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"Is this a joke?" Shen Yuan demands out loud to his empty apartment as he clicks the back button and adjusts his answers on the stupid "Which Proud Immortal Demon Way Character Should YOU Marry?" some idiot has linked in the reviews of the latest chapter.
Completing it the first time had been ironic, okay – how could he insult them for their trite questions and foolish assumptions if he didn't go through it first hand? How could he know which canon details they had forgotten or made mistakes on if he didn't at least glance at it?
The second time… the third and fourth and fifth… those had been irritation.
He adjusts his answers and clicks the overtly cherry 'onwards to the wedding bells!' button. The pages flickers and then loads-
"Oh, come on!" Shen Yuan cries, slapping his hand down on the desk then wincing and shaking it out. "Did you even load any other damn answers onto this thing? You didn't, did you? Not even one of the six hundred wives!"
Forget aiming for his favourites – he just wanted a single result that wasn't the protagonist, just to see if this stupid quiz has more than one answer. It probably doesn't. That's probably the joke, and whoever made it is probably sitting there laughing at how frustrated everyone taking the quiz must be.
Shen Yuan narrows his eyes at the blaring brightness of his computer screen and refuses to be the first one to give up. He will check every goddamn permutation of these answers, so help him. He clicks back. He adjusts his answers. He clicks the goddamn 'onwards to the wedding bells!' button.
The page loads.
The sound that Shen Yuan makes is just a little bit unholy. "Not one of the wives, but this- this side character gets a mention? Not Liu Mingyan herself but her dead brother? What kind of joke is this, what-"
He's actually so outraged he has to shove himself back from his computer and stalk around his cramped apartment for a while, slapping the air with his hands and muttering to himself about how disgraceful and absurd a quiz it was and how he's definitely going to leave a scathing review for them in the morning.
He misses the way a window opens on his computer that says [information download complete], but even if he had seen it, it probably wouldn't have registered as very important to him, he would have just shrugged it off as some annoying firmware update.
In the morning, of course, he wakes up in Qing Jing Peak with Yue Qingyuan hovering over him and all thoughts of such an absurd quiz are pushed entirely out of his mind.
It's not like it was part of the novel after all.
Several weeks into his transmigration experience – after that truly unfortunate encounter with the Skinner demon – Shen Qingqiu manages to convince the Sect Leader to allow him to enter seclusion in the Ling Xi caves.
This is only running away from things a little bit. If the mission to Shuang Hu City had proven anything it was that Shen Qingqiu couldn't only pretend to be a peak lord, he had to get a handle on the abilities of one or he was going to bite it in a fight instantly.
Hence… seclusion.
Unfortunately, he doesn't get to devote himself to meditation – it's not long after he enters the caves that he's disturbed by the sound of someone nearby fighting. Or dying of qi deviation.
"I just wanted to level up," he laments to himself, unfolding from his position on the stone bed and following the rattling waves of Qi through the twisting labyrinth of the spiritual caves.
Goodbye, excellent meditation spot, I'm probably not going to be able to find my way back.
But there's no way he's going to be able to mediate with such a disturbance nearby anyway, so he might as well see what he can do about it.
He expects to find a senior disciple, advanced enough to need seclusion in the caves but not strong enough to overpower him. He would have some advantage just by being Shen Qingqiu, however few of Shen Qingqiu's abilities he has mastered.
He does not expect to find another Peak Lord. He does not expect to find the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan Peak.
This guy! Why is my luck so bad?
There was absolutely no advantage to be had! This guy was the undefeated War God! This guy was hip deep in a terrifying qi deviation that gave people the strength of a hundred men!
This guy was someone that the original goods had killed! Killing the female lead's brother was a serious narrative crime!
If he does that, he's dead! Or worse, a human stick!
If he doesn't do anything, right this second, he's also dead!
Shen Qingqiu ducks under a hasty swipe of Liu Qingge's sword, managing to save his head only by the preternatural grace of the body he's in and the uncoordinated rage of a person locked into mindless qi deviation. But mindless or not, Liu Qingge is fast and strong and his sword is carving hunks out of the priceless white stone and jade walls of the caves.
He flinches and raises his palm, pouring spiritual energy out in an uncontrolled burst that flies through the air and strikes Liu Qingge straight in the chest. Surprisingly, it actually works, causing the other Peak Lord to fly backwards and slam into the wall.
Liu Qingge coughs a mouthful of blood all down the front of his white robes.
That looks far more alarming in reality than the novels make it sound! Shen Qingqiu suddenly has a firm belief that people shouldn't go around spitting up blood. It's not healthy!
The system dings. [System notification: Transmigrator preferences acknowledged. Alternate Route Unlocked!] It announces. [Liu Qingge. Yes/No?]
"What does that mean?" Shen Qingqiu hisses, taking his eyes off his opponent for only the briefest of seconds. "What preferences? What route?" His preference is for this not to happen and for neither of them to die but the System is a terrible, no good system and has never once given any indication it cares about what Shen Qingqiu wants. He absolutely does not trust the implication that it is now.
Unhelpfully, the system provides no further information. The same statement keeps hanging in the air, and probably will until either he chooses or they die. And frankly, saving Liu Qingge might provide an alternative to being cut into pieces by an angry Demon Emperor.
Desperately, Shen Qingqiu hisses, "Yes," at the stupid system. Liu Qingge is a character that had never been beaten by Luo Binghe, and if that was because he died before Luo Binghe had been anyone worth fighting then fine. A dead character could be described in ultra-complimentary terms without threatening the protagonist, and if Liu Qingge didn't die here-
Hesitantly, Shen Qingqiu steps forward and reaches out, bringing qi to his hand to try and smooth away the qi deviation. But the second their hands connect, light flashes and the sound of bells rings out through the cavern.
[Congratulations! Quest: A Tribulation of Matrimony has been initiated!]
"A what," Shen Qingqiu snaps, and tries to pull back, only to find that his hand is stuck. There are glowing cables made of golden light wrapped around his hand – around their hands palm to palm – that are impossible to budge. His qi seems to be flowing out of his palm as if being drawn into Liu Qingge.
Hopefully to stabilise him. Theoretically Shen Qingqiu knows how to aid people in qi deviation, but reading webnovels has not prepared him for the experience of actually being in one, and somehow he doesn't think it's a skill the original goods would have practiced much.
"Shen Qingqiu," a low voice spits out, and oh, at least Liu Qingge is now clear minded enough to talk even if he does not appear happy about it.
That he might have been stuck to a Liu Qingge still in a murderous rage is a scenario that makes him suddenly a little weak in the knees.
"What have you done?"
"What have I done?" Shen Qingqiu bites back, still trying to tug his hand free fruitlessly. He's glad that he's unlocked the OOC function, because this is definitely not in keeping with the cool-calm-collected image of the villainous Peak Lord. "You're the one who was thrashing about mindlessly trying to kill anyone who passed by. If it were up to me, I would still be meditating in seclusion."
Liu Qingge sags back against the wall and slides down to the ground, yanking their joined hands and pulling Shen Qingqiu after him.
Shen Qingqiu barely avoids landing on him and manages to twist so that they are sitting next to each other, shoulder to shoulder. The golden cables binding them allow the change in position without restriction, but it does not appear to give them any extra distance.
Where their shoulders press together, Liu Qingge is burning hot with the remnants of qi deviation, and Shen Qingqiu has to hold himself rigid to stop himself from pressing against him. It's only that the caves are so cold — the stone around them is chilled and seems to sap all the heat from the air.
"Immortal binding cables?" Liu Qingge says and it takes Shen Qingqiu a second to work out that it's a question.
"Are you colour blind?" he asks. "Immortal binding cables are red. These are—"
A vague memory of a particular arc drifts to mind. A priestess of an immortal sect. Binding cables and a trial that had to be passed before Luo Binghe could claim her as his wife. There'd been some golden finger powerup in there too, some attempt at the usual Xianxia ordeals. And possibly they had killed a demon lord, or something. In the end, it hadn't been too different from many of the other wife-plots, though the three-legged-race nature of the cables had necessitated the wife be somewhat useful which had made her one of the better forgotten side characters.
