Chapter 26: Sparring Part 2

It was only after Lu Shiyuan gripped her right wrist that Shang Si reacted, a half-beat late. She stared blankly at the flawless white skin. “Huh? Isn’t this the hand… Where’s your injury?”

Right—the injury. Where was it?

The Ye Capital Imperial Vein granted its possessors cultivation talent far beyond the ordinary, along with robust constitutions. For Shang Si, superficial wounds like the ones she’d just suffered would heal in merely the time it took to burn half a stick of incense to a full one.

Lin Xiao knew this full well, which explained why he’d flown into a rage and cursed upon seeing her play up her injuries earlier.

Shang Si’s heart tightened, her eyes flickering as she started to explain. “Shiyuan, actually, I’m…”

But her words had barely begun.

“How could it heal so quickly? The medicine from Hua Qiu must be incredibly potent!” Unaware of Shang Si’s special constitution, Lu Shiyuan was utterly astonished. She gently traced her fingertip over the now flawless skin, marveling as she credited it all to Hua Qiu.

Shang Si merely blinked slowly. “Hua Qiu?”

The two women gazed at each other, the air hanging silent for a few breaths.

Unable to fathom that Lu Shiyuan would attribute the phenomenon to Hua Qiu’s spiritual medicine, Shang Si suddenly burst into laughter.

With the conversation having veered in this direction, she made no further attempt to correct the misunderstanding. Instead, she curved her vermilion lips and leaned into the mistaken assumption with a meaningful smile. “Then when we return to Yedu later, I’ll thank Hua Qiu properly on your behalf.”

Lu Shiyuan had no idea what Shang Si found so amusing. That very evening, she actually pulled out a sound transmission talisman and briefly expressed her gratitude to Hua Qiu.

Moonlight spilled through the half-open window onto the table’s edge. In the room, a small tongue of flame flickered atop the oil lamp, illuminating a modest patch of space.

Their exchange had been a muddled affair—one speaking in vague terms, the other misinterpreting entirely—yet they somehow carried on at cross-purposes for the better part of half a stick of incense. Shang Si lounged on the daybed in the room, her lips curved in a smile that never faded.

Her thoughts drifted, and she couldn’t help wondering how anyone in the world could be so utterly adorable.

“A Si, Hua Qiu’s asking when we can wrap things up and head back.” Lu Shiyuan suddenly turned with a soft call, pulling her back to the present.

Yedu’s affairs had piled up like mountains. During Shang Si’s absence, Hua Qiu had finally grasped what it truly meant to be a beast of burden. Now she desperately wanted someone—anyone—to help shoulder the miscellaneous duties.

“Tell her this is just the beginning.” Perhaps from lounging too long in one position, Shang Si’s forearm had gone a bit numb. She sat up and shook out her hand. The gold bell tinkled crisply with the motion, chiming against itself.

They’d only just obtained the Ten-Thousand-Year He Shou Wu from Lin Xiao, and next they had to head to the Demon Realm. It wouldn’t be quick.

Lu Shiyuan gave a soft “oh” at that, then turned back to the sound transmission talisman hovering in midair. She flashed a gleeful, schadenfreude grin. “Hua Qiu, you heard A Si, right? No need for me to repeat. Looks like you’ll have to tough it out a while longer.”

“Ah… it’ll take that long?” The single “ah” twisted through several plaintive tones. Even across thousands of miles, without seeing her face, Lu Shiyuan could picture Hua Qiu scrunching up her babyish features, radiating resentment.

But the griping lasted only a moment. Hua Qiu quickly shifted her scheming to someone else. “Fine, whatever. I figure Little Luo’s coming out of seclusion in a day or two. With Shang Si gone, I’ll rope her in to cover for now.”

“Shang Luo’s coming out of seclusion?” Shang Si, who had been listening quietly to their back-and-forth, finally spoke up.

The distance was there, but Hua Qiu heard her clearly from the other end of the talisman.

“Yeah, those seals you left aren’t holding up. Her cultivation breakthrough is way higher than we expected.”

The conversation brought up another familiar name beyond the three of them. Lu Shiyuan paused, her mind flashing back to the half-grown girl she’d pulled from the brink of death three years ago—rosy-lipped and white-toothed, beaming as she called her “sister.” Saving Shang Luo back then had led to all her later opportunities, a happy accident if there ever was one.

She wondered what that little girl had grown into over the years. She only dimly recalled Shang Si mentioning her niece in passing, a sentence here or there, nothing detailed.

In the span of that brief distraction, Shang Si had risen from the daybed and sidled up beside Lu Shiyuan. Right in front of her, she reached out and snapped the spirit talisman in two, capping it off with a spitefully provocative remark.

“—In that case, I’ll head back even later.”

