bafflinghaze

Thank to wuxiawoohaha for the ko-fi's!

When the actual meeting time approached, Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu left the demonic enclosure.

Wang Li Wei was waiting for them just outside, his back towards them. He immediately turned upon hearing them exit.

“I hope you didn’t wait too long,” Wen Zhihao said politely.

“I waited a long time!! What were you even doing in there?” Wang Li Wei retorted.

Wen Zhihao shook his head at this unruly bear child. “In that case, we’ll use the training field here.”

“You mean where the demonic beasts train?” Wang Li Wei said disdainfully.

“What, are you scared?” Sun Fuyu drawled back. “Their training field is not as flat as usual fields, with a lot of obstacles. In such a place, wouldn’t a duel really show off one’s strength and ability?”

“Fine! Let’s fight!”

Wen Zhihao: “...”

Aiya, who knew there was someone even more gullible than Xiao Yu!

So the three of them went to the demonic beasts’ training field. Sun Fuyu and Wang Li Wei stood on either end, like Pokemon at the start of a battle. Wen Zhihao stood on the side, at the center. He felt like a gym referee when he announced, “Daoist Sun Fuyu versus Daoist Wang Li Wei. The rules are, no killing, no permanent injuries allowed! Let the battle begin!”

The two of them immediately rushed towards each other.

Wen Zhihao took out a chair from his spatial storage and sat down. While it made him uncomfortable to think that Sun Fuyu might get hurt (and er, that Wang Li Wei might get hurt), he had to trust in Sun Fuyu’s ability. He also hoped that this would help Wang Li Wei let out more of his aggression, making him more receptive to cat-therapy.

Sun Fuyu could feel Wen Zhihao watching, and that fired up his energy. In a flash, he drew his sword. He and Wang Li Wei clashed in mid-air, the meeting of their swords making a loud shockwave. Sun Fuyu gritted his teeth as the pain rippled down his arm. The pressure forced him to jump back to avoid further injury. So this was the strength of a Golden Core cultivator!

Sun Fuyu’s every breath drew in more and more qi, circulating it to heal and strengthen his body the same way Wen-ge did it.

Wang Li Wei propelled himself at Sun Fuyu, his blade slashing multiple times. Qi formed nasty blades that shot towards him. Sun Fuyu jumped, rolling mid air. With a brief switch of his qi, the sword flew separate from him, fast as an arrow towards Wang Li Wei. Swords clashed again and again as the two cultivators flew around, their robes gloriously golden, their long black hair always remaining elegant in the wind.

The qi surrounding the two of them was very violent, but around Wen Zhihao it was calm.

Was it just Wen Zhihao’s brain, or did Sun Fuyu’s moves look extra beautiful? In the naturalistic-like training field, with the sun climbing in the sky, the battle between them looked stunning even from Wen Zhihao’s “fixed-point camera” view. His eyes were able to capture all the quick movements without blurs or afterimages, and feeling the qi movement added an extra layer to the battle that could not be achieved by all the xianxia dramas he had watched back on 21st-century Earth.

Wen Zhihao amused himself. Wouldn’t it be funny if he could film xianxia dramas here and somehow send them back to 21st-century Earth? After all, there had to be a way to move between worlds because he had literally done it. He was sure that his life on Earth wasn’t a dream and his life here wasn’t a dream either because both were too complicated for him to ever make up. Though, perhaps carrying tangible items like cameras across worlds was more complicated than moving “souls” (whatever they were) across worlds? He was only transmigrated, not isekai’ed...

The gathering dark clouds overhead drew Wen Zhihao’s attention back to the fight. The natural qi in the air became turbulent as they converged and rolled and twisted.

Heavy qi condensed upon Sun Fuyu.

Wang Li Wei’s eyes narrowed. He gritted his teeth and launched a desperate attack.

The qi around Sun Fuyu rippled slightly as he blocked the attack. In a swift movement, Sun Fuyu jumped on his sword and shot up high into the air. Wang Li Wei was quick to follow, but he was not nearly as skilled as Sun Fuyu at flying on his sword.

Sun Fuyu felt that the qi was even denser the higher he flew. It filled his meridians and dantain. As more and more flowed into his body, the qi was forced to condense tighter and tighter. When it felt like Sun Fuyu couldn’t bear it any longer, the black clouds exploded out as a shaft of light came down. Sun Fuyu glowed under the sunrays.

He had formed a golden core!

Suddenly, everything felt sharper, more intense. His entire body felt stronger. He stopped ascending and shot straight down for Wang Li Wei. Wang Li Wei bared his teeth, holding his sword out, ready to meet Sun Fuyu.

