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Chapter Text

PROLOGUE

In the end, it’s the fire. The smell of burnt corpses overpowered by the bright flame reignites the hearts of those who surround him still. The bleak scene warps and consumes his mind until any last thought of resistance is gone, snuffed out.

He only wishes they were faster with it. He would tell them to just cut his head off but his mouth is too filled with blood to speak. Those who still have their swords continue to stab him in the chest, as if by destroying his organs or draining him of blood it’d be over soon. His body keeps regenerating, though, even against his wish to stop hurting no matter the cost. Surprisingly, he can’t help focusing on the subtle sounds around him: the bells and crystals hanging on cultivators’ swords and belts as they move, the creaking of the burned wood on the ground, the slosh of his blood-soaked clothes each time he flinches away.

One cultivator approaches with what looks like several talismans and seals in each hand, and Shen Yuan only gets to think “finally” before darkness takes him under.

When he wakes again, his mind feels hazy, disoriented. He died, or he was supposed to die. He knows he shouldn’t be awake, but not why. He was defeated, he was killed? But he’s awake. He can’t move, or see anything but a pitch black void. He can’t feel anything on his body, neither pain nor pressure, just an empty vagueness that hints at the existence of a body even if he’s not aware of it.

He’s just consciousness; Just thoughts with no anchor. No life, no existence, only a never-ending memory of despair agonizing where no one can see. He would scream if he could, he would trash around, carve his face off just to feel it, to know something’s real.

When the hours, days, months pass he starts losing himself. He is no longer just a memory, he is scrambled ideas. His mind jumps uncontrollably while his sense of identity gets eroded like stones on a stream. There is no betrayal in this place, no desire to wander, no hate, no sadness, no loneliness. When fogginess starts to settle in, when the only thing he knows is that he knows nothing, awareness running dry, he sleeps.

In the deepest of sleeps, no quite death but similar in all the ways that matter, he would have spent eternity. Forgotten by the world that created him, he’d become no more than the ghost of a name.

But fate is tricky, the world is filled with mad men, and some of them are bold enough to fight against the heavens and the earth for a second chance.

Chapter Text

The only thing preventing Liu Qingge from face-planting into the earth was pure luck. The muddy ground was slippery because of the heavy rain, and the same could be said about his sword. His hands were busy trying to shield his eyes enough that he could follow the beast’s trail, helped occasionally by flashes of lighting overhead. In such terrible weather most people would give up, find the nearest town and settle in any inn for the night. Liu Qingge was not most people, and he really couldn’t stop now.

The beast this time was intelligent. Had been mimicking human voices to lure travellers into their deaths, and was an expert hiding its tracks and instantly vanishing from the scene of the crime. It had taken weeks to identify it as demonic in nature and for Cang Qiong to receive a formal request, and then days before Liu Qingge managed to catch it unawares while it was busy with its last meal. The opportunity couldn't be wasted because he was getting a little wet.

“Damn you!” He couldn’t help but scream as he was once again slapped in the face by his own ponytail. The anger that kept building up inside his head made his focus sharper, wilder.

Suddenly the beast disappeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Liu Qingge sped up and finally arrived at the foot of a mountain. By his calculations he must have been near Huan Hua territory but the specific name of the place was lost to him.  He scanned the area until he noticed a slight irregularity in the rocks. An opening, barely bigger than the beast itself, but a good option regardless.  He landed in front of it and secured his sword on his right hand before heading in. If the beast truly was here, there was a good chance he’d be ambushed as soon as he reached it, but he’d take any risk as long as he could finally stop this game of chase. Inside the cave it was extremely dark, the only sounds being the stomping of his wet boots and the faint rumbling of the storm outside. He could use a talisman for a little bit of light, but he’d rather keep his hands free and ready to reflect any attack. Guided only by his spiritual sense, he ended up face to face with a dead-end. There was only a rocky wall with sharp points, no beast in sight. If it was not here, by now the rain would have erased any kind of tracks or marks he could keep chasing once outside.

Defeated, he decided to go back to the entrance and at least stay until it stopped raining. For the walk back he didn’t hesitate to use a fire talisman for light, which illuminated the whole cave and revealed black and red paper seals glued all over the top. Unnerved, he hurried to leave, but before he took his first step he felt it. A killing intent so strong it was like being stabbed on the back of his neck. He whirled around and the beast was suddenly there, dropped down from the ceiling on its hind legs with a human-sounding scream, it immediately reached at Liu Qingge with its long claws. The black fur created a terrifying shadow, until the talisman fell to the floor and lost power, filling the cave with darkness again. He could only rely on his ears and spiritual sense to defend from it attacks, making retaliation very difficult. Sweat began to mix with the rain water still drenching his face and clothes. It was dangerous, and extremely tiring, but this was what he was good at. Nothing got his blood pumping more than a challenge.

The beast was not that big, so it relied on speed and its long limbs to land scratches and rips on Liu Qingge’s upper body. Most of the attacks were focused on his right hand, where the sword kept repelling the fiercest of the swipes, and the cultivator smirked. Letting go of the sword, he tried to grab at one of its limbs with both hands, keeping it in place while it bit at his shoulder and moving Cheng Luan with his qi to skewer it right in the middle. Whether it sensed the danger or was planning to do it either way, the beast whimpered with a little girl’s voice, “Gege, stop!”

Instantly Liu Qingge’s sword clattered to the ground with a clang, at the same time as his grip loosened. His face looked horrified and white as a sheet. For a second he was too scared to move, confused about where he was or what was happening. The beast smartly used that single second to stab Liu Qingge’s chest with his claws all the way until he felt it on his back ribs. Afterwards it licked the cultivator’s blood still on its lips, sure of its victory.

The pain was so sharp and strong, however, that Liu Qingge’s confused mind woke up with a roar. He gritted his teeth and grabbed the monster’s hand still stabbing him with all the force he could muster, and finished his previous move of making Cheng Luan fly, this time so it could sever the creature’s head in one strong swipe. His sword got stuck in the cave wall from the force of it, and Liu Qingge fell to the floor, throwing the beast corpse as far away from him as he could. The fight was over, but he was still affected by that voice, and his injuries were grave enough that he couldn’t instantly move. The risk of bleeding to death in this cave made him so embarrassed that he forced himself to get up and try to walk to the entrance, send a signal to Yue Qingyuan so they could come get him. How humiliating.

He got as far as two steps away when the pulses came. Hot pain, like poison, ran all over his spiritual veins causing shivers and twitches to wreck his body. His mind felt feverish, a whirlwind of pain and confusion. Liu Qingge could only think a single “I’m cursed” before he lost his awareness to the madness of the qi deviation. His roars and howls echoed through the cave like a dying animal’s. His injuries were nothing against the delirious need to fight, to destroy the cave with his bare hands, to kick and head-butt whatever was near. Blood stained everything around, including a few of the paper seals that were a bit closer to the ground. Not like Liu Qingge cared about anything right now except being a suicidal deranged menace.

He screamed loudly in pain one last time before he heard a clear male voice say, “Shut up!” and the dissonance of it was so strong it brought a sliver of clarity to his brain. “Can’t you see I’m trying to sleep? So rude.”

Liu Qingge’s drop of clarity vanished, and he grunted in effort as he kicked again at the cave wall. Something cracked, or felt like it, but it wasn’t the wall.

“Honestly, if you’re dying do it quietly. Someone’s getting his beauty rest.”

Dying? And then next to that thought, A G-G-G-G-GHOST?! Which miraculously stopped the qi deviation in a second, slowing his rampaging like a bucket of freezing water over his head.

Ghosts were scary, that was something Liu Qingge learned as early as the age of five. Not only were ghosts dangerous, but you couldn’t punch them, stab them, or hit them in any way. They didn’t have a body to kill, so they were pretty much an invincible enemy no matter if you were the War God or the King of Hell. He’d been told countless times that ghosts weren't real, but that could mean they’ve never left any survivors to tell the tale. Just to be safe, Liu Qingge had a rule to avoid any missions involving the words haunted, cursed, or mysterious deaths, always.

“Are you dead already?” The mysterious voice said into the silence.

Liu Qingge, who expressed happiness with anger, sadness with anger, and fear with anger, screamed “WHO ARE YOU!”

“So not dead yet. Hmm, I don’t know, I just woke up after hearing your incessant wailing.”

No matter how the cultivator moved his sight, there was no one in front of him. His body was shivering, and it was either fear or blood loss, which would be marginally better in his mind. “W-where…”

“I don’t know, I can hear you but I don’t… feel anything. Wait, are you scared? You sounded scared.”

Definitely a ghost. Liu Qingge thought in despair, certain that he really was cursed. “Stay there! Don’t come near!”

“I can’t move to get near if I don’t know where you are, stupid. Or where I am, for that matter.”

Offended, he shouted “Then shut up!” How dare some random ghost…

“You shut up! No, wait, I’ll get bored.”

“How can you be bored already?” Maybe the qi deviation was still going strong and he was hallucinating everything, Liu Qingge thought.

Now the voice sounded tired, “I have an overactive mind.” A second’s pause, and then, “…I think. I really don’t remember.”

Nothing was stopping Liu Qingge from just leaving, so he did just that. Sadly for him, his body chose that moment to start feeling all the ways it had been torn up and abused. He started to feel a fog obscuring his consciousness and knew he was going to faint.

Great, now the ghost is going to possess my body and eat my soul. He wailed inside his head just before darkness took over.

Stubbornness went a long way, and Liu Qingge avoided death once again. Waking up wet, dirty and dishevelled, he was sprawled in the middle of the cold floor covered only with his tattered robes. He decided moving was not immediately necessary and contemplated his life’s choices.  His whole chest hurt badly any time he breathed, but it was no longer actively bleeding. His arms and legs had cuts all over them but they weren’t deep enough to damage anything important. The worst were his meridians, which were abused to the point stars exploded in his eyes as soon as he tried to circulate some spiritual energy through them. Also, still not possessed, which was the most important thing.

