"The butterfly swaggered before her eyes, singing, "One, two, three o'lairy," as he whirled;"

- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

It took some narrowing down and careful contemplation, but eventually they hit on a workable method to grow Shen Yuan a body: the Sky-Moon Phoenix Flower Elixir.

Yet another example of Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky's stellar naming ability, especially as phoenixes were a Western mythological creature distinctly different from Fenghuang and therefore should not exist in a strictly Ancient-China-only xianxia setting. And besides that, if its bird related, how exactly is it a flower, huh? Not that it is actually either of them! Oh no, the elixir was made of three non-animal or plant ingredients: a mushroom, a feather and a pearl, with flower 'milk' as the base (which did not count towards the 'Flower' name Airplane!).

According to the records of the Qing Jing Great Library, the 'Emperor's Jasmine of Boundless Nourishment' was a high-quality milk substitute upon which a scorned imperial concubine had nursed the child that would become the thirteenth Emperor, who was actually an extremely accomplished Cultivator and ruled for many decades before his Ascension. He was the primary reason for the introduction of the political divide between mortal powers and Cultivation Sects, to prevent such a long stagnation of power from occurring ever again.

The records said the flower mut be plucked just beneath the receptacle (the round part beneath the flower head) and set against living skin, where the passive flow of qi would stimulate milk production, even by mortals.

According to PIDW lore, it needed to be set exclusively around a nipple and occasionally (when Airplane lost track of which plot device he was currently using) tricked the poor woman into feeling like she herself was producing the milk, with all the sudden mammary gland growth ensuing uncomfortable tightness that could only be relieved via Protagonist.

The comment section, which had gotten to know the dubbed Boundless Boob flower very well over several lactation and/or mothering themed arcs, said it was sexy (the horny weirdos with affection deprivation) and should be widely cultivated for use, especially with the healing and purification properties of it (Peerless Cucumber).

Well, he now had the opportunity for validation.

He and Liu Qingge set out for the first ingredient a few weeks later.

It would have been sooner, but Mu Qingfang had wanted to keep him close for observation because he was, technically, lethally poisoned and the healer wanted to make sure that the medication was actually working to ensure Shen Qingqiu didn't fall over dead at any given moment. Which of course meant Yue Qingyuan grounded him by direct order not to leave the mountain for an additional twenty days after Mu Qingfang was satisfied with his work, with an additional order not to fly on his sword at all because he was excessive like that.

Shen Yuan did of course practice flying on his sword in the privacy of the bamboo forest. He had the ability to fly, what was he going to do, not fly?! Besides, he was being responsible about it! He always kept his practice directly over the Cold Pool, so even when he had some surprise swimming practice when his qi cut out, there was no harm done.

(For some reason Liu Qingge was not convinced by this logic and had berated him thoroughly the first time he found him and fished him out of the pond, bright red with rage. However, he had eventually agreed that practice was necessary but had insisted on being present when he was flying. This meant the War God was on Qing Jing much more frequently, which was gaining a lot of gossip… but also significantly cut down on sudden cold dips. Liu-shidi was very good at catching him. Very reliable! This Shen Yuan was not even winded from impact and despite being entirely hard muscle, Liu Qingge's arms were surprisingly comfortable! 10/10, would be caught again.)

Ahem.

So, the plan was for Liu Qingge to fly them to a specific hidden forest grove half a day's travel north that Luo Binghe (and wives #222-226) had discovered full to the brim with the stuff, like a den of soon-to-be lactose related debauchery. Get a flower, take some cuttings for Qian Cao and then stop off a little bit further into the forest to get the first actual elixir ingredient before heading back. The Chiming Silver Lingzi Mist Mushroom, a specific variant of Lingzi mist mushroom that only grew on the antlers of deer living in the Silver Blood Birch forest on the borderland to the north-west of Cang Qiong.

As convincing the Guardian deer to give up some mushrooms may take a while, they'd packed to camp out overnight and hopefully return to the Sect by the end of the next day or day after at the very latest. A nice short, weekend-away adventure!

