Xiao Wei’s sword was a gorgeous thing. It was so polished that it sparkled when the sun hit it, the hilt purple and silver. Xiao Wei indulged Ira before they started flying on it, using the sword to go through several quick and smooth motions. The sword moved so fast that it would only appear as a blur to the subpar human eye.
Ira clapped his hands when Xiao Wei finally stopped moving, the man’s chest heaving from the effort he’d spent the last hour. They were in a clearing in the woods, the sweet sounds of nature surrounding them. Xiao Wei had spent an hour moving, the energy emanating off him in waves as he handsomely waved the sword around. Ira was not above admitting his jealousy.
He’d tried waving his own sword around like that and he almost removed his own eye. And then he’d almost removed Xiao Wei’s eyes, which was far worse. Xiao Wei was human, he actually had uses for his eyes!
Granted, this body did have some cultivation training. It could use a sword. But that wasn’t any fun. He wanted to use the sword with his own knowledge, it was just that he didn’t have any. At some point between missions, the knowledge had been erased. By his own choice, yes, but maybe he should rethink the kind of things he deleted.
Actually, nope. He wasn’t doing that. There was a reason he deleted those things and he would just have relearn how to sword fight.
It couldn’t be that hard, right?
Putting his sword down and heaving for breaths, Xiao Wei walked over to where Ira was sitting on an overturned log and collapsed next to him. Ira frowned and asked, “Aren’t you stronger than that?”
Xiao Wei opened one eye and glared at him. “Yes,” he bit out. “But I was up half the night doing some… ah… strenuous things that required a significant amount of energy.”
“You mean you were killing people,” Ira said. Then he narrowed his eyes, “Did you fly there and not tell me?”
Xiao Wei averted his gaze, “…Yes.”
Ira scoffed. “I can’t believe you flew and didn’t tell me.”
“So, to clarify, you’re not upset about the killing people thing?” Xiao Wei asked, turning on his side to stare at Ira with an intense gaze.
“No.” Ira furrowed his eyebrows. “Why would I be? I’ve killed lots of people, too.”
Xiao Wei blinked. “Right,” he said, his voice musing, “I knew that. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t changed your mind.”
Ira rolled his eyes. “If you’re done resting, can we go fly now?” he asked, a petulant tone to his voice. Xiao Wei laughed, pressing himself up onto the log next to him (he’d been sitting on the ground, leaning against it) and Ira said, “I’ll give you three kisses if we go now.”
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.
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“How could I possibly resist that magnificent offer?” Xiao Wei drawled, his lips twitching, and stood up. He grabbed his sword and walked in front of Ira. Holding out his hand, Ira grabbed it and was pulled up.
The sword hovered in the air before them.
Ira licked his lips, his eyes sparkling, his heartbeat beginning to speed up. Obviously, he’d flown plenty of times in his long, long life, but it was a different thing to fly without a clunky machine surrounding you. Flying on a sword was just about like flying with wings, and it was an experience he was going to keep.
Actually, maybe he’d discard it so that he could experience this for the first time again. Take plenty of pictures, maybe even keep a video of it, but still have the ability to relive the moment he stepped onto that sword and was released by the tired strings of gravity.
His balance was impeccable, but he still allowed Xiao Wei to hold onto his waist. They slowly rose through the air until they hovered at about treetop level, and Ira was already starting to take his pictures. He wasn’t going to miss a moment; his eyes glued to the ground beneath them as they began to move forwards.
They rose higher and higher, until they were flying amongst the clouds. Ira almost held his breath at the beauty of it; the clouds surrounding them, the distant horizon and it’s mountains, the ground below them. It was different, seeing it in person instead of through his mind.
It was so colorful.
The colors were vibrant, enchanting, powerful. Ira didn’t spend a lot of time concerning himself with the color composition of the worlds he visited, but he this must be one of the most beautiful ones he’d ever seen. Maybe that was because there was no industrialization messing things up. Maybe it was because so much of the nature was deadly and deadly things in nature tended to be pretty. Regardless, he kind of lost his breath for a moment there.
“Enjoying yourself?” Xiao Wei asked, his breath hitting Ira’s ear. Ira scrunched up his nose at the sensation, but leaned further against Xiao Wei’s wide body.
“Yes,” he said. He did. Flying was fun, the view was gorgeous; what was not to like?
Xiao Wei hugged him tighter. “Good,” he said, and pressed his head into the space between Ira’s shoulder and his neck. Ira shuddered, his eyes fluttering slightly. His eyelashes trembling, he continued to stare at the view until his eyes watered and he was forced to blink again. He wanted to cement it in his mind, wanted to burn it into his brain until he wouldn’t forget this feeling.
The breathless feeling persisted until they were back on solid ground again. Ira’s stomach had fluttered the entire journey, his hands clenching on Xiao Wei’s arm around Ira’s waist. His heart had been beating far faster than it’d ought.
On solid ground, Ira fluttered around the sword for a bit as it continued to hover in the air. Xiao Wei allowed him to caress the sword, allowed him to pick it up and play with it, waving it around. Eventually, though, night was beginning to set and they had to start walking again if they wanted to make it back to the inn on time for dinner.
