110. Yellow book

Even though the tournament concluded, many cultivators continued to linger around the area, purchasing and selling some last minute items, conversing with new-found friends and exchanging barbs with new-found archrivals.

Lin Yijun and many other senior cultivators of various sects also stayed behind to have meetings to discuss the next world-wide cultivator tournament and top-level cooperation between the major and minor sects.

Wen Zhihao and the others, however, didn’t dally. Resting at home would be better for Sun Fuyu, and the children had missed two weeks of school at this point.

Not to mention that there were wedding preparations and their new house construction to worry about!

Thankfully, Aunty Liu Jing was in charge of wedding preparations and the builders were in charge of the house construction. Wen Zhihao simply helped finance the wedding preparations and requested the builders to make rooms with big windows to let in daylight.

As for Wen Zhihao’s pile of spiritual stones that was only partially dented, he decided to donate most of his spiritual stones to Elder Liu Ru to distribute to outer-sect disciples from poor backgrounds. The rest of it went to the development of local mortal schools—it was a waste to hoard spiritual stones, not good for the economy, ba! With this, Wen Zhihao was able to dust his hands.

…But after making more calming stones, Wen Zhihao’s pile of spiritual stones grew once more.

To be honest, all the cultivators coming to visit him or Sun Fuyu for calming stones was becoming annoying—how could Sun Fuyu focus on his cultivation if he has to act as a businessman? And the stress of knowing that someone might come and interrupt Wen Zhihao’s naps was not conducive to living at all.

So, after thinking about it, Wen Zhihao decided to put his calming stones up for sale in the Equipment Hall in the Golden Sun Sect. While it took a commission cut, Wen Zhihao wasn’t worried about money and Sun Fuyu’s cultivation time was worth it.

(Wen Zhihao had thought about making a vending machine for calming stones, but even though he was sure there was a talisman for it, he didn’t know it.)

((He tried to make such a talisman for an hour or so before giving up. Talismans could be considered software: who made him weak when it came to hardware, ba?))

With Sun Fuyu’s time freed, he threw himself back into cultivation. He met with Shifu Liu Zhongmin and acquired an advanced set of sword moves.

“You should be approaching Peak-stage now,” Liu Zhongmin said. “It’s no problem to learn these in advance. The requirement of particular stages for particular moves is too rigid and unnecessary, ignore the jade-tablet’s prescription on that matter.”

Sun Fuyu bowed his head and accepted Liu Zhongmin’s teachings.

Liu Zhongmin only guided him a little in the morning. In the afternoon, while Wen Zhihao and the children were napping, Sun Fuyu stood in Liu Zhongmin’s training ground by himself and practised.

His sword and the wind moved with increasing flexibility. Qi accumulated in his limbs, flowing faster as he became familiar with the new pathways.

As the arc of his sword descended, Sun Fuyu noticed something wrong.

In a flash, the trajectory of his sword changed. Sparks burst from where his sword met with a polearm blade.

Sun Fuyu’s eyes narrowed as Zhou Sheng’s figure was revealed.

Zhou Sheng drew his polearm back, throwing his invisibility magical treasure back into his spatial storage. He twirled his polearm, pushing Sun Fuyu’s blade aside.

Sun Fuyu didn’t know what Zhou Sheng wanted, but he wasn’t a soft persimmon, ready to be cut. With a sharp intake of breath and qi, Sun Fuyu slashed back. His blade cut through the air, the metal glowing.

Weapons clanged. Zhou Sheng stepped backwards step by step casually.

Sun Fuyu sped up. But no matter how fast his blade moved, Zhou Sheng’s polearm would be there in time to block him.

Shock gripped Sun Fuyu’s heart when the polearm trajectory suddenly changed. His pupils contracted, muscles moving faster than ever to block the attack.

With a grunt, Sun Fuyu was thrown back from the impact. Dust was thrown up as his feet skidded across the ground.

Zhou Sheng was a Mid-Stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Sun Fuyu was only a Late-Stage Golden Core cultivator. The difference between them was too large! Sun Fuyu needed to get stronger, he needed more power.

Sun Fuyu’s breath deepened. His grip on his sword loosened slightly.

More and more qi swirled to him. Lightning flickered in the clouds and thunder rumbled. Wen-ge’s influence helped him to directly absorb the sudden spike in ambient qi due to the cloud lightning energy.

Zhou Sheng’s eyes flickered upwards. Strange. Instead of thickening, the lightning faded and the clouds parted slightly, just enough to bathe Sun Fuyu in sunlight. Zhou Sheng stopped caring about it. With a burst of qi, he jumped towards Sun Fuyu, polearm raised.

Sun Fuyu’s dantain burned as he overloaded it with qi. Sun Fuyu’s eyes went red. Qi flowed from his dantain to his muscles to his sword. He raised his blade and met Zhou Sheng’s polearm head-on.

