Chapter Text
XXX
With Yue Qingyuan removed from Shen Jiu's already-sparse list of reasons to stay at Cang Qiong, there was a very solid opportunity available for him.
He'd been trying to think of a way to catch Luo Binghe red-handed with some indisputable proof of his intentions. But if Shen Jiu wasn't planning on sticking around, he didn't actually need to be so worried about it.
Mainly because, with Yue Qingyuan's obsessive tendencies, it was obvious that Shen Jiu would never be allowed to simply 'walk away' from Cang Qiong.
His options were effectively: to escape into the night and be forever hunted by Yue Qingyuan and any Peak Lords he could recruit into helping, or to kill Yue Qingyuan and escape into the night and be forever hunted by the other Peak Lords for the sake of vengeance, or to fake his own death.
One of those options was a lot more feasible than the others.
And if Shen Jiu was faking his death, he didn't need to actually catch Luo Binghe red-handed, as long as he made sure that the clues surrounding his death led straight to Luo Binghe in the aftermath.
After all, if an investigation was launched and Luo Binghe was found guilty for murdering a Peak Lord – his own shizun at that – the boy was definitely going to be executed for it.
So, all Shen Jiu really needed to do was find a way to fake his own death, and then somehow make sure that an investigation was actually launched.
The first step was a bit finicky, but Shen Jiu wasn't the Peak Lord of Qing Jing for no reason. He knew plenty of ways to create 'fake bodies', and though most of those wouldn't hold up to an actual investigation by cultivators, he did have at least one very promising option. The Sun and Moon Dew Flower.
After all, nobody would be able to classify the body as 'fake' when it was Shen Jiu's actual body that was left dead on the floor. And then Shen Jiu would be 'reborn' into the body that the flower created for him, allowing him to go about his life without any real drawbacks.
Well, it wouldn't be his body anymore, but it wouldn't be the first time Orochimaru lived like that, and it had some useful additions. After all, it shouldn't be difficult to modify the flower-body enough that Shen Jiu wouldn't actually look like Shen Jiu.
It'd be massively inconvenient to go to all of that trouble of faking his own death, only for someone to stumble across him and recognize his face, ruining all of his hard work.
That only left actually tracking down the Sun and Moon Dew Flower Seed, which was... not the easiest of tasks, but certainly not impossible. And then all Shen Jiu needed to do was to make sure that Shen Jiu's death was investigated, and that all of the clues pointed towards Luo Binghe.
Considering how Shen Jiu was forcing his students to learn 'basic forensics' and investigation-techniques, and that Luo Binghe was definitely going to make another attempt at forcing a qi-deviation on Shen Jiu with an incense-stick?
Honestly, it should be child's play.
Provided that none of the people to first arrive on the scene completely ruined everything.
Shen Jiu sighed, deciding to create a false diary that he could use to aim a bunch of suspicion towards Luo Binghe. Just in case everyone at Cang Qiong were simply too stupid to live.
Or maybe he could sell the diary as a thing he only created because his 'perfect memory' suddenly started to deteriorate after his most recent qi-deviation? It'd save him the hassle of trying to back-date events for the last couple of decades at least, and it'd explain why he was writing a diary when so many others wouldn't have bothered.
A neat solution all around, though if he used it to aim suspicion towards Luo Binghe there was good odds that anyone reading it would simply assume that Shen Jiu was just being overly paranoid because his memory was failing and he wanted someone to blame for it.
Thankfully, Yue Qingyuan was an obsessive bastard, and even if the evidence were slim there was a very real possibility that the rage of having his 'prized possession' stolen from him would stop him from thinking all too critically about it.
Between an enraged Yue Qingyuan and a talented but lazy disciple of Qing Jing? Shen Jiu sincerely doubted that anyone would be able to actually stop Yue Qingyuan before he murdered the boy.
It was such a nice feeling, watching a plan come together.
XXX
Shen Jiu couldn't exactly rely on a mission taking him in the rough direction of his destination, nor could he trust anyone with what that destination was or why.
The first thought was some kind of pretend-harvesting mission, where Shen Jiu simply claimed that he'd heard of an interesting plant and would be checking it out. But expressing that kind of clear interest could reveal his intentions to someone trying to backtrack his movements after his death, and even if he at this point honestly doubted that anyone in Cang Qiong had enough brain-cells to rub together between them, he knew better than to take risks.
No, he needed a plausible excuse to be in the area. An excuse that would become even more plausible in the aftermath of his 'death'.
And wouldn't you know it, there was a certain plant that grew... not that far away from his actual goal. A plant that just so happened to – when turned into a tea – help combat memory-loss.
