Chapter Text
Tantai Jin opened his eyes to see Li Susu nestled against him and smiled as he brushed a sliver of hair off her face. It was bittersweet, but at least in this final moment they could be together before everything ended for him.
And yet something was different: Susu's hair was reddish-brown, not black, and the blanket was pink, and made of material that seemed too soft. Even the room wasn't the same one they'd fallen asleep in. It was much smaller, and the walls were painted brown. In fact, the whole room looked foreign in its design.
Cautiously extracting himself from Susu’s arms and slipping out of the unusually high bed, he found some clothes he assumed were his and put them on. They were different from hanfu, and easier to wear, but still comfortable. That was when he realised he hadn't needed to mind his hair when getting dressed. He brought his hands up to reach for his hair…and confirmed it was short.
Now alarmed, he made his way to the door. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and paused. It was him but also not him - a little younger maybe, less thin and wearing unusual clothes, but otherwise the same.
He opened the door and walked into the next room, utterly baffled. Nothing looked like the night before. He hadn't designed the Bo're life this way, so why had it changed?
A groggy voice called out from the bedroom. “Yuan Shuai, where did you go?”
Who was Yuan Shuai?
Susu appeared in the doorway, rubbing her eyes in a cute sleepy motion. It made him smile.
“Yuan Shuai, why are you up so early?” she said with a wry pout. “Come back to bed.”
Was she talking to him? Why did Susu think he was someone called Yuan Shuai?
Misunderstanding his reluctance, she moved toward him and grasped his hand, pulling him closer. He complied, wondering what she was up to. Then her lips touched his and he was lost in his memories from the previous night. It took a moment to gather the willpower to pull away as she tugged on his clothes, leading him back toward her bed. As much as he wanted to give in, the confusion was too strong. He needed to know what was happening.
“Susu, wait,” he said, gently grasping her wrist.
“Susu?” she asked, her tone cautious as she pulled away from him.
“How did you change the Bo're life? What exactly is this place?”
“Who is Susu?” she asked again, now more alert. “This is my apartment which you've been squatting in since Su Chang borrowed yours. What's the matter with you?”
What was the matter with him? What was the matter with her? This had to be her doing. That meant he'd have to hurt her more. He closed his eyes, steeling himself up for what he had to do, and opened them with the coldest look he could manage.
“Are you really trying to prevent me from doing what I was destined to do?” he said. “You can't trap me here - this is my Bo’re life.”
“Destined? Bo’re life? You're not making any sense.”
He tried to use his power to send them back to the Dragon Boat but quickly realised there was a gaping void where his devil qi had been.
Not Susu put the back of her hand against his forehead. “You seem fine,” she said. “Are you doing this on purpose to push me away?”
He couldn't hide his surprise that she had figured him out so easily when for all intents and purposes she had been convinced before.
The hurt on her face nearly killed him and he could see she was trying not to cry. It had been hard enough, saying all those hurtful things to her in the Devil Palace. Then she had challenged his motivations on the Dragon Boat and in the Bo're life. Telling her there was no going back, seeing how it hurt her - it nearly killed him. Being put in this situation was really testing his resolve - it was too much.
“You haven't changed, have you?” she snapped. “You just wanted to sleep with me and now you're done. I thought you cared about me. You're still a bastard, Yuan Shuai!”
What? Why would she think that?
Not Susu raised her hand to slap him and he caught her wrist, using it to pull her close to him. She wrestled against him, trying to break free.
“Let me go!”
It was time to abandon his plan. Something was very wrong and he had to get to the bottom of it. Instead of responding with coldness, he grasped her shoulders gently, and looked her in the eyes, trying to portray the utmost sincerity.
“Susu, listen to me. I would never do that. I do care about you, even though I tried to make you believe I don't. But what is all this? Where are we? I don't understand.”
There was fear in her eyes now, not of him, but for him.
“You really don't know, do you?”
He shook his head. “I don't.”
Turning around, she took a small rectangular item into her hand and started tapping on it before putting it to her ear.
“What are you doing? Why won’t you explain?”
“Yuan Shuai,” she said sternly, “You are obviously not well. You can't go to MH like this. I'm calling in sick for you.”
“MH?” he asked. The more she spoke, the less he understood.
As she talked with someone, Tantai Jin walked to the window and looked outside. The buildings were practically touching the sky. There were carriages moving with people inside but with no horses or manpower. Where was he? How had his plan gone so wrong? The Bo’re life was meant to allow them one last happy moment before he forced Susu to ascend and kill him. Now…was this Yuan Shuai in his body? This was a mess.
“I've told Su Chang you came down with a stomach sickness and to rearrange your meetings. He'll let Mr. Fan know.”
“A stomach sickness?” he questioned. “I'm not sick. And who is Su Chang? Who is Mr. Fan?”
She tilted her head quizzically and sighed before answering. “Su Chang is your secretary and Mr. Fan is your boss at MH, where you work.”
“Where I work?”
“Yes, Yuan Shuai, where you work. You're the Executive Director. You're my boss.”
None of those concepts made sense, except work.
“Yuan Shuai…” He tried the name on his tongue and it didn't feel right. “I’m not Yuan Shuai.”
She folded her arms and humoured him. “So who are you then?” she challenged.
Her fierce demeanour contrasted with the cute sheep nightdress she wore and he fought back a smile.
“Tantai Jin.”
The reaction wasn’t one he was expecting. She laughed.
“Tantai Jin?” she asked with amusement. “The devil god from legend? When I said you were a devil, I didn't mean it literally.”
She frowned. “What am I going to do with you?”
So she knew he was the devil god, at least that part was the same, but what did she mean by legend?
“From legend?” he repeated, hoping she'd explain.
Was this the future? Was Yuan Shuai him in the future? He hadn't thought it possible for a god to be born again once their primordial spirit had dissipated. The idea that this might be him in another life was both alarming and comforting.
“So that's why you called me Susu,” Jiang Jun said as she thought aloud. “If you think you're the devil god, you must think I'm Li Susu, Goddess Yu Ling. As flattering as that is, we need to get you out of this delusion and back to normal.”
Goddess Yu Ling? Did that mean he'd succeeded? That he'd met his tragic end? In some ways that made him sad. He had hoped another solution would have shown itself, however futile a hope that was.
He grasped her shoulders with desperation.
“Tell me, how did that legend end?”
“You think you're the devil god, don’t you know?”
“It hasn't ended for me yet,” he admitted. He could see she didn't believe a word he said.
Please tell me, Susu. He was desperate to know. Could there be another ending for them both?
Not Susu pulled an ornate book from the shelf and handed it to him. “Here. I used to read these stories as a child. You can look while I’m cooking breakfast.”
There was a sadness in her voice he couldn’t place, and he wondered why she was sad about breakfast. He sat on the chair and opened the book. The characters were similar to what he was used to but more simplified. Still, he seemed to be able to get the idea of the sentences. He flipped to the story about himself, leafing through familiar parts. Some things were completely wrong and he wondered how accurate it would be. Finally he came to the end.
By forcing Susu into the lightning, Tantai Jin forced her to break her ties and ascend. The goddess of the universe did what she was born to do, and killed the devil god, ending the Tongbei dao and saving the world.
Some say Tantai Jin still lives in the heart guarding scale, though none have found this artefact to prove it. Others say he was reborn, and one day the devil god will return.
The slam of the book closing startled him and he realised he’d done it reflexively.
So I succeed. Fine, I expected this anyway. Now he just had to find a way back. Part of him hoped he couldn’t.
Not Susu had finished making breakfast and Tantai Jin found himself questioning whether this was actually Susu, given her terrible cooking skills.
“This soup is very sweet,” he said cautiously. “Is it meant to be like this?”
He'd eaten sweet soups in his lifetime but this one was overwhelmingly so. Not Susu picked up her own bowl with worry, tasting the broth.
“Oh no, did I use sugar instead of salt? Let me make you some porridge instead.”
Sugar instead of salt? That meant the soup would have been terribly salty. A thought suddenly came to mind of porridge that was salty. She turned to grab the porridge but he moved to intercept, asking her whether there was a fire he could use to cook.
“The stove,” she said oddly. “Don't tell me you forgot how to use it. I guess you would if you think you're Tantai Jin.”
She pointed to a flat circular area on the surface behind her and turned the raised button next to it until it was mid-way. Then she repositioned it back to its original position.
“These burners heat up. The higher the number the hotter it gets.”
Then she showed him how to use the thing called a rice cooker. It was a bit more complicated but he felt confident enough to try it. In truth, he was impressed with the devices she showed him but opted not to say so, given her lack of belief in who he was.
He glanced inside the cooling box and pantry where he had seen her search for food initially. There were a lot of things he'd never seen before, but he grabbed fish, vegetables and rice - familiar staples he was used to. He was about to ask where to find the well when he glimpsed her washing her hands over a basin while water exited the tube above it. Trying to look like he knew what he was doing, Tantai Jin mimicked her and turned the handle. The water came out too vigorously, splashing him in the face and chest, and he quickly reset the handle to its original position.
Jiang Jun held back laughter. “Yuan Shuai, you should forget who you are more often,” she joked.
Although he glared, he didn't mean it. Seeing her with a happy expression warmed him.
It took him a minute to figure out which button controlled each burner, but finally he heated the correct one to a medium setting carefully and laid a wok on top, starting to cook something he hoped would turn out better than the soup.
Convinced that he would be okay, Jiang Jun left to shower. The turn of phrase was odd. Did they have a miniature waterfall in this advanced future? Or could they create rain? He didn't quite understand it.
He was just setting the table when she wandered over wearing just a robe, her hair wrapped up and tied inside a fluffy material. She leaned in, basking in the scent of freshly cooked rice. He felt himself flush instantly and steadied the bowl in his hand.
Susu! What are you doing?
He was again reminded of Susu’s curves as they had lain together and cleared his throat. Was she trying to kill him?
Not Susu seemed surprised. “Why are you so skittish all of a sudden?” she asked, clearly expecting a different reaction. Then she headed to her room to put on her day clothes.
They are very forward in this future.
Fully dressed, or at least what Tantai Jin assumed to be the current version of dressed, Not Susu sat at the table with him and began to eat.
“How is it you don't remember who you are but you're still this good at cooking?” she said, savouring each bite.
“I had to fend for myself a lot,” he said evenly.
“Of course. Your parents were away.”
“Away?” he asked. His parents were dead.
“Yeah, didn't they go to America often?”
America? He'd never heard of it. And yet he couldn't ask Not Susu - she thought he had lost his mind. The abrupt change from all powerful devil god back to a powerless human just overnight was disconcerting. Not to mention having no idea where he was.
“You're quiet,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
The question annoyed him. She'd dismissed everything he told her. How did she expect him to feel?
“How do you think?” he said. “I'm stuck in this foreign place and you don't believe anything I say.”
She looked a little unimpressed at his outburst.
“I don't even know what to call you,” he said softly.
This admission seemed to mellow her, though she also seemed a little sad. “Jiang Jun.”
“Jiang Jun,” he repeated.
It felt foreign on his tongue. He could tell that she thought so too.
“You say it like you don't know me.”
“I don't know you,” he said. “I only know that you look and act like Susu. But you say you aren't her.”
There was a glossiness to her eyes that preceded tears but he could see her trying to hold them back. He wondered why. She brought over a thin flat metal box to the kitchen island, which opened, to his surprise. She pressed on it inside in various places rapidly.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Try to find out how to help you,” she said.
“And you can do it on….that?”
“A laptop,” she said worriedly. “Yuan Shuai, I just don't understand how you can forget every modern appliance overnight.”
“How many times do I have to tell you?” he said. “I am not Yuan Shuai.”
She shut the laptop, giving him her full attention.
“No,” she said harshly. “You're Tantai Jin, and I'm sitting here chatting with the devil god. If that's true, then go ahead, send yourself back.”
He folded his arms and tsked with annoyance. “I can’t. My qi is gone.”
“Your qi,” she said dryly.
“Why am I telling you anyway?” he complained. “You don’t believe me.”
“Humour me,” she said.
He wasn't sure why he bothered. Perhaps it was because she was his only hope of getting home.
“Qi, the energy that runs through everything,” he said with hesitation, watching her reaction. “I’ve cultivated both kinds, but Yuan Shuai has none, so I have none.”
“If it flows through everything then why can't you just cultivate again and find it?”
He opened his mouth to argue but instead wondered if Jiang Jun had a point. If Yuan Shuai happened to be him in some future life, then surely he could use demon elixirs like he had in Jing Kingdom.
“Maybe I can,” he agreed. “Do you know where I can locate a demon? If I could take their core, I could prove it to you.”
“Yuan Shuai,” she said, her voice soft and careful. “Qi doesn’t exist. Cultivation isn’t real, and neither are demons. You have to stop this.”
Anger rose inside his chest, fuelled by the feeling of helplessness, and he stood abruptly, startling her. “What do I need to do for you to believe I’m not Yuan Shuai?”
“Get some rest today,” she said with forced calmness. “I have to go to work, but I’ll be back later. Don't go anywhere while I'm gone. We'll figure this out.”
He said nothing, implicitly agreeing to her terms, for now.
Without anything to do the day passed remarkably slowly. He hated being helpless, and he hated being idle just as much. Determined to figure out how to return to his own body, he decided to try cultivating. Jiang Jun may have said it to catch him out, but she could be right.
He sat in the middle of the floor and crossed his legs, closing his eyes and reaching inside himself. The last time his meridians were this quiet, he was the hostage prince in Sheng. The first type of qi he encountered, and the most natural, was yin, so he tried that first. He reached for the low hum that was usually present but again he felt nothing.He tried yang qi instead. First he attempted the basics he'd been taught by Master Zhao You, and then several of the arrays and techniques. Nothing worked.
Frustrated, he decided to meander around the apartment, looking at the various things that were new to him. He pressed the side of the large rectangular box and it suddenly began to blare noise, frightening him.
Taking another look, he saw there were…people? Were there people in there?
A woman on the box talked about an accident where a bus had hit a car. He had no idea what either of those things were, but from the look of things behind her and what he'd seen outside he assumed they were the carriage equivalents in this time.
Was this woman trapped in the box? No. Of course not. She's clearly next to the road, so somehow in the future they had found a way for her to be there and also for him to see her and her message. This would have been useful when he was emperor. He could have heard about things happening instantly. Even with crows delivering messages it took time. He wondered if the box was fueled by qi, but it wasn't like he could check.
He pressed another button and the people changed. A man and woman were kissing on the screen. He blushed. Why would they show someone's intimate moments like this? What was this future?
He pressed another button and a man was speaking about a book, but it didn't look like any kind of book Tantai Jin had ever seen.
It was a fascinating but also noisy future. He located the button that turned the thing off and sat back on the chair Jiang Jun had called a sofa.
What should he do now?
Jiang Jun came home and he was relieved. He had explored just about every inch of the apartment already and was feeling rather out of his depth. But her face fell when she realised he still wasn't Yuan Shuai.
They cooked in something called a hotpot, but ate in relative silence. He could tell she was upset but didn't know how to comfort her, given he was the source of her frustration. The silence carried into the evening.
It came time for bed and he washed in the basin in the bathroom. All of these advances were such amazing things. If he wasn't planning to return to his own time just to die, he'd have considered figuring out how to replicate them.
But the problem now was where he should sleep.
Jiang Jun came out of her bedroom in her night clothes. “Aren't you going to get changed for bed?” she asked.
“Is there another bed?” he asked.
Jiang Jun sighed. “Yuan Shuai, obviously you can stay in my bed.”
Now that he knew she wasn't his Susu, could he really justify staying with her? No, he'd be angry if this Yuan Shuai was in a bed with Susu, whether it was his future self or not.
“I'm not Yuan Shuai,” he said, “I shouldn't.”
She glanced away for a moment and he could tell she was trying not to react. She forced a smile onto her face.
“You think you're the devil god but you're afraid of sleeping in the same bed as someone else's girlfriend?" she teased. "What kind of devil god are you?”
That offended him. “One that respects other men.”
“Yuan Shuai, you are not other men, you are my boyfriend,” she said with annoyance. “But if you insist, you can stay on the sofa. I'll leave you a blanket and pillow.”
He sighed. “Fine,” he said, and resigned himself to a night on the sofa.
Two days later, he assumed she might start to believe him, but instead she insisted on calling a mind healer.
“I said no, Jiang Jun!” he snapped, unable to help the anger in his voice. “I’m not ill! What I need is to figure out how to go home.”
She recoiled, and he found himself reminded of his time as the emperor arguing with Xiwu. It had never felt good to be the reason for her fear. He consciously adjusted his tone to a more measured one.
“I need your help, but not this kind. I need your trust and belief.”
Having spent the better part of his time trying to cultivate, Tantai Jin knew that Yuan Shuai was not devoid of qi. Every time he neared success, something had blocked him, and that was curious. He suspected it was the key to resolving this situation. If only he could ask Jiang Jun some questions and get some genuine answers...
“Come on,” Jiang Jun said. “Let's go.”
He tilted his head reflexively, and narrowed his eyes, trying to figure her out. “Where are we going?”
“Don’t look so suspicious. I’m not going to kill you or something,” she joked.
She couldn’t know the chord that struck deep within him. It must’ve shown on his face because she laughed.
“We’re going for a walk. I think it will help you to get some fresh air.”
A few minutes later they they meandered along the streets, passing a number of shops and eateries. As they walked, Tantai Jin looked around with interest. Everything was clean, busy - too busy - and made of stone and grit, metal and girder. The sky was crowded with tall structures. Eventually they came upon a park, in which a small local festival was taking place. The park was more serene, and he took a moment to try and feel the natural qi. Again he felt nothing. Did the world even have qi now?
He followed Jiang Jun into the festival as she browsed the stalls. They each sold different items, some trinkets, some clothing, all things he recognised, but they looked of poor quality. A small ceramic ornament caught his eye. It was the image of an emperor painted in ornate black and green hanfu, with braided hair pulled into a high ponytail and adorned with a golden crown.
“That was the Emperor of Jing Kingdom,” the merchant said. “His name was lost to time. My family has passed his likeness down through the ages, though no one can quite picture his face anymore.”
“Tantai Jin,” he said quietly, mournfully. “His name was Tantai Jin.”
The woman regarded him with a curious expression. “That is the name of the devil god of legend,” she said with confusion.
“Is it?” he said, ignoring the pang of sadness in his heart. He would be remembered for the one thing he had spent his life running from, it seemed. “Perhaps he was both.”
“Perhaps,” the woman said, appearing to genuinely consider that.
Jiang Jun’s presence alerted him that he’d become lost in thought. “How intricate,” she said. She brought the ornament closer to examine it and paused for a long moment. “How much for this one?”
“¥30”
Jiang Jun paid and the woman handed over the ornament in a decorative bag, pleased to have made a sale.
As they left the stall together and headed further into the festival, he watched Jiang Jun open the bag and look at the ornament again, affectionately running her thumb over the grooves.
“Why did you buy that?” Tantai Jin asked.
Jolted out of her thoughts, she put the ornament in the bag and tucked it into her purse.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It made me feel sad, like I had forgotten something important. But then it sort of reminded me of you."
Is that you, Susu? Are you hidden in this avatar, your true self forgotten to time?
He reached for her, putting a hand on her shoulder, unsure how his gesture would be received. But she accepted the comfort and leaned into him.
They walked a little further through the market and Jiang Jun took his hand into hers. It felt awkward to be showing affection so blatantly but he guessed this was something she was used to doing with Yuan Shuai. He tried to look at ease, not wanting to upset her more.
As they walked, he took in the activity around them: Children were getting their faces painted, people were dressing up in clothes from the bygone era, others were buying sweet dumplings he recognised from Jing Kingdom.
We are just a memory now - how we lived, how we dressed, who we were, it’s all a part of the memories of this future, seen only in festivals and trinkets.
The thought was a melancholic one and he failed to push back the pang of sadness this time. It must have shown in his face because Jiang Jun was looking at him with concern.
“I thought this might help, but you seem upset,” she said.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “This has helped. Thank you.”
She lowered her voice. “You still think you’re Tantai Jin, don’t you?”
“That’s because I still am Tantai Jin,” he said dryly.
As her hand left his he acutely noticed the absence of her warmth.
“I thought seeing all this might snap you out of it. You’re no Devil God, Yuan Shuai.”
“If you want the truth, it reminds me of home, and of Susu,” he said. "We both love festivals. We have a lot of good memories of them.”
She said nothing and he wondered what she was thinking, or if she was starting to believe him. If she really was Susu, perhaps he could prompt her memories somehow.
Someone suddenly bumped into Jiang Jun, and Tantai Jin realised it was a thief. He opened his hand in reflex to draw qi through his meridians and was swiftly reminded that it wasn't going to work. Instead, he gave chase, gaining on the man. The thief passed by a sword stall, which gave him an idea. He pulled a sword smoothly away from its sheath as he passed. This body didn’t know swordplay but Tantai Jin remembered it. As he closed in, he grabbed the thief's hood and pulled him back. The man rounded on him and threw a punch but Tantai Jin dodged and grabbed his wrist. Pulling the man forward and using the momentum to pivot around him expertly, Tantai Jin positioned the sword at the thief’s neck.
He lifted his chin.
“You won’t-” the thief began.
He pushed the sword closer to the man's neck, and leaned in with a smirk. “Won’t I? You stole something from my companion. You have until the count of ten to give it back before I slide this sword across your throat and you depart from this world.”
The thief handed over the purse with terror, and true to his word, Tantai Jin lowered the sword, letting the man flee. Jiang Jin caught up to him and he handed it to her. It was obvious from her amazed expression that she was impressed, but like Susu, she wasn’t going to admit it.
“Thank you,” she said and pointed to the sword. “But what are you doing with that?”
“I thought that was obvious - getting your belongings back,” he said.
“You know that isn’t sharp, right?”
He looked at the weapon incredulously and tested it, finding that it was indeed blunt. “What is the point of a blunt sword?” he complained.
“They can’t sell sharp weapons at festivals. It’s a health hazard. These are for costumes.”
Tantai Jin sighed with annoyance. He’d been in such a hurry he hadn’t checked - hadn’t thought he needed to.
“How did you learn to do that?”
He tilted his head and walked forward, facing her with a smug smirk. “How else? Are you ready to believe me now?”
“No,” she huffed.
"Then I guess I will have to continue trying to convince you."
Again they were at a standstill.
“How does this move without horses?” Tantai Jin asked as they entered the metal carriage.
Jiang Jun rolled her eyes but didn't answer.
“You'll eventually have to believe me,” he said.
“Or you'll stop this,” she said. “Put on your seatbelt.”
He scowled but copied what he’d seen her do. As they left the parking lot and picked up speed, he started to panic. There was a handle above his head and he grabbed it, hanging on for dear life. “Why are you in such a hurry to get to the market?” he asked.
“I'm not in a hurry. This is the speed limit!” She tsked with every bit of exasperation she could muster and her grip tightened around the wheel. “Honestly, even with your memory gone you're still like this.”
“Don't blame me for fearing for my life,” he muttered.
Eventually they reached their destination and Jiang Jun parked in an empty space. Tantai Jin's heartrate finally slowed down. He tried to regain some composure and mimicked Jiang Jun as she unclasped her seatbelt and exited the car. As he glimpsed the building ahead, he found himself with more questions.
“I thought you said we were going to a market,” he said.
She sighed as she grabbed bags from the back seat. “This is a market - a supermarket. Come on, let's go.”
He walked alongside her as they entered and perused the aisles, trying not to look as astonished as he felt. This place had everything one could want, even foods that were out of season, or ones he'd only heard of.
“This is…?”
“A baguette.”
“A what?”
He pointed at a fruit.
“Cherries.”
“And this?”
“Pasta, from Italy”
“Where is Italy?”
She just rolled her eyes and pulled him along.
“Why did you bring me here if you don't want me to look at anything?” he asked crossly.
“Because I need help carrying our groceries,” she said. “Now stop looking around like you've never seen a supermarket before.”
“But I haven't,” he protested.
He decided to be quiet for a while, lest he provoke Jiang Jun again. She really was like Susu when she was annoyed. But there were too many things for him not to look. He wasn't even sure how to cook some of them.
They eventually came to a long table with a moving top and Jiang Jun began to load the groceries onto it. He helped. The woman at the end pushed the items across with a beep sound and Jiang Jun placed them into bags.
He was so confused. This future was so loud and foreign.
Jiang Jun pulled out a hard thin rectangular card with a metal square on it and placed it against a black box. It beeped and the thinnest parchment he'd seen rolled out with writing on it. She accepted it gratefully and they moved out of the way to a side area to repack the bags.
“That's money?” he asked, pointing at her card.
She pulled out a long rectangular strip of parchment with the word ¥10 on it. “No, this is money, as you know. Now help me with these bags.”
He opted to say nothing else and helped Jiang Jun bring the bags back to the car. His stomach lurched thinking of the return back to the apartment. He'd have preferred to walk but knew from the time it had taken to get there and the speed they'd driven that it would be a long walk. So he buckled his seat belt and closed his eyes.
He really missed his qi.
“Are you cooking?” he asked, after they’d put away the items from the supermarket.
“Yes.” There was an edge to her voice.
He said nothing, opting not to provoke her further.
“Why?” she prompted, and he knew she was in a mood.
“I was going to offer,” he said with the most innocent tone he could muster.
She turned around to face him with a smile. He smiled in return. “Okay,” she said.
He was pleased there was still something he could do to make her happy.
Even though it had only been a few days, he already knew where she kept her food and cooking utensils. So he started on dinner. It was a nice way of distracting himself from the predicament he was in and his own helplessness in the situation. Cultivation still wasn’t working, so he was back to figuring out another plan.
Part of him wanted to stay. This life was simple - no gods, immortals or devils to worry about. He wanted a life like this with Susu and the longer he stayed here the more he began to question his plan to make her ascend and kill him. Fate was unfair.
He even considered pretending to be Yuan Shuai, but that seemed impossible given how much he didn't understand about this future and this life. It meant currently his only option was to convince Jiang Jun of who he was and get her to help him. If his suspicion was correct that Jiang Jun was a future Susu, then it was possible that finding a way to unlock her memories could be one way forward, but that relied on a lot of assumptions.
Once finished, he turned off the heat and served the food. Jiang Jun joined him at the table.
“I think I've had this before,” she said.
He named the dishes but saw she was puzzled. Presumably it was something she hadn't heard of in the present day.
She asked him several questions about the food, how it was cooked, how it was seasoned. He indulged her.
“I know where I've eaten this,” she said again.
“Where?”
“They were cooking it at a festival. I think it was a Sheng era dish…”
“Jing?” he offered, his voice casual and light.
“Why did you cook such a dated dish?” she asked, but quickly caught herself.
He tilted his head with mirth, intending to push her.
She sighed. “How long are you going to keep this up?”
“Until you believe me,” Tantai Jin said. He plucked the ornament from the market off the shelf and laid it down between them, pushing it toward her gently. “Do you know who this is?”
