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RM 64: Complicated Ties (IV)
🕑 Added 2025-08-22 03:30:02 +0000 UTCAn awkward hour had passed since Hua Mingzhu entered the main estate of Plum Peak. She sat in a chair at the dining table, the red-eared Hua Mei beside her, with eyes darting all over like a mouse confronting a cat.
Sun Lingling and Wang Yang sat across the table and watched the little demon get her punishment in ear pulls and light smacks on the shoulder.
“I apologize for my rough methods.” Her crystal-clear voice broke the silence; her voice sounded plain yet pleasant to the ear. “I have to be hard-handed because of this slippery rascal here.” She pinched Hua Mei’s cheek.
“Mom, please, you are embarrassing me…” Hua Mei’s protests quieted down after a not-so-subtle glare from her mother.
“What choice do I have when I find that you’ve been skipping your lectures and training for the past month? Why don’t you tell me what I ought to do with you, hmm?” When Mingzhu entered closed-door cultivation, Hua Mei got a free pass to do whatever. The little girl learned how to run away from the woman best known in the art of escape, her mother. So, Mingzhu’s methods had to be overbearing to catch her.
Receiving no answer from her defiant daughter, she continued. “It’s good that you aren’t causing too much trouble and just playing over at your uncle’s place. But you ought to attend your training and have meals prepared at the estate. They are important for your growth.” Her eyes narrowed when she noticed Hua Mei glaring at Wang Yang.
“Am I making myself clear, Mei Mei?” Her voice dropped to a threateningly low tone.
“Y-Yes, Mom.” Hua Mei sat up straight like a soldier at attention. Even her father feared that commanding tone, let alone her.
I have never seen her like this. Wang Yang saw firsthand how scared Hua Mei could be of someone. A complete 180 from her usual brazenness.
The little demon he feared had turned into a quivering mouse in front of her mother. Of course, she warned him not to laugh, gesturing that she would slice his neck if he even dared to joke about it. But Wang Yang wasn’t that dumb. He planned to laugh at her in secret whenever she gave him a hard time to ease the pain of her punches.
“With that dealt with… You two are the disciples Li Muchen chose himself?” Mingzhu’s eyes swept over Wang Yang and Sun Lingling. “I have to say I am a bit disappointed, especially with you.” She singled out the former.
“W-What did I do?” Wang Yang asked.
“For starters, I can list about 200 mistakes since I arrived,” Mingzhu said.
“2-200?!” Wang Yang almost fell off the birch stool.
“Indeed, but if I summarize them, it all comes down to a lack of vigilance, inexperience, and naivety. Not exactly qualities of a great talent,” Mingzhu said, her cold eyes examining every inch of the two disciples.
“Unlike Sun Lingling over there, you weren’t fast enough to react when I arrived. However, you were the first to let go of your suspicion the moment I identified myself.” She pointed at Sun Lingling with her eyes again. “That kid over there still holds her sword near, while you didn’t even take it out. Your guard is so low that I could kill you with chopsticks even if I were in the same cultivation realm as you.”
“Well…” Wang Yang scratched his head, “I saw Senior Hua’s reaction and thought she would definitely recognize her mother.”
“Hmmm… you seem a bit slow in gathering information, too; that’s the lack of experience I talked about.” However, Mingzhu didn’t take that response well. She continued, tugging on Hua Mei’s cheek. “This kid here has followed housemaids three times, thinking it was me. She is as unreliable as they come when identifying people.”
“It’s not my fault that you disguise yourself, Mom, ouch! That hurts!” Hua Mei winced at the twist of her mother’s fingers.
“I have to, so you know how to find me. What if someone is impersonating me? Worse yet, wearing my skin to deceive you?” Mingzhu pulled her hand away. “I want you to be safe and alert in such situations, that’s why I want to train you well. Yet here you are frolicking around instead of going to lectures.”
The air in the room seemed to have turned somber. Hua Mei pouted, unable to give a retort to her worried mother, while Wang Yang and Sun Lingling watched from across the table, unsure if they should be listening to this.
However, a gust of wind entered the room through the open window. The cool wind washed away the awkward air and brought hope to Hua Mei’s face.
“Still so hard on the young ones, aren’t you, Sister-in-law?” Li Muchen leaned against the pillar with a smile. “Why don’t you let them off this once?”