But Wang Li Wei was not as good at passively accumulating qi by simply breathing as Sun Fuyu was, and furthermore, Sun Fuyu was now charged with leftover qi from the fresh advancement.

Swords clashed with a loud CLANG—SHNGG! Wang Li Wei pushed back as much as he could, but he was hatefully thrown down onto the ground so hard that a small crater formed around him. His sword clattered a distance away. Wang Li Wei lurched up despite the pain, trying to call his sword to him—

And then... sssshing, Sun Fuyu’s blade was against his throat. Wang Li Wei’s heart grew cold as Sun Fuyu’s aura pressed down on him. No! No, no, how the hell did he—

Wen Zhihao stood up. “And victory goes to Daoist Sun Fuyu! Xiao Yu, you can let him go now.”

Sun Fuyu gave Wang Li Wei a cold look before slowly sheathing his sword. “Since you can’t even defeat me, don’t even think about touching Wen Zhihao!”

Wang Li Wei glared at them both. “How? How did you advance so fast?! Didn’t you just enter the inner sect in the last round?”

“Because he cultivated diligently,” Wen Zhihao said as he strolled towards them. His qi spread out like gentle-on-the-surface ripples.

Sun Fuyu’s dark look immediately disappeared when Wen Zhihao’s qi started to touch his own. “Because Wen-ge helped me,” Sun Fuyu said, smiling shyly at Wen Zhihao.

The shy smile was like a kitten pouncing on Wen Zhihao’s heart. He unconsciously reached out and patted Sun Fuyu on the head. “And congratulations to Xiao Yu for advancing! I’ll tell Aunty Liu to prepare something extra good for you tomorrow.”

Sun Fuyu’s smile became even more warm and soft. “En.”

“Is Xiao Yu injured? Take a healing pill…”

Sun Fuyu shook his head, making his hair become ruffled under Wen Zhihao’s hand. “I’m not hurt badly.”

Wang Li Wei coughed pointedly.

Wen Zhihao took his hand away from Sun Fuyu’s head and looked at the pitiful Wang Li Wei still lying in the crater on the ground. “Ah, yes. Fellow Daoist Wang should take a healing pill too.”

“I was going to do that anyway,” Wang Li Wei scowled.

It was bad enough that Sun Fuyu had stolen Wu Qingqing’s spot, she should have advanced into the inner sect and joined Wang Li Wei’s group! But now Sun Fuyu defeated him! And now Wen Zhihao was literally looking down on him! Anxiety clawed at Wang Li Wei’s throat. No, no, how could I be worse than them? This can’t be, I’m a good cultivator! I’m not as good as my parents but I’m still good—!

Wen Zhihao saw how Wang Li Wei’s eyes were growing red and how his leftover qi was starting to riot. Inwardly sighing, Wen Zhihao spread his own qi over Wang Li Wei.

“Come with us,” Wen Zhihao said, holding out a hand.

Wang Li Wei wanted to refuse, but then, behind Wen Zhihao’s back, Sun Fuyu drew his sword.

Regret and discontent and hate built in Wang Li Wei’s stomach. He ignored Wen Zhihao’s hand and got up himself and retrieved his sword.

As the hate and anger qi inexplicably suppressed, Wang Li Wei was left with an emptiness. I’m a bad cultivator. I’m a waste. My parents would probably rather have Sun Fuyu as their son. What’s the point…

Wen Zhihao had to manually steer the listless Wang Li Wei to the baby-kitten enclosure. Luckily, Huang Jialing wasn’t around to stop them.

Sun Fuyu held back his dislike of Wang Li Wei. He opened the enclosure gate for Wen Zhihao and also closed it behind them.

The baby-demonic-beast enclosure had two big old demonic beasts who kept watch. The area itself was immersed in a warm temperature-regulation array. The demonic kittens grew up from their weak stage very quickly. A few of them noticed the humans, and so started doggedly stumbling over.

Wen Zhihao first pushed Wang Li Wei down. He then picked up one of the smallest kittens. The kitten meowed in his arms very cutely. Perfect.

Wen Zhihao placed the small kitten in Wang Li Wei’s arms.

Wang Li Wei snapped out of his listlessness. His eyes widened as the rest of his body froze.

Wen Zhihao smiled fondly at the kitten. It was so cute, wasn’t it? Anyone would freeze up in amazement/joy.

But Wang Li Wei had frozen because it was a DEMONIC BEAST! Shit-shit-shit, was it going to attack him? As long as he didn’t move, would he be alright? How was it that Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu were treating these as harmless animals? It didn’t make sense!