Chapter 1: Unplanned Contact
Chapter Text
Sitting across from the married couple always felt a bit like walking into a fight he would never win.
He’d spent five long years learning that lesson before Shen Qingqiu had returned and shocked them all by choosing the demon lord. Then again, looking back, hadn’t he always chosen Luo Binghe?
Without a Cure came from putting his disciple’s life first, his self-destruction came from that same desire. Then the events at Maigu Ridge... Liu Qingge knew that Shen Qingqiu would die again for Luo Binghe if the chance ever showed itself.
Somehow, the famed War God had missed the fact that he had lost the battle for Shen Qingqiu before he’d ever even challenged Luo Binghe the first time.
Now, he sat quietly, sipping slightly salty tea, something he was certain was Luo Binghe’s doing as Shen Qingqiu happily asked about his recent travels.
“There was a Three-Tailed Rampaging Boar in the West near the Golden Peaks,” Liu Qingge said.
“Did it truly have three tails?” Shen Qingqiu asked.
“Shizun hasn’t seen one before? This disciple could bring you one if you wanted to sketch it!” the demon lord said.
“No, it did not have three tails, just three tufts of fur at the end of a single tail,” he said, ignoring Luo Binghe. He’d deliberately checked the tail of the creature because he knew Shen Qingqiu would ask.
“I don’t need to see one,” Shen Qingqiu patted the top of Luo Binghe’s head. “Won’t Binghe bring us some snacks to have with the tea?”
The demon lord looked torn between disobeying a request from his husband and his desire to not leave Shen Qingqiu alone with his fellow peak lord. But, as it always did, Luo Binghe would not deny his husband any desire.
“This disciple will only be a moment,” he said, kissing Shen Qingqiu’s hand.
The demon lord threw a brief glare at Liu Qingge before he vanished into the kitchen.
Liu Qingge promised himself to thank Shang Qinghua for his recent ‘count to ten in your head’ strategy he had introduced at the last Peak Lord meeting. Instead of hitting the table and demanding a fight, Liu Qingge merely sipped at his tea, determined to finish it despite the salty flavor.
“Are you doing well, shidi?”
He nodded. “En, there are more night hunts, so I’ve been keeping busy.”
Liu Qingge enjoyed being off of the mountain. It reminded him of the lifetime before Shen Qingqiu had saved him in the Lingxi Caves, back when he had little tying him to the mountains. His role as War God was to spread word of the might of the sect had been his only duty then.
Now the distance from the mountain helped quiet the strange twist of his heart whenever he saw Qing Jing.
“Aiya, there shouldn’t be so many monsters out!” Shen Qingqiu shook his head. “I thought things would calm down after everything that happened.”
Whenever Shen Qingqiu was on the mountain, Liu Qingge noticed unusual creatures appearing in distant places. He could prove nothing, but he had an inkling a certain demon lord arranged for that to keep Liu Qingge too busy to visit Qing Jing.
“And you are well?” Liu Qingge asked.
Shen Qingqiu smiled at his teacup. “I am. I’m very well shidi.”
Liu Qingge nodded.
It was the same answer his shixiong always gave him. Not that Liu Qingge didn’t believe him. Clearly, Shen Qingqiu was happy, but part of him, a quiet part that he kept under strict control, wanted to be the source of his shixiong’s happiness.
“En,” was all he said instead before pulling a fan from his belt. “You left this at the last Peak Lord meeting.”
“Ah, thank you shidi, I’ve been looking for it!” he took the fan with a smile.
Part of him wanted to believe that Shen Qingqiu left the fans behind because he wanted Liu Qingge to find them to have an excuse to come visit.
As often as it happened, he couldn’t really bring himself to even chide his shixiong because seeing the smile on his face from something that Liu Qingge had done eased that small, selfish voice in his heart.
“Shidi, you look more serious than usual. You’re certain everything is alright?”
Liu Qingge nodded. “I will bring your fans back as many times as you leave them behind.”
Shen Qingqiu laughed. “You make me sound like a forgetful old man when you say it like that!”
“No, I...” Liu Qingge floundered. “I just wished to promise you that, so don’t worry.”
“A promise from the War God himself? How lucky my fans are to have you as their guardian!”
“Not the fans.”
“Hm?” Shen Qingqiu paused, tea cup half-raised to his lips.
“I, Liu Qingge, swear to you. Shen Qingqiu, if you ever have need of me, I swear to be there. No matter the distance or danger.”
Shen Qingqiu’s eyes widened before curving into amused half-moons. “Thank you, shidi but I will try to not find myself in harm’s way. I’ve had quite enough of that, and Binghe hardly lets me out of his sight.”
Liu Qingge nodded. His heart fluttered in his chest. A promise would be all he could offer, but it quieted that selfish desire in his soul.
“Snacks for you, shizun!” Luo Binghe stepped back into the room with a tray of elaborate sweets he placed in front of Shen Qingqiu.
“Binghe, they’re for us both!” Shen Qingqiu laughed.
“They’re for shizun,” the demon lord said.
“Aiya, what am I to do with you?” Shen Qingqiu affectionately pinched the demon’s cheek.
Liu Qingge finished the last of his salty tea and stood up. “I should report in about the monster attack. Shixiong, Lord Luo,” Liu Qingge bowed stiffly and left the room.
Everything bubbled on his skin. How much he wanted Shen Qingqiu, to kiss him, to hear him chatter away about everything, to watch him breeze through the world so elegantly. There was no part of the Qing Jing Peak Lord he didn’t want.
Words were not his strong suit. How could he even put into words everything he felt whenever he saw Shen Qingqiu?
It would be like trying to name every raindrop in a storm.
Emotions were annoying things, and he hated the weight of them, the push and pull of happiness and pain that strung through him after these meetings. He wanted so much, but none of it seemed to matter because the world had other plans.
He walked from the house, drew his sword, and hopped onto the blade without another word.
His meeting with Yue Qingyuan wasn’t for another shíchen and he needed to get himself under control before then.
The sect leader was far too perceptive sometimes.
A few startled Bai Zhan disciples pointed at him as he flew past and straight to his home.
His house remained as it always had been: simple. Set up with nothing extra, just the things needed to survive.
That was how he’d lived his entire life, chasing one singular question. What did he need to survive? That focus had guided him into becoming the War God, the strongest.
Shaking his head as if to dislodge that thought, he hopped off his sword and into the rock garden behind his house for training. Others liked to meditate in stillness, but he’d always found that sword work quieted his mind more than anything else.
He twirled his sword in his hand and felt its warmth like an extension of his own body. Already he could imagine the lecture Yue Qingyuan would give him when he heard that Liu Qingge hadn’t even bothered going to the town that requested aid.
He’d just found the monster and killed it. Simple.
If they wanted paperwork to be completed, they shouldn’t send the War God to deal with a problem.
The sword moved faster, the movements engrained into him. His mind quieted, the world around him fading into silence.
Then he heard it.
The sound was barely audible like a whisper trying to be heard over a waterfall. Someone calling for help, yelling stop! The voice sounded strange, paper-thin, and weak.
Liu Qingge ran towards the sound without hesitation, not knowing what he would encounter, but ready to face whatever it was.
None of his disciples would cry out like that.
As he rushed out of the garden, he only found a strange crack in the world, as if the air itself were a steel sword splintered open.
The rift glimmered like silk in the sunlight before it expanded wider, enough for him to see that behind the strange thing was... another place. Some place odd and there, Liu Qingge could just see a pale man with shockingly short hair kneeling on a black river made of a strange metal.
“Stop!”
Something in that voice made Liu Qingge’s chest ache strangely, familiar and yet totally unknown.
Liu Qingge had never encountered a rift quite like this before. Most led into the Endless Abyss or the Demon realm. This one showed him neither.
Instead, it showed a man in a strange world of metal and light.
The man seemed frozen in place, staring towards an odd rectangular beast held up on four wheels and with eyes that glowed like twin moons. It showed no signs of slowing, and the stranger seemed trapped in place as it bore down on him.
There was only an instant of hesitation before he threw himself through the distortion.
Trap or not, he would handle it.
Energy flickered around him as he crashed through the thin barrier and plummeted to the ground. The air around him smelt burnt and rotten. It felt heavy and strange, but not worrying enough to slow him down.
The beast screeching towards the stranger had nearly reached him. Liu Qingge leaped to place himself between this man and the creature.
Hot metal slammed into his back, but his Qi deflected most of the attack. The beast screamed and hissed, steaming hot blue and black blood spurting out of its mouth as it dropped still with a final rumbling growl.
“What...” came the strange man’s very soft voice from where he still knelt on the ground, shoulders twitching as he took slow, unsteady breaths.
A woman in a surprisingly scandalous outfit stepped out of the beast’s body somehow.
“My car!!” she screeched then noticed the two men on the ground. “Oh my god, are you okay? I totally didn’t even see you!”
Liu Qingge stared at the woman and then at the man he’d saved. He would worry about this strange beast-taming woman later (likely a demon based on the shameful nature of her clothing).
“Are you alright?” he asked the man, taking hold of a pale, slim wrist and sending a bit of Qi to check for injuries.
He found a body with no spiritual veins and not a bit of Qi in his body. Who had done this? How could any person end up like this? Had someone removed his golden core? Plucked out his spiritual veins? Even a normal villager should have some ambient Qi absorbed from the environment.
“Who are you?” The man asked, pulling his hand away. “What... you broke that car?”
“Car?” Liu Qingge repeated.
“Uh yeah,” the woman said. “You wrecked my car!”
“You hit him!” the man yelled back at her, getting to his feet. “We’re in a crosswalk! How did you not see us?”
“It’s dark out and.. whatever, you’re fine and you wrecked my engine!”
The man pointed a finger at her. “You-” Then he doubled over into a coughing fit.
She winced before dashing off, leaving the bleeding beast to die alone.
The stranger’s coughing got worse before he pulled out a strange white device that he brought to his mouth and inhaled like it was a strange pipe.
This man clearly needed help. Surely Mu Qingfang could reverse whatever had stolen all the energy from this man’s body.
Liu Qingge picked up the coughing man and looked up for the rift.
Only a starless sky greeted him, no flicker of home anywhere to be seen.
Chapter 2: Feed
Summary:
Shen Yuan's point of view and stubborn obliviousness takes the lead in this chapter!
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Shen Yuan’s day had truly gone from bad to worse. First, he’d had to leave his apartment then it started raining. He’d taken so long walking that his phone’s battery died (yes, he should have charged it before he left, but he forgot) so he couldn’t even call a cab to pick him up.
Then his preorder of the exclusive Luo Binghe demon emperor model had been given away to someone else by an incompetent employee at his favorite shop (not that it would be his favorite anymore!). They had promised to get him another one, but that had been the entire reason he’d left the house. He could be home, curled up under blankets, and watching the newest episode of Heaven Official’s Blessing if it weren’t for this nonsense!
By the time he finally started home, he was exhausted, his breathing labored and his walk struggling. The weather made his joints ache, and every breath hurt. Why had he not called for a ride?
On the last stretch of road, he stumbled in a crosswalk, hitting the ground and before he could even get himself back onto his feet, a car sped towards him.
He’d mentally said his goodbyes and braced for death.
Only it never hit him.
Instead, some modelesque, beautiful man appeared in the car's path, shielding Shen Yuan totally as the car exploded (!?) on impact with the man.
A nightmare. This whole day had to be an involved nightmare of some sort. He’d wake up any moment now.
The man said something, but Shen Yuan’s ears rang so loudly he couldn’t hear it. What contacts gave someone eyes like that? A vivid purple-gray that definitely wasn’t natural. The stranger took hold of his wrist, and a strange electric warmth rushed through his body at the touch.
This definitely had to be some kind of weird dream.
“Who are you?” Shen Yuan asked.
The car gave a final gurgle of oil and engine parts.
He tugged his hand back to his chest, looking from his rescuer to the sputtering SUV. “What... you broke that car?”
“Car?” the impossible stranger repeated.
“Uh yeah,” the woman screeched. “You wrecked my baby!”
“You hit him!” Shen Yuan yelled back. “We’re in a crosswalk! How did you not see us?”
“It’s dark out and.. whatever, you’re fine and you wrecked my engine!”
He waved a finger at her. “You-”
Before he could finish that thought, his vision swam, and his throat squeezed tightly. Like a fish suddenly out of the water, he gasped for air before grabbing his inhaler and quickly using it. Already he felt his lungs relaxing, his airways opening again. He’d opened his mouth to ask this stranger where the driver had gone when he suddenly was picked up bridal style and held against a very firm chest.
The man looked towards the sky as if expecting to find something, but only a bit of rain fell down on them.
“Where is a healer?” the man finally asked, looking down at Shen Yuan.
Healer? Who talked like that?
“I just want to go home,” Shen Yuan said. “I’m fine, but I should get a picture of the license plate of this car, at least.”
The man didn’t look convinced, but then again, Shen Yuan probably looked pretty rough right now. Shen Yuan tried to get himself out of the man’s arms, but wow, this guy clearly had not skipped a day at the gym ever in his life.
“I’m fine, just, let me get to the back of the”
“We should get a healer,” the man said.
“Okay, no, I’m fine,” he said, motioning towards the car. “Let me write down the tag number.”
The unfairly beautiful stranger looked confused, but followed where Shen Yuan pointed and carried him to the back of the car. Shen Yuan scribbled the tag number down on the back of a random receipt. He’d send his brothers after her for this.
“Where do you need to be taken?” the man asked, still holding Shen Yuan.
“Just that building there,” Shen Yuan pointed, accepting his fate of being carried around. Since this clearly had to be a dream, this had to be a message about him needing more human contact or something.
The man looked towards his apartment building and frowned before he walked that way, Shen Yuan still cradled in his arms like a new bride.
“You don’t have to carry me!” he tried to protest even as his voice wheezed.
The man did not respond, just walked towards the building. He paused briefly in front of the lobby doors before just kicking them open and walking inside.
His building’s security guard had already stood from her seat, hand reaching for the phone as she stared at the two men.
“It’s okay, Miss Anna,” he promised her with a nervous wave of his hand.
She didn’t look convinced. “You’re sure? You nearly broke those doors.”
His handsome dream rescuer just lifted Shen Yuan higher up his chest as if to demonstrate why he’d kicked in the doors.
Dream or not, Shen Yuan’s face wasn’t thick enough for how Miss Anna looked between the two with a knowing smile forming.
He coughed. “Okay, we’re just going on to the elevators now!”
“The what?” the man asked, looking at the security guard as she slowly sat back down.
Shen Yuan, resigned to his dream’s insistence that he get some physical contact, no longer resisted being held and just pointed. His noble steed carried Shen Yuan over then just glared at the metal elevator doors. With a sigh, he leaned forward enough to hit the button. He barely hid a snicker as the man glared at the button lighting up.
How could someone so beautiful glare so much? Wasn’t there something about getting wrinkles that way? Oh well, dream logic clearly had no concern about mortal issues like wrinkles.
When the elevator doors opened, the man looked the interior over for threats before stepping inside the box. Shen Yuan gestured towards the panel of floor numbers until the man stepped closer and let him hit the right button.
Soft classical filled the air in the silence between them, and Shen Yuan briefly hated that he lived on the top floor. Dream or not, awkward silences still sucked.
“You...live around here?” Shen Yuan asked.
“No.”
“Oh, just visiting friends?”
“I came here through a rift.”
“A rift?”
Oh god, maybe this man had really gotten hurt and had some serious head injury that he was dealing with. He had gotten hit full-on by a car and now he was talking about traveling from rifts? Maybe this was some dream meant to encourage him to take care of himself by having to care for someone else!
When the elevator doors opened again, Shen Yuan motioned. “My place is the last door on the left.” He fumbled around for his keys as his strange rescuer carried him down the hall.
“Where do all the other doors lead?” the man asked.
“Huh? Other apartments.”
“Apartments,” he repeated as if it were some strange concept.
“Yeah. Here, put me down so I can unlock the door.”
The man grunted in agreement and set Shen Yuan carefully on the ground, though he stayed right behind him to catch him if Shen Yuan somehow fell.
He opened the door and stepped inside, hesitating just for a moment before motioning. “Here, come on inside.”
Of course, if this was real life, Shen Yuan would never invite a total stranger into his home, but in the dream world, that was normal and fine. Besides, his mind was obviously trying to tell him something by conjuring up this protagonist-level man to rescue him.
Shen Yuan walked inside, put his keys in the bowl on the entry table and tried to think of any food or drinks he could offer. He’d cleaned out his fridge after nearly dying from eating expired yogurt. His phone was still dead, so there wouldn’t be ordering right now either.
Well, he did at least have some tea that his mother had sent him as a housewarming gift. If he could get that brewed, it might be long enough for his phone to charge for him to order food.
“I’ll make tea to warm us both up,” he said and started his kettle and plugged in his phone.
The man stood in the entryway, staring around like he’d never seen anything like this place before. Shen Yuan’s place wasn’t that messy to deserve that hard of a look!
To distract from that glare, he rushed into the bathroom and found a clean-ish towel to bring out to the man.
“Here, you can dry off with this,” he held out the towel.
Only then did he realize that despite the pouring rain outside, the stranger was dry, with not a drop of water to be seen. Shen Yuan also finally noticed the strange clothes, like a cosplayer dressing up from some Wuxia show.
“I’m going to change into something dry,” Shen Yuan said.
As he walked into the bedroom, he huffed at his own mind. Oh great, had his dreams conjured up some isekai nonsense? Really, he was certain he could think up something far more original than that kind of story!
Shen Yuan wasn’t some hack like Airplane.
He changed out of his utterly soaked clothes and into his warmest pjs before stepping back into the living room.
The stranger had moved to stand in front of the patio door, looking out into the dark night sky.
“I’m Shen Yuan, by the way. Thanks for saving my life.”
He turned to look at Shen Yuan as if seeing him for the first time. “Shen?”
“Yeah? And you are?”
