Let Me Touch Your Dragon Horns?
At the hour of Hai, evening lessons ended.
The crowd streamed noisily out of the classroom. Qi Xuan walked among them, his head turned as he whispered something to a disciple beside him.
Suddenly, a streak of light swept across the front of the crowd and headed straight toward Qi Xuan.
Qi Xuan saw only a flash of plain white robes before a tremendous force shoved him backward. His back slammed hard against an ancient pine.
He barely managed to raise his head before a slender, bony hand closed around his throat.
“Where is my thing?”
It was Ji Chaoyun.
Ji Chaoyun was always cold and indifferent toward others, but he never deliberately made trouble for anyone.
Now, however, an eerie pale light shone within those clear dark eyes, and faint threads of blood had crept across them. He looked almost frightening.
The hand around Qi Xuan’s throat tightened.
Ji Chaoyun stared at him and repeated coldly, “Where is my thing?”
“I... I...” Qi Xuan could barely breathe. Under the force that nearly suffocated him, he could not force out a complete sentence.
They were standing outside the classroom, where disciples were constantly passing along the pine forest path. Everyone nearby froze at the sudden commotion.
Ji Chaoyun seemed completely unaware of them.
He leaned close to Qi Xuan’s ear, his voice cold enough to pierce the bone. “You were the only one who touched me today. Did you steal my sachet?”
“No, I—”
Qi Xuan’s face flushed crimson as he desperately shook his head.
A cold light flashed through Ji Chaoyun’s eyes, and his fingers slowly tightened.
Only then did everyone else come back to their senses.
“Ji-Ji Chaoyun! What are you doing?!”
“What happened? Why did you suddenly start fighting?”
“Whatever happened, talk it out first. Let him go!”
More and more people gathered around them, trying to separate the two.
Ji Chaoyun’s gaze quickly swept across the surroundings.
He released Qi Xuan’s throat and seized his shoulder instead. Their bodies rose into the air, transformed into a streak of white light, and vanished into the night.
Clouds and mist wound through Hongmeng Mountain in the depths of night. At some point, snow had begun falling again.
A streak of light descended from the sky like a swimming dragon.
Ji Chaoyun emerged from the radiance and casually shoved the young man in his grasp hard onto the suspended stone bridge.
He bent down and seized Qi Xuan by the collar.
Their movements sent frost scattering from the surface of the bridge, drifting down into the bottomless gorge below.
Ji Chaoyun said quietly, “Below us is an abyss ten thousand zhang deep. Even an immortal body falling from here would suffer shattered bones at best, and at worst be crushed to pieces.”
“Do you think I dare push you down?”
Qi Xuan’s face was white as paper. He weakly clutched Ji Chaoyun’s wrist and stammered, “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I really don’t know...”
A mocking smile appeared faintly in Ji Chaoyun’s eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his hand and shoved Qi Xuan directly off the stone bridge!
Qi Xuan plummeted rapidly.
Overwhelmed by terror, he could not even make a sound.
At that moment, a rope shot rapidly from Ji Chaoyun’s sleeve and wrapped around Qi Xuan’s ankle like a snake.
The other end was tied to the branch of an ancient pine at one end of the suspended bridge.
Qi Xuan’s rapidly falling body finally stopped, leaving him hanging upside down between the sheer cliffs.
He struggled to look upward.
Ji Chaoyun stood atop the cliff, framed by the raging snow behind him and a night sky as thick and dark as ink.
His face seemed covered in frost as he looked down at Qi Xuan without emotion.
Then Ji Chaoyun raised one hand.
Silver-white light gathered in his palm and transformed into his sword. The blade reflected a sharp, icy gleam as it rested lightly against the rope.
Even the slightest movement would sever it.
Ji Chaoyun asked, “Do you still know nothing?”
“No, no... don’t!” Qi Xuan cried in panic. “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything! It was Senior Brother Xu! Senior Brother Xu told me to steal your sachet. He made me do all of it!”
Ji Chaoyun’s hand paused. “Where is my thing now?”
“...I don’t know.”
Ji Chaoyun narrowed his eyes dangerously.
Qi Xuan pleaded, “Senior Brother Xu really didn’t tell me where it was! I only stole it and gave it to him. But... but Immortal Lord Kaiyang sent him outside the academy today, and he took the sachet with him.”
“He said... he said...”
“What did he say?”
Qi Xuan said, “He said he was going to throw it into the Lower Realm so you’d never be able to find it again. He wanted to teach you a lesson...”
The Mortal Realm...
Ji Chaoyun’s lips moved almost imperceptibly, as though he could not believe what he had heard. Then a fierce anger rose within him, overwhelming his grief.
That was the only thing that person had left him.
