“Sworn brother?” Lu Heng repeated.

Seeing Lu Heng’s lips curl up in a smile, Duan Feiqing’s gaze quivered. His heart couldn’t help but flutter, but he forcefully stabilized his mental state: “Since you are a man, I might have offended you by saying things like marrying you as a wife. But you are have always been the only thing I love most in this world. From now on, I will treat you as my own brother.”

“Own brother?” Lu Heng was still smiling.

Duan Feiqing realized that something was wrong, and asked hesitantly: “Dear Heng, you don’t want to?”

“Yes, why would i be unwilling? Better to use the day at hand, rather than waiting for a perfect day. How about today we become brothers with different surnames?” Not waiting for Duan Feiqing to react, Lu Heng turned around and took out a pot of wine.

“Since you and I are kindred spirits, there is no need for overtly complicated rituals.” Lu Heng poured the wine into the silver bowl, pulled down Duan Feiqing and knelt on the ground.

“Let the sky above, and the thick soil shall be witnesses. Today, I and my righteous brother Duan Feiqing drink this bowl of righteous wine, and hereafter we shall accompany each other in life and death, and strive to live up to our brotherhood.”

“Let the sky above, and the thick soil shall be witnesses….” Duan Feiqing and Lu Heng read out at the same time. He was delighted, since now the sky was the witness. He and his dear Heng have henceforth become inseparable.

Lu Heng saw the man beside him full of joy, and teasingly added a sentence: “I don’t think it is enough to just solidify the deep friendship between us. How about having the future generations of our descendants also share cameraderie with each other?”

“Descendants?”

“Naturally,” Lu Heng nodded, “You and I will both marry in the future, it’s pretty much certain. How about we live together after we each get married? Then the children can grow up together, like biological brothers and sisters. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

No, I won’t have any wives or children, I will only have my dear Heng. But for his dear Heng, as the elder brother, he must do everything he can. If his dear Heng wants to marry a wife and have children, then… Duan Feiqing only felt that an uncontrollable tyrannical desire emerging deep in his heart and wanted to crazily destroy everything around him.

Lu Heng saw that Duan Feiqing’s expression was not right and his eyes were twisted like before, he knew that he was about to go berserk once again . He calmly pulled Duan Feiqing’s hand, gently took out a silver needle and pricked it on his middle finger.

The tingling of the fingertips and the smooth and cool touch on the back of his hand made Duan Feiqing regain his sense of sanity. He looked down and saw Lu Heng gently holding his hand with his right hand, gently squeezing his left hand on his middle finger, and a few drops of blood flowed into the silver bowl on the ground. United. When the goal was achieved, Lu Heng’s hand quickly left, leaving Duan Feiqing feeling a sense of loss and reluctance. He even had an urge to hold on to that hand and never let go.

Duan Feiqing felt something was wrong, could he really treat his dear Heng as his own brother? Duan Feiqing also had younger siblings in the Duan family before. Although he was very fond of younger siblings, he had never had the desire to have physical contact them all the time, or the feeling of locking them up so that they could never take a step away from him.

“Dearest Heng, I…” Duan Feiqing wanted to interrupt the ceremony. Although he did not know the reason, he knew that this matter could not continue.

However, Lu Heng’s next move caused him to swallow the words that were already in his mouth. Lu Heng also pricked his middle finger, squeezing blood into the silver bowl.

The middle finger was connected to one’s heart, and this blood from the middle finger blood was in reality the blood of the heart. Duan Feiqing’s gaze fell onto the heart-blood of his and his dear Heng’s, coalescescing in the wine within the silver bowl, entangling and intermingling with each other, I am a part of you, you are a part of me, regardless of the barriers between us.

He saw Lu Heng drinking half of the blood-wine in the bowl with his head tilted upwards, and finally licking the wine he accidentally spilled on the side of his lips. The tip of the crimson red tongue flashed and disappeared, but Duan Feiqing could no longer look away from those lips. Dearest Heng drank the blood of my heart.