“... Liu Qingge,” the man said after some hesitance, as if unsure if he should say it or not.
The name sounded vaguely familiar like it lingered just on the edge of his thoughts. With as good-looking as this Liu Qingge was, he probably belonged to some boy band his sister kept making him listen to. That’s probably where he’d heard the name before and seen this guy.
Yes, that made sense. Dreams were so illogical.
“Thank you for saving me,” he said again as the kettle whistled.
He busied himself making tea, which really just meant tossing a tea bag in the mug of hot water and then reading the package to see how long it should steep for.
His dream was really no joke, it even included the same nonsensical directions from tea in his waking world. What did just under boiling even mean? And no tea needed to steep for just 30 seconds.
Utterly ridiculous.
He had to force himself to stay focused on the tea (and trying to count to 30 seconds in his head) and not stare at the handsome stranger, but how could he not? The guy was unnaturally and unfairly attractive and Shen Yuan was just appreciating that as a matter of fact.
Anyone would want to stare at such a handsome man!
A+ to his dream! He really had captured the celebrity’s likeness for sure! Shen Yuan would have to look up this guy as soon as he woke up and see how close the resemblance was with his dream rescuer.
He hoped it’d been long enough for tea and handed the mug over to the stranger, the bag still steeping away in the hopefully just below boiling water.
Liu Qingge took it and looked at the vaguely yellow-green water and tea bag with some suspicion.
Shen Yuan grabbed his own mug for something to do.
Now what dream? Give him the plot here!
He breathed on his tea, nearly burnt himself trying to take a sip before opening the freezer and adding in a few ice cubes. There, perfect!
The stranger frowned at the ice cubes in Shen Yuan’s mug and looked at his own tea.
Ah, right! This was a dream about taking care of people! About learning how to take care of himself by helping someone else! That’s right! Shen Yuan dropped ice cubes into Liu Qingge’s mug and smiled.
“You’re sure you didn’t get hurt by the car? It hit you hard.”
“Car? Is that what those creatures are called?” The man looked at the tea bag, then the melting ice cubes, and then at Shen Yuan.
“Yeah. Okay, here sit down,” Shen Yuan said as he put his hands on the man’s arm (such firm muscles, wow!! Very realistic and nice to touch!) and guided him to the couch.
The man eased down, letting Shen Yuan guide him without resistance.
Shen Yuan busied himself looking over Liu Qingge. He didn’t see any blood or signs of injury anywhere. No obvious head injury. But if this was some kind of caregiving dream, then there had to be something, right?
Without thinking, took the man’s face in both his hands, squishing his cheeks and staring into his too-purple and perfect eyes.
“What are you doing?” Liu Qingge asked, voice muffled by his cheeks being squished.
“Ah well, I’ve read that head injuries sometimes make your pupils dilate or something.”
“I have no injuries.”
Liu Qingge gently but firmly took hold of Shen Yuan’s wrist with his free hand and lowered it from his face. The man rotated Shen Yuan’s hand to expose his roughed-up palm.
“You’re still bleeding.”
“It’s nothing big. It’ll heal in no time,” he laughed.
How could someone so strong also be so gentle? WOW, his dream had gone all out on making this guy. This had to be the most impressively complete dream he’d ever had!
Liu Qingge frowned and pressed two fingers to his pulse point. That same strange warmth flowed through him.
Shen Yuan stared as the scrapes on his palms knitted themselves closed.
“You... healed me?”
“En.”
“You... came from a rift?” He nodded.
The isekai angle seemed like something he’d dream of. He had almost met truck-kun, so it made sense that was the direction his mind had gone in.
But god, wasn’t this dream going a little long? Not that he minded getting to (admire) spend time with Liu Qingge, but still!
The man nodded. “En.”
“Oh.” Shen Yuan said.
His phone lit up as it revived from its dead battery and he opened it up to look through some food options. Maybe that would trigger him to wake up!
Yes, we’re hungry, so wake up, body.
“You hungry?” he asked.
Liu Qingge eyed his phone. “What is that device?”
“Smartphone, let’s me communicate with people and look things up. Don’t worry about it.”
He scrolled through a few options before just going with the fastest option: the bodega on the corner. He ordered a few different types of sandwiches and some classic chicken noodle soup.
“A smartphone?” Liu Qingge repeated.
“Yeah.”
He completed his order and then flipped over to Google.
How long does a dream last? He tried first, but that just brought up results about REM and sleep patterns.
“What are you doing?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Looking up how long dreams last. This has to be a record or something,” he said.
“Dreams?”
“Yeah, this is an awesome dream, but I’m ready to wake up.”
Liu Qingge frowned. “Shen Yuan, this is not a dream.”
Shen Yuan just patted Liu Qingge’s (surprisingly soft and squishy) cheek and poked the beauty mark under his eye. “It is, but don’t worry about it.”
He switched his search and looked up lucid dreaming. Wow, Shen Yuan didn’t realize he had such a deep awareness of the world to be able to do this sort of thing.
“Okay, here we are, tips on waking up!” Shen Yuan said triumphantly.
“Shen Yuan,” Liu Qingge said. “Are you certain you’re not injured? You are not dreaming. This is not the Dream Realm.”
“Don’t isekai logic me,” he scoffed as he read over the suggestions for waking yourself up.
Easy! The first option, yell for help… well, he’d done that earlier with the whole car crash scene, so no need to repeat that experiment. His dream self couldn’t quite handle yelling for help with Liu Qingge sitting right here staring at him.
Talk about embarrassing!
Well fine, the second one was easy: blink rapidly.
He opened and closed his eyes until his head swam and his eyes hurt.
“What are you doing?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Don’t worry about it!” Shen Yuan insisted as he rubbed his eyes.
The third step seemed like the most practical one anyway, so of course that one would be the one to work! Pretend to fall asleep in the dream!
He patted Liu Qingge on the (very firm!) shoulder. “I’m going to lie down. Someone will knock on the door. Just open it and get the food, then let me know, okay?” Shen Yuan said, patting his shoulder again to admire his dream work one last time before he stepped down the hall to his bedroom.
He flopped face-first into his bed, hugged his Hatsune Miku plushie close to his chest, and closed his eyes. His breathing relaxed and he could feel himself drifting off… Perfect.
After what had to be plenty of time, he rolled over and opened his eyes. His bedroom looked the same, but his dream self was a genius, so that level of detail was to be expected naturally.
He stood up and stretched. No pain lingering in his body so that clearly meant he’d woken up! After all, he’d been feeling terrible in that dream. Checking himself over in the mirror, he nodded. That all looked perfectly normal and so did the view out of his window.
Great, he’d done it and woken himself up!
After that dream, though, he wanted a sandwich from the 5th Avenue Market after dream-ordering some food. He headed out of his room, pleased (and also a little disappointed) to see no handsome stranger sitting on his couch.
Until the beautiful man stepped into view, holding up a bag of food. “This has been delivered,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan stared at Liu Qingge and the food, then pinched his arm. He yelped. That hurt.
“Shen Yuan? Are you alright?”
Liu Qingge stepped closer. The warm scent of chicken noodle soup and sourdough bread rushed over him, too clear to be anything but reality.
“Shen Yuan?”
His head swam as he put a hand on the wall. “This… this isn’t a dream?”
“No.”
Shen Yuan nodded. “Oh.”
A heavy buzzing noise roared through his head like static taking over him. He vaguely heard Liu Qingge yell his name and then rush toward him before Shen Yuan passed out.
Notes:
Ahhh this chapter was a major struggle and I am still not happy with it but I want to share it for y'all and I hope you still like it <3
Note that this is set with Shen Yuan living in New York City (hence the bodega)
Chapter 3: Pain
Summary:
Liu Qingge tries to understand Shen Yuan, this world, and how to get home.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Liu Qingge stared down at the strange man in his arms. Shen Yuan had collapsed again and, with his lack of spiritual energy and pale coloring, Liu Qingge was truly worried this man could drop dead at any moment.
It took only a short time to locate the soft bed-like object nearby and lay the man down. At least the man’s pulse remained steady, proving Shen Yuan hadn’t died.
Liu Qingge wasn’t the worst at tending to injuries. Being the one sent off to deal with dangerous creatures often meant dealing with his own injuries, or the injuries of fools who had tried before him. However, spiritual energies were not something he had a good grasp of.
If only Mu Qingfang were around, he could have identified and cured this strange illness quickly. Some disease that stole all qi and made someone prone to collapse sounded like a plague that could wipe out the sect.
Frowning at the slumbering man, Liu Qingge took the chance to explore this space for any medicine or other helpful objects. Clearly, he had traveled to some other realm, perhaps one of the strange pocket realms that Shen Qingqiu liked to talk about, small, self-contained worlds that only opened their doors rarely.
If that were the case, he would need to remember all that he saw so that he could tell Shen Qingqiu about it. The metallic creature he’d already killed would delight his shixiong. He tried to commit the details of it to memory.
The kitchen space was strange with circular coils of metal by a set of dials. A large, black-colored box was shoved into the corner of the space, but Liu Qingge couldn’t quite figure out what it was for and he didn’t want to destroy his host’s space.
He had learned some manners from Shen Qingqiu.
While his first instinct of the stranger he’d save was that of a criminal or other vagabond, he realized that the clothing and visual customs of this world might be slightly different. The woman with the beast had, had short hair and a scandalous outfit. The woman at the entry of the building had also had short hair, so perhaps that was the custom of everyone here?
He didn’t at all claim to be an expert on this sort of thing. Another thing to add to the list of details to share with Shen Qingqiu when he returned home.
The man groaned softly and Liu Qingge stepped back over towards him.
“What?” Shen Yuan groaned and ran a hand through his short hair.
“Are you feeling better?” Liu Qingge asked.
The man, Shen Yuan, froze and looked at him with slightly panicked eyes. Liu Qingge could hear the uptick in the man’s heart rate. Fear maybe? To minimize his ‘threatening aura’ as Shen Qingqiu called it, he squatted down to no longer be looming over the man.
“What happened?” Shen Yuan finally asked, taking off the glass objects in front of his face and rubbing them on his shirt.
Liu Qingge ignored the flash of pale abdominal skin he saw.
“You collapsed after realizing it was not a dream. Are you alright?”
“Not a dream?” the man repeated. “Oh god, not a dream?” He pinched at his own arm again.
Liu Qingge frowned and pulled the man’s hand away from himself, pinning it down with ease. “Stop injuring yourself. Do you have heart demons? Where are your healers?”
“This has to be a dream. You... You broke a car!”
Liu Qingge made a note of the name of the beast he’d slayed. “Mm,” he nodded. “It was trying to kill you.”
“It-you... who are you?” he asked.
“I’ve told you, my name is Liu Qingge.”
“Where are you from? What are you doing? Why are you here?” Shen Yuan put the glass objects back on his face and sat up.
Liu Qingge released his arm. “I am from Bai Zhan Peak and am here because I heard a call for help. I assume that was you as you fell before the car.”
“I-you heard me?” he frowned. “I didn’t think I yelled out... Wait, wait, wait. Bai Zhan Peak?”
Liu Qingge nodded, pleased at that flash of recognition. Good. Word of his peak and sect had traveled into other realms. That was good. Bai Zhan deserved its reputation.
“Proud Immortal Demon Way?” Shen Yuan.
Liu Qingge understood those words individually, but together like they were some kind of incantation, didn’t seem to mean anything to him so he just stared at the man, confused.
“Are you alright Shen Yuan?” he asked again.
“Did that asshole Airplane put you up to this? Seriously! Liu Qingge? He had like three lines written about him and that’s the cosplayer he hires to come harass me? Bet he hired that SUV lady too and set this whole thing up.”
He didn’t know what an ‘Airplane’ was or what exactly Shen Yuan was talking about but.. “What is a cosplayer?” he asked.
“Okay, haha, great job. I’m sure Airplane paid you really well, but you’re not at all the Liu Qingge type. I mean, the War God would not be some pretty boy type. He’d be an old, grizzled man! Built like a mountain of muscles!” Shen Yuan said. “I mean, of course, you fit the vibes of Liu Mingyan, because she is the most beautiful wife, but no way the War God looks like you.”
Liu Qingge stared at him. What?
“I am Liu Qingge.”
“Yeah, okay. I think you’ve done enough for the night. Thanks for whatever, but it’s time for you to go or I’m going to call the cops.”
“Cops?”
“Oh my god, that’s it.” He grabbed his smartphone device then frowned. “Look, I don’t really want to call the cops, so just, can you please leave?”
Liu Qingge wasn’t sure what a cop was or how this person would call them when he didn’t have any qi to even use a talisman. But Shen Yuan sounded upset. His hands shook faintly and his heart still raced in his chest.
Liu Qingge didn’t want that.
He had never been good at actually comforting people. Shen Qingqiu went with him on missions because the Qing Jing Peak Lord could soothe and comfort people while Liu Qingge dealt with the threat. Not that Shen Qingqiu couldn’t help, and he often helped with the slaying of the beast. But his way with people was truly unmatched.
It was why he was the one most often sent to help with missions. Well, it used to be until his marriage and now he rarely went out on missions because ‘it would upset Binghe’ if Shen Qingqiu wasn’t home in time for a meal.
Liu Qingge forced his thoughts to this present moment and the man in front of him, clutching the small black rectangle like it was some sort of lifeline. He just didn’t know what to do with this.
This Shen Yuan was clearly not hostile, not a threat either. Reacting with violence would be ‘brutish’ as Shen Qingqiu often told him. When he told his shixiong about this adventure, he didn’t want to get a scolding for his manners again.
“I am Liu Qingge, Peak Lord of Bai Zhan,” he said again.
He wasn’t sure why this man didn’t believe him or why he knew Liu Mingyan’s name. Things he would figure out later. First and foremost, he wanted the man to not be upset. Seeing him look frightened twisted something in his chest.
Was this qi-destroying disease contagious?
“That’s impossible,” the man said. “And stupid. In fact, I don’t care what time it is, I’m calling Airplane.”
He pressed his fingers against the strange rectangle he called a smartphone, which lit up under his touch and then emitted a low ringing noise. A communication array device? The man had said it was used for communication but those were incredibly expensive and limited in their use.
After a few more of the strange rings, Liu Qingge heard another man’s voice speak. “Hello?”
The voice sounded as though the man were speaking through a narrow cup, tinny and strange.
“I am going to kill you,” Shen Yuan said.
“What? Bro, I haven’t even posted anything today! You can’t be that mad at me yet!”
“Tell this Liu Qingge cosplayer in my apartment to knock it off,” the man insisted.
“Bro, are you okay? What are you talking about?”
“This!” Shen Yuan said, holding the smartphone up and pointing it towards Liu Qingge.
The War God braced, his sword flying to his hand to block the attack he was certain would charge for him. Had this all been a ruse to lure him in, then spring an attack on him?
But nothing happened except for a long silence from both Shen Yuan and this Airplane voice.
Relaxing slowly, Liu Qingge realized the device held a picture of a man in it. No. Not a picture, but a moving image. Was this device not an array but a prison with some person trapped in it?
“Holy shit,” Shen Yuan said.
“Bro. Bro, that filter was awesome. What are you using?”
“That wasn’t a filter.”
“What? Bro, the sword came out of nowhere. That doesn’t-wait, bro what-”
“I’ll call you later,” Shen Yuan said, and the box went dark again.
“Who do you have imprisoned in that device?” Liu Qingge asked, keeping his sword out, but not actively pointing towards anyone.
Shen Qingqiu had trained him to not point his sword towards anything (or anyone) he didn’t intend to kill, so he kept it in his hand but lowered in a more relaxed stance. Besides, he was confident he could react faster than anything that Shen Yuan could do.
“How did you do that with the sword?” Shen Yuan asked. “Can you do it again?”
“Summon my sword?” Liu Qingge frowned, but he made a gesture and his sword sealed itself out of sight again before reappearing in his other hand.
“Holy shit,” the man said again.
“Have you not seen a spiritual sword before?”
“Okay, how do you do that? Is it a hologram or something?” the man reached towards the sword.
Because Liu Qingge only lived around people who knew swords were dangerous, he did not react in time to stop the man from slicing his finger, though he prevented him from actually wrapping his hand around the blade. Instantly, he sent his blade away again.
“Fool!” Liu Qingge snapped as he grabbed the man’s hand and looked at the slice on the finger.
Thin, hardly worth noticing, but this man had no spiritual energy of his own. He sighed and sent some of his own qi to the minor wound, watching in satisfaction as the wound knit itself closed.
“Do you not know that swords are sharp? You never touch the edges!” he snapped. Who was this fool who didn’t even know the most basic of sword safety rules? Even the unruly children on Qing Jing knew better than to touch a blade like that!
“You’re... You’re Liu Qingge,” the man said, his voice sounding distant, similar to how it had before the man passed out. Liu Qingge prepared to catch him again, but Shen Yuan just stared at him, eyes wide behind the glass circles he wore.
“Mm,” he nodded. “I have said so multiple times.”
“Did you transmigrate? Is Luo Binghe here too?” the man asked.
Liu Qingge scowled at that name. How did this man know that brat’s name?
“I found a portal to a hidden realm and heard a cry for help. I found you,” Liu Qingge said. “Another portal will open at some point, and I will return.”
Portals always worked that way. Some led to dangerous places and had to be forced to close before problems could cross, but the harmless realms would merely shift through the world, doors opening when the energies aligned.
“You did! You totally transmigrated. Oh my god, a reverse isekai? In my living room. Holy shit. But wow, if you’re here...” the man began muttering to himself as though Liu Qingge couldn’t hear him.
Most of the words made little sense. He didn’t know what isekai meant or this transmigration, let alone what a Proud Immortal Demon Way meant, but the man knew quite a lot. He mentioned the Lingxi caves by name, as well as that cursed sword that had caused nothing but trouble, Xin Mo.
Perhaps this man was a seer? He’d heard of people who had visions of other realms and could read the fates in the stars.
“Who is trapped in your smartphone array?” he asked again, motioning to the black device.
