Huo Ran sits frozen, his gaze fixed on that familiar figure, unable to remove his eyes as if doing so will cause him to disappear. To the side Bai excitedly whispers to Jiang Ren “were my wishes answered?!”
Jiang Ren responds sardonically. “Maybe, but how the hell are we going to deal with the aftermath?”
“No worries, I got this!” Bai stands up. “Nothing to worry about people, party trick just a party trick. My buddy knows just how much I ADORE wuxia so he even got a performer here for me, isn’t that right buddy?” He elbows Huo Ran, pulling him from his daze.
“Huh? Oh, uh yeah! Surprise guest, cosplay actor let’s go everyone, round of applause!” Everyone, confusedly but politely, applauds.
“And what’s with all this standing around? Let’s get this party going!” Huo Ran signals the DJ, the music continues, and he makes his way over to Mo Lan who has remained still, watching the proceedings all this while. Perhaps it’s the perpetually frosty aura that surrounds him but everyone has given Mo Lan a wide berth as they continue dancing. Huo Ran quickly reaches him, grabs his arm, and pulls him out of the dance floor.
“You’ve finished cultivating?” Huo Ran asks as they walk. Mo Lan glances down at the hand pulling his arm, then looks back up.
“En.” Huo Ran takes him to a more secluded room and turns on the lights, before turning to face him.
“What are you doing here? Has everything been explained to you? Is there anything you don’t understand?” The Azure Lord blinks for a moment, caught off guard by the numerous questions.
“Hello? Mo Lan?” Huo Ran waves a hand in front of the other’s face. The Azure Lord blinks again. After all these years, Huo Ran is still the only one who dares call his name and is still the only one who’d behave anything other than with the utmost respect towards him. But…he doesn’t hate this disrespect.
“Why…”
“What?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Why weren’t you there?”
“Qtfgf?”
“Yearlvf ws meialnjalbc mjnf.”
“Qts kjrc’a P…” Leb Ejc yilcxr jr ecvfgrajcvlcu ribkis vjkcr bc tlw. “Qts kjrc’a P atfgf ab mtjiifcuf sbe.” Zb Ojc cbvr.
“Qfii…” Leb Ejc ibbxr vbkc yfobgf ibbxlcu yjmx eq rtffqlrtis gecclcu j tjcv atgbeut tlr oijwlcu ibmxr.
“Djmx atfc, P kjr sbecu jcv lwwjaegf. Gbc’a ajxf la rfglberis. P’nf yfmbwf wemt wbgf wjaegf cbk, P kbc’a mbcalceberis yf mtjrlcu sbe jcswbgf, vbc’a kbggs.” Lf ijeutr rtffqlrtis. Zb Ojc lr rlifca. Ktfc, olcjiis tf rqfjxr.
“Why?”
“Well, I mean there’s so much more in the world than cultivation now. I mean, I’m a celebrity now…I don’t know if you know what that is? It’s like-” Mo Lan bangs his fist against the wall and Huo Ran freezes.
“You no longer respect cultivation?”
“Huh? Uh, no, no, no I respect it but in today’s day and age there’s so many other things to do. I mean, I’ve already reached Nascent soul so…”
“I have reached ascension!” Mo Lan watches Huo Ran’s face but instead of receiving that familiar stubborn, determined, competitive glare the latter simply blinks in surprise and scratches his head. “Is that so? Congratulations!” Not receiving the expected response, Mo Ran’s face grows gloomy and he attempts to punch the wall again. Huo Ran hastily reaches out to grab him.
“You’re going to completely break it, it’s already cracked!”
With lack of place to vent, Mo Lan fiercely turns back towards Huo Ran with a scowl. “You are being distracted by the secular world!”
“It’s not just me! All cultivators are assimilating into the secular world now!”
“What does what others do have to do with you?!”
“You-it’s been eight hundred years! The world has CHANGED!” At this point the two men are nose to nose, both shouting. While the music covers the noise from entering the dance room, Bai and Jiang Ren hear the shouts having followed the two. They peer into the room but are unable to enter because of the tremendous pressure Huo Ran and Mo Lan exude. After another moment of intense silence, Mo Lan droops and speaks quietly.
“So you have allowed yourself to change as well?” Huo Ran opens and closes his mouth. Finally, he groans.
“You know what? Forget it, you don’t understand.” He turns and storms out of the room and his friends give him a wide berth. Mo Lan attempts to follow but Huo Ran whirls around.
“Don’t follow me!” He storms away towards his car.
Mo Lan stands there for a moment and his lonely figure looks rather desolate in the empty room. After Huo Ran leaves the pressure in the room decreases and Bai and Jiang Ren manage to slip into it.
“My Lord?” Suddenly Mo Lan hears a voice interrupting his thoughts. He looks down and sees a small, pale looking fellow. He blinks.
“You are?”
“Oh, I’m Yin Bai from the Yin family and this is Jiang Ren from the Ren family. I was only born while you were in cultivation but you may know Jiang Ren.”
Mo Lan glances at Jiang Ren and vaguely recognizes him as someone who was always by Huo Ran’s side.
“Anyway,” Bai continues, “we’re Huo Ran’s friends and we overheard your argument. You’re worried that Huo Ran is straying from cultivation, right?”
“He is lacking discipline.”
Bai blinks. “Oh uh, ok. Well, since Ran doesn’t want to cultivate, why don’t you go take a look at what he’s doing now?” Mo Lan looks at him strangely.
“What?”
“Have you ever wondered why he doesn’t want to cultivate?” Mo Lan’s brows crinkle deeper. “There is no why. He must cultivate.”
“Well uh, ok. How about this? Maybe you can try to understand why he doesn’t want to cultivate so that you can figure out how to convince him to cultivate again! How does that sound? We can help you with that!” Mo Lan’s lips remain pursed but he doesn’t outright reject the suggestion. Jiang Ren elbows Bai. “Psst, what are you doing? You want to force Ran to cultivate?”
“Nothing! Be quiet. A means to an end, it’s a means to an end.”
“So? What do you think?” With his advanced hearing from his cultivation Mo Lan clearly hears their little conversation but he pays it no mind. Thinking about the little pale boy’s words, they don’t seem too bad.
“Fine.” Bai blinks, then his face blooms into a smile.
“Really? You can’t take it back!” Mo Lan looks sharply at Bai and he cowers for a moment, but he can’t keep his lips from curving into a devilish little grin, his eyes sparkling with plots. Mo Lan pays him no mind thinking to himself. If Huo Ran continues to be disobedient and not cultivate, then it is up to Mo Lan to discipline him.
I’m camping here. Poor mo lan, you are 800 years behind civilization.
../^..
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why doesn’t a forward slash work?
You have to discipline him yourself Mo Lan xD
Can’t actually believe that Huo ran is the shou though😏
Thank you for the chapter <3
Who knows? Maybe it’ll change. 😂 Glad you enjoyed the chapter XD
“the world CHANGE”
“So you allowed yourself to change as well?”
Found a typo:
That should probably be “Mo Lan’s face…”
Anyway, thanks for the story!