Mu Xue released her spiritual sense and discovered that Cen Xiaoshan was indeed in the courtyard, but he had not moved and didn’t answer her call.
She walked out of the house and saw the young man half-kneeling on the ground, supporting himself against the wall. When he saw her come out, he waved his hand to stop her from approaching, but couldn’t help turning his head and vomiting.
He seemed to want to go outside the courtyard, but couldn’t control himself, throwing up, and struggling to get up and move.
Mu Xue went forward to support him.
Cen Xiaoshan waved his hand to push Mu Xue back. His face was so red that he was almost suffocating. He forced himself to say half a sentence, “It’s too dirty here, host, quickly go inside… Um.”
Mu Xue swiftly took out a bowl from her Qiankun bag and saw that it was a purple-gold bowl-shaped dragon artifact. At this moment, she didn’t care so much and handed it to Cen Xiaoshan. Cen Xiaoshan hugged the bowl and squatted on the ground, vomiting uncontrollably.
After a while of gagging and sweating, he finally regained his breath, his voice weak, finally gasping, “It’s okay, host, I’m fine. I’ll clean up now.”
He slowly supported himself and walked to the washbasin where he could wash.
His slender back trembled slightly, and his messy black hair was covered with fine white snow. His face looked even paler than the frost on this cold winter night.
Looking at his back, Mu Xue suddenly remembered something a long time ago. She didn’t know what was in her heart, perhaps because she had been living alone for too long and felt a bit bored, that she kept a young creature that was supposed to be slaughtered for sale in her courtyard.
She built a shed for the small creature, gave it food, and clean water. Gradually, the beautiful little creature with its colorful feathers would flap its wings and call out a few times when it saw her coming home. It would also occasionally nudge its little head against her hand.
That little creature, apart from eating, had no other purpose. But that period of time seemed to be a rare moment of happiness for Mu Xue. There was some activity in the house, and a little creature that would come out to greet her when she came home. The snowy courtyard had come to life, and was no longer just a cold, lifeless shell.
But for some unknown reason, one day that little creature refused to eat anymore, and its once shiny fur lost its luster and became messy.
It hunched its back, lowered its head, took a few steps in the snowy courtyard, and then fell into the snowdrift, motionless.
After that, Mu Xue never kept anything else.
The limping figure of Cen Xiaoshan overlapped with her past memory. Mu Xue suddenly realized that a life is not just about eating, giving it a few cushions, and ensuring it can live by her side. It could also end up like that little creature, suddenly falling into a snowdrift and never standing up again.
She caught up with Cen Xiaoshan and held his arm with the crutch. His arm trembled violently, and large drops of cold sweat rolled down his pale face.
Mu Xue touched his forehead. “Why is it so hot? Are you…sick?”
Most cultivators, regardless of which path they take, usually have the ability to strengthen their body and cure illnesses. Mu Xue, who was close to the completion stage of the Golden Core realm, had long forgotten what it felt like to be sick.
Mu Xue knew that Cen Xiaoshan had a lot of injuries, but since he came, he had worked tirelessly, using his crutches to quickly put everything in order and almost never resting.
Mu Xue had gradually gotten used to it and had forgotten about his physical condition.
But thinking about it now, could a child under ten really handle such intense labor?
“I…I’m fine, I will recover soon…” Cen Xiaoshan gasped out half a sentence, but he was already falling down.
Mu Xue caught him.
Cen Xiaoshan leaned on Mu Xue, gasping continuously. The vibrant liveliness seemed to be escaping from his body rapidly, and he became pale and weak, his body frighteningly hot.
This couldn’t continue, they needed to find a doctor.
Mu Xue pushed open the courtyard gate and, with a flick of her wrist, a smooth metal triangular panel quietly floated in the air. This was Mu Xue’s flying magic tool, named “Floating Phantom.”
Mu Xue turned around and reached out to take Cen Xiaoshan’s hand.
