As for Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu, they remained ignorant of their brief brush with Lin Yijun’s scrutiny.

Now that Sun Fuyu was an inner sect disciple, he received two new sets of golden inner-sect robes, an increased salary, and personal mentoring from his new mentor, Senior Cultivator Liu Zhongmin. Sun Fuyu no longer needed to attend the outer sect disciples’ classes, nor the morning sword practice under Zhang Wu. 

Liu Zhongmin was a fair and flexible mentor. A day after the Intra-Sect Competition, she called Sun Fuyu to Elder Liu’s mountain where Liu Zhongmin’s buildings and training halls were. The characteristics of Elder Liu’s mountain was: simplistic, with a lot of natural light. The windows were unusually large and filled with glass, compared to the typical paper-covered windows in the rest of the Sect.

Liu Zhongmin was a fairly tall cultivator, looking distinguished and somewhat on the older side of middle-aged. In contrast, her movements were sprightly and smooth.

“This disciple greets Shifu Liu,” Sun Fuyu said obediently.

“Greetings, little disciple,” Liu Zhongmin replied, restraining her own hands. “You have cleared your old room.”

“Yes.”

“Follow me.”

Liu Zhongmin had large living quarters for herself and for her direct disciples. Of course, matters of seniority had to be followed, so the room she assigned Sun Fuyu was one of the smaller ones, in the building wing where the other relatively new disciples stayed.

Though it was ‘smaller’, the new room was very spacious in comparison to the outer sect disciples’ dormitories. Liu Zhongmin gave Sun Fuyu a special jade pendant that was the key to the room.

“You can unpack later,” Liu Zhongmin said. Since Sun Fuyu wasn’t carrying anything physically, it must all be in a spatial ring. “Were you tired flying up here?”

Sun Fuyu immediately shook his head. “Not tired, Shifu. I am used to flying long distances outside the sect.”

Liu Zhongmin thought satisfactorily, This Disciple Sun Fuyu is very diligent, taking missions outside the sect already! He is a very good seedling. “Come then, our training area is this way.”

In contrast, Sun Fuyu was thinking about when he and Wen Zhihao went out together on New Year’s Eve…

At one of the open training fields, Liu Zhongmin carefully assessed Sun Fuyu by directly fighting him with a wooden sword. She corrected a few moves and went on to examine the jade slips containing the sword cultivation manuals that he had been using.

Liu Zhongmin thoughtfully gave him two new, more advanced cultivation manuals encoded into some jade slips that should be suitable.

“Examine these, and I will assess you again once every week. Your sword form is good. However, you lack experience. I recommend you change your training location every day, and practice your sword forms while in the air, between the trees, in narrowed alleys. I will assign you two hours every month to train on the Thousand Needles Cliff. At this stage, you can also take second-grade missions.”

“Yes,” Sun Fuyu said obediently.

“If I accept a mission where it is suitable to take you, I will inform you. In the meantime, I will introduce you to my other disciples. You can also accompany them on lower-grade missions.”

Sun Fuyu nodded, but he had a hesitant look in his eyes. “Shifu, am I able to have an outer sect disciple accompany me?”

Liu Zhongmin’s eyes softened. It was not surprising that this little disciple would still have friends among the outer sect disciples. “Yes, but you must take care of them since they are weaker than you.”

Sun Fuyu nodded, while thinking, However, Wen-ge is stronger than me! But in a sense, Wen Zhihao was half an inner sect disciple, wasn’t he? His mentor was Elder Liu Ru, and he never attended the outer sect classes anyway, because he was too smart for them!

(Wen Zhihao suddenly sneezed. Was he getting allergic to cat fur? No way! He ignored the sneeze and continued to play with the kittens.)

Sun Fuyu saluted his mentor. “This disciple will go train now.”

“Very good.”