Of course, his stated reason for going on a trip wasn't at all related to those plants, but instead an excuse of investigating something from a book. It wouldn't really hold up to scrutiny, but that was sort of the point.
Shen Jiu obviously wasn't telling anyone about his deteriorating memory, but it'd be blatantly obvious what his supposed 'actual goal' with his trip was. Especially since he'd be able to bring back those plants and start brewing them into teas.
Anyone digging through his belongings in his house would easily stumble across them, and be able to draw exactly the kind of conclusions about Shen Jiu's motives that Shen Jiu wanted them to draw.
A good secret was one hidden by a much more plausible secret.
It still took some doing to find a reasonable time to leave the mountain, since his disciples continued to be laughably incompetent and Liu Qingge was still on the war-path.
Contrary to Shen Jiu's belief when they'd first crossed blades after his qi-deviation, Liu Qingge hadn't actually adapted to Shen Jiu's fighting-style at all.
As in, at all .
Shen Jiu had kneed him in the groin three times now, each time with the exact same result.
Oh, the man would be a lot warier about protecting his groin in the immediate aftermath of one of their 'spars', but then Shen Jiu would do something else 'underhanded' and he'd seemingly forget all about the risks for groin-attacks.
It was ridiculous. Did the Bai Zhan cultivation-style include scooping out the cultivator's brain and putting it in a jar somewhere where it wouldn't get in the way? Surely the man couldn't be so breathtakingly stupid without some kind of third-party interference?
Regardless, Liu Qingge was still just as offended to lose to Shen Jiu's 'dirty tactics'. Tactics that included everything from groin-attacks, hits to nerve-clusters, sand that was kicked up into the man's eyes, deflecting his sword-strikes instead of trying to block them fully like an idiot, and one memorable occasion of tripping him with a bit of string.
Specifically, Liu Qingge had ambushed him when he'd been teaching his disciples some embroidery-techniques, and with a technique that borrowed heavily from a shinobi-puppeteer's chakra-strings, Shen Jiu had sent the man straight into the dirt.
He'd then continued his lesson, scolding his students for being distracted by 'the wind' whenever they glanced too often at Liu Qingge's still-prone form.
Acupuncture was a fascinating subject, and Shen Jiu didn't mind sacrificing a few sewing-needles in order to demonstrate its effectiveness.
Regardless, between teaching, Liu Qingge's continued harassment, and Yue Qingyuan calling meetings in order to publicly scold Shen Jiu for not losing the fights, Shen Jiu had a very busy schedule.
Thankfully, since all of his disciples were hopeless idiots anyway, Shen Jiu didn't mind skipping out on a few more of those lessons.
Which finally landed him at the edge of Huan Hua territory, in a grotto, in front of a lake that brimmed with spiritual energy, and with a snake-demon lingering on the edge.
Shen Jiu wasn't fond of demons, but there was a certain level of nostalgia with snakes. And the demon had led him to this place, so Shen Jiu didn't mind repaying them.
A favor for a favor, he handed the snake-demon a few of the seeds, and then continued on his own way.
It might complicate things if the demon at some point blabbed about Shen Jiu's presence here, but it wasn't like they knew him by name, and the odds of a demon deciding to tell a cultivator anything of importance was roughly slim-to-none. Doubly so when a favorable transaction had taken place.
No, Shen Jiu's secret was safe.
Now he just needed to plant the seeds, feed them his qi, brew some memory-restoring teas, write some incriminating things in a notebook, and then wait for Luo Binghe to sabotage his incense once more.
Shen Jiu blinked as he climbed onto his sword, suddenly reminded. Yes, Xiu Ya would need to be dealt with as well.
A spiritual sword would be able to recognize its owner, and it might showcase 'signs of life' that would unravel his ruse. But it wasn't unheard of for one to shatter at the moment of death.
He'd just have to break the sword prior to lighting the sabotaged incense. But if he was going for something that dramatic then... Hmm... He might as well go all the way, no?
XXX
Everything had been going perfectly.
Luo Binghe had managed to slip in another stick of sabotaged incense. This time he'd manage to get his nice shizun for sure.
It'd been going so smoothly, and Luo Binghe had even been sensible enough to make sure that he wouldn't be the person who found shizun in his bamboo-house. That would after all make him officially linked to the man's qi-deviation. And this way he'd be able to clear out any leftover evidence when shizun was moved to Qian Cao to recover.
It was perfect and easy and-...
And what do you mean shizun is dead?
Shizun can't be dead. Shizun is supposed to become nice and gentle to Luo Binghe. Shizun can't be dead.
