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Unlike Wen Zhihao, Elder Wang was not having a restful afternoon.

While in the middle of discussions with other senior cultivators in his faction, Elder Wang received a shock from the little sun token he carried: The Golden Sun Sect Leader was calling an immediate Elders-only meeting.

Elder Wang only had a few minutes to farewell his supporters before the sun token forcefully transported him to the Elders Hall in the Golden Sun Sect.

The Sect Leader sat crosslegged at the front, with their white-golden robes draped around them. “Elder Wang,” they said. There was a hint of disapproval.

Rather than being seated on the stage, Elder Liu Ru sat on one side of a table placed in front of the stage.

Elder Wang felt a shiver of wariness, but his expression remained collected. “Sect Leader,” he greeted, clasping his hands together.

“Take a seat.”

Forcing his heart to be calm and still, Elder Wang sat down gracefully on the side opposing Elder Liu.

A few moments later, the two other Elders appeared, the female Elder Su and the male Elder Jia.

“Elder Su, Elder Jia,” the Sect Leader greeted coolly. “Take a seat.”

Once everyone was seated, the Sect Leader exhaled slightly. Immediately, their qi surrounded the room, providing an extra layer of protection against eavesdroppers.

It also closed up any possible escape.

“I called this meeting to discuss the matter of the apparent cultivator war. I thank Elder Liu for calling me out of seclusion.”

Elder Wang froze. The reason why he had been able to direct the disciples out to war that morning without hindrance was because Elder Jia was on his side, Elder Su was staunchly neutral, and Elder Liu had been missing.

Elder Wang had asked the two Peak Master Lins¹Lin Yijun’s parents to find and follow Elder Liu Ru. But rather than waiting for the Lins’ report, Elder Wang had taken the prime opportunity to begin the demonic-righteous war.

Elder Wang’s eyes darkened. So, it turned out that Elder Liu Ru had been busy calling the Sect Leader out of seclusion. Who knew that Elder Liu would risk such a thing. Obviously, she was attempting to gain the Sect Leader’s favour.

The Sect Leader continued: “You are the Sect Elders of the great Golden Sun Sect. You have responsibility over the disciples, to nurture them and guide them, as those previous have guided us.” The Sect Elder’s eyes swept over the four people in front of them. “As the Sect Elders, you should understand best the terrible cost of a war. In your solo command, I have to wonder if you, Elder Wang, want to take my position and become the Sect Leader.”

Despite the penetrating expression of the Sect Leader, Elder Wang did not flinch. “I had to act quickly,” he replied coolly. “When we arrived at the ravine, the demonic cultivators had already begun to gather, as did cultivators from our allied righteous sects. How could we leave them to fight alone?”

“And yet, from my reports, Elder Wang did not even think of any methods to diffuse the situation, unlike the Inner Sect Disciple Wen Zhihao.”

At the mention of Wen Zhihao’s name, Elder Wang wanted to crush something. Jaw tightening, he forced out, “If it were so easy, why did Elder Liu do nothing?”

“You are right, Elder Wang. I had not thought of a solution, hence I called the Sect Leader out of seclusion so that we may formulate one,” Elder Liu replied.

“For rashly jumping in to begin a continent-wide war and selfishly putting the lives of the Golden Sun Sect disciples at risk, Elder Wang is now demoted from Sect Elder to Peak Master. A new Sect Elder will be promoted in the future.”

Elder Wang wanted to cough up blood. Rash? His actions were far from rash! Who was so blind as to not see the stirrings of war from weeks, months ago?

But saying so would only make his situation worse. Elder Wang—now a common Elder, not a Sect Elder—lowered his head and had to speak in a deferential tone: “This cultivator accepts the Sect Leader’s ruling.”

At that moment, his special sun token flew out of his pocket to the Sect Leader’s side.

“You are allowed to take part in this new tournament as a contestant, but you are not allowed to be a referee nor organiser,” the Sect Leader continued. “As for Disciple Wen, Elder Liu, I leave it to you to devise a suitable reward. Disciple Wen has shown great leadership and should be a model to all. If only more disciples could take the initiative that Disciple Wen has shown.”

Elder Liu Ru: “...”

She suspected she knew exactly why Disciple Wen had diffused the war situation, and it wasn’t the ‘leadership’ in the Sect Leader’s mouth. But she knew when to bow her head too. “Understood, Sect Leader.”