“Trapped in.. oh,” Shen Yuan laughed. “No one’s trapped. I told you, it’s a smartphone. A uh… communication arrays aren’t really a thing in PIDW, so um…”
“I know what a communication array is,” Liu Qingge said.
“Those exist on Cang Qiong?” Shen Yuan’s eyes lit up with that look Shen Qingqiu sometimes got: a fire of curiosity.
“They are very rare. More common at Huan Hua.”
Mostly the devices were incredibly expensive to make and most cultivators found them a waste of time. Letters worked well enough and alert talismans served well for emergency communications.
Shen Yuan stared at him before glaring at the phone array. “Common at Huan Hua? That lazy hack! If those existed, then why did he have the 3000 mile trip to deliver a single message arc!”
“What?” Liu Qingge stared at him.
Every time he spoke, Shen Yuan became more incomprehensible in what he said but more familiar in mannerisms.
“Aiyah nevermind that! If you’re here, that means Luo Binghe hasn’t even joined Qing Jing peak yet. What a shame.”
“Luo Binghe is an adult,” Liu Qingge admitted. “And still of Qing Jing Peak.”
Shen Yuan froze and stared at him. “What? He didn’t burn all of Cang Qiong?”
Liu Qingge narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t, but Liu Qingge knew that the only reason for that was Shen Qingqiu. What exactly had this seer thought about Luo Binghe and what he meant for the world? Clearly, he knew more than he was letting on.
“No, he did not.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. The scum villain deserved all he got, of course, but I mean, the whole place wasn’t the…” Shen Yuan frowned. “Are you sure you’re Liu Qingge?”
“Why do you doubt my identity?”
“It’s nothing personal, just, you’re not at all how I’d picture the War God, you know? You’re so...” Shen Yuan made a vague gesture that Liu Qingge didn’t understand at all. “But you know Luo Binghe? You’ve met. And he’s an adult?”
“Yes. How do you know who he is?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Oh, ah. Shit, I shouldn’t have said anything. Just pretend you heard nothing,” he laughed. “How about some more tea or something to eat? I want to hear all about Bai Zhan and about any of the monsters you’ve faced! You’ve got to tell me everything!”
Shen Yuan hurried into the kitchen, again heating water and dunking strange bags into the water.
No one besides Shen Qingqiu ever really sat with him to listen to what he had to say, but Shen Qingqiu always wanted to hear about his missions, always asked to hear everything, hear every detail. The man’s similar features, similar name, similar way of asking about beasts. All of it seemed unbearably familiar.
“Shen Qingqiu?” Liu Qingge asked slowly.
Shen Yuan dropped the cup in his hand and it cracked on the ground as he stared at Liu Qingge.
“Oh my god, no way am I that scum! Don’t get it mixed up!”
“Shen Qingqiu is not scum. How dare you.” Liu Qingge clenched his fists.
“You’re defending him? I mean, he killed-” Shen Yuan paused and made a series of strange sounds before ducking down to pick up the pieces of the ruined cup.
Nothing this man said made sense.
“Who did Shen Qingqiu kill?” he asked.
“Not important,” the man laughed as he waved his hands as if trying to blow away a foul smell.
“Tell me what you know, seer.”
“Seer?” Shen Yuan paused before dropping the shards of the cup into a round, shiny bin. “Actually, that’s perfect! That’s me, Shen Yuan, the seer, knower of all!”
Liu Qingge crossed his arms. “Explain.”
“In my uh.. visions, Shen Qingqiu was a foul man, cruel and violent. He lusted after his own young female disciples, tortured the poor protagonist, and killed the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan Peak.”
Liu Qingge stared at the man and realized that this Shen Yuan, if he was a seer, truly was the worst prophet ever known, and an idiot.
“Thank you for the tea. I am going to find a portal home now,” Liu Qingge said, bowing politely before he moved back to the door that led to the hallway he had entered from.
Perhaps he could still carve some flesh from the metallic car beast to bring back with him.
“Wait, you can’t just-it’s not-don’t just go out there!” Shen Yuan grabbed his arm.
The man’s strength seemed laughable, but Liu Qingge stopped anyway. “Why?”
“It’s-this world is very different. You need to behave or else you’ll never get home.” Shen Yuan slapped a small towel against his hand. “Let this seer guide you on your journey.”
Notes:
Sorry for the delay! Writing for fun has been a struggle lately. I'm not totally happy with this chapter but I'm tired of letting my own doubt keep me from sharing in stuff that makes me happy. <3
Chapter 4: Energy
Summary:
Shen Yuan takes his new job as mentor and seer very seriously.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Shen Yuan could do this.
He could play the role of a seer. He didn’t understand how it was possible that the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan Peak from that terrible stallion novel, Proud Immortal Demon Way, was in his kitchen right now, but there wasn’t time to think about that. No way could he let this guy loose on the streets!
Not that Liu Qingge would probably get in any kind of trouble, except for being mobbed as some sort of celebrity. He really was too beautiful! Though this guy had already destroyed a car and could summon his sword at will, then who was Shen Yuan kidding?
He’d cause all kinds of problems!
Who knew what he’d do to the subway trains? Shen Yuan could not bear to let the trains be even more messed up than they already were, thank you very much. He needed those to run somewhat on time so he could still get to university!
“Look, you can’t just ... this world is very different! And you’re going to cause problems if you just walk around doing whatever!” He said, tugging the man away from the door and directing him to sit on the couch.
“Walking around causes problems?” Liu Qingge asked, looking down to where Shen Yuan’s hand still rested on his forearm.
Shen Yuan pulled his hand away. It wasn’t his fault the man had the warmest arms and Shen Yuan’s hands were always cold. “Well, for one, you can’t attack cars!”
“The metallic creature? Why? It was going to kill you.”
Shen Yuan struggled to answer that. Yes, he’d been about to meet his own maker through Truck-kun but that was a one off occurrence, not a regular thing!
“Cars are not aggressive creatures! They’re-” Shen Yuan thought about the travel methods in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Of course, Luo Binghe could instantly teleport places via Mogein-Jun’s abilities, but that was not common.
“They’re like carriages, not monsters. They aren’t alive.”
“Carriages?” Liu Qingge frowned. “Where is their horse?”
“They don’t have actual horses, they have a thing called an engine which is.. I guess like a mechanical horse. OH my god, is that why they call it horsepower? How I have never realized that?”
“What?”
“Nevermind, ignore that. Cars are not monsters and you should only jump in front of them if someone is about to die. Otherwise, you just leave them alone. They’re not dangerous.”
Technically, they were one of the leading causes of death, but that was not important information here. Definitely not something to share because it would just send Liu Qingge out on a car destroying spree.
“Fine. I will not destroy these cars.” The man crossed his arms over his chest. “What else?”
“Well, there aren’t any monsters here.”
“What?”
“There aren’t any monsters like in your world, and cultivation doesn’t exist. Well, it doesn’t exist like you know it. There’s um meditation and stuff like that, but cultivating to immortality or using magic abilities isn’t possible.”
“Magic?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Your cultivation skills, whatever you want to call it. People cannot do that here. So don’t summon swords or do anything else. If a normal villager couldn’t do it, then don’t do it here.”
Liu Qingge scowled. “How do you all survive?”
“What? I told you it’s not that dangerous here! There aren’t monsters or things attacking all the time, so it’s fine. The world is relatively safe.”
“No monsters?”
“Correct, none.”
The man seemed even more annoyed at that. A shame that the scowl ruined such a pretty face! He really looked like some kind of super model or idol from a boy band. Maybe he could just take a few pictures for-no!
“We have to find a way to send you home,” Shen Yuan said.
“A portal will open again soon. They always do,” Liu Qingge said confidentially.
“That’s not a guarantee.”
Honestly, in almost every transmigration story he’d read, the people never made it back home. Though most of the time, they didn’t really want to go back. He couldn’t imagine the Peak Lord of Bai Zhan Peak wanting to stay in the relatively peaceful world here.
There had to be a way to get him back. Just because Liu Qingge wasn’t the hero of the story, he still was a vital part of the Proud Immortal Demon Way lore. The deep lore even! He’d never even appeared on page in the novel, only in mentions by his poor sister left behind after his death.
The ultimate tragic big brother character!
Not to mention that worthless villain, that no good scum, Shen Qingqiu had killed him. Hopefully Liu Qingge would take solace in knowing that his fellow peak lord had suffered a fate worse than death! Good riddance to him rotting forever in his pickle pot.
But Liu Qingge had defended and gotten upset when Shen Yuan mentioned the Qing Jing Peak Lord, so then that meant...
Of course!
This Liu Qingge had obviously transmigrated in from earlier in the story before the true face of that no good, rotten Shen Qingqiu had really shown itself.
The poor War God obviously couldn’t see through the flawless mask that the Qing Jing peak lord had put on! After all, it had even fooled the sect leader himself and the novel had been clear that, aside from Luo Binghe, of course, Yue Qingyuan was the most powerful and observant cultivator around.
Liu Qingge clearly had to have been taken advantage of by the villain, and now it was up to Shen Yuan to make sure that he was truly warned and aware of what a monster his fellow peak lord was before he transmigrated back.
He couldn’t just let this handsome man die! Even if it gave Liu Mingyan a lot of growth and depth as a character, the man had saved Shen Yuan’s life, so he had an obligation!
Besides, with all the death and destruction that ripped through the entire sect, there was no shortage of other things she and Ning Yingying could be sad about together. Those two wives had spent a lot of time together mourning the loss of their sect together!
The two had even shared a room. They were such close friends! That duo of wives was important! Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan often had to work together to conquer Sha Hualing and tie the trouble-making demon saintess up. But Liu Mingyan had often left the palace to mourn her brother, and then problems had always erupted in her absence!
Ensuring that the harem developed a healthier dynamic was very important! Shen Yuan had a moral duty, in fact, to ensure that the harem got along, because that would make poor Luo Binghe’s life so much easier. The emperor of the three realms had enough on his plate without also having harem in-fighting to deal with.
By saving Liu Qingge, Shen Yuan was helping Luo Binghe out. It was his responsibility!
The way forward was clear!
First, he had to make sure that Liu Qingge found a way home and second, that he knew to not trust that snake Shen Qingqiu so that he could live and ensure peace in the harem in the future!
It was a perfect plan.
He nodded to himself, pleased to have something in motion now. Shen Yuan would be the best mentor to another world there ever was and no one could stop him!
“I will find a way back,” the War God said. “You need not worry yourself so much.”
Ah, such a straightforward declaration clearly matched the War God’s macho aesthetic and vibe. How had Shen Yuan not seen it immediately and known? There was obviously something very Bai Zhan about the man, even if the robe colors didn’t match the most popular speculation of the colors for the different peaks.
That Airplane had only confirmed that the colors for Qing Jing were a soft green, all the other peaks were left totally undescribed. In fact, he hadn’t even named all the peaks or mentioned their specialty!
All that build up about the 12 peaks and only a few were even named!
The next time he saw Shang Qinghua, he would absolutely throttle that man for the missing lore that he always ignored in favor of more papapa. How was it he knew more about where Ning Yingying had freckles than he knew about the cultivation sect that trained Luo Binghe?
Hack! Half-empty bottle of vinegar! Useless author!
“We can figure out a way. I have texts I can consult,” Shen Yuan said.
He’d read and owned quite a few other isekai and transmigration novels, so he wasn’t totally at a loss here on what to do. Quite a few other ways were possible, and he was sure he could figure out something.
“Then we’ll begin now,” Liu Qingge said.
“It’s late,” Shen Yuan said. “We can begin tomorrow.”
He was tired. Despite passing out, he remained exhausted and really just wanted to get some sleep. He couldn’t remember the last time he was this sleepy. There was no way he could go out into the world and perform miracles in this kind of state! He’d keel over before they even made it out of the city.
“Why does the time of day matter?” Liu Qingge crossed his arms.
“Well, I can’t travel well at night.”
“Those metal beasts won’t harm you if you’re with me. There is no need for concern about those.”
Such confidence! Shen Yuan had never heard anyone speak with such confidence before, even if he was calling cars beasts like they were actually creatures that could just attack him without warning...
“I need rest,” he finally said.
Liu Qingge looked like he wanted to argue, but then he looked Shen Yuan up and down before nodding. “Rest then. I will keep watch.”
Ah, the state of his muscles wasn’t that bad to deserve such a look! Save him a little face at least! But he agreed to at least not go charging out in the night, so that was a victory.
He didn’t entirely trust the War God to not go off on his own and cause problems. Because a War God on the loose in New York City screamed disaster at every level and he wasn’t about to let the city get wrecked on his watch! Shen Yuan still needed to finish his semester here and get his degree. He couldn’t do that if a transmigrated cultivation master blew everything up in a battle against all things metal!
Well, he knew a few things about Liu Qingge from all of his sister’s mourning about him. The man wouldn’t lie and never broke a promise. Oh the life tiny white lotus Luo Binghe could have had if he had ended up on Bai Zhan peak under a teacher like that! He’d been devoted and honest, the total opposite of Shen Qingqiu.
So the solution was simple!
“You have to stay here while I am resting,” Shen Yuan said.
“Mm,” Liu Qingge said.
“Promise you won’t leave,” Shen Yuan said.
“What?”
“Promise me,” he repeated. “If I am going to rest, promise that you will not leave this room.”
Liu Qingge looked quite annoyed (though that could just be because the pretty man didn’t seem capable of smiling!) before he gave a sharp nod. “I promise.”
A promise might be a flimsy thing for most people, but he had the feeling that it carried all the weight in the world to Liu Qingge, so there should be nothing to worry about. He’d rest and then they’d find a way to return this War God to his rightful place.
He smiled brightly at Liu Qingge, who just stared at him like he’d never seen a man smile before, then patted his shoulder. It was very sturdy. This guy must carry boulders for fun! What a fine specimen of masculinity to admire!
Then he walked to his bedroom, threw himself into bed and promptly passed out again. Everything else was a problem for future him to deal with.
Notes:
So sorry for how long it's been. My brain just stopped wanting to create or do anything so I've been just trying to survive BUT I am fighting my way back out. <3
Chapter 5: Switch
Summary:
Some revelations about novels, idols, and Shen Qingqiu.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Sitting still and waiting had never been Liu Qingge’s strong suit, and that was especially true when he was in a new environment like this. However, he was a man of his word, and he had promised the strange seer that he would not leave.
He tried to meditate.
But too many thoughts ran through his head for him to even attempt to actually manage any fruitful meditation.
It didn’t help that this world had barely any natural energy to tap into. He’d been in areas of low cultivation energy before but never somewhere that had none. It felt like one of his senses had been cut off; none of the world reached back out to him with pieces of information about the area.
How did the people here live like this?
He stood back up and paced over to the large windows and looked out into a sea of grey, black, and red buildings that rose sharply into the air. Sword flight would be challenging with so many aerial obstacles to move around. More of the metal beasts called cars ran around on the dark black pathways that crisscrossed through the city.
This place was like nothing he’d seen and nothing he wanted to see again. Was everyone here like Shen Yuan? The man had no spiritual veins or core to speak of; nothing moved through him but a stagnant energy he didn’t like the feel of. But he knew that Shen Qingqiu would be fascinated by such a place.
He would want to learn everything about the car beasts and the buildings and how the people functioned with no spiritual energy. He’d probably have some way to help Shen Yuan grow spiritual veins. The seer seemed like he would enjoy cultivating if the way he looked at Liu Qingge’s sword was any indication.
Though he clearly would have to be closely watched if he was ever near swords again. He had sliced his finger clean open since he obviously had no concept of blade safety. But the confidence the man had in finding a way to get Liu Qingge home made him seem like a cultivator, like someone who could be a strategist... like he could be someone like Shen Qingqiu.
He shook his head. Ridiculous to be thinking about the Qing Jing Peak Lord when he had hardly been away. He’d been away for far longer on hunts before. Besides, Shen Qingqiu had Luo Binghe to keep him company; he didn’t need Liu Qingge.
Speaking of Luo Binghe...
As he glanced around the space, he couldn’t help but see a few strange idols of the beast of Qing Jing. Tiny Luo Binghe statuettes sat in a strange black box on a table, as well as a very inappropriate figurine that appeared to depict that demon saintess that had once attacked the peak. He couldn’t say the figure was inaccurate in how the demon dressed, but why would Shen Yuan have a figurine depicting her?
He was willing to look past some strangeness and some coincidences, but the idols were exact replicas of Luo Binghe, down to the demon mark on his forehead, not something that could be just ignored as a mere coincidence.
Liu Qingge was willing to wait for an explanation from this seer, but he would be getting one. This was too much for even him to blindly ignore and move on from. While he did want to get home, Shen Qingqiu had taught him that it sometimes took time to get a full story, and he would be doing that here.
Looking up towards the sky, he frowned as he realized he couldn’t even see any stars. Did this world not have those? Even the strange pocket planes he’d visited before still had stars in the sky, but it was possible. He added that to his notes of things to tell Shen Qingqiu.
Somehow he knew that Shen Qingqiu would want to know everything about what he’d seen here. Usually he only had curiosity for creatures, but he thought this place was strange enough that Shen Qingqiu would want to know about everything, down to the starless sky.
Even through the night, the cars continued their hunting around the streets. They decreased in number, clearly not a nocturnal hunter, but still remained present. Some of them appeared to be sleeping, sitting still in various places, some in fenced areas where they slept in herds, with occasional new cars joining and leaving the herd.
People also occasionally seemed to walk around, harder to see clearly from this height, but they did not seem to fear the darkness.
Then again, the world here did not seem to ever get truly dark. Lights lined the pathways, the buildings, everywhere he looked. He couldn’t even tell what the source of the lights was since he couldn’t imagine them using fire so carelessly. These people clearly had no reason to fear what creatures might hunt in the night because they had created lights to prevent any sort of ambush. He had to admit it was clever.