There was silence all around him, so he was confident the ghost from yesterday was not real, probably a side-effect of the qi deviation. He groaned as he finally moved and got as far as reaching for Cheng Luan before a chilling voice said, “You’re finally awake!”

Stopping in his tracks, Liu Qingge moved toward the voice, faintly suspicious someone was messing with him. Nothing. Just a grey wall made of rock full of sword marks and blood stains.

“I’ve been wondering, you know, who you are. There must be a reason you are the first thing I meet after waking up. Or well, maybe not ‘meet’ but hear? Notice?” The elegant and chill voice continued to murmur in the background.

He ignored the voice and kept looking around until he noticed the row of paper seals stuck to the ceiling, some of them sadly, regrettably and horribly, were ripped and laid on the dirty ground. Great. Liu Qingge’s mind had no trouble supplying him with an order of events.

Someone sealed a ghost on this cave; he accidentally broke some of the seals and freed the ghost. He needed to run as far as he could.

Determined, he started to limp back the way he came. Damn his injuries and damn his meridians, he’d walk back all the way to Cang Qiong to avoid facing a damned ghost.

“Wait! Don’t go!” The ghost said, probably after hearing his footsteps. Ha, he won’t be fooled.

“Please.” Said the voice again, softer, and this time it was inexplicably filled with a sadness that tugged a bit at Liu Qingge’s heart.

With a long-suffering sigh that hid his nervousness, the cultivator asked, “What do you want?!”

Silence, and then, “…I’m lonely.”

“That’s your problem.”

“I want to know who I am. I don’t want to stay here.”

“But I do want you to stay here.”

“Why?”

Liu Qingge didn’t stutter, he didn’t. “J-just because.”

Then the ghost seemingly got inspiration because he confidently said “I saved your life, you owe me.”

“You didn’t! You definitely didn’t!”

“I so did! You were screaming and crying right before I spoke, and then you suddenly calmed down. It’s obvious it was thanks to me. The least you could do is return the favour and help me.”

“I DIDN’T CRY!” He shouted indignantly, and marched back into the cave. “What exactly do you need.” He said gruffly, still keeping his distance from where he could still see the seals laid out.

“Hmm… I don’t know. Tell me about yourself first? Ah, right, where is this?”

Frustrated and annoyed at his weakness, Liu Qingge sits on the ground before his legs give out. Resigned to do something so the ghost left him alone, he started. “Liu Qingge, the War God of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, and this is a cave on a mountain near Huan Hua Palace.”

“Ohh... so honest! Mm, doesn’t ring a bell.” The ghost said, but there was a hitch in his words, as if his breath got caught on something. “So, a cave. You aren’t like me and can move around, why did you come here?”

“I was following a beast.”

“A beast? What’s that?”

“A demonic beast? Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“What’s demonic?”

What. “Demonic means it comes from the Demon Realm, a beast is just an animal that kills people.” Liu Qingge wouldn’t realize he was seriously explaining things to a ghost until after he was back on the mountain and no one could hear him curse out loud.

“What’s the Demon Realm?”

“SERIOUSLY?! How can you not know, aren’t you a ghost?”

“What? Liu Qingge you… I don’t understand anything you’re saying.”

"How could you not know that? Have you been living under a rock?"

"Actually yes."

"Oh, right."

Chastised, Liu Qingge remained silent. Until he realized he was not the one who should be embarrassed! Before he could think of a retort, however, the ghost kept his chatter.

“So I’m a ghost? What’s that?”

“Hnngg! Stop! Stop asking so many questions! Just know that you don’t have a body because you’re already dead. You’ll never be able to leave this place as long as you’re sealed, and I’m not going to free you and risk you possessing anyone else.” He didn’t realize he was breathing hard until he finished his tirade.

He waited for the ghost to react, to shout at him or try to scare him into compliance, but nothing came. He was starting to feel kind of bad at his outburst before he finally heard the voice again.

“Never leave?” With the softest, unhappy and resigned tone he had ever heard.

Liu Qingge never considered himself to be a good person. He did not go out of his way to help others, nor felt the need to self-sacrifice in other’s behalf.  He saved people sometimes, but it was all in the interest of getting stronger, nothing like a noble goal. He was not patient and gentle like Yue Qingyuan, nor knowledgeable and skilled like Mu Qingfang, and he definitely wasn’t caring and nurturing like Qi Qingqi. However much he enjoyed fighting, though, he wasn’t cruel. He didn’t enjoy cruelty, causing unnecessary pain, as much as he didn’t enjoy injustice or betrayal. Hurting others for its own sake always bothered him. Just as it was bothering him right then.

He spoke before he could think more on the words. “Well maybe you can. Leave, I mean.”

“I could? But how… I can’t walk out of here.”

“I don’t know, but there must be a way.” Suddenly illuminated, Liu Qingge said, “otherwise they wouldn’t have put seals to trap you! It must be because you could potentially break out that they took precautions.”

“Yes! That makes sense!” Invigorated, the ghost kept talking, “You could help remove the seals like you did before!”

Liu Qingge interrupted, feeling cornered. “W-wait! I’m not releasing you until I know more about you! Who knows what kind of powers you have…” He started to get up from the floor. “I’ll go back to Cang Qiong and ask around, see if anyone knows about you, then I’ll decide.”

The ghost was silent again, and the cave felt kind of lonely while he was leaving, as if he was somehow regretting it. Annoyed at his confusing thoughts, Liu Qingge desperately grabbed at his messy hair and finally said. “… I’ll come back soon.”

And then after a while, when he arrived near the entrance, he could hear a cold but clear voice. “Okay.”

Chapter Text

The second time Liu Qingge approached the cave, his face was painted in righteous fury. His steps carried a reluctant strength, an executioner’s dance. Justice and betrayal and, unexpectedly, pain.

In his left sleeve he carried a pair of seals, newly-made from Cang Qiong’s experts, to be used one last time.

He made his way in darkness, guided by memory alone, and soon reached the end of the cave where everything still looked the same as when he left.

Cheng Luan remained in its scabbard, unneeded.

In front of the wall he lifted his face, waiting for that voice to speak, or fearing for that voice to speak.

Hate had always been a trusted companion of his, and humiliation could not have been a better fuel.

To remedy his mistake, born out of malicious lies.

Before he heard the voice again, he remembered Yue Qingyuan’s words.

“Greetings to you, too. Which mountain did you say?”

“I don’t know what it’s called. It was near Huan Hua Palace.”

“Hmm… Was it near a river?”

“No, it was more to the East. I think it was the tallest mountain around.”

The sect leader was tidying his desk as he spoke, but at this moment he abruptly stopped, and took a deep breath. “It would be better if Shidi did not hunt near this mountain again.”

Worried, Liu Qingge got closer. “What’s wrong with it?”

“A tragic battle took place under that mountain. Demonic qi, as well as resentful energy permeated the grounds. Many surrounding beasts and people were influenced and turned demonic, developing great strength and strange abilities. There is no human population around because Huan Hua Palace owns the area, and they are not in danger by these, so the problem was left for them to deal with.”

“What great battle? How come I haven’t heard about it before?”

“You have heard about it, it is just that you did not know the location. It was the battle to subdue Heavenly Demon Tanshui-Jun.”

Silence permeated the room, and a cold shiver travelled Liu Qingge’s back. The greatest tragedy of the cultivation realm in centuries, and he had stumbled upon it by pure chance. It was precisely this tragedy which had turned Yue Qingyuan into the most revered and feared Cang Qiong Mountain Sect Head ever in spite of his age.

“So… It was at that mountain where the demon was defeated?” Li Qingge’s mind was invaded by a terrible sense of foreboding.

Yue Qingyuan clearly hesitated, troubled by something, but in the end he said. “Regardless of our numbers he could not be killed. In the end, with everyone’s painstaking efforts, we could only weaken him enough to be sealed under that very mountain, never to wake again.” He walked around the table and stood near Liu Qingge, with a grave expression he had never before seen in that affable face. “There was a great fire that covered the entire side of the mountain, and of the great number of casualties we suffered many bodies were lost, turned to ashes before they could even be identified. That place became a black mark for all of the sects, and to avoid anyone manipulating the seals, the survivors unanimously decided it would remain a secret.”

Seeing Liu Qingge’s silence and his pale face, Yue Qingyuan worriedly asked. “Did you happen to see anything strange there? Huan Hua Palace is supposed to guard the place so no unorthodox cultivators can cause trouble.”

Trying to recover his calm, Liu Qingge quickly said. “Not really, I was hunting a strange beast but I killed it…  Just... I’m curious, what was the reason for a demon of that rank to come to the human realm?”

“He… We did not know the whole story of his origin, however the Old Palace Master asked for our help because a Heavenly Demon disguised as a young man had infiltrated his sect and killed a hundred of his inner disciples, including his young daughter. When the united forces of the sects arrived at the scene to uphold justice, the demon was surrounded by corpses with not a single wound on his body. He still had the appearance of a noble young master, so we assumed he was wearing someone else’s skin and did not hesitate to attack at once. The Old Palace Master was enraged, with dishevelled hair and sweat on his face, you can imagine the kind of power this demon lord wielded when fighting back. After the battle was over, Huan Hua Palace had had the greatest loss, and the Old Palace Master entered seclusion out of grief.”

“Then, did he say anything?”

“The demon did not utter a single word, not even when he finally surrendered to our swords. Not a single taunt or plea escaped from his lips as he was covered in his own blood. Despite the grave injuries, he remained silent and unmoving, but would not die.”

