Spiritual Cultivation Is a Lengthy Process
Ji Chaoyun still had not realized what was happening to his body.
He clutched Feng Qi’s clothes tightly, his slender back trembling without cease, occasionally letting out one or two faint whimpers. With his emotions in turmoil, that scent grew increasingly distinct, gradually becoming even stronger.
“Chaoyun... Chaoyun, calm down. You...” Feng Qi’s ears inexplicably reddened. He was so nervous that his hands froze in midair, with no idea where to put them.
What in the world was all this?!
After what had unexpectedly happened last time, Feng Qi had consulted the relevant books. A dragon’s heat cycle came once every half year, but it could usually be suppressed through cultivation. Thus, the higher one’s cultivation, the longer the interval between cycles. Going three or five years without entering a heat cycle was perfectly ordinary.
Ji Chaoyun had already cultivated an immortal body, so it should not have come this frequently.
There was only one possible explanation. The events of late had damaged his vitality, leaving his immortal body weakened and unable to suppress it through cultivation any longer.
Thinking back, Ji Chaoyun had inexplicably run fevers and lacked energy throughout the past few days. It was indeed much the same as the previous time.
Feng Qi had simply assumed it was caused by his injuries and had never considered this possibility.
Yet... why did it have to happen now?
Feeling the body in his arms still trembling, Feng Qi held him lightly. The amorous thoughts that had arisen in his heart gradually cooled. No matter what, he could not take advantage of Ji Chaoyun’s weakness at a time like this.
He was not some beast.
Feng Qi lowered his head and coaxed softly beside Ji Chaoyun’s ear, “Chaoyun, I’ll take you to soak in the hot spring behind the house for a while, all right?”
“Hm?” Ji Chaoyun had not heard him clearly and raised his eyes toward Feng Qi.
His lashes were wet, droplets still clinging to their tips before sliding past the reddened corners of his eyes, leaving behind thin trails of moisture.
That single look nearly made it impossible for Feng Qi to remain a decent man.
He had no idea how much willpower it took to force himself to look away. Silently reciting a heart-clearing incantation, Feng Qi picked Ji Chaoyun up from the bamboo couch. His movements were somewhat hurried, yet he still remembered to take care not to touch Ji Chaoyun’s injured arm.
“?” Ji Chaoyun still had not understood what was happening when he was suddenly swept into Feng Qi’s arms. He blinked in confusion, and even his tears stopped.
Feng Qi carried him toward the rear of the house in large strides. Ji Chaoyun rubbed his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“...Nothing.” Feng Qi’s voice was hoarse as he calmly replied, “You’re a little feverish. I’ll take you to soak in the spring.”
Feng Qi quickly stepped onto the bluestone dampened by the rising mist and entered the hot spring pool deep within the bamboo grove. He set Ji Chaoyun down on the reclining chair beside the pool, then quickly discovered another problem.
Ji Chaoyun’s injury was on his arm, and his scales had yet to grow back. Feng Qi had been helping him dress and eat these past few days.
But now...
Feng Qi stood rigidly in place, unable to advance or retreat. Ji Chaoyun lowered his head blankly and finally belatedly noticed the discomfort in his body.
Mist filled the air beside the hot spring, making it stiflingly difficult to breathe. Ji Chaoyun tugged uncomfortably at his collar, only then realizing that his fingers had gone so weak that he could not exert any strength.
“Feng Qi.” Ji Chaoyun’s brows drew together slightly. He looked up at Feng Qi, confusion in his eyes. “I seem to...”
Feng Qi closed his eyes briefly and forced himself to remain composed. “It’s all right. The water in this pool can clear the mind and calm the spirit. You’ll feel better after soaking for a while. I’ll help you.”
He reached out to help Ji Chaoyun remove his clothes, but Ji Chaoyun dodged his hand.
Feng Qi’s hand froze in midair. He forced a smile. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t touch you. I’ll only help you take off your clothes.”
“I’m not going,” Ji Chaoyun said quietly.
Feng Qi paused.
Ji Chaoyun looked up at him and repeated softly, “I don’t want to go.”
As his emotions gradually settled, the sweet scent emanating from his body finally stabilized, lingering faintly around the two of them.
Feng Qi vaguely realized something from his words and shook his head. “Chaoyun, listen to me. You’re not clearheaded right now. Suppress it first. We can talk about everything else afterward.”
Ji Chaoyun did not answer. He merely gazed steadily at him.