And there were Peak Lords in the bamboo-house, going through shizun's things as if they had any right-!
Luo Binghe tried to look, but-...
There was tea on the floor, along with the shards of a sword, and shizun's beautiful body was stretched out, his hand gripping what must've been a still-burning incense-stick. His beautiful hand was blackened with burns. There was a book on the table, as if shizun had been in the middle of writing something whilst meditating with the incense.
But shizun couldn't be dead.
Luo Binghe's beautiful gentle shizun-... He'd worked so hard! He'd done everything he could to make shizun into that kindhearted shizun! Shizun couldn't be dead! He couldn't be!
“Luo Binghe.” The voice was flat. Hollow. Empty.
Luo Binghe turned towards the speaker.
Yue Qingyuan held the book in his hands, but no, he'd dropped the book. Yue Qingyuan was holding his drawn sword in his hands.
Luo Binghe understood.
He'd been discovered.
But he couldn't fight against Yue Qingyuan. Not without more power. Not without-... Yes! Xin Mo! With Xin Mo, Luo Binghe should be able to do anything! Like bring shizun back to life! To make him into a kind and gentle shizun!
Luo Binghe shouldn't have been able to fail, but he wasn't foolish. He'd set up a talisman just in case he needed to get away, in case someone tried to get between his and his shizun's love.
Shizun wasn't available right now, but with Yue Qingyuan bearing down on him with murderous intent, Luo Binghe made the wise choice to cut and run.
So he ran. Straight into the Endless Abyss, the mark on his forehead blazing like a sun.
XXX
Liu Qingge wasn't sure what to think.
He'd always hated Shen Qingqiu. Spoiled and underhanded and lazy, the man seemed to revel in his dishonorable conduct, and Liu Qingge wanted to punch him in the face for it.
In that sense, it was strange that news of his death made it feel like someone had pulled the rug out from underneath him. He-...
Liu Qingge didn't really know what to think about Shen Qingqiu being dead. He'd never really wanted the man dead , just to have him stop behaving so inappropriately for his station.
Even if his recent string of humiliating losses – because of Shen Qingqiu's continued expansion of dishonorable tactics – made that 'dislike' more visceral than it'd been since they were disciples and expected to get along.
There'd been several years where they'd barely even seen each other, and those times were for the best. It was frustrating to hear that Shen Qingqiu continued behaving like he did even outside of Liu Qingge's view. But not having to interact with the man made him far more tolerable.
But again, the idea of Shen Qingqiu just... dying?
It seemed impossible. He was an immortal, wasn't he? What had been doing, lazing about reading pointless books instead of properly cultivating?! Useless scum of a man!
But then came the news that followed. Of one of Shen Qingqiu's disciples having sabotaged the man's incense in order to try to kill him through a qi-deviation. A disciple that fled from an enraged Yue Qingyuan using some kind of talisman. A disciple who showed himself to be part-demon during his escape.
A disciple who was heard shouting about some kind of delusion about a “warm and gentle shizun” that he would somehow “make happen” and “keep all to himself”.
On that front, he couldn't even blame Yue Qingyuan for trying to kill the despicably unfilial beast, rather than properly investigate if he was truly responsible. He'd practically admitted it in full view of the public, after all.
Liu Qingge was a bit more upset that Yue Qingyuan had actually deigned to draw his never-drawn sword against a disciple, when he wouldn't even use it during his rare spars with Liu Qingge. But again, that all came a distant second to-...
To whatever feelings he was feeling in regards to Shen Qingqiu being... dead.
What was Liu Qingge supposed to be feeling right now?
XXX
Qi Qingqi was upset.
First, there'd been the death of an immortal Peak Lord. Second, there'd been Shen Qingqiu's disciple turning out to be a part-demon trying to murder the man. Third, when everyone – except Yue Qingyuan – had calmed down somewhat from that, they found Shen Qingqiu's diary.
Or rather, they started actually reading the diary that they'd found.
Shen Qingqiu's most recent qi-deviation had apparently impacted his memory. He'd started forgetting important things, faces, names, relationships. But, Shen Qingqiu being his usual prickly self, he'd obviously refused to tell anyone about that.
Nevermind that Mu Qingfang could probably have fixed the problem in an afternoon. No, the arrogant lecher was the Peak Lord of Qing Jing, obviously he didn't need anyone's help.
Regardless, Shen Qingqiu's solution was to simply write everything down. As much as he could remember about his life. And important things like how many grudges he was holding onto, just to make sure that he wouldn't forget to be a spiteful bastard.
