“Still no symptoms…” Alexander murmured as he watched Yue and Viktor walk in the garden.

 

“I don’t know but I really don’t think Vikentiy is gone,” Andrei murmured.

 

“I think he might’ve been temporarily sealed by Lena and Yue’s combined strength on the island.” 

 

“How long is temporary though…” Alexander muttered.

 

“Long enough, I believe. Our transformations have improved all of our cores significantly, especially Yue.”  Elena said and smiled.

 

“Huy’s core level has reached his core type. My core level cannot go any higher but my core itself does feel stronger. And Yue… is probably past Larimar at this point. He will be able to handle it. Even before this transformation, he was determined to not let Vikentiy completely take over Viktor.”

 

–

 

“I have yet to properly meet, Sir Orlov,” Yue murmured as he walked with Viktor. It had been a few days since he got better but he hadn’t sensed Arseny around.

 

“He is busy, you will definitely get to meet him soon.” Viktor smiled.

 

“He felt bad for missing our engagement party but I piled a lot of work on him so it couldn’t be helped.” 

 

Yue smiled, Viktor ended up talking about Arseny for a little while longer. 

 

“He was like the voice of reason for me when I was a teenager. Though he was pretty hot-headed himself. He tries to act like Anya but he doesn’t have her patience.” Viktor laughed.

 

He kind of stopped himself midway, he thought he had probably talked about another man too much and that Yue might feel jealous but Yue just smiled softly.

 

“I’m glad you have a brother like that.” Yue chuckled.

 

“B-Brother?!”

 

Viktor was embarrassed to hear that, he could just imagine how Arseny would laugh if he heard that. He would probably love to hear Viktor call him brother. 

 

“He’s not my brother…” Viktor murmured and looked away.

 

“...That’s not how I see it.” Yue giggled and hugged Viktor’s arm.

 

‘I want a brother too…’

—-

 

“Are you gonna die?” Yue asked Xia Guiren as he sat next to him.

 

Guiren was laying inside a tent in the middle of the forest. It was 14 days after his rib was removed so his sword could be made. Yue was fine after 5 days, of course, he had been given painkillers but after 10 days of suffering, Fei Xiang allowed Guiren to have painkillers too. He had only kept Xia Guiren from taking painkillers because he insisted on it but Xia Guiren was not getting any better so he asked Lian Bai to slip the painkillers into his food.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Yue seemed to immediately panic when he heard that and Lian Bai, who was preparing medicine outside of the tent yelled out, “No, he is not! Stop teasing Yue!”

 

Yue wanted to hit Guiren who just chuckled a little as he rested. He decided to just silently ignore him for half the night instead.

 

“Will the swords really not break until you die?” Yue asked Fei Xiang, who came in to change Guiren’s bandages in the middle of the night and to check on Yue’s wound.

 

“...Well…If you live a normal life span then yes but if you live for a long time like me…there might come a time when it will break.” Fei Xiang murmured. Xia Guiren was half asleep and not really listening.

 

“Like at a near-death experience?” Yue asked.

 

“Not exactly. It’s not when you are literally at death’s door… It is when you wish you were dead.”

 

—

 

Yue’s sword didn’t break when killing Li Chaoxiang the first time…It broke when killing Hundun soldier afterward, the slow realization that he had failed to save his family was more than he could handle. He fought with great speed and little restraint, chasing down every remnant that ran into the forests, he wasn’t really that interested in murdering them or getting his revenge, he had already killed Li Chaoxiang, and these people had little to do with it. He was running. 

 

He started running the second he watched Fei Xiang’s grief-stricken look as he closed Xia Guiren’s eyes. As soon as he watched Lian Bai break down in tears. He was really not running to get revenge, he was running from the idea of Fei Xiang telling him there was no way to get them back.

His sword shattering didn’t even really process to him, he kept killing people even with it broken in half. When he couldn’t sense anyone else it really processed. And he couldn’t really even remember why the sword would break at such a moment. 

