The two of them followed the path through the forest, once again keeping to themselves. Qiu Ling had a harder time to do so the longer they walked though. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer and turned to Jing Yi.
"My l—" He coughed and looked at the treetops. "Uh, Jing'er, I was just thinking that we're a little slow like this. Looking at this list there are a lot of ingredients we'll need to find and it's probably extremely important to find them if they sent both of us. So maybe we should try to speed things up?"
Jing Yi tensed when Qiu Ling almost called him the old way again. Well, he shouldn't have expected that it would be that easy to move on for either of them. He looked away uncomfortably. "I wouldn't know how."
Qiu Ling wanted to blurt out that he could carry him when he remembered that he was acting mature right now and that they weren't officially a couple and, well, it seemed it was impossible. He couldn't stay silent though, could he? After all, that would seem as if he had wanted to take advantage of Jing Yi. Uh, what to do now? He needed a better idea and that fast!
He looked for Fu Heng and Fu Min but couldn't spot them anywhere. Hmph. Those two traitors had probably hidden somewhere to celebrate that they had managed to get together already. Argh, he'd pay them back for this as soon as he was happily married to Jing He!
Qiu Ling frowned. Ah, it would have been so easy if this was Jing He instead of his mortal reincarnation. He'd have been able to fly on his ow— Oh! Qiu Ling perked up and smiled. "Well, how about I teach you how to fly?"
"Ah?" Jing Yi stopped walking. "Do you even know how to … well, fly as a human?"
Qiu Ling looked a little embarrassed. "Well, I don't really know how they fly on swords but the gods can fly with their magic and, well, I guess it's also some kind of spiritual energy so I guess it should work the same way for humans. Even if not … We'd take a long time anyway so trying it wouldn't hold us back too much, right?" He shrugged his shoulders.
Jing Yi felt that this wasn't completely right. Shouldn't they focus completely on their task? But then again the sect would certainly expect him to put his own thoughts aside and fly with Qiu Ling to speed things up. If he didn't want this, then Qiu Ling's suggestion was the next best way to go about this.
He finally nodded. "Alright. And if it doesn't work …" He took a deep breath.
"Then we'll just take our —"
"No." Jing Yi shook his head. "If it doesn't work, then I'd like to ask you to bring us to the places we need to go." He couldn't continue being so willful. Qiu Ling hadn't done anything wrong. There was no need to resist.
"Oh. Alright." Qiu Ling thought of making sure that Jing Yi wouldn't learn how to fly if that was what the end result would be but he hurriedly pushed that idea aside. No, he was a mature man. A cultured dragon. He definitely wouldn't do something that childish.
Especially not if his beloved would be really, really happy after he learned how to fly. Maybe he would forget himself in his excitement and hug him?
Ahem. Anyway, it was good if Jing Yi knew how to fly. If he did, all those terrible senior martial brothers wouldn't have any reason to pull him onto their swords. Mn, what a great benefit to his idea!
Qiu Ling rubbed his hands and motioned to the sides. "Then let's start here?"
Jing Yi looked at the treetops above them and raised his brows. "Are you sure it's a good idea to do that here? Won't the trees get in the way?"
Qiu Ling looked around. "Well … We could go somewhere without trees but I thought you'd want to start as soon as possible. I don't think you'd soar up that high for now anyway."
"Alright. If you say so."
Qiu Ling smiled. "Don't worry. I'm still here with you, right? I'll help you out."
Jing Yi observed Qiu Ling's expression and finally nodded. "Yes, you'd do that."
"Then … let's start?"
"Mn." Jing Yi nodded.
"So …" Qiu Ling lifted a hand and had the air currents swirl around them. "Basically, it's just about controlling the air. You have to control it so that you can step on it and then have it move in the direction you want. That's all."
Jing Yi looked at Qiu Ling and debated whether he should wait if he would add something or ask immediately.
Qiu Ling looked back at him and finally smiled. "What is it?"
"Qiu Ling … Are you sure I'll be able to do that? Air doesn't seem to be made to step on it."
Qiu Ling blinked. What was so bad about air? Hm, maybe his beloved hadn't understood just from telling him? He had an air current move down and did what he had said, stepping on it. Then he hovered a few inches above the ground. "Like this."
Jing Yi stared at Qiu Ling's feet and frowned. "But you can't even see it. How would you …"
"With your spiritual energy."
Jing Yi still looked skeptical. He might have been part of a cultivation sect for ten years now but that didn't mean that he had stopped thinking like a human being. He could imagine flying on a sword since he had done that and most of those swords had magical properties anyway. In the end, you stood on something anyway so it wasn't too strange of a concept. But stepping on air … He just couldn't imagine it.
Maybe it would be better to let Qiu Ling bring him over, after all?
Qiu Ling stepped back onto the ground and gently touched his arm. "Just give it a try. If it doesn't work out, I'll catch you and then we'll think about something different, alright?"
Jing Yi looked up into those familiar dark eyes and nodded as if compelled. Yes, why was he worrying with Qiu Ling at his side? He should just try it and see where it led.