Melted into the Bones

To repair his water spiritual root, Shen Mianwu, a pitiful nineteen-year-old son born to a concubine in a cultivation family, climbed into the bed of his unrelated elder brother, Shen Jinghan. A cultivation prodigy seen only once in ten thousand years, Shen Jinghan had received an immortal's blessing at just twenty-one and reached the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, making him an unrivaled genius and the foremost disciple.

He cultivated the Way of All Living Beings and studied under the head of the world's greatest sword cultivator pavilion. No other disciple could hope to match him.

Shen Mianwu was born to his father and his mother, a lowly concubine. Because of his damaged water spiritual root, neither he nor his mother was favored by his father. His mother passed away before she was thirty, leaving him alone to struggle through a life of uncertainty.

Many times, Shen Mianwu had wanted to die. The servants always treated people according to their status, and his meals were nothing but a small plate of greens and a few pieces of tofu with rice. Years of malnutrition left him tiny and thin, as if a gust of wind could knock him over.

Then one day, amid the gongs and drums, music and feasting at home, he learned that he had an older brother. From behind a distant door, Shen Mianwu caught a glimpse of him: cold, so cold he kept everyone at arm's length. His handsome face held nothing but ice.

But his mother had once told him that if he wanted to repair his spiritual root, he would have to dual cultivate with someone of the highest cultivation, nourishing his root with their own. Shen Mianwu gave in to temptation. He didn't take much time to think it over. Nineteen years of life had nearly suffocated him, so that very night, he climbed into his brother's bed.

The drug took effect much faster than he had expected.

When he woke, his body was covered in kiss marks. His legs were weak, and he could barely stand.

Shen Mianwu fled in panic. He knew his brother cultivated the Way of Heartlessness, and might kill him with a single sword strike when he woke.

But nothing happened that day. His brother left and returned to the Sword Immortal Pavilion. Shen Mianwu spent every day on edge, but at least his water spiritual root had truly been repaired.

He followed his mother's dying wish and joined the Sword Immortal Pavilion, where his brother was. Every day, he was careful and cautious, praying that his brother didn't remember what had happened that night.

But Shen Mianwu was foolish, while his brother was clever. Within days of joining, his brother realized he was the one who had cried and begged beneath him that night.

Terrified, Shen Mianwu trembled and begged him not to throw him out of the sect.

But his brother said nothing. He seemed indifferent. Strangely indifferent.

Later, his attitude grew stranger and stranger. Shen Mianwu noticed the inexplicable affection in his gaze, and how he watched him whenever he thought Shen Mianwu wasn't looking.

A fierce, secretive possessiveness.

The two are not blood-related.

Theme: Love can turn a cliff into level ground