She hesitated. “The merchant said it was an emperor of Jing Kingdom.”
“It was,” he agreed. “It was me. I was the emperor. Look at it carefully.”
She picked it up and turned it around, analysing its colours and grooves, peering at the thin frame of the emperor, the carving of braided black hair pulled up into a guan. Then she regarded him with an intensity that made him blush.
“Don't be silly,” she said, dismissing whatever thoughts had come to her.
“Who is being silly?” he asked. "You're the one who said it looked like me."
“No emperor would know how to cook," she said with a smug smirk, clearly thinking she had caught him out.
It didn't faze him.
“Jiang Jun, most of my life I survived on scraps, first in the cold palace, and second, as a hostage prince in Sheng Kingdom. I ate what I could find, and I learned to cook just to fend for myself. I didn't become an emperor until I escaped back to my kingdom.”
“Now you are just making stuff up,” she said sternly, turning up her lip.
“I will eventually prove it to you,” he said with equal challenge.
“Speaking of which, are you going to go to the therapist tomorrow or not?”
So they were back to this. He sat back with a huff and folded his arms.
“Not. Do you believe in nothing here? What happened to this place?”
She laid down her chopsticks. “I'm not hungry,” she said coldly, and left the table.
The evening passed without talking. Both were annoyed at each other and unwilling to yield. Eventually Jiang Jun told him to rest and said she was going to bed early. She went to make herself a tea and he leaned in to see what had captivated her on the laptop all evening.
“People create delusions to escape reality,” he read aloud, and glared at her back.
Unexpectedly, a crackling noise sounded to his right and he turned, wondering what had caused it. The air next to him began to split and a viewing window formed. He could see his chambers in the devil palace with Susu and what should be him sitting on the bed. Relief flooded through him.
“Hello?” his own voice called out.
“Yuan Shuai,” he acknowledged. “You and I seem to be in a predicament.”
“That's one way of putting it.”
“Who are you talking to?” Jiang Jun asked from the kitchen.
“Jiang Jun!” Yuan Shuai called out from inside the window. “Jiang Jun, over here!”
Hearing the familiar cadence with which the voice called out her name, she walked around the table looking very confused. Tantai Jin pulled her down onto the couch and pointed at the window with a smirk. He knew it would be a shock for her, but couldn't help the satisfaction he felt at finally being able to prove he was right.
“Tantai Jin!” Susu scolded. “I'd tell you I am going to kill you but that's what you want isn't it!”
He'd never been happier to hear her angry tone, even given the implications of that statement.
“Susu, please. Is this really the time?” he said.
“When is a good time then? Once you succeed? Once my husband is dead? Tell me, Tantai Jin, when is a good time?”
He winced. There was definitely no saving the plan then.
“When this is reversed, we are going to talk. For now, Yuan Shuai is helping me find a solution to the Tongbei dao that doesn't involve you sacrificing yourself.”
Jiang Jun was struggling immensely with disbelief and he felt some sympathy for her.
“Tantai Jin?” she asked, her eyes wide as she pointed at him. “That's what you said before. You weren't delusional.”
“I told you so,” he said.
Chapter 2
Notes:
Thank you all so much for the lovely responses on the first chapter. I appreciate each and every one of you.
I hope you continue to enjoy the story(P.S. This is a long one! It all flowed into one, so no horizontal line breaks. Hope this doesn't cause too many issues)
Anyway, I'm sure you are all looking forward to finding out how Yuan Shuai is getting on...
Chapter Text
Yuan Shuai awoke on a hard bed that was low to the floor, with Jiang Jun draped across him. A sense of happiness filled him; finally they had stopped dancing around each other. Yet, something felt wrong. Jiang Jun's hair was darker and longer with ornate jewellery, and he could feel his own hair was also long. The room looked like something from an old Sheng era mansion. How had they ended up here?
He slipped out of bed, being careful to extract himself without disturbing Jiang Jun. She sniffed and muttered in her sleep but he ignored it, used to her groggy speech.
A man’s traditional clothing was draped across a chair, and he assumed it was meant to be his. He’d never worn hanfu before - there was a first time for everything, he supposed. Whilst wrestling with the unfamiliar clothes, he caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror and paused with surprise at his appearance. He was thinner than usual, and maybe a bit older too. The hair gave him a much different look than he was used to and he found himself fascinated for a moment. He went back to trying to get the hanfu tied properly.
Soft laughter sounded from the bed.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Jun asked with guarded amusement.
“Getting dressed,” he complained.
She looked at him suspiciously as he wrestled with the outer garments, and eventually seemed to make a decision.
“I don't know what has gotten into you, Tantai Jin, but come here.”
Tantai Jin? Why did that name seem familiar? He could swear he had heard it somewhere before. More importantly, why did Jiang Jun think that was his name? He walked over to her and she manoeuvred and tied the hanfu expertly.
“Jiang Jun, I didn't know you were so used to traditional clothing,” he said idly.
She looked at him with concern. “Why did you call me that?”
“It’s your name.”
“My name is Li Susu,” she said cautiously.
That was another familiar name. “Where are we?”
“In the Bo're Life you created.”
That told him nothing. “Bo’re Life? Is that what you’re calling this place?”
Looking around, he took in the detail of the room. It really did look like something out of the Sheng era. They must have been in one of those traditional tourist inns. But how had Jiang Jun managed to get him here and dress him like this, all without waking him? It was an impossible feat.
“I'm impressed that you managed to do all this but we're going to be late for work.”
He half expected her to say she'd booked today off for them both and set this all up overnight, but instead, she stood and put on her own clothes, saying nothing. Her stern expression worried him.
“Whatever game you are playing, Tantai Jin, I refuse to be a part of it.”
There was that name again.
He turned Li Susu around to face him. “Game? What game? Jiang Jun, it's me, Yuan Shuai.”
“Yuan…Shuai,” she repeated, each syllable rolling awkwardly off her tongue.
You look like Jiang Jun, but you aren’t, are you?
Backing away, he headed for the door and slid it open. A courtyard in midwinter lay ahead, a small pagoda in its centre, next to a tall tree with a gnarled trunk. His robes were not warm enough for the cold and he shivered, but he continued onward anyway, determined to figure out where he was. The courtyard seemed too devoid of life for the time of day. If this was a tourist inn, there should be more people here.
With a sinking feeling inside him, Yuan Shuai ran his hands up into his hair, tugging it gently. It didn’t budge.
This isn’t a wig. My hair is actually long.
Faced with the impossible, he felt the panic raising.
“Tantai Jin!” Li Susu called from the doorway. “What are you doing? Come back inside.”
He felt her hand grab his, pulling him back toward the room, but was too mesmerised to protest.
Maybe it was the utter bewilderment in his eyes, or the sliver of fear, but Susu seemed to realise something truly was wrong. She made an intricate motion with her hands, calling up a golden energy from nothing. He had only ever seen something like it on television, but it was obvious that this was not CGI, it was real. Before he could process that fully, Susu placed her index finger on his forehead, making him feel a bit dizzy.
“You're not Tantai Jin,” she said as she pulled away, her eyes wide with surprise. Her previously standoffish demeanour immediately changed; Susu regarded him with curiosity, and was that hope?
“Like I said,” he responded. “My name is Yuan Shuai.”
“And yet you both look alike,” she said.
Of course. He’d originally thought this was his own body, dressed for the era, but for her to make that observation, it meant Tantai Jin had already existed, and looked like him.
“How do you know that?” he asked.
“From your memories.”
Was that what she had been doing with the golden energy? How much had she seen? He realised he’d asked the last question aloud.
“Enough to confirm who you are. We must find out how you came to be here.”
“Where am I exactly? And don’t say in my Bo’re Life - that’s not helpful.”
“Yuan Shuai, given the future you have come from, any explanation I offer you may be hard for you to believe.”
“So I’m in the past,” he said, already having figured as much out.
“Not just in the past. You’ve transmigrated into Tantai Jin's body.”
This was also obvious given her earlier comment. “Then where is Tantai Jin?” he asked. “Is he in my body?”
This idea seemed to make her think, but instead of answering his question, she asked one of her own.
“Have you come back to change the future?”
He laughed at the absurdity. “Change the future? Of course not. We don’t have the technology to travel through time, and if we did, I would just be me, not someone else.”
She regarded him with an unimpressed frown. “Time travel is possible with cultivation and qi. One can transmigrate into the body of one's previous life or tribulation if they have the right conditions. I have done this myself, but I was only able to travel in time because of a prophecy, and I retained my memory.”
A few minutes ago he would have argued that cultivation was a fictional concept but after she’d read his memory, it was difficult to refute its existence.
“Cultivation is not really practised where I’m from. Until a few minutes ago, I wouldn’t even have believed it was real, so it’s impossible for me to have used it.”
“Perhaps someone else sent you.”
Without missing a beat, she carried on theorising aloud.
“But you don't recall intending to come back in time. Could this be an accident?”
Truthfully he wasn’t even sure how to respond. This entire conversation was difficult for his rational mind to accept, and the more she spoke, the more overwhelmed he became.
He turned around, looking in the mirror again, this time with new scrutiny. Other than some differences in hair and clothing, he and Tantai Jin really did look identical. Was Susu right? Was this some sort of past life? He hadn't really believed in those before, but it was becoming harder to deny with each minute.
“What were you doing before you arrived here?” she suddenly asked.
Images of his and Jiang Jun’s bodies pressed against each other came to mind, prompting feelings which were not helpful right now. Thankful that his robes were loose, he cleared his throat uncomfortably and turned to face Li Susu.
“The same as you and Tantai Jin,” he said.
Susu flushed a light red, unable to meet his gaze. “Ah,” she said.
“So, why are you convinced that I've come back to change the past?” he asked. "It doesn't sound very easy even with cultivation."
“Given the circumstances, it makes sense for a time traveller to appear in Tantai Jin's body at this point in time. When I arrived in the past, it was also at a crucial point.”
"What circumstances?” he asked with suspicion. “Why does it make sense for me to appear now? Is this a crucial point?”
She didn't elaborate, to his annoyance. Why exactly was this moment such a vital one, and why was she so hesitant to tell him?
“I'm sorry, Yuan Shuai, please give me a minute. I never thought I'd be on the other end of this.”
How was he going to get a straight answer from this woman? He approached Susu carefully, taking care to keep his voice even.
“Li Susu,” he coaxed. “Just start from the beginning.”
She seemed to calm a little at this and nodded.
“I am an immortal from a future where the Devil God had nearly destroyed the world. I was chosen to go back in time to stop him. When I arrived in the past, I was in the body of one of my tribulations. I used my time as her to change the future.”
He tucked away the idea of the Devil God being real in the back of his head for later because it was enough to process travelling in time right now.
“So if this is the same thing you experienced, then how do I return?”
“You don't. You would have to live this life through until the end.”
He suddenly felt as though the floor had fallen away from under him, and grasped her shoulders with desperation.
“Li Susu, there must be a way to send me back. I can’t stay here.”
Gently she shrugged out of his grip, taking his hands into her own. He knew she was trying to reassure him.
“For what it's worth, I no longer believe this to be the same situation as my own. You may be right that you have swapped bodies with Tantai Jin.”
He pulled away, considering this. “If that was true, then could I go home?”
“I don't know. I’ve never heard of something like this happening before. But I will help you. There must be a reason you’re here, after all.”
Now what? His brain was ready for a meltdown. He’d nearly accepted the idea of being in the past, in another version of himself. The qi Susu had used also didn't quite faze him; he’d seen enough xianxia dramas that the idea wasn’t a foreign one. But the possibility he might be stuck here forever, he didn’t know if he could live with that.
“Yuan Shuai, I don’t want to alarm you, but I'm afraid there is more.”
“More?” That startled him. How could there possibly be more?
“You are also the Devil God.”
I’m…what?
Of course, that was where he had heard the name before - Tantai Jin had been the Devil God of legend. Within the context of the situation, it all fit, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that the Devil God was real.
I have seen qi with my own eyes. Could this also be...?
“That’s not possible,” he said, refusing to accept where his mind was leading him. “The Devil God is just a legend.”
Li Susu smirked and lifted her chin in challenge. “How about this? I will tell you to do something. If you try it and it doesn’t work I will accept that I am wrong.”
His eyes narrowed and jaw set as he accepted the challenge. “Fine,” he said. “What do you want me to do?”
“Make us some tea.”
Confused, he glanced around at the empty room. “Where is it stored?”
“It is in your head, Yuan Shuai. Picture it.”
What an odd thing to say. Still, she had issued a challenge, so he pictured the teapot in his head, feeling very silly and not actually expecting anything to happen. Yet a steaming pot of green tea appeared on the table.
His eyes widened and he tilted his head, analysing the object he had supposedly conjured. Kneeling down, he poked the teapot and pulled back reflexively, finding that yes it was real, and it was very hot.
Susu poured two cups and pushed one gently across to him, motioning for him to settle in and join her. He sat down, wrestling with anxiety as he stared at the teapot.
“Am I hallucinating?” he asked.
“No. As I said before, this is Tantai Jin's Bo're Life. He created it, and he controls all that happens within it. That is why thinking about tea made it appear.”
She leaned in, looking at him with her piercing eyes.
“Be honest with yourself. Can’t you feel his power lying beneath?”
Still wrestling with disbelief, Yuan Shuai closed his eyes and let himself feel. He couldn't deny there was something inexplicable held within him, a kind of dark energy that sat below the surface like a presence. In an instinctive motion, he opened his hand and a red and black energy appeared. A rush of what felt like adrenaline pulsed through him, and he flinched, causing it to dissipate. Again, he opened his hand and it returned.
Is this…qi? I have qi.
Dissipating the energy, he looked at Susu with rapt attention.
“Now you understand,” she said. “You are the Devil God.”
Just what kind of hell he had walked into? At this moment, he'd been expecting to be cooking breakfast for Jiang Jun, enjoying their first morning as a couple together. Instead he was here in this nightmare, in the Devil God’s body.
“This must be a dream,” he muttered under his breath.
“It’s not a dream.”
He frowned at her for calling him out.
Susu shifted near to him and placed her hand on his arm to offer some reassurance. “The sooner you accept it, the sooner we can find answers. But try not to worry. I will help you.”
Try not to worry, that was easy to say. Regularly working in a stressful industry like investment, where clear-headedness was paramount, had allowed him to stay coherent whilst dealing with this impossible situation. But he’d be lying if he said it wasn’t a challenge. He’d experienced more anxiety in this short span of time than he had during his entire career. Being the Devil God? Potentially never getting home? It could break even the hardiest person. But he would try to approach this situation like he approached everything: research, investigate, and take action. For now it was enough to have something familiar to hold onto.
“So you and Tantai Jin are together?” he asked cautiously. He’d awoken in the same bed as her in a state of undress, so it wasn’t a leap to think they were lovers, and especially not after her inability to articulate how they’d spent the night.
To his surprise, she sighed. “That is not an easy question to answer.”
“It’s complicated?” he asked, holding in his amusement. It seemed that was a thing in the past as well.
“You could say that.”
Leaning back into a more comfortable position, she began to tell him what he assumed was an abridged version of their history together, starting from her earlier story about going back in time. The more she told him, the more he pitied Tantai Jin. What a terrible life. The two of them really hadn't caught a break.
“So,” he said, processing what he’d been told, “you're angry because you were both finally happy and then he became the Devil God after promising you he wouldn't. But although he is acting like the Devil God from your first timeline, the Bo’re Life is making you think there might be more to it?”
“Exactly,” she said. “This Bo're Life, I wondered why the Devil God would create it - what use would he have for it or me? We are both mortal here, living a mortal life. He tried to brush it off as being curious, asked me how I would know what kind of life the Devil God likes, but I think there’s something more behind it. Tantai Jin implied there was no going back now. I feel as though he was saying goodbye.”
“Why would he say goodbye?”
“I don’t know,” she said with worry. “But something is not right.”
“Do you think that the Devil God was allowing him to have one last moment with you?”
“No. I considered it. But before entering the Bo’re Life, the Devil God said a lot of things to me about love being pointless. At first it seemed like he was just being cruel, but the more he spoke, the more he sounded like he was pretending. At one point I looked over at him and he seemed resigned. I think…it’s been Tantai Jin all along.”
He sighed, finally understanding Susu’s earlier comment about this point in time.
“And now I’m here, so you can’t confront him and find out the truth.”
Although Susu didn’t respond, he could see in her eyes that he was right. A terrible thought suddenly occurred to him. “If we swapped places, could it be the Devil God and not Tantai Jin that is with Jiang Jun right now?”
“I sincerely hope not,” Susu said. “But even if he was, in your body he would be powerless.”
“You don’t need cultivation to kill someone,” Yuan Shuai said crossly.
“I don’t think you should worry. I believe that the Ancient Devil God - Chu Mo - is gone. If you have swapped places, then it is most likely Tantai Jin who has replaced you. He won't hurt Jiang Jun.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because she looks like me.”
She sipped her tea, leaving Yuan Shuai to contemplate that.
“Li, Susu! How many memories did you see?” he exclaimed. “Do you always poke around in people’s heads without asking?
“You didn’t leave me with much choice,” she argued. “What was I supposed to do? It helped me believe you.”
He couldn’t deny that, but still felt a little put out that she had done it without permission.
“We should leave the Bo’re Life now and look for more information about your situation.”
“Fine,” he said. “How do we leave?”
“Yuan Shuai, this power is yours now, it will obey you.”
She summoned her qi to create an image. “Think of returning us to the world, to the Dragon Boat, here. Don't be alarmed once we leave. I'll be with you.”
Breathing in deeply, he felt for that enormous power deep within, focusing on bringing them to the place Susu had shown him. The effort was minimal, and the result frightened him a little. They stood upon a moving platform, dressed in intricate red and black hanfu. The dark energy was so tangible now he couldn't ignore it. But why was the sky an ominous shade of red and orange, and what was the giant orb perched in the centre of it all?
“Li Susu,” he said nervously, turning to face her.
There was only resignation in her expression as she met his gaze.
“I’m here,” she said. “This is all very surreal. I had been planning to destroy Chongyu harp after the wedding to kill you, but you have given me hope.”
“Wedding? Kill me?” he said, his eyebrow raised. “What are you talking about?”
“Tantai Jin and I were meant to marry before this happened, and after I confronted him about becoming the Devil God, he decided we would marry anyway,” she explained. “But I think he was planning something with this wedding. We must go ahead with it, otherwise the demons may suspect something is wrong.”
The idea put a knot in his gut. He hadn’t even proposed to Jiang Jun yet; he wasn’t about to marry this woman who was her doppelganger.
“Li Susu!” he said. “I am not getting married, not to anyone who isn’t Jiang Jun.”
She laughed. Why was she laughing?
“Yuan Shuai, you are in Tantai Jin’s body right now, so technically I am marrying him.”
“That’s not- that doesn’t make it better!”
He closed his eyes, taking a moment to centre himself against the feeling of complete helplessness. It wasn’t a feeling he enjoyed.
“Can’t we just cancel the wedding?” he asked.
“We will risk upsetting the demons,” she said. “If they think you are the devil fetus they will attack you and we can’t risk a confrontation.”
“Devil fetus?” he asked with distaste.
“Tantai Jin was the human vessel born to be the Devil God,” she said. “Before the Devil God took control of his body, the demons called him the devil fetus.”
This entire situation was so out of his comfort zone that Yuan Shuai wasn’t even sure where to start. His knowledge of this xianxia-esque environment was so limited. It seemed he’d have to defer to Susu for now, as much as he hated it.
“Looks like we don’t have a choice,” he said. “But how will I know the rituals? Won't I give myself away anyway?”
“Leave that to me,” she said.
It didn’t reassure him.
“Once we’ve resolved this situation with the immortals and devils, we will look for a way to send you back.”
Yuan Shuai could only hope this was all temporary.
“Brace yourself,” Susu said.
Pressing two fingers to his forehead, she imparted the knowledge of where they should be. Having a memory deposited into his head felt quite invasive and it disoriented him momentarily. However, once his vision settled, he realised she hadn't just sent him an image, but imparted a full visual with a spatial understanding of the area.
“Visualise where you want to go and let the qi do the rest. Hold my hand to bring me with you, or I will have to fly down myself.”
Since leaving the Bo're Life, the qi seemed more active, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. The feeling was indescribable. The dark energy coursed through his body, ready to act at a moment’s notice. To someone with no qi, it was like a drug; he forced himself not to get lost in it. Using it was a different story.
“Li Susu,” he said warily, “I know I was able to bring us back here, but I still don’t really know how to manipulate this power.”
“You’ll need to feel the qi flowing through you. Then call it through your meridians and think of sending us to the palace in Barren Abyss - the place I showed you.”
“What are meridians?” he asked. Was that a meditation thing?
“You don’t know what meridians are?” Susu asked, her eyes wide with shock.
“Something they teach in Daoism?” he asked.
Susu was looking very nervous at that declaration.
“Yuan Shuai, you are essentially a beginner cultivator in the Devil God’s body. This is not good. If you can’t control that power…”
It dawned on him what she was saying and the fear began to creep in.
“Never mind. I’ll have to teach you quickly. Your meridians are spiritual channels within your body that connect to your heart. Qi flows through them. Perhaps the easiest way would be for you to attune to the flow of the qi you feel, and imagine the purpose you want to use it for.”
That meant the meridians must be the channels he could already feel the qi moving through. He inhaled slowly and focused on the flow of the qi, picturing the place Susu had shown him. Nothing happened.
“Yuan Shuai?”
“I’m trying,” he said. The frustration seemed to rile up the qi.
He tried again. Still nothing.
“Have you cleared your mind?”
“How can I after what you just told me?”
“The fear will only make it worse. Close your eyes and focus.”
Following her instructions, Yuan Shuai focused on his breathing, trying to refocus when his mind wandered. The stream of qi began to calm and slowly, carefully he pulled it through his meridians. It curved around him and he opened his eyes, grabbing Susu’s hand before it could act. They appeared outside of two red and black doors, which opened as they approached, revealing the throne room of a palace. Susu took his hand.
“Follow my lead,” she said.
He felt so lost.
They walked inside the palace which Yuan Shuai thought looked both creepy and fascinating at the same time. Its dreary interior with threatening peaks and the carved throne of the Devil God was intimidating but also impressive. Although he would have liked to look around properly, he focused on the path ahead, acting like he was familiar with the palace already. Then they encountered steps. He felt the hem of the robe catch on his boot and felt himself waver. A barely noticeable wisp of golden qi steadied him and he looked over to see Susu subtly casting it.
“How do people walk in these?” he whispered, and saw her holding back a smile.
They stopped short of the throne and the demons brought them each a small carved scarlet cup with wine.
“I’m not familiar with this ritual,” Susu said to the demon. “Perhaps you could explain it to me, so that I can show the proper respect?”
The demon bowed. “Of course. The first cup of wine is for all the sins of the world, the second is for all the death. The last is your wish for you both to be together forever.”
Susu nodded in thanks and the demon returned to the side. They moved closer to one another.
“This wedding is a little dark, isn’t it?” Yuan Shuai asked, his voice low.
“It is a demon wedding,” she said. “I assumed we wouldn’t be toasting to the heavens.”
He coughed back a laugh at her candidness.
“Follow my lead,” she said.
They both bowed to one another and then each took a cup.
She and Yuan Shuai poured the first amount of wine on the ground, then the second, reciting the words the demon had said. The third was a little awkward. They each put their cup to the other’s mouth and they drank, choosing not to recite the final words out of respect for Tantai Jin and Jiang Jun. Placing the cups back on the tray, he looked at her, hoping she had a plan for what came next.
“Dismiss them,” she whispered.
“What?” he mouthed.
She nodded to the small number of demons who had been present to witness the ceremony, and he finally understood.
“The ceremony is complete,” he said. “You may leave and join the others.”
They each bowed before congratulating him and taking their leave through the doors of the palace. Eventually they were alone, and Yuan Shuai relaxed. Before he could ask Susu about their next action, he felt a kind of purifying energy in the distance, the very opposite to what brimmed inside him.
“Li Susu,” he said. “I can feel strong qi nearby. It think it's like yours.”
“The sects must be here,” she said. “Then it’s confirmed - this was all a trap. The wedding invitation was to get the sects in a position where the demons could ambush them.”
He closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “Am I going to have to lead an army of demons?” he asked, dreading her response.
“Hopefully not,” she said. "We’d be better off if we could have a high vantage point before deciding what to do, but the Dragon Boat won’t be nearby. It is too small anyway. There is not much room to manoeuvre if we are attacked. Perhaps you could raise the palace into the sky.”
He had just wrapped his head around the fact he was in another time in the Devil God’s body, let alone getting used to the enormous well of power burning inside him. Now she was asking him to raise the damn palace.
“Li Susu,” he warned, a harsh edge creeping into his voice. “You do realise I have no idea what I’m doing, don’t you? You said it yourself - I’m a beginner.”
She turned to face him with a glint of mischief in her eyes.
“Well, we could fly but if you can’t even raise the palace…”
“Fly? I can fly?” he asked, unable to hide the anticipation in his voice. He’d always wanted to be able to do that, even since he was a boy watching immortal heroes on screen.
Li Susu smiled. “It may be easier to raise the palace into the sky at this stage. Flying requires concentration. But since you are so eager, I can teach you later.”
Amidst wrestling with anxiety and fear, he hadn’t really given much thought to the perks of his current situation. It helped to temper his mood and Yuan Shuai felt a little more optimistic than before.
“Do you really think I can raise the palace?” he asked.
“I know you can.”
Her confidence in him was touching but he didn’t quite share it yet.
“I can see that you are still nervous. Let my qi guide you. Just do the same as before; feel the qi moving through you and think of what you want it to do.”
He felt the calming energy enter his body and he took a deep breath, clearing his mind. The dark restless qi seemed to be responding to him a little more now, and he imagined the palace ascending. The sound of rock breaking alerted him that he was successful, and the palace began to lift into the eerily orange sky. Afraid of making a mistake, he maintained a laser focus on the power he was using. Only once they were high enough to have a sensible vantage point, did he dare to let it disperse. The qi seemed to naturally settle, allowing the palace to float without further action from him.
“Is this okay?” he asked. Truthfully he was proud of what he’d just accomplished, even more so given he didn’t believe qi existed yesterday.
Her expression told him everything he needed to know; she was impressed. It made him smile.
“You did well. Are you sure you’ve had no training?”
“Just the training you’ve given me, shifu,” he joked.
She poked him in the arm, hard.
“Ow! Jiang Jun!” he scolded before his words registered, and he looked at her sheepishly.
Thankfully Susu carried on as though nothing had happened.
“Don’t call me shifu,” she said. “That’s what Tantai Jin used to call my uncle, who actually trained him.”
Before he could respond, the immortals in the distance descended from the sky and the demons left Barren Abyss, led by a demon in white. It seemed they would shortly meet in battle.
