“Your daddy does not want you anymore.”
Before descending the mountain, Wenren Qi had considered the possibility of becoming a father, but he never expected to be a godfather.
Cen Moyu mistook the momentary silence of Wenren Qi for rejection. His expression darkened as he lowered his head. “I am sorry. I acted on my own. If you are unwilling, just pretend I never said anything.”
Logically, Wenren Qi should have been incensed by this little bird demon taking advantage of his weakness with such calculated intent. However, looking at that pale face full of disappointment so close to his own, the throat of Wenren Qi moved. Wenren Qi, who usually acted without mercy, blurted out, “Who said I am unwilling?”
He scolded himself internally. The seduction technique of this demon was truly natural. It had managed to alter his will without him even realizing it. It was an unpardonable sin.
“Really? That is wonderful!” Cen Moyu broke into a smile. The red marks around his eyes had not faded, and his long lashes were still wet with bright tears. His blinking held a moist, ambiguous quality. He naturally reached out to grasp the hand of the man beside him, his tone full of reliance. “A Qi, it is lucky I have you.”
What was with this nickname A Qi? Did they become so intimate just because he had once perched on a vine?
When this bird demon was a closed door disciple, did he touch others so casually as well?
No wonder the elders reported that the disciples passing through the mountain gate over the past six months were all listless. Was it because they were all relying on the face of this closed door disciple to nourish their spirits?
Wenren Qi was furious internally and felt even more uneasy. If the vine this bird spoke of actually showed up, what should be done? It would be better to find that vine early and kill it to prevent any possibility of it taking human form.
No, what was he thinking? He should be taking this bird demon back to the sect for interrogation. How could he stay here playing this hand holding game?
“Phew, I almost thought Little Treasure and I were going to die today.” Cen Moyu leaned back on the bed, feeling exhausted.
The song house operated by Hu Xinchi in the Demon City was called the Polar Night. It only officially opened after nightfall. Most demons indulged in sensory pleasures, and the furnishings in the guest rooms of the song house inevitably held a touch of impropriety. Some items were displayed quite blatantly. As the gaze of Wenren Qi swept over them, his body grew even more rigid.
Cen Moyu did not think much of it. He turned to pick up the little bird that had just finished eating. The palm of his hand, which had been fractured, throbbed with pain, making his movements stiff. Seeing his eyelids drooping, Wenren Qi commanded in a low voice, “Go rest.”
Cen Moyu gave a soft response. He looked up slightly and saw the man still standing by the bed, staring down at him.
“Are you not leaving?”
“I will leave after I see you sleep.” Wenren Qi glanced at the bathtub behind the screen. “Did you not say you wanted to bathe just now?”
Cen Moyu did not feel safe leaving his chick. He made a move to take the sleeping bird with him. “I will bring Little Treasure along.”
Hot steam was rising from the bathtub behind the screen. The corner of the mouth of Wenren Qi twitched. “Do you intend to scald it to death?”
Cen Moyu froze for two seconds. “I did not mean that. I am afraid Little Treasure will disappear. I want to keep an eye on him at all times.”
Wenren Qi thought to himself that at a time like this, he actually looks like a father.
This was the Demon City. Even Wenren Qi would not easily reveal the traces of a cultivator. His original plan was to find Cen Moyu and take him away immediately. However, seeing the little bird demon so weak, carrying a hatchling that had not even grown its feathers, he wondered how the demon had hidden the natural pure aura of Wenren Qi on the small bird all this time.
It would be better to wait until he recovered a bit. It would make traveling easier.
“I will watch him. Go wash up without worry.” Wenren Qi pulled him up. He performed some sort of spell, and the hand of Cen Moyu instantly stopped hurting. The Sect Leader, in the guise of a wood demon, said, “You can touch water, but your fractured wing needs rest. You cannot fly for the time being.”
Cen Moyu was overjoyed and gave Wenren Qi a sweet smile. “A Qi, you are truly kind.”
Wenren Qi watched him walk toward the bathtub. He stared at the robes draped over the screen, forcing himself to look away and suppress the urge to peek at that slender waist. Instead, he stared at the hatchling in the swaddle. As the restriction was lifted, the well fed chick began to emit waves of spiritual energy.
