The knocking was soft and rhythmic. Once, twice, thrice, then a long pause. There was a sound of shuffling from clothes and movement, indicating that the person behind the door had taken a step back.
Shi Yue laid his brush carefully to the side, then stood up and smoothened his robes as he walked over to the door and opened it with a calm “Yes?”
“Shi Yue!”
In nine years, Xie Yi had decided on a very clear cut between when to call him by his name and when ‘Master’. ‘Master’ was reserved for when people were around or when he wanted something, his name for other times. It was absolutely not following the rules, but if Xie Yi wanted to be stubborn, then there was no changing his mind.
And god, was he stubborn.
Shi Yue blinked into the light of the sun sneaking up the sky behind him, illuminating his figure and giving him a halo. The red and orange eyes were shining, his soft black hair moving in the wind.
To Shi Yue’s horror, his disciple had indeed turned out to grow into a heartbreaker. As a young adult, he turned heads everywhere – not that he appeared to care. He had just that kind of looks that walked a fine line between seductive and plain beautiful – soft but defined features and a slender body that allowed him graceful movements.
There hadn’t been confessions yet, but only because Xie Yi was being so obvious at not showing interest in any of them. There was a large enough mass of lovestruck older teenagers wandering around him, though, and Xu Yan was hissing and snarling in a panic to keep his position as Xie Yi’s roommate with the help of the teachers.
The main problem, however, was the sight in front of him right now. Xie Yi was the type to have an emotionless face, but he bloomed when around his friends and started beaming whenever Shi Yue was around. He’d be overjoyed with his presence.
So Shi Yue looked at the youth encased in light, smiling up at him so happily because he wanted to wish him a good morning… and closed the door right in front of the youth’s face.
“…Ah?”, he heard the confused sound from outside.
With one hand still on the doorknob, Shi Yue used his other to rub the bridge of his nose.
Xie Yi is just chasing after an ideal image, he had said. It was a lot like imprinting, he had said. He would grow out of it, he had said.
Xie Yi did not grow out of it. Not in the slightest.
It was a problem. In front of him was a person that reminded him so much of that short acquaintance from back then, but happy and carefree. The person he had only met for a short time, but who insisted on taking up a corner of his mind, someone that was fascinating and alluring and made you want to chase after him.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The image kept on overlapping. They were too similar, even if one person was cheerful and the other desolate. Shi Yue felt his resistance against that face and voice chipping away more and more every day. He hated it.
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At first he had snuck in once in a while, talking in roundabout ways so that it seemed like someone had let him in. In the course of a year, he had stopped trying that.
He just broke holes into the arrays and walked in.
On one hand, their array master was delighted that Xie Yi was helping him find loopholes and perfect the defensive arrays, on the other hand, it was a bit of a problem that he kept on destroying the very expensive formations.
Anyway, he could now walk wherever he pleased. Everyone had given up.
“Good morning”, Xie Yi purred, brushing a long strand of his hair out of his face. It fell unevenly – longer on his back, reaching over his shoulders.
It would have made him look soft and adorable, but the fingers pushing back his hair came back bloody. He made a sound and looked at the crimson on his fingers, then smiled lopsidedly and quickly wiped it on his robes.
“Another challenger? So early?”, Shi Yue inquired, feeling a headache incoming.
“Yes. I hadn’t wanted it to disturb the lessons later, so I moved it to the morning”, Xie Yi explained easily. “Ah, he’s fine. The finger can be reattached.”
“Stop cutting off people’s body parts during spars.”
“…I’m trying.”
God knows where the boy had that kind of vicious habit from. If you weren’t careful enough, you could easily end up with a hand or arm flying during a fight with him. The medical staff was always hovering around the arena since Xie Yi had started accepting challenges.
The bad habit didn’t stop people from challenging him for various reasons, and they could be reattached quite well considering how cleanly Xie Yi would cut them off. Rather than shying away, the disciples were gaining an abnormal resistance towards pain, treating a severed finger or two as nothing but a common injury after a challenge. In fact, if someone entered the ward with a severed limb, people would immediately ask them how the fight had gone, instantly assuming it was related to Xie Yi.
After the first time a limb had gone flying, Shi Yue had scolded him a lot. Since then, Xie Yi was trying his hardest to control himself during spars and not overdo it, but he hadn’t perfected it yet.
It still was a far cry from that mess of his first fight, though.
He had never seen Master Chen show that kind of expression before.
“Shall we eat breakfast?”, Xie Yi switched the topic, clearing his throat. He often ate with Shi Yue, especially when Xu Yan was busy and didn’t have time to eat with him.
“Well”, Shi Yue muttered to himself. “Come in.”
The young man didn’t need to be told twice.
