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The sudden softness of his lips and his divine taste made me moan into him. I circled my arms around his neck, relishing this stolen moment from the busy day.

"I had hoped you'd be the one to try to fall into my arms on the stairs," he breathed. "You were trailing so far behind all day. I barely saw you."

I chuckled. "How did you know I thought about it? Those stairs were awful. My legs are still tired right now— Bai Ye!"

The next moment, he swept me off the ground and carried me towards my bed. "B-Bai Ye!" I yelped again. "W-Wait … Not today … I …"

I got my menses yesterday, I wanted to say, though somehow the expectation of his disappointment made it hard for me to bring it up. "I … L-Let me down for a moment …"

His steps halted, and he looked at me. The expression on his face changed from confusion to realization, then to some kind of amusement. "Qing-er," he shook his head with a somewhat speechless smile, "I was only trying to give you a massage." Sitting down at the end of my bed, he placed me in his lap and leaned my back against his arm, rubbing the top of my thighs gently with his other hand. "Where is it sore?"

It was my turn to be speechless then. The warmth of his palm flooded my body through the fabric of my clothes, and I felt my cheeks burn. How did I misinterpret this? "It's not that bad …" I mumbled. "I'm not that weak."

"You aren't," he smiled, "it's only natural that you feel tired. Jade Temple follows a different style of training from Mount Hua. They focus heavily on body tempering, so for their disciples, climbing tens of thousands of stairs every day is as easy as breathing air. No one would expect the same from disciples elsewhere."

His graceful fingers kneaded my muscles methodically, releasing all the tension and stress from my body, and I let out a sigh. I wasn't sore enough to need this, but I loved his touch, even when it wasn't a sensual one. "Then why do they make us climb the same tens of thousands of stairs every day?" I asked, leaning my head against his shoulder. "Their Keeper said most of our gathering will be on the lowest levels, which means we'll probably have to climb even more than this for the rest of our stay."

He chuckled. "It's Jade Temple's way to show off their superiority over other sects. This 'gathering' might look like a friendly reunion of all cultivation sects, but in the end, it's a competition, and anything that makes the rest of us look weak will make them look stronger." He paused for a second. "You didn't see Chu Yang's face when Su Nian pretended to trip. I bet he is scolding her at this very moment for that little show."

Of course. The Gatekeeper had always valued Mount Hua's reputation above everything else. I gloated a bit while I imagined the scene. "It seems like a bad day for her," I said. "I saw what happened on the ship too. She was pale as a ghost when you walked away."

Bai Ye shook his head with a short sigh. "Su Nian wasn't like this before … I wonder what changed. But regardless, she was right about one thing." He looked at me and smiled. "I would've forgotten today is Mid Autumn if she didn't mention it. There is a shop in the town nearby famous for their sweet osmanthus mooncakes. Are you hungry?"

My eyes widened. "How do you know sweet osmanthus is my favorite? I—"

I was almost ready to get up and dash out of the door with him when I remembered those stairs that awaited us. I winced. "Is there another way out and back other than those stairs?" I asked, knowing how much of a wimp I sounded like, but if we had to climb all the way back up, I was pretty sure that I'd end up slipping and fall genuinely.

He laughed. "I'll show you a new spell. It shrinks the ground beneath you, essentially shortening your distance from your destination, and you'll be able to cover those stairs in a mere couple of steps." He finished up the massage and put me back down onto my feet. "Ready?"

~ ~

The spell wasn't hard to learn. Within half an hour, I was able to cover the distance across the whole room in a single step. We sneaked out of the door soundlessly, and with no more effort than a few strides, we were out of the pagoda.

I took in a deep breath of fresh air. "It's so much nicer to be outside," I said. I missed Mount Hua already. "Do disciples here spend their entire lives inside that gilded cage?"

"They are supposed to." Bai Ye stressed the "supposed". "Rules here are much more strict than Mount Hua, but people find a way around everything. Last time I came, a group of disciples got into a fight at a wine house in town and made a complete fool of themselves. All the cultivation sects joked about it for the rest of that year."

My steps halted. That wasn't the answer I expected. "Do they visit town often?" What if we ran into one of those groups that might recognize us?

He held my hand and laced his fingers through mine, making me follow him forward. "No need to worry. I've cast a figure-changing spell. Except you and I, no one else would be able to see our real faces."

Right … I had forgotten that he was always more thorough and thoughtful than I was when it came to things like this. I nodded in relief. "Is it like the spell you used last time at East Village?" I asked curiously. "Would others see you as that hunter again?"

He smiled. "Maybe."

"Then who am I? What do I look like?"

He didn't answer. Only his grip on my hand tightened. Maybe he had changed me into someone prettier, I thought. That kind of detail wasn't important though.. I clasped my fingers firmly around his as well, and we made our way into town.