“Huh?” Lu Heng passed the silver bowl in his hand. Seeing Duan Feiqing with a bit of infatuation in his eyes and drinking from the bowl of wine, he smiled in his heart. Don’t you want to be my brother? It wouldn’t be easy to turn back from that road. For a gentleman like Duan Feiqing, once he put on the shackles of “sword brothers”, in order to break free, he would have to go through a battle against the heavens as a human.

This drama should be more exciting than him wearing women’s clothes, Lu Heng’s lips twitched lightly.

【……】The little assistant in the depths of his consciousness trembled, and silently huddled, shrinking itself smaller.

The ceremony has been completed, and the brotherhood has been cemented.

“Elder Brother.” Lu Heng changed his address naturally.

Duan Feiqing was not used to it. Before Lu Heng changed his usual address, when he was in a good mood, he would call him a little Han brother in a playful tone. Now he called him elder brother respectfully. Duan Feiqing only felt that it sounded really strange.

“Dearest Heng, you don’t have to call me like this.” Duan Feiqing said.

“Huh? The relationship between us is different now, how should I call you?” Lu Heng pretended to be puzzled, “Should I call you big brother~?”

[T/N: He originally called “Da ge” and this time he says “ge ge” which is playful and affectionate]

Duan Feiqing only felt that the big brother that was spit out from that mouth of his linngered with a thousand ambiguous meanings, like a woman calling her lover. His hand suddenly wrinkled his always neat robe: “Just call me elder brother.”
Lu Heng saw that if he kept on teasing, the other person might really become ill. Thinking that it would be better if he diverted that person’s attention to other matters: “This Feng Weifang has become a useless person. Although the Gu has been taken out, but his mouth cannot speak and the body cannot move. This trail has run cold. Wouldn’t it be better to capture other people and use the Gu to torture the information out of them?”

“Those people in the organization are in as high a position as Feng Weifang, and they don’t even know the matter of the Duan family.” Duan Feiqing returned to the usual calm and level-headed gentlemanly demeanor.

“Can you return to the Duan house to find clues about what happened back then?” Lu Heng asked. Those people in black had so cruelly destroyed the Duan family, and Feng Weifang had always wanted to find out the secrets of the Duan family from Duan Feiqing, so there might be some clues within the Duan family.

“I…” Duan Feiqing was silent for a moment, “After being rescued by you for the first time, since returning from Miao territory, I had tried to gather together the remains of my family, but found that the Duan family has been burnt to ash. That was the time I met Feng Weifang, and he had buried all the members of the Duan family. Now thinking about it, he should have been staying there waiting for me. If there were any clues, I am afraid that it had already fallen into the hands of the people behind the scenes.”

“You haven’t been there since then?”

“No, I’ve been there once. I wanted to pay my respects to my family. Maybe it’s because of the <mind sutra of the heavenly demon>. As long as I get close to Duan’s house, I fall into the nightmare of that day. I dared not step into Duan’s house or even approach it on my own. My former home…” Duan Feiqing covered his eyes with his right palm, and he did not hesitate to expose his most vulnerable side in front of Lu Heng.

A slightly cool touch covered his hand, and the hand that was blocking his vision was gently moved away. Duan Feiqing heard his dear Heng speak in his softest tone since they met.

“Being your younger brother, your family is naturally my family. I will accompany you back together.”

Duan Feiqing just grabbed the back of the hand with his own. This perfectly shaped hand, but a little fearsome because of the black fingertips, was his salvation.

The two of them were silent, but the atmosphere was warm and pleasing.

Lu Heng saw that Duan Feiqing had calmed down, but his hand was still being held by him, and he had a habit of squeezing it tighter and tighter. He rolled his eyes silently in his heart. His mouth says he regards the other as his younger brother, but his body seemed to be quite honest. Is there anyone who squeezes his younger brother’s hand like this?

