Zhou Sheng watched until he couldn’t see Lin Yijun any longer.

“I have made your lives at the Sect harder,” Zhou Sheng said somberly without turning around.

“Huh? I doubt it,” Wen Zhihao said. If Lin Yijun did make his life harder—well, that was a problem for Future!Wen Zhihao. As for right now… “We should carry the children to a more suitable place.”

“You two do that,” Zhou Sheng said. “I’ll track down the other scum.”

“Don’t forget to eat some iron-rich vegetables or meat to replenish your blood.”

Zhou Sheng’s lips twitched slightly as a small warmth grew in his chest. “Understood.”

Cr-clunk, cr-clunk.

A wooden cart rolled onto the clifftop above them. A mortal walked down the footpath down the cliffside to the cave.

“Pst! We’re here, let’s go! The auction will begin soon—”

The mortal froze when he saw the three cultivators.

Zhou Sheng’s eyes darkened as he smiled. “First scum.”

“They have a cart, too,” Sun Fuyu said. “We can have the children ride in that.”

“Then what about those men—” Wen Zhihao started.

Zhou Sheng flexed his Nascent Soul abilities by transforming the ultra-thin blood ropes into a huge net that surrounded this particular group of enslavers and dragged the entire group behind him. The new mortal was thrown into the net with the others.

“I’ll leave the cart for you,” Zhou Sheng said. His eyes softened towards Wen Zhihao. “I won’t kill them. Yet.”

Wen Zhihao’s lips twitched. This kid!

With that, the black-and-red robed cultivator with his hanging net of criminals flew off into the dark night. There was the faint sound of screams as he captured the other mortals waiting at the clifftop.

Wen Zhihao turned to Sun Fuyu. “Xiao Yu, it seems that we’ll have to delay our date and buy more food.”

Sun Fuyu rubbed his shoulder against Wen-ge’s. “I like helping Wen-ge.”

Wen Zhihao smiled warmly. “Thank you, Xiao Yu. Let’s go wake them up.”

But for some reason, Wen Zhihao’s wake-up calls didn’t work. “Are they really that tired?” he muttered.

Sun Fuyu giggled. Wen-ge was so funny! “What are you talking about, Wen-ge? Isn’t your qi making them sleepy?”

Wen Zhihao: Hah??? My qi? Makes them sleepy?

But he wasn’t doing anything special with his qi and he didn’t have any calming stones out! Maybe the spatial rings weren’t able to fully contain the calming aura from the stones? And these children were very young, after all, being calm was a tiny step away from falling asleep.

“We can carry them,” Sun Fuyu suggested. He didn’t want Wen-ge to hide his aura, so they could only do this.

“Okay, listen to Xiao Yu,” Wen Zhihao said.

Sun Fuyu’s eyes curved. “Mn!”

Together, they carried out the children and placed them on the ox cart waiting for them on the clifftop. Sun Fuyu smartly drove the ox cart back towards town, and Sun Fuyu found an entire courtyard house for them all.

Wen Zhihao didn’t want to split the children up into the different bedrooms, thinking that they would be afraid upon waking up in an unfamiliar place on their own. In the end, he moved the dozen or so children into the largest room in the house and laid down all his bedding and the house’s bedding.

Finally, Wen Zhihao was able to lie down with Sun Fuyu. Around them, small children slept.

“Xiao Yu is so smart for finding this place,” Wen Zhihao said quietly.

“This is one of the houses owned by the Golden Sun Sect, it makes it easier when we have to go out for long missions,” Sun Fuyu admitted.

Wen Zhihao rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head. “Xiao Yu is so diligent in completing missions.”

“Mn.” Sun Fuyu snuggled into Wen-ge’s chest. “I won’t let Senior Lin do anything bad to you.”

Wen Zhihao patted Sun Fuyu’s back. “Relying on Xiao Yu then,” he said warmly. Hugging Sun Fuyu in his arms, it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

Sun Fuyu took a little longer to sleep. Wen-ge said he was relying on him, so Sun Fuyu had to think about what to do if Senior Lin reported them to the Elders. Shifu Liu Zhongmin liked him, and Elder Liu Ru should be on their side. With them, even Senior Lin would have to bow in defeat! And in the worst case...in the worst case, they’ll become such amazing rogue cultivators together that the Golden Sun Sect could only regret!

 

---

 

While Wen Zhihao, Sun Fuyu, and the children were peacefully sleeping, the main square in the town was far from peaceful.

Don’t know when exactly, but some time when the business in the square was starting to calm down, a blood-lattice cage appeared. Inside that cage were many people, all tied up. Some of them wore rough clothing, some of them had tattoos of the criminal underworld, some of them were dressed up in opulent robes, some of them were scented with makeup and perfume, and some of them wore government robes. There was even one dark-robed cultivator in the cage, cursing someone named ‘Zhou Sheng’.

On all four sides of the cage, the blood was curved into words, SCUM WHO STEAL YOUR FAMILY’S CHILDREN.

In this time and place, slavery wasn’t technically illegal. Some ‘types’ of people could be legally enslaved without their consent, and some people sold themselves into slavery during desperate times. But stealing a family’s beloved child?