At the same time, the leftover qi burst out of him, creating buffeting winds.

“Ah?” The unexpected strength jolted Zhou Sheng’s arm, forcing him to correct his lazy grip on his polearm. This kid had advanced to Peak-Stage Golden Core?

While the Nascent Soul tribulation was the first tribulation that had true lightning strikes, the Peak-Stage Golden Core advancement should have been more shocking. Zhou Sheng’s brows furrowed.

“What do you want, Senior Zhou?” Sun Fuyu scowled.

Zhou Sheng stepped back, leaving those thoughts for later. He lazily rested his polearm on his shoulder. “Just testing to see how strong you are, Xiao Sun,” he said easily. “As a senior of the Blood Sect, is it not in my interest to see how strong the talents of the Golden Sun Sect are?”

Sun Fuyu glared at him.

Zhou Sheng continued without worry, “Are you practising alone? Where is Wen Zhihao?”

Sun Fuyu breathed in more qi, his gaze suspicious. He lowered his sword, but didn’t sheath it. “Why does Senior Zhou want from Wen-ge? Are you not satisfied enough with the banner that Wen-ge made for you?”

Zhou Sheng put his polearm away. “Don’t eat so much vinegar, ba. Shouldn’t you thank me for helping you advance to Peak-Stage? I just came to give you something.” 

Sun Fuyu’s face darkened. This senior! When they had first met and worked together on breaking up the enslavers, Zhou Sheng had a sense of measure. But now he was becoming more and more lawless!

“Then I am even more indebted to Senior Zhou, but I cannot accept your gifts.”

“Are you sure you don’t want this?” He took out a thin yellow book1a yellow book; other meaning: pornographic book.

“I don’t want anything from Senior Zhou until Senior Zhou can promise to stop trying to dig out my Wen-ge!”

“Take a look first, ah—arg!”

Lin Yijun had swooped in with a dark expression on his face. He grabbed the back of Zhou Sheng’s collar and held him up like the misbehaving wolf he was. “Put that book away, and stop messing with Disciple Sun Fuyu!”

Zhou Sheng regretfully put the sexual dual cultivation book back into his spatial storage. “Lin Yijun, you’re here, I was looking for you.”

“Tch. Dizzy on power after rising positions in the Blood Sect? Don’t think I don’t know.” Lin Yijun turned to Sun Fuyu. “Disciple Sun, train hard and have no worries. I’ll take Zhou Sheng away.”

In Sun Fuyu’s heart, Lin Yijun’s position moved up a few notches. He finally sheathed his sword and placed his hands together. “Thank you, Senior Lin.”

With that, Lin Yijun dragged Zhou Sheng off.

“—Are you going to punish me, Junjun?”

“Oh is that what you wanted, hm?...”

Sun Fuyu was left alone on the training ground. His heart was unsettled though, so he hurried back to Wen Zhihao.

Unexpectedly, Wen Zhihao met him at the door to the bedroom.

Wen Zhihao’s hair was in disarray. He had just gotten up with a strange feeling in his chest, an unease that seemed inexplicably related to Sun Fuyu. When he saw the aggrieved expression on Sun Fuyu’s face, his eyes immediately softened. His arms opened, just in time to catch Sun Fuyu.

Sun Fuyu buried his face in Wen-ge’s shoulder. “Wen-ge, that Senior Zhou…”

Wen Zhihao caressed Sun Fuyu’s hair and pulled them both inside the bedroom. “What happened?”

Sun Fuyu repeated everything that had happened, down to each word that Zhou Sheng had said.

Wen Zhihao sighed slightly. How old was Zhou Sheng to tease and annoy a junior cultivator like Sun Fuyu? It seemed that now that Zhou Sheng was becoming unrepressed, his true personality was coming out.

“Next time, you tell Zhou Sheng to behave, or he won’t get to see any of the cats.”

“En,” Sun Fuyu agreed. Senior Zhou would definitely behave with that kind of threat!

Wen Zhihao was glad to see Sun Fuyu relaxing. “Now, it seems that Sun Fuyu has advanced?”

“To Peak-Stage Golden Core!” Sun Fuyu unstickied himself from Wen-ge, the gloom from before dissipating.

“Xiao Yu is so strong!” Wen Zhihao praised. “I’ll tell Aunty Liu immediately to prepare a special dinner to celebrate. Some fruit has ripened...”

Sun Fuyu nodded, happy to go along with whatever Wen-ge wanted. A little realisation in his heart made him smile secretly: wasn’t it that Zhou Sheng was jealous of Sun Fuyu? After all, Wen-ge was so great! Ah, Sun Fuyu shouldn’t fault Zhou Sheng for being jealous any more.

Sun Fuyu: I understand now! Zhou Sheng is jealous of me! *shakes head* I pity him.

Zhou Sheng: *sneezes*