Wenren Qi was born with extraordinary talent, and his path of cultivation had been smooth. Looking back, he had few family ties. He bore the heavy responsibility of guarding the Wheels of Retrospection and had to be wary of the Demon Lord of Wangyuan. He had accepted his fate as a solitary man.
Elder Jue Ya knew his concerns and nagged him every year, saying that children had their own destinies and would appear whether he wanted them or not. Before joining the sect, Jue Ya had been raised by a wandering Taoist. Even after entering the sect, he still performed divinations every morning and had developed many strange arrays.
In the past, Wenren Qi was always impatient with this, claiming his offspring would surely be under his control. He was not a profligate man. He was determined to remain childless to resist the shackles of the Sect Leader lineage, yet this result had come after all.
A little bird from nowhere had disrupted all his plans.
Jue Ya had said as much back then: “A Qi, do not be so sure. The divination says this child is one you wanted.”
Even now, Wenren Qi felt the divination was wrong. How was this what he wanted? It was clearly that little demon in the bathtub, still singing softly, who had fought to keep it.
Such a weak demon had an eye catching face and was more charming than a fox. Yet, his gaze was innocent and his words were obedient. He seemed easy to obtain, but he ran faster than anyone.
Perhaps the gaze of Wenren Qi was too piercing, for the sleeping chick actually woke up.
Even though the little thing had a genius grandmaster for a father, it could not change the demonic nature of its other father. Born as a bird, it would take some time before it could take the form of a child. In the Demon City, such children were not uncommon. They were mostly half demons left behind by cultivators and demons.
“Stop pretending.” Wenren Qi sat in a chair, his face calm. He did not speak aloud. Spiritual transmission was more convenient between those of the same origin. His child with the little demon did not yet know how to cultivate, so it was easily pulled into the sea of consciousness by its biological father.
The sea of consciousness was a vast, empty realm. The chick sitting on the ground looked up blankly. It saw its own reflection, which appeared as a three year old child.
Ordinary birds hatch in half a month and learn to fly in another half. This child had stayed in the egg for too long, seemingly afraid of causing trouble for its daddy. If the time had not been right, it might have stayed in the egg even longer.
“Lying down like that is unbecoming.” The cold male voice was fiercer than the waves rolling in the sea of consciousness. The chick turned to look at the man in the dark green Taoist robe standing nearby.
The figure was too blurry to see clearly. Perhaps Wenren Qi had disguised himself even within the sea of consciousness.
“You, you are bad!” It was not an ordinary child, after all. It had long been able to understand human speech, and its voice was tender. “Where did you take me? I want, I want my papa!”
Having heard Cen Moyu call himself papa, Wenren Qi understood the meaning and said coldly, “I am also your father.”
The little bird shook its head. “You are the step papa.”
Wenren Qi stood stunned. It was a total humiliation!
“I am your other biological father.”
For years, Wenren Qi had rarely appeared in public. Outsiders rumored he was very old, while others judged he was not through his contemporary, Wen Jinggen. The sea of consciousness showed the true face of Wenren Qi. Even if his lead disciple Lu Jijun were here, he would not dare look directly at this pressure.
Being handsome was one thing, but the invisible pressure brought by his cultivation was suffocating. Only a little demon like Cen Moyu would dare to take advantage of the situation and treat the number one man in the sect like a mount.
“Papa hates you.” The little bird pouted in the sea of consciousness. Its cheeks were round and its eyes drooped just like the eyes of Cen Moyu. It looked weak and pitiful.
“He does not hate me.” After refuting this, Wenren Qi found it amusing. He had actually stooped to arguing with this little thing. “Your constitution is unique. You must return to the Qingheng Sect with me.”
The little bird was still young and did not understand the importance of the sect. “I want to follow Papa Moyu until he marries the person he likes and has younger brothers and sisters.”
This child had experienced a lot along the way with Cen Moyu. It had heard many conversations between him and the System, Mai Li, and Yu Xiang. Although it did not know where Papa came from, it understood the life he wanted: not too wealthy, but able to sing freely, having someone to love him, getting daily kisses, and knowing how to bake apple pie.
The little bird wanted to grow up quickly and learn to bake apple pie before that person appeared. Daddy said it was his closest family, and they would be together forever, even if Daddy had other children later.
In its view, this place was just like the man claiming to be its father: lonely, cold, and not warm at all.