The instant the talisman broke, the room plunged back into its usual quiet.

Shang Si wasn’t the least bit concerned that Hua Qiu might be fuming on the other end. To her, everything that needed saying tonight had been said.

Their eyes met. Lu Shiyuan blinked slowly, her gaze drifting to the subtle curve of Shang Si’s lips. She crooked her index finger and pointed lazily into the air. “A Si, tonight… you’ve been smiling nonstop.”

Was there something worth being so happy about?

It had been this way ever since they’d returned from the back mountain that afternoon.

“Is it because of the thing we retrieved from Senior Lin?” she asked.

Speaking of which, Lu Shiyuan only then remembered that after returning from the back mountain plaza today, she still hadn’t handed over the item Lin Xiao had given her to Shang Si.

But Shang Si saw through her intentions first and stopped her with a word. “You don’t need to give me that thing. Keep it for yourself.”

Lu Shiyuan froze mid-motion. “For me?” Deep puzzlement filled her eyes.

“What else did you think? Does Yedu lack for anything? I wouldn’t go to all this trouble just for myself.” As she spoke, Shang Si reached out. She had meant to tuck the stray hairs behind Lu Shiyuan’s ear, but her fingertip accidentally brushed the soft curve of her earlobe instead, sending a faint tickle through her heart.

On impulse, she changed course. With two fingers, she pinched Lu Shiyuan’s soft ear and rubbed it gently.

It was an intimate, lingering gesture, laced with an unusual undercurrent.

Only after a long moment did Shang Si realize she had done it all on instinct, without a second thought.

Meeting Lu Shiyuan’s bewildered gaze, she scrambled for an excuse, feigning nonchalance as she murmured, “Your ear feels a bit cold. Is the draft in here too strong?”

It was a lame cover, and the slip was already out. Lu Shiyuan took note.

Compared to her earlier way of showing care without a word or expectation of return, Shang Si had changed noticeably over the past few days. At the very least, she had laid her fondness for Lu Shiyuan out in the open, plain for all to see.

In the midst of their back-and-forth, Lu Shiyuan dimly pieced something together. “Then… what’s inside it?”

She couldn’t help her curiosity.

“It’s definitely something good for you. You’ll find out once you’ve repaired the spirit veins in your body and take it then.” Shang Si’s answer was vague, as if she had no intention of elaborating.

The more evasive she was, the more Lu Shiyuan knew the porcelain vial must hold something extraordinarily precious.

The spot her fingertip had rubbed was starting to burn.

Emboldened by who-knows-what, Lu Shiyuan stepped forward and gripped Shang Si’s shoulder.

Her fair hand stood out vividly against the woman’s fiery red gown. Their pose was indescribably intimate, the lamp flame dancing on the wick as Lu Shiyuan tilted her face up. On the wall, their shadows merged, resembling lovers locked in a close embrace.

From this near distance, Lu Shiyuan’s gaze roamed boldly over Shang Si’s face, catching every subtle shift in expression.

Shang Si’s faint unease did not escape her.

“A Si, you seem really nervous,” Lu Shiyuan said with a sudden soft chuckle, her crow-feather lashes brushing Shang Si’s cheek as she blinked.

Then she released the shoulder and stepped back half a pace. Tapping her slender finger thoughtfully, she eyed Shang Si. “I’ve felt like you’ve been acting strange these past couple of days—not just in what you say, but how you act too. You’re definitely hiding something from me.”

Lu Shiyuan tilted her head. “You are hiding something, aren’t you?”

The uncanny accuracy of her intuition filled Shang Si with a sudden, shameful sense of being exposed.

“No!” she shot back, a touch embarrassed and annoyed. She turned away, avoiding Lu Shiyuan’s face.

If anything, it only made her look more suspicious.

Unfamiliar with the notion of protesting too much, Shang Si stubbornly adopted the bearing of the Ye Lord to steer the conversation elsewhere. “Anyway, it’s getting late—about time for you to turn in. I have some business with Lin Xiao. You go ahead and sleep.”

It was a hasty excuse; she just wanted to escape for now.

At the door, she paused as if struck by a thought, turning back to Lu Shiyuan. Her red lips pursed lightly. “Oh, and in two days, we’ll set out from Kunlun. If there’s anything left for you to take care of, handle it soon.”

Beyond the threshold stretched the endless night, moonlight washing the courtyard in silver and lending a chill edge to Shang Si’s voice.

Lu Shiyuan was left thoroughly baffled.

This was Kunlun Sect, not Sword Spirit Sect. What could she possibly have to take care of?

Yet Shang Si pressed on with a deliberate reminder, emphasizing one name in particular. “You should probably say a proper goodbye to your senior brother Yun Feng too, right?”

She was acting so strangely.