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Chapter Text

“San-ge, you’re so boring. Stop reading Proud Immortal Demon Way, it’s such a bad web novel. Pay attention to me!”

“Hey! Meimei! What the hell, give me back my phone!”

“Will you two stop acting like children?! Yuan-di, get off from meimei, you’re going to ruin her dress!”

“I am too old to deal with this…Ah, Tiao-di, Tiao-di! Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!”

-

The lingering smell of sulphur shook Shen Yuan awake as coughs violently erupted from his lungs. Each cough felt like he was about to puke his own lungs out, brutal enough that he feared his ribcage would crack. Luckily, the coughs subsided before it actually happened, however his throat felt like needles were pricking him. As he took a couple of deep breaths, Shen Yuan tried to recall what happened. His memories were foggy, the last thing he remembered was being in a car with his siblings, driving their way to their cousin’s wedding. Despite the unknown room he was which smelt of nature, the unknown room being something he would digest later, Shen Yuan’s nose still held onto the smell of sulphur and his mouth had a tang of iron.

Seeing that he could not recall anything else, Shen Yuan finally decided to figure out where he was and if he was all alone. The bed he was on was hard, his body ached as he moved himself to sit up. When he sat up, after pushing the thin covers to the side, his eyebrows furrowed in thought as he observed his clothing. Shen Yuan remembered clearly that he had been wearing a navy blue suit, a white button-up shirt and a matching blue tie. He had not wore anything that resembled inner robes from his xianxia series and novels, yet that was what he was wearing. Had someone changed him in his sleep? Why robes of all things?

A pinkish blush grew on his cheeks at that thought of being changed, embarrassed by the idea of anyone undressing him, be it family or stranger. As he pondered at his peculiar situation, his eyes glued to his white pants, he felt something move. His head had been lowered slightly, so naturally, his hair would be affected by gravity and move to frame his head and shoulders. However, his hair felt strange, some strands felt a tad too long for his normal cut. There was no hesitance whatsoever as he brought one of his hands to his hair and ran his lanky fingers through it. His hair was shoulder-length, typically tied in a low loose ponytail, yet his fingers went past that. Taken aback, Shen Yuan brought some of his hair to the front, to see that it had grown to an unusual amount. His hair went past his waist! How long had been asleep for such a lengthy phenomenon to occur?

Conflicted feelings washed over Shen Yuan as his eyes gradually looked over the room. It was a small room, slightly smaller than his own bedroom at his apartment. On the opposite wall was a closed and fairly detailed door, its material looked as though it was made from pine wood. On his left side, Shen Yuan saw an ancient-styled wardrobe, a coffer placed right next to it and a vanity. On his right side, there was a low table and a cushion, and also another coffer. All in all, it was a simple room although it felt a little too empty but that was probably due to the fact that Shen Yuan thrived living in messes.

There were no windows in the room so looking around did not answer any of Shen Yuan’s questions about where he was, it instead raised more questions, so Shen Yuan finally stood up. Just like a new-born deer, his legs wobbled, unused to the weight of standing after a long time of being immobile. With some difficulty, Shen Yuan managed to walk all the way to the door without falling. At some point, he passed by the mirror and quickly eyed his appearance. Whatever caused this situation didn’t affect the majority of his appearance, other than the long hair and strange clothes. His hair was still a deep brown, his skin was still blemished with freckles, his eyes were still a beautiful hazel.

But then, Shen Yuan did a double take. Where were his glasses? Why could he still see perfectly despite the fact that his face lacked the usual giant glasses? Not knowing how, Shen Yuan suddenly had perfect sight and that made him feel even more bewildered than he already was.

Everything felt wrong, the entire situation was wrong. The majority of his reasons were obvious  as to why he felt so wronged, but Shen Yuan also felt an odd tension that did not have an explanation. There was something more going on, something he did not know, something he craved to find out.

Shen Yuan swung the door open, ignoring all the intricate details on the door. The room he entered reminded him of a living room, despite the fact that there was an obvious lack of modern-day furniture. There was no television, there was no uncomfortable couch that could probably cripple your spine and there was fireplace to battle against the cold during a harsh winter. Instead, there was another low table right in the middle with four cushions and a beautiful tea set placed right onto the table, a barren bookcase placed in between two expensive chairs, and some other furniture to store items away. The room looked like it hadn’t seen a sign of life in ages, yet at the same time, it contradicted itself. The wrinkles on one of the cushions proved so.

Other than the door that he entered from, there were four other doors. One of them was clearly the main entrance as there was a small entry room, where one would take their shoes off before entering. Two of the doors were side-by-side, one of them being the door that Shen Yuan entered from. The other two were on opposite walls, facing each other. Just like his own door, each door had some sort of elaborate design that only reminded Shen Yuan of his xianxia dramas. At this point, he was starting to think that he got transmigrated into one.

Before Shen Yuan could examine further, one of the doors opened and out came a familiar figure. His da-ge, Shen Chun, looked as intimidating as he always does despite the fact that his appearance was completely opposite to his sweet tired  personality. Just like him, his da-ge had flowing hair that was tied up in a ponytail even though Shen Chun’s original hair did not reach past his nape. His broad shoulders and bulging muscles were hidden underneath a traditional green and white hanfu, the colours brought out the beautiful brown colour of his eyes. As soon as Shen Chun saw Shen Yuan, those same lovely eyes widened and his thin lips curled into a large, but weary smile.

“Yuan-di.”

“Da-ge? What’s going on? Where are we? Why are you wearing that? You look good, but why?”

“We died,” Shen Chun simply answered as he sat down on the wrinkled cushion as the low table. His answer made Shen Yuan stare in surprise, confusion coloured on his face as he decided to sit on one of the other cushions.

“What do you mean we died?”

“We died. I don’t remember much but I remember us getting into a car crash. Instead of reincarnating, I think we travelled back in time because no one here knows what a phone is.”

“Oh…”

“Mn. I woke up two days ago. There’s no one in this house except for us so it’s probably abandoned. Meimei and Tiao-di are still asleep. I inspected your bodies for any injuries and found none. I also made sure you ate, drank, excreted, digested and I exercised your limbs. You might still feel some discomfort though, especially your muscles.”

“Thank you da-ge…Still, where exactly are we? If we did time travel, do you know what era or dynasty we’re in?”

“We’re on some mountain, not sure which one. There’s a village at the base of it though, it’s how I found out that we time travelled.  I’m not sure which era we’re in, but I heard some people speak about their Junshang. I didn’t manage to catch his name though. Oh also, I became their village doctor.”

“You became their village doctor?…Why am I not surprised?…Did our hair just grow itself out because we’re now in the past?”

“I assume so. How are you without your glasses by the way? Are you feeling dizzy?”

“I’m fine. I can see clearly actually.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Perks of having travelled to the past? Just like our hair?”

“Probably, but people still had vision problems in the past, didi.”

“I know.”

Shen Yuan continued to interrogate his brother for the next hour, asking specific questions to try and figure out the era or at least the area they were in. It shouldn’t have been hard, since Shen Yuan was a nerd and one of his favourite subjects in school had been history, but Shen Chun’s answers were extremely conflicting. Some of them indicated that they were in the Song dynasty, others indicated that they were in the Han dynasty and some indicated that they were in the Tang dynasty while others indicated that they were in the Zhou dynasty. It seemed like the era they were in had a mix of all the dynasties, which made no sense whatsoever.

No answers were provided so the situation became even more peculiar.

The only reason they stopped speculating was because they heard two doors open at the same time. They looked at the doors and out emerged their brother Shen Tiao and their meimei Shen Mei. Just as Shen Yuan suspected, they both had long hair, although their meimei already had long hair to begin it, and they also were wearing the same inner robes as him. If they weren’t from the modern era, all four of them would have been scandalised for the semi-public indecency but they were from a time where it was normal to wear cropped clothes. Being fully clothed was far from indecency to them.

Both Shen Tiao and Shen Mei looked and acted exactly the same, no trauma could shift their personality. Shen Tiao was still the angry short gremlin of the group and Shen Mei was still an annoying little brat. For the next hour, the two brothers explained everything to their siblings, who had sat down at the table too.

“This is why we should have never trusted er-ge with the driving.”

“I crashed because you and Yuan-di were fighting like little children! God, you’re both in your twenties and yet you act worse than 5 year olds.”

“Meimei’s the one who stole my phone, so it’s her fault.”

“No San-ge! It’s your fault! I wouldn’t have stolen your phone if you weren’t addicted to it!”

“I’m not addicted! I was just reading!”

“Please stop fighting you three, I am too old to deal with your bickering.”

“Da-ge, you’re literally only 30 years old! Too young to be complaining!” the three younger siblings all spoke in unison, actually agreeing on something for once in their life. Their eldest brother, who sometimes acted like a 70 year old grandpa, only shrugged his shoulders in response.  

-

A day had passed since all the Shen siblings woke up and the four of them decided to search for clues in the village at the base of the mountain. Shen Yuan and Shen Mei each wore a blue hanfu that their da-ge had bought them with the little money he earned from being a village doctor. Meanwhile, Shen Tiao wore a green hanfu that matched with Shen Chun’s own hanfu, except it was much darker in colour.

Due to his modern medicinal prowess, Shen Chun had become the village doctor after helping an elderly woman who was suffering from a heart attack. A couple minutes before she had the heart attack, she had gifted Shen Chun the very hanfu he was wearing because she pitied him. Apparently, he also reminded her of her dead son who was eaten alive by some sort of beast. After he managed to save her, the village had saw him fit to be their village doctor, so they all crowded him and paid him with the little money they had. All throughout, Shen Chun had felt a little strange. It was quite rare for CPR to actually restart one’s heart and for whatever reason, the way the villagers praised him, it deeply unsettled him. However, Shen Chun did not let it show and instead, he accepted their proposition to be their doctor. Any questions regarding the entire situation (such as, did they not have a village doctor?) remained unsaid.

As soon as the siblings entered the village, a group of strangers swarmed over them. For a moment, Shen Yuan felt all the breath leave his body. Was this how celebrities felt whenever paparazzi invaded their privacy? Feeling invaded and unnerved beyond belief?

“Shen Yishi! Please, my gege got bit by our donkey!”

“Mother is ill! Whenever she coughs, she coughs out blood! Please, help her!”

“Shut up! This one needs more help than you all. Get off me, you brute, I was here first! Shen Yishi, this stupid one ate a piece of wood! Is this one going to die?! This one does not wish to die! Please, save me! Please!”

The complaints only rose as more time passed. Overwhelmed, Shen Chun started to hand out advice to each individual and each time, he promised he’d come around to visit to perform a check-up. The rest of the Shen siblings stayed silently at the back, watching their da-ge professionally get through every single person with a forceful but kind smile. They spent a good half an hour there, until Shen Tiao had enough. Out of all the Shen siblings, he wasn’t the most introverted, that title belonged to Shen Yuan, but he did hold the title of being the biggest people-hater. There were only a couple of people he tolerated, and even then, he wasn’t exactly the kindest to them.

“No more. We have business to attend, you ruffians. Da-ge will deal with you all later. Goodbye.” It was honestly surprising that he did not insult them with a burning passion full of hatred. His insults stung, they had genuine weight to them unlike Shen Yuan’s, whose insults could be taken more light-heartedly due to his sometimes bad choice of wording.

Shen Tiao grabbed the scruff of Shen Chun’s hanfu and dragged him away, his massive weight was not even capable of deterring him, truly showing how terrifying Shen Tiao could be despite his small size. The people all gasped simultaneously like a hive mind, some were scandalised and others were purely just shocked while other looked genuinely apologetic for taking up so much time. Shen Yuan and Shen Mei simply shared a look before following after their older brothers.

Shen Tiao, in his beautiful commonly rage, took them to a teahouse. His anger was dictated by his stomach and whenever he got angry, all he thought about was food. The owner of the teahouse, seeing the village doctor and his maddened second brother, instantly ushered them in and offered them refreshments, which were actually just variations of tea, while some light food was being cooked for them in the kitchen area. Even though the tea was not food, Shen Tiao happily chose a tea produced by a flower called Wistful Wisteria (that name sounded so familiar to Shen Yuan, he heard about it before for sure. He just could not say where). The rest of the siblings went with their brother’s choice, not wishing to spend too much time fretting over trivial things.

The tea had a lovely lavender colour to it, with some dark blue colour swirling in the middle. The mild sweet aroma of wisteria overloaded all of Shen Yuan’s nose as he took a sip. The smell and taste were complete in par with each other. It tasted quite sweet and it would have tasted even sweeter if it wasn’t for the bitter undertone that blended everything together smoothly like a smoothie. Shen Yuan’s sweet tooth screamed in joy, it was just the perfect amount of saccharinity. He indulged himself in more tea alongside Shen Tiao, while the other two pushed the cup away once they tasted it, which was honestly such a waste. Truly, his da-ge and meimei were stupid.

As he blissfully enjoyed the tea, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but notice how cosy the entire teahouse felt. The wood of the walls and ceiling were a dark brown while the flooring was a light wooden pinkish-brown. The establishment was small so there were only seven tables, and only four of them were occupied including the table the Shen siblings were using. Natural light was let in by the open door, but the building was mostly illuminated by candles placed in lanterns above them. Perhaps they were a tad of a safety hazard, but the building hadn’t burnt down yet so Shen Yuan wasn’t too worried. The more fiery glow gave of a feeling of nostalgia anyway, a comforting winter night by the fireplace with a book in his hands as his meimei slept serenely against him, for once docile. Melancholy soon followed after, already missing the past but, at the very least, Shen Yuan still had his siblings.

The owner of the teahouse, an old man whose name was Guo Hong, soon approached them with food that smelled of heaven. He gave them the food and was about to leave but was stopped by Shen Chun, who asked him to join them for a chat. At first, Guo Hong was reluctant but since Shen Chun apparently also saved his daughter’s life, he decided to stay. When he agreed, Shen Chun decided to let Shen Mei steer the conversation since their meimei was the one who had the best conversation skills, as she was the extrovert while her brothers were all introverts,

“Guo Xiangsheng, it is this ones pleasure to make your acquaintance. My brothers and I come from a far away land, and I admit that we are quite ignorant of how everything here works. We do not even know the name of the emperor! So, please, indulge these ones.”

Somehow, Shen Mei managed to conquer the art of speaking in the correct way for the time period, in a matter of minutes. She even made up a perfect believable excuse right on the spot! Truly, Shen Mei was a remarkable ally for all sorts of social situations.

“En. Forgive my impetuous question but before this one answers, this one just has to know. You are not living in the village are you? Where are you four living?”

“Ah, well, we are currently living in the mountain. We found an abandoned house and are currently making use of it…at least, we believe that it is abandoned,” this time, it was Shen Chun who spoke. His voice was lull, a mixture of sweetened politeness and bittersweet haste.

“A house in the mountain? Strange, I’ve never known of it. Now to answer your question Shen Xiaojie, our Junshang is the Demon Sovereign Lord Luo. He is magnificent, utterly noble and our village owns him our life.”

During their conversation, Shen Tiao and Shen Yuan were the only ones eating, their minds too muddled by food to take part in the conversation. They did not even care if they were viewed as rude, food was more superior to having manners. However, when Shen Yuan heard “Demon Sovereign Lord Luo,” he panicked. He inhaled some food accidentally and almost ended up choking, his da-ge managed to save him just in time. Worried, Shen Chun asked him what was wrong, all while Guo Hong looked at him suspiciously, his eyes narrowed in thought.

He couldn’t speak about what was wrong, not when there was an intruder who did not know of their situation. Luckily, Shen Yuan was as cunning as the rest of his siblings, as intelligence was a gene inherited by every Shen descendant. Despite his lack of social skills, Shen Yuan could still play a little with words to convey a message.

“Mn, nothing is wrong. I…This one was merely not expecting that name, is all. Lord Luo was mentioned by the author in one of the books I’ve read, a book that came…originated from our hometown. I believe it was called…Proud…The Proud Immortal and Demon Way. I…This one was not expecting for Lord Luo to be an actual person, I…thoroughly believed him to be a…myth. Truly this one was beyond ignorant.” Each word was a struggle for Shen Yuan, who had to be mindful of his speech to not give anything away. In truth, none of what he said was subtle, but it was a believable lie and the intruder honestly would have no way of knowing the truth. Shen Yuan was confident in his abilities.

The terrible feeling of the unknown dispersed from Shen Yuan’s stomach, making him feel a tad comfortable.

His siblings looked back at him as though he grew a second head. Good, it meant that they perfectly understood him what he meant. Meanwhile Guo Hong just nodded along, a fleeting sense of perception passed through his analysing gaze. There was something off about him, something that Shen Yuan just couldn’t explain and for a moment, his gut mysteriously screamed in panic, but he ignored it. Perhaps he was simply overthinking considering the sudden revelation he just had.

Shen Mei asked another question regarding the best person to buy clothes from to avoid suspicion, before shooing away the owner who was becoming a little too pesky, definitely more curious than a cat. When he left them, everyone turned to Shen Yuan. Their mouths threatened to open and overwhelm him with questions, so before they had the chance to, Shen Yuan spoke.

“We didn’t time travel. We transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way.”

“I am too old to deal with transmigration.”

“Ugh why did we transmigrate into your trashy novel of all places?!”

“Shut up meimei, I don’t know why either. Probably because I was reading it before we died? Seems logical. Anyway, we have to avoid Luo Binghe at all costs. Meimei will be taken from us if he sees her – ”

“Yuck, I hate men. You three barely excluded, I guess.”

“ – and we three will probably die since he kills men.”

“I will kill him before he lands a hand on us.”

“Er-ge, he’s literally the most OP person in this universe. You will die before you even get to see him.”

“Yuan-di, do you know what point we are in the story? Or perhaps where we are?”

“I have an idea on the time period but it’s a bit too vague. This human village is probably a no-name village, and it isn’t being pillaged by demons so it’s definitely before the merging. However, they already recognise Luo Binghe as their emperor…wait…”

“What’s wrong san-ge?”

“It’s strange. The human realm only bowed to Luo Binghe after he destroyed the main four cultivation sects and merged the three realms together. But this no-name human village already recognises him as the emperor…”

“Perhaps its after the…merging but they weren’t affected?”

“Maybe, or else we’re at the last few chapters. By then, the situation had stabilised enough that humans could live a semi-peaceful life, although pillaging human villages was still all too common.”

Shen Tiao had been the only one eating, and the majority of the food had all been eaten by him. Shen Chun prevented Shen Tiao from eating the rest of the food so both him and the youngest two could eat a little, completely forgetting that Shen Yuan had already eaten some to begin with.

It was obvious to Shen Yuan that everyone, including himself, was tense. How could they not after finding out that they transmigrated into indubitably the worst novel to exist, filled with endless papapa plots and plot holes that could probably cost them their life! Alas, there was nothing they could do except suck it up. This was their life now and Shen Yuan really did not wish for them to waste this rare second chance at living.

As soon as they finished eating, Shen Chun paid the owner before ushering his younger siblings away. While they walked back, the eldest brother separated from them and went on his way to help his patients, while the rest went back to the house. At some point during their walk back, Shen Mei moved extremely close to Shen Yuan. Their height difference wasn’t much, his sister was actually quite tall, so Shen Yuan soon felt her breath tickle his ear as she leaned in to speak in a hush voice.

“San-ge, are you sure this is a no-name village?”

“Yeah. There doesn’t seem to be any remarkable sites or peerless beauties. Why?”

“I have a bad gut feeling. I’m just really uncomfortable. Like, older-people-are-peering-at-me-and-talking-about-how-I-look kind of uncomfortable. It disgusting, I feel disgusted.”

“Maybe the people here are just judgemental.” In truth, Shen Yuan actually shared her sentiment but they had no proof that something was wrong.

“…Maybe…I hope so. I don’t feel well.”

“You’ll be fine meimei, we’re leaving now. Er-ge and I are here for you okay? No one’s going to hurt you.”

“Thank you, san-ge.”

Chapter Text

When all of the siblings were present in the house, far away from meddling ears, Shen Yuan info-dumped as much as he could, mostly on the worldbuilding but he did tell them some of the plot, since it could prove to be useful in the future. Shen Yuan was the only one who theoretically knew how to survive in the harsh world of Proud Immortal Demon Way, having been the only one to read it. As always, he ended up info-dumping more than his siblings could handle so they had to shut him up and calm him down. When he was calm, they settled down and organised a plan.

Shen Yuan would compile a sort of survival book for his siblings, specifically regarding ways to avoid the thousands of aphrodisiacs. Later, this turned out into  bestiary as the survival book got turned into a personal project of his. It was actually a great situation for Shen Yuan since not only could he dive as deeply as he wanted to in the secret worldbuilding of Proud Immortal Demon Way, but he’d also be aiding his siblings at the same time.

Shen Chun would continue to work as a doctor since he was a doctor, and they needed the money. Since the world was different, therefore new diseases and medicines to look into, he’d work the most with Shen Yuan. The two would research materials together,  anything catalogued by Shen Yuan would be brought in (preferably inactive) so they both could study it; Shen Chun studying any medical aspects of it while Shen Yuan studied in order to fulfil his nerdy heart.

In the meantime, Shen Mei would take care of sending messages and trading, and Shen Tiao would take care of hunting and foraging. Out of all the Shen siblings, Shen Mei was the only extroverted one and she did have a bubbly personality. Her personality unsurprisingly made it easier for her to get along with others. The chances of her actually delivering messages was quite unlikely, unless a patient of Shen Chun told her to send a message to him, but they still decided to give her that role. Despite so, her main purpose was to go to town, listen to rumours, majority about Luo Binghe, while also buying them anything of importance such as clothes and paper. As Shen Tiao had dealt with finances every day in his past life, he’d go down with her to perhaps negotiate prices. Also, to protect her because anything could go wrong.

Despite being the shortest and slightest one, Shen Tiao was the most intimidating one. It was actually a good thing, his scowl had the ability to send people running in stunned fear. Their fear was valid, Shen Tiao not only knew martial arts, but he could wield many different weapons. Thus, Shen Tiao ended up have the most tasks out of all of them. He helped with negotiations, was a security guard and he also had to go out to forage for any plants and hunt any animals (or beasts). Anything he’d gather while out in the wild would then be studied by the two other brothers. Depending on the use of the items, they’d either be stored for future use, eaten or destroyed instantly.

Then there was one last part to their plan, one that all of them were meant to do. Shen Yuan had obviously ranted about cultivation as it was one of the main aspects of Proud Immortal Demon Way, the novel was after all a xianxia stallion. Since their new world was based on cultivation, of course the four siblings had to cultivate! Except, there was a problem. The best age to begin cultivating was during the teenage years and none of the Shen siblings were teenagers. The youngest one was Shen Mei, and she was already nineteen years old on her way to becoming twenty. They were all too old to start proper cultivation so they needed to find some sort of substitute.

Cue Shen Yuan, going through every single folder in his brain to find something of use, only to get a brain-splitting headache instead. Eventually he did end up recalling a method of cultivation that could allow them to cultivate, but it had been barely mentioned in the novel so some further research would definitely be needed. It was also quite risky, as it could result in permanent exhaustion and the degradation of meridians, but it was the only option they had.

Instead of cycling spiritual qi inside their meridians and forming a core, this method of cultivation involved pushing qi outside of the body and cycling it through an element to let the qi harness its elemental prowess, which allowed for certain-elemental manipulation. Slowly, one would be able to form a core outside the body based on the element they chose to cultivate. Once a core was formed, the cultivator would no longer have to squeeze out the spiritual qi out of their body as it would naturally transfer itself into the core, change into elemental qi and then allow elemental manipulation as long as the cultivator had their core with them.

Alas, this cultivation came with many risks. It drained the cultivator from their spiritual qi, making them feel extremely tired. Sometimes their natural spiritual qi could adapt itself into elemental qi while it still flowed in the meridians, thus leading to damage in the meridians. Sometimes, the qi outside of the body could rush back in and lead to a qi deviation. If one had a formed core and it was stolen, it would leave the cultivator fully defenceless as they would be incapable of using their qi, so they would end up feeling drained. If their core was shattered, it would lead to their death just like any other cultivation path actually. However since their cores formed outside the body, their chances of the core shattering increased tenfold. Maybe even hundredfold.   

This method of cultivation, which was not very dissimilar to normal elemental cultivation, was called The Outside Elemental Core cultivation (such a terrible name), and there was only one sect who followed such a risky cultivation path. The Huohe sect, a minor sect whose sect leader became Luo Binghe’s 21^st wife. Alongside all the other wives who cultivated, the sect leader of Huohe sect was allowed to continue her cultivation, thus her being automatically allowed to teach her disciples this method of cultivation, because it was too rare and priceless. This led to Huohe sect being the only cultivation sect to survive the fall of the cultivation world…only to never be mentioned again. Huohe sect and their sect leader were never regarded again after their short arc ended, an arc that only lasted thirty one chapters.

The Outside Elemental Core cultivation (still a very terrible name, downright disgusting) would be a difficult cultivation method to pursue, since only one sect provided lessons and manuals based on it, but all of the Shen siblings were ready to go out of their way to get their grubby hands on those teachings, even if it meant breaking into the sect. Luckily, there was no need for that as Shen Mei snooped around the no-name human village. At first, she obviously found nothing about the cultivation method, but a couple days later, a merchant came up to her. The merchant, whose skin looked a tad too red and their eyes seemed glazed over with permanent dreaded death, had four exact manuals from Huohe sect and some other scrolls depicting their teaching. The merchant had told her that they were once a disciple of the sect, but left after nearly dying due to a qi deviation.

Shen Mei expressed deep distrust and discomfort about them, bothered by the way they looked at her. Their mannerism just felt off to her. Shen Tiao, who had been with her, only shrugged and said that he did not notice anything weird. On one hand, Shen Yuan wanted to believe his sister, that something was off since he felt it too, but on the other hand, his sister’s gut feelings were usually wrong. Perhaps it was because everything was new and strange to them, that it left her to overthink things. His meimei wasn’t really an overthinker though, either.  

Quickly they fell into an easy routine and soon, two weeks after their initial arrival passed…

Before they started to properly cultivate, Shen Chun had researched a lot about healing qi deviations and other qi related disorders, in the case that one of them qi deviated. Luckily, in those two weeks, all of the Shen siblings made pretty good progress and did not suffer any consequences. Shen Mei had been the best at cultivating, being the one to make the steadiest progress out of all of them. Already, she had mastered transforming her spiritual qi into fire qi and she was gradually mastering control over fire. Shen Tiao was also making good progress. According to the cultivation manual, being able to control earth would help a lot during hunts. Hunting was not a difficult task perse, but it wouldn’t do harm to make things easier. Unlike Shen Mei, Shen Tiao still did not master transforming his spiritual qi into earth qi, but whenever he did manage to transform his spiritual qi into earth qi…well, he definitely had slight better control over his chosen element.

Shen Chun and Shen Yuan both chose to master the same element, mostly by pure coincidence, except their chosen element was technically not really an element, but it was still considered one because the author was a hack. They both chose to master control over plant life, allowing them to easily grow a plant’s stem or vine, as long as a seed or another part of the plant was available. Biologically, it made zero sense and so Shen Chun ended up having an existential crisis about it, but all was well in the end. Since they chose to cultivate the same element, both Shen Chun and Shen Yuan practised a lot together. Their progress was constant and soon, they both were close to being able to master transforming their spiritual qi into plant qi. Shen Yuan already had a good grasp on controlling plants, unlike Shen Chun who still struggled at times.

Each day passed by peacefully and the two weeks passed before chaos hit. Shen Mei, who had been out in the village with Shen Tiao as per usual, came bursting into their house (it did not have an owner so the house was officially theirs), her hazel eyes wide with panic, stricken with unshed tears. Her breaths were rapid, sweat glistened her tan skin under the afternoon sunlight. Shen Yuan had been writing on the table in the main room, an empty teacup placed dangerously at the corner. Before he could stand up and ask what was wrong, Shen Mei cried out.

“San-ge! The protagonist is here! He’s here and he tied up er-ge! This village…san-ge…I don’t think the people here are humans!”

Just as she said that, Shen Chun appeared behind her carrying another tray of tea and snacks. The kitchen was not connected to the house, it was its own area outside and Shen Chun had went out to get them some refreshments. The eldest brother made his presence known by accidentally dropping the tray in panic. He sputtered, afraid for his younger brother as he tried to form out a coherent sentence but failed miserably. It was a little strange to see Shen Chun panic, since he had always been the calmest. He practically personified logic itself whenever the siblings got caught in certain situations, his level-headedness saved them multiple times.    

Shen Yuan was panicking too, as his er-ge was being held captive by an OP men-hating protagonist. Would the three brothers manage to survive his wrath? Would Shen Mei manage to not be taken into his harem? If the plot was meant to progress properly then no, Shen Mei would not be taken into his harem since she was not written to be a wife (and obviously was never written in the book). However the survivability of him and his brothers was not as guaranteed. Luo Binghe did kill any man he wanted, even if they were not mentioned by name.

After Shen Chun and Shen Mei calmed down a little, enough to think properly, the three went down into the village using their normal path. Meanwhile Shen Yuan kept replaying what Shen Mei had said, that the people living in the village were not human. That could not be possible though, none of the people living there looked demonic unless…

“Meimei, why do you think that the villagers are demons?”

“Ah, Guo Hong turned into this big ugly thing. He had horns and…six eyes? Or seven? He’s obviously a demon! If he’s a demon than who is to say that the rest aren’t?”

At that, Shen Yuan let out a swear. His siblings all looked towards him with a questioning gaze as the village came into view. They still had around five minutes before they would arrive.

“I just remembered. There was a demonic village mentioned in the novel. The Illusion village. The Illusion village is the only demonic village located in the human realm and each demon uses illusions to look human, in hopes of tricking helpless humans or passing merchants into entering the village. They would then get eaten. I’m surprised that we haven’t gotten eaten. Sometimes, they would even manage to trick cultivators. They were the first village in the human realm to plead allegiance to Luo Binghe, a little before he entered Huan Hua Palace. Therefore, in the timeline, we’re somewhere before the merging but after Luo Binghe joined Huan Hua Palace.”

Shen Mei almost killed Shen Yuan’s ear with the way she shrieked. She grabbed his shoulders, spun him around and shook him vigorously in angry fright. Shen Yuan let her, she had every right to feel that way considering that he messed everything up by being forgetful. Witnessing this scene, however, made Shen Chun let out a disappointed sigh.

“Meimei, let Yuan-di go and let us go get back our brother. Calm yourself. I am too old to deal with your panicked tantrum.”

With that, their da-ge continued walking at the front with lofty steps. Shen Mei stopped shaking Shen Yuan, as they both looked at their da-ge with an incredulous look on their face.

“Oh so apparently da-ge is too old to deal with our panic, but we’re old enough to deal with his own panic? Hypocrisy.”

“I’m not panicked. You are.”

“San-ge, that’s a lie and you know it. You look like you’re constipated.”

“Rude. This is how I always look.”

“No. You always look uglier when you panic. Now let’s go before Mr. hypocrite starts acting like a bi-”

“Hurry up you two! We don’t have all day! Tiao-di’s life is at stake!”

-

As soon as the three siblings entered the village, the villagers crowded them and they all dropped their human illusions. Excitement bubbled in Shen Yuan’s stomach but he willed it to calm down. Right now, there were matters more important than looking at all the wonderful and monstrous demonic designs that ranged from simple to gory body-horror. From the corner of his eyes, Shen Yuan managed to take a peak at the epitome of body-horror, a demon who had fingernails as teeth and eyes bulging out of their sockets, half of their flesh hanging on from cracked bones. Oh Shen Yuan would definitely fanboy later, in the privacy of his room.

Since all the villagers were now in demon form, none of the siblings could identify who was who (except for Guo Hong since Shen Mei had seen him transform, but he wasn’t in the crowd). In truth, it was quite terrifying to be surrounded by people who you thought you knew, but actually didn’t. Fortunately, Shen Yuan hadn’t even uttered a single word to the majority of the villagers, since he spent most of his time voluntarily locked up in the house, so it didn’t matter whether they appeared human or not. Either way, it was still very terrifying like every other social situation.

A demon shorter than Shen Tiao, who had an uncanny resemblance to his human illusion save for the singular huge eye and four arms, approached them. It was the village chief and, honestly, it made sense that Shen Yuan didn’t realise that the village was no ordinary human village via the village chief. Other the fact that Shen Yuan never had a good look at him, in the novel it was stated that he was the ugliest loyal subordinate that Luo Binghe had, and yet the demon who stood in front of them was far from ugly. The village chief had the cuteness of a cat, perhaps borderline rivalling the cuteness of a dog too. If it wasn’t for Shen Yuan’s thin face, he would have reached out and patted the demon like a cat.

The village chief, named Jia Jiaping, beckoned them to follow him. The three siblings followed after him, guessing that he would take them to where Luo Binghe was, and they guessed right. Shen Yuan gawked at the sight of the protagonist, Luo Binghe really was worthy of that title! Luo Binghe’s beauty was exceptional, he was practically the definition of ancient Chinese beauty standards, his face practically glowing like he was the sun itself. Shen Yuan couldn’t help himself but admire the protagonist, who was holding the waist of, what looked like, Sha Hualing, as he and his siblings walked closer. From the corner of his eyes, Shen Yuan saw his er-ge tied up in immortal binding cables, bristling as he was forced to kneel on the ground.

Jia Jiaping stopped a couple meters away the protagonist, and he instantly fell to kowtow. Shen Chun and Shen Mei both looked at Shen Yuan, and when he slightly nodded, the three all followed. 

“Junshang, this lowly one has brought the rest.”

A fiery gaze was suddenly on them, examining them. Shen Yuan held his breath as he heard resounding footsteps approach. Tremors ran up his spine and Shen Yuan ached to peek but he continued to look at the floor in resolute determination. As much as he wanted to look and fanboy, he had to keep bowing unless he wanted to feel Luo Binghe’s wrath.

“Leave.”

As soon as Luo Binghe ordered the dismissal, Jia Jiaping rose and cowardly ran away, his footsteps barely audible. Even when Jia Jiaping’s footsteps faded into nothing, Luo Binghe stayed another moment silent until he finally spoke, in his deep attractive voice.

“You three, raise your heads.”

At the command, all three Shen siblings obeyed. Shen Yuan quickly snuck a peek at Shen Tiao, his er-ge grimacing hard as Sha Hualing cooed at him, (Shen Yuan confirmed that it was Sha Hualing after taking an extra second to observe her. She looked exactly like the official design except with way more jewellery!)

One of her long nails slid down his cheek, leaving behind a trail of fresh blood.

“Ling’er, bring him here.”

“Of course, Lord Luo~”

Sha Hualing then proceeded to mercilessly drag Shen Tiao across the floor, which led to his hanfu tearing as scarlet bruises bloomed on his exposed skin. When Shen Tiao was finally next to the rest of the Shen siblings, Shen Chun disregarded everything and everyone as he brought Shen Tiao closer to him. With his own body, Shen Chun protectively shielded his younger brother from the calculating watch of Luo Binghe and the seducing stare from Sha Hualing. On instinct, Shen Yuan and Shen Mei both moved closer to their da-ge. Being the oldest sibling naturally made Shen Chun protective, and being protected so many times led to the younger siblings always hiding behind him. no matter the circumstance.

“Interesting…do you four know of Shen Qingqiu, a peak Lord from Cang Qiong Mountain sect? He is my shizun.”

“Shen Qingqiu? Personally no, but this one is certain that he heard the name somewhere before. Perhaps…Shen Yuan knows? He is the most knowledgeable out of all of us.”

Having to deal with patients on a daily basis made Shen Chun quite the talented conversationalist despite being an introvert. He was definitely not as talented as Shen Mei, but he could hold a decent conversation. Despite so, he was not good at coming up with excuses and since he was cornered, he decided to dump everything on Shen Yuan. It made sense since Shen Yuan was still the most knowledgeable on the world out of the four, but that didn’t make him feel any less stress. 

Shen Yuan wished he could dump this new responsibility onto his sister, who definitely would not have minded since she was used to being their envoy in both lives and enjoyed it, but he couldn’t. Shen Yuan was afraid that Luo Binghe would deviate from the plot and set his eyes on Shen Mei, practically forcing her to join his harem. Even though they did not always get along, Shen Yuan genuinely loved his meimei and he really did not wish to see her be reduced to just a number in a loveless harem (plus Shen Mei was a very loud lesbian, so being with a man would cause her a lot of distress.)

“Ah, ah, yes. I…this one has heard of Shen Qingqiu, his tarnished reputation has made it all across the world despite his few feats of saving the common people.”

“So you must have heard the recent news.”

“This one apologises but what recent news?”

“Recently, Shen Qingqiu has been found guilty for various crimes and is to be held a prisoner of Huan Hua Palace for a hundred years.”

Relief washed over Shen Yuan as he finally realised at what point of the story they were in. As he correctly deduced, they were before the merging, but specifically six months before. It was only after Shen Qingqiu had been detained in the Huan Hua Palace for six months that Luo Binghe razed Cang Qiong Mountain Sect and merged the realms together. It felt relieving to finally have a clear picture of what was going on.

“…We’ve heard rumours of his trial in passing but we did not know that a verdict had been reached.”

“What the hell is he guilty of to be imprisoned for a hundred years?” Shen Tiao mumbled under his breath. Due to heightened demon sense, Luo Binghe and his subordinates all heard his whisper making Shen Yuan’s breath hitch. Before Shen Yuan could respond, Shen Mei jumped in.

“Mass murder probably. I mean what else is there? It’s the only law anyone takes seriously in regards to guilty men. A hundred years? God, so many women wish that a hundred years were given to every men who abused them.” Her mumbled reply made Shen Yuan ache, he so desperately wished to hug his sister and comfort her due to the devastating reality. He couldn’t though, not under the gaze of Sha Hualing who actually looked taken aback, and definitely not under the gaze of Luo Binghe, who keenly regarded Shen Mei for a moment too long.

“Indeed. My shizun is guilty for mass murder alongside some crimes.”

“Knew it. Men are garbage.”

“Alright, men are garbage and so is Shen Qingqiu, but what the hell does he have to do with us?! With me?! Why did I get beaten up and tied up?!” This time, Shen Tiao let his rage be known by shuffling behind Shen Chun’s back. His situation would have been hilarious if it wasn’t for the fact that there was literally a murder-driven half-demon in front of them. Shen Yuan suddenly wished that he could have the ability to shut his siblings up at will, as he grew afraid of Luo Binghe’s reaction.

Fortunately, Shen Tiao’s rage must had been more amusing to Luo Binghe rather than offensive, as he let out a deep chuckle. The demons surrounding them followed along, laughing their hearts out until Luo Binghe raised a hand in the air. It was a silent command that demanded them to stop. They all listened, except for Sha Hualing who giggled a bit more as she continued to ogle Shen Tiao.

The next thing Luo Binghe said was completely unexpected, as his tone shifted completely.

“It’s bizarre. As soon as its announced that my shizun is in prison, four suspicious strangers show up. These strangers have the same last name as my shizun and even share physical similarities with him. Especially you.” He gestured at Shen Chun, whose thin eyebrows rose to his hairline in shock.

“Me?”

“Yes. You. You must understand my suspicion, so, tell me. Are you related to my shizun in any way? Perhaps you even want to save him?”

Unsurprisingly enough, Shen Mei was the one to respond even though Shen Chun was the one who had been questioned, “It may be possible that we are related, our family is quite large. However, for us…it has always been just the four of us. We have no reason to save him, especially since he’s a murderer.”

“You may say that, but this one cannot simply trust you four. You will have to prove it.”

“And how may we prove it?” this time, Shen Chun spoke.

“That is a good question. I would have forcefully made you my subordinates, but you are useless. You have no influence, you are not cultivators and you have no useful talents. The only option you have is…” Luo Binghe eyed Shen Mei, his eyes suggesting lust. “Well, my sword is quite demanding and lust is one of the few things I can feed it. Perhaps, she can marry me. I can guarantee her a fulfilled life and – ”

“No. I refuse.”

“…No? My, my, quite feisty aren’t we?”

“I’m not. I just hate men. Especially men like you, who think that women exist just there to fulfil your every desires. We’re not. We’re not objects, we have our own lives and our own desires. I can assure you that men like you are the least thing we desire.”

Never in Shen Yuan’s wildest dreams would he have expected to see Luo Binghe so flabbergasted. His expression was slight, only a shift in his eyebrows and an agape mouth, but it was enough to convey his surprise. That same surprise that would probably soon be turned into rage if he didn’t do something about it. Luckily, Shen Chun was already two steps ahead of him since his brain processed everything faster.

“Ah, Lord Luo, you are actually mistaken. My siblings and I aren’t as useless as you might think. We are all cultivating, specifically the…Outside Elemental Core cultivation and we have made quite steady progress despite being beginners. This one is also quite the remarkable doctor, you see. Shen Tiao is great at hunting and foraging. Shen Yuan is resourceful, his knowledge surely exceeds many. Our Shen Mei is wonderful at conversing with people and can easily convince anyone. She’s also made the most progress in cultivation out of all of us. I believe that she is already forming a core, are you not?”

“I am, but it will be a while before it forms. I’d assume a year from now.”

As soon as Shen Mei finished speaking, everything fell into silence. The tension was thick, thick enough that it would have been comical if a breeze brushed past like in the movies, except there was no breeze. Just tense silence that creeped its way up the skin, ready to burrow itself inside an open pore.

“Outside Elemental Core cultivation, I see. Since you have chosen that as your cultivation path, then perhaps you might be useful. I’ll allow you four to continue living here peacefully as long as you bow down to me and swear utter loyalty.”

The four Shen siblings shared a look before agreeing, with the exception of Shen Tiao, who released a grumbled complaint. When they voiced their unwavering oath filled with eternal obedience, Luo Binghe smirked before making them drink his blood. Since Shen Yuan had info-dumped on them about Luo Binghe, everyone knew what drinking the blood meant. Their lives were now in total control of Luo Binghe, a connection formed till eternity. Even if they tried to escape, their locations would be tracked. If Luo Binghe wished to harm them, he would do so. If he wished to kill them, he could do it before they’d even have a chance to blink. If he wished for them to feel pleasure, something Shen Mei was extremely afraid would happen to her, all Luo Binghe would have to do was to control his blood parasites and make it happen.

As soon as he fed them their blood, Luo Binghe left almost instantly with Sha Hualing, who was giggling about how cute she thought Shen Tiao was. The siblings sighed in relief before walking their way back to their house, all while glaring at the villagers who betrayed them. The demonic villagers did not care and actually seemed really happy for whatever reason.

(Turns out, all the villagers grew to like the four Shen siblings. It was the biggest reason why the siblings were not eaten by them. Their loyalty to Luo Binghe came first however, so they had to inform him about their presence, which led to the whole fiasco.)

-

“Okay, but how do you not realise that your patients are demons?!”

“I don’t know, meimei.”

“Meimei, the demons were under an illusion. Illusion! Or are you too much of an idiot to understand that?”

“You’re an idiot san-ge, not me! There’s no way that being under an illusion would have completely blinded you, you’re not that dumb, da-ge!”

“Well, listen, the medicine did work on them like it would work on actual humans and as Yuan-di said, they were under an illusion so…”

“Idiots! All three of you!”

“Why am I getting called an idiot?! What did I do?!”

“You got caught, idiot.”

“Damn, all I did was get caught because a certain someone decided to run away and yet I still get called an idiot. Wonderful, utterly magnificent.”

“Yeah you’re an idiot because you didn’t run away with me, duh.”

“Running away is for cowards. I am not a spineless coward who is to afraid to speak up against some wannabe emperor. The guy looked like he hadn’t felt a mother’s touch in ages. He looks like he has both mommy and daddy issues, and honestly that’s very relatable, but he really needs to find better coping mechanisms than pretending to be someone who’s desirable.”

“…he is someone who’s to be desired though? He is very, very beautiful and he does get a lot of women later down the line. Very desirable by the looks of things.”

“I mean romantically, Yuan-di. No way does anyone love a guy with that sort of personality…except you. You have bad taste in men, just like the rest of his harem.”

“I don’t have bad taste in men because I’m not gay!”

“Really? Really? You literally had posters of shirtless anime men hanging in your room and a dakimakura too!”

“Shut up!”

“Ha, exposed. Your face is so red.”

“Shut up er-ge!”

“Alright, enough of that, I am too old to be listening to you three arguing. I’m cooking dinner, what do you want to eat?”

“Anything.”

“Have you found a way to make pizza yet? If not, I’ll settle for some bread. I’m not very hungry anyway.”

“Man, I want pizza too. Or maybe some soup. Vegetable soup please!”

Chapter Text

Before he died, Shen Yuan had found it quite difficult to fall asleep. After being reborn again in Proud Immortal Demon Way, his sleeping issues sadly did not disappear even though there were some plants that could help him. Shen Yuan never considered himself an insomniac, his brain had just decided that it functioned better in the silence of the dark night. So, it wasn’t a surprise to Shen Yuan when his body refused to shut down despite the stressful meeting with the protagonist. At first, he continued to lay in the uncomfortable bed in hopes that his body would get the message but after a bit, he grew bored.

His mind raced with thoughts, on things he'd done and things he had yet to do. Doing tasks proved to be a difficulty sometimes, Shen Yuan would either completely fixate on a chore and forget about everything else or he would change between chores every so often to a point where he got nothing done. It was very frustrating to del it but it also was something he’d been dealing with ever since he was a child so he did not beat himself up too much over it. When he did get something done, he’d sometimes stop everything for a mere moment to be proud of himself.

His brain then drifted off to the strange beast he briefly managed to research on before meeting the protagonist. It was a beast that was never mentioned in the original Proud Immortal Demon Way, called Stellar Wrathful Lynx. With no prior knowledge about it, Shen Yuan had scoured through many different books and bestiaries (this was something he always did, no matter how well he knew the species he was researching). The little he found about it had been legends and not exactly pure facts, as it turns out the Stellar Wrathful Lynx was rarely sighted. It apparently only appeared every five centuries for less than a sichen. Its beautiful golden fur was rumoured to be covered with stardust, the very same stardust found in seven unrelated aphrodisiac plant…truly Airplane was the biggest hack author to ever exist.

Before Shen Yuan could even comprehend it, his mind had drifted through twenty other beasts, twelve plants he found interesting and an utterly thorough analysis of three different characters. Despite the endless thoughts that did not even stop for a second, Shen Yuan did not feel overwhelmed and instead continued to indulge himself to think about Proud Immortal Demon Way. It felt fantastic, even though his body disagreed. His body was starting to feel restless after being forced to lie down and basically subjected to no movement whatsoever, except for the occasional shifting in bed. It really wanted to move around, to stretch and to let out all the excess energy that coursed through Shen Yuan’s veins.

It was really late, probably around 2 am when Shen Yuan heard a whisper. The whisper was fogged, too clustered to make out a single word. All of Shen Yuan’s thoughts about Proud Immortal Demon Way ceased and instead his attention fixated onto the murmur. Slowly, the whisper was getting louder, as a soft voice was beaconing him to follow it. Shen Yuan’s siblings had no problem sleeping at night and were definitely not night owls, unlike him, so whoever was whispering was probably not them. Why reason would they have to whisper, anyway?

It was a dumb decision to make, a decision more stupider than the choices a horror movie protagonist make, but the curiosity was too much for Shen Yuan to handle. His body overjoyed when he stood up from the bed, finally enjoying the freedom to move. Briskly but quietly, Shen Yuan walked outside his room and then outside the house. A little away from the house, Shen Yuan stopped moving and listened to the voice. His ears strained to focus solely on the ongoing whisper and not on the swaying branches that thumped against each other every so often.

After a minute or two, Shen Yuan realised something. The whisper was not coming from a single direction, but instead, he could hear it all around him. A strange sense of foolish dread surrounded him, caressing his skin in a light manner. Shen Yuan’s stomach dropped when he felt a brush of icy cold wind right next to his ear, the whisper still quietly muddled together, flowing on top of the breeze in an unhurried manner.

Shivers ran down Shen Yuan’s spine with no sign on stopping as Shen Yuan finally felt the panic rise at his throat. With his curiosity diminished into fear, he was about to run his way back when the whisper became clear…and funnily enough it wasn’t whispered words. It was a whirling noise of machines. It sounded like a normal day in Beijing, traffic overloading the streets. Shen Yuan could even hear rain pattering on asphalt, the occasional thunder hitting the ground with enough force to kill a normal person.

It sounded like home, yet home never existed to begin with. No, it actually sounded like he and his siblings never transmigrating into Proud Immortal Demon Way, that their entire situation was just a comatose dream. Yet before Shen Yuan could even turn his head to see where the noise was coming from, something heavy collided against his head, turning his vision darker than the night.

-

Air rushed through his lungs as Shen Yuan awoke startled in his bed. His head pounded, it felt like someone had rammed it in a wall a dozen times before letting it splat on the ground. The room was blurry, colours clashing with each other and it took Shen Yuan a couple of minutes before he could regain his bearings. Once his vision stabilised, he got up. The door of his room was ajar, even though Shen Yuan distinctly remembered closing it the night before. Or perhaps, he did leave it open? His memories were fuzzy, as his head continued to ache. With some difficulty, Shen Yuan limped outside to the living room only to find it barren.

A note was placed on the table, written in the unmistakeably perfect calligraphy of Shen Tiao. Out of all of them, he had the most stable hands which was rather ironic considering that Shen Tiao was constantly shaking in rage. Perhaps his stability came from both when he was forced to take calligraphy classes and from when he dutifully practiced tennis as a rebellious teenager.

One of the few things their parents had agreed on was forcing their children to learn calligraphy. History had been one of Shen Yuan’s favourite subject at school, but practising calligraphy like the ancient times was a bit too much (Shen Yuan had intentionally ignored the fact that practising calligraphy was still popular even in the modern times.)  When he was younger, Shen Yuan had hated the calligraphy classes very passionately, the teacher had been mean and the brush just never felt right in his hands. Now that he was technically in xianxia version of ancient China, having practised calligraphy beforehand really helped. The paintbrush still felt wrong to hold, but Shen Yuan could do nothing about it except to deal with it.

After reading the letter and confirming that all his siblings went out to the village, Shen Yuan decided to brew himself some tea. Tea wasn’t his favourite thing in the world, but it was something he could tolerate especially the Wistful Wisteria brew. The kitchen area was outside so Shen Yuan walked to the entrance as he thought about what he should do after drinking tea. He thought about whether he should meditate (that would help him greatly after that chilling nightmare, one he would definitely complain about later to his siblings if he remembered) or if he should continue working on his bestiary? Before he could decide however, as Shen Yuan swung the door open, he was met by a certain protagonist and his future demon wife.

Blinking, Shen Yuan took a step back from both fear and awe. Only now did he remember that he had yet to gush out about meeting the cool protagonist, one of the few good things in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Alas, he obviously could not gush out in front of him so instead Shen Yuan let out an awkward cough as he bowed.

“Uh…hi? How may this one help you?”

When Shen Yuan rose up, he saw Sha Hualing, in all of her fiery beauty, let out a scoff.

“I was hoping A-Tiao would answer the door.”

“…Tiao-ge is out in the village with Chun-ge and Mei-mei.”

“Quite a shame that it’s just you,” Luo Binghe said, his tone cold as he raised one of his eyebrows. He was totally mocking Shen Yuan for whatever reason and that made Shen Yuan feel a tad gloomy. Why did the protagonist already feel the need to mock him? Did he already dislike him? Or was it that Shen Yuan was too uninteresting for him?

Shen Yuan knew that he was the least interesting out of his siblings, but it still always hurt whenever people expressed disappointment at his company.

“Will they soon come back?” Sha Hualing asked as she checked her nails, her tone no longer excited. Shen Yuan nodded.

“They left a sichen and a half ago. They should soon come back to eat lunch.”

“Good! Lord Luo~ Let’s wait for them inside, yes?”

And just like that, Shen Yuan found himself sitting in front of the protagonist and his soon-to-be wife at the table. The tea was completely forgotten as Shen Yuan ignored the judging gazes of the uninvited guests and instead eyed the cluster at the book shelf. The shelf was steadily being filled with classic literacy books that caught the fancy of Shen Chun, however, it was a mess. Nothing was coordinated and looking at it hurt his brain. He so badly wanted to get up and fix it but he didn’t want to anger Luo Binghe either, so he sat still. That was until Luo Binghe spoke up, obviously.

“Are you just going to sit there being a waste of space or are you actually going to do something?”

Quickly, Shen Yuan bowed his head and apologised before getting up and instantly rushing to the bookshelf. As he arranged the books by colour (obviously the superior mode of arranging as it just looked cleaner), Shen Yuan heard someone sigh.

“Useless.”

“Tch, A-Tiao would be so much smarter than his didi. Humans are usually so obsessed with courtesy and manners, but obviously they’re hypocritical. You’re an idiot, after all, isn’t it basic human decency to brew tea for your guests?”

Embarrassment overtook Shen Yuan like a raging flood. Letting out another apology, he raced outside in order to get to the kitchen area, and he finally remembered that he needed to brew some tea from himself too. His headache hadn’t yet left despite being completely forgotten about. He badly needed to drink the tea, because now that Shen Yuan remembered his headache, it was coming back at an even greater force than before.

But before Shen Yuan could even enter the kitchen, his eyes caught sight of a dead beast near the surrounding area. His mind clicked in sudden realisation. Two days ago, his er-ge had caught a big beast that was terrorising a herd of Five-Horned Passion Goats. This beast was quite common, it was actually one of the first beasts Shen Yuan and Shen Chun studied. Since they already studied it and didn’t need its pelt, the four siblings decided to just skin the dead beast and use its meat as food. They didn’t managed to collect all the meat from the beast as there was too much to harvest. The beast had been laying there dead, with the majority of its meat plucked off for an entire day. The carcass was really starting to stink and if delayed any longer, the meat would rot.

…Shen Yuan may or may not have accidentally disregarded his task of brewing tea in favour of collecting the meat from the beast, completely forgetting all about his guests awaiting him in the main living room.

A ke passed before he was interrupted by his sweet pesky meimei. He was covered head-to-toe in blood, his hands ached as they had not been allowed a break once as Shen Yuan had forgotten about everything else that was not related to him collecting the meat from the bones of the corpse. Shen Mei had a look of disbelief on her face as she examined him until her lips curled up in an amused smile.

“San-ge, what are you doing?”

“Getting the meat from this thing. It smells really bad. It looks and feels weird too, I hate how stretchy the meat is. Is meat usually this stretchy?”

“I can see that…San-ge, you do realise that you left two…certain…guests waiting in the main room, right?”

“What? Who?”

“Luo Binghe and Sha…Sha Hualing? Was that her name? Anyway, weren’t you meant to brew tea for them?”

“…Crap.”

Shen Mei hurried inside the kitchen to brew the tea for their two guests while Shen Yuan gathered all the meat he scrapped off from the body and dumped it into a cabinet that had a special function to freeze items. Basically it was just a fridge except it did not run on electricity and it was only mentioned for whenever Luo Binghe wanted to store away any meat, meat that he would later cook for his wives. A qiankun pouch would have filled the role of a meat storage perfectly since the void in that thing was timeless (as established by Airplane in chapters 21, 104, 263 and 5,487) so the meat shouldn’t be able to decay, but apparently Airplane was too dumb to figure that one out.

After storing the meat away and practically begging Shen Mei to get him some ointments, a clean hanfu and a towel, Shen Yuan rushed to the lake. It was not that far from their house and so, it became the place where they bathed and where they washed everything, really. Perhaps it wasn’t the most sanitary, but Shen Chun had also confirmed the lake water to be clean, because of the singular river attached to it, that carried off away any dirt to who knows where.

While Shen Yuan waited for his sister to get him the stuff, he splashed some water on his face and dampened his hair. Running his fingers through it, he brushed out the few knots that had accumulated from the last time he brushed it. His hair did not feel wet enough so his fingers often felt dryly stuck, much to his disappointment. He would probably have to dive under the water for a bit, especially to rinse the blood out from his hair.

Shen Mei did not take that long to bring him the stuff he needed. When she did, she asked Shen Yuan if he needed anything else (or if he needed help with something) to which he declined before ushering her to go back. Shen Mei rolled her hazel eyes, and at the moment, she looked like their mother. She was her splitting image. However instead of the usual anger that was present whenever their mother rolled her eyes, his meimei’s eyeroll was a teasing playful one.

It made him feel a little uncomfortable, as Shen Yuan did not exactly have any good memories of his mother. Both he and Shen Mei were born in hopes of saving their parents’ marriage, but when that didn’t work, their parents divorced. Thus, they weren’t exactly cared for like their older brothers had been, and actually, not even their brothers had been that well taken care off. Their childhood was apparently great (though they kept most of it a secret) but their teenage hood had been devastating for a multitude of reasons.

Shen Mei was actually quite pampered by their mother, who had always wanted a little girl, but there was no love or affection present.  Meanwhile, Shen Yuan had never been spoiled by her once. Instead, she held him up to a high standard and whenever he failed to meet those standards, she would just completely ignore him and scorn him. Her attitude only got worse once their step-father came into the picture, truly he was a vile man who was probably what caused Shen Mei to passionately hate the majority of men.

In the beginning, when they were still babies, their mother had taken care of them. She fed them, bathed them and changed them, but the more they grew, the less she started to care. By the time Shen Yuan was 7 and Shen Mei was 5, Shen Chun and Shen Tiao had taken over her role of caring for them, despite them  only being in their teenage years, still practically children. Despite struggling with their studies, Shen Chun and Shen Tiao tried their absolute best to raise their didi and meimei as best as they could.

Even though Shen Yuan rarely said it, he really was grateful for his older brothers. If it weren’t for them, Shen Yuan would have died long ago (his immune system had been poor as a child so he often got ill. His mother had never taken him to the hospital nor did she ever come visit, his brothers had been the ones who either called an ambulance, or carried him all the way to the hospital by foot if a phone was not available.)

Their father had genuinely tried his best to be a good parent but because of the divorce, he could only ever see them on weekends. He had attempted to go to court for custody multiple times, but he always lost the case. At some point however, their baba completely disappeared, with no traces left behind. No one from his side of the family knew what happened to him, many speculated that he ran away or was kidnapped. To this day, just like everyone else involved, Shen Yuan still had no idea about what happened to his baba…

“Gege!”

“Huh?! What? Did something happen?”

“You were spacing out.”

“Oh. Sorry. You can go now.”

“Really? Not even a thank you?”

“Thank you meimei, now go! Shoo! shoo!”

“…I’m going to tell da-ge on you.”

“What?! For what?! What did I do?!”

Shen Mei only let her lips curl up in a nasty mean smirk as she waved her hand before walking back to the house. Shen Yuan stared in disbelief as he thought back to what he did that deserved a scolding from his da-ge. Nothing came to mind so Shen Yuan simply shrugged his shoulders and guessed that his meimei was just teasing him, like always. Quickly, he turned back to the lake and stripped off his hanfu before dipping into the chilly water. Its coldness was enough to jolt his aware as Shen Yuan rapidly worked on cleaning himself. Up above him, crumpling shadows slowly faded in, like black rifts tearing through time and space. Tentacles slithered out from them searching and at some point, one tentacle covered the sun. A shadow befell on Shen Yuan, but he ignored it, thinking it was just another cloud. The shadow of the tentacle soon drifted off and Shen Yuan was basking again in the sun.

After half an hour of endless soaking and scrubbing, Shen Yuan deemed himself ready. He got out, dried and dressed him before gathering up his old bloodied hanfu in his arms. When everything was gathered up, Shen Yuan took a peak at the sky to try and guess the time. The sun was slowly creeping the horizon, and if Shen Yuan had to guess, it was around 5 p.m. That was when Shen Yuan noticed that there were no clouds to be seen hovering above. Where had the cloud that covered him disappeared too? Surely half an hour wasn’t enough time for it to drift off with the breeze out of sight, right? Somehow, just thinking about it, made Shen Yuan’s heart beat twice as fast. It did not feel right. Nothing felt right. His surroundings felt odd, like someone had submerged it into a new realm of oceanic obscurity.

Without thinking about it, Shen Yuan forced his legs to carry him back to the house as fast as they could.

-

“Lord Luo gave me his permission to marry you, A-Tiao! Isn’t that exciting? I get to marry your pretty self and you can be all mine! You’re going to be my cute personal human!”

“I am not marrying you!…yuck, do you even know what a bath is, you acrid toad?! You reek of dead corpses.”

“Its an attractive smell for us demons, my baobei.”

“Attractive smell? All I smell is stupid! Idiocy! You idiots are stupider than an ox on steroids! Also I’m not your baobei! Get off me, you mistake! I bet your parents regret having sex. I’d certainly would if you were my daughter.”