“You’ve been busy taking care of me these past few days and haven’t returned to seclusion.” Ji Chaoyun took Feng Qi’s hand between both of his own, their fingers intertwining intimately. “Your seclusion was forcibly interrupted that day, and you exhausted too much immortal power fighting Yan Huaqing. Your power still hasn’t stabilized. I know all of it.”
“You’ve been enduring it all this time without telling me anything.”
“...” Feng Qi could clearly feel the other man’s hands growing burning hot. His throat felt dry as he said with difficulty, “Chaoyun, don’t...”
“I don’t want you to return to seclusion, but I don’t want to watch you continue suffering either.” Ji Chaoyun raised Feng Qi’s hand and rubbed his cheek against it. “We still have another way. Do you remember?”
Feng Qi answered decisively, “No.”
Ji Chaoyun blinked. His eyes were still red, making him look deeply aggrieved.
“I want to be with you... but not now.” Feng Qi gazed into those reddened eyes and said in a hoarse voice, “You’ve... been through too much lately. Your emotions have been in great turmoil, and that’s affecting your judgment. I want us to do this when you’re healthy, clearheaded, and willing, not now.”
Ji Chaoyun looked away, then abruptly pushed Feng Qi aside. Without saying a word, he rose and started walking away.
He was not wearing shoes. His bare feet stepped onto the mist-dampened bluestone, and his weakened legs caused him to slip. Feng Qi immediately broke into a cold sweat and hurried forward to catch him.
“What are you doing?”
Ji Chaoyun said, “Going back to the room. I have something to give you.”
Feng Qi did not dare defy this ancestor now. He obediently carried him back inside and placed him on the bed. Following Ji Chaoyun’s instructions, he then took a small wooden box from the drawer beneath the dressing mirror in the inner room.
“What’s this?”
Ji Chaoyun took the wooden box and opened it. Inside was a pair of bracelets woven from tree vines.
Ji Chaoyun said, “Grandpa Tree gave these to me back then. He said they carry the power of the banyan clan’s guardian tree spirit and can bless two lovers to remain together for a lifetime.”
Feng Qi stood rooted to the spot.
Ji Chaoyun took out the pair of bracelets and looked up. “Come here.”
Feng Qi instinctively walked over. “Chaoyun, I...”
“Feng Qi, what sort of person do you take me for?” Ji Chaoyun lowered his eyes and said softly, “If I hadn’t thought this through, I wouldn’t have accepted you that day at the Immortal residence, nor would I have spent all this time with you...”
“That’s not what I mean,” Feng Qi interrupted him. “Chaoyun, I’ve never doubted any of that, but...”
“Yet you still don’t believe me.” Ji Chaoyun leaned against the headboard, his fingertips brushing lightly over the tree vine. “I don’t know how to explain it, and I can’t explain it to you. Grandpa Tree said that once two people wear these, the tree spirit binds their fates tightly together, and they will never part again in this lifetime. I’ve thought it over and over. This is the only way I can think of to make you believe me.”
“...Feng Qi, are you willing to wear it?”
Feng Qi finally could not endure it any longer and lowered his head to kiss Ji Chaoyun on the lips.
The kiss was long and deep. Ji Chaoyun grew dazed beneath it. By the time he came back to himself, Feng Qi had already pinned him against the soft bed, leaving him unable to move.
The pair of bracelets had long since rolled somewhere out of sight. The sweet scent in the air gradually thickened, and when Feng Qi raised his head, a faint blood-red hue had appeared in his eyes.
“Little dragon, you understand what you’re saying right now, don’t you?”
Feng Qi’s voice was hoarse, as though he were desperately restraining something. “Think carefully. If you don’t leave now, I’ll never let you leave again. Even if that person... truly returns, I still won’t let you go.”
Amusement appeared in Ji Chaoyun’s eyes, as though he had remembered something exceedingly interesting. “It seems you truly don’t remember what I told you that night. Having a poor memory is one thing, yet you always forget the most important things.”
He raised his hand, his fingertips slowly brushing across Feng Qi’s face, and spoke each word with utmost seriousness. “That night, I told you that I know exactly who it is I love.”
“Feng Qi, my heart belongs to you.”
It was as though something had struck Feng Qi’s heart heavily, the sound reverberating without end.
Feng Qi gazed at the person beneath him for a long while before finally, slowly, slowly breathing out.
He sat up, retrieved the pair of bracelets that had fallen to the floor, then returned to Ji Chaoyun’s side and decisively slipped one onto his own wrist.
Next, he took Ji Chaoyun’s hand.
That enticing scent had already filled every corner of the room. Its rich sweetness made both their bodies burn hot, and even Feng Qi’s fingers were beginning to shake.
