The Rogue Who Coveted His Master (Non-explicit Adapted Edition) - Chapter 1

“Shen Zihe, you have a death wish! Today I’ll teach you a lesson on your master’s behalf!”

Immortal Venerable Mo Yao of the Sword Sect swung his blade at me in a fury. Ready for precisely this development, I burned a Thousand-Li Talisman and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Nothing special. Just practice.

I was the cultivation world’s foremost rogue, with a clear and highly specialized line of work: coveting other people’s masters.

The system chimed in.

[Congratulations, host! Mission complete: obtain Mo Yao’s underpants!]

Put more plainly, I was like an NPC whose sole purpose was to trigger the “Defend Our Master” storyline in every major sect.

I’d written love letters to a master of the Yuqing Sect. Stolen the warming jade a master of the Penglai Sect wore against his skin. Even that solemn holy monk of the Buddhist Sect of the Western Heavens, with his gleaming bald head… well, I’d tried to drape my red silk gauze over him.

People in the trade called me the Masters’ Bane. Their verdict: I could take a beating and still come back for more—the foremost rogue of them all.

What they didn’t know was that my backside was even better at taking a beating. Not that it was itching for one. It had simply endured an awful lot of them.

That was the untold tale of blood and tears behind my glorious record.

At first, the masters I pestered either chased me for hundreds of miles with murder on their faces or issued warrants and left their disciples to catch me.

They soon discovered that neither approach worked. I was faster than a rabbit.

So they went to my master, Immortal Venerable Ji Qing.

He was different. He could actually catch me and beat me!

Personally! With a disciplinary ruler! Precision strikes! Straight for the fleshiest parts!

He even gave it a grand name: “The Board of Purity and Restraint, to rid you of improper desires.”

By now, there was scarcely a master in the cultivation world I hadn’t flirted with. Except Ji Qing.

I didn’t dare covet that unattainable flower in the slightest.

Because he really did beat me!

However beautiful he was, I couldn’t bring myself to entertain improper thoughts about him.

Even when his beauty dazzled me so badly that I couldn’t help staring, the moment he produced that ruler, I regained my composure.

After all, I’d had my backside beaten raw more times than I’d gone out making a nuisance of myself with other people’s masters!

I crept back into the sect and sneaked toward my room, praying that bastard Mo Yao wouldn’t tell Ji Qing I’d stolen his underpants.

Closing the door as quietly as I could, I breathed a sigh of relief. Home safe. Surely Master wouldn’t beat me today.

“Back, are you?”

A voice as cool as snow sounded behind me.

A chill ran down my spine. With trembling hands, I tried to open the door I’d just closed.

It wouldn’t budge.

“Don’t waste your strength.”

The man behind me plainly knew what I was doing. His reminder was gentler still.

The gentler he sounded, the more terrified I became.

It meant he was truly angry.

I made a snap decision: turn around, drop to my knees, and confess.

“Master, I know I was wrong…”

Light flooded the room.

A remote beauty in white reclined against my bed, lifting his eyes languidly. He was toying with a disciplinary ruler about a foot long.

He gave a soft laugh. “Oh? And what exactly did you do wrong?”

I suddenly had no idea where to begin.

What if I confessed to something he hadn’t discovered yet?

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d bluffed me.

“Nothing to say?”

Ji Qing’s smile grew gentler.

He tapped the ruler against his palm. Each tap seemed to land directly on my heart.

I knew perfectly well it wouldn’t feel nearly so gentle against my backside.

The moment he spoke in that soft voice, I lost my nerve. Tearfully, I confessed how many venerables I’d pestered that day and exactly what I’d done to each of them.

A cold smile curved Ji Qing’s lips.

“Stealing underpants now, are we? Evidently my discipline has accomplished absolutely nothing.”

“What an accomplished disciple you’ve become.”

Unexpectedly, he didn’t strike me at once.

First he humiliated me over the stolen underpants. Then he punished me with the ruler.

The punishment left me ashamed, and increasingly confused about my feelings for him.

After Ji Qing left, I remained sprawled on the bed without moving for a long time.