Chapter Text
This isn’t supposed to happen yet.
That’s the most coherent thought in Shen Qingqiu’s mind. It’s also the most oft repeated.
This is supposed to happen two years from now! After Binghe is back from the Abyss!
Luo Binghe led the charge in the trial against Shen Qingqiu in <<Proud Immortal Demon Way>>. By all rights, the concept of a trial shouldn’t even be a glimmer in anyone’s eye until Shen Qingqiu’s blackened lotus has crawled his way out of the hell Shen Qingqiu tossed him in.
So why is Shen Qingqiu wrapped in immortal binding cables and locked away in the Huan Hua Water Prison?!
The mission to Jin Lan City isn’t something that happened in the original <<Proud Immortal Demon Way>>. Or if it had, Airplane had skipped over it; Binghe was (and in this timeline currently is) still in the Abyss, after all, and the readers wouldn’t care about following such an event rather than their protagonist.
Either way, Shen Qingqiu muses while he, Mu Qingfang, and Liu Qingge fly to Jin Lan City, this is an event that’s entirely new to Shen Qingqiu. He can’t lackadaisically metagame his way out of this one!
It’s a little exciting, the way anything that deviates from the plot or fills in the gaps in the narrative is. Also a little stressful, for the same reasons.
No one else has escaped Jin Lan City.
“There,” Shen Qingqiu calls over the wind. “Where the Luo and Heng rivers intersect!”
The Luo river…
Shen Qingqiu turns his thoughts aside. There’s no point in thinking of Binghe now. They have more important issues to deal with, like how to get inside the city.
That ends up being the easiest and most straightforward part of the day.
Shen Qingqiu splits off from Mu Qingfang and Liu Qingge after Master Wu Chen has appraised them of the situation. Shen Qingqiu intends to do his own investigation. He takes mental notes as he goes: the civilians, the dreadful atmosphere of the city, the old lady bumping into him who most certainly is not actually an old lady—!
Shen Qingqiu all but runs directly into Gongyi Xiao as he pursues.
“Senior Shen!” the Huan Hua Palace disciple says.
“Ah,” Shen Qingqiu says. “Gongyi Xiao. I had heard there was a second group of Huan Hua disciples sent here…?”
“Yes, Senior Shen,” Gongyi Xiao says. “When we received word that Cang Qiong was sending an investigative group, Shizun thought it best if we combined forces. That way, we could also investigate what has become of my shidi and shimei.” His expression falls slightly as he says that last.
Ah, the weight of being head disciple. Gongyi Xiao must naturally feel responsible for those shidi and shimei under his care. To not know what has befallen them in Jin Lan City—it must be troubling indeed.
“This master will take you to see Master Wu Chen later,” Shen Qingqiu says. “At the moment, this master is in pursuit of a suspect, if Gongyi Xiao wouldn’t mind assisting!”
They take off. The cloaked figure hasn’t gotten too far ahead of them; Shen Qingqiu and Gongyi Xiao watch as it leaps into a three-story building. A brothel, Shen Qingqiu notes distantly, as he and Gongyi Xiao cautiously enter.
“Let’s split up and search. You check the private rooms on the left and I’ll take the right.”
The rooms don’t offer much—only the distressing sight of the women who used to live here, laid out in their finery as they succumbed to the plague. Shen Qingqiu is starting to put together the pieces of this puzzle, and he’s getting steadily angrier and more disgusted as he peers into room after room.
There’s a sound of movement from upstairs as Shen Qingqiu goes to open the next door. He darts back to the front and up the stairs, pulling ahead of Gongyi Xiao.
Sure enough, the hunchbacked figure is there, and immediately tries to flee.
Shen Qingqiu doesn’t let it.
“Senior Shen, should we not have tried to take this person alive for interrogation…?” Gongyi Xiao asks.
“There would be no point in doing so,” Shen Qingqiu says. “It almost certainly wouldn’t tell us anything.”
