Xiao Chunhe had not slept all night. Now curled up in Yue Jingming’s arms, surrounded by his cool, sharp scent, his eyelids gradually grew heavy even as he continued to protest.
He stretched out a paw and kneaded Yue Jingming’s chest, then could not resist licking him twice more.
Yue Jingming looked down at him. “Don’t make trouble.”
Xiao Chunhe opened his mouth in a huge yawn. “I’m not making trouble. I was so worried last night that I couldn’t sleep at all. I wanted to sneak back for a few days and then return, but I was afraid you’d panic and fall into qi deviation. If I don’t go back, though, my life is in danger. It’s enough to drive a fox mad. If I lick you a little, I feel much more at ease.”
Whenever he returned to the form of a small fox, Xiao Chunhe was much more honest in both speech and behavior, and his temper became far more straightforward. Yue Jingming had noticed this long ago. Aside from that time when Xiao Chunhe had been gravely injured, however, the fox demon rarely returned to his true form.
Yue Jingming stroked his back and held out a finger. “Then lick.”
The little fox tentatively licked his palm, closed his mouth around his finger and bit lightly, then moved on to his wrist. Yue Jingming pinched his ears and lowered his head to kiss his forehead. The soft fox fur carried a faint pine fragrance. He had probably used Yue Jingming’s soapberry again the night before.
The little fox became unusually excited after being kissed on the forehead. It rolled over in Yue Jingming’s arms and exposed its belly. Yue Jingming looked thoughtful as he rubbed its stomach and scratched under its chin. A faint purring sound rose from the fox’s throat as it narrowed its eyes in bliss.
A trace of amusement flashed through Yue Jingming’s eyes. He said gently, “Sleep. Leave everything to me. We’ll talk again when you wake up.”
Xiao Chunhe had not intended to sleep, but this Daoist made a fox feel far too safe. He draped his tail over Yue Jingming’s wrist, rolled over, nestled into his arms, and closed his eyes. Before falling asleep, he warned him, “I’ve already been this honest with you. Whatever you do, you have to discuss it with me.”
“All right.” Yue Jingming pinched his ear. “I won’t make decisions for you on my own.”
Only then did Xiao Chunhe fall asleep in satisfaction.
Perhaps because the fifteenth was drawing near, the little fox’s whole body was icy cold to the bone. Holding him felt like holding a block of ice. Yue Jingming had very little true qi left now and could barely channel any into Xiao Chunhe. He pinched the fox’s ear and thought of another way.
Ye Shijiu diligently poured true qi into the paper figures and asked eagerly, “Master, storing true qi inside paper figures is really clever. Could I fold one for myself later and keep it for emergencies?”
Yue Jingming said, “Every breath you take is full of true qi, and you can use it whenever you wish. Why go to all that trouble?”
Ye Shijiu said, “What if I can’t breathe?”
“Wouldn’t that mean you were dead?” Liang Yun blurted out.
Ye Shijiu turned and stared at him resentfully. Liang Yun leaned closer and whispered, “Did you forget how badly you got beaten last time you played with paper figures?”
“…” Ye Shijiu quietly put the little paper figures he had hidden back where they belonged, lining them up neatly.
* * *
When Xiao Chunhe woke, the room was dim. A ring of palm-sized paper figures stood hand in hand around him, their eyes dotted in blood glowing red, their mouths curved into eerie smiles.
Xiao Chunhe froze where he was, clutching his tail in his arms without daring to move. He blinked in bewilderment, made sure he was not dreaming, then rubbed his eyes with one forepaw.
“Don’t be afraid. It’s a Qi-Gathering Formation,” Yue Jingming’s voice came from the darkness.
“Where did you get the true qi?” Xiao Chunhe looked up toward him.
Yue Jingming’s expression was calm. “I borrowed it from Shijiu.”
“Tsk.” Xiao Chunhe sat upright inside the formation, curling his tail around his front paws. “This formation doesn’t look quite right.”