Shen Yuan leaned further over Liu Qingge's shoulder, squinting at the forest flashing by below them. Shen Yuan had not been allowed to fly alone on Xiu Ya and so was riding with Liu Qingge for this trip, which really wasn't so bad! He supposed that as a top-quality physical cultivator, the Bai Zhan Lord would naturally produce more heat than the scholarly neighbourhood spiritual cultivator, but whatever the reason, it combatted the wind-chill quite nicely. Another victory for the War God. And with his arms already wrapped around his waist for stability, he probably didn't even notice Shen Yuan squeeze his arms a touch tighter and surreptitiously lean against his warm, wind-shielding back to 'get a better look' over his shoulder.

Liu Qingge had kept up an incredible pace, truth be told. Rocketing onto the sky as soon as Shen Yuan got a good grip and not really slowing down once, ah, actually he was now even speeding up, he must be more eager to get the flower than even Shen Yuan. They must be close by now…

"There!" he lurched forward as he spotted the smooth grey bark of one tree towering over the rest in its vicinity, with conveniently placed branched for easy landing. He cupped his hand over Liu Qingge's wind-flushed red ear (with a bit of difficulty as he had to stretch his arm up across his chest to reach) to be hard over the wind, "that big beech tree's the one. The grove should be hidden at the base of it, but if you land in the branched we can climb down easily"

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.

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Liu Qingge had never been so glad to see a tree in his life.

It wasn't that Silve S- Shen Yuan was doing anything untoward, per se. There were absolutely no wandering hands or groping touches, no sour, slimy edge of covetous lust curdling his qi signature, but he was very. Close.

So close that the silver silk of his qi turned to sensation dancing across Liu Qingge's skin, swirling to the tune of Shen Yuan's bubbling curiosity, flitting here and there with his attention, curling playfully around stray wisps of Liu Qingge's own qi, an invitation to frolicky amongst the air currents. Sweet and zesty orange sat on his tongue, juicy and ripe, threaded with fragrant jasmine like warm tea.

Even without that, physically… it had been a long time since Liu Qingge had had such prolonged, non-hostile contact. His ears and neck had not cooled since the moment Shen Yuan got on his sword and embraced him

For such a thin faced person he was utterly shameless when it came to interacting with Liu Qingge. As soon as a disciple or Hallmaster approached, he put on a cool and aloof façade, every inch the serene and untouchable Immortal, even as he handled the disciples bafflingly gently. As soon as he caught sight of Liu Qingge however (as soon as Liu Qingge announced his presence. Shen Yuan was still training his spiritual awareness and had to be actively concentrating to sense with it), his eyes false-green eyes warmed and crinkled up into crescents, fan waving faster and its owner soon weaving in and out of Liu Qingge's space like a bamboo branch caught in the wind, new information, observations and teasing comments falling from his lips like rainwater, each word a droplet wearing away at walls Liu Qingge hadn't quite realised were there.

Clearly, casual affection was more common where Shen Yuan's soul lived before and it showed how comfortable he was with Liu Qingge to shower him with his regard. It didn't mean anything, but that didn't stop Liu Qingge from reacting to it. Shen Yuan even seemed to delight in flustering hm as much as possible when he noticed the blood rush through his unfortunately pale skin.

The climb down was easy, but the 'hidden grove' was one Liu Qingge would never have approached had he been alone. Only accessible from above, bulbus-flowered jasmine vines wove together to make walls and ceiling around a spongy moss carpet, every single petal screaming trap to his senses.

A startled squeak and crash of foliage had him spinning around and leaping up, the act of holding this infuriating person in his arms a familiar one after watching him practice sword flight tricks until his spiritual veins seized. Shen Yuan grinned sheepishly up at him, "Ah, apologies. I was examining some lichen and a Bronze Nuthatch took offense. Many thanks for catching me." He huffed an acknowledgement and carefully billowed his qi to slowly descend, setting Shen Yuan on his feet when they landed on moss, learning in the meantime that nuthatches 'walk' headfirst up and down trees due to one toe facing backwards on their feet while three others face forwards.

