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This had been a problem with Quan Yizhen, several times in the past. Or rather, too many times to count, but it wasn’t supposed to be a serious thing to deal with. Just some careless mistakes, nothing but a silly thing that happened and that they could laugh about after, while bandaging him in the sect's infirmary and making sure he was ultimately okay.
It was just that Quan Yizhen got so utterly absorbed whenever he got to fight, that he tended to disregard the risks, to focus exclusively on the thrill of combat. Something that, understandably, could cause a lot of problems, and that Yin Yu had always discouraged, doing his best to instill some sense of discipline (and self–preservation) into his thick–headed shidi.
“If you overestimate your abilities, or underestimate the threat level that your opponent represents, you could end up dead before you even understand exactly where you went wrong, Yizhen,” Yin Yu had repeated, as he did each time he had to bandage Quan Yizhen, with an increasingly tired voice, not hiding his disappointment, since he knew that, at the very least, that would make his shidi listen to him with more attention and take his words seriously. “Risking yourself like that is not acceptable, shidi.”
“But we’re all risking ourselves in our missions!” Quan Yizhen asked him, confused. “Isn’t that just expected when you’re fighting an enemy, shixiong?”
“There’s a risk that comes from fighting dangerous beasts and vengeful spirits, yes, but you’re supposed to always look for ways to make sure you’re taking the least possible risks when you enter a fight,” Yin Yu retorted, and then flicked Quan Yizhen’s forehead, leaving him scrambling to rub it with his uninjured arm, “instead of just assuming you’re going to get injured anyway, and using that as an excuse to be careless with your body, and burdening your fellow disciples with protecting you,” he flicked Quan Yizhen’s forehead again, “or having to carry you back to the sect when you’re injured.” He flicked his forehead one last time, for good measure.
“I’m sorry, shixiong,” Quan Yizhen said, contrite, while still rubbing the reddening spot on his forehead. “This shidi will be more careful in the future.”
But he tended to fail to do so, even when he tried. At least, there was some difference, as now he was doing his best to spend more time thinking and planning ahead before he jumped into action. It didn’t mean he never got injured, though. And the more intensely he trained, fought, and focused on improving, the more glaring it became to Yin Yu that there was something making more difficult for his shidi to notice his own injuries and overall body state.
Quan Yizhen could train until his body stopped moving from exhaustion. He never noticed the passage of time, or the thirst, hunger and tiredness, until his own body gave up. He could keep fighting after being injured, not noticing he had been hurt, until after the fight, when the uncomfortable sensation of his robes sticking to his skin, soaked with blood, forced him to notice. Or the fact that he couldn’t move a limb anymore, with the sudden spike of pain that accompanied that realization.
They had tried several things: the sticks of incense they used to measure time were now attached to a talisman that would make a loud sound, to make Quan Yizhen realize it was time to take a break (it only worked sometimes: if Quan Yizhen was too engrossed in training, then he wouldn't even hear the talisman going off!); they forbid him from eating if it wasn’t at proper times (he always broke that rule anyway); they even locked him out of the training halls, but it only got him to use other spaces to train, which was both dangerous and way less appropriate.
Most importantly: he wasn’t intentionally risking himself anymore: he simply couldn’t tell. And it wasn’t that serious of a problem before, since his injuries were not that bad, but now that they were adults, at the top of their sect in terms of martial prowess, the chances to encounter powerful enemies during their missions increased, and with it, the chances for Quan Yizhen to end up seriously wounded. Even if he was an excellent fighter, he was not infallible. It happened less frequently than before, but when he got hurt, it was much more serious.
“What am I going to do with you?!” Yin Yu asked him, as he carried Quan Yizhen back to their sect, after a successful mission, yes, but also one that had left Quan Yizhen with yet another broken bone. “I can’t protect you forever, Yizhen.”
“I’m sorry, shixiong,” Quan Yizhen mumbled, ashamed. “I truly didn’t notice what happened to me.” He was doing a good job hiding his pain, but his injury was gnarly, and it would put him out of commission for a while. At least his strong spiritual core should help him heal sooner than a regular person.
“How the hell can you not realize something like that?” Jian Shi asked, rolling his eyes, while also helping carry him. They had improvised a stretcher, and splinted Quan Yizhen’s injured leg. “You’re fucking insane.” Then, he added, trying to rile him up, “You’ll have to get stronger, to compensate for your lack of brains. I’m not going to risk myself to save you if you fuck up again.”
”Jian Shi,” Yin Yu said, annoyed, but Quan Yizhen cut him off before he could scold Jian Shi further.
“I know that I have to get stronger! I’m trying!” he said, trying to sit up in the stretcher, but failing, squirming from the pain. “I will be so strong that no one will need to protect me anymore.”
“Hah, big aspirations for someone that can barely take care of himself,” Jian Shi replied.
Yin Yu just sighed, already tired of their antics.
“Being strong doesn’t mean you won’t need protection or care anymore,” Yin Yu said, always the dutiful shixiong. “No one is immune to danger, not even the gods up in the Heavens. That’s why they have deputies, and healers.” There was a weird, charged silence, as both of his shidis processed those words. Then, trying to lift the mood, Yin Yu added, “So I’m going to take you both with me when I ascend. I can’t trust you idiots with taking care of yourselves down here, but I still would trust you with my life. I'll have to compromise.”
His voice really was like the verbal equivalent of a flick to their foreheads.
“Hey, come on, I can take care of myself!” Jian Shi said, indignant.
“So you don’t want to be my deputy?” Yin Yu asked, glancing back at him from above his shoulder. “I see, I will keep that in mind.”
“That’s not what I said!” Jian Shi replied immediately, “Of course I want to-”
“What does a deputy do?” Quan Yizhen asked, already taking mental notes.
“I will tell you when Jian Shi is not around, since he doesn’t want to be one,” Yin Yu said, now looking ahead, to hide his smile.
“Aw, A-Yu, that’s not–”
They kept bantering all the way back to their sect.