Spring soon bloomed in earnest as the days and nights warmed up. Petals opened to bask in the sun, and Wen Zhihao similarly basked in the sun.

While Sun Fuyu trained and went on short missions with some other disciples under Liu Zhongmin, Wen Zhihao watched the flowers emerging in the forests surrounding the Golden Sun Sect.

“You can do it, grow big and strong!” he whispered to them. If they were pretty, he could preserve them and sell them as glowing light sources. In fact, he had seen some other cultivators in the sect carry more advanced versions of these glowing light sources these days, but no one else had bothered to sell them to the non-cultivators. This was good for Wen Zhihao since it meant he didn’t have to innovate, nor faced any competition! He needed to make money so that he and Sun Fuyu could spend it when they went out and explored the surrounding mortal villagers and towns.

However, he did in fact innovate: because having the glowing stones in his room made it hard to sleep sometimes, and because he was too lazy to get up and put them away into his spatial storage or into the cabinet, Wen Zhihao figured out how to make an easy on/off switch that was activated by voice command. While he did warn buyers that there was potential for mischief, many people found this novel and cheap, so Wen Zhihao was able to sell even more items.

 

---

 

One day, while searching for some early blooming flowers, Wen Zhihao accidentally stumbled across those hot springs again which he had completely forgotten about.

Wen Zhihao narrowed his eyes at it.

The surface of the hot springs innocently steamed back.

Why was it that he would always find it when he wasn’t looking for it? Its location seemed to be the same as before, except Wen Zhihao could never find it when he wanted to, and would instead walk around in circles.

Was it because sometimes it just didn’t want to be found and therefore hid?

He wasn’t entirely sure if it was ‘sentient’. He knew that plants and animals can sometimes cultivate sentience, but can a natural geological feature do the same thing?

With his increased sensitivity lately, Wen Zhihao could detect that this hot spring in fact had a lot of qi, many many more times than in the ambient air. So it wasn’t entirely out of the question. 

...How idle am I to even be thinking so deeply about this?

To be safe, he decided not to have a dip in these hot springs. Thinking about it, bathing naked in a sentient pool of water was a little obscene. So instead, he curiously examined the flowers and plants growing around the spring. However, they were all tiny and delicate and probably expensive and not suitable for infusing with light magic to sell cheaply. He’ll leave these probably-rare plants to someone who knew what to do with them.

So, by the end of his trip in the forest, Wen Zhihao had collected common flowers, both from branches from those freshly fallen to the ground; he also found some nice smooth rocks on the bottom of the riverbed and picked up some nice and complete feathers too. 

Once Wen Zhihao returned back to his room, he used some talismans to help preserve the flowers and infused them with magical qi.  He then activated a strong heating talisman for his own very safe hot bath in non-sentient waters.

When he really couldn’t procrastinate any longer, Wen Zhihao started doing the new set of required talismans for the Talisman Hall.

Dip, draw, swish, dip ink brush in ink again, ah crap got some ink on my robes again...

After writing some required talismans, Wen Zhihao decided it was a good time to stop. He tidied everything up and went to bed.

 

---

 

Very early the next morning, when it was still dark, storm clouds suddenly gathered. Qi rippled and swirled around the outer sect dormitory and then settled again. The residents of the outer sect dormitory slept peacefully in the gentle qi pervading the building.

 

---

 

Wen Zhihao woke with sparkling eyes. He felt extremely refreshed and energetic because he remembered a dream he had. It was enlightenment! He had some new ideas on how to make writing talismans easier!!

Why was he trying so hard to use a difficult brush? A ballpoint pen would not work, but in modern times, there were also brush pens and fountain pens! He needed to make the “handle” part of the brush hollow and fill it with ink, such that the ink slowly saturated the brush, allowing him to draw without having to constantly dip. This would also make it so much easier to write talismans outside because he wouldn't need to carry ink and inkstone and deal with that mess.