Cen Xiaoshan leaned against the door frame, his lips turned white, and he looked at Mu Xue in silence.
“I…will be better soon,” he murmured.
“Soon? You’ve been delaying for several days now, come out quickly,” Mu Xue replied.
Mu Xue reached out to pull him, but Cen Xiaoshan tightly held onto the door frame, refusing to take a step forward.
“I…won’t read those books anymore,” he suddenly said without any context.
“What?” Mu Xue didn’t understand what he was talking about.
Cen Xiaoshan lowered his head, his lips tightly pressed together, and his eyes turned slightly red. After a moment of struggle, he finally spoke, “If the host has any rules, I…this servant will kneel and listen to the instructions, respectfully follow them, and never overstep them.”
Although he always addressed Mu Xue as “host,” he cleverly never referred to himself as a servant.
He was obviously eager to please Mu Xue, but he never fawned or begged for pity. Instead, he used his intelligence and hard work to demonstrate his value to her.
Mu Xue knew that this child held a sensitive pride and self-esteem within his heart. This was the first time he had truly lowered his head in front of Mu Xue.
“Xiaoshan, have you lost your mind? I’m taking you to see a doctor.”
“See… see a doctor?” Cen Xiaoshan raised his head in astonishment.
“Well, where else do you think I’m taking you?” Mu Xue replied.
Growing impatient, Mu Xue pulled the dazed Cen Xiaoshan out and lifted him onto her hovering flying artifact.
On the trailing wings of the Floating Phantom, numerous tiny metal pieces stood upright, emitting long trails of smoke as it swiftly soared into the sky.
Mu Xue flew directly to a traditional-style medical clinic. Despite its old-fashioned decor, the entrance was adorned with vibrant neon lights.
The doctor in charge of the clinic was a short and thin old physician. He was stingy, his words sharp, but his medical skills were remarkable. After living here for some time, everyone respectfully called him “Uncle Nian.”
Uncle Nian lifted his eyelids and glanced at Cen Xiaoshan, who was being held by Mu Xue. He snorted and uttered, “Mere mortals cannot be cured.”
Mu Xue seemed quite familiar with him and didn’t care about his words. She went ahead and placed Cen Xiaoshan on a sickbed.
“So, you won’t treat mere mortals, huh? Then, I won’t fix the medical device you said was broken either,” Mu Xue retorted.
“You’re still as sharp-tongued as before, devoid of all feminine charm. No wonder you can’t get married, only fit to be a blacksmith,” Uncle Nian muttered under his breath as he emerged from behind the counter.
“Nonsense, where have I lost my feminine charm? The head of the Yan family even said the other day that he wants to make his son my consort.” Mu Xue retorted.
“Did you agree?” Uncle Nian retrieved a monocular lens and put it on his nose.
“How could I agree? I would much rather spend that time crafting more magical tools and practicing cultivation. Isn’t the Grand Dao my only goal?” Mu Xue replied.
Uncle Nian tugged at the wrinkles around his mouth, somewhat agreeing with Mu Xue’s statement, and began examining Cen Xiaoshan’s injuries.
“Nonsense,” he gruffed while feeling Cen Xiaoshan’s pulse. “This child has been hungry for a long time and has a weak spleen and stomach. When you suddenly gave him a lot of excess food, how could he have been able to digest it?”
Mu Xue gasped in surprise.
Uncle Nian continued his judgment, “And as for his broken leg bone, you didn’t reset it before using magic to forcibly heal the external injury. Did you want him to die?”
Uncle Nian finished examining Cen Xiaoshan’s ankle and stood up. “This leg is completely useless now, I can’t heal it. Take him away, take him away.”
Mu Xue grabbed him. “Uncle Nian, if you can’t even heal such a minor injury, then you will lose all your business.”
