ALL NOVEL 54. Rings and impatient fluffballs
Aunty Liu Jing did a double take when she saw her Sun Xiao Fuyu and Wen Zhihao walk into the kitchens together. Was it just her, or were there pink bubbles floating around more than usual?
...They were holding hands.
“Good morning, Aunty Liu!” Sun Fuyu greeted in his lovely voice.
“Good morning, Aunty Liu,” Wen Zhihao also greeted with a smile.
“Good morning young master cultivators,” Liu Jing said. She focused on the more reliable Sun Xiao Fuyu. “Did something good happen?”
Sun Fuyu smiled, his eyes glancing at Wen Zhihao. “En.”
Liu Jing narrowed her eyes at Wen Zhihao. So her cabbage Xiao Fuyu did something to the pig, huh?
“Aunty, Wen-ge treats me very well,” Sun Fuyu took the initiative to say.
“Xiao Yu treats me very well,” Wen Zhihao replied.
“No, no, Wen-ge is better!”
“No, Xiao Yu is the best!”
Liu Jing’s hard face cracked a smile at these silly cultivators. Every day, they reminded her that many cultivators were just children and young adults.
“Yes, Aunty knows, Xiao Fuyu is the best and Xiao Wen is the second best.”
“See, Aunty Liu agrees with me!” Wen Zhihao said with a silly grin.
Sun Fuyu blushed. “Ummm….”
Liu Jing’s eyes softened. At least Wen Zhihao finally realised, though based on their characters, Liu Jing wouldn’t be surprised if Sun Fuyu made the first move.
“What do you want for breakfast? I’ll make it while you go help our Old Tang.”
“S-something sweet?” Sun Fuyu said hesitantly.
“Alright, your Aunty will make something sweet!”
After the two of them left with Old Tang, Liu Jing went back into the kitchens. The other staff had a certain look on their faces.
“Were they holding hands?” one of them said.
“They were!” another agreed.
“Oh, to be young!”
“Don’t tease them, or Xiao Fuyu will turn red,” Liu Jing said sternly.
The other staff grinned amongst themselves. “Yes, chef Liu,” they chorused obediently.
“That’s right, only chef Liu can tease them,” one of the staff added with a wink.
Liu Jing’s lips twitched in amusement. “Alright, get back to work!”
Sun Fuyu felt as though he could float, even though he was just a Golden Core cultivator. He was so happy that he didn’t feel embarrassed holding hands with Wen-ge in public. In public!!
After he and Wen-ge played with the demonic beasts after breakfast, Sun Fuyu tentatively kissed Wen-ge on the cheek before running off to go cultivate. Sun Fuyu needed to get stronger, so that he could protect his Wen-ge on a trip to a secret realm in the future and so that he could stop anyone from exorcising his Wen-ge!
Meanwhile, Wen Zhihao was left watching Sun Fuyu fly off, his cheek still having the warm imprint of Sun Fuyu’s lips, and an unconscious smile on his own lips.
A lot of stress had disappeared now that he shared his transmigration secret with another person—a tick off his mental list. Also, there was now no need to worry about whether ‘he likes me/he likes me not’. Wen Zhihao could hug and squeeze and kiss Sun Fuyu freely. With those other tensions gone, Wen Zhihao felt particularly light.
The summer sun was warm in the late morning, and Wen Zhihao decided it was too good of a day to spend sequestered inside his room. So instead, he took out a red umbrella and stuck it down right in the middle of the now-big-cats’ enclosure to create a little shade for himself.
He spent some time writing out some of the talismans required for his quota with one of his new brush pens first. One of the big cats padded over to him and laid down, sticking its head under the shade of the umbrella.
The cat felt that today’s aura was particularly calm and peaceful. Also, due to the way this human drew in the surrounding qi, the cat liked to take some of the incoming qi for his own use.
As the air slowly warmed up, Wen Zhihao’s slowly became sleepy. The big cat lying down next to him was still napping—what a great idea! So Wen Zhihao packed up his talisman-writing things and took out his bedding instead.
With a yawn, Wen Zhihao laid down, half on his stomach, one arm hugging the cat, and promptly fell asleep. His already relaxed qi aura became even more gentle and lulling, like soft rhythmic waves. One by one, the other demonic beasts yawned and laid down close to the source.
Sometime later, Huang Jialing came by to let the demonic beasts go up the mountain to train and hunt for their lunch.
She saw that the demonic beasts were all arranged, overlapping each other, around a tilted red parasol with a certain cultivator asleep under it.
“...”
Waking up a group of demonic beasts was too much effort, especially with Disciple Wen around. Forget it, if they’re sleeping, they won’t be hungry yet. She’ll just make these beasts train harder once they wake up.
She turned around and left the enclosure. To her surprise, she saw Cultivator Lin Yijun.
“Cultivator Lin, what business brings you here?” Huang Jialing asked.