Qi Qingqi couldn't exactly say that she was surprised, because of course he did that. Heavens forbid that the man get on with his life, instead of constantly trying to find reason to be offended.
Except, when Qi Qingqi actually sat down to read the thing – purely out of morbid curiosity – there was-...
There was a lot.
A lot of it read as simply summarizing cliff-notes, less of a 'voice' and more a few concise statements of facts.
Born a slave, slave-brother Yue Qingyuan, sold to the Qiu-household, Yue Qingyuan promised to hurry back and free me, waited for over a year, an arranged pretend-marriage with Qiu Haitang that would never happen, Qiu Jianluo wanted to rape his sister, killed him, burned the Qiu-household, saved Qiu Haitang, joined Wu Yanzi, ruined my cultivation, found Yue Qingyuan, killed Wu Yanzi, joined Cang Qiong-...
The list just kept going. Simple and matter-of-fact, as if it didn't completely upend everything they knew about him. Shen Qingqiu had been a slave ? What? And his history with Yue Qingyuan was because Yue Qingyuan didn't return to free him?
There was also a lot of things in there that she had no context for, but considering that it was written for Shen Qingqiu himself, who was also terrified of apparently losing the context of these memories, those moments were few and far in between.
It also included wonderful nuggets such as apparently the entire life-history of several dozen prostitutes, as well as everything that Shen Qingqiu had done to try to make their lives a little bit better, and how there was 'always an empty bed for him to sleep in there'. As if that made any sense at all, because Shen Qingqiu clearly shouldn't need to be leaving his Peak in order to sleep .
Actually, digging a bit deeper into that mess left Qi Qingqi feeling distinctly horrified, because she'd happily spread rumors about the man's lecherous ways in order to keep her disciples from getting too close to him. Only to find out that he apparently considered the prostitutes as sisters more than anything else, and would visit them because managing to help at least them seemed to bring him some kind of reassurance that he wasn't useless and didn't only cause harm to everyone around him.
Which was apparently something that Shen Qingqiu had been emotionally struggling with for decades, because that's part of what Qi Qingqi had happily told him straight to his face .
And she wasn't the only one. The diary described actions that ranged from Mu Qingfang neglecting to send proper aid for injuries on Qing Jing, to An Ding explicitly slicing apart their budget. There was even a bit of statistic that showed that the monetary budget for Qing Jing was barely a fraction of what it'd been before they'd become Peak Lords, whereas the budget for several other Peaks had ballooned to ridiculous levels.
Not to mention Liu Qingge interrupting lessons in order to ambush Shen Qingqiu, only to immediately 'cry foul' at Shen Qingqiu for fighting back – seemingly regardless of what means he used to do so. And how literally all of the other Peaks would happily blame Shen Qingqiu for things that he'd apparently specifically warned them about.
As if it was his fault that they hadn't listened to his advice.
There was also a bunch of frustrations expressed towards Yue Qingyuan effectively treating him like a child. Something to indulge, but not something to rely or listen to. Finally culminating in a single notation that 'Yue Qingyuan would never listen' and that he would 'continue to treat him like a misbehaving pet'.
Which was-... Honestly, it actually came pretty close to some of the things that Qi Qingqi had seen, in hindsight.
And the more she read the more it was blatantly obvious why Shen Qingqiu had rejected the idea of going to Mu Qingfang with his problem without even considering it.
He didn't trust any of them, because they'd stomped on that trust, spat him in the face, insulted him and innocent people he saw as sisters, and then been offended at him for daring to insult them back.
In the eyes of Shen Qingqiu, Mu Qingfang would likely have happily erased more of Shen Qingqiu's memories, just to make him 'easier to deal with'.
And the fact that Qi Qingqi could look at that assumption and realize that she couldn't actually claim it to be completely ridiculous was-...
What the hell had they been doing all of these years?
XXX
During the years that Zhuzhi Lang spent waiting for Tianlang-jun's body to become viable, Zhuzhi Lang heard a great many things about the funeral.
Immortal Peak Lords were... well, immortal. And whilst it was possible that one might die in battle against demons or demonic cultivators, it was generally assumed that someone at that level would inevitably ascend, not die.
So the funeral of Shen Qingqiu became quite the talking-point among the cultivation-world. And Zhuzhi Lang was good at getting into hidden places and listening to gossip. Zhuzhi Lang also had a more personal reason to keep an ear out for mentions of the man's name.
Shen Qingqiu had given him the ability to revive his uncle. To free him from his imprisonment after the cultivation-sects had so unjustly ambushed him.