“You’re so mean, baobei. You hurt poor Ling’er’s heart.”

“If I could, I wouldn’t just hurt your ‘poor heart’. I’d crushed it a million times with zero regrets, each time more painful than the last.”

-

Shen Yuan entered the house and the first thing he saw was Shen Tiao trying to push away Sha Hualing, who had her arms wrapped around his waist and her chin placed on top of his head. Even though Shen Yuan should have gotten used to any height differences regarding his er-ge, the height difference between the two was just hilarious. Sha Hualing was like 30 cm taller than him, he was quite literally an entire head shorter than her.

In the meantime, his two other siblings and Luo Binghe were sitting down at the table, sipping on some tea. Shen Chun immediately brightened with relief when he saw Shen Yuan enter through the door, apparently having been worried for his didi even though Shen Mei should have told him that all was fine with him.

“Yuan-di! Are you alright?”

“…Yes I’m fine? Obviously?”

“Good, good. Meimei told us you got distracted.”

“I did, yes. I got distracted by that beast we had. I managed to skin it all, by the way, and I placed the meat in the cooling cabinet.”

“Did you dispose of the rest of the body?”

“No.”

“Good! I heard some uncertain rumours that the bones of it holds some medicinal properties so I want to look into that.”

“ …Da-ge, da-ge!”

“Yes meimei?”

“San-ge shooed me away like a dog earlier.”

Shen Yuan blinked, his entire being taken aback as his sister smirked that same evil sneer from earlier. So that was what she meant when she said that she would tell on him…She was just being an annoying brat again!

“…I am too old to deal with your antics, meimei.”

“Da-ge! Tell him to apologise!”

“Yuan-di please apologise.”

“I…fine…sorry meimei. Right, I’m going to my room now, goodbye.”

Before Shen Yuan could even lift a foot to walk towards his room, however Luo Binghe rolled his eyes at him and muttered a “useless” under his breath. It was the second time that day that Luo Binghe had called Shen Yuan useless and it ruined Shen Yuan’s mood again despite supposedly being used to it. In truth, Luo Binghe hadn’t been the first person to comment on Shen Yuan’s uselessness and lack of social skills, but it always hurt. He really had tried his best with everything, but social situations were just not his thing. It was always difficult for him to deal with them, as they were confusing and nerve-wrecking. Sometimes even frustrating and stressful to a point where Shen Yuan wished he was curled up in bed, hidden out of sight and out of mind.

Shen Yuan did not respond back to Luo Binghe, instead, he just wanted to go back in his room. His siblings, however, were not having it. None of them would stand to watch their brother get insulted. It all happened in a flash, before Shen Yuan could even move, Shen Tiao was standing in front of him. He was shielding him, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t actually shield Shen Yuan properly because of their obvious height difference. Shen Yuan still appreciated the sentiment. Sha Hualing’s reaction, to being pushed, had been slightly delayed as a breathy gasp escaped from her lips. A red blush, that almost matched the colour of her clothing, painted her cheeks. In the meantime, Shen Mei slammed her hands on the table, her face wrinkled in a scowl full of hate. Shen Chun was the only one who stayed still with pursed lips, his eyes lingering between worry and anger as they swept between Shen Tiao and Luo Binghe.

“How dare you speak about Yuan-di in that way?! Our Yuan-di is not useless! He is very useful. He’s smart. Very smart! Probably the smartest person out of all of us. That’s just how smart he is!” That was not a very convincing argument from Shen Tiao but Shen Yuan appreciated his brother standing up for him. It was nice, to be protected by someone you cherished.

At the same time however, Shen Yuan felt himself roll his eyes when Shen Tiao said that he was the smartest. That was a blatant lie. The smartest out of all of them was Shen Chun. Their da-ge was literally a doctor who saved countless of lives and who also easily adapted into using the medicines of Proud Immortal Demon Way. There was also the fact that their da-ge was currently interested in replicating and bringing in modern medicine into Proud Immortal Demon Way. His studies on the matter were apparently already mostly done, all Shen Chun needed to do was, get the ingredients and crush them together, experiment a little and evaluate the medicine’s effects.

Shen Chun was definitely the smartest out of all of them.

“His intellect is useless if he doesn’t use it right. He certainly hasn’t used it correctly, that’s for sure. All he has proven is that he’s mannerless, forgetful and easily distracted. Actually, I’d even go far enough to oppose your statement. Your brother has no ounce of intelligence in him. A smart person would not start cleaning while having guests over.”

“Well, from where we are from, it is a completely normal practise!” this time, it was Shen Mei who spoke. She technically almost gave them away, that they’re from another world, but since she didn’t specify, they could lie and blame it on their faraway village. Shen Mei’s tone was confident, probably not a tone to be used on Luo Binghe, but she did not care as she got up and walked near to Shen Tiao. She flashed a smile to Shen Yuan before turning back to Luo Binghe.

“Yuan-ge is very knowledgeable, especially when it comes to the environment and the beasts that inhabit it. He’s hardworking in a way where he does his work efficiently but at his own pace. And yes, I think we all admit Yuan-ge doesn’t have manners, that he’s forgetful and easily distracted, but that’s because his brain functions differently! We all need some negatives to our positives. Nobody is perfect – ”

“Lord Luo is perfect though?”

“As if. Your ‘Lord Luo’ is egotistical, selfish and driven by motives that can and probably will cause his demise someday. Also, he does not respect women. If he did, he would not continue to harass our meimei when she clearly has rejected him multiple times.”

“Damn. But you are right. Nobody is perfect, our Yuan-ge is totally fine just the way he is and he doesn’t need to prove that to anyone! Not to you, definitely not to you and not to us. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.”

Luo Binghe’s mouth was ready to retort back, but his face stumbled into confusion at Shen Mei’s last line. He blinked once before composing himself, all while Sha Hualing was in the background muttering about how hot Shen Tiao looked when he was angry. Their meimei would definitely have to do another ted talk to the demoness before she actually ravaged their brother, without consent.

“You say that he does not need to prove himself, but if he doesn’t prove himself, he’d die. That is how the world works, you have to be useful if you want to survive and he certainly hasn’t anything worthwhile to guarantee his survival.”

On the topic of his life and death, Shen Tiao visibly bristled. His face contorted to an ugly snarl, his freckles somehow continued to accent his anger in a very strange way, as he got ready to bare his claws and fight. Before he could even take out one of his hidden daggers however, Shen Chun got out of his seat and walked over to them in a grace manner, that made Luo Binghe’s eyebrows furrow deeper, as Shen Chun soothingly rubbed Shen Tiao’s back in circles.

“Tiao-di, calm. Lord Luo, Sha Xiaojie. I believe you have overstayed your visit, it is soon dinnertime after all…Tiao-di, please don’t get your dagger out. What do you want to eat?”

“Not now, da-ge.”

“I was thinking of cooking some congee but maybe some tofu with pork would be better. What do you say?”

“Tofu with pork sounds good. I want that.”

“Ah, Tiao-di, I am too old to deal with your rage. I won’t cook it if you don’t settle down now.”

“…Fine.”

When Shen Tiao said that, he put away the dagger, that he had taken out, back into its original hiding place. Then he went back to simply shielding Shen Yuan with his body as a protective aura danced around them. Shen Mei gave an encouraging thumbs up at him, obviously pleased that he managed to tone down his fury only for Shen Tiao to respond back by snarling at her.

“…Now as this lowly one has already stated, Lord Luo, it is soon dinnertime.”

“This one respects you greatly, Shen Chun, as you’ve already proved your capabilities, but surely you could make up a more believable lie. It is still the hour of the monkey after all.”

“That is true, but my siblings and I were planning to eat much earlier today. Also, it does take time for a meal to cook and this one does wish to start cooking sooner rather than later..”

“I see…Fine, we shall leave. Come Ling’er. These new subordinates of mine are truly ungrateful. Perhaps a punishment is due soon. That would certainly change their attitude.”

Luo Binghe took out Xin Mo (Xin Mo!! Shen Yun realised, basking in its beautiful glory) and cut open a portal. It was bizarre to look at, certainly not what Shen Yuan expected a portal to look like. A cut through space that did not show the other location, instead there was a dark red wormhole to go through before reaching the other side. Sha Hualing nodded, winked at Shen Tiao then disappeared into it. Luo Binghe was about to leave as well, before he turned back to Shen Tiao. His eyes narrowed, pleased, as he saw Shen Tiao abruptly kneel over in pain. The rest of the siblings panicked, all while Luo Binghe turned and escaped through the portal. It closed right behind him.

“Is this the stupid blood parasites? It hurts so bad, crap…I swear if this is how a period feels like, I will bow down to every person who has an uterus and has to deal with this on a monthly basis.”

Turned out, Luo Binghe did indeed activate his blood parasites in Shen Tiao. His rage at Shen Tiao had been expected. No one had the right to insult and stand up against the Luo Binghe without facing any consequences. The only reason he did not activate Shen Mei’s parasites was probably because she was a woman and she didn’t insult him, despite her going against him. Fortunately, the blood parasites only lasted for fifteen minutes, and Shen Tiao quickly recovered due to Shen Chun’s attentive care. By then, Shen Yuan had already went back into his room to hide away, huddling under the scratchy blankets that provided sanctuary.

When Shen Tiao recuperated, the three siblings barged into Shen Yuan’s room after knocking, which was surprising since they rarely ever knocked. They all started to reassure him with their words, even after Shen Yuan told them that he was fine. After a while though, they listened to him and stopped, only for Shen Yuan to then show his love and appreciation towards them by hugging them each. Each hug was comforting, feeling like home and more. Shen Mei and Shen Tiao then scurried out of the room, both smiling as they joked around each other but Shen Chun didn’t. He stayed as he sat down on the bed and patted the empty spot next to him. Shen Chun was beaconing Shen Yuan to sit down by him so Shen Yuan did just that, as he plopped himself at his da-ge’s side.

“What do you want to eat today?”

“Some congee would be nice, it’s been a while since I’ve had it.”

“Mn. Hey, Yuan-di, what if I were to try and make your medication?”

“Huh? What do you mean, make?”

“I can try and create the medication you used to use. You know, I’ve been researching and trying to bring modern medicine into this world. I wouldn’t mind my first attempt being your medication although it will be far from perfect. Finding substitutions for the ingredients has been a little difficult and side effects are also a problem.”

“…I see.”

“You seem reluctant.”

“Mn. It’s just…I…you know. I don’t really want to have to take them again.”

“It’s alright. I know that you dislike it. I only brought it up as a suggestion.”

“I know…thank you da-ge.”

“No problem.”

“…thank you.”

“Alright, alright, I’m too old to deal with your gratitude. Actually I found something interesting when I went down to the village earlier, maybe you already know about it?”

“What is it?”

“Well, there’s this merchant who sells this artifact. It looks like a black pearl except it apparently glows rainbow when there’s food or water. It’s around the size of my palm and…”

Chapter Text

For the following month, Luo Binghe became an unwanted menace, popping into the Shen sibling’s house whenever he pleased, like he owned the place, just so that he could observe said Shen siblings. No matter what they were doing, no matter how mundane it was, he still stayed for a good while. Shen Yuan wouldn’t have minded, if it wasn’t for the fact that Luo Binghe continued to be mean to both him and Shen Tiao. Shen Chun obviously gained a lot of respect from him because he was a genius workaholic doctor, while Shen Mei had been respected since the very beginning of their meeting (though it wasn’t really respect perse since Luo Binghe had made Shen Mei extremely uncomfortable with the constant flirts, but he didn’t treat her rudely or call her names!)

It wasn’t exactly the most enjoyable experience, to be judged for every action you commit no matter how small and unimportant it is. Often times, Shen Yuan would spend the day locked away in his room whenever Luo Binghe appeared; either reading, researching or continuing the survival book; now turned into a personal project. Whenever he couldn’t escape, however, he would stick by Shen Tiao since his er-ge protected him like how a mother polar bear would protect her cub.

Whenever the siblings were cultivating though, and Luo Binghe appeared, he was a bit more…agreeable. He was definitely more silent on those days, preferring to observe how the siblings cultivated. Sometimes, however, he’d analyse out loud everything they did. He made comments on their meditation, which he pointed out would have more effect if they mediated in a more secluded and natural location. He commented on their way of cultivation, which was obviously very different from the style of cultivation he practised back at Qing Jing Peak (unbeknownst to him that the cultivation he practised back then was messed up due to being given a false manual by Ming Fan). He made comments on their progress, he revelled in Shen Mei’s progress especially. She really did have a natural talent for cultivating with fire. Surprisingly enough, he also complimented Shen Tiao and Shen Yuan’s progress, albeit quite rarely. Their da-ge was making the least progress but even he got complimented a couple of times. He also made comments on how they each individually handled cultivation, including how their mental state affected their overall results.

He too made a couple of remarks about Shen Chun and Shen Yuan, who were working together closely. He mentioned to them that it was a wise decision to make since their element was the same and so they could learn from each other’s mistakes. Since Shen Chun and Shen Yuan were cultivating via a form of dual cultivation however, their progress would be much slower than Shen Tiao and Shen Mei since they depended heavily on one another.

All in all, Luo Binghe was an arse, who Shen Yuan still admired very much despite everything. Shen Yuan was totally not in love with him, his feelings for Luo Binghe were all platonic and everyone had ought to stop listening to his meimei.

Sometimes, Sha Hualing would come visit too. She was less of a nuisance, though Shen Tiao would definitely disagree. Despite having a sharp tongue, she barely used it. Instead, she spent majority of her time sticking to Shen Tiao, flirting and resting her chin on his head. She was very sticky, but surprisingly enough, she never went beyond hugging him until it came to a point where Shen Tiao grew visibly comfortable around her. Obviously this was a good thing, Shen Yuan didn’t want his brother to be touched non-consensually. In fact, their relationship (whatever it was) seemed to improve steadily. Shen Tiao still insulted Sha Hualing at any given chance and she still bothered him with her flirts, but Shen Tiao seemed like he slightly tolerated her. He definitely preferred her more than Luo Binghe, that was for certain.

The month passed and the last time Luo Binghe and Sha Hualing had visited was two days ago. For once, the four Shen siblings were sitting round the table in tranquillity. Warm light from the blazing candles illuminated the room, allowing for eyes to see without any harmful straining. Shen Chun and Shen Yuan sat side-by-side, going through different books in search of a specific flowering plant called the Ten Thousand Cleansing Silver Bells. On the opposite side were Shen Tiao, who was eating some plain rice, and Shen Mei, who was reading through some sort of romance book. The entire room was silent, except for the occasionally low shuffling of paper and soft whisper between the oldest and the second youngest.

The peace was disturbed by Shen Mei, who let out a bored sigh as she let the book close flat on the table. Its heavy weight thumped roughly against the table, catching the attention of the rest of the brothers. Then Shen Mei followed the book, letting herself slump down and hit her forehead on the table. Shen Chun, being the mother hen of the group, raised an eyebrow before asking her what was wrong all while Shen Tiao’s face creased in worry. Only Shen Yuan was not worried, his meimei was probably fin.

When Shen Mei didn’t respond, Shen Yuan clicked his tongue.

“Is the book really that bad that you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Huh? Oh, no it’s not the book. It’s a great book, the love interest is surprisingly an actual decent guy even though he’s a villain. It’s a godly book, but it definitely wouldn’t suit your trashy tastes san-ge.”

Feeling his eye twitch in annoyance, Shen Yuan simply smiled. He knew that his tastes in books were quite subpar, but that’s what made them so great! Being able to tear apart a book, that would have had so much potential if it wasn’t for one specific thing (typically papapa scenes in specifically harem novels. Shen Yuan really didn’t understand the point in them, they added nothing to the story.) It was just fantastically fun.

Honestly, it felt like Shen Yuan was being allowed to do crime, without actually committing anything illegal. It was evil in a way that made sense, a good-sort-of lawful evil that could lead to the entire revamping of the story, the author actually putting in the effort this time to make it good! Except, since their death, hating on books had become a tad more difficult since the authors wouldn’t receive his feedback unless he sent them a personal letter, (and surprisingly, most of the books he had been able to find weren’t written poorly. Most were simply classic literature, literature that Shen Chun enjoyed collecting and consuming on a daily basis).

“What’s wrong then, meimei? Are you feeling tired? Maybe unwell? Seasonal depression? Did you maybe get your period? Do you want chocolate? I don’t know if it exists here, but I can try making it. Or maybe you want some other snacks?”

“God, da-ge, I feel like I’m being interrogated. It’s none of those things, but chocolate does sound tasty right now.”

“I want chocolate too and ice cream,” Shen Tiao mumbled under his breath while Shen Chun questioned again, “Then, what is it?”

“You’re all going to call me stupid if I tell you.”

“You are stupid though so just tell us. If you want to, that is. We’re not going to force you. But we already think that you’re stupid so it won’t make a difference.”

“Yuan-di…” disappointingly sighed out Shen Chun as Shen Tiao made a hum of approval. He had his cheeks stuffed with rice so he ended up looking like a humanized version of an aggressive hamster.

“What? I’m just stating the obvious.”

“Wow san-ge, just the reassurance that I needed. Fine. I just miss home.”

All eyes were already turned on Shen Mei, but the intensity of their stare intensified. The silence was tensely loud as it distantly rang, the feeling of drowning slowly surfacing. Even Shen Tiao stopped eating, chopsticks stopped mid-air as he placed the bowl back on the table. The wooden bowl thudded when it met the table, yet somehow, the silence was louder.

The topic of their past life, before they transmigrated, was a topic that they hadn’t properly discussed. It shamefully had been hidden at the back of their minds, completely hidden away as they continued to live their lives as normally as they could. Yet they all knew that nothing was normal about the way they were living now. Their old lives had been completely stripped from them…and Shen Yuan found that he didn’t quite mind it. In fact, he would even go out as far as to say that he preferred his second chance of living.

Sure, in his first life, he had the internet to keep him company on days whenever he locked himself in his room or apartment, and there was also his neighbour’s puppy that went on walks by itself. It was a cute little thing that Shen Yuan always cooed at whenever he saw it as it immediately brightened up his day. In his past life, he had also been studying to become a veterinary and, despite his course being extremely difficult at times, he was quite passionate about it. Animals were something he was quite passionate about in general. It was why Shen Yuan loved it when novels had wonderful worldbuilding as that worldbuilding involved the creatures roaming in it, creatures which were typically based on animals. Both non-fictional animals and fictional beasts had Shen Yuan’s heart in a chokehold as their biology, environment and overall behaviour gripped his unwavering interest.

Not being able to finish the course before his untimely death had been one of Shen Yuan’s biggest regrets, but alas, it was not as though as he was anticipating death.

Overall though, Shen Yuan’s first life had no flavour to it even though it was perfect for a introvert like him. But his second life, Shen Yuan enjoyed it so much more. He still had a wide selection of books to read, despite not all of them being to his tastes, but every single one of them contained an intriguing plot and mind-blowing worldbuilding that sometimes, it made Shen Yuan feel overwhelmed with serotonin. He had the chance to study all the beasts and plants he read about in Proud Immortal Demon Way, had the chance to actually try to cultivate and he technically still had the chance to become a veterinary except instead for pets, it would be for wild beasts. It would definitely be harder as well, as he’d have to learn again from the very beginning. Lastly, the most important thing was that Shen Yuan was not alone. As much as he enjoyed solitude, he had to admit that even he missed human company at times. His siblings were perfect for human company; he was familiar with them, he understood them and they understood him back, and they were his only family and friends.

“You miss home?” Shen Chun asked to confirm, his face pensive in worry.

“Yeah. Don’t you?”

“Not really? Depends on what sort of home you’re talking about. Like, our family? Our houses?”

“Like, our past in general? Our family too, obviously.”

“Oh. Well, I guess I do miss our mother. It’s strange to not be able to contact her, I miss having video chats with her. I also miss videogames and my old workplace, I guess? My old patients too, they’re much nicer than the demons here. That’s it really…oh actually, my collection of classic literature. Twenty years of collecting has all gone down the drain. What about you didis?”

“Honestly, I don’t really miss mama. Last time I spoke to her was three months before our death, when she gave me the invitation to our cousin’s wedding so…and I obviously miss baba, like always. Life was boring compared to now so I don’t really miss it much either. Now we can cultivate, meet demons, see beasts, explore and – ”

“San-ge, don’t lie, you’re just happy to be in your favourite novel.”

“One, it’s not my favourite novel and two, I would have been sad and would’ve missed all of you if I had transmigrated here without you. “

“Aw that’s surprisingly cute…coming from you."

“…I don’t miss anything. In fact, I’m glad we died.” Shen Tiao, who had been quietly just listening, suddenly spoke up. Now everyone’s eyes turned to him, a little shocked by his statement. Even Shen Yuan, who had just admitted that he didn’t miss the past, hated the fact that they died. And honestly, Shen Yuan expected for Shen Tiao to not miss anything from their past, he’d seen how his elder brother was loosening up by feeling more content and comfortable, but Shen Yuan certainly hadn’t expected to hear him say that he was glad for their deaths.

“Why er-ge?”

“Everything sucked. Two people I cared about died and I witnessed the death of one of them, our baba disappeared, mama was terrible, my job sucked, everyone there hated me and I hated them back, my apartment was too small but also too empty, taxes sucked, living sucked. Here, there are still some things that suck, but I feel a bit happy. Very little. But still happy.”

“Mama wasn’t terrible.” Of course Shen Mei would pick on that specifically. Even though their mama never genuinely showered her with affection, Shen Mei still admired her a lot. Too much, perhaps. Out of the four of them, she was the one  who loved their mother the most and she constantly defended her. Shen Mei did however understand why her brothers were not as interested in their mother. She had been a witness to her lack of care towards them, especially towards Shen Tiao and Shen Yuan, but it was obvious that she never thought one of them would think their mama was terrible.

“She was. Very much.”

“No, she wasn’t!”

“She was. If she was a good mother, she wouldn’t have dumped you and Yuan-di on us. Da-ge and I practically raised you. I don’t even understand how you can like her. All she did was spoil you with gifts and call you ‘my sweet little princess.’”

“I mean, that’s true, but she did love you! She loved all of us.”

“Oh, yes. Love. Totally. She totally loved us.”

“She did!”

“No. No, she didn’t. She was a selfish neglectful mother. She did not care for us. For her, we were lesser than ants!”

“No, she never thought that! Da-ge, tell er-ge to stop! He’s being mean again!”

“Tiao-di, meimei, both of you stop it.”

“I’m not being mean, I’m being honest, but you’re too delusional to realise the facts.”

“Tiao-di!”

“What?! Don’t side with her, da-ge! You know I’m right. You know full well that I’m right.”

“…Tiao-di listen – ”

“No, you’re not right!” 

“I am! If it wasn’t for our mother, I wouldn’t have joined a gang. I wouldn’t have gotten involved with gangs, I would have not done drugs and I would not have these anger issues. I could have been a completely normal man, stable in life, if it weren’t for her lack of attention! Her lack of care! Her insistence to put every single thing on us! I was a child, back then! A child!”

The tears were evident in Shen Tiao’s eyes as they threatened to spill over. Melancholic rage bubbled under his skin and Shen Tiao’s face flushed a bright crimson, shaking under the weight of his emotions. Shen Yuan felt a pit of emptiness form in his stomach, his throat contracting as he had been watching everything pan out like a movie scene. Shen Chun let out a shaky huff of breath while Shen Mei’s hazel eyes widened in agony. Her own body started to shake, and she gathered tears in her eyes as well. To ease the pain a little, she brought a nail to her mouth and bit it.

Out of all of them, Shen Tiao had the most horrifying experiences. He had gotten affiliated with some frightful people in an effort to rebel against their mother and to maybe get her to care, only for the plan to backfire against him as he fell deeper into the rabbit hole. His past as a gangster was something sensitive that Shen Yuan and Shen Mei knew about in a little too much detail, even though it happened way back when the two of them were  just naïve children. Their er-ge had spent three whole years, suffering silently to a point where he wanted to kill himself, but before he could do it, Shen Chun found out and managed to help him through it.

The worst thing about this part Shen Tiao’s past was that, he had been young. At fourteen years of age, he committed so much atrocities and the biggest one would have been his suicide if he hadn’t been saved in time. Shen Tiao also hadn’t been the only one who was still a teen; Shen Chun had been sixteen when he saved Shen Tiao. Wasn’t he also too young? Shen Chun had been subjected to his brother’s horrors and had to help him through it, whilst trying to find a way to send him to rehab without getting the attention of child protective services because he didn’t want to get their mum in trouble. Meanwhile their mother had not even expressed a singular concern, and Shen Yuan and Shen Mei were still only seven and six years old so they could not provide any help.

Shen Yuan’s childhood memories were mostly just blurs, but he did have a distinct memory from that time period, when he was seven years old. His er-ge had been crying his eyes out on da-ge’s shoulder, as their da-ge rubbed his back while also offering him some candy. It had been late at night, little Shen Yuan had been up way past his bedtime. He watched the scene from his bedroom, his door slightly ajar to witness it. That was the last time he had ever saw er-ge cry. The memory was one of Shen Yuan’s coldest, one that sometimes still haunted him in his sleep.

When both he and Shen Mei had been old enough to properly reflect, Shen Chun had sat them down and told them the story of their er-ge with his permission. It was his way of teaching them to always seek help whenever they were feeling powerless, whenever they wanted to break free. Shen Yuan took that lesson to heart. Even though seeking help did make him feel embarrassed somewhat, he forced him to seek it from his brothers because he did not want to end up miserable, and they unsurprisingly always helped him.

Despite knowing of Shen Tiao’s past, it had been a sore subject that they did not typically bring up unless necessary, since it was obviously very traumatising (their er-ge’s anger had been blamed on his time as a violent gangster due to habits, but sometimes, Shen Yuan would sit down and wonder if his brother’s anger was actually an unhealthy coping mechanism to deal with the trauma). Yet, since it was Shen Tiao who brought it up, it made everything tenser and more awkward.

“I…you can’t just. You can’t just, you know. Bring…that up.”

“Why not? Why can’t I bring it up?”

“Because…because. It’s not fair. Because mama wasn’t actually the cause of your actions…yeah…the only one you to blame is yourself.”

The tears in Shen Tiao’s eyes finally spilled, and a broken sob escaped his throat. His voice wavered as he tried to sound out a coherent sentence, only for it to sound brokenly jumbled. And suddenly, a resounding clap echoed in the room. Shen Chun had leaned over the table and slapped Shen Mei in the face, its loud impact silencing everything. Their da-ge, their ever so patient da-ge despite his fatigue, had lost his cool. Firmly believing that discipline couldn’t be taught by physical abuse, Shen Chun had never raised a hand at them, no matter how angry he got at them. For the first time ever, however, he let his hands speak instead of his words. Shen Mei hadn’t even had a chance to process her own words before she got slapped as his reaction was too quick to comprehend.

Even Shen Tiao stopped crying, flabbergasted, and from the look of his eyes, he looked angry at Shen Chun. Shen Yuan, himself, felt angry. What their meimei said was wrong, but that didn’t warrant a slap from a witness. If it were Shen Tiao who had slapped her, Shen Yuan would have perfectly understood (he probably would have still been mad though, just like he was mad at Shen Mei for her unnecessary words that caused their er-ge to spill tears. Shen Yuan really hated seeing his siblings getting hurt, no matter how valid the reason was, and he especially hated it when his siblings were hurting one another!)

Shen Chun quickly recoiled back, his own mouth agape as he stared at his own hand for a second. Then he turned back to Shen Mei, his look practically begging for forgiveness.

“…sorry. I didn’t want to hit you, but what you said, it really made me mad that my mind only saw red for a solid moment. Are you okay? Does it sting too bad?”

“…”

“Meimei?”

“Ah! No, no, it’s okay, I’m fine. I can barely feel it. I deserved it anyway. Er-ge, I’m…sorry. That was really insensitive of me to say.”

The side of her face that got slapped became a blooming red, unfurling its colour like a flower opening its petals during springtime. However, the attention was diverted from it as instead, it was now all turned to Shen Tiao. The three other siblings were waiting for his response to the apology, an apology that Shen Yuan thought was really bad. His sister usually had such a astonishing way with words, her tongue being her best weapon, but now. Now, it was failing her more than ever. Her words sounded ingenuine.

Shen Tiao sniffled once, then twice. Any tears that had managed to spill beforehand were completely dried off, his eyes losing that specific shine that showed when one was close to bursting in weeps. His lips thinned, as did his eyes as they glared at Shen Mei. The glare felt murderous, throwing imaginary daggers at Shen Mei’s way.

“I don’t forgive you. In fact, I don’t even want to see your face because it’s making me angry!”

Just like that, Shen Tiao stormed off into his room. This time, Shen Mei’s dam broke as she wept loudly. Shen Tiao was not a messy crier, unlike Shen Mei who was the opposite of him. Her tears were large globs of salty water, her cries sounding like a ghoul dying in the sweltering heat of the sun. Shen Mei was the personification of ugly crying whenever she cried, which was more often than not. Honestly, it was more surprising to Shen Yuan that she hadn’t cried much earlier.

“Moron! You’re just selfish! Mean! A big bully! This is why no one likes you,” that was a big lie, Shen Tiao was loved plenty by his two brothers. Even Shen Mei loved him and she couldn’t deny that, yet at that moment, her emotions took over her logic. “I even got slapped because of you! I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU.”

The sudden declaration of hate (a big lie) caught both Shen Chun and Shen Yuan off-guard as Shen Mei managed to slip away into her own room. She slammed the door shut, the bang echoing in the space that was suddenly a little too still. It was really odd, how it seemed so much like a cycle. They had been in quite peace, then the arguing started and yelling ensued, only for it to fall back to silence again. Except this time, there was no peace. Shen Chun let out a shaky sigh and Shen Yuan looked at him worryingly. His da-ge looked so drained, his er-ge had seemed so broken and his meimei had been so uncharacteristically cruel.

“…I should have stopped it before it got to this point. Damn it.”

“Da-ge…will they be okay?”

“They will be. They just need time to cool off and think. I’ll check up on them both later. How about you? Are you okay? The fight, did it overwhelm you?”

“I do feel a little eh, but I should be good. You?”

“Tired, stressed, angry at myself, old. Not doing that well, actually. I feel like this is all my fault. We should probably both go rest a little. We cannot help them get better if we’re not feeling well ourselves. I’m going in my room, probably will sleep for an hour or two. See you.”

Shen Yuan nodded, scrunching his nose slightly in delight when his brother ruffled his fingers through his scalp. Typically, Shen Yuan wore his hair in a ponytail but sometimes he would get headaches from the pull of it and so occasionally he let his hair loose. Wearing his hair loose actually made it easier for his elder brothers to give him the occasional pat on the head. It was wonderful living with a loving family who all had the same love language as you, except for when they fought because that usually led to less physical contact. Shen Yuan was blessed that his da-ge still showered him in love.

Shen Chun retreated back to his room, and Shen Yuan did the same after trying to clean up the table (he gave up halfway when he realised that his er-ge did not finish his food. His er-ge hated wasting food so he left the bowl on the table, with a paper covering said bowl). When he got to his room, Shen Yuan sat down at the low-table and continued his research on the Ten Thousand Cleansing Silver Bells. It was a rare plant found in the eastern regions, apparently rumoured to be able to heal meridians if they were damaged. It had been mentioned briefly in Proud Immortal Demon Way by wife number 548, because her meridians got scorched badly but of course, her reason ended up turning into a papapa plot. Luo Binghe papapaed her and due to his heavenly demon blood that cured everything, she obviously got healed. Thus the plant was never mentioned again.

Shen Yuan couldn’t focus however, so after a while, he stopped and tried to read a book instead. However, not even that was enough to distract Shen Yuan’s thoughts from going back to the fight, half in pained sadness and half in guilt. He could have stopped the fight if he had spoken up, if he had said something, but Shen Yuan hated dealing with confrontations. It stressed him out, made the back of his eyes burn and his throat compress. Actually, he did good staying quiet. If he had spoken up, he would have probably ended up making things worse. Maybe, it would have been three of them fighting instead of two. Maybe even four if Shen Chun felt pressured enough to try to stop it, only to instead join (their da-ge’s self control was amazing, it was still so shocking that he actually snapped at Shen Mei!)

In the corner of his eyes from where he was sitting down (still at the table, with his research papers all sprawled under his open book), Shen Yuan saw a black shadow. He turned his body towards it, the strange black shadow was just above his bed. It had even stranger inky tentacles coming out of it, searching around the room for…something. Shen Yuan felt himself freaking out, his anxiety shot through the roof as he abruptly stood up and backed away until his back hit the door. He was actually quite curious of what the shadow was, but his fear was stronger. Luckily, his fear was not strong enough to paralyze him, but strong enough to keep him on his toes as he viewed from a safe distance.

The shadow, which would be oval-shaped without the tentacles, expanded but also shrunk at the same time, like the universe. A contradicting phenomenon that should not be able to occur under most normal circumstances, yet it was still very much occurring right in front of Shen Yuan’s own two human eyes. It was silent until there was noise, the sound of people chattering with echoing footsteps. The sound of a busy restaurant full of loud foreigners, all trying Chinese cuisine. The tentacles became faster, searching more vigorously until they found something. They wrapped themselves around one of Shen Yuan’s hanfu that had been discarded on the ground, before lifting it up into the air. Unluckily enough, it was one of Shen Yuan’s favourite ones, a simple grey hanfu with no extra embroidered details which was made with the perfect fabric that did not scratch at his skin.

Being angry at his past self for not properly putting away the hanfu did not help as Shen Yuan watched, silent and still. The tentacles, with majestic movements that invoked fear, ripped the hanfu to shreds. Then, the strange black shadow just disappeared. It faded into nothingness, seemingly satisfied by the small destruction it caused.

Mouth slightly gaping, Shen Yuan blinked. Then he blinked again, his brain slow to process what had just occurred. The entire situation reminded him too much of a dream he had not long ago, of hearing rain beat against asphalt, except this time…it was real and it was distressing. He closed his mouth and swallowed any lingering saliva as his gaze drifted to his torn-up hanfu. Fabric shredded beyond saving, Shen Yuan felt his already terrible mood become even worse. The sudden urge to shut down everything was strong, maybe he’d even let a few tears flow in the privacy of his room, where no one was looking. Expressing emotions would still be a little embarrassing but at least there was no one to judge him.

Just as Shen Yuan was about to give in and let his thin face fall, a scream reverberated through the house. The scream unmistakeably belonged to his meimei, making Shen Yuan feel a coat of protectiveness wrap around him and he instantly felt his urge to cry dissipate. He rushed out of his room, completely forgetting about everything else. Without a second thought, he barged into the room, forgoing knocking (something he’d never usually do because he was not a barbarian like his siblings, but the scream made him panic). There, on one of the walls, was the very same black shadow that appeared in his room. This time, there was the noise of cars honking and after a bit there was just silence.

His meimei was laying in bed, looking extremely botched up in her wrinkly hanfu and tangled hair, her entire form shivering. Her eyes still had that certain shine, her red cheeks stained with dried-up tears and her mouth hung open. Their eyes met, Shen Yuan beckoned her with his hand to come next to him. Shen Mei scrambled off the bed, falling off, while Shen Yuan eyed the shadow. The tentacles were searching, long and foreboding. Fortunately, Shen Mei made it to his side in one piece, breath hitched and tears threatening to spill again.

“What is that thing?!”

“I’m not sure. It appeared earlier in my room, tore up a hanfu. Then it disappeared. Do you have anything you don’t mind destroying?”

“Huh? Uh, yeah, there’s a white ribbon that I don’t mind…getting destroyed.”

“Where is it?”

“In the wardrobe. It’s under the…uh…um…ah, it’s under a black hanfu I think.”

“Alright. Leave this to me, I’ll try and get rid of it. Go wake up da-ge and see if you can get er-ge out of his room. Tell them to wait at the table. You stay at the table too. I’ll shout if I need any help.”

“O-Okay.”

His sister scurried off, all while Shen Yuan properly entered her room and moved over to the wardrobe. The adrenaline made everything go by fast. His eyes did not leave the thing as he kept gazing back to it while trying to find the white ribbon in the wardrobe. It did not take too long since the black hanfu was folded right at the top of the other clothing, so Shen Yuan quickly got the white ribbon out and then approached the black shadow. He was not certain if the thing could hurt him, but he did not want to risk it so he stayed a safe distance away before throwing the ribbon closer. As if sensing the ribbon, one of the tentacles headed straight towards it like a predator jumping on its prey. Just like before, it wrapped itself around the ribbon before tearing it apart. Then, the entire black shadow faded off, leaving Shen Yuan to deal with the remaining adrenaline rush.

Walking backwards, Shen Yuan found himself back at the main room, his siblings all gathered at the table. His da-ge was rubbing at his eyes, goosebumps littering on some of his bare skin as he only wore his inner robes. His er-ge refused to even look at Shen Mei, his eyes instead trained heavily on the bowl of rice that Shen Yuan did not discard. His meimei was simply staring at the ground, terrified out of her mind and Shen Yuan felt pity soar in his heart.

Shen Yuan coughed once, gaining everyone’s attention. Shen Chun was the first one to speak up.

“Yuan-di? What’s going on?”

“Yeah, what’s going on? or is this some sort of plot to get me to forgive meimei? Cause I’m leaving if it’s that!”

“No! It’s not that. We might be dealing a…situation that could potentially endanger our lives and I don’t know if we can solve it?”

“Huh?!”

Chapter Text

The dubious looks that Shen Chun and Shen Tiao gave each other, after Shen Yuan explained the situation to them, spoke volume. His older brothers did not believe him! To some extent, Shen Yuan could understand. The peculiar shadow sounded very made up, like it was extracted from the most incredulous fantasy novel ever. Any rational human would easily not believe him. Except, logic never existed in the first place. They died, they transmigrated into a xianxia novel, they have demonic parasites made of blood crawling under their skin and they even cultivated! There was nothing logical, logic was deader than the Shen siblings! Surely they would not draw the line at a strange shadow thing, which in hindsight, was actually never mentioned in the novel. 

“Are you sure you two weren’t just dreaming? It’s normal to dream about something terrifying when you’re stressed out. Some tea would do you good, there’s this one I found that apparently has calming properties. Let me go get some from the kitchen.”

“No, da-ge! It’s not possible that we were dreaming because we would have remembered waking up. I did not wake up! Actually, when I saw the thing, I screamed! Didn’t you hear me scream?”

Both Shen Chun and Shen Tiao shook their heads.

“How is that possible?! It was loud! San-ge, you heard me scream right?”

“Yeah, it’s why I came up to check on you, obviously.”

“See? I did not fall asleep because I don’t remember waking up and I let out a scream that – ”

Before Shen Mei could finish speaking, a familiar red portal was cut through space into the main room. Two recognisable figures entered the room, each stride of theirs more proudful than the next. The two day streak of Luo Binghe being away was broken into shambles, but none of the siblings cared for him or Sha Hualing at the moment. There were too many things going on in their brain at once, not only was there a new mystery that could be a liability but the fight from earlier was still fresh in their mind and it was threatening to resurface at any moment.

“Shen Tiao, my baobei!”

“Well, this is a messy sight to see. Why are two of you so dishevelled.”

At Luo Binghe’s words, Shen Chun remembered that he was still in his inner robes, since he had been sleeping, so he rushed back into his room to quickly get changed. Shen Mei also rearranged herself, smoothing out her hair with her fingers and adjusting the lapels and skirt of her hanfu. In the meanwhile Sha Hualing flung herself on Shen Tiao and burrowed her decorated face in his hair, probably dirtying it with make-up in the process. Shen Tiao only let out a weary sigh before muttering a greeting back.

Luo Binghe ignored everyone as he chose to sit at one of the plush chairs near the bookshelf, and when he sat, he crossed both his arms and legs with a smirk on his face. The way he was seated made him look like the emperor of the heavens. His curly black hair framed his face a little bit too perfectly, bringing out his big brown eyes and chiselled jawline. His tall posture was imposing and Shen Yuan, who discreetly tried to glance at him in pure admiration, felt himself heat up.

It was the first time Shen Yuan felt this sort of heat and it terrified him for a second. It was not a summer-sort of heat that made him wish for winter to come sooner, but it was a sort of heat that made him want and want. Want what exactly, he wasn’t sure, perhaps he simply wanted to be Luo Binghe in that moment. Who wouldn’t want to be the most perfect man in existence? (It totally was not attraction, Shen Yuan refused to believe that it was attraction since he was a straight man. If anything, what he felt was just appreciation).

Shen Yuan was soon pulled out of his admiration thoughts when his da-ge sat back down and his meimei clicked her tongue. She continued their prior conversation, a conversation that Shen Yuan may or may not have forgotten about. Luckily, just a sentence from his sister reminded him what they had been speaking off.

“As I was saying, san-ge heard me scream and told me to get you. It was not a dream. It couldn’t have been a dream!”

“Maybe it was a hallucination? Hallucinations can also occur under stress, I’m pretty sure.”

“Why would we both hallucinate the same thing?!”

“Well, technically, we never confirmed that we saw the same thing…”

“Seriously, san-ge? It looked black and something straight out of a hentai except the tentacles emerged from an oval shaped shadow. It actually looked a little like portal.”

“Forgive this one for interrupting but it seems like Ling’er and I interrupted a very important conversation and we both would like to understand what is being said. Just what exactly is a…hentai?”

Shen Yuan barely managed to contain his laughter as he had never anticipated Luo Binghe asking what a hentai was. Luo Binghe was the most OP protagonist to ever exist, having somehow maintained a harem of over six hundred peerless beauties with just his heavenly pillar and yet he did not know what hentai was. It was ironic. At the same time however, it made sense as to why Luo Binghe questioned them on it since hentai did not exist in ancient China. This fact did not make the situation any less funny though. Even Shen Chun and Shen Tiao looked like they were suffocating trying to keep the laughter contained.

Unlike the three Shen brothers, Luo Binghe and the two other women were far from exploding in laughter at the absurdity of the situation; Sha Hualing for the same reason as Luo Binghe as she did not know what a hentai was, and Shen Mei would’ve found it funny, except her burning hatred for Luo Binghe won her over. Instead she sneered at him in pure disgust.

“None of your business, this is family-related except for hentai. Hentai is hentai, do what you will with that information.” No information whatsoever was provided but none of the Shen brothers dared to retort against her claims. Then, Shen Mei did something a little unexpected. She switched languages. “Does this guy know English? He better not.”

Another skill their mother had forced on them was learning Spanish and English. The two languages were the most spoken alongside Chinese and their mother wanted to have more opportunities in the case they ever wanted to work outside of China. Thus all the Shen siblings were trilingual, except for Shen Tiao who also knew Russian and Polish at a high skill level. Despite knowing the same languages, the Shen siblings always used Chinese whenever they spoke to each other, both in their past and present life, so they had never really heard each other speaking in other languages. For Shen Yuan personally, it was a bit shocking to suddenly hear his meimei speak English. It was, after all, the first time he had ever heard her speak in the language of the British. Her voice became a tad deeper when she spoke it, and unsurprisingly enough, her English was great!

“No, he shouldn’t know English unless Airplane gave him the skills to,” Shen Yuan replied back in English.

“Great! No more stupid protagonist eavesdropping on us!”

As Shen Mei spoke, Sha Hualing looked back at Luo Binghe confused. He only gazed at her for second before glancing over at Shen Mei, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. Then, he stood up, the sudden action causing some fear to bubble under Shen Yuan’s skin. What if the protagonist didn’t like not being able to understand them? What if he was going to torture them for their secret language?

“That language is quite familiar…is it English?”

One of Shen Tiao’s eyebrows rose as he stared at Shen Yuan, all while Shen Yuan nearly choked on his own spit. Alright, maybe the protagonist did know something about their not-so-secret language…that was actually quite bad, would they have to switch to Spanish to be extra secretive? No, what if he spoke Spanish too? It would also probably only further incur his wrath.

“Indeed it is. Why do you ask, Lord Luo? Do you perhaps speak the language?” Shen Chun, their loving eldest brother who should have kept his mouth shut and let Shen Mei handle the conversation instead, asked.

“Then you must be from the same hometown as one of my subordinates. I say my subordinate, but really, he works for my second-in-command. I once heard him speak it.”

Shen Yuan noticed his siblings trying to convey a message. Body language was not something he always understood but he could probably guess what they wanted to say since he also had those same raging questions. Who was this subordinate, why did Shen Yuan never mention them and why did they speak English? The answers to that were…Shen Yuan had no idea. No matter how hard he thought, nothing came up. From what he could remember, there was no character written in Proud Immortal Demon Way with the ability to speak English. This time, he was extremely sure that no one of importance had such an ability! Honestly, it wouldn’t be surprising if the English speaking character was a cannon fodder demon servant who appeared for less than a second.

“If…this one may inquire, who is this subordinate? Perhaps, we know them?” asked Shen Yuan, keeping his nervousness as hidden as he could. Shen Yuan could have sworn that he saw Luo Binghe roll his eyes before he responded.

“His name is Shang Qinghua.”

“Yuan-di, who is he? Is he important?” Shen Chun switched over to English to ask.

“He’s not a super important character, but he was semi-important to the plot since he’s a spy. He’s not meant to know English, it’s never been mentioned that he knows English.”

“How the hell does he know English then?!”

“I don’t know, er-ge! To be fair, his backstory was never really established except that he met Mob…his king when he was a disciple. His backstory was probably written out but then scrapped since that hack of an author would much rather write…explicit scenes than character backstories.”

While they were talking about Shang Qinghua, Luo Binghe gave an order to Sha Hualing before pulling out Xin Mo and disappearing into a portal. The brothers only realised this because Shen Mei, who had been listening intently while also observing Luo Binghe, gestured to them with a nod. For a couple of moments, there was this awkward yet somehow still tense silence as the siblings waited. Shen Yuan felt his fear coming back and he wondered for a brief second what Luo Binghe was going to do.

Sha Hualing gazed over at them before putting her head back on Shen Tiao’s hair. She nuzzled into it until Shen Tiao let out an uncomfortable groan and tried to push her off. Obviously, that didn’t work. Demons were typically a superior race to humans in terms of brute strength so no matter how much strength he put in his pushes, Sha Hualing didn’t even budge a bit. Shen Mei was about to yell at her to get off from him but the familiar red portal appeared again, interrupting her mid-speech. This time Luo Binghe exited it carrying something…or rather someone. Behind him trailed a large ice demon, the blue skin a trademark for the demons that hailed from the North.

The someone who Luo Binghe was carrying was very hamster-like in term of appearance. Chubby cheeks coloured red and large brown eyes swollen with fear. The hamster-like man, wearing an immaculate blue hanfu that probably costed way too much, let out a squeak as he was dropped unceremoniously on the floor. The ice demon let out a grunt in response, his cold eyes glazing over the Shen siblings before going back on Luo Binghe.

“Mole, do you know who these are?”

The man, who was obviously Shang Qinghua, looked over them once, then twice. He blinked rapidly before muttering out a “this was not in the novel” in English. Shen Yuan felt himself perk up in excitement, having barely caught the silent whisper. Before his siblings could say anything, he took the initiative, for once, to speak.

“Novel? Proud Immortal Demon Way?”

Shang Qinghua blinked again before a toothy grin found its way on his semi-adorable face. The urge to squeeze his cheeks was both very embarrassing but also quite appealing.

“Ah, no wonder! You’re transmigrators like me!” His English pronunciation was a little off, Shen Yuan noted, but his English was comprehensible. The Shen siblings nodded in return, all of them suddenly feeling their mood lightened a bit since they were not the only ones cursed to live in a papapa-based novel.

“Nice, nice. No more loneliness for me then. So, you know Proud Immortal Demon Way?”

“We only know very little about it. The only one who has read it is Shen Yuan.” Shen Mei replied from where she was sitting down, pointing at Shen Yuan in a very vague manner. It was really a suspicious action and it felt like the demons’ eyes were all on him, making Shen Yuan feel overwhelmed. He mentally shook of the feeling off though before offering a half-nervous smile.

“How did you like my novel?” At that, Shen Yuan lost his smile. He was about to burst into a rant before his mind reprocessed the question.

“My?”

“Yeah! My novel!”

…

Oh.

Oh.

The emotional turmoil in Shen Yuan erupted like a raging volcano, his anger was like magma, oozing out violently and without a sign of stopping. There was just so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to express, that he had to grab his meimei and squeeze her into a side hug to hold himself back from launching at Shang Qinghua and shaking him to death. All in the while, he launched into a rant while his sister placatingly patted his arms.

“You’re Airplane?! Oh, you hack of an author! Proud Immortal Demon Way had so much potential and you ruined it with stupid papapa – ” Shen Yuan heard Shen Tiao burst out laughing at the censor, much to the demons’ surprise, but he encouraged Shen Yuan to continue with a thumbs up. In the meantime, Shen Chun shook his head disappointingly, but he made no effort to stop Shen Yuan’s rant. “The worldbuilding was so great too! Why did you have to switch it all out for the sake of Bin…of the protagonist getting more damsels?! A harem with six hundred beauties is illogical, stressful to manage and there’s no way L…and there’s no way the protagonist loved them all sincerely!”

Taking a deep breath in, Shen Yuan finally realised that he said everything out loud, in front of an audience. While Shen Yuan did not actually mind telling his rants to the public, he preferred to do so behind a screen. Only his family (and apparently Airplane, since he found that he didn’t really mind ranting about the book to his own face) were allowed to listen to his rants face-to-face. They were all supportive of his rants, no matter what he ranted about. Quite surprising, Shen Tiao was definitely the best person to rant to. His er-ge believed that actions spoke louder than words, but he was an attentive listener. He should had really become a therapist instead of a finance manager.

“…Peerless Cucumber?”

“You know my handle?!”

“THAT’S YOUR HANDLE?!” Shen Chun interjected in shock. Obviously, Shen Chun did not care that his brother made a penis joke as he was an adult, but he did care that his Yuan-di made a penis jokes, his Yuan-di who had always expressed a deep discomfort on anything sexually related to a point where he’d call sex “papapa”. Just by looking at his face, Shen Yuan could tell that Shen Chun was having an existential crisis, probably wondering about ‘when his Yuan-di had become comfortable enough to make a penis joke his public handle.’ Shen Yuan couldn’t blame him, because he actually didn’t feel comfortable with his own online handle despite how hilarious he found it. He had mixed feelings on it.

His handle had been created when he had stolen his mother’s alcohol and drunk himself stupid for the first time at the mere age of seventeen years, hidden away in the privacy of his room late at night. All alone and drunk, Shen Yuan managed to cause as much ruckus as he could without meaning to, his public online handle being one of those things. Sometimes, embarrassment still flooded him whenever he thought of everything he had done back then.

Despite it being a risky dumb decision to drink alone, it had been very liberating. It made Shen Yuan feel happy, to finally not be able to care, even if it only lasted for a little bit.

“Of course I do, bro! You’re like, my biggest fan – ”

“Not your fan.”

“…Okay, you’re like my biggest anti-fan ever. Bro, I loved to read your comments! It was so nice to know that someone actually cared for what I wrote, but ah…sex pays the bills.”

“Disgusting.”

“Bro, Cucumber-bro, please. Your words wound me.”

“Good.”

“Da-ge, look! I raised that boy so well,” Shen Tiao smirked, speaking in Chinese as Shen Yuan continued to insult Shang Qinghua in English. Shen Chun only shook his head disappointingly, muttering about how he was way too old to deal with the rage of his two younger brothers and how Shen Tiao had ruined the poor boy.

While Shen Yuan was bullying Shang Qinghua and Shen Tiao was practically beaming with pure unadulterated pride, the ice demon (who was probably Mobei-Jun) let out a grunt. Luo Binghe turned back to him, one of his eyebrows raised inquiringly. For a couple of moments, Mobei-Jun stayed quiet. His entire personality had been based on cold silence, the sort of silence that makes you feel intimidated, no matter how well you know the person.

“Shang Qinghua had a life before being a disciple at An Ding?” Mobei-Jun finally asked. By no means was the king of the North an idiot, he wouldn’t be a king if he was one, but he also wasn’t the smartest out there either. His entire life revolved around mostly his own present life, never once caring for the past or for the personal life of others. Really, it wasn’t a surprise that he genuinely did not know that his secretary had a life before joining An Ding peak.

Having heard his king ask a question, Shang Qinghua batted away Shen Yuan before turning around. He sheepishly opened his mouth to speak but his nervousness got the better of him as he suddenly closed it. Shang Qinghua’s nervousness was a ticking time bomb, that was contagious, and Shen Yuan suddenly felt nervous himself. Consequently, he quickly took a peek around the room in search for the nearest sibling, who was obviously Shen Mei since she was the one sitting next to him, their bodies still hugging in an awkward way. He pulled a little way from the hug, but brought one of his hands to her hand and squeezed. She squeezed back, sending a reassuring smile at his way.

“Yes, he obviously did. So you know each other?” Luo Binghe told to Mobei-Jun before turning to speak to Shang Qinghua, who let out a yelp at being addressed as he instantly bowed. He answered his question, the hack of an author blatantly lying by nodding his head. He was clearly hoping for the Shen siblings to follow his lead, and honesty they had no reason not to. The only thing they had told Luo Binghe about their past imaginary life was that they were a big family and came from very far away. They let the hack author come up a backstory for them, since he possibly couldn’t mess up the two extremely vague facts.

“Briefly, we did, Junshang. This one lived a couple houses away from them. Our time together had been quite fleeting but that time is still very important to this one.” In affirmation, the Shen siblings all simultaneously made a tiny noise from the back of their throats. If it wasn’t for the demons having heightened senses, they would not have picked up on it. Then, before anyone could do anything, Shen Chun looked at Shang Qinghua and asked him a question in English that seemed reasonable, but there was an underlying emotion to it that made Shen Yuan question why his da-ge was asking this particular question.

“Do you think there are other transmigrators besides us?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe? I had a suspicion that Shen…that the villain was a transmigrator, but he didn’t get any of my internet slang so he’s probably not. You’re the only other transmigrators I’ve met.”

The two eldest brothers exchanged a strange look, talking with just their eyes, while Shang Qinghua, Shen Yuan and Shen Mei just confusingly stayed still. Once again, Shen Yuan felt like there was more to the question, he felt like his brothers were far from pleased at the answer. Why did they look so disappointed, did they want there to be more transmigrators? Did they perhaps want to build a community of transmigrators? Or did they actually miss their past life, despite everything they had said?

“Would you please translate for this one?” Luo Binghe questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He probably brought Shang Qinghua as a translator rather than for the Shen siblings to meet him. He must had caught the solemn looks on Shen Chun and Shen Tiao’s face, however, since his eyes seemed particularly stuck on them. Secrecy was normal, but Luo Binghe did not like secrets. He was not someone who trusted others easily, especially when it came to the majority of the subordinates. Most of them could easily be spies or traitors, anyone of them could be conspiring against him. The ‘trust no one’ mentality was the most prominent mentality in Proud Immortal Demon Way and it was mostly evident in Luo Binghe and, ironically enough, Shen Qingqiu.

Before anyone could come up with a lie to answer with, the ground shook. It shook in light fluctuations before becoming stronger and stronger until the world was properly shaking. Earthquakes did occur in Proud Immortal Demon Way, but they were rare since most occurred whenever something important happened, like the protagonist finding the entrance to an ancient building full of treasures. However, at the current moment, there wasn’t a major plot point happening. No, it was just another normal day with Luo Binghe and Sha Hualing visiting the Shen siblings, with two extra guests. It was just another normal day except there was some tension between all the siblings, namely Shen Mei and Shen Tiao. Everything was fine and normal! There was no reason for an earthquake to be happening, but it still was happening.

Another shadow like the ones from earlier faded in, on the wall behind where Shang Qinghua was standing. The tentacles emerging from it searched and searched, crawling around like a pack of voracious snakes. Mobei-Jun instantly reacted, grabbing Shang Qinghua from the back of his hanfu and roughly tossing him behind him, all while the hamster-like man let out a surprised squeak. Shen Yuan felt his sister stiffen when she saw it. The beginning signs of a panic attack gripped Shen Yuan by the throat as he stiffened like his sister too.

Shen Chun jolted back into Shen Tiao, who let out a string of colourful curses as he stared down at the shadow in astonishment. There was no fear emitting from the second brother, only curiosity. Just like Shen Tiao, none of the demons reacted in fear, but there was caution evident on their faces, especially on Sha Hualing. She stood up, one of her hands gripping harshly in Shen Tiao’s shoulders as she grimaced. For a moment, Shen Yuan thought his brother was about to get sharp nails dug into his skin, but fortunately, Sha Hualing did not lose control. Everyone held their breath for a mere moment as they observed the shadow, as it searched to tear something down.

“What is that?” Sha Hualing finally asked and it was Shen Mei who responded back.

“We’re not sure. It appeared in Yuan-ge’s room and my room earlier. San-ge…will you?”

“Mn, don’t worry. I can deal with it.”

Everyone’s eyes were locked onto Shen Yuan as he took the thing most closest to him. It was Shen Tiao’s bowl of now stale rice. The rice was far from edible now so Shen Tiao probably would not mind. Shen Yuan tried to stand up, but his legs felt like jelly and if he were to force himself to stand up, he’d only fall. Not wishing to embarrass himself, Shen Yuan decided to crawl to the shadow, struggling a little due to the ongoing earthquake. The vibrations had decreased over time but they were still powerful enough to make him feel nausea. When Shen Yuan crawled the right amount of distance, he placed the bowl of rice on the ground before shuffling back to his seat. His meimei latched herself onto him, hugging him from behind and peaking her head from his shoulders as everyone in the room observed the tentacles. Shen Yuan’s breath hitched as one of the tentacles sensed it.

It slithered closer and closer. Then, like a malicious snake, it coiled itself around the bowl and put in enough pressure to make the bowl of rice burst. Plain ceramic pieces exploded all over the place, but fortunately, none of them managed to graze anyone. The rice also got everywhere and from the annoyed glare Shen Yuan was receiving from Shen Chun, he realised that he perhaps chose one of the worst objects to sacrifice. Shen Yuan did not properly think everything through but they would be able to clean it later once the tentacle shadow disappeared. After all, now the shadow would be satisfied from destroying something thus fading away…right?

…right?

So why was it still there, saturated black as night? With its tentacles slithering around and hunting for more? Shen Yuan felt Shen Mei’s tighten her hug before tugging at his hanfu. Her fright was evident in her voice as she whispered him a question about why it didn’t work. Shen Yuan couldn’t be bothered to reply because not even he knew the answer. It worked twice before, but it didn’t now. Perhaps the shadow grew smarter, maybe it figured out that Shen Yuan offering it item in order to drive it away, but the shadow didn’t feel alive. It had no life essence, its tentacles moved with only a single purpose to destroy. The shadow couldn’t possibly become smarter if it had no intellect to begin with. Perhaps it developed a brain? Could inanimate objects that move on their own will even develop a brain? Would they be considered alive then? Did that mean that the shadow was alive despite its lack of life?

Out of the blue, one of the tentacles sprung itself at Shen Yuan’s face. It missed him by a mere few centimetres, close enough to scrape his cheek and cut some loose strands from his hair. The tentacle pierced through the wall, creating a decent-sized hole as wooden splinters cracked. The shadow finally disappeared after destroying an entire bowl of food, damaging Shen Yuan enough to draw some blood and destroying a wall. Shen Yuan felt relieved despite the tingle of pain that probed at his cheek. The earthquake followed after the shadow…disappearing, like it never occurred.

Shen Chun instantly leapt into action when it disappeared, flinging himself over the table to grasp at Shen Yuan’s face and check the scratch. It wasn’t deep, according to him, but there was still some blood oozing out. After checking it over again, Shen Chun stood up and ran to his room in order to bring back some medicinal equipment.

His da-ge’s worry reminded Shen Yuan of when he used to get sick as a child. His da-ge had fussed over him back then, bringing blended versions of Shen Yuan’s favourite foods almost every two hours just so that Shen Yuan could eat. Shen Chun was a great cook, mostly because he used to cook on a daily basis for five people, who all had different tastes. As he was a great cook, Shen Chun ended up cooking the majority of the meals for the Shen siblings with Shen Tiao and Shen Mei sometimes aiding him. Shen Yuan was not allowed in the kitchen since he often caused fires, unless it was to brew tea. While he had zero skills in cooking, his tea brewing was of fine calibre.

While Shen Chun was away, Shen Yuan honestly expected for the demons or Shang Qinghua to demand answers, but no…It was actually Shen Tiao who asked, voice suddenly stricken with panic.