He entered without restraint, walking forward towards the inner room. It had gotten too cold for eating outside. He glanced around but didn’t see Xue Hua anywhere. Since he hadn’t seen Mingtian this morning, either, it was likely that the two were off to somewhere again.
Mingtian appeared to like Xue Hua a lot. It was different from how he interacted with Xie Yi, but the beast always looked so happy that Xie Yi dropped the issue and didn’t ask. As long as Mingtian was happy, that was enough.
Ying Hua wasn’t around every time, either. Who knew where she was. Possibly sleeping. Most sword spirits didn’t wander around as much as she did, anyway.
“I’ll bring your portion, too”, Xie Yi called out from the kitchen, hearing Shi Yue reply with a hum.
Breakfast was a light soup that was perfect for warming up.
He easily carried the bowls and placed one in front of Shi Yue before sitting down himself. He was pleased whenever they had soup – somehow, he liked the sight of Shi Yue lowering his eyes and carefully sipping out of the bowl. It was incredibly elegant and aesthetic.
Shi Yue talked in between sips of the nourishing soup while gazing outside. It looked like it would snow soon. “How is your progress with the martial technique I have taught you?”
Xie Yi winced and sipped slowly at his bowl to gain a few seconds. Unable to drag it any longer he finally had to set it down and awkwardly avoid his master’s eyes.
“I’m… working on it.”
Xie Yi had had to realize a quite painful truth as he advanced.
He knew arrays like the back of his hand and was happily engaging in learning the ones of the Virtuous Sect.
Controlling spiritual energy was like breathing to him.
Physical training was easy and his talent at fighting was undeniable.
So, it came as a great surprise to him and everyone around – excluding Mingtian, who had feared exactly that – that Xie Yi stumbled badly at integrating his spiritual energy into his movements and use special, martial techniques.
Mingtian and he knew the reason, of course. Hundreds of years of the demonic path had given him habits. The very roots of the demonic and spiritual path were the same, but the way their energy was used was quite different. Ultimately, that meant that Xie Yi had never had to perform a single technique of the spiritual path.
Contrary to everyone else, who were starting at zero, he was starting at a minus. He needed to get rid off his old habits first!
That did throw his progress to a point where he wasn’t any faster than any other disciple when it came to learning techniques.
His master was at his wit’s end. He simply couldn’t understand why Xie Yi was having so many problems.
Xie Yi ducked his head embarrassedly. Actually, the techniques that the Virtuous Sect used were too kind for him and not that suitable. His old techniques were cold – quick and violent, with a focus on recklessly attacking and then evading before repeating. They were flexible and mixable.
Those new ones were the polar opposite. All of them had a good balance between never ignoring your defence or offence when executing them. They were structured to the point that you almost had to memorize which techniques could be paired well.
It went against his instincts.
Author’s Note
Woooo! Timeskip!
Xie Yi is now 21 – he was 18 in the original version of the story, but it’s going to be adjusted to make people from countries where 21 is the age of legal adulthood not uncomfy 🙂
Oh wow a 21 y/o is cute! Its nice to see so much change in him. But i wonder .. what happend to Yao Ming…
Im also glad that Mingming and XueHua’s relationship developed a lot.
Thanks for the chapter!
Lmao i’m not surprised at all about him cutting off limbs accidentally💀 Ooh i wonder how he’ll overcome this! Or, how long it’ll take khh
Shi Yue, now that Xie Yi is all grown up, look at his beauty!!! Let him ✨seduce✨ you uwu~ Just accept it my dear~ it’s your destiny~
Ty for the chapter!💜💜💜
omg i didn’t expect a time skip sjbdksndidne I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!
I do mention it, but Shi Yue basically switches arts every few months to try something new when something doesn’t stick with Xie Yi. But in the end, he doesn’t know the issue at the core, so of course he can’t adjust the plan perfectly to Xie Yi’s needs
Yes later I read that Yue was already trying to find the right technique for Xie, which relieved me a lot and canceled my rant/tantrum, thanks for replying! (during my answer I ended up getting excited and writing in my language 😅😅😅😅😅)
Sim, depois li que Yue já estava tentando encontrar a técnica certa para Xie, o que me aliviou muito e cancelou minha reclamação/birra, obrigado por responder!
Sneaky but not actually sneaky XY haha everyone just accepted it and might even make his as an exception in the teacher’s area.
Ca I find it hilarious that people is still seeking spars from him? It’s not even ones with bad intent like I had thought, thy just want to improve their fighting and pain tolerance maybe
Woooo adult!!!
Overheard discussions on the training grounds…
Disciple A; I fought with XY. Look! This is where they reattached my finger!Disciple B: That’s nothing! When I fought with him, he severed my whole armDisciple C: Weaklings! I’ve fought with him 3 times! My pain tolerance has improved so much, it barely itched the last time he cut off my hand