"What are you doing here?" I asked Shane as he and Alessia Primrose dismounted their horses.
"Haa! We live in the same town, and I haven't seen you in a year. Is that really how you want to greet me?" Shane walked over, stopping a ruler's length away from me.
"Haiz! Don't make me kick your ass in front of your fiancee." I retorted.
"Haa! I've learned new tricks, punk. And thank you you for that." Shane looked over at the Primrose beauty, "My little Rose and I are doing well."
"Hahaha! 'Little Rose'?" I asked.
"Pft! Have you ever heard yourself say 'QiiingQiiing'? It's sickening." Shane clapped back.
"Ahh! Did you come all the way out here to fuck with me?" I asked.
Shane smiled lightly, "On the contrary. I came to play a game of Weigi with my brother. Only this time, we're going to be moving the same pieces."
Shane's cultivation flared, and his aura was a tad bit different. I looked at him, then at Alessia. "Peak of Martial Foundation. Dual Cultivation suites you."
Alessia blushed in embarrassment, and Shane dropped his hand on my shoulder as he shushed me. "It was unintentional..." he whispered, "We kind of...connected."
I laughed straight from the depths of my gut. "Good, Good. If my brother can flaunt his love, so can I."
"Ehh?" Shane was confused. "Sister Qing?"
"It's about time," I replied.
"What are you plotting?" he asked, causing me to smack his hand off my shoulder.
"Benefits aside, she's my....how did you put it...QiiingQiiing."
Shane bursts up with laughter as he put his arm around my shoulders. "Good! Now she can stop talking my ear off, and my Brother can soften up."
We began to walk towards my father's tent.
"What do you think about a double wedding?" Shane asked in a hushed tone.
"Haiz! Don't get carried away."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning.
"A wet battlefield! Why do wars always happen in the rain?" Shane complained.
"How many wars have you fought in the rain?" Situ Ren asked with an amused smile.
"I mean like in stories and stuff," Shane replied.
"Oh shit, please don't give a unit to this guy. He might take his battle plan straight from a novel." Situ Qing threw salt on his wounds.
"Sister Qing, you've spent too much time with Orym!" Shane complained.
"Hey! No one told you to talk out your ass." I moved to defend.
"Haiz! You husband and wife are unscrupulous." Shane sighed in defeat, and I facepalmed myself as Situ Ren and QingQing gave me questioning looks.
"Like father like son. You two clowns..." My father commented, causing Alessia to giggle as she nodded in agreement.
Shane's face turned another shade red. Even his fiance was against him. 'Such a cruel world,' he thought.
"Haha! Uncle Situ, QingQing, sit down, sit down." For some reason, I was as nervous as the first time I asked Chen Suyin out on a date. Shane was shocked, and my father found it amusing. Never in all my years could I explain while a crack formed in my composure that day.
I refilled everyone's cups with warm mead as the rainy season held a slight chill.
"Orym..." QingQing called out. "You're a bit out of character today."
"You... Can't read the atmosphere?" I hissed.
"I choose not to." she turned her head up at me then gestured for me to hurry along.
"Uncle Situ..." I said, "QingQing... Situ Qing and I have..."
"Aiii. Enough!" Situ Ren waved his hand, "You're making me cringe. My answer is 'yes'"
"Dad!" QingQing cried out as her dad accepted without hesitation, let alone a proper proposal.
"What? If he hadn't sent you away last year to focus on his training, you would have never come home. Stop the act. He can keep you."
"What?! Y-you men! None of you are any good."
"Say it again.." Alessia sighed.
"Uncle Situ, you misunderstand." I stepped in, "I don't want you to give her away. That's QingQing's choice. All I ask is that you're okay with whatever her decision is."
Situ Ren raised an eyebrow. "If I'm not?" he asked as a great pressure fell on me.
"War..." I replied.
"Haha, then get on with it." Situ Ren chuckled.
I then proceeded to break their minds as I fell to my knees before QingQing. It was strange and uncustomary. Men didn't do such things.
