It was evening, and Feng Yi of Yinfeng Pavilion was walking down a street in Nanhe town with rather mixed feelings.
Although his best friend, Rong Xue, had insisted it would be fine, he still felt apprehensive about this trip. After all, his master had entrusted him with delivering a very rare piece of jade to Jinlan sect. Delicately carved into the shape of plum blossoms, the Thousand Year Plum Blossom jade was definitely a worthy engagement gift for the newly named successor, Miss Shen Hua. However, Feng Yi still felt that this assignment was a little bit odd. Since his Senior Brother Feng Ming was her fiancé, he should have been the one taking care of it...
“You know, Brother Feng…if you sigh like that again, I’ll assume you’re missing a lover,” Rong Xue teased as they walked back towards the inn.
Feng Yi was about to retort, but then they ran into the problem that had been plaguing them for a few days now. Apparently Nanhe town wasn’t used to accommodating young men as dashing as Feng Yi and Rong Xue, and the town’s young women had taken to following them like chicks after a hen.
Of course, the girls could hardly be blamed.
Feng Yi was tall and dark haired with blue eyes and a heroic air. He carried his sword with the natural stride of someone well trained in martial arts. Rong Xue, on the other hand, was blond and blue-eyed, and exuded a flamboyant elegance that spoke to his ridiculous wealth. Both in their mid-twenties, neither was hard to look at.
Rong Xue, who only cared about the pursuit of beauty, had quite unabashedly encouraged the women, much to his companion’s consternation. As a more discerning person, Feng Yi was only just tolerating it, while his friend was eating up the attention like there was no tomorrow. This of course had created a unique opportunity for Xiao Jing, who’d been following them for the last few days. Relying on his slight frame, he had decided to disguise himself as a woman.
“Have you come again, my dears?” Rong Xue grinned at the gathering crowd. “Shall we invite them for a drink, Brother Feng?” he asked, nudging his companion as the women burst into giggles.
Feng Yi glared at him, but then stiffened abruptly when a brash young thing slipped her arm into his, pressing herself to his side. Other than her pretty green eyes, her face was covered with a veil. Dressed in a vibrant red and green dress typical of the western parts of the kingdom, her mid-riff was daringly bare, and her slender hips were accentuated by the swinging motion of light brown hair.
“Come,” the girl whispered huskily. “I know a good place...”
“Let go,” Feng Yi said coldly, brushing her off, but he’d apparently pushed her with too much force.
Being a gentleman, Feng Yi immediately regretted it, and reached out to halt her fall, but then his instincts snapped into overdrive as he realized the body in his arms didn’t feel quite right. Fully alert, Feng Yi blocked the delicate hand that slid up his waist.
“Rong Xue! It’s a beauty trap!” he grunted.
“Hmph, you wish!” snorted Xiao Jing from beneath the veil, shifting his shoulder to avoid Feng Yi’s open palm strike.
Had he been any slower, he would have been hit full on in the chest and no doubt coughing up blood. As this exercise had only been meant to test the waters, Xiao Jing flitted backwards, opting for a strategic retreat.
However, the sound of a sword being drawn made him swallow.
Crap! he thought.
With one kick of his foot, Xiao Jing leapt backwards onto a bridge rail, and then up onto the roof of a building across the canal.
“Rong Xue! Can you lend a hand?” Feng Yi shouted over his shoulder, about give chase.
However, his friend was completely mobbed with women and waved his hand with a “I can’t be bothered” expression on his face.
Feng Yi said something impolite under his breath and sheathed his sword with a disgusted clack.
“Don’t bother,” said Rong Xue as he cleared the women away with a honeyed excuse. “With her level of qinggong, she’s probably on the other side of town by now.”
“Why can’t you be more serious about this?” Feng Yi sighed.
“Since I’m not the one with the task, what’s there to be serious about? At any rate, if that was an attempt to steal from you, it was far too clumsy...” said his friend nonchalantly. “Hardly worth your concern...”
Feng Yi sighed in irritation.
“Come on...Let’s just go back to the inn. I’m sure there’s a jar of wine calling your name,” Rong Xue grinned, putting an arm around his shoulder.
****
It had definitely taken a good meal and more than one jar of wine to put Feng Yi back into a decent mood, but even after that he didn’t let his guard down. When he turned in for the night, he put his sword next to him in the bed and lay down fully clothed before pulling the quilt halfway over himself.
In the hour just before dawn, his vigilance was rewarded when he heard the window creak open. From the weight of the footfalls moving towards him, Feng Yi felt that it must be a young man.
Throwing the quilt aside, Feng Yi thrust the naked sword towards the intruder’s face.
CLANG!
Lunar blades! thought Feng Yi in astonishment as the masked youth brought his wrists together, directly blocking the sword with wickedly sharp blades that had suddenly sprouted out of his forearm guards.