And it was easy to find rumors about the man, because there were a lot of rumors about Shen Qingqiu's death and funeral. Such as his death being the fault of a deliberate murder-attempt by one of his own disciples, who turned out to be a demon in disguise, and who fled Cang Qiong through some kind of talisman. But the funeral itself had apparently been quite the spectacle as well.
Something about a woman trying to decry Shen Qingqiu as an 'escaped slave and murderer', only to be tossed out on her nose for her ungratefulness at having been 'saved from a life of incestuous rape'.
Zhuzhi Lang didn't know the details, and he honestly didn't care overly much. Especially considering how busy he became when he realized that Tianlang-jun's new plant-body kept deteteriorating.
Apparently, the Sun and Moon Dew Flower was a purely spiritual plant, and reacted to demonic qi as if it was poison. Which was infuriating, because Zhuzhi Lang had never heard anything about that.
But considering the timing of Shen Qingqiu's death, Zhuzhi Lang was certain that the man had arranged his own death. Zhuzhi Lang didn't know why he'd done so, and there was no reason to speculate. What he did know was that if that was the case, then surely Shen Qingqiu – former Peak Lord of the scholarly peak of Cang Qiong – who had clearly investigated the plant for his own sake, would know something about how to fix it.
So Zhuzhi Lang went looking.
And found him. Or rather, he was found by him.
Shen Qingqiu's face was different, his skin paler, and he'd kept such a tight rein on his qi-presence that Zhuzhi Lang hadn't been able to even guess that he was a cultivator until Shen Qingqiu had greeted him with a “hello again, little snake”.
Apparently, the plant-body could be modified to avoid looking 'too similar' to the original body. Which made it a lot easier to remain anonymous, with the drawback of having to wear an 'unfamiliar face'.
Shen Qingqiu didn't seem bothered by that at all though, and simply smiled at Zhuzhi Lang when he hesitantly asked about it.
More importantly, upon being told about what had happened to the plant-body that Zhuzhi Lang had prepared for his uncle, Shen Qingqiu gracefully agreed to see if there was anything he could do to help.
XXX
His reflection was nostalgic, but even so it wasn't quite the face that he'd once worn. Not that it overly mattered, considering how Orochimaru had spent large portions of his life wearing someone else's face.
It was only vaguely reminiscent of Shen Jiu, which was what he'd wanted.
He'd toyed with a few possible new names for himself, and had finally settled on 'Liao Ye'. A simple enough name, which could easily imply 'to discard a leaf', which seemed... poetically appropriate.
He doubted that he'd manage to actually use it to refer to himself within the next few decades, but it should at least be useful for introducing himself as someone completely unrelated to Shen Qingqiu.
Still, he wasn't opposed to helping a polite snake-demon who'd apparently managed to find out his former name after their brief encounter. Especially when it promised to be as intriguing as a unique plant-body somehow managing to poison itself with the very same energies that it fed upon.
Which was how Shen Jiu was first introduced to Tianlang-jun. The demon-lord that the entire cultivation-world united against in order to defeat, and who they still only ever managed to 'seal away' rather than kill outright.
Because apparently that's what Shen Jiu's help towards the snake demon – Zhuzhi Lang – had resulted in. Oops.
Still, Shen Jiu couldn't really claim that he was overly concerned about it.
Tianlang-jun managed to fake politeness well enough, but Shen Jiu could see the hatred festering inside of him very clearly. And even if the man decided to murder all of the cultivators in the world-... No, that would cause some problems for Shen Jiu too.
Cultivators were needed to keep people from getting killed by various monsters and spirits, and simply removing them all wholesale would likely result in the near-extinction of the human race. Which would be inconvenient.
It also wasn't unlikely that Shen Jiu's karma would be negatively effected by having been something of an instigating party in that. And he really didn't want any more negative karma.
Which was why Shen Jiu demanded that Tianlang-jun explain to him the entire sequence of events.
And then-...
“So, you fell in love with a cultivator, married her, she went back to her sect temporarily, and then suddenly sent you some deceitful letters that led you into an ambush.” Shen Jiu stared at the man, feeling more than a bit disgusted. “Are you stupid?”
Tianlang-jun bristled, his demonic-qi flaring up only to immediately wince as it deteriorated his body further. “She betrayed me!”
“Su Xiyan, the Head Disciple of Huan Hua, and infamously favored by the Old Palace Master; went back to her sect to tell the Old Palace Master that she was marrying a demon.” Shen Jiu was developing a headache. “And you let her? And now you're upset that she sent you some mean letters that were definitely written by her? Did your mother suffocate you as a toddler until your brain stopped developing?”