Even as a fox demon, he could tell at a glance that the formation was hardly orthodox. It faintly resembled certain principles of Puppet Arts, neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil, and even carried a trace of ghost qi.
“If it can save someone, righteous or evil does not matter,” Yue Jingming said evenly. “The puppet nails inside you carry a curse. It activates on the fifteenth of every month. This Spirit-Gathering Formation can suppress the curse on them, and then true qi can be used to open your meridians and protect your heart meridian so you can pass through the episode safely.”
Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes. “What kind of Spirit-Gathering Formation can suppress a curse that powerful?”
Even on Zixu Mountain, he had needed the mountain-protecting formation and a great deal of bloodletting just to barely endure that overwhelming pain.
“…A secret Zushan method,” Yue Jingming said.
Xiao Chunhe said gloomily, “You really aren’t afraid Zushan will expel you from the sect.”
“If I cannot even protect my own Dao companion, then I deserve to be expelled,” Yue Jingming replied, his voice cold yet unwavering.
Xiao Chunhe lowered his head and shifted his paws, stepping on his restless tail. “Actually, we still haven’t consummated our relationship. I was teasing you. What we did before didn’t really count.”
“I know,” Yue Jingming said.
“You know?” Xiao Chunhe’s head snapped up.
Yue Jingming looked at him calmly. “I would only do such things with my own Dao companion. Whether we have consummated the relationship or not, you are still my Dao companion.”
Xiao Chunhe opened his mouth, unable to stop himself from smiling, yet still found it unbelievable. “How did you know we hadn’t consummated it?”
The confusion on this handsome Daoist’s face that day had not seemed feigned.
“I asked Liang Yun,” Yue Jingming said calmly.
“What?!” Xiao Chunhe nearly sprang out of the Spirit-Gathering Formation. “Y-you asked Liang Yun about something like that? No, wait. When did you ask him?”
“Last night,” Yue Jingming said. “Brother Liang could not explain it clearly, so he bought some illustrated material for me to look at. Then I understood.”
Xiao Chunhe’s vision went black again and again. “You went to ask Liang Yun about that in the middle of the night, and he actually dared take you to buy that kind of thing?!”
“Brother Liang has spent many years in the capital and is widely experienced,” Yue Jingming said. “This is something that cannot be avoided. One has to understand it sooner or later. Brother Liang already knows about us, so he is not an outsider.”
Xiao Chunhe ground his teeth. “You’re really something.”
Yue Jingming’s brow moved slightly.
Xiao Chunhe immediately sensed something off. “You never went to Liang Yun at all. You’re bluffing me, aren’t you?”
Yue Jingming reached out and pinched his fox ear without answering.
“I knew it. No matter what, you would never go ask someone else about this kind of… this kind of thing!” Xiao Chunhe bit him in anger. “What sort of propriety is that?”
Yue Jingming let him bite his hand and said, “There were illustrated books in the storage pouch you gave me. I never looked at them before, but last night I had nothing to do, so I took a look.”
There had been too many things stuffed into the pouch. Only after hearing this did Xiao Chunhe remember that he had once bought two such books. He immediately grew a little embarrassed. “Instead of properly cultivating the No-Thought One-Mind Art, what were you doing flipping through those?”
“The No-Thought One-Mind Art is no longer suitable for me,” Yue Jingming said.
Xiao Chunhe frowned in disapproval. “The Myriad Demons Scroll is in your hands, we still don’t know where the moyao is, and plenty of demons must be watching you greedily. Rebuilding your cultivation at a time like this would be courting disaster.”
“Exactly because of that, I need to find another path.” Yue Jingming lowered his eyes. “I can no longer achieve no-thought.”
Xiao Chunhe froze. “Because of me?”
“Not entirely because of you,” Yue Jingming said honestly. “Everything that has happened before played a part. Worldly desire has already arisen in me. If I continue cultivating the No-Thought One-Mind Art, I will only suffer backlash.”