Ji Chaoyun’s grip tightened around his sword. Looking closely, his hand was trembling beyond his control.
Without warning, his blood and qi suddenly churned within his chest. He staggered a step and barely managed to steady himself.
When he raised his head again, every trace of ink-dark color had vanished from his eyes.
A fierce wind swept across the cliff.
Ji Chaoyun stood at its very peak, and the aura around him changed completely.
Once one cultivated an immortal body, a faint immortal aura would always linger around them.
Yet now, the immortal aura surrounding Ji Chaoyun rapidly faded, replaced by another presence, darker and far more sinister.
His black hair turned silver-white at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A pair of dragon horns emerged upon his forehead.
His clear, glass-like vertical pupils appeared once more, glinting with a cold, eerie light amid the wind and snow.
Qi Xuan stared at the transformation in shock.
He was so terrified that even his pleas for mercy caught in his throat.
“Qi Xuan.”
Ji Chaoyun looked down at the person hanging upside down from the cliff, not a trace of warmth in his eyes. “I don’t believe I’ve ever wronged you.”
Qi Xuan cried, “Ch-Chaoyun! Spare me this once! Senior Brother Xu threatened me with the examination. I had nowhere else to turn! Spare me, please...”
“Because you had nowhere else to turn, you decided to cut off someone else’s path? What gives you the right?”
“I—”
Qi Xuan’s voice abruptly stopped.
At that moment, he saw unmistakable, icy killing intent in those partially transformed vertical pupils. It was as though a basin of icy water had been poured over his head, chilling his entire body.
In the next instant, Ji Chaoyun swung his sword directly toward the rope!
At that moment, a streak of golden light tore through the night and flew through the air, wrapping tightly around Ji Chaoyun’s blade.
Ji Chaoyun raised his head and met a pair of familiar eyes.
Feng Qi stood before him with his whip in hand.
Seeing Ji Chaoyun’s current appearance, he froze slightly. “Why are you...”
“Get out of my way!”
Ji Chaoyun shouted, yanked his sword free with a reverse motion, gathered demonic power in his palm, and struck Feng Qi with it.
Ji Chaoyun’s cultivation was considerably stronger in his half-shifted form than usual.
Feng Qi had not expected him to attack so ruthlessly and was immediately forced several steps backward.
He shouted, “Ji Chaoyun! Calm down! Do you truly intend to start slaughtering people in Hongmeng Academy?” Who do you think you are right now? How are you any different from those rampaging demons in the Mortal Realm who act however they please?!”
“A demon...”
Ji Chaoyun raised his head.
A sorrowful, self-mocking expression appeared within his demon-lit eyes. “Wasn’t I always a demon to begin with?”
“You—”
Feng Qi faltered.
Before he could say anything, Ji Chaoyun had already swung his sword toward him again.
Feng Qi let out an almost imperceptible sigh.
He turned sideways to evade Ji Chaoyun’s attack.
As his body passed closely beside the sword blade, Feng Qi lightly tapped a fingertip against the back of Ji Chaoyun’s neck.
Ji Chaoyun abruptly froze. The uncanny radiance gathered around his sword dispersed instantly.
Ji Chaoyun turned his head toward Feng Qi, bewilderment appearing in his newly clear eyes. “How did you...”
Before he could finish, his legs suddenly gave way, and he was about to collapse.
Feng Qi’s body reacted faster than his mind. He caught Ji Chaoyun tightly in his arms. Yet the instant he touched him, an absurd sense of familiarity rose from somewhere deep within Feng Qi’s heart.
It felt as though...
He had held someone like this before.
However, he feeling disappeared almost as soon as it came.
Feng Qi bent down and gathered the slender, cold body into his arms. With one hand, he supported the back of Ji Chaoyun’s head and pressed him into the hollow of his shoulder.
They remained like that amid the vast falling snow.
After a while, Ji Chaoyun’s rapid breathing finally began to calm.
Only then did Feng Qi raise a hand and lightly stroke Ji Chaoyun’s long silver-white hair.
“It’s all right now. Sleep for a while.”
As his words fell, Ji Chaoyun’s sword rolled onto the ground with a soft clang.
His tense body finally went completely limp, and his consciousness sank into darkness.
Once the person in his arms had finally calmed, Feng Qi looked toward the rope at the edge of the cliff.
A cloud of green smoke lifted the man hanging upside down against the cliff and placed him steadily before them.
Qi Xuan’s legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.
Still holding Ji Chaoyun with one arm, Feng Qi looked coldly at him.
“Are you going to explain everything yourself, or shall I drag you before the Immortal Venerable and let you explain it there?”
☁
When Ji Chaoyun woke again, he had no idea how much time had passed.
A sharp pain stabbed through his head, drawing an uncomfortable groan from him.