“The person he likes? Marriage?” Wenren Qi gave a cold laugh. “Brothers and sisters? Who does he have his eye on now?”
A dark impulse rose in his heart. He should just take the little bird away and lock it at the bottom of the sect cliff so it could never fly away again.
“Daddy has someone he likes very much.” Although the little bird felt a kinship with the spiritual energy, it deliberately distanced itself because the fear of Cen Moyu was caused by this man. “They grew up together and promised to marry and stay together forever.”
The voice of the little fellow was tender, but it painted a vivid picture of childhood sweethearts and private vows. An image immediately formed in the mind of Wenren Qi of the little demon acting spoiled and looking at someone else with total reliance. He was the type to be eaten up and then apologize, or be toyed with and then give thanks.
Was it really that vine? Had he perched there since he was a hatchling and promised to stay together forever after taking human form?
What a frivolous bird demon! If that were the case, why did he provoke Wenren Qi that night?
The sea of consciousness of Wenren Qi shook with his fury. The wind rolled the waves, nearly drowning the weak chick.
“If he stays with that person, he will not want you anymore,” Wenren Qi said as he closed his eyes. “If he has other children with his beloved, do you think he will still love you?”
The grandmaster lied to the child without hesitation, scaring the little thing into wailing loudly.
Cen Moyu, who had almost fallen asleep in the bath, woke up with a start. He did not even stop to dry himself, throwing on a sleeping robe and rushing out. The chick nestled in the robes was wailing incessantly, while the plain looking wood demon sat nearby with a straight back and a deep frown.
Cen Moyu pushed him aside. “You scared Little Treasure!”
Wenren Qi was incensed. “Why would I scare it? I did not say a single word!”
The wailing little bird saw Cen Moyu and immediately fluttered toward him, hiding in his embrace. Cen Moyu, fresh from the bath, was covered in steam. His sleeping robe hung loosely on him, leaving a large part of his chest exposed.
The poorly developed claws of the little fellow hooked into the lapel of the young daddy, nuzzling against the bare skin. Even though it was wrinkled, ugly, and had its eyes closed, Wenren Qi still saw a sense of boasting and satisfaction in it.
That was supposed to be his place. That night, he had also…
Wenren Qi forced himself to cast away those thoughts. He watched Cen Moyu expertly coax the child while shooting him obvious looks of blame. The grandmaster felt rare frustration and emphasized again, “I did not scare him.”
After the bath, the skin of Cen Moyu was white with a rosy tint. The sleeping robe actually looked less white than his complexion. Under the ambiguous gauze curtains of the bed, this scene overlapped with the dreams that had haunted Wenren Qi for days.
“Moyu,” Wenren Qi whispered his name, “I really did not scare him.”
“You did!” The voice of the chick rang out clearly.
Cen Moyu looked at his chest in surprise. “Baby?” He had heard this voice in a moment of desperation before and thought it was a hallucination.
“Moyu! He makes it so I cannot sleep well!” The chick complained with its eyes closed. Having seen its clever look in the sea of consciousness, the corner of the mouth of Wenren Qi twitched. “I am not leaving.”
Cen Moyu looked at the babe in his arms and then at the frustrated tall man. One was his biological child and the other was an old friend of the original host. He knew where his priorities lay.
Hu Xinchi had just finished the repairs and was coming upstairs with a lantern to ask if Cen Moyu needed anything else. The corridor lamps flickered, and the sound of music from below remained constant. He saw the wood demon with mysterious cultivation standing tall outside the door of Cen Moyu. From a distance, the man looked quite refined, but up close, his face was plain. As a fox demon, Hu Xinchi had no interest in such a face.
“Brother, it is almost dawn. Why are you still standing here instead of resting?” Hu Xinchi asked politely.
Wenren Qi rubbed his brow, his voice carrying obvious anger. “He actually kicked me out for that brat.”
A case of jealousy.
The fox demon laughed. “Brother, this is where you are wrong. The child was born by Moyu risking his life. It is his only chick. Of course it is precious. You are not the mother, nor are you a relative. You are just a friend from before his transformation. You should relax.”
“He said I am the godfather of the child.” Wenren Qi gritted his teeth, unwillingly spitting out the words.
Hu Xinchi burst into laughter. “A godfather is at least a legitimate title. Since you want to be with him, you should soften up. Only by treating the child as your own will you have a chance.”