He quickly uses Xiu Ya to shred the black cloth the hunchbacked corpse is wrapped in, revealing its body to him and Gongyi Xiao.
“As expected,” Shen Qingqiu murmurs. “A sower.”
Gongyi Xiao makes a tiny noise of understanding beside him. Shen Qingqiu slants a sideways look at him; he’s actually rather impressed that Gongyi Xiao knows of sowers, since they’ve been wiped almost to extinction by now. He supposes he shouldn’t be so surprised, since Gongyi Xiao has seemed like an intelligent young man every time Shen Qingqiu has interacted with him.
“This master will take the corpse to Mu Qingfang,” Shen Qingqiu says. “It may assist him—us—in developing a medicine that will curb the epidemic as early as possible.” He pauses. “Gongyi Xiao may accompany me, but where are the rest of his fellow disciples?”
“This one left them in the care of his shidi when he saw the sower running through the alley,” Gongyi Xiao says promptly. “I will collect them and accompany Senior Shen to Senior Mu and Master Wu Chen.”
Shen Qingqiu nods his assent. Gongyi Xiao takes his leave, and Shen Qingqiu sheathes Xiu Ya. He holds up his hand, staring at the infection on it.
Mu-shidi, I’m relying on you…
The night passes calmly. Shen Qingqiu is banished to a room on the second floor of the weapon shop’s inner courtyard after his Without a Cure flares up. Shen Qingqiu could scream about it; what cause is there for a flare up! Shen Qingqiu always takes his medicine precisely on time! Liu Qingge clears his meridians frequently!
Liu Qingge and the Huan Hua Palace disciples are the ones out hunting the sowers. Shen Qingqiu sleeps as well as he can. He wakes early, riding the edges of a dream that leaves him unsettled and nearly more tired than he’d been before falling asleep.
Shen Qingqiu joins Mu Qingfang in his temporary workspace, for lack of anything better to do.
“How may this shixiong help Mu-shidi?” he asks.
Mu Qingfang eyes him, obviously taking into account Without a Cure, and says, “Shen-shixiong may prepare ingredients for me.”
Shen Qingqiu nods. He rolls up his sleeves and reaches out before remembering why that might be a bad idea. By then, it’s too late to hide the infection.
Mu Qingfang lets out a deep sigh.
“…Shen-shixiong may also help me test the medicinal pills,” he says.
Shen Qingqiu ruthlessly quashes any emotion akin to embarrassment before it can make it onto his face and moves to assist Mu Qingfang.
Around mid-afternoon, Shen Qingqiu looks up as he suddenly hears raucous cheering from outside. He and Mu Qingfang were preparing to move outside to one of the main squares in order to begin distributing the cure; Shen Qingqiu has already taken his share, and Mu Qingfang is keeping half an eye on him in case it interacts poorly with Without a Cure.
Which would really be Shen Qingqiu’s luck, so he doesn’t protest the weight of Mu Qingfang’s attention. Much.
“The gates are open!” Yang Yixuan says as he flings open the door and bursts into the workspace. “The gates are open!”
“What?”
“All those red monsters have been captured, so the city gates are open! Jin Lan City managed to pull through!” Yang Yixuan explains further.
Shen Qingqiu raises one eyebrow. Goodness, Liu-shidi, to have caught them all within a 24-hour period, that’s so fast!
…Perhaps Gongyi Xiao caught one, too? It would be a poor showing for Huan Hua Palace if they hadn’t done anything to assist, especially after the Old Palace Master sent them here precisely for that purpose. Plus Shen Qingqiu doesn’t want poor Gongyi Xiao to be embarrassed, even if a loss to Bai Zhan’s esteemed War God is nothing to be ashamed of.
Mu Qingfang peaceably finishes gathering his supplies. He and Shen Qingqiu walk out into the main plaza; they set about distributing the cure to the joyful citizens. Not long after, the cultivators who had gathered outside the city walls have all made their way to the same plaza. The sowers are also contained there, behind a Zhao Hua Monastery barrier.
Shen Qingqiu can’t shake the feeling that the sowers are looking at him.