Uncle Nian puffed air on his mustache and stared. “He’s a slave, right? If you want me to heal him, we need to agree on the cost in advance. Treating his leg alone costs as much as buying two or three of his kind.”
He continued to explain, fearing that Mu Xue didn’t believe him. “Don’t think that mortals are easy to treat. They are troublesome, too fragile, and even surgery or medicine can be complicated.”
Cen Xiaoshan lay on the sickbed, gazing directly at Mu Xue with misty eyes, weak and powerless, with a silent plea.
Mu Xue sighed and pinched her brow, sighing at the unscrupulous doctor who had fallen into the trap of monetary gain, “If you can heal him, I will forge a magical tool for you to use in brain surgery. It’s the one you always mention.”
“Is this for real?” Uncle Nian straightened his hunched back and rubbed his hands together. “That’s fine, that’s fine. You can rest assured, he’s just a mortal. To me, he’s just a small fish. After being in my hands, he will be restored to his original state.”
Uncle Nian stretched out his boney fingers, and dozens of small puppet figures queued up and climbed onto the surgical table covered with white cloth.
They held tools and were busy around Cen Xiaoshan’s leg, with some holding up tiny fingers to spray anesthetics, and others holding long, thin knives to cut through the skin. Four or five puppets worked hard to fix the tendons, and another four or five were busy removing the rotten flesh, ligating blood vessels. Some stretched their long arms and plunged into the skin to cut muscles, searching for the broken bone fragments and assembling everything back into their place.
Cen Xiaoshan calmly accepted this strange treatment and slowly closed his eyes. He seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
“A mere mortal child, and yet Mu wants to go to such great lengths for him?”?” Uncle Nian muttered.
Mu Xue looked at the boy with closed eyes on the sickbed and nodded. “What do you think, Uncle Nian?”
The old physician smoothed his goatee. “If you ask me, he’s an exceptionally rare and beautiful talent.”
No one noticed that at this point, the seemingly asleep boy’s long eyelashes trembled slightly.
The tiny snowflakes fluttered in the desolate and solemn city of Fuwang, and Mu Xue stood on a floating device holding a thin, weak body wrapped in a woolen blanket in her arms.
The small flying magical tool trailed a long tail of smoke and dust, bypassing the huge and fierce stone carvings, passing through the tall stone walls, and flying past the colorful lights and shadows in the night sky of the city.
Passing over the empty streets, the night market here was lively, with decadent music, eerie lights, and a mix of colors, showing the bustling nightlife of the city.
“Host.” a soft voice came from inside the woolen blanket.
“Are you awake?” Mu Xue looked down at the boy in her arms, “Let’s change your title, from now on, don’t call me host, call me Teacher.”
Cen Xiaoshan closed his eyes, and the roaring wind and snow filled his ears. But he was well protected, and not a single snowflake fell in through the thick woolen blanket.
Below his feet was the purgatory-like marketplace. On a night like this, he should have been captured by countless demons, torn apart, and dragged into the depths of a mud pit.
Fortunately, he met this person.
She was a strange woman, who looked cold but had a softer heart than anyone else.
The more she was made to work, the more guilty she felt. The more miserable one was, the more sympathetic she became. If one tried to please her, she would even feel grateful.
Could such a person really exist in the world of Fuwang City?
Cen Xiaoshan leaned against the warm chest, wanting to smile, but ultimately unable to. After calculating everything, finally achieving his goal, he should have been overjoyed. However, he didn’t know why he felt so bitter in his heart.
Ruan Honglian came to Mu Xue’s house and exaggeratedly opened her beautiful red lips.
“Oh my goodness, I haven’t been here for just a few months, and I really thought I had gone to the wrong place. I even walked back out and looked around just to be sure,” Ruan Honglian exclaimed as she looked around Mu Xue’s house.
The floor was so clean that one could see their reflection, the bookshelves were organized, and the cabinets were classified.
The strange smelting equipment was polished to a shine, and neatly arranged on the tabletop.