“Thank you for your time, Sect Leader.”

Burdened with his new knowledge, Liu Qingge went straight to his room at Bai Zhan Peak.

Humiliation at having been deceived burned through his body like a bonfire. His hands were trembling, wishing to punch straight into the core of the earth, to shout until the walls shattered like crystal, to rip steel and bite into his own skin until he reached bone.

After what felt like hours, his attempt at meditation stained by discordant thoughts, his mind proposed a plan. It was not too late to fix what he had caused, to keep everything the way it was and prevent a catastrophe from entering the world again.

He just needed to find the right materials.

When the voice still didn’t make an appearance, Liu Qingge decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Are you there?”

Nothing. Anger pulled at his mouth, creating an ugly expression.

“HOW DARE YOU LIE TO ME?! YOU THOUGHT I’D BE STUPID ENOUGH TO FREE A DEMON?!”

Still nothing. His shouts echoed through the cave.

“WHY DID YOU? WHY DID YOU KILL THEM ALL? EVEN AN INNOCENT YOUNG GIRL DIED BY YOUR HAND! WHAT COULD SHE HAVE DONE TO DESERVE IT?!”

Liu Qingge took heaving breaths, waiting for an answer, but nothing came.

“IF YOU DON’T COME OUT I’M GOING TO REINFORCE YOUR SEAL AND YOU’LL BE GONE FOREVER!”

Suddenly, “WILL YOU SHUT UP?!”

“YOU!” Liu Qingge was so mad no words would make it past his lips. HOW DARE YOU!

“My heavens… How can anyone sleep with this racket? I’m surrounded by savages.”

“YOU!” He said again.

“YES, ME!”

…

The cultivator shook, unable to see anything but a red fog in front of him. After a few minutes of silence, cold fury invaded his thoughts, prompting him to speak again. “Are you still there?”

“Mmm… what, what is it… who are you… ” The previously clear voice now sounded tired, as if he was asleep before, or speaking was hard for him.

“It’s me?”

“I’m also me, does that tell you everything? Just explain yourself!”

“I’m Liu Qingge.”

“… What do you want, Liu Qingge?”

Like a refreshing spring watering dry ground, the sudden confusion cleared Liu Qingge’s rage-filled mind. “You don’t remember me?”

“Remember you? Mmm, no, I don’t know.”

“I was here yesterday.”

“What yesterday? I’m not… I was asleep until now?”

It took all of Liu Qingge’s hard earned patience not to scream. With trepidation and an increasingly strong sense of despair, he asked. “Do you know who you are?”

“I… don’t.” The voice replied with a clueless tone.

“Are you really doing this?! I already know who you are!”

“I’m not lying! Wait- You do?”

“Tanshui-Jun, you’re a heavenly demon! You killed hundreds of cultivators before you could be defeated and trapped in this mountain.”

“Ugh… I… Tanshui? No, that can’t be...” For a moment, it seemed like the temperature inside the cave had dropped several degrees. Deep, silent pressure, as if Liu Qingge was standing at the bottom of the ocean. It was gone after a minute. “I really don’t remember.”

There was hesitation in Liu Qingge’s voice, which he did his best to ignore. “I don’t care if you remember or not, I’m still dealing with you before you can cause any more harm.” He pulled the new seals onto his left hand and looked around the cave for the best spot.

“What will you do?”

Irritated, the cultivator brusquely responded, “I’m sending you to eternal sleep!”

“Will… will it hurt?”

Stopped in his tracks, he closed his hand around the paper, creasing it. After a deep breath, “I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. I wish there was another way, but I can’t risk it.”

“… Alright, thank you for speaking with me for a bit.”

“What, not going to fight back? Do you not care?” Liu Qingge's mouth was betraying his brain.

“What exactly can I do? I don’t know anything, everything is confusing. I just met you and soon we’ll never see each other again. I will never again see anything. I don’t even know what it is that I’m losing by dying anyway, so I can’t even feel sad.”

“How could you even feel sad in the first place? A heartless murderer like you…”

“Maybe I can’t feel sad, but I do feel empty, and lost. I feel abandoned, as if someone took away all my senses, all my limbs, and threw me into the dark. I even feel angry, because there’s nothing I can do and it all feels unfair even when I don’t know if it’s really what I’d deserve or not! I even feel sorry for you, forcing yourself to do something you’re against just because it’s the right thing!”

“STOP! Just stop, confusing me! I won’t be played around by the likes of you. It’s already hard enough-“ Liu Qingge stepped forward until he was only one step away from the farthest wall at the back of the cave. Looking at all the remaining seals, some of them covered in blood, he couldn’t help but think about all those cultivators whose corpses were burned beyond recognition. He lifted his left hand-

“Wait! If I really… If I really killed those people, don’t you want to know why?”

-and lowered it again. “What do you mean!”

“If you help me remember, I’ll tell you why I did it, and then you’ll feel good and righteous when you finally get rid of me.”

“How about: no. I can just deal with you now and forget about all this.”

“You…” Suddenly inspired, the demon says. “It’s not honourable to kill someone who can’t defend themselves.”

“What nonsense are you talking about!”

“I can’t touch even a single hair on your body, and you can’t wait to murder me… feels really cold. And! And, what If after you kill me you find out I was innocent after all? Won’t you feel conflicted and burdened by guilt for the rest of your life?”

Liu Qingge’s eyes got bigger the more he heard him speak. “DO YOU THINK I’M AN IDIOT?!”

“NO! I just think it won’t be too late to use whatever you’re using after we find out what really happened! I really want to know how I ended up like this too!”

Liu Qingge thought about Yue Qingyuan, and how even the people present in the battle didn’t know the reason behind the demon’s original attack. If there was a chance for the details of the tragedy to come to light, it was inextricably tied to the person trapped inside this mountain. However much he tried to ignore it, in the back of his mind he kept thinking there was something strange about the official account. Why did the demon suddenly stop fighting back? Why did he never say anything? And why would a heavenly demon want to kill a bunch of nameless disciples in the first place? Why did he enter the human world and infiltrate Huan Hua Palace? What was so important he’d be ready to die for it? “Then what do you suggest I do.”

Relieved, the demon quickly responded. “Well, how did you know my name?”

“I asked someone.”

“Then ask more.”

“He didn’t know more.”

“No one knows?”

There was only one person at the centre of it since the very beginning who might know more, but Liu Qingge really, really didn’t want to ask him. “There might be someone, Huan Hua Palace’s Master.”

Before the demon could speak, a shiver went down Liu Qingge’s back, as if his instincts were telling him there was danger ahead.

“So what’s the problem?” Said the voice, with a hint of coldness to it.

“He won’t be happy about me bringing that stuff up.”

“Then be nice about it.”

“How can I be nice about it? ‘Hey, you remember the demon that killed your daughter a few years back? Mind telling me how it happened? It’s just interesting.’ Of course I can’t say that!”

“Well, no, you need to be tactful, for one. And you should think of an excuse about why you’re asking now.” The coldness of his voice had gone away in favor of an amused tone.

Liu Qingge felt like he was going mad. “Nope, can’t do it. Let’s just think of something else.”

“Don’t worry! Look, I’ll help you think of something… Right, just tell him that you found someone in the sect that you think might be a demon pretending to be a human and want to make sure. Ask him how he discovered my disguise. Then, depending on what he tells you, pull the sympathizing card about how sad the whole thing was and fish for more details.”

“… You’re not convincing me of your innocence right now.”

“… I’m trying to help.”

With a hand on his head, Liu Qingge sat on the ground. All this emotional turmoil was messing with his head, making him feel exhausted even though he hadn’t actually done anything. When he first came here he was determined to stop the threat, whatever the cost. Had already made up his mind about forgetting everything about this place as soon as he left, and never step a foot near Huan Hua again. He could deny no longer that his feelings on this matter were not the right ones. Against his common sense, he had started thinking of the demon as someone to save, even from before he spoke to Yue Qingyuan. Hopefully after he knew the truth, any kind of hesitation on his part would vanish. If the demon was right on one thing, it was that Liu Qingge’s intuition was making him feel guilty about going ahead with his original plan.

He hid the seals on his sleeve with a worryingly pleased feeling in his heart, and took out a piece of paper and brush to take notes.  “Alright, tell me exactly what to say.”

After a few hours of discussion where Liu Qingge’s butt became flat from sitting on the ground, they agreed to send a letter to Huan Hua beforehand. It was more realistic and less suspicious to ask for a discreet audience with the sect leader about an important matter, and then act like you were visiting in behalf of Cang Qiong’s Sect Leader because it was delicate business, rather than just showing up unannounced and demanding answers.  

As the conversation progressed, Liu Qingge could notice how the demon’s words and attitude became more and more like a real person’s. His tone was livelier, with no trace of the confusion from before. Even his words seemed closer to what a normal young man would sound like, instead of the scheming monster he had imagined after speaking with Yue Qingyuan.

To his horror, he realized that not only was his guard all the way down, he also actually liked talking with him, as in, he was having a good time.

“We should avoid you forgetting everything again. It’s a pain having to explain everything from the beginning each time.”

“Right! But I don’t know how it happens…”

“We just have to make sure you don’t fall asleep again.”

A few minutes of confused silence, and then. “but how?”

“Don’t close your eyes?”

“I don’t even have eyes!” He said, offended.

“WHAT?! Ah, right, you don’t have a body…”

“I think… that you’ll have to keep talking to me, that way you can keep me awake.”

“That- I can’t do that! If I stay here how can I go investigate, huh?”

“…”

“…”

“How long did you spend outside in between last time and this time?”

“Umm, so, all night and then during the morning… Around 15 hours.”