The Sect Leader inclined their head slightly. “As for Elder Su and Elder Jia, I am disappointed in your behaviour…”

 

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Wen Zhihao remained blissfully unaware of the massive shock among the Golden Sun Sect’s upper ranks, from the Peak Master Elders beginning their campaigns to take the empty Sect Elder position, to the infighting in Peak Master Wang’s faction.

Instead, he was peacefully sleeping. By the time he woke up from his afternoon nap it was…not the afternoon?

Wen Zhihao’s eyes opened to a bleary squint. Morning sunlight shone through the window. He squeezed his eyes shut again and buried his head under his pillow. He had half-fallen asleep again when—

—Shit! Morning! The kids! Wen Zhihao’s eyes snapped open and he pushed himself upright.

The bed next to him was empty, and the flying cart was missing from his spatial ring.

It took a moment for Wen Zhihao to make the connection.

Sun Fuyu! Sun Fuyu must have taken the kids to school!

Wen Zhihao flopped back down on the bed in relief. He rubbed his eyes and yawned again. He hadn’t slept so long since his all-nighter uni days. He rolled around in bed a little, but instead of his sleepiness turning into sleep, he became more awake instead.

Defeated, Wen Zhihao got up from bed. He got dressed, wrote a few official talismans, and then decided to go outside. He remembered that he had promised to make Sun Fuyu many more calming stones.

He paused when he saw all the cats and one dog sprawled around the building. “Hello there,” he greeted, walking over to them. He crouched down to pet furry heads.

“Meow!”

“Ruff!”

“Meeoooww~~”

“Hm, I can’t pet you all day,” Wen Zhihao said regretfully. “I need to collect stone rocks. You stay here and sleep—”

“Meow!”

In a flash, the animals leapt to their feet, tails up and ears alert.

“...Or you can follow.” Wen Zhihao hid a laugh in his heart at the cute little furry babies.

“Wen-ge, you’re awake!”

Wen Zhihao looked up and his eyes crinkled. Fifty or so meters away in the air was Sun Fuyu!

Sun Fuyu covered the remaining distance in less than a second, hurtling into Wen Zhihao’s waiting arms.

“If Wen-ge is sleepy, Wen-ge can go back to sleep! I already took the young ones to school.”

“Thank you, Xiao Yu. Does Xiao Yu want to go to the forest with me? I need to collect more stones.”

“Um—Yes! It’s best if Wen-ge goes to the forest.”

Wen Zhihao pulled back from shifty-eyed Sun Fuyu and raised his eyebrows. “What is it, Xiao Yu?” he asked in a teasing tone.

Sun Fuyu pouted. Aggrievedly burrowing back into Wen-ge's arms, he mumbled, “Since yesterday, many cultivators from our sect and even the other sects have been requesting meetings with Wen-ge. They all want Wen-ge’s calming stones.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“That they needed to pay two high-level spiritual stones,” Sun Fuyu admitted. “That reduced the number of requests.”

“Two?”

Last time, Senior Cheng Yahui forcefully paid him one high-level spiritual stone. This kind of markup felt very capitalist, ba. But he could also save up the money to spend on Xiao Yu!

Wen Zhihao rubbed Sun Fuyu’s head with a mixture of exasperation and fondness. “If Xiao Yu says the price is two high-level spiritual stones, then that is the price.”

Sun Fuyu basked in the head-patting for a long moment, his eyes curved in enjoyment. “Mm. Wen-ge, fly on my sword, and I’ll take you to the forest.”

Wen Zhihao naturally stood behind Sun Fuyu on his sword and hugged him around the waist. In order to avoid other cultivators spotting them in the air, and in order for the demonic cats and demonic wolf to keep up, Sun Fuyu flew low on the ground.

They navigated through the sect, and out into the forest. Sun Fuyu smartly took Wen-ge towards the river, where there were many nice smooth stones.

As he helped pick stones with Wen-ge, the animals trailing behind them curiously, Sun Fuyu hid a secret worry in his heart. Now that Wen-ge had shown his power in front of the cultivator world, what could Sun Fuyu do in order to protect Wen-ge’s peace?

 

 

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Lookee, so pretty!!  The art was drawn by val, and little card was made by yue~