Before, he might have called it cowardly, but without spiritual power to enhance their senses, these people couldn’t see anything in the dark. The solution they had found wasn’t what he would have chosen, but it had played to their strengths. He grunted in annoyance at himself.
When had Shen Qingqiu so changed how he thought?
Sighing, he sat back down on the soft seats in this room and tried to meditate through the night, but the walls were so thin here he felt as if someone might burst into the room at any moment. He didn’t want to deal with these strangers nearby. He’d seen large buildings that housed many people before, but usually they were all from a single family all living together with their servants. But from Shen Yuan’s guiding him into the building, this place was clearly filled with strangers who did not interact with or know one another. No one had even approached to bring tea or offer medical aid.
He couldn’t imagine living or sleeping peacefully knowing so many strangers were around, but his senses were much higher than the others here. Perhaps they could barely hear or smell the other people.
Nearby he could hear people talking in a language he didn’t understand, strange food smells drifted through the air, and the sense of stillness without the natural ambient qi in the air made him almost disoriented.
How did anyone live without a sense of spiritual energy to guide them or ground them in their place in the world?
He’d barely been here a full day, and he felt unmoored without that sense connecting him to the world and making sure that he remained balanced and stable. Shaking his head, he tried to focus back on his meditation and breathing, and the energy within his own body. Slowly he faded into his meditation, only coming out of it when the door down the hall opened.
Shen Yuan stepped out of his room and shuffled into the bathing chambers before he walked into the kitchen area and pressed something on a metal kettle.
“Morning,” he murmured, voice groggy with sleep.
“Why do you have Luo Binghe idols?” he asked.
Shen Yuan nearly dropped the cup he’d been holding as he waited for the kettle to heat. “What?”
Liu Qingge pointed to the shelf with the several small figures of Luo Binghe and that demoness. “There. You have idols of him. Exactly as he looks. Why?” he asked.
Shen Yuan pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose and scratched it before adjusting his glasses. Liu Qingge could all but see that the man was thinking hard about how to answer, and he had the distinct impression that the movement was one he had often seen Shen Qingqiu do when he wanted to avoid answering a question.
“I will make us breakfast! It’s important to have food in the morning,” Shen Yuan said instead of any kind of answer, and Liu Qingge couldn’t even feel surprised. He’d expected that kind of evasion, but he would not be letting the man off the hook without getting some kind of answer; that was certain.
For now though, he let Shen Yuan move around the kitchen with anxious energy. The man opened and closed the strange metal door a few times, cold air blowing out every time. He then pulled out the small shiny ‘communication array’ he’d used the night before to contact this airplane and pressed some buttons on it.
“Food will be here soon,” he said.
Liu Qingge accepted that this man probably just used that device to summon servants with food or something similar. While he wasn’t certain if Shen Yuan was a lord or a young noble, no one of low status would have windows this large and clear.
Steam rose from the kettle, and Shen Yuan picked it up to pour water into two cups. He hoped it wouldn’t be more of the tea from last night; that drink had left a bitter taste in his mouth. He’d drunk it without complaint because he was used to eating and drinking on the road where taste didn’t matter, but he had gotten spoiled over the years with tea prepared by Shen Qingqiu. He’d rather just have water than that sharp, burnt version of tea Shen Yuan made.
“Coffee?” Shen Yuan asked.
Liu Qingge assumed that was the name of the vile tea and quickly shook his head. “Water, please.”
Shen Yuan handed him a cup of warm water and then dropped a pile of strange small brown pebbles into his cup of hot water. The pebbles dissolved, turning the water to a dark mud color. If the man drank hot mud water, then that might have a lot to do with why he was without any spiritual power.
However, he merely sipped his own drink and ignored Shen Yuan’s creation of his mud potion. This world was strange enough that odd beverages were not a priority to learn about. Shen Yuan added in a few other ingredients, white powder that looked like sand, and a white liquid he took out of the cold metal box. Truly, the longer he stayed in this world, the more questions he had, since there was nothing to explain what any of this was.
He had to force himself to remain focused.
He waited until Shen Yuan seemed pleased with his beverage and had taken a few sips before he spoke again. “Why do you have idols of Luo Binghe?” he asked again.
Shen Yuan choked on his drink as if the question was a surprise and not a repeat of something he’d already been asked about and been avoiding.
“They aren’t idols! They’re Nendoroids!”
“Nen...do?”
Shen Yuan sputtered and walked over to the little idols. “They’re... they’re not idols!”
“Then what are they? What function do they serve?”
“They-They... they don’t have a function. They’re collectables! Limited edition, only 120 were ever made of this one!” he insisted, as if that somehow made a difference. Most idols were very limited. Many talented craftsmen must have worked for years to produce 120 of these small idols.
“Why do you have them? Where is Luo Binghe in your world to be made into this idol?”
“He... Luo Binghe isn’t here! He doesn’t... he isn’t-what I mean to say is... let’s just watch some TV.”
This man was just as evasive as Shen Qingqiu when he didn’t want to answer a question, but Liu Qingge wasn’t going to let him just avoid the question forever. But he did want to know what a TV was and why they should watch it.
If it was another beast like the car, then he needed to be aware of that potential threat and be prepared to take it down.
How was this world so filled with dangerous creatures when the people in it apparently had no powers? Why did they keep bringing these dangerous beasts into their lives if they had no ability to defend themselves? Did these people just have a death wish they liked to chase around constantly? There was no reason for them to be behaving like this.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to remain calm. “Fine. We can watch this TV.”
Shen Yuan moved, putting his hands on Liu Qingge’s shoulders and pushing. It wasn’t as if the man could actually move him, but he chose to allow the weaker man to guide him towards the large, shiny black mirror on the wall. He frowned as there was a flicker of energy within the thing and then an image appeared of a large cat-like creature rushing forward.
In a flash, the beast was split in half, sparks of life flickering as Shen Yuan just stared in silence before he went pale.
“MY TV!” he yelled, touching the side of the mirror still on the wall.
Clearly, this TV was some kind of containment device, and the creature within, that leopard a disembodied voice had said in the second before it was destroyed, was escaping. It clearly would have destroyed Shen Yuan in an instant.
“Why do you keep such dangerous things around?” he asked, turning to Shen Yuan.
“Wha-it’s not dangerous! You just... I said don’t destroy anything! You slashed my TV in half!”
“The creature was lunging. Why should I wait and allow the enemy to attack?” He crossed his arms, sword already safely tucked away before Shen Yuan could cut himself on it again.
“There was no creature! It was an image of... oh my god, aiyah.” Shen Yuan pinched the bridge of his nose. “It wasn’t dangerous. That was a displayed picture... like a... a moving painting!”
Liu Qingge frowned. Paintings didn’t move, and they certainly weren’t that lifelike. This world was far too strange, and Shen Yuan far too lax about his own health.
“Okay, fine. Fine!” Shen Yuan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, great. My TV is dead. Make sure never to show you my laptop,” he muttered to himself.
Liu Qingge did not demand to see the laptop, but he was certain it likely was another dangerous device this fool was using without having any awareness of the risk he was putting himself under. Liu Qingge would be keeping a close eye out for that beast too.
“Why do you have a Luo Binghe idol?” he asked again, moving over to a little figurine and picking it up.
This Luo Binghe wore the dark robes of a demon emperor, ones he rarely wore on Qing Jing.
Shen Yuan rushed over and tried to grab the figure from him. “Ah, what are you? Four? You can’t just grab people’s things; that’s stealing and is illegal! Bai Zhan are honorable, aren’t they?” he demanded.
“You know Luo Binghe and Bai Zhan. You say you are a seer, but why would a seer have idols of that beast?” he demanded.
“Ah, Luo Binghe is not a beast! He is just... how do you even know him?” Shen Yuan demanded.
“He’s a disciple of Qing Jing, how would I not know him?” he crossed his arms.
Shen Yuan sputtered again, like he had said something unintelligible. Just because Luo Binghe wasn’t at his peak, why wouldn’t he know him? Most of the peak lords were aware of all the disciples of the mountain; it helped to ensure there were no disciples trying to slip from one peak to the other without being caught. That was of course allowed, but only through the proper channels.
Or through brute force on Bai Zhan.
Shen Yuan paced around the space, occasionally stopping to look back towards the no longer sparking TV.
“Luo Binghe is....” Shen Yuan started and then changed his mind, shifting directions. “How old is Luo Binghe?”
Liu Qingge frowned and crossed his arms. “He is old enough.”
“Old enough?” Shen Yuan pressed as if this were some important detail he needed to know and not just useless information.
He had no idea how old the brat was, but he was old enough to be a husband and a sect leader.
“He is an adult,” Liu Qingge finally said. “He is married, and the Huan Hua sect leader.”
While he was also the leader of the demon realm, Liu Qingge did not mention that. He didn’t want to acknowledge that Qing Jing had such close ties to the demon realm, and he certainly wasn’t going to share that with a stranger who kept avoiding his questions.
“Ning Yingying?” he asked.
“What about her?” Liu Qingge frowned.
How did this stranger know the names of so many disciples? He’d even mentioned Mingyan earlier, and now Ning Yingying.
“Does... Does married life suit her?” Shen Yuan asked, as if he were trying to ask something else with these words.
“Marriage? Ning Yingying is not married. She and Ming Fan still tend to Qing Jing Peak; neither of them has a desire to wed.”
He imagined that eventually the two top Qing Jing Peak students would marry and take their place as the seconds in command of the peak, mostly running things while Shen Qingqiu was going on his various trips with Luo Binghe. But that was many years off as far as he knew; it had not even been discussed, and he had not even seen the two of them express more than sibling affection for one another. Ning Yingying still spent much of her time with Liu Mingyan and seemed to have little interest in the Ming Fan boy.
“What? She’s not married to Binghe?” Shen Yuan looked shocked, as if that information wasn’t possible. “I didn’t know the War God was such a trickster to give a seer wrong information.”
“I do not lie,” he said firmly. “Luo Binghe would never marry her, or any other woman.”
Shen Yuan opened and closed his mouth several times like a fish gaping in the water before finally managing to speak. “No woman?”
“No,” Liu Qingge shook his head. Honestly, he couldn’t even imagine Luo Binghe marrying any other man either. It was only Shen Qingqiu, and it had been since the boy was young. Anyone with eyes had seen that from the time the Qing Jing Peak Lord’s qi deviation had changed everything.
“Who did he marry then? Mobei-jun??” Shen Yuan demanded, looking more and more upset as he spoke, foot stomping on the floor. “Don’t be ridiculous! Binghe is a bred and true stallion protagonist! He would never- He... Lying to someone who is offering you shelter and helping you is rude even for a great peak lord.”
Liu Qingge frowned. “A stallion protagonist?”
Shen Yuan huffed and stormed over to a bookshelf where he pulled out a large book and shoved it towards Liu Qingge. Looking at the book, he recognized a picture of Luo Binghe as a young boy on the cover, and Shen Qingqiu looming over him like a dangerous creature.
“What is this?” he demanded as he struggled to make out the name. The characters were similar but not identical to what he was used to reading. “Demon.... Way?”
“Proud Immortal Demon Way!” Shen Yuan said as if that answered everything. “It’s the story of Luo Binghe’s life and how he winds up as the emperor of all realms with a harem of thousands of women! It’s his whole life story! Well, technically that’s only book one, but it’s his story!”
“Why do you have this?” Liu Qingge asked, staring at the man. Who was this to have an entire collection of events about Luo Binghe?
“I just... I just happened to have... It’s a novel,” he finally said, dropping his head.
“A novel? A story?”
He nodded.
“I am not a story character,” Liu Qingge said firmly, handing the book back to Shen Yuan.
“You are.” He picked up the book and flipped through until he found a section and began reading out loud. It described the demon attack on the peak exactly as he remembered it, except...
“When the demons were gone and the Lingxi caves were checked, they found Liu Qingge’s body, bloody and impaled on Xiu Ya. The War God was dead.” Shen Yuan read, looking up at him.
“I didn’t die in the Lingxi cave,” he said.
Shen Qingqiu had saved him, and then the Without a Cure poison had nearly killed the Qing Jing Peak Lord. “Shen Qingqiu saved me. I helped fight off that demon invasion, but Luo Binghe did win in his fight against the brute.”
He’d heard about that after the fact.
“Shen Qingqiu saved you?” Shen Yuan sounded nearly hysterical. “WHAT?”
Liu Qingge scowled. This man kept speaking ill of Shen Qingqiu. It had happened repeatedly now, and every time it made him more and more angry. This man had no reason to have so little respect for Shen Qingqiu.
“Why do you speak of him like that?” he glared.
“Shen Qingqiu is... well, he’s... he’s scum!”
Liu Qingge glared and took a breath. He’d gotten better at not hitting people first, and especially since he knew Shen Yuan had no spiritual energy and would not survive a hit. “Do not say that again.”
“He is! And he’s going to lead to your entire sect being destroyed and your death!” Shen Yuan said, nearly wheezing as his heart beat faster. He clearly strongly believed what he was saying.
“What do you know about him? You have not even met him.”
“Like I would want to meet someone like that!” Shen Yuan huffed. “I... the ancient texts I studied have mentioned him.”
“And Luo Binghe?” Liu Qingge asked, crossing his arms. “And Ning Yingying? And Mingyan?”
“W-well, these texts are very detailed a-about these kinds of things!”
“What kinds of things?” he asked. “Why us specifically?”
Shen Yuan stammered, and Liu Qingge realized the man was trying to come up with a lie. He couldn’t stand liars.
“Speak the truth. I know a liar when I hear one,” he said, letting a pinch of his anger reflect in his energy.
Shen Yuan flinched at the fraction of the War God’s wrath.
“Fine, fine, but don’t get angry with me! You’re all from a novel I read! Proud Immortal Demon Way, that book.” He motioned to the thick tome.
“A novel?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Yes, like a legend written down, only it’s made up, none of it is supposed to be real but then you showed up and killed a car, and my TV, and what am I supposed to do when not real characters show up in my world?? What am I supposed to think?” Shen Yuan paced as he ranted faster.
He was telling the truth; there wasn’t a hint of deception that Liu Qingge could sense, but did that mean...
“Something not real?” he asked, then shook his head.
Ridiculous.
He was obviously a real person. Clearly, this was just another realm, and only some of the parts of his world had gotten here. He’d been to a few pocket realms that only knew of the most ancient legends from his world. This one was no different, but clearly since it lacked a connection to natural energy, they had no understanding of this.
“I’m real,” he said simply. “But Shen Qingqiu is not a scum. Your text is wrong.”
Shen Yuan sputtered more. “No, in the Lingxi Caves, he- “
“Saved me. Later, he was poisoned by Without a Cure trying to shield Luo Binghe. He is the Qing Jing Peak Lord, and the topmost scholar. Luo Binghe is his husband.” He said, not particularly happy about having to state that last bit, but he needed to make sure Shen Yuan understood that.
Shen Yuan sputtered again, staring as his face turned red. “That, there’s no way! Luo Binghe has a harem of a thousand beautiful women, the most beautiful women in the world! He’s not-he would never! You’re wrong!”
Liu Qingge crossed his arms. “Have you met Luo Binghe?”
“Well he’s not real, so of course not!”
“He is real.” Liu Qingge pulled up his sleeve to show a faded but still present scar along his bicep, jagged like claw marks had ripped into him. He’d gotten them after the Mai Gu Ridge collapsed into the Luo River. When he’d fished Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe from the water. Luo Binghe had been unconscious but still had lashed out to try to protect Shen Qingqiu. It’d been the only injury from Luo Binghe that had scarred.
“This is from him.” He motioned to the scar.
Shen Yuan’s hand instantly reached out to touch the scars. His fingers were cool and clammy to the touch. Was this weak mortal about to collapse again?
“Luo Binghe did this?” he asked, a note of awe in his voice.
“Mm,” Liu Qingge nodded.
“You’ve fought him? What happened? Who won?” Shen Yuan asked. “Because I’ve always said that even against the war god of Bai Zhan, Luo Binghe couldn’t lose, but it would be a peerless battle!”
“I cannot defeat him,” he admitted bluntly.
He was no longer ashamed of that fact after suffering so many defeats at Luo Binghe’s hands. It was a matter of life; you were the strongest until you weren’t. If Luo Binghe had been a Bai Zhan disciple, then he’d have been killed, and Luo Binghe would have been the new peak lord.
“Really? Just like that. I didn’t think the War God would just give up!” Shen Yuan frowned.
Liu Qingge pulled his arm away and dropped his sleeve before crossing his arms over his chest. “A warrior knows when he is bested. Your text is wrong. Clearly, I am not dead.”
“Well, a lot of transmigration happens after someone dies. So how did you end up here?”
“I have told you. I heard a cry for help and entered a portal. I saw the car attacking you and stopped it.”
Why did they need to rehash this, and what was a transmigration?
“I was having tea with Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu. I left to return to Bai Zhan and found the portal. I did not die before coming here.”
“Aha!” Shen Yuan pointed as if he’d found an obvious answer. “The tea was poisoned!” Then he frowned. “No, Luo Binghe would never stoop so low as to use poison... but Shen Qingqiu obviously would!”
“There was no poison,” Liu Qingge said. “Shen Qingqiu would not harm me.”
He knew that the Qing Jing Peak Lord would never intentionally harm any of his martial brothers or sisters. He’d shown that in all the things he’d taken on without even letting them help, like the entire time he was imprisoned by Huan Hua for no real reason.
“Yes, he would. He killed you in-“
“He did not kill me,” Liu Qingge pointed out again. “I am right here, alive.” He held out his wrist.
Shen Yuan frowned.
“Touch my wrist,” he instructed. Surely, even without his own spiritual power, he would be able to sense the life force in Liu Qingge’s blood.
Shen Yuan looked a bit skeptical but reached out and grabbed his wrist, then adjusted his hold to something more proper, index and middle finger against the center of his wrist. After a moment, Shen Yuan pulled his hand away.
“I can feel your pulse. He... He really didn’t kill you.”
