Chapter Text
Sun Zhaoli was found unconscious, from qi deviation, supposedly, in his bamboo house.
When Yao Zhaoyi first heard, he couldn't believe his ears. His cold, perfectionist shidi? Qi deviation? It was something his thin face would never survive. He wondered what could have triggered his shidi's qi deviation, someone who's prided his cultivation and self control over all his other achievements.
Lai Zhaomin shared the same bafflement as his shixiong. The healer checked his shixiong's meridians for the fourth time, and still, found nothing awry. Wan Jian was called to test for possession, where Ma Zhaohong circled his shixiong's sick bed a few times with HongJing in his hands. No reaction.
Yin Hui came next. Ye Zhaoqi took a small vial of her shixiong's blood for testing, and was visibly disgruntled (a large feat, considering how she was blank faced most of the time) when she admitted to not being able to find anything related to poison or strange chemicals, which was Yin Hui's field of specialization.
When they suspected that Sun Zhaoli may have lost his soul, Ke Zhaoding was called to Qian Cao, where he tried a soul summoning ritual under his martial siblings' insistence. Despite knowing well that the ritual is doomed to fail, not just because Ku Xing peak doesn't exactly focus on and master such rituals, but also because losing a soul didn't look like how Sun Zhaoli currently was. And Sun Zhaoli looked as if he was just sleeping.
Wu Zhaoyun roasted up some ruby chestnuts and grounded them into fine paste, adding dashes of water as he stirred to make a light soup, sweet and fragrant. He helped Lai Zhaomin slowly coax their shixiong into swallowing.
The ruby chestnuts helped to strengthen Sun Zhaoli's meridians, and that's about it. Sun Zhaoli still showed no signs of waking up, with not even a twitch.
With the second week of Sun Zhaoli's coma approaching, most of the peak lords became angsty. Without their tactician, what would become of them now? They prayed for Sun Zhaoli's wellbeing, as well as hoping for him to wake up soon.
On the second day of the third week, Lai Zhaomin entered Sun Zhaoli's sick room to see that his shixiong had sat up, breathing heavily. His complexion pale.
“Sun shixiong?”
Lai Zhaomin yelled in panic when his shixiong basically leaped out of bed with so much force that it skidded with a screech. He tried to block his shixiong from leaving but was bulldozed, grabbing the doorframe to steady himself as he watched Sun Zhaoli flee from Qian Cao.
He activated the emergency talisman in his robes.
Du Zhaosong, who was in Qian Cao because of a fractured arm, watched with wide eyes as Sun Zhaoli sped past him like a madman.
With Lai shidi's emergency talisman activated, Du Zhaosong took it as initiative to tackle the frenzied scholar to the ground. The mute peak lord cannot ask any questions even if he wanted to, so he just focused on stopping Sun Zhaoli from wriggling away.
He was sincerely fucking terrified when Sun Zhaoli managed to somehow get up and drag along the dirt, with the Bai Zhan peak lord in tow.
Where did the whimsy scholar get such strength?! Du Zhaosong put his whole weight onto Sun Zhaoli, who turned his head and had the gall to look disgusted.
“Du. Zhao. Song. Get off me!”
Du Zhaosong angrily signed: « Everyone is worried about you. »
“I am absolutely fine!”
Du Zhaosong shook his head adamantly and Lai Zhaomin swept in, immediately transferring calming qi to his shixiong. That, in fact, did not calm their shixiong down.
“For fuck's sake!” Sun Zhaoli cursed, which made the two peak lords gasp. Sun Zhaoli took this chance to flip Du Zhaosong off of him. The Bai Zhan peak lord was wide eyed, all of a sudden very innocent looking. Sun Zhaoli continued, “I have business to attend to.”
Lai Zhaomin swore he didn't find a teleportation talisman on his shixiong, and nor did he put one anywhere near his shixiong. But when he saw the scholar take it out, it was too late to do anything.
The burst of qi around them left smoke, an empty Qian Cao hall, and a kicked puppy Du Zhaosong getting checked over by his shidi.
--
Sun Zhaoli had taken time to revaluate what he should do next, and this was what he decided.
Thankfully he had a qiankun pouch on him (Lai Zhaomin was kind enough to not strip him thoroughly while changing him into sickbed whites), so he had purchased some new robes and found an inn to rest a bit.
He was sure A-Jiu had made a offhanded comment when they came here once..
Sun Zhaoli was right. He watched as a young boy rushed out into the streets where another boy was about to get trampled on by a horse. He watched as a burst of qi pierced through the horse. His eyes immediately found the child who made such an incredible shot that saved two lives.
Those green eyes were unmistakeable.
Sun Zhaoli went downstairs and out of the inn as quick as he could. He didn't even have time to say anything, he stood in front of the three children as the angry carriage driver stomped up to him, looking like he's ready to come to fists.
The life of a horse will never compared to the lives of two children, Sun Zhaoli quirked his lip in disgust at the yelling man. He took out one gold tael from his qiankun pouch and threw it at the man's feet. The man looked dumbstruck at the gold tael, then to Sun Zhaoli, and he cowered, suddenly aware and afraid of who he was yelling at.
That's right. An immortal master that can buy out the entire town if he wanted to.
After the man scurried away with his tail between his legs, Sun Zhaoli addressed the children. The one who rushed to save his friend (the biggest one out of the three) had bad scrapes on his arms and knees, so Sun Zhaoli tried to wipe his wounds with a handkerchief.
Even before he could get close to the scrapes, small teeth sunk into his skin.
Sun Zhaoli stares incredulous at the sight of the little boy biting his hand. He didn't have any reaction when Sun Zhaoli checked over the other small boy. There was only one person A-Jiu was protective of, even if it killed him to admit it.