As it turns out, he should have paid more attention to that. Instead, he’s caught wildly off guard when, after Shen Qingqiu offers his advice for dealing with the sowers, one of them throws itself against the barrier, wailing and screaming, “Immortal Master Shen, you must not let them burn me to death! I’m begging you, Immortal Master Shen, please save me!”
What the fuck?!
“We were only following your orders,” the sower continues. “You never said we would be burned! Please, Immortal Master Shen, have mercy!”
What the hell are you talking about?! I never gave you any orders! I would never work with your kind! One of you even infected me!
That’s not enough to save him when he tries to hold it up as proof. The 40 IQ of the Jin Lan City citizens and the senility of the Old Palace Master, who all seem convinced by such flimsy evidence that Shen Qingqiu must be guilty—and then. The sudden appearance of Qiu Haitang.
It’s too early, Shen Qingqiu thinks wildly. Where is Binghe?
Of course, Shen Qingqiu knows where he is. He’s exactly where Shen Qingqiu left him three years ago.
Apparently, “The Humbling of Shen Qingqiu” doesn’t require the protagonist to be present to kick it off. It would have been nice if the System warned him about that! He’d thought he had years more, dammit!
In the end, Shen Qingqiu has no choice but to throw his sword to the Old Palace Master. He can’t let Yue Qingyuan start a war with the other sects for him. The Original Goods dragged Yue Qingyuan down into death with him.
Shen Qingqiu refuses to do the same.
“Senior Shen, my apologies,” Gongyi Xiao says as he binds Shen Qingqiu with the immortal binding cables. He sounds honestly sorry. “This junior will treat you with all due respect. Before the truth comes to light, I will not let you suffer any slight.”
Ha. Shen Qingqiu is quite glad now that he had farmed a good reputation with this disciple. It won’t be enough to save him, but maybe it will provide him some comfort in the coming days.
The days that Liu Qingge seems determined to barter down to the bare minimum, immediately calling for the trial to occur in a mere five days.
The sect leaders haggle back and forth. Shen Qingqiu is busy doing calculations of his own. His gaze falls on Shang Qinghua.
How likely am I to die if the protagonist isn’t here to kill me? he tries to convey through the tilt of his head.
Shang Qinghua shrugs helplessly.
Shen Qingqiu barely refrains from rolling his eyes.
Shang Qinghua tilts his head slightly side to side, then finally shakes it. That, or he’s trying to flick a few strands of hair out of his face. Shen Qingqiu chooses to take it as you probably won’t die, Cucumber-bro!
Fuck, he hopes Shang Qinghua is right about that.
“There’s no need for more back and forth. Listen to the Palace Master’s plans. One month,” Shen Qingqiu says.
Shen Qingqiu catches Shang Qinghua’s eye before he’s led away.
Airplane-bro, you better make sure that this doesn’t kill me — and if it does, those Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom bodies better be ready!
Gongyi Xiao is quite conscientious the whole time as they lead him down into the Water Prison. He’s appropriately apologetic about having to blindfold Shen Qingqiu along the way, so Shen Qingqiu holds back his commentary about how it’s wholly unnecessary, since Huan Hua has set up maze arrays inside their prison.
They truly don’t want anyone escaping.
This impression is only reinforced by the details of the Water Prison itself. An acid lake surrounding a platform that is itself enclosed by a curtain of acid to make sure no one can simply fly out of the prison.
It’s excessive.
It’s a prison that Shen Qingqiu has willingly submitted himself to, and he’s not sure he’s going to be able to escape. All he’s left with are his thoughts.
Why, why, why is this happening now?!
Being imprisoned isn’t all that bad. Honestly!