Liu Qingge nodded. “Whoever wrote these stories was incorrect.”
“That... no way Airplane knew anything he was writing was real. This doesn’t make sense. How can you be real but also in a novel?”
Liu Qingge felt that somehow he should have been the more confused and upset of the two, but the situation made perfect sense to him. Someone had gotten a glimpse of their world and then lied about it in this demon novel.
“Drink your potion.” He motioned to the coffee drink Shen Yuan had just been holding. “And perhaps sit down.”
Shen Yuan nodded and sagged onto the couch before staring into his mud potion. “Yeah. Yeah, good idea.”
Notes:
Helllllo, I'm back from a little menty b that knocked me out of writing after several unexpected deaths in my family, a friendship implosion and *gestures vaguely at the entire world*! BUT I have this whole fic fully written out and plan to do weekly updates from now on to get this guy finished.
I'm also now including the prompts for Liushen Week 2023, 2024, AND 2025 because why not??
Chapter 6: Cloaked
Summary:
The adventure to get Liu Qingge home begins.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
How was Liu Qingge so calm about learning he was a book character? And why was everything so…wrong?
What did he mean, Luo Binghe was married to Shen Qingqiu??
There was no way the scum villain had actually saved Liu Qingge’s life?? That couldn’t be right! The characters from the books were supposed to be exactly as they were in the books! At least every isekai story he’d read had been like that, and then the transmigrator’s elite knowledge had saved the day because the plot followed the same original path. The NPCs always played their roles, and the villains always did their evil plans unless someone transmigrated and changed everything.
He looked into his coffee. Had Liu Qingge been transmigrated into? Was there actually a Proud Immortal Demon Way reader in there? He glanced at his ruined TV and threw that idea into the trash.
No way; that kind of behavior fit someone from Bai Zhan. There hadn’t been a lot about that peak in Proud Immortal Demon way but the few characters from Bai Zhan that showed up were always the attack first and ask anything later type. It would make sense that their leader would be the kind to stab a television.
Rest in peace television, he’d get you replaced soon. He hoped the television had a good place in the underworld after all the questionable anime he’d made the thing display. It deserved a long, eternal rest.
“What is Luo Binghe like?” he had to ask.
This man knew and had recently even talked with the Luo Binghe. He couldn’t resist the chance to get all the details he could!
“A brat. Shen Qingqiu spoiled him too much,” he said matter-of-factly.
“W-what?” Shen Yuan stared at him. “A brat?”
Of all the words that had ever been used to describe Luo Binghe, and there were millions of them. Never once had he been called a brat! He was a serious, devious man with a cunning heart and an unstoppable golden finger. How could that be a brat??
Who could have guessed that Liu Qingge, the famed war god of Bai Zhan, would be such a jokester? No one! No one could have ever guessed he would just be full of jokes like Luo Binghe being a brat or Shen Qingqiu marrying... no, there was no way.
But if he was Liu Qingge, and the sword moves hinted that he was, then what did that mean for the novel world? It was an actual story, and with real people?
Well, if it was, maybe some legend that someone told Airplane then, of course, that idiot would have gotten it totally wrong when he was writing it down. Airplane always got distracted by describing some bosoms or hourglass figures with jade skin and not the story, so of course he would get it wrong!
Shen Yuan didn’t want to believe this stallion protagonist could turn out to be a true-blue homosexual, but he still wanted to know everything.
“What are the Black-Horn Rhinoceros Snakes like?” he asked.
“Loud.”
He couldn’t help but laugh as he realized one-word answers and descriptions were the best he was likely to get from Liu Qingge, and that seemed to be perfectly in character for the man more focused on fighting than anything else.
“What’s Bai Zhan Peak like?”
Liu Qingge considered for a while, arms still crossed before he said. “Louder.”
Shen Yuan laughed harder at that. He couldn’t seem to get himself to stop. He had to set down his coffee so he wouldn’t spill it all over himself or the already wrecked living room. Maybe it would be best not to ask questions for a little while. Liu Qingge was too funny.
For now, he would just try to get this transmigrated man back home. A shame he hadn’t ended up in the Proud Immortal Demon way world; he would have loved to have seen the Wood Darkening Stallion or a Red-Plated Lynx. But if he had ended up in PIDW, he’d probably just end up as some cannon fodder and die quickly.
The breakfast he had ordered arrived at his doorstep, and he stepped outside to grab it. Then, he shoved a breakfast sandwich into Liu Qingge’s hand.
The man stared down at the food and waited until Shen Yuan had eaten almost half of his own sandwich before taking a few bites of it. He didn’t seem to like it and sat it back down.
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.
Liu Qingge shook his head. “Salty.”
Who knew the War God would be picky about food! But then again, he probably had to work hard to keep his body in such a prime condition. He had such nice muscles and a good body that it must have taken a lot of work. Shen Yuan could admire that.
“You can return me home?” Liu Qingge asked.
“I can try,” Shen Yuan said. “I’ve read the ancient texts about-”
“The incorrect texts,” Liu Qingge said. “What you read does not sound like Luo Binghe or Shen Qingqiu.”
Shen Yuan huffed and stomped his foot a bit. “I know you say it’s wrong, but those texts are fictional! They can’t be wrong if the people they’re about don’t exist!”
Liu Qingge stepped closer, and for a moment he worried the man was going to just rip him in half. Instead, Liu Qingge grabbed Shen Yuan’s hand and pressed it to his chest. His very warm, firm chest.
“Do I feel like I don’t exist?” he asked.
Shen Yuan stammered. The warmth of the other man’s body spread through his palm, a heartbeat steadily drumming under his fingers. Warm. Alive.
Do not squeeze his tits .
“Alright, alright.” Shen Yuan pulled his hand away. “What I’m saying is that I can’t promise I’ll get you home. The easiest way to teleport between worlds is with Truck-kun, but...”
“Truck-kun?”
Shen Yuan waved his hand as if he could blow that bad idea away. “Well, a lot of people that my stories mention were sent to another world after they got hit by a big car and died.”
“Like you and the car beast.”
“I-well-yes, but I probably wouldn’t have transmigrated.”
How cool it would have been if he had. He’d watched enough isekai stories that he wouldn’t have embarrassed himself by asking if the people were actors or demanding to know where the cameras were. He would have been great as an isekai protagonist.
Alas, he would never get to find out.
And that was okay! He enjoyed being alive; he was happy to have not met his maker at the wheels of Truck-kun! Really, he was!
“That is not an option,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan agreed. He didn’t think a truck could kill Liu Qingge anyway, and he wouldn’t willingly throw anyone in front of a vehicle since he didn’t want to go to prison for murder.
“What other ways of traveling between worlds are there?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Well, stories have a lot of options. Inside a clothing wardrobe, falling asleep, magical portals, fairy rings, stepping outside just before aliens arrive, strange doorways. The sky’s the limit!”
Liu Qingge looked at him. “I am in your hands. What option do you suggest?”
Shen Yuan liked being the older brother guiding figure. He puffed his chest up a bit. “Let’s take a walk in the park. Weird things happen in nature in a lot of the stories, so maybe we’ll get lucky. It’s still early, so it won’t be too hot either!”
Liu Qingge glanced out the window, and Shen Yuan had the distinct impression that Liu Qingge was judging him by his idea of early in the morning. But it was before noon, so it totally counted as early!
“I am ready,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan shot back his coffee before he got himself dressed. When he walked back out, he looked over Liu Qingge. In his robes and with his good looks, wouldn’t people think they were filming some kind of movie? Liu Qingge was too handsome to let people see, or else they would be swarmed!
He disappeared back into his room and dug through his closet until he found the dark grey hooded cloak he’d bought on a whim at a Renaissance festival years ago. Shen Yuan had never worn it, but now it would come in handy since none of his hoodies or jackets would fit Liu Qingge.
“Put this on.” He held the cloak out.
Liu Qingge did so without a question. Shen Yuan supposed out of all the things he’d seen, cloaks were probably the most familiar thing he’d encountered so far, so of course he would simply take it.
Shen Yuan reached over and pulled up the hood to make sure that Liu Qingge was properly hidden. Then he grabbed his life-sized, solid wood Xin Mo replica so they could at least use cosplay photoshoot as an excuse for Liu Qingge’s robe outfit being so out of place in the city. He checked his phone was charged, and that he had his keys before he led the way out of the apartment.
Somehow with the cloak, Liu Qingge stood out even more! People gawked and took pictures.
Shen Yuan couldn’t even blame them. How could such a beautiful man ever not draw every eye to him! Thankfully, no one swarmed them since it seemed all they needed was a sharp glare from Liu Qingge and they would back away. The crowds were no problem!
The benefit of being the War God!
Too cool.
While he had originally expected the Bai Zhan Peak Lord to be a grizzled and scarred old man, he liked the pretty man that had appeared. It had to be because he was a young peak lord. Yes, that had to be it! How tragic he’d died at the hands of that Shen Qingqiu... except that according to Liu Qingge, that hadn’t happened. Thinking about that too much made Shen Yuan’s head hurt, so he just kept walking until they got to the closest park.
Shen Yuan didn’t know many of the paths here; he didn’t go outside and do things like walk very often. Since it was a weekday morning, there weren’t many other people around. The early bird crowd had already come and gone; the lunchtime enjoyers weren’t out yet either. He had picked the perfect time!
Liu Qingge looked around then knelt down and put his hand to the ground.
“So there is Qi here in this world. It is just weak.”
“What?” Shen Yuan blinked. “Wait, do you mean people could cultivate here?”
He shook his head. “No. It isn’t strong enough. But I hadn’t felt any until now.”
“Well, is there somewhere it feels stronger? That’s probably a good way to go then!” Shen Yuan said.
Liu Qingge focused on where his hand connected to the ground and was so still and silent, he was like a corpse. He’d never seen anyone be so motionless!
Finally, the warrior stood and nodded his head in a direction. Maybe west? Shen Yuan had no idea how to tell directions. He simply took the guidance from the other man and led the way, though he quickly slowed down to let Liu Qingge actually lead the way since he couldn’t sense any kind of Qi.
There wasn’t a paved path to follow, but the park seemed well cared for so the grass wasn’t too high.
“What does Qi feel like?” he asked.
Liu Qingge glanced at him. “Warm.”
Another one-word answer was exactly what to expect from this man!
They walked at a steady pace, but it was fast for Shen Yuan and the enormous sword he’d brought along. He struggled to keep up after several minutes and had to lean against a tree to catch his breath. Liu Qingge immediately noticed and stopped. “Are you injured?”
“I’m fine. Just asthma,” he said.
“Asthma?” Liu Qingge repeated slowly, sounding it out.
“It just means breathing is hard for me sometimes,” Shen Yuan waved his hand dismissively. “Not a big deal. The pollen just makes it harder this time of year.”
“Pollen is annoying,” Liu Qingge nodded in agreement.
Shen Yuan couldn’t help but laugh. In Proud Immortal Demon Way, pollen was almost always some kind of aphrodisiac! So, it had to be quite a problem for anyone living there. He couldn’t imagine what that would do to his body. Thank goodness he didn’t live there.
“I’m alright to keep going,” Shen Yuan said after several minutes. Thankfully, he hadn’t had an actual asthma attack, just some wheezing. It was totally fine to keep going!
“Why are you carrying that?” he motioned towards the Xin Mo replica. “That is not a good sword, and you have no strength.”
“Xin Mo is the ultimate golden finger! It’s worth carrying!”
Liu Qingge sighed and easily pulled the sword from him. He twirled it around a few times and ran his finger over the blade before sighing. “Wooden. A training sword? Good for practice, but this is too big for you to properly wield. I’ll carry it.” Liu Qingge resumed walking, but at a slower pace.
Xin Mo looked perfectly in place in his hands with his dramatic cloak and beautiful good looks. Really, he should have been a protagonist!
“Where is your family? They don’t live with you?” Liu Qingge asked.
Shen Yuan understood. In PIDW family homes were the norm, and people all lived together usually even after marriage for most normal, not-protagonist people.
“They sent me here,” Shen Yuan said.
Officially, he’d come here to get an education. But really, his family didn’t want to deal with him. His asthma wasn’t that , but it often caused issues. With other healthy and better children, Shen Yuan just got in the way. He couldn’t remember the last time his family had called to check up on him. Maybe when his meimei had called him for his birthday a few months ago?
Liu Qingge frowned. “Why did they send you away?”
“Education. You have the children that join your sect; it’s the same for me!” Shen Yuan said.
No, it wasn’t quite the same, but he could dream! Sometimes when school got especially annoying, he pretended to be a cultivator training to prove himself. The fantasy usually hadn’t survived a fifteen-minute study session.
“What is the education here like?” Liu Qingge asked.
Shen Yuan began trying to explain the college he was attending and couldn’t help but laugh at Liu Qingge’s face as he frowned at the idea of studying literature for hours a day. Thankfully, today was one of his class-free days.
Well, it was now because he’d decided to skip his afternoon class.
It wasn’t until he finished explaining what a dissertation was that he realized things felt different. The air was silent.
Now, the park stayed quiet, but there was still always the hum of the city and its ruckus. But now, the silence loomed large. Shen Yuan looked around and didn’t see a single building. Instead, a range of trees and grass just encircled them.
Where had they ended up? Had they somehow walked out of the city?? He didn’t know the park well enough to have a clue, but this felt different, like the air itself was charged with energy . There was no way this was normal, but to get Liu Qingge home, this was a good sign, right?
“The air here is better,” Liu Qingge said.
“Where are we?” he asked.
Liu Qingge looked at him. “Why would I know?”
Shen Yuan stared. How did he not know where they were? He was the one leading the way!
“I’ve been following you!” Shen Yuan accused.
Liu Qingge nodded. “And I have followed the Qi.”
Shen Yuan sputtered and looked around more. He pulled out his phone but found that his phone screen just had an error message on it. He decided not to think about that too much right now and just put the phone back into his pocket. No buildings were around at all, so that clearly meant that they had gotten far from the city or maybe this trail and park were just nice and larger than he had originally thought. Surely there were areas of the city with no visible buildings, right?
Yes, that had to be it. He nodded to himself, pleased at having figured it out. These parks were so fancy and impressive these days. He would have to come here more often to enjoy the outdoors where no buildings were around.
“Thank you for your guidance,” Liu Qingge said, turning to Shen Yuan and offering a bow.
Oh no, that seemed like a bad sign. Isn’t that what a character usually did right before they did something self-sacrificey and died?
“Where are you going that you need to thank me like that?” Shen Yuan asked and reached over to tug on the cloak.
Liu Qingge blinked then carefully took the cloak off and held it out to Shen Yuan. “I should return this.”
Another death flag!
He shoved it back towards the War God. “It’s a gift; you keep it. You sense another portal?”
“I sense something,” Liu Qingge said, taking the cloak back.
When he didn’t immediately put it back on, Shen Yuan grabbed it and wrapped it back around the War God and clasped the cloak in front of his chest. He took Xin Mo back from him, just in case some enemy showed up and attacked because Liu Qingge was too busy holding a wooden sword and couldn’t pull out his actual sword. Everything about this sent the hairs on his arm raising up and screeching in how strange it felt.
“Well, I guess that’s it then?” Shen Yuan asked.
Liu Qingge nodded, eyes ahead towards a river? Now that he definitely had never noticed in this area. Wow, they had gone all out on this park, adding in water features too! In fact, the river was rushing so loudly, he could barely hear Liu Qingge.
“I’ll be back to the mountains soon,” Liu Qingge nodded.
DEATH FLAGS EVERYWHERE!
Everyone knew that if a character ever talked about the peaceful life they were returning to, then that was a huge flag screaming they were going to die soon. And this guy had died in the original work! What if the death flags were still coming for him?
“Be careful!” he yelled.
“Live a good life, Shen Yuan.” He patted Shen Yuan and stared into his eyes.
AHHHH, HE WAS TOTALLY GOING TO GET KILLED. OH MY GOD!
Shen Yuan had to do something; there was no way he could just let it happen, especially not now that he had met Liu Qingge and liked him so much. He was a lot funnier than the books had ever hinted at, and he was just too beautiful to die. Beautiful characters were supposed to have some sort of protective halo around them! Not as powerful as the protagonist halo, obviously, but one that protected them too!
Liu Qingge released Shen Yuan’s shoulder after a gentle squeeze and then began walking closer to this strange rushing river.
Was there something in there? Could... Could Liu Qingge maybe not swim? Was there a monster there? Something was seriously wrong, and he just knew the War God was about to vanish forever.
“Don’t!” Shen Yuan tried to grab for him, but Liu Qingge was already leaping into the water in a graceful arc, water sparkling around him almost in slow motion.
NO SLOW MOTION LAST MOMENTS!
Could it be any more obvious that he was going to die? There were flags everywhere, but Liu Qingge hadn’t listened to him, so what was he supposed to do!? He paced along the edge of the river and waited a few seconds, but Liu Qingge never surfaced. After what felt like ages, the cloak floated up, empty to the surface.
That was it.
Shen Yuan leapt into the water, grabbed the cloak and dove in after the death-flagged man. He could at least try to help.
What was the worst that could happen?
Notes:
And here we head into new adventures and chaos. ^_^
Chapter Text
Without the cloak tangling his arms, Liu Qingge moved quickly through the water and found the source of the qi he had noticed. A small but steady portal.
There was no telling where it might go, but it had a much stronger sense of qi than he had felt before, so it had to be a step in the right direction. As he prepared to dive in, he heard something plummet into the water.
Readying himself for some predator, he instead turned to see Shen Yuan, tangled in the cloak, and choking on water. Immediately he went to grab the man, but the portal at the bottom of the river had latched onto him. If he let it pull him in, he’d leave Shen Yuan to drown, but the portal wouldn’t easily release him at this point.
There was no hesitation; he sent out Cheng Luan. The sword shot out like a fish through the water. The sword twisted so the flat edge pressed against the frail man’s back and shoved him towards Liu Qingge.
