I sat calmly, wind blowing through my hair. Fairy Liang had a fan spiritual “weapon”. When closed, it fit easily in her hand or pocket. When opened, it was large enough for both of us to sit and could fly through the air, no bugs, just a strong breeze. Or maybe that was her aura.

Whatever.

Me and Fairy Liang were doing good. Ever since she “proposed”, we still had a lot of sex, but it was more… sex, not fucking, and not just me fucking her. I still only saw her at night, but we kissed before and cuddled after and, sometimes, just lay next to each other, not really doing anything.

She was still my only lover. It’s not that she was so beautiful everyone else looked ugly, but, like, it was hard to make a move on someone else when she was always so close. I’m not complaining or anything, that’s just how it was.

Anyway, we were on her fan. She asked me if I wanted to go on a date and, well, I remembered somewhere from the story. Gou Dan went there to train, but it sounded beautiful enough for a date.

So off we went to the Fire-Killing Waterfall.

Now, I know what you think—every waterfall should kill fire. But this one was different. Gou Dan used it to strengthen his fire root by resisting the spiritual power of the waterfall. If he failed, his fire root would have “died”.

I wanted to keep my fire root because, “cultivating” with Fairy Liang, it was my strongest, along with metal. So, I didn’t want to risk it for no reason, but I did have a reason: I could let my fire root “eat” my wood root. Normally, this is Bad because explosion. Explosions inside the body don’t end well. But the waterfall can suppress fire energy, so, if I was careful, it should work. Fairy Liang thought so too and agreed to watch over me.

If I could get rid of my wood or water roots, it was definitely worth it. If I could get rid of both, I’d be a top cultivator in the blink of an eye. Well, as long as Fairly Liang kept cultivating with me…. But even if she didn’t, it was worth it.

Besides, if I took too long, those roots would be strong enough that killing them would damage my cultivation forever.

So I was a little excited, a little scared, holding her hand tight as we flew. Our sect lived on a beautiful mountain surrounded by forests. It was very different to living in the modern world. Looking out, there were no buildings, no roads, no power lines, no planes, no satellites. The night was dark and full of stars, especially since my eyes were sharper. So many colours hiding, not just black sky and twinkling white spots.

But the place we ended up was more gorgeous than the view from the mountain or the night sky.

The waterfall fell from higher than a skyscraper, like it came from the heavens, throwing up spray and mist, rainbows shimmering. A large pool was at the bottom, draining into a river at the far side, and the clearing around it was covered in a spongy moss, perfect to sit on. Mystical animals came to drink and, no matter how ferocious, it was like they all agreed not to mess around by their watering hole. Birds darted about, catching the bugs, barely a mosquito to bother us.

It was really nice, like, a calm and gentle world, then the colourful and powerful animals. Yin and yang. It would’ve been too much if there were a bunch of bright flowers around. It would’ve been too boring if there weren’t any animals, or only rabbits and stuff.

Instead, there was birdsong and the rumbly waterfall, some grunts and howls and yips. The air was fresh, cool, sun kept away from the shore by the tall trees, but the clearing big enough sunlight fell on the pool. Some baby animals played in the water, even with other kinds of animals like they were a big family of cousins. Better than any zoo.

If I was by myself, I would’ve been scared of some of the animals. I didn’t know much, but I knew some signs and could tell some of them were magic beasts—and not weak ones. But, with Fairy Liang, all of them treated us like we were the queens of the jungle.

I sat next to her, leaning against her shoulder, holding her hand. I liked playing with her fingers. Squeezing them, stroking them, drumming them with my fingers. Eventually, she snatched up my hand and didn’t let go. I tried to get free, but she wouldn’t let me. The only thing I could do was wiggle my fingers.

“So, this is cultivating love,” she whispered.

I giggled, but she wasn’t wrong. “Yeah.”

Though she didn’t have to eat, I did, not that far along in my cultivation. Since she “drove” us here, I prepared the food. Since it was just me eating, it was all my favourites. Steamed buns, sweet and spicy pork ribs, and a big tub of soy milk pudding—it wasn’t ice cream, but it was nice.

To go with the food, spirit wine. I was barely a cultivator, so it was like vodka to me, one small cup sipped when I ate leaving me tipsy. At the same time, she had nothing better to do, so nearly finished the bottle… and didn’t look even a bit drunk. Oh well, the taste was amazing, so just a little was still nice.

Yeah, I may have forgotten why we’d come here.

But it was so nice, sitting there with her, watching, eating my favourite food, tipsy. Like we were the only people in the world and the world was just this small clearing and that was perfect.

And then she kissed me. Not on the lips, but the side of my head, near the top since she’s taller than me. It should’ve felt like nothing. I mean, how can I feel her lips on my scalp with hair in the way?

But I felt it, instantly sober, instantly drunk. Like she’d injected me with poison and the only cure was touching her. I looked at her, saw her small smile, and kissed it. Kissed her gently, kissed her deeper, kissed the corners of her mouth, the tip of her nose, along her jaw to her ear, then nibbled her ear lobe. Her sweet, sweet giggles became a throaty breath, sounding even sweeter.