Except for the persistent fear that he’s going to be executed at the end of this affair, or that he’s going to remain imprisoned here until Binghe really does finally escape the Abyss, and the fact that he has minimal (almost no) contact with the outside world, and his fellow peak lords have been apparently banned from seeing him, and that being wrapped in Immortal Binding Cables means he can’t practice inedia and can’t find a comfortable position for sleeping given the way his arms are bound—
But Gongyi Xiao brings him food and water once a day! Thus supplying him both with sustenance and that aforementioned minimal contact with the outside world—or however much of the going-ons of his sect and the preparations for the trial he’s willing to tell Shen Qingqiu, anyway.
At least Shen Qingqiu has someone to talk to.
It’s humiliating having to be hand-fed during these visits, though. Even Gongyi Xiao’s sympathy won’t make him bend his sect’s rules enough to unbind Shen Qingqiu’s hands.
It’s fine. Shen Qingqiu is fine. The Immortal Binding Cables have even canceled out his Without a Cure flare up. Two poisons counteracting each other, he supposes.
Really, what he most has to concern himself with is boredom. There’s only so long per day he can spend catastrophizing about his situation or trying to think his way out of it or even trying to mentally plot out what changes he made that could have led to this ripple effect of an outcome. When he’s run out of all those thoughts each day, in the gaps between Gongyi Xiao’s visits, he’s left with his boredom.
Except it’s not boredom all that often. His thoughts turn to familiar paths, and Shen Qingqiu can’t help but grieve—no, not grieve. Just. Bemoan the idea that he probably won’t get to see Binghe again. If Huan Hua Palace executes him before Binghe escapes the Abyss…he’ll never see his grown-up little sheep.
Which! Is! Great! So long as Shang Qinghua comes through with their gardening project, then Shen Qingqiu can die now, escape to the Sun-Moon Dew Mushrooms body, and carry on with his life without ever having to see Luo Binghe again! Binghe will be free to form his harem, conquer the known realms, and hopefully won’t destroy Cang Qiong this time if Shen Qingqiu is already dead…?
Yes. This is—of course it’s a shorter timeframe than he’d imagined, but it’s quite convenient. A good alternative.
Right.
Even without access to inedia, he finds he isn’t hungry when Gongyi Xiao next comes to visit.
“Senior Shen,” Gongyi Xiao says pleadingly when Shen Qginqiu turns his face away from the disciple’s offering. “You need to keep up your strength.”
“This master will be fine,” Shen Qingqiu says. It’s not even been a week into the full month that he’s to stay here, and he’s been eating sufficiently during Gongyi Xiao’s previous visits. More than he’s daily eaten on his Peak the last few years, since he had the benefit of inedia then; Shen Qingqiu doesn’t know why Gongyi Xiao so concerned. It’s not like he does anything all day other than sit around on this stupid platform! He’ll survive until the trial.
When it looks like Gongyi Xiao is going to protest, Shen Qingqiu quickly changes the subject. “Has the Old Palace Master relented on the subject of allowing my fellow peak lords to see me?” He really would like to talk to them. Especially Shang Qinghua.
Gongyi Xiao shifts uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, Senior Shen. Shizun still allows no one but Huan Hua disciples into the Water Prison.”
Shen Qingqiu closes his eyes. Sighs. Thinks carefully, opens his eyes to meet Gongyi Xiao’s, and asks, “Is there any way Gongyi Xiao may be persuaded to carry messages between this master and his fellow peak lords? This master does not think any of us expected the lack of contact when agreeing to the trial.”
There. He’s framed it at least somewhat as wanting to contact them due to the trial. Shen Qingqiu isn’t sure how the Old Palace Master intends to get away with refusing to allow Cang Qiong to communicate with Shen Qingqiu in preparation for the trial.
…Though he supposes now that Shen Qingqiu is confined in the Water Prison, it’s not as though Cang Qiong can simply storm Huan Hua Palace to get him back. Not when that’s exactly why Shen Qingqiu surrendered himself; not when they’ll see him all at the trial next month.
Oh, Shen Qingqiu hopes he hasn’t made a terrible mistake.
Still. The question makes Gongyi Xiao hesitate.
