Be Gentle, Immortal Master

His gaze was soft but unwavering, a gleam of light dazzling from its beautiful depth. I stood still for a long time, unable to move my eyes away.

From the night of Seventh Sister Day, when I told him atop the hill at Silver Gate that I wanted to spend another five hundred years with him, to the night of Mid Autumn, when I asked him at Jade Temple if he would come with me should I choose to leave Mount Hua, he had never given me a real answer. His responses had always been vague, and it wasn't until recently that I understood why. It wasn't until recently that he could finally give me his solemn promise, because he had finally seen the hope that would let such a dream come true.

I took a deep breath, calming my emotions so that I wouldn't give in to my impulses and render our deal useless on the very first day. Instead, I gave him a peck on the lips. "I'm counting on your words then," I said. "When I reach my ascension, I expect you to keep your promise for those extra hundreds of years as well, so don't forget to work hard on finding that solution with me."

He smiled. "What do you think I'm reading these books for?" He gestured at the scrolls and tomes I had just brought from his room.

I blinked. Those were books on a possible solution to cure him? I darted suspicious looks between him and the pile on the table, finding it a little hard to believe. If he had indeed found a direction to the cure, then why was he so adamant on not giving himself a chance before?

Reading the questions in my eyes, he strode towards the table and picked up the first tome at the top of the stack. "Come," he sat down in the bed and gestured for me to join him. Realizing that the bed was the only space in the room wide enough for us to sit side by side, I grumbled internally that an interior improvement was indeed needed soon, and shuffled forward.

Pulling me into his arms again, he placed the book in our laps and turned the first page. A clutter of strange scripts came into my view. It must be a rare calligraphy font, I thought, and I bent over to examine it more closely, but it didn't take long before I realized that the strokes of the characters were nothing like what I had ever seen. "This isn't written in our language!" I gasped.

He nodded. "I came upon this set of books during a trip to a small country south of us. There are no translated copies, and my proficiency with their language is limited, so it has taken me dozens of years to slowly go through all these." He grimaced a little embarrassedly.

I reached for another book from the pile and opened it. A similar style of handwriting filled the pages. "All these books are in that language?" I looked at him in awe. I had always known that Bai Ye had a vast knowledge over myriads of topics, but it never occurred to me that he could be a linguist as well.

"Yes, and I have read all of them once already. But some of the details are worded too convolutedly for me to fully understand, so I'm trying to reread them and make sure that I grasp the meaning behind each sentence accurately."

My eyes widened. How much time and effort would that take? The amount of work he put into this made me a little suspicious. "What made you decide to reread them?" I asked. "Did you find something in here that hinted at a solution?"

He smiled at my obviously probing tone. "I told you I'm not keeping any more secrets from you, Qing-er. If I had found a solution, I would tell you. But …" He hesitated. "There is indeed a description of a ritual that could potentially be helpful to our situation, but as far as I can understand it, that method requires the ritual's performer to have full control over the power of a demonic sword."

Well, full control over Twin Stars was out of the question, since I was no longer the sword spirit in her true form. I sighed disappointedly. "Any other alternatives?" I ventured. "Ways to temporarily borrow the strength of the sword, perhaps … Or to use a different source of power in its stead?"

"There are a few other vague mentions of similar practices, though none of them detailed enough for anyone to follow or repeat. That is why I've been trying to reread every book again front to back, to see if I could draw any parallels between the texts to fill in the missing pieces."

I nodded, and I turned the next leaf of the book over in our laps. The mysterious script danced over the pages like a tempting riddle. "I wish I could help you …" I mumbled. "Does it take long to learn a new language? If you teach me, would I be able to search for the answers together with you?"

He laughed softly. "I can certainly teach you, but that wasn't why I asked you to bring these books for me." A naughty smile curled his lips. "According to our deal, I need to show you genuine effort to solve our problem at hand, right? Now that you've seen how hard I've been trying to find a solution—" his hand that was resting at my waist slid over my shoulder, caressing my cheek, "—would you be so kind as to show me a little reward?"

"…" I froze, realizing belatedly that his breath had already drawn so close again without me noticing. "Bai Ye!" I almost couldn't resist the urge to claw that shameless smile off of his face. "Purposefully tempting me counts as breaking your part of the deal!"

Pushing him away, I climbed off the bed and stomped out of the room.. His chuckles rang behind me as I sought refuge in the kitchen.