---

 

While Wen Zhihao and Sun Fuyu looked after the increasing numbers of people in the Golden Sun Sect safe house, while Senior Liu Zhongmin was organising a group of disciples and bewildered mortal staff like Chef Liu Jing from the kitchens to go and help her cutest disciple, and while Zhou Sheng was busily uprooting human trafficking networks, Lin Yijun walked out of a high-level meeting in cold shock.

He had just learned the cause of the ghost invasion. Him. Somehow, his undercover infiltrations of the demonic sects had been discovered. The ghosts had been sent revenge.

Because of this, Elder Wang had forbidden Lin Yijun from taking any missions involving the demonic sects.

As he slowly walked back towards his quarters, he saw a large group of cultivators and mortals boarding a flying ship. There was also the entire group of demonic beasts being corralled by Cultivator Huang Jialing.

Zhang Wu called out, “Senior Lin, good morning.”

Lin Yijun re-arranged his face into a more pleasant expression. “Cultivator Zhang, good morning. Going on a mission?”

“You can think of it like that. It seems that Disciple Wen and Disciple Sun have saved a lot of mortals, and they need help re-finding their homes again, so Senior Liu Zhongmin has gathered some of us.”

Lin Yijun froze for a split second, finally recalling those children that had been sleeping on the Golden Sun Sect bedding. He nodded jerkily. “Then don’t let me delay you.”

Zhang Wu nodded hesitantly. “Then don’t let me bother you, Senior Lin.” He returned to the others, his expression becoming freer and warmer as he chatted to Liu Zhongmin’s disciples.

Lin Yijun continued back to his quarters in silence.

His quarters were halfway up the mountain that belonged to his mother and father, who were both peak-lords in the sect. His own courtyard was austere and sparsely furnished. He didn’t need the earthly items that cluttered other disciples’ living spaces. Almost all of his expenses were for the maintenance and regular upgrades of his sword, Hero’s Light Upon The Water.

He sat down in the small sculpted garden by the trickling water feature, something that his mother had forced him to add. The water itself cycled around, containing a few drops from the Clear Heart Hot Springs.

“I’m disappointed in myself for not realising that you never considered me your friend at all.”

Never considered me your friend.

“Your actions caused the influx of ghosts. You were lucky that Disciple Sun had that magical treasure from Disciple Wen.”

Your actions.

At least he didn’t tell the Elders about Zhou Sheng.

Never considered—

Not your friend.

Not your friend.

Not your friend at all.

Zhou Sheng’s words circled around in Lin Yijun’s head, bringing with it that inexplicable feeling of pain. It felt like his own hand was squeezing his chest, suffocating his throat.

For the first time in his life, his quarters were not the quiet place where he could cultivate in peace. Instead, it was a silent, empty courtyard where no one wanted to come and help him.

 

---

 

The moment the big flying ship stopped over a particular house in the mortal town, gossip in the town spread like wildfire. First a cage of scum slavers and now a cultivator flying ship? There was clearly something big happening!

In the Golden Sun Sect safehouse, cultivators helped mortals descend down from the ship. The youngest children all gripped onto Wen Zhihao’s robes, or to the clothes of another child gripping onto Wen Zhihao’s robes, while the older freed people huddled together in the corner of the courtyard.

While Sun Fuyu went to speak with Liu Zhongmin and the other cultivators vaguely about how they had saved these people with the help of a “kind rogue cultivator”, the mortal staff headed towards Wen Zhihao. Aunty Liu Jing in particular had a, What have you done now? expression on her face.

But before she could reach him, another cultivator spoke to Wen Zhihao first.

“Gasp! This aura! Are you cultivator Wen Zhihao?” Senior Cheng Yahui looked at Wen Zhihao with wide eyes. Damn, what is this amazing aura?!! This heart-soothing aura….seems to be Wen Zhihao’s natural aura? Even more amazing!

Wen Zhihao raised an eyebrow. This senior cultivator’s hair was a little messy, a used wooden brush stuck into their hair, fingers stained with ink. If they didn’t have a spatial device, Wen Zhihao wouldn’t be surprised if they carried out a bag bursting full of scrolls.

“Yes, I am.”

“Wait, forgive me, forgive me, my name is Cheng Yahui,” Cheng Yahui said. They looked at the little mortals with their thin hungry faces and their ragged clothing. Their heart ached, recalling what Liu Zhongmin had briefly told them, and so their enthusiasm tampered down. “I am here to help, as one of my specialties is to trace down the history of journeys across space and time.”