Tianlang-jun gritted his teeth. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that she was obviously imprisoned within her sect for colluding with demons, and then the Old Palace Master wrote a bunch of letters designed to screw you over.” Shen Jiu rubbed his temples. “This isn't a complicated scenario. These are the kind of petty little lies that anyone with the vaguest understanding of human nature would be able to see through within an hour.”
Tianlang-jun's mouth dropped open, and he stared at Shen Jiu with wide eyes-... Wide eyes that were beginning to glisten ominously with tears. “You mean-... You mean my beautiful Su Xiyan didn't betray me?”
Shen Jiu sighed. This was going to be a long day.
XXX
“I still want them dead.”
“Who? The cultivators that conspired against you? The sects that united against a common foe? All cultivators? The regular humans who'd inevitably go extinct without the monster-slaying support of their cultivators?”
Tianlang-jun glared at him. “The sects!”
Shen Jiu tilted his head. “Why?”
“They turned on me, and left Su Xiyan to die!”
“They listened to a fellow cultivator who 'cried wolf'.” Shen Jiu corrected absently. “As long as the cultivator making the claim has the slightest bit of presumed integrity, a human will always be believed over a demon. That's simply human nature. It won't change even if you kill and replace those sects a thousand times over.”
Tianlang-jun stared at him, stunned for a moment, before recovering. “Then I'll just stop new sects from forming!”
“How?” Shen Jiu raised an eyebrow at him. “The sects formed because they were needed. A power-vacuum existed, and organized cultivators were required.” Shen Jiu shook his head. “If you want to do away with the sects, you'll have to do away with all cultivators, and by extension all of the humans that they begrudgingly protect.”
Tianlang-jun stared at him for another long moment, before cursing and turning on his heel in order to storm back out.
Leaving Shen Jiu to his qi-experiments.
XXX
Qi was a fascinating thing. And also absurd, and likely incredibly misunderstood.
Sunlight produced yang-qi, and yet moonlight produced yin-qi. This despite the fact that the only difference between moonlight and sunlight was the slight phase-shift that came about from the sun's rays reflecting off of the moon's surface.
By all accounts, this meant that there was no actual difference between 'yang' and 'yin'. Qi was qi, and the different 'elements' related to it were-... Honestly, chakra was probably an easy comparison.
There were people with fire-nature chakra who had a very easy time learning fire-ninjutsu, but even they could start spitting out water-ninjutsu if they were willing to expend the effort. It'd be extremely inefficient, but it was also not really a complicated process.
You just... artificially shifted the chakra into a different form than what came naturally to you.
In that sense, the difference between spiritual-qi and demonic-qi would be-... Shen Jiu honestly didn't really know how to describe it.
A human couldn't produce demonic-qi, and a demon couldn't produce spiritual-qi. There wasn't really a comparison with chakra that actually worked. Unless you wanted to lean on bloodline-limits, but that was still just chakra.
Having said that, Tianlang-jun's new body made no sense at all.
The Sun and Moon Dew Flower had created a body molded around the demon's qi, and yet it deteriorated from that very qi? It'd be like saying that a flower relied on the sun, but that it would immediately wither during the day.
Well, no. In a regular flower, that could be explained by it not having been evolved for a specific environment. A flower designed to survive on the forest-floor under a thick canopy, would naturally wither away if placed in the middle of a blazing desert.
No, it was more as if the flower had adapted to producing a poison that immediately killed itself.
Just-... How ? How did that make any sense at all?
He must be missing something about the differences between spiritual- and demonic-qi. Or was-...
Shen Jiu paused, then sent his qi into Tianlang-jun's body again, cataloging what it could find.
It was.
The plant-body had effectively given itself an autoimmune-disorder. It was classifying parts of itself as 'dangerous', and attacking it, withering the body as a side-effect.
So, all that Shen Jiu needed to do was... convince the plant-body that demonic-qi wasn't dangerous.
Huh. Well, if his forays into doing much the same for chakra-implants carried over into this field too, then this should take him... maybe an hour?
Too bad, he'd been enjoying having a volunteer to experiment on.
XXX
Shen Jiu didn't really mind Tianlang-jun using his new healthy body to murder the Old Palace Master.
Certainly, it was possible that being so adjacent to a murder would effect Shen Jiu's karma negatively, but-... Well, the man had imprisoned Tianlang-jun and murdered both his wife and his unborn child. If anything, Tianlang-jun murdering the man in retaliation – and possibly cutting a bloody swathe through the Huan Hua that supported him – was also a form of karma.
It was also interesting to see how Tianlang-jun's beliefs of vengeance differed so thoroughly from the 'avenger' that was-... Honestly, that boy had probably been his favorite student in any of his lifetimes.