“I have a question,” he said carefully. “You said this was a trap, and that Tantai Jin had pushed you to go ahead with the wedding. Were you his prisoner?”
“Do I seem like a prisoner to you?” she asked sweetly.
He could see Jiang Jun in Li Susu’s cheeky expression. What would she make of all this? He prayed he would get to see her again.
The immortals and demons had engaged in a full on battle below, and that glowing orb still sat ominously in the sky. Yuan Shuai felt a link to it somehow, like his qi was fuelling it.
“Susu,” he said. “That orb in the sky - why do I feel connected to it?”
“That is the Tongbei dao, and it is intended to end the world by bringing it back to chaos. It is fueled by the Devil God’s qi and only he can activate it. But Tantai Jin did not do this, my father Di Mian did, while possessed by Chu Mo.”
“Your father?” he asked with surprise.
“Yes, he was the Lord of Monsters.”
Of course, how typical that it would be her father. What a mess.
It seemed that a realisation had hit Li Susu while he was in his own head.
“Oh no. Tantai Jin, I will actually kill you. That's why he took the evil bone! To stop the Tongbei dao!”
Evil bone? What was that? Yuan Shuai wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Instead he opted to focus on the more pressing concern.
“Given the Tongbei dao is still in the sky, he must have failed.”
Judging by Susu’s expression, she had arrived at the same conclusion, but had deduced something further than he could with his limited knowledge.
“This explains why he kept pushing me, kept doing things to remind me of the ancient devil god. He must’ve wanted me to cut my ties with him and ascend through the heartless dao!”
Tongbei dao, heartless dao, evil bone - the new concepts were quickly piling up. He had always been good at processing a lot of new information at once, but given his lack of background knowledge in this world's infrastructure and paradigms, he was having trouble making sense of it all. Yuan Shuai wanted to go back to the comfortable world of finance where he knew the rules.
“Why would he want you to ascend?” Yuan Shuai asked.
“Because he thinks the only way to stop the Tongbei dao and save the world is for him to die, and for it to die with him. I would have to be a goddess to have a hope of defeating the Devil God.”
Just as he’d calmed the anxiety, her words triggered another wave. He tried to keep his voice even.
“Li Susu, be honest with me. Am I going to die here?”
“No,” she said firmly. “I will find another way. Tantai Jin owes me an explanation. He's not getting away with this so easily.”
Yuan Shuai winced, feeling a bit of empathy for the man. He already knew what it was like to endure the wrath of such a headstrong and determined woman.
They walked to the edge of the palace to observe the battle below. A golden pattern had been formed by the immortal sects on the ground, with a central circle surrounded by eight others, all connected in a sort of mandala. Disciples stood inside each one. Lines began to connect them and the qi formed into the image of several gods.
“What are they doing?” Yuan Shuai asked.
“Forming the Celestial Punishment Array,” Susu said with alarm.
“Punishment array?” he repeated. “Why do I feel like that’s meant for me…?”
He didn’t like the look in her eyes.
“Because it is. This array calls upon the heavenly lightning judgement. As a primordial god, you can probably survive, but you will be wounded. I don’t think we should take a chance."
Probably wasn't a reassuring word, and he really didn’t want to find out how a celestial punishment felt.
“How do we stop it?” he asked.
“We must disrupt the formation below.”
Demons were already charging, trying to stop the array’s formation, but the immortals were successfully holding them back. Although Yuan Shuai had managed to do a few things with the Devil God's qi, the idea of fighting immortals, let alone so many at once, unsettled him.
“Li Susu, how am I supposed to fight? I’m not the Devil God.”
“While you are not Tantai Jin, you are the Devil God right now, and the sooner you get used to that the better.”
A golden pattern of linked concentric circles with intricate patterns suddenly began to form in the sky. The symbols were forming fast, and Yuan Shuai began to panic.
“Can’t you stop the array?”
“I may be the Lady of Spirituality but even I can’t fight all the sects alone,” she said. “You can.”
The shock of that revelation hit him like a bus and he stared. “You’re telling me I’m more powerful than all the immortals down there combined?”
“Yes.”
The array was nearly complete now. It was beginning to power up and crackle.
Susu's lips pressed together and her shoulders tensed as she regarded him with frustration and he knew her patience was wearing thin.
“We don’t have time for this. The way I see it, you have two choices - you can take eighty-one lightning bolts and hope you survive, or you can help me stop this array. Pick one."
There really was no choice. He’d take his chances fighting immortals rather than be hit by heavenly lightning.
“I hope I don’t regret this.”
Repeating the steps he’d used to transport them to the palace, he brought them to the ground, in the middle of the array’s formation. Several immortals startled at his sudden appearance, breaking their concentration, and he realised just how much Tantai Jin was feared. They recovered quickly and began to attack. As Susu hadn’t given him any specific instructions, Yuan Shuai was forced to rely on the various xianxia dramas he’d watched over the years for ideas.
Please work.
He closed his eyes. The dark listless energy already seemed to be ready for his command. Summoning it, he slammed his hand to the ground, shaping it into a circular wave that spread outward. He watched with wide eyes as the wave sent the immortals flying several feet away. As several coughed up blood, guilt crept in. He hadn’t realised the attack would be so powerful.
Maybe I should…hold back.
The formation on the ground disappeared, and to his relief the one in the sky dissipated as well. Thankfully he wouldn’t be finding out how eighty-one lightning bolts felt today.
That was easier than I thought.
The qi seemed a little easier to manipulate the more he used it, but that wave wouldn’t keep the immortals down for long.
An immortal in white with long black hair and a sharp angular face ran toward them. His forehead was adorned with a white huadian that resembled a torch at first glance. It was so different to Susu’s - a firey huadian with a red core surrounded by twin golden flames. In truth, he liked hers more.
“Junior sister, what are you doing?” the immortal snapped.
“Stopping your array,” she said with equal venom.
"Why are you defending Tantai Jin?"
Before he could interrupt, he sensed yang qi nearby, and turned just in time to block an attack from a woman in teal hanfu. Some of the stronger disciples near him had recovered and were advancing toward him.
Conflicting feelings warred within him. Although he wanted to hurt the immortals as little as possible, he couldn’t allow himself to be captured. He had an idea. He opened his palms, amassing the red and black energy. Willing it into several small pulses, he tossed them at the immortals. It grazed several in various places, and hit others in legs and arms, enough to slow them down. Many, however, just knocked it away and continued to advance.
Cursing his bad aim, Yuan Shuai pulled the qi into pulses again. They lined up in front of him until there were multiple rows, and he willed them forward, this time more purposefully. Several immortals were taken off guard as the pulse hit them, but there were a number who knocked them away again. Yuan Shuai realised they must have high cultivation.
Inside him the power swirled higher.
Forgive me.
Yuan Shuai attacked with another wave like before and he winced as he saw the injuries it caused. Others like the woman in teal were only momentarily stunned and looking angrier by the minute. If this carried on he’d have no choice but to use more powerful attacks.
The qi was a restless current now. It seemed to be urging him to do something, but what? Why was he thinking of a horrifying crossbow with an orange eye? For some reason, he had a feeling he should ignore that instinct.
Where was Susu, anyway?
“Li Susu!” he called out.
She was lost amongst the commotion.
He sensed the attack before it landed. Adrenaline pumped through him and he whipped around, materialising a sword of his own reflexively, just in time to block an immortal blade. Then he was face to face with the immortal in white from before, the one who had been arguing with Susu. He pulled away and the immortal did the same.
All of a sudden, Susu grabbed his arm. “I’m back, let’s go!” she shouted.
Teleporting them was second nature now. Summoning the qi to whip around him, he brought them back to the floating palace with little effort.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Yuan Shuai laughed at the absurdity of the question. He hadn't been okay since he arrived here. The laugh seemed to alarm her, and he was swiftly reminded of his current status as a very dangerous god.
“Physically I’m fine. Otherwise, I’m coping,” he admitted. He held up the sword. “Not sure where this came from though.”
“That's the sky slashing sword, one of the Devil God’s artefacts.”
“Sky slashing sword,” he repeated, giving it a couple of swishes through the air. It was a nice looking sword with good balance. He let it go out of a sort of muscle reflex and it disappeared, absorbing into him with a small rush of qi. The fact that a sword lived inside him didn't unsettle him as much as he expected and he wondered if he had adjusted more to his current situation than he realised.
The immortal he’d been fighting just moments ago suddenly landed on the palace stairs in one smooth movement, and began to walk toward them.
“Junior sister, how can you side with him?” he said with disgust. “You are betraying your own kind.”
Yuan Shuai was offended on Tantai Jin’s behalf.
“Eldest senior brother, as I told you, you don’t understand the situation. If you’d just listen-”
“I won’t stop until Tantai Jin is dead.” He pointed his sword in Yuan Shuai’s direction.
Yuan Shuai shared a wary glance with Susu. "Who is he?"
“He’s the Chief of Hengyang sect, Gongye Jiwu,” she said. “Be ready - he has high cultivation.”
Having just been thrown in the deep end, Yuan Shuai felt much more familiar with the qi running through him. He called it into his meridians without hesitation while Susu readied her own to fight. Although he still didn’t know the proper hand motions or techniques, so far a little xianxia knowledge and the qi’s own guidance had been enough.
Chief Gongye lunged and Yuan Shuai manoeuvred out of the way before sending him backwards with a red and black wave. Susu materialised a harp that changed into a sword, which Yuan Shuai thought was pretty amazing. He admired her skill as she fought. But Gongye Jiwu managed to get away from her, adjusting his focus to Yuan Shuai. The attack came at him at lightning speed. Before he could think, the power burned through him, coalescing into a black shield. Taking control, he willed it outward, forcing Jiwu back to the edge.
Susu neared him. “You’re doing well. Trust your instincts,” she said.
Trust my instincts. That’s what I’ve been doing.
Jiwu began the motions for another attack. Yuan Shuai held out his left hand, and another pulse of power escaped, hitting Gongye Jiwu directly in the chest. The immortal fell to one knee and spat up blood, but Yuan Shuai knew from Jiwu’s determined glare that it wouldn’t be enough to stop him. He was right. Barely a moment had passed and the immortal was on his feet again and advancing.
Susu stepped between them and blocked his attack, but moment of hesitation cost her, and her senior brother threw her to the ground roughly.
All Yuan Shuai could feel was rage. It burned through him, riling up the qi. The power flowed with an intensity he could barely fathom, and he channelled it at Gongye Jiwu, not holding back. Jiwu dodged, to his annoyance. The power inside continued to grow, beginning to overwhelm him.
Susu seemed to notice his struggle.
“Don't let the qi control you,” she warned. “You are its master, it is not yours.”
He barely registered her words through the red haze.
The qi whipped around him like wind and he motioned it sharply toward Jiwu. The two waves of opposing energies slammed together with a small explosion and dissipated. Jiwu immediately began a technique that Yuan Shuai didn’t recognise, but one that looked powerful. The problem with powerful techniques was that they took time to execute.
There was no need to think anymore. Yuan Shuai flicked his hand, sending Jiwu into a wall, and then another, before flinging him onto the ground the same way he had thrown Susu. Jiwu coughed up blood. The qi whipped around Yuan Shuai faster, pushing him onward. He was drunk on power.
“Chief Gongye,” he taunted as he approached. “You lead an immortal sect and you think you can push around whoever you like. You even hurt your sect sister to get to me. Aren’t you ashamed?”
Jiwu spat at him in response. Yuan Shuai pinned him against the wall just by thinking and approached. He leaned in next to Jiwu's ear.
“If you hurt her again, I will make you regret it,” he threatened.
“Susu, can you not see him clearly for the monster he is?”
“Yuan Shuai,” Susu hissed with anger as she turned him to face her.
She recoiled as their eyes met and pulled back. In her place he saw Jiang Jun looking at him with those fearful eyes. It sobered him up. The power was still pooling around him but he couldn’t calm it. It wanted him to go down a bloodthirsty path. He grabbed her arm desperately.
“Yin qi is volatile. Calm your mind,” she said, understanding his silent plea for help.
“I can’t.”
She placed her hand on his chest, infusing him with serene energy that contrasted to the one currently burning inside him. The energy seemed to activate something else inside, something calm and controlled. Breathing in deeply, he channelled every meditation technique he could think of. Finally the qi quieted, still more active than the low hum from before, but no longer burning through him like a restless fire.
“I'm okay,” he said with relief. “What did you do?”
“I gave the divine essence inside you a boost so it could balance out your qi.”
Divine essence? He'd have to ask about that later. They’d wasted too much time. Jiwu was drawing qi from the disciples below, using it to replenish his strength. Dark veins had spread along his face and hands, and his mouth turned up in a menacing grin.
“What are those dark lines?” he asked.
“It looks like yin qi - but why? That would hurt him, force him to devilise.”
“I suppose it doesn’t hurt me for obvious reasons?”
She nodded. “Your body is made to use it.”
“Then why did it get so out of control?”
“Because yin qi is fuelled by the suffering of others.”
“The suffering of others?” he said, unable to hide the horror in his voice.
“Why do you hesitate, Tantai Jin?” Jiwu asked. “Are you afraid she will finally see you for what you really are?”
The immortal was goading him. Had he lost his mind? It was obvious from their fight that Yuan Shuai was the more powerful of the two.
“Gongye Jiwu,” he said calmly. “You're injured. Do you want me to kill you?”
“You sound like Tantai Jin,” Susu said from beside him, low enough for his ears alone.
“I'm starting to understand him,” he snapped, “if this is how you all treated him, maybe he's right to retaliate.”
“That's the qi talking. Be careful.”
Yuan Shuai wondered if that was true. Earlier, the qi had responded to his anger but it hadn’t caused it. Either way he’d have to mind his emotions, however difficult that was. Gongye Jiwu's attitude wound him up as much as Du Lei's.
“Eldest senior brother. I don’t want to see you get hurt further. Please stop this,” Susu said, attempting to reason.
Jiwu simply smirked, and his expression was eerie and wrong.
“If he carries on this way, he’ll devilise. Can you call the yin qi out of him?”
Given he had just regained control of himself, Yuan Shuai was hesitant to syphon more qi into his body. But a golden energy began to gather in the air as Jiwu began the movements for another technique. It forced him to make a choice.
Holding out his hand, Yuan Shuai called for the devil qi to leave the immortal and come to him. Jiwu struggled against it. There was so much; it was too slow to transfer. Susu fought Jiwu, keeping him busy while Yuan Shuai continued to remove the foreign energy. The qi was pushing him to do something, but he wasn’t sure what. His chest burned hot and he placed his hand on it, unintentionally pulling out a cube with long rectangular indentations. It rotated above his palm.
“That’s the bone refining seal,” Susu shouted. “Why did you call for it?”
“I didn’t, the qi did.”
She parried with Chongyu harp and blocked with that golden energy, distracting Jiwu to give him an opening.
Letting instinct lead him, Yuan Shuai tossed the bone refining seal at Jiwu. It deconstructed and floated above his head, glowing an ethereal orange as it formed a barrier around him, forcibly pulling the devil qi out. He felt it rejoining his own power.
When did I start thinking of this power as mine?
It was a startling thought. The power grew rapidly again, making him nervous, but he focused on the task at hand. He couldn’t let it get the better of him this time. When Jiwu looked as though he was going to faint, Yuan Shuai called the bone refining seal back.
Not missing a beat, Jiwu lunged at him with a sword. Yuan Shuai called for his own. He parried clumsily, unused to fighting this way, but before he could attack, Jiwu stabbed him through the middle. He looked down in horror as Jiwu laughed.
Using the opportunity, he placed his hand on Jiwu’s forehead, pulling the remaining yin qi out of him. A light qi began to syphon with the dark, and it was linked to the disciples below. Many of them began to fall to their knees.
“Eldest senior brother, I can’t believe you syphoned your own disciples' energy!” Susu asked, her voice betraying her disgust. “And you think Tantai Jin is the evil one!”
“You would stand with him while he destroys everything!” Jiwu shouted, struggling against the removal of the power he needed. “Who is really evil? I did what I had to!”
Yuan Shuai continued to concentrate on only removing the devil qi until it had all been depleted. Jiwu fell forward, breathing heavily, and slumped to the floor unconscious. Susu hurried over and checked for life signs whilst Yuan Shuai looked incredulously at the sword through his middle.
Is this it? Will I die today?
No. Susu said he couldn't die from something like this. Maybe that was why it didn't hurt.
“Li Susu!” he called out.
Recognising his distress, she rushed over.
“It’s just a normal immortal artefact. Although it pierced your midsection, it shouldn’t have hurt you. You can remove it.”
He readied the qi. “If I die from blood loss…”
“Just remove the sword, and stop being petulant, will you?” she said.
She was right. As the sword was removed, the wound healed immediately and he felt nothing.
Perks of being a god. I could get used to this.
“Senior brother is still alive, thankfully,” she said.
Before he could respond, she launched straight into another plan. He needed a break but he knew he wasn’t going to get one, not yet.
“Now, we’ll need to be decisive and quick about shutting down this battle. I have an idea, but I’ll need your help.”
“Susu, you saw what happened when I let this power loose,” he protested.
“I did,” she admitted. “And then I saw how you pulled away the bone refining seal at just the right moment.”
He folded his arms and sighed. There really was no arguing with her.
“We have no choice,” she argued. There was desperation written in her eyes. “As long as this battle goes on, we will be attacked and pursued, and we won’t be able to find out how to get you home, or stop the Tongbei dao. We’re going to need the cooperation of the immortals and devils.”
“Li Susu, I can’t do this!” he protested.
“Yuan Shuai, even though the first you heard of cultivation was when you arrived, you managed to hold your own against my eldest brother, the strongest of Hengyang sect.”
“I lost myself in that power trying to fight him.”
“Only after he hurt me,” she said. “It’s expected with something as turbulent as yin qi. It reacts to strong negative emotions. But you know how to bring yourself back from this now. I trust you."
“I don’t trust me.”
“If Tantai Jin can do it then so can you.”
“I’m not Tantai Jin!”
“While Tantai Jin is more decisive in battle and has more knowledge of how to use this power, you have held yourself skillfully in every encounter.”
Whilst he appreciated the compliment, he wasn’t sure he felt as confident as Susu in his ability. But he also wasn't sure how long he would be stuck here. Maybe it would be sensible to refine his command over the qi to avoid another lapse.
“Fine, I’ll do it, but be ready to stop me if I get out of control.”
“Yuan Shuai, no one can stop you if you truly get out of control.”
“You just did.”
“No, I helped you with my qi, but you are the one who pulled yourself out of it.”
He glared at her. “Can’t you say something reassuring?”
“Do you want me to lie to you?”
“No, but…”
“I trust you,” she repeated.
“I hope you’re not making a mistake.”
“I’m not.”
She dived back into planning mode. “So when you head down to the plains, gather the demons and tell them the plan has changed. Order them to defend and hold their ground, but not to attack.”
When she'd originally spoke about a plan, he'd expected to have to fight. Now she was talking about ordering around a demon army.
“Will they even listen to me?” he asked.
“Yuan Shuai, you are-”
“- the Devil God. I know. You’ve said it enough. But you’ve also said we can’t let them learn that I’m the one in Tantai Jin’s body. How can I convince them?”
“With a show of power,” she said.
Yuan Shuai was nervous. How was he going to face an army of bloodthirsty demons and convince them to back down? Yes, he had experience leading a team and doing damage control in situations that got out of hand, but this was so damn far beyond that.
“If you can get the high ranking demons to listen to you, the rest should fall in line.”
“I doubt a show of power will be enough to convince them,” he said, folding his arms. “They’ll want a reason, especially if they thought Tantai Jin had joined with the Devil God and wanted to end the world. I need a good argument.”
“The Tongbei dao will return everything to primordial chaos, and everything will die, including the demons. Perhaps you can use this to convince them. Tell them you’d rather work toward peace between immortals and devils.”
“What will you do?”
“I will bring my senior brother back and propose another course of action to the sect leaders. Getting the demons to hold back first will be key to getting immortals to listen. But you will also need to subdue and collect Chief Cen for me. He will never agree to talk. That is him in the red robes.”
He nodded. “I’ll go to the demons first, and then I’ll bring you Chief Cen.”
She looked at him wistfully and he wondered if she was seeing Tantai Jin. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel a connection with the man whose body he inhabited, but it was still a tough ask to believe he had actually been Tantai Jin in another lifetime.
Envisioning the plains below, he called the qi to act. Within moments, he had teleported to the ground, in the middle of the battle.
It’s time.
He straightened his shoulders and schooled his face into the most menacing expression he could manage, heading for the demon in white.
“My lord,” she acknowledged with surprise.
“Gather the others near the entrance to Barren Abyss. Our strategy has changed.”
She inclined her head and left to follow his orders. Eventually the many generals from the battalion stood in front of him.
“Your loyal general Zhi Zhujing has done as you asked, my lord,” the demon in white said.
Zhi Zhujing? He recognised that name as a spider-demon in fiction, one who appeared as a beautiful maiden. She definitely fit the prompt. Acknowledging her, he walked forward to address the group.
“The situation has changed,” he said with more confidence than he felt. “Hold the formation outside of Barren Abyss. Defend against the immortals but do not initiate an attack. Restrain them if necessary.”
“Why, my lord?” Zhi Zhujing asked. “Don't we want them dead? Why did you save Hengyang sect’s leader?”
This was a moment where he would find out if Susu's plan would work. He forced himself to be stoic, to put on his boss persona.
“The Tongbei Dao will reduce the world to chaos and you will all die,” he said.
Many of the demons looked very surprised at this news.
“There is another option. What if you could mix amongst the immortals and humans instead, free to wander and trade and live where you like?”
A murmur went through them. No one had asked them this before.
“Do you think this is possible, my lord?” a demon asked. She was wearing a long red dress, and standing away from the others.
“I do.”
“We are owed blood,” a humanoid male with red eyes and assassin-style robes shouted. “We should be killing the immortals, not working with them.”
Zhi Zhujing analysed Yuan Shuai. He knew that look; it was one of suspicion. “Has the vessel regained control? You don't sound like yourself.”
“You are not our master, vessel,” another demon echoed.
The qi was angry at the dissenters. Yuan Shuai could feel it, like its own presence. Although Susu had told him she suspected Tantai Jin of overcoming the Ancient devil god, he wondered if Chu Mo was still in the qi. Either way, he had to do something. He couldn’t allow this to get out of hand.
This was essentially a subordinate challenging a boss. What would he do at work? He laughed at the absurdity of the question, but it came out as a jaded laugh, frightening some of the demons. As he stepped forward, some struggled to hold their position. He could tell they wanted to run.
Removing a demon from their post or making their life uncomfortable were similar solutions to firing someone or intentionally being critical and overworking them, but neither were quick solutions. He wondered what would give quicker results. Making an example?
Yuan Shuai walked along the line of generals with a slow confident gait, approaching the assassin-like demon who challenged him. Wanting the devil to be terrified, he stopped in front of him, looking him up and down with an expression as intimidating as he could manage.
“It sounds like you have an opinion,” he said.
The demon did his best not to show his fear. “I just think we should…”
“Should what? Go on.”
The demon said nothing, clearly reluctant to express his opinion now that the Devil God was breathing down his neck. The qi seemed to be fuelling a perverse satisfaction at the demon's humiliation and Yuan Shuai didn't object.
“I said go on. Explain why you think it would be better to attack the immortals and let the Tongbei dao destroy the world.”
“We would have won, my lord, if you hadn’t called us back.”
Yuan Shuai tilted his head in challenge, chuckling at that blatant overestimation of their abilities. The demons startled, and he assumed laughing wasn’t really something the Devil God did.
“If you were doing so well,” he asked, “then why did I have to stop the Celestial Punishment Array myself?”
Zhi Zhujing looked alarmed at this and fell to her knees. “That was my fault, my lord. I did not anticipate their strength.”
Now what was he meant to do? Surely the Devil God wouldn't let such a thing go, would he? Yuan Shuai had no intention of killing anyone, so he'd have to find another way.
"And if you weren't needed, then I'd have killed you for your mistake," he said.
There, that sounds like something a Devil God would say. He hoped she would be relieved enough not to focus on the fact that he'd spared her.
Returning his focus to the demon, he continued his interrogation, needing to wrap this up quickly.
"You still haven't explained how dying is a better option than living freely."
"The Tongbei dao will kill everyone but us, my lord. The immortals will never let us live freely."
"Will it?" he asked, and he could see it planted the seeds of doubt. “Now, tell me, how many of you have lived among the immortals? How many of you understand how they think, how they live, how they fight?”
“My lord, it was only your vessel who knew this,” Zhi Zhujing said cautiously.
He turned slowly to face her, but she wasn't afraid.
“And now, so do I. Does anyone else here have knowledge of both demon and immortal customs?”
“My lord, I misspoke,” the assassin demon insisted. “You are the Devil God. We will follow you.”
Yuan Shuai turned to walk to the front of the group again. Hoping it wouldn’t take him over this time, he allowed the devil qi free reign to do what it intended. It forced the demons to their knees and they regarded him with fear. But although many of the generals were convinced, others were still hesitant. The demon in the red dress, however, seemed hopeful.
Susu, you had better hope this works.
“If any of you jeopardise these negotiations with the immortals, you won't be shown mercy. Do you understand?” he said in as cold a tone as he could muster, intending to play on their fear. He was met with silence.
Zhi Zhujing bowed. “We will follow your orders, my lord.”
He would have to watch this one - she was shrewd, and still unconvinced.
“Restrain the remaining immortals who attack, and tell the demon scholars to find out how to stop the Tongbei dao.”
He hoped that there were actually demon scholars.
“Consider it done,” she said.
As he dismissed the demons and turned to leave, the dark-haired woman in the red dress approached him.
“Do you really mean this?" she asked. "Will you negotiate peace with the immortals?”
Yuan Shuai knew he had already become far too ingrained in the affairs of this world. He couldn't promise her anything; that would be up to Tantai Jin when he returned. But she looked so hopeful that he hated to disappoint her.
“Yes," he said, and it was worth the small smile on her face.
“I know you have told me I may go my own way, my lord, but I will help you keep the others in line. I would like to support you in achieving peace.”
What should he say to that? Would the Devil God thank a subordinate? She seemed to genuinely support him. Could he trust a demon? This was getting so complicated. However, there was one thing she could do to help him.
“Then your first task is to keep an eye on Zhi Zhujing,” he said, his voice low.
The woman bowed. “Mo Nv will do as you ask, my lord.”
Finally Yuan Shuai was able to teleport a distance away. Once certain the demons couldn't see him, he let out a sigh of relief. That had almost gone completely south. And the qi, while it was optimistic that it hadn't taken him over again, he wondered about its influence on his emotion. Even if Tantai Jin had subdued Chu Mo, how did he deal with this qi day in and day out?
At least it was over; he had played his part. It was good to know that adapting his thinking from work had helped but then it also brought the question of just how easily he'd fallen into the role of ruler.
No.
He stopped the thought before it could take him down the rabbit hole. He wasn't ready.
