It was night, and a round, bright moon softly illuminated the surroundings.
On the peak of the Infinite Dao Sect's mountain, the place seed strangely darker than usual, leaving so disciples confused. However, since it was a high-level area of the sect, none of them dared to climb up.
Aotian was guiding Rihai by the hand, helping her step down from his flying sword, which they had used to reach the mountain's peak.
She was blindfolded, and at Aotian's request, she kept her spiritual sense retracted. Otherwise, even blindfolded, she would have perfectly seen everything around her.
With his own energy perception, Aotian confird that she was indeed following his request. This was, in a way, a heavy proof of trust: sealing her spiritual sense and sight left her extrely vulnerable. If it were an ambush or a sneak attack, she would be in danger.
Aotian held both of her hands in his. Observing her curious face, still covered by the blindfold, he smiled gently and leaned in, giving her a quick peck on the lips.
When he pulled away, she gave him an amused smile.
"Was that part of the surprise?" she asked playfully.
"No, that was improvised," he laughed lightly, admitting it.
"I suspected as much," she teased, and Aotian imagined that if she weren’t blindfolded, surely one of her beautiful blue eyes would be mischievously winking at him—sothing she had learned from him.
Unable to resist, he gave her another quick kiss, pulling back with a smile.
"Okay, don't tempt with your beauty anymore, or I'll want to kiss you all night and won't be able to show you anything," he joked.
Rihai only smiled affectionately and gave a slight nod, playfully agreeing.
He kissed her again.
"Hey, I didn't do anything!" she complained, though the smile on her face betrayed her happiness.
Once more, he kissed her.
"Sorry, I lacked the strength to resist," he declared with fake helplessness, clearly amused by their interaction. Then he got straight to the point. "Hai'er, I'm going to remove your blindfold now. But don't use your spiritual energy yet, only your eyes, okay?" he said, moving behind her.
"Uhm!" she humd, smiling.
Aotian gently untied the white cloth behind her head, taking care not to pull her beautiful blonde hair.
As soon as the knot was undone, the cloth slipped to her neck, and Rihai opened her bright blue eyes, observing the abnormally dark surroundings.
Even as a cultivator, she couldn't see anything. She knew it was so kind of formation that made the place completely dark.
Aotian pulled the cloth, which slid off her shoulders, bringing with it the faint fragrance of her hair. He folded it and put it in his storage pouch before moving to her side and taking her hand again.
"Are you ready?" he asked, looking into the darkness. His main body also couldn't see anything, as he had stopped releasing his spiritual energy to sense the environnt.
"Err… I guess I am?" Rihai replied, amused and curious. She had never done anything like this and was completely in the dark — literally and figuratively — which only increased her curiosity.
"When I say three, we'll take a step forward together," he explained, gently squeezing her delicate fingers.
"Got it," she answered in the dark.
"Alright then…"
"One…"
Their breaths synchronized, mixing with the gentle wind that swayed their clothes.
"Two…"
The cold air made Rihai move even closer to him, her eyes widening slightly, eager not to miss anything.
"Three!"
As soon as Aotian's words fell, the two stepped forward together.
The mont their lifted feet touched the ground, it began to glow softly under the soles of their shoes, allowing them to see at least each other's silhouettes in the darkness.
Rihai was about to look at Aotian when sothing caught her attention: a drawing appeared under her feet — a beautiful white Koi carp, whose light seed to illuminate that dark world.
Right after, a red glow appeared behind them.
Looking back, another carp was revealed, this ti red, appearing from under Aotian's feet.
The two carps began to "swim" on the ground, circling them gently, one on each side.
Rihai smiled at the sight, understanding imdiately: the white carp represented her, and the red carp represented Aotian.
Then, to her surprise, the carps, which seed like re drawings on the ground, ca to life. Like paintings breaking free, they rose into the air, their ink-like bodies moving as if they were living creatures.
At the sa ti, golden patterns began forming under their feet, illuminating the area. Now, they could see each other completely.
Aotian smiled and, with his gaze, asked her to pay attention to the fish.
Rihai chuckled softly, hugged his arm, and rested her head on his shoulder, a soft smile on her lips.
The carps began to grow, spinning around more animatedly, as if chasing each other.
A playful smile appeared on Rihai's face, and she whispered:
"I think the red one is chasing the white one, while the white one is playing hard to get."
Aotian rolled his eyes, amused. He had created it himself and knew the carps only circled around them; she was just teasing him.
"Funny, I think it's exactly the opposite. The red carp is way too beautiful, and you don't find a good catch like that every day. I think the white one is the one giving it all she's got to catch up to the red one." He gently freed his arm from her grasp and wrapped her shoulders in a hug, pulling her closer.
Rihai laughed softly at his words, rested her hand and head on his chest, and continued watching the carps, which began changing shape.
The carps stretched, and from their sides, legs and claws erged. From their heads, deer-like horns grew, long whiskers descended from their mouths, which stretched, revealing powerful fangs.