“Hearing you say to let people off is concerning.” Mingzhu didn’t even look back, but stood up with a scoff. “I suppose getting disciples has changed you, Li Muchen.”
“Well, people change, don’t they?” Muchen said, gesturing at the kids to go away.
Hua Mei was the first to slip away, blowing her uncle some kisses and words of gratitude. Sun Lingling and Wang Yang also left promptly. Now, only Muchen and Mingzhu remained in the room.
“People do change with time. I am the prime example of that.” Mingzhu looked over her shoulder, “But I haven’t seen a case where the person becomes a puppet made of metal after four months.”
“…” Muchen smiled in the quiet room.
“Looks like it still isn’t enough to fool a Peak Nascent Soul Realm expert.” The voice came from the window. A veil of silk lifted, revealing Muchen resting on the windowsill.
Muchen wanted to test the limits of what realm he can use the current version of the puppet on. Yae removed her invisibility and jumped on him from the puppet.
“A puppet and a fox beast. You are up to no good again.” Mingzhu shook her head in displeasure.
“I am just helping Chen Zhipeng test stuff out,” Muchen said.
“You expect me to believe you are doing this out of the goodness of your heart? I’d believe a Demonic cultivator becoming a Buddha over that.” Mingzhu had known him for that long, longer than she liked to admit.
She looked at the fox perched on his shoulder, the little furball licked itself clean like a normal house cat. However, something deep stirred in its clear eyes. It wasn’t like any normal tamed demonic beasts. It had a hint of intelligence, a sharp sense of reason that it tried to veil under the mannerisms of a beast.
This one is sharp. Yae alerted Muchen.
That’s why I need her help. He smiled at the inquisitive gaze that dug into him. This woman in front of him would help get the second power he needed. In a way, she was the only way to get in touch with them discreetly.
“Are you up-to-date on the recent happenings?” Muchen asked.
“Do you think I’ve lost my touch after becoming a mother?” She asked, pouring herself a cup of tea.
“You’ve been in secluded cultivation for six months now.” Muchen shrugged.
“I came out at sunrise. That’s enough time to familiarize myself with your shenanigans.” She added dryly. “Planning to get three major sects together against the Demonic cultivators using the Eastern Martial Meet, you have certainly outdone yourself this time.”
“The Purple Cloud Sect and our sect have real reason to retaliate, but where is the third sect you talk of?”
“Don’t act coy with me. The very reason you are having this useless chatter with me is to involve the Frozen Flower Sect.” Mingzhu scoffed.
Even she read the reports over three times to make sure there weren’t any mistakes in her eyes. The way Muchen had set things up had a big hole; he handled the personnel through the Purple Cloud sect, information through the Azure Sky Sect, but there was a hole in the plan still. A hole that only another Major sect could fill. He never had any plans of getting involved with the Temple, so only one major sect remained.
“You need a strong deterrent at the Eastern Martial Meet. The Frozen Flower Sect is the only force left that can protect an area against a large force with their special formations.” Mingzhu concluded.
However, her conclusion was off by a mile. “I don’t need the entire Frozen Flower Sect,” he said, “I only need you to contact one person.”
“You only want to call Princess Han?” Mingzhu’s hand stopped. “I thought you wanted her to be an intermediary with the Frozen Flower Sect and acquire their cooperation?”
“No, she alone will be enough.” Muchen smiled.
Involving the entire Frozen Flower Sect would cost a lot more than he planned to give up. And, the sect itself rarely took part in the happenings of the martial society. They liked to live by themselves, not bothering with the power struggle or flattery that ran rampant outside. Even then, they had become a Major Sect because of their long history and powerful leaders who carried the legacy over a millennium.
Muchen only needed Han Yue, the next sect leader of the sect, for this plan. The one unmatched in her realm.
The top echelon of the Demonic Cultivators aren’t interested in the happenings of the Eastern Continent right now. Muchen wanted to make full use of that situation.
Those high-ranking monsters had no reason to intervene or even watch the Eastern Martial Meet themselves. Because doing so would net them no benefits. In simpler words, there wasn’t a fish big enough for them to jump into the waters.
The stronger the cultivator, the higher they’d aim. Just like a human doesn’t bother to stop and see what the ants were doing, they wouldn’t come over to kill the young disciples and weak elders who would gather for the Eastern Martial Meet. They would only focus on the things that are a threat to them at that moment. That’s why they were using another’s knife to kill.
