After… whatever the hell that was, Lin Leng had simply told us that he had somehow managed to transfer emotion into his music.

Having seen stranger things, I chose to accept that at face value, and congratulated him for his new edge in combat. If he could inspire lethargy or sadness in an enemy fighter, it would reduce their power by a lot.

Chow caught a deer, a bruised and battered animal that looked like it had succumbed from a simple beating. The Monk was, predictably, appalled, but after I tasted the steak he had made with the food, it did taste good, and made for a much easier eating, with the way each bite practically melted on your tongue.

When we finally finished our meal, Deng Ming gathered us together, face buried in his map. “Next stop is a city.”

“Finally,” I muttered.

“You can say that again,” Chow said. “I can’t wait to crawl under some warm sheets. It’s been fun, for the most part, sleeping under the night sky, but we’re literally weeks from winter.”

That became clearer with each day that passed. I feared that we wouldn’t be able to sleep on the ground all willy-nilly in the coming weeks, which would force us to buy better camping implements, which would force us to spend more time between each resting stop.

Then again, if the alternative was freezing to death, succumbing to the elements, then I would gladly shell out some of Mentor’s money to keep my travelling party in a non-dead state.

“What’s the city name?” I asked.

“Chengdu,” Deng Ming said. “It’s one of the more famous cities. Definitely has all the necessary amenities to keep us outfitted for the rest of our journey, provided they can all fit into Yilan’s Bag of Holding.”

I nodded in confirmation.

“Which way is it?” Chow asked, his expression desparate.

Deng Ming took a moment to orient himself on the map, mumbling under his breath, then looking up at the sky towards the sun, before finally pointing right behind him.

Wei Chow took off like a rocket.

“How far is it?” Yu Jie asked.

“Ninety miles,” Deng Ming said with a rueful smile. “Let him run ahead a little. He’ll tire himself out soon enough and we’ll meet him panting on the road. Of course, that means one of you will have to carry him.”

We all turned to the Monk, who pointed at himself, slightly lost. We all nodded in confirmation, and he deflated as he resigned himself to having to carry Wei Chow.

As we walked, Yu Jie bumped into me in a very non-subtle way. “What are your plans when you get to the city?”

I smiled. “Well, my mentor always used to take me to a beautician. If Chengdu really is all that, we could get us a rather nice place to spoil ourselves in. My treat, of course.”

She smiled. “You sure do know how to treat a lady. If the other aristocrats were half the gentlewoman you are, I may not even have run away.”

“Only the best for you,” I grinned, nuzzling her nose to mine, before realizing that we were in public, then pulling back.

“What’s the matter?” Bai Guo asked, behind us. We both turned to him, almost scared out of our skin. “Don’t stop on my account.”

“Stop what?” I asked. It was a weak way to maintain plausible deniability, I knew that. Still, I had hoped that our involvement with each other would be revealed in a more formal setting.

“Being affectionate,” Bai Guo explained.

“What do you mean?” Why was I digging myself deeper?

“Well, you love Yu Jie,” Bai Guo said. “And she loves you. It has been quite obvious, now. We were hoping that you would drop your pretenses sooner, but you cannot force love.”

“Who knows?” Yu Jie practically demanded.

“I’m sure that everyone does,” he continued. “In fact, I am certain that everyone knew far before you both confirmed your feelings for each other. You were not exactly subtle.”

Okay… “And… you’re fine with it?”

“The heart wants what it wants,” Bai Guo replied. “In the front lines, I had walked into many a men performing love-making, their frustration mounting at the lack of available women.” Wait, what? “I do not begrudge them their outlets, and I will not begrudge you yours.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Well, okay,” I said, turning to Yu Jie, an innocent look on her face. I pulled her towards me and attacked her. She lost her inhibitions soon enough, kissing right back.

Bai Guo wasn’t just talking out of his ass, it seemed. When we were being openly affectionate in front of the others, they just flashed knowing smiles, happy that we had done something about what they had seen coming long before. Deng Ming spared us a glance of approval before turning back to his manuscripts. Lin Leng barely even minded us, but the Monk gave us both happy smiles, chanting some sutras he told me would make our love even more potent in the coming years or something.

For a guy who had sworn off sexual relations, he was awfully tolerant of them. Then again, if you wanted to recruit more Shaolin monks, there would be an obvious need for children.

True to Deng Ming’s predictions, we found Wei Chow on the ground, sleeping. From what it looked like, he had not only fallen down due to exhaustion, but he also fell asleep right after. The Monk took him on his back and carried him the rest of the way to the first piece of advanced civilization we had seen since Jixing City.

