Chapter 47: Brother Xie, Brother Wen’s Old House Has Caught Fire!

Once the Left Protector fled, no one remained to receive Meng Fuguang’s thunderous fury.

Meng Fuguang ground his back teeth. When he saw his son’s face, however, his expression eased somewhat.

Regardless of how Liu Xishi and the others had educated him, as a father, Meng Fuguang liked Meng Baixu very much. He believed his son was a unique treasure beneath heaven, and there could not possibly be a better child.

“Xie Tongchen, you won the wager. You must be satisfied.”

After leaving those words behind, Meng Fuguang returned to the room to rest.

A wager was a wager. He accepted his loss.

He had used the secret realms as the stake and lured Xie Tongchen into wagering his descendants. Meng Fuguang did not deny that he had once considered swallowing the Xie family whole. With an upright gentleman like Xie Tongchen, if Meng Fuguang did not use the child’s name to demand a share of the Xie family, he would truly be unworthy of his identity as a demon.

But…

Meng Baixu was clearly a pure and obedient treasure.

Meng Baixu was determined to form a bond with Wen Tingshu, so the secret realms could only be handed over for Wen Tingshu to deal with. They could not possibly make Meng Baixu spend every day confined to the tiny territory of Hengxue Mountain with a five-hundred-year-old man.

If he could not roam beneath the vast heavens and across the wide world, what meaning was there in cultivation?

Only someone like Wen Tingshu would willingly draw a prison around himself.

The secret realms could no longer be kept.

Lying on the bed, Meng Fuguang felt somewhat melancholy.

The demonic path had lost.

This room was where Meng Baixu usually stayed. The moment Meng Fuguang lay down, something pressed uncomfortably against him. He reached beneath himself and pulled out two plump, childish triangular zongzi-shaped sword tassels woven from colored cord.

They looked as though Shi Wumi had made them.

Meng Fuguang hung the sword tassels on the bed rail. His son still possessed the heart of a child. Next time he went to the mortal world, he would buy some small toys to coax him.

Outside the room—

Xie Tongchen felt stifled.

He had won a wife and helped his brother, yet not one part of the outcome was satisfying.

When Meng Fuguang had said, “Hero Xie, I want to leave,” Xie Tongchen had used the excuse, I’m also doing this to help my brother, to persuade himself more quickly.

The boomerang from twenty-two years ago had now struck him between the brows.

Meng Baixu curiously pressed him. “Dad, what exactly did you two wager?”

Xie Tongchen naturally could not reveal the true reason. No one wanted to learn that their birth had been the result of a wager.

“Baixu, what your father means is that you may decide what happens to the secret realms. Only after the secret realms are cleared can Brother Wen descend the mountain. Whatever you wish to do is acceptable.”

Meng Baixu gave an “Oh.”

He did not feel as though his father’s return had caused power to slip from his hands. The Left Protector managed everything anyway. According to the elders, it had not been very different before. Meng Fuguang had mainly focused on developing secret realms.

Still, hearing Meng Fuguang say that made him very happy. It meant his father regarded him as an adult.

He ran inside and saw his father lying there looking melancholy. Kneeling on the footstool, he leaned his upper body against the bedside and tugged Meng Fuguang’s arm.

“Dad, are you reluctant to give up the secret realms?”

Meng Fuguang said, “No.”

He comforted himself. Whether in the mortal world or the cultivation world, whenever a son married, the old father always had to empty out the family fortune.

Honestly, Wen Tingshu was clearly the strongest man of the righteous path, and Hengxue Sect’s assets were several times those of Fuguang Sect. So why did Meng Fuguang still feel as though his son had found a penniless social climber?

Meng Baixu said, “Didn’t I tell you before that there was a surprise waiting for you at Hengxue Mountain?”

“The surprise is that I found a way to preserve the secret realms.”

Meng Fuguang sat upright at once. “Oh?”

Meng Baixu said, “If the secret realms still existed, how could Shizun have left the mountain to rescue you?”

Meng Fuguang had been too emotionally involved to think clearly. The moment he saw his son with Wen Tingshu, anger made him forget everything.

“I was wondering why Wen Tingshu agreed so readily not to clear the secret realms. So it was because there was already a solution.”

Meng Baixu could not resist objecting. “Even if he could never leave Hengxue Mountain, he would still preserve the secret realms for me.”

Ever since learning Meng Baixu’s identity, Hengxue Sect had ceased all targeted operations against them.

“…”

Meng Fuguang looked at his son, deliberately searched for his merits, and praised him.