“You two…you two weren’t lying?” Shen Yuan shook his head in response, much to his er-ge’s disbelief. Really, the way Shen Tiao was acting was like he found out that the world was flat and that conspiracy theorists were right, it was honestly rather irrational of him. Shen Tiao was intelligent in many things, but sometimes, he was unwisely dense. Shen Yuan understood him though. Sometimes, it was very difficult to tell truths from lies, thus easily falling for anything untrue while also rejecting anything true.

“…damn…just damn it all.”

“You know, you should really apologise for not believing us. And in the meantime, you can apologise for earlier too.”

“Apologise for what? Weren’t you the one who owed me an apology?”

“Yeah and I did apologise. Now it’s your turn to say sorry and to forgive me.”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“I’m still angry at you, duh.”

“Why?!”

“Meimei, sorry is just a word, it doesn’t erase the hurt I feel. Idiot.”

“You’re the idiot here! Just stop feeling hurt!”

“Meimei, my precious A-Mei. That is not how it works. It’s like telling a person with an eating disorder to just eat. It takes time and effort for it to not hurt. I’m still very angry at you and I will probably stay angry for a couple more days. You’ll need to give me time.”

“…stop being so selfish! I don’t want you to stay angry at me anymore. It’s annoying and frustrating, and look! Everyone’s staring at us and now I feel really embarrassed! This is all your fault, er-ge!”

It was true, Shen Yuan noted. Everyone was staring at the two of them, observing them. Shang Qinghua looked beyond confused as he tried to signal Shen Yuan, probably asking “what the hell was going on” with his hands. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if Shang Qinghua was using sign language or if his hand movements were purely random to demonstrate his confusion, as Shen Yuan did not know sign language. Mobei-Jun just impassively stared alongside Luo Binghe, although Luo Binghe’s had both of his eyebrows furrowed and so a creased formed between them. Sha Hualing was snarling, probably at Shen Mei since there was no way she’d snarl at Shen Tiao.

Then, Shen Yuan belatedly realised that he felt a bit afraid. He really hated confrontations, but he hated seeing his siblings fight more. He desperately wanted to stop them, but what could he say?

The truth was that Shen Yuan could say nothing. He did not have the ability to properly comfort, coax or calm someone, so he could only continue to watch them fight all while silently hoping for Shen Chun to arrive soon. Shen Chun would have a better chance at stopping them than him.

“I’m being selfish for…having emotions? Oh wonderful, next thing you know, you’re going to blame me for mama’s neglectful behaviour.” Shen Tiao rolled his eyes before continuing, “And don’t blame me! You were the one who started this conversation, meimei. You were the one who started it in front of an audience and honestly? I don’t mind continuing it in front of one. I’m totally comfortable with it! If you feel uncomfortable though, you can back off.”

“I did not start it! You did!”

“…Weren’t you the one who mentioned how I needed to apologise and forgive you for before, you stupid delusional brat?! Or is your brain so dead that you’d forget your own words from just a minute ago?!”

“I’m not brain dead! My brain is perfectly alive and well! It’s thinking really hard!”

“I severely doubt that. I bet my entire life that Shen Yuan’s brain works better than yours and he’s autistic.”

That…hurt. A lot. Shen Yuan knew that his brother did not mean to hurt him, but the wording he chose had been utterly poor. Even though he did not mean it in a harmful way, his choice of words implied that Shen Yuan’s brain did not work properly. While that wasn’t the first time Shen Yuan had heard such words about his cognitive behaviour, it hurt a lot more since Shen Tiao had said it. Shen Tiao, his own flesh and blood, who had always supported him despite all the difficulties they encountered. Shen Tiao, who despite his ill-temper, had enough patience to listen to all of Shen Yuan’s rants despite the information dump.

Shen Yuan wondered if perhaps, all this time, his er-ge had found him a nuisance.

“No way! I already told you my brain is fine! It’s alive and well and normal!”

Another pang of hurt coursed through Shen Yuan’s veins. His meimei’s mouth ran before she could even think about it. Usually she had the ability to easily manipulate her words like magic but anger tended to subdue her talent of speech. This typically resulted in her spilling the truth or else, terrible wording. At that moment, Shen Yuan sincerely hoped that it was the latter because if it was the former…well he wouldn’t actually be surprised. It would, however, still painfully consume him and all of his thoughts.

Their fighting became too much after a while. Shen Chun had arrived when things were getting a little too heated, just a couple moments away from punches being thrown. He tried his best to deescalate the fight, but somehow he only provoked it further. Even Shang Qinghua and Sha Hualing, part of the audience who were unwillingly invading on personal matters, joined in to calm down the two Shen siblings. Shen Yuan had disassociated through it, his mind too overwhelmed with stress and emotion.

He was only brought back into the world of reality when he felt a familiar hand run through his hair. The screaming had ceased, but the fierce tension was still present. His da-ge appeared to be very worried, his eyes glazed like they were mourning the death of a beloved. Honestly, that was how Shen Yuan felt. He felt dead. He felt tired, numb. His da-ge turned for a brief second to get his medicinal equipment, that were placed on the table, in order to clean the long forgotten wound on Shen Yuan’s face. As soon as he turned, Shen Yuan stood up and managed to slip back into his room without anyone stopping him.

After closing the door behind him, Shen Yuan just laid in bed. Alone. Waiting for nothing. Time was meaningless. Everything felt meaningless. Shen Yuan really wished…he really wished that they were still living in the modern world. There, his family wouldn’t have fought. They would be happy. He wanted them to be happy.

Holding back for so long only led to Shen Yuan’s sobs sounding extremely choked. His entire body was trembling and it felt like there were needles constantly pricking at his skin. Black spots flickered in Shen Yuan’s vision, disorientating him as the tears continued to pour down. Shen Yuan’s throat constricted on itself, his tongue fell still as it felt a little too heavy to move properly. His mind was consumed by rushing thoughts, some of which were self-deprecating while the others wished for the pain to end. Some of his flashing thoughts were begs; they begged the numbness to swallow him whole.

It felt like someone had wrapped him snug in a weighted blanket, but instead of offering comfort, it suffocated him.

Nothing felt real, nothing was real.

His world turned radio-silent.

(Unbeknownst to Shen Yuan, his retreat left almost everyone feeling sour. Shen Mei, who was still being held back by Shang Qinghua, burst into tears and started yelling at Shen Tiao, pointing at him and blaming him for everything. Shen Tiao only looked away in guilt. Sha Hualing sneered at Shen Mei, but as much as she wanted to berate her, she stayed silent. She knew that she did not have a right to speak as she was an outsider.

Shen Chun practically dragged his younger siblings to their own respective rooms before begging Luo Binghe for forgiveness due to his siblings’ behaviour. Luo Binghe only nodded, not bothering to punish any of them, as he enjoyed being able to further study the Shen siblings and their overall dynamic. He did however, ask about the fight and the strange shadow that appeared from nowhere. Shen Chun recounted back Shen Yuan had told him on the shadow, but he refused to elaborate on the arguments. The four guests were soon forced to leave as Shen Chun became antsier by the second.)

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan woke up in the middle of the night (or perhaps it was in the middle of the day? he couldn’t exactly tell) due to a mind-throbbing migraine. His hazel eyes felt heavy, his body felt stiffer than a corpse. When he tried to move his body, he groaned in pain and gave up halfway. Everything blurred into each other, his senses mingled together in confusing particles. For a second, Shen Yuan thought he heard colours and saw wisps of silent noise, he thought he felt the bitter taste of medicine on the tips of his fingers while he tasted the lit-up candles glowing outside his room. He could still smell his distress from earlier, slithering inside his nostrils and leaving behind a moist path that left him feeling more uncomfortable than ever.

Another throaty groan escaped his lips as the heat prickled at his sensitive skin… or was is it actually frost crawling all over him? Was Shen Yuan feeling hot or cold? Was he feeling a mixture of both? He couldn’t tell. His head felt on fire but his body was shivering from the cold…Shen Yuan really didn’t know, no matter how much he tried to understand. He didn’t know anything. All he wanted to do at that moment was to fall asleep again, to exit the living world and to live forever in the dreamworld, where he could lucid dream and do whatever he pleased with zero repercussions. He just wanted to escape.

Sleep taunted him drearily but refused to come. Shen Yuan had no idea how much time passed before his door creaked open. Each second felt like hours and each minute felt like days. It was like taking in a fresh breath in the unpolluted forest areas when Shen Chun appeared, carrying a tray of who knows what. There was a soft fiery glow coming from behind him, softening the broad edges of Shen Chun’s form. The door was left open as Shen Chun moved inside and towards the table, swiping away the clatter on top to place the tray down. He then grabbed one of the bowls from the tray and moved over next to Shen Yuan’s bed. An aroma of sour herbs soon wafted through the room, making Shen Yuan scrunch up his nose in displeasure.  Then, Shen Chun softly spoke, his voice gently carrying all the worry he had haunting him.

“Yuan-di, you’re awake?”

Shen Yuan wished that he could respond, but his tongue felt a bit too heavy and his jaw was fixed in place. Shen Yuan instead replied by nodding as best as he could without moving too much. The more he moved, the more pain he felt. Despite the slight movement, Shen Chun still managed to notice it so he continued to speak.

“You have a fever so I brought you some medicine. How do you feel?”

Shen Yuan tried to open his mouth to speak, tried to will out his voice to flow out, but it was frustratingly impossible to do so. Nothing wanted to work properly, his own body was against his orders. Instead, Shen Yuan responded once again by moving. It was achingly painful to bring his arm up and make a thumbs down gesture; his bones creaked and his muscle constrained. At his response, Shen Chun brought his cool hand over to Shen Yuan’s forehead and felt for his temperature before letting out a concerned sigh.

“Ah. That’s…bad. Do you think you can sit up? You need to drink the medicine, it should alleviate the fever a little bit. I should mention that its side-effects are restlessness and some mild nausea, so be prepared for that.”   

Every little movement exhausted Shen Yuan as he struggled to sit up. For a mere moment, Shen Chun let him try before gesturing him to stop. He would have helped Shen Yuan, but after taking care of Shen Yuan so many times, he’d learnt that he much preferred to not be treated like he was incapable. Shen Yuan was glad that his da-ge remembered such a small fact, as it had been years since the last time he had properly gotten sick.

The smell of herbs suddenly came even closer as Shen Chun held the bowl to Shen Yuan’s mouth. He parted his lips slightly, just enough to take a sip before instantly whipping his head away in utter disgust. The sour tang of the medicine only worsened when the aftertaste revealed its foul self. A silent bemused chuckle left Shen Chun’s throat as he cooed out comforting words to get Shen Yuan to drink all of the medicine.

The coaxing worked wonderfully, Shen Chun had more than enough practise in the arts of manipulating patients into drinking their medicine. Dealing with fussy patients on a day to day basis actually led to him developing multiple tactics to sooth his patients and the one that worked the most involved cooing and praising his patients. It almost always worked like a charm, especially on Shen Yuan specifically. In fact, Shen Yuan would not be surprised if his da-ge could manipulate someone into drinking poison on their own will.

(Despite being less than trustworthy and far from a doctor, Shen Mei would definitely manage to manipulate someone to drink poison if she wanted to, unlike Shen Chun, whose chances were not as certain. Manipulation was easy for someone like her, though Shen Mei was stable enough to not purposefully use such underhanded tricks.)

“Good job, Yuan-di. Now, is it fine if I stay in your room for the night? I want to make sure that your condition doesn’t get worse, but I wouldn’t mind leaving if you’re not comfortable with it. I will still need to come check up on you as much as possible, though.”

Shen Yuan only gave an aching thumbs up in consent. He didn’t mind his da-ge staying and, actually, he really did want him to stay. His da-ge mentioned that restlessness was one of the side-effects, though Shen Yuan was already feeling restless to begin with. Shen Yuan knew that he would get bored really easily if he was to be left alone, since he couldn’t even move a muscle without feeling like someone threw him against a brick wall. His da-ge’s company would surely lessen some of the boredom, even if his da-ge perhaps decided that he’d stay silent the whole night.

Shen Chun only smiled back before walking back to the table. He put the bowl back onto the tray, moving it to the side, before sitting down and pulling out a book of blank bamboo papers from the sleeves of his hanfu. It actually surprised Shen Yuan, the fact that his brother wasn’t wearing his inner-robes despite it being so late at night (he also chose to ignore the fact that he only realised it now. His senses were still quite muddled).

A little bit after Shen Chun had settled down, the older brother turned to look at the younger brother stuck in bed and asked if he could use his ink. Having no qualms against it, Shen Yuan only nodded in agreement and continued to stare at the ceiling, wondering if he could spot details that could only be seen if one observed well enough. For a moment, there was the sound of ink being grinded. It was a rhythmic pattern that surprisingly made Shen Yuan feel more relaxed, not to a point where he’d fall asleep, but his mind enjoyed it. Then, there was the hum of silence and sometimes the occasional rustling of paper as Shen Chun wrote.  

Then, the stillness was broken.

“Tiao-di and meimei aren’t doing that great right now. They started quarrelling after you retreated so I had to separate them. None of them have come out from their room since then, but I checked up on them multiple times…sometimes they act worse than little children…But I can’t blame them either. They’re both technically right. Yuan-di, I’m curious…do you think our mama is a villain?”

When his da-ge turned back to look at him, Shen Yuan nodded.

“I see. Do you hate her?”

Thinking made Shen Yuan feel sore, but he did not wish to answer the question rashly. Hate…was considered too strong of a word, just like love was, and after a little of thinking, Shen Yuan shook his head. Did he dislike his mama? Sure. Did he hate her? No, the woman wasn’t the greatest person out there, but she wasn’t the worst either.

“That’s surprising, but it’s good. That means you’re less partial unlike Tiao-di and meimei. One hates mama so much that he refuses to even listen to her side of the story and the other loves mama so much that she refuses to acknowledge her wrongdoings.

Mama…she wasn’t the best mother but she wasn’t a complete villain either. She did genuinely care for all of us, but after everything she’d been through…it’s understandable why she became the way she is. Wait, Yuan-di, do you mind if I rant to you about her? I really need to get this off my chest, but I don’t want to overwhelm since you’re in a bit of a bad state.”

The bad state that Shen Chun was referring to could be many things. Shen Yuan’s distress from earlier or his illness. His restlessness. His mind’s fogginess. His inability to speak, thus lacking the ability to properly express his own thoughts. Despite his multiple bad states, Shen Yuan felt curiosity gnaw at him. He suddenly really wished to know his da-ge’s full opinion on their mama, so he gave another thumbs up. Shen Yuan silently hoped that he would not get overwhelmed.

“Alright. So, get this. Our mama was a very good mama to me and Tiao-di. She loved us, played with us and took us out on trips. She was the best mama anyone could ask for! However, after the death of…someone in our family, everything just went terribly wrong. Our baba suddenly suspected mama of cheating because Tiao-di apparently looked way too different to be his son. Off topic, but I have to mention that our baba was wrong. Genetics are very weird and Shen Tiao does share some resemblances to him. Our baba is far from stupid, but he was very ignorant at times.

Anyway, so they had you. And then they had meimei. But baba was still not convinced so after a while, he divorced mama. Mama won the custody and baba had to pay child support, not that it really mattered since mama is so rich. But mama…well, she became depressed despite all the money. It was around the time when you were one years old, a little after meimei was born.

I still remember how, sometimes, she’d take out a wine bottle from one of the top cabinets. She never drank from it, I think because she was still breastfeeding you and meimei and she didn’t want to harm either of you, but her depression was becoming so bad that she ended up working overtime to try and forget the pain. It’s why she left you in our custody all the time. She would have gotten a babysitter, but from the stories mama used to tell us of her childhood, she apparently had very bad experiences with them.

Mama basically made her job her therapy, even though proper therapy would have been a much greater help. I had asked her multiple times about getting it but she always refused it. I don’t know why, really. I wonder if she would have gotten better if she did go to therapy.

The more time passed, the deeper mama fell into depression, especially when baba went missing. Even after everything, she was still very madly in love with him. He was her everything and suddenly, he was just nothing. Her job took over her life even more, but she did care for us. I remember her tears when she found out what happened to Tiao-di. By then, Tiao-di had already given up on her and refused to accept her apologies, but still. She still wept and cried and promised to be a better mother.

I’m not sure if you remember, but when you were on your death bed when you were six, she had been abroad because of work. I remember how much she wept on the phone, how much she begged me to wake you up and put you on the line so she could listen to your voice another time, at least just one last time.

I know that mama was very harsh on you, especially when it came to your studies. She did have unrealistic expectations of you. She did love you though. She loved you so much. She loved us all, but after everything…I think love was too hard for her to properly feel and express without becoming a total mess.”

Shen Chun stopped speaking for a few moments, taking in shuddering breaths before he continued.

“Then came the bastard Lu Peng. He totally manipulated her, and I tried to tell mama. She didn’t listen to me though. She never did. She said that I was out to ruin her love life just like my ‘dead-beat dad’ did. But back when she was with baba, she had been happy. With Lu Peng, she definitely wasn’t. She didn’t smile like she used to, or sing or hum. Somehow, she became even more worse than she already had been. It’s still so frustrating to think about! She’s just so stubborn.

…None of this excuses her behaviour nor should it warrant any pity from us as we were victims, however it does explain everything. Having an explanation is better than nothing, it’s comforting in a twisted way. She was still terrible, she still neglected all four of us from proper love, but mama didn’t mean to be evil either. She tried her best, but her best did not always include us.

One thing I know for certain though is that she did want us to be successful and happy. It’s why she was so strict on our education, so we would turn out to be intelligent and not fall for tricks like our baba had, or like she had. Perhaps, her way of showing love to us was in the form of strict standards. I definitely don’t agree with the way she’d shun us when we failed to meet them, but at the same time, she was just trying to look out for us…I’m just making up excuses for her, aren’t I? Sometimes, I’m no better than meimei. I don’t admit it a lot, you know, but I do love mama. I love her so much that it hurts because I should hate her since she hurt me so much.

…I’m speaking too much, aren’t I? Sorry if I flooded you with information Yuan-di, sometimes I forget that its harder for you to process information, especially since this topic is very mentally exhausting. I’m mentally exhausted myself!

Basically, all you need to know is mama wasn’t a good person but she wasn’t a bad person either. She loved us, but her way of showing it was really terrible.”

The sudden dump of information was expectedly overwhelming as Shen Yuan’s brain ran to catch up and process it all. At first, he couldn’t understand. The words felt as though as they were dancing in the air, twinkling in bright colours that only led to even more confusion. Soon, they stopped dancing and became clearer and clearer, until Shen Yuan finally understood.

If he were in a cartoon, Shen Yuan would have had his jaw drop all the way to the dirty floor (or bed in this case, since he was literally stuck in it) with his eyes awestruck and nostrils flared, but of course, his life was not a cartoon. He was a real human being. His face did no such dramatic reaction, instead his mouth turned into an o-shape as he felt himself tilt his own head a smidge to the side.  The realisation slowly set in.

Everything suddenly made sense. His mama’s rare smiles, her eyebags that made her look thrice her actual age, the adoring glances she sent all his siblings behind their back. What about him? Did his mama also send adoring glances towards him, behind his back, despite the harsh mask she put on whenever she was around him? Shen Chun did mention something about her still loving Shen Yuan despite her cold demeanour towards him, but how could his da-ge know for sure…unless their mama told him personally. It wouldn’t be surprising if they did. While Shen Mei loved mama the most, Shen Chun had been the closest to her. He actually had video-chatted her every single day after he moved out at the ripe age of twenty five years old.

Confusion bubbled as everything that Shen Yuan knew and didn’t know about his mama battled in a heated puzzling war. Nothing made sense, and truly speaking, Shen Yuan did not have the energy to figure anything out. Instead, his mind wanted him to fall asleep. Even his eyes threatened to shut fully for his well-deserved rest and leave his da-ge waiting for some sort of response that would never come. Luckily, Shen Yuan managed to let out a noncommittal hum before closing his eyes.

“Sorry Yuan-di, I must have tired you out…wait no, that’s actually good, you need to rest. Strange though, the medicine’s side effects don’t seem to be affecting you that much. I should note this down, I’ll study into it later. For  now however…” his voice trailed off only to accidentally rouse again in deep concentration.

“The Hundred-footed Kangaroo Dragon are so strange. Even though they’re herbivores, they have over a thousand teeth with half of them being sharp canines. Their liver apparently has the ability to unblock blockage in the fallopian tube, blockage specifically caused by calcium. I don’t think that’s right…Since when does calcium block the fallopian tubes? Did I miss out on a lesson back in med school? I don’t think so. Wait, what? This doesn’t make any sense? Why does the liver of the Hundred-footed Kangaroo Dragon also strengthen the bones? Isn’t calcium broken down by it? It should make the bones weaker not stronger!”

As much as Shen Yuan wished to continue listening to his brother rant about the illogical biology of the beasts in Proud Immortal Demon Way (their unrealistic biology was one of the reasons why Shen Yuan fell in love with them. It incensed him but it intrigued him as well, their biology was so diverse compared to the animals he’d studied during his veterinary course), his body finally decided to sleep. His eyelids settled, his breaths slowed and his heartbeat thumped peacefully against his ribcage, as sleep finally overtook him. 

-

When Shen Yuan awoke the next morning, he woke to his da-ge shaking his shoulders lightly. The peaceful smile adorning his face was a mask, and Shen Yuan was all too familiar with masks. With the way his lower lip slightly jotted out, Shen Yuan could tell that something was troubling Shen Chun. Anxious thoughts rushed through his mind as seeing his brother so distressed, to a point where he tried to cover it up, made Shen Yuan ache. He wished to help him, to relieve all his problems and to hug him tight. However, Shen Chun refused to speak out on his worries.

“Good morning, Yuan-di. It’s almost noon. How do you feel?”

Surprisingly, after mentally taking a look over himself, Shen Yuan found out that he felt great. He felt well-rested. There was no fever that made him feel like a furnace, there was no nausea disorientating him and his tongue felt lighter than a feather. His jaw did not throb in a locked position and his voice was waiting patiently to be used. When he spoke, Shen Yuan’s voice came out a tad hoarse but it felt wonderful to be able to speak again.

“I-I’m fine, da-ge. I think the medicine really helped. How are…” Shen Yuan originally wanted to ask about his meimei and er-ge, but taking another look at his da-ge made Shen Yuan change his mind. Other than the fake smile, he noted the dark rings under his da-ge’s eyes, which were glossed over in exhaustion, and his messy hair, which was not put up as neatly as usual. His dark green hanfu, which was both new and different from the one he wore the other day already looked scuffed up at the edges. Loose threads hung uselessly, the perfect tailoring of it brought to ruin. If the talented tailor was to see what happened to their masterpiece, they would have been brought to endless tears. 

Overall, Shen Chun just looked awful.

“How are you?” Shen Yuan finally asked.

“Me? Old, tired, but I’m fine.”

“Alright…what about…What about er-ge and meimei? Are they still asleep?”

“Meimei woke up first and she’s been out in the village since sunrise, actually. She said that she wanted to recharge herself. Tiao-di woke up not long ago. I spoke to him about…everything. He’s still a little angry at meimei, but he’s calmed down quite a bit. Right now, he should be cultivating. That’s what he told me he’d be doing.”

Shen Yuan nodded along, with his mind drifting at the end as he noticed the amount of papers on his table. They’d increased heavily, evidence that his da-ge spent the majority of his night in Shen Yuan’s room, working his health away, and probably losing track of time one too many times. Of course, Shen Yuan did not mind this. In fact, he was quite happy that his da-ge stayed by his side, undoubtedly to take care of him in case Shen Yuan woke up feeling extremely unwell. His heart swelled at the thought of his compassionate da-ge taking care of him again, from both nostalgia and adoration.

“Yuan-di, do you need any help getting up from bed?”

“Mn, no. It’s okay, da-ge. I told you I’m fine.”

“Alright, alright. How do you feel mentally though?”

“Really tired, but I’ll be fine. I’ve dealt with worse.”

They continued to make small talk, as Shen Yuan got out of bed and changed out of his hanfu into a simple pale yellow hanfu one, after his da-ge obviously left the room. At first, he debated between wearing the pale yellow hanfu or the blue hanfu he wore the first time. Both of them were just like the grey hanfu that he tragically lost to the shadow the other day. They both had no elaborate designs and were his favourites due to their comfortable fabric. He ended up settling on the pale yellow hanfu because it was also not stupidly complicated to put on, since there was a lack of extra ties.

Despite the door being in the way, they still spoke to one another, though it was a little muffled. It was mostly Shen Yuan who spoke; his response to everything that Shen Chun told him during the night before. He expressed his own thoughts as briefly as he could on the matter, how he was confused as he did originally view their mother as a villain but now…he really didn’t know what to think of her. Reassurances were sounded his way, as Shen Chun only told him that his feelings were valid and did not need to change as long as he stayed open-minded about their mother, to which Shen Yuan easily agreed.  

Then, he exited his room and the two brothers went outside under the blazing sun. They found Shen Tiao, in his inner robes, circling his qi outside his body. A brown miasma surrounded him, representing the spiritual qi being turned into earth qi. Then, the qi all moved to a medium-sized stone and slowly, the stone began vibrating. The sudden appearance of Shen Chun and Shen Yuan did not distract him as his senses were intentionally blocked off. Instead, his concentration only increased tenfold as he began to manipulate the stone, levitating it and swaying it gently with the air before powerfully throwing it towards a tree. The stone managed to hit one of the tree’s branches, completely decapitating it from the trunk and thus destroying any nest found on it.

Shen Tiao opened his eyes to see the results, only to be met by his brothers staring at him from the entrance to the house. He leaped upwards, completely ignoring what he was meant to do in favour of striding towards them, before opening his arms wide to engulf Shen Yuan in an unexpected hug. Shen Yuan hugged back, a little confused but extremely pleased. Hugging was an action always welcomed by Shen Yuan, especially when they came from his siblings.

“Sorry Yuan-di. Your er-ge was very stupid yesterday. Sorry for troubling you. Are you okay? Da-ge said that you got sick. Sorry. Very sorry.”

“Ah, er-ge, it’s fine! It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“Are you still struggling with changing your qi?” Shen Chun asked, which made Shen Tiao let go of Shen Yuan as he looked over to his older brother. Shen Yuan gazed over to where his brother had destroyed the branch. It was blown to smithereens, splinters bending awkwardly and snapping apart due to pressure.

“A little. There’s definitely been an improvement from two months ago, but it’s still difficult. I can soon create rocks from thin air though, just like meimei can with fire!”

“That’s actually great! Yuan-di and I are in a similar position too, but it’s still hard for me to control the plants. They go out of control, sometimes. Maybe I’m just too old for cultivation. That aside, we should all head to the village soon to meet up with meimei and eat breakfast…lunch. There’s something Tiao-di and I wish to tell you both, actually.”

“What is it?” Shen Yuan asked, only to be shunned by both of his brothers. It was pretty obvious that they were not going to tell him now, despite his curiosity, but at least Shen Yuan tried. Then, Shen Tiao excused himself to hastily go change out of his inner robes, and so he escaped back into the house.

Meanwhile, Shen Chun walked over to the tree that was harmed by Shen Tiao and started to slowly cultivate his spiritual qi into plant qi, before trying to regrow the branch back as best as he could. Dark green miasma, its shade matching completely his hanfu, was forced onto the trunk. Shen Yuan observed him, noting how his hands shivered under the pressure, as a wispy branch managed to pop out from the trunk. Compared to the original branch, it looked way inferior. Nonetheless, the tree still rejoiced at having its wound covered and a branch back, while Shen Chun retreated back in pride.

“Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? Yuan-di, try growing some leaves!”

Shen Yuan nodded and stepped forward. Spiritual qi thrummed through his meridians before rushing out from his body, leaving behind a cool emptiness. Shen Yuan’s fingertips trembled as his mind willed the spiritual qi to manifest itself into plant qi. At first, Shen Yuan felt his qi wavering unsteadily but he quickly regained control over it until a green fog surrounded his body. The green fog that surrounded him was a lighter shade compared to his da-ge’s.

Shen Yuan then redirected the fog onto the baby branch and imagined growing leaves. His mind, for once, focused on that singular thought until the fog did his bidding. The fog shaped itself into multiple leaves and then disappeared into the branch. Shen Yuan circled his elemental qi more until it became condensed and then, Shen Yuan could feel it. The leaves were ready to be born.

They emerged, large and bright, gleaming with life. It was a bountiful bunch, all different shades of green and different sizes. Compared to his da-ge, who only made a wimpy branch, Shen Yuan created enough bright leaves to feed a starving giraffe full. His da-ge whistled in surprised delight.

“That’s a huge improvement from last time. I would be jealous if I actually cared about my own cultivation.”

“Da-ge…”

“What? Stop looking at me like that Yuan-di. I’m too old for your judgement.”

“And I’m too young to deal with your constant complaining about your age.”

“…Fair enough…Tiao-di, you ready?”

Shen Yuan looked past Shen Chun’s shoulder to see Shen Tiao standing behind him menacingly, his face creased up as he scrutinised the sad-looking branch and the leaves that looked out of place. Shen Yuan hadn’t even sensed Shen Tiao yet his da-ge somehow did. Then, Shen Tiao gave a thumbs up in a pleased manner and also to confirm that he was ready.  

“Yes. Can we go to the teahouse from last time? I want their tea. They brew it good.” The teahouse he was speaking about was the one owned by Guo Hong; the one that brewed, served and even sold packets of their famous Wistful Wisteria tea brew.

“Sure, but only after we find Mei-mei.” As soon as he said that, Shen Chun walked in fast paces, leaving behind his younger brothers. The more he walked far into the distance and down the mountain, the smaller his form became despite his broad shoulders that typically took up a lot of space, but in a non-intimidating way. Shen Tiao grabbed Shen Yuan’s wrist gently, you’d think with his temper he’d be rougher but that was far from the truth when it came to his siblings, and he pulled Shen Yuan so that they could follow behind their da-ge.

They quickly caught up to him and it only took them around thirty minutes of nonstop walking before they arrived at the village. The demons living in it long had dropped their illusions when it came to the Shen siblings, and the siblings actually liked it very much. At first, there was a tense air between them. The Shen siblings had been tricked and potentially could have been grinded into demon food, but after a while of visiting the village on a daily basis (except for Shen Yuan who only went down a couple of times because his da-ge forced him too), the Shen siblings grew fond of the demons just like the demons had gotten shockingly fond of them.

(They actually had already grown to love the Shens when they had first appeared. Each Shen sibling was interesting in their own respective right, their personalities endearing enough to move the demons’ lonesome hearts. It took the four Shen siblings a long time to figure this fact out).

When they entered the village, the demons outside greeted them in their own cultural way and the three Shen brothers greeted back in the same manner, having long since grown to the beauty of the demonic culture the village practised. A group of elderly demonic women stopped them and gave them a box of treats, to which Shen Tiao instantly tried one. Praises instantly were spewed out of his mouth, happy that he was finally eating something that apparently tasted delicious enough to warrant his rare compliments. The elderly women only giggled bashfully in response and Shen Chun took the chance to ask them if they had seen their sister.

One of them nodded and told them that she saw Shen Mei speaking to the village chief half a sichen ago. Then, she pointed to the direction of where they were, in the direction to the village chief’s house. Shen Chun thanked them and then had to drag Shen Tiao away, who lost himself in gobbling down all the treats. Shen Yuan followed and tried multiple times to steal a sweet from the box, but his hand only got mildly slapped away by his er-ge, who glared at his way with playfully mean hazel eyes.

They quickly arrived near the small bamboo house that belonged to Jia Jiaping, his house looked so modest despite him being the most powerful demon in Illusion village. Right outside his front door was the demon himself and Shen Mei, with Shen Mei’s mouth moving without a break. The closer the three brothers got to them, the clearer her voice became, until they could understand everything she was saying.

“…to the rumours, its smell can attract any prey from a twenty li radius. It will certainly be easier for the village hunters to attract prey using it. Jia Laoban, this one begs you to reconsider the ban on Crystal Water Cucumbers.”

“Shen Xiaojiejie, as I mentioned earlier, this one refuses to reconsider. The Crystal Water Cucumbers have their benefits but their disadvantages outweighs them.”

“Their only disadvantage is that their fumes are toxic to Five-Horned Passion Goats and Twenty-Eyed Silvered Spider Monkeys.”

“Exactly. The Crystal Water Cucumbers would drive them away causing irreversible damage to the ecosystem. Demons do thrive in the wild, but here, we have long gotten used to living like humans. If any damage is done to the ecosystem, we will all suffer. I’m sorry, but I have to reject your request.”

“Not only just that,” Shen Yuan couldn’t help himself when he was within range, he just had to say this! His overdriven mind begged to relish in letting go all the information stored in his brain, and Shen Yuan was not going to refuse it, “Crystal Water Cucumbers have a mineral inside them that makes them incompatible with White Demon Sapphires, which is one of this village’s best seller. Bringing in Crystal Water Cucumbers would end up destroying this village’s economy.”

“Shen Yishi, Shen Xianshengs, greetings.”

“San-ge! Da-ge!…Er-ge. What a surprise to see you three all out. At once. Without me dragging you along. What’s the occasion?”

“Good day to you too Jia Laoban. We actually came here for our meimei, as lunch is soon and we should gather up as a human family, per usual,” Shen Chun explained as Shen Tiao hid behind him with a scowl on his face. Despite what Shen Chun had said earlier, Shen Tiao still looked very mad at Shen Mei rather than just a little. Fatigue creeped up Shen Yuan’s back and for once in his life, he understood why his da-ge felt old all the time. Just some exhaustion, due to his siblings, made Shen Yuan feel like an ancient old man babysitting twenty grandchildren at once.

“Then it would be best for Shen Xiaojiejie to go now as I understand how important family time is to humans. Though, before you leave…Shen Xiansheng, I never expected you to be interested in the economy of our village.” There were two Shen Xianshengs; Shen Tiao and Shen Yuan, but it was obvious who Jia Jiaping was referring to.

“You think highly of this lowly one, this one is not interested in economy whatsoever, however this one did realise that it would be impacted which is why I mentioned it.”

“Is that so? Well, this one, as the village chief, still appreciates the thought. Ah, look at the time. I apologise for holding you all back and I sure hope you have a wonderful lunch.”  

The four Shen siblings said their farewell, before Shen Chun turned and took the lead by heading into the direction of the teahouse. Shen Tiao continued to stick behind him, refusing to meet Shen Mei’s gaze, who trailed behind them alongside Shen Yuan. The sister spoke, asking what was going on. While the Shen siblings did typically eat together, it wasn’t because of family values but more so due to convenience. There were many instances when the Shen siblings did not eat together, such as when they lived in different apartments or when one of them got hungry before the rest. Shen Chun had lied to Jia Jiaping, and surprisingly enough, his lie was believed in an instant. Perhaps Jia Jiaping was a naïve demon, a terrible trait to have no matter your species.

“Tiao-di and I have something to tell you both and I believe it’d be best to tell you it over food and tea. Plus I’m starving and I’m not in the mood to cook.”

“Oh? What is it you want to tell us?”

“It’s best if we tell you over food and tea, our secret…well it may upset you. Especially since we’ve kept this a secret from both of you since you were born even though it’s important.”

“Da-ge! Just tell us!”

“It’s family-related…Look, we’re almost at the teahouse! Let’s order Wistful Wisteria tea and their famous Burnt Cacao pastries. I heard they’re quite good!”

Chapter Text

Until their Wistful Wisteria tea and Burnt Cacao pastries were delivered to their table, Shen Chun and Shen Tiao both refused to even utter a sentence on the matter. As curious as Shen Yuan was, he was slowly becoming even more frustrated by the minute. He hated waiting, especially when the nervous butterflies in his stomach were fluttering frantically. It was only after Guo Hong had placed down their order on the table and left, that the two eldest brothers shared a look of grimace. Shen Chun then let out a sigh that probably costed him seventy years of his life with how deep it was.

“Could you two just get to the point? Please?”

“…Sorry meimei. Well, the thing is…it’s a little complicated and you’re going to be angry at us…probably. So, anyway…here’s the thing…it’s…”

“If you don’t get to the point right now, I’m leaving. And, I won’t pay my share of the bill.”

“Our da-ge is a twin!” suddenly shouted Shen Tiao, not loud enough to attract other people’s attraction but still a shout nonetheless. Finally, he had revealed the truth…of Shen Chun being a twin?! What?! Since when was their da-ge a twin?! “We’re not four siblings, we’re five. He died when he was nine though.”

That was not definitely the revelation Shen Yuan was expecting, in fact, it completely caught him off guard. He felt more than just flabbergasted and Shen Mei looked like it too as her eyes grew bloodshot and her mouth gaped wide, enough for a dozen of flies to enter with no obstacles whatsoever. Yet, her shocked expression quickly disappeared and instead, she put on a more neutral mask. Gracefully like a swan, she sipped some of her tea. Shen Yuan decided to let Shen Mei take the lead, following her same exact actions to a dot except he was ungraceful like a swan on steroids. His aloof mask was, however, way better than hers due to years of daily practise.

“Elaborate. Please?”

“Right, right. What Tiao-di has said is correct. I have an identical twin, Shen Qiu is his name. He died in an…accident when we were nine. Yuan-di, yesterday night I mentioned that after someone in our family died, our baba suspected mama of cheating and you know the rest…well, that someone was…it was Qiu-di. It was technically because Qiu-di died that you two were born. One soul for two?” 

The progress was steadily slow, but Shen Chun was slowly becoming the worst conversationalist out of the Shen siblings.

 Shen Yuan dropped his aloof mask when his da-ge mentioned that their birth came at the cost of their brother’s death; it filled Shen Yuan with undeserved guilt. Likewise, Shen Mei’s mask also dropped yet her face contorted into beautiful rage, strong enough to perhaps cause a natural disaster.

“And you’re only telling us this now?!”

“Well…yes? We wished to tell you before, but, well, many things got in the way, like your age and studies and other stuff.”

“Why now?”

“Huh?”

“Why are you telling us now? Why not just never let us know, since that was what you were obviously planning since the beginning!”

“We weren’t planning anything! We did want to tell you, meimei, Yuan-di. Life just…gets in the way sometimes. Tiao-di and I…well we suspect that Lord Luo’s shizun is…Qiu-di. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest it.”

Shen Yuan’s eyebrows perked in interest as he leaned over and asked what the evidence was. Shen Chun frowned slightly before he replied clearly, “Well, we already know that transmigration is possible and Shang Qinghua said that he suspected the villain being a transmigrator. His suspicions were never proven to be either correct or incorrect, since he didn’t have any evidence for either. His behaviour was weird enough to be dubious but he did not know internet slang. If it is Shen Qiu, then it actually makes sense why he doesn’t know any internet slang since he did die before any of the popular slang terms became popular. Also, Lord Luo mentioned his similarity to us all and that is something worth considering.”

The evidence was far from solid but it did make sense, so Shen Yuan nodded along in understanding. Somehow, this enquired Shen Mei’s ire as she slammed a fist on the table, eyes glaring heavily at the two eldest brothers.

“San-ge, you’re okay with this?! Aren’t you angry that they kept this from us?!”

“I admit I am a little bit angry, but I’m more curious about their theory. If, let’s say, Shen Qiu really did transmigrate into the scum villain…why did he follow the storyline? Why did he push Bing- Lord Luo in the abyss? How would his transmigration even work anyway? Airplane died not long before us while Shen Qiu died ages ago and I’m pretty sure the age difference between Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu isn’t much. Unless Airplane transmigrated as an adult Shang Qinghua and Shen Qiu transmigrated into baby Shen Qingqiu, than that would make sense. Did he ever mention when he did transmigrate?”

“THAT doesn’t matter right now, San-ge! You! You kept this from us! You kept Shen Qiu a secret from us! You stopped us from mourning, from grieving! How dare you?!”

“I’m sorry meimei! It slipped from our minds!”

“Someone’s death, especially A BROTHER’S, doesn’t just slip from your mind!”

Shen Tiao, who had been quiet up to this point as he was busy drinking and eating, spoke up. His tone was harsh, sharp enough to cut everything into perfect edges. “Meimei, shut up. Just. Shut up. For once in your life, stop being a loud selfish brat and listen to us. Anyway, da-ge and I want to meet up with Shen Qingqiu, to see if we’re right. Do you want to join?”

“You! You shut up! God, I hate all of you! You all suck like every other men out there! I’m leaving!”

Abruptly, Shen Mei stood up. Her boots clicked heavily against the floorboards as she walked out of the establishment with angered grace. Meanwhile, Shen Chun instantly apologised to the customers for disturbing them while Shen Tiao drunk his remaining tea and stuffed a pastry in his mouth before getting up and chasing after her. Guo Hong approached them, clearly annoyed with to their disruptions despite his calm façade, and Shen Chun paid him for the tea and food. If Shen Yuan saw him giving the owner some extra silver coins in apologies, then he chose not to comment as he waited for his da-ge to finish up.

A part of him lamented on the fact that he didn’t get to drink his tea and enjoy snacking on the pastries, but there was an ongoing tensions between his siblings that seemed to only become worse as more time passed. Sneaking a peak over at the table, Shen Yuan noted that both his da-ge’s and meimei’s tea were mostly untouched, his meimei having drunk perhaps a sip more than Shen Chun. So much tea was going to waste, and although Shen Yuan was not food-obsessed (or rather, tea-obsessed) it still hurt to see it all to go to waste. At that moment, Shen Yuan understood his er-ge’s sentiments with not wasting food.

Shen Chun bumped against his shoulder in order to noiselessly bring him out of his thoughts and tell him that he was ready to go.

The two brothers exited the teahouse in the same-mirrored frantic manner, eyes darting and their senses heightened. Shen Chun was the one to notice Shen Tiao’s quick fading figure in the direction of their house and so, the two brothers followed after him. Whenever they bumped into someone, they let out an apology but they refused to stop moving. Their legs carried them as far as they could and soon, Shen Yuan felt his legs burst in agony. Not being a physically active person had its hindrances, such as feeling weak legs weakening, to a point where they felt like they were a minute away from breaking, and  being out of breath. Slowness was another hindrance, as Shen Yuan was unintentionally losing speed unlike his da-ge, who somehow seemed to only go faster and faster.

Stopping to just take a quick breather, Shen Yuan glanced up at Shen Chun. His da-ge actually managed to gain up on Shen Tiao, only being a couple of steps behind. Beyond them, Shen Yuan couldn’t tell if his meimei was still angrily running away or if his brothers had caught up to her. Shen Mei had a lot of stamina coursing through her veins, but generally speaking, her speed was quite average. Since both eldest brothers had to deal with taking care of them when they were younger, they ended up becoming quite swift (especially Shen Tiao, who also needed speed for tennis). They technically had the upper hand over Shen Mei as long as they didn’t get tired.

Shen Yuan started moving again, this time walking instead of sprinting. Even taking a single step forward made him feel like he could collapse, but he forced himself through it. His vision was blurring at the edges as he made out the figures of his brothers standing still, and screams getting louder the closer he got. He caught wind of a choked sob and his adrenaline peaked. Ignoring all the pain, he instantly booked it towards them; his da-ge and er-ge had caught up to meimei and somehow managed to make her cry.

When Shen Yuan got close enough to understand the situation better, he slowed again. Shen Mei wasn’t the only one crying, even Shen Tiao had tears clinging to his cheeks. They both were yelling at each other, whilst Shen Chun tried his best to calm them down but to no avail. Panting heavily, Shen Yuan leaned against a tree and let himself process every single word being said. For a couple of moments, words blurred into each other like bad calligraphy, like ink splotches spilling onto paper and then merging together. Unlike bad calligraphy however, the words soon became coherent and Shen Yuan was able to reflect upon the words that escaped his siblings’ mouth.  

“I hate you so much, er-ge! Sometimes I just wish…Sometimes I just wish that you were dead!”

“No! You don’t mean that!”

“Well, if you want me dead so badly, then do it! Try to kill me!”

“Tiao-di! Don’t provoke her!”

“I’ll gladly try!”

“No!! Stop it you two, please! Tiao-di, there’s food at home! Meimei, one of my patients who’s a woman is interested in you! So please! For the sake of food and women, stop it!”

Shen Chun’s pleads went unheard and so, Shen Yuan decided to intervene for once, but he didn’t get the chance to say anything as when he saw a black shadow rushing through the trees. Shen Yuan felt unease boil in his stomach, his eyes dashing to track it down. It was too fast to make out its outline as it disappeared behind dozens of leaves. While he was occupied by the moving black shadow, Shen Chun had been pushed away by Shen Mei.

In the meanwhile Shen Tiao took out one of the daggers hidden in his sleeves and Shen Mei retorted back by almost instantly forming fire from nowhere. Her cultivation was high enough that her core was forming at a fast-paced but steady rate, despite her initial thoughts of it taking around a year. Shen Tiao would have probably also relied on cultivation instead of a physical melee weapon like a dagger, but compared to Shen Mei, his cultivation was terrible. With his dagger, however, he was more on par with her skills since he had a lot of practise with it.

Shen Yuan was brought back to his siblings by his da-ge, who sat wide eyed on the ground in panic. He yelled at them to stop, yelled at Shen Yuan to stop them, but his pleas once again fell on deaf ears. Despite the exhaustion that seeped into his bones, Shen Chun’s panic only made Shen Yuan more hyper as he shouted more and more. Still, nobody listened to him. Instead of obeying his wishes, Shen Yuan went over to him and helped him stand up, while the second brother and youngest sister battled their anger out.

It wasn’t like Shen Yuan could have done anything. Not only was he the weakest out of the four, but he found it too difficult to form words as he saw his siblings clash. Now it was too late for him and Shen Chun to do anything.

Shen Tiao’s dagger probably went against logic as it slashed through fire; the fire should have been hot enough to melt the metal blade or at least cause damages, but there was no burns. The dagger was absolutely fine, gleaming bright under the fire. Shen Mei kept on retreating backwards while sending her fire towards Shen Tiao, who rushed forward, dodged and slashed.

One particular ball of fire managed to scorch Shen Tiao’s left cheek a bit, leaving behind an ugly burn. He recoiled back for a moment in pain, only to force enough strength in his legs to dash forwards and slash his dagger at Shen Mei’s face. Shen Mei dodged just in time, the blade only a couple of centimetres away from her face as it instead cut off some of her hair bangs.

The two siblings jumped back a good distance away from each other to take a breather, and for a moment, Shen Yuan was reminded of the many fighting sequences from every action anime ever. The short battle had been terrifyingly mesmerizing to watch and as much as Shen Yuan wanted more, the fight was between his siblings. He wanted it to stop, for them to reconcile. However, it was obvious that they were going to continue, so instead, he was going to step up and try to drag them home by the ear. Before he could even manage to take a single step towards them however, the black tentacle shadow appeared on the floor, a couple metres away from Shen Tiao.

Since it was behind him, Shen Tiao couldn’t see it but everyone else could. Everyone saw how one of its many tentacles slithered for a moment before sensing Shen Tiao’s presence. Everyone else saw how it practically drooled when it sensed him. Everyone else saw how it zipped forward, ready to stab him behind his back. It dashed fast enough to be able to pierce cleanly through Shen Tiao’s skin, ribcage, lungs and maybe even heart if it aimed just right.

Shen Chun broke down in heavy broken tears. Shen Yuan panicked. He tried to force out a scream to warn his er-ge. His voice refused to be sounded. His body shook as he tried to think of something to do. Shen Mei shouted. She rushed forward, arms stretched out. Shen Tiao took this as a sign of the battle continuing and so he readied his stance. He did not move out of the way. He stood there. Death was mere seconds from greeting him.

Shen Yuan cried.

And then, he felt the world slow down.

He felt the air condensing around his body.

His muscles tensed in pain before the tension inside him burst like a balloon.

A wall of thick vines encased Shen Tiao, just in time to block the tentacle. The shadow’s tentacles, which appeared to be able to destroy through everything, all aimed at the barrier but they struggled to even scratch at it. Everyone’s attention was suddenly on the viney barricade as the tentacles continued to attack. They tried to wrap themselves around the barrier and squeeze it tight to burst it open, they tried to stab through it like the tentacle almost did to Shen Tiao, but nothing worked. The tentacles were determined, but the viney barrier was too strong for them. They refused to give up, until suddenly, fire were rained on them. Nobody knew if the black shadow felt pain, but Shen Mei still tried and her plan worked. The balls of fire, whether they hurt or not, were enough to drive the shadow monsters and its snaky tentacles away.

Shen Yuan felt drained, his body sagged against Shen Chun who held him up in shock. The viney barrier soon disintegrated, revealing a bewildered Shen Tiao who glanced at the brothers’ way in utter confusion. His eyes were asking millions of questions; ‘who did that? why? did you do it because you think you can stop the fight? Da-ge why are you crying? Yuan-di, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Why do you look sick? Meimei? Is meimei okay? Did I go too far?’ Shen Yuan wished to answer them, but his entire world went dark instead, the fatigue overwhelming him.

-

(Before any of Shen Tiao’s questions were voiced, he was attacked by Shen Mei…or rather hugged. Ugly tears streamed down her face as her embrace got tighter until it was suffocating. Shen Tiao gently pushed her off, out of breath and confused as to what changed his sister’s mood.

“What?…”

“You idiot! You!” Shen Mei hiccupped. “You almost died! Please don’t die, er-ge! I know I told you to die, but” another hiccup, “But I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry! I’m sorry for being a bad sister!” His meimei hiccupped again.

“I almost died?…What? How?”

“The shadow! It appeared” she hiccupped as she wiped her tears, only for more to pour down, “again! It appeared again! It was going to stab you! You almost died, er-ge!  I’m sorry! So sorry! Er-ge! Er-ge, please don’t leave us! Please! I’ll be a good sister, I promise! Just stay with us please! Er-ge!!”

Shen Tiao embraced his sister again, this time he hugged her as tightly as he could while comforting her by rubbing her back. Shen Mei brought her head down to his shoulders as she wailed, hiccupped, sniffled and trembled. She continued to apologise and beg for her brother to stay, to never leave. Shen Tiao comforted her with his words as best as he could, tried to tell her that he wasn’t leaving soon, that he was sorry too.

“It’s alright meimei, I’m fine. See, no scratches…” he forgot that his left cheek had been burned, but other than that, he really was fine! “I’m not leaving. I’m sorry, I was in the wrong too. I’m okay now. You’re okay. We’re both safe.”

When she calmed down, Shen Tiao felt himself tear up. The revelation that he had just be at the verge of death set its miserable weight on him. He finally processed it and this time, he was the one to weep in his sister’s shoulders. Just like he did to her, she did to him as she rubbed his back and told him that he was alright now, that he was still alive.

“…I almost died…Holy mother of…Meimei, I…”

“It’s okay er-ge, you’re okay. You’re alive, you’re well. You can cry it out. It must have been so scary. You’re safe now. You will always be safe. Meimei will protect you, da-ge will protect you, san-ge will protect you. We will always protect you.”

Shen Tiao’s sobs subsided pretty quickly, he wasn’t much of a crier to begin with, yet his breath was still hitched and his face was blooming red. His skin had a sheen of sweat to it as he stumbled away from Shen Mei’s arms while muttering a “thank you.” Shen Mei only responded by bringing him close again and giving him a kiss on the forehead; just like he used to do to her when she was younger, whenever she came crying home from school (it was a worryingly frequent occurrence but Shen Mei had sworn that nobody was bullying her.)

As soon as her lips left his forehead, Shen Mei interlocked one of her hands with his and pulled him towards their da-ge and Shen Yuan. At some point, Shen Chun had fallen to the floor with Shen Yuan in his arms in order to inspect his brother’s body properly. He checked his pulse, his temperature and his breathing. His temperature was too high, evident by the droplets of sweat sliding down. and his breathing appeared to be quite frantic.

“Da-ge, are you okay? Is san-ge okay?”

“Yeah…yeah I’m fine. Yuan-di has another fever though. We should head home soon. Are you two okay? Does the burn hurt, Tiao-di?”

“Burn? What burn?…Oh, no. It doesn’t. I forgot about it…I’m okay. Not emotionally okay but I’m okay.”

“Same as him. Do you need help picking up san-ge?”

“No, no. I can carry him. But you two…”

“We’re…I’m sorry da-ge. I worried all of you by stomping out instead of listening to your reasons.”

“It’s…” Shen Chun sighed before continuing, “Let’s have this conversation back at home. Tiao-di, that includes you too, I’m tired of our lack of communication.”

“Alright, da-ge.”

With minimal difficulty, Shen Chun got up and put Shen Yuan on his back. As per usual, he took the lead as both of his other siblings walked behind him, eyeing their resting brother in worry. The silent walk back to the house did not last long, since they had ran the majority of the way back, but it was filled with this tense silence that made each of them feel jittery. When the house came into view in all of its unintimidating glory, their paces quickened. Shen Tiao was the one to slam the front door open, purposefully passing by Shen Chun in order to get ahead and open the door leading to Shen Yuan’s room. Shen Chun went straight to the room and laid his little brother in bed.

He ordered Shen Tiao and Shen Mei to stay in the room while he went to bring his medical supplies from his own room. The two siblings obeyed with no resistance. Shen Tiao didn’t enter, instead he stayed near the door while Shen Mei sat on her san-ge’s bed and ran her fingers through his hair. When Shen Chun entered the room, they both were forced to leave because of patient confidentiality. Shen Tiao and Shen Mei obeyed again without a word, and so they waited in the usual spot; in the main room, at the table.

Around fifteen minutes passed and each minute was spent in silence. Shen Mei had her eyes glued to the floor in self-resentment and Shen Tiao decided to take a short nap to restore some of his energy back. The silence was broken when Shen Chun exited Shen Yuan’s room. In his hand were his medical supplies as Shen Chun made his way to his Tiao-di and started to clean up and bandage the burn mark. He then proceeded to check his overall state before moving onto Shen Mei. When he found nothing, he put his medical supplies on the table and sat in his usual seat.

“You’re all fine, Yuan-di should be fine,” a breath of relief escaped the mouths of both Shen Tiao and Shen Mei. “I suspected that he had a qi deviation, but his qi is fairly stable. He does have a terrible fever though and it will probably take some time before he’s well again. Tiao-di…you owe Shen Yuan one. He saved your life.”

“I know, da-ge…I’m sorry for endangering Yuan-di.”

“What are you apologising for?! Your life was in danger, Tiao-di, and you didn’t even know it! Yuan-di decided to save you because he could, although knowing how slow he is to process things, his body probably acted by itself. If I could, I would have also tried saving you and I bet the same with meimei, even if it meant endangering ourselves in order to protect you. Tiao-di, your life is precious so don’t apologise for being saved.”

“…Right. Thank you. Thank you, da-ge.”

“Now, meimei.”

“I’m sorry da-ge! I know I took things too far and I hate myself from it. I’m really sorry. I’m at fault!”

“It’s…alright. I’m sorry too actually. I was insensitive. I kept secrets about our own family. I promise I won’t keep anymore secrets.”

“Da-ge…”

“But you two are going to kill me, you know. Both of you took it too far this time. Physically fighting?! It’s like you’re barbarians! What if you actually killed each other?! Both of you are better than this, you’re both smart! So why? Why escalate everything?”

“It’s my fault, da-ge! I’m the one who wished for er-ge to…die. Oh god, er-ge, I’m sorry! That was, holy crap, that was so disgusting of me. I’m so sorry, please don’t die!”

“I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, it’s okay meimei. It’s not like before… don’t blame just yourself though, I was at fault too. I was the one who provoked you for no good reason. Da-ge, I’m sorry. I worried both you and Yuan-di.”

“I’m sorry too!”

“If I aged every time you two apologised, I would be an ancient grandpa by now,” Shen Chun chuckled out the joke, a slight smile adorning on his face. He wasn’t angry anymore, but worry still etched into his eyebrows. His siblings had yet to speak about the main issue that had caused them emotional turmoil.

“Very funny da-ge…Um. Er-ge? I reflected a little about mama. I know I apologised before but I don’t think it was sincere of me. I’m sorry for everything I said, but I’ll still love mama. I’m not expecting you to forgive me, but I am sorry…”

“You’re right, I still need some time before I can properly forgive you but…I’m sorry too. I’m really tired of being angry at you meimei so, even if we still can’t forgive each other…can we ignore it? No, not ignore it…uh…It’s on the tip of my tongue. I…You know what I mean.”

“You want us to not mention it until we’re both ready to forgive?”

“Yes! That! Thank you!”

“Mn, sure. I missed you a lot, er-ge.”

“I missed you too.”

The two of them shared another hug and Shen Chun felt himself overflow with respite. The fight between his Tiao-di and Mei-mei was finally over, the stress from it exiting his body. They had so much to learn from their fight, but it was already clear that Shen Tiao and Shen Mei were maturing at their own pace.

“Right. Now, I want to talk about Shen Qiu. We should decide everything with Yuan-di but since he’s out for now, we’ll discuss between us. Meimei, are you interested in perhaps meeting your Qiu-ge?”

“Yes!…Does that mean I’ll have to call er-ge san-ge and san-ge si-ge now?”

“That’s going to take some time to get used to if yes.”

“That would cause too much confusion. Just call Tiao-di er-ge, Yuan-di san-ge and Qiu-di Qiu-ge. If Shen Qingqiu is Qiu-di, you can ask him what he’d be preferred to be called. That aside, if Yuan-di agrees to meeting up with Shen Qingqiu, we’ll need to convince Luo Binghe to bring us to him. Any ideas on how we’ll do that?”

“Oh, oh! I have one da-ge! Okay, listen carefully…”)

Chapter Text

Darkness and silence. The feeling of drowning. The feeling of bitter cold. Hands clasping before drifting away, lost at sea. Thunderstorms roaring and the waves swaying, nausea creeping up like a sly octopus ready to submerge a ship. The noise from the sea clashing together with voices. Familiar voices becoming louder yet still unclear.

“…two days al-…is he?”

“…becomi-…by the min-…might not…”

“…-at?! Oh…”

The voices fading as consciousness lost itself. The air suddenly sweltering in heat, a hazy fog overtaking sight and mind. The heat and cold merging, it being too hot but too cold. A flood of bitterness overflowing the ocean, the thunderstorm, the heat, the cold. Tremors shaking the world. Darkness jarring with flashes of white. Familiar voices appearing again, clearer this time but still too far away for anything to be made out properly.

“Poor A-Tai-…miss your broth-…”

“…you leave now?”

“So mean!…trying to support your…”

“…care!”

“…meimei, calm.”

“Ling’er…good now.”

“…-unshang.”

“…-ou should apologise…me bi-…”

“…raised that girl.”

“Shut up…”

“I am…old…this…there any way to…him?”

“Aren’t you…-ctor? Shouldn’t you be…”

“…fever is too high. My skills…-ough. I’m not good enough.”

“He should…Just take ca-…him…has it been?...-ree days? He’ll…”

The voices fading again. Light winning over darkness before the sea swallowed it whole. Gentle warmth suddenly winning over the cold heat. Soft hands brushing away the tremors, changing the hot air and the cold sea into a comforting home, under an ocean of warm blankets and near a calming golden fire. The voices appearing again, the clearest they ever had been.

“-an-ge, wake up. It’s my birthday. You’re meant to be cele-…me. Please.”

“Meimei. Yuan-di will…soon.”

“I miss…”

“…know. I miss hi-…”

Then the world darkening but the comfort never evaporated away.

-

Cool air rushed inside Shen Yuan’s lungs as his eyes burst open, his body convulsing with sweat coating his skin. He breathed heavily as pain overflowed his eyes, too unused to the sudden brightness of the light. He shut them close immediately, ignoring his light-headedness as he regulating his breathing, a breath in and a breath out until it evened out. Then, ever so slowly, Shen Yuan creaked open his hazel eyes. By the time they were fully opened, he had gotten used to the brightness of the room, which actually, wasn’t all that bright. There were only two candles flaming brazenly on his table, covering the room in a soft sunset glow.

Without windows, Shen Yuan couldn’t tell what time it was. He really should invest in getting paper windows, he thought to himself as a groan escaped his lips.

When he tried to get off his bed, Shen Yuan felt an ache overwhelm his muscles, but he pushed through it. The situation felt too familiar, it was like when he had woken up for the first time in the world of Proud Immortal Demon Way; confused, in pain and alone. Where were his siblings? Were they alright? Did something happen to them? What about him? What happened to him?

Each step was a limp, his legs barely able to hold him straight. They felt like jelly, unreliable and too unsteady. Shen Yuan was out of breath by the time he arrived at the door, as he stood still for a couple of moments to regain his bearings before finally swinging the door open.