“At the very least, could Gongyi Xiao approach Shang Qinghua?” Shen Qingqiu presses. Airplane-bro is who he actually needs to talk to! “He knows how to be discrete, and—” Excuse, he needs an excuse! “—he has often, in the past, kept track of my disciples when this master is absent from his Peak. This master is concerned how Cang Qiong and his Qing Jing disciples are faring in light of all the excitement.”
Does that make sense? He really hopes it does. Gongyi Xiao, please believe this master and do this favor for him!
“I…” Gongyi Xiao says. He scans Shen Qingqiu. His expression firms. “This disciple will do his best, Senior Shen!”
Before he leaves that day, Gongyi Xiao takes care to settle the food and waterskin he’d brought with him in easy reach of Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu doesn’t see him again.
A day passes, and Shen Qingqiu doesn’t think anything of it. It’s difficult to tell time in the Water Prison; maybe the hope of hearing from Airplane-bro or any of his other peak lords has simply skewed Shen Qingqiu’s sense of time? Hope and fear can both make time pass strangely. Also, his whole sense of time depends on Gongyi Xiao’s daily visits.
That must be it.
Then the second day — or what he assumes is the second day — passes. It’s officially been too long for Shen Qingqiu to convince himself that Gongyi Xiao isn’t late. No one else has come to give him food or water. Darkly, Shen Qingqiu supposes he should be surprised that Gongyi Xiao was the only one that might be concerned with a prisoner’s health. He shouldn’t have expected better of Huan Hua Palace.
He’s been in the Water Prison for approximately one week now. With the absence of Gongyi Xiao, fear begins to creep in. They have to come check on him, right? They won’t simply abandon him here—he still has to stand trial!
(Unless, a little voice whispers inside him. Unless someone decides that there needs to be an unfortunate accident.
He refused to eat. He died of shame. He fell into the acid. He tried to escape.
There are so many ways to fake a death. So many ways that they could lie.
Alone in the dark, Shen Qingqiu sits there and contemplates each one.)
On top of everything else, Shen Qingqiu can’t shake the feeling that Gongyi Xiao’s disappearance is his fault. He disappeared after Shen Qingqiu asked him to reach out to Cang Qiong.
That can’t be a coincidence.
The question is, what exactly happened to him?
Maybe he’s only delayed, Shen Qingqiu thinks to himself. Maybe he had to travel to Cang Qiong himself—maybe he was called on to run an urgent mission—
Ha. He’s a terrible liar, even to himself. Perhaps especially to himself.
Shen Qingqiu takes a deep breath, then another. He’ll ration the water Gongyi Xiao brought him. The food, too, as much as he’s able, though it needs to be eaten before it can go bad.
Did he think his imprisonment wasn’t that bad? He takes it back! He wasn’t asking the world to prove him wrong! System, if you’re listening, he definitely takes it back!
The System, typically, doesn’t respond.
Shen Qingqiu perks up when, the next day, the bridge between his prison and the rest of the prison complex rises out of the acid with a groan. He barely waits for the acid curtain to part before he’s calling out.
“Gongyi Xiao! I thought—”
His voice dies in his throat.
That’s not Gongyi Xiao.
Instead, it’s a petite female cultivator, a metal chain whip slung over one shoulder and a hard expression on her otherwise lovely face. Shen Qingqiu recognizes her from her description in the book.
The Little Palace Mistress? What is she doing here?
His eyes trail over the whip. Why did she bring that?
He looks back up at her face.
…She doesn’t look very happy to be here.
She looks — quite furious, now that he takes a moment to parse the emotion painted so visibly on her face.
“Shen Qingqiu greets the Little Palace Mistress,” Shen Qingqiu says carefully. Until he knows why she’s here, he doesn’t want to risk provoking her—any more than she already is, anyway. Not that he knows why she’s so upset in the first place!
“This palace mistress has things to ask you!” she says, stepping closer and pointing at him with the handle of her whip.
“This doesn’t seem like something the Little Palace Mistress should do,” Shen Qingqiu observes neutrally. “Would Gongyi Xiao not—”
“Don’t you dare speak his name!” the Little Palace Mistress says through clenched teeth.