"What are they?" Liu Qingge demands. "What did you do?"
"I already said I didn't do it," Shen Qingqiu snaps then gives an awkward cough. "They just appeared when we touched. It's possible they're… tribulation cables."
Thankfully, this appears to mean nothing to Liu Qingge, who doesn't have the benefit of having read all six hundred wife plots and therefore having a strong knowledge base of the stupid deus ex machina plot devices of this setting.
"If the tribulation isn't completed, they'll fade after a year and a day," he offers, staring down at the golden glowing rope. He's pretty sure that had been mentioned but of course, the arc had lasted a few days at most. Probably. Timelines had never been a strong point of Airplane-shooting-towards-the-sky and any attempt at asking for one was only met with vagueness or worse — more contradictions.
Shen Qingqiu's qi is still thrumming through their joined hands, but he can feel something else, too. He has the sneaking suspicion that it might be Liu Qingge's qi, circulating into him in turn now that it's stabilising, as if they're both in a loop of sharing together.
That probably — is not good. There had been many, many power sharing plots in Proud Immortal Demon Way, because finding methods to settle his unbalanced Qi had been a recurring plotline for Luo Binghe and almost all of them had ended badly. For the wives, anyway. Luo Binghe had been fine, generally.
Maybe the two of them not being half-demons will help here?
Liu Qingge snorts, coldly. "I'm not being tied to you for a year and a day," he says, which is slightly hurtful except that Shen Qingqiu couldn’t agree more.
"It isn't exactly pleasant from this end, either," he says snottily. "I was having a much better day before you tried to die on me."
"What tribulation?" Liu Qingge demands next, as if ignoring that entirely.
Shen Qingqiu pauses again. "I'm not… entirely sure," he says carefully. "The only recorded usage I know of, their ordeal was to kill a demon lord. I don't know if that's common."
A tribulation of marriage. That was the outcome, not the ordeal, wasn't it? Or was it both? Either way, he wasn't saying so. Maybe it wasn't a required outcome at all – Luo Binghe had been perfectly willing to marry wives without magical ordeals forcing him to.
System, you rat bastard. What the hell kind of 'preference' is this? I do not prefer it!
"Easy," Liu Qingge declares and then attempts to get back to his feet, possibly to go and find a demon lord to kill right this second. He fails, partially because Shen Qingqiu does not try to rise with him.
"While you can barely stand on your own feet?" he asks, icily. "Perhaps you should recover from your qi deviation properly, before you get us both killed. I, for one, do not intend to leave seclusion early and if that means meditating here then so be it."
Liu Qingge glowers at him, but settles back down.
Magnanimously, Shen Qingqiu offers him a clean handkerchief. "You look wretched. At least wipe your face."
Then he resolutely closes his eyes and attempts to meditate. He's mostly sure Liu Qingge isn't going to try and kill him again. At the very least, the weird binding cables seem to have stopped the qi deviation and the way their qi seems to flow back and forth seems stable. Powerful, even.
Liu Qingge tugs on the cable as he shifts positions, then settles back next to him, a long line of heat along his side. Their hands fall together awkwardly until Liu Qingge resolutely grasps his palm, as firmly as he might grasp a sword, and rests their joined hands on his knee.
Shen Qingqiu very nearly opens his eyes, then decides that yes ignoring it is the best possible option. He doesn't actually expect to get much meditating done but it's—
Easy.
Their breathing falls into a slow, steady pattern and he can practically feel Liu Qingge become more stable. The qi that flows between them is rich and balanced, and between that and the spiritual energy of the caves around him, Shen Qingqiu can tell he's growing stronger by the moment. Oh yes, definitely some kind of power sharing cheat buff.
It's almost enough for him to suggest that they just stay in the caves for a year and a day and mediate their way through the trial. The benefits would be enormous.
But there are, unfortunately, far too many plot arcs about to happen for that to be a wise choice.
[System notification! Quest: Demonic Invasion of Qiong Ding Peak about to begin!]
"Tch," Shen Qingqiu says, opening his eyes. The dim light of the spirit cave hasn't changed, as if they have only been sitting there for moments. Yet the blood on the floor has dried to tacky black stains. "Well, I suppose we'll get to see if killing a demon helps."
"What?" Liu Qingge says, eyes snapping open.
Shen Qingqiu rises to his feet and ignores the way that their hands are clasped together. The way that Liu Qingge's thumb rests along his knuckles. The light press of his fingertips. The cables are binding them! They have to be touching! That's clearly all it is.
"We have guests," he says, "can Liu-Shidi not feel their presence?" As if Shen Qingqiu can feel them — but whatever. The system can. Same difference. He pulls, as if he can tug the other cultivator to his feet.
Liu Qingge rises gracefully without putting any weight on their joined hands at all — as if to say he doesn't need the help.
Fine, Shen Qingqiu sniffs. "Perhaps Shidi would like a moment to tidy up?" he suggests. "Though arriving in battle in such a state would surely be… terrifying."
If Shen Qingqiu had thought it through he would not have said such a thing at all. Yes, Liu Qingge looks like a ghost on the verge of death, dressed in white under robes with blood all down his front and his hair loose — and how exactly had he come to be like that? Had he awoken in the midst of qi deviation and entered the caves to try to contain himself, without stopping to dress? Had he somehow shed all his usual accoutrements during his qi deviation?
Should Shen Qingqiu be devoting this much brain power to the question? Most definitely not!
Liu Qingge removes a clean set of Bai Zhan robes from a qiankun pouch and they both pause.
There is… absolutely no way for Shen Qingqiu to leave the room so he can change.
Shen Qingqiu spins away and flicks open his fan to cover his face, bound hand stretching behind his back. "What are you waiting for," he snaps, to cover his own mortification. And so follows possibly the most excruciating minutes of his life, excluding perhaps the entire incident with the Skinner demon and also that time at highschool when Chen Yan had told him she only thought of him as a friend.
He had also only thought of her as a friend, but it had still been mortifying.
Fixing his eyes on the white stone walls does nothing to block his ears from hearing the rustling of cloth and knowing that it means a very beautiful man is taking off clothes behind him. The fact that his hand is sort of involved in the process doesn't help at all — his arm is tugged back and forth and at angles it doesn't agree with and there's absolutely no way he's acknowledging it, or heaven forbid, turning around at all.
"What's taking so long?" he demands eventually, glad that his voice doesn't squeak. Not that it would have. But it's good that it doesn't. That would be very OOC.
Liu Qingge scoffs and says, "you try it," which only leads to that realisation that if they don't fix this then he probably will have to.
Bad. Very bad.
Cautiously, Shen Qingqiu turns back inch by inch, ready to spin away at the slightest hint of—
He's not sure. Anything.
What he finds is that Liu Qingge has mostly changed — but his shirt hangs open and the arm that joins them together is bare. Shen Qingqiu flicks his eyes away, then back, then away again, uncertain exactly where they should or should not be looking. Liu Qingge is, in turn, not looking at him at all. There is a heap of white cloth discarded on the floor and Shen Qingqiu abstractly wonders how he got it off and then not so abstractly thinks about it and—
"Ah," Shen Qingqiu says and very unfortunately drops his fan. "I think— the cords should be—"
After a brief test, it turns out that he's right — the cords of light are light. Solid enough to hold the two of them together, of course, but magical enough to allow things to pass through them. Like cloth.
They couldn't be cut because they had no substance, and PIDW had had more than one papapa scene during that arc — don't think about it — which definitely at least implied the ability to put clothes back on. He doubted Airplane-Shooting-Towards-The-Sky had given much thought to the mechanics of it, but the fact remains that it is possible.
Shen Qingqiu slides the sleeve between their hands and helps Liu Qingge into it, trying to touch the barest minimum amount. Any amount of touching is too much, definitely. Inner robes, then outer robes, then his arm guard with all it's unnecessary ties. Then there's the hair and Shen Qingqiu has absolutely never had to help anyone do their hair before and unfairly, Liu Qingge probably has the nicest hair in the world. It's soft and shiny and has no knots at all, despite the situation. With what amounts to three functional hands, they manage to sweep it up into a high tail and fix his crown in place.