While he rarely used his sword for non-lethal methods, this was one he’d developed after traveling with Shen Qingqiu and constantly needing to firmly but gently pull his martial brother away from some dangerous beast. Shen Yuan just got in grasp as the portal pulled in Liu Qingge.
He held the smaller man closer, wrapping the cloak around him as he grabbed Chen Lun with his free hand.
The portal devoured them both and in an instant he felt the entire world flip upside down and then right itself again.
But the water didn’t fade. Instead, it simply grew deeper as the muddy depths that had been under his feet vanished into a dark abyss.
Pushing upwards, he swam towards a light, and finally he and Shen Yuan broke the surface. In his arms, Shen Yuan coughed and choked on the air, gasping in greedy gasps of breath. He’d already noticed that the other man had a harder time breathing because of that asthma curse, so he couldn’t imagine almost drowning had been very helpful.
Liu Qingge looked around and saw almost no sign of land.
In the distance he could see a few birds hovering but no land on the horizon. Liu Qingge pulled Shen Yuan up into his arms and got Cheng Luan under foot. He rode slowly, close to the surface of the water for now. Since he didn’t know how Shen Yuan would react to heights, he didn’t want the man to panic and flail out of his arms and back into the water.
While he was confident he’d catch Shen Yuan before anything could harm him, he didn’t want to risk the experience upsetting Shen Yuan.
Finally, something glinted ahead of them, and Liu Qingge flew closer only to find nothing. Then a bird landed on what appeared to be nothing. Light glimmered, and he realized the surface was transparent.
He pressed a foot to it as a test.
When he found the ground solid, he stepped onto it and went to place Shen Yuan down. The man was stubbornly and firmly holding onto Liu Qingge and the cloak now.
“It’s solid here,” Liu Qingge said, encouraging Shen Yuan to let go.
After a moment, Shen Yuan put his weight on his own feet and released his death grip on Liu Qingge.
He still wheezed a bit, but his breaths didn’t crackle like Liu Qingge had heard in people who’d spent too long in water, so he was probably okay. Liu Qingge wasn’t a doctor, but he was good at staying alive.
“Where are we?” Shen Yuan finally asked, looking around.
Tiny fractures ran along the glass ground, and in the distance, small spires of shattered glass reached towards a pale pink sky. Wind rushed past them with a heavy scent of rain and iron. The warm environment wasn’t quite uncomfortable but warmer than Liu Qingge preferred.
“I do not know,” Liu Qingge said. The portal rarely provided any kind of name or explanation about itself.
Shen Yuan frowned as he looked at the environment and then at the ground they stood on. He knelt down to tap it and then squinted up towards the sky. Somehow, the man with no qi or experience with traveling to other realms, looked as if he knew where they had ended up.
Well, the man had claimed to be a scholar and a seer, so perhaps there had been some truth to it.
“You recognize this place?” He asked Shen Yuan.
“The Shattered Glass Desert,” Shen Yuan said slowly as he stood back up. “I think, but this doesn’t quite match the descriptions in the book. It’s not that hot, and the glass spires are hardly formed.”
Liu Qingge shrugged. A name was a name, but that didn’t add much other detail as far as he was concerned.
“Is it dangerous?” Liu Qingge asked.
Shen Yuan turned to stare at him. “Is it... It’s only one of the most dangerous places in the Endless Abyss!”
Liu Qingge looked around. There wasn’t nearly a strong enough aura for him to think this could be the Endless Abyss. But he didn’t see a need to argue about it with Shen Yuan right now. The man’s book clearly was wrong about most things.
“We can just fly from here,” he said.
“No!” Shen Yuan said, grabbing his arm. “There are a lot of things in the water, and if they see you flying, they’ll rush out and devour you!”
“...Walking seems like they would see us too, and I am not just standing still,” Liu Qingge crossed his arms.
Shen Yuan huffed. “No, you just have to walk where there are cracks in the glass.”
“What?” Liu Qingge frowned.
“You walk where there are cracks in the glass,” he pointed at the ground. “It distorts your image so the creatures in the water are confused and can’t attack as easily.”
“Enemies in the water?” He glanced towards the water.
He hadn’t noted much of note when he was in the water, and his senses for monsters were the best. Then again, a lot of the texts that Shen Yuan seemed to have referenced seem to be wrong, after all he’d thought that Luo Binghe was a man with a massive harem of women when that very idea was ridiculous.
Luo Binghe had interest in Shen Qingqiu and Shen Qingqiu only. There was no doubt about that as far as anyone could tell, so Liu Qingge knew the man’s information wasn’t always right. Shen Yuan clearly was trying to help, and he didn’t fault the man for that. There wasn’t a lot he could do as someone with no qi so he obviously wanted to help by other means.
Liu Qingge would humor him for now even though he wasn’t sure he was right at all. But if there were creatures here to battle... It had already been too long since he had had a good fight. The cars and TVs of Shen Yuan’s world had not really even been anything near a challenge.
He had been itching for a fight. He stepped back towards the water as Shen Yuan tried to grab his arm.
“Stop, there’s no reason to aggro them!”
“... Aggro?”
“Just, you don’t need to make them attack. We’re in their home, we should be polite,” Shen Yuan said.
Shen Qingqiu often had a similar view of things, especially regarding monsters. If they were not harming people, then they were best left alone to do as they wished. Liu Qingge didn’t like it, but over time, he’d accepted it.
He hadn’t expected anyone else to think the same way.
“Very well. But I will defend us if we are attacked.”
“Of course, I would expect nothing less from the War God!”
Liu Qingge walked towards the nearest crack in the surface under their feet. It still unnerved him that this transparent, flimsy surface was the only thing between them and the fathomless deep below. Using his qi to keep his steps light, he stepped over the crack splintering the ground beneath his feet, and glanced back to make sure Shen Yuan was following.
Shen Yuan focused on staring downwards rather than keeping close to Liu Qingge. His eyes were alight with excitement, as if he wanted to see some monster circling beneath them. Liu Qingge shook his head with a sigh. He’d need to keep a close eye on this man to make sure he didn’t get himself into trouble.
It felt almost like the trips he used to go on with Shen Qingqiu, back before everything else had happened. Before Luo Binghe had returned.
But he saw no reason in reflecting on the past; the future was the only thing that he could impact, so he kept moving.
“You are alright?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Hm? Oh, I’m great; this is just... the depth of the ocean! It’s amazing! I can’t believe that there is so much down there! I’m hoping we can see some of it at least; even just a Poison-Tipped Squid would be incredible.”
Liu Qingge was relieved Shen Yuan didn’t seem upset. And he wasn’t sure it was his place to bring up that the man would likely never see his home again. Clearly, Shen Yuan understood portal travel and how rare it was to return home from it, so he had to know the truth.
For now, that; he’d be happy to know where they currently were. While Shen Yuan had said they were in the Endless Abyss, Liu Qingge still didn’t believe that. The air was too clear with only the faintest hint of demonic energy.
He’d been into the Endless Abyss a few times, mostly after the conference when he’d been trying to find Luo Binghe, or at least his body. It had almost killed him every time he tried to enter one; the miasmic levels of demonic energy had been higher than anything else he had ever encountered, but he'd been determined to find some way to take that broken expression from Shen Qingqiu’s face.
Generally, the Endless Abyss was so hard to enter because it only opened small tears into it. Instead of full portals, a tear only allowed a brief, small entrance and then kicked anything back out before it closed. No matter how much he’d searched, the tear would kick him out and vanish again.
But it wasn’t like that here. He’d also always heard water was rare in the Abyss, but here they were surrounded by it. Everything seemed to not match anything he knew about the Endless Abyss, but for now, it was safe enough not to cause concern.
Shen Yuan kept following him and staring into the water beneath their feet.
“Do you expect something to attack us?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Absolutely!” Shen Yuan nodded. “Don’t you know how deadly the Endless Abyss is?”
Liu Qingge stared at him. Before he could even reply, Shen Yuan continued with bright enthusiasm.
“I would love to see an Oasis Devourer. OH, or a Star Consuming Whale even! There are a lot of creatures here just waiting for a moment to strike! The splinters in the glass only disrupt their vision, it doesn’t stop them.”
Liu Qingge hadn’t heard of those particular beasts, but the way Shen Yuan’s entire body lit up when he mentioned them made him want to smile too. How could someone who had no qi and no ability to fight anything be so interested in these creatures that could kill him with barely any effort?
While he wanted Shen Yuan to get to see those creatures, and also wanted to fight them himself, he didn’t sense any killing intent around them. He doubted that Shen Yuan would get his wish to see those specific beasts. Even if he did, he’d only see them for a moment before Liu Qingge destroyed them.
“We will continue moving until we find solid ground.” Liu Qingge said.
“To the west is a city with portals!” Shen Yuan reported confidently.
“Portals?” he asked, already having some doubts about Shen Yuan’s information, but he didn’t have a direction to walk in, so he agreed and turned.
“W-where are you going?” Shen Yuan said, pointing towards the way Liu Qingge had just been walking.
He frowned. “You said to the west. That is to the south.”
Shen Yuan frowned and looked in one direction, then the other and then to his feet for some reason.
“Well, I think the village is that way,” he pointed again in the direction they had been walking in.
“...to the south then. Not the west.”
“Directions are difficult to determine in the Endless Abyss!” Shen Yuan protested.
Liu Qingge didn’t answer but resumed his original direction of walking. “And where do these portals lead?”
“Well, all over the place. Rifts into and out of the Endless Abyss form at random, but this town has a very high chance of them, so they show up often there!” Shen Yuan nodded. “So we should be able to find one that leads back into the human world and away from here. It’d be far too dangerous to stay here too long.”
“And you learned this from your texts? Was that in another story?”
“Well yes, Luo Binghe suffered for five years in the Endless Abyss until he found his way out!”
“Two.”
Shen Yuan nearly tripped over his feet. “What?”
“He was in the abyss for two years before he returned,” Liu Qingge said.
“What?! No, he spent five years after that scum kicked him down into the abyss! He suffered for so long!”
Liu Qingge glared. He now knew that Shen Qingqiu had pushed Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss during the conference. He’d never gotten a reason, and he frankly didn’t need one.
What did it matter now?
Luo Binghe clearly no longer had a grudge, and the two of them had worked out whatever problems existed between them. It wasn’t his business, but the brat had not suffered for that long. He’d been gone a short time, though long enough for grief to nearly destroy Shen Qingqiu.
“Two years... truly the protagonist is too OP,” Shen Yuan muttered.
He had no idea what that meant, but since he imagined it had something to do with Luo Binghe, he didn’t care enough to ask.
“This portal city is from the same book that said five years. That book seems to be wrong about many things. I’m not sure how much guidance we can actually expect from it. I don’t sense-” He paused as something with killing intention flickered through his senses, far below them but quickly rising.
Without hesitation, he grabbed Shen Yuan around the waist and hopped onto his sword, rushing upwards. Beneath them, the glass they’d been standing on exploded into a rain of sharp shards as a huge, dark creature burst out of the water, teeth flashing towards them. Raised bumps along the long sides of the creature twitched before the bumps opened, revealing themselves to be an array of eyes that all quickly focused on Liu Qingge.
The creature twisted in the air, and its tail nearly slammed into them as Liu Qingge pulled his sword into a sharp spin to avoid the beast.
“A Star-Consuming Whale!?” Shen Yuan gasped. “And a hundred-eyed one at that! Wow! Each of those eyes houses a gem with a unique power! Did you know that-“
Liu Qingge listened as he focused on dodging the blast of fire the whale creature could apparently shoot from one of its eyes. He understood now what Shen Yuan had been saying about different powers in each eye.
But this creature had no wings, and even with its powerful leap from the water, it soon plummeted back down, crashing through the glass ground and back into the dark water. Liu Qingge didn’t get closer and blasted ahead on his sword. Shen Yuan made a startled noise and wrapped his arms around Liu Qingge, hiding his face against the other man’s chest.
Behind them, Liu Qingge heard the ground shattering again, water raining down on them as the creature leapt after them blindly. While he wanted a battle, the risk to Shen Yuan was too great if he tried to fight here.
There was no safe ground for him to stand.
Recalling Shen Yuan’s earlier words, he stayed low to the ground, sticking near to the various cracks in the ground, and that seemed to throw the creature somewhat off, as it burst out of the glass at angles putting it further and further away.
In the distance, he finally caught sight of more solid ground ahead of them. With a last burst of speed, he reached solid, dark ground. The whale creature gave a low, vibrating screech that rumbled through the air like thunder but Liu Qingge didn’t slow down as he rushed far from the water, before he brought the sword to the ground, helping Shen Yuan down to check him for injuries.
“Did you see the laser it fired?? That means that eye has a Fire-Encrusted Blood Gem!” Shen Yuan said as if that would mean something to Liu Qingge. “That’s amazing! It’s one of the rarest gems... well, I mean, all of the gems that Binghe finds are rare, but it’s still one of the most powerful... well.. I mean, aside from his golden finger, obviously.”
Liu Qingge nodded because he had no idea how to respond to any of those words. Magical artifacts had never been a particular interest to him, and he really had no desire to learn what a golden finger was.
“Where is the village from here?” he asked.
So far this place hadn’t been that deadly, which just confirmed to Liu Qingge this couldn’t be the Endless Abyss. Because of that, he was willing to let Shen Yuan continue guiding. The man clearly had a passion for adventure and these sorts of creatures, but had never encountered them. His books had incorrect information so he could help the man actually get to enjoy some truth before he found a way to get Shen Yuan home.
Shen Yuan looked around, hands on his hips before nodding and pointing decisively before walking. Liu Qingge sighed internally but followed him, keeping close and with his usual vigilance for any threats around. A few small creatures lingered in this area, but none of them registered as a threat. After some years with Shen Qingqiu, he no longer went after any beast he could sense and was willing to let these small, harmless ones be for now. If they attempted to cause a problem, he would destroy them then.
“The town shouldn’t be very far from the Glass Desert. They actually harvest glass from it sometimes!”
“For what?” he asked.
“Well, the city is usually in the air, so they use glass to support that,” Shen Yuan said as if that explained anything and didn’t just give him many more questions.
He simply nodded. Liu Qingge would see what was true, and what was not when they got to the city. At least Shen Yuan seemed to be breathing better now. The water clearly hadn’t settled into his lungs, so that was a relief. Liu Qingge wasn’t a healer and couldn’t handle something like that.
Hopefully, they would have no need of a healer anytime soon, though if they got back to Cang Qiong, he would be taking Shen Yuan to Mu Qingfang and seeing what the doctor could do for the qi-less man since clearly that wasn’t a way to live, especially not in a world with those kinds of monsters.
How the man had lived this long only spoke to the strangeness of that world of cars and TVs. Though he was certain that Shen Yuan wanted to return to it, he was pleased to be free of that energy-less strange world of bright lights and metal.
Shen Yuan was mumbling to himself, and Liu Qingge could only understand the occasional word of Airplane which he didn’t understand. It might be what his small communication device was called. Perhaps he was just upset that the array didn’t work.
“Most artifacts do not work outside of their realm,” he said in an attempt to be comforting.
“What?” Shen Yuan blinked.
“The airplane, it doesn’t work, right? You said it was a...hack?”
Shen Yuan stared at him before bursting into laughter, hard enough that he had to hold his stomach. “Y-yeah. Airplane is a hack.”
“We will get you home, and that should allow the airplane to work.”
Shen Yuan adjusted his glasses to wipe at his eyes. “No. Somehow, even going home wouldn’t get Airplane to work and not be a hack. And it’s alright. Generally, these isekai things are one-way trips.”
“...Isekai?”
“It just means traveling to another world. I probably died in that water in that park. Or maybe the car actually hit me, and this is a prolonged dream before death.”
“You’re not dead.”
Shen Yuan didn’t seem to believe him but also didn’t seem to be too upset about it, so Liu Qingge wasn’t sure what to think of this strange man. For now, he would keep walking and find a path to get himself home.
From there, he was certain Shen Qingqiu would know some way to help Shen Yuan return home, even if the idea of not seeing Shen Yuan again made his chest ache strangely.
Notes:
And now we're into a whole new adventure with the boys!
Chapter 8: Air
Summary:
Shen Yuan has totally figured out what is going. Totally. For sure.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
He really shouldn’t have been surprised that he had ended up in the Proud Immortal Demon Way universe. Of course, any contact with Airplane’s hack writing would draw him into some stupid plot. He was certain there had to be some kind of wife plot with this idea, but he definitely hadn’t read anything about Luo Binghe going into the modern world for a wife.
That would have been a great plot! A modern wife for Binghe! Maybe one who would actually be worthy of the great protagonist.
It would have been such a good fourth wall break from the usual palace drama. He knew that Luo Binghe would have conquered the modern world as soon as he’d arrived, but it would have been glorious to see him master the internet and become an immediate celebrity, obviously.
Honestly, if Liu Qingge had stayed in Shen Yuan’s world, he just would have had to post a few pictures and become an idol and influencer! How did anyone have any right to be that beautiful? Clearly, he’d had to die before the story started because he was far too much of a competition for the protagonist!
Though he was wondering if maybe Liu Qingge wasn’t from the original PIDW but in fact from one of the fandom sister’s fanfictions. He liked talking theory with the sisters in the PIDW fandom, but they had wild pairing ideas like Mobei Jun and Luo Binghe being in a romantic relationship!
Ridiculous.
He’d helped them beta read their fics to help with lore, but of course he’d never found them on official sites and commented! He just had to make sure that the lore was accurate. They’d just needed some guidance to make sure the pollen they used followed the novel, that was all!
Shen Yuan was just a natural editor, and he wanted to help people! Besides, Mobei Jun was one of the few people who truly understood Luo Binghe and almost the only person the emperor could even trust.
He could understand why the sisters would want those two together, but not even Mobei Jun was good enough for Luo Binghe, and besides both demons were straight as straight could be!
Speaking of...
“What about Mobei Jun in your world? What is he doing?” he asked.
