Dao Of The Salted Fish (Salted Fish Cultivator)

Wen Zhihao spent the next few days slowly going through the introductory talisman cultivation manuals. At first, he stayed in his room to study, but with the nice blue skies, he decided to head outside to the Sect Gardens, haphazardly using the flat surface of his food box to write.

As he expected, a lot of basic talisman cultivation was drawing symbols on paper. Of course, anyone randomly drawing symbols does not make a talisman cultivator: he had to inject qi as he drew the lines to make a spell.

Wen Zhihao had attempted to first practice drawing the talisman lines, and then move onto injecting qi, but then he got bored and attempted both at the same time. To his surprise, despite his wonky ‘drawing’, the talismans still seemed to work? They emitted light as expected, warmth as expected, activated little qi shields as expected.

Maybe they weren’t as good as proper talismans, but Wen Zhihao didn’t have any to compare, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Lately, Wen Zhihao was trying to see just how messy he could make the talisman drawing and still have it work. As far as he could tell, as long as the lines that should touch each other touched each other, and the lines that shouldn’t touch didn’t touch, it seemed to work. (Wen Zhihao was not testing whether effectiveness was reduced or not.) In short, it was fine if Wen Zhihao drew them lazily. No need for fancy calligraphy.

Pleased with himself, Wen Zhihao packed the writing things back into his spatial ring, and tilted his face up to enjoy the sun…

A clatter of footsteps and turbulent qi interrupted Wen Zhihao’s doze.

“Wen Zhihao!!! Napping?!!! How lazy!!” The now-inner-sect cultivator Wang Li Wei’s voice disrupted the peaceful environment.

Wen Zhihao’s eyes scrunched at the shadow under his eyelids. He opened his eyes. Wang Li Wei stood very close to him, blocking out the sunlight.

“Fellow Daoist Wang, the gardens are to be enjoyed peacefully.”

Wang Li Wei sneered. “I heard you were dragged in to see the Elders.”

Looking at Wang Li Wei’s face now, in fact, it looked a bit similar to one of the old male Elders. “Is one of them your relative?”

Wang Li Wei puffed up his chest. “My grandfather is Elder Wang Sheng! He’s the strongest sword cultivator! You can only dream of being even half as strong as him, even if you cultivated for a thousand years!! Heh, maybe I should tell him that you’re slacking off!”

Wen Zhihao blinked. “He didn’t speak at all. It was Elder Liu that accepted me.”

Wang Li Wei froze. “Elder Liu…? But why...”

Wen Zhihao nodded. “Cultivator Wang, is there actually anything you need me for? Is there any problem you’re facing that you’re trying to push onto me?”

The more Wen Zhihao thought about it, the more it felt true. He remembered randomly reading on the internet once that bullies often had home problems. Maybe Wang Li Wei felt pressure from his powerful Grandfather Elder who belittled him, and so he went out and belittled others in turn.

Wen Zhihao motioned to the space next to him. “Come, take a seat, we can discuss your issues. It’s not good to have heart demons as cultivators, after all.”

Wang Li Wei spluttered, his face going red. “I don’t have any issues or problems! That’s you!”

“That’s right, Wang-shixiong is more powerful than you!” one of the followers agreed.

Wen Zhihao stood up, bringing himself to Wang Li Wei’s height. “Does it matter?”

“I—”

Seeing Wang Li Wei’s “little brothers” around him, in hindsight, of course Wang Li Wei would not admit anything that would make him seem weak.

Wen Zhihao shrugged. “You’re all too noisy, I’ll go somewhere else to sleep. Maybe you could all take a nap too.”

With an airy wave, Wen Zhihao walked through the group, deciding to head back to his room. He recently learned a silencing-spell talisman, but it only worked in spaces with pre-existing walls.

Behind him, Wang Li Wei’s hands curled into fists. I don’t have any problems! You’re the one with the problems! He hated how, despite everything, Wen Zhihao had remained calm, acting like Wang Li Wei was his son! What happened to the easily-provoked Wen Zhihao?

“We should teach him a lesson,” one of his friends said.

Wang Li Wei only felt more anxious and annoyed and angry. He felt like he had lost face in front of the others. Wu Qingqing was right, must have Wen Zhihao received some kind of powerful magical weapon that gave him the nerve to act like a little lord. In that case, Wang Li Wei needed to get so strong that Wen Zhihao could only kneel at his feet! And then his grandfather would be proud of him too!

“Forget him, he’s nothing but trash,” Wang Li Wei said reluctantly. “I have sword practice with Senior Cultivator Zhao later.”

All inner sect disciples were accepted by a senior cultivator to mentor. Senior Cultivator Zhao was a powerful sword cultivator. While Wen Zhihao flailed around with the outer sect disciples, Wang Li Wei will learn the Shining Sword Style from Senior Cultivator Zhao!

Meanwhile, back in his room, Wen Zhihao yawned and flopped on his stomach, completely undisturbed by Wang Li Wei.

As you may have noticed, I changed the novel cover!

The xianxia styled one, vs the sleepy salted fish one! Which one do you prefer? I feel like the sleepy fish one is more true to what this story is about