The alchemy formation was cleaned spotlessly, and the oil bath pot was boiling with bubbles.
“It’s only been three days, I miss you so much I’d pluck out my eyes for you.” Ruan Honglian sighed.
Cen Xiaoshan carried a tea tray into the room and placed a cup of tea and a plate of snacks in front of Mu Xue and Ruan Honglian respectively.
Mu Xue received her favorite snow chrysanthemum tea, while Ruan Honglian had the popular Biyun Spring tea of Fuwang City.
Ruan Honglian took a sip and exclaimed, “Ah, it’s delicious. Finally, I don’t have to bring my own tea to your house anymore. The pastries are also delicious. What are they made of?”
Cen Xiaoshan didn’t say much, just smiled lightly and bowed before leaving.
Ruan Honglian watched his departing figure and hastily swallowed the pastry in her mouth. “Xiao Xue, I’m impressed this time. Your judgment is spot on. This child is not only beautiful but capable. You got a good deal buying him as a slave.”
Mu Xue just smiled, “He’s not a slave anymore. I’ve accepted him as my disciple.”
“What? You’ve taken on an apprentice already? It’s no wonder, though. He really has talent. You have over ten thousand materials here. In a short time, he can differentiate and sort them out, and has even learned the processing and pre-processing techniques. It’s rare to see someone with such skills. He must have lightened your burden quite a bit, right?”
As Ruan Honglian spoke, she rubbed her belly and suddenly let out a particularly loud fart. She turned red in the face and was about to hide it, but then a series of toots followed.
Ruan Honglian always loved beauty, but this made her feel extremely embarrassed, with her face flushed. She hurriedly excused herself and ran off.
When Cen Xiaoshan came in to clean up the tea, Mu Xue called him over.
“You’ve learned a little bit and got bold. You think Ruan Honglian didn’t notice, but do you think I wouldn’t see it?” She pointed at the tea table, “My tea is fine, and so are the snacks. But the Biyun Spring tea that Ruan Honglian drank was mixed with doray fish, which has a fast-acting effect on promoting digestion. I’m afraid that for a few days, Ruan Honglian will have to deal with frequent stomach problems.”
She thought about how Ruan Honglian would be afraid to leave her home for several days because she would pass gas uncontrollably, and couldn’t help but want to laugh out loud. But alas, she had just become a teacher, so she had to maintain her dignity, holding it in.
Cen Xiaoshan did not try to defend himself and kneeled down before her, admitting his mistake with his head bowed. “I know I was wrong. Please punish me, Teacher.”
Mu Xue cleared her throat and raised her voice into a teacher’s authoritative tone, “Although it’s just a small matter, you still need to be punished. First, for being unskilled and daring, and deceiving your teacher. And second, for…for…”
“Second, I have a narrow mind and hold grudges. I have always resented Senior Ruan Honglian for attempting to stop Teacher from buying me,” Cen Xiaoshan took the initiative to continue speaking.
“Since you know, then I’ll punish you…with a beating,” Mu Xue said, looking around for something to beat him with. Cen Xiaoshan had already stood up and took a soft, elastic cork stick from a shelf, respectfully handing it to Mu Xue.
Then, he took off his shirt and knelt down in front of Mu Xue with his slim, white back, waiting to be punished.
The movements were smooth and skillful, as if it had been done countless times before. The back was covered with scars of varying sizes, new and old. It was obvious that this weak body had been subjected to this kind of abuse and torture repeatedly since childhood.
Looking at the bony and scarred back, Mu Xue couldn’t bring herself to swing the wooden stick in her hand. As a teacher, she had to punish her disciple, otherwise her authority would be undermined.
Mu Xue thought for a moment, then lifted the kneeling disciple, pressed him over her knee and lightly spanked him. At first, Cen Xiaoshan struggled a bit, but then he stopped resisting. When Mu Xue was about to deliver the third spank, she noticed that Cen Xiaoshan’s ears had turned red.