In his heart, Shen Qingqiu exhales as if he has passed a terrible trial. And not one that has helped in any way whatsoever! Liu Qingge doesn't look any less striking in the Bai Zhan Peak Lord robes! He looks more so, in fact! Dangerously put together and beautiful.
"Demons!" Shen Qingqiu blurts out, remembering exactly what they'd been doing this for. He spins away again and moves towards the exit of the cave, stopped only when Liu Qingge pauses and makes him jar to a halt.
He swoops down and picks up Shen Qingqiu's discarded fan, handing it back, and striding past as if it had been his idea to leave all along.
What a terrible Shidi.
Shen Qingqiu is dragged along in his wake for a handful of steps before realising that Liu Qingge probably has no idea where to go and charging forward to take the lead again. They're practically racing each other as they burst out of the caves, steps falling eerily in sync.
In the distance, smoke rises from the center of Qiong Ding Peak.
"Right on time," Shen Qingqiu says and the two of them leap into the air and glide their way to the gates where Sha Hualing is probably waiting with her demon army.
He intends to land and fulfil his role as villainous master of ceremonies, but Liu Qingge has clearly never heard the words 'plot important battle' in his life and comes down with sword swinging.
There is very little that can be done to salvage the situation from there, and it's very much not his fault, system, so Shen Qingqiu simply stays behind the arc of Cheng Luan and adds spiritual energy attacks of his own to the mix. Working with one hand doesn't seem to limit Liu Qingge at all, even if it's his off hand, as long as Shen Qingqiu matches pace with him.
It's slightly closer to the lines of battle than Shen Qingqiu would like to be, frankly, but the lines of battle see Liu Qingge coming and retreat very, very quickly.
Very soon after, all the demons are gone — either dead or fled. The disciples that are gathered on Qiong Ding Peak (which does, he notes, include the protagonist) are slightly battered but cheering. Despite their slight delay, the two of them must have arrived quickly enough to starve off the worst of the fighting.
"Shizun?" the protagonist calls, breaking free from the crowd and crowding closer. His eyes are fixed to the golden cables binding Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge together. "Are you—"
"Yes, yes," Shen Qingqiu interrupts, waving his free hand loosely in the air. Bad protagonist! That is a topic not to be spoken of! "Well done defending the peak. Now, the rainbow bridge is down so any disciples that are able to fly—"
He sends off some of the senior disciples to fetch the other Peak Lords and arranges others to gather the dead demon corpses carefully, and other such make work until Peak Lords who actually know what they're doing show up. In the chaos of all that it takes a little while until the others notice their predicament and it's, surprisingly, the squirrely An Ding Peak Lord who seems to recognise the cords.
"Huh," Shang Qinghua says. "Huh. I did not think you two were— but I guess that adds to the tragic— but wait, that was now—"
"What," Liu Qingge says, flatly yet making it sound like somewhat of a threat.
"Does Shang-shidi recognise this, perhaps?" Shen Qingqiu asks, voice silky. If there is one thing that Shen Qingqiu's reputation is good for, it's intimidating people. "Do share."
Shang Qinghua squints at them, like he's calculating his chances of running away — low — but also just really, really confused. Which is fair. Shen Qingqiu is also really confused by this whole thing.
"Explain what?" he says. "Didn't you do that on purpose?"
"No," Shen Qingqiu says. "Liu-shidi had a qi deviation and when I tried to stabilize him, this happened."
Shang Qinghua opens and closes his mouth like a goldfish. "That wasn't supposed to happen," he remarks. "But, er, it could have been way worse! Think about it that way!"
Shen Qingqiu is perfectly aware that it could have been worse but that doesn't exactly mean he likes the current predicament.
"What is it?" Liu Qingge cuts in, apparently uninterested in the platitudes. "How do we break it?"
"... if you had a qi deviation, shouldn't you go see Mu-shidi?" Shang Qinghua asks, desperately, seeming to have realised that he's about to be the messenger of some really bad news and might just get shot for it.
Liu Qingge narrows his eyes. "Speak. Shen Qingqiu called them 'tribulation cables'."
Shang Qinghua gives him a pathetic look like it should actually be Shen Qingqiu's job to break the news to Liu Qingge. Not happening! "They're usually used for like… handfasting true Dao Companions, creating an immortal bond between lo— uh, between people that even the heavens can't shake."
'True Dao companions' is subtle xianxia speak for 'cultivator spouses' and it appears that Liu Qingge knows that too, because he blanches white and gives a sharp tug on his bound hand, as if to rip it away.
"You didn't mention that," Liu Qingge accuses, as if Shen Qingqiu had had a dastardly plan in hiding that information and not, you know, hoping he was wrong.
"And what would you have done if I had?" Shen Qingqiu shoots back. "Cut both our hands off to escape it?"
He really, really would like to get through this life with all limbs intact. It doesn't look likely but he would prefer it. He flicks his fan open to cover his face, annoyed that he has to be glad Liu Qingge retrieved it for him. "Anyway, I did say that if we left it for a year and a day it would fail on it's own."
"Er—" Shang Qinghua says, which is not promising. "It will fail," he agrees slowly. "And probably both your cultivation systems will fail with it."
Ah. Proud Immortal Demon Way hadn't mentioned that. Or if it had then it had been amongst the other 'this is very dangerous, no really' warnings that never applied to the protagonist so were just there to fill in the word count.
Shen Qingqiu grimances. "A literal unbreakable bond."
"Very literal!" Shang Qinghua agrees, a tad frantically. "These things are not just poetic turns of phrase in this world! But you know, high risk, high reward! You've got complementary natures so you'll probably end up wildly powerful if you manage to align your cultivation together!"
"There's nothing complementary about us," Liu Qingge denies.
"I meant the opposites sort of complementary," Shang Qinghua clarifies, which does nothing to help. "Yin, Yang. Spiritual, physical. You know, all that sort of thing."
"... how powerful?" Shen Qingqiu asks after a moment's pause. Powerful enough to not get turned into a human stick? Powerful enough to maybe run away from a Demon Emperor Protagonist?
Liu Qingge curls his lip, as though Shen Qingge asking is very passé. As if he isn't obviously wondering the same thing too. No one gets the name War God without wanting to be strong.
"No one is saying we have to do anything about it," Shen Qingqiu clarifies. "Certainly not become true… anythings. But if we pass the ordeal, become stronger and then go our separate ways…"
Liu Qingge sets his jaw, looking very resolute and heroic and like he absolutely wants to stab something. It's terribly beautiful, even when the thing he wants to stab might be Shen Qingqiu.
"How?" Liu Qingge demands. "You thought it might be fighting demons, but that did nothing."
Shang Qinghua sidles away, then much faster when neither of them try to stop him. "Good luck with that! Try not to be struck by lightning or explode or anything!"
Is that a possibility? Shen Qingqiu is tempted to call him back for another round of interrogation but decides that actually his quota for bad news has been filled for the day. The next several days.
He doesn't want to know.
"There might be more information in the Qing Jing library," Shen Qingqiu says. Is there? He has no idea! But what Qing Jing Peak does have is his adorable students, delicious food and his nice, quiet not-on-fire house.
"Fine," Liu Qingge says, voice clipped, as if there's any real other option. "But don't think that this is over."
Shen Qingqiu tugs their bound hands. "Oh, I'm very aware that it's not over," he says dryly.
With Liu Qingge hovering ominously over his shoulder, the Qing Jing Peak students are pretty well behaved. The disciples stare at the golden ropes binding their hands together but don't ask.
Smart kids!
Shen Qingqiu blatantly refuses to indulge their curiosity and instead calls on Ming Fan to ensure that all his junior disciples are looked after and have any injuries from the invasion treated. The protagonist is in the crowd of students and doesn't look terribly injured and is probably about to dive headfirst into his next arc — the Dream Demon, maybe? Or the secret library? Hopefully not the 'trapped outside in a storm' arc, given that he shouldn't be sleeping in the woodshed any longer — so Shen Qingqiu considers the whole thing to not have gone terribly.