He entered the main room to the sight of a napping Shen Mei on one of the plush chairs, her neck tilting awkwardly against the arms of the chair. Her mouth was slightly parted with spit trailing down to her chin and her eyebrows were relaxed. The room was totally dark save for a single candle that was lit on the table, its warm flame flickering ever so often as the candle wax gradually peeled off. There was a blanket draped over her shoulders and a closed book placed on her lap. The sight of her napping form was domestic enough that it made Shen Yuan’s heart flutter with endearing joy.

Shen Yuan shuffled his way over to her, his footsteps light and padded against the wooden floor. When he arrived next to her, he knelt a tad before poking her forehead with an index finger. She did not stir, so he did it again but it was less gentle. He continued to put more pressure with each poke until Shen Mei finally roused, her eyelashes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings as she opened her eyes. After blinking the sleepiness away, her face churned into a sneer only to drop into a dumbfounded expression as she gazed at Shen Yuan. Then she practically leaped out of the chair, the book thudding heavily against the floorboards and the blankets sliding off her shoulders, as Shen Mei wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in a tight hug. Shen Yuan did not need coaxing to hug back, embracing his sister tighter.

“San-ge! San-ge! San-ge! I missed you!”

Suddenly, Shen Yuan felt his shoulder become wet and only then did he notice that he was wearing his inner robes. That was strange, Shen Yuan couldn’t remember changing out from his hanfu. In fact, he couldn’t even recall anything. Maybe he did remove his hanfu but forgot?

“I missed you too meimei, but ah stop crying please! It’s okay! What’s wrong?” he tried to comfort, but to no avail. Comforting someone was an art that was quite difficult to master and Shen Yuan was the furthest thing away from being a comforting master.

Luckily, Shen Mei only shook her head.

“Idiot! You’ve been sleeping for a week straight! It’s so nice to finally see you awake again…I thought you wouldn’t…I thought you wouldn’t wake up again.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t just ‘oh’ me! You missed my birthday too! I wanted to celebrate with you, like we always do! Da-ge…da-ge baked a cake. He left you a slice in the cooling cabinet. It should still be good. I’ll go get it!”

“Wait no, meimei.”

“Huh?”

“What happened to me?”

The look of surprise on Shen Mei’s face caught him off guard. Her lips twitched before she bit down on them, drawing blood. With the back of her hand, she quickly wiped it off before breaking their hug and walking a few paces back. The back of her knees hit the chair she had been sleeping on, and thus, she sat down. She motioned Shen Yuan to do the same, and he obeyed. After picking up the fallen book and placing it back on the bookshelf, Shen Yuan went to the other chair and sat down.

“Do you not remember?”

He shook his head in affirmation.

“I see. Well, you…you saved er-ge’s life. When we were fighting, that shadow appeared again and it tried to stab er-ge. You managed to save him. We’re not sure how you did it, but da-ge thinks that you exhausted all your qi out of your body. Your body got sick and you fell in a comatose-like state. We almost lost you.

Da-ge said that you were fine when he first checked you but after checking you again before dinner, he found that your body was dying. It was…so terrifying. We tried everything we could but you weren’t becoming better. We even brought in Luo Binghe and begged him to fix you with his blood! He refused and said that you’d survive. I’m…I’m glad that he was right.

San-ge, I’m so sorry. If er-ge and I didn’t fight, you wouldn’t have gotten like this. I’ve been reflecting a little, this past week. I’m…I’m a terrible person aren’t I?”

“Meimei – ” Shen Yuan just had to intervene but his sister raised a hand up.

“Just listen, please. I know I’m being selfish again but there’s so much I have to say.” At his sister’s request, Shen Yuan nodded. He’d stay silent, listen and process everything and then speak, just like always. It was better that way, anyway.

“Thank you. As I was saying…I’m a terrible person. I refuse to listen, I continue to challenge and argue, I’m selfish, I play victim constantly and I idolise someone who has hurt you, da-ge and er-ge. I idolise someone who has hurt me. Er-ge was right, I am delusional. I just can’t help the way I feel about mama. Something screams at me to protect her whenever she’s being targeted. Even now. It’s kind of horrifying, I never realised just how obsessive I am over her. Why does my mind revolve around mama? Why do I still want her attention? I don’t understand…

Sorry, sorry, I’m getting off track. San-ge, I’m sorry. For everything. I really want you to forgive me, but it’s fine if you don’t! You might be reluctant to believe it, but I learnt that I should keep my emotions in check especially when someone doesn’t forgive me. No one owes me anything, especially not you of all people. I…don’t deserve your forgiveness actually. I mean, I almost got you killed! I’m still really sorry.”

Taking a deep shuddering breath in, Shen Mei finally stopped speaking and impatiently awaited Shen Yuan’s response. Shen Yuan didn’t respond immediately, there was just too much to take in and consider. It was overwhelming actually, and he didn’t wish to reply at that moment, but he did so anyway. Not only did he not want to keep his meimei waiting, but he didn’t want to stretch things longer than necessary and possibly create even more drama. Under the golden light of the slowing-dimming candle, Shen Yuan uncomfortably made eye-contact with his sister. He could see his messy self reflecting from her eyes, he could see just how tired and slumped he looked. He didn’t even realise that he was practically melting into the chair and so, he quickly straightened back up.

“I’m not angry at you meimei so I guess I forgive you. But you’re not a terrible person. Sure, you’re not the best, but you’re not evil or anything. You’re you and you have your flaws, just like anyone else. I don’t know what you can do to better those flaws, but you’re not terrible as long as you try to become better. Your san-ge will forever love, forgive and protect you, okay? Also, happy belated birthday, meimei.”

The hug took Shen Yuan by surprise as Shen Mei practically flung herself from her seat onto her brother. It was very unexpected but still very welcomed as Shen Yuan hugged her back again, carding his fingers through her hair as broken sobs erupted from her shaking form. Shen Yuan attempted to comfort her, although most of what he said was him simply praising her, praising her for her strength. She only shook harder, but she appreciated them as evident by the slight grin on her face, that Shen Yuan only managed to glimpse at before she buried her face in the crook of his neck again.

They stayed like that for a while, Shen Mei crying and Shen Yuan simply holding her tight. He refused to leave his sister hanging, especially when she needed it the most. In the comforting presence of each other, they failed to notice the front door opening despite its haunting creaks. It was only when a voice echoed through the room that the siblings pulled away and stared at the door, wide-eyed.

Their older brothers were standing in the doorway, bags made of old fabric hanging uselessly from their elbows. They both had a look of shock on their face, but Shen Chun’s face then quickly morphed into worry. He slid the bags off from his elbows and handed them to Shen Tiao, who only took them on impulse. Then, Shen Chun strode to Shen Yuan and Shen Mei, gently yanking the girl off from her brother’s lap before bending slightly downwards to properly check Shen Yuan’s pulse rate. His rather smooth fingers were cool against the heating skin of Shen Yuan’s neck.

“Pulse rate is normal. Your breathing seems fine too. You do feel a little hot to touch though. Your meridians feel empty too. How do you feel?”

“Tired, a little confused but mostly okay. Did I really almost die?”

“As much as I hate to say it, yes. The fact that you managed to survive is pretty big actually. Do you feel lightheaded?”

“Not really. I’m only tired.”

“Alright. Can you feel your qi circulating?”

“Yeah? Yeah. Less than usual, but I can feel it.”

“I see. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I remember er-ge and meimei fighting. That’s it. Meimei told me what happened though. Er-ge, are you alright?”

Shen Tiao jolted when he was suddenly addressed. He looked away and moved to close the front door, firmly slamming it shut as he ignored everyone and everything, until Shen Chun purposefully coughed. He jolted again, his eyes glued to the ground and Shen Yuan saw the few cogs in his brain turning to come up with a response. Then, hesitantly, Shen Tiao finally turned towards them, looked up and met their eyes.

“I’m okay and alive…I’m sorry Yuan-di. This is – ”

“No, please. It’s not your fault, it’s not meimei’s fault, you don’t have to be sorry. Please, I cannot deal with anymore apologies. If you really want to apologise then do so by becoming a better person. By that, I mean, manage your anger er-ge. Please. Your anger is terrifying.”

A helpless chuckle escaped Shen Tiao’s mouth as he nodded in agreement. At that, Shen Chun sighed, grumbling under his breath that it was about time Shen Tiao dealt with his anger, after many years of Shen Chun begging him to manage said anger issues.

“Da-ge, stop complaining, you’re sounding like a grandpa.”

“I am a grandpa, though. Ah, that aside, that aside. Yuan-di, you remember our conversation in the teahouse right? About our brother?”

“Yes. Apparently, the scum villain might be our brother who died when he was nine and he might have been reborn in this world, which was created like two decades after. Totally, it’s not like he would have been sent back to reincarnate by then.”

The sarcasm lacing his tone made Shen Tiao basically giggle like a fangirl, clearly amused and proud at his Yuan-di’s attitude. Shen Chun only groaned in response and this time he muttered about how he was too old to deal with his ruthless cynical siblings. Seeing their da-ge’s misery, Shen Mei continued the conversation herself, her sobs having stopped a little after Shen Chun pulled her off.

“Yes, anyway, the three of us decided that we’re going to go and meet him. We’ve…well, I have already convinced Luo Binghe to let us see him. We can tell him when we’re ready with this talisman he gave us, we just need to burn it. Do you want to join us?”

“Sure, sounds fun. I’d love to meet the scum villain and possibly have the chance to punt him.”

“If you can with you weak nerd arms!”

“Shut up meimei! Not like you can hit any harder!”

“Ooo but I can hit harder, because I’m utterly amazing in every way, shape and form! I’m the best there is!”

“You were literally just crying a few seconds ago! Pretty sure the best don’t cry.”

“You’re wrong, as always. The best still cry sometimes because reality sucks!”

Finally, Shen Chun had enough. He stood back up, stomped once with his foot as he addressed everyone in the room with a voice fit for a powerful leader.

“Alright, so we will all be going but only after Yuan-di heals properly. You’re still weak so you need to rest more. Off to your room you go, I’ll check up on you later. Meimei, come help Tiao-di and I unpack the groceries. We have enough that Tiao-di won’t have to hunt for a whole month or so.”

“Ehh, I hate unpacking groceries! Can’t I just stay with san-ge instead? Keep him company?”

“Hm, let me think. No. Come, it’s good exercise for you.”

“Yuck, exercise.”

“…You’ll be able to sweep any woman off her feet if you unpack the groceries. Also I might allow you to meet that one woman I told you about, that’s interested in you.”

“Any woman?! Holy shi – ”

-

A couple of days passed before Shen Yuan was deemed better enough by his da-ge. Finally, the four Shen siblings would be meeting the scum villain of the novel, and so they all stood around the table, like they were performing some sort of ritual, with a newly lit candle silently buzzing in front of them. Shen Yuan felt himself teem with excitement. Throughout the novel, he had hated Shen Qingqiu with a burning passion for abusing poor white lotus Binghe. Now, he was finally meeting said villain and honestly, he really just wanted to see the man suffer.

His siblings were looking really prepared, but somehow not prepared enough. Shen Chun wore a dark green hanfu, its design way more elaborate than what he would usually wear. Bandages and rags were hidden away in his magical-storing sleeves, in case an emergency rose for a quick treatment. Shen Yuan ended up wearing his pale yellow robes again, after making sure to clean them thoroughly. He didn’t take anything else with him, finding it worthless to do so. Shen Tiao would have disagreed, as he managed to hide a lot of food in his grey hanfu. He managed to find a way to package them so they wouldn’t get his clothes dirty and also to keep them all contained. Out of all of them, Shen Mei ended up looking the most sophisticated. Instead of matching with her siblings like usual, she wore a black and purple hanfu made from expensive silk, which was produced by Spider-Eating Roach Worms. Just like Shen Yuan, she didn’t bring anything with her except for the talisman that would call Luo Binghe.

Shen Mei brought the talisman out from the sleeves of her clothing, and left it dangling over the flame. It instantly caught on fire, the fire’s colour turning into a harsh red as the talisman turned into ashes. While they waited, the Shen siblings started conversing about the shadow monster, mostly mentioning how the thing had weirdly not appeared for the past few days. They asked each other questions but no one had the answers. A couple of minutes passed before a recognisable red portal opened up and from it emerged the demonic duo. As always, Sha Hualing launched herself at Shen Tiao and somehow she managed to dangle off from him. In response, Shen Tiao let out a puff of breath.

“Lord Luo, thank you for coming. These ones are ready to meet Shen Qingqiu.”

“Is that so? You are quite fortunate that I do not have anything to deal with at the moment. Let us go. First, I’ll drop Ling-er in the demon realm.”

“Aw, but Lord Luo! This Ling-er want to stay with A-Tiao!...Let me come! Please?”

“Ling-er, you cannot come to Huan Hua Palace. Not until the plan is commenced.”

“Lord Luo! You can pretend that you’ve caught this Ling-er! Just let me come with!”

Stubborn as a spoilt demoness (which she was), Sha Hualing refused to back down. For a brief moment, the four Shen siblings were forced to watch an exasperated Luo Binghe trying to convince his future wife otherwise. Alas, the demoness won. As much as Shen Mei disliked Sha Hualing, she was overjoyed when Luo Binghe gave in as she muttered something about powerful dominant women with a large grin.

Sooner rather than later, the Shen siblings found themselves in Bailu forest with Luo Binghe leading them and Sha Hualing’s wrists restricted together by Demon Confining Thread. While the Shen siblings had bounded her, Luo Binghe got changed in his Huan Hua robes, which he kept stored in his qiankun pouch. At some point, Shen Chun had accidentally peaked. He had turned back to his siblings and muttered in English.

“I can see why Yuan-di and all the other straight women are in love with him, he’s really built.”

Shen Yuan’s response had been instant, his mind buffering and face twinged pink, “No! No! I don’t love him! I just admire him. I’m not gay.”

“San-ge, the first stage is denial.”

“Shut up, meimei.”

Shen Yuan had ignored the bemused stares of his siblings and instead opted to tie another knot to ensure that the Demon Confining Thread looked secure enough.

When everyone was ready, Luo Binghe led them through the forest while conversing with Shen Chun, particularly about Shen Qingqiu. He asked about why they weren’t certain if he was related to them and Shen Chun had to grit his teeth and beg Shen Mei with his eyes to lie for him. She did so, very easily coming up with a backstory about how the four of them had not been allowed to meet other family members due to a lot of familial and concubine-related issues. She also related it as to why their time with Shang Qinghua had been brief, that they had to hide more often than not, and before they knew it, Shang Qinghua had disappeared to join Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Luo Binghe didn’t look like he bought it, but he didn’t question it any further.

“We’re here. Here are the rules you will follow. No speaking, let me do all the talking until we get to the Water Prison. Once we enter the prison, you will be blindfolded until we reach the cell. If you try to break my shizun out, there will be severe consequences for you all. These include you too Ling-er, except for the last one, perhaps.”

When everyone declared that they would obey, Luo Binghe dragged Sha Hualing inside by the cables while the Shen siblings followed. Shen Yuan took the time to admire the insides of the palace, its wealth enunciated by practically everything. Everything was made with glimmering gold, from the vases to any portrait frames to simple furniture. It wouldn’t have been all that surprising if the walls and floorboards were also made from gold. With just how bright and monochromic everything was, it made Shen Yuan feel a bit dizzy. He had only been around for mere seconds and he was already fed up with all the precious gold wasted on petty stuff.  How the Huan Hua disciples lived in such a wealthy but uniform place was a question Shen Yuan genuinely wanted answers to.

Luo Binghe led them through multiple hallways, a couple of junior disciples sometimes stopping them to ask questions about the demon and the four siblings. The protagonist answer diligently, before shooing the disciples away and promising them to train with them further down the line, as long as they stopped bothering them. Unsurprisingly enough, they all listened though it was fairly obvious that the majority of them reported their sightings to the Old Palace Master since, a little before they arrived to the dull and out-of-place entrance of the Water Prison, they met up with the Little Palace Mistress. By this point in the story, the Little Palace Mistress was already one of Luo Binghe’s wife, except she had still yet to find out that her husband was half heavenly demon (just like Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong, the two other wives of Luo Binghe by this point in the story. His fourth wife, Sha Hualing, would only be formally betrothed to him once the realms were merged together, and it would be then his three other wives would find out the truth).

“Husband, I’m so glad you’re back. When this wife heard you finally came back from the missions my grandfather gave you, this wife was so sad that you did not visit her. This wife was…thoroughly expecting you to come greet her in the chambers, as per usual.”

Whatever she was insinuating, which was quite obvious considering that Proud Immortal Demon Way was a porn novel, it made Luo Binghe grimace a bit before he gave the binds to one of the siblings and then approached her. He slid his arm around her waist, before kissing her forehead and whispering something in her ear that made her go red. Sha Hualing seethed with undisguised jealousy and she only masked it when Shen Tiao caressed her arm comfortingly. In the meantime, Shen Mei evidently gagged in disgust.

“This husband will join you later, dear wife, but right at this moment, this husband has a demon to lock up and guests to attend to.”

“Alright, husband. Strange though, don’t they look like that scum shizun of yours?”

“They do. The four of them do not know whether or not they’re related to my shizun so they have come to check.”

“What if they’re planning on breaking him out, husband?!”

“I highly doubt that. Not only is the Water Prison inescapable, but Huan Hua Palace would instantly target them. Now, be a good girl and head back.”

“Fine. Anything for you, husband.”

Finally, the Little Palace Mistress turned her back at them and strutted back down the hallway. Her hips purposefully swayed with each step, fully intending on persuading Luo Binghe to go at her, but he surprisingly stayed resolute. Instead he took back the thread in his hands and then opened the door leading into the water prison. When everyone walked inside, they entered a small room with another door on the opposite wall and a basket sitting on top of an old rotting table. The door leading to the actual Water Prison was made of iron bars and it genuinely looked too much like modern-day jail doors. Due to it being historically inaccurate, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but curse mentally at Shang Qinghua for being a hack of an author.

In the meantime, Luo Binghe closed the door before grabbing the blindfolds that were inside the baskets. He blinded everyone except himself and then, he almost tied them up with Immortal Binding cables before deciding against it. Since they practised Outside Elemental Core cultivation method, the Immortal Binding cables wouldn’t exactly work well. The spiritual qi inside the meridians would be blocked off and thus, inaccessible, but that wasn’t the only way to get elemental qi. Elemental qi was basically everywhere, which is why most masters were able to manifest their respective element from nowhere. The Shen siblings were practically already at that level despite the multiple struggles they typically faced.

Luo Binghe directed the blindfolded group through different mechanisms, stairs and mazes. Silence, except for the beating sound of their boots against the marble floor, engulfed them. Each corridor and stairway felt never-ending, ongoing and ongoing to a point where Shen Yuan felt dizzy again. It took them around ten minutes before they got to the cell of Shen Qingqiu and it was only then that Luo Binghe removed everyone’s blindfolds. He also removed the Demonic Confining Thread from Sha Hualing and the demoness rotated her wrists in freedom.

The door of the cell was opened only for everyone to meet a wall of falling acid. It had a greyish-green colour to it, intimidatingly sizzling as it continuously streamed downwards. Shen Yuan gulped at its threatening sight. Luo Binghe activating an array right on the acidic wall, making it part like curtains as a bridge was drawn upwards. The heavenly demon walked in first with Sha Hualing following behind in unreasonable excitement, while the siblings stood back shook in wonder.

Shen Chun was the first one to break out of the shocked trance as he tugged his siblings to move forward, and they obeyed. Shen Yuan couldn’t help the fear he felt as he eyed the acid surrounding the bridge. One step could easily lead to his death and that thought horrified him beyond belief. Luo Binghe was quite obviously much further than them, as he had already arrived near Shen Qingqiu’s tied beaten body.

“Shizun, you have some visitors.”

“Beast,” was the only thing the pathetic man said with narrowed eyes, before looking behind Luo Binghe to see Sha Hualing buzzing with excitement as she stood to the right side of Luo Binghe. The Shen siblings approached at a careful pace and then stood at the left side of Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu’s brown eyes widened as an unknown emotion flickered through them.

Disbelief flooded Shen Yuan when he saw Shen Qingqiu. The scummy man looked too much like his da-ge! They were inhumanely identical, frighteningly so. They practically looked like mirror versions of each other except for their different hairdo and their noses, Shen Qingqiu’s nose was a bit leaner than Shen Chun’s. Furthermore, Shen Chun had eyebags and a bigger stature while Shen Qingqiu had pristine skin with no blemishes and a lean, but fit body. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that he knew the scum villain was the one tied up and sitting in a too straight lotus position, Shen Yuan would have thought that it was his da-ge bounded in Immortal Binding Cables.

Before anyone could say anything else, Shen Tiao pushed past everyone and ran onto the platform that Shen Qingqiu was seating on. He skurried, instantly falling down on his knees as beautiful tears streamed down his face. Shen Mei had always been the cry baby between the siblings because she could not control her tears, but recently, Shen Tiao had been showing so much more emotion that Shen Yuan wondered just how emotionally unstable his er-ge was. He had managed to see his er-ge, who usually never allowed himself to cry, weep endless tears more than thrice. There seemed to be so much bottled up emotion and it looked like the bottle had been recently unscrewed, letting all of Shen Tiao’s emotion flood out like waves.

“Qiu-ge, Qiu-ge, Qiu-ge,” he muttered a mantra underneath his breath, as his body shivered. Shen Qingqiu’s lips, bewildered beyond belief, trembled too.

“Tiao-di?”

“Qiu-ge! I’m so sorry! I’m such a bad didi!” he sobbed, yet still achieved to sound coherent enough. His cheeks were stained with pretty shining tears and Shen Yuan could see the familiar tearful sheen in Shen Qingqiu’s eyes.

“Stop apologising, you dimwit. You’re an adult now, stop crying like a five year old!”

“But I killed you!”

“I literally slipped down the stairs by accident! You did not kill me!”

“But – ”

“No buts! It was an accident…now come and hug me. I’ve missed you too.”

At being allowed permission to hug him, Shen Tiao opened his arms and engulfed Shen Qingqiu into a deep embrace. Shen Yuan’s heart would have warmed at the sight, if it wasn’t for the fact that his apparent older brother was the main antagonist (not to mention that he didn’t really care much for him either way, since he never had an attachment to him to begin with)! Deep within his conflicting thoughts, Shen Yuan failed to notice how Luo Binghe’s eyes darkened and how Shen Chun approached Shen Qingqiu with a melancholic smile on his face.

“Qiu-di.”

“Chun-ge? It’s been some time. You look handsome.”

“We literally look alike.”

“I said what I said. A little bit of confidence never hurts everyone.”

Shen Mei let out a snicker, before murmuring to herself about how she loved his energy. In pure curiosity, she also approached by taking a couple steps forward, thus leaving Shen Yuan’s side. Shen Qingqiu noticed her, his eyes taking her in as flashed her a smirk. He then turned back to Shen Chun with questions written all over his face.

“Such a nice young lady. Who is she? And who is he?”

“Oh, they’re our other siblings. They were born after your death. That’s Shen Yuan and she’s Shen Mei.”

“Ah I see. How did you get here? Did you die?”

“…Yeah we did.”

“It was all er-ge’s fault!”

“Shut up meimei, it wasn’t, you liar! If it wasn’t for you and Yuan-di fighting like children, I wouldn’t have crashed the car!”

“You were the one who raged while on the road! You know you’re not meant to road rage! It’s illegal…I think.”

Before Shen Tiao could mockingly remark back, there was a sudden flourish of movement as a black tinted blade was pressed up to Shen Yuan’s neck. Shen Yuan blinked once before realising that a sword, specifically Xin Mo, was being held too close to his neck. Close enough that, with some force, it could easily break through skin and let blood trickle down. Luo Binghe was behind him, the hand that wasn’t holding Xin Mo was keeping Shen Yuan in place. Panic slowly seeped in, his mouth falling agape as he saw his siblings share a similar reaction to him, while Sha Hualing let out a hum full of amusement.

“Forgive this one, but ah, this one wishes to understand what it going on. It would do you best to not lie again, unless you want your brother’s head as a reward for your insolence.”

Shen Mei tried to move a couple paces back closer to Shen Yuan, but as soon as she inched to move, the blade was somehow pressed nearer without drawing any blood. Shen Yuan could feel the cold blade and shivered as it ghosted over his neck, feeling the sword thirsting for his blood. The elder brothers, Shen Qingqiu included, all visibly bristled that they turned towards them, and Shen Tiao even stopped embracing Shen Qingqiu in favour of standing up.

“Lord Luo…what is it you wish to know?” asked Shen Mei after sharing a worried glance with her elder brothers. Shen Chun only worryingly looked back in a total loss, while Shen Tiao steeled himself. His face turned stoic as he nodded to her in reassurance, his body preparing for an all-out-war.

“Many things, dear A-Mei. You keep on mentioning death, as though as you’ve died before even though you are clearly here and alive. Perhaps it’s a code for something? Quite a bad code, I must say. Secondly, you had told me that not only was it unlikely for my shizun to be related to you, but also you explicitly told me that it was only you four. Yet now, you are calling my shizun your brother. Why? Perhaps this was your plan all along?”

“Don’t call me A-Mei…” she said, but then drifted into silence.

The rushing of the acid around them and Shen Yuan’s staggered breath was the only thing to be heard for a while as the Shen siblings tried to come up with a response. Shen Yuan tried his best to shake his head, praying that his siblings did not dare to think about telling Luo Binghe the truth. If they told him the truth, the blood-driven protagonist would probably find a way to take over their world too, bringing unwanted chaos to the modern world.

That never happened in Proud Immortal Demon Way, but by this point, Shen Yuan realised that the novel had long gone off the tracks. In the original novel, there were no Shen siblings, or transmigrated beings, or even shadow monsters. The storyline changed, the future completely unknown and the only thing they could rely on was the characters themselves; the more in-character they were, the better. Taking over the modern world was something an in-character Luo Binghe would do, and Shen Yuan did not wish for it to become reality.

Not to mention that a certain someone’s life could be threatened. He did not care about Shen Qingqiu, but as much as he hated to admit it, he did care for the author’s life. Not only would Luo Binghe probably torture him to death as he had been the one to write this world to begin with thus everything Luo Binghe went through, but there was the threat of a system.

Being an anime and bad web novels connoisseur, Shen Yuan was all too aware of blasted systems that threatened their transmigrated hosts with punishment or death if the truth was told. Of course, Shen Yuan had no way of knowing if the author and Shen Qingqiu had a system, since Shen Yuan and his siblings didn’t have one, but he still wanted to account for it. If they did have a system, than the precautions would have been taken into good consideration. If not, well, a little extra protection never hurt anyone.

“Should we…?” finally asked Shen Tiao after a bit of deliberation. At his question, Luo Binghe beckoned to Xin Mo, which was still very much pressed at Shen Yuan’s neck. Surprisingly, Luo Binghe was being a bit out-of-character as he wasn’t exactly patient. Perhaps, because the situation dealt with his shizun, he wanted to handle it more delicately, in order to perhaps use any information to his advantage.

“Da-ge, er-ge, meimei. Don’t. Don’t be more stupid than you already are.”

“You’re not even going to address me, Yuan-di? You wound me.”

“…Qiu-ge you may be biologically my brother or whatever, but I don’t really care about you.”

“San-ge!”

“What? It makes sense, I don’t have any attachment to him! Especially not after being a scum villain and hurting Binghe.”

Shen Yuan only realised that he messed up, having let his tongue run while his mind barely walked, when he felt the sword at his neck falter. So much for admonishing his siblings to not speak the truth; only for him to mess up by mentioning that Shen Qingqiu was a scum villain, which he was, but the wording could have definitely been better. The biggest mistake he did, however, was intimately calling the future emperor of the three realms, just by his first name. His death was for certain now, even if his siblings did tell the truth. He practically disrespected him and in fact he could feel Luo Binghe shake in rage behind him!

“Well, excuse me for not having control over my own actions.”

“What, why? Because you have a system?” and once again, Shen Yuan wished to dig a hole in the ground and bury himself alive due to his own stupidity. He had just thought to himself about keeping quiet due to there being a potential system, but instead he ended up mentioning it! Perhaps the panic of being held at gunpoint, or at swordpoint really, was getting to him. It made him stupid, overwhelmed and more afraid than ever. He wished to be back at home, in his room, away from everyone and everything. His jaw was already becoming pretty heavy…

“Yes. Yes I do. Though, it has been a bit quiet recently.” Shen Qingqiu eyed to the side, away from anyone as he stared at nothingness for a mere moment. “It’s been glitching out like crazy. Maybe your arrival in this world has messed it up.”

Finally having run out of patience, Luo Binghe dug Xin Mo back into Shen Yuan’s neck, this time enough to draw blood. A blood drop dripped down from the open scar, not deep enough to be life-threatening but deep enough to make the rest of the Shen siblings, save for Shen Qingqiu, vibrate in concern. Shen Yuan could see how Shen Chun’s eyebrows knitted in worry, his doctoral urges wishing to take over. Sha Hualing whistled at the sight of the blood dripping.

Once again, Luo Binghe demanded answers, more bristled in questions than he had been earlier.

Chapter Text

Under the cruel hard gaze of Luo Binghe, Shen Chun cracked. He kowtowed, resulting in a whispered complain from Shen Qingqiu, all while Shen Chun begged for forgiveness and for Shen Yuan to be released. It was a pitifully pathetic sight, it was shameful enough that their ancestors would have denounced any familial ties. Shen Yuan felt second-hand embarrassment, his cheeks tinting a peach colour. His embarrassment was especially bad when his da-ge kept eyeing the scar on Shen Yuan’s neck like it was going to kill him. Sure, it hurt like hell and was probably going to get infect, but Luo Binghe didn’t seem like he wanted to actually behead Shen Yuan and that was good enough for him. Shen Yuan preferred getting injured over getting murdered.

“We’ll tell you the truth, just please let Yuan-di go.”

“You are in no position to make demands, Shen Chun. Speak. Now.”

“Yes, yes, of course, of cou–”

“Da-ge, you buffoon, let me handle this,” interrupted Shen Mei as she moved over to help him stand up before turning back to Luo Binghe with piercing eyes. Murderous intent swirled in her irises, as her nose scrunched in displeasure and her stance became rigid.

She spoke again, ignoring the silent cries of Shen Yuan demanding her to stay quiet. Shen Mei was never one to listen to men, though her brothers were typically an exception. Shen Yuan wished that this time was an exception too, but alas, his meimei was stubborn with the idea of saving him (not like he wanted to die anyway, but there was so much that could go wrong if she spilled out the truth).

“My brothers and I are not from this world or reality. Whatever you wish to call it. In our own world, this reality was just a stallion novel, created as a power fantasy for sad lonely men and yes, that includes you too san-ge.” Shen Yuan scoffed at the insult. He couldn’t believe that his meimei still had the mind to joke around when in such a dire situation.

Alas, he didn’t respond and instead continued to stay quiet while she spoke, “We passed away in our old world two months ago. which is how we arrived here. Apparently, your shizun was related to us in our past world, though Yuan-ge and I never got to meet him because he died before we were born. We didn’t know he existed until recently!…God, I don’t want to open that can of worms again. It’s still messed up that you kept us in the dark for so long, da-ge, er-ge!”

“Sorry,” they muttered out in unison, weak under the ire of their meimei. Shen Yuan pitied them for a mere moment before feeling the sword at his neck grow stiff and deadlier. Shen Yuan lit a candle for himself, realising that Luo Binghe was probably pissed at them for keeping their actual background a secret from him. He pissed enough to consider killing the closest Shen sibling, which was Shen Yuan, who regarded himself as the most innocent Shen in this situation. He didn’t do anything wrong, he was mostly just a bystander after all! Before Luo Binghe could even respond or act accordingly, however, Shen Mei continued to speak.

“Lord Luo, please do listen, this one understands that you might be enraged at us. That is understandable, but you must understand that there are other forces in play. Qiu-ge did not read Proud Immortal Demon Way, the novel this world is based on, because it was created four years ago.”

“Five years ago.”

“Shut up, san-ge. As I was saying, it was created five years ago and Qiu-ge died…twenty one years ago, if my calculations are correct. Why would Shen Qiu follow the exact same footsteps like the scum villain from the novel? Something must be controlling everything.”

“You are correct, actually,” spoke the scum villain, speaking in a way unlike a proper master. All his pretence had been dropped because of his siblings. It had been long since he’d last seen them, but he felt instinctually comfortable around them.

“Do not misunderstand. I do hate you, beast, but I never wished to torture you. I was forced by this god named System, who told me and I quote: ‘you must proceed with the storyline lest you want to be met with death.’ I have already died once and I refused to die again. The System forced me to burn down the Qiu Manor, forced me to follow the demonic cultivator. However most of its orders were centred around harming you. It became more active after you joined the sect. It threatened me with death if I spoke of its existence. It has been too silent recently, but if I were to suddenly drop dead, you know why. Although, I must mention, I died fifty years ago. I’ve been alive in this world for fifty years. I’m fifty years old.”

All eyes belonging to the Shen siblings stared holes at Shen Qingqiu. It didn’t make sense. How was he fifty years old when his twin was only thirty? (Actually, now that Shen Yuan thought about it, they had proof that Shen Qingqiu was older. That proof being Luo Binghe, who was twenty two years, a year older than the death anniversary of Qiu-ge). Logically, it made no sense, but there was never any logic to begin with.

“Well, you certainly learn something new everyday. Now, Lord Luo, this one won’t beg because I refuse to beg a man, but please do let san-ge go. He’s the only one who genuinely likes you, out of all of us. He literally read the entire novel just because of you.”

His meimei really was a daredevil, not matter the situation. Shen Yuan couldn’t help but rant his frustrations out against her.

“Meimei, don’t spread lies! Lord Luo is the best character from any creative work ever, his character arc is totally relatable and he is handsome, but I did not read Proud Immortal Demon Way just because of him. I also read it for the worldbuilding and for its terrible writing. That hack of an author Qinghua has a talent for bad writing.”

Shen Yuan couldn’t tell Luo Binghe’s reaction, since his back was against the demon’s chest, but from the way the sword faltered and from everyone’s shocked face, Shen Yuan knew that he probably made Luo Binghe angry beyond disbelief. Even Sha Hualing seemed terrified, her eyes and mouth widened comically. It was actually she who then spoke, her tone full of pure astonishment (and not fear. How strange.)

“Lord Luo…oh my. Not even I have ever had the pleasure of making you feel so…emotional.”

As soon as she said that, Shen Yuan was pushed forward, falling into the arms of his meimei. She caught him easily, though almost missed him due to a slower reaction time. Shen Yuan instantly straightened and looked back to see Luo Binghe’s anger, only to find the future emperor hiding his face behind his hands and grunting in them. Was he so angry that he did not even wish to see the faces of the Shen siblings? Or perhaps he was drained from emotion? Both reactions were understandable to some extent, Shen Yuan knew that emotions could be difficult to deal with it, but wasn’t this an overreaction?

Apparently, it wasn’t since Luo Binghe quickly recomposed himself again. He glared at each Shen siblings, his glare becoming sharper when he set his sights on Shen Qingqiu only for it to become softer when passing over Shen Mei. For a moment, Shen Yuan imagined his glare also softening when it passed over himself, but Shen Yuan quickly shook that off. For what reason would Luo Binghe soften his gaze when it came to him? If anything, it would become harsher. Not only had he always hated Shen Yuan, but Shen Yuan had also enraged him multiple times! Surely that warranted a harsh deep glare.

"This Lord still has questions he wants to ask all of you, but this is not the place to do so. Let us head back. Shizun, this disciple will visit you later.”

“Please don’t. I’d rather see my enemy less rather than more.”  

Exiting Shen Qingqiu’s cell, blindfolds were strapped back over the eyes of everyone except for Luo Binghe, as he drew the bridge reclosed the cell. Then, he tied Sha Hualing’s wrists with Demon Confining Thread, deciding to smuggle her out instead of risking sounding any demonic-aura alarms by making use of Xin Mo’s portals. He led them through each maze, corridor, and stairway again, each step still very dizzying. Shen Yuan took a deep breath of relief when they arrived at the small room.

Once again, Luo Binghe untied the blindfolds, but left Sha Hualing tied up with the thread, in favour of fooling any spying Huan Hua disciples. Such a task would be quite easy considering that almost everyone in Proud Immortal Demon Way had an IQ of twenty.

There was a tense silence that followed them around as they discreetly exited the room. Outside was no one, the hallways were empty and soundless. Luo Binghe led them for hopefully the last time, but they didn’t make it far before they were stopped by the Little Palace Mistress , who appeared from nowhere. A lady in the typical yellow robes of Huan Hua Palace stood behind her, trying to coax her into calm down but to no avail. There was only one woman in the entire web novel who followed after the Little Palace like a dog would to its owner, and that was the first wife, Qin Wanyue. With just her looks, she really did deserve the title of first wife but her meek personality made it so that she was totally useless for the taxing role. It was why Liu Mingyan was the wife that managed most harem affairs, despite being the sixth wife to join the harem.

“Husband! Seems like your guests have long overdued their stay! This loyal wife of yours shall escort them out while you go rest up,” the Little Palace Mistress said, all while not-so-subtly stepping onto the foot of Qin Wanyue to shut her up. The first wife yelped but promptly kept her mouth closed in fear of getting lashed at. Sha Hualing remained hidden behind everyone, though that barely worked since she was the second tallest person in the group. The only one who could shield her was Luo Binghe, but he was all the way at the front. Luckily, due to their low IQ, the two wives failed to notice her.

“There’s no need, wife. There are matters I still need to discuss with them. Now excuse us.”

“Husband, please! This wife misses you so dearly!”

Luo Binghe ignored her, choosing to go around her instead. The Shen siblings and Sha Hualing followed, Shen Yuan wearily glancing at the two wives to see their reactions. Qin Wanyue just looked pitifully heartbroken whereas the Little Palace Mistress looked vexed enough to cause problems…And problems she did cause as when Shen Yuan looked away, she unleashed her terror.

The crack of a whip thundered against skin. The skin teared due to the iron whip’s force, blood flowing out from the wound onto the floor thus coating it in crimson. For a second, Shen Yuan thought he was the one who got hit, but when he noticed that his body refused to register any pain, he realised that it had been his da-ge who was whipped. He had a nasty open wound across his face and scarlet blood dripped from it. Shen Yuan felt the small wound at his neck ache, its pain had been forgotten but he was suddenly aware of it again when he saw the blood.

It had been established multiple times in Proud Immortal Demon Way that the Little Palace Mistress was swift. Her old man was, after all, the sect leader and she managed to inherit most of his good genetics, one of them being swiftness. Her fleetness was of good aid to her, it helped her become the most merciless wife in the harem and also the wife to get in the least amount of damsel-in-distress plots. Any time she was mentioned, there would always be violent papapa between her and the protagonist, no matter if she was in distress or not. When he first read about it, Shen Yuan had actually raged quite hard in the forums of Proud Immortal Demon Way since he was certain that speed was not something genetic. As always, everyone had ignored him.

Using her swiftness to her advantage, the Little Palace Mistress had waited for everyone to pass by her before running over to them and taking out her long iron whip. She just as quickly had lashed it at Shen Chun’s face, delivering a very devastating blow that made Shen Chun wail in agony. Shen Tiao reacted first, latching onto Shen Chun and trying to help his brother as best as he could, whilst also growling at the third wife. Shen Yuan and Sha Hualing both stood flabbergasted, even the future fourth wife, who was rather violent, was surprised at the abrupt aggression. Qin Wanyue let out a gasp, but she didn’t look surprised. Instead, she looked weary. Luo Binghe stopped and turned, his face mostly unreadable.

Shen Mei, however, had the most unreadable expression. Shen Yuan glanced over to her when he realised just how quiet she had suddenly become. It was rather out of character for her, she was a loud extrovert so it was odd. Her face had turned red in anger and her fists were clenching hard enough to draw blood. In a matter of minutes, three Shen siblings had gotten hurt, all hurt enough to draw blood, and this sudden realisation made Shen Yuan bite his lower lip in thought. He quickly shook it off however as he moved to ask his meimei if she was alright, but she was already a step ahead of him.

Shen Mei wiped off the blood from her hands and brushed past by everyone in order to walk towards the Little Palace Mistress. Her face was resolutely neutral, except for the red blooming on it, and her knuckles turned into pure white.

The Little Palace Mistress was going to get a taste of the Shen siblings’ love for one another, Shen Yuan realised, as he prepared to aid his sister from the back. His eyes stayed focus on the scene, while he circulated spiritual qi outside his body. After scanning the area with his qi, he found two seedling burrowed underneath where they were as Huan Hua Place had been built before they even had a chance to flourish. The unspoken plan was ready to be set into motion.

Shen Tiao looked ready to murder someone too, but seeing that Shen Mei had the situation under control, he decided to help Shen Chun. It really was a nasty injury, and both older brothers tried to cover it up as best as they could, though the lack of proper supplies, and Shen Chun’s shivering and tears kept getting in the way. Even Qin Wanyue moved over to help Shen Chun, which was unexpectedly expected of her. Despite her meek and obedient personality, Qin Wanyue was a nice woman and she hated seeing people hurt for no reason. Shen Yuan didn’t expect that her kindness would extend to a point where she’d help a Shen-Qingqiu-look-a-like.

“Why’s a little girl approaching me?” The Little Palace Mistress cruelly asked, an evil smirk placed on her visage. It was clear that she expected Shen Mei to be someone weak, but ah, that was far from the truth. She severely underestimated the loud meimei of the group, who could be quite cruel when she wanted to. Nobody said that the Shen siblings were always kind, after all.

“For what reason did you hurt my da-ge?”

“Are you stupid? It’s quite obvious! He looks exactly like my husband’s evil shizun. Anyone who is related to that scum deserves to be tortured a thousand times. You look just like him too! You should be tortured too!”

“Me too? Oh wonderful, too bad you’re the one who’s getting hurt.”

“As if I’d let– Huh?! What?” The Little Palace mistress cut herself off as two thick vines gripped her feet in place. Shen Yuan exerted a lot of energy to hold her hostage despite her formidable struggles. The whip in her hand fell as she was startled. Shen Mei took this chance to place her hand on the third wife’s neck, before applying enough pressure to snap the vines and thus, crashing them both into a wall, destroying it in the process. The Little Palace Mistress let out a choked gasp, blood spurting out of her mouth as a ring of fire surrounded Shen Mei. Qin Wanyue looked over and gasped when she saw her owner in such a position, and so, she left Shen Chun’s side. Qin Wanyue got ready to attack Shen Mei in order to save the Little Palace Mistress, except Shen Yuan uncharacteristically kept his focus on her. He had instantly reacted when she stepped away from his da-ge. With those two same snapped vines, he held her in place whilst she struggled for freedom.

It was rather surprising that Luo Binghe didn’t react to any of this. Instead, he impassively let his third wife get choked and his first wife held hostage.

“Now, listen here, spoiled brat. If you dare raise your whip against my brothers again, I’ll make sure to rip every single tendon in your body, one by one. I might even break each bone, tear each muscle apart and maybe even gouge your eyes out and feed you them. Never raise your hand against my brothers. No one’s allowed to hurt them.”

Then Shen Mei let go of her crushing grip and the Little Palace Mistress slid down in a heap of coughs and hazy breaths. The ring of fire spread away, as it was only used to intimidate further. Shen Mei then bent down to meet the frightened gaze of the Little Palace Mistress.

“I must admit, however, you’re quite admirable. In this age, not many enjoy seeing strong women. You’re a leader despite being a woman. You’re powerful, dominant, and it certainly feels like you wouldn’t let men boss you around. If you fix your…repulsive behaviour, I’d even be inclined to be your friend. I love myself a good woman who knows her place in society of not being a helpless damsel.”

With no remorse whatsoever, Shen Mei proceeded to grab her and the still-struggling Qin Wanyue by their hair. Shen Yuan let her go as Shen Mei dragged them before throwing them down the hallway. Qin Wanyue panicked, but managed to save both of them from crashing against a wall by using her qi. Then she scurried off while carrying the Little Palace Mistress away with tears clinging from her long eyelashes.

Both Shen Yuan and Shen Mei approached their older brothers in worry. The wound was mostly covered up, but Shen Chun let out a couple of complaints about the wound getting infected. Reassuringly, Shen Tiao patted his back as he cleaned up the remaining blood splatters with a rag he took out from their da-ge’s sleeves.

The two vines that had been used to capture the two wives were still usable despite having been snapped twice, so Shen Yuan used them to grow a flowering plant that was used in the earlier chapters of Proud Immortal Demon Way, in Qian Cao Peak specifically. It was a flower, and a drop of its dew could make a wound painless for a couple of hours; basically it was a xianxia version of a painkiller. Like every other name in Proud Immortal Demon Way, its name was downright terrible as it was called Holy Serene Health Dew Flower.

As Shen Yuan willed it into existence and then proceeded to apply it through the bandages, his da-ge praised him for remembering of such a useful plant while he had forgotten about it. Shen Mei was also being praised, but by Shen Tiao. He praised her cultivation skills and how violently well she handled the situation. Obviously, Shen Mei responded that she learnt from the best, making Shen Tiao grin stupidly in pride. The way they acted made it seem like they had never fought to begin with, like there had never been anything tense between them.

Lost in their own world, all the Shen siblings failed to hear the conversation between Sha Hualing and Luo Binghe, the former curiously going over to her future husband and nudging him with her shoulder. They shared a glance, and Shen Yuan barely caught their final words as he was finally done from applying the dew on his da-ge’s face.

“…could careless about her. This Lord only married her because the Palace Master ordered me to. This one did not wish to raise suspicion so I simply agreed. Once I defeat the old man however, I might just discard her.”

“Quite brutal, if I do say so myself, Lord Luo.”

“Isn’t brutality the way of the demons, Ling-er? It’s only natural.”

“Indeed, it is. Lord Luo, you truly are deserving of the title Junshang over all demons. Soon, you’ll be…”

“Ling-er don’t mention the plan – ”

Suddenly, Shen Mei grabbed the wrist of Shen Yuan and then Shen Chun. She forced them in a huddle with Shen Tiao, a little further away from where they originally were. Taking as much precautions as she could, Shen Mei spoke quietly in English, hopefully low enough that the heightened senses of the demons couldn’t pick it up. The demons, however, seemed too invested in their conversation to even take notice of the Shen siblings.

“What are we going to do now?”

“Well, for starters, I want to save Qiu-ge. I already killed him once. This time I refuse to abandon him.”

“Tiao-di, how many times do we have to mention it? You weren’t the cause of his death!”

“How did he die anyway?” Shen Yuan asked, his curiosity peaked as he totally forgot that Shen Qingqiu had mentioned it. Shen Tiao indulged him with an answer, his voice a little strained but still clear as day. “He fell down the stairs while we were playing tag. He was the tagger and I ran down the stairs. He slipped and broke his neck.”

“Oh that’s gruesome. It doesn’t seem like its your fault though, er-ge.”

“It is though meimei, because I was the one who ran up the stairs in the first place.”

“Accidents occur all the time, Tiao-di. Don’t put so much blame on – ”

Shen Chun didn’t even get to finish his sentence before the cell door leading to the Water Prison burst open. Everyone’s eyes were directed to it, all wondering which criminal was bold and cunning enough to escape, but not a person emerged. Instead, the shadow of destruction materialised into existence, or rather slithered from the Water Prison into the hallway they were in.

Rapidly, it contaminated the walls like a virus, the hallway soon turned into a deep abyssal black with only some of the floor left untouched. Multiple tentacles then rushed out to attack, aiming at the six people standing in the corridor. Dodging them was a difficult task, but it was manageable…until the tentacles got faster and faster, and more seemed to appear. Everyone tried to move away, but the shadow followed them around. It was dead set on taking them, and this time it refused to be fooled by them. The lifeless glob of darkness was worryingly determined.

Shen Yuan was heaving hard, panicking, his heart beat accelerating. Barely enough air filled his lungs as he jumped over a tentacles aiming at his ankle. He stumbled forward, into the back of Luo Binghe, who had abandoned his previous thoughts of not using Xin Mo in favour of using said demonic weapon to slash through the tentacles. His eyes were flashing a bright red, his sword pulsing in a malicious aura that made Shen Yuan shudder. He couldn’t observe any further as four other tentacles launched at him and he barely dodged them. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, it was the only thing that kept him going. Even after having cultivated a fair amount, Shen Yuan’s body was still frailer compared to his siblings. Rightly so, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he was captured by the shadow first.

Surprisingly enough, however, it was Shen Chun who had gotten caught first. Already fairly tired due to his skin working to patch up the injury on his face, he ended up stumbling just like Shen Yuan had earlier. Instead of catching himself, he fell straight to the ground. Shen Mei tried to help him stand, but in between using fire to burn the tentacles away and dodging, she couldn’t really do much. Shen Tiao was in a similar position, breaking through his cultivation whilst trying to fend of the tentacles, as he formed stones from mid-air. Luo Binghe could careless about them, and he was too focused on slicing the tentacles anyway. Sha Hualing was more focused on slashing tentacles away from Shen Tiao with her bare claws, and Shen Yuan obviously couldn’t do anything since he was barely holding on himself.

A sly tentacle wrapped itself around Shen Chun’s ankle and dragged him away. Shen Mei tried to burn it, but she was too late. Their da-ge wasn’t torn apart or stabbed but was sucked away into the shadow. While her attention was focused elsewhere, two slithering tentacles made their way behind her. When the moment was right, right when Shen Chun was sucked in, the tentacles sprung at her and latched around her ankle. She tripped and then sunk into the shadow, which had contaminated the ground under her. At the same time, Shen Yuan was also sinking away into the shadow, having been caught because his body had finally ran out of adrenaline to continue on. He sunk and sunk, until black washed over him.

All Shen Yuan remembered seeing before being washed over by black was Luo Binghe struggling against ten tentacles (or maybe eve more). The wind was then knocked out of him, his consciousness driven to static radio silence. He felt the world clash around him, breaking apart, losing its form. It faded into nothingness as an ocean of abyss awaited him.

-

His soul was broken. It was lost and utterly confused, so it stayed still, awaiting something. It wept, cold and lonely, the something becoming clearer and clearer. The soul was hoping for its three brethren to join it, to become whole again.

An approaching figure, a soul of flickering black and purple floated close. The soul hummed in excitement, its light yellow colour going bright for a second as it felt one of its brethren getting nearer. Soon it was near enough for them to dance, and thus only two more brethren were missing.

In the background appeared another glow, a red broken soul. Sometimes, it flashed black, but it was mostly static red. This one wasn’t a brethren of the pale yellow soul. It was just a wandering piece, aiming to find its whole. The pale yellow soul pitied for the broken soul, so it approached it and gently nuzzled it. The red soul brightened, nuzzling closer. The purple and black soul didn’t like this new presence however, so it reluctantly floated off. It drifted for a moment in the background, content on seeing the yellow soul happy.

Slowly, the purple and black soul could see the beginning effects of a fusion between them, the two souls finding completion in each other.

Chapter Text

The road to Qing Jing Peak was a difficult one, especially considering that they were in the middle of nowhere. No villages, no ancient monuments placed conveniently to mark them in a specific area, absolutely nothing! Only Just Lush Orange Acer Trees all around, and not even they could indicate where they were as they were practically found everywhere! There was even a distinct lack of wildlife, which Shen Yuan found to be quite strange.

It was just an endless trek, tiring and difficult as they slid down a muddy slope onto more uneven land. Shen Yuan wished he was cooped up in his bed rather than out here.

-

When Shen Yuan had woken up, he woke to the sight of Luo Binghe leaning gracefully against a tree. His posture was simultaneously relaxed but full of thought. He was looking at Xin Mo, his eyebrows were furrowed in deep thought as the sword seemed to weakly pulsate. His gaze was torn away from it when he sensed Shen Yuan waking, and their eyes met in an awkward daze.

Shen Yuan let out a strangled noise from the back of his throat, suddenly overwhelmed with how intensely Luo Binghe looked upon him. His stare was different from usual. Usually, it was beautifully condescending and cruel, a sight that made Shen Yuan fawn in the deepest depths of his heart despite how inferior it made him feel, but this time…This time, his gaze spoke no volume. It kept its thoughts hidden behind a strong look of will and thought.

For once, Shen Yuan decided to openly ogle the protagonist. The way he leant against a tree, the way he held his sword. Something about his regal pose in general screamed attractive. The Huan Hua robes he had been wearing earlier had been changed as Luo Binghe was wearing his typical black hanfu with red accents. Said black hanfu billowed softly with the wind, creating an ethereal picture that would have had Shen Yuan frothing at the mouth if it wasn’t for the fact that he had an audience. Luo Binghe’s brown eyes seemed to gleam, somehow bright enough to hide away years of pain and misery. His lips were curled in a brooding frown. Despite being curled into a frown, those pinkish lips still looked very kissable…obviously not because Shen Yuan was gay but because Luo Binghe was the protagonist and everything about him was flawless.

After taking his fill of ogling the protagonist, whilst said protagonist openly stared at him too which was strange in its own way, Shen Yuan finally realised that they weren’t at Huan Hua Palace. No, they were outside and he was laying down on the uncomfortable dirty ground.

He sat up and was about to ask Luo Binghe where they were before catching a glimpse of a familiar hand on the ground. The familiar hand belonged to his meimei, who was unconscious. His eyes stuck on her sleeping figure as he paid attention for any movements. When he saw that her chest was moving with each breath she took, Shen Yuan let out a sigh of relief. Then, he did a double take as panic suddenly flooded him. Why had his meimei passed out?! Was she sick?!

Anxiously, he crawled over to her and cradled her body, all while calling out her name a couple of times. The first few calls elected no response, but the second batch did, as Shen Mei let out a throaty groan. Her eyes fluttered open and Shen Yuan cradled her closer, relief feeling his chest once again. His precious meimei only responded back, however, by pushing him away.

“Sticky…you’re so sticky san-ge…let your…” she let out a yawn and blinked multiple times, trying to regain focus before reclosing her eyes and falling back to sleep, whilst slurring out, “let your meimei sleep peacefully…”

“Meimei! Meimei! Wake up!…I…I need your help?” In spite of knowing many of her favourite things that could get her enthusiastic, such as winter and snow, Shen Yuan wasn’t sure what to say so he lied instead. Well, it technically wasn’t a lie since he did need her help in figuring out what was going on, but it had been mostly made up on the spot.

Surprisingly enough, it actually worked as his meimei sat up with a exhalation, “What? Can’t you let a girl sleep in peace?”

“I would, meimei…but we’re in the middle of nowhere and I might have a panic attack if you don’t wake up right now.”

That got Shen Mei to properly wake up again as her eyes darted frantically, in order to confirm if Shen Yuan was spewing out the truth. When she realised that her brother didn’t lie, that they were indeed in the middle of nowhere, she turned back to him and let out a curse. Shen Yuan only nodded in reply, understanding her sentiment better than anyone else could.

“…Where’s da-ge and er-ge?”

He only shrugged his shoulders, only now noticing that it was just him and her in the area. There was also Luo Binghe, but up until Shen Mei mentioned their older brothers, Shen Yuan had completely forgotten about him. Nowhere around them were Shen Chun or Shen Tiao, there wasn’t even Sha Hualing. It was just the three of them, in the middle of nowhere, stranded and lost.

“This one knows where they are,” interfered Luo Binghe, “that shadow separated us and has sent us in different locations. It even targeted my shizun since his location has shifted too drastically. Shen Tiao and Sha Hualing seem to be together, Shen Chun is by himself however. The closest one to us is my shizun, who I believe is at Qing Jing Peak, so it is best that we go there first.”

“Right, thanking Lord Luo…” Shen Mei answered awkwardly. She was waiting for him to use Xin Mo to cut open a portal, as was Shen Yuan, but when she saw that he wasn’t moving, she asked, “aren’t you going to use your sword to cut through time and space?”

“This one had already tried while you two were asleep. Xin Mo is not working properly so we can only walk.”

“Oh.”

-

And that was how they ended up in this situation, a sichen in and still very far away from Qing Jing Peak according to Luo Binghe. Shen Yuan felt his ankles ache in agony, his muscles and bones begging for rest. His introverted body wasn’t built for this much exercise, despite the fact that he gained some endurance ever since he started to cultivate. Alas, that endurance was still not enough for a long unplanned journey.

It appeared that even Shen Mei was growing tired despite her inhumane stamina, as when they passed by a log she stopped walked, she turned to it and then sat.  She then proceeded to let out a grumble and demand for them to take a break. Luo Binghe, quite reluctant and obviously displeased, allowed the two Shens to sit down and rest their legs a little bit.

As expected of the protagonist with his wonderful protagonist halo, he did not need any rest, as he instead leaned against a tree like he had been two hours ago when Shen Yuan first woke up. His body was well accustomed to physical endeavours, mostly because of those five whole years spent in the abyss, fighting every single day with little to no rest.

At first, there was no chatter or sound from any of them. The only noise to drift alongside the cool breeze was the rustling of trees.

Then, suddenly, there was a choked sob. Shen Yuan looked at the direction of the sob and found Shen Mei, head down and lurching forward with one of her hands holding her stomach and the other one grasping her mouth close. Huge lumps of tears were streaming endlessly down her face. She was evidently trying hard to keep her cries in, but it must had been too difficult as sobs continued to escape her mouth. She miserably failed at hiding her sorrowful weeps that even Luo Binghe peered at her in interest.

Shen Yuan felt awkward. He wasn’t good at dealing with tears, but he couldn’t let his sister wail so wretchedly like a witchy widow who had just lost her only child. He brought a hand to her hair, ran his fingers through it and brought her close to him. Shen Mei moved even closer, burying her face in his chest as she let the sobs burst out freely. Snot and tears soon dirtied Shen Yuan’s hanfu, but he paid it no mind. His mind was too focused on his precious broken meimei.

“Meimei?…What’s wrong?”

As she let out a string of apologies, Shen Mei only cried hard. Shen Yuan shook his head and told her to not apologise before asked her again what was wrong. Shen Mei finally allowed her brother to see through her broken heart.

“I hate…I hate everything! I hate this – this! I hate this stupid world…I hate that stupid shadow and…and I hate that I’m terrified of dying again!” she let out a hiccup then another sob, “I don’t…I don’t want to die again, san-ge. Not again! San-ge! I miss da-ge, I miss er-ge. I miss…I miss home. I miss mama. I…I…I just want to go back home! I want to feel safe again…”

She continued to weep harder. Her cries made Shen Yuan press her even closer, close enough that he could smell her hair and see each individual dirt particle on it. He didn’t know what to say, so instead he kept silent and just continued to embrace his sister. She needed comfort and sometimes, just being held was the best source of comfort one could offer. Sometimes, words only made things worse. Shen Yuan knew that better than anyone else.

Enough time passed for an incense stick to burn completely before Shen Mei started to calm down. Her tears stopped and she didn’t wail like a banshee anymore, but her breathing was still hitched. A yawn abruptly escaped from her chapped lips as she moved away from Shen Yuan.

“Sorry san-ge.”

“It’s okay meimei, you don’t have to apologise. Do you feel better?”

“Mn…A little.”

The protagonist finally broke out from his mute observations as he left the tree and walked closer to them. His strong arms were crossed over his chest, his head tilted slightly in a way that gave him an of superiority. Shen Yuan felt like he was just a worthless bug under the eyes of the protagonist. He felt like he was a prey under the eyes of its predator and so, Shen Yuan ended up shuddering in fear as he protectively pulled Shen Mei closer again.

“You’re truly more emotional than a child, it’s quite pathetic. Is this normal behaviour in your old world? Is this why you’re all so weak?”

Probably for the first time ever, Shen Yuan felt anger bubble in his chest due to Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe had always been his favourite character, so matter how many times he looked down upon Shen Yuan, he did not care as much. In fact, he could bully Shen Yuan as much as he wanted to but Shen Yuan drew the line at him berating his meimei. He should have not dared to call Shen Mei pathetic, not after months of flirting with her despite her constant rejections! Honestly, Luo Binghe reminded him of the ‘nice’ guys from that one subreddit where men considered themselves to be nice but end up being the worst people to exist. 

Many times his siblings had admonished his adoration for Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan typically disagreed with them. Luo Binghe was a broken soul, a child, who only ever sought out love and acceptance. His journey of figuring out his identity, his journey of realising that he shouldn’t let people drag him down and instead he should rise to the top, his journey to not let the weak be bullied; all of his journeys that filled Shen Yuan with a deep sense of admiration. His character arc had been relatable, his actions justified due to the entirety of the world having multiple times went against him.

In the later chapters, it was true that he had become a less appealing of a character. He had started to kill more frequently for no reason as his rage consumed him, he sometimes ignored the cries of the poor peasants and he occasionally grew violent with his harem, even though his personal philosophy was that he’d treat everyone the way they treat him but tenfold, and the majority of his harem had all been kind to him. However, that was only in the later chapters after chapter 3000 as Xin Mo was starting to properly consume him!