This is how the underdogs thrive. And it is the exact reason Wang Yang is such a dangerous existence; he is the ultimate underdog that only emerges when he has enough power. Muchen had seen Wang Yang grow at an abnormal pace because of his luck, and by the time the higher-ranking cultivators noticed him as a threat, he reached a level where he could fight back against them.
If this world was a novel, then Wang Yang is the protagonist who goes through the weak-to-strong progression. He enters every fight as an underdog and comes out victorious. Muchen always thought that while teaching him, because he ticked all the boxes for a cultivation protagonist. He had the talent to soar unnoticed, luck to get opportunities, and blessed with connections most would only dream of by simply taking a stroll on a sunny day.
But Muchen’s recent actions had stirred the pot, and his current actions were also out of the ordinary. Thus, he wanted to do things without attracting any attention so that the surface looked calm for the unaware prey that would come in. The moment they do, the predator under that calm water would have its feast.
“There is one thing I don’t understand,” Mingzhu said, rapping the varnished table with her index finger. “Don’t you have an artifact to contact Princess Han yourself? Why are you going through me?”
“Well…” Muchen looked away, almost embarrassed.
“My my…” Mingzhu didn’t miss that change in his eyes. “They say that if given long enough, even the devil can develop a conscience.”
Muchen scratched his head, unable to retort. It had been a century since he last contacted Han Yue, even though she had given him a personal artifact that stabilized the overflowing yin qi in his body, which doubled as a communication device. It would feel weird to contact her out of nowhere for a favor, at least that’s how normal people would think.
Muchen, on the other hand, was as shameless as they came.
“You are embarrassed, or so you want me to think,” Mingzhu smirked, resting her chin on her hand. “As the next sect leader, all of her actions are monitored by the elders, especially her contact with the outside world. And on the list of people not to let her get close to, your name is at the top. Your attempt to contact her would be interrupted, so your plan will fall through. That’s why you got me here by keeping Mei Mei engaged with your disciples, isn’t that right?”
“I am not proud of that.” Muchen sighed. “Why do those elders even hate me that much? It’s not like I did anything to them, at least I don’t remember it.”
“Well, you almost took away their greatest treasure. Of course, they’d be wary of you,” Mingzhu said.
“Stop slandering me. I did no such thing.” Muchen said.
“Now I see where my husband got his cluelessness from.” She shook her head. “Anyway, you want me to pass your message along, right?”
“Yes.” Muchen’s expression shifted to seriousness. “To make up for it, I have the payment ready.”
He placed a book with a light green cover. It had freckles of blue and white with a crimson thread binding the pristine white paper. The title, written in bold and strong strokes, read, Baking for Dummies Part 3.
“This one covers confections Mei Mei likes, including the cake I made for her last birthday.” He added.
“At least you aren’t an idiot when it comes to this.” Mingzhu swiped the book with a satisfied nod. “I have received the payment. I shall complete this job within three business days.”
“There is one more thing, Sister-in-law,” Muchen said, pointing to the west wall. “Can you let Mei Mei be here till we leave for the Eastern Martial Meet. I’ll see to it that she completes her cultivation lessons.”
“Hm…” Mingzhu looked at the training ground beyond the west wall.
There, Mei Mei had spars with Muchen’s disciples; however, she laughed and joked around, enjoying the process she normally saw as a chore to get over with. Mingzhu had been observing the changes in her daughter since this morning. It wasn’t grand, but still noticeable to a mother.
“You better not let her slack off.” Mingzhu stood up.
“I won’t,” Muchen said.
She nodded and, after another look at the training ground, vanished in thin air. In one burst, she had escaped Muchen’s spiritual sense’s range, reaching the outermost edge of the Plum Peak.
“They called her the silent storm for a reason.” He stood up with a smile.
Now, he had most things in order and wanted to focus on the last thing before the Eastern Martial Meet.
“Ah, Master…” Wang Yang jumped to his feet when Muchen landed on the practice ground, followed but the vibrant leaves.
Sun Lingling and Mei Mei stopped sparring and gathered in front of him.
“Wang Yang and Sun Lingling, you two are now ready to learn Martial techniques. So, I will give you the ones best suited for you now.” He said.
It was time to strengthen his disciples to the next level.
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