"Little shaman."
As soon as Karu pushed open the door, his booming voice rang out. Seeing Jing Kewei and Lien in the courtyard, he teased, "Lien looks quite a bit sturdier."
Jing Kewei glanced at him, then continued drenching Lien with water-element spiritual power. Lien stood stark naked under the pounding cold water, his eyes closed as he braced himself with all his strength. "Harder, harder."
Jing Kewei and Lien's relationship had developed from constant bickering into this harmonious, affectionate scene. Ever since Lien discovered that the other's water-element spiritual power could alter the trajectory of his arrows, some wire in his head seemed to have crossed. He kept asking the other man to "torment" him like this, as though determined to settle a score with the water.
Naturally, Jing Kewei showed no mercy. With the resentment between humans and the Beast Tribe in mind, he really had wanted to teach this unruly Lien a lesson at first, to show him that humans were no easy targets either.
After accidentally learning about Lien's tragic past from Little Minghui, however, he set aside the grudges between their races and looked at Lien simply as an adult looking at a child. The boy had only just lost his family; a little rebelliousness was normal. That spark of kindness in his heart stirred, and he even went easy on him when they fought over the room's only bed. After all, the brat still needed to grow, didn't he?
"What are you spacing out for? Don't tell me you can't keep it up?" When the water abruptly stopped, Lien glared unhappily at the distracted Jing Kewei.
"What do you mean, can't keep it up? I'll show you what I'm capable of!" Leave this brat unbeaten for three days, and he'd climb onto the roof