The next morning, Mu Xueshi still woke up early.
His mind was in a haze. Everything that had happened the previous night replayed itself again and again in his thoughts, making it feel almost like a dream.
I… ended up with the Third Prince?
Not just friends… but lovers?
Last night… did the Third Prince and I really do such a forbidden thing?
Yes.
The aching soreness throughout his body was still painfully real.
Mu Xueshi did not feel regret. What he felt instead was a kind of bewilderment—as though everything had happened too abruptly for him to fully accept.
Just yesterday, he and the Third Prince had seemed like intimate friends.
And today, without any warning at all, they had crossed into an entirely different realm.
What puzzled him most was that he felt no awkwardness at all about being with another man. Instead, he had accepted it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Perhaps the heart’s feelings were what truly mattered.
Mu Xueshi placed a hand over his chest, listening to the steady thump-thump of his heartbeat, and slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, the Third Prince’s face was suddenly right before him—so close it seemed enlarged in his vision.
Mu Xueshi blinked.
Just as he was about to greet him, the expression on his face abruptly froze.
“Take that away!!”
Mu Xueshi suddenly shouted at the small bottle in the Third Prince’s hand, his expression instantly turning furious.
The Third Prince lifted the little bottle gracefully between two slender fingers and held it before Mu Xueshi’s eyes.
“This is medicine.”
Mu Xueshi frowned so deeply that his brows almost formed a single line.
“Don’t try that with me,” he said through clenched teeth. “Do I look like an idiot to you?”
The Third Prince withdrew the bottle back into his palm, feeling both amused and exasperated.
Mu Xueshi was truly frightened.
Lying face-down on the bed, he stretched one small arm outward as if trying to block the Third Prince from suddenly attacking him again.
In the end, Mu Xueshi was no match for him.
The Third Prince calmly sealed his acupoints. Instantly Mu Xueshi found himself unable to move, forced to watch helplessly as the Third Prince lifted the blanket and removed his trousers…
The Third Prince’s movements were extremely careful.
Even so, Mu Xueshi still let out two exaggerated cries of pain, as if to express his dissatisfaction.
“I want to learn acupoint sealing! Master, please teach me acupoint sealing—and how to release it too!”
While practicing martial arts, Mu Xueshi pleaded repeatedly with Su Ruhan.
Su Ruhan wore a stern expression. No matter how Mu Xueshi begged, he remained unmoved, continuing to make him practice the most basic movements.
In order to strengthen Mu Xueshi’s body, before teaching him any martial techniques each day, Su Ruhan would send him to the back mountain to fetch water.
Mu Xueshi performed the task earnestly.
Every morning he carried two full buckets of mountain spring water back down, poured them into the large jar, and then immediately returned to fetch more.
And all the water Mu Xueshi carried back was used solely by the Third Prince.
That fact alone made Mu Xueshi work even harder.
After only a few days, he could already feel the muscles on his body firming up. Whenever he touched them, he felt an immense sense of accomplishment.
“Master, today I’ll carry extra buckets! I’ll fetch water for you too. Please, just teach me acupoint sealing!”
Before Su Ruhan could even answer, Mu Xueshi had already hoisted the shoulder pole and dashed toward the back mountain.
Not long afterward he returned, drenched in sweat, pouring another bucket of water into a second jar.
When Mu Xueshi ran, his back was hunched and his legs were spread awkwardly apart.
The posture looked strange.
But it helped lessen the pain between his legs.
Some servants who happened to pass by could not help but laugh quietly when they saw him.
Mu Xueshi paid them no attention whatsoever.
For the sake of learning acupoint sealing, he was willing to give it everything he had. Otherwise, being bullied by the Third Prince like that every time was simply not Mu Xueshi’s style.
Besides—
If he learned it, then next time they were enjoying themselves in bed, he could seize the opportunity to gain a little advantage over the Third Prince.
Thinking back to the expression the Third Prince had worn last night—so lost in pleasure—Mu Xueshi felt certain it must have felt very good.
The more he thought about it, the more he could not help but chuckle to himself.
His cheeks curved into two bright red apples.
At last, after filling yet another bucket of water, Mu Xueshi was soaked through with sweat.
Wiping his face with his sleeve, he excitedly said,
“Master, hurry and teach me acupoint sealing!”
At some point, a sword had appeared in Su Ruhan’s hand.
He stuffed one sword into Mu Xueshi’s arms while holding the other himself, preparing to teach him sword practice.
Mu Xueshi clenched his fists tightly.
Biting his lip, he demanded angrily,
“Master, why won’t you teach me acupoint sealing? I already carried the water for you!”
Su Ruhan’s face remained completely expressionless.
As if deliberately opposing him, he flicked his sword toward Mu Xueshi, forcing him to block—reviewing the defensive technique he had taught him the previous day.
But Mu Xueshi made no move to defend himself.
Instead, he stood there stubbornly, his head raised high. His already large eyes were now widened like bronze bells.
Finally, Su Ruhan abruptly withdrew his sword.
The blade stopped just one inch away from Mu Xueshi’s left shoulder.
“Why didn’t you dodge?” Su Ruhan asked darkly.
Mu Xueshi answered fearlessly,
“Believe it or not, I’ll carry all the water I brought back for you right back up the mountain! Then you won’t have any to use!”
Su Ruhan gave a cold laugh.
“I would welcome it.”
Only then did Mu Xueshi realize how foolish his threat was.
Even if he carried the water away, Su Ruhan would still have water to use. In the end, the only one suffering would be himself.
Mu Xueshi let out a bitter laugh.
He sat down blankly on a small stone stool nearby and muttered to himself,
“My heart… feels completely chilled…”
After that, whatever Su Ruhan told him to practice, Mu Xueshi practiced seriously.
But the excitement and determination he had shown in previous days were gone.
He moved like a puppet.
Whatever Su Ruhan ordered, he carried out mechanically.
The lively, mischievous boy from earlier had vanished, replaced by someone numb and dispirited.
Finally, just as the day’s training was coming to an end, Su Ruhan relented and taught Mu Xueshi the simplest method of sealing acupoints.
By first channeling a portion of inner energy into Mu Xueshi, then guiding him to circulate it himself, one could focus strength through the chest, arms, and neck. In an instant—when intention arrived, qi arrived; when qi arrived, blood arrived; when blood arrived, force arrived—the inner power would strike the opponent’s acupoint.
Su Ruhan also taught him how to release the sealed points.
After that, whatever else Su Ruhan tried to teach, Mu Xueshi had no interest in learning.
His mind was already racing with one thought—
He had to find someone to test it on.
The thought that he could make someone move with a single touch—or freeze them completely—filled Mu Xueshi with indescribable excitement.
“Acupoint sealing cannot be mastered in a single day,” Su Ruhan warned. “You must practice frequently to locate the points accurately. Randomly striking them may harm the other person—and sometimes even harm yourself…”
“Got it, got it…”
Mu Xueshi waved his hand impatiently.
Meanwhile his eyes darted everywhere around him, searching eagerly for a target.
Futile Devices Scans 
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