Liu Zhongmin was very happy with this new, cute and obedient disciple. She wanted to ruffle his hair but she knew that her wife would admonish her for being so casual with serious cultivators. But, compared to herself who was a few hundred years old, these children were babies! Even when these babies were being serious, they were still cute! Aiya, but the consequences if her wife found out...Liu Zhongmin had to keep restraining herself…

“Before you leave, I will also give you some spiritual tools.” Liu Zhongmin pulled out a number of items from her spatial pendant. “This is a high-grade medicinal pill. This magical tool will produce a Golden-Core level shield that will last a minute, with ten days between uses. This magical talisman is single-use. It is a teleportation array that will transport you and anyone touching you to a random location 100 km away.”

“Thank you, Shifu.” Sun Fuyu stored them all into the spatial ring that Wen Zihao gave him. This spatial ring was so useful!

“Go, train hard,” Liu Zhongmin said.

Sun Fuyu nodded, bowing to his new mentor and excusing himself.

But rather than going back to his new room or to the training field, Sun Fuyu flew down the mountain. As it were, this mountain was near the mountain of the demonic beasts. Sun Fuyu’s eyes brightened when he spotted Wen Zhihao in the demonic beast enclosure.

“Wen-ge!”

“Xiao Yu,” Wen Zhihao greeted, his hands still petting a ferocious yet docile demonic beast. “How was it?”

“Good!”

“Very good. You’re a hardworking cultivator.” Wen Zhihao knew that it was better to praise children as ‘hardworking’ rather than simply ‘smart’.

Sun Fuyu jumped over the enclosure’s fence to Wen Zhihao’s side. He felt a little sad that Wen-ge was still wearing the plain dirty yellow robes of the outer sect disciples. “Wen-ge, will you participate in the next Intra-Sect Competition? Or will Elder Liu Ru directly promote you to the inner sect?”

Wen Zhihao laughed. He knew his own work ethic or lack thereof. Unless he became weirdly powerful and produced some amazing talismans, why would she promote him? Wen Zhihao affectionately ruffled Sun Fuyu’s hair. “Xiao Yu does not need to worry about me. I find that being an outer sect disciple suits me.” He placed a cute kitten in Sun Fuyu’s arms. “Isn’t she so cute? Her eyes are the same colour as yours!”

Sun Fuyu blushed. He quickly lowered his head. “Yes…”

“Look what your Wen-ge made,” Wen Zhihao continued. He pulled out some talismans and activated them. Slowly, butterflies made from light and mist emerged. The kittens/demonic beasts all hurried over with much interest, trying to swipe at them. Many of them missed, but even when they didn’t miss, their cute little paws would just go straight through, and the butterfly would reform.

Wen Zhihao watched their antics happily. “Hehe, I think I should give some to Huang Jialing…”

Sun Fuyu nodded, looking up at Wen Zhihao’s profile as he talked. The demonic beast in his arms tried to reach for the butterflies. After failing, it thumped (lightly patted) Sun Fuyu’s arms in a sulk. Sun Fuyu looked down, trying to soothe it.

At that moment, Wen Zhihao happened to glance over and see this image of a gentle young man and a soft fluffy kitten. His heart seemed to skip a beat.

Wen Zhihao frowned slightly, rubbing his chest. Weird… Another kitten pawing at his leg drew his attention once more, and he indulgently took out some more butterfly talismans.

Around that time, Lin Yijun was visiting the beast tamer cultivators in relation to some sect matters. He frowned upon seeing Sun Fuyu again so soon, and inside the demonic beast enclosure, no less.

“Don’t look,” Cultivator Huang Jialing said with a bitter, resigned expression. “At least they don’t make much trouble anymore now that Wen Zhihao plays with them.”

Wen Zhihao, again? Lin Yijun, being of much high cultivation realm, could immediately tell that Wen Zhihao—the person next to Sun Fuyu—was of Golden Core. Yet he remained an outer sect disciple. Zhang Wu called him a wastrel. He must be all realm and no substance. Who knows if he simply used cultivation advancement pills. If Wen Zhihao ruined his cultivation using advancement pills, it was not Lin Yijun’s problem.

Lin Yijun withdrew his gaze. “Let us not waste time on them and discuss the matter that I have…”

This author has something to confess: I did not realise that so many female characters have the family name “Liu”. I mean, some of it was on purpose, but Aunty Chef Liu Jing is not associated with Elder Liu Ru nor Senior Sword Cultivator Liu Zhongmin.