Mo Yangling thankfully remembered the way to his new home eventually.
He was still somewhat new to the streets of the Guozhi Capital, even if he had walked them in his memories before.
His house was not that far from the inner ring, so he at least had that huge landmark to orient himself with.
On his way there he also got to know Liao and Liang better.
Well, as well as one could with a few dozen minutes of idle chatter. It wasn't like the Monk was prying into their past or anything.
Mo Qiao also seemed to like Liao at the very least, maybe because their names were similar, or just because the little girl was a lot more talkative than her older brother.
Liang was a lot less sociable, his eyes scanned every person they passed by with suspicion. It was almost as if he was scared that they were being followed.
The two orphans were normally used to people bumping into them, or shooing them off into alleyways. Sometimes people would even call the guards on them if they lingered for too long in one place.
But when walking with Mo Yangling and Mo Qiao, civilians were parting around them as the seas parted around the Martial Artists of old. No one even dared to look at them wrong.
After all, news had already spread that Mo Yangling was now a Sage. Many now needed to treat him with the same respect they did the king.
Of course, it was unlikely that any of them would actually do that, but at the very least no one was willing to offend the newly titled Sage.
Hell, even Mo Qiao was normally treated with similar respect purely due to the fact that she was a member of the Mo Family's main branch. Granddaughter of the Great Elder even.
Not that she had benefited much from her status. The Grand Elder barely paid any attention to the family. The Mo Clan's youth was normally not his greatest concern.
At the very least she received a decent stipend thanks to her status. She had a bit of pocket money saved up for elixirs and whatnot.
But nothing could've prepared her to see the 'small house' that her Cousin had bought.
"W-what the hell..." Mo Qiao rubbed her eyes a bit as she looked at what was likely one of the largest mansions in the middle ring.
"Amitabha, Language! We are in the presence of children..." The Monk brought his hands together in prayer.
"... Cousin, weren't you swearing at Enforcers earlier? Even worse weren't you violen-"
"Amitabha, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Even the greatest of men fall into temptation at times." The Monk sounded like a true sage in that moment, but Mo Qiao could somewhat see the flaws in his statement.
"Cousin, I've never seen you not be violent..." Her voice sounded almost concerned as she remembered the amount of people her cousin had beaten up, including herself and her older brother.
"And yet, I am the Sage between the two of us. Maybe you should be more violent too, hmm?"
Mo Qiao could not argue with him at all. Even worse, she felt her own opinion being swayed by her cousin's words.
"You live here Big Bro?" Liao also seemingly couldn't believe her eyes. Her tone was about as shocked as could be.
"Indeed, this place cost a few million gold taels. Not the biggest place, but I doubt I'll need much more." Mo Yangling nodded at the little girl, a smile appearing on his face as he patted her head lightly.
"Hold up. What do you mean a few million gold taels, did the King give you that much money? Did you hypnotize him or something? Also, this place is massive, what standards are you using to judge this place!?"
Mo Qiao seemed to have quite a few questions, shooting them one after the other while the monk just scowled and cleaned his ear with his pinkie.
"Amitabha, the king only gave me the staff on my back. I made the money in my adventures. And this place, although nice, is much smaller than the Mo Clan's compound!" The Monk smiled as he felt somewhat proud.
"Cousin... How do you earn money? Would you cut this cousin of yours into the business?
Also, please don't compare a mansion with the compound of a Great Clan, those are meant to house dozens of generations, not just one person."
Mo Qiao continued asking questions, her eyes darting in between the mansion and her unexpectedly rich cousin.
But before the Monk could even answer, one of his aspiring servants butted in.
"S-sir... This may be a bit too much for just me and my sister to take care of..." Liang voiced out his worries in a rather sacred, his thinking a lot more practical than his sisters.
Instead of awe and wonder, his thoughts were more clouded by fear and anxiety.
"You won't be the only ones. I'll be hiring a firm to get some more experienced servants at some point." The monk had thought of doing recruitment himself, but he truly didn't feel like dealing with that.
So, like all rich people, he was going to outsource his responsibilities to as many people as possible.
"And Cousin Qiao, I only hunted down beasts for money. It wasn't anything special." The monk didn't feel like going into detail about his piss-selling business at that time.
Especially since he wasn't sure that Mo Qiao was willing to join his Buddhist Sect later on.
He technically wasn't lying either. With all the beasts he had killed, he likely could've gotten a very nice profit if he had managed to collect the more important materials from their corpses.
"Damn cousin... You must've hunted quite a few powerful beasts to get this much money."
"Yeah, it was harder to carry than anything... Anyway, off you go inside."
The Monk immediately changed the subject and gestured for all of them to walk in.
The front gates moved without so much as creaking as the monk pushed them open. The 4 of them walked through the clean pathways towards the mansion.
They passed by the pond, the training grounds and the other facilities within the small compound.
The two orphan children's eyes wandered about as much as Mo Qiao's did. The place was pristine, clean and maintained.
And how couldn't it be? The Monk had only bought it a few days prior.
On the training grounds were touched a bit, as the monk had tried out a few moves there and meditated a bit. But otherwise, everything was brand new.
"Cousin... Can I move in here too?" Mo Qiao asked as her eyes wandered to that Training Ground.
It was larger than the one assigned to her within the Mo Compound, but more importantly, it was where she was most likely to receive Mo Yangling's guidance.
Thankfully for her, the monk was not against the idea.
"Amitabha, sure, whatever. But only if you handle managing the servants I'll eventually hire for this place. You have to earn your keep, family or not."
Of course, Mo Qiao was not a slacker, so she nodded when hearing of her responsibilities.
Before long, the 4 of them reached the mansion.
"You 3 will have rooms in this main building, servants in the future will have different housing arrangements." The monk picked his nose as he waved off his new housemates, allowing them to pick their rooms on their own.
Mo Qiao skipped off without even the slightest hint of an afterthought, she clearly was going to pick the best possible room aside from the master bedroom.
But Liang seemed to stop his younger sister from skipping off alongside her, he instead looked up at Mo Yangling with a worried gaze.
"S-sir... Is it truly ok for us to live in the same house as you? I-I mean, we are thankful for the opportunity regardless. But if-"
"Stop with the worrying brat. If I didn't want you to do something then I'd tell you not to do it. Now go and pick a room."
Liang blinked a few times, not even sure how to respond as he let go of his sister who just skipped off with a "Yayy~ I get a rwoom of my own!"
The monk shook his head before looking back down to Liang, blinking a few times, as if remembering something and stuffing his hand into his chest pocket.
"Also, brat, talk to Mo Qiao about buying the two of you a proper wardrobe. Tell her to use this and to feel free to get herself something nice too." The monk yawned, handing the child a banknote worth 1 million gold Taels.
Thankfully, Liang didn't seem to know how to read, so he just nodded and walked off as well.
"Ah... All is well in the world." The monk sighed revelling in the tranquility of his previously empty mansion as it was slowly being filled with life.
"Now then, time to handle the guests..." The monk's gaze turned a few degrees colder as he craned his neck to the side and smiled at some bushes in the distance.
'Amitabha... May your intentions not be harmful, for mine can be a lot worse...'
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