Dual Cultivation God Returns - Chapter 1036 -

Old Yen was waiting for Wu Long to arrive, thinking that it was unusual that the latter was a bit late, when the door finally opened.

“Boss! I wa-…”, he smiled, and then froze on the spot as the first to enter the room was Xue Bing, Wu Long following after her, and finally Butler Bang being last, “…a~ahahaha… s-so you were with Lady Xue…”

Wu Long nodded with a smile, understanding his confusion at her presence here, he was surprised too, though it was a welcome and delightful surprise for him when she suddenly appeared before him after his meeting with the thieves and bluntly said, “I wanted to see you so I came”.

It all started about an hour before…

—

Xue Bing sat with Hua Ziyan, Ye Ling, Cai Yin, Wei Lan, Gong Liwei and Song Lingfei in a gazebo of a Dream Realm Main Manor.

They were laughing and chatting while drinking tea and having snacks, with Xue Bing only making occasional remarks, mostly listening, as was her usual behavior.

Suddenly, as they were in the middle of it, Xue Bing abruptly stood up.

“Ah, you’re going back to training? You just got here not long ago, rest a bit more with us”, Hua Ziyan was already used to the sudden and inexplicable behavior of this beauty coming without warnings at seemingly the most random of times, as were others, so she simply spoke with a smile without showing any surprise.

“No, I want to go see Wu Long”, she replied in the usual monotone voice as if she said the most natural thing, this time causing a reaction among the beauties.

“Eh? B-but he’s…”, Cai Yin paused, since he just left the Dream Realm not long ago, in fact he was with them not that long ago.

A thoughtful look appeared in Ye Ling’s eyes, and she placed a hand on Cai Yin’s hand to halt her attempts at dissuading Xue Bing, instead saying “That’s a good idea, have a nice time”

“Mm, thank you”, Xue Bing nodded and left the gazebo under the round eyes of everyone but Ye Ling.

“But isn’t he in the middle of Valley matters right now?”, Song Lingfei asked, puzzled why Ye Ling reacted this way.

“Who told you he doesn’t want to see us during his work as well? He never said that, you girls just assumed. In fact, I’m pretty sure he really wants us there next to him pretty much at all times, so he’ll love it. Sister Baihu does it all the time and Wu Long enjoys it”, Ye Ling chuckled, “It’s good that someone other than her finally had a thought of going to spend time with him when he’s not just free and comes to us… though it probably comes from a long period Bing’er wasn’t able to spend with him”

“Wait, why didn’t he just tell us then?”, Cai Yin showed a puzzled expression.

Hua Ziyan, on the other hand, had a thoughtful look in her eyes, seemingly understanding Ye Ling’s explanation, “Maybe because… he’s still busy even if he wants us near him? He doesn’t want to take away the free time from training we have on his work because while he’d like to have us near him he can’t give us all his attention and feels it’s going to be… burdensome for us…. something like that?”

“Ah! Then it makes sense… especially since not everyone can bear just sitting still for an hour or even more in a meeting without talking to him since he has to hear a report or give instructions to others… it’s fine during general meetings when we are all there since we can chat with each other in low voices and it’s an occasion where he wants to hear opinions from everyone so there’s things to discuss… but more mundane progress reports and stuff are…”, Song Lingfei chuckled, as a few faces came up in her mind, “But if we knew he wanted to have us near him, if he explicitly told us, those who can’t enjoy that kind of time together might feel like they need to force themselves to do it”

“You’re just saying Sister Mengqi is going to start climbing walls from boredom about ten minutes in”, Hua Ziyan covered her mouth while giggling, causing all the beauties to start laughing.

Gong Liwei shook her head with a wry smile, “I don’t feel like Cui’er is cut out for sitting in on the boring meetings as well. She might not raise a fuss, but she’s going to start zoning out pretty soon, just imagine her sitting there with a confused, slightly vacant look on her face”

“And start humming a tune a bit later”, Wei Lan couldn’t stop tears of laughter appearing in the corners of her eyes as she imagined Gong Cui suddenly beginning to hum a melody under her nose in the middle of a meeting or report made by one of Wu Long’s followers, an uplifting merry tune was one thing, it may just turn the atmosphere a bit awkward, but if she started humming a sad melody reflecting her boredom while tracing some kind of drawing with her finger on the desk…

“So, basically, as is often the case with him, he doesn’t feel that his want for our presence near him, is as important as our being able to enjoy our time”, Cai Yin nodded, understanding what Hua Ziyan and Song Lingfei were saying.