Shen Qingqiu pauses. The bad feeling from the previous day returns with a vengeance. Is Gongyi Xiao…?
“You Demon Realm colluder,” the Little Palace Mistress continues. “You vile traitor, you scum, who dares to turn against your own comrades and spit on every kindness! The heavens have eyes, and now that you have fallen into this palace mistress’ hands, I will make you pay for what you’ve done!”
“I don’t remember confessing to collusion with the Demon Realm,” Shen Qingqiu says. Because he hasn’t been colluding. Unless one wants to count hiding Luo Binghe on his peak for three years, but no one knows about that. Luo Binghe is still dead as far as anyone else knows.
“Just because you haven’t confessed, you think you can’t be punished for it? You, a long-respected senior, who hid his past along with his cruel and lascivious nature!” His what?! Little Miss, he’s been the only Shen Qingqiu for over half a decade now, and he certainly hasn’t followed where Shen Jiu led! Where did you even hear these rumors? They hadn’t been brought up in Jinlan City! “Naturally, a person like that would be capable of doing things like colluding with demons, or trying to drag Huan Hua’s disciples down into the filth with him!”
Ah. Aha. Shit. Someone must have been nearby when Shen Qingqiu was talking with Gongyi Xiao the other day, or else he got caught while trying to do what Shen Qingqiu had asked. Either way, it wouldn’t have looked good for Gongyi Xiao, but he at least was a member of the sect.
Shen Qingqiu is only the sect’s prisoner.
…And Gongyi Xiao is currently still the Little Palace Mistress’ paramour, isn’t he? In the novel, she was the type of person who would take a situation like this personally.
“I am not colluding with demons,” Shen Qingqiu says for the umpteenth time. “My fellow peak lords know this. I only wanted to talk with my martial siblings before the trial, and so prevailed upon Gongyi Xiao to carry messages between us.”
There. That’s the truth of what he had asked. Surely not so unreasonable, right?
The Little Palace Mistress doesn’t seem to think so. Her face reddens.
“Forcing A-Xiao to do your dirty work! Preying on his kindness! Snaring him with your wiles, you—you—!”
The Little Palace Mistress is overcome by her anger. Her arm swings, and the whip snaps forth.
Encumbered as he is by the Immortal Binding Cables, exhausted from spending over a week in a damp, cool prison without the ability to practice inedia, Shen Qingqiu barely manages to dodge the lightening-fast crack of that whip. The barbed dart at its end lands less than a meter from his foot, and the strength of her attack is such that rock shards and dust are sent flying.
What the fuck?! What kind of weapon is this! And why is she attacking me with it, with such a strange excuse!
What wiles, young miss?! Why do you sound like you’re trying to scare another girl away from your man!
The Little Palace Mistress keeps up her attack even after the first miss. Shen Qingqiu does his best to dodge, but he’s weak and constrained, and there’s only so much room on the stone platform. He avoids taking direct damage as long as possible, but before long, he’s been backed up to the edge of the platform. There’s nowhere else for him to retreat.
He grits his teeth, closes his eyes, and braces for the pain.
At the very least, he won’t give her the pleasure of crying out.
The Water Prison’s bridge rises again the next day. Or what Shen Qingqiu assumes is the next day.
He curls further in on himself. He’s lying in a rather uncomfortable position on his side, facing away from the bridge. After the Little Palace Mistress had left, he’d dragged himself more towards the middle of the platform before letting himself collapse; it would be stupid to taunt fate by leaving himself so close to the edge. That was just asking for someone to shove him in, or even to roll over in his sleep and fall into the acid lake.
No thank you.
If the Little Palace Mistress is back, he wants to be able to protect his vital organs, and stop her from layering strikes over the ones she already gave him. If she isn’t, if this is some disciple finally come to bring him food and water, he doesn’t want to suffer the humiliation of them seeing how their mistress has attacked him.