It could certainly have gone worse! Despite it being a plot deviation, he's glad he didn't have to force his fluffy haired student to go and get beat up by an ancient poisonous demon. Too cruel!
Luo Binghe is even in good enough spirits to cook, apparently, because he comes with Ning Yingying to deliver food and tea to the bamboo house.
"Is Liu-shishu staying?" Ning Yingying asks, eyes down demurely and hands folded at her waist like she isn't being a nosy little pest. This is what he gets for having a favourite student.
"For a while," Shen Qingqiu says, vaguely, because she is unfortunately too young and cute to be terribly sharp with. "You're both dismissed."
Luo Binghe hesitates like he might want to add something, but not in front of Liu Qingge — unfortunately for everyone, Liu Qingge isn't going anywhere! — so he just turns and leaves with a hangdog look. Probably disappointed that he hadn't got to fight as many demons today as he wanted or done well or something. Shen Qingqiu has no idea what he's going to do to make up for that plot climax flopping, and he really hopes it doesn't stunt the protagonist's growth.
It's not really a plot hole, he reasons internally, as he sits awkwardly at the table with Liu Qingge to eat. Having strong adults around means the adults are supposed to deal with the dangers to the sect. It's more of a plot hole for the original to have gone along with the tournament idea, and even then it was obvious he was stalling for the other Peak Lords to arrive.
"You eat this?" Liu Qingge says, dubiously, like he hasn't been served a table full of bonafide protagonist cooking. Shen Qingqiu has no idea what the menu on other peaks is like, but on Qing Jing it's fairly light and plain.
"If you don't want it, then don't touch it," Shen Qingqiu says, picking up the spoon and dipping into the congee. He could probably eat two sets of protagonist cooking. No need for it to go to waste! It's a little awkward to be eating while someone just stares at him, but Liu Qingge gives in after a second and picks up his own spoon.
Still awkward! Shen Qingqiu resists the urge to break the silence with small talk because he's one hundred percent sure that'll only make things worse.
Things get worse enough without his help! It's late enough after supper that he just wants to go to sleep and that presents its own problems!
They're still handcuffed together!
"You sleep on the floor," Shen Qingqiu decides. He randomly opens some cupboards until he finds that there are some spare blankets — maybe for winter? — and tosses them out.
At first he's a touch surprised Liu Qingge doesn't argue but— what is there to argue for? Liu Qingge probably doesn't care where he sleeps and the floor is about as far away from Shen Qingqiu as he can be. Liu Qingge is no more likely to suggest sharing than Shen Qingqiu is.
Even if the bed is more than big enough for it.
Doesn't matter! He's not invited! No one is invited!
Grumpily, Shen Qingqiu drags out a privacy screen and gets changed and then has to wait awkwardly while Liu Qingge gets changed. At least there are no assists needed this time! That makes it fractionally less mortifying.
Only fractionally. Shen Qingqiu leaves his hand to dangle over the side of the bed and rolls onto his side to stare resolutely at the wall. He doesn't think he falls asleep, but he must do, because then Liu Qingge is yanking on his arm saying, "wake up."
"Why?" Shen Qingqiu asks, fighting the urge to pull his covers over his head. One of his students better have set the peak on fire. He's not getting up for anything less.
"It's time," Liu Qingge says. "Training."
It is clearly not time for anything except insane people. The sun isn't up. The sun isn't even thinking about getting up and neither should they be.
"You're a morning person," Shen Qingqiu realises. In disgust or horror, he isn't sure. Maybe both. A morning person and someone who likes to exercise. "I take it back. The hand can go."
There's a flash of white that might be teeth which means that Liu Qingge is smiling and thinks this is funny. "Get up," he says again. "Or we'll go like this."
Shen Qingqiu takes a second to consider how serious he is, decides it's very, decides he doesn't want to be seen by his students in such an undignified manner, and reluctantly drags himself out of his nice, warm, comfortable blanket and into the not-even-morning-yet air.
Outside is even worse, cold and slightly wet. The stone lanterns by the paths give enough light to see by and it would be beautiful if Shen Qingqiu wanted to be awake right now. But he doesn't, so it just makes him slightly cranky as they make their way to the Qing Jing training fields. There's absolutely no one there at this hour — of course not, Qing Jing disciples are asleep in their beds right now like normal people — and Liu Qingge drags them both out to the middle of the field.
"No," Shen Qingqiu says flatly.
"We need practice," Liu Qingge says, equally flat and stubborn. Cheng Luan is in his left hand, gleaming as beautifully at its owner.
Scowling, Shen Qingqiu calls Xiu Ya to his hand. Holding it is fine — but when he moves it to glide through an attack, his first instinct is to use both hands, and there-in lies the problem.
"Practice," Liu Qingge says, moving Cheng Luan through a slow arc. He doesn't pull on their bound hands.
Shen Qingqiu grits his teeth. Thinking about what he's doing doesn't actually help because he doesn't know. He only has the skills ingrained in the body to go off of and the handful of disciple sword lessons that he's 'supervised' to go by.
In the end, he just mirrors what Liu Qingge is doing, running through one-handed strikes like of course he's already an expert at this. He knows Liu Qingge knows he's doing it, too, and has no idea how he's supposed to justify that.
'Sorry, I forgot my entire sword style, don't pay it any attention.'
How excellent that will be for keeping his cover.
Perhaps the universe has some mercy — if not much of it — because Liu Qingge says nothing about it, just keeps leading them through techniques until the sun actually does rise and Qing Jing Peak starts to wake up.
When they call it quits and head back to the bamboo house, Shen Qingqiu's disciples are only in a small tizzy about their peak lord being missing.
"Your concern is noted," he says dryly, shooing them away with a motion of his hand. "Try not to panic for the rest of the day — we'll be in the library."
They stop for breakfast first, more protagonist cooking which explains why Luo Binghe had been part of the crowd of disciples near the house, and then make their way to the Qing Jing library. Shen Qingqiu isn't exactly certain there will be information here but burying himself in the library is a much better pastime than more training so that's where they're going. He starts with the more… off limits texts, which sometimes means they're fragile and sometimes means they're rare and sometimes means that actually they hold techniques that are perfectly possible but would cause untold chaos if students started using them.
"Can't you send your disciples to do this?" Liu Qingge says after about half an hour of frustrated glowering. "Just tell them to look for mentions of glowing cables. It's not hard."
Shen Qingqiu arches an eyebrow at him. "They're not trusted to access the texts in this room," he says, setting aside a recipe for turning a Golden Dewdrop Flower into a cultivation cleansing tea — interesting but not currently useful. "But if Liu-shidi wants to hurry it along he could always pick up a book himself. Just look for mentions of glowing cables. It's not hard."
The sniping between them does not exactly increase productivity, but it is kind of entertaining in its own right. At least Shen Qingqiu has something of an upperhand in here, as opposed to how easy he must be to see through when doing things that require years of cultivation training.
At about mid-morning, Ning Yingying knocks gently on the door. "Shizun, Qi-shigu is here to see you."
"Qi Qingqi?" Shen Qingqiu says, instead of oh no. "Why?"
Qi Qingqi hasn't come alone, apparently. At her side is a veiled young lady who is undisputedly Liu Mingyan. There's absolutely no mistaking it, especially when Liu Qingge is there to compare.
Ah. Family catchup, maybe? Shen Qingqiu isn't exactly sure what the relationship between the two siblings is like, but if anyone gets to ask what's actually happening it's probably a direct family member.
"A-Luo is bringing tea," Ning Yingying says. Shen Qingqiu nods, glad she's foreseen the required etiquette for a meeting of Peak Lords and also that she's looking out for the protagonist. He can't exactly erase how the original goods treated the boy, but things seem… better? Maybe?
Qi Qingqi waits patiently for the tea to be served and the disciples to file out, takes a single sip and sets her cup down. "So," she says. "How the hell did you two manage this? I thought Mingyan was joking when she told me."
"Shizun," Liu Mingyan says, sounding slightly strained.
"I'm surprised you haven't killed each other yet," Qi Qingqi goes on, completely unstoppable.
"There have been some close calls," Shen Qingqiu says darkly, remembering just how long he's been awake already for. Mornings shouldn't be this long!