He was not in control of his actions so he was justified! Luo Binghe still was a loveable black sheep, he was more than just a power-fantasy for sad excuses of men living in the basement of their mother. He was never a villain, but a good guy who flirted too much and had some violent tendencies due to his demonic heritage.

Yet now, Shen Yuan was inclined to believe to his siblings reprimands. Maybe Luo Binghe really wasn’t all that great of a character. Maybe his constant condescending behaviour towards Shen Yuan and the rest of his siblings weren’t something to brush over, especially not now, since he insulted Shen Mei just because she cried after going through multiple traumatic events!

Maybe Luo Binghe was a villain.

Unlike Shen Yuan, who kept his anger bottled up, Shen Mei let it burst open. She pushed away from Shen Yuan, stood up, strutted into Luo Binghe’s personal space until her face was directly in view of his huge chest and she looked up to glare at him. He only glowered back, awaiting her tantrum only to instead be left disappointed as she let out a sigh of deep breath. Shen Yuan saw how she calmed herself down by clenching her fists, forcing herself to take deep long breaths before speaking.

“It isn’t pathetic or weak to show emotions, Lord Luo. In fact, I’d say it’s quite brave to be upfront with your emotions. After all, you never know how someone might react when you express any emotion. Whether someone will react positively or negatively, like you have. You insulted me for something I could not control, and I must admit, if I were weaker, you would have destroyed my confidence. However I do not care for your words. If I wish to cry, I will do so and I will not care if you judge me for it.

You might be future emperor of the merged realms, but to me, you’re nothing. I have no bonds to you, no attachments whatsoever and in fact, I must admit that I hate you. Out of all the things I hate, you are what I hate the most. Dear Gods, that is so freeing to say. Sorry san-ge, didn’t mean to insult your favourite character but damn! You really do have bad taste in men.”

Instead of reacting negatively by taking out Xin Mo and chopping Shen Mei’s head off for admitting that she hates him because of his personal philosophy of repaying others tenfold for the way they treat him, Luo Binghe simply nodded. Just a simple uncharacteristic nod that even had Shen Mei reel back in suspicious surprise. Shen Yuan took this moment to stand up, pull his sister slightly back a safe distance away from Luo Binghe and then he spoke to his meimei.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to like my favourite character, but my taste in men isn’t bad!” typically, Shen Yuan would continue his sentence by saying that he wasn’t gay, but his mind short-circuited for a brief moment, and his thoughts faded to nothing. His meimei expected him to continue, but when he didn’t, she perked up enthusiastically.

“San-ge! Are you finally admitting that you’re gay?!”

“What!? No! I’m not gay, my mind just stopped working for a moment!”

“Oh. That’s a bummer.”

Shen Yuan rolled his eyes, hitting Shen Mei’s shoulder with a playful fist as she let out a series of giggles. It was great, to see her laughing again. Alas, their short playful moment was soon ended by Luo Binghe who clicked his tongue and tilted his head like a confused dog as he deeply scrutinised them. It looked out-of-character, but it was just so cute that Shen Yuan felt his heart race a bit faster than normal.

“Apologies, it appears that emotions are quite important to you. Though, I would have never expected such hatred from you, this Lord is quite intrigued by it and he is intrigued by your passion towards him.”

Why was Luo Binghe being so out of character?! First he apologised, which is something he rarely did as he usually was right most of the time (as expected from the protagonist)! Secondly, he was interested in Shen Mei’s hatred towards him which was so unbecoming as the future emperor of the realms! Thirdly, he was also interested in Shen Yuan’s favouritism towards him! Why would he be interested in Shen Yuan simply admiring him?! Not only was he not a woman, so it was not like Luo Binghe was getting papapa out of it, but also Luo Binghe never cared if men admired him! Luo Binghe had known very well that he was someone to be admired!

So deep in his own thoughts, Shen Yuan failed to realise that Luo Binghe and Shen Mei exchanged a few words before moving away. He was only brought back into the world when his meimei jogged all the way back to him and tugged violently on his sleeves, almost tripping him in the process.

“San-ge, get out of your head and let’s go.”

Shen Yuan nodded and walked after her, a few paces slower than hers as his legs were still throbbing in pain. The breeze around them was cool, the sun getting ready to set under the horizon. The forest still lacked wildlife but the trees were full of life. The area was coolly tranquil, the perfect place for meditation as it had an abundance of qi. Even though they had been separated from their siblings, the Lush Orange Acer Trees calmed any lingering anxiety bubbling in Shen Yuan. Soon, they would get together again. Soon, everything would be right again.

They had almost made it next to Luo Binghe before disaster struck again. Nobody sensed the shadow, not even Luo Binghe, as dozens of tentacles suddenly rushed out from the dense forest. They aimed right at Shen Mei, wrapping themselves around her and dragging her back into the forest. Everything happened quicker than a flash of light, there had not even been enough time for Shen Mei to scream or for either two men to react. By the time she disappeared into the forest, Luo Binghe had acted, chasing right after them. Shen Yuan blinked once before finally realising what had happened. In panic, his legs ignored all pain as he chased after them.

Luo Binghe had been too late to reach Shen Mei.

Shen Yuan had been too late to save his sister.

They stood in a small clearing with neither the shadow nor Shen Mei to be seen. The winds sung out a rougher lullaby and the leaves rustled harshly against each other, filling up the solemn silence. Shen Yuan blinked again, his breathing heavy as he let himself survey the area. There really was no sign of any other life except for himself and Luo Binghe.

“It has taken her away.”

“Huh?”

“This Lord senses that the shadow has placed A-Mei near shizun’s location, though there is some distance between them. If I were correct about my shizun being on Qing Jing Peak, this one assumes that A-Mei is on another peak.”

“Oh.”

They stayed still for a few moments, Luo Binghe’s gaze fixed upon Shen Yuan while the latter just stared at nothing. That was until he lowered his gaze to the ground and gripped the fabrics of his hanfu tight. His face creased up in frustration, he so badly wanted to let out all of his emotions by crying out, but he couldn’t will himself to do it. It was as though his eyes had dried completely from tears. Catching his gloomy mood, Luo Binghe spoke up.

“Are you alright?”

Since when did Luo Binghe care about the wellbeing of Shen Yuan (or of any other subordinate for that matter)? Since when did he become so benevolent enough to try caring? Well, it did not matter. Shen Yuan needed an outlet for his emotions and Luo Binghe had just provided one. It did not matter that Luo Binghe was someone who deserved respect, it did not matter that he was the mighty protagonist. Shen Yuan was too tired to even care at this point.

“Why would I be alright? My siblings and I keep getting targeted by this stupid shadow, and I don’t know what it wants from us!” Shen Yuan started pacing back and forth, as he continued to voice out his every single thought, “What makes us so special for us to be its target? Is it because we’re from another world?! But that doesn’t make sense because it would then target Airplane and Qiu-ge, but neither of them have mentioned a thing about a shadow that specifically targeted them. I’m so tired of this. I’m so tired of things happening to us. I just want to go home and rest. I just want to be with my family. I don’t want to deal with anymore drama.”

Shen Yuan stopped pacing in front of a tree and collapsed against it after turning his back to it. He brought his knees to his chest and tucked his face into them as he let out a couple incoherent murmurs. His murmurs were so incoherent that not even Shen Yuan himself knew what he muttered. His brain felt like it had been turned off, he really just wanted to rest.

Luo Binghe let out a sigh, a sigh that Shen Yuan barely noticed with how quiet it sounded.

“The sun will soon set. Let us stop for today. This Lord shall go gather some dry wood for a fire.”

“No need, Lord Luo,” Shen Yuan whispered as he looked up at the half-demon and tiredly turned his spiritual qi into elemental qi. He produced a couple of dry sticks and leaves. Shen Yuan was too weary to care about building a fire, he would go far as to say that he didn’t care for anything except for his siblings, but that would be a lie.

Half of his mind was somehow still bent on serving Luo Binghe, on not letting the protagonist do anything meagre such as gathering wood. He was still angry at him for disrespecting his meimei, but his meimei had given Luo Binghe a piece of her mind so his anger had subsided a little. Plus, how could he dare stay angry at the protagonist, the future emperor of everything?

“That’s certainly useful,” Luo Binghe said, as he grasped everything Shen Yuan created and piled them together. His show of strength made a heat uncoil in Shen Yuan’s stomach, the intense summer-like warmth he had felt once before, also due to Luo Binghe. His face heated up, all of his previous worries and irritation fading away as he stared at Luo Binghe, whose muscles somehow visibly flexed underneath all his billowing sleeves.

“There, that’s prepared for later. As I am a half-heavenly demon, this Lord can stay a couple of weeks without food. How about you? This one is not sure if you practise inedia.”

“…huh? Uh…Oh! No. No I don’t.”

“Then that means we’ll have to forage for food, unless you can create fruits as well?”

“I…This one should be able to. Just, give me a moment.”

Fatigue made it challenging for Shen Yuan to once again channel his spiritual qi into elemental qi, but he managed. An unhealthy-looking branch grew on one of the surrounding trees and pink flowers soon adorned it. Sooner rather than later, these same flowers bloomed into a beautiful batch of peaches.

Shen Yuan’s exhaustion finally caught up to him, rendering his cultivation to absolutely nothing. He wouldn’t be able to cultivate plants again until he was properly well-rested, but since he went beyond his limits, he probably would have to rest for longer. Shen Yuan even struggled to cycle his own natural spiritual qi inside his meridians, his breathing was laboured, his form falling onto the ground as his eyelids felt too heavy.

Taking a nap surely wouldn’t hurt, he reasoned. It’s not like it mattered anyway.

Before he could even shut his eyes, Shen Yuan was hoisted up and forced to lean against the tree again. Then, a beautiful peach was brought to his lips. It nudged against his lips until he gave in, opening just enough to take a nibble out of the peach. Shen Yuan was never really a huge fan of peaches, they tasted wonderful but their texture was too contrasting: the skin too dry and harsh, and the inside too moist for his liking. Yet the peach he was fed was too good to be true. Its texture was not so bothersome, it wasn’t super moist and its flavour deliciously overwhelmed his tastes buds.

As he continued to nibble on the peach, Shen Yuan brought his hands up to hold the peach himself. Whoever was feeding him let him do so, and suddenly, there was a calloused unfamiliar finger rubbing between his eyebrows in a motion that was strangely comforting.

The finger soon turned into a palm, directly placed on his forehead, and suddenly, warmth filled up Shen Yuan’s meridians. That hand then dipped to his neck and another hand was also placed on it too. They wrapped nicely around his throat like a necklace, the hands were not tight and instead filled him with more warmth.

Suddenly, it became easier to breath again. It became easier to see; since when did his vision turn so blurred anyway? It felt like Shen Yuan was being cleansed inside out, like all the grime clinging stubbornly to the walls of his meridians were being washed away.

Shen Yuan was finally aware of his surroundings again, he finally realised what was happening around him. He was sitting down, back leaning against the tree from earlier, and holding a peach like it was an impeccable treasure. Luo Binghe was crouching in front of him, his tough hands covering his entire neck as spiritual qi trickled slowly into his body like it was passing through a sieve.

There were many ways to pass qi onto someone and the method Luo Binghe was using was an incorrect one. It was quite expected, as by this point in the novel, nobody had yet to properly teach him about his spiritual side. Shen Qingqiu had been a bad teacher and the Old Palace Master was too much of a creepy grandpa rather than a proper master. In fact, Luo Binghe  only learned how to correctly pass qi long after the merging. He had been indirectly taught by his wife, Ning Yingying, who suffered a qi deviation after finding out what happened to her shizun. Right after, they obviously had papapa, because that apparently made everything better.

The protagonist was quick to realise that Shen Yuan was aware again, so he let go and walked back to the unlit makeshift campfire. Shen Yuan missed his solid warmth, but he did not fret over it. Instead he finished eating the wonderful peach, which he had now realised had been peeled, before crawling over to the campfire. Luo Binghe had collected all the peaches and gathered them together. His Huan Hua robes bunched them together, acting as an improvised basket.

Luo Binghe was planning on lighting the campfire soon, evident by how he kept a hawk-like stare on the sun. It was setting, hiding its bright lights under the horizon in order to let the night blanket over the world and lull the people to sleep. A couple of twinkling stars had already appeared in the sky, displaying their out-of-reach starlight.

When it fully set, with the moon rising to rule over the world for the night, Luo Binghe lit the fire. Shen Yuan just sat close to it, indulging himself in its embracing heat while the protagonist roasted the peaches over the fire. Then, he passed some of them over to Shen Yuan, who thanked Luo Binghe before he started to once again take little bites of the peaches. His small bites were comparable to that made by a rat.

The taste of the roasted peaches was delightful, somehow more delicious than the peach from earlier. The protagonist’s cooking skills really shone bright through them, even though the cooking only involved roasting peaches. Perhaps every food Luo Binghe touched just became delectable under the weight of his overpowered protagonist halo.

“Shen Yuan.”

Shen Yuan wasn’t expecting to be called. He was expecting for Luo Binghe to ignore him, for them to just go to sleep in silence after finishing the peaches and for them to then quietly continue the journey once the sun showed its bright face again. Taken by surprise, he fleetingly made eye contact with the protagonist before looking down at the half-eaten peach in his hands. The pit had been taken out already and its skin had been sliced off, leaving behind just the juicy flesh. Some of the juice stained Shen Yuan’s fingers but he paid no mind to it as he instead stared at the ground and dully answered.

“Yes?”

“Could you answer some of this one’s questions?”

“…Of course, Lord Luo.”

“Good. Is this world different to yours?”

“Mn. Very different.”

“Could you tell me why it’s different?”

“Well, for starters, there is no cultivation in that world because there is a lack of qi…Also, there are no demons or vengeful ghosts, or even existing gods for that matter. Ah, but anything related to gods is classified as religion. Hmm…what else is there?” he wracked his brain for a moment, wanting to provide a better answer. Then, an idea popped up in his head.

“I know. In that world, we have machines. Machines work similarly to talismans but they look nothing like them. Talismans are made from paper but machines are big, grey, dirty, loud and made from metal and copper. They help us travel, provide entertainment, isolate us from other humans, makes learning easier, et cetra et cetra. The air is also cleaner here. Machines are dirty so they contaminate the air. They’re very dirty.”

For a moment, there was a brief silence as Shen Yuan took another bite out of his peach while Luo Binghe pondered.

“That…is quite interesting although I cannot really visualise a world without cultivation. There are no demons or ghosts. Does that mean your world lacks…evil?”

“Of course not! This one wishes it did, but alas humans are terrible. Just like there are good humans, there are bad humans. Humans are mean, corrupt under power and bullies. If you are different from what is acceptable, if you’re considered ugly or fat or weird, then get ready to be bullied until you lose all of your self-confidence.”

“It sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

Completely forgoing the usual polite language used, Shen Yuan continued to rant and rant. It had been a while since he had the chance to vent out his frustrations freely, since there were no online forums available or an er-ge that was emotionally stable, so Shen Yuan lost himself. He forgot he was speaking to the protagonist, he forgot that he was kilometres away from his siblings and home, and he forgot to keep to himself, to hide from potential peering judgement.  

“I am! School was hell. I’m a disabled person and instead of being provided help, what did I get?! Daily name-calling and whispered laughs pointed my way. When I told the teachers about it, they all just brushed me off! I would have told da-ge or er-ge, but they were already dealing with stuff. I didn’t want to burden them so I kept silent. Ah, now that I think about it, it’s probably why I’m so alone,”

Shen Yuan ranted, panting as soon as he finished his mini-monologue. It was exhilarating, to let loose. Shen Yuan didn’t have anger issues like Shen Tiao but he did understand why he was so angry all the time. Being angry was strangely relieving in its own toxic way.

“Disability? You do not seem crippled to me.”

“Ah, right. I forgot that you’re from a xianxia setting so hidden disabilities are practically non-existent. I don’t mean a physical disability, I mean a mental one. A disability in the head, I guess. It’s why I’m so…strange. People at school used to call me lazy whenever I forgot my homework or when I found it hard to start working on schoolwork. I used to get scorned at whenever I got fidgety in class.

There was five different students and three teachers who told me that tapping my foot was distracting. I didn’t even make a sound, ever! I used to be called a freak whenever I got too talkative about something I liked, or dirty if I forgot to wash myself the previous day.”

His school life had actually been so terrible and Shen Yuan had no idea how he managed to survive it when everything was practically against him.

“I did have some friends. I wasn’t completely alone, but I still felt lonely. Their words used to hurt me a lot. I really hated myself sometimes. I still do sometimes, even though I should be used to it. I find some tasks, that others deem as easy, to be too difficult for me. I don’t like being useless but it’s not like I can just change the way my brain works.”

Taking a deep breath in as the warmth of the fire washed over him, Shen Yuan continued to talk. His throat, which tended to ache whenever he spent days without muttering a single word, was now aching because he was talking too much.

“Lord Luo, there is something I must confess. When I read Proud Immortal Demon Way, I read it because of you. I did read it for the worldbuilding too, but mostly because of you. Your struggles as a disciple, your loneliness, your identity issues. They’re things I can relate to. Or, well, used to relate to. When I started reading Proud Immortal Demon Way five years ago, I was sixteen and by then, the bullying had lessened by a lot, since most of my classmates matured by then. Seeing your struggles however, they reminded me of myself. There are many works out there that depict these issues but your story was the most relatable one to me. It’s probably why I liked you a lot as a character…Sorry, I’m rambling. – ”

“Do not apologise for rambling, Shen Yuan. You are quite interesting to listen to, which is a surprise. This Lord does have another question. That time when you were meant to bring Ling’er and I tea, but instead spent it collecting the meat from a beast, was it because of your disability?”

“…Yes it was. Ah, but I have two disabilities. Two, not just one.”

“Right. I’m quite surprised your older brothers did nothing to protect you.”

“They couldn’t, because I never told them. Plus, they were in a different school at the time and were struggling with their own issues and I didn’t want to burden them. It’s fine though, because I had meimei! She used to protect me whenever she could. She’d go home crying because of it though, she hated seeing me get bullied all the time. She tried telling er-ge and da-ge once, but I stopped her in time and then proceeded to tickle her to death.”

“You didn’t want to burden them?…” Luo Binghe’s voice strangely drifted at the end, he was probably making some sort of disappointed expression. Shen Yuan didn’t bother checking, instead opting to finish eating the peach before instantly being handed another one.

“Mn, just like you didn’t want to burden your shizun with what Ming Fan was doing to you.”

“That – ”

“Sure, it’s different because you didn’t want to burden your shizun as you were afraid of his reaction, which would probably be blaming you and then punishing you. But you still didn’t want to burden him. It’s as I said, we’re quite similar, aren’t we?”

“This Lord supposes we are to some extent…You even spoke of an identity crisis?”

“Mn. My disabilities makes it harder for me to figure myself out unlike the average person. For example, meimei apparently knew that she was lesbian when she was twelve years old but she only came out to us much later. For me…I still don’t know who I am. I like to think that I’m straight but I’ve never really crushed on another woman or found them sexually attractive. Women are very pretty, prettier than men, but not pretty that I’d want to…papapa them.”

“What is a lesbian? And straight? And…papapa?”

“Uh, lesbian means cutsleeve but for women and any other gender as long as they’re not men-aligned. For a cutsleeve, in our world, we use the term gay. Straight is when a man is only interested in women or vice versa. Papapa is…well…it’s. It’s se…It’s dual cultivation,” heat rushed to his face as he muttered the final part, and it wasn’t because of the fire. Papapa always made Shen Yuan feel flustered even though it shouldn’t have been the case. He was an adult, but papapa was something he didn’t exactly enjoy. The pleasure that came from papapa didn’t seem worth it to him, and two naked bodies entangling under blankets seemed more humiliating rather than loving.

“That is quite a lot of information. This Lord will keep that in mind. So, does that mean you are straight or not?

“You cannot put me on the spot like this, Lord Luo! I already said, not even I know. I want to think that I’m straight because being straight is normal, and I’m tired of always being different, but…I really don’t know. There’s only one person I’ve ever crushed on and that person was my friend. We had been friends for three years when I realised I liked him. I think…I think he liked me too. He kissed me once, at a party. He moved away some time after and he didn’t have a phone so we lost contact. Wait…is it gay to kiss and crush on your homie? Oh, maybe I am gay.”

“Is that why your siblings seem so obsessed with your ‘taste in men’? Because of your past crush?”

“…Maybe? It’s mostly a joke though because all of my favourite characters from fiction are always men, and according to da-ge, er-ge and meimei, the characters I like suck. As if the women are any better, women are typically written badly.”

Letting out a hum in response, Luo Binghe looked Shen Yuan over again with a piercing gaze that made the latter feel self-conscious. There was something about his watch that made Shen Yuan feel like he was a showcased spectacle on a stage, an art to be observed and dissected.

On one hand, the sudden show of attention made Shen Yuan strangely want more; he typically hated attention, he preferred to hide from prying eyes that wished to inspect him limb for limb, but the way Luo Binghe looked at him…there was no trace of judgement or malice behind it, funnily enough. On the other hand, however, Shen Yuan hated the abrupt interest directed towards him. It made him feel like he was only an object of amusement to Luo Binghe.

Then, the half-demon let out another hum, “Right. It is quite late now and you have had quite a day. It would be best if we were to go to sleep.”

“Of course, Lord Luo. Whatever you say.”

The fire blazing brightly was put out, the remains of the peaches were left to waste in the soil. Luo Binghe sat against a tree, grasping Xin Mo by his side. Its powerful demonic presence would be enough to keep away any wild beasts, even though there had been a severe lack of them. Shen Yuan laid back onto the ground, staring at the night sky above him. It really was late. The full moon, pretty as ever, gleamed down at him with grey joy, yet Shen Yuan could not reciprocate its joy back. Instead, he turned over to his side, brought his knees close to his chest and closed his eyes.

The rustling of the leaves, the soothing breaths of Luo Binghe and the fresh air made it difficult to fall asleep. It was too unusual, too unnatural.

Shen Yuan wished he was home with his siblings. He missed them so much.  

Chapter Text

The moon seemed to refuse to move an inch. Well, it did actually move, as every time Shen Yuan looked away from it and then back at it, it seemed to be in a new position. However, whenever he glued his eyes to it for a long period of time, it stayed motionless. The night was not young, the sun would soon rise and yet Shen Yuan didn’t manage to catch a wink of sleep.

He felt like his brain had been put on a river filled with overflowing thoughts, each idea that entered was dissected plenty of times before being thrown away for a new interesting thought. Some caused him to feel restless, others caused him to feel anxious and some just made him deliberate further. Despite not sleeping, Shen Yuan still managed to get plenty of rest from just thinking, which was strange since thoughts typically overwhelmed him.

He shuffled from where he was laying down, bringing his head up to check if the moon was setting soon. It wasn’t, there was still a good sichen before it would drift behind the horizon. Shen Yuan let out a sigh of boredom, letting his head fall back onto the ground. He stared up at the vibrant twinkling stars.

Each star seemed brighter than the next, decorating the sky with beautiful lights. They reminded him of the few times er-ge would sneak him and their meimei out into the forest to look at the fireflies, deep within the night while their da-ge would be sleeping back at home, oblivious to the schemes of his younger siblings. Shen Tiao was old enough to take care of them, after all he had been two years clean from everything, but their da-ge was such a mother hen sometimes. He worried over every little thing. It was endearing in an annoying way.

Shen Chun wasn’t the only worrywart in the family. Even Shen Tiao would also excessively fret sometimes. Unlike their da-ge however, Shen Tiao never really voiced his concerns or acted upon them. He tended to bottle his feelings up, like Shen Yuan. The one who worried the least was probably Shen Mei, being the privileged youngest sister who was the most doted on. Despite rarely worrying, she still had enough care to ask if something was wrong.

…Shen Yuan really missed his siblings.

“You’re still awake?”

The sudden voice slightly echoed, making Shen Yuan startle in fright. He sat up and glanced over to see Luo Binghe awake, the demonic mark between his eyebrows emitting a soft red glow.

“Mn. I…this one can’t fall asleep. Did this one wake you up?”

“No, this Lord wasn’t sleeping but was meditating. Why can’t you fall asleep?”

Shen Yuan contemplated for a moment, before letting out a disgruntled noise that suggested he didn’t know, because he didn’t! Sure, his thoughts were definitely a factor as to why he couldn’t fall asleep but there was something else. He felt like he was floating on time itself, rotting away until his body became nothing but a reeking corpse.

Luo Binghe stayed silent even after Shen Yuan let out a groan. His gaze was still fixated on him, making Shen Yuan purse his lips due to how uncomfortable he felt. He quickly unpursued them however, as he wasn’t in the mood to embarrass himself in front of the protagonist. Instead, he shifted his own glance way and stretched his body. As soon as his joints popped in relief, Shen Yuan let out a sigh. It felt really good to be able to move again.

“Are you well rested enough to continue searching for your siblings?”

Shen Yuan nodded, as he rolled his shoulders a few times and arched his back with a whine of pleasure. It really was too good! His mini-stretching session was done however, so he looked back at Luo Binghe again. Luo Binghe had stood up and had put Xin Mo in its black scabbard, all while still staring at Shen Yuan. His irises were shrunken and tinted a slight pink. Shen Yuan only tilted his head in confusion when he noticed that Luo Binghe refused to move.

“Is something the matter?”

That was enough to snap Luo Binghe out of his strange trance, as he let out a cough before motioning Shen Yuan to follow him. The latter obeyed, making sure to stay behind a couple of paces back, mostly because he still felt a tad intimidated by the ever glowing protagonist.

Perhaps an hour passed before Luo Binghe suddenly stopped moving; there was still an hour left before the sun would rise. Luo Binghe raised his arm to block Shen Yuan from continuing to move forward. Once again, Shen Yuan tilted his head in confusion. Luo Binghe’s lips trembled, which went unnoticed by Shen Yuan, as he gestured to what was in front to them

In front of them, in a small clearing, was a hoard of a specific beast only found in the Endless Abyss. They were magnificent beasts, gigantic and dark in colour. They were so large, that they needed three pairs of legs instead of two! Their teeth were sharp enough to rip through any meat without much struggle, their pair of tusks aided them in easily killing their prey, and their baton-like trunk and tail helped to whip any approaching predators. Inspired by mammoths, the beasts were unremarkably called Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths.

Like most other things found in the Endless Abyss, Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths were fierce and ruthless creatures, so much so that Luo Binghe lost twice to them. He was only able to kill a Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoth when he revisited the Endless Abyss again, long after the merging, in search for an ancient artifact that helped him secure his 94^th wife.

The only reason why Luo Binghe had lost to them twice was mostly due to the fact that Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths were uniquely social creatures that travelled in hoards. Unlike other beasts in the abyss, who typically thrived alone unless they wanted to reproduce, Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths travelled together. Not only that, but the hoard was always quite protective of each other. In fact, they were the only beast in the abyss that did not perform any sort of cannibalism.

Extremely resilient, the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths had no weaknesses. They did, however, judge a potential prey or predator by its smell. Their trunks were not only used for defending, after all. If the creature smelled skittish, it was prey. If creature reeked of lurking, it was a predator. The smells also helped them distinguish foe from friends when it came to other beasts. Friends did not stink of blood whereas foes did; the more one has killed, the less reliable they were.

In front of Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe, there was a hoard of around twenty Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths. It was quite a strange sight to see the hoard out of the Abyss, since escaping the Abyss was no easy task. The Endless Abyss was quite secluded, only opening for a quarter of a sichen once every century…Or whenever someone decided to exert enough qi to open up a portal to it (like Mobei-Jun had during the Immortal Alliance Conference). One was more likely to escape the Abyss by making use of ancient artifacts, such as Xin Mo.

There was approximately still another 95 years before the abyss could open up by itself, and Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths weren’t smart enough to make use of tools, so how did they escape from The Endless Abyss?

Of course, no one answered Shen Yuan’s mental question. His eyes simply widened in surprise. Luo Binghe swung Xin Mo out of its scabbard as quietly as he could, and bent a little. He beckoned over to Shen Yuan to follow him. His plan was quite obvious. Luo Binghe planned on sneaking around the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths, as he knew he was too weak to handle them in his current state. Xin Mo was only out for precaution; if the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths found them, Luo Binghe would try to defend them.

Luo Binghe barely shuffled before a flash of pale yellow passed by him. Shen Yuan knew the dangers of approaching the wild ferocious beasts, but he wasn’t afraid of getting hurt. Knowing so much about the species, and animals in general, was enough to guarantee safety. He would be putting his knowledge in good use. He went to the nearest Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoth and latched onto the tusks. The Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoth was taken by surprise, but it didn’t attack as it felt soft touches at the base of its tusks. It brought its trunk slightly up to smell Shen Yuan and it sniffed him. The rest of the hoard approached them, also smelling out Shen Yuan who simply smiled and continued his gentle touching.

Soon, all of the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths were nudging against Shen Yuan in a friendly manner, and the human patted the back of every mammoth in the vicinity. He barely took notice of the surprised look that flashed on Luo Binghe’s face, as instead, he focused on the beasts surrounding him. Shen Yuan hated closed spaces, but being surrounded by animals on every side was like taking a step into heaven.

Then, a loud voice rumbled. It terrified the mammoths but Shen Yuan quickly comforted them as best as he could, thus lowering their bloodlust.

“Get away from them! Are you an idiot?! Do you not know of how vicious they are?!”

“Lord Luo, quiet! You’ll make them mad if you continue shouting. They’re not going to hurt this lowly one. This one has studied these beasts and they are not as fierce as you believe them to be. These beasts can actually be quite docile if you allow them time to smell you. It only works if you’ve barely murdered though. The more blood on your hands, the more likely they are to go against you. This one has not killed anything so they trust me. Lord Luo, this one suggests you stay far or they would go on a rampage. I’m surprised they haven’t smelled you already, considering you’re not as far as you should be…”

As he continued to rant, Shen Yuan noticed that one of the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths was larger than the rest but also not large enough, its tail twice its normal size and the tusks seemed sharper. It looked like it got tired more easily, its paces and breathing were both slow. The other mammoths simply circled around him as Shen Yuan approached it carefully, humming out a tune in order to not appear intimidating. It worked, as said larger mammoth drew closer to him and snuggled up. He stroked up its woolly body, letting out a couple of compliments before whistling out.

“Such a beauty. I wonder how far off in your pregnancy you are. You’re so far away from your normal ecosystem. The lack of usual food must be dealing quite the damage. At least you are safer here…May I examine you, lovely? I promise I won’t hurt you, I just wish to see if how healthy you are.”

The pregnant mammoth didn’t understand him, it lacked the ability to understand human languages, but it still answered his question by preening against him. It must have felt really comfortable and safe if it was deliberately grooming itself against him.

Shen Yuan had only managed to study his veterinary course for three years before his untimely death, and the majority of those three years had been more theoretical rather than practical. He mostly lacked actual authorised practise, but he still knew what he was doing. Not only did he know how to apply everything he learned in theory into practice, Shen Yuan did have some limited experiences.

Multiple times Shen Yuan had a work placement in a veterinary clinic where he’d help the vets out as a nurse or a cleaner, so he had been a witness to multiple procedures. Furthermore, he had taken care of a sick animal once when he was still in middle school.

There had been a stray cat that roamed around the premise of the school and every morning, Shen Yuan would sneak out of his class in order to feed it, while also escaping the mean muttering of his classmates. It had gotten sick and Shen Yuan had been the one to nurse it back to health, without anyone finding out, by researching on how to take care of a cat. Nobody had realised the truth, the cat was healed from its sickness in less than a week. Shen Yuan had never felt more proud of himself.

Thus, Shen Yuan was sure of himself when he examined the pregnant mammoth and saw that both the mother and the unborn child were in perfect health conditions. Pregnant mammoths were meant to grow much larger than the pregnant mammoth before him, but Shen Yuan figured out why it was much smaller than it was meant to be. The individual mammoth was smaller than the average, similar to how his er-ge was only 157cm tall while the rest of the Shen siblings were more than 10cm taller than him.

Shen Yuan let out a sigh of relief before smiling brightly, and he cooed at the pregnant mammoth while rubbing the base of her tusks. It purred in delight as it tried to groom Shen Yuan in gratitude. The other mammoths tried to help it when they noticed what it was trying to do, but Shen Yuan brushed them all away and instead he continued to pet them.

For a moment, everything seemed just right. At some point, Luo Binghe even approached them despite Shen Yuan’s earlier warnings. Surprisingly enough, the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths stayed docile as they paid no attention to him and instead continued to cuddle against Shen Yuan.

“This is…I…This Lord is quite surprised.”

“By what are you surprised, Lord Luo?” Shen Yuan asked, genuinely curious as one of the elder mammoths licked his hand. The tongue was black, moist and rough. Under different circumstances, Shen Yuan would have gagged in disgust. This time, he felt elated.

“This Lord is surprised for many reasons. You have willingly put your life in danger and somehow have managed to tame these beasts. Not only that, but…it appears you can even check on their health?”

“Mn. In my past world, this one was studying to be a vet…a healer for animals. Animals, both fictional and not, have always been this one’s special interest. I used to watch so many fantastical shows and I always researched their animals and beasts. I actually learned everything there is to learn about Pokémon…not like you know what any of that is but anyway. As silly as it sounds, this lowly one is always willing to risk his life when it comes to animals and beasts. Both animals and beasts are wild so their behaviour is never predictable, however, they won’t hurt you if they trust you. You must build a relationship first, whether that is built on scent, time, respect or avoidance.”

From his peripheral vision, Shen Yuan saw just how intently Luo Binghe looked at him. The protagonist seemed so invested in what he was saying, his eyes unnaturally soft and he also petted one of the mammoths. The mammoth he petted let out a complaining protest after it scented him, but it didn’t rampage or cause chaos; for whatever reason, it seemed like everyone and everything was acting out-of-character.

“I see. Well then, since you seem so…content, this Lord will allow you to spend more time with these beasts before we continue searching for the rest.”

An unexpected moment of remembrance occurred inside Shen Yuan’s brain. In the heat of the moment, whilst he was admiring the majestic Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths, he had completely forgotten about the fact that he was still separated from the rest of his family. The brief panic that overwhelmed him was painful, and each breath felt excruciating. It was like someone was squeezing his lungs tight. Sensing his distress, the pregnant mammoth slobbered Shen Yuan with its inky tongue in order to help him snap out of his panic. It worked, the sudden wetness arousing Shen Yuan awake as he gagged at its smell and sensation.

Luo Binghe handed him a handkerchief, probably from his qiankun pouch, and Shen Yuan tried to clean himself up. He did manage to remove the saliva but the smell still lingered on him. He’d have to clean properly with soap multiple times if he wished to remove the awful odour. His entire nose felt clogged with the scent and suddenly Shen Yuan preferred the strong perfumes back in the modern world. Perfumes had always bothered him, their smell was too strong, but they actually smelled good compared to the saliva! Leaning against one of the mammoths, Shen Yuan let out a couple of complains, but he still smiled at the pregnant mammoth. As disgusting as it was, it did manage to ground him back to reality.

The surrounding area was suddenly covered in a thick shadow, but Shen Yuan didn’t worry too much about it. It was probably just the weather being itself; the sun would soon rise and it looked like it was going to be a sunny day, yet clouds had a tendency to appear from nowhere. Then the world rumbled. There was no rain, so it couldn’t have been thunder (or maybe it was, physics was never Shen Yuan’s strongest subject). Yet everything shook as the booming exploded everywhere, making the mammoths startle in panic.

Shen Yuan tried to comfort them, but failed to do so as the beasts divided in the panic and ran. Luo Binghe suddenly yanked Shen Yuan back. He saved him just in time, as a sudden large stone-like debris fell right where Shen Yuan had been standing. Shock was all Shen Yuan could feel as he tried to reason out where on earth it came from. There were no broken buildings in the vicinity, and the area they were on was rather flat so it couldn’t have been a loose boulder.

“W-What just happened?” he stuttered out, as he finally realised that it was raining, but it wasn’t raining the usual wet rain droplets. No, it was raining stones at an alarming pace. Large stones capable of burying an entire man rained from the sky, thumping harshly against the ground. They cracked upon impact. Trees were getting destroyed, some of the mammoths got heavily injured but the majority of them managed to evade the stones. Luo Binghe was carrying Shen Yuan around by the back of his hanfu while also dodging the stones.

There were many strange things in Proud Immortal Demon Way, many of which were illogical, but stones raining from the sky was completely unheard of!

Luo Binghe only grunted back as a response as he took cover under a tree. It was probably not a good idea, as evidence by the many decimated trees surrounding them. He didn’t spend long under it however, as he only wished to quickly reposition Shen Yuan. He picked Shen Yuan up and carried him like he was a bride, then he ran. It was a rather embarrassing position, but Shen Yuan did not bother mentioning it as he was still trying to comprehend the bizarre situation. Luo Binghe ignored all the mammoths, all the damage, instead opting to continue the journey while also avoiding being buried.

Shen Yuan looked up at the sky, in fearful curiosity. What he saw wasn’t something he could understand. He saw the modern world painting the sky. It was like he was on a modern-day streets, looking upwards to see the large skyscrapers towering over. Said skyscrapers were getting destroyed as they crashed into the sky, their debris raining all over the world. Some parts of the sky were covered in pure black and Shen Yuan immediately suspected that it was the shadow monster behind everything.

“Lord Luo, Lord Luo! You can put me down! I’m sure I’m hindering you.”

“No. You would not survive if I let you down. It is faster this way. Shen Yuan, do you know what’s going on?”

“I think I do? I’m not sure, but ah, I think the world I came from and this one are merging?”

“What makes you say that?” Luo Binghe asked as he slashed a boulder with Xin Mo and continued to move forward. Each step was brisk but elegant despite how determined and quick Luo Binghe seemed to be. A crease had formed between his eyebrows and his lips painted a spectacular scowl. For whatever reason, Shen Yuan felt himself oddly hypnotised by the look. Even in anger, the protagonist was still so handsome. Then, he snapped out of his daze when Luo Binghe jumped down a hill. The jump terrified Shen Yuan down to his core.

“W-Well, well…There’s my old world up in the sky crashing down? I even know some of the places that are being destroying, I think saw my favourite bakery get destroyed. Their bread was delicious. I miss their bread,” Shen Yuan rambled due to the panic bubbling inside his head, making his brain feel like it was being shaken against his skull. Acidic vomit made from peaches swished uncomfortably inside his stomach. It tried to escape up into Shen Yuan’s mouth, but he swallowed it down. The taste was disgustingly tangy. Remembering the peaches from the other day, however, made Shen Yuan recall something else.

“The Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths! They’re not going to survive like this!”

“What do you except this Lord to do about it?! They’ve scattered everywhere!”

Dread washed over Shen Yuan, the thought of the mammoths dying shattered his heart into sharp sharps. He especially worried for the pregnant mammoth. Shen Yuan wanted to save them badly, but there was no way to do so. It wasn’t like he could store them in his qiankun pouch (that wasn’t even with him), or teleport them away…perhaps a certain sword could though. Peering down at Xin Mo, Shen Yuan took in a deep breath. He had to try.

“Lord Luo, can’t we use Xin Mo?”

“It refuses to awaken, Shen Yuan. I’ve already told you, or did you forget?”

He had indeed told him, well he actually told Shen Mei, but Shen Yuan had been present to hear. He also had forgotten. However, he refused to give up. There was just no way Xin Mo stopped responding, that was never a thing that happened in canon Proud Immortal Demon Way.

(In canon, the modern world was never meant to crash down nor did  someone from the modern world grow into the scum villain, yet they still occurred. Shen Yuan simply refused to face the truth, which was that the canon did not exist anymore).

“Did you try feeding it demonic qi?!”

“Oh, believe this Lord, he has tried. I even tried violence. It refuses to rouse.”

“Please, try again!”

If anyone had dared to try commanding blackened Luo Binghe, their head would have been instantly severed from their neck. Shen Yuan, however, was too blinded by his frightened state to even care an ounce. He just wanted to save the mammoths and himself! Especially himself, now that he thought about it! Shen Yuan didn’t want to die again! He wanted to live more, to experience more, but the death flags were blaring right at his face and he was struggling hard to ignore them.

Letting out a grumble, Luo Binghe reluctantly tried again. It didn’t work, so he tried again, this time using even more demonic qi. Shen Yuan could feel the demonic qi prickling at his skin and seeping into his pores, oozing underneath all the layers of fat to meet with the inactive heavenly blood parasites coursing in Shen Yuan’s veins.

Third time really could be considered the charm as when Luo Binghe tried again, it actually worked! Xin Mo stirred awake, shrieking its malevolent energy that made the pressure of Luo Binghe’s demonic qi sneak even deeper into Shen Yuan’s skin. Both of their breaths staggered, Shen Yuan from the amount of demonic qi and Luo Binghe from the loud cries of Xin Mo.

With a vertical slash from Xin Mo, Luo Binghe cut open a portal to…somewhere. He went through it, still carrying Shen Yuan in his arms, and they both came out near a group of people. The portal closed behind them.

No debris was falling from the sky. The group of people were all wearing the same coloured robes; white and green, except for two. One was a large cultivator, with a similar build to Shen Chun. He wore a grey hanfu with lavender accents while the other wore an recognisable black and purple hanfu. At the sight of the distinct colours, Shen Yuan struggled in Luo Binghe’s grip while the group all turned towards them in surprise.

There she was, right in the middle next to the unknown cultivator. His meimei, unscathed and practically beaming in happiness. There was also Shen Qingqiu standing not far from her, whose eyes only widened at the sudden entrance of Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan.

“San-ge!…Oh. Doesn’t look like you’re straight anymore, huh?”

“Shut up meimei! I’m still straight! Very much heterosexual…I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah!”

“You’re being carried while looking debauched. There’s nothing straight about you, san-ge.”

Shen Yuan’s struggles increased and Luo Binghe finally complied, dropping him to the ground as gently as he could. At this point, Shen Yuan wasn’t even surprised that Luo Binghe was acting strange. There were bigger matters to handle, such as warning his meimei of the impending doom upon them. But first, he had to embrace her so, he rushed towards her and pulled her into a deep-crushing hug. He ignored the stares of the unknown strangers, fully allowing himself the comfort of his sister’s solid presence. It was good that she was alright and not hurt.

Amongst the crowd, there was also a silent “A-Luo” which went unheard as someone else said in a louder voice,  “Xiao Jiu?…Isn’t that your old disciple? And that is?”

“Yes. This Master pushed him into the abyss because he’s half-demon and this one could not risk the sect. That is my brother, Shen Yuan.”

“You have a sister and a brother?…Wait, Luo-shizhi is a half-demon?!”

“I have two more brothers. You excluded, obviously.”

“Oh.”

Shen Yuan ignored the forlorn look on who he assumed to be the Yue Qingyuan, as he instead pushed away from the hug and started to shake his sister. She groaned and tried to stop him by asking him what was wrong. His reply was instant, though his reply was different from what he envisioned.

“We saw Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths! They were strangely cute, one of them was even pregnant…wait, that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you…oh! Right, the world is merging with our old world!”

“Huh?!”

At the moment, Shen Yuan wished he could ramble on the Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths. Those were so much interesting to talk about compared to their possible future death, but Shen Yuan steeled himself. Now wasn’t the time to ramble, their lives were in danger. If they survived, he’d have all the time in the world to rant!

His jittery tongue ached but Shen Yuan managed to properly describe what he saw without stuttering; the sky merging with the streets of modern China, and the buildings crashing down that resulted in raining debris.

“Oh my fu–…Wait, is this a prank?”

“Why would it be a prank?!”

“I’m not sure, maybe because it’s not raining stones right now?”

“Oh…that is strange. Did I hallucinate it then?”

Luo Binghe intervened, he walked towards them and eyed the sky with narrowed brown eyes. Seeing him approach, Shen Qingqiu visibly stiffened like a cat. He also moved towards the pair of siblings. He stood right next to Shen Mei, while Luo Binghe’s shadow loomed over them from Shen Yuan’s side.

“No. It is not a prank nor a hallucination. This Lord suspects that it hasn’t affected everywhere yet and is instead contaminating the world like poison.”

Before anyone else could agree or rebuke him, an “A-Luo!” was sounded again. This time it was louder, loud enough to get the attention of pretty much everyone, as a peerless beautiful woman stepped from the crowd wearing white and green. The woman ran towards Luo Binghe. It was obvious who she was, there was only one character in Proud Immortal Demon Way that called Luo Binghe ‘A-Luo.’ Ning Yingying, the first love of Luo Binghe and his fifth wife (though he originally wanted her to be the first).

Ning Yingying flung herself on him and embraced him tight. Luo Binghe hadn’t expected it, but he quickly managed to gain his bearings and so, he caught her in his arms. Under her breath, Shen Mei let out a grumble that sounded more like gibberish rather than an actual language.

Once again, Shen Qingqiu stiffened and this time, he walked to the embracing-future-husband-and-wife and pulled them apart. That was probably not the best idea since the protagonist would definitely get his revenge for this, but alas, Shen Qingqiu did not know that.

“Yingying, that is very improper! You are a young lady, not a child.”

“Sorry shizun. This Yingying was just so surprised to see A-Luo again, especially since shizun said that A-Luo died in the Immortal Alliance Conference.”

“This Master assumed that he died considering that he pushed the beast into the Abyss.”

“Shizun!”

“Why surprised? This Master said so earlier Yingying, or was your head in the clouds again? I’ve done wrong, spoiling you so much.”

“You’re ruthless Xiao Jiu…”

“Your point being, sect leader? And this Master has already told you to not call him that multiple times. I’m fairly certain Zhangmen-Shixiong is not idiotic enough to continue provoking me.”

“Sorry, Xiao…Qingqiu-shidi.”

Shen Mei took this as a cue to wrap her arm around Ning Yingying’s arm. She drew Ning Yingying closer to herself, sending a death glare aimed at Luo Binghe before turning her fierce stare into a pleasant one as she turned to Ning Yingying. Ning Yingying looked up at her, a beautiful bright smile dazzling her face.

“A-Ying, Lor–…Luo Binghe and I are quite close. Once we figure out what exactly is going on, and once I’m reunited with the rest of my brothers, let’s spend some time together. The three of us. Maybe my san-ge can join too,” she then proceeded to whisper something in Ning Yingying’s ears, which made the young woman gasp. Her face tinted pink as her eyes darted between Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe.

“That sounds so fun, A-Mei!”

Shen Yuan knew the look on his sister’s face. It was a look of pure innocent infatuation, the same look she used to get on her face whenever she spoke about her crushes. His meimei was absolutely enamoured with Ning Yingying. As much as he wished to root for her, he knew that Ning Yingying only belonged to the protagonist.

That thought made him ache for his sister as she was going to be turned down, once again.

A boom vibrated in the distance, sending deep tremors through the land. The quiet group of disciples all took a sharp intake of breath as they awaited any orders. Despite the majority of them being adults, they were still just disciples who had been graced with the presence of their teacher again, after he’d been imprisoned. There was also Luo Binghe not far from them, the young shidi they used to bully relentlessly. Unlike before, he wasn’t weak and pitiful. This time, his aura screamed with strength.

Some of them probably started praying in their hearts for their shidi to not take any revenge. Unfortunately, their prayers would go unheard since the protagonist was bound to graze their sect to the ground, thus killing almost everyone.

A sudden shout from the distance once again diverted their attention. Running to the group were two cultivators, one mousy transmigrator and one broad-shouldered Qing Jing disciple, based on his clothing. The mousy cultivator was quite obviously Shang Qinghua, while the other one was probably Ming Fan, Shen Yuan assumed.

While Ming Fan wasn’t ugly by any means, he was not considered a beauty by Qing Jing standards. It was why he assumed him to be Ming Fan. The cultivator running up to them was not attractive compared to the other Qing Jing disciples.

The two rapidly approaching cultivators came to an abrupt stop when they arrived near the group. Ming Fan instantly greeted Shen Qingqiu with a bow then he stated that he had brought Shang-Shishu. Shang Qinghua proceeded to ignore everyone however as he instead launched himself at Shen Yuan. With an ‘oof’, Shen Yuan fell to the ground with Airplane straddling him. Shen Yuan pushed him off instantly and stood up, but that didn’t deter the author from clinging onto him.

“Cucumber-bro! I missed you so much, bro! There’s so much I need to tell you!” he spoke in English, his voice laced with excitement. Before he could continue speaking however, Luo Binghe interrupted as he bowed in mock respect.

“Da-shixiong.”

The panic in Ming Fan’s eyes was evident. They darted from Luo Binghe to Shen Qingqiu until they settled on the former. He bowed quickly, before muttering some sort of excuse and running off into the bamboo throve behind them. Luo Binghe’s eyebrows amusingly rose to his perfect hairline, while Shen Qingqiu felt dumbfounded. He gracefully clicked his tongue; the sound echoed through the area, through the bamboo throve and beyond it.

Out of all of them however, Shen Yuan was the most confused. Even until his death, Ming Fan had practically been a copy of Shen Qingqiu. Just like his shifu, Ming Fan had never been afraid of Luo Binghe. In fact, he had cursed him even while he was being eaten alive by ants. Multiple times he had cried due to the pain of feeling his skin being peeled off layer by layer, but there was never fear. Why was Ming Fan so fearful now? Was it another case of out-of-character-ness or was there something more?

Shen Yuan’s questions, despite being unsaid, were answered almost immediately by the author. Shang Qinghua muttered under his breath, and Shen Yuan was barely able to pick up on the English words.

“It’s strange seeing Ming Fan so meek. Is he based on the first draft? For once I wish I had the system.”

“First draft?” Shen Yuan asked, curiosity sitting heavily against the walls of his stomach.

“…Yeah. Originally, he didn’t exist, but I wanted another victim of Shen Qingqiu, so I made him. He was meant to be really shy and lacked confidence. He got manipulated into bullying Luo Binghe. It wouldn’t pay the bills though, so I just made him an actual bully instead. I dreamt a lot of Ming Fan actually, like the rest of the characters. His entire personality is inspired by the Ming Fan from my dreams.”

Never in his life had Shen Yuan wanted to punch someone as badly as he did in that moment. Ming Fan was a character Shen Yuan had hated alongside the original Shen Qingqiu. As a villain, Ming Fan was very one-dimensional, like the rest of the villains except for perhaps Languang-Jun and Shen Qingqiu. Nothing about him was likeable. However, now that he knew that Ming Fan was meant to be more than just a no-personality bully, he felt really enraged. Ming Fan’s character could have had so much potential!

His self-restraint, which was the only thing holding him back from violence, was thinning by the second. It was on the verge of breaking. Shen Qingqiu spoke before he could do anything he’d regret.

“So, you really are like my siblings and I,” Shen Qingqiu said in Chinese, which made Shang Qinghua’s head snap to him.

“Huh?”

“Don’t play stupid. It’s been long since I spoke English so my skills are quite rusty. Just because I cannot speak it doesn’t mean I don’t understand you though.”

Completely forgotten in the background, Yue Qingyuan and every single disciple were left confused. Yue Qingyuan tried to ask, but instantly slammed his mouth shut when Shen Qingqiu glared at him. Some of the disciples theorised between themselves in hushed whispers. Ning Yingying bit her lip and tried to ask Shen Qingqiu to explain by just using her eyes. It didn’t work.

They were really confused. There was so many questions left unanswered; the sudden appeared of Luo Binghe and his demonic sword, the strange language that Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan spoke it, the sudden appearance of Shen Qingqiu’s unknown siblings and so much more. 

Shang Qinghua’s lips shuddered, his tongue failing to form words. Seeing his and everyone else’s misery, Shen Mei decided to finally sate their curiosity. In her arms was Ning Yingying still, who looked up at her with questions dancing in her bright golden eyes.

“Shen Qingqiu is from our world, he’s related to us. He died when he was nine. Yuan-ge and I still hadn’t been born by then, so we didn’t know about him until sometime ago.”

“Oh. So that’s why you were so suspicious but didn’t get my memes! Does that mean you have the mind of a child?” Shang Qinghua switched back to Chinese.

“Obviously, this Master does not. I have lived for more than forty years, excluding my past life. I am still your shixiong, Shang-shidi. We may be from the same world but I expect the proper respect from you.

“Yuck, you’re one of those guys…Wait, forty years? I have been living the life of Shang Qinghua since birth. The original Shang Qinghua is only like a year younger than the original Shen Qingqiu.  The timings aren’t right, the math ain’t mathing. Whatever. Cucumber-bro, is your…thing glitching out like crazy? Because mine is and I’m worried.”

“Thing? What thing?”

“You know…the,” Shang Qinghua leaned into Shen Yuan’s ears. His breath was ragged and a little pungent. Shen Yuan felt really uncomfortable by the close proximity. The discomfort barely lasted long, as when Shang Qinghua was about to whisper, Luo Binghe pulled him off from Shen Yuan. 

“Shang-Shishu.”

As fearful shivers ran down Shang Qinghua’s spine, he let out a yelp and tried to scramble back to Shen Yuan. Compared to the protagonist, he obviously wasn’t strong enough, so Shang Qinghua had to deal with being forced a couple meters away from Shen Yuan. Half of Shen Yuan felt glad, Shang Qinghua had unintentionally made him feel really uncomfortable, but the other half of Shen Yuan missed the solid warmth.

Then, he mentally gagged. Shen Yuan couldn’t believe that he was getting sentimental enough towards the author that he’d miss his touch. The two didn’t even know each other that well! There was no development whatsoever to their supposed friendship.

Shen Qingqiu moved towards Luo Binghe and yanked Shang Qinghua away from him, as Airplane let out a confused choked gasp. Shen Qingqiu placed the mousy man behind him, shielding his body from Luo Binghe who glowered at their general direction. Audibly, Shang Qinghua gulped and Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes at his cowardice.

“Shang-shidi, you’re speaking about the system, are you not?”

“…I am! Is your…system also glitching, shixiong? Wait, maybe we shouldn’t be saying its name…You know how it is, it’s meant to be a secret? It might kill us?”

“It will be fine, it does not matter if we reveal the identity of the system anymore. I believe Yuan-di and meimei don’t have a system, correct?”

“We don’t have one.”

“You guys don’t have a system?! I thought you had! Just how lucky can you be?!”

“…We’re really not as lucky as you think.”

“You are! Seriously the system is the worst. You’re forced to do everything it says or else you’d – ”

“Shidi, your system has been glitching. How long has it been glitching for?”

“Two months ago, I think?”

“Mine started glitching at the same time. Interesting.”

While the rest spoke, Shen Yuan’s eyebrows furrowed as his gaze travelled downwards. The grass beneath his feet was a lively green, yet there was an aura of death looming over it. His mind prodded at thoughts regarding the glitching of the two systems. Shen Yuan fell to the ground and sat in a lotus position, his elbows on top of his knees, which held up his hands that cradled his scrunched up face.

“San-ge? Are you okay?” his meimei’s voice went unheard by him.

The systems had started glitching around the time that he and his siblings transmigrated, which meant that they were probably the cause of the glitching. However what did that mean? Why did the systems glitch because of their presence? Why couldn’t they also just get a system to keep the world in order?…perhaps, there was more to it…perhaps–

A hand was placed on his shoulder, which squeezed tight in worry. It brought Shen Yuan back to the conscious world. He looked up to see Shen Mei kneeling down right before him, she being the one who woke him up from his deafening thoughts. Behind him also was another large presence that seemed to be anxious, yet Shen Yuan couldn’t see who it was. He just felt the person’s eyes burning through his back, wondering what to do. Shen Yuan simply shook his head, wanting to remove those eyes from him.

“San-ge, are you okay? You zoned out…”

“I’m alright, meimei. I was only thinking. Actually, I might have a theory.”

“A theory?” Shen Qingqiu asked. Shen Yuan looked at him. The man was still shielding Shang Qinghua’s body with his own, which was a really strange sight to see. The two first villains of Proud Immortal Demon Way originally hated each other with a passion, but now they were acting like they’re brothers.

Shen Yuan stood up, his meimei following behind, and he started to pace around. The pacing help his thinking become clearer as he prepared to mutter out his theory, loud enough for everyone to hear but quiet enough for it to dissipate with the wind. But first, he had to confirm something.

“Were you two ever bothered by any shadows?”

“Like the one from your house? Nope, first and last time I saw it was then.”

“Shadows? The one that brought me here was a shadow. However I do not have any other encounters.”

“Right. Your systems started glitching two months ago, around the same time my siblings and I transmigrated here. That means that our arrival broke the systems. The shadows probably started to appear around the same time too, based on what you said. It is possible that the systems and the shadow are the same entity or, are at least, working together. You two are meant to be here, it’s why you transmigrated into characters. My siblings and I have our own body which makes me believe that we weren’t meant to transmigrate. We’re like parasites, we’re ‘harming’ the world with our presence.”

“San-ge, that’s a really smart theory! Actually, I want to add on to that. Qiu-ge, the system forced you to do stuff right, to follow the story?”

“Yes.”

“Same with you Shang-ge?”

“Yep, sadly enough.”

“Our presence probably changed the story then, which is why the shadow targets us! It wants to rid of specifically us! I mean, Luo Binghe was never meant to meet siblings who share the same surname as his teacher, right?”

“You’re right meimei. There’s a lot that has changed from the original Proud Immortal Demon Way.”

“True, true! Even I can attest to that, as the proud author.”

“You shouldn’t be proud for being the author of the worst web novel in existence.”

“…I might have been forced by the system but I did try to change some stuff! I wasn’t always successful but Shen-shixiong definitely was.”

“Huh? This master was?”

“Yes, like you sav – ”

Before Shang Qinghua could finish his sentence, the mountains quaked. Then, stones started to rain from the sky.

Chapter Text

A jagged stone brushed right past Shang Qinghua’s shoulder, missing him only by a centimetre or two. The author let out a yelp of fear, instantly clinging onto the bellowing sleeves of Shen Qingqiu, who tried to brush him off but to no avail. Shang Qinghua, being the cowardly mouse that he was, was extremely stubborn in having something to ground himself.

The stones that hailed from the sky were few, but their amount and speed only increased as time passed. Soon, everyone present was dodging to stones. Some, like Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu, were using their swords to cut through the rocks while others, like a young Qing Jing disciple, ran straight to the bamboo forest for some coverage; their coverage was not as good as trees, but it was better than no protection at all.

Then there was Shang Qinghua, who used Shen Qingqiu’s towering build as his coverage with no guilt or remorse whatsoever.

Shen Yuan found himself getting protected by someone as well, except this person chose to shield him. When metal broke through rock, Shen Yuan looked up at his saviour. Seeing them wear a black hanfu, he thought it was his meimei for a second, until he saw the scarlet red that decorated it. His protector had to be Luo Binghe as not only was he the only other person in the area who was wearing black, but his silhouette was unmistakeable.

Due to Luo Binghe’s large figure, Shen Yuan found it difficult to assess the situation in the sky. Suddenly, Luo Binghe manhandled him. He moved Shen Yuan into the bamboo forest, his hands tightly grasping Shen Yuan’s wrist. The grasp wasn’t tight enough to hurt, but Shen Yuan felt the way Luo Binghe’s fingers bended against to his skin. A strange feeling rose in his chest, it was an indescribable feeling but not unlikeable.

Inside the forest, Luo Binghe made Shen Yuan settle down against a bamboo and then covered him with the outermost layer of his hanfu. The one layer of robe was draped over Shen Yuan’s head, perhaps as an extra layer of protection. Then Luo Binghe nodded at him and turned away, brushing past against everyone running into the bamboo forest.

…

What?

The odd feeling that Shen Yuan felt turned into confusion. It was all that he could feel in the moment. It was completely unexpected and Shen Yuan just couldn’t figure out the reason as to why the protagonist did that. Did he think that Shen Yuan would only get in the way? Or did he genuinely wish to protect him? If yes, why? What did Shen Yuan do to suddenly be warranted Luo Binghe’s kindness, when a day before, he had been so close to killing him? Why did Luo Binghe give him a layer from his hanfu? To keep him hidden? To protect him? A thin layer of fabric would not be enough to protect Shen Yuan, but then again, it did belong to the protagonist. Since the layer was usually worn by Luo Binghe, it probably had some sort of protection halo imbedded in it.

Despite all of his confusion, Shen Yuan realised that he was indeed being protected by the giant leaves of the bamboo. The disciples that had ran through it earlier had been very intelligent. Their thinking was correct, the bamboo forest provided excellent coverage. Shen Yuan took the moment of peace to finally examine the sky above. It looked exactly like it had earlier, back when he was in the middle of nowhere with Luo Binghe.