Jade Forest’s Lunar blades are legendary...this is no ordinary brat!
The blades had been hidden within spatial gems on the guards and had been summoned at will.
Conversely, Xiao Jing thought: What a devilishly quick sword!
Taking care to avoid the next blow, the boy hopped up onto a small side table. Spinning the tiny table with his feet, he travelled the length of the room, cleverly avoiding the sword as he circled the table away with lightning-fast footwork...but Feng Yi was very determined and pressed sharply at every opportunity. Yet, even as their fight intensified, they were both at such a high skill level that their moves hardly made a sound...except when their blades met.
Yet, it only took one slip and the masked boy made a muffled exclamation as he lost his footing, twisting in mid-air as he tried to find purchase. He only just managed to put a foot down on a different table to keep himself from tumbling.
Feng Yi grunted at the boy’s quickness.
Dammit! Xiao Jing thought as the taller man tried to kick the table out from under him. Agile as a cat, he simply spread his legs out in a perfect split. Unfortunately, that put him in an even worse predicament as the position landed his junk right over a burning candle that’d been swept onto the floor.
“Whoa oh…haaa!” Xiao Jing gasped. Dammit!
Feng Yi grinned as the boy hastily reached to cover his balls.
“Cooked eggs are good too…” he laughed, swinging his sword ferociously.
“Who cooks eggs? Your entire family cooks eggs!” Xiao Jing retorted, bending backwards as the sword swung right over his nose. Flipping, he kicked his foot up, and booted the candle right at the swordsman’s face.
Schwing!
!!!!!
Xiao Jing choked off a gasp as he skidded back. The sword blade was so sharp and the movement so swift that the candle had not only split in two, but the burning wick had been split, sending two flames floating past the dark-haired man’s face. Unfortunately, the arc of sword light had also split Xiao Jing’s mask in two.
The pieces clattered to the floor.
Now that it was gone, Feng Yi confirmed that it was the green-eyed person from before, and as he had suspected, it was a boy…albeit a very pretty one…to the point that he would have been quite appealing if they were meeting under different circumstances.
“Good sword!” the brat remarked, clearly undeterred by the close shave.
“You still have the mood to joke?” Feng Yi breathed, bearing down on him.
“What is life, if you can’t have a good laugh?” the boy asked, shrugging as he swung his weapons into a defensive position.
Despite himself, Feng Yi felt a moment of grudging admiration.
Clang!
The three blades shivered against each other, ringing with force. Yet, even with their hands fully engaged, both men were using their feet to kick and block, trying to find any opening to use to their advantage.
What Xiao Jing could not make up with strength, he made up with speed. Twisting, he managed to kick is opponent’s wrist, causing the sword to fly up and embed itself into the ceiling. Feng Yi leapt up to retrieve it, but he was stopped by a foot hooking over his ankle, yanking him back down.
Retracting the lunar blades, Xiao Jing grabbed the other man’s lapels and pulled the robe open, revealing a rather muscular chest. With a grimace, he reached in to grope around, but he couldn’t keep himself from blushing.
“Oi! W-Where are you touching?!” Feng Yi blurted in startlement. Eyes widening, he made a grab for the boy’s wrist. They both grunted as their wrists slid against each other, back and forth, as they blocked each other’s attacks in an unrelenting and furious dance.
“Where the hell is it?” Xiao Jing gritted in exasperation. “I don’t want to be touching you either!” he grumbled, still blocking as they fought for control.
“Shameless brat!” growled Feng Yi.
“Who’s being shameless? We’re both men. I’ve already searched your entire room. If it’s not here, then it’s directly on your body…don’t tell me you put it somewhere...weird…?” Xiao Jing groaned.
It was Feng Yi’s turn to blush, and he unintentionally slapped his hand over the offending mouth, which of course gave Xiao Jing the opening he wanted.
Searching around in the loosened robes, Xiao Jing skimmed his hand down the other man’s taut belly, and then realized that there was a storage pouch tucked into a pocket sewn into the sash.
HAH! Found it!
Xiao Jing grinned under the fingers still clamping his face, yanked out the pouch, and shoved it into his own robes.
“Y-You...!” Feng Yi burst out.
About ready to explode with temper, he shoved the boy’s smartass mouth, throwing his head back, but once again a foot hooked around his ankle, causing both of them to tumble onto the bed.
“Huh?” Xiao Jing huffed as he fell forward onto hard muscles, choking when he realized he was straddling the man’s thighs.
W-wait…what’s with this position…?
The swordsman stared up at him, dark hair in a messy cloud and mouth open in a pant.
Xiao Jing’s own mouth dropped open, and then he was appalled when he realized that the unfamiliar feeling in his stomach was a shock of desire.
They both froze, staring at each other, but then Feng Yi seemed to win over his loss of composure, and flipped the boy flat onto his back. He bucked heavily, but both wrists were unceremoniously slammed onto the bed over his head.
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