Now, where is immortal Cen?
He didn't have to spend much time looking; the immortal was protected by his disciples, letting them do the lion's share of fighting. Yuan Shuai already did not like the man. Leaders should lead.
He appeared in front of Cen, intending to intimidate and startle the man. Surprise was key to putting your enemy off their game, even in finance. After his initial shock, and realising he wasn't going to get away, Cen began to fight in earnest.
His impression was that Cen was a rude, unpleasant man who thought more of himself than he should, and Yuan Shuai was used to dealing with those. Cen also seemed to hate him, which he could use in his favour. Arrogant and angry were a bad combination - they caused mistakes.
Cen attacked using an immortal technique and Yuan Shuai knocked it away with ease. Having successfully used the devil qi without any repercussions for a while, he felt a little less apprehensive about summoning it.
As expected, Chixiao sect disciples began to get between him and Cen. Four surrounded him and sent attacks at once. Conjuring a shield around himself, he expanded it outward, sending them flying backward. More disciples replaced them.
He called the qi into several pulses of energy like before and tossed them at the disciples, but none connected. Rethinking his strategy, he formed several pulses again, but with different intentions. Adjusting for movement, he threw them at the disciples. This time, three connected, and the qi expanded to become rope-like energy restraints. More disciples were targeting him. He had to find Cen.
Where is he?
Chief Cen was fleeing, the coward. Yuan Shuai appeared in front of him again. He imagined a barrier around them, preventing the disciples from getting in. The qi did as he asked and trapped Cen inside with him.
Am I getting better at this?
Now that he was less restrained by his disbelief and fear, Yuan Shuai found himself starting to enjoy the use of this power. He'd always wondered what it would feel like to be able to cultivate and use qi. But it was still a little terrifying to know how limitless it was.
Realising he wasn't going to escape, Cen took out his sword and began to use sword techniques.
Yuan Shuai materialised the sky slashing sword and parried as best he could for a novice. He knew he couldn't keep this up for long - he really didn't want another sword through the middle. Even though it didn't hurt him, it was an unsettling feeling to see oneself stabbed.
After defending a few times from Cen’s attacks, he began to observe Cen for a weakness.
“Cang Jiumin, you mock me. Fight you coward.”
How many names does Tantai Jin have?
Yuan Shuai knew that he wouldn’t be able to subdue Cen with his terrible sword skills; sheer power was where he had the advantage. However, he would have to play this smart to avoid hurting the immortal. He provoked Cen, who lunged at him, exactly as he wanted. Disappearing at the last moment, he reappeared behind the immortal, using qi to create restraints around him.
Cen tried to break them with no luck, shouting and screaming until he was redder in the face than before.
“How dare you!” he shouted.
But Yuan Shuai wasn't listening. He flicked his wrist, releasing the border around them. Grabbing Cen’s arm, he teleported to Susu’s location in the distance, not wanting to waste time. Cen shouted and complained and tried to use his qi without success. Yuan Shuai’s qi writhed with anger at his proximity to the man.
Cen, what did you do to Tantai Jin for this qi to hate you so much?
A glance revealed that the demons had done as he asked and subdued but not harmed the attacking immortals. All was well with that, then, at least for now. Yuan Shuai wasn’t naive enough to think that was the end of it.
As he approached Susu he reflected that the devil qi seemed to have settled a little more now, as though it recognised him. Once the situation was less dire, perhaps he could actually try learning some things.
He prodded Cen forward until he was near the other sect leaders and Susu nodded her acknowledgement. He could see that she was flustered, clearly in the middle of an argument. The other sect leaders stood around her.
All eyes were suddenly on him, regarding him with fear and apprehension. He tried to look as non-threatening as possible, but neutral, not knowing Tantai Jin's usual demeanour.
“Now you see that I'm telling the truth," Susu said.
“We see nothing yet,” the woman in purple argued. “Only that the devil god has caught us off guard.”
“I'm here to work together,” he said. “I don't want the world to end any more than you do.”
The leaders of all sects but Chixiao turned to face him.
“We have a shared goal,” Susu argued. “We want to stop the Tongbei dao. Tantai Jin wants peace.”
“Then why do all this?” the Hengyang sect disciple with second highest cultivation, Xun Hua, asked. “You have always wanted to end the world. Why should we trust your change of heart?”
“You shouldn't trust him!” Cen protested. “It's a ruse.”
Susu looked at Yuan Shuai pleadingly and he knew he was going to have to attempt to play the role. He thought back to everything she'd told him, trying to form the pieces into an explanation the sects would believe.
“I became the Devil God to stop the Tongbei dao, but as of now the only way to do this for me to die.”
Susu nodded in agreement. “I would have to ascend and kill him, which is why he's been acting this way - he was trying to make me cut my ties and ascend through the heartless dao. But there must be another solution.”
“If the Devil God is prepared to die, let him!” Liu Zheng Laozu, the leader of Penglai island, said. "Let Susu ascend and let's be rid of him forever."
“It won’t work anymore,” she said. “I won’t be able to break my attachments now that I know the truth behind his plan. And he is my husband, are you heartless?"
“See? She still defends him,” Cen said as he writhed against the restraints. “She cannot be trusted - she is the devil's consort!”
"Is this true, Susu? Did you lower yourself to marry the Devil God?" Xun Hua asked.
Anticipating Susu's explosive reaction, Yuan Shuai grasped her arm, holding her back from doing something she regretted.
"Susu, don't," he said.
Taking a moment to calm herself, Susu responded curtly. "Firstly, I married Tantai Jin, not the Devil God, and I did not lower myself to do it. As you saw in my memories, we were married before."
"How can you be so naive?" Chief Liu said. "Once Cang Jiumin became the Devil God, he ceased to exist."
Yuan Shuai was starting to get annoyed with these self-righteous immortals.
"Is that what happened?" he asked. "I guess you have all done this before, have you? If Chu Mo was in control, he would have killed you all rather than speak to you."
“He is telling the truth. Chu Mo has been subdued,” she said.
Cen Haoran began to laugh. “Absurd! Who could subdue Chu Mo?"
“Just because you would allow the ancient devil god to corrupt you does not mean everyone is so weak minded,” he said.
Susu shared a glance with him, holding in a smirk, and he knew she was thankful for his intervention.
“Tantai Jin has been preparing for this eventuality for some time," she said, "and so have I."
Zang Lin stepped forward, along with Zang Hai and Zang Feng.
“Cang Jiumin was one of the most promising and upright disciples Xiaoyao sect has ever seen. It is why it came as such a surprise that he was the devil fetus,” Zang Lin said. “We were distraught that he had decided to walk the path of the Devil God, but now that we hear his reasons, it is a wonder we didn’t guess them in the first place. Cang Jiumin, Tantai Jin, whichever name you prefer, Xiaoyao sect will work with you to find a way to stop the Tongbei dao.”
“Shangqing god realm may have an answer,” Wu Tao, the Shanhai alliance leader said. “We should be looking for this instead of fighting. If the Devil God wants to stop the Tongbei dao, then he will help us.”
The others turned to speak amongst themselves, considering this, and eventually came back with a decision. “We have chosen to trust you, for now.”
Susu nodded. “Xun Hua, I'll leave sect leader Gongye in your care.”
“We will heal him and he will face justice when he awakens.”
“You're all traitors!” shouted Cen. “Now you're going to work with him? He's corrupted you all.”
This didn’t sit well with the other leaders.
“You were the one who insisted we go to war, you and Chief Gongye. You insisted that Cang Jiumin had become the Devil God and would destroy everything. How do you explain his presence here, calmly speaking with us?” Xun Hua scolded.
“He's obviously deceiving you! Have you all lost your minds?”
“Why would he need to deceive you?” Susu asked. “He is already more powerful than all of us together. What would he have to gain?”
“No one can know how the Devil God thinks,” Cen argued.
“Do you ever get sick of hearing your own voice?” Yuan Shuai asked, his patience finally at the end of its thread.
Susu held in a snort and he smiled at her.
Cen's protests fell on deaf ears, but this didn't stop him. Yuan Shuai used qi to mute the man, so he couldn't interrupt them further.
“Now that I can hear myself think…” Yuan Shuai said. “As Susu said, we have a shared goal. We will cease fighting if you will.”
“A temporary alliance,” Xun Hua agreed. “As part of our agreement the Devil God agrees not to use the God Slaying Crossbow.”
God slaying crossbow - was that what the qi had been pushing him to use earlier? Either way he had no intention of trying it. The bow felt more ominous and bloodthirsty than the qi had been at its worst.
"Agreed," he said.
"Then you must cease from using punishment arrays,” Susu insisted.
A negotiation. This I know something about.
“The demon army must retreat."
The immortals must do the same,” he said, “and Cen must be…”
What would be era-appropriate wording right now?
“...confined and guarded.”
“Fine. But the devils must release the immortals.”
“I'll give the order. You must release any demons you've restrained as well.”
She sighed and it was obvious that the irony of her statement was not lost on her. “I'm afraid we have not been as kind as your army. We have not taken prisoners; we have killed any we've come across.”
He was annoyed on the demons’ behalf. Who would have thought it was the immortals who were more ruthless?
Li Susu and Yuan Shuai finished negotiations. After issuing orders to retreat from both sides, both were exhausted. Still, they pressed onward, keen to start looking for answers to Yuan Shuai’s jump into the past. So they headed to Shangqing God Realm in hopes of finding them.
After he got past the fact that there was a God Realm, Yuan Shuai took in the wilted unkempt landscape and wondered what had transpired there. How sad for it to look this way.
“Thank you for helping me contain this situation,” Susu said. “There were moments I could have thought you were Tantai Jin. You have the same strategic mind as he does, the mind of a ruler.”
He wasn't sure what to say to that. After everything that had transpired on the battlefield, he considered that actually being the executive director of MH did require some similar skills. He had surprised himself already with his ability to fall into that role. The fact that this could be his past life continued to hang over him and Yuan Shuai still wasn't wanting to face that just yet. No, he wanted to get back home where everything made sense.
“Now that we've de-escalated things,” he said, “Hopefully I can find a way home.”
“That’s why I brought you here. Shangqing God Realm has scrolls about arrays and techniques that immortals can’t access - it’s our best chance,” she said. “While we look for an explanation for you being here, we can also look for a way to stop the Tongbei dao.”
Susu always seemed to have the fire of determination in her eyes but now that he had time to properly observe her, he sensed some sadness. Up until now, he'd been focused on himself, on the terrifying possibility of being stuck in Tantai Jin's body for the remainder of his long life as a god, and never seeing Jiang Jun again. He hadn't considered Susu's fears might mirror his own.
“You must miss him,” he said.
She nodded with a sort of melancholy. “I think you are very like him, if he had been shown kindness and love from an early age, if life had not given him this burden. But this also makes it very obvious that you are not him either. I just hope that when he returns he will not continue down the route of self sacrifice. When he decides on a path it is difficult to dissuade him.”
A memory of telling Jiang Jun he would find her a job in a different industry pushed to the forefront of his mind. Then trying to force her to leave through various tactics of treating her harshly, convinced she would fail and it was his duty to protect her from herself. It had taken a lot to convince him otherwise. Was he as difficult to dissuade as Tantai Jin?
Yuan Shuai, are you actively comparing yourself to him now?
He shook away that thought, convinced that it was a consequence of being in such disconcerting and unexpected circumstances.
“Li Susu, if you are as stubborn as Jiang Jun, then he will have no choice but to change his mind,” Yuan Shuai said.
She smiled at him coyly. “You are wiser in the matters of the heart than Tantai Jin, I see.”
He cleared his throat uncomfortably.
“You must miss Jiang Jun too,” she continued.
It was true; he missed her so much his heart hurt. “Looking at you is like seeing her and not at the same time, but Jiang Jun is carefree and I can see that you bear the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“I think perhaps this is what I am noticing about you too, Yuan Shuai. You carry this carefree nature, and you are much more expressive.”
He considered that as they walked. He had only been subject to this life for a few hours, and already he felt its burden acutely. A lifetime of this - he could understand Tantai Jin.
They headed toward a large building in the distance, one that looked like a palace.
“This is Yuqing palace, Ming Ye’s home. He was the God of War. Perhaps we will find something here.”
That was awkward. He suddenly felt a bit embarrassed at his company moniker and wondered if he would be smited by the actual God of War for using it.
“What’s wrong?”
“God of War is my nickname at my company.”
“Company?”
He could see she didn't understand.
“My job. Where I work.”
Susu said nothing but he could see that she was considering that.
"Tantai Jin has a connection with Ming Ye too."
"I wouldn't call what I have a connection," he said. "I'm known as the God of War because of my ruthless reputation in the banking industry."
"Banking industry?" she said, and it sounded foreign on her tongue. "I have no idea what that means, but the ruthlessness, I can see. You share this with Tantai Jin."
Of course he did, what else was he expecting? If he could still get headaches as a god, Yuan Shuai expected he would have had one now.
They walked a little further in silence, appreciating the reprieve from the stress of the last few hours and the chance to properly talk.
“So how are you feeling?” she asked. “Is the qi still restless? Any sign of Chu Mo?”
“Nothing I can't handle,” he said. “There was a sign of something when the devils and demons acted up earlier - the qi was angry. But other than that…”
“If the Devil God was subdued, anything left of him would be in the qi. Did you lose control again?”
“No. I just let the qi do what it wanted and it made them all kneel.”
“Did any voice speak to you?”
“No. None.”
She nodded. “Then I expect that is the volatility of the qi, and not any remnant of Chu Mo. Tantai Jin really was pretending to make me ascend.”
Yuan Shuai let out a sharp breath. Pretending to be something he wasn't to push someone he cared about into the path he thought they should take? He knew more than a little about that. How long had he bullied Jiang Jun, thinking it would make her tough, stop her from crying? It had backfired on him spectacularly.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked him, seeming to notice his distress.
“It doesn't work.”
“What doesn’t work?”
“What Tantai Jin tried to do. It just makes the one you love hate you.”
“I expect he was prepared to live with that, or in his case, die with it. But you sound as though you have experience.”
They carried on walking down the grassy path under a dying tree.
“Jiang Jun is allergic to tears; crying can kill her. I wanted to protect her so I teased her and treated her unkindly to make her tough. One day it all went too far - unintentionally - and I never saw her again, not until recently. All those years, all I did was grow her hatred for me, while I loved her. When I saw her again, I fell back into old habits and sabotaged her chance to join my company. Before I awoke here, we had only just begun a relationship.”
Susu’s eyes narrowed and she regarded him with judgement. Truth be told, he’d expected her reaction.
“So you hurt her over and over even though you loved her?” she asked.
He said nothing, but nodded. It was something he wasn’t proud of. But Susu’s expression wasn’t one of disdain, it was one of recognition and sad reminiscence. He wondered what she wasn’t telling him.
His thoughts turned back to Jiang Jun, thinking of the ways he'd manipulated himself into her life after that moment she had shown up at MH. Even when trying to help her, he’d hurt her; all of it was for his own gain. The oddest part was that he wasn’t like this with anyone else. He'd always wondered what it was about Jiang Jun that made him so irrational.
“Tantai Jin did the same to me,” she said softly. "He hurt me over and over. But eventually we moved past it."
The pang of dread was back.
“Yuan Shuai, the more we talk, the more I am convinced that you and Jiang Jun are a future version of Tantai Jin and I.”
He said nothing, still unable to accept that theory, but also not entirely able to deny it. As much as he had been avoiding it, the more they spoke, the more he noticed it too.
“What would it mean if we were?” he asked.
“I don't know. Perhaps whatever you want it to mean. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a clean slate. To be born without these hardships in our memory and these expectations for our lives. We might have just been happy.”
He mulled that over. “Then you don't just think we are your future, you hope we are,” he said.
“In some ways, but if that’s true, then here you are back where you started. Would it really change anything?”
He turned her toward him and pulled her into a hug. “Li Susu, we will fix this, all of this. Don't give up.”
She leaned into the hug. He let her. Susu was so strong, it had to be hard to let herself show vulnerability like this. Tears began to pool in her eyes and he felt himself tensing up.
“Don't cry,” he said reflexively.
Soft laughter came from her as the tears tracked down her face. “It's okay,” she reassured, clearly perceiving what had him worried. “Crying won't hurt me.”
He let out a breath of relief.
That's right. She's not Jiang Jun. She's fine.
Pushing back the instinctive motion to pull her close and cover her eyes, he allowed her a moment to let it all out. Eventually she pulled away with an embarrassed laugh and dabbed the tears away.
“Thank you. Tantai Jin is not this naturally affectionate, though he had become more forthright with his feelings recently. The way you talk about Jiang Jun, you are so open. Is this how things are in the future?”
“Somewhat,” he admitted. “It is still a little taboo to kiss in a public place, and holding hands is something you only do when you really like someone.”
He grinned. “But I don't really care about societal norms.”
She laughed. “Neither does Tantai Jin.”
They had finally come upon Yuqing Palace, and headed inside, moving through the rooms. Yuan Shuai was amazed, his eyes taking in the intricate designs with fascination. To think the actual God of War had lived here; it was something he couldn’t have fathomed. And yet, just hours ago he couldn’t have fathomed being in the body of the devil god either.
The anxiety had calmed a little at seeing sights he’d only ever been exposed to via CGI. Realising Susu had gotten ahead of him, he moved more quickly, catching up with her. So far, they’d found no signs of any scroll, let alone one that could help them. Eventually they came to a locked door at the end of the hallway. Susu attempted to unlock it with her qi but it didn't work. He tried his qi without result either. Ironically the door unlocked as he placed a hand on it.
“A skin contact lock. Interesting,” she said. “But you are not Ming Ye.”
There seemed to be history behind the comment that he didn’t quite understand.
A thought seemed to occur to her. “Did Ming Ye know even then that we would be here? He was friends with Ji Ze.”
“Who is Ji Ze?”
She tsked. “The god of time. Don’t they teach you anything in the future?”
He rolled his eyes.
They entered the room which was dark and full of cobwebs. Susu used a technique to create a light overhead. In the soft glow they could see a couple hundred scrolls arranged by topic.
Yuan Shuai opened one up and found it was not only in traditional characters but also ancient Chinese.
“I might struggle a bit with these,” he admitted. “Where I'm from, the characters have been simplified. Although I often work with traditional hanzi, these are archaic as well - some meanings will have changed.”
“Hanzi?”
“That's what the characters are called back home.”
“By home do you mean Jing Kingdom?”
“Jing Kingdom?” he asked with shock. Just like that, he was blatantly reminded of where he was. “Am I that far back in time?”
Susu looked amused at his admission. She unfurled another scroll and held it up to the light, skimming it whilst carrying on their conversation.
“Far back? Yuan Shuai, in what era do you reside?”
“2020 CE,” he said.
“2020?” she said with surprise. “I have many questions to ask you. The future must be so different.”
“If this is the Jing era, then the answers to your questions might come as a shock.”
She appeared to consider that.
Yuan Shuai found himself overcome with curiosity. In his time, Jing Kingdom had been shrouded with an air of mystery - few things were known about it, least of all who had ruled.
“So who is the current emperor?”
“A descendant of the Tantai family, they say, but Tantai Jin had no children and his brother died. perhaps they found a cousin.”
“Tantai Jin was the emperor?”
“Yes, 500 years before the present time. Sheng Kingdom declared war upon Jing Kingdom when he ascended the throne and he won, annexing Sheng and uniting the kingdoms.”
Susu believed this had been Yuan Shuai’s past life. If she was right, if he had truly been Tantai Jin, then he had been the Emperor of Jing. It was a sobering thought.
“You said this is 500 years later. Does that mean he spent 500 years in the Nether River you mentioned earlier?”
“Yes,” she said. “Looking for me.”
Although the rational side of him rebelled at the obsessive nature of such an action, inwardly he thought he might have done the same for Jiang Jun.
“Ah! Found something!” Susu said in triumph.
It jolted him out of such dangerous thinking and he was grateful.
“Which something?” he asked, not daring to have hope yet.
“Nothing about the Tongbei dao yet, but I have found something that might help you.”
The seed of hope was planted. “What does it say?”
“It mentions a recycled soul swapping with its predecessor, and a way to communicate with each other.”
“Recycled?” he asked. “Predecessor?”
“Yes. It’ll only work if one soul is a reincarnated version of the other. It means we can test your theory about this being a swap rather than a jump in time.”
His thoughts were all over the place. Although optimistic, this was also a double-edged sword. If the array worked, it meant that there was a possibility of getting home again, but it would eliminate all denial of him being a future version of Tantai Jin.
He looked down at the elaborate red-black hanfu again, intending to count the stitches or something, but it didn't serve as the distraction he'd hoped. It was a blatant reminder.
“This is the first of two scrolls,” Susu said. “Help me look for the other one.”
It gave him something else to focus on, and for that he was grateful.
“You take this side, I'll take that one.”
Several hours later, they had looked through about a hundred scrolls. Their eyes were beginning to close together. Yet there were so many left to search.
“Let's try again tomorrow,” Susu said. “For now let's go to the Devil Palace and get some sleep.”
He nodded and held out his hand. She took it, and they appeared again in the floating Devil Palace.
“This place really needs some heat,” he complained as they appeared. “Can I use qi for that?”
“You’d have to erect a barrier to act as walls now that we are in the sky,” she mused, “or else it will escape.”
“Such a pain…” he said with a sigh.
“What are you worried about? You’ve just had the equivalent of several hours of intense training. You should be a lot more comfortable with doing this sort of thing.”
He sighed. “Not really. I’ve been able to do some simple things like pulses, shields, or restraints but I have no idea how to do anything complicated. Could you teach me?”
“I don’t know much about devil arrays, just immortal ones,” she admitted. “Even if I could train you to use the divine essence inside you in such a short period of time, it would likely clash with all the devil qi.”
“You've mentioned the divine essence before. What is it?”
“Tantai Jin was born with the evil bone, which is the container for yin qi. In the past, I cultivated a divine essence and exchanged it with the evil bone. This allowed Tantai Jin to become a disciple and train in the immortal arts.”
“So that's why it created that sense of calm inside me. I think at least I should know how to activate it.”
“Yes, that is a good point. If I am not nearby, you will need to know how to use it to keep your focus.”
“You also promised to teach me how to fly,” he reminded her.
“Tomorrow,” she said.
“I might be home tomorrow,” Yuan Shuai teased. “I want to try it once before I go home.”
She smiled. “You're still optimistic. That's good. I wondered how well you'd cope with all this, but you've surprised me. Now, shall we try out this communication array?"
He said nothing, but Susu seemed to be able to read him like a book.
“You've got that same stormy gaze as Tantai Jin,” she observed. “What are you thinking?”
“That I'm terrified.”
“Why? If it works, that means we should be able to get you home again.”
“Susu, what would happen if I was Tantai Jin?”
“I'm not sure I understand the question.”
“You saw it yourself. Cultivation, immortals, devils, gods - this isn't real where I've come from. But if it's true that this was my past life, then it couldn't have all disappeared, could it?”
“No, I expect it would just be more hidden.”
That was the problem really. If they were the same person, what would he discover when he returned? Would he have to be a part of all this again? He just wanted to go back to his life, as it had been before.
“Yuan Shuai?”
“It's nothing. Let's find the bedroom in this place.”
“I am not certain whether this palace has rooms, let alone bedchambers,” she admitted. “You may need to search it out with the qi.”
Before he could even form the thought, the miasma receded, revealing a hidden door to the left of the room. He didn't question it. They headed for the door and entered. It was a large bedchamber, with an extensive closet, a small mirror and vanity, and a bed larger than any Yuan Shuai had slept in, but still very old fashioned. And it was nice and warm.
“Susu,” he said with concern. “There is only one bed in here.”
“Yuan Shuai, do you think I will bite?”
“I'm not really your husband. We shouldn't sleep together.”
“I am just teasing you. We can figure it out after we try the array.”
The anxiety grew again at the mention of the array. He drew in a deep breath, trying to push it down.
“So, what do I need to do?”
She took out the scroll and they reviewed it together.
“We found this in the god realm, and you said that devil techniques are different from immortal ones. Will I be able to do this?”
“There’s no way to be sure. The scroll says there’s a higher chance of success if the person who has been swapped does the technique. But I can try it first if you like. It’ll help you learn the hand motions.”
Susu showed him each of the four motions separately, and he practised each one with her. Then they did the entire set of four together.
“Good, now I’ll try it with qi.”
Yuan Shuai couldn’t help but admire the grace and ease with which Susu moved through the hand motions. There was a beauty in her technique, like they were all part of an intricate dance. She reached the end and the qi formed a sort of viewing window, but fizzled out.
The sinking feeling was back at the thought that this might not work. The hope of finding a way home was what had given him strength while dealing with all this. And yet…a part of him wanted to continue living in ignorance.
Don’t be an idiot. What’s the other option? Live as Tantai Jin forever?
That made him feel even worse.
Forcing himself out of his spiralling thoughts, he positioned himself on the bed with the scroll in front of him. After practising the hand motions several times, he finally felt comfortable enough to try the technique in earnest.
“I think you’re ready,” Susu said. “This time, call the qi through your meridians as you move through these motions.”
Closing his eyes, he inhaled and cleared his mind.
First motion, thumbs and index fingers together, pointing down. The qi surged.
Second motion, hands flat at a neutral position, palms up. Another surge.
Third motion, thumb and forefinger in a circle whilst the rest point up, other hand similar, pointing down, heel of the palms meeting. A more powerful surge this time.
He opened his eyes for the final step. Thumbs crossed. Index and middle fingers crossed, others tucked away. Gently push forward. Let the qi flow.
The qi gently ebbed forward in a wave of red, gold and black, filling in what seemed like a rectangular window. It crackled for a moment and he tensed, expecting it to fizzle out, but it settled. His heart pounded as the couch in Jiang Jun’s apartment became visible.
It worked!
Both relief and dread flooded through him as he reluctantly accepted his fate.
It worked.
“Hello?” he called out.
He felt a knot forming in his gut as what should have been his face came into view. Up to this point, he and Susu had been making assumptions about Tantai Jin’s intentions, and about Chu Mo, but now they were about to find out the truth.
“Yuan Shuai,” Tantai Jin acknowledged. “You and I seem to be in a predicament.”
“That's one way of putting it,” he muttered.
“Who are you talking to?” a familiar voice sounded.
“Jiang Jun!” he called out, recognising the voice. “Jiang Jun, over here!”
She walked around the table looking very confused and Tantai Jin pulled her down onto the couch and pointed. Other than struggling with disbelief, she seemed to be fine. He felt a great deal of calm just from seeing her.
He could tell Susu was bursting to say something beside him, so he dared not interrupt.
“Tantai Jin!” she scolded. “I'd tell you I am going to kill you but that's what you want isn't it!”
He recognised both exasperation and relief on his own face.
“Susu, please. Is this really the time?” Tantai Jin asked.
“When is a good time then? Once you succeed? Once my husband is dead? Tell me, Tantai Jin, when is a good time?”