Maybe he’ll be absurdly lucky, and it’s one of his martial siblings. Maybe they’ve come to take him out of this place.
Maybe the trial has been called off, and in two years Luo Binghe will decide he doesn’t want to kill you, and everyone will live happily ever after, Shen Qingqiu thinks mockingly to himself.
“Peak Lord Shen.”
Oh. Great.
If they’re going to have a conversation, he should probably be sitting up for it. Shen Qingqiu laboriously drags himself up to his knees, turning to face his visitor.
“Palace Master,” he greets neutrally. He wishes he had something to pull over himself, some way to disguise the shreds of his robes and the evidence of the Little Palace Mistress’ visit. He also wishes he had a fan—and a free hand—to cover his reaction as the Old Palace Master looks him over.
That’s not the kind of look a doddering old man gives. He isn’t sure what it is, but Shen Qingqiu doesn’t like it.
“I heard my daughter visited you yesterday,” the Old Palace Master eventually says.
What was your first clue?
Shen Qingqiu nods stiffly.
“This master must apologize for his daughter’s actions,” the Old Palace Master says. “She was simply overcome with emotion. You understand how it is with young women…”
Shen Qingqiu is pretty sure he should be offended by that.
Just because your daughter is a sadistic little monster, don’t go saying someone like my Ning Yingying is like that, too! You should have raised her better, if you didn’t want her turning out this way!
The Old Palace Master sighs. “She was only worried for my head disciple, and how Peak Lord Shen was asking him to betray his sect.”
“I wasn’t—” Shen Qingqiu bites down on the rest of that sentence, thinking furiously. There’s a trap here, somewhere, and the Old Palace Master is waiting for him to walk right into it. He has to be careful. “This one isn’t sure where or how such a misunderstanding arose. All I wanted was to meet with my fellow peak lords.”
The Old Palace Master smiles. “No,” he says.
Ice trickles down Shen Qingqiu’s spine.
“May this one inquire as to the reasons to bar this one from meeting with his martial siblings?” he asks politely.
“Peak Lord Shen is colluding with demons,” the Old Palace Master says, as if Shen Qingqiu has forgotten one of the main charges against him in this farce of a trial. “And he was a student of Wu Yanzi. Who knows what tricks he has learned? What demonic cultivation he might use to prey on the minds of others? This master has seen it before…righteous cultivators, swayed by demons, until they turned their backs on all they had once held dear, following their new master far beyond the point of reason, refusing to return to those who had long cared for them…” An ugly expression makes its way onto the Old Palace Master’s face before he wipes it clean again.
Shen Qingqiu notes that, even as he’s forcefully keeping his breathing deep and even.
He’s mad. That’s not— I’m not—even Shen Jiu wasn’t like that—!
“I am not,” Shen Qingqiu says, enunciating every word, “colluding with demons.”
“Oh?” the Old Palace Master says, one eyebrow arched incredulously. “Peak Lord Shen says that so confidently, even when he hid a demon on his Qing Jing Peak for most of a decade.”
All of Shen Qingqiu’s muscles lock in place. He stares at the Old Palace Master.
“What?” he manages to whisper.
“Peak Lord Shen didn’t really think he kept it secret, did he?” the Old Palace Master asks. He tsks. “I knew as soon as I saw his disciple at the Immortal Alliance Conference. Luo Binghe, wasn’t it? He looks so much like my Xiyan…and even if I had any doubts, it was obvious whose child he was when the Abyss opened. So much demonic qi in the air—it could only be because of a Heavenly Demon.”
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck, Shen Qingqiu thinks. I forgot! I forgot Su Xiyan was from Huan Hua!
It’s knowledge that’s always existed in the back of his mind, but it’s never been relevant. Su Xiyan and Tianlang-Jun were just another one of Airplane’s dropped plot points, barely used except for tragic backstory or to explain why—other than Luo Binghe’s obvious and inherent power—the Old Palace Master was so willing to accept Binghe into Huan Hua after he had escaped the Abyss.
Shen Qingqiu hadn’t thought it was something he would have to worry about.
