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It seems there is some confusion because of the English translation of Word of Honor, so I’d like to note that yifu 义父 (how Xie Wang calls Zhao Jing in Chinese) and yizi 义子 (what Xie Wang is in relation to Zhao Jing) are neither father and son, nor even foster father and foster son.
The Chinese word yifu 义父 is often translated as “adoptive father”, or “foster father”, but this is not correct. An adoptive father is yangfu 养父: a person who adopts a child, takes care of their upbringing and daily needs, and performs other duties of a father. Foster father is the same, except in the case of fostering the commitment isn’t permanent.
And yifu is smth like a "named father"(?), or a “sworn father”: a person who, as a sign of great respect, is sort of put on a par with the real father which is a huge deal in a culture based on the Confucian principles: father is the most important and the most respected person in anyone’s life ever. Unlike adoptive father-yangfu, in the case of yifu, various paternal responsibilities are not implied. The keyword is “respect”.
The existence of yifu (and/or "named mother"(?)/”sworn mother” imu 义母) does not mean that yizi has no living parents - same as having godparents in Christianity doesn't mean that the person in question is an orphan.
Baidupedia says that if a person has a sworn brother (结义) then for that person's children, their sworn brother becomes (may become?) yifu.
What do the words yifu 义父 and yizi 义子 actually mean?
Let’s start from the end: 父 - father, 子 - son (in this particular case).
义 yi: 1) justice, righteousness; 2) human ties, relationship. In our case, the 2nd meaning is the one that applies. In word-groups, 义 is often translated as “sworn” or “oath”: 结义兄弟 jiéyì xiōngdì - sworn brothers, oath-brothers, 结义 jiéyì - sworn relationship, 义兄 yìxiōng - older sworn brother, 义侄 yìzhí - son of a sworn brother, “sworn nephew”.
It can be said that 义 means close social quasi-familial ties that are based on some kind of a two-sided unofficial agreement. 义 isn’t perceived the same as blood ties, or as family ties that arise as a result of adoption. It’s more about how much one looks up to someone else, about adoration, respect, trust, mutual understanding.
This is a very romantic concept: no wonder many popular pairings are those connected by 义 (most often sworn brothers). When Changgeng in Sha Po Lang reverts to calling Gu Yun yifu in the most intimate moments, this is meant to evoke the feeling of closeness and trust.
义-relationships are a thing of the past and don’t exist in modern China - same as, say, the tradition of sworn brotherhood no longer exists in the West. This gives the concept of 义 a certain flair of romanticism and antiquity. Historically, this type of relationship mostly existed among outlaws and exiles, among people who lived outside the “normal” society: deprived of the protection of state law, they had to resort to other means of protecting themselves, including the creation of an intricate network of social ties.
Over time, the notion of these people and their world hidden from ordinary citizens evolved into the concept of jianghu 江湖, and stories about their exploits gave rise to what can be called proto-wuxia literature (Water Margin, The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants), and later, in the 20th century - classical wuxia.
It is important that 义 is a private, purely unofficial relationship that has no legal status - as opposed to, say, adoption or marriage. From the point of view of the state, 义 doesn’t exist, which can play a role, for example, when splitting inheritance (those connected by 义 can’t inherit each other’s property), when counting family members to determine taxes, or when executing all the relatives of a criminal to several degrees of kinship in the case of high treason.
In Word of Honor, this characteristic of 义 plays a certain role in the plot:
The punishment for high treason in China since ancient times was the extermination of the traitor's family. The degree of kinship depended on the historical era and the severity of treason, but parents were always executed, even in the mildest versions. Xie Wang takes upon himself the risk of cooperating with Jin Wang to overthrow the Emperor: as long as Zhao Jing is only his yifu, in the case of the failure of this conspiracy Zhao Jing isn't in any danger.
However, later, Zhao Jing himself sabotages this plan by publicly declaring Xie Wang his son during the feast and giving him his surname: now, if the conspiracy fails, the execution of state traitor Zhao Xie will inevitably entail the execution of his adoptive father Zhao Jing. What Zhao Jing does has greater significance than simply announcing their relationship to the public: Zhao Jing ties himself to Xie Wang’s fate and fulfills his earlier promise to share with him everything, good and bad. That’s why Xie Wang looks so shocked at the feast, that's why he arranges for Zhao Jing the final test with the help of Liu Qianqiao, even though he has already agreed on everything with Wen Kexing.
If one doesn’t know about the unofficial status of 义 and about the familial extermination as the usual punishment for high treason in China, then Xie Wang's actions can be attributed to emotionality and indecision, while in fact they are very logical, considering this sudden declaration of sincere attachment by Zhao Jing.
