ALL NOVEL 118. Extra: In which Li Fanghua’s life is normal compared to Wen Zhihao’s
Wen Zhihao stroked his chin sheepishly after hearing how Li Fanghua had met Zhou Sheng.
“You could say that Zhou Sheng indeed has some troubles with his own righteous cultivator,” Wen Zhihao admitted.
“He even needed my help,” Sun Fuyu added. “There was almost a big war between the demonic and righteous sects, but they kissed instead, and Wen Zhihao suggested the tournament instead, so that everyone can battle without war!”
“Is that so...” Li Fanghua closed her eyes briefly, rubbed her forehead, and exhaled heavily. Now she understood the origin of the tournament suddenly appeared, its news even spreading all the way to the Phoenix Moon Sect. In a sense, Wen Zhihao was her counterpart on this side of the continent. “My luck is truly bad.”
“Hey, don’t say that,” Hu Lingzhi pouted.
Li Fanghua opened her eyes again. “Oh, I must have used up all my luck to meet you.”
Hu Lingzhi’s pout immediately turned into a beaming smile. “Mm,” she agreed.
Sun Fuyu snuggled up under Wen-ge’s arm. “There is no dog blood between me and Wen-ge!” he boasted.
“Same here,” Hu Lingzhi replied. “Ah, I forgot to say, you won the Golden Core Late-Stage bracket in the tournament, yes? Why don’t we spar tomorrow?”
Sun Fuyu nodded. “Yes.”
“I’ll only use five swords,” Hu Lingzhi decided.
Sun Fuyu frowned. “Only five? I’m now at Peak-Stage!”
“You’re only at peak stage, I can’t bully junior cultivators!”
Wen Zihao rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head, while Li Fanghua rubbed Hu Lingzhi’s head, appeasing their loved one.
As Wen Zhihao was doing so, he couldn’t help but yawn.
Sun Fuyu immediately took Wen-ge’s hand off his head. “Senior Hu, let’s discuss the match clearly tomorrow. It’s time for bed.”
Li Fanghua raised her eyebrows. “Already? There is still much of the night left.” Nascent Soul cultivators like them needed only a little sleep.
Wen Zhihao yawned again. “Sorry, I am a poor host. Let’s talk again tomorrow.”
Li Fanghua was sympathetic. Clearly having children could tire even a Nascent Soul cultivator out. And so, while their hosts slept, Li Fanghua crafted and Hu Lingzhi cared for her many, many swords.
The next day, while Sun Fuyu and Hu Lingzhi sparred, Wen Zhihao and Li Fanghua sat on the sidelines, talking about their past lives.
In the modern world—and as far as they knew, it was the same world—Li Fanghua had been an engineer and Wen Zhihao had been a programmer.
While one worked in a lab while the other at a desk, they both had a similarity: overwork
They also had a second similarity: they died in a vehicular collision.
After reminiscing about various pop culture events, food, and the internet, the two of them moved onto their lives since transmigrating.
Wen Zhihao skimmed over his recent life, occasionally looking over at Sun Fuyu and Hu Lingzhi fighting.
“It has truly been a relaxed life, most of the time,” he said with a peaceful smile. “The cats and calming stones have been helpful.”
“I’ve been content with my life too,” Li Fanghua realised. Even though dealing with emotionally stunted cultivators was annoying, it also provided contrast to the rest of her life. She couldn’t imagine sleeping as much as Wen Zhihao did. They were two different people, suited to two different lifestyles.
“Say, there is something I want to ask you, about the things that you’ve made.”
Li Fanghua took out her qi-powered phone-device. She used it to communicate with Hu Lingzhi and store jade-slips-worth of information and notes. “Did you want one of these?”
“I don’t need this in particular,” Wen Zhihao said frankly. He stored notes in his spatial ring and had those new communication tokens with Sun Fuyu already. After living in this world for so long, he no longer had a phone addiction. He fiddled with his sleeve sheepishly. “I seem to have a problem with detecting my cultivation level. I was wondering if you could create a cultivation-level detection device.”
“That kind of standardised testing would be quite useful in other contexts too,” Li Fanghua mused. “Let me think about it.”
Wen Zhihao nodded. “Let me pay you for your time. I have spiritual stones. I also have calming stones and talismans.”
After seeing Wen Zhihao take out some rocks and messy scribbles, which he called “calming stones” and “talismans”, Li Fanghua suddenly understood those weird objects Zhou Sheng had given her when handing over that printer design all those months ago.
“Let’s negotiate the cost in spiritual stones later,” Li Fanghua quickly said. She had no need for rocks and scribbles. “—Though perhaps a few calming stones could be included.” Anything that could help her with future encounters with dog blood romances was worth trying out.
“Of course,” Wen Zhihao agreed. “If you don’t like these stones, you can also bring any object and I’ll make it into a calming treasure. As many as you like.”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
Over on the training field, the sparring match between Hu Lingzhi and Sun Fuyu had ended.
Hu Lingzhi slapped Sun Fuyu on the back. Due to her shorter height, her hand only reached the middle of Sun Fuyu’s back. Her force was enough to throw him off balance.
“Not bad, Sun-shidi!” she said warmly. “Say, you should try using a second sword. The more swords, the better!”
