Chapter 61: The Dragon’s Mountain (5)
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Yue didn’t even know how he was going to fall asleep after hearing that. He was bright red and didn’t even know what to do as he stared at the bathroom door for a while. He knew exactly what Viktor was doing and the more he thought about it the more his imagination started to wander. He quickly flipped his body and hid his face in his pillow in an attempt to stop himself from thinking any more explicit thoughts. He didn’t want to have to walk into the bathroom after Viktor came out, that would be way too much embarrassing for him.

He tried to calm himself down by having a prophecy. In the prophecy he was in a room with Viktor and some mages from the mage association, the room was quiet but everyone had serious looks on their faces. He wasn’t very sure what was going on but he noticed that he and Viktor were wearing their normal clothes like they weren’t in an expedition and the white streak in his hair seemed to have gotten a bit bigger.

The vision faded from his sight after successfully managing to steer his attention away from the current situation. He stared at the white streak of hair and sighed. He still couldn’t figure out what it was and if it meant anything bad. He wasn’t too worried about it though, he would’ve found out while cultivating if it was something that was hurting him.

He was slowly starting to get drowsy and he appreciated it, he didn’t want Viktor to come out of the bathroom while he was perfectly conscious. That would be embarrassing as well. He was a bit confused on why he was taking so long but he was tired so he didn’t really question it too much.

He heard the bathroom door open after some time but he was already closing his eyes so he didn’t say anything or even raise his head. Viktor was a bit surprised he fell asleep but he just laughed it off and let him sleep comfortably.

Yue woke up to Viktor putting on his uniform in the morning. He debated sitting up and saying something as he drowsily stared. He knew Viktor was probably already aware that he was awake so he just decided not to say anything. His eyes did wander a bit and he flushed red a little as he was reminded of Viktor’s “issue” the night before.

“Still cold?” Viktor asked, turning to face him after he finished tying his tie.

Yue nodded and tried to calm the redness of his cheeks as he watched Viktor come over to him. Viktor hugged him and gave him a peck on the lips before checking his temperature and taking a look at his hands.

“It’s much better now at least. I’ll get you breakfast so stay here.” Viktor said and smiled as he saw that Yue’s hands were practically back to normal now. He was going to stand and move away from him but Yue stopped him.

Yue reached into Viktor’s pocket and pulled out his pocket watch to check the time. It would be cutting it close if Viktor went to get breakfast for the both of them and came back. They had set up a schedule for how they wanted to do things during this expedition so he’d prefer it if they didn’t mess it up, especially not because Viktor wanted to get him breakfast.

“I’ll just go with you,” Yue mumbled and hesitated before taking off the blankets that were over his shoulders and rushing to get his fan so he could use to storage gem to find a jacket to wear. Viktor just watched, he had frozen up for a second when Yue looked through his pockets but he hid how flustered it made him quite quickly.

Yue put on the hooded coat he usually wore when going out to the mountains and even put the hood on. He got dressed super quickly because he was cold without his blankets. He rushed over to Viktor and locked arms with him.

“Let’s go, before I regret it,” Yue murmured and hugged Viktor’s arm, trying to get some warmth from him. Viktor kissed Yue’s cheeks before leading him off to the dining area.

Yue sat right next to the magic heating unit in the dining area while Viktor got him his food. Some other students were in the dining area so they greeted Yue as they passed and Yue just responded with a mumble of good morning and kept his head down and pointed toward the heater.

“Do you need anything, Captain? You seem cold..” Anika said with a worried expression as she stood beside Yue.

“I’m fine, Vik is getting me something warm to...”

Anika seemed to notice the same thing Yue noticed near the end of his sentence, The nickname. Anika had a look of surprise and a little amusement while Yue was glad his face was hidden by both his hood and by the fact that he was resting his head on the table.

“Something warm to eat. Viktor is getting me something warm to eat.” Yue repeated his sentence. He was embarrassed by how easily he let the nickname slip out. He didn’t expect it to be so easy to say it without meaning to. Now he was worried about using the nickname that he had mentally banned himself from using, accidentally.

“Captain, everyone knows you’re a loving couple, there’s no need to be embarrassed.’ Anika teased as she walked off, leaving Yue embarrassed.

“Hm? You’re embarrassed about something?” Viktor asked as he placed a soup and some other things in front of Yue and then set down his own food.

“I blame you,” Yue murmured and started eating.

“That’s good, I wouldn’t be very happy if anyone else made you embarrassed,” Viktor said with a smile.

“All of my embarrassment usually leads back to you, even if others have something to do with it,” Yue murmured, starting to eat, “So there’s no need for you to be jealous.”

“Even if you tell me that, I’ll still be jealous.” Viktor chuckled and kissed Yue’s cheek. Yue blushed a little and kept eating.

--

“You seem happy,” Mai murmured as she checked the cave they had seen during their last outing again. The cave was full of snow now but it was still untouched.