She is angry.
He winced, glad he wasn't on the receiving end of her wrath, and chose to say nothing, knowing she needed this.
“When this is reversed, we are going to talk. For now, Yuan Shuai is helping me find a solution to the Tongbei dao that doesn't involve you dying.”
Jiang Jun was too quiet, and it was obvious that she was still processing all this. It was expected that she’d find this harder to accept; Yuan Shuai had been thrown straight into the depths of it and even he had found it difficult to accept.
“Tantai Jin?” Jiang Jun finally said, pointing at Yuan Shuai’s body. “That's what you said before. You weren't delusional.”
“I told you so,” he said smugly.
She let out a shaky breath. “Then Yuan Shuai is…”
“I'm here, Jiang Jun,” he said and waved.
Her face came closer as she leaned in, scrutinising his appearance.
“Why do you look like that? Actually long hair and hanfu really suits you,” she said with a blush. “And the huadian too, but the red eyes take some getting used to.”
The compliment made him feel warm inside, even if technically it was Tantai Jin's appearance she was referring to. But what did she mean by red eyes, and a huadian? He hadn't thought his appearance would change much when leaving the Bo’re Life but it seemed he'd been mistaken. Fighting back the urge to go and look in the mirror, he readied himself to explain the situation.
“I look like this because Tantai Jin is the Devil God,” he said. “So…I'm the Devil God right now.”
“Am I having a fever dream?” she said.
“I asked myself the same question, but it's hard to deny this is real when I can do this…”
Yuan Shuai held out his hand and a black and red energy swirled around above it for a moment. He motioned to his left.
“This is Li Susu. She's an immortal. They're married.”
Susu waved and smiled. He could see Jiang Jun analysing her. Tantai Jin's steely gaze rested on him and he wondered what he had done to provoke it.
“You went ahead with the wedding?” Tantai Jin said, his voice sharp.
“You didn't give us much choice,” Susu snapped.
Yuan Shuai opened his mouth to defend himself but Jiang Jun cut him off.
“There was a wedding? Did you just marry Li Susu?”
I knew this was going to come up. Yuan Shuai glared at Susu and she glared back.
“Jiang Jun,” Susu said carefully. “It was just so the demons don't realise Tantai Jin has been replaced. Technically it is still Tantai Jin who I married, but we also didn't say the final part of the vows. Yuan Shuai is still intact.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
Li Susu’s explanation seemed to mellow Jiang Jun a little, as well as calming down Tantai Jin.
“Does that mean you want to marry me?” Yuan Shuai asked with a smug grin.
“You are so sure of yourself! Why do you want to move so fast?” Jiang Jun tsked at him.
“Fast? You’re the one who grabbed me by the tie and pulled me into your bedroom last night!”
Jiang Jun’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened, shocked to be having such a conversation with an audience. “You didn’t complain!” she said with a glare.
He laughed. God, he loved this woman. It was so good to talk to her, to know there was a possibility to get back to her again.
“Why would I complain?” he said wryly.
“You’re impossible,” Jiang Jun muttered.
Yuan Shuai was suddenly aware of Li Susu and Tantai Jin observing their banter with amusement, sending wistful glances at each other. He was reminded of Susu’s desire for the two of them to live a more carefree life, and it made him feel a little somber. He hoped he could help her and Tantai Jin through this horrible situation.
“There is something that’s bothering me,” Jiang Jun said. “I can’t help but notice that, Susu, you look like me, and Tantai Jin looks like Yuan Shuai.”
He should have known Jiang Jun would bring that up. She was observant and had good instincts, that’s why she held her own at MH, after all.
"Well-" Susu began.
He panicked and cut her off. "We haven't really figured out why yet."
Susu shot him an unimpressed look and he sent her a firm stare in warning. He didn't want to overwhelm Jiang Jun with too much, not when she was just getting used to the situation. But he could see she suspected he wasn't telling the whole truth because she folded her arms and made a face at him.
“Don't lie to me Yuan Shuai. I can see you know more than you're telling.”
Normally he’d have goaded her but her persistence was currently not something he wanted to encourage.
“I’ll make you tell me eventually,” she said.
“One thing at a time - let's just figure out how to switch us back first.”
“This isn’t like you," she observed. "What are you afraid of?”
“Jiang Jun, don’t argue about this.”
Her expression softened with concern and he wondered if she was picking up on the worry in his body language.
“I'll drop it - for now. Where are you, exactly?”
“The past - Jing era.”
“Jing era?”
She glanced at Tantai Jin, who was looking at a ceramic figure that rested on the shelf with a sort of smug innocence. Folding her arms and scrunching up her face, she tsked, and Yuan Shuai wondered what had happened between them.
“Jiang Jun, I'm not sure how long it will take to fix this. I need you to call work.”
“Already done,” she said. “Mr Fan said to make sure you rest, he's handed over your projects already.”
A relief flooded through him and he realised he’d been worried about his life back home more than he’d thought.
“I couldn’t let you go to work thinking you were someone else,” she said with a subtle smile.
“Do you have any clues how to reverse this?” asked Tantai Jin from the sofa. “This is not a good time for me to be here.”
“If you hadn't taken it upon yourself to play this role to deceive me, we wouldn't be in this situation,” Susu said
This irritated Tantai Jin greatly. His jaw set and eyes narrowed.
“You accuse me as though I had a choice,” he said. “The Tongbei dao was already active, already fueled by the Devil God’s qi. Master Zhao You said the Tongbei dao lives and dies with the Devil God, that the disciple of the immortal sects, Cang Jiumin, was powerless to save the world, but Devil God Tantai Jin could. Of course I didn’t want to take this path, but it was the only one I could take. So I became the Devil God.”
“Uncle told you to do this?” she said in shock. “But then why did you kill him?”
Tantai Jin closed his eyes and took in a breath as though remembering all this was painful for him. Then again, it must have been, if Zhao You was the one who had trained him. Yuan Shuai found himself as curious as Susu.
Opening his eyes, Tantai Jin continued. “He was hit directly by the power from the Tongbei dao when he was fighting Di Mian. By the time I ran into him, it was causing him to devilise. He asked me to end his life, so he could die with dignity.”
“But uncle was in Barren Abyss. Senior brother saw-”
“-what I wanted him to see,” Tantai Jin explained. “I used his death to convince the sects that I was their enemy, to convince you. But you were too attached, Susu.”
“I am attached because you are my husband, you fool,” she said. “And I'm furious uncle sent you down this path.”
“None of it matters now,” he said with resignation. “My plan is useless and if the Tongbei dao isn't stopped, the world will end.”
“Don't be so pessimistic. The immortals and devils are working together now. We will find a solution.”
He sat back against the couch with a sigh. “You have unravelled everything, Yuan Shuai.”
Tantai Jin’s accusation wound him up. After everything he'd done, everything he'd been through today, it was the last straw.
“Me? Why is this my fault? I didn't ask to be you.”
“Don’t blame Yuan Shuai,” Susu said. “He’s been helping me look for a solution even while adjusting to all of this. I’m the one who unravelled your plan.”
“So you’re there, trying to stop the end of the world,” Jiang Jun said quietly. “Be careful, Yuan Shuai, and stay safe.”
“Don't worry,” he said. “I am pretty invincible at the moment.”
“He is,” Tantai Jin agreed. “There's a reason I had to create this plan to try to stop the Tongbei dao. The Devil God can only be killed by a god or goddess, and as of now, there are none of those around.”
“So, what now?” Jiang Jun asked. “How do we switch you back?”
Susu chimed in. “We found this scroll about the exchanging of souls. It told us how to contact you. But it's only the first of two.”
Tantai Jin leaned in. “Where did you find the scroll?”
“Yuqing Palace.”
“I wonder if the second scroll would be in my palace.”
Jiang Jun looked at him with surprise. “You have a palace too?”
“I have two,” he said with a wry smile.
She folded her arms and tried to look unimpressed.
“Jing palace isn't yours anymore,” Susu corrected and Tantai Jin frowned.
Yuan Shuai knew she was being intentionally disagreeable, and tried to diffuse the situation.
“He has a palace. We're in it,” he said. He stood up and flicked his hand casually, and the window followed him over to the door which overlooked the throne room.
“Are you…in the sky?”
“Yeah, I had to raise the palace today. Susu wanted a better vantage point.”
“Okay, I am a little impressed,” she said. “But Yuan Shuai, how is it that you are so confident with that power?”
He pulled the viewing portal back with him to his place on the bed and sat down.
“I didn't have much of a choice,” he said, folding his arms with discomfort. “I don’t want to lose control again.”
Just like that, Tantai Jin was alert, his piercing gaze resting on Yuan Shuai. “Lose control?” he asked.
Susu elbowed him.
“What?” he said. “Was I not supposed to tell him?”
“What happened?”
“The qi…took me over. Susu had to give me some of her qi to calm it. But I have been fine since.”
“Tantai Jin, is the ancient devil god still alive?” Susu asked cautiously.
“In a way.”
Yuan Shuai did not like the sound of that. Would he have to face the ancient devil god in a battle of wills?
“It is not the time for you to be cryptic,” Susu said sharply. “If Chu Mo is still a threat, we need to be prepared.”
“Not in the way you think,” he said. “He's a part of me now.”
“Part of you? Is he in the qi? Will Yuan Shuai have to subdue him?”
Tantai Jin seemed to genuinely be considering it.
“It’s not a simple question. Chu Mo was made of his memories and his qi. I have all of his memories, but Yuan Shuai is the one with his qi now.”
“You have all of Chu Mo’s memories?” Susu asked in horror.
If the pained expression was any indication, this was something Tantai Jin hadn't wanted to share.
“Yes. How do you think I knew which actions and words would hurt you most? I remember everything that happened in that first timeline."
Yuan Shuai saw the moment Susu began to fall apart at that revelation and he grasped her hand, holding it tightly.
"It's okay, Susu," he said. "Let it out."
He could see both Jiang Jun and Tantai Jin tense at this but didn't care. After such a horrible revelation, Susu needed comfort, and he was the only person nearby.
Tears tracked down her face and he could see her body jolt as she held in a sob. He resisted the urge to hold her like he would have done for Jiang Jun, not wanting to push the boundaries further than he already had.
A quick glance at Tantai Jin revealed an expression of misery and he knew the man felt distraught at being the cause of her breakdown.
So would I.
Eventually she composed herself enough to continue talking.
"Susu, I'm sorry," Tantai Jin said softly. "I never wanted this. It pained me to say those things to you."
"I understand," she said, "but it is too soon for me to forgive you."
He sat back, looking quite forlorn, but said nothing further.
“Don't worry about Chu Mo,” Yuan Shuai said. “If part of him is in the qi, I'll be ready.”
“Yuan Shuai,” Tantai Jin said. "That power is volatile. You will need to mind your negative emotions or it will feed on them and spiral out of control.”
“I gathered,” he said. “Susu said it feeds on suffering as well."
"Suffering?" Jiang Jun said. "That is really dark, Yuan Shuai."
"I'm the Devil God right now," he said dryly. "What do you expect?"
He turned his attention back to Tantai Jin. "I only know how to use your power on instinct. I don't want to give the qi an opportunity to get out of hand and I may need to do more complex things while I'm here. How can I learn more about demon techniques?"
Tantai Jin leaned in thoughtfully.
"I should have anticipated this question. I have all the knowledge here with me.
There should be more information in the palace library on demon techniques if you want to study them, but yin qi is different from yang qi. Disciples require years of learning and practice to access yang qi and master its techniques. Yin qi is easier to access and use but harder to control due to its turbulent nature. So instinct is fine; it is your mental state that you need to train. Let the qi guide you, but don't allow it free reign.”
Yuan Shuai listened raptly, taking that in. It was a relief to finally get some insight on the current power he possessed from the person who knew it better than anyone.
"There will be some things you'll have to learn, however. Susu can help guide you."
Jiang Jun was looking at him with worry in her eyes.
“Will that power hurt him?” she asked.
“Not if he does as I say."
Yuan Shuai nodded. “I hope you're right.”
Susu finally spoke after contemplating all that. “We should check the library in the devil palace before it gets too late.”
“I was barely awake when we finished looking at the last hundred scrolls,” he said. “Let’s get some rest and start fresh in the morning. It’s already been an exhausting day.”
“You are probably right,” she agreed. “But I am anxious.”
“Did you say day?” Jiang Jun asked. “But it’s been a few days here.”
“I wonder if the Tongbei dao is distorting time,” Susu said.
“It is capable of that,” Tantai Jin said. “But as it grows in power, the progression of time could become more misaligned. We should speak regularly.”
“I can’t get used to you having Chu Mo’s knowledge,” Susu said.
“I hadn’t ever intended for you to know,” he said sadly.
“You had better not keep anything else from me, Tantai Jin, or I may pull you back through time by pure will.”
“Susu,” Yuan Shuai said. “Has anyone ever told you you’re terrifying?”
Tantai Jin began to laugh. “So is Jiang Jun,” he said. “If you didn’t call just now, she was planning to personally escort me to a mind doctor tomorrow.”
“That’s not fair,” she argued. “How should I know you were telling the truth?”
“Because I told you?”
“It’s your fault you know.” She grabbed the pillow and his eyes widened and he ducked to avoid its trajectory.
“Why is this my fault?”
“You should have been more convincing.”
Yuan Shuai wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't like it. Seeing Tantai Jin bantering with Jiang Jun like this caused a pang of jealousy in his heart.
And yet, that was just silly wasn't it? Of course Tantai Jin reacted to Jiang Jun the same way as Yuan Shuai did. Of course he bantered and held things over her when he was right, just like Yuan Shuai, because as he had just confirmed, they were different versions of one person.
Susu noticed his discomfort and put a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly all attention was on them. He noticed the signs of jealousy in his own face as Tantai Jin glared at him.
“Yuan Shuai,” he said. “I only see one bed in that room. I don't care if you have my body, you better not be staying in the same bed as my wife.”
There was concern on Jiang Jun’s face too.
“That’s why you insisted you should sleep on the sofa,” she said to herself, as though something had clicked.
Susu folded her arms and scowled at him. “You have more pressing matters to worry about, Tantai Jin. Least of which is whether I will lie with you again.”
Yuan Shuai and Jiang Jun shared a pitying glance before focusing on Tantai Jin, who somehow managed to look like a kicked puppy.
“We should go and get some sleep, but we will contact you when we have news.”
“Contact us even if you don’t have news,” Jiang Jun said. “We should keep an eye on the time difference.”
“We will.” Li Susu nodded in Tantai Jin's direction. “Jiang Jun, take care of him for me. I am furious but I’d like him back in one piece.”
Jiang Jun nodded. “I will take care of him. Take care of Yuan Shuai too, and let us know if there is anything we can do from this end to help. ”
Li Susu smiled and so did Jiang Jun.
“Tantai Jin,” Yuan Shuai called out. “Don't let Jiang Jun cry.”
Jiang Jun glared. “Stop it!”
He ignored her. “She's allergic to tears, she could die if she cries.”
Tantai Jin immediately became concerned. “How can I stop someone's tears?” he asked genuinely.
“Cover her eyes. Sometimes you won't be able to do anything, but if she gets a rash or starts scratching her arms, bring her to the hospital. It’s where our healers are.”
“I will be fine,” she said crossly. “Yuan Shuai, stop babying me.”
“I’m not there, and I can’t let anything happen to you,” he said. “For once, don’t be stubborn.”
She tsked, looking at Tantai Jin. “Don’t worry - he just thinks I’m helpless. I’m fine.”
“Tantai Jin,” he said. “Another thing - don’t trust Du Lei, and don't let him near Jiang Jun.”
Tantai Jin smirked and looked at Jiang Jun with amusement. She wasn't so amused.
“I thought you had to go,” she complained.
“Oh so now you want to get rid of me.”
She huffed. “Maybe. Li Susu can keep you if this is how you're going to be.”
He laughed and made a heart shape with his thumb and index finger. She smiled and did the same. They said their goodbyes and he closed the portal.
“What was that?” Susu asked.
“It's a heart. See?”
Susu pouted. “You two are adorable. I'm jealous.”
He grinned.
“But why didn’t you tell her...?”
“Tell her what?”
“Yuan Shuai, you know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said. “Are you really not going to tell her that you and her are our future selves?”
“I haven’t even made peace with that yet and you want me to tell Jiang Jun? Already she struggled to believe it was Tantai Jin in my body instead of me. I don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“Overwhelm her?” she huffed. “Why do you get to make that decision? You underestimate her; you want to solve everything yourself.”
“You don’t even know her,” he argued.
“Know her? I am her,” she said.
“Not yet you aren’t.”
She pushed herself off the bed with an angry bounce and turned to face him. “You are no different from Tantai Jin, but that makes sense now, doesn’t it?”
He stood too. “Don’t take your anger for him out on me! I didn’t do this.”
Her laugh was bitter. “Yes you did, you both did.”
“Even if that's true, then I can't remember,” he snapped, the qi rising with his anger. “Have it out with him.”
“I understand now,” Susu said. “You are still in denial. Regardless, I can’t stand here and watch you make the same mistakes again.”
The qi was churning within him, wanting to burst outward. Tantai Jin had told him to mind his emotions, and what had he done - had a full on argument with Li Susu. He leaned against the bed, trying to push down the power threatening to spill out of him, and cried out in pain as it resisted his attempts to hold it back.
Susu recognised that something was wrong and moved toward him but he didn’t have time. He pushed past her and out into the throne room. Sitting on the throne, he closed his eyes to meditate, letting the qi release in a controlled manner. It pulsed around him in several streams, expanding around the room and activating the miasma. He felt a hand grasp his and Susu's subtle calming energy entered his body. After some time, the qi finally dissipated.
“I am sorry, Yuan Shuai,” Susu said. “You have been handling this so well that I forget you are not used to this power.”
“I will tell her,” he said quietly.
She leaned down to listen.
“I will tell Jiang Jun,” he repeated, “just not yet. I don’t want to lose her. I couldn’t bear that. You can understand, can’t you?”
“I can, but you must consider that these are your own fears. She may not react poorly like you think."
It was true, but he couldn't bring himself to think on it, not right now. From the moment Yuan Shuai had arrived in the past, he'd swallowed back his fear and apprehension and done whatever was required of him. But now, at the closure of that terribly long day, he was exhausted, and the cracks were starting to show.
"For what it's worth, I shouldn’t have said those things, Yuan Shuai. Your Susu has resolved these with you already. I must be patient and wait for my own Tantai Jin. I’m sorry.”
He acknowledged that with a nod, unable to say anything further.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
“Beds,” he said, “Or Tantai Jin will find a way back just to kill me, and then neither of us will exist.”
“Tantai Jin will eventually realise there is no point being jealous of himself,” she said wryly. “But you had better hope he doesn’t figure this out before you tell Jiang Jun, or she might not forgive you.”
“That’s a problem for tomorrow’s Yuan Shuai,” he muttered, and they headed to settle in for the night.
Chapter 3
Notes:
Hello everyone. I'm back! Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Just a couple of notes:
1) I have done my best to research temples (and religion) in China but I'm certain there is a lot of inaccuracy. Feel free to correct me and I'll do my best to tweak it. I do need temples (and patron gods) for the plot, so please keep this in mind if you do make suggestions.
2) For the purpose of this story only:
- cultivators come from an ancient form of daoism where one can ascend, and they believe in the ancient gods. This is believed to be non-existant in Yuan Shuai's time.
- modern daoism is an offshoot of an old form of daoism which believes one should be content with what one has, and that cultivation is against the balance of the world.3) Localisation
I didn't want this to sound British or American so I did my best to localise apps and phrases to ones that would be native to China.
Here are a few you might notice.
Baidu Baike - Wikipedia
Baidu Maps - Google Maps
"Finding a needle in the ocean" - "Finding a needle in a haystack"
"Common speech" (Putonghua) - Mandarin
I think there are more but I'll list them if I remember.Last but not least, I love reviews so please feel free to comment.
Chapter Text
Things had gotten a little better after Yuan Shuai and Susu had called them. Finally Jiang Jun had believed Tantai Jin. She had many questions but then so did he. Maybe they could finally have a productive conversation now.
She laid a teapot on the table and poured them both a cup, and he knew they were unlikely to be going to sleep anytime soon despite the late hour. At first she said nothing, and he wondered how long they were going to sit in silence. Then her eyes met his and he could sense her guilt.
“So,” she said, her fingers tapping out a nervous rhythm against the cup, “you really are Tantai Jin. I can hardly believe it.”
He said nothing, letting her process the situation.
“I feel terrible,” she admitted.
“You should,” he said, and knew he was being a little vindictive. In principle, he understood why she hadn’t believed him, but her treatment of him over the past few days still stung.
With wide eyes and her mouth agape, she still managed to seem annoyed.
“I’m trying to apologise,” she said. “Why are you being like this?”
“It hasn’t been an easy time for me.”
There was no point in lying.
“I know.” She swirled her tea in misery. “Li Susu took such good care of Yuan Shuai but you had to adapt to everything without any help.”
He sipped the hot clear liquid, choosing to say nothing. She looked at him with distress, as though she expected him to reassure her.
“What do you want me to say? It's true. I did have to adapt by myself.”
“You really are cold, aren't you?” she snapped.
“Is there a point in lying to make you feel better?”
She muttered something to herself with a sigh. “You and Yuan Shuai both speak the unfiltered truth,” she said. “Sometimes people want a little reassurance.”
He laid the teacup down. Truthfully, he had punished her enough for the moment. It was more important that they figured out what to do next.
“Jiang Jun, as annoyed as I am, in this kind of future where qi is dormant and none of the immortals, gods or demons seem to exist, I can see why you were sceptical.”
Leaning in, he gently took her hand into his, and attempted to offer the reassurance she requested.
“You believe me now.”
It was meant to be comforting but her eyes were full of conflict as she looked at him. Of course. He had reacted like she was Susu, unintentionally crossing a boundary. Gently she pulled her hand away and he could see the sadness in her gaze. He wondered if she was thinking of Yuan Shuai again.
“So you really were the Emperor of Jing?” she asked.
He nodded.
“What you said about growing up on scraps - I laughed at you. Were you really treated so poorly?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “But Susu helped me to leave that life behind.”
Jiang Jun brought the tea up to her mouth and sipped, her long fuzzy sleeves nearly covering her hands. He found himself envisioning Susu in her place.
“Let’s start again,” she said. “Anything you want to know, just ask me.”
“There are many things I want to know,” he said.
“Start anywhere.”
“Fine, what do I need to know to convince people I am Yuan Shuai?”
“That’s…a lot to start with,” she said.
“You said he works at MH. What is MH?”
“It’s an investment bank.”
“Which is?”
“Tantai Jin,” she said with a cautious smile, “everything about Yuan Shuai’s job is very technical, and for the moment you won’t need to know much about it - as far as anyone knows, he is ill. If something comes up, I can tell you what you need to know as you need to know it. Otherwise you may get overwhelmed quickly.”
“Fine,” he said. “Then where is America? You said Yuan Shuai’s parents were currently staying there.”
She typed into her phone and turned it round, showing him a map. He pulled it closer.
“Is this how the world looks now?”
“Yes.”
“Are these divisions all kingdoms and empires?”
“No, there are countries now. We’re in China. North America is this continent, but they have a lot of countries. Yuan Shuai’s parents are in the United States, over here.”
Countries? That was fascinating. He wanted to learn more. How were they ruled? How did they keep order? What was trade like?
The future was full of things he wanted to explore and learn about, but he had to keep his focus on the thing that mattered - getting back home so he could stop the Tongbei dao. Before he could think further on this, Jiang Jun interrupted.
“I have a question,” she said. He could see that she hesitated.
“Go on.”
“When you find a way back, will you still have to die to stop the Tongbei dao?”
He wondered if she had read his mind. But out of all the things she had to ask, that was the worst.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “On my first day here, I would have told you yes. But now that Susu knows everything, that plan is no longer viable.”
“You sound annoyed about it. Do you really want it to work?” she asked.
He looked at her properly, how her eyebrow was raised, her lip turned up with disbelief. Her arms were folded stubbornly and defiantly. At that moment she was as Susu as Susu herself.
“What kind of a question is that?” he asked, annoyed she would even suggest it as his preferred solution. “I wished there was another way - I would have taken any other choice. I convinced myself that a moment of happiness was enough for us, and that preventing the future she showed me would be the best I could offer.”
“What happened in the future she showed you?”
He paused, taking a moment to compose himself. Why was he opening up to Jiang Jun so easily anyway? Was it because she resembled Li Susu?
“I became the Devil God and killed everyone. I nearly succeeded in bringing the world back to chaos.”
“Like the book then,” she said, but more to herself than to him.
“Yes, like the book, ” he snapped.
To think his life was public knowledge, but as a story in a book to entertain people…he felt a little exposed, and definitely cross about it.
“As you know, things haven't been easy for Susu and I,” he continued. “I just assumed…”
“Assumed…?”
“That I didn’t deserve to be happy.”
“Everyone deserves to be happy.”
He looked away, uncomfortable with facing that particular truth.
“I don’t want to die, but I have to stop the Tongbei dao. I’m the only one who can.”
He hadn’t spoken to anyone about this; it was cathartic to say the words aloud.
Jiang Jun’s eyes softened and she moved around the table to pull him into a hug. He stiffened, not expecting it, but she just hugged him harder. Finally he relaxed into embrace, accepting the comfort.
Why hadn’t he done this more with Susu? It felt good to share his burden, to be comforted by someone’s embrace, and they’d had so little time to truly experience life together like this before everything descended into hell.
“Maybe you don’t have to die,” Jiang Jun said as she pulled away. “It sounds like Li Susu and Yuan Shuai are working on this. There must be something we can do from our end to help.”
It was a good thought, and it made him feel less helpless.
“The device you call a laptop,” he said. “You seem to be able to find a lot of information on it. Can you show me how to use it?”
She nodded. “I’ll show you tomorrow - we’ll need a little time.”
He agreed with that. This future was so foreign, and not having seen anything like most of these devices, even given how fast he learned, he would need to take his time and understand.
“Will you be home tomorrow?”
“Yes, I don’t work on Saturdays and Sundays - usually,” she said. “So we can put our heads together and come up with some leads.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, contemplating that. Tantai Jin poured another cup of tea from the pot for them both and she smiled in thanks.
“So is there anything else you wanted to ask?” she wondered. “Anything you were curious about?”
“Since you asked, I would like to go to the supermarket again.”
She looked at him incredulously before giggling to herself. “Why?”
“Because you wouldn’t let me look at anything last time. There is food there I’ve never seen.”
“Okay,” she said. “We will need to go again this week anyway.”
“I’m also curious to know, what is this thing?” He pointed to the TV.
“That is a TV. We can see the news on it - that’s what’s happening in the world right now - or we can use it to watch stories. They are filmed by actors, like a play but you’re not there in person.”
“Does it run on qi?” he asked.
“No, it runs on electricity. It’s science, not qi.”