My hand trailed down from her cheek to her robes, crawling inside.

But she stopped me.

I frowned, pouted, showing her just how upset I was. And she gently laughed, sliding her fingers between mine and holding tight. “Cultivate under the waterfall first, then I shall help stabilise your foundation,” she said.

After holding on for a long second, I sighed, letting out my frustration. She had a point.

I took off my outer robe, leaving me in my inner robe, more like negligee, so thin and sheer.

But that was on purpose—I kinda forgot about the cultivating-under-a-waterfall part of the date.

At the least, I saw she appreciated it, checking over my shoulder and seeing her staring at my bum. Pausing, I gave her a wiggle, earning a spank. Giggling, I hurried up.

The waterfall fell faster and harder than a normal one would, water heavy with spiritual energy. Even with my cultivation, I could barely stand, hunched over as I shuffled to the middle. The middle was where the spiritual energy was the most intense.

I hadn’t cultivated much, but I knew what to do. Fairy Liang didn’t have to walk me through it and just watched.

That said, all my “cultivating” with her helped by learning to let her energy in. So, like learning to control a muscle I didn’t normally use, I didn’t let the waterfall’s energy in. Not at first. Slowly, I got used to the pressure of the water, sitting straight, unmoving. Only then did I let it trickle in, let it try and put out my fire root.

Patient, I went little by little, waiting for my fire root to feel weak. That was when I started feeding it my wood root—and it burst into a raging inferno, eating me from the inside out. I think it was like chemotherapy, trying to control my deadly fire root so it killed the wood root before it killed me.

Burning hot and icy cold, I struggled, tried to push the waterfall’s energy wherever the fire was, but it hurt, hurt so much I could barely think. Worse than my worst period, like someone filled my womb with acid. The pain so deep I couldn’t even touch it.

I broke, gasping, losing my calming breath, and I knew everything was going to fall apart.

And she kissed me.

Kissed me gently, deeply, sealing my mouth and pushing in a deep breath of air, pumping me up. Magical, like she filled me with her essence, I felt her inside me. Intimate. Erotic. Entwined. Yin and yang. In me, there was her.

She was strong and forceful, yet didn’t force her way in, like when we cultivated together, waiting for me to welcome her. So I did, I opened myself up, let her in.

There was no me, only us. Two bodies, two minds, one us. My out-of-control fire root, even pumped up from eating my wood root, was a candle to her wildfire, her powerful fire energy keeping mine in check until there wasn’t even ash left of my wood root. Metaphorical ash.

As for the spiritual energy of the waterfall, her metal energy gently then directed the waterfall away. I know she did that on purpose. Her fire root could have easily ignored it, but mine couldn’t.

I didn’t know how I felt. There was too much going on. The ordeal drained me, and my mind was still blanked from pain, my body still in severe pain, but there was also an incredible feeling of balance, now only my water root too weak. And an incredible feeling of loss, losing my wood root like losing a sense I never knew I had. Not an important sense, but still a sense.

And she was still kissing me, still inside me, her sweet energy like waves crashing on my shore before going back to her sea, and I was a little kid, giggling and chasing and running back, both wanting her and fearing her. A little bit was fun and exciting, too much would drown me.

It was the first time I experienced that without sex. Even though I was recovering, I had just been cultivating, sensitive about my energy. Both things helped me feel it so much more. Like our souls were kissing, hugging. These spiritual parts inside us touched, mingled, never the same again. How can you take out juice after adding it to water? No matter what happened, we’d always have a bit of each other with us.

Like I was her, my body healed. It would’ve taken me weeks, but it only took her minutes, her breath reaching down and fixing my meridians like they were her own, like she knew them as well as her own, like she’d cultivated with them.

I mean, we fucked a lot and she was good at cultivating, so maybe it’s not that special.

But I felt so special, feeling that she knew me inside and out. That we weren’t just fuck buddies or fuck toys or whatever-the-fucks. I felt her love.

Underneath the waterfall, I thanked her. I thanked her slowly, carefully, leaving hot kisses on her cold skin, caressing her, stroking her. And she thanked me. I still don’t know what I did that was worth thanking, but she thanked me too.

Even with the cold water flowing over us, her lips felt so hot when she sucked my nipple, her tongue sending shivers through me, moans slipping out. I squirmed against her, needed her, and she gently rubbed my clit, felt incredible through my thin inner robes, a bit rough, a bit soft. Her arms held me close, but not tight. Secure. Safe. No matter how much I wriggled, I never worried about falling.

Her touches sent wave after wave of pleasure through me. I was so numb to my fingers, so sensitive to hers. I was a mess. Long gave up thanking her, now just held her, rested my head on her shoulder, resisting the urge to bite her. She didn’t hate me biting her, but I hated hurting her. Hated seeing my teeth marks left on her skin. I kept my nails short for other reasons, but it helped me not scratch her, so that was nice too.

Her fingers pressed, then slid inside. She knew how I liked to finish. Knew how I sounded when I was close, how my body felt in her arms. She liked learning. A quick learner.