His grip remained steady. Without haste, he slipped the other bracelet over Ji Chaoyun’s wrist.
The tree vines transformed into dim green light and wound around their wrists. At last, the light sank into their flesh, leaving only two faint branch-like patterns around their wrists.
Feng Qi smiled. “So, does this mean the rites are complete?”
“Of course not.” Ji Chaoyun said, “To join one’s name in the Immortal Realm still requires the Three Letters and Six Rites, along with the Heavenly Dao as witness. How could it be done so hastily?”
Feng Qi turned and pressed him beneath his body again. He rubbed Ji Chaoyun’s already crimson earlobe and said with a smile, “I could go prepare all of that now, but... a certain little dragon seems unable to wait any longer.”
Ji Chaoyun’s chest rose and fell rapidly. Beneath Feng Qi’s overwhelming presence, he could barely maintain his reason. “W-We can make up the rites later.”
“That makes sense.” Feng Qi bent down and kissed the reddened corner of Ji Chaoyun’s eye, but then seemed to remember something and stopped again.
Ji Chaoyun’s eyes were red with frustration. “What is it now?!”
“Your bed is too small.”
Feng Qi seemed deliberately intent on teasing him. After saying this at an unhurried pace, he wrapped an arm around Ji Chaoyun’s waist and lifted him up. With a thought from Feng Qi, the next instant, the two of them fell onto another bed that was wider and softer.
Ji Chaoyun sank into the soft bedding, his porcelain-pale skin flushed red. The surging heat within his body could no longer be suppressed. That sweet, cloying scent poured out without restraint, nearly overpowering the incense inside the room.
Ji Chaoyun shifted restlessly, but Feng Qi quickly held his wrist down and said quietly, “Your injury hasn’t healed yet. Don’t move around.”
“Feng Qi...” Ji Chaoyun’s eyes filled with moisture, his voice instantly taking on a tearful note. “Feng Qi...”
Feng Qi stopped teasing him and lowered his head to kiss the corner of Ji Chaoyun’s lips. “Mm. I’m here.”
...
...
Ji Chaoyun’s heat cycle had come suddenly this time. Based on their previous experience, a little relief should have been enough for him to recover by the following day. Yet Ji Chaoyun had happened to suggest helping Feng Qi stabilize his immortal power.
Spiritual cultivation was, after all, one of the countless paths of cultivation. So long as it was cultivation, it was naturally an exceedingly lengthy process. If they wanted to use this method to stabilize Feng Qi’s immortal power, once or twice would naturally not be enough.
Of course, three or four times were not enough either.
By the end, even Ji Chaoyun could no longer tell whether his heat cycle had actually ended, much less when it had ended.
At first, Feng Qi had still intended to know when to stop. Who could have expected this method to work so well? After several times, even the dragon scales that had refused to heal for so long grew back.
Now Second Highness Feng had thoroughly lost his last concern. Taking full advantage of their immortal bodies, he kept Ji Chaoyun with him on Wenqu Peak for several days, losing all sense of day and night.
Three days later, in the early morning, sunlight streamed through the window and fell across the two people sleeping in each other’s arms.
Feng Qi held his little dragon, who was still asleep, and kissed his forehead with a thoroughly satisfied expression. The hand hidden beneath the covers still could not stop taking liberties.
Ji Chaoyun’s body had recovered extraordinarily quickly these past few days. The effect was far better than all the medicine he had used before.
If Feng Qi had known this earlier, they should have done this sooner and done it several more times. How could Ji Chaoyun possibly have remained as frail as he was now?
Feng Qi entertained this perfectly righteous thought while his hand grew increasingly unrestrained. He almost wished he could wake Ji Chaoyun right now and continue their “cultivation.”
What was there to sleep so much for? He had never heard of anyone who spent all day thinking about sleep while cultivating.
Such an improper attitude.
Before long, Ji Chaoyun was finally awakened by Feng Qi’s tireless persistence.
Feng Qi had tormented him for most of the previous night, and Ji Chaoyun had barely managed to fall asleep near dawn. Still half asleep, he raised his head and saw the handsome face right before his eyes.
“Did you sleep well?” Feng Qi asked with utmost tenderness.
“..................”
The next instant, a muffled thud rang through the room, followed by a whole series of crashing and shattering sounds.
Feng Qi climbed up from the overturned wooden screen and rubbed his aching chest. “You... why did you kick me again?”
Ji Chaoyun lay back down on the bed, his waist sore and his entire body aching. Gritting his teeth, he snapped, “You. Deserved. It!”
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