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In the depths of Ghost City, just outside a particularly lavish red manor within a large pavilion were two men. They each held a chosen weapon—neither of which were their usual spiritual ones. One, in white, held a bright steel and gold sword which, rather than a tool, looked more like an extension of the graceful man who wielded it. The other man, in red, used a silvery scimitar and had a much more erratic style to his movements.
The two’s blades clanged and crashed against one another, sharp and quick steps and thrusts followed by jumps and kicks in an attempt to disarm the other. To any mere mortal, the battle would appear quite dangerous and frightening, but in truth, the fight was not much more than a playful spar.
This became quite evident when the tall ghost in red had his scimitar batted out of his hand and he was promptly knocked onto his back, whilst the white-clad god practically landed on top of him in a suggestive position.
Though knocked prone, the ghost smirked and rested his hands on the god’s waist.
“Gege wins, as expected,” Hua Cheng stated.
Xie Lian smoothed the stray hairs away from his husband’s face, revealing pale skin, a loving eye, and an eyepatch.
“San Lang was too easy on this one,” Xie Lian tsked at the other.
“How can I focus on sparring when gege is so beautiful?” Hua Cheng flirted.
Despite the fact that Xie Lian rolled his eyes, he still leaned in to kiss the ghost beneath him before helping him up.
The two strolled, hand in hand, back to the armory to return the blades they borrowed. Every time they stood in this room, Xie Lian’s heart pounded with excitement at the beauty, craftsmanship, and history behind each of the weapons in the room.
It wasn’t unsurprising for the couple to spend the better part of the day in this room, with one man or the other talking at length about a particular blade, testing the weapon as they spoke about it.
Since getting married some time ago, Xie Lian had made a point about getting acquainted with everything in Hua Cheng’s armory.
Scratch that.
Their armory.
The place and it’s priceless artifacts had been built, collected, and crafted for Xie Lian by his beloved. While he didn’t need so many weapons, he found it much easier to accept as a gift of sorts than all the clothes or jewelry that Hua Cheng attempted to give him.
So they spent much time here in the armory, listening to one another and trying out the different weapons and complimenting one another’s techniques and abilities at combat.
It wasn’t unusual for their spars to end up quite—ahem—passionately.
“Hey!” Xie Lian cried once, after getting his ass smacked by Hua Cheng to catch him off guard and disarm him.
“All is fair in love and war,” Hua Cheng had shrugged before devouring him on the stone floor.
They put their sword and scimitar away while Xie Lian praised the performance of Hua Cheng from their spar.
“San Lang was as striking as ever! His movements are so unique! Truly a formidable foe!” He smiled.
“This one is honored to hear such flattering words from Your Highness,” Hua Cheng smiled.
“It’s not just flattery!” Xie Lian shook his head and scanned the room. “San Lang is quite—”
Xie Lian’s speech suddenly faltered as his gaze turned upon a familiar black blade, leaning against the wall.
“—talented,” he finished.
“What is it gege?” Hua Cheng instantly followed his gaze.
Fangxin.
The sword had been with Xie Lian off and on for a very long time and both men were quite familiar with the sword to an unfortunate degree.
It had been a long time since he’d thought of that first incident with the blade. And even longer since he’d thought about the sword itself.
Xie Lian shivered suddenly, while Hua Cheng’s expression darkened.
“What’s that doing in here?” He scowled.
Xie Lian let go of his husband's hand and walked to the edge of the room and picked up the blade. Hua Cheng crossed his arms over his chest, looking quite upset.
“I left it in here one day during your absence,” Xie Lian admitted. “I didn’t like looking at it everyday in the cottage after learning it had hurt you.”
Xie Lian, of course, was referring to the spirits the blade summoned to tear apart his Wu Ming. His nameless ghost.
It was the reason he bore two cursed shackles for 800 years.
How much suffering Fangxin had caused! From Bai Wuxiang to the couple to the king of Yong’an—
And more recently how it had been used to seal its true owner beneath Mount Tonglu. Jun Wu.
“Let’s get rid of that trash, gege,” Hua Cheng gritted his teeth.
Xie Lian had been quite unsure what to do with the sword. But looking upon his beloved’s face, the hurt that lingered beneath for both of them.
“Let’s do it,” Xie Lian agreed.
Hua Cheng looked up, slightly surprised.
“Truly?”
“Yes,” Xie Lian nodded. “San Lang is right. It’s nothing more than trash.”
Hua Cheng’s eye sparkled to hear his husband refer to something as such. But the gravity of the situation prevented him from any further reaction.
They traveled far to a volcano not dissimilar from Tonglu. The mountain wasn’t teeming with evil qi like the other, but did possess pools of lava beneath the surface.
They came upon a cliff’s edge and Hua Cheng wrapped a protective arm around his husband’s waist to keep him from getting too close.
Xie Lian let him.
They held the blade together, out on their palms. With little ceremony and without a word, they let the cursed blade, Fangxin, fall down into the lava. Never to be seen again.
An unknown weight suddenly was lifted from them both. They nearly collapsed onto one another from the unexpected relief.
One of them had the mind to take out their dice and transport them back to their room in Paradise Manor. Xie Lian thinks it may have been him because, surprisingly, out of the two it was Hua Cheng who began to sob in relief.
Xie Lian shed tears as well while soothing his husband.
“It’s over, it’s over,” Xie Lian reassured him. “It can’t hurt us anymore.”
They spent the rest of their day together in bed, recovering from the pain of centuries alone and apart. The pain of witnessing your beloved hurt beyond imagination.
Now, it was just a matter of time before the discarded trash was entirely forgotten.