Chapter Text
When he was lost in the Endless Abyss, Luo Binghe occasionally thought about how he would make Shizun – Shen Qingqiu – this scum bastard – pay a hundredfold for throwing him down in this accursed place. It wasn’t that often, he needed to fight for his life every moment he spent in the Abyss and it left him far too exhausted or poisoned or hungry most of the time for him to indulge in carefully constructed fantasies of bloody revenge.
After escaping to the Southern Demon lands, after he started gaining a reputation as a rising power and establishing his kingdom, the Heavenly half-breed now had more time to seriously ponder how to best ruin that scum – if he would do it immediately after coming back to the cultivation world, or if he would keep the bastard for the end after razing Cang Qiong to the ground.
He wondered if he should flay this smooth, milky-white skin from the scum’s bones, for letting everyone look at the disgusting mess hidden behind this aloof, regal handsomeness. If he should rip these luscious, perfectly coiffed hair and break these slender fingers, such symbols of pride for the haughty scholar.
Should he force Shen Qingqiu to live in a pigpen without a shred of cloth to protect himself from the weather, just like Shen Qingqiu forced Luo Binghe to sleep in the woodshed without even a blanket on which he would rest instead of sleeping on the dirt ? Should he serve the Peak Lord trash to eat, just like Luo Binghe had been reduced to feast on the wretched flesh of demonic beasts to avoid starvation ?
So many options he could choose. He would entertain one of them for a while, before considering another and another and another, never content, always seeking for the perfect punishment. Shen Qingqiu’s ultimate fate needed to be one to remember – one that humans and demons both would speak in terrified whispers – one that would serve as a cautionary tale for the generations yet to come in millenia.
It needed to be nothing short of excruciating for the man who believed an innocent disciple that wanted nothing more than please his master deserved to suffer in a hellish dimension merely for being born from a demonic bloodline.
The cultivation world likely wouldn’t understand how it was a crime, since a cultivator would help repelling demonic raids against the human kingdoms, you might even say a cultivator naturally was demonkind’s sworn enemy. No, Shen Qingqiu’s fall from grace had to come from another accusation.
It would be hard, to ruin one of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect’s most senior and influential Peak Lords. Or maybe it wouldn’t ? Luo Binghe could remember the whispered suspicion about the Qing Jing Peak Lord being involved in the Bai Zhan War God’s gruesome demise, how curious for such a gifted young man to have a qi deviation while he was meditating in the Ling Xi caves, was the matter seriously investigated beyond a token effort ?
And the many, many times Shen Qingqiu blatantly and shamelessly went to the brothel, without a care for the standards a Peak Lord was intended to uphold, surely it deserved for someone to call it for the travesty it was ?
Luo Binghe wasn’t a naive, wide-eyed brat anymore, it wouldn’t be enough for the scum bastard to utterly lose face, but it was a beginning – it was the start of Shen Qingqiu’s downfall, he just had to investigate further in the human world to gather other crumbs and tidbits of information regarding the man he hated more than anything under the Heavens.
So he went. His brand-new advisors and bedmates and soldiers started to get on his nerves, anyway – demons quickly grew bored when they weren’t fighting or preparing for fighting and would jump on the slightest opportunity to squabble and annoy and irritate, hoping someone would retaliate and give them justification for a brawl or a full-blown bloodbath.
Also, Luo Binghe wanted to see how the cultivation world fared – how powerful the great sects currently were, and what kind of opposition he would have to destroy when he would emerge as the one true ruler of demonkind.
Of course the cultivators would try and kill an Heavenly Demon about to restore the bloodline’s glory and power, Luo Binghe had heard some tales of them briefly unifying the sects in order to put the previous Junshang down. This time, Luo Binghe would use the war against humankind in order to unify demonkind and fully consolidate his grip over the throne – everything would come around.
Luo Binghe didn’t care much about fate, but he certainly enjoyed the irony.
A most effective tactic would be to ingratiate himself to a powerful sect, playing the traumatized disciple that couldn’t bear to come back to Cang Qiong because of the bad memories associated with his fall into the Abyss, how could he burden them with such horrors ? The Huan Hua Palace likely would eat it with a spoon, the Old Palace Master couldn’t stand the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect judging from Yue Qingyuan’s brief discussions with Shen Qingqiu about how the Immortal Alliance Conference would be this year – they might enjoy the opportunity to drag their rivals’ name into the mud…
At least, they would be a surer bet than the Tian Yi Overlook – exclusively focused on training female cultivators – and the Zhao Hua Temple – far too much emphasis on ascetism and restrain for one such as the Heavenly half-breed – so the Huan Hua Palace it would be. Hadn’t Luo Binghe been initiated to his senses and physical pleasure by one of their disciples ? He couldn’t remember her name, but it nonetheless could be entertaining to find her again, this time as the one in charge, how surprised she would be.
Still, not as surprised as this scum would be when Luo Binghe would reveal how much he failed to kill his disciple. The Demon Ruler ascendant couldn’t wait to see how Shen Qingqiu’s perfect face would become ugly when they would meet again.
He wasn’t expecting for their reunion to happen so soon, right as Luo Binghe was busy engineering a situation that would allow him to draw the Huan Hua Palace’s attention, a monster rampaging at the border between their territory and the lands ruled by Cang Qiong.
Shen Qingqiu wasn’t supposed to be there, the Qing Jing Peak Lord firmly refused to leave his peak unless forced by Yue Qingyuan for some mission or because he wanted to scratch an itch at the brothel. Unbelievable – even unaware of Luo Binghe’s presence near, this scum would ruin everything !
The Heavenly half-breed was unsure about bursting out laughing or scream in fury as he cooly watched his former teacher fighting for his life. For all his many, many flaws, Shen Qingqiu had earned his seat as a Peak Lord – a few graceful sweeps with his fan were enough for wind blades to shred the monster to bloody meat, tar-like blood splattering the grass and the trees and the pristine cultivator.
Well, wouldn’t that be infuriating ? Shen Qingqiu used to be so fussy and tedious about his appearance, refusing to show himself to his martial siblings and students if his clothes and hair were less than immaculate. And now, he was covered with black goop…
He was… fainting ?
Luo Binghe blinked. Was his aloof Shizun so obsessed by cleanliness, he couldn’t stand a bit of smudge upon his esteemed self ? Then, this lord would certainly cover him with mud and blood in order to drag him low !
Or maybe Shen Qingqiu was having a qi deviation, he had been prone to these when Luo Binghe was his whipping boy. Shite.
How dared this scum try to die in such a pitiful way, long before Luo Binghe could implement his revenge ? No, he wouldn’t get off that easy !
Luo Binghe wouldn’t allow him.