“Then… We’ll just have to spend most of the day together, and you can only go out for a few hours each time.”

Liu Qingge threw the paper with his notes against the nearest wall. “You must be joking!”

“We don’t exactly know how long it takes me to fall asleep, so, just to be sure.” The demon said with a self-satisfied air.

“I know what you’re doing. Last time you told me to stay because you’re bored, and now you’re tricking me for the same reason, right?”

“You know, Liu Qingge, I’m starting to feel like I’ve seen you before.”

And before he could cover his mouth to prevent the embarrasment, the cultivator exploded with laughter.

Chapter Text

The doors of Huan Hua Palace looked resplendent and imposing in the midday sun. As Liu Qingge stood there, the glare of thousands of golden decorations along its pillars almost blinded him. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long before a young disciple approached Liu Qingge and invited him inside.

The walk was quiet. Instead of being directed to the main hall, the disciple guided him to a side corridor and up a number of stairs that were clearly not usually meant for guests. A left turn, and after the door was opened all Liu Qingge could see was an enormous pier standing in the middle of a vast expanse of clear water. The Huan Hua Palace Master was quietly sitting with his back to him, looking frail and older than he should appear. Liu Qingge’s nerves and suspicions evaporated. Approaching the pier, he formally saluted the Palace Master and, after receiving permission, sat in the front seat while noticing the cup already poured for him.

“I decided this place was best for a confidential conversation, I hope you are not offended by the lack of propriety.”

Swallowing his first thought, Liu Qingge answered, “Of course not. I’m sorry for the short notice.”

The Palace Master smiled at him. His face didn’t look as emaciated as the rest of his body, and there was a kind of aliveness to it. His eyes were surprisingly sharp, and their small form made him look somewhat slimy. “Please, have some tea.” He said indicating the steaming cup.

Liu Qingge, not one to waste time, ignored the tea and got straight to the point. “Regarding my letter”, but before he could recite what he and Tanshui-jun had practiced, the Palace Master interrupted him.

“First, you should be made aware of something. The demon we subdued that year was a heavenly demon. How much do you know about them?” His piercing eyes were following Liu Qingge’s every movement.

Taken by surprise, he answered without thinking. “I know they’re the powerful kind.”

The Palace Master unexpectedly coughed, though he quickly composed himself again. “Their line is the most ancient of demons, and they have forever ruled over all others, standing at the top of their midst. They have unique abilities like blood manipulation, and they possess an almost indestructible body supplied with fast healing. In most cases during the history of the demon realm, heavenly demons were accompanied by a general or a family member. Do you understand why I am telling you this?”

Liu Qingge couldn’t be bothered to answer, thinking why do old people all love to act as teachers?

Without waiting more, the Palace Master continued, “Because, all of these years I have been waiting for that retainer to come to the human realm to free their lord.” By this point, the excitement in his eyes couldn’t be contained, and he eagerly explained, “I suspected that he would also disguise as a human and infiltrate one of the major sects to find out where their master was hidden! They probably have the means to destroy those seals, they might… they might also be a heavenly demon!”

“What?!” Liu Qingge was not ready for the conversation to turn in that direction. At this point, there was no chance for him to bring up the events of that time and learn the truth.

Perhaps realizing how unhinged he was starting to sound, the Palace Master visibly composed himself and put on an ingratiating smile. Still, Liu Qingge could see his hands turning to fists at his side. “It is not rare for heavenly demons to have other family members act as subordinates. I have read extensively about heavenly demons, so I became something of an expert. It would not be an exaggeration to say I have consulted every book in the world that even passingly mentioned them.”

Aware that all that stuff about a demon infiltrating his sect was just an excuse that was quickly getting out of hand, he tried to fix things, “I’m still not even sure the person is definitely a demon, and just wanted to ask your excelency for information in how to identify them-”

The Palace Master interrupted him again. “You just need to lure that person to come here with you, I have a method for revealing the truth so it would just be a matter of bringing them here. Then you don’t need to worry about anything, I’ll take care of it and it won’t harm anyone.” His speech and countenance was getting weirder and simpler as he spoke.

The way he looked at Liu Qingge was like a desert wanderer finding an oasis. He discarded his previous good opinion of this old fox and started to feel unnerved. Impatient, he raised his voice. “Listen, I came here to ask about how Tanshui-Jun managed to infiltrate your sect and why he bothered to do it.” So much for being considerate, he thought.

“This…” Suddenly, the Palace Master looked older again, shoulders hunched as if the weight of the world was too much to bear. “It was because of my daughter.”

“Your daughter?” From Yue Qingyuan’s words, he had assumed the daughter became collateral damage when the demon was found out, the same as those other disciples. It turns out the daughter was in fact the reason?

“That monster pretended to be human to seduce my daughter.” His words had turned heavy with transparent grief. Even Liu Qingge could notice how real his feelings were on this, strong enough they couldn’t be hidden even by an old master like him. “Her mother died early, so she had been spoiled by me since birth. I cared for her like a precious treasure, never letting her suffer even a single grievance. Regrettably, as a result, she was a bit too ignorant and trusting. She did not have the means to defend herself against such a powerful demon’s machinations, and in the end she brought him into the sect. I was the one who realized he was not a human after seeing him and confronted him, thinking that he would be a regular demon I could defeat. Sadly… sigh, you are aware of the rest.”

Everything the Palace Master said seemed true to Liu Qingge’s senses. However, before he could feel disgust or hate over the demon again, something stopped him. No matter how sincere he was, it didn’t take a great mind to realize there were many holes in his story. If the objective was to take his daughter, why risk getting into Huan Hua Palace? Why not take her outside when she was alone? Why wait at all? If his objective was in fact something inside the sect itself, wouldn’t it have been easier to trick a random disciple that wasn’t as closely watched as the Young Palace Mistress? Something was still missing, but Liu Qingge was not skilled enough at manipulation to keep trying to get answers. Maybe it’d be easier to interrogate some other Huan Hua disciple who knew this girl and might be more willing to spill secrets. With his newly acquired knowledge, he decided to just go back to the cave and see if mentioning the girl did something for the demon’s memory. He also wanted to see him before he forgot everything again.

He got up and politely said his goodbyes. “Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I have learned a lot, so I will continue to investigate and contact your excellency when I have more information on this matter.”

The Palace Master’s face instantly darkened, his previous melancholy giving way to an almost desperate pleading. “Wait! The matter is urgent, we need to subdue this demon before he reaches his master or we risk another tragedy. Maybe I could accompany you back to Cang Qiong and see this person for myself, to assuage your suspicions. I will keep discretion about this, of course. You can trust my word. At the very least you should tell me what they look like so I can monitor the mountain’s surroundings to keep them out.”

He really wanted to leave before the tension escalated any more. Annoyed, Liu Qingge brusquely said, “No need. This is a matter of Cang Qiong Mountain sect.” and without further ado walked out of the pier.

“…” The Palace Master kept silent and did not try to stop him again.

Flying out on his sword, Liu Qingge looked at the sky before him. Black clouds were gathering on the horizon, occasionally flashing with electricity. A storm again?

He thought to take cover inside the cave before it started raining, so he sped up. The darkening sky blurred his surroundings and the approaching wind muttered every sound. He finally arrived at the entrance of the mountain and didn’t hesitate to light a talisman, thinking that it’d also keep the cold out. In no time he was at the end of the cave, but before he could call out to the demon, a sinister voice spoke right behind him.

“So that's how it is…”

Startled, Liu Qingge turned on the spot and saw the Palace Master just standing there. Half of his body was illuminated by the faint light of the talisman, the other half stayed in the darkness, making him look like a villain. He couldn’t believe he’d be so careless as to not realize he was being followed. But, after all, the Palace Master was older than all the Peak Lords in Cang Qiong Mountain. It’s not impossible for this geezer to have some ability after cultivating for centuries. After the initial shock, his first instinct was to try and defend himself, wracking his brain to think of an excuse. “I…”

“Do not bother, Liu Qingge. I am not here to fight with you.”

“What do you mean?” He was so confused that he forgot to use the proper honorifics with him. Regardless of his thoughts, however, his instincts were telling him to get ready for a fight. Whether it was in answer to the Palace Master’s natural creepiness or an unconscious desire to protect the demon from a possible enemy, his hand fell down to grab his scabbard. He was at least glad the demon took the hint and stayed silent, though he couldn’t help finding it a bit worrying.

Unknowing, or uncaring, of Liu Qingge’s actions, the Palace Master kept talking in a calm tone. “You found out about this place and wanted to lift the seal so you could kill the demon yourself, right? A person as obsessed with fighting as you, of course you would get tempted with the idea. Such a powerful opponent, such an exciting battle…” He stepped out of the darkness and got closer to Liu Qingge as he spoke. “I am willing to help you. You see, our interests align.”

“I’m not trying to release the demon.” The cultivator was trying not to move away from the old man, but his words sounded more unhinged as time went on, and he needed to avoid fighting in such an enclosed space. The walls might fall on them with just a nudge of their spiritual powers.

The Palace Master paused, as if to change tactics. “I was not completely forthcoming with you on this matter of the past. In truth, before we managed to subdue the demon back then, he made me drink some of his blood. Are you aware of how heavenly demons use their blood?”