"W-what are you doing?" Shane whispered as if no one else could hear him.
Alessia put her hand over his mouth as she looked on with intrigue. "Take notes. Your bother is creating a new custom, and women are going to love it."
"QingQing," I began, "I gave you the cookies off my plate and saved my brother from a devious little bitch the day I met you. I had no idea who you were, and I wasn't interested. But somehow, I became this...hero in your mind. But when we finally officially met, you started as this annoying little girl who kept coming to my clan...
Sometimes you would sit by me for hours as I cultivated. It was really troublesome because your lingering distracted me. But I'm grateful for all of it. I slowly began to look forward to the annoying girl whose heart beat like a thousand drums every time she's near me. I fell in love with the sound. I fell in love with the perfume of sun-kissed lilies. I fell in love with the taste of almond cookies that you would treat me to simply because you wanted to eat them, and I was the perfect excuse. The heart is complicated, and it's often not aligned with the mind. However, fate allowed my mind and heart to find a remedy for their woes in the form of you."
At some point, my eyes must have dimmed as a well formed to the core of my heart, and lines of confessions slipped from my lips as naturally as breathing. Rationale had chosen the backseat, and emotions were at the wheel.
"At some point, my life felt easier when you came around. I felt...worthy of your admiration--"
Situ Qing cupped my face gently, interrupting me while stopping me from drifting even further. What can I say? Everything I was, I still am. A new body, old soul. Orym Vamoria has to bear the pain and flaws of Jaxon Xuan Smith before he could truly be reborn. And in moments like this, the past was bury, and I was able to revel in the present.
"Hey," she whispered.
"Hmm?" I blinked rapidly as I reigned myself in.
"You're rambling and drifting away. You have that look I don't like. Stay with me." She replied.
"When did you become so attentive?" I asked.
"Haiz!" she sighed while caressing my face, "You feel so much and express so little. Express more often, and things like this won't happen."
Situ Qing and I were suddenly at eye level as she dropped to her knees. She had noticed the sadness in my eyes, just like my mother. She had noticed the smiles, humor, hard work, and so on were merely chains confining the sadness that I carried from my past life.
To reset, I proceeded to give her something fitting as my Dao Companion.
"This?! How is this even possible?!" Situ Ren exclaimed as he looked at the two Heaven Grade Cultivation techniques, a movement and combat martial skill, Green jade pill bottles, and an Earth Grade Lunar Python bone spear --each of them items that people would trade their lives for in the mortal World
"This is too much, Gellis. Nothing that we have can match this." Said Situ Ren while Situ Qing was at a loss for words.
"It's a good thing I'm not a matrilocal Husband." I chuckled. My father joined me as he seemed to be the only one in a humorous mood, which caused me to laugh a little harder. If there's one thing I didn't like, it was
"QingQing, what do you say? Be my wife? Or should we spend another--" My words were cut short as the brown eye beauty wrapped her arms around me. "I take that as a yes."
"Do you have more to confess?" asked QingQing,
"No"
" Then I'll take it for now. I'll be your wife."
"I'm the luckiest man in the Deep South." I hummed.
"You mean in the world?" QingQing asked, leaning back to look me in the eyes.
"I mean in the universe," I replied. "A beauty more radiant than stars, how could the Gods not envy my luck."
"And now he talks sweetly to me… I can get used to this." QingQing blushed. She then turned to her father, "I want to marry Orym."
"Of course I know that," Situ scoffed, "I'm just flabbergasted at the moment. You! Gellis… have secrets that are your own. They are obviously profound and startling. But I like you and your son because you're good people. I look forward to sharing grandchildren with you."
"Dad!" QingQing exclaimed, face beat red.
"Haha! You're a better man than I thought, Ren! Come on, I have good wine I want you to taste." My father excitedly pulled Situ Ren away.
"But we're at war!" Situ Ren tried to reason with him.
"No good man should die sober!" My father shouted, and the two Legions roared in agreement.
When QingQing and I were alone, her face became solemn as she took a seat. She then patted the chair next to her.