The sky was not blue, instead it was filled with different colours. The majority of it was grey, the dull colour typically used for modern buildings. Some of the grey was being reflected back by reflective glass, which also reflected back destruction; the fall of cities and the screams of innocent people. The modern world was plunging down, each building and street getting easily wrecked like they were some sort of cheap toy made from cheap plastic.

Shen Yuan was even more surprised to see that it wasn’t raining just stone anymore. Modern people, dressed in their scandalous clothes, were falling down too. Their fearful shrieks vibrated through the air, terrifying enough to make Shen Yuan flinch. They sounded of awaiting doom and death. They sounded like the end, and to an extent, it was the end. It was the end of the lives of the poor humans, it was the end of the lives of those hit with the raining rocks, it was the end of two worlds.

Perhaps the Shen siblings really were cursed with misfortune, if their arrival in the Proud Immortal Demon Way world had caused all of this. The guilt that surged up inside Shen Yuan felt like waves on a raging ocean, powerful and overbearing. The urge to release the tight tension in his stomach was strong, but Shen Yuan knew that he couldn’t. He had to do something, he couldn’t just stay the background and be useless. Everyone was trying their best, even his sister was doing something!

She and Ning Yingying were in sync as they protected one another, while they also tried to run under the protection of the bamboo. Yue Qingyuan kept the majority of the disciples safe, slashing through dozens of rocks and falling bodies. Blood splattered everywhere, it was a gross sight. The one who was destroying the majority of the falling debris and bodies, was obviously Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu was protecting Shang Qinghua. Shang Qinghua was…well perhaps not everyone was doing their best.

As much as he wanted to, Shen Yuan really couldn’t blame Shang Qinghua. Not everyone was strong enough to deal with this sort of situation, be it mentally or physically.

Shen Yuan himself was not dealing with the situation well, the panic he was feeling was getting too overwhelming and he was already feeling exhausted. He still had enough energy to perhaps do something however, so he grabbed onto the bamboo behind him to stand up. The one layer from Luo Binghe’s fabric slipped from his head and draped loosely against his shoulders. Shen Yuan clutched at it, its thin layer of warmth kept his calm.

Having excessively used his method of cultivation for the past two days had resulted in Shen Yuan’s qi cycling to improve. It was faster than before, surging out of his body like the rushing magma from a volcanic eruption. With just a bit of cycling, he made the bamboo forest around him burst with even more leaves, providing more effective cover to hide under.

The sudden abundant of leafy coverage gathered the attention of practically everyone. Yue Qingyuan, with a booming voice fit of a leader, ordered the remaining disciples to seek shelter. The few remaining disciples sprinted towards the bamboo forest, but not everyone was fortunate to make it. Two disciples, one who looked in their early twenties and another one who was perhaps 16 years old, were crushed. The one in their early twenties was hit in the head by a rather large debris, and that was enough to force their life out of their body. The other disciple, who also died instantly, was crushed by a really muscular tourist, his biceps were bulging through his t-shirt. 

 Shen Qingqiu danced through the falling stones until he arrived near Shen Yuan, with Shang Qinghua still somehow managing to keep up with the pace of his shixiong. As soon as he arrived, he turned back to Shang Qinghua, gripped him by the scruff of his hanfu and then dumped him onto Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan instantly caught the author, whose steps had faltered and thus had almost tripped.

“Stay here, worthless shidi. You’re a bother to me.”

After saying those bruising words, which did affect Shang Qinghua as he let out a pathetic sniffle, Shen Qingqiu went back to the rest of the groups and helped Yue Qingyuan direct the remaining disciples. Shen Mei and Ning Yingying provided their assistance as well, as they protected the disciples by destroying anything that fell. Only Luo Binghe did not aid them. At some point, he had stopped slashing as he instead opted to stare at Xin Mo intently. The raining rocks seemed to be avoiding him, probably due to his glittering protagonist halo. The black demonic sword in his hands was pulsing with malevolent energy, and with a scrunched handsome face, Luo Binghe seemed to be within deep thought.

It was often mentioned in Proud Immortal Demon Way that Luo Binghe could communicate with Xin Mo mentally, although it mostly screamed inside his throbbing head. This time, it appeared that Xin Mo was actually listening instead of being its normal chaotic self, as the protagonist did not seem frustrated nor agitated by the devastating demonic qi of Xin Mo. It was a rare occurrence, the two conflicting beings were connecting with each other without being parasites to one another.

“Beast, get back here!” Shen Qingqiu exclaimed abruptly once he realised that everyone except for Luo Binghe, were under the leaves of the bamboo forest. Yue Qingyuan, Shen Mei, Ning Yingying and one older disciple kept an eye on the sky and on the leaves. The leaves were only just brittle leaves after all, they wouldn’t be able to shelter them forever. Shen Yuan would have also stayed alert of the sky if it wasn’t for the fact that his senses were waning and Shang Qinghua was literally crying in his arms. He didn’t know what to do as the author’s cries slowly transformed into a deep panic attack.

Panic attacks weren’t something Shen Yuan experienced frequently, but he did have his fair share of them alongside mind-numbing mental breakdowns. If he were to be completely honest, he only realised that Shang Qinghua was going through a panic attack when his breathing became erratic and his face went ghostly pale. The only thing Shen Yuan could do to try to reassure Shang Qinghua was to encourage him with words and give him a hand to hold as support. It wasn’t much, but what was Shen Yuan expected to do? He barely had any experience calming others down, and he was also very fatigued.  

“This is quite ironic, but this Lord can see everything clearly now. Merging the realms seemed like a good idea, but merging doesn’t lead to creation, does it? No, it would lead to destruction. What is there to rule if the realms are destroyed?…Mn yes, this Lord has made his decision,” Luo Binghe murmured. His whisper was carried with the wind, though it went straight through one of Shen Yuan’s ears and out of the other. Paying attention was too taxing of a task and trying to decode those words was too difficult for Shen Yuan’s overloaded brain. The fact that he managed to at least hear each word clearly was already something surprising.

“Beast, what do you plan to do?!”

Luo Binghe did not grace Shen Qingqiu with an answer. Raising Xin Mo into the air, its point aiming at the perplexing sky. Black miasma, oozing out of everything including all of the people present, gathered towards him. Like a reverse waterfall, it travelled upwards from the floor onto Luo Binghe before gathering around the demonic sword. A burst of power streamed out from him, it overpowered almost everyone except for Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu, yet even they were struggling. The rest, including Shen Yuan, all fell to their knees. Shang Qinghua’s panic only increased.

As painful as it was to move even a centimetre, Shen Yuan suppressed a groan of pain. His breathing became even more laboured as he hugged Shang Qinghua tight and continued to mutter reassuring words like a robot. They didn’t work. Shang Qinghua’s breathing only became worse as the author was too lost inside his own head.

Shen Yuan didn’t realise that warmth left him.

The singular layer from Luo Binghe’s hanfu slipped from his shoulders and pooled onto the ground.

From the corner of his eyes, Shen Yuan gazed over at Shen Mei. Out of everyone who had been overpowered, she was the only one who was actively making progress with standing up again. Her legs were shaking in harsh tremors, her breaths seemed to be hitched and her knuckles had turned white as they tightly clutched the closest bamboo near her. Shen Mei’s lips were moving, but Shen Yuan couldn’t hear what she was saying. He could see who she was whispering to; she was whispering to Ning Yingying, who was right beside her. Ning Yingying was kneeling down and her fingers were clenching the grass beneath her. Her entire skin had a sheen of sweat to it, glistening bright against her ashen dry skin.

Shen Yuan’s attention was suddenly taken back to Luo Binghe as he heard a loud grating noise. It sounded a lot like a sausage sizzling in an oily pan, except the pitch was a note too high. Luo Binghe’s skin had been painted with tendrils of black, his irises had disappeared, so his eyes were glowing white. The grating noise was coming from Xin Mo, whose power only seemed to increase as Shen Qingqiu and Yue Qingyuan’s struggles to remain upright increased.

A sort of invisible barrier had formed around them as the rocks seemed to have stopped raining yet the two different worlds were still merging. There still were echoes of screams, of sobs, of death. The sky changed to an ever deeper grey at some point. There was no light. It was a grim day to die on.

Once Luo Binghe gained enough malevolent energy from his surroundings, he started to levitate upwards, with Xin Mo guiding him throughout. Shen Qingqiu suddenly sprinted towards him, his hanfu almost tripping him in the process as each one of his steps staggered from the amount of power Luo Binghe was emitting. Yue Qingyuan gasped and shouted out, “Xiao Jiu!” though his cries went unheard. He tried to move forward, he tried to run after Shen Qingqiu, but he ended up falling. Too many breaths escaped from his lungs, each one more hitched than the next.

Shen Qingqiu faltered but grabbed Luo Binghe by the hem of his hanfu before plummeting downwards. Just like everyone else, he was struggling to breathe. The demonic qi orbiting around Luo Binghe was too strong for anyone to handle, their internal qi resisted the demonic qi as much as they could, but their internal qi was also struggling to regulate. It was a conflict inside everyone’s bodies, especially those whose cultivation was too weak. Xin Mo only made matters worse. Its aura suppressed everyone even further.

Shen Yuan’s ears rung like there was a tiny bell lodged inside his head, and his throat constricted. He suddenly coughed out dark blood onto Shang Qinghua’s blue hanfu, probably staining it forever. The latter didn’t realise as he was still panicking with bloodshot eyes that were now empty of tears. It was a surprise that he hadn’t passed out from exhaustion; with how just much he thrashed and panicked and sobbed, Shen Yuan had expected him to faint. There was blood trickling gently down from Shang Qinghua’s lips, he realised.

Once again, gazing around, Shen Yuan saw that they weren’t the only one bleeding from their throats. One young-looking disciple was hacking way more blood than Shen Yuan had, their hanfu looked like it had been dunked in red paint. A couple of the older disciples, specifically the one that had been on the lookout prior, was coughing out blood just like Shen Yuan had, not violent but probably still very painful. Shen Mei was back down on her knees, one of her hands holding Ning Yingying’s hands. They weren’t coughing. Instead, they both were in a similar state to Shang Qinghua, minus the panicking. There was just some blood trickling out from their mouth, painting their lips red. Between the two of them, Ning Yingying spat out the most amount of blood.

Only Yue Qingyuan seemed to not be affected by the demonic qi that much. When Shen Yuan looked at him, the sect leader had no blood spilling from his mouth. Instead, he managed to sit in a lotus position and was currently meditating. Luo Binge was unsurprisingly also not affected. The bottom part of his hanfu had been torn by Shen Qingqiu, who had tried to stopped him from levitating only to fail miserably.

Shen Qingqiu was the only person Shen Yuan couldn’t tell if he had been affected, as his Qiu-ge was laying face-first on the ground. He looked nothing like a dignified Peak Lord.

The demonic qi surrounding Luo Binghe exploded as he slashed the air around him with Xin Mo. A giant dark red portal opened in front of him, and the more demonic qi was forced inside it, the larger it became. Debris rained from the sky again, human and animal corpses colouring the mountain red. The debris were much bigger than before, more jagged and fell even more violently. The bamboo forest no longer provided a good cover, as disciples were starting to get crushed. Their screams of pain made Shen Yuan wince, the frequencies of their screams too high for his liking.

One of the disciples, who looked younger than thirteen, cried for their mama. Their cries were ended abruptly by a stone twice their size.

From where he was, Shen Yuan couldn’t move. He was too exhausted and weak due to the excess demonic qi surrounding the area, and he still had Shang Qinghua panicking in his arms. While everyone else could probably try crawling away to find some cover, Shen Yuan couldn’t. As much as he didn’t want to, Shen Yuan was ready to re-embrace death again. There was no way he could survive, he might as well come to terms with it.

“…San-ge…” his meimei whispered out hoarsely, who finally managed to stand up alongside Ning Yingying. For support, they held onto each other. Shen Mei’s voice dissipated before it could reach Shen Yuan’s ears, the screams and crashes were too loud over her voice. Shen Yuan only noticed that his meimei was calling out to him, was because he felt his brotherly intuition spark.

Shen Yuan bowed his head and wished that he could hear her voice again. Just one last time, at the very least.

…

Shen Yuan suddenly felt himself get hauled up as his hands slipped from holding Shang Qinghua. The sudden movement jerked him awake despite his fatigue, though his eyesight was still too blurry to make out anything. His ears still rung, his voice was practically non-existent, and the pungent smell of iron overwhelmed his nose. Even though his other senses were practically nonexistence, Shen Yuan’s sense of touch still functioned, so he instantly felt the sudden contrast from the cold ground to something hot pressing against his stomach.

The way he was bent over, and how he was placed, made him realise that he was being carried over someone’s shoulder. Slowly, the ringing in his ears was subsiding and his eyesight was becoming clearer. His nose refused to smell anything else other than blood and his voice was still too weak though. Shen Yuan probably wouldn’t be able to talk for a couple of days, with how stressed his throat felt.

As his vision and hearing became clearer, Shen Yuan managed to get a grasp of his overall situation. A clad of red flashed in front of his eyes and his ears picked up on a too-familiar voice.

“ –rother is safe, A-Tiao!”

“Thank you, Hualing!”

A giggle erupted from the woman carrying him, who Shen Yuan realised was Sha Hualing. How did she know where to find them? How did she manage to get to Cang Qiong Mountain so quickly? She wasn’t a demon that could create portals, so perhaps she had landed somewhere near when the shadow stole her away, if the shadow had managed to steal her away anyway. That still didn’t answer how she knew where…was Shen Tiao with her? That voice had to be his, but since when did he call her “Hualing!”?

“Sha Hualing. Is Qinghua with you?”

“Yes, yes! I saved your pretty little servant, Mobei-jun. There is no need to worry – Stop thrashing around, you idiot!” Shang Qinghua was laying over Sha Hualing’s other shoulder, struggling as his panic did not seem to dissipate whatsoever.

As soon as Sha Hualing moved, Shen Yuan’s vision focused. Sometimes, black spots would pop up, but he finally had a clear view of everything. His Tiao-ge was indeed there, a paper talisman hanging from his neck as he cultivated the stones around to build a floating roof made from stone. Ironic, using stone to stop stone.

Next to him was the ice demon king, Mobei-Jun, who was hauling the few still alive disciples under the roof. The roof served for protection, the same purpose the bamboo forest once had. It was obviously way better than the bamboo forest, as its material was not brittle leaves, but it was made from something that could withstand against raining debris and corpses.

Shen Mei and Ning Yingying were also under the roof. Ning Yingying was cycling the qi of other disciples while Shen Mei was recreating the same talisman that was hanging from Shen Tiao’s neck onto giant leaves, by burning the pattern into the leaves and then hanging them around the disciples’ necks. Actually she and Ning Yingying were wearing that same talisman as Shen Tiao. The three of were somehow able to withstand the demonic qi, even the disciples that had originally fallen were regaining their strength rather easily after they wore the talisman.

Sha Hualing dumped the two men near Shen Tiao. From where she was, Shen Mei scrambled closer to them while still managing to burn leaves in a specific pattern to form the talismans. As soon as she was within reach of Shen Yuan, she instantly clung onto him, all whilst continuing to create the talismans. His meimei was really talented at multitasking!

Grabbing the talisman that she had just created, she instantly hung it around Shen Yuan’s neck by tying a knot with the leaves’ stem. It was a fragile medium to use, but it worked well as Shen Yuan felt the pressure of the demonic qi slowly vanish. It still was there, evident by how Luo Binghe was still floating in the sky with Xin Mo in his hands and with multiple portals surrounding him, but Shen Yuan couldn’t feel it. It was like he had been wrapped up in a barrier that specifically protected him from the demonic qi.

Ning Yingying moved over to him and started to pass her qi into him. Unlike Luo Binghe, she passed it on the correct spots so Shen Yuan felt the cool energy build up in him at a steady rate. It washed over him like a calm wave on a beautiful sunny day, it made him feel refreshed and anew. While he was being assisted, his meimei was working on even more talismans and his er-ge had bent down next to Shang Qinghua.

Shang Qinghua was still panicking, and honestly, Shen Yuan was surprised that he still was; how had he still not used up all of his energy? Mobei-Jun tried shaking him out of his unnerved stupor, then tried to punch him, but Shen Tiao stopped him just in time. For whatever reason, Mobei-Jun listened to him as Shen Tiao bent down and started to whisper to Shang Qinghua. The whispers weren’t really quiet, Shen Yuan could hear them very clearly from where he was, but he also wasn’t very far away from them either.

“Can you hear me? Nod if you can.”

Surprisingly, Shang Qinghua nodded. So the author was somehow aware too?

“Good. Clutch at the floor, try to ground yourself. I know that everything is scary right now, but you are going to be alright. None of us are going to let you, or anyone else, die. Take a deep breath. Can you tell me five things that you can see? You can look, there’s nothing scary.”

Shang Qinghua blearily blinked then gazed around. His eyes fleeted, but they calmed when they realised that Shen Tiao was right. There was nothing scary, only because everything terrifying was happening behind his back.

“I…A lot of strangers? You. Bamboo. Uh…the…a lot of rocks. A…a lot of green.”

“Good. What are four things that you can touch?”

 “The…the grass. Soil too…uh…” here, Shen Tiao gave Shang Qinghua his hand. The man grasped it before continuing, “your hand…the fabric of your hanfu.”

“Good job, you’re doing really well. Take a deep breath for me. Now, three things you can hear?”

“…I can hear your voice. The sound of fire. I think I can hear footsteps too?”

He was indeed right as Sha Hualing, who had left at some point, was approaching again with a scrawny disciple under her armpits. All the disciples that were still alive had finally been collected and safe under the cultivated stone roof. Even Yue Qingyuan was under it as Shen Tiao had made it large enough to cover him. The only ones who were at danger were Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu. They were out in the open, one of them passed out and the other one insane due to the excess demonic qi.

“Two things you can…no, tell me two things you like to smell.”

“Like to smell?…uh, paper. I like the smell of new books…And of ink.”

“Good. Breathe again for me. One emotion you feel that isn’t anxiety.”

“I feel sleepy.”

“Mn. Good job. Do you feel any better? You look better but I don’t want to presume.”

Just as Shang Qinghua was about to respond, Shen Mei hung one of the talismans around his neck, and then turned back to continue her work. Every time she finished a talisman, she hung it around someone’s neck. She continued to do this until everyone under the rocky roof, except for the demons, had a talisman strung around their neck. In the meantime, Ning Yingying left Shen Yuan and proceeded to place her palms on Shang Qinghua’s back. When she was done, she left and continued passing qi onto her fellow martial brothers and sisters.

“I am…Thank you, Shen Tiao.”

“You’re quite welcome. Yuan-di, how are you feeling?”

“…I’m alright since my missing qi has been replaced but I still feel achy,” Shen Yuan spoke, eyes widened when he noticed that his voice was working. He was so sure that he had lost it, perhaps the new qi floating through his meridians fixed his voice or something.

“I meant mentally. I’m not a doctor.”

“I’m tired and stressed out and overwhelmed.”

“You’re going to be alright, Yuan-di. Ground yourself, hit the ground, get some sleep. Do whatever you can that will help you feel better.”

“I know…do you need any help?”

“Are you offering?”

“Mn. Might make me feel better.”

“You’ve worked with da-ge quite a bit with medicine and stuff right? If you’re energised enough to cultivate, please make some herbs to clean wounds. If you can’t, just make sure that nobody is losing too much blood or is dying.”

Shen Yuan nodded and did as he was told. Some of the qi Ning Yingying transferred to him was used up into creating Holy Serene Health Dew Flowers. He rounded up as many people as he could together, all of them disciples, and started to examine them. Then he rubbed the dew on any of their injuries. The majority of them had been grazed, with only one coming out completely unharmed. Half of the alive disciples had serious injuries, not enough to kill them but the wound could be a hindrance. The majority of the injuries were caused because of the demonic qi; not being able to stand the demonic qi led them to more wounds, the majority of them internal. Shen Yuan couldn’t help with the internal wounds, he wasn’t a qualified doctor after all.

After calming down, Shang Qinghua was taken to Mobei-Jun’s. Their conversation was hushed as Shang Qinghua put up an array up to keep the noise contained. Right when they were finished, Shang Qinghua moved over to Shen Yuan and helped him deal with the disciples, whilst Mobei-Jun helped Shen Tiao by creating layers of ice on top of the stone roof.

The only one who wasn’t really doing anything of use was Sha Hualing, since all the alive disciples were safe now. For a couple of brief moments, she simply hovered next to Shen Tiao before suddenly leaving the protection provided by the stone to approach the fallen Shen Qingqiu. Shen Tiao shouted after her, his brows etched in worry.

“Hualing!”

Shen Yuan’s attention was split between observing his er-ge’s strange behaviour and helping the disciples. Luckily, his meimei and Ning Yingying joined him and Shang Qinghua since they were finished from talisman-making and qi-cycling. They aided the disciples by applying the dew, so Shen Yuan fully devoted himself into creating as many Holy Serene Health Dew Flowers as he could and also some food. No one other than Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu practised inedia, and so everyone else needed food to replenish some of their energy.

Curiosity got the best of Shen Yuan. He so badly wished to know what happened during their time apart, where Shen Tiao’s constant anger disappeared to, why his er-ge suddenly seemed so into Sha Hualing and wasn’t bothered by her anymore. Before he tolerated her, but now it seemed like he genuinely liked her.

So, Shen Yuan asked. His er-ge did not fail to disappoint as he answered instantly.

“…We were in the demon realm. She suddenly confessed to me, saying that she loved me. I wasn’t expecting it, I mean, doesn’t she love Luo Binghe? Anyway, I rejected her. We talked a little, about a lot of stuff. Now, we’re best friends but also in a sort of queerplatonic relationship? It feels wrong to say, since I’m a cisgender straight man but…”

“So you’re friends with benefits?” Shen Mei suddenly asked. Shen Tiao shook his head.

“No, it’s more than that. It’s not anything sexual. I don’t really know how to explain it. We’re like best friends but more, without crossing the romantic threshold. We haven’t exactly discussed boundaries yet. Anyway, that aside, we ended up in the North Ice Kingdom and forced Mobei-Jun to portal us next to where Luo Binghe is. That’s how we arrived here.”

“Will you be okay in this…friendship…er-ge? Don’t get me wrong, I support you, but Sha Hualing is going to be the protagonist’s wife and I don’t know if he’ll exactly like that. Do you even trust her? I mean, she kind of used to touch you a lot, without ever asking for consent.”

“Thank you for worrying Yuan-di, but I’ll be fine. This is something we both want. We’re going to figure out our boundaries later, once everything is over.”

That was clearly the end of the conversation, as Shen Tiao gazed worryingly over at Sha Hualing. She was dragging Shen Qingqiu towards them, whilst dodging the rain of stone and corpses. Shen Tiao then closed his eyes to continue focusing on cultivating more earth qi into the giant stone roof. Everyone else continued their tasks as well, but Shen Yuan’s attention kept on drifting from one person to another.

When Sha Hualing was a couple centimetres away from being covered by the roof, Yue Qingyuan awoke from his meditation. Shen Mei instantly ran over to give him a talisman before turning back to help the disciples. As soon as he saw his precious shidi in the arms of a demoness, he leaped forward and jerked him backwards. Sha Hualing let out a frustrated grunt and a couple of whispered complaints, but she did not try to grab Shen Qingqiu back. Yue Qingyuan caressed Shen Qingqiu’s cheeks in a loving manner, full of melancholic adoration.

Usually, Shen Mei was all for the theatrics, but this time she wasn’t. She ran over to Yue Qingyuan again, wrenched Shen Qingqiu out of his arms and then hung the talisman around his neck. Ning Yingying then came forward to circulate her shifu’s qi. Even though he was an immortal master, Shen Qingqiu was prone to qi deviations. This time, he did not undergo one as he almost instantly jerked awake and pushed back everyone surrounding him.

Shen Yuan observed them as Shen Qingqiu shook with all the uncomfortable proximities surrounding him. Everyone’s eyes was on him, Shen Qingqiu was in the centre of a brightly-lit stage. Shen Yuan pitied him, because he understood the feeling all too well. It was true that Shen Yuan’s love language was physical touch, but physical touch did irk him quite a lot. Only his siblings (Shang Qinghua and Luo Binghe too, apparently) were allowed to touch him so brazenly.

“Where is the beast?” Shen Qingqiu asked as he stood up. Being the filial disciple that she was, Ning Yingying instantly pointed to where Luo Binghe was still levitating like some sort of god. A grunt escaped from his pale lips as he instantly tried to move over to where Luo Binghe was, but was promptly stopped by Yue Qingyuan, who grabbed by the elbow as he let out a pitiful “Xiao Jiu.”

Like some sort of brute, rather out-of-character of him but also very in-character, Shen Qingqiu slapped the offensive hand away. Yue Qingyuan was like a broken puppy as he deflated like a sad balloon, while Shen Qingqiu strode over to Luo Binghe again with a lot determination. The talisman protected him from the demonic qi.

He summoned his beautiful sword, Xiu Ya, who appeared in a matter of seconds. Shen Yuan blinked. Xiu Ya was meant to be detained in the Huan Hua Palace, displayed proudly in the room that Luo Binghe used.

From Qing Jing Peak to Huan Hua Palace, there was quite a bit of a distance…The sword had arrived too fast! Its speed broke physics, its speed was faster than light. How was that even possible?! Was it because of the world’s terrible writing or did the merging of two completely separate worlds mess up logic even more?!

Forgotten completely in the background, Shen Tiao and Mobei-Jun continued to support the roof protecting them as Sha Hualing watched the scene with an amused smile. Shang Qinghua was the only one left dealing with the disciples as Shen Yuan had just finished creating enough food to last a family of ten for a year.

His eyes fluttered shut for a couple of minutes, as he felt like the air inside his lungs had been stole away. Shen Yuan had been so lost in following the situation that he had completely forgotten that he was still cultivating plants and so his body was growing tired. Fortunately enough, he quickly recovered from his fatigue.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Shen Yuan was met with the sight of Shen Qingqiu passing qi onto a blood-driven (and possible qi-deviated) Luo Binghe. Shen Tiao had extended the roof to cover them both, thus they were both completely safe from the raining death. It didn’t take long until Luo Binghe awoke again, completely healed both due to his heavenly demonic blood and because of Shen Qingqiu. He pushed the latter off in disgust, to which Shen Qingqiu only replied by rolling his eyes before starting to admonish Luo Binghe like he still had a right to do so as a teacher.

“You really are a mindless beast, using such a destructive weapon…Although, it is the only thing that could get us out of this crisis.”

“Shizun.”

“You’ve only made things worse however. Do the opposite of you were doing. In the meantime, this Master will continue passing his qi onto you. Ignore any  whispers the sword mutters. If it gets too much, kill yourself. Do not drag the entire world down with you.”

It was pretty obvious that Luo Binghe was not exactly a fan of the arrangements, but he steeled himself through and did what he was told. Instead of letting demonic qi gather around himself, Luo Binghe drained every bit of excess demonic qi by feeding it to Xin Mo. The sword buzzed in excitement, once again being oddly obedient as Luo Binghe swung it around. Shen Qingqiu fed him qi, his palms pressed right against his back to let the qi flow freely into his meridians.

Under any other circumstances, Shen Qingqiu would perhaps have left Luo Binghe to qi deviate. An intolerable beast like him did not deserve to live, however only he could wield Xin Mo. It was why he had to give him qi even if at the cost of his own life, it was in order to prevent him from qi deviating and leading the world to its destruction.

Shen Yuan watched in awe. When he had first merged the realms, Luo Binghe had also qi deviated. It was only thanks to Sha Hualing that he’d survive, as she had papapaed the excess demonic qi into herself. It had been a rather mutual agreement since the excess demonic qi benefitted her as a full-bred demon, and she also calmed down the insatiable Xin Mo. Seeing another way to deal with Xin Mo, other than papapa and endless death, filled Shen Yuan with a deep sense of relief.

“Tiao-di. Let the stone roof fall. Instead, I want you to try and clear the falling stones!” Shen Qingqiu barked out. It was a very risky move, to remove the only stable thing protecting them (Mobei-Jun’s ice were not stable. Ice was more fragile than stone, after all), but he listened. Of course he listened, it was his Qiu-ge asking him.

While Shen Tiao did as he was told, Mobei-Jun was ordered to continue rebuilding the icy roof whenever it shattered. It was clear that he was debating whether he should listen to him or not, but ultimately decided to as Luo Binghe subtly nodded in his direction. It wasn’t subtle enough for it to go unnoticed by Shen Yuan, but everyone else seemed to miss it.

The sky was clearing slowly, back into its empty orange-tinted colour with a speck of white from any surviving clouds. There were no more screams or plummeting dead bodies. Gradually, the two worlds were separated again and most of damage was becoming undone. There were at least seven dead bodies littered around them, all belonging to once-promising disciples.

Shen Yuan hoped that the end was near.

Chapter Text

For Shen Yuan, it felt like a lot of days had passed in a flash. In reality however, from Luo Binghe’s qi deviation up until Shen Qingqiu fixed everything, only half an hour had passed.  As soon as the stones stopped raining, the sky cleared and the sun rose. The sky was painted in beautiful orange hues that transitioned into a feathery pink, highlighting the start of a new day. Everyone lived to see another day, except the few canon-fodder disciples and the people from the modern world. There was no confirmation if the people that fell from the modern world were really dead, since their bodies and pools of blood vanished into thin air.

Perhaps for the first time ever, Yue Qingyuan hardened up when he came to face Shen Qingqiu. He demanded answers from him, his tone firm and unwavering. The latter simply brushed him off like he was a fallen leaf and told him that he’d explain everything during a Peak Lord Meeting. Before any of that however, Shen Qingqiu wanted to make sure that everyone was alright.

Luo Binghe used Xin Mo as a cane, he leaned his exhausted body weight against it as he shouted out an order to Mobei-Jun. It was an order that made Shen Yuan’s ears perk in excitement, as Mobei-Jun nodded and opened up a portal. Barely a couple moments passed before he arrived again, carrying a certain squirming human over his shoulders. That squirming human was Shen Chun. His furrowed eyebrows and pouted lips were more than enough evidence to show just how uncomfortable he was, but Shen Yuan thought that he was simply angry at suddenly being carried. Who wouldn’t be angry at unexpectedly being carried? If it were his siblings or Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan wouldn’t personally mind but he would be mad if someone tried to pick him up without his consent.

Shen Chun was unceremoniously dropped to the ground. He winced in pain. As he got up and rubbed his back, Shen Chun muttered, “if my old bones break because of you, I’m poisoning you.” Despite it being directed to Mobei-Jun, it sounded more like he was whispering to himself…

“…He looks so much like Xiao Jiu…”

“I believe I told you to not call me that, Zhangmen-shixiong.”

“I sincerely apologise, Qingqiu-shidi!”

And, of course, Yue Qingyuan was back to his old meek self again when facing Shen Qingqiu. No one could resist Shen Qingqiu’s intimidation. The man was too threatening for his own good.

Shen Yuan looked over at his da-ge, who was being brought up-to-date with the situation by their meimei, after he explained where he was dropped off by the shadow. Apparently, he had been dumped at the front door of Huohe Sect, the same sect that created the cultivation path they follow. The sect leader, Cai Hongloi, was benevolent enough to save Shen Chun. Since he owed her, Shen Chun decided to tell her the truth as payment. This apparently led to them getting along quite well.

As Shen Chun explained, he was also examining everyone for injuries. Using the adept hands of a doctor, he reduced any soreness and cleaned all wounds with the rags stored in his qiankun pouch. Whenever he faced a wound the bled a waterfall, he made sure to secure it tight with a bandage. Almost everyone was crowding around Shen Chun, even Airplane and Mobei-Jun, except for a certain someone.

Shen Yuan glanced away to search for that certain someone. The protagonist was left standing shakily with his weight still leaning against his sword. His breathing was shallow. He didn’t look injured, but it was quite obvious that he was not alright. Shen Yuan quickly gathered the borrowed layer from Luo Binghe’s hanfu up from the ground. Then, he snuck away from the group and scampered over to Luo Binghe’s side. Each step of his was weak, his legs threatened to let him slip. Fortunately, Shen Yuan arrived without tripping.

Perhaps a little carelessly, Shen Yuan draped the fabric over Luo Binghe as he hoped that it would provide the protagonist with a sense of comfort. Afterwards, he grabbed Luo Binghe’s muscular arm and placed it on his shoulder whilst he also gripped the back of Luo Binghe’s black robes for stability. Slowly, the two moved forwards. Luo Binghe did not resist, cooperating with Shen Yuan guiding him. By the time they arrived next to Shen Chun, his da-ge had finished examining everyone except for the two of them.

Shen Chun’s eyes widened in surprise, but before he could even make a single sound, Shen Yuan pushed Luo Binghe into his da-ge’s arms. As much as Shen Yuan wished to hug his da-ge, to cry into his arms, he was more worried for the protagonist. He would be fine, there’s no way the world would suddenly decide to kill the protagonist when the world literally revolved around him, but Shen Yuan couldn’t help worrying. 

Fortunately, Shen Chun listened to Shen Yuan’s silent wish as he examined Luo Binghe. After a bit, he cultivated a small flowering plant and fed its stem to him. Shen Yuan couldn’t tell what sort of flower it was, it had no special appearance. In fact, it looked like a normal daisy with small white petals that had a tinge of orange due to the lighting. Luo Binghe ate the stem, and then proceeded to pass out…Shen Yuan was surprise to see the protagonist fall unconscious, and so he asked his da-ge if Luo Binghe was alright.

“I’m fairly certain that he is alright, although his meridians are really constricted. I am not entirely sure if it is because they’re damaged or if they’re built like this naturally, considering that he is half human half demon. He is my first patient who is built like this, so I cannot exactly tell. It would be best if he’s watched over at all times, just in case.”

Nobody was faster than Shen Yuan, who instantly volunteered to be the one to watch over him. It made perfect sense! They spent ample alone time together so they grew to understand each other better. Luo Binghe was more likely to appreciate being taken care by someone who he favours, and recently, it seemed like he was genuinely starting to like Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan owed Luo Binghe back anyway, for protecting when the stones rained. It was the least he could do!

Plus, no one knew the protagonist as much as Shen Yuan did; not even Airplane could compare with him.  

Truly though, Shen Yuan just wanted to ogle at the protagonist, in a…platonic way. He didn’t want to be seen doing it, since it would be hard to explain but he really wished to appreciate the beauty of his favourite character.

Shen Chun agreed to let him watch over the protagonist and then pulled him closer in order to assess him. His da-ge found that Shen Yuan was alright, but his meridians had been a bit strained. It was nothing life-threatening nor did it make Shen Yuan cry out in pain, but it would take a couple of days for it to heal. For those few resting days, he wouldn’t be able to cultivate lest he strains them even further.

Almost all of the disciples, except of Ning Yingying, had scattered after they had been assessed, the majority of them decided to head to Qian Cao Peak in search of the medicine that Shen Chun prescribed them, or else to make sure that Shen Chun examined them properly. The once overpopulated group had dimmed down to the five Shen siblings, Yue Qingyuan, Shang Qinghua, Ning Yingying, Sha Hualing and Mobei-Jun. There was also the fainted Luo Binghe, who was laying on the grass with his curly hair spreading out like a halo.

It was really quiet. The silence seeped in like a vague fog, a disturbance but not overwhelming enough to cause chaos. Yue Qingyuan cleared his throat, eyeing Shen Qingqiu and then Shang Qinghua. The air around him changed to that of an imposing Sect Leader as his back straightened.

“In the next Peak Lord Meeting, this one hopes that everything will be cleared. Everyone deserves to know the truth, as this situation has affected everyone, so I will be allowing anyone to enter if they please. Demons, you are welcome to join as well. In fact, this one must thank you for the help you have provided us. If you wish, you may stay at Qiong Ding Peak for the time being, as opposed to having to travel between realms.”

For someone who was easily intimidated by the second-in-command, Yue Qingyuan was also someone who was befit to be a leader. His Shifu had made no mistake in making him the head disciple.

“Chun-ge, Tiao-di, Yuan-di, Mei-mei. The four of you shall stay on my Peak for the time being…No need to ask, the beast may also stay.”

Shen Yuan let out a sigh of relief.

“This Ling-er will take you up on your offer, Sect Leader!”

-

The day continued without anymore mishaps. Shen Yuan quickly settled in one of the dormitories used by the disciples, alongside his siblings and Luo Binghe. His meimei was in a different dormitory from them, as she had been forced to stay at the girl dormitories. Fortunately, she was with Ning Yingying so she wouldn’t get lost or lonely (not like she would get lonely; she had the ability to make friends with everyone no matter how distasteful they can be).

The room the three Shen siblings were led to, while Luo Binghe was being carried by Shen Chun, was a simple spacious room with five bamboo beddings. Along the walls hung a couple of painted scrolls. On each of them was painted a landscape of some sort; Shen Yuan’s favourite one was one of a waterfall leading into a rocky pond with steam clinging onto the air. There were two storage spaces next to each other, against the wall opposite to the door. Only Shen Chun made use of them as he stored his infinite medicinal supplies there.

A little bit after settling, Shen Chun and Shen Tiao left the room. Both of them were going to meet with Shen Qingqiu in order to properly catch up. After, Shen Qingqiu would take Shen Chun to Qian Cao whilst Shen Tiao would separate from them in order to go meet with Sha Hualing. Thus, Shen Yuan was left utterly alone with the fainted Luo Binghe, who laid on one of the spread-out beddings.

Boring was a generous term to describe how Shen Yuan felt. Ten minutes after his brothers left, Shen Yuan already felt beyond boredom; there was nothing to do except to stare. He stared at Luo Binghe, admiring his perfect facial structure and then observing the way his chest rose and fell. Soon, staring grew boring too. It made his unblinking eyes swell with tears, his vision growing hazy by the second. Without nothing to do, Shen Yuan fell back onto the mattress he had claimed. He closed his eyes, but didn’t sleep. He simply drifted into his own thoughts, wondering about the shadow and the system.

None of it made sense really. The system itself was something otherworldly, something a mortal like Shen Yuan would never be able comprehend. Sure, he had read transmigration stories with systems in them, but that didn’t make it any better. The systems were always depicted as god-like entities. A mortal could never be able to grasp the thoughts of the immortal gods so there was no way he could grasp the system’s intentions. However that didn’t mean he couldn’t theorise. Countless of people had theorised on different gods and religions in the modern world. What was stopping him from theorising as well? Absolutely nothing.

Well, there was one thing keeping him from developing full theories. His own mind, which kept jumping from one topic to another, delving more deeper than necessary into some of them. Over time, Shen Yuan would be able to properly string a couple of theories together, but for now his mind was more keen on wandering.

-

The day passed by too quickly despite the boredom; after floating in his own thoughts whilst also keeping an eye on Luo Binghe for almost three hours, Shen Qingqiu came by to keep Shen Yuan company. It was surprising, but Shen Yuan did appreciate it. He didn’t let his gratitude show, though. When Shen Qingqiu had to leave, which was after half an hour, he dumped ten books on Shen Yuan’s lap. For the next few hours, Shen Yuan consumed those books like he was a starved man, while occasionally getting up to either stretch or to check up Luo Binghe’s condition. Despite the occasional breaks, he had forgotten to go to the bathroom, to drink or to eat something. Shen Yuan was too invested in reading and he was also too invested in staying by Luo Binghe’s side. By the time it was evening, Shen Yuan had managed to read through two of the books, both of which were over five hundred pages long.

Shen Chun had entered the room, carrying a tray of full  of food and drink. He passed them onto Shen Yuan, and then proceeded to tiredly berate him with affection for neglecting his own needs once again. Shen Yuan had only shrugged sheepishly, a grin decorating his face, as he observed his da-ge check on Luo Binghe’s vitals and meridians. The two brothers then ate in the room together. The food was fairly bland and didn’t have much texture to it, just the way Shen Yuan liked it. There was no idle chatter, not even the sound of slurping. They ate quietly, immersed in the silent companionship of one another.

By the time they decided to lay down on their respective beddings, Shen Tiao had still not arrived. In fact, the second brother arrived when the moon was at its highest point and both of his brothers were sleeping soundly. Even Shen Yuan, who struggled to fall asleep, was sleeping like a new-born baby that had just been fed milk. The darkness inside the room made Shen Tiao creep around extra carefully in order to not wake up his brothers. He got to his own bamboo mattress and laid down. The broken part of him yearned to wake his brothers up, but the logical part of him screamed at him to let them rest. They had a tough day and deserved to sleep their fatigue away.

The next morning, when Shen Yuan woke up, both of his brothers had already left again. In order to not make him worry, they left him a note. Shen Chun  mentioned that he had already checked up on Luo Binghe and that he would be probably waking soon, then he mentioned that he was helping Qian Cao Peak to deal with the injured disciples from the previous day. Meanwhile Shen Tiao simply stated that he was going to be sparring with Shen Mei and Shen Qingqiu.

What surprised him the most wasn’t their absence however. It was Luo Binghe, who had awoken and was actually the first one to read the note. His impeccable sculpted lips curled upwards when his gaze met Shen Yuan’s. Luo Binghe really was too pretty, too attractive. Shen Yuan’s heart sped up, the same way it did when he had a crush on that one friend of his. He desperately tried to ignore it, but it only sped up more when Luo Binghe’s gaze seemed to soften. The eye-contact was uncomfortable in a way that made Shen Yuan feel giddy with warmth.

The atmosphere was broken by Shen Yuan himself, as the giddiness got too much for him to handle. He crawled over and practically snatched the note from Luo Binghe’s hands, their fingers grazing against each other for mere moments yet Shen Yuan still felt just how flawless Luo Binghe’s fingers were, despite the earned calluses. His body trembled for a second but Shen Yuan brushed it off as he instead read the notes. A sigh of pure relief escaped from his lips.

“Lord Luo, I’m glad to see that you’re awake. Let me get you some food. Ah, I should probably tell everyone that you’re awake now!”

“Wait, Shen Yuan,” before Shen Yuan could even move an inch away, Luo Binghe grasped his wrist. It was a gentle hold, so gentle that Shen Yuan could easily break out of it, but he didn’t. He stayed there, his voice partially stuck in his throat.

“…Stay here with me? This Lord still hasn’t properly recuperated.”

Shen Yuan nodded, settling himself down near Luo Binghe. They were laying side-by-side on the thin bedding, both of them laying on their back. Every little movement they made could be felt by the other. If one of them dared to move their arm over the other, they would be cuddling. Luo Binghe shuffled slightly downwards, then proceeded to rest his head on Shen Yuan’s shoulder. The latter went stiff with the amount of warmth that flooded his face, but he didn’t try to wriggle Luo Binghe off. He allowed it, and Shen Yuan even dared to lay his own head on the protagonist’s head.

Luo Binghe only let out a sound that, perhaps meant he was pleased?…Shen Yuan wasn’t really sure what it actually meant, but since he didn’t push him off or chop his head off, it surely meant something good…

Their brief session of…whatever that was, was cut short when Shen Tiao burst in, with Shen Mei trailing behind him like a lost puppy. He took one glance at the two, before getting red in the face with rage. If it wasn’t for the fact that Shen Mei physically held him back, Shen Yuan was certain his er-ge would have done something that would have probably led him to face the warranted wrath of the protagonist. In fact, Luo Binghe already looked more than irritated. Luckily Shen Mei was there to calm them both down, as her amused laughter rung through their ears.

-

According to Mu Qingfang, there were 63 injured disciples and 17 corpses in total.

After Shen Tiao had calmed down, the three Shen siblings all went down to announce that Luo Binghe had finally awoken. Not long after, Yue Qingyuan announced that a Peak Lord meeting would be taking place, and for the first time ever, anyone could join in if they wanted to.

That was where they were now, Shen Yuan sat in between Shang Qinghua and Shen Mei. Shen Yuan felt elated to finally be able to meet all the Peak Lords. The only ones who had been important were the scum villain, Yue Qingyuan, Shang Qinghua and technically Liu Qingge since his death was one of the reasons why the Shen Qingqiu had gotten imprisoned. The rest had not been important so they had only been briefly mentioned.

Strangely enough, however, the Bai Zhan Peak Lord was still alive. Wasn’t Shen Qingqiu meant to kill him? Why didn’t he? Did his brother actually have modern-day morals? How did he managed to bypass the system anyway? Surely, it would have wanted him to kill Liu Qingge…

Liu Qingge was actually really pretty, totally different from what Shen Yuan had expected him to be. He expected a burly man with a beard and many battle scars, but no, the Bai Zhan Peak Lord was beautiful. His beauty was similar to that of popular male idols. He easily rivalled Luo Binghe for beauty, though Shen Yuan personally though that Luo Binghe was much prettier. It did make him wonder just how beautiful Liu Mingyan was compared with him, considering the fact that Liu Mingyan was often regarded as the most beautiful woman in the Proud Immortal Demon Way novel.

As he thought of the sixth wife of the protagonist, Shen Yuan couldn’t help glancing at her shifu, who was seated right next to Liu Qingge. Qi Qingqi was truly a woman worthy of being the Peak Lord of Xian Shu Peak. Her scowl was stubborn, but graceful. It was full of resentment towards Shen Qingqiu specifically, but it still suited her beautiful visage. Shen Yuan wondered why Luo Binghe hadn’t taken her as a wife. She was the only Peak Lord he spared, due to Liu Mingyan’s demands, but he had stripped her from her cultivation making her a useless mortal. Wouldn’t it have been more better if he had taker her as a wife?

Shen Yuan continued to gaze at the rest of the Peak Lords. Usually the Peak Lords sat based on the seniority of their Peak, but this time they sat scattered around. The Peak Lord of Ku Xing, Zheng Qingjing, was seated next to Qi Qingqiu and next to him was Mu Qingfang. Besides him was the loud alcoholic from Zui Xian Peak, Wang Qingming, who was unsurprisingly drinking alcohol. On the furthest end, there were three peak Lords that had been the least mentioned in the novel as they were always too busy and rather secluded.

Lu Qingtian of Wei Lai Peak sat next to Wang Qingming. He was typically always in seclusion as he wished to improve on his talismans and soul-reading abilities (truly speaking, he was just a human version of Madam Meiyin with a couple minor differences). Meanwhile, his older sister, Lu Qingmei from Re Si Peak, sat beside him. She was usually too busy stitching up clothes together and yelling at her disciples for their mistakes. Perhaps one might think that she was hardworking, but really, she had way less work compared to Shang Qinghua. She was just a little lazy. On the furthest end sat the Peak Lord of Gu Sou Peak, Xie Qingxian. She was usually outside of the Sect, travelling. She was similar to Liu Qingge in that sense, except she ran off in order to explore and not to battle. The three Peak Lords were said to be quite close to each other.

(There had been multiple theories that Xie Qingxian was in a relationship with one of them, despite the lack of evidence. Even though Shen Yuan was never much of a shipper, he liked to think that Lu Qingmei and Xie Qingxian were in a relationship together. From the little he’d read on them, he could tell that their bond was extremely strong. They had also both rejected Luo Binghe’s marriage proposals and fought to the death together, protecting one another till the end).

Shen Qingqiu sat to the right of Yue Qingyuan, who was at the head of the round table, while Wei Qingwei sat to his left.

The rest of the Shen siblings, Shang Qinghua and Luo Binghe all sat down at Shen Qingqiu’s side of the table. Shen Yuan sat between Shen Mei and Shang Qinghua. Next to the mousy author was Luo Binghe and next to his sister were the rest of their brothers, with Shen Chun sitting between Shen Tiao and Shen Qingqiu. Behind Shang Qinghua stood Mobei-Jun and behind Shen Tiao was Sha Hualing. The two demons refused to sit down.

The first one to speak, after Yue Qingyuan greeted everyone and signalled the commence of the meeting, had been Mu Qingfang. He spewed out a detailed report on the most common injuries, on the deaths, on the cures and how long one might expect their disciple to be in Qian Cao Peak for. Shen Yuan felt his eyes grow heavy with how tedious he felt, but he kept them open for the sake of appearances. He didn’t wish to embarrass himself in front of a large crowd, even if his brain refused to pay attention.

The steaming cup of tea laid in front of him looked way more interesting as it rippled steadily, although Shen Yuan refused to drink it. He had taken a sip from it and it was the worst drink to ever touch his tongue. It was like a bag full of rotten anchovies had forced into his mouth…That was an exaggeration, not only had Shen Yuan never tried anchovies but it also didn’t taste that bad. It was bad enough to have him reconsider all his life choices that led him up to that particular moment though. The part he hated the most was that the tea had some leaf fragments in it. It completely ruined the smooth liquid texture of the tea.

Then, when Mu Qingfang finished his report, Yue Qingyuan took the lead again. He spoke to the few disciples that joined, and honestly, Shen Yuan had expected more to come. There were probably around ten disciples, and one of them was Ning Yingying. They weren’t sitting at the table, but were lined up against the walls. He wasn’t sure what Yue Qingyuan told them, the words flew past his ears like birds flying with no aim, but Shen Yuan didn’t miss the look of determination on the disciples’ face. Whatever he told them really got them riled up as suddenly, the majority of them left. The only ones who stayed were Ning Yingying, a disciple from Bai Zhan Peak and Ming Fan. Shen Yuan hadn’t even seen the latter in the crowd. Despite his larger size, Ming Fan had hidden himself really well.

Finally, after probably an hour, Yue Qingyuan turned to them and once again demanded answers. Everyone looked at them with curiosity, even Qi Qingqi’s scowl seemed to lessen as she scrutinised the six of them.

“Right. I reincarnated into this body, but was not fed Meng Po’s soup so I still remember my past life. It was an entirely different world from this one, it was quite advanced in terms of technology and there was a distinct lack of qi there. In my old life, I had two brothers. Then I died, reincarnated into Shen Qingqiu and now here I am, more than forty years later.”

“Qingqiu-Shidi, perhaps you should not speak so…impolitely?”

“I ask you very politely to shut the hell up, Zhangmen-shixiong.”

“Don’t speak to Zhangmen-shixiong like that!”

“Shut up Liu-shidi. My biggest regret is saving you.”

“…You only really saved him because of me though. If I hadn’t messed with the qi of Ling Xi cave, one of you would have died. Probably Liu Qingge since that’s part of canon.”

“What? Qinghua-shidi, could you please explain yourself?” Yue Qingyuan asked with confusing lacing his voice.

“Ah…uh…uh oh…”

“Shixiong, calm your soul. You will not explain properly if you are purged with heart demons so, calm,” Zheng Qingjing said as his hands fiddled with traditional prayer beads. Shang Qinghua shook his head.

“I’m not purged by heart demons shidi!…The truth is…I am also from that same world? I also technically reincarnated into Shang Qinghua but didn’t lose my memory? And this world might have been a book in my old world?”

“A book that you wrote.”

“Cucumber-bro! Don’t expose me like that, bro.”

“Does that mean” Wang Qingming hiccupped as he opened up another bottle of rose wine, spilled its content into his mouth and then proceeded to drink half of the bottle like it was nothing, “Shang-Shixiong created thiiiiiiiis,” he slurred, “thiiis world?”

Everyone looked at the author expectantly. The sweat that trickled down his forehead as he let out a nervous laugh was too bright under the many lanterns that hung from the ceiling. He skittishly glanced at Shen Yuan, but the latter only lifted up his arm to cover the lower side of his face. Behind his sleeves, Shen Yuan smiled.

“Technically yes?”

The silence that filled the room was awkwardly overwhelming.

“Shang-shishu, if you created this world, then you must have created us too. This one is wondering why his life was orchestrated to be as painful as possible.”

“Uh oh,” Shen Mei whispered into Shen Yuan’s ears as the temperature of the room significantly dropped; Mobei-Jun wasn’t the cause for the drop in temperature, it was Luo Binghe. His glare pierced through everyone’s heart even though it was explicitly aimed at Shang Qinghua.

“That! That wasn’t my fault! The story…everything was meant to be different! When I tried to actually write it, I couldn’t! No matter what I wrote, it wasn’t good enough! The version I ended up writing was something I dreamt about. It’s not my fault my dreams made you go through so much pain, Lord Luo! Please forgive me!”

Ah, no wonder Proud Immortal Demon Way was garbage. Shen Yuan couldn’t help raising a hand and lightly slapping the back of Shang Qinghua’s head. It was a very light slap, not enough to even redden or bruise, yet the author still let out a pathetic yelp in surprise.

“Bro, what the hell!”

“You deserved it.”

“Why?!”

“You don’t write stories based on just dreams, Airplane-bro. Dreams are disjointed. No wonder the pacing was so bad.”

“You have a fair point, but the dreams were really vivid, bro! Like super vivid, it felt like I was living the actual thing. I even have clear memories from it! Funny thing is, I was always Shang Qinghua in those dreams, but then when he died, I was just a floating spirit!”

“…You dreamt everything?” Shen Qingqiu asked.

“Yes! Everything, even when Shang Qinghua wasn’t around. When he wasn’t around, I was just a floating spirit. The dreams made my head hurt sometimes.”

“Shang-shidi, ever since you became Shang Qinghua, have you ever gotten a sense of déjà vu?”

“Obviously yeah, since I dreamt all about it? Though sometimes not because of the…thing.”

“The system is not active, you can say its name out loud.”

“Oh really? Damn, I didn’t notice. Awesome.”

“Qingqiu-shidi,” Yue Qingyuan spoke up. “May this shixiong ask why you inquired Qinghua-shidi?”

“It’s because I experienced heavy déjà vu for everything I did. Even when forced by the system, it felt like I had done the same exact thing in a past life.”

“Past life huh?” perked up the Peak Lord of Wei Lai Peak. Lu Qingtian’s maroon eyes twinkled in delight as his lips curled into a smile, “May this shidi look into your souls, Shen-shixiong and Shang-shixiong? Perhaps the truth can be reveal from deep within.” Unlike his sister, who didn’t like to show off her craft despite every single hanfu on Cang Qiong being made by her, Lu Qingtian always enjoyed showing off his skills.

Both of the Peak Lords agreed simultaneously after some deliberation. Lu Qingtian got up and quickly left the building to fetch the stuff he needed. While he was away, the meeting was continued by Qi Qingqi.

“So these four are Shen-shixiong’s siblings then? Pah, are they scum like him too?”

“Shimei, do not speak about my siblings in such a way,” Shen Qingqiu glared. His voice drifted off at the end as Shen Mei and Shen Tiao started laughing like crazy. Shen Yuan was left stumped, why were his siblings laughing? He looked over at Shen Chun only to see him snicker too, before shaking his head in what looked like disappointment. Qi Qingqi’s face went red while Liu Qingge raised an eyebrow.

“Why are you laughing? There is nothing honourable about being called scum.”

In Proud Immortal Demon Way, there had only been brief scenes with Liu Qingge and those scenes always involved him being violently loud while also having the most awkward speech ever. The fact that he only spoke now was a surprise to Shen Yuan. His voice was delightful to hear, it was low and soothing.

“You’re right, but it’s so funny! She’s judging us based on our relations with Qiu-ge! Or else…I bet it’s because of how atrocious you look, er-ge. You look like a Disney villain.”

“Disney villains are hot though.”

“Fair point, that insult backfired badly.”

Shen Yuan finally understood why they were laughing. Judgment was second nature in humans, and one typically judged on the other person’s appearance and personality. Judging someone by their familial ties wasn’t unheard off, but his siblings were probably laughing at how stupid it was.

They hadn’t seen Qiu-ge in more than twenty one years, as they had been separated; worlds apart (and Shen Yuan and Shen Mei hadn’t even known about him). Sure, they had been calling Qiu-ge their brother since he biologically was in related to them in the modern world, but now? Not only did he have a different body, that perhaps looked too much like the body of their old world since he did share many resemblances with Shen Chun, but their emotional bond didn’t really exist.

Qi Qingqi was basically being stupid by assuming that they were like him. Shen Qingqiu couldn’t have affected them with his scummy behaviour, ever.

“Quiet down you two. I’m sure she has a good reason to think those thoughts about us,” Shen Chun snickered again.

Before the situation could escalate any further, Lu Qingtian entered the room again. His arms were piled with a cup full of water, a dozen leaves and a dozen more twigs. He set them down messily on the table, right in front of Shen Qingqiu. Then, with the voice of someone who sounded too excited for his own good, he commanded Shen Qingqiu to face him. Shen Qingqiu did as he was told by swivelling his body 180 degrees.

Lu Qingtian grabbed one of the leaves and placed it inside one of the cups, gentle enough to not cause the water to ripple. One of the twigs was handed to Shen Qingqiu as Lu Qingtian held out the cup of water with the floating leaf between the two of them.

“Shen-shixiong, this shidi of yours wishes you to poke the leaf with the twig. It matters not how much you poke it, nor how deep. Just do as your heart tells you.”

“My heart? I was under the impression that I did not have one.”

“Xiao-Jiu…” Shen Qingqiu shivered in disgust as he ignored Yue Qingyuan’s cry. He followed Lu Qingtian’s orders and poked the leaf a couple of times. Each time he poked it, the water rippled in waves. Shen Yuan couldn’t see them from where he was, he could barely see anything.  Every ripple must had been mesmerising to look at, as Lu Qingtian was devoted to simply staring at the leaf and the water, though his cool green eyes did sometimes sneak to peek at Shen Qingqiu’s strangely unblemished fingers and dainty wrist.

A goldish mist floated in translucent chunks from the leaf as Lu Qingtian closed his eyes and inhaled said mist. Then, he reopened them again. The colour in his iris seemed to have faded a little, though Shen Yuan hardly noticed since only one side of his face was visible.

Lu Qingtian did not speak for a solid minute, practically wasting everyone’s time.

“…Shen-shixiong. Your karmic debt has long been repaid, but the Heavens are not so lenient. Your life is stuck in a circle, each cycle the same as the last. Happiness is something that will always be out of your reach…At least, that’s what the beginning reads. The circle has been broken, yet the Heavens are still not lenient. They wish to punish you more so they dragged you back, yet you are determined to last through as you still retain your past life’s memories. Your memories, your familial ties, your own determination. Those are what will break through the cycle. Those are what have broken the cycle.”

Because of Shang Qinghua’s terrible writing, which included piling thousands of clichés on each other, Lu Qingtian spoke mysteriously like some sort of wise fortune teller…He technically could be a fortune teller, but from the brief descriptions that Shang Qinghua had written about him, Lu Qingtian did not seem like the kind of person who’d enjoy reading the future. He appeared to enjoy reading through one’s past and their reincarnations much more.

Multiple questions silently sat on Shen Yuan’s tongue as his brain sorted through the words and prodded at them. Each word was of interest, despite how confusing they were, they could be dissected countless times like a pig’s heart during a biology class.

Shen Yuan wasn’t the only one interested in Lu Qingtian’s words, as practically everyone wished to know what he actually meant. What did he mean by circle and cycle? Why was Shen Qingqiu never bound to find happiness yet only endless suffering in each lifetime? Why were the Heavens so against his life? Why did remembering his past life break through the cycle of suffering?

These questions all remained unanswered as Lu Qingtian moved over to Shang Qinghua. At first, Mobei-Jun kind of stood in his way but then he reluctantly moved away once Mobei-Jun saw how frustrated everyone was at him. No one cared about his wishes to stand by the traitor’s side, they only cared about finding out more.

Lu Qingtian used to same cup of water but changed the leaf to a new one and also gave Shang Qinghua a different twig from the one that Shen Qingqiu used. Since the author was sitting right by him, Shen Yuan had a better view of the process. After repeating the same instructions he told Shen Qingqiu, Shang Qinghua nodded meekly. Then, Shang Qinghua poked the floating leaf with the twig once. Then again. Even though he poked it only twice, Shang Qinghua had suffocated the leaf as he drowned it under the water both times. He didn’t keep it under the water for long, and when the leaf popped up, the ripples it created were quieter than they looked.

Lu Qingtian once again closed his eyes after staring at the leaf and peeking glances at Shang Qinghua’s wrist. The same golden mist from earlier clouded up his face. Then he opened his eyes. Shen Yuan had been right earlier, his iris did fade in colour after each reading. The maroon eyes were no longer vibrant, they were now entering a grey territory.

Either Lu Qingtian spent way too much time in seclusion and thus forgot that time was a precious resource, or he enjoyed making people wait because he stayed silent again for a minute. By the time he spoke again, Shen Yuan felt itches of impatience crawling everywhere on his skin.