“But you worked so hard cultivating all these years. It would all be wasted.” Xiao Chunhe felt the injustice of it for him. “This is all because of me. I can just leave you.”
“It is not your fault. What’s done cannot be undone. I was the one who failed to guard my heart.” Yue Jingming stroked the little fox’s head. “Besides, cultivation can be rebuilt if it is lost, but there is only one Xiao Chunhe. Through all the countless years ahead, the one who will spend them with me is you. This is my own choice.”
Xiao Chunhe said quietly, “Rebuilding cultivation is no easy thing. And right now you’re tangled in ghost qi and already close to qi deviation.”
“Qi deviation is nothing more than true qi running against its course and the mind falling into unrest. If I disperse all my cultivation, that problem will disappear.” Yue Jingming looked at him seriously. “You have to help me.”
“Of course I’ll help you,” Xiao Chunhe said urgently. “I’d give you my dantian if I had to.”
“That won’t be necessary. My No-Thought One-Mind Art can suppress the gu demon inside you. Instead of dispersing everything for nothing, we might as well make full use of it.” Yue Jingming lowered his voice. “We’ll refine it.”
Xiao Chunhe’s eyes shifted, and he immediately understood the key. “The demon-gu is inside me. If you refine it, then once it is under your control it can deal with the curse on those nails… This isn’t a Spirit-Gathering Formation at all. It’s a Soul-Devouring Formation!”
Yue Jingming scratched the little fox under the chin. “The price may be high. You might lose all your cultivation just as I will.”
“I think you’ve really gone mad.” Xiao Chunhe murmured, “It must be the ghost qi affecting you. Damn Feng Qingying. She’s going to get both of us killed.”
“If this keeps dragging on, my No-Thought One-Mind Art will make no progress and I’ll suffer backlash, while you’ll remain bound by the demon-gu and the nails forever.” Yue Jingming slowly smoothed the fur on his ears. “We’ll both end up trapped in a dead end, and we won’t even be able to remain Dao companions.”
For all his usual unruliness, Xiao Chunhe was an extraordinarily cautious fox. If he had not been cautious enough, he would have died many times over on Zixu Mountain. Yue Jingming, by contrast, was normally steady and dependable, but life on Zushan had always gone smoothly for him. Outwardly he followed the rules, yet underneath he was astonishingly bold, as could be seen from all the forbidden techniques he had learned.
“You’re lucky your character is decent. Otherwise you’d definitely become a demon king who turned the whole world upside down,” Xiao Chunhe concluded.
Yue Jingming said, “We can send the ghost qi to Xiao Wen along with everything else.”
Xiao Chunhe said, “…That’s not completely impossible.”
Standing in the shadows, Yue Jingming gave him a gentle smile.
A chill ran down Xiao Chunhe’s spine and all his fur seemed to stand on end. He asked hesitantly, “Are you really all right?”
Yue Jingming lowered his eyes, hiding the black mist within them. “Occasionally I have unfamiliar emotions and thoughts, but I can still suppress them. Before my cultivation is completely dispersed, if I behave improperly toward you later, don’t hold back. Just tie me up.”
Xiao Chunhe raised a brow. “What counts as improper?”
Yue Jingming’s gaze fell on the ring of paper figures surrounding the fox. “Come out now. If you stay any longer, you’ll turn into my spirit pet.”
Xiao Chunhe’s tail puffed up. He immediately shot out of the paper-figure formation that was supposedly a Spirit-Gathering Formation, actually a Soul-Devouring Formation, and in truth something even he no longer knew how to classify. He stared at Yue Jingming in alarm. “When exactly did you start falling into qi deviation?”
Yue Jingming answered calmly, “Probably… when I saw you would rather sever a finger than let anything happen to that heart.”
Jealousy surged up, impossible to restrain.