When Damien woke up the next day, he was feeling much more refreshed. It was as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.
Even as cultivators, whose need for mundane things like sleep would diminish largely as they gained power, mental exhaustion was something they needed to keep track of.
Not taking proper care of mental health could lead to many complications, even hindering one’s ability in battle.
After stretching his body lightly, Damien got dressed and made his way over to Ruyue’s residence, where they would make the final preparations and don their disguises before leaving.
Standing in front of her house in the inner court, Damien knocked on the door before waiting patiently for her to answer. He could hear the sound of items clattering around inside before the door was opened.
“Did you wait long?” Ruyue asked as she stepped to the side, allowing Damien into her house.
“No, just got here.” He said while stealing glances at her appearance.
At the moment, Ruyue wasn’t wearing the normal sect robes that he was used to seeing her in, rather she was wearing a more casual set that one would wear for comfortability.
Her hair was slightly messy as well, making it evident that she had just woken up. Seeing the senior sister who always loved to appear perfect in such an appearance made Damien feel some type of way.
Naturally, Ruyue noticed his gaze and realized why he was acting in such a way, causing a slight blush to appear on her cheeks due to embarrassment.
“Stop staring so much. I was just too busy working on our disguises to care about my appearance right now.”
Damien smiled teasingly before averting his gaze. Now wasn’t the time for them to play around.
“And so? What are the genius disguises that you promised me you’ll make?”
Ruyue nodded before taking out the two Chaos rank disguise artifacts, tossing one to Damien.
“Here, put this on.”
Damien caught the artifact and did as he was told, feeling the effects right away. His height and even his body structure reduced a bit, his hair and eyes changing as well. It was almost like he truly became a different person.
Looking over at Ruyue, he noticed the same happening to her. Her silver hair became painted black and the gold in her eyes began to fade.
“For the duration of the mission, you will be Zhen Fang and I will be Xiao Li. We are rogue cultivators who were desperate in finding a sect to join, but to no avail.
“After many years, we decided that the unfairness of the cultivation world was too much, so we joined a wicked sect to cultivate quicker and more efficiently. Still, we held on to the small amount of morals we still had and made sure to stick together as much as we could.”
“Hm? The story makes sense, but why would we stick together everywhere? What is our connection?” Damien questioned.
It was common for people to defect to wicked sects simply for the sake of gaining power faster. Not everyone within them was inherently evil.
The cultivation world was one that favored the talented. And for those without talents, there weren’t many paths they could take. Many of them would end up on a crueler path simply due to these reasons.
But it was definitely rare for people to hold true relationships when they go through experiences like that. Especially when their minds start being corrupted by their cultivation manuals.
“T-that…” Ruyue trailed off, unsure of how to answer his question.
As Damien looked at her, pressing for an answer, she did her best to avert her gaze, not looking at his face.
“We are…” she trailed off, her voice becoming fainter with every word until Damien could barely hear what she said at the end.
But with his hearing ability, there was no way he would miss it. And once he knew what she said, his eyes widened in shock.
‘We are lovers.’
The words reverberated in his mind, shocking him to his core. But he quickly regained his bearings, a sly smile creeping up on his face.
“Oh? What did you say? I didn’t quite hear you at the end there.”
“S-shut up! I know you heard me!”
“I really didn’t though? Oh well, I guess I will go into this mission unaware of such an important fact. What a shame, what a shame.” Damien groaned with a destitute expression on his face.
He covered his eyes with his hands, continuing with his complaints. Perhaps he was overacting, but he didn’t care. This was incredibly fun.
“Ahh, when they ask me what my relationship is with you, I won’t be able to answer! What if they pull us apart for questioning and our stories don’t line up! Oh, how the heavens have failed me! How could you-”
Ruyue finally broke, unable to endure his acting anymore. “F-fine! We are lovers! There, I said it! Happy?!”
Damien grinned mischievously at the furiously blushing Ruyue. “Oh, what is this? But I already have a woman, you know? What an atrocious act of infidelity this is!”
A small blast of lunar energy shot towards Damien, which he deftly dodged, his smile never fading.
“It’s for the mission! Who wants to be your woman anyway!”
“Oh? Then why did you choose such a relationship between us?”
“Hmph, isn’t that obvious? There are so many lustful men out there who don’t even care about a woman’s appearance before they try to forcefully take her. I’m using you as a meat shield, that’s it.”
“A very handsome meat shield, of course.”
“No no, definitely not handsome at all. A meat shield that looks like a pig for sure.”
Although he teased her for it, he agreed with her reasoning for such a disguise. The only thing that felt strange was how half-hearted she was when she said it, almost as if she was making it up on the spot.
Either way, he didn’t dwell on it much, opting to tease her as much as he could instead. This flustered side of her was something that only he could see.
Such a fact made a strange feeling well up in his heart, but he chose to ignore that as well.
And like this, their departure time ended up being delayed by a few more hours.
***
The vast plains of the Central Region we’re surrounded by a plethora of towering mountains that almost seemed to blot out the sky.
And on these mountains and even throughout the plains themselves, there were plenty of towns and cities where the common populace of the Central Continent resided.
The largest of these cities had a surface area equal to some medium-sized states in America, spanning farther than any city the earth could ever produce.
And outside of the borders of these cities was a land filled with danger and opportunity, a wildland where beasts and nature thrived.
In a particular area of these wildlands, a large beast could be seen rushing through the tall grasses. Its paws made contact with the ground in such a manner that it barely made a sound.
The beast looked like a panther, with sleek black fur covering its entire body, a cat-like tail, and sharp blue eyes.
Surprisingly, there were two people mounted atop this charging beast.
“Li’er, how much time do you think it’ll take for us to arrive at our destination?” The man among them said.
His appearance was as plain as one could get. He had short brown hair parted to the right and eyes of a similar color. He was around 6 feet tall, and it was evident he put work into training his body.
The girl he was talking to blushed at his form of address, but still answered his question.
“It should take us another week on this beast. It’s not nearly as fast as yours, Brother Fang.”
She wasn’t much shorter than the man she was talking to, being around 5 feet 9 inches tall, and her appearance was similarly average. She had long black hair cascading down to the middle of her back and light green eyes.
These were the disguises Damien and Ruyue had donned for their mission, and for the sake of getting used to their new dynamic, they opted to use the common terms of endearment used by couples in the Cloud Plane.
“Well, it’s not like we’re in a rush. Plus, Zara is too eye-catching to be riding her on a reconnaissance mission.”
Ruyue nodded. The wolf in Damien’s shadow had an appearance that practically screamed its rarity. Especially the multiple tails that grew in number every time she ranked up.
Suddenly, Ruyue made a suggestion. “Since we aren’t in a rush, how about we do some hunting and leveling up on our way?”
Damien smiled at the suggestion. His gaze became predatory as he looked at the pack of beasts that was trying to stealthily surround them.
“Sounds like a great idea to me.”