Gently, as if touched by magic, the drawing transford from two carps into two powerful dragons flying around them.
Rihai's eyes, illuminated by the white and red dragons, watched with admiration and a hint of confusion, not fully understanding what Aotian ant with the carp turning into a dragon.
As they focused on the dragons in the air, light flowers with closed petals, in different colors, began appearing under their feet, growing up to their waists.
The once dark environnt beca filled with patterns that soon shifted to resemble a sea of closed flowers.
The dragons flying around them then changed again, transforming into beautiful phoenixes that flapped their wings gracefully, one red and one white, leaving trails of soft flas as they chased each other around Aotian and Rihai.
In the sea of flowers, the blossoms blood, making the scenery even more dazzling.
But it didn't stop there. The two figures, red and white, continued transforming.
They beca Qilins, then White Tigers, Vermilion Birds, Horses, Cranes, and various other animals, so mythical and others common.
anwhile, the sea of flowers withered, then rose as a forest, transford into a small city, then a large one, turned into ruins, a desert, and returned to darkness, alternating between various other scenes — so spectacular and beautiful, others sad and desolate.
The entire scenery, including the animals, seed painted with ink, and Aotian and Rihai stood in the middle of a breathtaking, living painting.
A soft lody also played, as if nature itself were the main instrunt, accompanying each transition of the painting and slightly changing its rhythm with every shift.
But despite the beautiful drawings and the hypnotically pleasant music, Rihai remained confused, not understanding what ssage Aotian wanted to convey by showing her all of this.
Aotian turned his eyes away from the living painting and looked down, where Rihai's face, resting against his chest, was filled with admiration but also a slight bewildernt, illuminated by the light emitted by the paintings.
Seeing that brought a soft smile to his lips.
"These two, flying around us — you must have already understood what they represent, right?"
He asked in a low, husky voice, as if not wanting to speak too loudly and disturb the animals' performance. He was sure she would understand, considering the joke they had made earlier.
Rihai took her eyes off the two animals flying above the sea of flowers and looked at him, blinking softly.
"The red one is you, and the white one is . I suppose they should also represent yin and yang, although the color of my carp is a bit wrong since I should represent Yin, a black carp—"
Rihai began to explain, but before she could finish, Aotian placed a finger in front of her lips, silencing her with a helpless roll of his eyes.
"Ugh… Rihai, this isn't the ti to be a know-it-all."
Aotian removed his finger from her lips and rubbed his forehead with slight helplessness, though the amused smile on his face showed he actually found it cute.
"The moon is white and represents Yin. Let's go with that. A black carp in such a dark environnt wouldn't look as striking."
He said with a shrug, making Rihai lightly cover her mouth and smile, her eyes almost turning into two crescent moons.
"Okay, but what is all this supposed to an, Tian'er? The carps changing shape, the scenery changing… sotis wonderful, sotis sad…"
She held back her smile a bit and looked at him in confusion, her beautiful blue eyes fixed on him.
The question made Aotian's eyes turn serious, and he looked at her solemnly.
"What it all ans… is that, Rihai, no matter how we change, no matter where we are. Whether in happiness or sadness, in wealth or poverty, I will always love you. No matter where you are, I will always go after you. And never, at any mont, will I stop loving you. Whether as a dragon in the skies or as a carp in the lake."
He spoke deeply, with all the sincerity of his heart.
Rihai's eyes widened, stunned, not expecting any of this. Her eyes grew misty, and she buried her face in Aotian's chest, hugging him tightly, her shoulders trembling slightly with emotion.
Aotian smiled gently, stroking her long golden hair softly as he felt the strong embrace.
That mont was, obviously, his official marriage proposal, but there was no such procedure in this world.
Normally, in the cultivation world, a Daoist couple didn't even marry; they simply stayed together when they decided to. Rihai, however, wanted sothing more serious, so marriage was a further step.
Even in those cases, Daoist couples simply decided to marry, without anything like a formal and romantic proposal. Aotian was innovating in that regard, and that was why Rihai was confused by such unprecedented romance.
As a westerner, he found the custom of this world regarding marriage proposals a bit cold. He even wanted to kneel when proposing, but here kneeling was seen as a submissive and filial gesture, which would sound strange in a marriage proposal. So he improvised.
Gently holding her shoulders, he carefully moved her away, sliding his hands down her arms until he held her palms.
He looked into her red, tear-blurred eyes, smiling lovingly.
"Liu Rihai… will you marry ?" he asked solemnly.
Once again, Rihai was stunned by what he was doing and thought in confusion:
'Huh? But didn't we already agree to this?'
But she quickly reacted, following his lead.
She took a deep breath, answered seriously, and nodded firmly.
"I want to!"
Aotian smiled in amusent. He had expected an "I accept," but that worked too.
Then, without waiting any longer, he leaned in and kissed his bride.
And so, in the middle of a sea of red roses, with the carps transforming for the first ti into different animals — one into a dragon and the other into a phoenix — flying above them, they sealed their commitnt…
… for this life and all the others to co.
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