—Note that saying it like that completely glossed over the complex arrays that Cheng Yahui used to cast illusions recreating history, and the amount of maths and qi that went into powering these arrays.

“Forgive me for being impolite, but Disciple Sun showed me a stone he said was used to help him sleep…”

“Oh, this?” Wen Zhihao took one such rock out from his spatial ring.

Cheng Yahui’s eyes lit up. “Yes!” Their hands reached out, but then they quickly pulled them back, an embarrassed flush on their face. “I can pay one high-grade spiritual stone for it if that’s possible?”

Wen Zhihao didn’t know the exact conversion rate, but a high-grade spiritual stone was a lot more than one wen. His eyes softened in amusement. “You can have it for free.”

Cheng Yahui shook their head. “No, no! How is that possible, your hard work—”

Wen Zhihao bent over and picked up a rock from the ground: a smooth white pebble. Gathering some of the sunlight around him, he channelled it through his body and out into the pebble in his hand. The calming stones were a little bit different from the glowing stones, because he thought, be calm, be relaxed, while infusing them instead of thinking glow glow glow.

“Done.”

Cheng Yahui cupped their hands, eyes wide at the white little pebble that was dropped into the center of their palm. “Thank you so much, Disciple Wen.” They took a deep breath and put the pebble into their spatial earring. “In fact, I suspected that you wanted mortal currency instead, so I took the initiative to convert one high-grade spiritual stone into mortal money!” They took out a stack of paper banknotes and handed them to Wen Zhihao.

One banknote converted into a thousand silver taels, and each silver tael was worth one thousand copper wen! And look how thick that stack of banknotes was!

“I really don’t need—”

—But Cheng Yahui wouldn’t accept no for an answer, smiling and walking away back to the group of cultivators before Wen Zhihao could return the money.

And so, Wen Zhihao accidentally became rich...He had to put all the money away into his spatial ring.

“Wen Zhihao, you went out on a date with Xiao Fuyu and…?” Aunty Liu Jing said in lieu of a greeting.

Wen Zhihao smiled innocently. He patted the head of one particularly quiet kid. “I became an uncle! Xiao Bai, say hello to grandma.”

“Hewwo, grandma…” Xiao Bai said in a tiny little voice.

Liu Jing: “...” Uncle? Grandma??????!!

Behind Wen Zhihao, the other kids also started, “Hello, grandma…”

Wen Zhihao turned to them, patting each and every child on the head—that took a while. “Very good,” he praised them. Can’t go wrong with praising children! Especially when he thought about how they’d faced so many harsh words recently.

Liu Jing’s heart softened, but her face remained stern towards Wen Zhihao. “Have they all had breakfast?”

Wen Zhihao clasped his hands together. “Yes. But now asking Aunty Liu to help manage lunch!”

Liu Jing looked over the group of people. “It’ll be easier to buy food at such short notice. I imagine you have neither ingredients nor equipment here.”

Wen Zhihao’s eyes brightened. He took out a handful of banknotes and gave them to Aunty Liu. “You must know how to convert this into coins to spend?”

“...Yes.”

Liu Jing returned quite quickly with a bag heavy with silver coins. Wen Zhihao then gave each freed mortal, regardless of age, one silver tael each. In fact, he wanted to give more, but they started to look so scared after the first one.

“This—this is too much!” one mortal woman bravely said, fearful of the money in her hands. “What do you want us to do, my lord?”

“You can call me Wen Zhihao, you’re not a slave anymore,” Wen Zhihao said. “This is spending money, and it’s yours. This is not a prison. Later, when we go out to buy lunch, you can come along to buy whatever you want. In fact, one tael is hardly anything. You’ll receive a lot more in compensation in the future.”

She didn’t quite believe it, but she held onto the silver tael, her head down.

It would be easiest to adjust the mindset of that first group of children, the ones who had only recently been captured. They held their new silver tael with awe in their eyes, their bad experiences soon forgotten as Wen Zhihao coaxed them.

As for those who had been enslaved longer, it would take a little longer, a little more effort, but Wen Zhihao was optimistic that they would eventually be able to heal, regain their confidence, and build a new, free life.

 

 

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There will probably be a time skip over the next chapter or so, mostly because there is a lot of hard work…

Also, I did think about splitting this chapter into two (and posting them both) but in the end, I left it as one “long” chapter.

(1.6k words!!!! The earlier chapters are like 800 words!!! So this is technically a double update??🙈 Though in fact, all the chapters have steadily grown longer...)