I hope I’ve more or less explained the concept of 义-relationships (to sum up: 1. respect, spiritual closeness; 2. romantic flair of antiquity; 2. unofficial status).
Now, back to yifu and yizi.
In general, yifu is a person who is older than you, whom you respect very much (like your own father), whose advices you listen to. In turn, yifu has the responsibility to be a mentor, a moral guide for his yizi - somewhat similar to godparents in Christianity, except that you can choose yifu yourself when being old enough to make a conscious decision, and not have him assigned by your parents at birth, as (usually) in the case of godparents.
Yifu doesn’t necessarily belong to the same generation as the real father: in the main pairing of Sha Po Lang yifu, Gu Yun, is only 7 years older than his yizi, Changgeng. The age difference just has to be bigger than seems suitable for a sworn brother.
Also, Changgeng has both parents - a mother and a stepfather. Overall, Sha Po Lang is a nice example that demonstrates that 1) father and yifu are completely different social roles; 2) yifu-yizi relationship isn’t considered incest.
I wonder when Winner is King (the tv adaptation of Sha Po Lang) is finally released, will the English translation also make Changgeng refer to Gu Yun as “Father” instead of “yifu”, as they did with Xie Wang and Zhao Jing in the Netflix translation of Word of Honor?!
It was even worse in one of the Russian WoH subs where not only yifu was translated as “father”: the translators also made Zhao Jing address Xie Wang as “son” - instead of his name! As a result, viewers thought that Xie Wang is Zhao Jing’s biological son.
In Chinese, Zhao Jing always uses an affectionate form of Xie Wang’s birth name: Xiejieliubo -> Xie’er (like John -> Johnny). He doesn’t call him “son”.
The English fan subtitles also sometimes substitute “Xie’er” with “son”. Like, what's the point of replacing "My Xie'er" with "My son" in one of their most intense scenes together in Ep. 26? Did the translators try to censor homoeroticism, passing it off as family affection? I fail to see the logic of this change.
The name “Xie’er” 蝎儿 is a diminutive derived from Xie Wang’s national, "southern-barbarian" name - Xiejieliubo 蝎揭留波. The name “Xiejieliubo” has no meaning: the Chinese characters are used only as phonetics to convey sounds of a foreign language. The first character of the name, 蝎, means "scorpion", hence it’s used in the name of the organization "Venomous Scorpions" 毒蝎 and in the nickname (or the title of the leader of the organization) "Xie Wang" 蝎王 - Lord / Prince of Scorpions, Scorpion Prince. The English subtitles translated “Xie’er” 蝎儿 as “Scorpion”, ignoring the fact that it’s 1) a name; 2) a diminutive form of a name, and thus missing an important part of characterization of Xie Wang and Zhao Jing’s relationship.
Another thing that was lost in the translation: when talking to Zhao Jing, Xie Wang uses this very diminutive as a pronoun "I", which is normal for a child but very strange, to put it mildly, for an adult man well into his twenties (close to thirties): such a deliberate infantilism creates an effect ranging from comedy to creepiness. (There are many different ways to say “I” in Chinese, depending on the relationship between the interlocutors, historical era, etc.)
After the adoption, Xie Wang's name changes to "Zhao Xie" 赵蝎. In the series, when publicly declaring Xie Wang his son, Zhao Jing calls him "Zhao Xie'er" 赵蝎儿, however, from what I saw, this is perceived by native speakers as a strange and inappropriate usage of the diminutive. When native Chinese speakers write fanfiction about Xie Wang as Zhao Jing's adopted son, they use the name "Zhao Xie" 赵蝎.
Ok, back to yifu and yizi. To translate yifu as “father” and yizi as “son” is misleading and incorrect. The same goes for “adoptive/foster father” variant: adoption and fostering carry a familial and official relation while 义 doesn’t. Besides, such translations automatically move yizi / yifu into the category of incestuous and “problematic” pairings, while in fact they are not intended to be seen as such (not always, at least, depending on other circumstances): kinky, sure, but not squicky - absolutely not to the father-son incest degree!
(In terms of kinkiness, I think, yizi / yifu is close to student/teacher, especially since teacher is often treated as a 2nd father: “Teacher for a day - father for life” 一日為師，終身為父 , i.e. you should respect your teacher as your own father. It’s also interesting that in danmei novels the traditional roles are often reversed: the one who irl has more authority because of the seniority and status takes the role of a bottom: Scum Villain Self-Saving System, Erha, Sha Po Lang, etc.)
Perhaps, a better translation for yifu would be smth like “mentor”, or any other polite form of address that can be applied in English to an older and respected male person - but only if for some reason you want to completely avoid any Chinese words in your translation.
The best is to leave these words as yifu and yizi, since there is no adequate English translation anyway.