“Speaking of which, I only know that the Duan’s family was in Anyang. Where in Anyang was the Duan family?” Lu Heng had to apply a little bit of strength before he could draw out his hand.

“At the junction between Anyang and Dangyin.” Duan Feiqing’s hands felt empty, and there was a sense of loss in his heart.

“Dangyin?” Lu Heng was not very familiar with the matters of the Central Plains. He didn’t expect that Anyang was actually on the border with Dangyin.

“Well, what’s wrong with this place?” Duan Feiqing saw that Lu Heng’s expression was a little off.

“Mom said that the place where she met the noble young master back then was in the Dangyin.”

Nadolo was in Dangyin county when she had encountered the young master with surname “Lu”. That day, when Nadolo was walking through a remote forest on the official road in Dangyin County, several disciples tried to take advantage of this beautiful lone woman. Just when Nadolo wanted to kill these callous Han people, a carriage appeared at the other end of the official road, with more than a dozen martial artist guards.

After that, as it was common inn dramas, it was the old trope of “hero saves beauty”. Although the hero was weak and only depended on the strength of his subordinates, and the beauty also had several means to protect herself. But after that, the two people nevertheless fell in love at first sight, parted ways, and finally settled for separate living.

After listening to Lu Heng talking about this past, Duan Feiqing asked a clarified a few more details, and the two found that the official road leading here seemed to be the very same official road leading to Anyang County.

And thus, it was inevitable for their party to visit the Duan family of Anyang. Lu Heng and Duan Feiqing both decided to leave for Anyang immediately after Duan Feiqing took care of the sect’s affairs.

Sang Jing was very happy today, since junior martial sister finally smiled at him. Previously, because of her unbridled speech, junior martial sister didn’t know how many eye rolls she had received in the past few days.

Fang Qingwan was in a good mood. Because yesterday, she was overjoyed when she heard that sister Gouma addressed the other person as elder brother. Later, Fang Qingwan went to go to Gouma to chat. After probing a bit, she learned that senior martial brother and sister Gouma were sworn siblings. Her mood, which had been gloomy these past few days has suddenly transformed into clear sky. Because Fang Qingwan knew that senior martial brother was the most rule abiding person. Currently, they were bound to sworn sibling relationship. Didn’t it mean that senior martial brother had no other thoughts on that older sister?

With a spring in her steps, she went to the chamber in front of the mountain with Sang Jing and the other martial brothers. As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the meeting hall, she saw her senior martial brother pouring tea for Gouma, with a gentle demeanor and affectionate expression in his eyes. Fang Qingwan felt a lingering ambiguity between the two.

Fang Qingwan stopped subconsciously, and she had the sudden urge to close the door and turn around.

“Eh, junior martial sister, why are you dazedly standing at the door?” Sang Jing’s voice sounded behind her.

Both of them looked up. The eldest martial brother was obviously the same as usual, and he was still handsome and gentle like the breeze. Fang Qingwan felt that she hadn’t had a good rest in the past few days, and she must have made a mistake in a daze. Sister Gouma was the sworn sister of the senior martial brother, so she didn’t need to worry about it.

The few people went in and settled down. Duan Feiqing revealed that he would leave for a period of time, and assigned the core disciples to take care of the several matters in the sect one by one.

__________________________

Niladri: So, regarding the test release, I actually dropped this series around…2 months ago? I guess? Since my workload was really unmanageable, and I was hoping for a TL-er who could do at least weekly schedule. But no translator has been found so far.
Now, my workload has become more manageable and I thought.. hey slow releases are better than no release right? Unfortunately, my main Translation tool is now inaccessible for some reason even with vpn. So, the quality of the translation may have been pretty MTL-ish

Thus, I decided to do a quality-assessment release to get feedback from both readers as well as having a native chinese translator TLC before deciding to continue with this on isotls.

Do let me know your thoughts on the comments below. I have also done a raw-appended version so if any other reader wants to cross-check, they are welcome.