Dao Of The Salted Fish (Salted Fish Cultivator)

40. Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Eventually, once Zhang Wu calmed down, Wen Zhihao was able to learn why Zhang Wu had been assigned to teach the outer sect disciples:

Firstly, no one else wanted to do such a job, as they rather just occasionally watch and poach the most outstanding students. This meant that the competition was low.
Secondly, the job did pay somewhat well, and it was safe.

While petting the cat (the others were occupied with jumping around in the background chasing butterflies), Zhang Wu admitted his insecurities stopped him from taking dangerous missions outside the sect, leaving him with the job in the sect that he could do: training the outer sect disciples on the sword cultivation route. A small part of his heart knew that he wasn’t the best sword cultivator, and would never be the best—though he would never admit this to Wen Zhihao.

In the end, Zhang Wu ruffled the cat’s fur and said, “And furthermore, senior Lin Yijun has been taking most of the missions lately. Who can compare with such a genius cultivator? The job requestors would be disappointed if someone like me showed up instead of Lin Yijun.”

Wen Zhihao had no idea who ‘Lin Yijun’ was. Instead, he asked, “Who is your mentor?”

Zhang Wu named some senior cultivator whose name Wen Zhihao also didn’t know and quickly forgot.

“He’s often on travels,” Zhang Wu said with a slightly sour note. “His senior disciple is left to train the inner sect disciples under his banner.”

Wen Zhihao rubbed his hairless chin. He had no intention of accompanying Zhang Wu on missions himself—he had no combat ability. He would rather accompany Sun Fuyu.

“If your mentor is not around, why not collaborate with others? I have heard good things from the disciples under Senior Cultivator Liu Zhongmin. They are all friendly and like to go on missions together. I can ask my shidi to introduce you.”

Zhang Wu gave him a look. “You mean Disciple Sun Fuyu.”

At Zhang Wu’s not-complimentary tone, Wen Zhihao narrowed his eyes slightly.

“When did I lie?”

“...I’ll contact them myself, I have more connections than you, Disciple Wen.”
At that, Wen Zhihao relaxed, since it meant less work for him.

The gate to the enclosure opened. Cultivator Huang Jialing looked at the two male cultivators sitting on the ground, her gaze turning complex at seeing Zhang Wu and the demonic beast on his lap.

“Teaching others to spoil them, Wen Zhihao?” Huang Jialing drawled. “Fellow Daoist Zhang, I did not expect to see you here.”

Zhang Wu cleared his throat and quickly stood up. “I was just leaving, thanking Fellow Daoist Huang for reminding me of the time.” He glared at Wen Zhihao and hurriedly left.

Wen Zhihao stood up too. “I’m going, I don’t have enough food for them anyway.”

Since this visit was unplanned, Wen Zhihao hadn’t prepared many bribe-talismans, so he reluctantly stuffed a few cooling and ice talismans in Huang Jialing’s hands before leaving.

As Wen Zhihao was strolling back, he suddenly remembered that he wanted to make a talisman that would make his brush pen move for him…

Yeah, nah. Just like that, Wen Zhihao decided it wasn’t worth the effort. He’ll just have to remember to sneakily suggest it to crafting or talisman cultivator so that someone else could develop it instead.

Hmm, at least the sect should now be more peaceful if Zhang Wu left more often.
Wen Zhihao tucked his hands in his sleeves and gazed at the blue sky. Tomorrow, Sun Fuyu would be returning, and the day after, it would be his birthday.

Sun Fuyu was eager to return to the Golden Sun Sect, but since he was with his martial seniors, he had to act calm and restrained.

It was late at night by the time they arrived back. They all immediately went to the Missions Hall to report and receive their spiritual stone rewards.

“Coming to the courtyard?” one of his shijies surnamed Hu asked Sun Fuyu.

“Asking Hu-shijie, the Equipment Hall is still open at this time?”
“Yes, it is.”

“Then I need to go there.”

Cultivator Hu nodded. “Remember to have some rest to recover your qi,” she said kindly. All those in Liu Zhongmin’s group shared a fondness for Sun Fuyu. At first, some of them had been simply following Liu Zhongmin’s treatment of this new shidi. But they soon found his hard-working and humble attitude pleasing, and very different from the ‘little lords’ temperament that other new inner sect disciples had.

“En,” Sun Fuyu nodded. He gave his shijies and shixiongs quiet farewells and headed to the Equipment Hall, re-counting the spiritual stones he had collected in the past month. A tension eased in his stomach. He had enough!

The next morning, Sun Fuyu got up early to train. After training, he washed up, put on fresh new robes and hurried down to the kitchens.

His heart began to thud when he caught sight of Wen-ge waiting for him by pathway to the kitchens. When Wen-ge smiled at him in greeting, his chest swelled with warmth. A brilliant smile grew on Sun Fuyu’s face.

“Wen-ge!”

“Good morning, Xiao Yu,” Wen Zhihao replied. “You’ve gotten stronger.”

Sun Fuyu puffed up his chest. “Thank you, Wen-ge.”

“Come.” Wen Zhihao patted Sun Fuyu on the back as they walked down the pathway to the kitchens. “Since you’ve been gone, your ge has been encouraging the plants to grow every day.”

When Sun Fuyu came into sight of the kitchens and the area in front of it, his eyes widened. Wen Zhihao had been modest: the little mango trees were now as tall as Sun Fuyu and the branches were drooping with large green mangoes.

Sun Fuyu could also see that the mango trees were the most mature of all the tropical plants, which meant that Wen-ge must have paid them extra special attention!

“Green means that it is unripe. You can still eat it, but it is typically for savoury dishes as it is sour, not sweet,” Wen Zhihao said.

In fact, Wen Zhihao felt that he wasn’t that good at playing as a herbalist cultivator. Someone with a plant-growing power could grow ripe trees in a few minutes! Though that was the wrong fantasy, just like how Wen Zhihao couldn’t bend fire automatically despite being a fire root…

“When I went out with my shijies and shixiongs, we visited a few mortal towns. I bought back some local dishes to try,” Sun Fuyu said, taking out an array of different packaged food and still-hot street foods from his storage ring. Unfortunately, since Sun Fuyu’s missions had been in the north, he hadn’t been able to get some more tropical fruit.

Wen Zhihao’s eyes brightened. “Xiao Yu, you’re so good. Aunty Liu! Look what Xiao Yu bought us!”

Liu Jing came out from the kitchens. “Xiao Yu is back,” she said warmly. “I made your favourite pancakes.”

At Wen Zhihao’s shout, more kitchen staff came out. They all greeted Sun Fuyu warmly.

Sun Fuyu smiled and greeted them back. It felt good to have people who welcomed his return. After helping out, as usual, Aunty Liu took out a large plate of scallion pancakes just for Sun Fuyu.

In a moment when the kitchen staff were chatting to each other, Sun Fuyu said quietly to Wen Zhihao, “Thank you.”

Wen Zhihao gave him a confused look, which then turned into a fond smile. “Aunty Liu made these scallion pancakes just for you because she likes you. Aren’t we all friends and family? There’s no need for thanks between family.”

Sun Fuyu’s chest tightened as his eyes became a little sour. Family. Missions were good, but he had also missed this very much.