“…Shixiong. You were forced in a cycle, where dreams haunt you to write out a past life with forgotten memories. Then, at the end, there is death. Then, there is life. You relive this life again and again only to die at the hands of ice. Then, there is rebirth; in a different time with a different life. Once again dreams haunt your sleep. They guide you to write, only for you to meet your demise every time you reach the end. Then again and again and again. You bear no karmic debt, despite being a traitorous coward. The Heavens are guiding you with a purpose, yet this purpose is not as praiseworthy as it may seem. Their hold on you has slipped, you have remembered your past life while still having to relive this one. Perhaps this time, your life shall be spared?”

This time, Lu Qingtian’s readings were less mysterious but were structured much like a riddle. Questions still boiled heavily inside Shen Yuan’s brain. There were a couple of frequent themes he picked up on; reincarnation, death, and being forced to live a cycle. The last theme heavily implied that Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua specifically had to relive their life as Cang Qiong Mountain Peak Lords more than ones, which also meant that there was a possibility that the world was in some sort of loop. A singular life might have been actually lived multiple times, but each time, it was forgotten after death. 

Unlike Shen Yuan, who tried using his head to figure out everything by himself, Shang Qinghua blurted out a, “What?” Dropping his mysterious air, Lu Qingtian let out a sigh.

“This shidi apologises. Your soul and Shen-shixiong’s are quite difficult to read. I am still unsure myself of what I have seen. My skills are still lacking a bit.”

“Lu-shidi, your readings were very interesting to listen to, but quite frankly, we do not care that they were difficult to read. What did you see? And say it clearly, not everyone here is from this world,” Shen Qingqiu glared.

“Of course. This shidi understands. As I’ve said, both of your lives are in a cycle. Shen-shixiong, you have lived the life of Shen Qingqiu more than a hundred times. Each time, you meet the same fate for committing the same exact actions. Your soul was never meant to reincarnate in the world where your siblings are from, it was chained with this world. Yet somehow, the chains slipped and you managed to reincarnate into a different life. When the Heavens realised, they took you back here. They must have forgotten to feed you Meng Po’s soup however, so you still retain your memories from back then.

Shang-shixiong, you have also lived this life more than a hundred times. Yet after each death, you reincarnate and live a different life each time. In those lives, dreams of the past haunt you yet you never realise this. Each time, you write the dreams down. Sometimes in a diary or journal, sometimes in a book. As soon as you reach the ‘end’ however, you die. Your last reincarnation was no exception, but just like Shen-shixiong, you still retained your memories. Why this occurred, this shidi does not know, though it is a curious matter indeed…

There was something else I noticed in both of your souls. Luo-shizhi, could you allow me to read your soul? This shishu promises that it shan’t be in vain nor will you get noting from it. This shishu promises you that you will gain insight from this matter.”

Everyone looked at Luo Binghe, and even the protagonist himself seemed surprised by the sudden question. Yet without even thinking about it, he replied with a firm, “Yes.”

Chapter Text

“I see…”

With narrowed eyes, Lu Qingtian stared at ceramic cup full of water. The leaf that Luo Binghe had poked prior floated around, its green colour bright. Bloated with water, it appeared to have grown bigger unlike the rest. Luo Binghe raised one of his eyebrows in question, as he placed down the twig he had been given, back on the table. Lu Qingtian had yet to say what he saw, and a minute had long passed. His silence was meant to be a simple wish that the other Peak Lords did not grant him. They egged him to say the truth out loud. Even Shen Yuan was curious, and he already had an idea of what Lu Qingtian saw, for obvious reasons.

“…Luo-shizhi, you truly are fascinating. The Heavens bow down to you, they would give up their Heavenly status just to please you. This world would not exist without your presence in it. It is for your pleasure that they reincarnated Shen Qingqiu numerous times just so that you could continue getting revenge for every misdeed he performed against you. It is for your pleasure that they made Shang Qinghua write down your glorious story, time and time again. You are the Heaven’s will, despite constantly going against it.”

It would be a complete lie if Shen Yuan said that he wasn’t surprised by Lu Qingtian’s words. He did know that the world revolved around Luo Binghe, he was its protagonist after all, but it also sounded like the Proud Immortal Demon Way world wasn’t actually just a novel. There was more to it, it seemed. Well, it wasn’t as though Shen Yuan considered this world as only a novel anymore. In the beginning he did, but after everything, he was more inclined to believe that the world was more than just a novel.

It still was hard to wrap his head around that thought though, his mind both accepting and rejecting the idea of alternate worlds.

Many theories were once again raging in Shen Yuan’s head, though they remained unvoiced as they seemed like they were useless compared to Lu Qingtian’s soul reading abilities. Did his soul-reading really extend to such an extent that he knew everything? Was Lu Qingtian really that powerful?

Perhaps that was why, out of all the Peak Lords, Lu Qingtian was Luo Binghe’s first victim. Such a powerful ability surely could ruin his plans.

Unlike everyone else who had transmigrated, Shen Qingqiu did not believe any of Lu Qingtian’s words. He growled with a glare so fierce that not even daggers could compare to it. Every bone and muscle in his boy was forced to move gracefully as he reclined back in the chair like some sort of untouchable immortal master, which he actually was…Though perhaps immortality was still a wish far out of reach. Only those who ascended could truly ever be immortal although not even there was it guaranteed considering that Lu Qingtian’s words about the Heavens giving up their status.

“That is simply foolish. Why would the Heavens dare to bow down to a beast such as him?”

“That is a question that this useless shidi cannot answer. No one can truly understand the ways of the Heavens. Ah, but this shidi must mention that their control over everything is slipping. Forgive me Luo-shizhi, but you are not in favour of the Heavens anymore. No one is, from what this one sees,” Lu Qingtian explained as he went back to his own seat, the adrenaline he had been feeling slowly washing off after performing his duties.

“Brother, stop apologising to a demon such as he. Have we all forgotten that Luo-shizhi is a demon?! This one is more interested as to why the Heavens favour a demon?! And will Shen-shixiong explain to us why he harboured a demon on his peak?!” Lu Qingmei suddenly said, her vexed voice echoing through the room. Luo Binghe flashed a terrifying smile at her, utterly handsome but deadly. Before Lu Qingmei could bite back and dig her own grave further, Xie Qingxian grabbed her shoulder.

“Please calm down, Shijie. Shixiong will explain everything to us, right?”

“Right. Not even this master knew that he harboured a demon until the Immortal Alliance Conference. I pushed him into the abyss as a way to kill him and to save the sect, as only beasts thrive down there. It’s an oversight on my part; he is a beast and yet I still threw him down there.”

“Is it not strange that you’ve never realised that he is a demon, though? No matter how powerful of a demon he is, no demon is able to completely hide his own heritage.” Wei Qingwei asked.

“Wei-shishu, you are not blind. You can see for yourself that I am, quite literally, a half-demon. This one’s demonic heritage had been sealed, so obviously, only the human side would show. I did not know that I was half-demon myself, until after the demonic siege seven years ago,” Luo Binghe explained calmly like Wei Qingwei was some sort of stupid child.

“A-Luo, was it during the dream that you found out?” even though present-disciples were meant to be silent unless spoken to, Ning Yingying still asked. Almost everyone’s eyes turned towards her before turning back to Luo Binghe in puzzlement. Without any questions being asked, Luo Binghe instantly answered, “Yes, it was when you were sent into the even deeper dream, Ning-shijie.”

The silence that followed after was harsh, as the majority of the Peak Lords juggled this revelation inside their heads. Shen Yuan’s eyes gazed over at Luo Binghe, and was a little taken aback when he saw that Luo Binghe was staring back at him too. He quickly looked away. Boredom was slowing rising inside his chest like an unclear fog, the lack of stimulation led to Shen Yuan’s leg bouncing by itself. His attention was captured again when Mu Qingfang spoke.

“Right…is this master the only one who is interesting in knowing who Luo-shizhi’s parents are? Demons coupling with humans is not unheard of, but pregnancy between the two is not a rare occurrence, and most pregnancies lead to the termination of the foetus. Considering that Luo-shizhi is half heavenly-demon…”

“This one may have an idea of who his parents are.” Shen Yuan’s eyes widened in surprise as his eyes shifted to look at Yue Qingyuan. Since Luo Binghe’s familial origins had never been once stated, Shen Yuan was curiously surprised. He wished to know who Yue Qingyuan thought his parents were.

“More than two decades ago, Su Xiyan, the head disciple of Huan Hua Palace was tasked to spy on Tianlang-Jun. He was a heavenly-demon with the entire demon realm under his thumb; he was their emperor. Tianlang-Jun had frequently visited the human realm and the Four Great Sects had all agreed that he was up to something evil. For a couple months, we had no news until the Old Palace Master demanded a meeting to inform us of a plan to exterminate Tianlang-Jun, as Su Xiyan had been proclaimed dead. Her death was blamed on Tianlang-Jun. Yet seeing that Luo-shizhi is here and alive, and how similar he looks to both of them, this one is inclined to believe that the Old Palace Master lied to us.”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise if he did. Have you not head of the rumours surrounding him as an overly demon-hating lecher who uses his status to prey on women? According to the rumours, he takes demon hunting too far, going as far as to harming innocent demons. Perhaps he killed Su Xiyan after finding out that she coupled with Tianlang-Jun, for being tainted by demons,” Qi Qingqi spouted in disdain.

“Perhaps Shang-shixiong could tell us the truth? Shixiong knows the truth, right? Did the Old Palace Master really lie? Is this why the Huan Hua territory is off-limits for explorers such as myself?” Xie Qingxian asked.

Before Shang Qinghua could response, Luo Binghe snarled, “what matters of my birthing parents? They had not once been present in my life, they had no ties in my upbringing. I’ve only had one person I consider my mother in my life. This is a waste of time.”

“Perhaps it is useless, but we could hold a trial if we can prove these rumours against the Old Palace Master are true. No one deserves to be in power if they use it to abuse the vulnerable. Shang-shixiong! The truth. Now.”

Shang Qinghua gulped.

“Right, right! Well said Qi-shimei. So, Yue-shixiong is indeed right. Su Xiyan and Tianlang-Jun are indeed the parents of Luo-shizhi. Originally, the Old Palace Master really did want her to just investigate. During her investigations, Su Xiyan found that Tianlang-Jun was simply indulging himself in human arts since our culture is more diverse and interesting. She accidently fell in love with him, but Tianlang-Jun actually loved her first. They both believed that it would do good to both the human realm and demon realm if they married so Su Xiyan went to the Old Palace Master and asked him for his blessings. He did not like this development so…

…He imprisoned her and, fed her poison when he found her to be pregnant, in order to terminate the baby. Meanwhile, he had also formulated a plan to drag Tianlang-Jun out to Bailu Mountain by pretending to be Su Xiyan, where he would be sealed. Su Xiyan absorbed the poison in order for the baby in her womb to not die, managed to escape the prison and tried to go to Bailu Mountain to stop everyone from sealing Tianlang-Jun. Alas, her body forced her to give birth near Luo river. Abbot Wu Chen from Zhao Hua Temple had been a witness and a helper during her giving birth. He is the only person, apart from myself, who knows the full truth.

The Old Palace Master does not prey on vulnerable women, Qi-Shimei, though I understand your wariness towards him. He is gross and he did have an…attraction to Su Xiyan. He was possessive over her and wished her to be his. I don’t blame her for not wanting him back, the old guy is hundreds of years older than her. His hatred towards demons mostly bloomed because of this. If it hadn’t been for Tianlang-Jun appearing in the human realm, Su Xiyan would have still been alive and under his gross hands.”

It was no wonder why the Old Palace Master had easily bent under Luo Binghe, he probably realised that he was Su Xiyan’s son. In order to still have some sort of connection with her, he forced his own granddaughter to marry him despite her previous romantic interest towards Gongyi Xiao.

The truth led to everyone feeling flabbergasted. Even Shen Yuan’s siblings, who had never cared for Proud Immortal Demon Way, reacted quite gravely. His meimei started choking on her own spit, her eyebrows raised to her hairline in disgust. His er-ge bristled in his seat, lips turned into a sneer whereas Shen Chun grasped his mouth with widened muddy eyes.

Luo Binghe shuddered in disgust too, his face scrunched up in what looked like pain. Pity was all Shen Yuan could feel for him at the moment. Poor protagonist must have felt so angry at the fact that his birth mother had been taken advantage of by the Old Palace Master, who had welcomed him oh so warmly into Huan Hua Palace. He must have felt so angry that his father had been unrightfully sealed just because of a singular man’s disgusting attraction towards his own disciple.

Luo Binghe really was a tragic character and he deserved so much better.

“Zhangmen-shixiong, considering what we have just learnt, what shall we do now? Justice should be served yet shall we really collude with demons?” the peak Lord of Ku Xing Peak, Zheng Qingjing, asked. His hands were still fiddling with the beads as they rolled under the tips of his fingers.

“That is a fair question Qingjing-shidi. Demons are typically the violent ones against us yet in this scenario, it was us cultivation sects that were unjustly violent. We shall discuss this in the next Peak Lord Meeting where only us Peak Lords will be present. Perhaps Luo-shizhi can join us too, since this certainly affects him. What this one definitely wishes to discuss most however is our future relationship with the demon realm considering what we have just learnt. Our realms had almost been tied together in peace if it had not been for Lao Gongzhu. Perhaps something can be arranged, but that may also be impossible. The demon realm is still in unrest after Tianlang-Jun’s detainment.”

“Yue-shibo, do you wish to arrange something because this filial disciple might be able to help.”

“What could a half-breed like you possible arrange?” Lu Qingmei yelled and Shen Yuan could feel himself get angry at the older Lu twin. From the brief paragraphs Shen Yuan read on her, she had been a character who was led by her emotions easily; her primary emotion being anger like his er-ge. It was usually Xie Qingxian or Zheng Qingjing who’d calm her down, like they were both during at the moment. Because she had been so similar to his er-ge in that regard, Shen Yuan thought he could tolerate her. It was funny though, just how much of a lie that was; her anger compared with his er-ge’s were different in their own ways.

Xie Qingxian was squeezing her shijie’s hand while Zheng Qingjing repeated “calm yourself.”

Lu Qingmei alongside Shen Qingqiu, Lu Qingge and Qi Qingqi were in rage. The first three were understandable, they were often depicted as rage-filled characters, but Qi Qingqi’s anger was strange. Her detest for Shen Qingqiu was the only thing that made her violent, and her hostility was understandable. The rumours of him preying on young women did not bode with her well, considering she was raising a peek of only women. Compared to them, the rest of the Peak Lords were extremely calm characters. Even the original Shang Qinghua had been calm, unlike Airplane-bro he hadn’t really been a coward. The original Shang Qinghua had been a cunning deceitful man, who was fearful, but his fears did not stop him.

“If you really wish to know, Lu-Shigu, the demon real isn’t as much in unrest as you think. While the realm is still not reunited fully, there has been a massive improvement especially since this disciple became its Junshang. This Lord was in fact considering negotiating with you, but now he has lost interest,” the fact that Luo Binghe hadn’t done much worse was surprising to Shen Yuan. His character progression was shining through like a golden starlight during the dark twilight, as cliché as that sounded.

“Luo-shizhi…let us discuss these matters later as they, too, are quite private. Moving onwards, this one wishes to go back onto the topic of the…system, you called it? And of the other world. Just what exactly happened? Why did everything revert back, save for the deaths of our disciples and any injuries sustained, after Luo Binghe used Xin Mo to close the rift?”

The questions he asked, even though they were technically all directed towards the six transmigrators, could only be answered by the four Shen siblings. Sure, Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu could answer the questions regarding the system much better than the system-less Shen siblings, but they did not know what truly happened. Not even the Shen siblings themselves knew the full truth, they all just had theories; Shen Yuan and Shen Mei had already expressed their own personal theories with each other before sky had been heavy with pouring stone. There was no guarantee that their theories were right however.

Before any of the transmigrators could speak, Lu Qingmei asked a question with a scowl on her face. Despite her young appearance, she looked like an elderly woman with all the furious wrinkles decorating her face.

“How about the four that proclaim themselves to be Shen-shixiong’s siblings from his past life introduce themselves? We still do not know their names, do we?! How about they tell us how they transported into this world?! Were they the cause for all this damage?!”

“Lu-shimei…” Shen Qingqiu started, but he trailed off as he was interrupted by Shen Chun who said, “Apologies for the rudeness. We are indeed Qiu-di’s siblings. This one is Shen Chun, Qiu-di and I were twins in the past. It seems like time flies past faster here though and he was birthed by another mother here, so we aren’t twins anymore.”

“This one is Shen Mei! Qiu-ge died before I was born so my first time meeting him was in this world. I already see him like a big brother though!”

A bit passed…When he saw that Shen Tiao was planning on introducing himself last, Shen Yuan mentally sighed.

“This one’s name is Shen Yuan. I also did not meet Qiu-ge before we were transported here, and unlike my meimei I do not see him like a big brother.”

“You wound me, Yuan-di.”

“I don’t really care.”

“Ignore them, they’re stupid,” flabbergasted, Shen Yuan stared wide-eyed at Shen Tiao who sneakily flashed him a playful smirk. It had been a while since Shen Yuan had been playfully insulted by Shen Tiao, considering everything they had to go through, so a small part of him was feeling mildly annoyed, he much preferred not getting insulted. The rest of him though was feeling a deep fondness; he missed his Tiao-ge and his usual antics. Overall, his Tiao-ge seemed so much happier now…

Shen Tiao continued speaking, “I am Shen Tiao. That is all you need to know.”

“That is not all we need to know. Tell us how you got into our world, tell us if the death of our disciples were you fault,” Lu Qingmei bit back. Xie Qingxian smiled awkwardly, still trying her best to calm her shijie down.

“Shen Qingqiu died and got transported here. Shang Qinghua died and got transported here. How do you think we got transported here, eh? Or are you that stupid that you can’t even figure it out?” Shen Tiao retorted.

That seemed to completely set her off. The table shook as Lu Qingmei flung half of herself over it, her hands reaching out to strangle Shen Tiao. Before she could touch him however, Shen Chun had already yanked Shen Tiao’s seat backwards so she had completely missed him by a couple centimetres. Xie Qingxian pulled Lu Qingmei onto her lap and started to coax her, all whilst securing an arm around her waist to try and hold her back from launching herself again. Since Xie Qingxian was an explorer, and thus had to be strong due to the amount of fights she faced in the wild, she was able to subdue her really easily.

Lu Qingmei was not the only one who was angry anymore, however. After seeing Shen Tiao almost get attacked, Sha Hualing had fury scratching at her skin. She pulled his seat backwards once Shen Chun let go, and then proceeded to stand in front of him, blocking half of his view. If anyone wanted to harm Shen Tiao, they’d have to go through her first. Shen Tiao, despite having his vision obstructed, did not complain and instead only snickered in mild annoyance.

Feeling like Shen Tiao had made a right decision by taking Sha Hualing as his partner despite originally having been kind of against it, Shen Yuan relaxed back into his own seat. He would be safe under her protective watch.

“Qingmei-shimei, control yourself,” Yue Qingyuan stated. His commanding words worked wonders as Lu Qingmei huffed once more before relenting. She sunk back onto Xie Qingxian, shamelessly sitting on her lap while the latter tucked a loose hair strand behind Lu Qingmei’s small ears.

“Apologies on shimei’s behalf. Now, could you please tell us what happened?”

“Of course,” Shen Mei said before anyone else could, “I’m not sure about the rest of my brothers, but Yuan-ge and I do have a theory. I’m pretty sure you heard our theory, sect leader. We speculated a bit after yuan-ge had arrived. I don’t think anyone of us actually knows what really happened, so we can only rely on theories. Shang-ge and Qiu-ge can tell you on the system though, since we four did not have one unlike them.”

“Indeed I remember your speculations, though I did not understand most of the things you said. Then, can Qingqiu-shidi or Qinghua-shidi explain the system to us?”

Shen Qingqiu answered, “The system was an interesting entity that only I could see, and this master is assuming that Shang-shidi could see his own system only. It forced me to do things, some of which I did not wish to do, in order to complete the ‘story’. If I didn’t listen to it, I’d get brutally tortured and if I dared to speak of its existence, it would threaten to send me back to my old world where I was a corpse. Two full moons ago, my system started to not function properly and now, here I am, free from its tyrannical hold.”

“My situation was the same as Shen-shixiong. I did not know Shen-shixiong was like me until recently! But, yeah, this shidi did not mean to betray you by colluding with demons, I was quite literally forced into doing so.” 

“Right, that is something else we need to discuss, right Zhangmen-shixiong? Our Shang-shixiong is a traitor!”

Even though Shang Qinghua self-deprecatingly swore under his breath, Shen Yuan still managed to catch wind of it. He peeked over at him. The sweat beads and paper-pale skin were enough of a sign that Shang Qinghua was starting to panic and the ominous figure of Mobei-Jun behind him probably wasn’t helping. Shen Yuan lightly poked Shang Qinghua’s leg with his own leg, gaining his notice. As much as he typically wished to strangle him, Shen Yuan decided to be kind for once. He offered a reassuring smile which made Shang Qinghua calm slightly and nervously beam back.

“I mean, if he was bound by the system to betray you then you can’t really blame him, can you? Perhaps, I should stay quiet on this affair though since I’m not a Peak Lord and I don’t really understand how you work,” Shen Mei inputted.

While it did lower the defences of the Peak Lords, it ultimately brought up the defences of Mobei-Jun. Like a cat, he glared at everyone at the room then turned away. His arms were crossed over his chest and his lips were curled into a frown. It seemed like he did not like the idea that Shang Qinghua betraying them was not by choice.

“As my meimei has said, perhaps this is a matter that is best dealt privately by you, the Peak Lords. In fact, I’m hoping that we can talk about our theories for what happened now? I don’t have any theories of my own, but I do wish to know your theories, meimei and Yuan-di,” the eldest of the Shen siblings calmly expressed. His gentle demeanour soothed everyone down a tad further, thus they could finally discuss the shadow.

“Mn! The world started to tear apart because of a shadow monster. This is something we’re certain of. It started haunting us after we arrived in this world. At first, it was satisfied with destroying one thing and then it used to leave, but the more time passed, the more violent it became. It attacked us, it almost murdered Tiao-ge, it transported us in different locations thus separating us. Yuan-ge’s theory was that the system and the shadow are the same being or are, at least, related to each other. The shadow only appeared after we arrived in this world, without a system. It probably deduced that our presence was ‘harming’ this world because we were not meant to be here. I do agree with Yuan-ge’s theory but I think our presence changed the story of the novel this world is based on, which is actually why the shadow went after us specifically. In fact, the story did change from the original, right san-ge?”

“Obviously, The fact that six people were transported into this world from another world is already a big change.”

“See?! Because it couldn’t get rid of us, the shadow and the system perhaps combined together. When they saw that they still couldn’t get rid of us, maybe they opted to just destroy the two worlds at once since it’s easier.” Shen Mei concluded. Her fingernails had, at some point, started to drum against the wooden table. Each of her finger bounced with a rhythm, a rhythm that was stopped as soon as she finished speaking.

“I can see where you are coming from, but I think there is more to it,” Shen Tiao said unexpectedly, “we basically needed to be destroyed because the world was too affected by us, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And after a while, they simply decided to wipe out the two worlds, right?”

“Mn.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, because it’s easier, I guess?”

 “…You don’t know it meimei because both the system and the shadow are otherworldly. They’re from the Heavens, right?” Shen Yuan mumbled. Shen Tiao smiled at him, his gaze soft while Shen Chun nodded along before a creased formed between his eyebrows.

“Are they really otherworldly though? It makes sense that you think they are since they appear to be so powerful, but I don’t think they’re really affiliated with the Heavens.”

“Huh? Why do you say that da-ge?”

“Simple, Yuan-di. Why did the system malfunction when we appeared? If the Heavens were in control of it, it wouldn’t malfunction. Instead, it’s more likely that it would order either Qiu-di or Shang Qinghua to kill us.”

“You two are going off track,” Shen Tiao knocked his knuckles on the table once, “That was not what I was referring to at all, though both of you do bring up a valid point. The destruction caused by the shadow and the cycle of the reincarnations of Qiu-ge and Shang Qinghua are linked together, is what I’m trying to point at.”

“Oh…oh, Er-ge…you don’t mean.”

“I do mean that.”

Shen Yuan was confused as he saw the ever increasing bewildered look on his meimei’s face. Everyone else quickly understood what they meant too, even the drunken Wang Qingming, except for Shen Yuan.

“It wouldn’t matter if the world was destroyed because it could always be rebuilt back, right? The same could be said for the modern world too…”

“Exactly.”

Oh. But that only further complicated things, didn’t it? Shen Yuan mentally scratched at his head in deep thought. His da-ge had been right to rebuke his theory. It made no sense for the system to be from the Heavens, only to break so easily. Perhaps it instead exerted all of its power to try and destroy the worlds, but maybe it ended up fading away in the process? Did that mean that the shadow was really related to the system? Or was the shadow an entirely different entity? What if…

“What if the system isn’t part of the Heavens but is some other otherworldly existence that is perhaps managing this world without the Heavens noticing? Could it be, it disappeared not because of us, but because of the shadow? In order to eliminate us, the Heavens brought down the shadow to scope us out and kill us. What if it detected the parasite-like systems too and destroyed them?”

“Seems like we’re on the same wavelength. Really, it’s similar to the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The best possible outcome would have been that the Heavens would have not detected either us nor the system. They detected us both, so we were meant to face the world possible outcome. By chance however, we ended avoiding it and instead only the systems got the worst outcome,” Shen Tiao explained, though everything went over Shen Yuan’s head. He had no idea what the Prisoner’s Dilemma was and he wasn’t that interested in asking.

Luckily it seemed like everyone else was fine with remaining ignorant too, since no one bothered asking him to explain. Except for Shen Mei, it seemed like she knew what it was given how her face scrunched up in distaste.

“Alright, so, the system is not part of the Heavens but the shadow is? How can we be sure that it’s not the other way round? The Heavens are losing their control right? How can we be sure that the Heavens had a hand in this, anyway? Sure they messed with their reincarnations, but it’s possible that they didn’t do anything else, that the system and shadow are separate from it.”

“Now you’re just complicating things on purpose, da-ge!”

“I’m not, meimei. I’m just as curious as an old man is allowed to be.”

“I’m pretty sure old men can be infinitely curious like children…Anyway, I don’t think that Lu xiansheng’s readings can see any of this so we have nothing to confirm this,” Shen Mei muttered out as her eyebrows furrowed in thought and her lips jutted out into a pout.

“Right, but why would the shadow suddenly stop when it was so close to killing us?”

“Da-ge…”

“What? Stop looking at me like that, you’re creeping me out.”

“…It’s obvious. Lu-shidi mentioned that the Heavens bow down to Luo Binghe. He resisted against it, so the Heavens drew back,” Shen Qingqiu suddenly spoke, reminding the our siblings that there were others present in their conversation. The four of them had been so lost in their little world, that they had totally forgotten about everyone else. 

“Wait wait wait! I’m a little confused. So, based on what you’re saying, the system is another powerful entity, separate from the Heavens, and it was working illegally? The shadow killed it and then tried to kill us all because the worlds can simply reincarnate back?” Shang Qinghua exclaimed in confusion.

“Yes, that is basically what I said,” Shen Tiao responded.

“What if the system brought us here?”

“Meimei…”

“You were asking stupid question earlier, let me ask my stupid questions, da-ge.”

Shen Yuan shook his head, realising that his meimei’s question didn’t make sense. His da-ge’s questions had some logic behind them to some extent, but his meimei’s? There was no way the system brought them to this world only to glitch out from existence.

“We didn’t have a system though, so that kind of makes no sense.”

“Yuan-di is correct but it still is a possibility. Did the system ever have an incentive to change the story or did it want to follow Proud Immortal Demon Way down to a dot?”

“It was lenient, it allowed us to save Liu-shidi for example,” Shang Qinghua answered

“If it wanted to change the course of the story more, but didn’t want to use the already-transmigrated group or the rest of the cast, then it would have to bring more people from outside. It’s possible that the system did bring us here, as I highly doubt fate just decided to drop us here of all places.”

Their transmigration, despite the brief mention of it, was left undiscussed. The Peak Lords added their own ideas to the pile of theories, yet Shen Tiao’s remained the most logical. It made the most sense. That didn’t deter anyone from pouring out their own ideas and so, the meeting was adjourned a sichen later. There was much more that had to be discussed, but the few discussions left did not involve the Shen siblings, the demons or the present-disciples (except for Luo Binghe, if he could still be counted as a disciple at this point).

Despite a headache thrumming heavily inside his skull due to all the words that had been spoken, Shen Yuan still felt a sense of giddiness when he was finally freed.  

Shen Yuan bounced on his feet in happiness when the meeting ended. The lack of stimulation during the meeting had been one of the worst things he had to experience. His concentration had slipped at certain times though his attention was usually captured again when his siblings or Luo Binghe spoke.

Unlike Shen Yuan, who wished to go back to the dormitories in order to settle down and spend the rest of the day reading, all of his siblings seemed to have gained a social boost. Shen Mei left with Ning Yingying and Ming Fan, while Shen Tiao disappeared off somewhere with Sha Hualing. Shen Chun was apparently still needed at Qian Cao Peak, so he left with Mu Qingfang. Shen Qingqiu seemed to have vanished in thin air as well, and Shang Qinghua escaped back to his Peak with Mobei-Jun following after him. The only person that could accompany Shen Yuan back to the dormitories was Luo Binghe, but Shen Yuan highly doubted the protagonist would care for him. He would probably go off to seduce Liu Mingyan, Ning Yingying or any other female disciples that were meant to end up in his harem.

So, colour him surprised when Luo Binghe actually joined him to go back to the dormitories. Going through paths and onto the rainbow bridge connecting the peaks, their walk was silent. The silence between them was not tense or awkward.  It was, quite frankly, extremely peaceful…until their hands brushed against each other and Shen Yuan felt the weight of the world crashing down on him.

Was is strange that he wished to experience walking with Luo Binghe everyday?

Was it strange that he wanted them to intertwine their hands together, so badly that it hurt?

Was it strange that the warm tender turmoil bubbling inside his chest was finally making sense?

Unaware of his internal struggles, Luo Binghe let his eyes fall on Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan felt his stare, making him shudder. He liked it, he really liked the way Luo Binghe was looking at only him. But no, he was the stallion protagonist, Shen Yuan had no chance…

Luo Binghe grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers together. It was like he read Shen Yuan’s mind. His hand, hardened by battles, was soft to touch. His claw-like nails were careful to not bruise or scar the brittle skin of Shen Yuan’s hands. The warmth emitting from Luo Binghe’s hand sent jolt of pleasure right through Shen Yuan’s soul.

Right…Even though Shen Yuan had admitted to himself that he saw Luo Binghe as more than just a novel character, he still couldn’t help but fall back to his old ways. Luo Binghe wasn’t just a protagonist anymore though, he was an actual being with the chance to grow and change. In fact, he had already grown so much from the first time they met. There was still more than enough time for him to grow even further.

Perhaps…there was a chance for something between them to bloom. But for now, Shen Yuan would blissfully indulge himself in these moments with Luo Binghe.

Chapter Text

A couple days slowly passed by like a butterfly unfurling inside a cocoon. The five siblings and a certain scorned disciple continued living on Qing Jing Peak instead of returning back to where they originally lived. The Shen brothers and Luo Binghe were stuck together in a singular room in the male dormitories, and the only Shen sister was stuck in the female dormitories. It wasn’t the best arrangement really, since none of them were disciples (excluding Luo Binghe, but Shen Qingqiu refused to see him as one so it didn’t really count), but their living arrangements weren’t really that significant compared to the other important matters that everyone had to deal with.

Shen Qingqiu did promise them that he’d commission for another bamboo house to be built on his peak. Even if they were to go back to their little abode near Illusion village, they’d have a permanent residence at his peak. Of course, there would be a lot of processes to go through especially since the Shen siblings weren’t officially part of Cang Qiong Mountain, but Shen Qingqiu said that he’d deal with everything himself.

Despite Shen Qingqiu’s dire relationships with the rest of the Peak Lords, the Peak Lords enjoyed the presence of his siblings. They, especially Qi Qingqi, found out how wrong they had been for judging the siblings based on their familial ties. Like Shen Qingqiu, they had weaknesses but unlike Shen Qingqiu, they had strengths too. On the other hand, Luo Binghe was not as lucky. The Peak Lords did not seek him out perse, but some of Qing Jing’s disciples did. Some of them…well they weren’t too thrilled by his presence.

The siblings, and Luo Binghe, fell into a routine of sorts. Shen Yuan wasn’t sure what his meimei did throughout the day; she spent a lot of it outside, hanging out with this person and that person. His er-ge also became more sociable, his poor mental health and low self-esteem evidently improving as more time passed. Unlike Shen Mei, he typically spent his days with only a set group of people; Sha Hualing, Shen Qingqiu and sometimes even with Liu Qingge. The two duelled each other a lot, and quite obviously Liu Qingge won each time.

Meanwhile Shen Chun found an unofficial job at Qian Cao Peak. He went there daily to help Mu Qingfang and thus developed a deep friendship with him. At night, Shen Chun did not drop his hobby of researching the many herbs found in this world. He was also still very interested in trying to recreate modern medicine, though he had little to no success. After finishing his research for the day, Shen Chun would write a letter to Cai Hongloi. He had somehow managed to find a way to contact the sect leader of Huohe sect and now, the two of them were exchanging letters on a daily basis. The poor messenger owl that delivered their letters appeared every night with a letter from Cai Hongloi, only for it to be sent back once Shen Chun read it and composed his reply.

Shen Yuan was perhaps the only one who basically wasted the day away. Don’t get him wrong, he wanted to do something useful such as finding that one particular group of Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths and taking care of them, but that was a little impossible when his overprotective siblings loomed over him like a shadow, especially since they had barely survived the shadow. Instead, Shen Yuan spent his days mostly cooped up in the dormitory room, completely hyper focused on a book. A couple of times he was dragged outside by his siblings, excluding Shen Chun but surprisingly including Shen Qingqiu, as they forced him to take a walk around the peak and socialise with them or the disciples.

Despite often isolating himself in the dormitory, Shen Yuan was never really by himself. Most of the time, Luo Binghe stuck to him like a guard dog, silent and imposing. The only time he left Shen Yuan alone was when he had to attend meetings with Yue Qingyuan regarding many matters that Shen Yuan was not privy to, although he did have an idea of what they were; such as the Old Palace Master and human-demon relations. Those meetings usually lasted for a sichen or two however, so for most of the day, Shen Yuan had the heavenly demon’s gaze all to himself.

There had been once where he disappeared for almost an entire day. At first, Shen Yuan didn’t know why. He only figured out the reason a day later, as whilst Luo Binghe was in a meeting with Yue Qingyuan, Shen Tiao decided to drag Shen Yuan outside. Sha Hualing followed behind and, at some point, spilled Luo Binghe’s secret.

Luo Binghe had decided to abolish his mini-harem. Somehow, he managed to bypass the Old Palace Master’s radar and completely broke off his marriages with the Little Palace Mistress, Qin Wanyue and Qin Wanrong. He even told Sha Hualing that he did not desire her anymore and would not need her for Xin Mo either, as he was apparently planning to dispose of the sword soon. Surprisingly, Sha Hualing did not mind as she was more interested in spending time with Shen Tiao anyhow.

For whatever reason, Luo Binghe’s stickiness only increased from then.

He wasn’t sure why Luo Binghe kept following him around. Even if he had a change of heart and didn’t feel like seducing a pretty fair-jaded maiden anymore, Luo Binghe didn’t have to stick around boring old Shen Yuan. His days were bland! There was no spice to them, apart for the occasional walk and even then, there was nothing mind-blowing about that. They were just simple walks around Qing Jing Peak. The two men didn’t speak much anyway, since Shen Yuan often would get lost inside pages full of enticing words.

Thus, Shen Yuan was confused when after a week, Luo Binghe still watched Shen Yuan while he read. Shen Yuan couldn’t focus on the book in his hands, not only was the literature so boring that it didn’t even rile up in anger, but also because of Luo Binghe’s heated stare. With slightly shaking hands, Shen Yuan put the book down and turned to meet Luo Binghe’s eyes, only to break the eye contact as prickling nerves got the best of him. His prickling nerves, however, did nothing to stop the curiosity swishing inside his stomach.

“Lord Luo, this one – ”

“After everything we’ve been through, you are still calling this one Lord?”

Well, that was not what Shen Yuan expected for him to say, but unpredicted responses would not stop him from asking…

“You are the emperor of the demon realm and this one highly respects that, so I must call you Lord Luo.”

“Nonsense. An emperor’s important person has no need to refer the emperor as such. To the people, an emperor’s important person is of the same status as the emperor. Of course, Shen Yuan may continue to call me Lord Luo if he wishes to, but this one would much prefer a more familiar name. You called this one Binghe once. You may call me that if you wish.”

An emperor’s important person was definitely never on the same status as the emperor himself, but Shen Yuan wasn’t in the mood to rebuke him.

“Right, I see …Then is this one Lor-…Is this one Binghe’s important person?”

“Of course, why would Shen Yuan not be my important person? After spending so much time with you, naturally I’d grow fond of you. There is more to you than meets the eye. You know almost everything about this one’s entire life, and I wish to share this sentiment back. I wish to know everything about Shen Yuan and his life.”

The heat that rose on Shen Yuan’s face made him want to squirm away and hide. He knew that the blush painting his cheeks pink was visible, and he hated that Luo Binghe could see it. It was embarrassing to be on display, and yet, Luo Binghe’s lips curled into the sweetest smile that made Shen Yuan melt on the spot. Seeing his beautiful grin that encompassed all of his feelings, Shen Yuan felt his embarrassment flicker away.

They stayed silent for a couple of moments, Shen Yuan’s brain still in the process of catching up as Luo Binghe simply continued to stare. If it had been anyone else, Shen Yuan would have labelled them a creep.

“Apologies, this one went off track. A-Yuan wished to ask me something, right?”

Shen Yuan didn’t think that it would be possible for his face to warm up even further. Completely at a loss of words due to the sudden nickname, he stuttered out, “Ah, yes yes…Why…Why does Binghe keep…staying with this one? Wouldn’t he rather meet new people?”

“This Binghe has already answered A-Yuan’s question. You are my important person, and so, I wish to spend every second with you.”

“Right…” confused, flustered and red, Shen Yuan turned back to his book. The words jumped out from the papers, jumbling around and creating chaos all over. Shen Yuan couldn’t focus on any of the words, each letter looking blurred and smudged.

Either due to Shen Yuan’s lack of a proper response or perhaps due to the suffocating silence, Luo Binghe got up from where he was sitting and strode over to Shen Yuan. Suddenly, there was a giant weight pinning Shen Yuan down to the floor. He arched his back in surprise and looked up. The book was dropped onto the floor, completely forgotten in the heat of the moment as a pair of hands gently held Shen Yuan’s wrists above his head. The hold was not strong; it was so weak that Shen Yuan could easily break out from it. He didn’t however, his brain too slow to process what was happening.

There was a faint touch against his lips as Luo Binghe brushed his own lips against Shen Yuan’s. It couldn’t even be considered a kiss as it only lasted a bit more than a second, yet Shen Yuan still fell limp underneath it. Luo Binghe was lying on top of him, his fingers slowly gliding over Shen Yuan’s palm before interlocking their hands together. Shen Yuan’s hazel eyes met Luo Binghe’s own brown eyes.

It felt like he was looking through a window that led to Luo Binghe’s inner soul; the soul of a white lotus who had finally found his happiness, after living an entire life of angry misery.

Every touch that glided along Shen Yuan’s skin was gentle. Even Luo Binghe’s own weight felt more like a blanket rather than a person. With just a single weak push, Shen Yuan could free himself from Luo Binghe’s grip, but he didn’t try escaping it. He felt safe underneath Luo Binghe…

…Then a thought flashed through his mind as he finally released what had just occurred.

Luo Binghe…had kissed him.

The super hetero protagonist, who was meant to have a harem over 600 feminine beauties, had just kissed the most average-looking guy to exist.

Somehow, Shen Yuan had managed to bend Luo Binghe over to the other side without even meaning to. As much as Shen Yuan didn’t want to admit it, even though it was probably quite obvious to everyone else, he had garnered some non-platonic feelings for Luo Binghe. After all, who wouldn’t? Not only was Luo Binghe created to be perfect, but Shen Yuan had genuinely bonded with him and felt a deep connection with him.

And this perfect man…Well, the kiss meant he reciprocated Shen Yuan’s feelings, right? Shen Yuan hoped it did, at least. Perhaps it was meant to be a platonic kiss…No, it couldn’t be. As oblivious as Shen Yuan could be, he wasn’t that oblivious. No one would push down a friend, climb over them and hold them gently, faintly kiss their lips and then proceed to call it platonic.

Other than their deep breathing, the room was silent. Being so close to him, Shen Yuan inhaled Luo Binghe’s scent. He smelled of honey and paper; an interesting combination that made Shen Yuan press closer to him. The lack of resistance, and the obvious reciprocation, made Luo Binghe gleam. Then, with slight hesitance, he pressed their lips together again. Once more, it was just a faint brush of lips but it lasted a little longer. When they parted, one of Luo Binghe’s hands released Shen Yuan’s own as he brought it down to caress his cheek. Shen Yuan shuddered at the light touch. It was warm and made him feel pleasant all around.

“A-Yuan…this one…I wish to court you.”

The little sense that sparked inside Shen Yuan’s brain dissipated, rendering him utterly surprised. It was one thing speculating about someone’s feelings towards him and it was another thing being confessed to, even if the confession was said at just the right time. Plus, who could blame Shen Yuan for his sudden flustered internal turmoil? The most perfect man in the world, who had some flaws but was otherwise super amazing and was also the most handsome man to walk through the lands, had just asked him out. Him, who probably was not even worth a single coin.

“A-Yuan? Won’t you respond to me?”

Shen Yuan wanted to respond back, but how could he? His luck had somehow shifted and so, he ended up scoring a man with the perfect curls to glide his fingers through, with the most beautiful eyes that could easily be compared to the vast universe, with the softest hands despite the many calluses that should have ruined its touch, with the –

“A-Yuan? Are you alright?”

“…”

“…A-Yuan?”

Not being able to get words out of his throat, Shen Yuan threw his shame out of a metaphorical window. He broke free from Luo Binghe’s weak grasp, swung his arms around his neck and pressed their lips together once more. Since he was not adept at kissing, it wasn’t a very good kiss. Their teeth clashed together harshly, but unlike their previous pecks, this kiss had more enthusiasm. At first, Luo Binghe had been taken aback but he quickly adapted and kissed back, guiding their kiss into becoming softer yet still very wet.

After a couple of seconds, they broke away from the kiss. They lost themselves staring at each other’s eyes, until the paper door suddenly was swung open. There was not enough time for embarrassment to seep in at being seen in such a compromising position; Luo Binghe was attacked by his er-ge.

“You! Qiu-ge is right to call you a beast! How dare you molest my brother?!”

Luo Binghe did not react. He simply brushed Shen Tiao’s hold off like it was an annoying insect, then helped Shen Yuan to stand up. Two opposing forced stood in front of each other, with Shen Yuan stuck in the middle trying to find a way to placate his easily-angered brother. Behind Shen Tiao was Sha Hualing, her scrutiny fierce but curious.

“Er-ge, wait.”

“Shush Yuan-di, you don’t have to defend him just because you like him. The world may revolve around him but not even he is excused of touching others without consent.”

…That was not actually true. Though Luo Binghe had always respected women way more than men, he had sometimes forced himself onto a helpless maiden, who was usually struck by a sex pollen. He never faced any repercussions for it. This had made Shen Yuan quite uncomfortable, even though he always skimmed through the sex scenes. What made him most uncomfortable though was how much the fans defended it.

But this Luo Binghe standing next to him was not like the one who had his life written out to pinpoint accuracy. This Luo Binghe grew; he was still a little black lotus wanting of love, but he was getting grayer by the day.

“Er-ge listen to me, please…”

There had been so many misunderstandings already and Shen Yuan really didn’t want to cause another one.

“…Binghe and I have started courting and I was the one who kissed him first?” he phrased it more like a question rather than a statement, but it definitely got the point across. Shen Tiao’s face blanked, Sha Hualing let out a whistle and Luo Binghe toothily grinned in victory, his sharp canines coming into view. For the first time ever, Shen Yuan saw how Luo Binghe’s cheeks pinkened, and his heart swelled at the sight. He really got lucky, having such a beautiful future husband.

Oh.

Husband.

Shen Yuan had forgotten that he was in a xianxia setting, where the timeframe was messed up as different dynasties blended together, but there was one thing for certain…Courting typically led to marriage. Whereas dating didn’t always lead to marriage, courting always led to it unless one of the spouses died. 

Husband.

Shen Yuan really liked the sound of that. He’d never say it out loud but he really wanted to be Luo Binghe’s husband. His only husband, but ah, he wouldn’t mind if Luo Binghe did want a harem. It might be strange to him if he didn’t gather one; Shen Yuan completely forgetting the fact that Luo Binghe had just abolished his harem. He’d probably want to amass one again, and even though Shen Yuan would be sad if he did, he didn’t want Luo Binghe to feel chained to him either.

“Excuse me, what.”

“Oh my! Is this why you called our marriage off, Lord Luo?~ Ah, this Ling-er does not know if she should feel jealous or happy for you!”

“You heard him, Shen Tiao. A-Yuan is this one’s beloved and this one is A-Yuan’s beloved.”

Quite unexpectedly like some sort of dramatic and fragile person who had just received news of a death loved one, Shen Tiao fainted on the spot. Sha Hualing gasped in surprise while Shen Yuan panicked. He did not think of the possible effects it might have on his er-ge when he told him the truth, as truly he had either expected him to begrudgingly congratulate them or fight Luo Binghe. Not faint.

Luo Binghe, despite not liking Shen Tiao for a multitude of reasons, picked him and placed him gently on his bamboo bedding. The other two knelt on the ground, Sha Hualing brushing away the stray hairs that messily fell on Shen Tiao’s face while Shen Yuan held his clammy hand. With uncertain hands, he took his brother’s temperature and tried taking his pulse rate. His temperature was fine, but he couldn’t tell if his pulse rate was alright, mostly because he wasn’t sure if he was taking it correctly. Taking an animal’s pulse rate was different from taking a human’s. On Shen Tiao’s neck, he placed two fingers and after he felt the thrum of blood inside his veins, he started to count.

Perhaps the adrenaline of making sure his brother was well made Shen Yuan focus heavily on his task. He counted each beat; around 50 beats per minute. From the knowledge he had from working heavily with his da-ge, Shen Yuan suspected that that wasn’t normal. Wasn’t an average human’s typically around 70 beats per minute? That was bad if so, his brother had too low of a heart rate.

“Is my A-Tiao alright?”

Shen Yuan shook his head as he whispered, “I don’t think so. I can’t help him, I don’t know how to heal humans.”

“Do not worry, Shen Chun is on his way,” Luo Binghe interrupted. Shen Yuan looked back at him in surprise. “I used my blood parasites to send him a message. Do not worry, he did not get harmed by them.”

Shen Yuan had no idea how Luo Binghe had used his blood parasites as messengers; it was a use of them unstated in the web novel. Luckily though, they got the job done so Shen Yuan didn’t really care. Shen Chun came barging in not even a minute later. How his brother managed to cross between peaks in less than a minute was something that Shen Yuan decided to remain ignorant to.

Slowly approaching the unconscious body, Shen Chun shooed away everyone and then knelt down. Shen Yuan reluctantly got up and headed next to where Luo Binghe was standing. His…future husband grabbed his hand and reassuringly rubbed circles on his knuckles. Shen Yuan shot him a smile, but he missed the blush that adorned Luo Binghe’s face again.

Stubborn like a spoilt demoness, which she was, Sha Hualing refused to move at first. It only took a little coaxing from Shen Chun, however, to get her to move away. Finally having the enough space to work in, Shen Chun first checked whether or not he was breathing and then, he checked his pulse. He nodded to himself, before moving onwards to change Shen Tiao’s laying position. Gently, Shen Chun extended out Shen Tiao’s arm palm-up then he grabbed his other arm and positioned it in a way that could act like a cushion.

“What is your brother doing?” Luo Binghe asked. Shen Yuan shook his head.

He wasn’t sure what his da-ge was exactly doing; he saw how his brother held the arm in place as he managed to pull up the closest leg. Grabbing him by the knee, Shen Chun rolled Shen Tiao’s sleeping body over. Then, he proceeded to arrange him a little bit more and even tilted his head upwards. When he was done, he leaned backwards a little and nodded to himself again.

“He’s fine, his blood rate is a little lower than normal, but he’s not going to die. You really gave me a scare.”

“Are you sure he’s not going to die? Isn’t 50 beats per minute really weak?”

“Not really? Ah, For an average person, the heart rate ranges around 60 to 100 BPM, but for an athletic person like Tiao-di, the heart rate tends to be a little lower than 60. Tiao-di’s heart rate is usually around 56 BPM. His breathing rate on the other hand…It’s a little slow, but again, he’s not going to die. Now, tell me, why did he faint?”

Suddenly flustered, Shen Yuan shut his mouth and refused to look at anyone. His hand was reassuringly squeezed as Luo Binghe spoke up from behind him.

“We told him that we’re courting, after he found us kissing.”

“Oh. Since when did you start courting?”

Getting over his flustered state, Shen Yuan quickly glanced at Shen Chun before turning back to look at nothing. He mumbled out something incoherent, and thus Shen Chun asked again. The second time Shen Yuan spoke, he said it louder.

“Today.”

“Ah, that makes sense. It would have been surprising if you had been courting from before and we never realised. Don’t get angry at Tiao-di, you know how over-protective he gets.”

“…You’re not one to talk, da-ge.”

“Right right, I know that I can be over-protective sometimes but I’m honestly becoming too old to care. Anyway, how did he manage to fall on top of his bedding?”

“Oh, he didn’t. This one simply moved him.”

Shen Chun facepalmed, “If Tiao-di had a spinal or neck injury, you could have killed him! Next time, do not move him. Do not EVER move a fainted person, let a professional do it.”

-

At some point, Sha Hualing left; she did not wish to abandon Shen Tiao’s “poor vulnerable body,” but someone had to inform Shen Mei and Shen Qingqiu of their brother’s condition and of their other brother’s courtship. Shen Chun could not leave Shen Tiao’s side, since he was the doctor taking care of him, and Shen Yuan was still too unused to Qing Jing Peak that he would end up getting lost on the way. Sha Hualing tried suggesting that Luo Binghe could show him the way instead, but her Lord glowered at her. It was enough to make her submit, as she was too inexperienced with facing genuine fury from Luo Binghe that was directed at her.

A quarter of a sichen passed when Sha Hualing reappeared again, with a distraught Shen Mei hurrying right behind her. Apparently Shen Qingqiu had been too busy to visit at the moment, and so he’d visit much later. Somethings were just more important than a fainted brother, it seemed.

“Is er-ge alright?!”

“He’s alright, no need to panic.”

“Good! Good! Very good!…San-ge is it true that you’re now courting Lord Luo?” 

Seeing the sharp glint in her eyes, Shen Yuan hesitantly replied, “Yes?”

“I knew it, Qiu-ge owes me five silver coins now! Oh and, congratulations you two!”

Was Shen Yuan surprised that his sister betted on his love life? Not really, he knew her quite well. Underneath her extroverted guise was a nosy woman with a secret adoration for romance. What mostly surprised Shen Yuan was the fact that she betted against Shen Qingqiu. Against Shen Qingqiu, of all people! How did she manage to get him to bet against her? How did she managed to make him bet on Luo Binghe, the person who he obviously detested? Had she used her words again to hypnotise Shen Qingqiu? Honestly, if she had, he’d applaud her. Managing to manipulate THE Shen Qingqiu must had not been an easy task.

“Seems like you were expecting us to get together, A-Mei?”

“Just because you’re with my brother, doesn’t mean you can call me A-Mei, weirdo. I still hate you.”

“…Apologies.”

“Not accepted.”

Perhaps a little irritated, Luo Binghe looked back at Shen Yuan for support. He only shook his head in response. Shen Mei was a stubborn girl, which was quite conflicting against her overly-friendly people-pleaser personality. Once she decided that she did not like someone, she would not like them until they proved that they worthy. Having been traumatised more than once because of Luo Binghe’s flirtatiousness, Shen Mei was probably not going to like Luo Binghe for a long, long time…perhaps she’d forever detest him. Shen Yuan wouldn’t really blame her.

-

Shen Tiao woke up not long after Shen Mei entered. He awoke with a groan, eyes straining heavily against the few faint flames from the lit candles. Shen Chun asked for one of them to go fetch some warm water and suddenly, Shen Mei brought out a qiankun pouch which had warm water stored in it; why she had water, of all things, stored in a magical pouch, Shen Yuan did not know. She helped Shen Tiao drink the water, directly from the pouch, which probably wasn’t the most sanitary way ever but Shen Chun made no comment on it so it was probably fine.

“I just had the worst nightmare ever.”

“What was that nightmare about, Tiao-di?”

“Yuan-di started dating that beast.”

“My dear Tiao-di, you might want to brace yourself for what I am about to – ”

“They are dating…courting, whatever. But they are. It wasn’t a nightmare, er-ge.” Shen Mei wisely interrupted. Shen Tiao blinked then let out a huge sigh of breath before turning his gaze towards Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe.

“Yuan-di, I only wish for your happiness and if you believe you’ll find it with him, then fine. I won’t stop you from chasing after him. I do not approve of him, but I won’t get in your way. And you,” Shen Tiao turned towards Luo Binghe as Shen Chun let out a huff of breath, “I do not care that this world revolves around your arrogant self. If you even dare to ever hurt my didi, just know that I will seek you out and I will end you. I do not care if the Heavens stand in my way, I will find a way.”

“I never plan on hurting him, but if I do ever hurt A-Yuan then you need not worry about finding me. I will deliver myself to you and will not stop you from killing me. For every harm I cause A-Yuan, I expect to receive that harm back a thousandfold,” Luo Binghe boldly declared. His declaration made Shen Yuan’s legs tremble, his heart speed up by a bit. An extra bit of blood rushed to his cheeks and he covered it by hiding the lower part of his face with his sleeve. Unlike Shen Yuan however, Shen Tiao wasn’t as moved.

He rolled his eyes, “Whatever.”

“Alright, are you done? Good. Next time meimei, stay silent. Let the doctor do the talking, alright? Now, get out. All of you, except for you Tiao-di. Shoo, shoo! Out! Out!…It’s like I’m chasing stray dogs away.”

With the harsh and slightly unprofessional orders from the doctor, everyone left the room, including a sulking Sha Hualing. Before she left however, she winked at Shen Tiao’s direction before blowing him a kiss. Shen Tiao simply made a heart-gesture back, which was quite surprising but it made the demoness grin largely from ear to ear.

Chapter Text

“Do you seriously not know where to find the evidence?”

“No! The only evidence I ever dreamt about was Wu Chen being a witness. Ah but mind you, my last Proud Immortal Demon Way dream was also 40 years ago. Either way, I don’t think there is any other evidence against the Old Palace Master that hasn’t been destroyed.”

“You’re basically useless then.”

“Don’t be so mean, cucumber-bro!! I do a lot of stuff, just so you know! I’m not useless at all. Gathering evidence isn’t my job anyway! That’s Qi-shimei’s line of work!”

Inside Shang Qinghua’s disastrous room, Shen Yuan was sprawled on the floor with a novel open in front of him. Compared to Proud Immortal Demon Way, Shang Qinghua’s newest novel was brilliant. The plot was intriguing, the characters had a lot of depth and the worldbuilding was just wonderful, somehow it was even better than Proud Immortal Demon Way’s worldbuilding. The problem with the new novel however…Shang Qinghua just had to add papapa in it, which written way worse than in Proud Immortal Demon Way.

It was, for starters, kinkier and more brutal. The various papapa positions made literally no sense, pure evidence that a virgin wrote the scenes. Nothing about it screamed of pleasure, yet Shang Qinghua had stubbornly stated that “sex did work that way,” and that he knew better than Shen Yuan since he lived, “over 60 years.” (And yet, even though he lived so many years, he was still an experience-less virgin.)

Having grown tired of reading the too-frequent papapa scenes, Shen Yuan decided to bother the overworked Shang Qinghua, who was muttering under his breath about this and that as he skimmed through paperwork. Surprisingly, he was very fast and diligent, though it did make sense that he would be. He had to, after all, deal with twice the amount of paperwork than what the previous An Ding Peak Lords were accustomed to.

Shen Yuan asked about how the Peak Lord meetings were going, choosing to ignore the fact that they were meant to be confidential. Luckily, the author did not disappoint; he instantly started to rant about how much stress he was under because of the new alliance between the Cang Qiong Mountain sect and the demon realm. Him working under Mobei-Jun had thus been mostly excused but he still had to be punished for his betrayal. Instead of being flogged for a whole night, the Peak Lords all came into an agreement to simply increase his workload. Shang Qinghua wasn’t surprised when everyone dumped their own paperwork on him.

None of the Peak Lords liked paperwork.

That wasn’t all Shang Qinghua ranted about. No, his mouth ran further than his brain could catch up to, as he sulked about how the Old Palace Master found out about their alliance and their plan to free the wrongly-detained Tianlang-Jun. Shen Yuan had sputtered at the revelation; he hadn’t known that they were planning to free Luo Binghe’s father. Shang Qinghua unsurprisingly ignored him, too delved into his own rants to care about the rest of the world. At some point though, he managed to calm down. The conversation between them didn’t remain so one-sided anymore as Shen Yuan participated, asking the author curious questions and sometimes even berating him.

“Don’t blame this one on me! It’s true that I lack evidence despite literally writing everything about this world, but my son is being a pain too. He refuses to help us!”

“Your…son?”

“Yeah, my son. Luo Binghe.”

“Don’t call…Don’t call him that. It’s weird.”

“How is it weird?” he cried pathetically as he munched on a melon seed which appeared from literally nowhere, “I may not be the actual creator of this world but I brought him to life back in our world. He’s my creation at heart. He’s my son, my child.”

Shen Yuan looked down at the novel open in front of him. The scene he was stuck at involved the main female lead getting violated hard by a bowl collector. Many things did not make sense about the scene; the main female lead’s inflexible position, the man’s obsession with bowls, the tension between the two characters that faded away as soon as they got to the papapa. It was really weird and so, Shen Yuan looked back up at the author he most detested (but secretly adored), “Still…it’s weird.”

“Whatever. Your husband has been a whiny bastard. He refuses to cooperate!”

“…Why?”

“I wish I knew!! I might just ask my King to talk some sense to him.”

“As if that would work.”

“What do you want me to do then?! Everyone expects so much from me, bro.”

“Let me ask him.”

A blank stare was directed his way. Shen Yuan let out an irritated sigh, yet he still had enough patience to explain, “There’s no way Binghe is going to listen to Mobei. If I were to speak to him however, he’d listen to me.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“He’s Binghe and I’m his…boyfriend.”

“That…literally answers nothing but alright. Give it a shot.”

-

The smell of congee wafted through the air as a bowl full of it was placed in front of Shen Yuan. His nose scrunched up as he surveyed it, watching the steaming liquid bubble once before coming to a stillness. Luo Binghe sat across of him, with his own steaming bowl placed right in front of him on the moist ground. He didn’t start eating, waiting patiently for Shen Yuan to take the first bite.

Congee was always one of the few foods that Shen Yuan tolerated but did not enjoy eating all that much. Sometimes he was in the mood for it, but often times he’d prefer eating something else over it. At that moment, congee wasn’t something which was appetising to him. He was more so in the mood for a margherita pizza, though Luo Binghe did not know what a pizza was though and acquiring its ingredients could be a pain. In fact, they had been living in the world for more than two months and his siblings had yet to find all of the ingredients needed to make a pizza.

But since Luo Binghe took the time to cook the congee, and since it did smell really good, Shen Yuan kept his mouth shut and accepted it. Slowly, he brought the bowl to his mouth, ignoring the wooden spoon that Luo Binghe offered him earlier. A sliver of hot liquid touched his tongue and his mouth was instantly filled with a rich creamy flavour; Luo Binghe probably added something to it to make it flavourful as the congee Shen Yuan was used to was typically bland. Shen Yuan couldn’t begin to describe the flavour, it just tasted good in a way that didn’t overwhelm his tastebuds. The rice didn’t become clumped or chunky, it did not mess with the creamy texture of the congee.

It was safe to say that it was the best congee Shen Yuan ever had the pleasure of eating.

“Binghe, this is really good!”

The most blinding smiled adorned Luo Binghe’s face, captivating Shen Yuan’s gaze. That was when Shen Yuan realised that Luo Binghe had dimples.

‘Since when did he have such pretty dimples?’, he thought to himself.