“Married to Shang Qinghua,” Liu Qingge said, not slowing his pace.
Shen Yuan tripped over his own feet. “Wh...who....what?”
Liu Qingge stopped and turned to him. “Are you alright?”
“Shang Qinghua is ALIVE?”
“Mm,” Liu Qingge nodded.
“And married... to Mobei Jun?”
That sealed it. Liu Qingge had to be from some fanfic alternate universe and not the actual Proud Immortal Demon Way because there is no way that Mobei Jun, who valued loyalty above all, would ever want anything to do with the rat Shang Qinghua!
That must be why the world was so strange and didn’t quite match with the book! What kind of person would write a Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu romance story... but more than that, Shang Qinghua and Mobei Jun? What sister was possibly putting together that kind of fanfiction!
That also explained why Liu Qingge was so handsome. He was from a fanfiction, so he had to be a handsome young man, not a grizzled old man scarred from battles!
Everything made sense now. He nodded to himself. Now that he had a better picture, he felt better. This wasn’t the Liu Qingge from PIDW, but a sister’s made-up version, so telling him about the novel and everything else wouldn’t impact any of the real Luo Binghe’s story!
He hoped that the aerial town still existed in this boy’s love fic. Luo Binghe had found this place and managed to offer them trade to use a portal. Of course, that portal hadn’t taken him out of the Endless Abyss but instead into the den of a powerful succubus who told about Xin Mo and papapa’d for 20 chapters!!
The trick of the portals in this town though was that the portals only opened once and once they had been used, they wouldn’t open again. Thankfully, since this wasn’t the actual world of Proud Immortal Demon Way, they could use the portals without worrying about it causing problems for Luo Binghe in the future.
He moved with a bit more of a pep in his step now that he understood the situation; he felt better about just exploring and enjoying the world. Fanfictions with married demon lords couldn’t be too dangerous of a world. He knew a lot of the sisters liked a fluffy story, so he doubted there would be much more like the Star Consuming Whale attacking them.
It should be easy to get Liu Qingge properly home.
“Are you alright?” Liu Qingge asked.
“Yes, yes. I’m fine,” he said. “You know we could travel by sword now that we’re out of the desert.”
Shen Yuan doubted anything had changed, but... he did still have the Xin Mo replica strapped to his back. He took out the window sword and threw it to the ground, hoping it would hover, but the sword just thudded onto the ground like a badly thrown frisbee. He stared at it for a moment before putting it back onto his back.
Liu Qingge’s mouth twisted into what almost looked like a smile, but the man didn’t actually smile, so Shen Yuan was sure he had just seen it wrong.
Then Liu Qingge offered him a small jade bracelet.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It will let you store your...sword... in the bracelet. People might misunderstand if you have your sword out like that. It can be seen as aggressive or rude.” Liu Qingge said.
How diplomatic of the War God! He hadn’t considered that kind of thing, but Liu Qingge was right for sure! “How does it work?”
There was a momentary flash of pain as with barely a second to blink, Shen Yuan found his finger pricked and a drop of blood falling onto the jade. It glowed for a moment before returning to its beautiful pale appearance. His finger also healed in the next instant. It all happened so fast he doubted it had even happened.
“Now what?” he asked.
Liu Qingge slid the bracelet onto Shen Yuan’s wrist where it instantly shrank to fit him, not too tight but also not loose enough that he had to worry that it would fall off. Suddenly, something registered in his mind. “Is this the Heart of Jade?”
He looked at Shen Yuan, surprised, but nodded. “A Liu family heirloom.”
In Proud Immortal Demon Way, Liu Mingyan had given this to Luo Binghe to show her true feelings. Since she was a reserved woman, she didn’t use her body like the other wives. This was her way of showing her sincerity.
It worked as a smaller qiankun bag that wasn’t so obvious. While most knew to take away any sort of bag from a cultivator, few would think to take away jewelry (because they wouldn’t, they were all low IQ idiots anyway!).
The protagonist would then of course outsmart them!
“How does it work exactly?” he asked.
“Think of the…” He seemed pained to call it a sword. “Sword.”
Liu Qingge gave the Xin Mo replica a judgmental look that made Shen Yuan feel slightly defensive. He’d spent a lot of money on this replica!
“And then touch your bracelet. You can summon it back to your hand the same way.”
Shen Yuan nodded and closed his eyes, thinking hard about his wooden sword. In a moment it vanished into light. He grinned. His first magical artifact, and he’d used it on his first try! Clearly all of that reading had paid off, and he was a savant with these things!
He’d be a sage in no time at this rate!
Shen Yuan thought of the sword again and waited for it to reappear in his hand... but it didn’t! What?
Well, clearly the item just had a cooldown period; that was all. He’d get it back out when they reached their destination. He was a master of artifacts after all. “Thank you.”
Liu Qingge nodded. “If we can travel by sword now, then it will be much faster.” Liu Qingge put down his own sword, which hovered perfectly above the ground. Shen Yuan absolutely wasn’t jealous.
He stepped onto it without even the faintest hint of it wavering, truly a master of his craft, which of course he had to be as the famed War God of Bai Zhan. Obviously, even if this was just a fanfic, they couldn’t let Liu Qingge embarrass himself by not being a total master with his sword. They had even made an extra effort for Cheng Luan to be truly impressive.
Liu Qingge held his hand out towards Shen Yuan.
Shen Yuan stared at him for a moment before taking the hand and carefully stepping onto the sword. He’d never even gone skiing or snowboarding before, and now he was supposed to balance on a sword somehow??
He tried to find a comfortable feeling position, but couldn’t. Liu Qingge finally grabbed him and pulled Shen Yuan in front of him. One arm wrapped firmly around Shen Yuan’s waist and wasn’t this position a little too familiar?? A little too friendly??
But of course he had transmigrated into a gay fanfic, so of course that made sense that this was how Liu Qingge would help him on the sword. He imagined that in the next town or somewhere soon, Liu Qingge would run into one of those original character boys that the fandom sisters were so fond of making, and then Liu Qingge would have his own boyfriend.
Or maybe the story would pair him up with Mu Qingfang or Yue Qingyuan, maybe? There weren’t a lot of named men in the novel, so options were few, but that never stopped the sisters, and he respected it.
“I’m starting to move now,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan ignored how his neck went red because wasn’t that what some of those men in his meimei’s books would say during... papapa?
But that was clearly not happening here! No sirree, Shen Yuan was a straight man in a gay world, that was all. He absolutely wasn’t blushing as he nodded.
The sword inched upwards, rising into the air, and Shen Yuan flailed, worried about his own balance before realizing the firm arm around his waist kept him absolutely in place and safe. As he relaxed, he looked around. The air was far clearer than he would have guessed for the Endless Abyss.
The sky only burned with a pale pink and not the deep blood red that Luo Binghe had described. The weather wasn’t even that bad, despite the fact that they were near the desert portion and it should be baking them alive.
Instead, it felt like a nice day, a faint breeze keeping the heat from being too overwhelming. As they got further away from the ground, he gasped softly. He’d only seen this sort of view from looking across someone else out the window of a plane because he had never been lucky enough to get a window seat.
But nothing compared to this; seeing it stretched out below him with nothing between them felt like he’d transcended into becoming some other person. A laugh of happiness bubbled out of him as even the clouds parted around them.
“You can go faster!” Shen Yuan said.
Liu Qingge nodded against his back, and the sword began quickly gaining speed. Shen Yuan braced for the wind to slam into him, but he quickly realized that Liu Qingge had put some kind of barrier around them with his qi.
“Which way?” Liu Qingge asked.
“The same way we were going,” Shen Yuan nodded.
The poor guy obviously didn’t know anything about navigating in the Endless Abyss, and Shen Yuan couldn’t blame him; no one really taught that kind of thing. Cardinal directions would be useless here because intention mattered more! But Shen Yuan had some help from the novel.
Liu Qingge nodded and took off in the direction Shen Yuan indicated.
The ground beneath them blurred into a mass of colors almost impossible to distinguish where they were exactly. Part of him wanted to ask Liu Qingge to slow down so he could appreciate every bit of scenery, but going too slow here would be far too dangerous. Besides, he was having a lot of fun feeling like he’d become some kind of sparrow flying at top speed across the world.
“What is this city we are going to like?” he asked.
“It’s a small demon settlement. They’re friendly to humans though, so don’t worry.”
He felt like he was forgetting something about this place, but he couldn’t recall it at the moment. Luo Binghe had visited a lot of strange towns and places in his journeys, and some of them blurred together after enough chapters. While he remembered the portals and the strange appearance of the town, he felt like there was some other detail he’d forgotten.
Oh well, clearly it couldn’t be that important.
Shen Yuan explained more, “The area the village is in is very unstable so it often has rifts that open. At least one of them has to go back to the human world.”
Luo Binghe hadn’t made it to the human world through the town’s portals, but they weren’t protagonists destined for a life of adventure, so surely it would go easily for them.
The sword flight was incredible; he wanted to keep flying forever, especially with how warm and comfortable it was to have Liu Qingge behind him. Just as a nice safety measure, not that he wanted a man to hold him or anything. He just liked getting to enjoy the scenery without having to worry that he was going to fall to his death every few seconds. It was nice, that was all.
Totally normal. Totally hetero to have your bro hold you closely by the waist against his body.
He glimpsed the town after Liu Qingge had already started to maneuver downwards, clearly noticing the village first. It looked...smaller than how the book had described it.
As one of the strangest villages in PIDW, Shen Yuan had remembered it despite how briefly it was in the novel. Demons built the village on a bridge that stretched between two ledges and hovered over an open chasm. Crafted entirely out of metal, the strange place looked industrial and more like something from a steampunk novel than a cultivation one.
But the metal bridge town had worked well, and Luo Binghe had only been there for a page or two. He’d papapa’d the innkeeper’s daughter, who had taken him to the portal the village elder had selected for him.
Why?
Because he was the protagonist!
Later, that innkeeper’s daughter had joined the harem as wife 786 or something like that. The numbering had gotten inconsistent in later chapters, probably because Airplane had forgotten which wife was which. Honestly, the useless hack had no right to write so many characters if he couldn’t keep track of them all.
“This is the place?” Liu Qingge asked.
Shen Yuan nodded.
As they flew in closer, he realized how small the place really was.
The bridge of copper and wire stretched across the canyon, but only a dozen or so small houses were there. In the novel, it had been across multiple bridges that interconnected with one another by thin wires like a giant spiderweb of metal.
Strange that it looked so different, but again, this was clearly just a fanfic world, so it was impressive the village was even here! Most fans didn’t bother with this sort of detail. He was quite pleased with the author’s knowledge of the world. Clearly, whoever wrote this fanfic world was very familiar with the source material. Shen Yuan approved!
“This place will help us get back to the human world?” Liu Qingge asked, looking quite skeptical.
He really wished that handsome face would smile more and not look so serious all the time! If the author was going for the ice-cold beauty, they had nailed that, but he had a face better suited to smiling.
“Yes, I’m sure of it.” Shen Yuan said confidently.
Liu Qingge, surprisingly, didn’t argue, just landed them at the edge of the bridge. He helped Shen Yuan off the sword, and then his sword vanished in a flash.
Shen Yuan went to summon Xin Mo, but then Liu Qingge shook his head. “We are humans in a demon village. Do not make yourself seem like a threat.”
Shen Yuan was surprised at how diplomatic this War God was! Truly the author had gone all out to make him an attractive, kind, considerate man. Kudos! Bookmarked!
They walked into the town, Liu Qingge staying very close to Shen Yuan as they approached the largest building. A sign on the front listed food and room prices, so this must be the tavern! He quickly went inside, Liu Qingge stepping in front of him and entering first.
“Two rooms,” Liu Qingge said.
The owner, a pale green demon with 5 eyes and quite a few horns blinked all of his eyes at them. “Humans?” She finally said.
Liu Qingge nodded. “A room.” He held out a tael of silver, which was clearly far more than two rooms would ever cost!
The demon eagerly grabbed it, biting it between sharp teeth before nodding. “We have one room. Meals included. That alright?”
Liu Qingge nodded, and the demon pointed to a staircase. “It’s the only door up there.”
Shen Yuan wanted to ask about the portals, but a sharp look from Liu Qingge suggested he should be quiet, so he did. He was in the War God’s care after all.
They walked up the stairs, and into a room that would be more accurately called a closet. The bed was a pile of hay in one corner, and no other decorations or furniture of any sort. Shen Yuan frowned.
This place really had been much nicer in the novel; it’d had multiple floors and all kinds of rooms with soft beds. Luo Binghe had really enjoyed the bed and... then something had happened, but what was it? A monster attack maybe? Those happened a lot in the Abyss.
A knock on the door announced the same five-eyed demon who brought in two metal bowls of some kind of stew. It smelled like curry, but Shen Yuan wasn’t so sure about eating demon food. He didn’t recall this place being home to corpse eaters, but still...
Liu Qingge ate it without hesitation, and Shen Yuan gaped at him. “You don’t know what that is! How can you just eat it?”
“On the road, you eat what is offered and deal with the consequences,” he said.
Shen Yuan frowned, but that made a certain sort of sense. It wasn’t like he could just order delivery and get his favorite snacks right now. He ate a few bites and found it really tasted like curry. Shen Yuan finished the bowl before sighing happily. The demon came and collected their plates with a smile and told them to rest well.
“You take the bed; I’ll keep watch,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan nodded; the day in the sun and all the excitement finally caught up with him. He crawled onto the pile of hay and began dozing off when he finally remembered something.
This town sacrificed cultivators! That’s why they were so friendly to humans!
He tried to open his mouth to tell Liu Qingge, but couldn’t. When he forced his eyes open, he found the War God slumped against the wall nearby, eyes closed and body still.
“Liu… Qingge?” he groggily called before the door opened again.
A demon he didn’t recognize tied glowing ropes around Liu Qingge. When the demon noticed him still awake, she grunted and then picked Shen Yuan up, throwing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.
Why were they getting protagonist drama when they just wanted to get Liu Qingge home?! This fanfiction world really made no sense.
Well, at least no one ever died in fanfic; they would be fine!
Notes:
DUN DUN DUUUUN.
Chapter Text
The poison hit quickly. Far quicker and stronger than he had expected. Poison rarely impacted him, but after he finished the curry, he felt it. He faded out of consciousness before he could even warn Shen Yuan about it.
Shen Yuan, without any qi, could he even survive a poison?
It was one thing when he was reckless with his own life, but he’d been reckless with someone else’s. Now Shen Yuan was in trouble because of it. He’d been confident that anything a demon tried he’d handle with ease, but now…
He tried to circulate his qi to destroy the poison, but nothing seemed to respond to him. No energy came to his call, and his body remained sluggish, as if a million weights tied him down.
Poison.
He hadn’t been poisoned like this in many years. And he was furious it had happened now. He’d let his guard down because he’d been enjoying himself, enjoying the time with Shen Yuan and how excited the other man was about everything they were encountering. And now, they both were in danger.
A look around the room showed that he was alone but still in the same room. Had they taken Shen Yuan away to some torture room already? Had he also lost consciousness? Could a body without qi even survive a demonic poison?
When he focused on circulating his qi, he finally noticed the tightness pressing into his skin.. A glance down and he realized he’d been tied up with immortal binding cables. He had lost consciousness. What kind of poison could act so quickly? Whatever it was, probably meant it was powerful enough that Shen Yuan...
No.
He refused to believe that anything had hurt that man.
The demon innkeeper walked into the room and looked Liu Qingge over with a smirk. “Stupid cultivator.”
Liu Qingge glared. “Why?”
“Cultivator energy is the strongest there is. Keeps our forges working and our town safe,” the demon said.
Liu Qinnge snorted. He vaguely recalled Wan Jian’s lectures mentioning that some demons and demonic cultivators believed that metal forged using a cultivator’s life force would create a stronger creation than using just fire. Liu Qingge thought that was ridiculous and hadn’t paid much attention to the rest of the lecture.
“You’ll remain weak no matter what you do. Poison is the weapon of cowards.”
The demon squatted down. “Then how come a coward beat you?”
He refused to respond to that.
“Where is the other one?” the demon asked.
Liu Qingge kept his face neutral even as hope flared in his heart, relief rushing through his veins. Shen Yuan wasn’t in the room, and this demon didn’t know where he was either, so that meant he had escaped.
Good.
Liu Qingge could get himself out of this situation, and he would rather Shen Yuan keep himself safe.
Then the door opened, and another demon walked in. “The other one is ready for sacrifice. He has no energy, so he's no good for the furnace.”
Liu Qingge glared and struggled more against the ropes.
“This one will more than make up for it,” the first demon said. “Use the other one for firewood.”
He redoubled his struggle.
“The stronger your qi, the more that poison hits,” the demon said as the second one left, presumably to go deal with Shen Yuan.
Liu Qingge growled and forced himself to assess. His arms were bound behind his back, but nothing seemed to have been taken from his person, and his legs were unbound.
Idiots.
He didn’t need his full strength to fight back. Clearly, he’d been too disoriented to think when he’d first woken, but now he knew the only thing he needed to do was fight.
Thankfully, that was his strong suit.
Poison, immortal binding cables, or not, he was still the War God of Bai Zhan. He jumped to his feet and charged at the demon, ducking low and driving his shoulder into the demon’s stomach. The poison made every movement a struggle, but he had trained for fighting with no access to his qi.
The demon slashed at him, claws ripping towards him, but Liu Qingge moved so the claws slashed through the cables binding him, ripping through them with ease.
He grinned as his energy rushed back into him and began circulating to deal with the poison. It ate at him still, but now his body could fight back.
Hang on, Shen Yuan, I’ll be there soon, he mentally promised.
Cheng Luan flashed into his hands, and he slashed across the demon, but the blade did nothing. Instead of the creature dropping in two pieces, the demon laughed at him.
Liu Qingge glared and slashed again, but his blade didn’t pierce through the demon’s skin. Impossible. Nothing could stop Cheung Luan’s edge. It had even ripped wounds into Luo Binghe’s skin.
