Til Death Do Us Part (Yanqing x Yunli)

Chapter 1: His Sparring Partner

In a quiet corner of the Xianzhou Luofu, a young man with blonde hair wrapped in a ponytail was sat on a seat cushion on the floor, with his eyes closed and a sharp blade on his lap. Four other blades were floating behind him, hovering as if awaiting for their next orders. 50 guards were standing in the yard in front of the man while in a fighting stance, ready to take him on. As the young man slowly opens his eyes, he takes a deep breath, and nodded.

Once the young man nodded his head, all the guards started to charge at the young man with their spears in hand, but in a swift movement, the young man jumped up into the air, summoned his flying swords out of nowhere, and easily apprehended all 50 guards with ease in an elegant way. The young man then slowly landed on the ground, with his toes reaching the ground first before the rest of his body. The flying swords flew back behind the young man, and the young man let out another deep breath, before rubbing the back of his head and letting out a humbling smile.

"So how was it?" 

"Just like last time, general." One of the guards on the ground said while panting to try and catch his breath.

"Ehehe, is it now...?"

Another guard that was on the ground let out a huge sigh.

"General Yanqing, we've been through the same combat training for the last two weeks, and you've always beaten us in just a blink of an eye. What good is this training if you're going to win either way?"

Yanqing let out another giggle, and walked towards the guard that was on the ground and extended his arm. The guard on the ground grabbed it and Yanqing helped pull him up.

"For each perfect move you may witness in a second, comes from thousands of hours trying to perfect it. If I had stopped when I had 10 guards, would I have been able to take on all of you today?"

The guard that was holding on to Yanqing's arm got up, and brushed his armor with his hands.

"Geez, you're starting to sound like General Jing Yuan now."

Yanqing smiled.

"I guess so, huh?"

It was now in the late evening, where the sun was about to set under the horizon. Yanqing was still in the empty open training area, practicing his sword techniques all by himself, as all of his sparring partner guards had gone home for the day. Each movement was swift, steady, and precise, all down to a T. However, as perfect as his movements were, his mind wasn't actually on his body or his swords.

With each strike towards the air, he would imagine striking his swords onto something else, something that was akin to a large broadsword. He would imagine himself trying to hit the person wielding the broadsword, but failing miserably every time. With each strike, no matter how swift, steady, or precise he was, he never seemed to be able to land a proper hit on his opponent. Just like his imaginary strikes, he would also imagine the broadsword lowering down on him to get a strike too, and he would dodge or defend it like the threat was actually there with him. 

As his imaginations started to wander his mind out of his body, it started wandering into something else: a memory. Inside the memory, Yanqing and his opponent were sword sparring in the exact same place he was now, and the two of them were going toe-to-toe on each other, not letting the other win and giving it their all for this sparring session. During the sparring session, there was a standstill where Yanqing's multiple swords and his opponents' broadsword clashed in a test of strength, and both of them were equally matched. Yanqing's opponent took the time to taunt Yanqing, trying to provoke him.

"That all you got, ponytail?"

"Fat chance, shroomhead."

After their snarky remarks, the two of them broke off their sword clash, and continued sparring for another hour or two.

The entire training area was filled with the clangs and bangs of their swords clashing against each other, and smoke would sometimes even form up due to the intensity of their fights. Once the two fighters eventually settle down to catch their breaths, they would start to argue about whether or not they had gotten a hit out of the other person.

"I ...*pant* ...I totally ...*pant*... scratched you there." said Yunli while panting.

"W-What??...*pant* ...what are you...*pant* ...on about??"

"T-There...*pant*... on your arm ... *pant*..."

Yanqing used his hand to feel for any cuts on his arm. He didn't feel any pain, and didn't see any blood on his hands when he finished touching his arm.

"There's... *pant* ... There's no..."

However, before Yanqing could finish, Yunli dealt a sneaky punch towards his arm, right where she said there was a scratch.

"OW!!" Yanqing screamed as Yunli laughed while holding her stomach. Yanqing couldn't do anything but gave a furious face, and let out a sigh afterwards.