“Did you think of the solution? You’re even more intelligent than Wen Tingshu. The righteous path boasts of reading countless books, yet all their learning went into a dog’s stomach.”

Meng Baixu suspected his father was using the opportunity to insult Shizun. “Even the wisest person makes one mistake among a thousand considerations.”

Meng Fuguang snorted. “He was trapped on that mountain for hundreds of years and still could not think of a way to descend. He remained stubbornly stuck in the old ways. Has age made his mind stop working too? If he had thought of this earlier than you, would Xie Tongchen and I still have been trapped in the secret realm?”

Meng Baixu pursed his lips.

Probably.

The two of you had to be trapped inside the secret realm, give birth to a son first, then have grandsons, and only afterward could Wen Tingshu descend the mountain.

The order could not be reversed.

Meng Baixu’s dark, round eyes flicked toward Wowo and Nangnang’s sword tassels hanging on the bed rail. He lowered his voice.

“Dad, this is actually part of a chain strategy.”

“I tricked Wen Tingshu into descending the mountain to find Xie Tongchen, then sent all our experts to attend the cultivation conference at Hengxue Sect. Next, I’ll keep Wen Tingshu occupied while you go straight to Hengxue Mountain and lead Liu Xishi and the others in occupying Hengxue Sect.”

“As long as Dad Xie doesn’t interfere, no one there is your match.”

Meng Fuguang immediately became energized.

Such an outstanding plan had actually been devised by his son. Instinct told him there might be a trap, yet it also seemed well worth the gamble.

“You had better not be tricking your father.”

Meng Baixu nodded heavily. “I’m not.”

As for whether his father would change his mind after seeing Wowo and Nangnang, Meng Baixu did not know.

Outside the room—

Wen Tingshu asked Xie Tongchen, “What did you wager?”

Xie Tongchen did not want to say.

It appeared that he had won, but in reality, he had still wagered his descendants.

Wen Tingshu said, “Sect Leader Meng deeply loves your child.”

He had long experienced Meng Fuguang’s attachment to the secret realms.

Demons took pride in having “no credibility.” Regardless of what wager they had made in the secret realm, Meng Fuguang could simply deny it after leaving.

Truthfully, even Wen Tingshu had not expected Meng Fuguang to hand everything over so readily.

Xie Tongchen’s heart stirred.

As expected of Brother Wen, with whom he had shared absolute trust for four hundred years. Wen Tingshu could always choose the angle Xie Tongchen most wanted to hear and use it to comfort him.

Meng Fuguang deeply loved Meng Baixu. By extension, he must also possess at least three parts of affection for Xie Tongchen.

Xie Tongchen said, “Brother Wen, you’ve truly dragged me down. Whenever Fuguang sees me, he’ll remember what you did.”

Wen Tingshu stated the facts. “When Lanshe and I were still master and disciple, you also dragged me down. He became unhappy whenever you were mentioned. Even so, I frequently defended you.”

Xie Tongchen: “…”

So he wanted repayment.

Brother Wen seemed to lack that… basic respect one ought to show a father-in-law.

After a while, Meng Fuguang regained his fighting spirit.

Since his son had said so, even if it was a trap, he would still venture into it.

“Sect Master Wen, my subordinates are attending the cultivation conference at your Hengxue Sect. I need to settle accounts with them. Let us return now.”

Wen Tingshu had already prepared himself to face the consequences. “All right.”

He could sense that Meng Fuguang was not opposed to him forming a Dao companion bond with Meng Baixu. After all, demons were free-spirited, indulgent, and unconstrained.

But Meng Baixu had given birth to Wowo and Nangnang. That made the nature of the matter entirely different.

Meng Fuguang had experienced pregnancy himself and therefore understood the hardships better than anyone, especially since the children absorbed cultivation and made it twice as difficult.

Meng Baixu grabbed Wen Tingshu’s hair. “Shizun, there’s no hurry to leave. I’ll take you to find the Fusang tree. Its sap can turn your hair black.”

Wen Tingshu froze. “Fusang? The legendary divine tree?”

Meng Baixu said, “Divine birds guard the tree. Its sap is very difficult to obtain. We’ll leave one day later.”

His father would certainly become furious upon seeing Wowo and Nangnang. If Wen Tingshu was absent at that time, he could escape the disaster.

By the next day, after Wowo and Nangnang had completely won his father over, Meng Fuguang would no longer beat their father.

Wen Tingshu understood Meng Baixu’s intentions almost instantly.

He suddenly felt somewhat ashamed. Throughout the path they had taken as master and disciple, Lanshe seemed to have protected him far more than he had protected Lanshe.