Once set on his own feet, the quick fluttering of his fan slowed, false-eyes scanning the clearing with a thoughtful hum.

One thing Liu Qingge had learned over his astonishingly frequent visitation was that it was fascinating to watch Shen Yuan work. Being the only one aware of his circumstances, it fell to Liu Qingge to teach him the tricks of cultivation, combat and the world they lived in; anything Shen Yuan hadn't been able to train in before his arrival and things his primary source of knowledge- a life-story novel of some description, Shen Yuan evaded elaboration every time he asked- might have missed.

The soul within Shen Qingqiu questioned everything. Sharp eyes watched for details and logged them within an impeccable memory, even if his body couldn't apply what his mind learned from watching Liu Qingge demonstrate move-sets. There was an element of muscle memory present, true, but in the few weeks since the confrontation in the Bamboo House, Shen Yuan had progressed from a fresh disciple with ingrained instinct to a low to mid-level senior, only held back by his lack of combat experience outside of spars.

And lack of self preservation, he added mentally as Shen Yuan walked right up to a bulbus flower and immediately touched it with his bare hands.

He easily caught Shen Yuan's absent mutter of "So it really doesn't produce anything before being plucked" trailing off into speculations of the function of the milk to nourish seeds germinating in a new location. He'd assured Liu Qingge repeatedly that no part of the Jasmine of Nourishment was an aphrodisiac or otherwise mind-altering and while only the milk was edible for humans, eating any other part wouldn't be lethal, just not recommended.

So he knew a lot more about this plant than Liu Qingge and didn't consider touching it a risk, fine, but while he trusted Shen Yuan's knowledge and recall, Liu Qingge had been actively travelling all corners of the Human Realm for more than two decades and knew intimately how similar some plants looked and how easy it was to be deceived into poisoning by something presenting as a treasure flower.

He called out a warning as a reminder of that, the "be careful" harsher than he'd intended, but approached the flower and Shen Yuan all the same. The Orange-blossom Jasmine soul seemed to think he needed soothing and rattled off facts and observations about the petal structure and colouration to assure him of its harmlessness. Then plucked one, raising the suddenly dripping flower up with clear intent to demonstrate.

Liu Qingge swiftly caught his slender wrist in a firm grip and brought it up to his own mouth instead. He supposed they did need to verify that this was the right flower and Liu Qingge had both stronger cultivation and inherent poison immunity and purification attributes as a unicorn, so it only made sense for him to test it instead.

It was sweet and rich. Not as thick as the horse milk favoured in a type of tea by the steppe people. It was smooth and slightly spiritually charged, but by itself would only truly benefit young, fresh initiates with still-developing spiritual veins and no training in qi-gathering. But this was apparently the base of the potion Shen Yuan needed, so that was fine.

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Liu Qingge looked up, dark amethyst eyes shadowed by the dark sweep of his long, thick eyelashes, half lidded and sultry and Shen Yuan just. Could not respond.

Error 404: Not Found

No thoughts, empty head. Just screaming.

Then the man released the warm, secure hold on his wrist (fingers curling all the way around, what the-) and stood up from where he was bowed and practically kissing Shen Yuan's hand-

And nonchalantly declared "It's fine."

A pink tongue swiped over thin lips, catching any residual taste. What did it taste like?

He swallowed thickly and choked out a strangled "Mhm!" that landed somewhere in agreement. His mouth was desert-dry all of a sudden, but the closest thing to drink was the flower he was still holding that Liu Qingge drank from so he would absolutely die if he-

The only warning was a faint tinkling of windchimes and a rustle in the leaves above.

Amethyst eyes sharpened.

Like a rain of silver arrows, a swarm of Razor-wing Butterflies burst through the jasmine vines, sharp bladed wings spinning with malicious intent and a sound like scraping metal.

Shen Yuan struck out his fan and summoned wind with a burst of qi, gathering a swirl of leaves of shred the incoming creatures- dispersing harmlessly as his arm spasmed, spirit veins cramping as Without a Cure cut off the qi flow with burning violence.