My body couldn’t decide if it wanted to be tense or floppy, one moment like jelly, the next every single muscle clenching. Her long fingers reached so deep it was like she stroked my soul. And when she curled them, stroking back to my entrance, it sent me to the Heavenly realm, the kinda ticklish, tingling sensation spreading like fire all through my body, mind blanking out, breath leaving.

Like usual when she fucked me these days, I couldn’t tell when my orgasms started or ended. She just made me feel so good. Teased me, coaxed me, and my body reacted just how she wanted it to. Wave after wave of pleasure, only slowing down once I started whimpering. I’m sure she had killed me at least once.

Light-headed, delirious, I gave up. Gave up existing. Too much. Like I was in a trance, my heart beat, my lungs breathed, and nothing else. Everything was just a reflex. My mind was a puddle, every thought and belief washed away, left for her to splash around.

But she didn’t stop, just changed what she was doing. Her fingers slid out and then she picked me up, carried me to the shore, resting me on her robe. There, she gently rubbed my vulva, not touching my clit, up and down, up and down. And her lips left kisses all over my boobs, leaving my nipples for now. Slowly, her hands peeled off the rest of my inner robes, leaving me entirely naked.

I was high out my mind, but her gentler touches made me look down at the ground. A kite. High, but grounded.

I cried. My first sob gave her such a fright, I felt her hand rubbing me freeze up. “What’s the matter? Did I hurt you?” she asked, her voice so soft, so scared.

I tried to shake my head, but that was too much right now. “I jusht feel sho loved,” I mumbled, slurred.

She heard. I know she did because she smiled. I saw so many of her smiles, from being tickled to trying not to laugh at something stupid I said to seeing me across the plaza. But I never saw her smile like this before. It was like she was drugged, but in a good way. I mean, she smiled like she wanted to smile and nothing got in the way. She wasn’t trying not to smile. She wasn’t trying to keep appearances.

She smiled like she loved me as much as I felt she did.

Her hand came up to stroke my head, but stopped at the last second. After wiping it on her robe, then she stroked me, her strong, powerful fingers softer than a breeze. But I felt her, felt the warmth trickle down my body as if she was pouring hot water on my head. I mean, I was lying down, and the warmth was inside, but you get the idea.

“I love you,” I said, because I did.

“I love you too,” she whispered.

We stayed like that, her just stroking my head, staring into each other’s eyes. She didn’t touch me anywhere else, I didn’t touch her. And it still took me forever to come down. Whenever I thought my heart was calm, she blinked, her eyelashes tickling me from all the way up there. Or her smile stretched for a moment, like she thought of something funny or remembered something we’d done together. Those little things were another gust of wind, sending me back into the sky.

Until finally, I fluttered back to the ground where she was, and she caught me.

I sat up slowly and kissed her. Just for a second, chaste. “You’re really good,” I said.

“I had a good teacher,” she replied, her eyes pinching from her big smile.

I smiled back.

After a few seconds, though, her smile faded and I knew something was wrong. “Are you still horny?” I asked.

She shook her head, paused, then said, “Well, I am, but I would like to talk with you first.”

My heart clenched—and not in the nice way it was earlier. “Okay.”

Making my worrying worse, she dried our clothes and we got dressed first, sitting on the edge of the pool with our legs in the water. I distracted myself for a few seconds watching the fish swim around, then had to stew in my thoughts while I waited for her.

“This is… I returned to the sect because I detected someone interfered with my pool. Before that, I had been attempting to achieve a breakthrough, otherwise I would have to stay at this level for the rest of my life.”

“How long is that?” I whispered.

“Around fifty years, no more than a hundred.”

It was a completely human lifespan, and she had already lived over two hundred years, but that now sounded so short to me. “Then what are you doing with me?” I asked, trying not to be emotional and failing. Accusative, angry, upset.

And she laughed at me, squeezing my hand. “Being with you has helped me break through. I have learned so much about myself, about my place in the world. However, to break through, I must enter isolation, perhaps for as long as a hundred years. I cannot put it off further without risking injury to myself and to you.”

Just like that, everything clicked into place. “So this is goodbye?”

“For now,” she said. “And I think it will be good for you. You can use this time to focus on your cultivation—and to have new experiences.”

The way she said that last bit, I wanted to laugh and cry. “You’re telling me to sleep with other women while you’re in isolation?”

She didn’t hesitate before replying. “It should be clear now why I sought marriage so quickly. However, given your answer, I am content. I have shown you how much I love you. If you can find someone who makes you feel more loved, then I will be happy for you. I do not wish to own you. I only hope we may walk the same path again one day, whether as friends or as lovers.”

I listened to it all with tears in my eyes and a weak smile. “What a load of bullshit,” I said.

She didn’t deny it.

But I couldn’t push her to tell the truth. I loved her so much, so much more than when she asked me to marry her, but I was still full of the same fears and worries and doubts. They were so much louder too, as loud as I loved her.

It was a really funny, stupid thought: Is it better to love someone, or to lose them and realise just how much you loved them? So stupid, the answer so obvious.

So obvious until it was in front of you.

There wasn’t a good answer I could give, especially when I was struggling after the ordeal and the orgasms. But I gave her the best one I could.

“I won’t forget you.”