“And the phone?”
“Also science.”
It was starting to become clear that this future had embraced science over spirituality.
“How does qi work?” Jiang Jun asked with curious eyes.
“I thought it wasn’t real,” he teased.
She pouted. “That's not fair.”
He laughed. “Qi flows through the body from the heart through meridians. Someone with an immortal bone has the potential to become immortal if they cultivate.”
She seemed fascinated, leaning on her hands and listening. “This is xianxia stuff,” she said.
“You said that word before. What do you mean by it?”
She pulled out her phone and typed on it again, turning it around to play something she called a video. In it he saw two immortals with high cultivation fighting each other.
So there are immortals here.
He took the phone from her hands and continued to watch raptly.
“Who are they? Can they help us?” he asked with renewed hope.
“It’s not real. It’s fiction. They are just actors, and all this is done by computer magic.”
“Magic?”
“Wrong choice of word,” she said. “Not really magic - technology.”
Just like that, the hope was gone, ripped away from him. Everything he knew was fiction. His life was depicted in festivals and stories. He laid the phone down and slid it across the table to her.
“We aren’t fiction,” he said tersely. “Just because you all forgot it…”
“We obviously didn’t forget, we just stopped believing,” she said softly. “But if qi exists, why can’t we use it?”
Truthfully he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, but he could never resist such a pleading look from Susu.
“If this is our future, then you should be able to.”
Jiang Jun’s face morphed into one of both concern and determination and he wondered what he’d said to elicit such a look.
“Can we be certain that this is your future?”
“No, nothing is certain, at least right now.”
He knew she was fishing for answers.
“Yuan Shuai wouldn’t answer me when I asked why you and Susu resemble us, and with him talking about the past and you referring to this as the future…”
She sat back and folded her arms, deep in thought.
“Tantai Jin, are past lives real?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation. “But speak plainly. What are you really asking?”
“Was Yuan Shuai you? Was I Li Susu?”
It was a good question. Unfortunately he didn’t have an answer. He sighed.
“That is a difficult question,” he admitted. “I'm confident that we are different versions of the same people, but this doesn't mean you are necessarily our future selves.”
“How could we be different versions of you both but not be your future selves?”
“It is possible that you and Yuan Shuai are Susu and I in another timeline where cultivation does not exist.”
“You seem to know a lot about this,” she said.
“It’s…Chu Mo’s knowledge,” he said hesitantly, not wanting to alarm her.
“He's not going to come back, is he?”
Tantai Jin wasn't sure if he should answer that truthfully. Jiang Jun didn't have all the history, or memories, that Li Susu did with the first devil god, so she might not react poorly like Susu, but it was impossible to know.
“Are you worried?” he asked.
“I'd rather the world not end,” she said idly. “Also I hear he's a bit of a bastard.”
He nearly choked on air at her nonchalance and glanced at her incredulously.
“I was.”
“Why are you saying I ?”
“It's refreshing to talk to someone who has no background in any of this,” he admitted.
“Are you going to answer me?” she snapped.
He thought he ought not to provoke her too much. “When I absorbed Chu Mo into me I thought I had destroyed him, but by being the one in control when we joined, I forced him to experience the love I had grown for Susu and the world. We became one being, led by my new desires and hopes as Tantai Jin.”
She narrowed her eyes and he wondered if she would respond the same as Susu. He decided to continue, hoping to reassure her.
“I still remember being that god who Susu returned to the past to kill. I remember killing her sect and her father. But then I only knew rage, vindication and revenge, because that was all I knew as a human. Now I feel a kind of melancholy remembering that timeline.
Susu thought she had succeeded by preventing me from becoming the Devil God, changing my fate, but that was never the case. This was always my destiny. She just changed the kind of god I became.”
“So what you're saying is that Chu Mo can't come back because he's already back. Because he's already a part of you.”
“Yes.”
“Because you were just a part of him to begin with,” she said as if trying to process. “And you mellowed him out so he's not a big bad anymore.”
Tantai Jin snorted. “That is an oversimplification but yes.”
“It's my job to cut through the exposition to find the important parts. I just have two questions. Are you going to end the world?”
“No,” he said. “It was Chu Mo who opened the Tongbei dao before we joined. And I regret that now.”
“Good. My second question is are you a danger to me?”
“Never.”
“Then we're good,” she said with a smile, and sipped her tea.
He blinked with surprise.
“What? Did you want me to hate you? Slap you? I can do that if you prefer,” she teased. “But you've been here for a few days now and haven't done anything I'm worried about, so I'm inclined to trust you.”
Aside from her being a version of Susu, he was starting to realise why Yuan Shuai loved this woman so much. Would Susu react the same as her? With how she'd reacted to the news that he had Chu Mo's memories, he thought not. But Jiang Jun was a blank slate, she could love him as he was, with none of this history behind them.
Again he was tempted to just stay here.
Yuan Shuai would kill me.
He knew it was true. Yuan Shuai was another version of him, after all, and he'd tear apart anyone who tried to take Susu from him, even if it was himself.
What are you thinking?
It was a betrayal to Susu to even be considering this. He shouldn't be looking for an easy way out. He needed to face her, to listen and apologise properly. It was the least Susu was owed for what he had put her through in not one but two lives.
“So how would we find out if this is your future life or an alternate timeline without cultivation?” Jiang Jun asked, bringing them back to the original topic.
“The obvious way is trying to cultivate. If it works, that will eliminate one possibility.”
“But haven’t you already tried? You said Yuan Shuai had no qi.”
“Even if cultivation is not possible, all living things should have latent qi. Yuan Shuai has none , and that’s suspicious.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you’re just not used to how that feels,” she said.
“I once felt as powerless as I do now - when I was the hostage prince in Sheng - but I couldn't cultivate then because I only had the evil bone and no divine essence. I had to consume demon elixirs.”
She began to laugh. “ Evil bone ? Who names these things?”
“I don't know,” he admitted. It was a good point. Technically he wasn't evil anymore. Maybe he should rename it.
“So that's why you asked if we could find a demon when you first arrived,” Jiang Jun said, already processing the information.
He nodded.
“Does that mean we have to hunt down a demon now?” she asked, a little concerned.
He sat back and folded his arms with frustration.
“It's impossible to know. If this is my future, Yuan Shuai’s body should have the evil bone but there is no guarantee it would have a divine essence. That was given to me by Susu in the current timeline; I wasn’t born with it.”
“This is headache inducing,” she complained. “How do you deal with this day in, day out?”
He looked at her curiously. “I don't have a choice,” he said. “What is the alternative?”
She sighed. “So…it sounds like we either look for a demon - which if we find it will probably kill us as neither of us can use qi - or we try to cultivate qi, which may or may not exist. They don't make this easy, do they?”
He fought back a snort at that apt assessment.
“In my experience, such things are never easy,” he retorted.
“So if I was Susu, does that mean I should have…whatever it is I need to use yang qi?”
“You should ,” he admitted. “If this is our future.”
“And I couldn't just…absorb a demon like you?”
He nearly choked on his tea, before regarding her with interest.
“I'm just asking,” she said. “I'm guessing Susu wouldn't like that idea.”
“...probably not. It would poison your body anyway. Consuming elixirs kills humans, cultivating devil qi makes them devilise.”
“I bet I would make an attractive devil,” Jiang Jun mused with a smirk.
He stared at her, recalling Susu as the devilised Sang Jiu. At the time, he’d been caught up in Ming Ye's emotions, but now, thinking back, she looked incredibly attractive. Susu had also looked stunning in her demon wedding robes. Jiang Jun's makeup was more subtle than a demon’s but more daring than Susu's ethereal immortal makeup. He liked how it looked on her.
“Do I have something on my face?” Jiang Jun asked.
Jolted out of his thoughts, he quickly sat up and cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. “No,” he said.
“Anyway, since I can’t just use a demon, you can teach me how to use yang qi instead,” Jiang Jun said.
“Okay. But not tonight. It’s late. We should sleep.”
She nodded and smiled at him.
They went about the bedtime routine that had become a habit over the last couple of days, getting changed, brushing teeth together, all things he would have enjoyed with Susu. It ached to think about how this kind of life could never be theirs…or could it? Maybe they were destined to have this life in the end. In truth, he hoped this was his future.
He laid out the pillow and blanket on Jiang Jun’s couch, ready to settle in for another night. It was then he noticed her standing in the doorway to her bedroom, observing him with guilty eyes.
“Tantai Jin,” she said. “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Not taking advantage.”
He hadn’t expected to be thanked for such a basic level of human decency. Though he mused that this was a result of growing a love thread.
“You don’t need to thank me for that.”
Sighing, she glanced away and folded her arms. She shifted her weight onto her other foot and back again before looking at him with conflict in her eyes.
What could possibly be on her mind?
“It’s not your fault that you swapped places with Yuan Shuai.”
That was true, but where was she going with this? For once, he wasn’t sure what to say.
“Su Chang is staying in Yuan Shuai's apartment so it’s not like you can stay there.”
“That's fine. You're helping me so it's best I stay here.”
She seemed to be frustrated at his lack of understanding.
“Tantai Jin, I don't mean stay in the apartment, I mean stay in the bed.”
It suddenly dawned on him what she was offering.
“We can put some cushions in the middle, but if you continue to sleep on the sofa, it'll hurt your back.”
He felt his body tense, unsure of how to respond. Was this a test? If he agreed, would he fail? Not to mention he had just threatened Yuan Shuai if he stayed in the same bed as Susu. What kind of hypocrite would he be?
She must have seen the hesitation in his expression because she quickly tried to reassure him. “You don’t have to. It just doesn't feel fair to throw you out onto an uncomfortable sofa, especially not knowing how long you'll be here.”
“This…sofa…is adequate,” he said. “Your bed must be made of clouds.”
A loud laugh followed by a snort escaped her and she recoiled in embarrassment. He laughed affectionately.
“Not clouds, just springs.”
Springs? Why would springs be in a bed? A question for tomorrow he supposed.
“I have slept on floors as well as beds. I will be fine on the sofa.”
And safe from having to explain myself to my counterpart .
“Are you sure ?” she asked. “You’ll be sharing with Wealth out here.”
He turned to look at the dog, who was looking up at him innocently. Initially Wealth had not taken well to him, but now he seemed to be convinced Tantai Jin was acceptable, though not a replacement, for his master. He wasn’t normally one for pets but he was warming up to Wealth.
“Tantai Jin?” Jiang Jun asked, still waiting by the door.
“I’m certain,” he said. “Good night Jiang Jun.”
She smiled. “Good night.”
Yuan Shuai opened his eyes the next morning hoping it was all a dream. But no, he was sleeping in the same bed as the night before, in the Devil God’s palace in the Devil God’s chambers. The qi seemed to awaken with him and danced around his body, revitalising it. He wasn't sure he'd ever felt anything like this or that he ever would.
As a child and even as he grew older he indulged in watching xianxia dramas, wondering what it would be like to have that power, to live like the gods. The villains’ stories were always more interesting to him, in particular the redemption arcs. Now he felt himself living the irony. Was it fate showing her hand? It was still too much to consider.
Glancing over to the bed the miasma had created for Susu the night before, he noticed it was empty, though slept in. Where had she gone?
He meandered over to the closet, admiring the styles of the various robes. He might just have to start incorporating some red and black into his own clothing once he returned home. Still, he missed his blazer and turtleneck.
Flopping down on the bed again, he let out a sigh. It wasn’t like he could go looking for Susu. Tantai Jin seemed to always look flawless and if he left with sloppily tied robes and his hair in a mess, it would be a dead giveaway. And speaking of hair, he’d tried his best to sleep carefully on the hard pillow as Susu instructed to preserve the style, but he had failed. He pulled the end of his hair over his shoulder, running his hands through it with amazement. It was so smooth and silky.
Yesterday had been a whirlwind, and he hadn’t really processed it until he’d slept. Now…
He walked to the mirror and looked into it. Blood red eyes stared back at him.
It was still so difficult to accept that he had been the Devil God in his previous life. But a looming question still hung over him, causing a knot of dread in his gut.
Was I really born human, or is there a surprise waiting for me when I get home?
How could he have just stopped being a god?
The restless qi swirled inside him, reacting to his churning emotions. He let it flow into his hand, analysing the black and red smoke-like energy with both interest and concern.
A knock sounded at his door, to his surprise. He let the energy dissipate and opened the door, still wearing the inner robe and undergarments. Susu stood there, dressed in black robes with a trim of red and yellow. Coupled with her makeup, she looked like a dark phoenix. It was a good look for her.
He found himself imagining what Jiang Jun would look like dressed the same. Her red hair would complement the outfit Susu wore.
“Susu, where were you?” he asked.
She smiled. “I went for a walk. You were sleeping so soundly. I didn’t want to wake you. But you’re still in your night clothes. Do you need some help to get dressed?”
Her eyes slowly looked up and he knew what had caught her eye.
“Or with your hair…?” she said with a laugh.
It was a considerate offer but also quite an intimate one, which made him wonder how Jiang Jun would feel about it. And yet, he really did need Susu's help.
“Yuan Shuai, are you shy? I already helped you dress once in the Bo're life.”
She had a point. He decided it couldn't hurt, and hoped Jiang Jun wouldn't be angry. Technically it was her, and he wasn't in his own body anyway.
Before he could answer, Susu walked past him, heading for the wardrobe and looking through the various options.
“Hmm, not this one,” she said as she rifled through the various options. “Too scary. Too threatening. Too dark.”
Abruptly she stopped speaking, and he noticed her hand trembling as she clutched one particular item of clothing.
“Susu?” He asked as he approached her cautiously.
The robes she held looked like a perfect ensemble for war. The base robe was black, and accompanied by a silver spiked armor on the front and shoulders. He could see there were also armoured gloves with what looked like metal claws. He winced, knowing they would have caused terrible wounds in battle.
“Susu?” he asked softly. “What's wrong?”
She breathed in carefully and turned to look at him, and he could see her eyes were moist and puffy.
“Susu?” he asked again, reaching for her with worry.
She flinched and stumbled backward, letting go of the robe. Their eyes met. She seemed to be looking for something in them.
“You're scaring me,” he said.
Finally she let out a breath, and inhaled softly. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly into a weak smile.
“This is…” she said hoarsely. She took in a breath, steeling herself up. “This is the armour the Devil God wore in the first timeline when he slaughtered my entire sect in front of me, including my father.”
He wasn't sure how to respond to that. It wasn't like he could offer physical comfort, given he looked like that god right now.
He folded his arms and glanced away uncomfortably, unsure what to do to help her.
Then she choked out a laugh.
He looked up at her with wide eyes, utterly confused.
“When I look at you standing there in your underclothes, regarding me with concern and worry, it is very obvious you are not that god,” she said. “Even if Tantai Jin has Chu Mo's memories, even if he can recall the events of that timeline, I must try to remember he is not the same either.”
“Susu,” Yuan Shuai said gently. “I think you are too hard on yourself. Tantai Jin told us he had intentionally said and did things to make you remember that god so you would hate him. Is it so surprising that you would have this sort of reaction?”
“I believe him about his intentions,” Susu said. “I can see that he was not lying, that he has defeated that devil god and is still the Tantai Jin I love. But I am still struggling.”
“Let me help,” he said, and pulled her close. He pretended to be looking for something and then suddenly put his thumb and forefinger together in a heart shape and grinned. “Here, this is for you.”
She began to laugh.
“Jiang Jun does it when I’m upset,” he said with a smile.
“Thank you,” she said.
He was glad he could do something to cheer her up.
“Let me pick out my clothes and dress myself today. I can figure it out.”
But Susu wouldn’t hear of it. “No, I need to face this.”
She turned around again, starting from the next robe in the sequence, and paused. Yuan Shuai tensed, anticipating a similar reaction.
“This one is perfect,” she said.
She pulled out a regal black robe with gold trim that he also quite liked. She laid the various pieces on the bed in the order they should be worn and handed Yuan Shuai a new undergarment to wear.
“Go on, change,” she said. “I'll turn around.”
He swallowed back his apprehension and did as she asked. Placing the new robe around him, he attempted to tie it.
“Done?”
She turned around and laughed. “Yuan Shuai, you tie it like this . Honestly, have you never worn this style of clothing?”
He pouted, and she just smiled that infectious smile.
She adjusted the collar so the robe was a little tighter, running her hand along the edge. It brushed his skin and he shivered.
Then she brought over the middle robe for him to put on. Her nimble fingers pulled the fabric taut and adjusted it until it aligned with the undergarment. As her hands went lower, so did his thoughts. He swallowed and tried to think about anything else. Susu’s resemblance to Jiang Jun was partly the cause of this, so he couldn't help but notice her hands gently brushing against him as she moved along the waistline, checking he looked impeccable.
It was torture. If this was Jiang Jun, he would have thrown the robes to the floor, where they would be long forgotten as the two of them involved themselves in far more intimate pastimes.
But it’s not Jiang Jun .
That was the problem, really. Susu wasn’t Jiang Jun, so he couldn’t just touch her, kiss her, do all the naturally intimate things he would do, and it meant consciously holding back those gestures every minute he spent with her. Then there was the guilt for feeling like this. This situation was so…impossible. If Susu would become Jiang Jun, was it really so taboo to feel attraction to her? Surely, feeling this way with another Jiang Jun just reaffirmed how much he loved her, didn’t it?
He quickly stopped himself from going down that rabbit hole. What he needed was a cold shower, and he wasn’t going to find one in the Devil Palace, or the past for that matter.
Once out of his thoughts, he noticed Susu analysing the hem of the robes. She seemed dissatisfied with how they hung near his feet, and he began to feel anxious, not wanting her to notice the evidence of how aroused he was. He told himself to calm down, after all he was wearing two robes already.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, trying to distract her.
“I think this is just how they are,” she complained. “It can’t be helped.”
Before he could respond, she handed him the top layer robe to put on. He tried to mimic her previous actions, aligning the outline of the robe with the inside ones. Then she handed him the belt, and he did his best to tie it, not wanting to give her a reason to touch his waist.
He knew he’d messed up when she began to laugh. Again she neared, untying and tying the belt like a professional. He watched carefully, determined to be able to dress himself and therefore avoid this type of discomfort in future.
Once the robes were adjusted and secured, Susu led him to the chair next to the mirror and made him sit. Slowly and carefully she removed the adornments securing the ponytail and let his hair down, before running a comb through to detangle it. Next she placed a sort of oil on her hands and rubbed them together. The sensation of her hands running through his long hair was relaxing but also incredibly sensual, which did not help when he was already so tightly wound. He was starting to think he was going to need to excuse himself for a few moments while he sorted out his problem .
After what seemed like an eternity, Susu finally combed his hair up into a raised position before securing it and placing an intricate jewelled guan around it. He let out a breath of relief.
“Was I too rough with your hair?” she asked with concern.
Rough? That sent his mind further into the gutter.
He looked at himself in the mirror, trying to focus on anything else. Seeing a version of himself with long hair was always fascinating and it helped him to refocus his thoughts. It also reminded him of just how far away from home he was.
“I miss my short hair,” he said.
“Jiang Jun seemed to like you with long hair,” Susu teased.
She had, hadn't she? And she liked him in traditional clothing. When he made it back, maybe-
Stop. thinking. about. it .
Susu grabbed a small thin brush and dabbed it in a coarse black substance in a nearby jar. It thankfully provided a new distraction.
“What are you doing?” he asked, hyper focused on the jar.
“Hold still,” she scolded, “and close your eyes.”
“Is that eyeliner?” he asked.
“Eyeliner?” she repeated with confusion. “Is that what you call it in the future? It does line the eyes I suppose.”
He complied, amazed that there was even makeup in this time and the devil god had worn it.
She added some sort of red powder to his eyes as well, which made him curious.
“There, all finished.”
Yuan Shuai stood up and turned around a few times, looking at his attire and hair from different angles. The subtle eyeliner and soft red hue around his eyes made for a surprisingly intimidating visage. Altogether, the clothing, hair and makeup exuded the aura of a god. It was impressive.
Susu snorted and folded her arms. “Both of you like to admire yourselves.”
He whirled around to face her with a frown. “Are you calling me vain?”
“Yes, because you are.”
He felt a little put out at this. “What’s wrong with wanting to look good?” he protested.
“Come on, let's eat before we go to Mount Changhze,” she said, side stepping the question.
That was right - what were they going to do about breakfast? Now that he was finally not focused on his intimate needs, he could feel the uncomfortable emptiness in his stomach.
“Is there even a kitchen in the palace?” he wondered.
“No, but the demons will prepare something for us.”
“I’ve just stopped them from fighting a war with immortals. I don’t trust anything they cook. I’ll just make it myself.”
Susu's wry expression made him think that a healthy dose of suspicion was yet another trait of his past self that had carried over. But she didn't comment on it.
“You can cook?” she said instead.
“Yes,” he said, “I'd die from Jiang Jun's cooking otherwise.”
“I am sure her cooking isn’t that bad.”
He raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“How about you?” he asked. “Can you cook?”
“...yes.”
“You hesitated. I don't believe you.”
She crossed her arms and pouted. “Fine. No.”
He managed to hold in his laughter but couldn’t stop the amused smirk on his face. She saw through him anyway.
“I know what you're thinking, Yuan Shuai,” she warned, “and I was busy learning the immortal arts!”
He chose not to comment.
Her defiant head tilt and tsk told him that Susu was not fooled by his silence. She let out a sharp huff of breath.
“Anyway, if you want a kitchen, you'll need to get the miasma to make one.”
“And food?”
“You'll have to create that too.”
Both dread and anticipation raced through him at that statement.
“I can create food? Out of nothing?”
“Yuan Shuai, you are currently a god, and not just any god, a primordial one. There really are not many limitations.”
“Except sending myself home,” he said softly.
The warmth of her hand on his shoulder made him look up. There was reassurance in her gaze. “We will get you home, I promise. For now though, let’s not starve.”
Susu was right.
He considered whether to just try to create a meal but decided against it. Cooking was as much a tool for de-stressing as it was for creating sustenance so he decided he would do things the long way.
They walked out into the main throne room and Yuan Shuai wondered how easy it would be to create a kitchen, and what it would look like here. He closed his eyes and felt his qi communicating with the miasma surrounding him. Unlike before, when the bedroom had appeared, the miasma seemed to want more information. He felt it prod his thoughts for a reference. A door suddenly appeared on the other side of the throne room.
Yuan Shuai was astonished and relieved to find a replica of Jiang Jun’s fully stocked kitchen in the future. Once he explained where they were, Susu’s eyes lit with curiosity and she puttered around asking what everything was.
“Rice cooker,” he answered. “That’s a stove.”
She opened the blue fridge. “It’s a…cooling box,” he said.
Meanwhile he was wondering how he was going to use a rice cooker without electricity. Unless qi worked? He pressed the buttons to set it up and to his relief it turned on.
He moved to rummage through the pantry and found his hair was now an obstruction. Sighing, he ducked a little lower and grabbed some rice before closing the door. There was a certain comedy in standing in this modern kitchen dressed like the Devil God.
Susu watched him raptly, perched on a stool at the exact place where Jiang Jun normally sat.
“I don’t know how any of these things work.”
“How about I show you?” he asked.
Reflexively he grabbed the replica of Jiang Jun’s pink apron from the hook on the wall and fastened it around him. It looked entirely out of place with his current attire and he and Li Susu burst into laughter.
Once they’d stopped laughing, Yuan Shuai started to cook. It was a familiar task, one that calmed him and helped him focus. The comfort of being in a replica of Jiang Jun’s kitchen also allowed him a break from the intensity and pressure of his current situation. Though it was impossible to completely ignore with the qi blazing through his meridians.
Once the table was set, Susu tucked into the food, complimenting him repeatedly on its taste.
“Does Tantai Jin cook?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
Of course he does . He wasn’t sure why he asked, really.
“But he hasn’t had much need to recently, for obvious reasons.”
“Do gods not eat?” he wondered.
“He's the ruler of Barren Abyss now, they make food for him.”
“I like cooking. I would miss it.”
As they finished their meal, the door suddenly slammed open and a demon in a long red dress, Mo Nv, hurried in.
“My lord!” she said. “Come quickly. Barren Abyss…”
She suddenly stopped, looking around with confusion. “What is this place, my lord?”
Yuan Shuai sat up rigidly, his heart racing. Had he given himself away?”
But Mo Nv wasn’t focused on him. In fact, she and Susu were glaring at each other like two old enemies.
“Ye Bingchang?” Susu asked. “How are you here?”
“That’s Mo Nv,” he corrected.
Now Mo Nv’s attention was fully on him.
What I have I done now?
“My lord, I thought you remembered our encounter during my tribulation,” she said with concern.
Had he missed something else?
“Of course I remember, but you are Mo Nv now, aren't you?” he said, glossing over the mistake and choosing to avoid explaining the kitchen. “What’s the problem in Barren Abyss?”
“The demons have gathered at the old entrance to the devil palace and are demanding an audience. I have held them back as much as I could but there are too many. Zhi Zhujing is leading them.”
Yuan Shuai knew this day had begun too peacefully. He should have anticipated this unrest.
“Susu, when are we due on Mount Changhze?”
“Not for a while,” she said. “We should address this first.”
Annoyed, he pushed himself up off the stool, minding the robes, and began to grab the empty dishes.
Better not. It isn’t very Devil God to clear up.
Instead he called the qi to clean and send the tableware back to its place. Putting on the Devil God persona again, he walked toward the throne room, leaving Susu and Mo Nv to follow him to Barren Abyss.
Tantai Jin was a quick learner; he had learned just about every appliance in the apartment in a matter of days. But the shower head looked at him like it was mocking him.
“What happened to filling a bath with buckets of heated water?” he shouted.
“Showers are practical,” her muffled voice sounded through the door. He could tell she was exasperated.
“Baths are practical,” he argued.
“Just use the shower!” she said.
He sighed loudly but tried to follow the instructions she had given him earlier. Turning the dial to somewhere part way along the red line, he pulled the dial out to get the water to fall. It cascaded down on top of him, but it was freezing . He scrambled away from the stream of water and slammed into the glass with a large thud, letting out a number of curse words in the process.
“Tantai Jin! Are you okay?”
He was about to answer, when his foot slipped on the slick surface of the shower and he just about righted himself. Was Jiang Jun secretly trying to kill him?
The door to the bathroom suddenly slammed open and Jiang Jun ran in with panic. His eyes widened and he moved behind the part of the glass currently covered in water droplets, under the stream of water, which was surprisingly nice and warm now.
“Jiang Jun!” he shouted.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “It sounded like you fell.”
“Are you just going to stand there?” he asked.
Apparently she was. Not that he had been particularly shy about nudity in his life, but this situation was proving more awkward than expected.
“I’m fine now. The cold water surprised me,” he said, hoping that answer would satisfy her.
She laughed. She actually laughed .
“I forgot to tell you about that. There is always a blast of cold first.”
What? She hadn’t told him something so crucial?