 

He turned around to face Fei Xiang who had finally caught up with him after a while, his hands were newly stained with his own blood and Fei Xiang looked horrified as he saw it, for a second he thought of only the worst scenario but when he saw Yue’s hand he was relieved and then later horrified once again. He had carved his own rib out himself and was holding it out to Fei Xiang.

 

“I won’t be selfish anymore master, so please make me a new sword.”

 

Selfish…? Had this child ever been selfish before?

 

–

 

Yue didn’t wake up in fright upon recalling such a memory he kind of just rolled over near Viktor.

 

“Can’t sleep?” Viktor asked. Yue was a bit surprised to see that he was still awake. Viktor was writing something in a notebook.

 

Yue sat up and peeked over at what he was writing.

 

“What are you doing?” He asked and slipped himself onto Viktor’s lap.

 

He couldn’t really read Viktor’s Russian cursive very easily but he could decipher a few words. It was kind of like a journal entry.

 

“...I think I just had a prophecy.”

 

Yue was immediately shocked to hear this.

 

While Mai was immediately able to summon wings and Andrei didn’t even have to activate the power he got from Elena for it to work, Viktor hadn’t been able to use his power at all. They had all marked it down to the way the power was passed down. Mai’s wings were significantly smaller than Huy’s and even though she could easily carry a small adult, she couldn’t fly with them because her wings were too weak. And Andrei’s scales were only really at the level of Viktor and Natasha’s scales, they could protect him to a lesser scale than Elena’s. They had come to the conclusion that Viktor probably had the same amount of prophetic powers as Yue’s child would have, he couldn’t see the future at will, only randomly.

 

“What did you see?” Yue asked, he was actually kind of excited, though he noticed, Viktor seemed like his head hurt.

 

Viktor silently looked at Yue, not in a way that let Yue know that he saw some devastating future but in a way that let him know he saw something else.

 

“Was it something perverted?” Yue asked with bright red cheeks.

 

“Yeah.” Viktor grinned and kissed Yue’s cheek with a mischievous grin.

 

“We should make it happen today,” He added and reached for Yue’s waist, planning to pin him down.

 

“Nope!” Yue grabbed his hand and stopped him, his cheeks bright red and his expression slightly peeved.

 

“It’ll happen when it's supposed to happen!” 

 

“What if it's supposed to happen today?” Viktor teased.

 

“You clearly wrote that I was wearing a dark blue hanfu.” Yue pointed out in the notebook.

 

He was currently only wearing the white inner layers of a hanfu.

 

Viktor sighed exasperatedly and put the notebook away. Yue giggled at his defeated stance.

 

“I had to watch that and you still make me go to sleep without doing anything?” Viktor whined, hugging Yue’s waist.

 

“Yeah yeah, “ Yue rolled his eyes, “You can have your way with me some other time.”

 

Viktor perked up a little, “How kind of you.” He chuckled and kissed the crook of Yue’s neck.

 

“I know, right?” Yue giggled.

 

—

 

“I will meet with Aylin soon and then we’ll find another time to have us all meet up and plan our next moves,” Elena said and hugged Yue and Viktor as they got to the teleport pad.

 

“Alright,” Yue said and smiled.

 

“Be safe,” Andrei said and patted them both on the back awkwardly.

 

Viktor felt a little awkward as well but he just smiled and nodded and then he and Yue were teleported off to the Azure Dragon Temple.

 

The followers immediately made a big deal about their return, many even cried but Jinghua was more clearheaded and after shedding a few tears she noticed the change in Yue’s appearance.

 

“My Lord…” Jinghua murmured.

 

“Somehow, you seem to have suddenly grown more beautiful…”

 

“...You flatter me,” Yue murmured, a bit embarrassed by how many times he had already heard that by now.

 

Viktor just chuckled, it was definitely true though. Yue who was already so beautiful had only become more gorgeous after his transformation. Hence why his patience was running thin as he dealt with the very pure relationship they had for the past few weeks.