Ji Chaoyun opened his eyes and found an extremely familiar face enlarged several times before him.
“!”
He became fully awake in an instant.
Ji Chaoyun struggled free of the other man’s embrace, sprang upright, and instinctively reached for his sword, only to grasp nothing.
“What are you doing?!”
The entire sequence happened too quickly to react to.
Feng Qi raised both hands helplessly. “Calm down. I wasn’t trying to take advantage of you.”
Ji Chaoyun clearly did not trust him. “Where is this?”
He was not in any place he recognized.
The sound of dripping water echoed endlessly beside them.
Jagged stone walls giving off a faint white glow surrounded them and stretched all the way overhead.
Pools of water lay on all four sides, enclosing the patch of dry ground where the two of them sat.
It was a stone cavern.
“This cave is called Tranquil Heart Cave, and this pool is called Reflection Pool. As for this place...” Second Highness Feng sat cross-legged on the ground and smiled carelessly. “The disciples all call it the confinement prison.”
“Confinement prison? Why would I—”
Feng Qi ignored him and continued speaking on his own. “You and I have disliked each other for quite some time and finally couldn’t resist arranging a fight on Hongmeng Mountain.”
“You dragged Qi Xuan along to witness it. In the end, you couldn’t last two moves against me before I knocked you unconscious and beat you badly enough to reveal your true form.”
“Immortal Lord Tianshu was furious and sent us here to calm ourselves down.”
Ji Chaoyun silently looked at him.
His spirit-beast form from earlier had not yet faded. Long silver hair spilled down his back, and his glass-like eyes looked even colder than usual.
“Why are you helping me?”
Feng Qi looked puzzled. “Helping you with what? Everyone saw you seize Qi Xuan after class. Isn’t what I said exactly what happened?”
Ji Chaoyun looked away. “I take responsibility for my own actions. There’s no need to drag anyone else into this. I’ll go find the Immortal Venerable now...”
“Ji Chaoyun.”
Feng Qi stopped him, still speaking in that lazy tone of his. “Do you know how the academy punishes someone who harbors murderous intent toward a fellow disciple?”
“...Their immortal foundation is destroyed, and they are expelled from the academy.”
Ji Chaoyun’s eyes flickered.
The atmosphere inside the cavern abruptly stiffened.
After a long while, Feng Qi laughed softly and broke the silence. “Enough. I’ve already explained everything to Tianshu.”
“Just stay here obediently with me. Once dawn comes tomorrow, we’ll naturally be allowed out.”
Ji Chaoyun said, “...I can’t wait until tomorrow.”
He lowered his head, the hand hanging at his side tightening into a fist.
“Qi Xuan stole something from me. Something... very important to me. I have to get it back. Thank you for helping me this time. Once I recover my thing, I’ll explain everything to the Immortal Venerable and clear your name.”
After saying this, he stepped forward to leave.
Feng Qi suddenly asked, “Do you even know where to look?”
Ji Chaoyun stopped.
Feng Qi looked at his back and said slowly, “Qi Xuan only said that Xu Zixing threw it into the Mortal Realm. He doesn’t know exactly where.”
“You’re more familiar with the Mortal Realm than I am, but its wilderness, rivers, and mountains stretch for countless thousands of li in every direction. Searching for one small thing would be no different from fishing a needle out of the sea. Where exactly do you intend to look?”
Ji Chaoyun lowered his head and did not answer.
The silence stretched on for so long that Feng Qi finally looked up. Not far away, Ji Chaoyun stood with his back turned, his shoulders trembling without a sound.
“Hey, you’re not crying, are you?”
Second Highness Feng had never feared much of anything, but he truly did not know how to handle something like this.
He hurried over in several strides and reached out to raise Ji Chaoyun’s head.
Ji Chaoyun turned away and avoided his hand. “Stay away from me.”
His voice was hoarse.
The rims of his eyes were red, and moisture gathered within his glass-like pupils, but he stubbornly refused to let the tears fall.
Feng Qi’s throat moved soundlessly.
He had no idea why, but this sight felt far more unbearable than if Ji Chaoyun had simply burst into tears before him.
Feng Qi coughed lightly and said slowly, “I’m not teasing you anymore.”
“I already had someone ask around. Xu Zixing did indeed leave the academy with your thing today.”
“However, according to a reliable source, someone saw him make a trip to the Nameless Sea.”
“...The Nameless Sea?” Ji Chaoyun asked. “What kind of place is that?”
Feng Qi said, “The Nameless Sea connects the Immortal, Yao, Divine, and Demon Realms. It is a place beyond the boundaries of all four realms. Over time, many lawless merchants gathered there, making their living by trading all manner of rare treasures between the four realms.”