"Try it," Liu Qingge suggests, which is a valid point. There's very little chance that Shen Qingqiu could purposefully kill him at this point — the danger in the Ling Xi Caves had very much been his qi deviation. Even PIDW implied the original had taken advantage of that to strike the killing blow.
Shen Qingqiu sneers and takes a sip of his tea. "Is Qi-shimei here for a purpose or just to gossip?"
Liu Mingyan bows to him politely across the table. "Sorry for troubling Shen-shibo. I was only concerned for my brother." When she turns her gaze on her brother, though, it seems less 'sorry' and more 'tell me right now'.
Liu Qingge sighs. "Our cultivation became entangled," he says, summing the situation up in the fewest possible words. "We will resolve it."
Liu Mingyan waits for a moment. "... is that all?" she asks, sounding slightly disappointed.
Shen Qingqiu isn't sure what she expected — surely she knows her brother is perhaps the least talkative person in the world.
"What else is there?" Liu Qingge says, then, somewhat gentler, "There's nothing for you to be concerned about, Mingyan."
Shen Qingqiu raises an eyebrow and does not say 'except for that qi deviation that nearly killed you'. She probably doesn't need to know about that, right? And even if she does, it's not a conversation that Shen Qingqiu wants to be part of and he has no ability to remove himself from the conversation right now.
Qi Qingqi doesn't appear to believe it either. "Well, let me know if you need anything," she says, idly. "An announcement, a party…"
Shen Qingqiu can't think of any reason he'd ever want either. "Absolutely not."
Qi Qingqi smirks at him, which is very disconcerting.
Once they've kicked their uninvited guests out, Shen Qingqiu intends to go back to the library but Liu Qingge insists on more training. In his head, Shen Qingqiu uncharitably likens him to one of those big dogs with too much energy that will eat your furniture if you don't take them for sufficient walks.
Not something he wants to deal with.
That sets the pattern for their next few days, falling into an awkward rhythm of training and research that isn't… bad. It's odd to have someone so close by all the time and it does wear what little patience he has very thin, but… it's not bad. Liu Qingge doesn't poke any holes in his impersonation of Shen Qingqiu and he does, regrettably, become more confident with Xiu Ya.
"Well, there's nothing on the ordeal itself," Shen Qingqiu says after another day paging through texts in the Qing Jing library.
Liu Qingge snaps his eyes open from where he was meditating semi-peacefully — a compromise between doing research and physically training. "Then—"
"But," Shen Qingqiu cuts him off. "There is possibly an artifact that could tell us."
Not recorded in the library, of course, but Shen Qingqiu has also been scouring his memory for any plot devices that might come in useful here or anything else from the arc that the cables were mentioned in.
Liu Qingge rises to his feet. "Then let's go," he says, as if it's that simple.
Shen Qingqiu rolls his eyes. "Yes, I suppose we had better ask the Sect Leader for permission."
Going to Qiong Ding Peak feels a little bit like going to see the principal to confess you cheated on an exam — even though absolutely none of that is applicable and Shen Qingqiu has done nothing wrong. Ever.
"Zhangmen-shixiong," Liu Qingge says, which is the most respectful he sounds of anyone ever. "We need to go on a trip."
Yue Qingyuan's eyes drift over both of them and linger for a very long time on their bound hands. "Shidi. I… had heard of your situation and meant to make time to talk with you both about it."
"The demon invasion was more important," Shen Qingqiu says, opening his fan in front of his face. "Has Qiong Ding Peak been restored?"
This conversational gambit lasts a few sentences, but Yue Qingyuan inexorably bends the topic back around with all the skill of a seasoned professional. He's pretty smooth, their sect leader! Doesn't miss a trick!
"Now, what exactly has happened?"
Liu Qingge gets as far as the words 'qi deviation' before Mu Qingfang is called in a hurry. Shen Qingqiu sighs and resigns himself to the fact that this will definitely not go over easy. They'd only just stopped fussing about his qi deviation, now he has to have a front row seat to Liu Qingge's.
Unfairly, Mu Qingfang doesn't focus just on Liu Qingge — Shen Qingqiu is also subject to the same examination.
"Well… they both seem surprisingly stable," Mu Qingfang says, sounding slightly doubtful. "Their cultivation systems are heavily linked but it seems to be working. I… have no idea how one would go about undoing that. This was purely accidental?"
"Yes," Shen Qingqiu says, exasperated. "I was trying to stabilize him and this happened."
Mu Qingfang exchanges a look with Yue Qingyuan. "Well. Your own cultivation isn't… the most suited to stabilize another," he says delicately, which is a very polite way of not mentioning the qi deviation that Shen Qingqiu just had.
"Yes, yes," Shen Qingqiu says, hoping they don't have to get into all that again. "Regardless. I have a lead on an artifact that might provide us with a solution. The Mirror of Truth. It's at an old abandoned shrine to the north."
The Mirror of Truth had been something the protagonist had found and consulted a few times, mostly when the Dream Demon had been out of action and his own dream powers had been unsuccessful for various and temporary reasons. Sometimes the wives had used it, providing reasons why they had particular bits of knowledge for their own schemes against each other. Useful but not critical, and not something that will be used up by Shen Qingqiu visiting it a few years earlier.
Yue Qingyuan asks more questions — many more questions — but eventually gives them leave to go.
How they're going to go is another matter. The abandoned shrine is in a fairly remote location and Shen Qingqiu only knows it by description and not by nearest village or roads or anything that would indicate taking a carriage or horse is a good idea. Flying is the best option, as if this were a proper cultivation setting. Only—
"Careful!" Liu Qingge snaps as they drift far apart enough that their hands are pulled tight between them.
"You be careful," Shen Qingqiu snaps, trying to direct Xiu Ya closer and keep his balance and maintain the same speed as Liu Qingge. The wind is buffeting them both something horrible and there's a reason no one flies in such tight formations.
Liu Qingge gives an annoyed grunt and then yanks sharply on their joined hands, pulling Shen Qingqiu right off Xiu Ya with a sharp yelp and onto Cheng Luan. His free arm wraps around Shen Qingqiu's waist and helps him balance.
"Absolutely not," Shen Qingqiu hisses, even as he absently calls Xiu Ya back to his hand.
"That wasn't working," Liu Qingge says, stating the obvious and suddenly picking up speed. They'd been going slower than normal, trying to fly together, and now it's obvious just how slow it had been. "This is better."
Shen Qingqiu glowers and is forced to acknowledge that, yes, in terms of travel it is better. It is also them standing very close together. On the same sword! He's sure there's probably lots of cultivator innuendo about touching someone else's sword and if there isn't then his brain is about to invent quite a lot of it right now!
They fly for most of the day, and Shen Qingqiu would have thought that the novelty of it would wear off yet every time they shift — because the wind changes or Shen Qingqiu peers down at the scenery below them — he's aware yet again of how tightly pressed together they are. Of the heat that seems to bleed off of Liu Qingge and makes him several times warmer than the air around them. Of the arm locked around his waist.
Terrible. Very terrible.
"There's the river," he says eventually, finding a recognisable landmark. "We should go down."
The foliage around the river is lush and verdant and strange — it definitely looks like something an author could add half a page to their word count describing. As far as he knows, none of it is actually dangerous, nor secretly a thousand year medicinal herb, so Shen Qingqiu ceases to pay that much attention to it.
They fly outwards in a search pattern until they find the ruins that Shen Qingqiu knows are here somewhere. The ruins aren't necessarily hidden or secret, it's just that there are plenty of old abandoned buildings around this world — from sects that have been destroyed or fallen apart, places that were wiped out by demon attacks, cursed artifacts that brought misery to the places that held them and so forth and so forth. These ones have long since been ransacked of everything of worth, except for the secret hidden chamber that no one but the protagonist ever found.
The ruins themselves don't look any different to the dozens of ruins Shen Yuan had been subjected to in the name of 'educational holidays'. There's massive gates that were probably impressive in their heyday and are now just hazards. There's weathered stone walls that once belonged to buildings. There's faded carvings. There's meandering pathways and dry wells.