"What changed?" She asked as I sat down.
"What do you mean?"
"Orym, I don't doubt your sincerity. The time we spent together can be faked, but I know it was real. But, the nights we spent together were all plagued with dreams of Chen Suyin. So, I know whatever calculations are going through your head have forced this engagement. I won't reject you, but I want honesty in exchange. Cultivating years of life means nothing if my Dao Companion is dishonest and secretive the entire time."
'When did this girl get so mature?' I asked myself.
"Chen Suyin," It was best to start with her, "She is dead. As far as I know. And she plagues my dreams because I know I will meet her again. 100, 1000, one million years from now. I don't know when, but I know I will. I have a lot of regrets when it comes to Suyin. But that doesn't mean I'm no longer capable of love. It's just a lot harder for me to nurture."
'See her again?' She thought.
" So, you're a reincarnate?" QingQing asked. I gave her a serious nod, causing her eyes to widen in surprise.
"That explains a lot!" She sang, "So, Suyin isn't just some girl. Was she your wife?"
"She was the only woman that I loved. But we never got the chance to marry...This engagement wasn't forced. I chose this. I choose you. All materialistic things aside, the greatest benefit is knowing I have someone by my side who loves me." I sigh to myself, then sat in silence as Situ Qing merely stares at me.
"Do you love me?" she finally asked.
A loaded question. Difficult to answer. To a man who has only ever loved once, it's natural to compare. What I feel for Situ Qing was the same, yet so different, than what I feel for Chen Suyin. Ahh, matters of the heart are so profound, I'm sure there's a Dao of Love cultivator out there somewhere. When I meet them, I'll ask them to unravel the mysteries of the heart.
"I do," I replied.
"Then we can work everything else out as we go. Now tell me what's going on," she said.
No one studies me as QingQing does. She spent years watching and learning me and I, her. The more that I think about it, it's actually kind of threatening and comforting at the same time.
"Do you know how this war started?" I asked her.
She shook her head, and I began to explain everything from the beginning—the youth tournament and its difficulties along with the requirements of eligibility. I then told her about the Eldest Princess of the Dark Water kingdom and the boy from the Sky Splitting Imperial family. The Tournament was held to judge talent for spots in the sect's outer disciple selections and attempt to claim the temple's treasures.
I then told her of the Primrose family and how they don't compete due to their main clan having a sect of their own, ensuring a certain number of spots every few years. Partnering with the Primrose family, I told her of the plan to loot the temples and flee to the cultivation world as I wouldn't need the three kingdoms or empires due to Nimue and I having guaranteed spots during the Flaming Heart Sect Disciple selection. That meant I could offend them and not worry about troubles from their allied sects where their family members cultivate.
She asked me how I planned to loot the temples if each is guarded by three kingdoms and three empires. That's when I explained the purpose of instigating the war and how I planned to destroy them all in the process. I'll then loot the temples before the eldest princess ever returned, and my enemies would be destroyed, so there was no need to rush to the cultivation world, giving me time to properly cultivate my forces.
"But you couldn't possibly destroy them all by yourself." Said QingQing.
"General Qin. I planned to use his legion, but he got himself killed, and his legion snatched away. So, I had to make a decision, seduce a princess or betray the kingdom and have the remaining two fight each other and settle for a temple instead of two."
"And you decided to marry me, in return you get a free legion...So, what about my father?" She asked.
"What about him? He gets a heaven-grade cultivation technique. I help the advancement of the Situ Clan and Mountain legion. When this is all over, they come to the cultivation world with us. You weren't my only option, but you were the most favorable." I explained.
"Because you love me?" she asked with a hint of a smile.
"Yes."
QingQing began to laugh, and the next thing I knew, she was straddling my lap, plying my face with kisses. She was on board with the plan. And thankfully, she was because the months that followed took the full might of our united front. The Woodland Legion was easy to handle. But the Situ Clan and the Mountain Legion took a bit of maneuvering and a handful of victories before the Mountain officers took us, companions, seriously.