Apologising

Raymond followed the servant and soon reached his uncle's courtyard. The servant led him to a room at the end of the corridor and took his leave.

Raymond knocked on the door asking for permission to enter.

"Come in." He heard a familiar voice of his uncle.

He opened the door and entered. His face took on a strange expression when he looked at his uncle.

Victor was lying on his stomach on a massage table and he only had a towel wrapped around his private parts, a servant was massaging his shoulders with oil and he would let out a contented sigh from time to time, which sounded like a moan to Raymond's ears.

Looking at this scene Raymond thought that maybe the rumours were true. He wanted to leave right away and wash his eyes after what he saw. Getting a massage was somewhat acceptable but why was there another manservant feeding him grapes from time to time?

Even though he had nothing against gay people, as a straight person he didn't want to see two men being intimate with each other.

But leaving right away would be rude, so he had to give an excuse.

"Uhh, uncle, you seem to be busy, I will come back later, my stomach doesn't feel good now, I have to hurry." He quickly turned around to leave.

"Stop right there, I have the perfect tea for an upset stomach, Rob, prepare that herbal tea for my nephew." Victor's eyelids twitched in anger after seeing Raymond's reaction.

Actually, Victor was deliberately getting a massage in front of Raymond. From a young age Victor knew that he didn't have any interest in women and that led him to be isolated from his peers.

Only person who accepted him and treated him fairly was his big brother Thomas. He thought that his nephew would be the same and accept him for who he was.

But reality was cruel for Victor, at first Raymond and Victor were close like father and son, but after Raymond understood his uncle's inclinations and was influenced by the society, he started to avoid Victor.

Victor, who treated his nephew like his own son, was deeply hurt by this. But he would from time to time try to approach Raymond and try to get their relationship back on track.

He would deliberately make an effort to show his interest in men to Raymond so that he would come to accept him one day, sadly that only drew Raymond further away from him.

Raymond realised that his earlier actions must have hurt his uncle's feelings, but he really didn't want to see what his uncle showed him before.

Thinking he should explain himself and clear the air between them.

"Uncle, I am sorry for how I treated you for the last few years, but you should really stop being intimate with your servants in front of me, I don't care what you do behind closed doors but please, I see you as a father figure, don't ruin it." He gave a deep bow and said honestly.

Victor was flabbergasted for a second after hearing Raymond's reply but seeing that Raymond was being honest and wasn't trying to shake him off, he heaved a sigh of relief.

He quickly put on a robe and clapped his hands signalling all the servants to leave the room.

"Alright brat, since you are being honest, tell me, was my actions the only thing that made you avoid me?" Victor asked, feeling hopeful.

"Yes, uncle. That is true." Raymond quickly

answered with a straight face, he didn't want to say that his uncle's actions were only part of the reason and the old Raymond really wanted to stay away from him. He wanted to leave behind whatever happened between them in the past and move on.

Even though Victor was suspicious he didn't want to dwell on this matter any longer than necessary.

He was very happy to hear that Raymond saw him as a parental figure. He quickly changed the topic by asking about his current situation.

"I heard that you have quit drinking. Now that I look at you it seems to be true.Good, I was really worried that you would waste away your youth drinking." He said smiling.

"Hmph, I wasn't drinking for nothing. I was practising a body cultivation technique." Raymond hurriedly corrected his uncle, after all he didn't want to be labelled as drunkard because of his predecessor's drinking habit. So he came up with this absurd excuse as a means to explain his strength as well as his drinking habit.

Victor looked at his nephew like he was looking at an alien.

"Who are you trying to fool? What body cultivation? It is a long lost discipline of cultivation, there is not a single technique related to body cultivation let alone in our family, not even in the whole Empire. Just accept that you were drinking in sorrow, no need to act tough in front of your uncle."

Raymond's lips twitched when he heard that. Usually, these uncle and father characters were supposed to believe whatever bullshit spouted by their son.

'Hmm, Jasmine had no doubts when I said that before.Could it be that I don't have the protagonist's halo or is it that my Dao of bullshittery is lacking?' Raymond thought, rubbing his chin.

"Alright, uncle. If you don't believe me I will prove it to you. How about we have a spar?" Raymond asked.

"Hehe, you want to get beaten up, brat? Then I will gladly oblige you, let's go to the backyard." With that they both went to the small backyard.

"Wait, uncle. Backyard is not suitable for me to fight, it might get destroyed if I let loose. How about we go to the mountain range out of the city?" Raymond suggested.

He was thinking of holding back a bit of his strength and frustrate his uncle into using his full power. His uncle was a Martial Greatsage, if he went all out, the backyard would be destroyed.

"Hmmph, look at you being all overconfident. Alright let's go outside the city. Try to keep up with me if you can." His uncle quickly circulated his wind energy and flew off into the distance.

Raymond snorted and didn't reply to his provocation.

*******

Victor flew for a few minutes before he reached a flat ground near the mountain ranges.

He didn't fly at his fastest, wanting to give Raymond a chance to catch up with him.

"Yo, Uncle. You took your sweet time coming here." Raymond called from a nearby tree, he was sitting on the tree branch sipping the tea offered by his uncle's servant back in the room.

"You! When did you get here?" Victor asked dumbfounded.

"Nevermind that," he jumped down from the tree and walked towards his uncle.

"How about we start fighting? You can make the first move." Raymond beckoned to Victor.