Seeing Liu Qingge shake his head with a clueless expression, he continued, “Their blood contains Blood Parasites. They can use these parasites to control and torture anyone who consumes even a drop of their blood, regardless of distance or vitality. Tanshui-jun used his blood to damage my body and mind, and it was only after every sect worked together that we managed to defeat him. I believed they would disappear at that time, yet after closer examinations the parasites remained. I could not make public my condition, for I risked Huan Hua Palace losing standing and being attacked again because of my weakness.” His body started trembling, pitifully resembling a leaf at the mercy of the wind. As if a small push would be enough to end his life. Liu Qingge wanted to applaud his good acting. “Occasionally, without reason, they would start moving around and causing me immense pain. It got to the point I could no longer cultivate as I was, desperately looking for a solution, and my body quickly degenerated. I soon realized that, as long as the demon was alive under that seal, the parasites would freely roam my body. Alas, what could I do? I was not strong enough to kill him on my own. The only thing left for me was to hope that some other heavenly demon appeared and fell into my trap, so I could use their body and blood to concoct an antidote. I am ashamed to say I followed you here with the vague hope I could finally be freed from this torture…” he left his words hanging and assumed the pose of an innocent prisoner waiting to be judged.

For once, Liu Qingge’s ignorance about the world outside of fighting turned into a benefit. He directly asked, “How would you even turn a demon corpse into an antidote? Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the demon alive to lift the curse?” Just the utterly disgusting image of this old guy sucking on the blood from a demon corpse was enough to cause his whole body to shiver once.

Realizing the pitiful act would not work on this damned blockhead, the Palace Master added more fuel to the fire, trying to appeal to his greed instead. “I will share the benefits with you. You are not versed in alchemy, so of course you do not know of its many uses. There is a rare method for turning a person into a pill using a special furnace. It is an arduous process, requiring many steps, but it can be done.” Without his notice, he started showing a crazed look on his eyes, with a smile creeping up on his thin lips. “If the material for the pill was a heavenly demon’s body, consuming it might turn a person into an almost immortal entity with an indestructible body, just like a heavenly demon’s, but without the backlash of demonic energy affecting their spiritual core. That person could rule over the human world with not a soul being able to oppose them!”

Liu Qingge was horrified, thinking that this madman was beyond human understanding. It never even occurred to him to play along until he had the chance to escape. Instead, he was increasingly regretting not telling his sect leader anything about this, wondering if he was going to be silenced soon. If Shen Qingqiu knew, he'd be happily eating melon seeds on the background. Anyway, if he was going to die, he would go out fighting. He took out his sword, firmly grabbed it and shouted without restraint. “YOU’RE MAD!”

Contrary to Liu Qingge’s antagonism, the Palace Master recovered from his previous excitement and kept a firm posture, not reaching for any of his weapons. “It is truly a pity, but I have already waited this long.”

Without making a sound, he took out a hidden talisman that instantly generated an extremely blinding light. With eyes accustomed to the darkness of the cave, Liu Qingge was not prepared and had to turn his head down. He moved the sword in front of him, waiting for the attack to come, but he waited for nothing. His voice came from much farther away.

“I can wait more.”

And with that, there was a loud sound like rock collapsing over rock. Liu Qingge run like mad, his eyes filled with tears from the harsh light, blindly trying to reach the entrance. He arrived just in time to see the collapsed opening still trembling from the impact, the outside world completely hidden behind it.

An irrational fear consumed Liu Qingge until he was slashing at the wall of crumbling rock with his sword, not even imbuing it with spiritual energy. After unsuccessfully managing to make a break even on a single rock, he realized his desperation had made him lose focus. He did his best to take deep breaths and concentrate his spiritual energy on his hands. Sweat had begun to form on his fists, his chaotic thoughts all working towards this goal.

He hit the wall, once, then twice, then stopped counting. Spiritual energy wasn’t working properly on this place but that didn’t stop him. His hands were quickly becoming a mangled mess. Specks of blood landed on his clothes and mixed with the sweat gathering on them. The surface of the fallen rock pieces were pointed and serrated like vicious knives, but just the illusion of freedom was enough to brainwash Liu Qingge into thinking it might be working. Only after a few minutes had passed, though, the patronizing voice of Huan Hua Palace’s Master came from the other side. He pretended to be helpless about the situation, acting reluctant.

“You should stop wasting your time. I used my most powerful works to seal the entrance from the outside, anything you do from there is useless. Do not worry about your sect, after enough time passes I will remove the seals and collect your body so they can get you properly buried. I am truly sorry about this.”

Just at that moment the strong light from the talisman went out, covering the cave in complete darkness. Rage and fear mixed and fought inside Liu Qingge’s mind until the former won. “YOU BASTARD! JUST WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT, YOU’LL WISH FOR THOSE PARASITES TO HAVE EATEN YOU ALIVE! TRAITOR! LYING RAT! I’M GOING TO CUT YOUR HEAD OFF!” With each word he made a new strike at the rocks.

Madness took over his body, resembling his actions while qi deviating. He wasn’t even able to stop his shouting, howling like an animal being surrounded. Suddenly, the thought of being buried alive made his knees weak, and he fell to the floor. Everything had happened so fast, he still couldn't fully understand how badly it had gone. His sword was somewhere near him, dropped a while ago, but the absolute darkness made it impossible to find. His spiritual energy was occupied trying to heal all of his wounds, and he could not manage to light a single talisman from those on his sleeve. All of them flickered once and then refused to work. Anguished, he ignored the desire to cry even as his options looked more and more bleak. Bloodied hands trembled at his sides.

“Shhh, it’s alright.”

A soft comforting voice suddenly arrived from the back of the cave. It was familiar, but Liu Qingge didn’t have the mental capacity to identify it. Still, the voice continued.

“It’s alright Liu Qingge, everything’s fine. You’re going to be okay.”

As if in a trance, the tension went out of Liu Qingge’s body in spasms. Ignoring how it would look, he slowly crawled towards the direction of the voice. As he did, the words got louder, drenching his burned out spirit in relieved coolness. His meridians stabilized, his eyes no longer wanted to desperately take in the illusory vastness of this place created only by the dark. When the last of the words reached him, he felt sleep tugging at his wounded mind and surrendered without protest.

“It’s scary and it hurts, I know, but you’re not alone. I’ll stay here watching over you. I’m here.”

Chapter Text

Liu Qingge woke up only after an indeterminate amount of time. All of his wounds were self-inflicted, so they healed easily and only a few scars remained. Those too would eventually disappear.

At first he was only confused. No matter where he looked, there was only darkness. The cold seeped into his bones as if his spiritual energy had trouble circulating properly. For a moment, he didn’t know where he was or what was happening. His senses were returning one by one the more awake he was. Then he suddenly heard singing, except it was more like low humming, the melody completely unknown to him. That was the exact moment when the events of the last day came back to Liu Qingge’s mind like a terrible explosion.

“THAT OLD PALACE BASTARD! HE REALLY DARED TO KILL ME?! THE WAR GOD?!” He didn’t even fight me and just tricked me and left me here to rot!

The humming stopped, and a hauntingly familiar voice came following his shouts. “Welcome back! At this rate I’ll have to be the one to keep you from falling asleep.”

“Shut up! Wait, so you’re here?”

“Yes.”

“You know me?”

“Yes, it hasn’t been too long.”

“Were you here the whole time?” He said, incredulous.

“…Yes. Well, I got distracted for a bit, but I tried to help at the end.”

Before then, Liu Qingge was still wholly focused on hating the Palace Master. Now, the demon’s words reminded him of the most important thing. “So you remembered?” After all, with the Palace Master himself here it must have triggered something at least.

He kept quiet. With a heavy tone full of regret, the demon said “It’s my fault. I never wanted this to happen to you.”

Surprised by the serious way he was speaking now, Liu Qingge began suspecting him again. His heart really couldn’t take any more of this back-and-forth, but he still let him explain.

“I… lied to you. Not entirely! But, at the beginning, when I said I didn’t remember anything. The truth is… I remembered bits and pieces of my past, but only from before I came to the human realm. When you told me my name was Tanshui-Jun, it felt wrong, and I didn’t understand the reason. I just remembered some scenes of me growing up, and other places, other people. Other things, I just had a bad feeling about them, like when you mentioned Huan Hua Palace. I really didn’t know why I was here, or what really happened back then.” As he spoke, the guilt and regret overflowed from his words. “Please, please believe me on this. If I knew how dangerous it was I’d never have sent you to talk to him.”

“Did you really kill those disciples?” At this point Liu Qingge was getting ready to feel humiliated again. He really must be the biggest fool ever, to get tricked by everyone he meets.

“Will you believe me?”

“Who knows.” He said sharply.

“… I didn’t, not the first ones. I remember being in a damp dungeon. I don’t remember why I was there in the first place, I was already fighting the palace master. A girl was there, I think. We set off a trap while trying to run from him and acid burned our bodies into a mess. Then I eventually regenerated and got out. I don’t know anything about any disciples of his. By the time I managed to get away I was already surrounded by all the sects. I remember feeling powerless, even as I knew my strength was greater than theirs. I know I fought back at first, and killed many. Maybe it could have been avoided, but I… Those people really died by my hand.” It was like the words pained him, but how could they? Why would a demon care about the lives of some lesser cultivators who were attacking him? “Then someone activated some kind of artefact, and the whole place quickly became surrounded in flames. The rest you already know. They dropped the whole mountain over my body and used seals to stop me from escaping. I was awake for a bit after that, but then I just faded, I guess. I only woke up again when I met you for the first time.”

“You don’t know who the Palace Mistress was?”

“No.”

“Did you make the Old Palace Master drink your blood and tortured him?”

“I don’t know.”

Liu Qingge was suddenly really tired. It was the first time in his life when he couldn’t find the energy to stay angry. Whether he was disappointed or resigned, he didn’t know, and didn’t care. He asked with an apathetic tone. ”Why the singing?”

“Silence is the hardest at first, it can drive your thoughts into an ever-worsening spiral…. and I couldn’t do anything else.”