“I do not have your kind of sword cultivation,” Sun Fuyu said politely. “However, my family’s Ruan Lanxi will be interested. Would you mind teaching her a little after she returns home from school?”
“Of course!”
With that sorted, the two of them walked back over to Wen Zhihao and Li Fanghua.
“What are you doing?” Hu Lingzhi asked curiously.
“Nothing in particular,” Li Fanghua said.
Wen Zhihao brightened. “You haven’t seen the cats yet, have you? We’ll go over there now, they’re very cute.”
Li Fanghua, an old netizen just like Wen Zhihao, perked up. Images of cute cats and fluffy kittens filled her mind. “Where?”
Not long after, Li Fanghua stared at the large cats (tigers, lions, leopards…) and large cats (house cats ten times larger than usual) pouncing around, relaxing on their backs, sleeping on their stomachs….
And not to mention the cultivators with big cats on their lap, petting them like there was no tomorrow and speaking quietly to them. The cats answered with purrs and meows as though they were supportive therapists…
Wen Zhihao picked up a big cat that was twice his size. “Aren’t you so cute? Look at your little toe beans!”
The big tiger purred, letting Wen Zhihao play with his paw.
Li Fanghua: “...”
Cough, she was quite happy with her own life that made sense, thank you!
After those few days, the auction event opened. Wen Zhihao went with Sun Fuyu out of curiousity.
The auction house was a large, richly decorated building. In the main hall, there was a raised stage at the front, followed by upwards sloping seating. Private expensive seating boxes scaled up the sides looking down on everything.
Throughout the seating area, arrays dampened sound, so despite the packed house of colourfully dressed cultivators, the noise wasn’t overwhelming.
As time drew near, the curtain in front of the stage drew back. Conversations died as the two hosts stepped onto a stage, a beautiful male cultivator and a beautiful female cultivator.
After an introduction, another cultivator appeared carrying a tray, which they placed on the central table. Upon this tray were a number of items: the auction began.
Wen Zhihao watched and listened, but beyond the oh, that must be a special plant, and a precious material?, and definitely a weapon!, he didn’t truly recognise anything. He was completely dumbfounded whenever the surrounding cultivators roared when some especially famous object was taken out.
And the prices. Only a few objects had a starting price counted in medium-grade spiritual stones. The rest all began with high-grade spiritual stones.
When magical treasures made by famous long-past cultivators or owned by famous long-past cultivators appeared, the bidding became extremely fervent. It would climb by hundreds of high-grade spiritual stones at a time.
Wen Zhihao had felt like a local tyrant from his calming stone earnings, but he was naught but an ordinary person in contrast to the insanely wealthy cultivators participating in the auctions.
Wen Zhihao hadn’t planned to bid for anything himself—there was nothing he needed (aside from a device to tell him his own cultivation level). However, he had to abandon his secret plan to bid for something for Sun Fuyu.
Wait, that’s right! Wen Zhihao should diligently study the advanced talisman manual in order to make better talismans for Sun Fuyu. Now that he had this motivation, he could finally start on reading the talisman manual properly.
Wen Zhihao rested his head on Sun Fuyu’s shoulder and watched the rest of the spectacle in a relaxed manner.
Sun Fuyu absently tilted his head, resting it on top of Wen-ge’s. The ancient and powerful items in front of him could not sway his heart nearly as much as Wen Zhihao did.
Li Fanghua and Hu Lingzhi had a more fruitful auction experience. At the end of it, Li Fanghua received thousands of high-grade spiritual stones after some of her crafts were auctioned off.
Those thousands of high-grade spiritual stones were subsequently taken away when she successfully bid for another sword for Hu Lingzhi’s collection.
At the end of the auction, Li Fanghua and Hu Lingzhi continued to stay with Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu for a little longer. During this time, Li Fanghua purchased a pile of medium-grade jewellery, which Wen Zhihao infused with calming qi by hand, to show his sincerity.
Li Fanghua also created a prototype device to help Wen Zhihao detect his own cultivation level. It worked like an instant read thermometer: by holding the rectangular craft, small coloured dots would light up corresponding to approximate cultivation level. After clearly seeing that he was still a Early-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator, Wen Zhihao gladly paid with a few hundred high-grade spiritual stones. Never again would he be surprised at his own cultivation level!
Li Fanghua planned to have it interface with her qi phone, or perhaps for it to display in a holographic panel. But that was work for later, to be done in her complete workshop back at the Phoenix Moon sect.
Although the days at the Golden Sun Sect were peaceful, and their sleep was especially invigorating, Li Fanghua and Hu Lingzhi did not stay for long. Hu Lingzhi itched for adventure and whacking other cultivators with her swords, and Li Fanghua liked to follow and travel, gaining inspiration for her own crafting.
And so, a week or so after the auction, Wen Zhihao, Sun Fuyu and the children farewelled the two cultivators and watched as Li Fanghua and Hu Lingzhi flew away on their flying skateboard and flying sword respectively.
Cultivator lives were long: they would meet again in the future many times.
And that’s the end of the mini arc with Li Fanghua (￣∇￣)
Also!!! Check this out for cute fanart of Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu, drawn by tiaf! Tip: if you scroll down to section 5, you can see a bigger version ☆⌒(≧▽° )