After that, he could infuse qi into the ink itself, which would mean that he wouldn’t even need to focus on streaming qi as he drew the talismans! Of course, this might reduce the fine-tuning of the amount of qi inserted into a particular talisman....but when had Wen Zhihao worried so much about that?

And for the final piece of enlightenment, Wen Zhihao could create a talisman that moved the brush so that it would “print” out another talisman! He would just need to cast the invoking-movement talisman and refill the qi-ink every once and a while, and just leave the “printer” to run.

Wen Zhihao was very happy and pleased with himself. 

Of course, the details needed to be figured out, but even if he only successfully completed the first task, it would constitute a great advancement~!

He quickly wrote some draft plans for now since he had an appointment that morning—meeting Sun Fuyu and later accompanying Sun Fuyu to one of the slightly far-away towns. Sun Fuyu had a solo mission, and Wen Zhihao thought it would be nice to accompany Sun Fuyu and sightsee at the same time.

He hadn’t felt quite right with the idea of Sun Fuyu heading out alone…

As Wen Zhihao strolled to the kitchens, he felt as though the world was brighter. Details were clear and he was even about to spot Sun Fuyu flying from far away.

Somehow, his eyesight had improved! Wow, qi sure was useful. Seeing how many cultivators could cultivate a young handsome/beautiful appearance, it looked like qi cultivation could also fix some of the problems plagued by mortals. 

Wen Zhihao waited for Sun Fuyu outside the gate that led to the kitchens. With his golden robes and good posture, Sun Fuyu looked the picture of a good, young promising sword cultivator of the Golden Sun Sect.

When Sun Fuyu spotted Wen Zhihao, he immediately flew faster. Sooner than he expected, he came into the field of Wen-ge’s gentle circulating qi. Sun Fuyu’s brows wrinkled for a moment. Wen Zhihao’s aura had changed...

Sun Fuyu’s eyes widened. He had advanced another sublevel! Wen-ge is the best at cultivating!

Sun Fuyu was still in this daze when he landed in front of Wen Zhihao.

Wen-ge is so strong. I like Wen-ge...Wen-ge is so strong….

Wen Zhihao tilted his head at Sun Fuyu’s inexplicably adorable dazed look. He reached out and placed his arm across Sun Fuyu’s shoulders. “Xiao Yu, did you sleep well?”

Sun Fuyu startled at the sudden touch. His cheeks reddened. “Y-yes.”

Wen Zhihao smiled. “Good. Let’s have a good breakfast so that we will have energy for the day ahead!” He let go of Sun Fuyu and started walking to the kitchens.

Sun Fuyu was still a little bewildered by all the turn of events. Is Wen-ge not going to mention his advancement? Every time Sun Fuyu advanced, Wen-ge would give him something. Sun Fuyu should do the same thing!

Sun Fuyu suddenly realised—Wen Zhihao was modest! That was why he never mentioned his own cultivation!

Wen-ge was so amazing….Sun Fuyu had a lot of catch up to do!

“Wen-ge is the best!” There was burning determination in Sun Fuyu’s eyes.

Wen Zhihao was confused about what suddenly motivated Sun Fuyu, but not knowing didn’t bother him. He rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head indulgently. “If you say so, but don’t forget to flatter Aunty Liu and the other workers.”

Sun Fuyu nodded seriously. “I’ll listen to Wen-ge!”

 
 
 

---

 

Wen Zhihao: >_> Hm, let's not take a dip. *walks away*

Hot springs: T_T don’t you like me anymore???

 

---

 

The BL Spring Anthology will begin posting next week! If you want, you can do the quiz to be sorted into teams, and the team that comments the most wins eternal glory!

 

ALSO!!! Salted Fish is now on Chrysanthemum Garden! I’ll be SPaG [spelling & grammar] editing it before uploading it onto CG \(ᗒᗨᗕ)/

 

AND! AND! Thank you to all the readers, Salted Fish went into Trending on Monday!!! And welcome new readers~!!