Burdened with his thoughts, Liu Qingge turned his back on the voice and walked a few steps away. Everything was a mess. Right and wrong kept turning his mind into a turbulent ocean besieged by waves of worry and shame. He really couldn’t listen to him anymore. As long as he was trapped here thinking of a way to get out, he’d keep ignoring the demon’s existence. It was just too much of a disturbance at this point, better to focus on getting out first.

Weeks passed before anyone came to rescue Liu Qingge or he managed to find a way out on his own.  Thanks to his cultivation, his body was kept perfectly healthy even in these dire conditions. His mind, however, was starting to feel the effects of isolation.

Sometimes it was weird sounds: half-whispers, a child’s laugh, or nails scrapping over wood. He couldn’t help but flinch, then. Other times it was just a hint of movement right at the corner of his eyes, making him tense up for a couple of minutes.

At least for a few years he’d be able to just meditate to stay alive, however his current mental state made trying to meditate completely useless. He couldn’t concentrate for more than a few hours at a time. The reality of his situation kept bringing his thoughts down and causing disorder even in his soul. He needed to hurry up and escape before he risked qi deviating again.

There were yet some positives to the situation. After moving around for days he finally found Cheng Luan. He soon discovered that exercising and continuously performing all the sets of his sword moves made him feel a lot better. At least while he was moving around and using his sword his mind was calm. Familiarity smoothed over his rough edges until he could stop thinking entirely. It was a great method, but conserving his energy was too important to keep at it for too long.

He also had plenty of time to test the limits of the seal blocking the cave. While getting out still seemed impossible, maybe there was a way to send some kind of message. If he at least managed to contact someone at Cang Qiong, they’d find a way to open it. He tried to make talismans fly through any opening between the rocks but most didn’t fit. Liu Qingge was never a person that gave up early, though, so he kept trying to come up with things that could reach a loophole. Sadly, there was a limit to what he was capable of, and a dark and silent environment was not great for inspiration.

He could ask the demon about ideas, but he’s been giving him the cold shoulder for so long he might have forgotten everything again. When he had a clear head he finally realized how stupid he’d been. Instead of arguing with him or reluctantly working together to escape this situation, he had basically run away to protect his fragile feelings. What a great joke, as if being alone with his worries in this damned cave had done him any good. With how much time he had spent on his own now, he was clear about one thing: ignoring everything else, they had a common enemy.

The Old Palace Master was insane and dangerous, the leader of one of the major sects in the world. As long as everyone remained ignorant of his schemes, he could cause trouble without consequence.  The past cannot be changed, but they can still do something to change the future. At this point he was also bored to the extreme, which was what finally convinced him.

Like this, after a few weeks of lone brooding, Liu Qingge approached the back of the cave again. He was a bit nervous, but he refused to be embarrassed. This guy was really a heavenly demon, after all, who had knowingly or not caused a great tragedy on the human realm. The reason why he came here in the first place was still unknown. This time he was staying guarded about him for sure.

With a frown on his face, he said into the silence. “Are you there?”

It didn’t take long for a chill subdued voice to answer him. “Yes.”

“You remember me?”

“Of course not!”

“...”

“… It was a joke. I remember you, Liu Qingge.”

“How? It’s been… I don’t know, but long past a few hours.” With his new attitude toward the demon he instantly came upon the truth. “You also lied about this!”

“I was always awake. As long as I kept quiet myself, I could faintly hear your breaths, sometimes even your heartbeat. I don’t breath, or do anything. Apart from you there is only a void. Right now, my whole world is only you.”

Fully aware that it had worked when they first met, the demon was determined to start acting miserable again. Another person might have identified this tactic of sounding sad and pitiful to be forgiven sooner. Thankfully, the person this time was Liu Qingge, who obliviously and happily fell into the trap.

The cultivator couldn’t help feeling bad about his attitude just now. He had been slowly losing his mind in this dark and small place while still being able to move around and taste the air as he breathed. How would he have felt if he didn’t even have that? How would he keep a clear head in a complete non-existence? Just hearing the demon’s cold voice after weeks of silence and solitude had lifted his spirits by a lot, why would it be different for him?

Filled with newfound empathy, he restrained his suspicions and tried to appear neutral when talking again. Gathering strength, he eventually said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left.”

“No, I’m sorry for making you leave.”

A deep breath that ended in a cough. “I can’t get out.” Liu Qingge said curtly. Keep neutral.

The guilty tone came back. “I’m sorry…”

“No! I mean, maybe you can help?”

“I can? Then I’ll help you. I’d do anything.” He said with sudden enthusiasm.

Liu Qingge quickly intervened. “This doesn’t mean I forgive you! We both want to stop the Palace Master and for that I need to get out, so this is just a temporary truce.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine! So, what should I do?”

“… I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”

“…”

Liu Qingge waited for an answer, but none came. He was starting to get the feeling the demon was getting annoyed. “The entrance is sealed from the outside, nothing I do works. You’re a heavenly demon so you might know some method to bypass it. It doesn’t matter if it’s an unorthodox skill or something dangerous.”

“If I was alive I could create a demonic beast from my blood to destroy the blockade with brute force. These fake demonic beasts don’t have spiritual energy, so theoretically seals wouldn’t work on them. I could also contact one of my people from the demon realm to come and teleport us out of the cave. I could also draw a counter-seal in a piece of paper and set it on this side. The more powerful the caster, the more likely the seal would win and incapacitate another. In a worst case scenario I could just lift the entire mountain and throw it away. If I was alive.” He ended, pointedly.

Liu Qingge closed his mouth, unaware he had been openly gawking. “You could lift this entire mountain?”

“Well, not right away, it’d take me a few days of gathering spiritual force in my body.” He said casually.

Noticing he had lost track of his original purpose, he questioned again. “But what can you do right now?”

A sigh. “I told you, right now I’m like a ghost. I can only talk to you, how could I do more? Let’s say I tried to teach you some seals. On this absolute darkness, how would I show them to you? How would you copy them? Even if you managed to use your blood and clothes to make them, if you can’t see, you can’t draw. Even then, if you’re not more powerful than the Palace Master, they’d never work. If I knew of another way to get you out of here, wouldn’t I tell you right away? I want to see you cut that revolting rat’s head more than anything in this world, more than my freedom… yet I can only suggest my own freedom as the way to get you out.”

“Yeah, right. I free you just long enough to help me escape, and then you obediently let yourself get trapped again with the seals I have and go back to unconsciousness?”

“… I can’t promise you I wouldn’t escape from here if I had the chance. I can promise you that after we deal with our enemy and I recover my memories I will harm no one else, then leave this place and stay forever in the demon realm.”

“That’s a good option, except for the fact I don’t trust you.”

“Listen, I don’t want to see you suffer like this. I can swear on whatever you ask.”

“With your abilities, what would be a promise with someone like me? You could wipe me out more easily than the Palace Master himself.  You could use your blood to manipulate me at will, hell, you could lift this mountain and eradicate an entire city if you wanted. You dare ask me to free you? Regardless of what happened in the past, you probably didn’t have good intentions when coming here. I can’t let you out while being unable to protect others from you.”

The demon let out a self-deprecating laugh. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. Sorry for pressing you so much, I guess I lost my cool for a second. We have time, we can think of something else until your sense of reality and time blur and you start forgetting things like me. We can always give up and do nothing but talk even after you die. We’d make a great pair of ghosts.”

The idea of turning into a ghost scared Liu Qingge enough to be silent for a few minutes. Then he recovered, “I can’t free you, that’s exactly what the Palace Master wants.”

“Now you’re just being stubborn! Fine, sooner or later you’ll have no other choice but to lift these seals.”

“I’m never lifting these seals!” He angrily shouted.

Only two months later he was eating his own words.

The demon realized right away that something was wrong “What are you doing?!”

“Damn this! I’m done! I don’t even care what happens anymore, damn everyone!” Liu Qingge shouted, and then let out a crazy laugh. What do I care if the world burns or if the sky falls?

“Liu Qingge, what’s going on? Are you alright?” Oblivious to what the other was doing, the demon kept desperately trying to understand what was happening. What if he’s trying to kill himself? After all, if he himself had the ability to end his own life, he would have done so a long time ago.

Acting like he didn’t hear anything, Liu Qingge began eagerly ripping off every seal he could find on the cave walls. Because of the dark, the only way to catch them was by feeling around with his hands. He caressed his surroundings, moving on every time he found one and discarded it. “If I don’t get out of here I might as well have never existed!”

When the last seal fell to the ground, Liu Qingge was still looking for more. He wasn’t sure how many there were when he first saw the cave, after all.

“AAAHHH!”

A loud shout interrupted him and stopped him in his tracks. After recognizing who it belonged to, his previous madness evaporated, he felt cold all over. “What- what’s wrong?”

“HHNNNGGG! Aa-aahh…” It sounded as if the demon was suffering immense pain. His previously cool and elegant voice was now desperate and hoarse. The contrast caused Liu Qingge to panic.

“I’m sorry- I, what’s wrong?! Does it hurt?! What do I do?!” There was the sound of heavy breathing in the background, but he couldn’t tell if it belonged to him or not.

Then the sounds stopped completely, and the ground in front of him became bright with a menacing red light.

It was the first time he had seen light for months, so at first he couldn’t make out anything but the colour. After a few seconds, he could see symbols written in patterns over a section of the floor at the very back, forming a semicircle. Blood started dripping down from different points of the wall, gathering into a dark pool in the middle of the illuminated semicircle.

Regret began overpowering the worry on his mind. Before he could wonder any more about his mistakes, however, something else happened.

A person’s head was slowly coming out from the pool of blood, like a sea creature breaking the ocean’s surface for the first time. It was a delicate young face with eyes closed, looking serene and elegant. The floating head soon became a floating torso, and began using their arms to lift themselves more out of the blood. Despite coming out of that puddle of blood, the body was completely white and spotless, with fine black hair reaching their elbows that was perfectly kept. The peerless pale skin was painted only by the red light, making it look kind of rosy. When they were completely out, visibly struggling to stand, Liu Qingge came out of his stupor and realized something else.