And not only because Orochimaru had managed to dodge most all of the consequences of his own actions by temporarily allying himself with the boy. He'd also been clever, driven, and had somehow managed to dodge the pitfall that was how ideologically boring Orochimaru's usually fanatical minions tended to become.
Oh, Uchiha Sasuke had been plenty annoying in his own way, but there was a certain level of amused delight in finding that he'd once again managed to not-kill someone. A ninja with a code against killing, how mindbogglingly silly. Especially considering how dedicated he was to kill the person responsible for the deaths of his family.
Yes, there was admittedly not a great deal of competition for the title of 'best student' in his current life, considering the level of complete incompetence involved. But there honestly wasn't a lot of competition even in his former life.
It was really hard to be 'proud' of someone who spent most of their time on their knees, simpering about how much of a wonderful genius Orochimaru was.
And then there was Luo Binghe, who was probably easily his most detested student in both lives.
Shen Jiu grimaced slightly at the thought of those covetous eyes.
He'd heard from Zhuzhi Lang that Luo Binghe had turned out to be a part-demon who'd fled from the sect when Shen Jiu had framed him for his death, and that really didn't make it any better. Creepy little bastard should just drop dead somewhere.
XXX
Yue Qingyuan received a call for help from Huan Hua Palace.
A demon was attacking them. In fact, a very well-known demon was attacking them.
Tianlang-jun, freed from his imprisonment.
Tianlang-jun who had required all of the sects to work together in order to so much as scratch him, and who'd been planning to declare war on all of humanity. Now free to roam the world.
Suddenly, the memory of two faces overlapped in Yue Qingyuan's mind. The same mark on their foreheads, the same half-maddened expression-...
Of course. That's where he'd run off to.
Luo Binghe had killed his own shizun, and then used all of the knowledge from Qing Jing's impressive library to free his father.
That accursed demon-spawn-!
Yue Qingyuan was already on his travel-sword before he called out to the other Peak Lords that they were rushing to Huan Hua's aid.
Because surely, the father would know where the son had ran off to afterwards, no?
XXX
Initially, Tianlang-jun had just wanted to kill all humans.
His wife, his beautiful wife, had betrayed him. Surely that meant that the rest of humanity didn't deserve to live, right?
Except-... Except, then he talked to Shen Jiu, and all of those thoughts fell apart.
The Old Palace Master of Huan Hua had deceived him into believing that his beautiful wife had betrayed him. Such a convoluted-... But it made sense, it fit with everything, and it filled Tianlang-jun with equal parts hatred and shame.
Shame that he'd ever doubt the feelings of his beautiful and cold wife. Shame that he'd believe some old man about where her loyalties actually lay.
And really, listening to Shen Jiu as the man amused himself with trying to cure Tianlang-jun's incurable condition-... Humans were fascinating, weren't they? To try and save the life of an enemy of humanity, not even because it would be the 'righteous' thing to do, but simply because it was a way to keep himself entertained.
What an absolutely horrid specimen of humanity. And yet, the man had a spine of steel, and a moral-code that was-... No, it was hilariously warped, but it was also refusing to budge even an inch.
And then the crazy bastard actually cured him.
Oh, the plant-body wasn't as inherently resilient as his demon-body. But it was also a lot more... malleable. Capable of adapting to his qi in a way that made him wonder if he could simply transform into a giant snake and swallow the entirety of Huan Hua Palace whole.
Tianlang-jun wasn't going to do that. Both because he didn't really have any desire to become a giant snake, but also because he wanted the Old Palace Master to know exactly who was coming to kill him.
But with his new body, and with the element of surprise on his side this time around, he barely even needed to kill any of the Huan Hua cultivators.
He just went in, shattered their many anti-demon arrays, and then started ripping off the Old Palace Master's limbs.
It was honestly very cathartic.
That said, he'd known from the start that it was a suicide-attack. So he made sure that the Old Palace Master was well and truly dead, and then he went out to greet the sects that Huan Hua had no doubt called in to aid them.
Tianlang-jun was satisfied.
His wife and child were dead. Their killer was also dead. What did Tianlang-jun have to keep him alive?
Even so, these were the same sects who'd sided with the Old Palace Master and imprisoned him. If he was going to die, he might as well go out tearing a bloody swathe through their ranks. For all of the years that he'd lost, hating his beautiful wife for a betrayal that she'd never committed.
And wouldn't you know, there came that cultivator with that powerful sword-...
“It was your fault!”
And there the cultivator was launched into a mountainside as another form emerged from a... portal in the air? What.