“I am,” Viktor said, not bothering to elaborate. He was very happy about all of the developments that had happened the night before, except for Yue getting frostbite of course.

‘You better not have done anything to Yue while he’s sick…’ Mai said through telepathy and glared.

“I didn’t. I definitely considered it though.” Viktor laughed.

“Should we try going out further?” Marianne asked as she looked off toward the rest of the trail they had been following.

“Yes, Yue wants to get the expedition over with pretty quickly so we shouldn’t slow down just because she’s not here,” Viktor said and exited the cave.

“The trail splits off near the foot of the mountain, split into two groups, and go either left or right, I’ll take the center path,” Viktor said before nonchalantly sliding down a decline to quickly get to the bottom of the mountain.

“The wyverns probably won't attack you but be careful!” He added.

“...Their leader is a dragon…One that likely looks much more intimidating than I do…”

“Huh?! Oh...well you are quite tiny. Most other incarnations have been bigger by the time they were your age.”

Yue’s eye twitched.

“I’m only 19, I'm still growing,” Yue murmured.

“Your human form’s growth doesn’t transfer over to your true form. That form is only going to get bigger if you swallow the pearl, which isn’t a good idea.”

“You’ve swallowed it before?” Yue asked, curiously turning around.

Yue’s cultivation technique was a technique created by Fei Xiang. It was different from the techniques that Xia Guiren and Lian Bai were taught. While Yue was learning to cultivate this way he asked Fei Xiang why he had to learn a different technique and only got ‘you’ll see’ as a response. He only ended up finding out why last spring when he was going on a rampage after Xia Guiren’s death.

The technique retreated his consciousness into a place that Yue could only assume was his soul. It was a vast and endless lake carrying fallen flowers from trees and plants he’d never been able to reach. He had been all alone every time he entered the space until that spring night. He entered the space completely accidentally, he hadn’t been cultivating, he had been in the middle of the forest, standing amongst the bodies of Hundun’s followers that he had slaughtered. He had already killed Li Chaoxiang but his grief and need to avenge Xia Guiren and his family had turned to indiscriminate rage.

He didn’t fully transform into a dragon but he transformed quite a bit and was about to go destroy the rest of Hundun when he was frozen and was pulled into the space.

The person he met in the space had never introduced himself, there was never a need for him to do so, Yue could recognize him. He was a previous incarnation of Azure Dragon, one much older and wiser than he was.

“Most incarnations end up doing it, and regretting it.” The other incarnation had the same black hair and vibrant blue-green eyes but that was where their similarities in terms of physical form ended. Even his dragon form looked different from Yue’s. Though that was because of their age difference and probably also the difference in their upbringing.

Yue was the only incarnation of Azure Dragon to ever spend so much time before entering the Azure Dragon temple, he was also the only incarnation to ever starve for significant amounts of time and the first to be abandoned. He couldn’t help but wonder why it was only him that was abandoned as a child as he stared at the scale-covered feet of the other incarnation. He already knew the answer though, it was a question he’d asked before. The other incarnation seemed to know everything. He said he didn’t usually look down to observe the matters of the living but he had kept an eye on him around the time he was born, simply out of curiosity.

Yue had asked him about a lot of things while he was cultivating in the Azure Dragon Temple but one of the main conversations was about how he was different from the other incarnations. He was the only one to be abandoned because he was the only incarnation to be born from people who weren’t devout believers of the Azure Dragon. All of the other parents of the past incarnations were incredibly happy to be the parents of Azure Dragon but Yue’s clueless parents couldn’t handle the thought of having a “cursed” child. The mood became bad after that conversation but the other incarnation didn’t try to salvage it, he honestly only made it worse.

“They tried to not let it bother them but when they reached that inn they heard about a cursed child with water-colored eyes who had killed his family a few days earlier and they became fearful and abandoned you there.”

“...”

Yue regretted asking after hearing that, the ‘inn period’ of his life was bad enough already but to hear that it all essentially happened because he was unlucky just made it much worse.

“It’s fine though isn’t it? Fei Xiang was a better parent than they could’ve ever been.”

Yue had never thought of Fei Xiang as a parental figure until the incarnation mentioned it and he hadn’t stopped thinking of that since then.

“I thought about doing it. But I guess the gut feeling that I shouldn’t do it was right?”

“Yes, You would’ve been plagued with the constant thoughts and prayers of your followers, It’s honestly painful. You should be glad you have impulse control.” The incarnation said and rolled his eyes.

“Though maybe you have too much.” He murmured.

He and Yue were usually facing away from each other in this space, Yue faced the wide expanse of the space they were in while the other incarnation faced an area that was blocked off by a barrier. Behind the barrier, there were lots of little fireflies, most of them were just floating around in their little area, happily traversing trees and lily pads while a few of them were pressing against the barrier, trying to get in.

“Hmm?” Yue feigned cluelessness and tilted his head as he turned back around.

“You should stop cultivating, your lover will be back soon, he seems like he has to talk to you.”

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