They were naked, with all the bits hanging around as they please.

Without thinking, and ignoring the weirdness of the situation, he took off his outer robe and threw it at them. If asked, he would deny the blush that tinted his cheeks.

Being hit in the face with the robes, that person gave him an offended look, then started wearing them while saying, “You really have bad manners. Like a rogue that grew up on the wilderness.”

Liu Qingge recognized that pretentious voice. “IT’S YOU?!”

Puzzled, the demon stopped to look at him. “Of course? Who else would be here?” He didn’t wait for Liu Qingge to digest the news before he kept going. “You’re something else… Almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Wha-”

“If you were going to lift the seals you should have told me beforehand. I wasn’t ready. But really, I’m so thankful to be free again, I had lost all hope-” He started walking towards Liu Qingge but only managed two steps before he fell to the floor. “Ah!”

Guided by instinct, Liu Qingge managed to grab him and stop his fall. The warmth of the arm he was holding permeated his skin and overwhelmed his senses for a second. After so long spent in solitude and cold, just a small touch was like a supernova. Looking at the demon’s face, he was feeling the same way. They separated themselves as if in a hurry. The faint red light of the seal on the floor was still illuminating the place with a soft tone. The demon kept throwing looks at his face, though, with wide eyes. Liu Qingge thought his own appearance must be extremely ugly and unkempt compared to him, but he couldn’t be more wrong. He was so distracted he forgot to stay guarded against him, instead feeling glad that it had all worked out.

Remembering something, Liu Qingge asked. “Why were you in pain at first?”

He got a vicious glare in response. “If you’d told me what you were doing, I’d have warned you to take it easy! My senses were suppressed for a very long time, and taking the seals off a little at a time would have been easier for my body. You ripped them off all at once, so I suddenly felt everything and couldn’t manage it. My crushed form under the rocks was too much, so I panicked and my soul shed the body to create a new one using my blood.” He spread his arms as if to say this one.

Liu Qingge took the opportunity to take his appearance in. Knowing who he was, his feelings about it were weird. “You really look like this?” Wasn't it just him using a human skin before?

“Like what?”

“Like a handsome young master.” He said without thinking.

Embarrassed, the demon tried to cover it up by feigning confidence. “So you think I’m handsome? Interesting.”

“What? No, not me! That’s what they said.”

“You’re pretty too, so I’m flattered.”

He covered his face. “arrghhh stop!”

“Haha, I’m just messing with you.” Seeing the demon laugh with a wicked smile on his face for the first time did something to Liu Qingge, something irreversible.

“Let’s just get out of here.” He moved to help the demon stand up, but it wasn’t needed. His hand was left floating for a second before he moved on. He was definitely acting weird.

They waked all the way to the entrance in silence, thoughts heavy. Both unanimously decided to go for the counter-seal trick being the less destructive or dangerous of their options. The demon bit on his finger and used one of Liu Qingge’s discarded fire talismans to start drawing. Liu Qingge couldn’t help looking at his concentrated face with slightly wrinkled eyebrows. The fact that the other was wearing his clothes with nothing under it was also making him feel strange, but he attributed that to all those months trapped here and his stressed mind.

When the seal was finished, the demon only said “All done!” before sticking it to the crumbled rock. At first nothing happened, but then a rumbling sound came. The cave trembled and instantly all the rocks blocking the entrance turned to dust, as if they never existed. Liu Qingge was impressed and a little bit envious. A blinding white light washed over them, so strong they were forced to close their eyes for a few minutes.

The outside of the cave was sunny, with all the greenery shining like jewels. The weather was warm, with not a hint of wind or clouds. Birds could be heard singing and flapping their wings in the distance, without ever disturbing the leaves on the trees. For a moment, Liu Qingge couldn’t tell reality from dream, thinking he might still be inside the cave and hallucinating everything. There was a lot to take in for his abused mind. He only reacted after hearing another voice.

“Nngh! It’s too much… I feel dizzy.” The demon could only say this much before he toppled and fell.

Liu Qingge was instantly worried, lifting him up and carrying him back into the cave where it was a bit darker. He couldn’t help but notice how thin his body was before laying him on the floor. Thinking back on it, the demon had been gravely injured before being sealed, spending many years trapped here, then right after he woke up, he had to somehow build another entire body using some kind of strange ritual and finally create a talisman that overpowered the Palace Master’s work. Just the fact that he could walk around and act like nothing was wrong until now was incredible.

"I'm fine... just a bit tired." The demon said weakly.

Seeing his resting form, all thoughts of regret disappeared from his mind. If the demon had really done terrible things in the past, all this had been punishment enough, even somewhat excessive. If he was in fact innocent, remembering how he had suddenly stopped fighting back and seeing how his thoughts on vengeance now had mentioned only Huan Hua Palace and not the rest of those cultivators responsible for sealing him, then he might actually be a better person than Liu Qingge himself. If he had trusted Liu Qingge enough to show weakness right here, the least he could do is trust him in return.

If the heavens want to crush him so badly, I can at least share the weight.  

Chapter Text

After being reassured the demon was mostly fine, Liu Qingge went to look for some water and food. He thought replenishing their energy should be the first step for them before attempting anything else.

There was a thin creek not far from the cave. It was surrounded by lavender bushes with a couple of bees buzzing around. The smell was so comforting after all that time spent trapped in the cave that he couldn’t help but grab a handful to take back. It wasn’t until he was staring directly at the flowing water that he remembered he didn’t have any way of carrying it back. He bowed down and drank first.

The water was freezing, the sun not strong enough yet to warm the flowing current, but Liu Qingge eagerly took in mouthful after mouthful. Just the taste of plain cold water was enough to create sparks inside his mind. He spied his surroundings, looking for something to eat. There was nothing in his immediate vicinity, but he thought he could see a bright persimmon tree in the distance. Fruit’s not too filling, but it can serve as a substitute for water if it’s ripe. He ran over to the tree and sent his sword flying to cut a whole branch, reaching to grab it before it fell to the floor. Taking one fruit into his hand, it didn’t feel hard. The smell was extremely sweet to his senses, almost overripe. Happy, he laid his outer robe on the ground and dropped as many as he could on it, twisting the robe over them to make a bag. With the fruits secured on his shoulder, he ran back to the cave feeling weirdly paranoid about leaving the demon alone.

Looking over, he saw him still on the floor, leaning towards the outside and feeling a patch of tall grass with his hand stretched out.

“Are you feeling better?” He said while getting closer. He felt strangely soothed just by seeing him.

“Fine.” He muttered sullenly.

“What’s wrong now?”

The demon turned his frown towards Liu Qingge. “I said I’m fine! Just, not sure how I feel about the fact that you didn’t think of running away while I’m like this. Is it that you no longer think of me as a threat? Or that- wait, what’s that?” He sniffed the air a bit, a weird expression taking over his face.

“Fruit. Thought we should have something while we rest.” He set his cargo on the ground between them, sat with his legs crossed and grabbed one without hesitation.

“That’s not it, there’s…” Liu Qingge just noticed a small breeze, and before he could get his first bite of persimmon a body was leaning over him. The other’s mouth was almost touching his neck while his nose gently sniffed all over it.

“W-w-w-wait! What are you doing?!” Flustered, he tried to back off, but then the demon grabbed his front lapels and directly inserted a hand into his chest. “STOP?!”

A handful of lavender flowers came out with the offending hand and the demon slowly sat back, leaving a bewildered Liu Qingge to gape.

Bringing them to his face, he admired them in silence for a long time before shooting a teasing smirk Liu Qingge’s way. “Hmm… very nice.”

After moving on from the shock, he tried to explain. “That’s…” Unable to come up with an excuse, he tried the truth. “The smell was kind of comforting.” His tone was defensive but his face was still a bit red.

“It is, feels warm.” And now the demon had a bit of rosy colour dusted on his cheeks. He put the flowers inside his own clothes and grabbed a fruit to eat, acting like nothing happened.

Both of them concentrated on eating, leaving behind only a handful. Somehow, both of them were concentrating so hard on not crying from the sheer relief of tasting the juicy sweetness of the persimmon that they didn’t speak another word until much later.

“Liu Qingge.” Said a soft, cool voice.

“Hmm?” There was a special kind of lethargy that came after surviving a desperate situation, eating good food and sitting under the sun in a field of grass. He really, really didn’t want to move from his horizontal position, didn’t even bother opening his eyes.

“I still haven’t properly thanked you for what you did. You can’t even imagine how much it means to me. Not just that I was saved, but that I was saved by you.”

The demon’s silky voice sounded closer now, almost next to his face, but his guard was still all the way down. Relaxed, he let out a tiny murmur to let the other know he was listening, but his mind was slow to understand the words.

Suddenly a hand caressed his left ear, resting over it, and the demon added with a trembling voice. “If you don’t stop me now I’m really going to kiss you.”

At that Liu Qingge finally woke up, and his eyes widened when he saw a pair of lips so close to his. Still, he didn’t move.

With a face almost close to tears, the demon continued. “I’m not joking. Stop me!”

The hand over his ear was shaking slightly, making him ticklish, but the other was white-knuckled, gripping onto his own thigh to inspire courage.

Without thinking, Liu Qingge grabbed that tense hand and raised his head to meet cold lips with sun-warmed ones.