Shen Qingqiu taps his folded fan against the palm of his hand as he surveys them. "We'll start there," he says, pointing his fan at the largest and most complete of the ruins. That probably makes it the shrine, right? Or the palace or leaders abode or whatever. The description in PIDW hadn't been very particularly clear on the matter, just that the protagonist had taken refuge in a building and then found the secret passageway beneath it.
Logically a person would take refuge in the most stable looking ruin, right?
"There's nothing in here," Liu Qingge says impassively, as if they haven't come a long way just to find an apparently empty building.
"Of course not," Shen Qingqiu says. "But somewhere in here is a trigger mechanism for a hidden passage." He looks around. Is there a specific block to press? There isn't much else here and that is the kind of lucky happenstance that's somewhat plausible to accidentally do.
Liu Qingge is also looking around. "If there's a secret passage, it has to be underneath," he says decisively. "The walls are too thin."
And then he drags the two of them out of the building, even though Shen Qingqiu protests. It's not that late! They can start searching now.
Liu Qingge just rolls his eyes and pulls him out of the ruin, drawing Cheng Luan in his free hand and—
A single slash of light flares out and the entire building that has outlasted hundreds of years and who-knows-what disasters crumbles and is thrown backwards under the onslaught of the brute of Bai Zhan Peak. Even the foundation layer is carved away, leaving a depression in the dirt lower than the ground around it.
There is, in the north east corner, a single set of staircases leading down.
Shen Qingqiu looks at the pile of rocks and flying dust and thinks that somewhere a historian is crying. "Well. That's one way to do it," he says.
"The most effective way," Liu Qingge says. "And the fastest."
"I'm not arguing that," Shen Qingqiu says dryly. "I suppose we aren't technically obligated to leave anything standing." If he takes the mirror to Qing Jing Peak, chances are the protagonist will still find it and stash it away. That's probably even less of a plot hole than whatever arc it was that drove him here in PIDW.
No problem, no problem.
He makes his way towards the stairs. The secret basement is still dark and dingy and filled with a few remaining artifacts that they should probably take back to Cang Qiong Mountain. Shen Qingqiu doesn't recall what any of them are supposed to be or do — for all he knows they could just be the forgotten sect's favourite fancy china — and he isn't really interested in finding out.
At the back of the room is the mirror. It's oval, large enough to reflect a head-and-shoulders image. The frame is heavily tarnished but the mirror itself isn't even dusty. It seems to glow in the dimness, as if the reflection has its own light.
"Technically speaking," Shen Qingqiu says to break the oppressive silence. "It isn't a Mirror of Truth as much as a… Mirror of Retrocognition. I suppose that sounds less impressive."
"It shows the past?" Liu Qingge starts to frown. "How is that supposed to help us?" He sounds vaguely suspicious as if Shen Qingqiu has brought him here under false pretences.
"You should look first," Shen Qingqiu says hastily. "Think of some past event."
Liu Qingge glares but — Cheng Luan in hand — steps in front of the mirror. His eyes track over the surface, as if he is watching something. Shen Qingqiu can't see anything himself, which does indicate that each person is going to view the mirror separately.
Probably for the best.
He steps forward and thinks why the hell are we bound together?
The image in the mirror becomes that of the Ling Xi Caves and he gets to watch himself nearly die fighting a qi deviated Liu Qingge and activate the tribulation cables because of a no-good system message.
He glares at it. "What does Liu-shidi see?"
"The ghosts in the well," Liu Qingge says, which means absolutely nothing. What the hell? "What do you see?"
"The Ling Xi Caves," Shen Qingqiu says, "which isn't helpful. I was there! I know what happened!"
He glares furiously at the mirror and thinks explain more, and nearly has a heart attack when the image shifts to something familiar and foreign all at once. His room — not Shen Qingqiu's, his — with his computer and a webpage displaying—
[Which Proud Immortal Demon Way Character Should YOU Marry???]
"Oh, you absolute fucking—"
Furious, he reaches out and shoves the mirror. It tips backwards off the pedestal and shatters on the ground.
Oops.
Shen Qingqiu exhales harshly and retracts his hand. Liu Qingge is staring at him.
He wants to stalk away but he can't because they're stuck together, because of a stupid system and a stupid transmigration and a stupid quiz that he didn't even mean and this is his life now except it isn't, it's Shen Qingqiu's life that he's wearing like a bad set of second hand clothes and he still has to do horrible, plot related things that he doesn't want to and—
And— and now he's supposed to also get married and it isn't even because of Shen Qingqiu it's because of him and how can he tie his life to someone when nothing is even his and everyone has history with the person that he was—
How is that— he doesn't even need it to be fair, he just needs it to be possible and it just isn't—
And he doesn't even know who Liu Qingge is, he wasn't even a character, he just died offscreen and he's known him for less than a week and Liu Qingge pretty much hates him because of things he can't even control—
"Hey. Shen Qingqiu," Liu Qingge states. "Do you remember the mission with the ghost well?"
"No!" Shen Qingqiu snaps, which is probably the wrong answer! He should probably pretend he does. Liu Qingge thought to look it up in the mirror of seeing shit, so it's probably important. He'd come looking for this mirror so he could have some way of looking up previous shit that Shen Qingqiu had done. But right this second he really can't stand it. "I don't care! It's in the past."
Liu Qingge just looks at him, as if he can see the nervous breakdown that Shen Qingqiu is having on the spot. He raises his chin and Shen Qingqiu really can't right now.
"Right," Liu Qingge says. He looks down at their hands. "We didn't understand each other then. I— I was wrong. The debt that I owe, I will repay."
The original goods would probably have cared about that admittance. But Shen Qingqiu… is just tired.
"I don't care," he repeats, hopelessly. "Forget it. Just… forget it all."
"Okay," Liu Qingge acquiesces. He moves their hands until they're clasped together, not just bound, and squeezes. "Those things don't matter anymore. What we are, we can be from here on."
Shen Qingqiu draws a shaking breath. As if it's that easy. But Liu Qingge is blunt and straightforward and probably means it, as much as any person can mean forgetting a mutual past.
What does he do with that? It still doesn't make this his but… maybe a little bit more than it was a minute ago.
He swallows past a sudden lump in his throat and turns his head to the side. His gaze catches on the broken mirror lying on the floor. "We should pack that up and take it back," he says stiffly. "The sect might be able to repair it."
Liu Qingge squeezes his hand again and nods, turning to sweep all the ridiculous artifacts into a qiankun pouch. A single shard of the mirror glass had jumped free of the frame, and Liu Qingge picks it up individually, turning it thoughtfully over in his fingers. "It still works," he says and tucks it into his sleeve.
Probably good for the plot but Shen Qingqiu is a little disappointed at the same time. Maybe nothing can really be changed, even things as inconsequential as breaking a mirror.
But then— well. Liu Qingge is alive isn't he?
That is a change. That has to mean something. This whole… thing is a change — is specifically because of a quiz Shen Yuan took, not something Shen Qingqiu ever did.
Liu Qingge pulls him back onto Cheng Luan and Shen Qingqiu doesn't even protest this time, nor when they fly to a village instead of heading back for Cang Qiong Mountain. It's getting dark now, and it makes sense to go to an inn, even if Shen Qingqiu can't exactly remember how one goes about getting a room in an old timey cultivation setting where you can't just book things on the internet or how much it might cost. Is he even carrying money?
Thankfully, Liu Qingge is useful and knows how. The proprietors of the inn appear in awe of either his commanding aura or his face and they're summarily given the best room and tea and food with such swift efficiency that Shen Qingqiu would normally be impressed.
Isn't it nice to travel with the War God?
Shen Qingqiu drinks his tea and tries not to think about how this is his life now. There's no going back or opting out. He had known that from the moment he had woken up here and the system had been pretty definitive about it. But it was one thing to just have a role in some grand plot and it was another to have…
Connections. Personal investment. Relationships.
Even before transmigrating he hadn't had many of those. Certainly nothing as intense as a marriage. It seems almost a joke to think he's had one dropped onto him now. He has been treating it as a joke — an annoying one, but a joke all the same. Something he could cheat his way around. Fulfil the conditions and go our separate ways.