They held hands on the way back, Ira swinging the arm connected to Xiao Wei and practically skipping over the ground. He was happy. He’d enjoyed the journey and he’d enjoyed it even more because it had been with Xiao Wei.
“Thank you,” Ira said as they approached the inn. It was bustling today; it looked like a whole band of customers had arrived while they’d been gone.
Xiao Wei grinned, “No problem,” he said and squeezed Ira’s hand.
They walked up to the entrance and squeezed their way passed the crowd of people milling about. Xiao Wei led the way to the food area, where they were seated instantly by a very polite server. Ira let Xiao Wei order their food, more concerned with the fact that he’d forgotten his Host again.
Making sure that Xiao Wei was ordering something he liked, Ira spaced out and zoomed in on his Host. She was still on her sect’s grounds, at least. At first, he wasn’t entirely certain what she was doing but when he zoomed in even further, it appeared like she was playing with a small animal? A cat of some kind?
…Ira didn’t have a cat. That cat looked meek and useless, too. Surely, Ira could find a greater cat; bigger, cuter, meaner and all together far more adorable than that tiny thing.
Anyway, that wasn’t what he was supposed to be doing.
Ira turned the sound up so he could hear what she was saying. Then he turned it down until he couldn’t hear anything at all, because he didn’t want to know anything more about her or what she was doing than he absolutely had to. He wasn’t interested in her daily life or her schemes; in fact, he’d prefer to have nothing to do with her at all.
Shaking his head, he continued to watch. The cat-like animal eventually left the confines of his Host’s arms and wandered into the forest surrounding the sect. She looked after it with a surprisingly calculating expression. Ira rolled his eyes.
This was not fun.
He continued to watch her until his food arrived—nothing interesting happened during that time, but now he could at least say that he had done his job. Honestly. He had.
Totally.
The food wasn’t as good as the food at Xiao Wei’s place, but it was edible and had spices. It sated his hunger, caused his stomach to stop growling at him like it was a beast on the verge of escaping it’s prison to reclaim its rule of terror.
Ira was way hungrier than he’d thought, huh.
“Thanks,” he muttered to the server when his meal was set before him. He smiled at Xiao Wei, pleased that the man had gotten him food he liked. Xiao Wei smiled back, his eyes glittering in the candlelight.
Ira gulped. He threw himself over the food and ate it viciously; the speed at which he swallowed putting him at risk of choking. He did, in fact, choke a little bit when he almost swallowed air instead of his drink. (Not fun. Would not recommend.) It left him coughing with a weird feeling in his throat, like there was something stuck there.
After the dishes were depleted and he was left toying with the cutlery, just waiting around to see what would happen next. He sighed, leaning back against the chair and watching as Xiao Wei ate at a much more sedately pace. The other man was taking his time, probably actually tasting the food that he was eating. Ira had skipped that in favor of silencing his stomach as quickly as possible, though it was now feeling kind of bloated.
He wasn’t sure if it was a better or worse feeling. It felt like it could both. Easily.
Finally, Xiao Wei, too, was done.
Ira straightened, suppressing a yawn as he looked at Xiao Wei and waited to see what he would do now.
Xiao Wei finished putting away everything, neatly stacking the cups and bowls and plates on the table so it’d be easier for the server to collect them. He patted himself on his stomach and exhaled softly, glancing up at Ira and smiling. “I believe there’s something you owe me?” he asked, tilting his head to the side and smirking.
Ira narrowed his eyes. “Clean your teeth first, then we’ll talk.” Normally, it wasn’t something that bothered hi, but they’d just eaten. Literal minutes ago. He would prefer to kiss somebody whose mouth as clean, was all.
Xiao Wei pouted. “Fine~” the man drew out the word unnecessarily. Ira just rose an eyebrow. Snickering, Xiao Wei rose from his seat and held out his hand, easily pulling Ira up. “Alright then,” Xiao Wei said, sounding cheerful. “Let’s go our room and I’ll clean up.”
Ira grinned at him. He nodded, curling his hand securely around Xiao Wei’s arm, and together they went up to their room. He waited the short time it took for Xiao Wei to finish brushing his teeth, spending the time reading a book on a divan. When Xiao Wei was done, Ira allowed himself to be swept up into a warm embrace.
“Alright?” Xiao Wei asked, his voice husky.
Ira contained the urge to shiver, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. His heart beat loudly in his ears, his hands clenching down on Xiao Wei’s back. “Yes,” he rasped, feeling warmer than he should.
They spent quite a long time kissing.
A/N: I’ve updated the Masterlist of my early access novels on Patreon~ (There are quite a few new ones on there, so please check it out!)
Awwww, yes!
Thank you for the hard work
OMG that was so beautiful!!! This is probably my favorite arc. The progress here is impeccable.
Thanks for the beautiful chapter!
fjdifiwiwiejoqow THANK YOU SO MUCH AUTHOR😭😭
yes, this is how i die. screaming and giggling at Ira’s development😌
They have such a great dynamic, this chapter was a treat. 🥰