The kiss was awkward, neither of them knew much about what to do. Their lips pressed against each other, subtly moving up and down. Their breathing created a chorus of little puffs and short inhales. Suddenly Liu Qingge slightly opened his mouth, to take in more air or to say something, but the demon took the chance to breach the opening with a dripping tongue. The overwhelming taste of persimmon killed all of Liu Qingge’s remaining brain power. He surrendered to the invasion and grabbed onto the other’s back to steady himself. He felt too hot, like the sun was scorching his back and their faces would melt and mix together. He tried opening his eyes, but the sight made his heart skip a beat, throwing him off-balance.

They stopped after a few minutes, both breathing hard but still holding onto each other’s hands. Liu Qingge was surprisingly the first to recover. “Are you okay?”

The demon didn’t respond right away. His eyes were only half-opened, mist clouding his usually sharp stare and making him look a bit lost. His lips were a bit irritated, bright red against pale skin, and they shone with bits of saliva, one fine line dripping from one side of his mouth.

The cultivator waited until he heard a “… okay.” before closing the distance again. Their movements were uncoordinated and frantic, purely instinct. They threw themselves all over each other, kissing and touching over their clothes as if it was the only way to prove they were truly alive. As if they could forever keep the other safe, as long as they got close enough, as long as there was not a place left untouched.

At that moment Liu Qingge didn’t think about their difference in race, their circumstances, or the future, he just thought too sweet.

It was time to move. Staying in this place risked Huan Hua disciple patrols noticing something and reporting back. They needed a quiet place to plan their next move. The question was, where? and the answer was not an easy one.

“We can’t go to Cang Qiong, there’s no way I could hide you all the way to my courtyard, and if we got caught by Yue Qingyuan it’d be almost as bad as getting caught by Huan Hua Palace.”

“We can’t go to the demon realm either, I’m not at full strength yet and you’d be too tempting for any demon we encounter.” He kept nervously adjusting his clothes, disordered from their previous make out session, to no avail. He was peculiar about his appearance to the point that his current look was giving him a headache. Liu Qingge had finally given up telling him to stop and focused on the conversation.

“So, that leaves somewhere on the human realm, away from any sect… preferably somewhere inconspicuous.”

“I don’t remember anything about the human realm myself so you have to do the thinking this time.” He gave up and laid down, his legs stretched towards Liu Qingge's and his face towards the sun. Eventually, that sensation of light and warmth had stopped hurting.

Liu Qingge turned to him, a question on the tip of his tongue, but he changed his mind last minute. “You,” He paused, confused. “You? Wait, I can’t be saying you all the time so how should I call you? Tanshui-Jun?”

“No, not that.” The answer came quick and brusque. He cleared his throat. “I mean, I guess that’s my name, but it feels… weird, like it doesn’t fit.” Pausing for a few seconds, he added. “It’s like wearing clothes that aren’t your size.”

Liu Qingge didn’t get exactly what this was about, but he followed with. “Then I’ll call you Nu Yuan Chan, because of your hair.” He smirked.

He turned to glare at him and shouted. “Your mother!” but his stupid joke had managed to make him feel a lot better. He suddenly recalled something important. “Oh.”

“What?”

“Now that I’m free I could try calling one of my old servants.”

“Servants? Don’t tell me you have slaves?!” He said, offended.

“Pfft, of course not! They’re more like… mm… assistants? managers? They worked for me out of their own will, and they got rewards for their help.”

Nodding to himself, Liu Qingge added “Oh, kind of like disciples of a sect but with extra benefits then.”

“Whatever. Let’s try!” He bit at his hand and started drawing something on the ground. It looked a bit like a star, with strange symbols etched between the intersecting lines. When he was done, he chanted a few foreign words and the drawing lit up with purple light.

His mouth moved close to the bright spell, “Listen up, things happened and now I’m free. One of you needs to come here right now, bring one of my weapons. Wait, bring also a set of clothes and some stuff to fix my hair, one or two poison sachets, a fan, some snack-”

Before he could finish his tirade there was a loud BOOM and then an explosion of green light from behind where Liu Qingge was sitting. Without waiting for him to react, the figure of a person came out of the light, stumbling for a bit then bowing down until their forehead touched the ground.

“So efficient!” The demon commented.

The figure raised his head, and both men could properly see him now. He was a slim young man who didn’t look older than fifteen, pale but with a smart face. He was wearing elaborate robes but his dark brown hair was neatly tucked into braids around his scalp. He also had black scale patterns drawn on both of his cheeks. His eyes were dark green, but they were turning redder and redder the more he looked at were the other demon was sitting.

“Lord Shen!” The newcomer cried while tremblingly approaching their spot.

“Huh? What did you just call me?” He said distractedly.

Ignoring Liu Qingge’s whole existence, he sat on his knees in front of his master, holding back tears. “… Lord Shen? Did you not order us to call you ‘Shen Yuan’ now?” The other demon’s confusion was very short-lived. After all, his master was always doing unreasonable things. Him changing his mind now was not too shocking either. “This, this is such great news!”

Shen Yuan’s reaction, however, wasn’t what he expected. Shock and confusion flittered across his face, his brows in a grimace. Something was tugging at his mind, tearing open barely scarred wounds and warning him about dangerous territory. A memory stood just out of reach. How about ‘Shen Yuan’? It suits you. “When, do you remember when I said that?” But the name fit, he could feel it.

He animatedly said. “It was two months after you came to the human realm. You told us not to bother you so you wandered this place alone for a long time, then one day you contacted us to change your name officially and that was the last we heard from you before, before…”

“Wait!” Liu Qingge interrupted their conversation, “Two months? You were here for two entire months? And did what?”

The green-eyed demon turned around at the sound of his voice. “Who are you?” He asked suspiciously.

“Who are you?” Liu Qingge shot back.

Shen Yuan composed himself and interrupted their little comedy sketch. “It’s Xhizhi-lang.”

‘Xhizhi-lang’ turned back to his master. “… It’s Zhuzhi-lang.”

“Right, well, and this is Liu Qingge.” He said while pointing at the man opposite. “He’s.” He paused, trying to determine how to describe their relationship at the moment.

“I’m his saviour.” He said with a cocky attitude. “So you should be thanking me.”

Zhuzi-lang did a 180° on his attitude and turned to kneel in front of Liu Qingge.

“W-wait! I’m joking, you don’t have to thank me or anything.” He was just a kid, after all.

Zhuzhi-lang ignored him and kowtowed three times. Afterwards he raised his head and with an extremely solemn face said. “There is no sufficient reward in this world for the kindness you have shown my master. Even if it is not enough, from this moment on this servant’s life will be handed over to you.”

Shen Yuan stepped in. “Hey! I didn’t give you permission to hand over your life this easily!”

Still serious, Zhuzhi-lang responded. “My lord, it was you who told me that my life was my own, to do with it whatever I wished to. Now that I wish to do this, will you go back on your word?”

This brat knew him too well, so Shen Yuan just huffed and flapped his hand at Liu Qingge. “Don’t mind him.”

When Liu Qingge stopped feeling flustered, he suddenly recalled the Old Palace Master’s words: “Because, all of these years I have been waiting for that retainer to come to the human realm to free their lord. I suspected that he would also disguise as a human and infiltrate one of the major sects to find out where their master was hidden! They probably have the means to destroy those seals, they might… they might also be a heavenly demon!”

Suddenly worried, he asked Shen Yuan. “Just wait, is he also a heavenly demon?”

“Only half.” “He is.” Both demons spoke at the same time.

It had taken a long time, but Liu Qingge was finally starting to realize the size of the mess he had voluntarily involved himself with.  His brain tried to come up with ways on which things would be worse, but there truly were so many ways in which it could have been worse. He accepted his circumstances and moved on. “Well, good reunion, but we really need to get a move on. That loud magic you used to get here could have alerted someone.”

“That’s right.” Shen Yuan stretched his limbs and started to get up. “I’ll explain everything when the time is right but first we need to find a secure place to hide. Do you remember where I used to stay when I was here?” He directed his question at Zhuzhi-lang’s adorably confused face.

“You stole a house in a city called Jin Lan. Pretended to haunt a famous scholar’s beautiful residence that you liked, stopping and hiding whenever he hired cultivators to check, and moved in when he got too scared and run.”

“…” How embarrassing.

Liu Qingge snorted loudly. “Wow, what a scary and dangerous heavenly demon.” But when he remembered the circumstances of how Shen Yuan got trapped in that mountain his mood went down again. How could someone who does things so peculiarly get involved with the darker side of the cultivation sects?

Uncovering the truth would have to wait until Shen Yuan could access all of his memories. Regardless, hearing these little snippets of how he was like before everything made him warm inside. He was getting to know about a vain, mischievous and weird demon before extreme trauma rusted over his true brilliance.

Cough. “Let’s just go check if that place’s still in one piece. We can always move elsewhere if not.”

Hearing that, Zhuzhi-lang began preparing the more discreet version of the teleportation array with the materials he had on hand.

“There’s a famous sect in Jin Lan… though they are a hundred times better than Huan Hua or Cang Qiong when it comes to mercy and fairness. Well, it’s a good place as any and we can always wear a disguise and rent an inn.” Liu Qingge interrupted.

“You have money?” Shen Yuan asked while fiddling with his hair.

“I do.”

“More than me?”

“How would I know?”

“It’s an important question.”

“Why?”

“Because it means that you’d be providing for me, instead of me providing for you.”

“…”

Then Shen Yuan’s brain caught up with his mouth. “… forget it.”

“I don’t have a lot of money.” Liu Qingge turned around. Whatever, better play it safe.

Shen Yuan smiled, secretly pleased, and laid a hand on his chest, near where the lavender flowers were still safely kept.

There was a pair of eyes staring vacantly into the distance, overwhelmed with information. Zhuzhi-lang didn’t move a muscle, just let his overworked brain spiral out of control with imagined scenarios and unforeseen circumstances as his hands mechanically built the array.