He lay motionless on Mu Xue’s lap, his body stiff, the reddening spreading from his ears to the back of his neck. Mu Xue’s hand was suspended in mid-air, unable to spank him again.
Mu Xue thought about letting it go. After all, he had always been a good kid. Who hadn’t done a few naughty things when they were young?
After a light spanking, there was no more movement. Cen Xiaoshan waited for a long time, then raised his head in confusion.
They were sitting next to the demonic formation in the room. There was a boiling oil pot on the formation with a long condensation pipe. The moment Cen Xiaoshan looked up, he saw a drop of water seeping out of a crack in the pipe, and falling into the boiling oil.
Cold water into boiling oil! It would cause an explosion!
Before Cen Xiaoshan could even yell, he found himself being lifted up and taken to the corner of the wall. A figure shielded him in an embrace, between her body and the wall.
A loud bang, sizzling hot oil droplets came down like rain. There was thick smoke, sparks, and loud screeches.
This had happened in his life before.
At that time, the enemy invaded his family and the clan members were powerless to resist. As an orphan, he was pushed out into danger by his foster father.
This time, someone protected him tightly with their body.
After the smoke cleared, Mu Xue pulled the seemingly stunned disciple up and looked around, “Are you alright? I forgot to give you a defensive artifact. You could have been burned.”
The little disciple raised his clear eyes and looked at her for a long time before softly saying, “I was wrong to deceive my teacher. Please punish me, Teacher.”
“It’s alright.” Mu Xue thought he was still talking about the previous punishment, and waved her hand. “It’s not a big deal. Just don’t do it again next time.”
Cen Xiaoshan lowered his head, “I’m unfilial and rebellious, deceiving my teacher. I don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
Mu Xue knelt down in front of him and rubbed his head. “Don’t say that, Xiaoshan. You respect your teacher very much, of that I’m fully aware. You’ve also helped me quite a bit. Since you came, I’ve become much happier.”
The days spent with Xiaoshan were indeed the most comfortable in her life.
Thankfully, at that time, the Xumu butterfly flew into Xiaoshan’s hand. It gave her the opportunity to meet this lovely disciple.
Perhaps she should also thank that butterfly.
As Mu Xue thought about this, a golden butterfly flew past her eyes.
The butterfly’s golden wings fluttered like gold foil, and the scenery in front of Mu Xue began to blur.
Countless noisy voices rang in her ears.
“She got it, she got it! The butterfly didn’t scatter and it’s glowing.”
“She’s been chosen, she’s been chosen. This little girl has been chosen.”
“Oh my god, quick! Look over there, someone has received their immortal fate.”
“Congratulations, congratulations! Another little immortal has emerged from a family.”
Gradually, Mu Xue’s vision cleared. There was no familiar big house, no Cen Xiaoshan silently watching her.
In front of her was a bustling square with colorful lanterns.
Her older brother looked at her with joy on his face, surrounded by countless smiling faces, and the sound of congratulations filled the air.
In her small, white hand, was a Xumu butterfly glowing with warm yellow light, gently nestled between her fingertips.
Majestic Feathers- So technically when Mu Xue says to call her Teacher it could also mean to call her Master, as in disciple and master relationship, not master and slave relationship. I felt that could be confusing, which is why I chose Teacher. Might switch considering I’ve now explained, since Master is more commonly used. Ehh, I’ll decide by next chapter what to do, or as a reader you can throw in your input on my Discord.
Also omg, I thought I it was an error when Rong Honglian suddenly farted. So unexpected! ML a prankster xD
Also I read a review on novelupdates that stated that this book wasn’t steam punk as the author described in her summary. I disagree, there are quite a bit of descriptions of Fuwang City with steam punk technology, like neon lights and gadgets literally everywhere. Although, keep in mind, I haven’t read beyond chapter 10 at this point in time.
