“Hm? Reason.”
“Xiaohei… Xiaohei…” Su Xiaohei mumbled, hesitating for a long while before suddenly throwing himself into Su Bai’s arms.
His chubby little hands tightly hugged Su Bai’s slender waist.
“Xiaohei had a dream about the Big Bad Wolf Granny! Wuwuwu! So scary, so scary! I’m scared she’ll come and eat my fingers!”
“Mommy, please let Xiaohei sleep with you~~”
Su Xiaohei cried as he rubbed himself all over Su Bai’s embrace, looking so pitiful and aggrieved that it tugged at the heartstrings.
Su Bai was momentarily stunned.
‘Big Bad Wolf Granny?’
Hiss—
He remembered now.
About half a month ago, Su Xiaohei had been too full of energy at night and couldn’t sleep.
Every evening, he’d run off with the peachwood sword Su Bai had casually crafted, wreaking havoc in the peach blossom grove.
It had given Su Bai a headache, so eventually, he took a page from his own parents’ book and made up a ghost story to scare the kid into going back to bed.
Things like, “Disobedient children get their fingers eaten by the Big Bad Wolf Granny,” and “Children who stay out too late will get snatched away by the Hairy Dog Spirit.”
Sure enough, the wisdom of the older generation was not to be underestimated.
From then on, as soon as night fell, Su Xiaohei would grab his sword and dash back to Su Bai’s room—no longer the heroic little warrior terrorizing the trees.
***
[Thanks to your ghost story parenting method, you successfully gave your little pet a psychological shadow. Now, in response to your pet’s request to sleep with you, your answer is…]
[Your life has come to a directional choice:
A) Agree—he’s your precious little pet, of course you’ll spoil him rotten.
B) Spoil him? Over my dead body! A man must be strong! Scared of a nightmare? Guards, drag him out!
Your choice?]
“Life choice?”
Su Bai thought for a moment, then chose A.
After all, this was his first-round little pet.
What’s wrong with spoiling him? He, Su Bai, was a shameless sucker for pretty faces and fluffy children!
His finger lightly tapped the screen, and the story continued along its master’s chosen path.
At the same time, Su Xiaohei looked up, ready to continue his act of being pitiful.
But he suddenly caught sight of a flicker in Su Bai’s eyes—a flash of emptiness and lifelessness, as if his body had lost its soul.
That thought had only just formed in Su Xiaohei’s mind—
When Su Bai gently pulled him into an embrace, just like always.
He lifted Xiaohei into the air a few times with a helpless but doting smile on his face.
“Alright, alright. Since you’re my adopted child… Come on, from now on, you can sleep with me.”
“Yay! Mommy is the best!!”
Su Xiaohei let out a gleeful “Wahoo!” and immediately tossed the strange thought to the back of his mind.
On tiptoe, he climbed onto the bed and slipped into Su Bai’s blankets.
***
[You agreed to your little pet’s request. From then on, he climbs into your bed every night without fail—rain or shine.]
[Time flies. In the blink of an eye, three years have passed. During these three years, you held firmly to the belief that ‘pets are meant to be pampered’ and spoiled your little pet to the fullest.]
[At the same time, your cultivation also soared. In just three short years, you broke through from mid-stage Foundation Establishment to the peak, on the verge of forming a Core.]
[Core Formation—the third major step on the path of cultivation. To glimpse the laws of heaven and earth, to condense the Golden Core. Once the core is formed, you gain a thousand-year lifespan and transcend the mortal world. From then on, anyone who meets you must respectfully call you “Real Person” (Zhenren)!]
[This year, you are barely past thirty. With talent like this, even among the top disciples of the Three Major Sects of the Immortal Alliance, you would rank among the best. But instead of flaunting it, you quietly learned a new aura-concealing technique to suppress your cultivation.]
[You are well aware—someone like you, with no resources, no background, and no innate talent, yet progressing so quickly… If exposed, you may receive praise and admiration, yes—but more likely, you’ll attract the sect’s investigations and scrutiny.]
[This is just your first life. You’ve decided to stay low until death—never breaking through unless absolutely necessary. You focus on exploring the map and gathering intel to lay the groundwork for your second run.]
[Besides, there’s a vague sense of foreboding. Something tells you that if you recklessly break through to the Golden Core realm, something bad might happen to you.]
[With everything adding up, your desire for cultivation wanes. In your idle days, your attention shifts to your little pet. Thus begins your leisurely parenting life—or rather, pet-rearing life.]
***
“Mommy, is my aptitude test tomorrow?”
Under the setting sun, Su Xiaohei once again followed Su Bai to the gravesite.
First, he offered incense to his four conveniently inherited senior brothers, sisters, and master.
Then he poured fragrant peach blossom wine before the graves.
Bathed in the twilight glow, a beautiful figure in plain robes stood beside the grave.
His features were like a painting, adorned with a white jade hairpin.
The golden light gilded his face, making him so breathtakingly beautiful that one couldn’t look away.
Su Bai looked slightly surprised by Su Xiaohei’s question.
Then, he reached out his fair, slender hand and gently ruffled the boy’s soft hair.
“Tomorrow you’ll be ten. According to sect rules, it’s time for your aptitude test and entry into cultivation.”
“By tradition, if you’re found to have spiritual roots, you’ll be placed under my lineage. At that point, you’ll need to call me ‘Master.’”
“Master?”
“One day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father. That’s what ‘Master’ means.”
Su Bai’s hand slid down slightly and gently pinched Su Xiaohei’s face, which was just starting to show signs of youthful handsomeness.
His beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons, like slivers of the night sky.
They were filled with tenderness and laughter.
“In simpler terms, from then on, I’ll be both your father and your teacher.”
Su Xiaohei nodded, showing he understood.
He blinked his large, dark eyes, a flicker of nervousness and unease flickering within them.
After a long hesitation, he finally gathered the courage to ask, “Mommy, what happens if I don’t have any aptitude?”
Su Bai froze.
That question genuinely stumped him—not because he didn’t know the answer.
After so many years as a Foundation Establishment elder, he was well-versed in the sect’s rules and traditions.
What happens if someone has no spiritual root?
They are sent back down the mountain and returned to their original homes.
Did Su Xiaohei have a home to return to?
Of course he did.
His home was Su Bai—this very mountain peak, now renamed Qingyang Peak from its former name Cang Yue Peak.
It was where he had lived for years. It was the Three Mountains Sect.
But being expelled from the sect would mean losing all of that.
It would mean losing his home.
That answer was too cruel for a boy who hadn’t even turned ten.
“…Well,” Su Bai hesitated.
But when he saw those wide, fearful eyes filled with both hope and dread, his heart softened.
The words caught in his throat and he changed his response.
“Even if you don’t have any aptitude, as your adoptive father, I’ll still raise you for the rest of your life.”
Yes, the sect’s rules stated that mortals with no spiritual roots must be sent away—but there was nothing that said a Foundation Establishment elder couldn’t keep one.
If no one else had broken that rule before, then he would be the first!
He was a Foundation Establishment elder, after all.
What’s the big deal about raising one mortal?
[Upon hearing your answer, Su Xiaohei clings to your leg, pressing his cheek against it. He shouts, Mommy forever! Master forever!! I love you most, Mommy Master! We’ll never be apart!!]
[From the look of things, it seems the years of spoiling have turned your little pet into an extremely clingy pup.]
***
Soon enough, the day of the aptitude test arrives.
That morning, you had dozed off for a bit, and when you woke up, you heard joyful shouts echoing from the mountain path.
“Mommy! Master!! I did it! I got Grade B! Grade B! Same as you, Mommy Master!!”
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