“Because of that, many people call the place the Sea Market.”
“He sold my sachet?”
“Indeed.” Feng Qi nodded. “In any case, now that we know where it went, there’s no need to panic.”
“Stay here tonight. Once the confinement ends tomorrow, I’ll find an excuse to take you out of the academy and we’ll retrieve it.”
Ji Chaoyun lowered his head, not answering.
Feng Qi thought he was still worried and continued persuading him. “Stop worrying. Between heaven and earth, there has yet to be anything I can’t retrieve.”
“As for those two idiots, we’ll deal with them separately after we recover your thing. Hey, are you listening to me? Ji Chaoyun? Little crybaby?”
“Shut up,” Ji Chaoyun rasped.
After another moment of silence, he quietly asked, “Why... why are you helping me?”
Feng Qi lowered his gaze toward the young man standing close before him.
An indescribable ache and softness suddenly rose within his heart.
Ji Chaoyun was stubborn and unyielding by nature, like a hedgehog that never lowered its guard, hiding behind the crowd while watching everyone around him and refusing to let anyone come close.
Yet now, with all those spines drawn in, he looked so fragile and helpless that Feng Qi wanted to carry him back to his nest in his mouth and keep him carefully enclosed there under his protection.
Strangely, Feng Qi felt that this person standing before him now was Ji Chaoyun’s true self.
Feng Qi stared at him for a long while before stiffly turning his gaze away.
“You belong to Cloud-Ascending Tower now. That makes you my subordinate. Isn’t it only natural for me to help you?”
“When did I ever...”
“Enough. This Highness feels like helping you. Why do you have so much to say?” Feng Qi impatiently interrupted him.
“I’m going to rest now. You’re not allowed to make any more noise. If you make even the slightest sound, I’ll throw you into the water.”
Ji Chaoyun originally wanted to say something else, but Feng Qi had already turned over and lain down, clearly unwilling to continue the conversation.
Ji Chaoyun could only answer, “Oh,” then gloomily walk to a rock nearby and sit with his back toward him.
The cavern fell silent once more.
Only the faint sound of dripping water echoed through the stillness.
After a while, Ji Chaoyun said quietly, “Thank you.”
He did not expect a reply. Yet a moment later, Feng Qi’s voice suddenly came from behind him. “Do dragons only say thank you with their mouths?”
Ji Chaoyun looked back.
Feng Qi walked over and sat beside him as naturally as could be.
“...Weren’t you asleep?”
Feng Qi rubbed his shoulder and neck uncomfortably and spat, “This miserable place is cold and damp. Sleep, my ass.”
“...”
Feng Qi glanced sideways at him. “Did you just laugh at me?”
“No.”
“You did.” Feng Qi said, “Repaying kindness with ingratitude. Are all dragons this heartless?”
Ji Chaoyun suppressed a laugh. “Whether dragons have a conscience needn’t concern Your Highness. However, dragons have certainly never been as... delicate as Your Highness.”
“...”
No one beneath heaven or above earth had ever dared call Second Highness Feng delicate.
Feng Qi was speechless for a long while. Unfortunately, he could not find any way to refute it.
He said indignantly, “You really are unpleasant to talk to.”
“Likewise.”
The two sat side by side without speaking further.
After a while, Ji Chaoyun suddenly said, “Once this matter is settled, I’ll thank you properly. What gift would you like?”
Feng Qi turned his head toward him.
Ji Chaoyun had not yet recovered from his half-shifted state.
His silver hair fell behind him, beautiful enough to make it difficult to look away.
A pair of dragon horns stood quietly upon his forehead, their surface shining with a soft luster beneath the reflected ripples of the water.
Feng Qi had only spoken out of habit earlier and had not actually intended to ask for any gift. Yet now his gaze landed upon those dragon horns, and his heart began to itch.
His hands itched too.
The feeling was almost unbearable.
Without thinking, he blurted out, “How about letting me touch your dragon horns?”
☁︎₊˚⊹ The Author’s Jade-Slip Aside ⊹˚₊☁︎
Yunyun: ...No. Get lost.
Progress until His Highness finally gets to touch the dragon horns: 20% 【a real leap forward, friends】
————
The title has been changed. The term “dual cultivation” isn’t allowed, so from now on it will be changed to “spiritual cultivation.” You all know what it means. Or do any of you have suggestions for the novel title? I really can’t think of anything better.
Ah-Jiang is seriously too strict _(:з」∠)_
————
I received so much nutrient solution yesterday. Thank you, everyone. Love you!
IsitRo: Just a heads up, I might use spiritual cultivation instead of dual cultivation once we encounter ‘em again. Just tryna match author’s stuff c: coz y make my life easier eh? hehe
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