Lin Yijun withdrew his attention from Wen Zhihao’s peculiar qi. “I was patrolling the sect. You allow Disciple Wen inside there?”
Huang Jialing gave a wry smile. “Cultivator Lin does not need to worry about Disciple Wen, it’s all under control. Is there anything else? Otherwise, I also have work to do.”
“No.”
Lin Yijun assessed the other cultivator. She didn’t seem to have been reincarnated. Of all the people that Wen Zhihao was in contact with, none of them seemed out of the ordinary. The source of the queerness was Wen Zhihao, but Wen Zhihao wasn’t reborn like Lin Yijun. That made Lin Yijun’s headache worse after a long night chasing up a lead that went nowhere.
“I’ll be going.” Lin Yijun turned around and walked away. He didn’t notice how his thoughts became more chaotic once he left the area.
Huang Jialing restrained herself from shaking her head at Lin Yijun. Lately, she even found Lin Yijun to be more odd than usual. Perhaps there is a lot of pressure being the Head disciple? But, it wasn’t her business, so she shrugged it off and got on with her life.
As the sun moved across the sky, Wen Zhihao’s umbrella was no longer in a good position to throw shade over him. The bright light prickled him uncomfortably, causing him to frown slightly in sleep. Soon though, his face relaxed again as dark clouds gathered above him, casting shadows upon him.
The demonic beasts, however, stirred as qi started to strongly tug and swirl towards Wen Zhihao, instead of its previous soothing waves.
The cat sleeping in Wen Zhihao’s arms was particularly annoyed, pawing Wen Zhihao’s face (with his claws retracted). The cat growled discontentedly when Wen Zhihao simply grabbed his paws while still asleep and hugged them.
Many of the demonic beasts had greater strength than Wen Zhihao, and this particular cat was no exception. He tugged his paws back from Wen Zhihao’s pitifully weak hold and joined his brethren standing a distance away from Wen Zhihao.
- Tch, so annoying! Why does he have to advance now? We were sleeping happily!
- Humans, so disrespectful!
- Wait, wait, you impatient fluffballs. Once the human advances, it is estimated that his aura will become even more comfortable!
- ...Are you sure? Are you sure?
- I’m not as stupid as you!
Some of the demonic beasts slapped each other. One of the largest beasts flicked her tail back and forth in annoyance.
- You’re all stupid, one would think you hadn’t cultivated at all!
The sudden lightning flickering under the dark clouds finally stopped their bickering. The fighting demonic beasts rolled upright again and turned their gazes to Wen Zhihao.
- Okay, okay, I know he’s advancing, hurry up!
Under the sharp eyes of the demonic beats, the qi in the air and from the sun all condensed onto Wen Zhihao. Lightning flickered and thunder rumbled again, but was overall nonthreatening.
With a soft wwwhosh, the human advanced to what humans called Late-Stage Golden Core1Major levels: Qi Refining < Foundation Building < Golden Core < Nascent Soul < Divine (Spirit?) < Demigod < Immortal Ascension; with sublevels: Early-stage < Middle-stage < Late-stage < Peak. The leftover qi swirled thick in the air: some of the more alert and opportunistic demonic cats grabbed some of that extra qi and used it to cultivate themselves.
Wen Zhihao didn’t know what woke him up, though he felt particularly full of qi for some unknown reason. Wisps of thoughts evaded him. He squinted his eyes open at the sun now shining down on his face. Still groggy, he covered his eyes with his arm, not wanting to get up yet.
What was that thought again… It was something about his original world…His dreams had mashed up various romance tropes.
Wait a minute...Rings!
In his old world, couples exchanged rings upon marriage!
First, he had given Sun Fuyu a ring...and then Sun Fuyu had given him a ring… can be thought of as exchanging rings!
The date that Sun Fuyu gave him a ring was a few weeks ago, which matched with Sun Fuyu’s statement that they had been dating for a few weeks. That was also the first time they held hands and hugged….Wen Zhihao had even initiated the hug...
Sun Fuyu hadn’t been sticky since that day because he was sad about his family! No, it was because Sun Fuyu thought that they were dating!
Wen Zhihao felt like he had been struck by tribulation lightning enlightenment.
!!!
It was a good thing that Wen Zhihao self-enlightened himself! If Sun Fuyu mentioned their anniversary in the future, Wen Zhihao would know the date!
Refreshed, Wen Zhihao sat up and took a drink out of his spatial ring. He glanced at the cats gathered together on the other side of the enclosure.
Huh, what are they doing there?
“Here, kitty-kitty!” Wen Zhihao coaxed.
- Tch, who’s calling us kitty?
- HAHA then I get to be closest to him now! I was right HAHAHA!
One of the large bouncy cats bounded over to Wen Zhihao’s side and rubbed her face against Wen Zhihao’s head.
- Hmmmmmmm qi feels so goooood.
Wen Zhihao petted the cat. Hmm, feels so soft! Wonderful!