“You can’t use metal! They’re immune to it!” Shen Yuan’s voice came suddenly from the doorway.
The pale but smiling man threw the wooden training version of Luo Binghe’s cursed sword towards Liu Qingge.
He grabbed the sword and let Cheng Luan hover in front of Shen Yuan. He felt like a fool with this wooden sword in his hand now, but he didn’t hesitate as he swung the sword, slashing against the demon, who rolled backwards, panicking in a way he hadn’t been before.
Strangely, the wooden blade with no sharp edges ripped across the demon’s skin like a glass shard across fabric, slicing open a gash that spilled orange blood.
At least Shen Yuan’s questionable texts were right about this.
He glanced towards Shen Yuan. The man was pale, paler than usual, with a bruise forming on his cheek just under his eye.
Liu Qingge was going to kill every demon here for hurting him, for daring to dull his excitement and enjoyment of this place. He rushed forward, slamming the wooden blade through the demon’s throat, ichor raining around him. He flicked the sword clean and then hurried over to Shen Yuan.
“Let me see your injuries.”
Shen Yuan blinked at him. ‘That was so cool! You just exploded that guy! As expected of the War God of Bai Zhan.”
Liu Qingge rarely heard praise like that anymore. Now, the phrase War God was more a mockery than praise. After his many public losses to Luo Binghe over the years after Shen Qingqiu’s death, his reputation held no weight anymore.
But Shen Yuan said it like he meant it, like it was some kind of praise, not a veiled insult.
With the wooden training sword in his hand, he nodded and went to Shen Yuan’s side. “Stay close. We are leaving.”
Shen Yuan nodded and stayed right by him as Liu Qingge stormed out of the room. “You said there were portals here?” he asked.
“It... they only open after a sacrifice. They don’t have anything open right now. I checked,” Shen Yuan said miserably.
So his books were still partially wrong, partially right, so they needed to take that into consideration. “How did you know the wood would work? From your texts?” he asked.
Shen Yuan nodded. “I didn’t remember until you passed out. They accept humans to sacrifice them here and don’t fear cultivators since they’re immune to any metal injuring them. I’m sorry, if I had remembered sooner…”
“You did well.” Liu Qingge refused to let that sad look linger on his face. “Where to now?”
Shen Yuan's brows furrowed together as he thought. “We should be able to get out of this way. Most of the others went into the furnace hall to prepare for a sacrifice. We can escape before they notice.”
“You got all of that information from them?” he asked.
Shen Yuan scoffed. “Cannon fodder enemies can’t help themselves. He talked so much when I pretended to be drugged.”
Liu Qingge wanted to go hunt down all of them, but Shen Yuan was right: they needed to get away.
He scooped Shen Yuan into his arms and ran out of the inn. The moment he saw the sky, Cheng Luan swooped down, and he jumped onto the sword. As he took off, demons rushed out of the buildings, weapons in hand. A few threw weapons after them, but they harmlessly bounced off the shield of qi Liu Qingge had put up around them.
He flew until the town was far out of sight before they landed. Stepping off his sword, he felt his legs stagger; the poison continuing to eat into him since his energy had to be focused on flight.
Shen Yuan tapped his shoulder, his face red. “You can put me down now! I’m fine, really!”
Liu Qingge sat him down and quickly made a camp. He’d landed in a wooded area with trees that had strangely metallic leaves but nothing around them seemed dangerous enough for concern right now. The small burst of qi he used to start a campfire nearly sent him to his knees.
“I need to meditate,” he said. “I don’t sense anything around, but if you see anything, yell.”
Shen Yuan nodded as Liu Qingge handed the Xin Mo replica back to him.
Liu Qingge closed his eyes and began circulating his energy. As he settled into his meditation, he felt Shen Yuan’s warmth nearby. Barely opening his eyes, he glanced over and saw Shen Yuan sitting right beside him.
It felt nice having someone at his side like this. Even if his information wasn’t always right, he knew demons and monsters, and that always helped. His voice always seemed so warm and passionate; someone who saw a wonder in the world that Liu Qingge himself often missed.
As he settled in to meditate and let his system, remove the residual poison, he knew he’d miss Shen Yuan when he returned home.
Notes:
ahahah I hate this chapter so much but I am committed to a chapter a week. If you're at Dragon Con, have fun and maybe I'll see you there.
Chapter Text
Shen Yuan really was growing to hate this fanfic world.
Nothing matched the lore! That village shouldn’t have been deadly and should have been filled with portals. Instead, they’d been poisoned... which could have happened to Luo Binghe, but he was, of course, immune to poisons.
He’d only just remembered that the demons in this village were immune to any attack from a metal blade, but incredibly weak to wood. Of course, the demon who had taken him to be sacrificed had just had to talk and talk about the plans and how everything worked.
Because that’s what cannon fodder level idiot low-IQ enemies did.
And then Liu Qingge had saved the day and gotten them away. The poison, Qi Consumer, another great name from Airplane, hindered only cultivators. Liu Qingge had gone limp after their meal. But since it didn’t affect him, a demon had just punched Shen Yuan unconscious. His head still hurt from that, but at least he didn’t feel so woozy anymore.
Now that Liu Qingge could focus on the poison, he should be able to remove it from his system and get them back on the road. Shen Yuan looked around to see where they had ended up. The strange metallic leaves were familiar, but they were so small...
He racked his brain as he tried to place it. Leaves... metallic leaves in a forest.
There were lots of forests in Proud Immortal Demon Way that this fanfic world could have drawn from. But the leaves were the odd part, a detail that had to mean something. And so far he hadn’t even seen a sign of the rare, once in a lifetime flowers and herbs that grew in apparently every forest in the world here.
Ridiculous how many miracle flowers just showed up that no one but the protagonist ever knew about. Oh well, that was the power of the protagonist halo.
Besides, none of the magical flowers had ever been metallic.
The only heavily featured metal item, aside from the swords, obviously, had been a Mirror of Desire.
Shen Yuan jumped to his feet.
Of course!
Man, this fanfiction writer had really gone all out. Even he, the primary editor and maintainer of the PIDW wiki, hadn’t immediately remembered this location because it never technically appeared in the story. It’d only been mentioned in passing.
Luo Binghe never set foot in the Forest of Mirrors. It burned down long before he was born, but several of the leaves from its trees had survived and been turned into mirrors. One of his wives, number 267 if Shen Yuan remembered right, had given him her tribe’s keepsake, a leaf from this long-gone forest that was known as the Mirror of Desire.
The leaf reflected only the viewer’s deepest desires, nothing else.
Wife 267 (what Shen Yuan wouldn’t give for the internet to look up and verify if he was right) had actually planned to use the mirror to kill Binghe when she gave him the mirror. He’d conquered her tribe; her father had surrendered and then offered her to be Luo Binghe’s bride.
On her wedding night, she gave the mirror to Luo Binghe.
She’d planned to kill him as he stared into the mirror since the reflection of their desires would mesmerize most people into losing all sense of time and space.
But instead, she’d glimpsed her own reflection and saw her own deepest desire, which was of course papapa with Luo Binghe.
She’d then immediately given up her assassination plans and thrown herself at Luo Binghe for a night of passion and then disappeared into the faceless mass of the harem.
It’d been incredibly disappointing because despite Luo Binghe looking into the mirror, Airplane never wrote what he saw there!
Not even a hint.
Only whatever he saw there wasn’t enough to hold his attention away from his new bride. And the mirror had never been mentioned again after that arc.
So, this place must be the Forest of Mirrors, which would mean these leaves were all incredibly dangerous for non-protagonists. He pondered how to handle this potential disaster.
Also, why did this place even exist? It burned down ages ago. What was the timeline the fanfic writer was using?
Shaking his head, he mentally reviewed Luo Binghe’s journey until he remembered there’d been another similar location, the Cave of Nightmares, that was filled with illusions of your greatest fears.
Luo Binghe had gotten through that by blindfolding himself and using his superior hearing to navigate his way out without falling into terror like everyone else before him. His reward had been some priceless treasure that never even got named.
Hack Airplane struck again.
Now that he had figured out what this place was, he wanted to look at one leaf. What would he see? Ah but he was keeping watch while Liu Qingge meditated out the poison and he couldn’t get distracted from his duty by shiny leaves.
He had a promise to keep!
Sitting back down, he watched the fire for a bit before looking at Liu Qingge. The War God was by far the most interesting thing here to look at, so of course he had to admire the other man.
Even a totally straight man like Shen Yuan could appreciate how beautiful Liu Qingge was.
Truly this author had made him the epitome of beauty, fitting for the older brother of the woman so beautiful she had to hide her face at all times!
The beauty mark under his eye was an amazing detail too. Shen Yuan wanted to touch it. Would the mole have a different texture or would it feel just like the rest of his face? Even his hair was beautiful! Shiny black like spilled ink and effortlessly pulled into a ponytail with no frizz despite their chaotic escape.
He self-consciously touched his own hair, dark brown and frizzy. He’d half-hoped that hopping into this strange world would magically have given him long beautiful hair too!
But no, his hair remained short and messy.
Would he see himself with long hair in the mirror when he looked? Was that his deepest desire?
He glanced towards the tops of the trees. Dozens of leaves glimmered like stars, and he couldn’t believe how plentiful they were. This place looked like a just-formed forest with these tiny glimmering leaves. The mirror Luo Binghe was gifted had been almost the size of a man, so these leaves had a lot of growing to do.
What a strange choice for this fic author to bring a location Luo Binghe never even visited. The place was never described in the novel, just a throwaway line from the master hack Airplane to explain his latest magical artifact that added nothing to the plot.
He looked back at Liu Qingge, grateful that he looked a little less pale now. The meditation seemed to work well. The poison only impacted cultivators, which was bullshit, so Shen Yuan wasn’t even sure what it was supposed to do because Luo Binghe was immune to all poisons. But from how Liu Qingge acted, it clearly affected motor movement and muscle control.
He was just grateful he’d been able to help for once.
So far he’d mainly just felt like a burden on this journey. Especially since the fanfiction world wasn’t quite the same as Proud Immortal Demon way so his information was wrong. How were they traveling so easily through the Endless Abyss? It should be deadly for a human like him to even be here with the level of demonic miasma in the air, but he felt fine. Liu Qingge could even use sword flight and meditate in a place like this.
What was really going on?
He wished he knew which of the forum sisters had written this since he could make some guesses depending on who it was. So far he could rule out ‘Mobeis_Left_Tit’ since there had been no sign of the Northern Desert or Mobei’s family and she always wrote about them.
But it could be any of the others. A lot of them had written Bingqiu in the past too, but he didn’t know of anyone who paired Shang Qinghua with Mobei Jun. Or anyone who even liked that rat of a peak lord, and that was saying something since some people even liked the scum, Shen Qingqiu.
If he could just get a better understanding of which sister had written this fanfic he’d fallen into, then he could figure things out better and help make sure Liu Qingge didn’t get hurt like this again.
His stomach grumbled, and he groaned. Why weren’t there instant noodle trees in this world?
Earlier he’d heard a river earlier and fish liked shiny things, right? He could use a leaf to attract some fish attention and then catch and cook them for Liu Qingge and him to have a hot meal to help recover. Some of the fish in the Endless Abyss had not been deadly to eat, so he could probably make this work. While cultivators could practice inedia, most still ate.
Perfect! He’d make their dinner while Liu Qingge meditated.
Their last meal had been poisoned, so surely anything Shen Yuan made would be better than that!
He found a small leaf on the ground and tucked it into his hand, careful not to look into it as he walked back towards the sound of water. He found it easily enough and then realized he didn’t have a rod or net. Hm...
Well...
Shen Yuan hesitated before taking his jacket off and tying it into a makeshift bag that he could probably use to scoop some fish if they were really mesmerized.
He scooted over to the water’s edge and pulled the string from his hoodie to tie it around the stem of the leak. It was makeshift but would probably work? He tossed the leaf into the river and then stood on top of the other end of the hoodie string so the leaf didn’t go floating down the river.
When he realized he’d probably have to step off of it to actually catch a fish, he reluctantly summoned his fake Xin Mo into his hands and used that to hold the string down. Then he scooted closer to where the leaf floated in the water and waited.
It didn’t take long at all until a few fish gathered around, staring up at the leaf as if mesmerized. Perfect! He swooped in with his bag and actually caught about 4 small fish. He couldn’t believe it had worked!
He pulled on the string, and the leaf lifted out of the water.
VICTORY!
That was when he realized his mistake. The fish were no longer mesmerized and still in his hoodie.
Several fish leapt out of his shirt bag and back into the river. Shen Yuan wasn’t used to live fish jumping at him and stumbled backwards, tripping over his Xin Mo replica and dropping into the edge of the river, soaking himself.
He sat there in stunned, annoyed silence before shoving his leaf on a string into his soaked pocket. Grumbling, he stomped back to the camp and began stripping off his wet clothing. Even his shoes were drenched now!
A nearby tree had some bare branches just low enough for him to toss his things onto it. He kept on his boxer briefs because, well; he had some dignity! But everything else hung on the trees. With the warmth and the fire close by, it shouldn’t take too long for everything to dry. Hopefully before...
He glanced back at Liu Qingge, startled to see the man’s eyes open.
Shen Yuan hadn’t really noticed before, but the War God’s eyes weren’t a solid black, but a dark purple color. Well, of course they were. In a fanfiction, everyone had to have beautiful, unnatural eye colors.
But that meant he had just stripped right in front of Liu Qingge....
Well, it was fine; they were both men, so it didn’t matter. Both very straight men, so even if they were in some fujoshi’s world, that didn’t mean that stripping in front of a man was inherently gay.
“Feeling better?” he asked casually
“Why are all your clothes wet?” Liu Qingge eyed the tree of hanging clothing.
“I wanted to wash up,” he lied. “The river is very refreshing and nearby!”
Liu Qingge didn’t look particularly convinced as he stood up and stretched. “Sleep, I will keep watch.”
Shen Yuan wanted to argue and ask about dinner, but honestly he was exhausted after everything that had happened, especially now that he had gotten drenched and felt a little chilled.
Liu Qingge opened up a pouch at his side and pulled out some blankets and a pillow and offered them over. Who would have guessed the tough War God traveled with blankets and soft pillows? He took them gratefully and got comfortable near the fire.
“Don’t look at the leaves too much,” Shen Yuan warned.
“The... leaves?”
“They’re mirrors that will show you your greatest desire. They make it almost impossible to look away, so people have starved to death by being too mesmerized. So don’t do it!”
Liu Qingge nodded. “I won’t look into the leaves,” he promised with a hint of amusement in his voice.
“I’m going to sleep for just a bit. Don’t go anywhere while I’m asleep, promise?”
Liu Qingge nodded again. “I will be here. You have my word.”
Shen Yuan nodded. He remembered that a cultivator’s word was like their life, so he trusted that Liu Qingge would be there waiting when he got up again. How nice to have such a reliable man to go through this adventure with him. He really couldn’t have gotten any luckier.
He slept peacefully, and when he woke, the scent of cooked fish filled his nose. He opened his eyes to several fish skewered on sticks surrounding the fire. All of them smelled amazing even if they looked slightly out of some horror movie decoration.
“Hungry?” Liu Qingge asked when he noticed Shen Yuan moving.
Shen Yuan nodded as he sat up. The bedding really had been the softest, nicest things he’d slept on in a while. He thought there’d been no way he could get such a good sleep in a world like this, but clearly Liu Qingge had proved him wrong.
Happily, he ate the fish skewer handed over to him and enjoyed every bite. It wasn’t anything like he ate at home, but it still tasted familiar, like the smoked fish from one of his favorite restaurants.
“We should keep moving,” Liu Qingge said once Shen Yuan had eaten his fill.
“Okay,” Shen Yuan nodded. “Let me dress first.”
He touched his clothing and frowned when he felt they were still damp.
“Here.” Liu Qingge held out a set of robes in a pale green color.
“Ah, you have extra robes too? You always travel so prepared?”
“En,” Liu Qingge nodded.
“So reliable!” He beamed and tried to put on the robes.
He wasn’t sure how some of them tied into place and after watching him flail for a few moments, Liu Qingge approached and helped him dress with quick, gentle hands that absolutely did not make Shen Yuan feel things except for gratitude at having such a good, helpful, friend with skilled touches.
“You will not stick out as much like this,” Liu Qingge said.
“That makes sense. Thank you.”
Liu Qingge started pulling his old clothing from the tree and paused as he shook the hoodie. A few dead fish flopped to the forest ground. They both stared at the fish in silence.
“Shen Yuan, why are there dead fish in this jacket?”
“Ahaha I have no idea!” Shen Yuan said as he rushed over and grabbed his clothes to shove into his magical qiankun bracelet.
Liu Qingge didn’t push it and instead just shook his head before looking around the forest.
“You said the leaves were dangerous?”
Shen Yuan nodded, grateful for the change in topic. He would not be reliving his fishing failure, thank you very much. “They can mesmerize. I think the best way would be to blindfold ourselves and-”
A blast of warm energy washed over him, and then the sound of a thousand metal leaves shattering. Tiny pieces of glitter rained down over his head as he stared in shock. Had Liu Qingge just destroyed every leaf because Shen Yuan warned him?
“You.... but they!!”
Liu Qingge looked at him and tilted his head with an almost mischievous smile. “This was faster, wasn’t it?”
Shen Yuan had to agree, but he still didn’t like it.
“We will travel on foot; trees are annoying to fly around,” Liu Qingge said.
Shen Yuan sighed and grumbled about the dangers of stepping on broken glass, but, strangely, even the shoes that Liu Qingge had given him fit well. How did he have a set of clothing that almost perfectly fit Shen Yuan just in his bags??
Liu Qingge kicked out the fire and then started walking.
Shen Yuan scrambled after him. “Ah, where are we going? Liu Qingge!! Wait for me!”
Notes:
I love how Shen Yuan's brain works. What a lil guy