“Master? Over your vapid head! Why should I call you master?! What is so amazing about your mask? Which part of it is good exactly? I could tell it was a mask as soon as I looked at it! The workmanship certainly isn’t as refined as you say it is. When you smiled, only the surface of your face seemed to move without any of the muscles supposedly lying below the skin moving along. It didn’t look natural at all. Heck, I can make masks which are a hundred times better than yours!” Once she regained her wits about herself, Ling Chuxi began to lecture Mu Liufeng without holding back. ‘Was this some kind of joke to him? He wants me to recognize him as a master? Please. What an odd personality he has. Moody and consumed by vanity to the point of death. Who would ever want to be a disciple to such a person?! Why, just a short while earlier he even had the murderous intent to kill me and almost did!’
“What was that? Oh my days, you know how to make masks? That’s just so great! I’d like you to make eight to ten of them as quickly as you can for me. I’ll finally have something new to play with. Just think of it as a greeting gift that you, my new wicked disciple, bestowed upon me, your new master.” The moment Mu Liufeng heard Ling Chuxi say that she possessed this skill, his bewitching eyes lit up all the more and the perspective in his gaze towards Ling Chuxi shifted again.
“Look here. How can such a thing be so easily made? The mere process of getting all the materials needed is very complex and time-consuming. Plus, the materials are not so easily found so as to make that many masks. Furthermore, I refuse to recognize you as my master!” retorted Ling Chuxi without care for social niceties any longer. “All you have to do is let me pass the entrance examination fair and square. That would suffice. Thank you.”
“The audacity! How dare you speak to me like this, you wicked disciple, you!” seethed Mu Liufeng. He stepped back and put on his mask, transforming himself back into an ordinary-looking young man. Mu Liufeng began to hum to himself and chirped in a sing-song manner to Ling Chuxi, “If you don’t recognize me as your master, don’t even think of passing the entrance examination!”
“You!” barked Ling Chuxi angrily at Mu Liufeng, who stood motionless with a languid smile on his masked face. “How can there be such a man who goes around forcing people to become his disciples?!”
“All right, enough of this. Let’s take it from here. From now on, you are my disciple. If anyone dares to bully you or cause you any trouble, just tell me and I will kill them,” said Mu Liufeng reassuringly. By the time he concluded his sentence, his eyes had turned cold and brutal, burying any doubt that he was merely joking.
Ling Chuxi stroked her chin purposefully and lifted her head to glance at the surroundings as she considered this proposal. She looked directly at Mu Liufeng to clarify a point she’d been pondering, “Does this mean that in the future, if it comes down to fight with someone stronger than me or who has a backer stronger than me, you will be my backer and fight for me?”
“I suppose one could interpret it that way,” mused Mu Liufeng seriously as he also stroked his chin in deep consideration.
“Then, my answer is yes!” declared Ling Chuxi firmly as she smacked her fist into her own palm in revelation. Having a backer as strong as Mu Liufeng wasn’t a bad thing at all! If she were to explore the benefits of this arrangement further, she recalled Ling Yichen saying that Mu Liufeng was someone even the principal could not touch. This was great. Mu Liufeng would be a really strong backer. What’s more was that he loved flattery and was as vain as anything, which meant that he was easy to coax. If anyone was keeping score of this matter, it seemed as though Ling Chuxi had gained the upper hand with this arrangement. Therefore, having thought through all these points, Ling Chuxi happily agreed to become the disciple of Mu Liufeng!
“Let’s go then, master. Bring me in so I can register officially as a student of White Stone Academy.” Ling Chuxi spoke enthusiastically to Mu Liufeng as she sheathed her Luo Chen Sword and went to collect Little White who stood a short distance away.
“Very well. Let’s go. So, tell me my dutiful disciple, when will you be able to make those masks for me?” Mu Liufeng caught up to Ling Chuxi as she strode back towards the academy. He had pointedly changed his term of address for her—from wicked disciple to dutiful disciple.
“Hmm. It depends on my mood. When I’m in a good enough mood for it I suppose.”
“I see. And when will that be?”
…
When the teachers in charge of the examination registrations saw Mu Liufeng laughing and conversing with a young maiden, they almost let their jaws drop in surprise.
Was that really Mu Liufeng? Was it really him? Why was he smiling so widely and looking as though he was trying to curry favor with a young maiden? What was going on? Previously, whenever Mu Liufeng oversaw examinations, the candidates assigned to him usually all left the academy grounds with terror-stricken faces. They were all so afraid and traumatized that some of them either peed themselves or fled with trembling buttocks. No one had ever passed the entrance examination with Mu Liufeng as the examiner before!
Mu Liufeng strut in front of a shell-shocked teacher at the registration desk and allowed his words to drop like casual bombs, “Register her as a student. She has passed the examination.”
The book held in the hand of the teacher Mu Liufeng spoke to fell from the teacher’s weakened grasp and hit the floor with a loud thud.