I Like Kicking You

At dinnertime, the sky was high and the clouds thin.

Night gradually surged in from the eastern horizon, causing the fiery red in the west to fade bit by bit before finally being swallowed by the enormous scar across the sky.

The students of the Dao Comprehension Ground rose and headed toward the Immortal Cuisine House, only to pause when they crossed the white jade bridge.

They saw Instructor Cao sitting on the stone steps, guarding an empty money pouch as he fumed and muttered about the decline of public morals.

No wonder she had refused it when he offered it—she only liked taking things by force!

What kind of freakish habit was this?

Seeing him curse under his breath, the students from the Dao Comprehension Ground all silently detoured around him. Upon reaching the Immortal Cuisine House, they saw Ji You sitting across from that extraordinary Fairy.

There was only one sect in Lingzhou, called Spirit Sword Mountain.

On the Winter Solstice, when they had gone to Hong Ding Tower for a meal, Ban Yangshu had said that Spirit Sword Mountain had originally been called Spirit Mirror Mountain.

The name originated from the primordial age of ignorance, when the Heavenly Dao bestowed seven sacred relics upon the world. The relic controlled by Spirit Mirror Mountain's founding ancestors had been the Spirit Mirror.

But after a thousand years of inheritance, one of Spirit Sword Mountain's later sect masters, obsessed with the sword, changed the "mirror" in its name.

Ji You still remembered that on the first day he had sensed the Heavenly Book, the Fairy beneath the mountain had asked him, "Why are you in my mirror?"

At the time, he had thought the word was "sword," but later, he increasingly felt it had actually been "mirror." The two words sounded the same, and both were related to Spirit Sword Mountain.

Then there had been New Year's Day.

He and Lu Qingqiu's group had gone to Shengjing for a meal, during which Lou Siyi had mentioned rumors concerning Spirit Sword Mountain.

Ji You put down his chopsticks, raised his head, and looked at Yan Shuyi, who was delicately eating her food. "I heard Spirit Sword Mountain recently lost a Young Master Jian."

Yan Shuyi raised her head and looked at him. "You're rather clever."

"So it really was you..."

"But I wasn't lost. I went out traveling."

Bracing himself against the table, Ji You said, "It just so happened that I ran into you today. Otherwise, I might not have had the chance to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I may not be able to cultivate with you from now on."

Yan Shuyi raised her head, and the beautiful space between her brows gradually furrowed.

Seeing this, Ji You explained, "The sect has given me orders. I may have to leave for a while, and I don't know when I'll return. I went to the Dao Comprehension Ground today intending to tell you in Void Mountain, but I didn't expect you to come instead."

Yan Shuyi poked at her food a few times with her chopsticks. "Wonderful. Without you, it can finally be quiet beneath the mountain."

"Then why did you come up to kick me during those days after the Winter Solstice when I didn't go?"

"I like kicking you."

After saying that, Yan Shuyi felt that she had sounded a little too soft and coquettish, so a trace of ferocity appeared in her eyes.

She truly was Spirit Sword Mountain's missing Young Master Jian, the next sect master who would wield the Spirit Mirror.

The elders of her Household had raised her from childhood to be sparing with words and smiles, every gesture carrying an authority that needed no anger.

That coquettish tone just now had to be his doing. If not, she would just kill him.

Yan Shuyi wore a pair of moon-white boots. Her small, exquisite feet swung back and forth beneath the table until she could no longer resist and kicked the other man's knee with a smack.

After being kicked, Ji You raised his head. After a long silence, he could not help laughing.

Like Yan Shuyi, he knew that the person before him was her, yet he was not entirely certain that she truly was her.

Thus, he always spoke with a degree of caution. It was unlike how natural he had been in Void Mountain, especially after he guessed that she might be the strongest direct disciple of the current age.

Beneath Void Mountain, when he started acting up, he had even dared to call her Little Demoness outright, and had been eager to pinch her cheeks.

But in reality, he felt there was a barrier between them.

Yan Shuyi also behaved differently from how she had beneath Void Mountain. A trace of chill often flashed through her gaze, and Sword Qi brimmed in every movement she made. It was as though she resisted becoming too familiar with him, maintaining a feeling of being both near and far.

Yet with that kick, the unfamiliarity in his heart suddenly faded somewhat.

"How long do you plan to stay in Shengjing?"

"After coming to Shengjing to see you this time, I still have matters to attend to. I'll be leaving soon."

Although Yan Shuyi kept emphasizing things like "on a whim," "I merely passed through Shengjing," and "I'll just stroll around and head back," she would always inadvertently reveal that she had come specifically because she wanted to see him.

And in truth, that was indeed the case.

If he had not been in Shengjing, Yan Shuyi might not have turned back midway.