So this one is Yue Qi, Sun Zhaoli realized as Yue Qi calmed Shen Jiu down with pleas of "Xiao Jiu". Then who is this? Sun Zhaoli turned his eyes to the remaining unnamed boy, smaller than the other two.
“Thank.. thanking mister.. for help..” Yue Qi stuttered, voice small. He visibly swallowed when Shen Jiu stubbornly refused to thank Sun Zhaoli.
“You,” Sun Zhaoli started, “you killed that horse.”
Shen Jiu's head snapped towards him. Even if he tried to mask it under anger and defiance, Sun Zhaoli could see the flash of panic and fear in Shen Jiu's eyes. Distrustful as usual, Sun Zhaoli was also not excluded from these grumpy stares when Shen Jiu first joined Cang Qiong.
“Impressive.” Sun Zhaoli offered a hand. “May I see your wrist?”
The little boy eyed him suspiciously, yet still extended a trembling arm. Sun Zhaoli didn't even have to get any closer to feel his strong spiritual root. So this is what it's supposed to be, Sun Zhaoli mused, imagine all the things he can do with this untainted root.
“Come with me to Cang Qiong.” Sun Zhaoli smiled, even though he had been told that he probably shouldn't. (After that one time where Qin shimei went pale and almost fainted.)
“I won't—!” Shen Jiu was a bit tongue tied, “I won't go without Qi ge.”
“Then he can come too,” added Sun Zhaoli nonchalantly, “and you, as well.” He addressed the third boy.
Shen Jiu didn't seem pleased that the other boy was following Sun Zhaoli along with him and Qi ge, but he didn't say anything, just a little pout on his lips. Sun Zhaoli hailed a carriage and ushered the three children on. After (threatening) paying the driver to do his bidding, Sun Zhaoli took out a box of snacks from his qiankun pouch.
“We were in such a hurry, this master forgot to ask for your names.”
Yue Qi jolted like he was shocked. “This one is Yue Qi! Thanking immortal master for his help once again!” After a beat of silence, he gently nudged Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu gave poisonous glare in return and he cowered slightly.
“This one is Shen Jiu.” He finally said with a huff.
Sun Zhaoli stared at the last little rascal. The little boy sneakily peeked at Sun Zhaoli, squeaking when their eyes met. To encourage the boy to speak, Sun Zhaoli delicately picked out a cookie with sweet butterfly pea flower cream in the middle, holding it out for the boy to take.
Hesitantly taking the cookie from Sun Zhaoli, the boy nibbled on it before muttering, “This one's name is Shi Wu.”
“I see,” Sun Zhaoli couldn't help but put a hand on Shi Wu's head, since the boy was right next to him, “This master is Sun Zhaoli, master of Qing Jing. I formally accept you three into my peak. We shall test your spiritual roots officially later.”
Shen Jiu was still pouty, he's crossed his arms and didn't touch any of the sweets offered by Sun Zhaoli. Sun Zhaoli didn't miss the split second glances the boy shot at the box of sweets.
He bristled like an alert cat when Sun Zhaoli held up a cookie for him to take. This one was a cookie that had the texture of a cake, sweet and chewy, made with amethyst strawberries. The purple crystal glaze that covered the cookie was made with the same strawberries.
Sun Zhaoli knew A-Jiu's jealous and embarrassed expressions, and he wasn't surprised by the unguarded display of emotions. They were still children, after all, they deserved a little doting.
With that in mind, Sun Zhaoli gestured Yue Qi close and gave him the small bun filled with sweet custard cream. He fought the smile on his lips when the boy split it to share with Shen Jiu despite the other's protest.
Perhaps something's never change.
--
“Shidi..” Yao Zhaoyi held his tongue when Sun Zhaoli's face changed into one of displeasure.
The entire sect had almost descended into chaos after Lai Zhaomin had lit the emergency talisman a second time, this time because Sun Zhaoli had fled Cang Qiong, according to both the healer and Du Zhaosong. If Yao Zhaoyi hadn't calm them fast enough, he swore Du Zhaosong would have dashed out of the open window to search for Sun Zhaoli.
Hugging his thighs were three little ducklings, all covered in filth. The larger boy stared at Yao Zhaoyi curiously, while the other two looked more like they had a personal grudge against Yao Zhaoyi.
“We've been..” Yao Zhaoyi couldn't comprehend how hectic the past two weeks had been, “worried. For Sun shidi.”
“This shidi is fine,” Sun Zhaoli answered coldly.
If Yao Zhaoyi wasn't used to his shidi's antics, he definitely wouldn't be feeling defeated like this. Sun Zhaoli was often right about many situations and the man knew that all too well, his words were absolute and few people dared to question otherwise.
“Who are these?” Yao Zhaoyi switched the topic to the three little sprouts grabbing onto Sun Zhaoli's robes like baby possums. He smiled to look less threatening but the three shrunk closer to Sun Zhaoli.
“My new disciples.”
Yao Zhaoyi balked. He should've seen that coming. Well, the damage has been done, there's nothing he can say to dissuade Sun Zhaoli.
“Ah.. that's not a very formal way of accepting disciples, Sun shidi.”
Sun Zhaoli's lips quirked in discontent. The unspoken words hung in the air: “Mind your own business.” Instead, Sun Zhaoli turned his head away with a huff. “Come, A-Qi, A-Jiu, A-Wu. Don't listen to the mean old man.”
“Mean old man.” The smallest boy puffed out his cheeks, it was very visible due to the lack of chub in his cheeks.
Yao Zhaoyi could only smile at the sheer ridiculousness as Sun Zhaoli walked away with his little ducklings.
--