He heard Liu Qingge call out his name and watched as a blinding arc of sword light immolated the heart of the swarm. Cheng Luan moving lightning fast, cleaving the remaining creatures like a chorus of struck bells.

Unfortunately, in his apparent panic at Shen Yuan rolling a Nat 1 on his attack, he vastly overpowered his own strike… enough that the flare of qi continued on past decimating swarm and hit the remains of the canopy… filled with highly qi-reactive flowers...

Shen Yuan barely had enough time to shut his eyes as a wall of plant milk slammed down on him.

At least he now knew what it tasted like.

…Fortunately, being a PIDW wife-plot, he knew that the plant milk didn't sour or curdle as it dried and only left suggestive white stains in clothing, but even so he immediately proposed a lake-bath for the both of them before they set up camp for the night. Something Liu Qingge immediately agreed to, though he insisted (as much as one can with stilted one-word sentences and avoidant eye contact) on preparing the campsite while Shen Yuan bathed and going to wash up separately when he returned.

He'd put it down as Liu-family body-shyness if not for the livid flush and clenched jaw the War God sported the entire (short, due to the extreme speed he put on) sword flight to the lake, so maybe he just needed to cool off his rage from the indignity of being half drowned in dubious plant secretions. His expression back in the clearing had been 100% affronted wet cat, still brandishing his sword with suddenly see-through white robes.

Not that Shen Yuan had been looking at his muscles! It's just that human vision is highly attuned to movement and the ripple and flex of Liu-juju's biceps was very eye-catching! During the sword flight, he might have given his waist a purely scientific squeeze and determined that despite its deceptive narrowness, his core was no less sculptured than his very distracting arms and skull-crushing thighs.

And he'd certainly put those muscles to good use!

You would think it would be difficult to find a butterfly specimen un-mangled enough for anatomy study, but he had actually been spoilt for choice! The killing cuts were so clean, even though it had been a full on sword bisecting fist-sized insects, that the hardest part was finding the matching halves of a single butterfly in amongst the debris of leaves and liquids. He had already noted down what he noticed about their attack patterns and speculations on their diet and social structure given that they attacked as a collective, the light from the campfire was also good enough to make some rough sketches, so he worked on that while Liu Qingge settled down to meditate for the night.

The Bai Zhan Lord had done a wonderful job with the campsite too. He'd cut down a sapling into three big logs he said would burn through the night, banked with lake stones for safety. He'd also cooked (purely for Shen Yuan, he knew, even though Liu Qingge did actually eat some himself too), caught two fish while he was bathing and cooked them with some foraged cattail root sliced and fried on a large flat stone over the fire. Shen Yuan would have assumed he was the sort to eat raw meat and veg out in the wild if anything at all, but no! The War God actually carried some salt and herbs and a little bottle of oil in qiankun space! They even had some wild peppery watercress as a salad on the side!

It was… lovely. Sat at a warm fire, full of good food and staring up at the stars… he could almost forget that he was on borrowed time. He shot a glance at Liu Qingge to check he was still meditating, then pulled up the System's soul reconfiguration progress bar, staring at the blinking figure. He grimace and bit his lip to keep in a hiss.

[\\\._._._._._._._.]

36%

Now that they had the Jasmine of Nourishment for the base, they could start gathering the other ingredients. That was fine by itself, he had full confidence in the Bai Zhan War God. Except. Except. There were two timers Shen Yuan was running against- why this potion was risky to put all his chips on, even though it was the most likely to work the way he wanted it too and soon enough to help.

It was a simple thing really, to make it a person had to gather milk from the Jasmine of Nourishment as a base and within it place a Lingzi mushroom of immortality, a feather of a fire Roc and a rabbit moon pearl. No fancy incantations or finicky alchemical recipe. Easy, if not for the mind-boggling rarity of everything past the base ingredient.

Except the potion also needed 'qi charging' before use. A whole month of being filled with qi aligned to a specific element every dawn and dusk. Each. For water, wind, fire and metal. The earth element was absent entirely for some unknown reason, because replacing wood with wind didn't screw up the wuxing elemental cycle enough, evidently!