000

I had treated us all to the most expensive hotel the city had to offer, within the inner district. We had gotten a lot of odd looks due to our rather messy attires, and for good reason. Our clothes were torn in some places, having survived a tedious journey, and a battle against a crazed Fire-Blessed Martial Warrior.

When we got our rooms, I pulled out some robes from the bag of holding, if only to fend off the weird looks, and gave everyone a stipend of fifty gold to use.

Meanwhile, I took my girlfriend out to the beautician’s, with my entire bag of holding along with me, and an unlimited budget to treat her with everything that money could possibly buy, and unsurprisingly, there was not a lot that it couldn’t.

The artworks on the wall of the establishment we had entered were decked with serene artworks, not too overly garish as to suggest a lack of style. The whole area had a mellow mood to it. I felt my muscles relax just entering the place.

I had practically thrown money at the deskwoman, demanding the best treatment they could offer us. Stress had caused me to fall off my habit of combing my hair, and the prospect of pulling knots out of my hair was a rather scary one, so I had slacked until I could have access to hair product.

Yu Jie always kept her hair so perfectly straight on our journey, and her clothes immaculate despite the messy environment we had kept finding ourselves in.

I wanted to be more beautiful for her, now.

…Or… did she like me just the way I was?

I didn’t get an answer to the question I posed myself as Yu Jie dragged me into the changing room where we disrobed, and were given towels to use.

We entered the steaming hot bath first, and I felt like melting ice, on the brink of just completely becoming one with the water.

I barely had the mind to appreciate Yu Jie’s form as she slowly lowered herself into the water, beautiful as ever.

This was just the type of treatment I needed after going through so, so much.

By habit, I dipped into the state of Enlightenment, entering my core. The garden had grown well. The nine Divine Trees were growing strong, having become taller with the repeated use they had gone through. I fed them more of my Chi. It didn’t make the trees grow cancerously, now, but it did make them slightly larger, in a more stable fashion, the Wood Chi ready to be drawn upon at a moment’s notice.

I decided to dump my entire Chi stores into each tree, siphoning the Chi into them slowly. When I was done, all the trees had grown by a meter, good gains. I spent just a little more time replenishing my Core, taking it to a tenth of its capacity before Yu Jie roused me for the next step.

The massage was nice, managing to loosen my body in ways which I didn’t know they could loosen. I promised to commit the spots the masseuse was rubbing to memory, so I could maybe repeat the process with Yu Jie, or maybe somehow do it to myself. This actually felt like it could have some training benefits.

When it was over, they took us to get our skin powdered, lips reddened, hair fed and combed.

When they had taken us to a room with two mirrors for each of us, I wasn’t stuck on how I looked. I was stuck on how Yu Jie looked, how subtly different she was from before, enough to have my heart throbbing.

The attendants had left us in the room, just the two of us.

She let her robes fall down to her feet, appearing completely naked right in front of me.

I dropped my own robes, albeit reluctantly, and stepped towards her, hungry for something which I could not reliably name.

She walked towards me as well, and before we knew it, we were in each other’s arms, kissing hungrily. Her hands started wandering downwards and I let it, pulling her hand down and urging her on.

That day, Yu Jie and I made love.

000

We had to redo some of the beauty treatments, having gotten exceedingly messy in our love-making tryst. Still, it was worth the coin for what I had just experienced.

I really couldn’t put words to what that was. All I knew was that I wanted to do it again, and… I wanted to know exactly where she had learned to play with a woman’s body that way. Was I not her first time?

But… did that even matter? If she was with me now, who cared about what she had been up to before that? It wasn’t like she knew she was going to be with me that time, and besides, purity was overrated, a concept created by men to put a value on certain women.

At least that’s what Mentor said. It made sense, at least.

Since the cat was well out of the bag, Yu Jie and I shared rooms. After checking in with Deng Ming to see how he had progressed with requisitioning us camping gear, informing me that he would compile a list for the funds required, I had retired for the night with Yu Jie, where we ‘fought’ another round.

Then another.

And then another.

Did we even get any sleep that night, too?

We hadn’t gotten sleep the night before, so…

Was sleep even that important, what with the bombshell that laid her head on my chest, snoring lightly as I rubbed her hair gently.

Silently, I resolved one thing. I would get stronger. If it meant protecting Yu Jie, I would get strong enough to defy the heavens, and that wasn’t just empty boasting.

I would never let any harm befall her.

And she would never let any harm befall me. We were each other’s, belonging to each other. I loved her.