“See? It’s quite easy to understand him if you just think of the simplest explanation when it concerns our wellbeing and happiness”, Ye Ling chuckled, “He’s so stubborn. He doesn’t really speak up much about what he wants from us, only asks what we want from him”

“That is true. Though in our defense, we also just didn’t want to bother him when he’s busy… so this one was tricky to figure out”, Wei Lan chuckled, “I’m surprised that while understanding it, you’re not doing it”

“You may not know this about me, but I am one of those few you mentioned that can’t sit in on the meetings”, Ye Ling chuckled, “I may look fine from the outside, but you can’t fool Wu Long. As soon as he sees signs that you’re forcing yourself to sit there just to be near him because he likes it, he’s going to pause the work even if it’s at the detriment to his efforts”

This statement caused all of them to turn shocked gazes to her, as they always saw her as the type who could sit still for a millenia with the patience of a monk. Even when they spent time alone with Wu Long, they basically just sat next to each other enjoying each other’s presence without doing much or even talking that much.

Seeing their gazes, Ye Ling made a wry smile, understanding their confusion, “I am a Sword Cultivator, so you are correct in assuming that long periods of quiet contemplation, meditation, silence and simple stillness never were a problem for me, but meetings, reports, and agendas… why do you think I ran away from the Ye Family into a Cultivation Sect where I could practice the sword, when I had the option of going the same route in life as Sister Luxiao? Our Ye Family had a Trading Company as well, I just never could bring myself to do that kind of work, that is true for my previous life as well”

“Ah~…”, Hua Ziyan had an enlightened expression, as did all the other beauties who suddenly saw Ye Ling from a completely new perspective.

—

Old Yen was unusually nervous during the meeting as he was making the report, constantly turning his gaze toward the icy look of Xue Bing, because from her expression and overall impression it seemed like he was doing a poor job and she was judging him.

And then, suddenly, she stood up without any warning, causing him to almost have a heart attack.

“It seems my presence here is not appropriate and detrimental”, she bluntly said turning to Wu Long, as usual not bothering to sugarcoat her words or conceal what she wanted to say in a nicer wrap. Her tone was also monotone, a bit icy.

Wu Long, of course, understood that she really meant what she said literally, that she thought she was a bother and ruining the meeting by being here.

Old Yen, on the other hand, nearly had a seizure thinking he was now going to be blamed for making the beauty upset, and that it was an indirect hint to Wu Long that Old Yen was making her uncomfortable.

“Not at all, Bing’er. Come sit here instead”, Wu Long smiled toward Xue Bing beckoning her to sit on his lap.

She hesitated for a moment as the feeling of not wanting to be a bother and her immense desire to follow his words and sit on his lap fought in her head, which to Old Yen looked as if she simply icily stared at Wu Long for a second, and then wordlessly moved toward him, sitting down on his lap.

He smiled, embracing her and bringing her closer to lean her head on his shoulder as he turned back to look at Old Yen.

‘B~Boss… why are you doing this to me~?’, Old Yen felt like crying as he saw that the meeting was seemingly going to proceed like that.

He didn’t see that the beauty’s expression, now mostly hidden from others subtly changed as her cheeks gained a bit of color, and a subtle smile touched her lips as she closed her eyes, experiencing bliss from being in his embrace.

From that day on, Wu Long’s followers started to notice that his beauties began attending their meetings and moving alongside him during the day, one by one or sometimes, rarely in duos.

The day after Xue Bing, came Hua Ziyan, then Shen Min came the day after, then after a skip of a day when only Fen Baihu was with him, Wei Lan, then Gong Liwei, Cai Yin, Luo Mingyu, Nie Xiwang, Cao Xiang and more. Even Hong Ye, while certainly in the category to not be very compatible with meetings, came over just to sit in Wu Long’s lap once in a while.1

Some of them were not even present during the whole day, changing places with someone else after just one meeting or sometime through the day.

At first it was a bit disorienting for everyone around except Wu Long and his beauties themselves, but everyone soon started getting used to it. Rather, Wu Long’s followers soon found an unexpected perk in this arrangement, as Wu Long seemed to be constantly in a very good mood now. It felt like he would even completely overlook if one of them made a major blunder with just a smile and a couple of chiding words.

The only one left frustrated was Song Minfu, since he was finally starting to see his daughter more often, but she was not there to see him – she was there for Wu Long. This finally prompted Chu Ren, who got tired of hearing his sob stories every time he came back from the meeting with Wu Long, to accept a transfer to a position similar to that of Butler Bang.

They just finished selecting a small office of clerks to assist Song Minfu, who Chu Ren happily handed over the ‘honor and privilege’ of hearing Song Minfu’s lamentations and complaints to and left without looking back.

This passage and the subsequent ones are a simple indication of the direction of events. This does not indicate a time skip as the next chapter continues from after the Old Yen meeting that Wu Long spent with Xue Bing.