Those who could read immediately told those who didn’t. More than one person was disgusted, throwing rotten vegetables left at the end of the day at the cage, though the cage, despite its holes, blocked any items thrown. Those who attempted to break the cage failed, receiving burns for their troubles.

Wen Zhihao might have forbidden him from killing these people, but that made Zhou Sheng even more ruthless in who he uprooted and threw into the cage. From government officials accepting bribes to allow this to happen, to the famous rich men and infamous pimps who bought stolen children, all of them were thrown in. When he had found a cultivator from his own Blood Sect using enslaved people to harvest their blood to cultivate with, he had thrown him into the cage too. Heh, public humiliation and destroyed reputation were the least of their troubles...

 

---

 

The next morning, Sun Fuyu woke up early as usual. He didn’t need nearly as much sleep as Wen-ge. When he returned, the sun had started to rise, staining the sky yellow.

“En, Uncle will help you look for your family, okay? Wash your face, then we can all have breakfast.” Wen Zhihao was crouched down, a pot of warm water next to him as he gently wiped the faces of the children.

“I’m hungry…” a milky little voice said.

“Me too…”

“Just wait, okay?” Wen Zhihao activated a small butterfly talisman. The children’s eyes widened. Some of their hands opened and closed cutely as they tried to reach out for the butterflies, but their arms were too short.

“Pretty!”

“Uncle, uncle…” Little fingers tugged at Wen Zhihao’s sleeve.

“Hm?” Wen Zhihao turned to the small child.

The child just shook her head and said nothing. Wen Zhihao smiled faintly and rubbed her head.

Sun Fuyu’s heart skipped a beat. Wen-ge would make a great father if they ever had children…

Wen Zhihao looked up and met Sun Fuyu’s gaze. His eyes brightened. “Xiao Yu, you’re back! Children, say good morning to Uncle Sun.”

“Good morning, Uncle Sun,” they chorused unevenly.

Sun Fuyu exhaled to calm his heart and walked over. “Good morning. I bought some breakfast.” From his spatial ring, he took out a big pot of soy milk and various other pots of porridge and baozi. The children immediately flocked around him.

“Little ones, which do you want?”

“B-bao-baozi...” said the bravest child.

Sun Fuyu took out a steamed bun. “Here you go. And you?”

While Sun Fuyu distributed the food, Wen Zhihao brought some bowls and spoons and cups for the soy milk and porridge.

Halfway through, someone knocked on the front gate.

Wen Zhihao frowned, but Sun Fuyu stood up first, hand on his sword. “I’ll go see, Wen-ge.”

So Wen Zhihao took over food distribution while Sun Fuyu strode out to the front gate. Upon opening, he saw that Blood Sect cultivator, Zhou Sheng, and a group of people behind him. Some of them were children, some of them were teenagers, and some of them were adults. The only commonality was how dazed they all looked.

“Cultivator Sun, troubling you to take care of these people. They had been previously enslaved. I’ll bring more later,” Zhou Sheng said.

Sun Fuyu nodded. “Understood. Cultivator Zhou, will you come inside too? We are having breakfast now.”

Zhou Sheng laughed shortly. “Are you going to hand-feed me if I refuse?” At Sun Fuyu’s confused look, Zhou Sheng added, “Wen Zhihao asked me if I wanted to be hand-fed.”

“!!!” Sun Fuyu’s eyes narrowed. “Won’t hand feed you! You’re a senior!”

Zhou Sheng smiled faintly. “En, thought so.”

Zhou Sheng stayed as long as it took to bring all the people into the courtyard and then left. While he liked Wen Zhihao and thought Sun Fuyu was interesting, seeing them together made his chest ache. Sun Fuyu got to have such a great shixiong, while Zhou Sheng’s own memories with Lin Yijun were tainted with bitter nostalgia.

Wen Zhihao looked at the people being escorted into the courtyard whilst absently patting the heads of the anxious children.

With power comes responsibility. It was the mature thing to be responsible for these people. But he and Sun Fuyu couldn’t do this alone.

“Xiao Yu, since this is a Golden Sun Sect safe house, is there any way to send a message back to the Sect?” Wen Zhihao asked.

Sun Fuyu nodded. “Yes! In the study room, there is a communication mirror.”

Wen Zhihao inwardly sighed with relief. “En, then bothering Xiao Yu to contact these people to help us…”

 

 

---

(alternative chapter title: Daddy Material? 🤭🤭🤭)

Sun Fuyu: Wen-ge would be a great father if we had children.

Wen Zhihao: Oh, we already have children. There’s Zhang Wu, Wang Li Wei, Zhou Sheng…

Wang Li Wei: (╯°Д°)╯ ┻━┻ I’m not calling you father!

Wen Zhihao: Mn, then you can call me grandfather instead ┐( ˘_˘ )┌

Sun Fuyu: *aggrieved, mumbles* But they’re such big (grand)children!

Wang Li Wei: (╯ಠ_ಠ）╯︵ ┳━┳ I said, you’re not my fathers!

Sun Fuyu: *dismissive tone* If Wen-ge says he’s your father, then he’s your father.

Wang Li Wei: (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻

Wen Zhihao: Calm down, son…

 

ALSO look at this fanart from LinXueLian!!!

LinXueLian has a collection of cute short cultivation stories, which you can find on AO3 and Scribble Hub~