ALL NOVEL 51. Who are you really?
“Tell me exactly how you came here and your purpose.”
Wen Zhihao’s eyes flickered slightly, suspecting that Lin Yijun was trying to suppress him with his qi in an act of overbearing intimidation. Holding back a sigh about how unlucky he was, Wen Zhihao put on a polite customer-service smile.
“Answering senior, this junior disciple likes to walk around in the forests outside our Golden Sun Sect and came across these hot springs by accident. In order to make some small amounts of mortal money for use, I collect various flowers to sell.”
Wen Zhihao took out a few recently collected flowers from his spatial ring. “Observe, this junior disciple picked these not more than two incense sticks of time ago. By infusing them with qi, I can make a cheap and energy-saving light source.”
Lin Yijun’s eyes took on a disdainful edge. Commoner items. Those flowers would not count as even level 1 spiritual herbs.
“Put them away,” Lin Yijun said. “What do you know of the upcoming events?”
Wen Zhihao obeyed. “Upcoming events? There is the Intra-Sect competition, the Autumn Moon Festival—”
“Everyone knows that,” Lin Yijun said impatiently. “What about the future discoveries of various secret realms? Do you know of them?”
Wen Zhihao replied calmly, “I do not know of these.”
“Have you been in contact with any demonic cultivators?”
“No.”
The qi around Lin Yijun became sharp and spiky. “Then why did you help that Sun Fuyu? He was a qi-deviation threat.”
Wen Zhihao smiled faintly, holding back his dislike at the other’s tone. “Daoist Sun Fuyu is a very hardworking cultivator and my friend. It is natural to help him.”
Lin Yijun grew irritated. Despite Disciple Wen’s answers, he increasingly felt that this ‘Wen Zhihao’ was not the same ‘Wen Zhihao’ as in his last life. He subtly checked that his magical treasure was still working before asking, “Are you really Wen Zhihao? Have you not experienced or dreamt of any what-could-have-been futures?”
“I really am Wen Zhihao, that is the name my parents gave me. And no, this junior disciple really does not know the future. I am only a poor talisman cultivator,” Wen Zhihao said. So it turned out that this other cultivator knew his name—should he be flattered that he was a little famous? In contrast, he had no idea who the other person was...
Wait, the more important part was why this senior suspected that Wen Zhihao was a reincarnator! Was this senior an actual reincarnator himself? If this senior was a reincarnator, wouldn’t that make him the male protagonist?!
Wen Zhihao wanted to leave the halo of this protagonist as soon as possible! It was much too stressful!
“Requesting senior to allow this junior disciple to leave.”
“No.”
Wen Zhihao: …
“Senior, if you wish to talk further, then can I offer you some cake and tea?”
“I don’t eat mortal food,” Lin Yijun replied with a pompous expression.
Wen Zhihao inwardly sighed at the other person, feeling that the other cultivator was truly pitiful. Why aren’t there more reasonable people like Elder Liu Ru and Sun Fuyu? This senior’s childhood must have been full of deprivation.
Because of these thoughts, Wen Zhihao’s tone became more gentle, the way one should talk to tsundere kids. “Senior, please be more direct, don’t be polite. Is there something wrong? Do you feel hot? Summer can lead to greater chances of qi-deviation. I have a talisman that can produce a cooling breeze.”
Lin Yijun’s lips curled in disdain. “I can cool myself of the summer heat. Don’t you know who I am?”
“You are the esteemed senior of the sect,” Wen Zhihao said.
Lin Yijun’s teeth gritted. This...ignorant disciple really didn’t know! “I am the Head Disciple Lin Yijun!” His qi whipped around him angrily, like he was posturing or something.
“Yes, I understand, Senior Daoist Lin,” Wen Zhihao said in a placating tone. “Senior Daoist Lin, please take a deep breath.”
“Don’t take that tone with me,” Lin Yijun said darkly. “You are merely a Golden Core. At your age, I was already at Nascent Soul.”
Wen Zhihao brows creased. “I’m a Golden Core cultivator?” he repeated in a slight daze. Nani??? When did that happen??
Lin Yijun’s frown deepened. “Don’t sound so proud about such an average accomplishment. You really know nothing of future events.”
“I really don’t know the kind of events you asked about.”
“You really don’t know any demonic cultivators.”
“I really don’t know any demonic cultivators.”
This Wen Zhihao was looking more and more hateful in Lin Yijun’s eyes, especially with how Wen Zhihao looked at him with “kindness” and “patience” and “pity” and “concern”. With the interrogation going nowhere, Lin Yijun no longer wanted to see this person.
Lin Yjiun moved his hand in an imperious gesture. “Leave this place. Don’t come here again!”
Wen Zhihao thought about offering Lin Yijun some things and/or words of advice, but decided it wasn’t worth it. Lin Yijun wasn’t like Zhang Wu or Wang Li Wei, and if Wen Zhihao stepped wrongly, he might end up being cannon fodder!
So Wen Zhihao bowed politely. “Thank you Senior Lin. Rest slowly.”
After the hateful Wen Zhihao left, Lin Yijun used an expensive communication mirror to send a private message to his parents about the security flaw in the array around the Clear Heart Hot Springs. His mother replied very quickly, telling him that there were no excuses for not taking a soak in the hot springs.
With a dark face, Lin Yijun set up a privacy array before entering the water.
Disciple Wen was surely different in this life. But since he was not a reincarnator, then perhaps someone else had reincarnated and directed Wen Zhihao differently.
A tiny little thought sprung in Lin Yijun’s heart: what if Zhou Sheng had been given a second chance too?
After Wen Zhihao left the hot springs, he thought he had escaped the protagonist’s halo. But instead, over the next few days, Wen Zhihao occasionally felt the presence of that senior Lin Yijun.
It wasn’t obvious. Lin Yijun hid his aura. However, Wen Zhihao was particularly sensitive to the landscape of the natural qi around him—it must be because he was a Golden Core cultivator.
(Still feeling weird about when that happened, since Wen Zhihao had no recollection ba…)
Wen Zhihao had a feeling that something was a little off in the qi around him. One time while flying out he accidentally spotted Lin Yijun walking alone across the sect, smack-bang in the middle of that off-spot.
So on those next few days, Wen Zhihao was aware that Senior Lin was watching him and Sun Fuyu eat breakfast. He was aware that Senior Lin was watching when Wang Li Wei shyly came to the demonic beasts enclosure for some more playing-with-kittens-time. He was aware that Senior Lin was watching when Zhang Wu announced to Wen Zhihao that he was finally free of teaching (and coincidentally also had more playing-with-cats-time).
That Senior Lin must be quite stubborn if his heart didn’t move watching all the kittens and cats.
Wen Zhihao entertained the thought of confronting Lin Yijun but...nah, then he’d have to answer questions and deal with Lin Yijun’s poor behavior. Not to mention Lin Yijun didn’t like Sun Fuyu nor the cats!
So while it was a little uncomfortable, Wen Zhihao soon became used to ignoring Lin Yijun. Since Lin Yijun didn’t want to be noticed, just let Senior Lin have his fun ba.
Don’t forget that Wen Zhihao literally does not know that Zhou Sheng might be a demonic cultivator hahaha. The problem with “truth-telling” devices is that it fails when the person doesn’t know the real truth XD
Also, there's now a Brazilian Portuguese translation of Salted Fish~