That's his whole game plan for this life — to complete as much of the plot as the System makes him, and leave himself just enough leeway to survive it afterwards. But if this is meant for him not for Shen Qingqiu, not for the plot…
How can he even think about it? How can he not?
They eat quietly. Even Liu Qingge doesn't break the silence, just playing with the shard of mirror glass until it's time to go to sleep. "Take the bed," he says, "I'll sleep on the floor."
The room does have two beds but they're on opposite sides of the room, which doesn't really work for their magically handcuffed together situation.
"Do what you want," Shen Qingqiu says indifferently. He probably should make some kind of gesture. Offer some kind of olive branch. They had a moment, didn't they? He just isn't sure he wants to.
Liu Qingge watches him with dark, serious eyes for a long moment, then settles hesitantly on the bed next to him. After so many days, his presence feels familiar, as if it isn't strange to have him this close by. They don't touch more than is necessary but there's something almost fragile about the experience — as if Shen Qingqiu could break it just by saying the wrong thing.
He closes his eyes and pretends to sleep.
In the morning, they fly back to Cang Qiong Mountain and hand the qiankun pouch with the artifacts over to the Sect Leader.
"It was already broken when we got there," Shen Qingqiu lies. He feels much more himself today — yesterday was clearly just an embarrassing overreaction. Nothing to be concerned about.
"How disappointing," Yue Qingyuan says as if he totally and absolutely believes it. His eyes still linger over their bound hands. "Did you acquire any useful information?"
"These are used by Yun Hua Sect," Liu Qingge says, gesturing at the cables.
Shen Qingqiu had no idea of that — maybe that had been what Liu Qingge had been working out with the mirror.
"I'll send a missive to ask them about it," Yue Qingyuan says, sounding relieved that there might be some expert that could be consulted about the matter. "I'll inform you when I receive any information."
It's harder to sink back into the normal rhythm of Qing Jing Peak when Shen Qingqiu knows— whatever it is he knows. Training with Liu Qingge doesn't feel like just training and meditating doesn't feel like just meditating and sometimes they even… talk. For purely conversational purposes.
"You're too soft on them," Liu Qingge comments when Shen Qingqiu gives in and ruffles the protagonist's fluffy hair before sending him away.
"Not something I'm often accused of," Shen Qingqiu says. Admittedly, pretty much all the teaching on Qing Jing has been delegated to the senior disciples because… Shen Qingqiu is unfamiliar with whatever it is they're supposed to be teaching. His presence at lessons is mostly just to provide motivational looming. "You will need to return to Bai Zhan Peak at some point to supervise your own disciples, won't you?"
"Not especially," Liu Qingge says, looking more amused than anything. "They're used to me being away."
Shen Qingqiu clicks his tongue. "That's no excuse," he says, which is why they end up heading over to Bai Zhan Peak to see the rowdy disciples. Shen Qingqiu is aware that Bai Zhan disciples tend to give his Qing Jing Peak students trouble, but they've been very, very scarce since Liu Qingge was installed on his peak.
Reason enough to keep him around, says a part of his mind, mostly sarcastic. Even if they do… whatever they're going to do, is Liu Qingge a thing that can be kept? He'll probably be gone more than he's around.
And if that thought makes him equally unsettled—
There is no winning here.
Luckily — or perhaps unluckily — Bai Zhan Peak provides a great distraction. Liu Qingge doesn't do anything as plebian as teach, of course. What he does do is gather all the present disciples onto a training field, draw his sword and say, "I'll only use one hand. Come."
One of the braver — or stupider — disciples makes an aggrieved noise. "Your other hand is attached to another peak lord. That's not exactly a handicap!"
But the Bai Zhan disciples are truly built in the image of their master, because they draw their swords and rush forward en masse.
It's… not as difficult as it should rightfully be. There are many of them and they certainly don't refrain from coming after Shen Qingqiu from all angles, but the difference between a Peak Lord and mere disciples is like night and day. No matter how many attacks are thrown his way, Shen Qingqiu finds he can easily intercept and deflect them. No matter how Liu Qingge moves, Shen Qingqiu finds he can accommodate it, the two of them circling and spiralling around the training field without even a word.
Not just accommodate it; they use each other like anchors, here Shen Qingqiu pulls and Liu Qingge arcs around him to attack an opponent on the other side and here Liu Qingge stands as a pillar of strength that Shen Qingqiu can brace against and here they fight back-to-back and provide no openings to attack. They're in sync, not just overcoming a weakness but having turned it into a strength, a whole new dimension to consider.
Even Shen Qingqiu, who likes fighting the least of anyone in this field, is impressed with them. Liu Qingge looks a little wild, eyes glinting with triumph and hair tossed in the wind. "Work harder," he tells the downed disciples, before turning to Shen Qingqiu. "We need to fight something stronger."
His elation is infectious. Shen Qingqiu is nodding before he really considers that actually no, he doesn't want to fight whatever Liu Qingge considers to be 'stronger'.
Too late. Liu Qingge has already corralled the least injured of the Bai Zhan disciples and sent him to Qiong Ding Peak to request the sect leader send them out. Or possibly just to tell the sect leader that they were going to go, if Bai Zhan Peak thought there was a difference between those two things.
"Not right away," Shen Qingqiu says weakly, flicking his fan open over his face. Ah, Liu-shidi stop smiling. It's too powerful. "We only just got back."
Sect Leader is apparently too used to Liu Qingge charging off on a whim to do much stalling — within a few days he's caved and allowed that the Yin Feng Qiao Du mountains are generally too dangerous for disciples but contain many precious ingredients that Qian Cao Peak requires, if these two Peak Lords could assist…
"We might as well be useful while we're like this," Shen Qingqiu says dryly, accepting the list that Yue Qingyuan hands over. It's very… long. "Who exactly does Mu-shidi think is going to need all of this?"
Is someone dying?
Yue Qingyuan smiles placatingly. "You know Mu-shidi likes to have sufficient stock on hand for emergencies. There's never time to gather it when it's truly needed."
Shen Qingqiu concedes the point and Liu Qingge had stopped paying attention after the words 'too dangerous' probably. He doesn't seem concerned about why they might need to go to a dangerous place or what they're going to do there. Briefly, Shen Qingqiu wonders if Qian Cao Peak ever asks him to do these kinds of collection missions on his own, or if that would just be a waste of breath.
He makes sure they have sufficient supplies and enough qiankun pouches. Some of these ingredients probably shouldn't be stored together! And then, once again, they're faced with travelling.
Liu Qingge jumps, light footed, onto Cheng Luan and holds out his hand.
"I look forward to the day I can fly on my own again," Shen Qingqiu grouses, even as he takes it. He can't even complain that Liu Qingge is a bad driver — his flying is probably better than Shen Qingqiu's who gets both bored and distracted during the flights. "This is undignified."
Liu Qingge makes a soft 'hm' noise, more to indicate he's heard than that he agrees. Then asks, "what else do you look forward to?"
Shen Qingqiu thinks. He can name what he hates about being joined easily, but looking forward implies thinking about how they're going to become unjoined. As if there's a future where it happens and everything goes well. "Having five minutes of solitude," he says instead of anything more serious or embarrassing. "Waking up at a sane hour. You?"
"Training," Liu Qingge says, seriously.
Shen Qingqiu huffs. "Why did I even ask. After that?"
Liu Qingge pauses, as if seriously thinking about it. "More training," he says sagely. There's enough curl of amusement in his voice that Shen Qingqiu knows he did it on purpose.
"I will shove you off this sword," he threatens, without making any moves to do any such thing. It would just pull him off too, anyway, even if he somehow managed to win such a grappling match.
Liu Qingge just laughs.
The Yin Feng Qiao Du mountains are twin peaks covered in an astonishing number of waterfalls that make it look silvery and mist-covered. The water is, of course, rich in spiritual energy, which makes it a good spot for cultivators to visit. It means the foliage that grows here is far more likely to have strong medicinal properties. It also means all the monsters are very dangerous and terrifying.
A real end game dungeon! No underleveled characters allowed!
"Ready?" Liu Qingge asks, body nearly vibrating with excitement.