“I was going to have a beautiful and gentle shizun, but you ruined it!” The new arrival screamed, swinging his sword-...
Wait, was that Xin Mo? The legendary super-evil sword that turned demons into frothing madmen? What the hell was going on?
“Luo Binghe!” The cultivator answered with a roar. “You accursed bastard! I will rip out your entrails through your nose!”
Tianlang-jun leaned back, a little bit surprised at the vitriol. He remembered that cultivator as being very serious, but largely... 'hollow' when it came to actual anger or hatred. And yet here he was, flooding their surroundings with bloodthirst as he tried to kill the wielder of Xin Mo.
Wasn't this supposed to be Tianlang-jun's final moments? Why were these two people stealing the show with their grudge-match? Get a room.
Tianlang-jun glanced at the other sects as they arrived, and-... And they were only paying attention to this Luo Binghe person and the angry cultivator. They weren't even looking at Tianlang-jun.
It was like his adrenaline was just... seeping out into the sand. Like expensive wine, ruthlessly dumped out into the dirt.
What-... Was there even a reason for Tianlang-jun to be here anymore?
Tianlang-jun stared as the two people continued fighting, bloodthirst and hatred and insults and impressively flashy qi-attacks raining down around them.
Maybe he should just... go back to Zhuzhi Lang? Find a decent book to read?
Finally decided, Tianlang-jun turned around and walked away.
Nobody even noticed him leaving.
XXX
Of course Shen Jiu didn't see the battle against Tianlang-jun.
He had no interest of becoming involved in a fight like that, and seeing as he was a cultivator, arriving in time to the battle would mean that failing to help would instantly label him as a traitor to humanity.
Shen Jiu was quite satisfied with his new life as a rogue cultivator, and didn't really have any desire to spend the rest of his long life – he was practically immortal after all – running from the other sects.
So he very deliberately didn't show up to see the battle.
However, by the time he arrived, quite a few things were different from what he'd expected.
Firstly, there was no Tianlang-jun. Secondly, the only wounded seemed to be from 'collateral damage' more than anything else. Thirdly, Yue Qingyuan was surrounded by the other Peak Lords, slowly bleeding out whilst moaning about how he'd “avenged his Xiao Jiu”. Fourthly, Luo Binghe's corpse was there. Fifthly, a sword was embedded blade-first into the ground, leaking a malicious miasma that the other cultivators were now desperately attempting to contain.
Shen Jiu blinked, then asked another cultivator about what exactly had happened.
And apparently that was Luo Binghe's new sword? And Yue Qingyuan had pretty much killed himself to defeat the part-demon? But nobody really seemed to be able to contain the sword's miasma, so the sect-leaders had started talking about where they could throw it away?
The Eternal Abyss seemed to be the general consensus, but a lot of people were worried that some other demon might stumble across it and become just as terrifyingly powerful as Luo Binghe had apparently been.
Shen Jiu sighed, but went off to see if he could at least help purify the miasma. Purification-rites weren't exactly his specialty, but he could at least help by absorbing and converting the malicious-qi into something less likely to cause problems. It was basically just a slightly more advanced form of meditation, after all.
Said and done, Shen Jiu settled in at an appropriate distance and started to meditate. Slowly taking the miasma into himself, and then diluting it with his own qi until it dissolved.
It wasn't exactly complicated, but it was delicate and finicky, so Shen Jiu wasn't quite sure how much time was passing.
Maybe an hour, maybe a day?
The qi came easily as he opened a path for it, and then dissolved smoothly into his core as his own qi diluted it. It was just a bit of phase-shifting. Same as what happened as the sunlight reflected off of the moon.
But to have a spirit powerful enough to create a visible miasma like that-... Shen Jiu couldn't help but wonder where the sword might have come from, how old it might be, what horrors it might've born witnessed to and participated in.
Finally, the malicious-qi started to thin, evaporating like mist during a summer day. And so Shen Jiu opened his eyes and rose to his feet.
There were people staring at him with open mouths, as if they'd never seen something as simple as purification-meditation before, but Shen Jiu wasn't really paying attention to them. No, he was looking at the sword.
Its qi felt almost familiar after the time he'd spent meditating with it, but even so-...
Shen Jiu walked up to the sword, and reached out to grab its hilt.
It purred underneath his hand, familiar and warm, and satisfied like a snake on a sun-warmed boulder.
Shen Jiu pulled it out of the earth, staring as its still-shining and never-dulling edge caught the sunlight. Different, and yet so achingly familiar.
He felt his lips tug into an involuntary smile. “What have you been up to, Kusanagi?”
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