If she said she had come specifically to see him, there really was nothing to argue about.

Ji You nodded. "Have you found somewhere to stay?"

"Spirit Sword Mountain's disciples traveling beyond the mountain all stay at Hengfeng Inn. I've already told them to reserve a room."

"Would you like a cup of tea before you go?"

"Alright."

Yan Shuyi rose and followed him out of the Immortal Cuisine House with a patter of footsteps. Having decided to drink tea before leaving, the two returned to Jade Garden of Bingshui Lake one after the other.

Ji You began lighting the stove and boiling tea, while Yan Shuyi began looking around the place.

During that time, they chatted on and off. They talked about how the house was small but rather cute, and what the bandit character carved into Ji You's wall meant, until the fragrance of tea filled the air.

How should it be put?

Ji You was clearly the sort who rarely spent time alone with women, while Yan Shuyi was also somewhat clumsy at pretending to be aloof.

Between familiarity and unfamiliarity, the two observed one another through tentative probing.

It was an exceedingly interesting thing. As for what they talked about and how the other answered, neither of them truly took it to heart.

"The tea's ready. Be careful, it's hot."

"Mhm."

"Would you like some roasted sweet potato?"

Yan Shuyi turned around with her hands behind her back. She watched Ji You raise a sweet potato, then looked at him.

Mhm, there was no rush anyway. She could eat a sweet potato before leaving.

On a winter morning, frost condensed over all things in the cold air. Dawn showed at the edge of the sky, like pale ink lightly brushed across paper.

After a night, the charcoal fire in the stove still burned in the cramped meditation room, though the ashes had turned white and it looked ready to go out at any moment.

Cultivators could ward off the cold with spiritual energy, but in ancient times, charcoal fires served more than just the purpose of warmth.

They could also roast sweet potatoes and brew tea.

Setting a kettle of water atop them to simmer slowly could also maintain the room's humidity.

Ji You walked out of the courtyard through the morning mist, dumped the cleaned-out ashes outside, then added fresh charcoal to the stove, used spiritual energy to kindle it, and casually tossed two sweet potatoes beneath it.

Yan Shuyi sat beside him, watching him bustle about without pause, obedient and quiet.

Yesterday, they had chatted, drunk tea, and tested one another, unconsciously sitting there until late into the night.

Thus, Spirit Sword Mountain's Young Master Jian had not returned to Hengfeng Inn, instead staying in the west bedroom of the meditation room.

She had risen early. Sleepiness still lingered on her delicate little face, smooth enough to seem as though it could break beneath a puff of air. Hugging hot tea as she sat around the stove, her bright eyes blinked softly.

"What do you want to eat this morning?"

"I don't have much of an appetite. I'll just have a roasted sweet potato."

Yan Shuyi answered, reached out to grasp the fire hook, and pulled out a roasted sweet potato, peeling away its charred, fragrant skin.

After finishing his work, Ji You found a small stool and sat down. He took out his chopsticks and continued training his Divine Sense shortcuts.

The two had not actually known each other long, yet they increasingly had the natural feeling of already living together.

After a while, a chopstick flew before Yan Shuyi. She merely looked straight at it, and it abruptly fell to the ground.

Ji You opened his eyes slightly. "What is Spirit Sword Mountain's sword path like?"

"Spirit Sword Mountain mainly cultivates natal spirit swords. It doesn't use so many swords like you do."

Although what she saw before her were chopsticks, Yan Shuyi recognized at a glance that he was practicing the foundational Sword Technique of sword control.

She yawned and curled up lazily beside the low table, both feet close to the warm stove. As she continued watching chopsticks dance all over the room, a wave of peaceful contentment rose in her heart.

Before coming here, she had also wondered what it would be like when the two of them met.

In her imagination, there would probably have been two possible outcomes.

The first was that the man would not be as interesting as she had imagined, so they would exchange a few idle words, wish each other well, and part ways.

After all, they were not that familiar. They merely cultivated together.

Or perhaps they would find one another quite compatible in conversation, sit down and discuss the Dao for a day, and become friends walking the same path.

But Young Master Jian had never imagined that one day, she would curl up beside a stove eating roasted sweet potatoes, lazily spending a winter morning without needing to think about cultivation or breaking through.

And Ji You's thoughts had actually been much the same as hers.

He had thought that if they met, they would either chat for a while, stroll around Shengjing afterward, and become friends.

If he could return safely from the ruins, then when they met again in Void Mountain someday, perhaps there would be the emotion of a reunion after long separation.

Or it would be like dry tinder meeting blazing fire, cultivation together at a touch, with him forcibly drained because his realm was too low.

But he had never imagined that one day, he would behave with such upright restraint and experience what true Dao Heart clarity meant.