"If I say no— is that a Five Star Jade Dragon?!" The green snake-like body comes roaring out of the mists, snarling and twisting in the air and Shen Qingqiu calls Xiu Ya to hand. He leaps, fluttering lightly in the air, just as Liu Qingge does the same and Cheng Luan flips up from beneath them to come down in an overhead slash of devastating power.
"Try not to destroy the mountain!" he calls. "It will be very difficult to find these herbs if you do!"
And even like this, even falling through the sky, the two of them are like blades of light that slice the Jade Dragon to pieces before they hit the ground.
"It's good," Liu Qingge says, kicking the body over to examine some of the cuts. "I've fought one before. I couldn't slice through the hide then. Too tough."
They've definitely sliced through the hide. They've nearly decapitated the poor thing. It really hadn't stood a chance.
"We're stronger now," Liu Qingge adds, as if Shen Qingqiu hadn't got the implication.
"That was the intention, wasn't it," Shen Qingqiu says and it feels like a deflection. As if he's trying to avoid acknowledging that they have made… progress.
The fight Diving Flesh Eating Cranes. They fight Diamond Shelled Water Crabs. They fight some kind of weird seaweed arms that neither of them recognise. They fight a horde of Red Black Fire Ants that Shen Qingqiu shreds with spiritual energy infused grass blades. They fight a Stampeding Tiger Elk which just looks horrifying.
But it's… kind of fun. To reach for those really high level cultivation techniques and pull them off. To experiment with what he can really do. To not have to worry about protecting students or getting them eaten by skin stealing demons.
"I think these were on the list," Shen Qingqiu says when they find a meadow full of wildflowers bobbing in the breeze. "The red ones, anyway. Rosy Cloud Fairy Maiden Flower." Probably. He's not a flower expert. If they're the wrong flower, they're the wrong flower and Qian Cao Peak will just have to accept that.
They quietly collect as many as they can stuff into a qiankun pouch and Shen Qingqiu gently examines the rest of the flowers. Most of them just look like… flowers, but some of them have the shine of cultivation to them. Some of them just look weird and unearthly and that's neat in its own way.
"Here," Liu Qingge says and shoves a bundle into his hands before turning away and staring fixedly into the distance.
"You found more?" Shen Qingqiu says, a touch distracted. "Oh, these aren't—" they're white and green, like his Qing Jing robes. Not medicinal at all. Just flowers.
That Liu Qingge picked and gave to him.
He opens his mouth and closes it again, wordless. What is he supposed to do with that? What is he supposed to do with these?
In the end, he shoves the flower stems into his belt and coughs. "Let's go look for something else," he says, flicking his fan open to cover his face. "There's a whole list of things to find."
The trip is wildly productive in the sense that they return with more ingredients and monster parts than Qian Cao is really prepared for. They've tested their abilities and discovered how much they've increased. Mission complete, good work all round.
And yet. Liu Qingge keeps glancing at the flowers that are tucked into Shen Qingqiu's belt. Shen Qingqiu keeps touching them, like someone who has never been given flowers before. They're sorry and bedraggled by the time they make it back to Qing Jing Peak and he still sticks them in a vase with water.
And he has to do all this with Liu Qingge right there and no room to sit and think about anything. Not that there's anything to think about!
It would just be easier if he had some space.
In the morning, Liu Qingge shakes him awake at an unholy hour. He hasn't gone back to sleeping on the floor, ever since that day in the inn, but that doesn't make Shen Qingqiu any more pleased to be woken up so early.
"We should fight," Liu Qingge says as he bullies Shen Qingqiu out onto the training fields with his bullheaded forcefulness.
"Isn't that what we've been doing?" Shen Qingqiu asks, irritated.
Liu Qingge huffs. "Fight each other," he clarifies. "Not fight together."
Shen Qingqiu squints at him and tugs on their wrists. "How exactly do you envision that will go?" he asks dryly. "We can't exactly separate."
"I don't know. Let's find out," Liu Qingge says. He seems excited enough by the idea that Shen Qingqiu agrees to humour him — as long as it's without swords.
It's… silly mostly, more likely to be described as playing than truly fighting. There's very little distance they can get from each other, spinning back and forth across the grass, and any attack they make with their bound hands can just as easily be countered.
In the end, Shen Qingqiu manages to trip Liu Qingge with a pulse of spiritual energy beneath his feet, tipping him backwards onto the grass. Liu Qingge's eyes go wide with startlement and he tugs hard enough that Shen Qingqiu is pulled down after him.
They both pause.
Shen Qingqiu swallows harshly. He's basically straddling Liu Qingge — no, no basically about it, he is straddling Liu Qingge. Who is on his back with his fine, dark hair spread out around him, looking up at Shen Qingqiu with wide, dark eyes. Their bound hand is pressed into the ground near his shoulder, as if he's being pinned down, though obviously he isn't—
Liu Qingge reaches up and, instead of shoving him off, rests his free hand on Shen Qingqiu's hip. Lightly, with no force, yet it still feels like a hot brand.
Shen Qingqiu swallows again and thinks — he could just lean down. This is a moment, it's such a moment that even he can recognise it, and—
It's not that he doesn't want to. Liu Qingge is possibly the most beautiful person he's ever seen — attraction isn't the issue here! It's not that Liu Qingge wouldn't let him, either. There are signals being given here. Very clear signals that Shen Qingqiu is positive he isn't misinterpreting.
But it still—
He exhales harshly and rolls to the side, until he too is lying in the grass. It's wet. And cold. And immediately seeps through his robes and is probably staining them with grass stains that will make the laundry people very mad at him.
"Why—" he says and then has to try and find words for a question he doesn't even know how to ask. He doesn't even know what it is he needs answered.
Liu Qingge laces their fingers together and squeezes his hand. "It..." he starts, like someone who is very carefully picking their words. "It's better like this," he says finally.
"So simple," Shen Qingqiu says, but—
Doesn't that just cut right to the heart of it? What things should be, what they have been, who he even is and how much of this life is his, what the consequences will be and if this will change the plot and if it matters if it changes the plot…
Is it better like this or not?
And, even with the ridiculous morning wake ups and the bickering and the flying-on-the-same-sword nonsense… of course it is. He's stronger. He has someone by his side that is even stronger still. He's in a strange world with strange customs and there's someone that isn't bothered by them in the slightest — who fears nothing anyway. Who will take the most direct path and cut through a building or a monster or bullshit.
If he went back to being alone—
If he went back to being lonely—
Finally, he squeezes Liu Qingge's hand back. "It's better like this," he agrees softly. No matter how simple the words are, it feels like he's agreeing to something far more.
The golden light binding their hands together flares bright, illuminating the whole training field for a moment and making the air hum with untold power. It lances up into the sky like a lightning bolt in reverse, before plummeting back down and striking them both.
Shen Qingqiu throws out a hand, as if to catch it or stop it — but it doesn't burn or electrocute. It's just pure energy flooding into them both.
For a moment, he feels—
Transcendent. As if he truly is some immortal being, connected to the entire world and the eddies and flows of time and space. As if could peel the world apart and rearrange it to his whims.
And then it fades and he's just Shen Qingqiu, brimming with more strength than he has ever had before.
Liu Qingge is on his feet, Cheng Luan in hand, and glowing with the same kind of strength. They look at each other, eyes wide, in a moment of pure what the fuck was that.
[Congratulations! Quest: A Tribulation of Matrimony successfully completed!] The System dings at him and the sound of wedding bells rings out in loud celebration. Shen Qingqiu is mostly sure that he's the only one that can hear them.
"Huh," Liu Qingge says, sheathing his sword. He holds out his hand — his totally free, unhindered hand. "So easy."
"What about any of that was easy?" Shen Qingqiu bites, taking the offered hand and allowing Liu Qingge to pull him to his feet. Allowing Liu Qingge to pull him in close, once he's on his feet.
Liu Qingge searches his face, as though looking for some kind of answer. As if he might have changed his decision in the last thirty seconds, now that they're free of the tribulation cables.
"Oh shut up," Shen Qingqiu says and, before he can second guess himself anymore, kisses him.
That feels like lightning too.