28. The Golden Sun Intra-Sect Competition (Cheering for you, Xiao Yu!)

After the Spring Festival, Sun Fuyu worked even harder. Wen Zhihao believed in him, and Sun Fuyu would not let him down.

With the jade slips containing cultivation manuals that Wen Zhihao gave him, Sun Fuyu pushed and pushed over the next few months, thoroughly using those manuals.

A week before the half-yearly Golden Sun Intra-Sect Competition, formal classes for the outer sect disciples ended so that they could prepare for the competition. With all the outer sect disciples fervently training, the qi in the air was constantly rushing this way and that way, which was very disruptive to Wen Zhihao’s peace. As such, Wen Zhihao took Sun Fuyu out of the sect to the forests, where they would have peace and less competition for qi usage.

While Sun Fuyu trained, Wen Zhihao occupied himself with collecting flowers, poking at unknown herbs, and reminding Sun Fuyu to rest when he needed to rest. It was a shame that Wen Zhihao couldn’t find those hot spring again—relaxing there after training hard (or not training hard in Wen Zhihao’s case) would be the best. But it must just appear whenever it wanted to.

A few days later, Sun Fuyu broke into the Middle Stage of Foundation Building1Main levels are: Qi Refining < Foundation Building < Golden Core < Nascent Soul <... ; Meanwhile, sub levels are: Early-stage < Middle-stage < Late-stage < Peak..

“Very good!” Wen Zhihao was not at all stingy with his praise, rubbing Sun Fuyu’s head.

Sun Fuyu beamed, but then forced himself to become serious. “Now, we can both become inner sect disciples!”

Wen Zhihao immediately shook his head. “I have no intention of participating in the competition.”

“Wen-ge, you’re really not participating?” Sun Fuyu’s brows pinched together. Wen-shixiong had already broken in Golden Core, and almost every Golden Core cultivator was an inner sect disciple. “Then...then I won’t participate either!”

Wen Zhihao waved a hand. “Sun Fuyu, you participate! I’m not very strong anyway, extremely unsuited to the competition. Didn’t I tell you about when I even forgot my sword?”

Sun Fuyu cracked a smile. “Yes.”

“Or, hey, how about I throw some glowing flowers at my opponent? Do you think they’ll bend over to pick them up, giving me a chance to strike?”

Sun Fuyu giggled. “No.”

“See? I don’t need to become an inner sect disciple. There is Elder Liu if I want any help cultivating. But you don’t have a sword cultivation mentor yet. So I’ll be cheering you from the sidelines, okay?”

“Okay…”

“Work hard, okay?” Wen Zhihao coaxed him. Even though he was well aware that he was lazy, he didn’t want to stifle Sun Fuyu. Do what I say, not what I do!

Sun Fuyu straightened. “Okay, I won’t disappoint you.”

Wen Zhihao rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head—it was too hard to resist when Sun Fuyu looked so serious. “Just try your best.”

The day of the half-yearly Golden Sun Intra-Sect competition dawned with bright blue skies.

Many outer sect disciples with ambition in their hearts entered the Outer Sect Battlegrounds. In the arena, there were twenty fighting platforms for twenty simultaneous battles. Outer sect disciples were split into ten groups, mostly based on cultivation type, and the competition was single-elimination: one loss and you were out. The final victor of each group was allowed to advance to the inner sect.

Wen Zhihao sat in the stands, using various talismans to regulate the temperature and reduce the noise around him. He nodded encouragingly whenever Sun Fuyu entered a platform to fight.

Huh, now that Wen Zhihao actually looked at the other kids outer sect disciples, it seemed that Sun Fuyu was also on the older side. But in hindsight, Wen Zhihao wasn’t surprised. Before he came along, Sun Fuyu was often suppressed by his ‘peers’ and had no one to nurture him the way children should be raised.

Now, though, Sun Fuyu was outstanding. His sword flew fast, swinging arcs and calm execution dazzling spectorators. One by one, Sun Fuyu won his battles. In between each battle, he would sip Revitalisation Potions that he had bought with the spiritual stones he had originally saved for a spatial ring. Seeing the spatial ring on his finger, feeling the calming qi stone, and seeing Wen Zhihao in the audience gave Sun Fuyu an energy boost every time.

In the final round, he faced Wu Qingqing, the main person who had led and instigated the others against him. Sun Fuyu’s grip on his sword tightened, then relaxed.

Wu Qingqing had spelled robes. She had a treasure sword and treasure ornaments, and her sword work was very good. She definitely had the qualifications to lead her group.

But Sun Fuyu was now an entire sublevel above her, something she had not planned for. And while Wu Qingqing may have an entire group cheering for her, Sun Fuyu had someone backing him, someone who believed in him.