“My white hair is not an issue. I will accompany Sect Leader Meng and fulfill my duties as host.”

Meng Baixu said, “Who says it isn’t an issue? Hengxue Sect has so many eyes watching. Aren’t you embarrassed to call my two fathers ‘Father-in-law’ while wearing a full head of white hair?”

Did he think this sect leader had not noticed how Jia Liance nearly broke through his defenses every time he used the word “old”?

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Xie Tongchen said, “Brother Wen, remain here.”

Brother Jia was still visiting Hengxue Mountain. With Brother Wen’s hair entirely white, how was Xie Tongchen supposed to introduce him?

Meng Fuguang said, “Yes. Recover first.”

Wen Tingshu: “…”

For the first time, he felt that white hair truly was inconvenient.

Meng Baixu said, “Come with me!”

The four temporarily separated. The Left Protector personally escorted the Sect Leader to the cultivation corridor.

Meng Baixu led Wen Tingshu to find the Fusang tree.

The Fusang tree grew on the highest slope in Guiye City, at the place closest to the sun. Its crown towered into the clouds, tall, straight, and emerald green. Its side branches were neither overly dense nor sparse. Looking carefully, one could see a nest of birds perched upon every branch.

Whenever someone approached the tree and attempted to collect its sap, the divine birds above would dive down with thunderous force to peck at their head and bottom. Even cultivators using all their strength could not resist them.

Meng Baixu handed Shizun a small bucket and a pointed knife, then hid inside a small hut nearby, watching through a tiny hole.

Of everyone in the sect, Meng Baixu had drunk the most tree sap since childhood. He suspected these divine birds could smell it and would come peck his bottom.

Wen Tingshu blocked the hole, unwilling to let Lanshe see him being pecked by birds. “Do not come outside.”

Meng Baixu dug the hole open again. “Mn!”

Wen Tingshu could only walk calmly toward the Fusang tree.

Sure enough, the moment he approached, the divine birds in the tree spread their wings and dove down one after another.

Wen Tingshu lowered his eyes slightly.

The imagined scene of his hair being clawed into disorder never occurred. The first divine bird landed on his shoulder, opened its wings, and pecked at its own feathers, as though it had merely found a particularly suitable tree upon which to perch.

All living things possessed intelligence.

Wen Tingshu smiled and used the pointed knife to cut an opening in one of the Fusang tree’s side branches. The small bucket caught the sap as it dripped down.

After the bucket filled, he observed the divine birds’ reactions, then took three small bottles from his qiankun pouch and continued collecting.

Lanshe had consumed it since childhood, and it offered many benefits. He would bring one bottle for him.

Wowo and Nangnang were serving as spiritual pillars on Hengxue Mountain. He would prepare some for them to replenish their vitality as well.

Wen Tingshu kept taking more and more, yet the divine birds never pecked him once.

Meng Baixu was stunned.

These birds truly judged people differently depending on who they were!

Was it because Wen Tingshu’s name contained the word “tree”?

Or was it because everyone who had collected the sap before was a demon, and that was why they were bitten?

Meng Baixu supervised Wen Tingshu while he drank half the bucket first to test it.

Wen Tingshu asked, “Will this be too much?”

Meng Baixu said, “It’ll work faster.”

Wen Tingshu obeyed. The taste was truly terrible.

Meng Baixu propped up his chin and continued, “This thing replenishes vital energy. It greatly nourishes people with weak bodies. But Shizun, you aren’t sick or weak, so I’m afraid it might nourish you too much.”

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Meng Baixu frowned. “You’re not hard yet?”

Wen Tingshu: “…”

Here in Guiye City?

***

The mountain demons had once been unable to ascend could now be entered simply by presenting a Fuguang Sect invitation.

Xie Tongchen walked ahead to guide the way. He had visited Brother Wen countless times in the past and brought something with him on every occasion.

This time, however, he had come empty-handed.

Jia Liance was sunning himself near the heavenly stairs. He was the first to see Xie Tongchen and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

It really was Brother Xie.

Alive!

He immediately became excited. “Brother Xie!”

While Jia Liance had been chatting with He Shangxian, He Shangxian had secretly revealed that one of the people Meng Baixu had gone to rescue was Xie Tongchen. He had merely feared that announcing it prematurely, only for the judgment to prove wrong, would cause Jia Liance to rejoice for nothing.

Jia Liance could not wait to share the gossip.

“Brother Xie, did you know? Brother Wen’s old house has caught fire!”

Xie Tongchen: “…”