He poked his head to look out through the clear part of the glass and glared, all nudity forgotten. “How could you forget something like that? Did you do this on purpose?”
She began to argue with him, but caught herself, finally registering the situation.
“I should…probably leave now,” she said, and backed away, closing the door.
Once he’d finished up in the bathroom, he put on Yuan Shuai’s robe and walked into the main room toward the bedroom. There was an awkwardness between them that hadn’t been there before.
“How was the shower?” she asked, and he knew she was being cautious.
“It was…fine. You are going to show me all these advances and then send me back home,” he said, trying to break the tension.
Immediately she relaxed.
“Tantai Jin, I’m sorry I barged in like that. I thought you might have fallen and split your head open or something. You’re not used to showers and-”
“Jiang Jun, let’s forget about it,” he said. “You were worried. But I don’t expect Yuan Shuai will be pleased.”
“Then let’s not tell him. What he doesn’t know won’t kill him.”
That was surprising. But then he knew Susu to be exceptionally good at keeping secrets too. He wondered what was happening between her and Yuan Shuai. Would he want to know, or would it bother him?
“I've laid out some clothes for you. Yuan Shuai has a certain style and it might be noticed if he doesn't wear it.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh and the hair dryer is in the bedroom.”
“The…what?”
“Tantai Jin, how have you been drying your hair these past few days?”
“Air?”
Jiang Jun burst into laughter. “That explains a lot.”
Taking him by the arm, she brought him into the bedroom and plugged in a device that looked bent into an angular shape. She pressed something on the device and a blast of hot air hit him in the face. He flinched with surprise.
“You can create hot air like this without qi?” he asked.
It was fascinating. Without a sliver of cultivation, they had managed to create so many useful things in this future, things they hadn’t even conceived of in his time.
“Mm,” she acknowledged.
Jiang Jun turned the dryer off and laid it on the bed. “If you need anything let me know.”
He flicked the hair dryer on and off a few times, noticing there were different settings for different levels of heat and different speeds of air flow. Taking care of hair was such a pain. If he made it back, he would have to make a list of things to create for the devil palace, a bathroom and a hair dryer being on top of the list.
Drying his hair was quick, and he changed into Yuan Shuai’s day clothes. They were soft and comfortable, and easy to wear. He returned to the main room once he was dressed, in a pleasant mood for the first time since arriving here.
“What would you like to eat today?” he asked.
“Make me another Jing speciality,” she said with a smile.
“Okay,” he said, returning the smile. It was easy to feel carefree in this place.
They planned out the day while he cooked. Most important was to determine whether qi and cultivation did exist now, and there were a number of ways they could look for that information. Temples were a good start - qi was at its peak inside a temple, but also Jiang Jun had suggested searching for libraries and museums as well. They would use something called the internet to look up and follow any leads.
After that, Tantai Jin would teach Jiang Jun how to cultivate. Tomorrow they would visit a number of places to look for clues.
There was a warmth to Jiang Jun now that hadn’t been as evident before and it fuelled his hope. It had not been a nice feeling to be helpless.
Just as they sat down to eat, a knock sounded on the door. Jiang Jun scrambled off her stool and walked over to answer it. He knew something was wrong when he saw how her entire body tensed.
“Jiang Jun, how is Mr Yuan doing?”
It was a man’s voice. He leaned sideways in his seat but still couldn’t get a good view. Jiang Jun was clearly determined not to let this person inside.
“It's not really a good time,” she said firmly.
“It's been four days. Is he feeling any better? Maybe we should take him to the hospital.”
The man tried to look around her but she moved, blocking his view. Still, he managed to lock eyes with Tantai Jin.
“Boss!” he said, waving. “Tell Jiang Jun to let me in.”
Tantai Jin froze. Now what should he do? This person was obviously a subordinate of Yuan Shuai’s, but his tone was also friendly. Perhaps he was a little like Nian Baiyu?
“He’s starting to get an appetite now,” Jiang Jun lied. “But he’s still not well enough to work.”
“Jiang Jun, why aren’t you letting me talk to him? What aren’t you telling me?”
Tantai Jin knew from reading the situation that there was no way the man was going to accept the current explanation, and turning him away would just make things worse. They needed to address this head on.
“Let him in,” he said.
It was obvious she wasn’t expecting that response because Jiang Jun looked at him with a bit of shock. He wondered if he had sounded too commanding. Jiang Jun didn’t seem to like being told what to do, a trait she shared with Susu.
“Fine,” she said, and stepped away from the door.
The man closed the door as he entered. “Boss, how are you feeling?”
“I’m…”
Well now he had gotten himself into a situation. Tantai Jin looked at Jiang Jun and raised an eyebrow, hoping she’d get the hint and guide him on how to react.
“Su Chang…” Jiang Jun began.
It was clever and he nodded before facing the man, deciding to address him similarly to Nian Baiyu.
“Are you okay? You’re looking at me like I’m a stranger.”
“Su Chang,” Tantai Jin said in his best emperor of Jing voice. “As Jiang Jun said, I'm still not well enough to perform my duties at work. I’m trusting you to arrange for them to be delegated until I’ve recovered.”
The expression of concern wasn’t quite what he was expecting.
“I’ve been doing this already. But why are you talking like you walked out of a wuxia drama?”
Tantai Jin tensed. What did wuxia mean? Was it another thing like xianxia? Had he given himself away?
Jiang Jun jumped in, and he inwardly thanked her for saving him.
“It seems to be a side effect,” she said.
“Of a stomach flu?” Su Chang asked with disbelief.
“Yuan Shuai has lost his memory.”
“Boss, is that true? That’s terrible!”
“It’s…true,” he said awkwardly.
“Mr Fan said Jiang Jun was helping you, so I gave you a few days to get well. Now I wish I had come sooner. Have you lost all your memories?”
“I think so,” Tantai Jin said. The less he disclosed, the fewer opportunities he would have to say something out of place.
“How did it happen? Jiang Jun, has he seen a doctor?”
“Yes but they haven’t found anything yet. All the scans were normal,” she lied.
“They haven’t found anything ?”
“Su Chang, you can’t tell anyone yet - you’re the only one who knows. I’ll tell Mr. Fan but we want to have a few more tests first.”
He nodded. “I’ll cover for you, but let me know what happens.”
With relief, she nodded.
“If you need anything, boss, let me know.”
Tantai Jin nodded, and Su Chang left.
They breathed a sigh of relief. Although they had avoided the issue of work this time, it was becoming more pressing. They would have to think about how to address the situation if he remained here for a while. But this could wait. First they had a long day ahead.
The atmosphere was tense when Yuan Shuai, Li Susu and Mo Nv arrived in Barren Abyss. The demons were confused and angry at not getting their pound of flesh. There were some who chatted excitedly about the idea of a free roaming better life but it was a new concept to them and it was clear they weren't sold on it yet. Others seemed to just want free reign to maim and harm and he couldn’t let that happen.
What are you thinking, Yuan Shuai? Whether the demons want to harm is not for you to get involved with!
Except he was already involved. He had been involved since he stopped the army on the plains. If he did nothing now, the demons would mutiny, and that would be worse.
Treat it like aggrieved employees in his team, he told himself, and framed it in his mind. Susu looked at him with worry as he walked to the throne and began to address the crowd.
“I can see you've got grievances,” he said. “So you have ten minutes.”
Immediately the questions began.
“Where is the ancient devil god?”
Of course that was the first question. What had he expected, really?
“Gone,” he said firmly. “You should be thankful for it. He'd have killed you for questioning him.”
He assumed that was true, based on Li Susu and Tantai Jin’s description of Chu Mo.
“He does you the courtesy of listening,” Mo Nv snapped as she summoned her qi in warning. “That can change.”
A murmur went through the demons and devils. A fanged demon wearing what looked like rags spoke up.
“Why are you negotiating with the immortals?”
What should he say to that? To stop the Tongbei dao? Last time he mentioned it, they hadn’t believed it would end the world. He decided to put on the air of annoyance and rephrase his words from the plains.
“Obviously the generals didn't pass on the message to you," he said pointedly. "Ending the world is no longer my priority. Peace between the realms is: immortals, demons and humans being able to go about their business as they please,” he said, hoping that would convince them this time.
“What about our revenge?”
“Is revenge more important than your freedom?” he challenged.
The demons were starting to irritate him with their shortsightedness. In a way it was a good thing - it helped to play into the devil god persona he was mimicking.
A devil with green armour covered in vines stepped forward. “The immortals have slain many of my family. I will dishonour them if I do not avenge them.”
The politics of this were complicated, he realised. That meant he would have to tread carefully. Problem was, the pressure of the moment was making his mind go blank. He was no stranger to speeches, but this type of formal xianxia-esque speech was tough. He looked at Susu. Her gaze held the reassurance he needed, and a wisp of inspiration hit. Playing the role, he schooled his expression into one of bored exasperation and met the demon’s gaze.
“Revenge will just bring more casualties and the cycle will continue. You can honour the memory of the dead by living a good life.”
It was profound enough to sound like a leader and general enough to apply to the demons.
Susu stepped to his side intending to support him. He was grateful for her intervention.
“If you want retribution you should seek it directly from the immortals who have harmed you. Perhaps by asking them to pay tribute to your loved ones at your altars they will find peace.”
The demon with the vine armour seemed satisfied at this, but another piped up.
“No immortal will agree to pay respect to our dead.”
“I think you would be surprised,” Susu said. “Xiaoyao sect was the first to step forward to agree to working together. They know Tantai Jin as Cang Jiumin.”
“This is just more evidence that he is still the devil fetus.”
The qi seemed to awaken with this challenge. Yuan Shuai realised he had become a little complacent about his control over it.
Tantai Jin said part of Chu Mo would be in the qi. If I let it lead me would that convince them?
The idea terrified him a little but he pushed that terror down. He needed its help.
Let it guide me, don't let it have free reign. That's what he said.
He reached inside, wordlessly asking the qi what to do. The shouts were getting louder. The demons were riled up. The qi was restless but it waited, as though asking for permission to act. He reluctantly allowed it control.
Suddenly he found himself disappearing and reappearing in front of the demon who challenged him, causing the others to back away rapidly, giving them a wide berth. Yuan Shuai could tell that he was still partially in control, unlike before. Then he felt himself smirk .
Oh no.
He felt the siphoning devil qi before he registered it, and realised he was absorbing the demon. The demon begged and pleaded but the qi kept its hold.
I don’t want to do this.
And yet, the feeling of it was addictive. Instinctively he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, basking in the life qi of the demon as it was absorbed and distributed amongst the already vast reserves flowing through him.
When he opened his eyes, he realised he was in control again. The demons were silent, looking at him with terror. In a way he agreed with them. He tried to temper his reaction, forcing himself to seem unaffected, and teleported back to Susu’s side. She looked at him with concern.
“Perhaps you are our lord, but then why do you let the immortal speak?” Zhi Zhujing, the spider demon, asked.
“I am the Devil God’s wife,” Susu snapped. “It is my prerogative to be involved in his affairs.”
“You are only his caged bird, there to attend to his marital needs. To pretend otherwise is delusion.”
If the look on Susu’s face was any indication, she was ready to kill the demon. Yuan Shuai was considering it.
“Zhi Zhujing,” he said with forced calmness. “Who asked you to speak for me?”
She swallowed in fear. “My lord, I…”
Yuan Shuai steeled himself up to put on another act, and reverted to a formal tone again.
“Li Susu has listened to your affairs and given you considered answers. She has respected your concerns, even as an immortal who has suffered greatly at the hands of devils.”
This seemed to make them think.
He recalled their conversation with Tantai Jin, and Susu’s explanation of who she was and wondered if he could use that to convince the devils to respect her. Organising his thoughts, he began to speak again.
“You think she will be our downfall, but her presence here is a powerful message. Li Susu is not just an immortal; she is the Lady of Spirituality, the only one left with the potential to ascend as a true god. You will treat her with the same respect you treat me, do you understand?”
“Y-yes my lord,” they said, inclining their heads.
Susu looked at him with concern before facing the crowd again.
Yuan Shuai really wanted to wrap this up now. Maybe if he gave them a small nugget of information about their plans, it would help. The demons mostly seemed able to be reasoned with, and the others he could send Mo Nv to deal with.
“The immortals who led forces against us have been contained and are held on Mount Changhze. I have been invited there to discuss next steps.”
“Invited, my lord?” a voice said. “This is unprecedented.”
“The devil god needs no invite,” Zhi Zhujing snapped.
He sighed at their lack of understanding in the politics of negotiation. That was something he was intimately familiar with.
“I could force my way onto Mount Changhze,” he said. “But what would that achieve? An invite means the immortals are willing to listen and to compromise. We have agreed to a ceasefire.”
He could see they didn't understand this word.
“A temporary truce,” he clarified. “It means they will not harm you, and I expect you to show them the same courtesy.”
“What if they attack again?”
Yuan Shuai was annoyed at their lack of ability to listen. Thankfully Susu answered before he could lose his patience.
“Any immortal who attacks you does so against orders. If you are attacked, bring the culprit to us and I will ensure they are escorted to Mount Changhze for punishment.”
He met her gaze, thanking her wordlessly.
“We're due on Mount Changhze soon. I will update you all as soon as there is something to report. Don't get any ideas, unless you’re tired of living.”
He turned to leave, motioning for Susu to follow. She did, but her expression was measured; He couldn't read her.
As soon as they were far enough away the demons could not hear them, Susu confronted him.
“Am I speaking to Chu Mo or Yuan Shuai?” she asked curtly.
“I don't even know anymore,” he admitted, as he leaned against the wall. “It all feels the same right now.”
She raised an eyebrow, recognising the change in speech.
“What happened?”
“I asked the qi for guidance.”
“Did it control you again?”
“Of course it did, would I have killed that demon? But something was different this time, like it was asking permission. I think I could have broken its hold.”
“Then why didn't you?”
The memory of the addictive feeling came to the forefront again, and he put a hand on his chest. He couldn’t tell her that he didn’t stop because he enjoyed it, could he? No, that was out of the question. It was a shame he would have to live with. There was something he could tell her though - the other reason he hadn’t fought the qi.
“I knew it needed to happen to mitigate the situation.”
Susu just blinked.
“Yuan Shuai,” she said cautiously, as though walking on thin ice. “That is very devil god of you.”
He knew there was an underlying meaning to that. Susu was asking a question without asking: Are you giving in to Chu Mo?
Truthfully, Yuan Shuai wondered if he was playing the role too well now. The more he did, the more familiar it felt.
“It's hard not to start thinking like him when I have to act like him constantly,” he muttered.
“You just threatened them with death if they speak up again. Are you really intending to follow through?”
The demons had actually riled him up with their treatment of Susu, so that one had absolutely nothing to do with the qi, and everything to do with the fact he wanted to punch the demon who insinuated Susu was nothing but a slave.
“As angry as I am now, I might,” he said.
“I appreciate you defending me but-”
“Susu, I need you to be able to speak freely, to help me with this. They all but called you a pleasure slave. I won't let them disrespect you,” he said.
She nodded. “And I appreciate that, but I'm worried that the qi is slowly gaining control over you. I will need to teach you how to use the divine essence before things progress further.”
Yuan Shuai thought that was actually a very good idea. He would feel better about this situation if he knew he had something to mitigate the temptations of this dark qi.
“We’ll do it after the meeting,” she said.
As they moved to leave, they realised that Mo Nv was approaching them. Yuan Shuai adjusted his posture to a more rigid one, and the demoness immediately bowed.
Li Susu looked at her with disdain. “Ye Bingchang,” she greeted curtly.
“Mo Nv,” she corrected. “Ye Bingchang was my tribulation. I wronged you greatly in that life, Xiwu.”
“Wronged me? You tried to kill me!”
“I did, unsuccessfully. But I am sure you died. How is it that you are here as well? Did my lord resurrect you?”
Susu hesitated.
“We can trust her,” he said. “She wants to stop the Tongbei dao and to live in peace with the immortals.”
He could see there was more to it than this, something he was missing, but Susu couldn't say it without giving away that he wasn't Tantai Jin.
“You have always acted the part of a kind innocent maiden when you were a manipulative jealous snake who sought after power. Why should I trust you now?” she said.
Yuan Shuai recoiled at that harsh statement. What had happened between these two? Moreover, had he been wrong to trust Mo Nv?
Mo Nv's eyes narrowed. “I did what I had to, to protect myself. Yes I stole love threads, that was wrong. How I treated Xiao Lin, I regret deeply. It wasn't until I received his letter that I realised he truly loved me and reciprocated my feelings."
“It's too late for your regret.”
Yuan Shuai would have been surprised that Susu could be so cold and ruthless if he hadn't already seen it for himself when they first met.
“I’m not looking for your forgiveness,” Mo Nv said. “I just want you to hear what I have to say.”
Susu folded her arms and sighed. “Fine. I’ll grant you that.”
“I never liked the devil god nor agreed with his plans to use the Tongbei dao, even after he saved me and my sister. Since my tribulation, I have only felt more strongly about this. Tantai Jin is much better suited to this role and I want what he does - peace. He has pursued you, an immortal, and you have accepted him. I also want to pursue Xiao Lin again. I know he is an immortal too.”
Susu was clearly surprised at her response, and it seemed to mellow her a little.
“Ye Xiwu was my tribulation, until I came to the past and gained control of that body. The Ye Xiwu that you knew from the time Tantai Jin knelt on the ice was actually me.”
“Interesting,” Mo Nv said with a nod. “I wondered why my sister had changed so much. But I have heard of this sort of thing - jumping into the past to change events. I believe I remember a prophecy - something about an immortal going back in time to stop the Devil God.”
“How do you…? Never mind. Yes, I had intended to…kill the Devil God before he awakened.”
Mo Nv’s eyes widened, not sure how to react to Susu admitting it so blatantly. Yuan Shuai saw her eyes on him and he knew she was analysing his reaction.
“I know about it, Mo Nv,” he said. “As you can see, a lot has changed.”
“Devil queen,” she said cautiously, “as you have obviously decided against killing my lord, and have chosen to be his wife instead, then you are clearly the best person to help with my situation.”
“Devil queen?” Yuan Shuai said with a smirk.
Susu made a silly face at him before smiling sweetly and he laughed.
Mo Nv seemed to be startled at the show of emotion from the Devil God and Yuan Shuai realised he’d dropped the facade. He cleared his throat and folded his arms, trying to look serious and evil again.
This seemed to amuse Susu and put her in a good mood. She turned to face Mo Nv with a more receptive demeanour.
“What is it you want me to do?” she asked. “Keep in mind I may not feel generous - I have yet to forgive you.”
“Acknowledged. I hear that you are close with Xiao Lin. I hoped you could help me explain the truth to him.”
Susu sighed.
“This will be difficult even if I agree. Senior brother does not have his memories of being Xiao Lin. Also, he and I have fallen out. He disagrees with my decision to stand with Tantai Jin. I fear that any intervention on my part will make things worse between you. But I can see your sincerity now, Mo Nv, unlike before.”
“I am aware of his memory loss. I have met him already. He seems to feel something for me but he does not understand why. If what you say is true then I dare not tell him.”
“This could be an opportunity,” Yuan Shuai said. “Chief Gongye might hate me but if he has feelings for Mo Nv, it could help him come around to the idea of immortals and demons working together.”
Susu nodded. “It seems you may be the key to how things unfold. We are due on Mount Changhze now to meet with the sect leaders. It will be too early for you to come along, but we should consider involving you in future discussions.”
“Agreed,” Yuan Shuai said. “In the meantime, you’re in charge of keeping the demons in line.”
“Yes my lord.”
“Also, this conversation stays between us. There is a lot of dissent amongst the devils now. Can we rely on your loyalty?” Susu asked.
Mo Nv smirked. “I am a drought demon, the strongest demon in Barren Abyss aside from the Devil God. You have my loyalty and my word that I will keep order for you.”
She paused.
“Actually, I have some news about Zhi Zhujing, my lord.”
Yuan Shuai nodded. “You can speak in front of Li Susu.”
“There has been greater than usual demon activity near her lair. Although she appeared to defer to you today, I believe she may be planning something.”
He nodded. “Continue to watch her and let me know if there are any developments.”
She bowed and left. Yuan Shuai offered his hand to teleport them to Mount Changhze and she grasped it with a smile.
Tantai Jin glared at the laptop in front of him as he tapped his fingers with annoyance. Jiang Jun had explained this three times already and he was really struggling.
“Let me try it this time,” he said.
She smiled, trying to offer reassurance, but his frustration just made it feel condescending.
Earlier, after much struggle, she had brought out the thing called a mouse. His first thought was that it looked nothing like any mouse he had ever seen, but it did make the cursor easier to manipulate, which was a small win. He moved the cursor and left clicked once on the circle with “Chrome” written underneath.
“Double click,” Jiang Jun prompted.
Click click. A menu opened.
“No, close that and double click using the left button.”
He could feel a headache coming.
Left button. Two clicks. A big white window opened.
Finally .
Now, the keyboard. Jiang Jun said he needed to type in something called pinyin, romanised letters with accents, to bring up the characters he was used to. During his time as the emperor of Jing, he had chosen to learn Roman letters, wanting to be prepared if they chose to make their way to his territory, but thankfully they’d stayed well on their own side of the world. But pinyin wasn’t just Roman letters. Jiang Jun had explained the four tones, and as she sounded them out, he quickly realised why he had struggled a little to understand her at first. It seemed as though in this future they’d created a standard dialect, so his Jing dialect had nuances the standard dialect didn’t, and the ancient vocabulary didn’t help either. Even if he got the pinyin right, sometimes the character that appeared was not what he recognised and he had to check with Jiang Jun. He was impressed they’d managed to understand each other this well so far.
Finally he’d managed to get the characters he was looking for, on cultivation and qi. A number of results came up, some that looked like utter nonsense, some that were more promising.
“What is Baidu Baike?” he asked. “Can we trust it?”
Jiang Jun laughed. “Oh Tantai Jin, you have so much to learn.”
“Too much,” he complained, but inwardly he was actually kind of impressed. Although the reliability of the information one found now had to be assessed, it was much easier to find what you needed than when having to search through a hundred scrolls.
“Single click to look at this?” he asked.
She nodded, and the page came up. “It looks like you have lots to read. I’m going to leave you to do that while I get ready, but I’ll be back soon.”
He barely heard when she returned, he was so engrossed in reading. This internet was amazing. He’d already skimmed about ten websites on cultivation, and there was at least one lead he wanted to follow.
“Tantai Jin, how many tabs do you have open? Close some.”
“I couldn’t remember how.”
“The x,” she said with a sigh and grabbed the mouse, closing the clearly unwanted tabs.
“Did you find anything?”
He clicked on one tab to show her but as soon as she saw it, he knew it was useless.
“It’s a xianxia page isn’t it?” he asked with a sigh.
She nodded. “But what’s this one?”
He clicked into the tab and it was a temple offering classes. Jiang Jun pulled out her phone and held up a picture of the same temple.
“I saw this one in my research as well. Its patron god is Ji Ze, the god of time.”
“Ji Ze was the god who sent Susu into the past. I think we should visit this one first.”
“Hmm, are there any other gods whose temples might be worth visiting?” she asked.
“Chu Huang was Susu’s mother, and if Susu ascended, she may also have a temple. Ming Ye was the God of War, one I had a connection with. He is another option.”
She jotted all those down.
“I’ll let you continue to look for temples. I’d like to see if there are any libraries or museums that might give us a clue as well. Once we’re done we can make a plan for the most promising places to visit tomorrow.”
“You would have been an excellent advisor when I was emperor,” he said.
She leaned in, putting her head in her hands the same way Susu did and tilted her head.
“Would I?” she said.
He could tell she was pleased.
“It’s nice to be complimented for a change.”
“Does Yuan Shuai not compliment you?”
“He’s always criticising my work,” she complained.
He wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“So, how about we take a break from research and try cultivation?” she asked.
She was full of energy and he could tell she was excited about the idea. From the moment he’d mentioned it earlier, she had been bouncing around.
“Fine,” he said with a smile. “Let’s try cultivating.”
Tantai Jin was starting to wonder if it was fruitless to try cultivating in this place.
Jiang Jun sat in front of him, cross legged, her hands resting at her sides in the pose he’d demonstrated. She was breathing correctly, and she insisted she had cleared her mind, however difficult that was with Wealth draped across her.
She was kind of cute, sitting there with a pout on her face, her eyelids flickering as she tried to meditate. Wealth, too, seemed curious at her motionless state.
To his surprise, she suddenly opened her eyes, catching him admiring her. He immediately looked at the floor instead.
“It’s no use. We must not have qi here,” she complained.
“Jiang Jun, every disciple starts like this. Qi or not, you can’t expect results within a day.”
“How about you? When you started to cultivate with the sects, how long did it take you?”
“I’m an exception,” he admitted. “I have the divine essence Susu gifted me.”
“And yet you still can’t get better results than me,” she said.
It was true, and it made him think. He had been trying to cultivate at the same time as Jiang Jun, and he’d not been able to get anywhere.
“As I said before, Yuan Shuai may not have the divine essence,” he said. “If that’s the case, I won’t be able to cultivate yang qi.”
But yin qi should have worked regardless, and he still felt nothing.
“Let’s take a break for today,” he said as he pushed himself to a standing position.
Although she seemed to want to protest, Jiang Jun gave in, untucking her legs and beginning to stand. Before she could catch herself, her legs wavered and she began to fall forward into Tantai Jin. His attempt to catch her was fruitless - the momentum sent them both cascading back onto the floor. They stared at one another awkwardly as he became increasingly aware of her position on top of him, and how his body was reacting to it.
A click sounded and both looked at the door with horror as someone walked in.
“Xu Li!” Jiang Jun yelped as she scrambled off of Tantai Jin and smoothed out her clothes. “What are you doing here?”
He groaned as he sat up and used the table to help him stand. Their tumble had hurt his back a little and he rubbed it before realising there was something else that needed his attention. He pulled his sweater down a little further over his trousers and sighed, inwardly missing his robes.
Thankfully Xu Li was too preoccupied with quizzing Jiang Jun to notice.
“Jun, why didn’t you tell me?” Xu Li said. “I had to find out from Xiaochuan’s video.”
“It’s only been a couple of days.”
Jiang Jun glanced back at Tantai Jin with a coy smile and grabbed him by the hand, pulling him nearer. Then she leaned in and lowered her voice. “I need you to be a bit more Yuan Shuai-ish, can you do that?”
“I will try,” he whispered.
“Jun! He threw you out of the interview! You complained for days!” Xu Li said, as she lunged at him.
Jiang Jun intercepted but Tantai Jin lifted his chin defiantly, goading her. Who was this woman to come barging in and tell his other self who he could and couldn’t be with?
“Li! Yuan Shuai has liked me since we were kids.”
Xu Li leaned around Jiang Jun to glare. “If you liked her so much then why were you so cruel to her?”
That question was so apt that Tantai Jin nearly forgot she wasn't talking about Susu. He found himself at a loss of what to say.