Luckily, Shen Yuan's soul was apparently aligned with wind and water, so he could charge the potion for those elements. Metal would be covered by Lou Qingge, which that still left fire, but they had at least three months before they could worry about that, so Shen Yuan had jotted down some ideas on bribes for Qi Qingqi (as the only fire element of the Qing generation outside of Shen Qingqiu, who wasn't exactly available right now) and left it at that.

After all the elements were charged, the potion would need to sit beneath the light of the full moon and the new body would emerge from it. He had to have a soul transfer array ready before that point, but even that wasn't impossibly complex, just obscure.

There was one glaring problem though, one he hadn't exactly shared with Liu Qingge.

The progress bar.

The sand timer to his demise, but worse because just like a computer process it was entirely unpredictable.

When he first woke up in this world, the percentages crept up by ones or twos after a week or more of nothing. Then a couple of days ago, he woke up to a jump from 12% to 30%. Asking the System about did nothing, it wouldn't even give his an approximate duration time.

There was nothing he could do but get the elixir made and charged as soon as possible and hope it's soon enough.

He closed the interface window and wriggled down onto his bed roll, curling up tight and trying to get some sleep. They were going to get the mushroom in the morning so he needed to rest up.

No more thoughts of death and the unknown! He was going to sleep and tomorrow they would be a step closer to the solution.

.

.

.

Liu Qingge opened his eyes and looked over to the Silver Silk soul, who had eventually fallen asleep, but it was restless. He was curled up in a tight defensive ball facing Liu Qingge, a deep crease between his eyebrows and eyes moving beneath their lids.

The unicorn had felt the disturbance in Shen Yuan's signature but had afforded him privacy about it, even as silver silk clouds began coiling like a gathering storm, as warm, rich jasmine gained a sickly-sweet edge like rotting and vibrant orange turned sharp with an edge of panic. It was subtle. Suppressed. Shen Yuan seemed to be dealing with it, so Liu Qingge let it be a stayed away, ready to intervene if it escalated towards true panic or Qi Deviation.

He got up and moved around the fire until he was next to the troubled soul and sat down, releasing his hold on his qi and letting it settle around him and Shen Yuan like an aura. Insubstantial, his qi signature flowed like water, carrying woody vetiver of growing things to twine and refresh night-blooming jasmine, while herbaceous and slightly smoky lavender soothed the too-sharp bite of citrus back to the fresh sweetness of mandarin oranges.

Shen Yuan's expression eased and he let out a small sigh, turbulent clouds smoothing out into gently rippling silk and scent smoothing back to its usual refreshing brightness. Their scent signatures mixed strangely well, coming together like an oasis. A pool of crystal clear water within a rich, verdant forest, stray jasmine flowers and orange blossom dancing across the surface, fallen from nearby trees and vines, driven by the laughing breeze that twirled through the clearing and ran gentle fingers like wisps of silk through the delicately shining white metal lavender growing at the water's edge. Odd, but beautiful. A secret paradise.

Liu Qingge shook the image away and closed his eyes, resuming meditation… when a rustle of fabric and a pressure against his leg pulled his out of it again. Amethyst eyes looked down and observed Shen Yuan curled close, his forehead pressed against Liu Qingge's thigh. He must have subconsciously sensed the comfort innate to the aura of a unicorn, rather than been drawn to Liu Qingge's presence for protection in specific.

Unbidden, his hand lifted to smooth lock of hair away from his cheek to tuck behind one ear. Suddenly becoming aware of the heat of the fire on his entire face, he slammed his eyes shut and forcefully pushed himself into meditation, one hand still resting stop silky brown hair.

Notes:

• Beech because it's called the Queen of the Forest, like oak is the king.
• The boundless boob flower is based off Jasminum sambac Chinese Emperor jasmine cultivar.
• Most unicorns are omnivorous, I decided. The reason? Horn is made to /attack/. I also had the image of casually eating a wolf or something from time to time, an apex predator that doesn't need to exert that force very often, but definitely can.