With a final clangg!!, Sun Fuyu knocked her out of the fighting ring.

Spectators around the platform—mostly Wu Qingqing’s friends—were silent, shocked at what just happened.

Wu Qingqing stared back at him in disbelief. “You—don’t tell me you used demonic cultivation. There’s no way you can advance that fast!”

Sun Fuyu gave her a cold look. “I will excuse you this once. I won’t ask you to return all the spiritual stones you stole from me in the past.”

Wu Qingqing gulped, highly aware of the sharp blade still in Sun Fuyu’s hand, highly aware that her own sword had been thrown too far away.

“And this victory goes to Sun Fuyu!” The Golden Core inner sect cultivator surnamed Fu presiding over their match stepped between the two of them. “Fellow Daoist Sun, congratulations. Here is your inner sect token. You are to head to the Elders’ Hall after the competition is over to be selected by the senior cultivators.”

“Thank you, Fellow Daoist Fu.” Sun Fuyu bowed, accepting the token. Then, he immediately looked for Wen Zhihao, but Wen Zhihao wasn’t in the audience anymore. He frowned slightly.

Sun Fuyu turned as he noticed a certain qi in the air. His lips curved up when he spotted Wen Zhihao walking towards him. Sun Fuyu pushed past Wu Qingqing’s friends and rushed to Wen Zhihao. “Wen-ge!”

“I knew you could do it,” Wen Zhihao said with a smile. “I prepared some things for you.” In his hands, there was one large food box and one small glass bottle with a healing pill inside.

Sun Fuyu said cheekily, “Don’t you mean that Aunty Liu prepared these things?”

“Being the courier boy is very important, Xiao Yu,” Wen Zhihao said with an exaggerated pompousness.

“Thank you, Wen-ge,” Sun Fuyu said earnestly. He put both inside his spatial ring.

“Don’t forget to thank Aunty Liu tomorrow, or else she’ll think that I stole your present,” Wen Zhihao said with a laugh. “Oh, by the way, when’s your birthday?”

Sun Fuyu startled. It had been a while since anyone asked for his birthday. He had to think for a moment. “It’s in two weeks.”

“And how old are you turning?”

“Nineteen.”

Nineteen? This cute kid, almost-nineteen already?

“Wen-ge, when is your birthday?”

Wen Zhihao smiled. “It’s still a few months away.” He would be turning twenty-something-pushing-thirty, though, in this body, he would be simply twenty. “For your birthday, we’ll definitely have to get you some longevity noodles...perfect for cultivators. I haven’t seen matcha cakes though…”

“Matcha?” Sun Fuyu said the unfamiliar word.

Wen Zhihao sweated. “Ah, green tea powder. It can be made into a delicious cake.”

Wen Zhihao pursed his lips. Fluffy chiffon birthday cakes were the norm when he grew up, but that kind of chiffon cake was a style imported from the West. In this world, it was hard to tell if Europeans existed, and whether or not they had invented chiffon cake yet; and then matcha came from Japan, but he hadn’t seen any Japanese-looking cultivators around. Aiya, he had no idea about geography in this world at all...

And Wen Zhihao didn’t know how to bake. Sure, he had watched the short cooking video clips, but did anyone actually use them as recipes to cook from??

“We’ll go to the big mortal town!” Wen Zhihao said instead. “Isn’t there a good looking restaurant by the lake? I remember seeing it when we flew by, it’s surely good. I made enough money for us to have a meal there.”

“The big town…” Sun Fuyu’s eyes went slightly cold. That big town was where his blood family lived. They didn’t live near the lake, but his father worked nearby…

Wen Zhihao noticed Sun Fuyu’s dark expression. “Since you don’t like it, I will think of something else. After all, it’s your birthday.”

“We can go,” Sun Fuyu said.

Wen Zhihao was not inconsiderate. It was clear that Sun Fuyu only said ‘go’ for his sake, but the point was to celebrate Sun Fuyu’s birthday!

Forget it, it was best to celebrate birthdays with friends and family anyway, and they were all here in the Golden Sun Sect. Wen Zhihao had a better idea.

“Sun Fuyu, on your birthday, let’s meet in front of the Banquet Hall, okay?”

“Okay,” Sun Fuyu said. “Wen-ge, I have to go now…” Sun Fuyu glanced at where the other disciples who had advanced were gathering in preparation to go to the Elders’ Hall.

Wen Zhihao nodded. “Go ahead. Tomorrow morning, you know where I’ll be.”

Sun Fuyu nodded. “En!” Sun Fuyu would look forward to everything tomorrow, even if they went to that town. It was fine as long as Wen Zhihao was there.