Didn’t they say they only captured people of status in the cultivation world? Yun Yue is just an ordinary little girl. Her fate’s already bad enough, she’s even died once. How did she end up this unlucky?”

Gu Baiqing was slightly taken aback. Right. Yun Yue… was just an ordinary disciple. Although Zixiao Sect was one of the few sects that didn’t emphasize bloodline inheritance or family-style hierarchies, with everyone’s status not differing too much, there was still a distinction between personal disciples and ordinary disciples. Capturing Yun Yue was indeed rather inexplicable.

Was it simply because she was a medical cultivator and easy to capture, or did it have something to do with Mo Xuanli? Perhaps because she had a good relationship with Mo Xuanli?

That was indeed possible. After all, Gu Baiqing had previously only regarded her as a quest-giving NPC or a catalyst for Mo Xuanli’s growth. She was one of the few who gave Mo Xuanli warmth. From the demon realm’s perspective, capturing someone who influenced Mo Xuanli could be useful. Since others were hard to capture, Yun Yue became the best target.

Thinking it through this way, Gu Baiqing felt that at least before they made a move against Mo Xuanli, Yun Yue should be safe. But it only made him more worried about the far-traveling Mo Xuanli. The demon race would likely still find ways to target him, especially with an even bigger target like Li Xiuran at his side.

I hope that while I am away these days, they do not run into any trouble.

While speaking, Luo Nianyi had already escorted Gu Baiqing to Song Xingkui’s residence in the Zixiao Pavilion. After delivering him there, Luo Nianyi left, leaving Gu Baiqing to go in alone, which made him a little nervous.

It was a garden courtyard located at the rear peak of the Zixiao Pavilion. The moment one stepped inside, a dazzling expanse of sunflower fields came into view.

When Gu Baiqing first saw the setting description, he thought it was merely a symbol of sunshine and beauty. It was not until he saw that, besides the sunflower field, there was also a watermelon patch on the other side and grape trellises beyond, that he understood why Song Xingkui planted sunflowers.

He was just about to follow the stone path toward the courtyard when he suddenly heard a burst of loud e e e e e laughter, which nearly startled him. Following the sound, he quickly arrived at a pond and saw a woman in white lying on a long bench by the pond, fishing with one hand while reading an illustrated book with the other.

Hearing the movement, the woman turned her head. The unrestrained smile on her beautiful and clear face had not yet been withdrawn.

Her expression and bearing were completely unlike those of the sect master of one of the four great immortal sects, the Song Xingkui who had once been known as the Distant Star Fairy.