That was an oversight.
What’s his angle? What does he think he can get out of this? And—how do I use that against him? Or at least keep him from using it against me?
Obviously, the Old Palace Master can use it against him as more evidence at the trial—though it would be hard to prove, given that Luo Binghe isn’t here as physical proof. At most, it would be conjecture!
Then again, that’s what most of the trial amounts to so far.
So, what’s the best course of action here?
…May as well try denial first.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Shen Qingqiu says. “There was an ice demon present; he is the one who opened the Abyss. Perhaps Palace Master simply mistook his qi for another’s? This master saw no Heavenly Demons.”
No Heavenly Demons as the cultivation world thought of them. No horrifying monsters.
Just one half-demon.
Just Shen Qingqiu’s little white lotus.
The Old Palace Master smiles again. It wasn’t friendly the first time. It is significantly less so now.
“I was not mistaken,” he says. “Peak Lord Shen…I know you’re protecting Luo Binghe. Where is he?”
“Binghe is dead,” Shen Qingqiu says resolutely.
His head snaps to the side with the force of the backhand the Old Palace Master hits him with. His lip splits with the blow, blood trickling down his chin.
Slowly, Shen Qingqiu turns his head to face the Old Palace Master again.
“Heavenly Demons can take a truly terrifying amount of damage,” the Old Palace Master says. “I’m sure Peak Lord Shen is aware. It was his shixiong who fought Tianlang-Jun to a standstill, after all, but we couldn’t kill him. All we could do is seal him away. Even a half-demon would be unimaginably powerful. He didn’t die at the Conference. So. Where is he?”
Shen Qingqiu stares stubbornly at him and doesn’t speak.
I don’t know why you want to know, but I. Don’t. Trust. You.
You can wait the two years for Binghe to escape the Abyss, and maybe I won’t be around to stop you from sinking your claws into him, but you won’t get the knowledge of when to expect him from me. You don’t get to know anything about him unless he tells you himself, and I hope he sees straight through you and refuses you everything.
I won’t tell you where he is.
“Peak Lord Shen truly desires to make this difficult,” the Old Palace Master observes.
Shen Qingqiu spits a wad of blood and saliva at the Old Palace Master’s feet.
“Luo Binghe may look like Xiyan, but Peak Lord Shen certainly acts like her.” The Old Palace Master’s eyes are dark. “Peak Lord Shen doesn’t have to tell this Palace Master where his disciple is. Luo Binghe is also that demon filth’s son—and Tianlang-Jun came running to meet Xiyan. Everyone knows how devoted that disciple was to his shizun. It won’t be difficult to draw him out of his hiding place.”
You bastard.
It doesn’t matter that the Old Palace Master is dead wrong. It doesn’t matter that the only reason Luo Binghe would come running was to kill his traitorous shizun himself.
What matters is that the Old Palace Master thinks he can use Shen Qingqiu to lure Luo Binghe in, for whatever purposes he has. He thinks he can ruin Binghe the same way he had—if Shen Qingqiu is reading between the lines correctly—ruined Binghe’s parents.
Shen Qingqiu has had enough of hurting Binghe.
“You won’t touch him,” Shen Qingqiu says before he can think better of it. “I won’t let you.”
“Oh? So Peak Lord Shen finally admits his disciple lives?”
With an inarticulate cry, Shen Qingqiu scrambles to his feet and lunges at the Old Palace Master. He’s immediately knocked back to the ground. The wind is knocked out of him, and all he can do is lie flat on his back as the Old Palace Master stands over him, one hand on his sheathed sword in pointed threat.
As if Shen Qingqiu isn’t perfectly aware of how helpless he is.
Of how he fell into the Old Palace Master’s trap after all, and in all likelihood, helped drag Binghe down with him.
Long after the Old Palace Master has left, he lies there miserably.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, Binghe, this stupid master has put you in danger again.
Binghe, Binghe…
Shen Qingqiu closes his burning eyes.
I’m sorry.