The urge to poke at them, maybe even kiss them, was high. If it wasn’t for his the way Luo Binghe’s brown eyes shimmered, making Shen Yuan lose himself in them, he would have definitely poked the dimples.

It would have been shameless of him to do such a thing anyway, considering that they were out in the open, where anyone could spy on them. Shen Yuan would have preferred if they were inside where they had all the privacy in the world, but his siblings had sort of forced Luo Binghe into taking him out. At least they were having a picnic of sorts in a rather secluded area…Well the area wasn’t actually that secluded, it was legit just a little bit behind the kitchens. With the amount of silence that there was however, save for the rustling of bamboo and the many conversations between Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe, there was probably no one else around.

“Really? I’m glad that A-Yuan likes it! I can continue to cook for you everyday!”

Unable to hide the sudden blush that invaded his cheeks, Shen Yuan lightly leaned over and smacked Luo Binghe’s shoulder. The latter mischievously grinned back.

“Shameless!”

“Oh my, I’m shameless for offering my services to my husband?” he replied back, deciding to ignore the fact that their marriage was still a year or two away. Shen Yuan pouted, and ignored Luo Binghe in favour of devouring the congee in front of him. Seeing him eat like a glutton, Luo Binghe could only let out a chuckle before sipping some congee from his own bowl. Alas, by the time he ate a quarter of it, Shen Yuan had already finished his own congee.

Shen Yuan noticed this and was about to ask if something was wrong, before realising that no, nothing was wrong. Luo Binghe simply preferred staring at Shen Yuan eat the food he cooked, rather than eat his now-cold congee. Shen Yuan couldn’t help but playfully chide him only for him to instantly shut up, feeling both flustered and embarrassed, when Luo Binghe responded with a, “I’ll eat if A-Yuan feeds me.”

It was mostly meant to be a joke from Luo Binghe’s side, he didn’t want to make his A-Yuan force himself to do things that were outside his comfort zone or went beyond his boundaries. They had only just gotten together, and he knew just how easily uncomfortable Shen Yuan could get. There would be ample time for them to work on Shen Yuan’s thin face, but for now, Luo Binghe was more than happy to wait, indulge his lover and simply tease him…

…And yet Shen Yuan didn’t take it as a joke. Grabbing the bowl and a clean spoon, Shen Yuan brought a spoonful of congee near Luo Binghe’s mouth. His lips twitched in shock, before opening ever so slightly to let the spoon slip in. He suckled on it and Shen Yuan watched, mesmerised. When he felt the first tantalising sign of heat dragging itself across his skin, he roughly tugged the spoon back and looked away.

He felt the intensity of Luo Binghe’s gaze, sharp with lust but utterly full of love. Feeling his lips suddenly dry up, Shen Yuan licked them; he failed to notice Luo Binghe’s eyes following its taunting movement.

“Isn’t A-Yuan going to continue feeding me?” he asked after a minute. Startled, Shen Yuan recomposed himself and nodded in affirmation. Once again, he dipped the spoon in the bowl of congee, then brought it up near Luo Binghe’s lips. They parted slowly, but soon clamped shut when the spoon was forced inside in its entirety. Luo Binghe gagged a bit, pulling away from the spoon to swallow properly. Seeing this, Shen Yuan panicked and leapt closer to him to rub his back.

“Sorry Binghe, I didn’t– ”

“It’s alright A-Yuan. There is no need to panic. This Lord is alright, he promises to not tease you any further.”

“…Mn.”

Their picnic continued like this, soft and domestic. Shen Yuan fed Luo Binghe and Luo Binghe ate from Shen Yuan’s hands (or rather, spoon). Their chattering and teasing had died down, only the singing of birds and the frequent rustling of nature echoed through. Tranquillity wasn’t a good enough word to describe the adoring peace Shen Yuan felt together with his Binghe. Sooner than Shen Yuan wished, Luo Binghe had finished his congee. As they let the warmth from the sun seep into their bones, they slowly gathered everything and headed to the kitchens to clean up.

Luo Binghe washed the bowls and spoon, while Shen Yuan dried them off with a random clean cloth he found. He put the spoon away, then opened the cupboard that housed all the bowls. The majority of the bowls were normal simple ones, but the bowls at the back had a more intricate design to them. It was obvious that they were rarely ever used, if at all. Seeing the fancy bowls however, Shen Yuan’s head throbbed as snippets of vague memories invaded. Snippets of him reading one of the worst novels ever, snippets of him talking to the mousy author. Suddenly, he recalled that he had to convince Luo Binghe. Sighing deeply, Shen Yuan straightened.

“A-Yuan? Is something the matter?”

“Binghe, I don’t wish to pry but…why aren’t you helping with the plan to free Tianlang-jun?”

“Where did you hear that from,” it wasn’t a question, it was a demand. In that moment, Shen Yuan understood why Shang Qinghua was so cowardly. He wanted to back down, to yell at his past self to keep his mouth shut…but at the same time, he made a promise. Sure, Shang Qinghua sucked terribly but did Shen Yuan want to disappoint him?

…He didn’t.

“It matters not where I heard it from. Binghe, I just want to know why. Is it because he’s a heavenly demon? Is it because he has the power to threaten your rule? Or is it because you are afraid of meeting him, since he’s your father?” The last question must have struck a nerve as Luo Binghe sighed out indignantly and left the kitchen. Shen Yuan didn’t follow him out.

He wasn’t sure whether he was pushing too much; Shen Yuan simply knew that he had to push a little if he wanted answers, but some part of him was afraid that he’d hurt his Binghe. For how honest and blunt Shen Yuan could be, he typically never meant to sound so scathing. He especially didn’t want to harm Luo Binghe by being stupid with his own words.

A ke passed before Shen Yuan left the kitchen. Luo Binghe was waiting for him outside, leaned coolly against a bamboo with a forlorn look haunting his face. Shen Yuan was not so sure what his face meant; was he sad? Angry? Or simply just thoughtful?

When he tentatively approached, he received his answer.

“I’m afraid of how he’ll react when he sees me, when he learns the truth about everything.”

As much as Shen Yuan wanted to reach out and comfort him, he stayed silent. His words would only leave an even deeper wound.

“I am so afraid that I’ll not be enough for him, for I cannot be a replacement of the woman he loved. Perhaps her death might be blamed upon me. I am…not ready to face that, A-Yuan. I have only just received the first taste of real love, I do not wish to already sour it.”

Going completely mute, Luo Binghe stepped forwards and leaned onto Shen Yuan’s shoulder before bring his hands up to run his fingers through Shen Yuan’s uncontained hair. Hesitantly, Shen Yuan brought out his own hands and embraced him back.

“Maybe he won’t blame you. Maybe he will love you like a father should love his son…You’ll never know if you don’t ever try finding out.” There was nothing else he could say, it wasn’t like Shen Yuan tasted much fatherly love either.

“…Do you want me to help them that badly?”

“Not really, I don’t actually care about the plan…I’m just worried for you, Binghe. Your fears shouldn’t hold you back,” he wanted to say how he was the powerful emperor of the demon realm, how his subjects would become disloyal if they were to see his weaknesses. Before he could continue, Luo Binghe spoke.

“I know. Yet still…I should not care for his approval and I don’t, but a part of me still yearns for it. It’s conflicting. It hurts a lot.”

“I know it does,” he really did know, perhaps better than anyone else, “I know. But are you going to give up possibly reuniting with your remaining family because of a fear? Can’t you try overcoming it?”

“I don’t want to overcome it. I’m tired of pretending to be strong. I’m tired of being brave. I’m tired of surviving. I want to run away from everything. I want to hide. I want to live…I don’t know anymore.”

The vulnerability that Luo Binghe showed made Shen Yuan’s insides clench. He was being honest when he said that he didn’t care about whether or not his Binghe helped with the plan or not, but now he was more inclined to care. Shen Yuan didn’t want his Binghe to suffer any further.

“…Do you want to run away with me, Binghe?”

“…Huh?”

“Let’s run away.”

“A-Yuan…where is this coming from? Did something happen to you?”

“Stop worrying about me, nothing happened to me. Let’s run away.”

“But…what about your siblings? Are you willing to leave them behind?”

“This isn’t about me or them. This is about you, Binghe. What do you want to do? Do you want to run away with me? Do you want to stay here?”

“I…I do want to run away with you, but…but…”

“But?”

“Everything will be left in disarray if I leave. I cannot leave. I’m bound and – ”

Perhaps Luo Binghe appeared pathetic to others, but not to Shen Yuan. Luo Binghe was meant to be a powerful, strong, and rather careless protagonist that never hurt…yet that was not human. Binghe, while being a half-demon, was also human. Perhaps he once wanted all the power in the world, but now, he didn’t. Luo Binghe clearly wanted to run and that was…alright.

“Binghe, we can slowly figure everything out together. We don’t need to rush anything. We have all the time in the world to experience life.”

“A-Yuan…”

“The decision is up to you. Take all the time you need to decide. Whatever you choose, I’ll always follow behind.”

“I don’t want you to follow behind me. I want you to follow me side-by-side.”

“Alright, I promise I’ll always stay next to you and follow you through.”

“…Good.”

“…”

“A-Yuan?”

“Mn?”

“If we run away, will it matter whether my father approves of me or not?”

“That…I cannot say for certain. It’s not really worth taking the risk…but perhaps it is. Perhaps taking the risk will uncover gold. But Binghe, if you don’t want to help unseal Tianlang-Jun, then don’t. Don’t force yourself, even if everyone else says otherwise.”

Shen Yuan lightly pulled away from Luo Binghe’s embrace to cradle his cheek. Softly, he placed a light feathered kiss on his demonic sigil, which was wiling away into a dim red shade. As soon as his lips left the sigil, Luo Binghe grabbed Shen Yuan’s hand and held it close to his lips. The demon in front of him, with pathetic tears welling inside his eyes yet refusing to pour, leaned forward and kissed the back of the hand, before reaching in for the palm and pressing another kiss there. Then he slowly kissed each finger, savouring his exploration. Each kiss would have usually made Shen Yuan feel embarrassingly flustered, yet this time…This time, he could only feel helpless. He felt so worthless, not being able to properly comfort his lover who was clearly in so much distress.

“Gods, A-Yuan, I love you so much,” Luo Binghe whispered as he pressed another kiss on Shen Yuan’s wrist. Shen Yuan shuddered.

“I love you too Binghe…”

-

The night called out to Shen Yuan. He stayed awake, laying on his bedding. There was a solid weight pressed behind him; the solid weight being Luo Binghe. Despite his brother’s protests and how improper it could be considered due to the historic era they were in, Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe placed their beddings right next to each other so that they could cuddle. More often than not, they would fall asleep cuddling but wake up to find themselves tangled with each other. While Luo Binghe was a person who did not move much within his sleep, mostly because he didn’t need sleep so instead he was typically semi-conscious, Shen Yuan’s body could not stay still for a second. Even with his brain mostly shut off, his body yearned to constantly be on the move so Shen Yuan moved too much while he slept.

No matter how much he tossed and turned, Shen Yuan couldn’t fall asleep this time. He wasn’t insomniac, his mind was simply thinking too much. Plus ever since he started sleeping with Luo Binghe, his sleep schedule had gotten a lot better. Him not being able to sleep had become a really rare occurrence.

His mind wandered back to earlier that day. The way Luo Binghe looked at him so pitifully…it was strange to see, on someone proclaimed to be so perfect. Yet it seemed like even perfect people had their own issues, their own insecurities. Someone like Luo Binghe, how he manged to mask everything so perfectly was beyond Shen Yuan’s imagination. He, himself, had been forced to mask a lot due to the bullying he faced, and even then, his masking hadn’t been so –.

Before Shen Yuan could finish his own thoughts, a loud snore broke him out of his pondering with a fright. He jumped, brushing against Luo Binghe’s chest. His Binghe stirred.

“…A-Yuan? Are you still awake?” he whispered. Shen Yuan considered not answering, instead pretending to be asleep, but decided to opt against it. Even though he couldn’t see his face as his back was pressed against his chest, his Binghe could check if he was awake by simply using his blood parasites. The blood parasites hadn’t been activated in a long time, though that didn’t mean they were any less weak.

“Mn.”

“…Can you not fall asleep?”

“Mn.”

“Do you want me to help you?”

“No, I…never mind.”

“A-Yuan? I’m not going…I’m not going to hurt or invade your memories if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Binghe, you make it sound like I don’t trust you.”

“…You trust me?”

Exasperated beyond measure, Shen Yuan shuffled around and turned to face Luo Binghe. He couldn’t really see anything in the dark, his night vision poor due to the lack of vegetables running through his system.

“We wouldn’t be courting if I didn’t trust you.”

“Oh.”

“…”

“…”

“You’re really insecure.”

“That’s mean.”

“I’m just stating a fact.”

“I’m not insecure though.”

“You are. Definitely.”

“…Is that bad?”

“Everyone’s a little insecure, even perfect ones such as yourself. It would be strange if you weren’t.”

“A-Yuan thinks I’m perfect?”

“Oh shut up, you just want me to flatter you.”

“I always like to be flattered by my A-Yuan.”

“…”

“…”

“To me, you’re the most perfect man to exist.”

“…”

“…”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Binghe.”

“…”

“…”

“A-Yuan? Are you still awake?”

“Mn. Why?”

“Good. I want to talk to you more.”

“Binghe, you can talk to me tomorrow.”

“But I’ll miss you.”

“You’ll miss me? Even though tomorrow is just a couple hours away?”

“An hour without A-Yuan feels like a century. In fact, a ke without A-Yuan feels like a decade.”

“Something tells me that the maths of that doesn’t add up.”

“…That doesn’t matter. The point is, I always miss you whenever you are not around.”

“You’re really sticky.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing.”

“A-Yuan!”

“Shush, be quiet. You’ll wake my brothers up.”

“Who cares about them? I only care for you.”

“I care for you too Binghe, but I care for them as well. I want them to have a good rest.”

“That’s annoying…One of them is snoring.”

“I know. It’s Chun-ge. His nose sometimes gets blocked when he sleeps.”

“Really?”

“Mn.”

“…”

“…”

“A-Yuan?”

“Mn?”

“Do you ever miss your old world?”

“Sometimes, but not really. Compared to here, I barely had anything there. Mn…I guess I do miss all of the entertainment that was available.”

“I see. You seem really close to your siblings.”

“I am.”

“Is it because you’re stuck together in this world?”

“Not really. We’ve always been together. Chun-ge and Tiao-ge raised meimei and I.”

“They raised you?…Do you not have any parents?”

“We do, just…there were some problems. Baba left mama and mama was too heartbroken to properly care for us. Baba…I haven’t seen him in ages. I guess I do miss him as well, but not as much as I used to. Mama…I never really felt loved by her.”

“How come?”

“She put on a lot of pressure on me, despite rarely being present. She was really close to Chun-ge and she spoiled meimei rotten but me? I had to do my best if I wanted some acknowledgement from her and even then…it wasn’t guaranteed. I can count the amount of times she hugged me or gave me a present on one hand. I can’t really get too angry at her though. She put a lot of pressure on me so I could become someone unlike baba.”

“…”

“I used to get sick often. Mama never visited me in the hospital…er the healer’s place. According to da-ge, she did call me whenever I got close to dying but I was always fainted at those times. I wouldn’t be surprised if da-ge lied to me in order to make me feel better.”

“…”

“It was really tiring. Even though I had my brothers and sister, sometimes I just wanted mama’s arms to cry into.”

“…”

“It wasn’t fair…it isn’t fair. Why did da-ge and meimei get favoured by her? Why couldn’t I receive the same treatment from her? Why did she ignore me?”

Shen Yuan didn’t realise that he was crying until Luo Binghe tugged his body closer and a harsh sob broke out from his throat. He quietly cried inside his arms, engulfed by his smell. The blood parasites within him were reluctant, but they started buzzing lightly in order to help calm him down.

Unsurprisingly, it worked; it did not take too long for him to stop crying. Shen Yuan sniffled.

“It’s alright A-Yuan. You’re going to be alright.”

“…Mn.”

“…”

“…”

“Did she ignore Shen Tiao too?”

“Huh?”

“You keep talking about how much she loved Shen Chun and A-Mei. What about Shen Tiao?”

“Tiao-ge…his situation is complicated. It was similar to mine until it wasn’t anymore. While I kept everything on the inside, he tried to rebel against her…it almost led to his death. When mama tried seeking him out, he refused to speak to her…We don’t…We don’t really speak about what happened to them all that much.”

“…I see. That’s alright. I…A-Yuan, you were right.”

“Huh? I was right about what?”

“When you mentioned how similar we are. I didn’t believe it then, still don’t to some extent, but you were still right.”

“I…said that?”

“Yes, when you told me about how you didn’t want to burden your brothers because of the bullying you were facing.”

“Oh…hm. Sorry I don’t really remember saying any of that…”

“That’s alright.”

After a couple minutes of silence, Shen Yuan could feel the fatigue from their conversation crawling up on him. The darkness around him blanketed him softly and the night lulled him with a silent lullaby that buzzed in his ears. The large presence in front of him made him feel warm and protected, luring him further into sleep. Shen Yuan’s eyelids fluttered, his eyelashes swept downwards as his eyes closed.

A whisper awoke him again, and Shen Yuan had swears ready on his tongue. He swallowed them back even as his eyes struggled to stay open, as it was Luo Binghe who had whispered.

“I’ll…I’ll help free Tianlang-jun, I think. That way, I can see if he approves of me or not. If not, then A-Yuan and I can be like one another, both of us without loving parents. If he approves of me, then I shall share my father’s love with A-Yuan. A-Yuan won’t have to feel unloved by a parent again.”

Tired, Shen Yuan muttered, “…don’t be silly. Do whatever you want. Now sleep…mn…mn? Oh, good night…Sweet dreams.”

Gentle fingertips rubbed at Shen Yuan’s scalp. He leaned into them, embracing how secure he felt.

-

Shen Yuan didn’t understand why the morning after, he was dragged to An Ding Peak by his Qiu-ge. He was ordered to stay at An Ding Peak and to not move even a cun away from the overworked Peak Lord’s sight. Shang Qinghua had yelped when the door slammed open, but he didn’t seem surprised at the two. It looked like he had been expecting them. Utterly confused, Shen Yuan asked Shang Qinghua about what was going on. At first he hesitated. but he quickly gave it once Shen Yuan shook him by his shoulders, almost dirtying the paperwork he’d been working on.

“Jeez, take a chill pill bro! Your Binghe suddenly barged into Zhangmen-shixiong’s office and told him that he’d help with the whole freeing Tianlang-Jun plan. Zhangmen-shixiong was so pleased that he called for a peak lord meeting at like…6 am bro. Whatever you said to Binghe really worked but like, that is not okay, I need my beauty sleep.”

“Airplane-bro, get to the point.”

“Ow cucumber-bro, you’re gripping too hard! Fine! Fine! Everyone decided that today would be a good day to free the heavenly demon and to put the Old Palace Master on trial. Your brothers will all be going to aid in the plan. Both Shen Qingqiu and Binghe didn’t want you to come with so they decided to leave you in my care, but ah, you can leave and do whatever you want. Just don’t get hurt, I don’t want to die yet.”

“…Oh. What about meimei? Where is she?”

“Ah her? She’s been dumped onto Ning Yingying I think. Shen Qingqiu also didn’t want her to go with.”

“I see. Do you still have that novel from last time?”

“The one you said had too much unrealistic sex?”

“I’m pretty sure I called it more than that, I mean you can use those same words to describe Proud Immortal Demon Way. But yes. I want to continue reading Harem Master Grey Coriander.”

“You remember its name?”

“Duh. Even though trash like it don’t deserve to be remembered.”

“You literally called it a ‘literacy masterpiece’!”

“Compared to Proud Immortal Demon Way! Compared to other novels, it’s terrible. Downright trash.”

“You’re such a tsundere cucumber-bro, just admit you like it!”

“No! I don’t like it!” as brilliant as his newest novel was compared to Proud Immortal Demon Way, it didn’t leave the same impact on Shen Yuan as the latter web novel did anyway.

“Suuuure…here it is. Now shut up, I’m busy being busy.”

“You’re busy…being busy?”

“Yes.”

“That’s idiotic, I bet you’re writing tentacle papapa instead of doing paperwork,” peaking over at the papers, Shen Yuan saw that he was mostly correctly. It wasn’t tentacle porn, but rather it was omegaverse porn. Shen Yun scrunched his nose up in disgust. Underneath the papers containing the porn with minimal plot, there was actual paperwork sticking out. Shen Yuan could only read half a paragraph, but he managed to grasp out that it was about exportation of some sort of wood that specifically grew on Cang Qiong Mountain.

“Disgusting.”

“Says the one who will probably read it!!”

“…”

“…”

“…Will you be finished from it soon?”

“…It’ll be finished by tomorrow.”

-

The intimidating air around Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua’s cowering presence did nothing to deter Shen Yuan from his reading. He was around 100 thousand words in, yet he still had roughly around 400 thousand words left. He dreaded reading them; the omegaverse porn with little plot was just as terrible as he expected. The paper was full of word vomit, each sentence structured in a way that chipped away at his limited sanity.

As much as Shen Yuan hated to admit it, Shang Qinghua did not lack talent for writing. The only reason why the piece of writing was bad was because it was mostly written within a few days by a sleep-deprived author who survived off on melon seeds and plain rice. Shen Yuan, being the hypocritical man that he was, lightly hit Shang Qinghua with the back of his hand every time the man refused to take care of himself in order to work.

He ended up being dubbed as, “mini Shen Qingqiu,” by him since his Qiu-ge apparently also had a habit of hitting people. Shen Yuan didn’t really like it that much but he didn’t object to the name either.

Those few days of him writing the utter garbage that was the no-name omegaverse story, Shen Yuan had spent them blissfully under Shang Qinghua’s care. He visited his meimei a couple of times, and surprisingly realised that her love for Ning Yingying was reciprocated…if only his precious sister wasn’t so oblivious. Of course, Shen Mei visited a couple of times too, she even spent an entire evening talking about her favourite anime to Shang Qinghua.

Overall the days passed by peacefully.

That peace had to be broken by Mobei-Jun, obviously.

The ice demon was demanding Shang Qinghua to go back with him to the demon realm. Despite being a coward, Shang Qinghua stood his ground and explained that he couldn’t. Mobei-Jun did not like that whatsoever.

“I said come.”

“My king, please this lowly one begs you to listen to him, I – ”

“Don’t care. Come. You are no longer a peak lord.”

“…What? My king…Could you please elaborate?”

“Come with me.”

“This lowly one really can’t!”

Before their squabble could continue any further (well, before Mobei-Jun could lay a finger on Shang Qinghua really), the door to Shang Qinghua’s overcrowded office was slammed open. There stood Shen Mei, robes askew and hair messily undone, huffing breaths like they were her last. Shen Yuan had barely noticed her, too invested on reading how the beta protagonist accidentally turning into an alpha instead of an omega for their alpha lover. He only realised that she had entered the room when she called out his name.

Mobei-Jun snarled at her but she paid him no mind.

“San-ge! Da-ge, er-ge and Qiu-ge are back!”

Shen Yuan scrambled to get up. If they were back, it meant that Luo Binghe was back too, right?

…

Unfortunately, Luo Binghe was still at Huan Hua Palace. There had not been a trial yet, but the charges that were presented against the Old Palace Master had been enough to put him in prison for the time being. Since the Old Palace Master knew how the Water Prison worked, he couldn’t be placed there. Huan Hua Palace did indeed have the most complex prison out of all the Four Great Sects, but there were other noteworthy prisons such as Tian Yi Overlook’s Raining Glacier prison, which was where he was currently imprisoned. Tianlang-Jun was freed, and surprisingly enough, he had been diplomatic enough to listen to them.

“…and then he said, ‘This one will do no harm to the human realm despite having been wronged by humans, if only this Lords gets to torture Lao Gongzhu,’” his da-ge told.

Everyone agreed almost instantly, with some of them sceptical until Yue Qingyuan had brought up the fact that Shen Qingqiu had been punished before his own trial too. That made everyone agree almost instantly…

“His reaction to that beast…he’ll tell you it when he comes back. Tianlang-Jun has fully denounced himself as emperor of the demon realm and has given his title to the beast. Now he wants to travel the human realm to indulge in the human arts again, alongside his nephew,” his er-ge explained.

Luo Binghe, as the head disciple of Huan Hua Palace, ended up inheriting it. He wanted to bring Shen Yuan to the palace, but all of his brothers had objected for different reasons; his da-ge because he didn’t feel like Shen Yuan would be safe at Huan Hua Palace, his er-ge because he didn’t trust Luo Binghe enough and his Qiu-ge because he simply hated Luo Binghe.

“Once that beast cleans up the mess left by that scum, he’ll come to visit you. Only visit! You’re not allowed to go with him!” his Qiu-ge dictated.

No matter how much they would object, Shen Yuan would be the one to decide whether he’d go or not. As much as he loved his brothers for looking out for him, he wasn’t a child anymore. He could manage himself just fine.

Plus…he really wanted to be with Luo Binghe. He didn’t miss him perse, Shen Yuan struggled to miss people and things in general, but his lack of a presence made Shen Yuan feel really lonely.

Truthfully, he just wanted his Binghe back.

Chapter Text

Shen Yuan didn’t have to wait long to get his Binghe back.

Three days passed. Shen Yuan spent his mornings with others. He typically spent them with his er-ge, Qiu-ge and meimei since his da-ge was too busy and Shang Qinghua had to catch up on his paperwork. It felt awfully lonely reading without having no one to make comments to. Loneliness was something Shen Yuan grew accustomed too, yet recently he couldn’t bear the thought of being alone despite feeling totally drained at the end of each day. At least he started falling asleep faster, thus there were barely any thoughts haunting his mind in the darkness. Each night was spent cold because of the lack of warm presence pressing behind his back; it was a presence that Shen Yuan got used to feeling.

On the fourth morning, Shen Yuan awoke to a gentle hand carding its fingers through his hair. He thought it was his one of his brothers, probably his da-ge since they barely spent any time together anymore. One of his eyes hesitantly opened, the harsh light blinding him for a mere moment. When his eye adjusted to the light, he looked up. Shen Yuan then sat up, eyes both widened in disbelief. Kneeling next to him, wearing Huan Hua robes and hair tied with a beautiful silver guan, was Luo Binghe. His hand, the hand Shen Yuan wished to touch him again, was drawn back.

No words were said as Shen Yuan shuffled from where he sat at. He wanted to launch at Luo Binghe, to hold him tight and not let him slip from his fingers, yet such a thing…it would be too shameless for him to do! Perhaps he could do something milder, like hugging him normally for a normal amount of time.

Before he could do anything however, Luo Binghe had already gathered him in his arms and embraced him. His face disappeared in the crook of Shen Yuan’s neck as he inhaled his scent…It was strange, but Shen Yuan kept quiet. He didn’t really mind it all that much anyway.

“I missed A-Yuan…”

“Mn.”

“Did A-Yuan miss me too?”

Shen Yuan didn’t comment. He wasn’t sure himself if he missed Binghe. Sure, he wanted him back but he was coping by himself. Actually, not really, he hadn’t been coping by himself but Shen Yuan refused to see the truth.

“A-Yuan…” Luo Binghe whined as…were those tears in his eyes? Why was THE Luo Binghe on the verge of crying? Was it because Shen Yuan stayed silent?

“Yes, yes! I missed…I missed Binghe very much. Too much, in fact. This Shen Yuan was very lonely without him.”

A kiss was pressed on his shoulder, the thin inner robe barely an obstacle as Shen Yuan felt it clearly. His breathing embarrassingly hitched which elected a light chuckle from Luo Binghe.

“Gods, I missed A-Yuan so much. A-Yuan…do you want to come with me to Huan Hua Palace? We’re…we’re not going to stay there for long, but…”

“Binghe, I’ve already told you,” Shen Yuan interrupted, “Wherever you go, I’ll follow.”

-

As expected his siblings were all against his idea, except his da-ge who was more apprehensive rather than totally against it. Shen Yuan didn’t care for their opinion. He knew that they wanted the best for him, but really! He didn’t have to be supervised like he was some sort of mischievous toddler. It wasn’t like he was going to be alone either, Luo Binghe would be there to aid him (even though they were mostly worried about Luo Binghe rather than because Shen Yuan was leaving).

With the little respect he had for the rest of the Shen siblings, Luo Binghe suddenly suggested that Shen Yuan didn’t have to come with since he would only be gone for a few days anyway. He would then continue living with Shen Yuan on Qing Jing Peak until he could gain his siblings’ trust. Shen Yuan quickly shut down that idea. For starters, there was no way Luo Binghe was going to be allowed back on Qing Jing again, they literally had a better chance getting into Xian Shu Peak compared to it. And once again, for the umpteenth time, Shen Yuan mentioned that he wanted to go with Luo Binghe, that he wanted to follow him.

It was safe to say, that despite their many attempts to making him reconsider, Shen Yuan won.

-

Shen Yuan didn’t have many belongings, yet for whatever reason, there were four others crowding around him in order to try to help him pack up. Shen Chun and Shen Mei both wanted to make sure that he took everything with him, and they also wanted to make sure that Shen Yuan knew what he was getting himself into; that he knew of every risk he might face, of how to get out of said risks and that they’d always accept him back and protect him. They were acting like Luo Binghe was going to hurt him one day and he’d have to run away…

Then there was Luo Binghe. Really it wasn’t a surprise that he was helping out. For starters, he always tried to help Shen Yuan and secondly, he was stickier than glue.

Then, finally, there was Shang Qinghua. Why Shang Qinghua was around, Shen Yuan didn’t know. The supposedly-busy author wasn’t even helping out either. He was sitting on one of the bamboo mattresses, munching on some seeds that weren’t melon seeds (Mu Qingfang confiscated them when he saw that Shang Qinghua was on the verge of overdosing on them).

“I think all of san-ge’s hanfus have been packed.”

“Yes meimei, they have all been packed. Please I – ”

“This seems too little though.”

“Oh, please don’t do this again. Hey, hey! Stop searching! Listen to me! I don’t have any other hanfu to pack.”

“There’s no way you don’t have anymore, this is too little.”

“Meimei, calm down. You’re going to make Yuan-ge get grey hairs from the stress you’re putting him under.”

Shen Yuan grasped Shen Mei’s hand, as she tried digging through their er-ge’s clothing in order to find more of Shen Yuan’s non-existent hanfus. He really didn’t have anymore, when Shen Qingqiu had dumped him hanfus on the first day, he had only picked the ones that felt good against his skin. The rest he had given them back, since none of them would fit his brothers.

“Aiyah, let me go! Fine, fine, I won’t check any further.”

“Good.”

Shen Yuan turned back to the qiankun pouch where he packed his stuff only to find that most of his hanfus, which were meant to be stored inside it, were spread out on his Binghe’s bedding. Luo Binghe was sitting on the floor, a hanfu in hand as he refolded it.

“…Binghe what are you doing?”

“Refolding your hanfus. A-Me…Shen Mei and you don’t know how to fold clothing, but that’s alright. I can do it for you.”

Oh. That made sense and he was right anyway. Shen Yuan was never a fan of doing the laundry, so he never really learned how to properly fold clothes, plus hanfus were really complicated to fold. His da-ge did most of the chores anyway, which was also why his meimei lacked folding skills too.

“Hey, my folding isn’t that bad!”

“This Lord wishes not to be rude, but to put it bluntly, it is very terrible.”

“No it isn’t! Shut up!”

A fight was on the verge of breaking out, but before Shen Yuan could reluctantly intervene, Shang Qinghua grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside. Shen Yuan yelped in surprise, looking back at the room for help, only to find that Luo Binghe and his meimei were too focused on glaring at each other, and his da-ge was too focused on trying to calm them down. A couple seconds passed before they were completely out of view and soon, they were standing outside. The sun harshly bit at their skin and the sound of hard wood meeting resonated through the air. Shen Yuan yanked his hand back and then proceeded to smack the back of Shang Qinghua’s.

“Ow cucumber-bro!! What the hell?”

“Why!” Smack. “Did!” Smack. “You!” Smack. “Drag!” Smack. “Me!” Smack. “Out!” Smack. “Here!” And smack. With each smack Shang Qinghua cried out like he was being cooked alive. The world went eerily quiet after he whined for the final time. Shang Qinghua pushed Shen Yuan’s hand away and gripped the back of his head in pain, even though Shen Yuan hadn’t smacked too hard. Before the hack author could respond, another voice cut through the air.

“Really now, using your hand isn’t that effective. Use this instead.”

Shen Qingqiu and Shen Tiao appeared together in struts, each of them having a wooden sword secured around their waist in their respective wooden scabbards. Shen Qingqiu gracefully threw something at Shen Yuan, and Shen Yuan caught it gracelessly. He inspected it and realised that it was a paper fan. It was a plain white fan; there was nothing noteworthy about it. It definitely would not cost more than a silver coin or two.

“…Huh?”

“Fans do much greater damage. Try it out.”

Compelled to try it, Shen Yuan decided to smack Shang Qinghua with the fan once. Shang Qinghua yelped even louder than before.

“Qiu-ge, you’re a bad influence to our didi.”

“You’re wrong. I’m simply showing him how much power one can have with a fan.”

“Damn it, now you really are a mini Shen Qingqiu!!” Shang Qinghua cried again. Shen Yuan ignored him and examined the fan in his hand again. He felt like he had a much firmer grip on it and that it was much easier to control his strength. It felt nice in his hands and Shen Yuan realised that, like Shen Qingqiu, he could use a fan to cover his face.

“If you like it, you may have it. That is but an extra fan this master carries around. It won’t be missed too much.”

Shen Yuan nodded. He wasn’t sure how to respond; should he thank Shen Qingqiu? He didn’t ask for the fan, but he was gifted it and he felt like he should thank Shen Qingqiu for it. He didn’t want to thank him though. Perhaps it was wrong, especially since they were related, but Shen Yuan wasn’t all that into Shen Qingqiu. His siblings were unlike him, they got along with Shen Qingqiu just fine. Shen Yuan however…he couldn’t get himself to like him.

“What are you two doing out here anyway? Shouldn’t you be packing to leave with that beast?” Shen Tiao asked, probably because he realised how tense the atmosphere suddenly got.

“Oh yeah, Binghe and your sister were on the verge of fighting so I escaped and dragged him with me!” Shang Qinghua replied, “what about you two?”

“We were practising sword fighting. I’m getting the hang of it quite well. It’s more refined than using a dagger, though I do wish we could use real swords instead of wooden ones.”

“Tiao-di, you still have a century before you can master swords. This master would rather not have you cut a finger off because of misuse.”

“Qiu-ge please! I used to use daggers daily! I used to own a gun…kind of, and I used to fight with knives! I think I can handle a sword just fine.”

“This master also has great experience with daggers. Your experience with those weapons is worth nothing. Those weapons are vastly different from swords. In fact, I think this is where we should bid you two farewell. We must continue our training.”

Shen Qingqiu gracefully turned. Long loose fabric flowed behind him, somehow making him look more willowy than he already was. Shen Tiao sighed and waved his hand once before following right after him in a much less elegant manner; Shen Yuan didn’t fail to notice his little stumble when he turned around. Slowly, they became mere silhouettes.

“Ugh, can we take a break? I want to eat something,” a faded whisper brushed by. One of the silhouettes moved, raising their hand slightly before bring it down to touch the other. A yelp followed right after, “ow, Qiu-ge! You hit too hard!”

The sun’s ongoing heat now felt nice against the skin. The fan was forgotten in Shen Yuan’s hand as he took a couple steps forward in order to simmer under it. Shang Qinghua followed behind, taking in a deep breath of fresh air before letting out a string of incoherent throaty noises.

“Huh?”

“Mn?”

“Airplane-bro, did you say something?”

“No?”

“Then what was that?”

“What was what?”

“…Nevermind.”

After a little bit of soaking up under the sun, the two decided that it was time to go back to the room again. They exchanged a glance when they arrived near the too-eerily silent door; Shen Yuan was afraid of what was beyond it. Hesitantly, Shang Qinghua creaked it open. They peeked inside. There was no mess to be seen. Shen Chun was laying down in his bedding, eyes closed. Luo Binghe was sitting down on the floor. Shen Mei sat in front of him, mouth moving as she spoke to him in a friendly voice. It wasn’t a voice she ever used with Luo Binghe. Something must had happened in the few minutes that Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua were away.

“…-en was overall just creepy. He made me really uncomfortable.”

“Is he the reason why you hate men?”

“Partly, I have many other reasons for my hatred towards men. He is why I hate dancing though.”

“Why do you hate dancing? It’s quite a lovely form of entertainment.”

“It is, but he would pull in random girls before or after class and try to dance with us in a very…sexual way. He did it to me twice before I punched him straight in the jaw. I got in trouble with the school and my brothers were called. When er-ge arrived, guess what he did? He punched him and broke his nose! Anyway, because of him, dancing is kind of a bitter thing for me now.”

“That is understandable. Creepy men like him are no good. The Old Palace Master is one himself and knowing that he managed to manipulate this Lord is quite…disturbing.”

Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua exchanged a look before finally deciding to make their presence known. Shen Yuan quickly looked back as his eyes focused on the wall behind Luo Binghe and Shen Mei. It gave the appearance that he was looking at them even though that wasn’t the case.

“A-Yuan you’re back!”

“San-ge!!”

“…What happened while we were away? You two are acting like you’re best friends.”

“We aren’t best friends, but I guess there’s another man who I can tolerate now.”

“That’s quite wonderful to hear actually. A-Me–…Shen Mei and this one started blaming each other after you left while we continued to fold the clothing. Your eldest brother had too much of our bickering so he told us that he’d nap for the time being. The blaming escalated into a more civilised conversation.”

“Yeah, turns out, Luo Binghe is actually kind of neat once you get past all his narcissism. I approve of you dating him, san-ge.”

“Not like I needed your approval in the first place,” he said which made Shen Mei scoff and lightly punch his shoulder.

“That fan is really cool by the way, where did you get it from?”

Luo Binghe eyed the fan in distaste but said nothing as Shen Yuan recounted their meeting with their other brothers.

-

“Aww, san-ge! I can’t believe you’re leaving. Don’t forget me alright? Write to me everyday!”

“Meimei, don’t be so sticky. Yuan-di, take care. This old brother of yours will keep you in is thoughts.”

“Goodbye Yuan-di. It was nice to meet you. Make sure to hit the beast with the fan if he gets too comfortable with you. Beasts need to be tamed.”

“…You’re all acting like he’s leaving forever. You know he’s coming back eventually right? Yuan-di, ignore them. Take care of yourself, remember to drink and eat and to actually sleep. I don’t want you to be in the same state as you were in the past world. Do not make me regret allowing you to leave. Beast, take care of him.”

“Of course.”

“Please calm down, I’m not going out for war you know. Yes meimei, I’ll write to you everyday. Da-ge please loosen up the hug a little!! You too er-ge, you’re hurting me! Qiu-ge, why are you crying? You’ve barely known me!”

“Bye bye san-ge!”

“Take care of yourself Yuan-di.”

“Those are not tears. Farewell.”

“See you soon, Yuan-di.

“Bye everyone! Binghe, let’s go.”

“Alright A-Yuan.”

-

At first, Shen Yuan felt really lonely. He had gotten used to his siblings living in the same house as him, so the silence that he found in Huan Hua made him feel like the walls were closing in on him. Luckily, by the end of the second day at Huan Hua Palace, Shen Yuan grew used to the quietness again. He mostly locked himself in his and Luo Binghe’s room, not interested at all in mingling with the disciples.

Luo Binghe had asked him if he wanted to come join the various meetings with him or if he at least wanted a tour of the entire palace, but Shen Yuan had rejected both offers instantly. Meetings were boring and the tour would be unnecessary since Shen Yuan wasn’t so keen on wandering around the palace by himself, even a small part of him was curious. Shen Yuan thought of perhaps sneaking it in order to explore, but then decided against it. It would be embarrassing if he got lost after he refused the tour; plus he only really needed to know where the kitchen, library and bathroom were. None of the other rooms were useful to him.

A slow week passed by. As unhealthy as it was, Shen Yuan barely got any sunlight, getting enough nutrients from the different meals Luo Binghe painstakingly made. His Binghe made so many sacrifices for him, making sure that he was comfortable during his stay.

That’s why Shen Yuan felt like he owed him this, as he laid back on the bed. The dimming golden light of the lantern flickered, total darkness covering the room for less than a second. The bed next to him slowly dipped, a menacing sign of what was to come. For a moment, Shen Yuan regretted accepting Luo Binghe’s offer, but no. He couldn’t back out now. He had to do this. He had to share this part of him with his Binghe, even though it was very scary.

“A-Yuan? Is A-Yuan sure that he wants to do this?”

“I’m sure. Just, please,” he turned onto his other side in order to face away from Luo Binghe and instead stare at the wall, then he continued with an embarrassed blush painting his face, “please make sure to hold me tight. I don’t know how I’ll react.”

A comforting arm slid over his stomach and pressed his back flush against Luo Binghe’s chest. He felt something else press against his scalp; a light kiss that promised all the care in the world.

“Of course A-Yuan. This Lord shall stop if A-Yuan even shows a single sign of distress.”

“Mn, thank you Binghe.”

There was a light calming buzz running under his skin, a buzz that made Shen Yuan feel drowsy. The blood parasites caressed the walls of his veins as they soothed Shen Yuan’s heart into a calmer pace. The golden warmth brightening the room began to fade as his eyelids closed, until finally, Shen Yuan fell into a deep sleep.

His eyes opened again in place of his younger self. He couldn’t control the body, it was a memory after all, but he could see everything clearly. Everything his younger self thought, he could hear it rushing to his brain.

His younger self’s thoughts were immature, yet they stored all of his anxieties and insecurities.

In his dream, he was playing with his meimei. They weren’t old in the memory; Shen Yuan was six around that time, probably a month before he fell ill. They were in their large playroom, throwing a ball at one another when their mama came in. Her hair was askew, the first two buttons of her blouse were open and her eyebags were darker than her black eyeshadow. From her attire, it was obvious that she had just arrived home from working another twelve hour shift at her workplace.

Despite her fatigue, she still had the chance to buy a gift.

“Xiao Mei come here, my love. Mama has something for you.”

Xiao Mei waddled towards their mama. The game she had been playing was completely forgotten; at that moment, she could only think of mama. With a ball in hand, little Shen Yuan watched as his mama gave Xiao Mei the gift before patting her head.

There was no gift for him.

Instead, when his mama addressed him, she said, “Xiao Yuan, I read your report card. You’re doing so well in Chinese and English, but you’re failing everything else. You need to study more. Xiao Chun even told me that you were distracting your peers during class. I know that it can be difficult since you’re only a child, but you need to focus in class. Life is not only about playing.”

“…But mama,” his little self said only to be cut off.

“No, ‘but mama.’ Xiao Yuan, you need to obey the teacher. If you can’t do something as simple as that, you’ll never be able to succeed in life.”

“…Yes mama.”

“Good boy. Now go study.”

“Eh? MeiMei was playing with gege though!!”

“Sweetheart, you can play with your gege later. He’s going to be busy studying. Xiao Yuan, what are you waiting for?! Go!”

“Yes mama,” reluctantly, little Shen Yuan left the playroom and went to his own room. He didn’t bother to tell his mama that it wasn’t his fault that his grades were low. It was hard to pay attention in class when there were so many distractions, but his mama wouldn’t understand. He didn’t bother telling her that it was actually his classmates who distracted him and yet the teacher only ever saw him losing focus so he’d often get the blame.

No matter what he’d say, his mama would never believe him.

The scene changed and this time he was in his hospital with his mama. It had been one of the few times she went out of her way to do something for him, but only because Shen Chun had begged her to take little Shen Yuan to get diagnosed after one of his teachers wrote him a note telling him that Shen Yuan should be examined by a psychologist. It had been a couple weeks after the diagnosis and they had finally been called in to receive the results.

The psychologist was very mean-looking. She eyed Xiao Yuan a couple of times. Xiao Yuan looked away, feeling uncomfortable. He did not like the psychologist.

“Here are the results He Taitai. Unfortunately, Xiao Yuan is not mentally able. He’s quite on the severe spectrum, thus he will never be a proper member of society. He’s a little young for medication, but we can give him when he’s older so that he’ll act more normal.”

Shen Yuan didn’t recall this happening since little him was too busy avoiding the mean psychologist’s gaze as he stared at his feet, yet hearing it now made Shen Yuan want to curl up in himself and cry. Even someone professional didn’t think he was normal, that he could be a functioning member of the ‘normal’ society. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t something that he could control. He couldn’t control the way he’d been born.

What did ‘normal’ even mean, anyway?

The memories continued flashing by and Shen Yuan braced himself to not show any sign of distress. He didn’t mind Luo Binghe seeing all of this, but a small part of him was still afraid and it was fairly…traumatic. He was practically reliving everything again, including the forgotten parts of his life.

The memories stopped when a particular memory made him jolt inside the dream. His heart started pounding way too fast and he hardly could hear anything with how blood rushed to his ears.

The memories broke like mirror shards and so, Shen Yuan lurched awake with cold sweat sticking to his skin. His breath came out laboured, his head throbbing. He barely noticed Luo Binghe’s worried face, his eyebrows creasing in anxiety as the arm wrapped around his waist tightened.

“A-Yuan, are you alright?”

His throat squeezed itself. He shook his head and turned over in order to bury his face in Luo Binghe’s chest. Gentle fingers carded through his hair, loosening up knots that accumulated in the little time he slept. A wash of apologies escaped Luo Binghe’s mouth, a soft mantra that made Shen Yuan smile a little and his breaths relax. His head still ached and his heart was still beating a tad too fast, but he did manage to calm down a little…and yet he felt miserable. At least his throat also loosened up a little so he could speak, though he didn’t want to say anything. He closed his eyes again, getting lulled to sleep by Luo Binghe’s soft touches and sweet voice.

The dreams he had this time weren’t painful. Instead, they were serene. It wasn’t like the normal dreams he was used to; the strange dreams that involved flying cats shooting lasers from their eyes. This dream of his, obviously one manipulated by Luo Binghe, involved him floating on a lake. The lake’s water was not warm but it wasn’t cold either. There was nothing around him except bright blue sky and the dark lake rippling underneath him. His ears could pick up voices from far away. There was laughter and a very loud conversation. A sense of home embraced Shen Yuan’s form. He heard his meimei’s laughter as she teased, his da-ge’s light-hearted complaints and his er-ge’s rare chuckling.  

Shen Yuan smiled and closed his eyes, letting himself just lay and listen. His body, surprisingly enough, complied with his stillness. 

It felt like barely any time passed in the dream before he awoke again, the room bright as sunlight penetrated through the paper windows. Shen Yuan felt oddly refreshed as he stretched his limbs out. His joints popped, making him cringe and scrunch his nose in disgust. The door to the room then opened, and in came Luo Binghe carrying a tray of deliciously smelling food.

“A-Yuan, you’re awake! This one was going to wake you up…Are you feel alright?”

“Mn, I’m alright Binghe. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to see everything…”

“No, no, A-Yuan it’s alright! This Binghe apologies for putting you through so much distress. Come eat, this one made A-Yuan some food. The congee isn’t too strong so A-Yuan’s stomach should not react badly.”

“…Why would it react badly?”

“Well, since A-Yuan had a rough night, the food might not settle so well.”

“But Binghe gave me a good dream right after, so my night wasn’t so rough.”

“Perhaps, but this one would still rather be cautious.”

Shen Yuan nodded, knowing that Luo Binghe was just trying to take care of him after making him relive through some of his worst memories. He got out of bed, ignoring how both his hair and inner robes were unkempt, and sat down at the low table that was right at the end of their bed. Luo Binghe sat across from him, placing down the food on the table before putting the empty table to the side.

As they ate, they didn’t really speak excluding the frequent compliments that Shen Yuan let out. It was only halfway through their meal that Luo Binghe purposefully coughed, catching Shen Yuan’s attention.

“This Lord…wants to run away.”

Shen Yuan blinked and prompted Luo Binghe to continue but he didn’t, so he replied, “alright…you want to run away when?”

“Today, if possible. Tomorrow by the latest.”

“Oh. Sure Binghe, we can run away, but what about Huan Hua Palace?”

“Everything has been finalised. This Lord, after consulting with many elders, has decided to change Huan Hua Palace into a sect for demonic cultivation. Demons will be able to enter this sect and learn how to properly cultivate their demonic qi. Humans can also join and learn how to develop demonic qi, thus turning them into half-demons such as myself.”

“That sounds! That sounds great Binghe! But doesn’t that mean that you won’t be able to leave? They need a master to teach them after all.”

“Sha Hualing has expressed a desire to take care of this new sect herself.”

That was unexpected and Shen Yuan wasn’t so sure how it would work out, but he was intrigued by it as well.

“That sounds so unlike her.”

“Perhaps you think so, but this one thinks otherwise. Sha Hualing has always been proud of how her demonic heritage, and for as mischievous as she can get, she was always meant to be a leader. Might this one remind you that if she hadn’t abandoned her family to join me, Sha Hualing would have become the Lord of the Sha clan. One of the duties of a demon Lord entails teaching the future generations of the demonic arts.”

“I see…Perhaps being the master of this new demonic sect would actually do her good. Compared to my first meeting with her, she has become more agreeable. I can only hope that she becomes more mature.”

“I must admit that you are right. I never really realised just how annoying Sha Hualing could get until I met you and your siblings.”

Shen Yuan let out a laugh. Sha Hualing had been one of his favourite wives as a character (not his favourite, that place belonged to Liu Mingyan), but as an actual living being, she had been infuriating to deal with.

“How did the Huan Hua disciples take the news of the sect changing?”

“Surprisingly, most were interested and agreed with this new development. There were a few that weren’t, but we have found solutions for them. Since it would be a shame for the Huan Hua arts to be lost, there will be a specific branch of the sect where Huan Hua elders can continue teaching the few interested Huan Hua disciples the art. Even though this is a demonic cultivation sect, they are not forced to become demonic cultivators. This one also gave them the option to transfer into a different sect of their choice. From a group of fifty seven disciples, only six have expressed a desire to be transferred.”

Luo Binghe continued to speak about various things, such as how Mobei-Jun was now the temporary emperor of the demon realm and how his father reacted to him, since he had forgotten to tell Shen Yuan the first time. Shen Yuan listened thoroughly. He sometimes drifted out of the conversation, and when he refocused back in, he would tentatively interrupt Luo Binghe to apologise. Each time, his ever-so-patient future husband would only brush it off, saying that Shen Yuan didn’t have to apologise each time and that it was fine if he sometimes lost focus. It had been one of the most validating things that Shen Yuan ever heard and each time, he couldn’t help but smile.

When they finished eating their breakfast, Luo Binghe had to go to another meeting. They exchanged a quick kiss before Shen Yuan found himself in the room alone again, like usual. Usually he’d spend his time reading, but now he had something else to do. He had to pack up everything they owned since they were going to be running away.

Of course, that was easier said than done. In five hours, Shen Yuan had only managed to pack half of their stuff, read seven chapters of the book that he was reading and he also managed to write a letter to his siblings so they’d know what he would be doing. It was better than nothing, but Luo Binghe would probably have to help him pack the last few items, because he’d probably take another five hours to pack them.

-

The sword they were flying on wasn’t Xin Mo. Shen Yuan knew that Luo Binghe had been wanting to dispose of the demonic sword but he didn’t know that he had actually done it. The new sword, Bái Yù, had a whitish grey blade with a black hilt. The hilt had a simple red tassel dangling from it, apparently it was a gift from Ning Yingying. Compared to Xin Mo, it wasn’t as beautiful but Bái Yù was more tender. It did not invade Luo Binghe’s mind with horrendous thoughts and it also really liked Shen Yuan; it vibrated eagerly every time Shen Yuan spoke or laughed.

The sun was setting. A little fearful, Shen Yuan firmly gripped Luo Binghe’s middle as he stared in the awe at the ground below him. Everything was painted in an orange-pinkish glow, softening the world’s dull edges. From all the way up there, Shen Yuan could spot the Luo river, Cang Qiong Mountain and even Illusion village (…he really missed the village. He wondered how all the villagers were holding up).

“A-Yuan! Let’s first go see if those Meat-Tearing Abysmal Mammoths are where we left them.”

“Mn! Let’s go!”

The past few months had been a rollercoaster and finally Shen Yuan could relax. Up there, away from the rest of the world yet so close to his own world, Shen Yuan let out a giggle as a new chapter in his life opened.

Chapter Text

‘Dear san-ge,

I did what you told me to do in the last letter; I got the courage and finally started courting Ning Yingying after an entire year of pining. She accepted my courting as soon as I gave her the first gift. Now we’re planning to get married, though we need to consult Lu Qingtian first so he can tell us the best date to marry. It’s a little fast but I am more than ready to settle down. I can’t believe I’m going to be a wife haver soon! You better come to our wedding, alright?!

Speaking of courting, I just found out that da-ge is also courting someone…He has been courting someone for 9 months. 9 bloody months! He’s somehow kept it a secret from all of us for 9 months! I only found out because I heard him confessing it to Qiu-ge. Since when did our da-ge become so secretive ah? He’s courting Cai Hongloi by the way, the sect leader from that sect that created our cultivation method though you probably already know…I have yet to meet her but da-ge is meeting her weekly. I don’t even know how he gets the chance too with just how busy he is.  

Oh and guess what. Even er-ge is having romance trouble too…er, queerplatonic trouble. I passed by him while he was eating dinner the other day and heard him whispering to da-ge about how Sha Hualing has apparently gotten the hots for Liu Mingyan. It’s awesome, but I do wonder if it makes er-ge sad. He didn’t sound sad. I don’t really know how queerplatonic relationships work, to be honest. Can someone have a queerplatonic partner and a romantic partner? Is their relationship an open one? Or is it like a total separate thing? Would it count as cheating if someone would hide their romantic partner from their queerplatonic partner?

Sha Hualing and er-ge are starting to piss me off too. I like pranks, I’m totally chill with them but I don’t want to be pranked every single day!!! Let me breath please!! I swear to god if they dump another bucket of water on me again…Sha Hualing should be taking care of Huan Hua Palace, but no! She’d rather act like a fool with our stupid er-ge. And our er-ge! He’s meant to be busy learning how to become a therapist, but nope! He’s constantly acting like a child high on sugar. The only good thing about this is that er-ge is so obviously happy now.

I like seeing him happy.

I also like seeing Qiu-ge happy too! The therapy that Mu Qingfang is providing him with is really helping him. I still can’t believe there’s therapy here, I mean, this world is based on ancient China and I don’t think they had therapy back then. Did they? Anyway You probably still won’t like Qiu-ge, but when you see him again, you’ll definitely admit that he’s way funnier and more relaxed. He did recently reject Yue Qingyuan though, so he hasn’t been doing too well for the past few days. Qiu-ge says that he feels like something is broken within him, that he can’t love or be loved. I’m not sure if that’s trauma talking or if it’s something else, but I feel really bad for him.

Hey, at least he isn’t broken in the way Mobei-Jun and Shang-ge are. They obviously are so into each other but they suck at expressing it!! Their communication is so terrible. At least Mobei-Jun has learnt to not be so violent to his human lover. That stupid block of ice is so stupid. Shang-ge is a human!! Humans don’t have the same violent courting system like demons do! Obviously demonic courting isn’t going to work on him, especially considering just how oblivious he is.   

San-ge, I have finished my ranting. You can take a deep breath, say a swear or two and then rant to me back, alright? Oh, da-ge and er-ge should be sending you letters soon too! They told me to tell you to expect them.

Alright now, it’s my cue to leave. See you san-ge, write to me soon!! Reply to me ASAP!!! I don’t like waiting for your replies, I want them NOW.

From your favourite meimei❦’

Shen Yuan let go of the paintbrush after he finished signing off his name. The ink dried slowly in the humid air of the small room that he and Luo Binghe were living in. He stored his meimei’s letter away and then looked back at his own. He read through it once with a small smile threatening to curl his lips. Writing to his siblings, mostly his meimei since she was the least busiest one, became a calming routine for Shen Yuan. Letters were probably the most impersonal way to contact someone despite the painstaking writing, but it was the only way he could communicate with his siblings for the time being, since there were no phone calls or video chats available.

“A-Yuan, Ling-er is interested in Liu Mingyan. Do you think they’d make a good couple?”

Shen Yuan wasn’t the only one to receive letters either. Ning Yingying, Sha Hualing and even Mobei-Jun kept in touch with Luo Binge via letters too, though Mobei-Jun mostly sent him letters to talk about the state of the demon realm. The ice demon had his head completely frozen on one topic; demon politics. Even though Sha Hualing did report on Huan Hua Palace, or rather the new demonic cultivation sect that still had no name, she mostly gossiped about too many things to keep track of. Only Ning Yingying’s letters had a semblance of balance, a good amount of gossip but a good amount of serious updates too.

“That’s hard to say, their personalities are vastly different but maybe they could make it work out.”

This was Shen Yuan’s personal favourite part after each letter-reading-and-writing session; talking to Luo Binghe about them, exchanging opinions and gossip. This had become a more recent development as beforehand, Shen Yuan felt like he had no good reason to bring up the letters and Luo Binghe was reluctant to share due to “classified” information (it wasn’t actually classified information, Luo Binghe just did not wish to possibly endanger Shen Yuan’s life by him accidentally having access to forbidden information).

“My meimei is getting married to Ning Yingying soon. We might have to head back sooner than we thought.”

“Ning-shijie did write to me about that. A-Yuan, you should look at how much she gushed over your sister. They are very much in love.”

There was only one thing missing…They had no tea or pastries to snack on while they chattered. Shen Yuan contemplated getting up to get some, but he found that he much preferred fiddling with the brush rather than getting up from where he was sitting. He was too comfortable!

“Ning-shijie wrote to me about the last few disciples from the remnants of Huan Hua Palace that transferred over. One of them was Gongyi Xiao. This Lord was curious as to what happened to him after I stole his place. I’m glad that he is still alive.”

“Gongyi Xiao?…Oh! I think I remember him. Wasn’t he meant to marry the Little Palace Mistress? What happened to her actually?”

“I’m not sure. I do recall her throwing a tantrum but she disappeared soon after. Perhaps she was eaten by a Nose Spotted Tiger.”

“Aren’t Nose Spotted Tigers afraid of humans?”

“Indeed. It is why we have yet to see one, A-Yuan. They instantly hide if they smell human skin, though you probably already knew that.”

“I did. They can also tell if a creature’s a human by their footsteps. I really want to see one, they sound so awesome.”

“We will see one soon, this one will drag one out for you if it needs be.”

“Don’t. The tiger wouldn’t like that. I’d rather never see it than cause the poor tiger distress.”

“Alright then. I understand. Anyway this one would not be surprised if the Little Palace Mistress annoyed them so much that they ripped her into a mangled corpse.”

“…Sounds like the one who found her annoying was you.”

“I did. She was, quite literally, the worst wife one could possibly have. Not like any of my other wives were better, but they were tolerable.”

“Am I better than your previous wives?”

“If A-Yuan was not, this one would not be with him. A-Yuan is the most perfect wife this Lord has ever had the pleasure of having.”

“Eh? Who’s your wife?! I’d be your husband!…We’re not married yet anyway!”

“Oh? But A-Yuan made it sound like he wants to be the best wife.”

“…Shameless! Fine yes, I’d love to be the best wi…the best husband for you. Not wife! Husband!”

“Yes, yes. A-Yuan would make the most perfect husband for this Lord.”

They burst out giggling, overwhelmed with the teasing. Before they could continue any further, an owl bearing the Huohe sect emblem burst through the window. It cried out as it dropped off a neatly rolled up paper onto Shen Yuan’s lap. The owl then proceeded to land on his table and Shen Yuan reached out to pat it.

“Hi again Yàn, thank you for bringing da-ge’s letter for me. I guess you dropping of da-ge’s letters should have been a clear sign that his relationship with your master is more than just friends.”

The owl nestled under his touched, letting out pleased wails. Jealous despite it only being a mere owl, Luo Binghe grumbled under his breath.

“Alright, go home now. Your master might get worried for you,” Shen Yuan gently ordered. Yàn opened up its beautiful brown wings, fluttered them twice before taking off. Shen Yuan grabbed the letter from his lap.

“Seems like I have more letters to read.”

“Hurry and read it A-Yuan! This one wants to hear more about Shen Chun and his relationship with the Huohe sect leader…Actually, this Lord cares not for that. I just want to hear you speak.”

“Binghe, be a little patient. I haven’t even opened it yet.”

Shen Yuan playfully rolled his eyes as he unfurled the letter.

Shen Yuan began reading.