“Why did you throw her out of the interview?” she continued.
That he had no idea about. He looked at Jiang Jun with wide eyes.
Save me.
“Li, enough. Yuan Shuai, would you mind making us a snack? I think this conversation will go better with some food.”
Tantai Jin was grateful for the escape from the awkwardness of the situation. All the recipes he knew were dated but that wasn’t an issue - they’d just have to do with what he could make. He'd settled on a quick aromatic soup he’d remembered making in the immortal sects and did the prep and cooking while the two women talked. When Xu Li took a sip, she praised him so much that he wondered if he should have just done this to start with.
“Who knew a devil could cook,” she commented.
He'd nearly dropped the ladle into the soup.
Jiang Jun gave him a look he assumed meant for him not to react. He quickly realised that this was because the comment was related to Yuan Shuai, not him. That was amusing.
They still call you a devil, Yuan Shuai, even when you are human.
He joined them at the table but said nothing, choosing instead to observe and listen. It was unfortunate that he was the one here and not Yuan Shuai. Jiang Jun needed more support than he could give; he didn’t know the ins and outs of their relationship.
The conversation came to a halt and he realised their attention was on him.
“What?” he asked.
“You're quieter than I expected,” Xu Li said.
Jiang Jun quickly jumped in to defend him. “Yuan Shuai isn't feeling great today. He's got a headache.”
“A headache?” he asked.
The retort and its sharp tone were reflexive. If Jiang Jun only knew how many days he spent running state affairs with six nails in his heart, she wouldn't be using a headache as an excuse.
“Not helping,” she muttered.
“Then what's your excuse,” Xu Li said, folding her arms. “Nothing to say?”
He sighed and let go of his spoon, giving her his full attention. With the confident nonchalance of an emperor and a god, he answered her.
“I have plenty to say, but none of it is polite.”
“Don't,” Jiang Jun warned, seeming to recognise that Xu Li was trying his patience. He wasn’t sure who the warning was for.
He decided to take a different approach and grabbed Jiang Jun’s hand, holding it defiantly. She nearly jumped with surprise.
“What Jiang Jun and I do is for us to decide,” he said. “It really isn’t any of your business.”
Xu Li looked at the blatant display of affection with a conflicted expression.
“I can't believe it's already so serious,” she said, more to herself.
He decided to use the situation to his advantage.
“You saw us when you came in. Can you still deny it?”
“Yuan Shuai,” Jiang Jun hissed, pulling her hand away abruptly.
He raised an eyebrow.
Xu Li cleared her throat. “No one is denying anything. I saw the video. I'm just worried you're using her.”
“Using her?” he asked.
He recalled that was a thing men did sometimes - became close with a woman just to sleep with her, and then leave her. It had never been a desire of his. He only ever developed sexual attraction and desire because of Susu.
“Don't insult me,” he said coldly. “I wouldn't pursue Jiang Jun just for… that .”
She seemed to be offended by his response and he couldn't understand why. Wasn't that the correct answer?
“So you don't think I'm attractive enough for a one night stand, is that it?” she asked.
What exactly did this woman want? Was it common to trap a man like this?
“So at first you don't want me to be someone who would lay with you and leave you, and now you're saying that means you're not attractive? Jiang Jun, you are a puzzle. Just tell me what you want me to say.”
“Jun…I think…maybe we should talk alone,” Xu Li said, sensing that things were escalating.
Of course she would say that. He wasn’t about to let her cut him out of the conversation. He was invested now. Yuan Shuai’s happiness was at stake.
“Whatever you have to say can be said in front of me.”
Xu Li slammed her hands down and stood up. “Jun and I-”
“Quit it! Both of you. It's my decision what I do, neither of yours. Stop babying me.”
“Stay out of this!” they both snapped.
Jiang Jun’s eyes widened with disbelief at what she was hearing. With a huff, she stomped away and into her bedroom and slammed the door while Tantai Jin and Xu Li were left staring at each other uncomfortably.
“I don't want her to get hurt,” Xu Li said. “You hurt her, you know, when you kicked her out of that interview. And all these years bullying her…”
Susu, I still end up hurting you over and over in another life it seems.
“I know you want to protect her, but those things are for us to work through.”
“She needs-”
“Who are you to say what she needs?”
“I’m her friend , unlike you’ve been all these years!”
Rage moved through him and he stepped forward. Xu Li stepped back. He laughed with a low and mocking tone.
“A friend? So a friend makes decisions for her? Decides how she will be happy? Jiang Jun does not need that type of friend.”
“A friend protects her from bastards like you!” she snapped.
He narrowed his eyes, and moved forward again with a confident threatening gait. Xu Li scrambled backward, recoiling as he met her gaze. It was then he registered that he’d allowed himself to default back to the cold, sharp demeanour of the Devil God. Taking a breath, he reminded himself of the techniques he’d learned as a disciple to temper his negative emotions and forced himself to calm down.
Xu Li seemed to have calmed as well, feeling comfortable enough to sling more insults his way. This really was getting ridiculous.
“You already tricked her into moving into the building and then bullied your way into this apartment,” she said. “How do I know you don't have a sinister motive?”
“Such as?”
“I don’t know how a devil thinks.”
Well, I do. Yuan Shuai, I can guess your motivation.
This series of manipulations sounded like something he would have done to keep Susu near him. Not so different from bringing her family to Jing to keep her near and making her a maid so she would have to be in the palace with him every day. He fought back the urge to smirk.
“Maybe I did all that to be close to her,” he said with a nonchalance he knew annoyed Xu Li.
“Then why didn't you do it like normal men?”
Normal men? He could have laughed at the irony. He had never been normal. Was Yuan Shuai? Not if he was Tantai Jin's recycled soul. But regardless of the timeline, he expected every version of himself to have certain similar traits.
“What’s so amusing?”
What should he say?
“There is something about her that makes me act irrationally.”
That was true for Tantai Jin when it came to Susu, and based on what he was hearing, he expected it was the same for Yuan Shuai. Even if it wasn't, it would hopefully be a good enough answer to placate Xu Li for the time being.
To his surprise, she appeared to actually be considering his words.
“I just want Jun to be happy. But if she is, if she can forgive you, then maybe I should too. But if you hurt her…” she motioned across her neck as a threat.
Xu Li, are you really Pian Ran in disguise?
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, and stood up. “I'll go get Jiang Jun.”
He opened the door and received a glare.
“You can come out now. We've resolved our differences.”
He saw the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Well good.”
She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Thank you for defending Yuan Shuai,” she said, and kissed him on the cheek, heading back out into the other room.
He brought his hand up to the place where she'd kissed him, feeling the absence of her warmth. He couldn’t help but miss it, to wish she’d come back and kiss him again.
But she wasn’t his Susu, so all he could do was focus on getting home.
Susu thought it would be good etiquette for her and Yuan Shuai to arrive at the main gate of Hengyang sect. She didn’t want to surprise any skittish disciples when their truce was so shaky.
However, it seemed that didn’t make matters any better. He could feel many pairs of wary eyes on him, following them as he and Susu walked up the steps.
“I thought you said this outfit would help me look less intimidating, not more.”
“You are the devil god, and you are on Mount Changhze,” she whispered. “They are going to stare. There is no avoiding it.”
“Lady of spirituality,” a disciple said as they approached and inclined his head. He moved to address Yuan Shuai but choked on his words.
Yuan Shuai guessed the problem. No disciple would defer to the Devil God, but to show disrespect could be to unravel plans of peace.
“I’m sure ‘devil lord’ will suffice,” she said.
The disciple bowed again and took his leave, choosing not to use any form of address. Yuan Shuai looked at her in question.
“I don’t think they will like that title either,” he said.
“Tough,” she said. “They ought to show respect. They owe him an apology for how they accused him, while he planned to sacrifice himself for them.”
“While that's true, it might be easier if you give them something more familiar to start with. What about Cang Jiumin?”
She stared at him with surprise. “How do you know that name?”
“Cen Haoran said it when I fought him. I assumed it was the name the immortal sects knew him by.”
She said nothing, and seemed to be considering that. “We could, but not expecting immortals to use a title would be considered an affront by the demons.”
He nodded. It was a fair point. “How about this? If they call you Li Susu, then they can use Cang Jiumin. If they use your title, then they can use a title for me too. That way it can't be seen as disrespect."
“That seems fair.”
As they walked down the pathway to the building where they intended to meet with the current sect leaders, Jiwu approached them. He was still looking very pale and weak and in no condition to fight. Yuan Shuai thought he was awfully brazen to instigate a confrontation in his current state.
“Lady of spirituality,” Jiwu said.
“Former Chief Gongye,” Susu said coldly.
Speaking of titles, the reversion to formality was enough to tell that they had fallen out. The frost between them was nearly visible.
He felt Jiwu’s piercing gaze on him as well. A sudden warmth made him aware of Susu’s hand in his, a visible demonstration of defiance.
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?” he snapped at her.
“Aren’t you ?” she retorted. “Using the forbidden array to absorb all the demon cores in the lake? Syphoning your disciples’ energy? I bet you are as shunned as Tantai Jin up here.”
The coldness dissipated, replaced with Jiwu’s shock at her harsh words. Yuan Shuai wondered what the man had expected.
“I used to look up to you,” Susu continued. “Now I see that you aren’t as altruistic as you would have the others believe; you are selfish and jealous. Ever since I told you he was the only one in my heart, you have pursued this vendetta.”
“Susu,” he said softly, his face a picture of apology. “I was just protecting you. You don’t see how you are in his thrall-”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she said. “We have things to do, like figuring out how to stop the Tongbei dao. If you want to help then we can talk, otherwise get out of my way.”
Yuan Shuai couldn’t help but grin at her, envisioning Jiang Jun in her place. His amusement seemed to bother Jiwu.
“What’s the matter, Devil God? Nothing to say?” he goaded.
“Susu hasn't left much for me to say,” Yuan Shuai said. “I think you had better start apologising to her.”
“Come on, husband,” she said, pulling him along by his arm.
As he scrambled to pick up his pace, a couple of disciples looked at Susu with surprise and fear.
“L-lady of spirituality,” one began. “That is the Devil God.”
“I’m well aware,” she said. “He’s also my husband. Is there a problem?”
They flinched, but continued to regard Yuan Shuai with caution.
“She’ll calm down in a minute,” he said. “You ought to go. Chief Gongye hasn’t left her in a good mood.”
He recognised the switch from being afraid of him to being afraid of her and they went their own way. Well, that was one way to get them to warm up to him, he mused.
“Are you coming?” she asked.
He nodded and joined her, and they continued their walk toward the immortals’ main hall.
“We’ll probably only have time to visit a couple of places today,” Jiang Jun said as they ate breakfast. “They aren’t usually near one another and we’ll have to drive.”
They’d decided to focus on temples first, to try and spark a clue before going to the couple of spiritual libraries and museums they’d flagged as useful.
Unfortunately they hadn’t found many temples near them which related to the gods Tantai Jin was familiar with, and he’d told Jiang Jun not to bother with the Daoist temples. They believed in balance and being happy with one’s current circumstances, and generally did not like cultivators.
First they intended to drive to the temple of Ji Ze, on the outskirts of the city. Tantai Jin stood outside the car, looking at it with an expression of dread.
“What?” Jiang Jun asked.
“Is there no other way?” he asked.
“Only a bus or train. Then you'd feel the same but just around people .”
He got into the car without further argument.
They only drove a small distance to start with and he was grateful for the opportunity to acclimatize. Jiang Jun had taken them to get a sweet dessert before heading on their long journey.
“So you call this ice cream,” he said cautiously.
“Yes, now will you just eat it? You're going to get it all over yourself.”
She licked her own chocolate ice cream and laughed as she noticed Tantai Jin struggling to eat it without making a mess. She pointed around the edges.
“You lick here first to stop the dripping.”
“But then it drips on this side.”
“So you lick that side next.”
What a silly way to eat a dessert. Why not use a bowl and utensil? Still, he wasn't about to let an ice cream get the better of him.
Jiang Jun giggled as he finally managed to eat the ice cream without getting it on himself. He couldn’t help but smile. Once the melting dessert was under control, he was able to focus on the taste, and it was delicious.
“It's very sweet. And cold. What is this flavour?”
“Chocolate.”
“I haven't heard of that before.”
“You haven't heard of chocolate ? Tantai Jin, there is one good thing about you being here. I get to introduce you to all these things.”
“Then I will miss them all when I return.”
“When you go back you'll be a god again. Just make them.”
She said it so nonchalantly, like being the Devil God was fun and interesting rather than a cruel, heavy burden. He was still getting used to it, but he didn’t hate it. No, he found it curious, like when Susu had bought the useless fireworks from the elderly lady during the Spring Festival.
“Jiang Jun, you want me to change history,” he teased.
He was tempted, he had to admit. “I might.”
Once they finished eating, Jiang Jun pulled out of the parking lot and began their journey to the temple of Ji Ze on the outskirts of Shanghai.
Li Susu and Yuan Shuai finally arrived at the hall where the leaders of all the sects had convened. The walls were filled with drawings of the twelve ancient gods and the artefacts associated with them. At least that’s what Susu had told him. This was all still very surreal for Yuan Shuai.
Seats on raised platforms in the circular hall had been designated for each of them, starting with the three greater sects and proceeding to the eight lesser sects. Two additional seats had been labelled for Tantai Jin and Li Susu.
It was a busy space, and there seemed to be a number of heated discussions happening amongst many in the room. However, the noise quieted as soon as they were noticed. Every pair of eyes were on them.
Susu just smiled and carried on as though nothing was wrong. She headed toward Xun Hua, the acting leader of Hengyang sect.
“Thank you for your invitation,” she greeted.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she sighed. “We do not have an easy meeting ahead of us.”
“We’re ready.”
Susu grabbed Yuan Shuai’s hand and pulled him along toward Wu Tao, the leader of the Shanhai Alliance. He wondered if this was part of her plan to humanise him to them.
“Susu,” he said, “I don’t think-”
“Shh. Just play along.”
The man’s eyes hardened a little as he approached. He inclined his head a little in respect, surprising Wu Tao, and he seemed to soften.
“So you have come,” he said.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?” he retorted.
“Let’s just say I wasn’t certain if the Devil God’s intentions were sincere.”
“And now?”
“I am still deciding.”
“Then I’ll let my actions speak for me.”
It was a futuristic turn of phrase and he wondered if it would sound too odd. But when he looked at Susu, she just smiled. It reassured him.
“Lady of spirituality, if I may be impolite and ask a question…”
“You may.”
“Aren’t you concerned? You pull him along as though he is still Cang Jiumin.”
“That’s because he is still Cang Jiumin,” she said curtly.
“But the wedding, wasn’t it-”
“Yes, I consider it a real marriage, and he is my husband. Should I not treat him like one?”
Yuan Shuai looked away and covered his face to hide his amused smirk. Susu was so much like Jiang Jun. He hoped he could leave Tantai Jin a good life to return to with her.
“This is a farce - we have invited the enemy inside!” Cen Haoran complained.
“If you cannot control yourself, you will be banned from this meeting and Chixiao sect will be represented by another.” Xun Hua said. “Gongye Jiwu has found himself in the same position. I suggest you not follow his example.”
“How dare you?” he said. “I have been the leader of Chixiao sect since-”
“Sect leader Cen, I don’t think this is how Immortal Qu and Immortal Zhou You would have wanted us to conduct ourselves, don’t you think?” Zang Lin said.
“I agree,” Susu said.
“Your father would be disgusted,” he spat. “Not only have you allied with the enemy, you have joined with him as a dao companion. You bring shame upon the immortal sects.”
Yuan Shuai jolted forward in reflex, clenching his fist as the qi began to burn, but he felt Susu’s hand on his arm, pulling him back. He took a deep breath to calm himself.
“Sect Leader Cen,” he said. “Are we here sling insults or to discuss what to do next? I thought you all were interested in stopping the Tongbei dao? Or is that less important than slandering each other?”
A few looked away uncomfortably and Xun Hua began to corral them toward their seats to start the meeting.
Cen Haoran looked like he had eaten a lemon, the thought of which nearly had Yuan Shuai smiling. Wu Tao looked a little more friendly than before and Xun Hua smiled at them in reassurance. Zang Lin seemed stoic but not in an unpleasant way. The others, he had no idea who they were. He supposed he was about to learn. Well, he was good at remembering names.
Unsurprisingly the first point of business was to address the elephant - or rather, Devil God - in the room. Yuan Shuai really should have expected this.
“I am sure you can understand that we have many questions about how things unfolded, if you are truly still Cang Jiumin. We will need to address these before we can proceed with sincerity. Questions which have been submitted in advance will be addressed first, and then there will be an opportunity to ask further questions. Does the Devil God agree to this?”
“Yes,” he said, looking at Susu for reassurance. He hoped she could answer anything he couldn’t.
“Very well. The first one is a request. We would like for you both to recount the events that led us to this moment, starting with the moment the evil bone was stolen from you, Susu.”
“Father and Di Mian had planned to seal the evil bone, as I understood it, but Di Mian wanted it for himself. At the time I was unconscious, so I did not come into this knowledge until later. When I awoke, I spoke to Di Mian and coaxed him to show me his wound. It was the shape of my father’s sword, so I knew that he had killed my father. However, no one believed me. Later, Di Mian disappeared, I assume this is because the evil bone was too much for him.”
“If this is true, then why did Cang Jiumin flee?”
Yuan Shuai swallowed back the rising anxiety. He had no idea.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Susu snapped. “You all tried to kill him when you found out he was the devil fetus. Did you think he would expect you to believe his innocence?”
Cen slammed his hands down. “He killed Sect Leader Zhao You, who took him in and trained him as a disciple. He is evil!”
“It is true that we saw you kill Master Zhou You,” Zang Lin said. “So explain this to us.”
Finally, something I know.
He took a moment to recall what Tantai Jin had said and tried to mimic his demeanor. “You all saw what I wanted you to see,” he said. “Di Mian had opened the Tongbei dao while possessed by the evil bone. Shifu tried to fight him but he was hit by the energy of the Tongbei dao and was about to devilise. He asked me to kill him, and he told me I was the only hope to stop the Tongbei dao, but as the fully realised Devil God.”
“More lies!”
“No, I don’t think so,” Zang Lin said. “This does sound like Master Zhou You.”
“Every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie!” Cen Haoran snapped. “And you all lap it up. Di Mian didn’t take the evil bone, this bastard did!”
Susu sighed. “Di Mian used me to fuel the Tongbei Dao, and that was when Cang Jiumin arrived and saved me, by reclaiming the Sky Slashing Sword and the evil bone. I didn’t understand at the time why he would do this, until…”
She and Yuan Shuai shared a look. “I learned that this was just part of his plan to follow uncle’s last wishes, to act like the original devil god and ascend.”
Chief Liu stood. “If he is so good at acting, he could still be doing this. This could all be an act.”
Yuan Shuai tilted his head with annoyance, trying to hold back his natural instinct to blurt out a retort. Tantai Jin was more restrained so he had to be.
“What’s the matter, devil god? Are we unravelling your ruse?”
Tantai Jin had said he and Chu Mo were one. There had to be a way to spin that into an explanation.
“I didn’t subdue him,” he snapped.
Panic went through the room and it descended into chaos.
“He is me and I am him.”
Just as quickly the room silenced.
Xun Hua addressed him. “Before we proceed with planning, you must address this. If you are not fully in control this is a weakness we must consider and plan for.”
He wondered what to say now.
“This is too much of a risk,” Cen Haoran said. “I told you, no one can subdue Chu Mo.”
The room erupted into chaos. Susu tried to intervene but every time she would just about get a word in, someone else would interrupt.
“Will you all just shut up?” Yuan Shuai snapped, losing his temper.
The room went silent and all eyes were on him, even Susu’s. He knew he’d messed up.
“You expect us to believe that-”
“Didn’t you all see Li Susu’s memories of the first timeline? If he had been under Chu Mo’s control he would have just killed us all,” Zang Lin argued.
Qianji school’s sect leader, Luo Guiying, stood.
“We did not see the Lady of Spirituality’s memories, but all those within Xiaoyao, Hengyang and Chixiao sects did. Acting sect leader Zang, we have heard your thoughts, and you sect leader Cen. But we haven’t heard from acting sect leader Xun."
“Yes, I saw them. I was initially sceptical. What Li Susu has gone through for this sect is more than any of us has sacrificed. She has known Cang Jiumin since he was Tantai Jin, the evil origin, in Sheng Palace. She has seen him grow from an emotionless shell capable of great evil, to a man wrestling with understanding and acting on emotion he didn’t understand, to a well adjusted disciple who excelled at everything he attempted - one whom we all respected. If she has witnessed all this, and she believes him, then we can trust her judgement.”
“She is biased! She is too attached to him.”
“Yes, I am attached!” Susu said with anger. “Which is why Tantai Jin had to orchestrate all this to try and make me break ties with him, to seem like the Devil God from the first timeline so I would hate him and ascend! That is why he did all this, so I could ascend and kill him . And yet what do you do, you stand here and condemn him for trying to save you? None of you has any room to speak about my attachment to my husband.”
The hall went quiet and Yuan Shuai had to admit that he was impressed.
“Like I said, you are terrifying,” he retorted.
“Shut up,” she said.
Everyone held their breath, wondering how he’d react. Being treated like glass was really getting old, he thought. For once he threw caution to the wind and let himself laugh. It broke the tension.
“So,” he said, “Should we discuss the Tongbei dao?”
No further objections came from the other sect leaders, not even Cen Haoran.
Some time later, when they were further into the suburbs of the city, Tantai Jin found himself becoming a little more used to the car. Finally it didn't make his stomach lurch.
“Hmm,” Jiang Jun said.
“Hmm?”
“I don’t see a turnoff for a parking area.”
“Parking area?”
“A place to put the car.”
“Oh.”
“I can see the steps. Wait, I think I can park on the side here. Why is there no one else here? I heard the temple of Ji Ze is always busy.”
Nonetheless, she parked and they exited the vehicle, heading up the steps. A few minutes later, they were looking around at a very quiet temple.
“I think this is it, but there’s no name anywhere,” Jiang Jun said with a sigh. “Why is everything signposted so badly?”
Tantai Jin looked around, analysing the architecture. The temple was very simple and understated, almost like a non-theistic daoist temple. It was small but well maintained and very serene. Tantai Jin was nearly certain now that this wasn’t the correct place.
A man in hanfu greeted them with a friendly smile.
“May I help you? You are looking a bit lost.”
“Hello, good morning,” Jiang Jun said politely, “We are looking for the temple of Ji Ze.”
“Ah,” he said kindly. “This happens often. It's a little further up the road.”
“Thank you,” she said. “We must have turned too soon.”
The man nodded. “You are still welcome to look around, or if I can be of assistance with anything please let me know.”
Jiang Jun smiled at the offer of help.
Realising what she was about to do, Tantai Jin attempted to stop her. He was not quick enough.
“We're actually trying to gather information about qi and cultivation. What do you know about this?”
“Jiang Jun,” he whispered. “Don’t you remember what I said earlier?”
“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” she said through clenched teeth.
As Tantai Jin expected, the man’s demeanour immediately changed. “If you are here to meditate and find peace, I can help you, but if you are looking to ascend, then I cannot.”
“Ascend, is that possible?” she asked. “Can one really become more than human?”
Jiang Jun, this is not the place .
“One should be content with one’s circumstances,” the disciple said. “They should aim for immortality through balance with oneself and the universe.”
“We should go,” Tantai Jin said, this time grasping Jiang Jun’s hand to urge her to leave.
The man’s piercing gaze suddenly rested on him as though he had noticed Tantai Jin for the first time. He did not like that look.
“Young lady, I cannot provide you with information on cultivation, but allow me to impart some friendly advice. In this life, choose your companions wisely. Those with darkness in their heart will poison your spirit.”
Jiang Jun looked at the disciple with suspicion.
“Darkness in their heart?” she said with confusion, before realising he was looking straight at Tantai Jin.
“You don’t mean him?” she said with a laugh. “This is my boyfriend.”
“One's true nature will always be revealed with time.”
Tantai Jin had spent his life being judged, so this did not surprise him in the least. But the man’s attempt to influence Jiang Jun annoyed him.
“I think you’ve said enough,” he snapped.
The man’s eyes narrowed. “I have said all I need to. You should leave now. The others will not tolerate your presence like I have. Consider this a kindness.”
Tantai Jin swallowed back his rage at the man, not wanting to cause a scene and put Jiang Jun at risk.
“Wait-” Jiang Jun said, but Tantai Jin was already pulling her along toward the road.
By the time they reached the car, Tantai Jin was in a mood. A daoist should understand that yin and yang were complements. It annoyed him that for a proclaimed peaceful group, they were so adamant to deny balance.
They'd also given him something to think about. If the man was seeing such strong yin within him where was it coming from? Was it the residue of his and Chu Mo's combined souls in Yuan Shuai's body, or Yuan Shuai’s own latent qi?
Jiang Jun suddenly turned to head back and he quickly grabbed her arm.
“Where are you going?”
“To give him a piece of my mind! What a miserable person!”
Her adamant defence of him caused a warmth in his chest that thawed his anger and he smiled. She protected him just like Susu did, and it endeared her to him just as much.
“He's not worth your time or your anger.”
She took a moment to try to calm down.
“I know you said some daoists didn’t like cultivation but I wasn’t expecting that. He completely changed when he saw you. Why are you not bothered?”
“I'm used to it,” he admitted.
She regarded him with curious eyes. “If he could see something dark in you, does that mean…?”
“I don’t think we can make any conclusions yet,” he said. “Let's go forward and try to find Ji Ze’s temple.”
They drove further up the road, spotting the sign they were originally looking for.
“Ji Ze’s temple is just here.”
It was brighter and more full of life than the previous temple, and many people were visiting. It seemed this temple was popular with tourists but there were also a number there to pray.
They entered the main square, but truthfully didn’t know where to start. Each building had its own appeal, and there were many disciples milling about and interacting with the locals and tourists.
They decided to follow the tourists, heading around the courtyard in a counter clockwise direction. The first building was small and unremarkable, and the plaques held no insights so they moved on quickly. Next was a stall offering fulu in exchange for a donation and a disciple offering leaflets with information about the god Ji Ze.
They entered a couple of the buildings as they passed, looking at ancient scrolls and reading the history of the temple and the story of Ji Ze. Tantai Jin wasn’t impressed at the writings; they had gotten so much wrong.
So far they had found nothing and Tantai Jin was starting to wonder if this trip would yield anything useful. Maybe this really was an alternate timeline with no cultivation.
“You look a little down. Are you alright?” Jiang Jun asked.
He sighed. “I am wondering if this is all a bit pointless.”
“Don’t say that. We haven’t even finished looking yet.”
There really didn’t seem to be anything to say in response, so he stayed silent. But she was too observant not to notice his sour mood. He felt himself being pulled along to what appeared to be a children’s stand. Jiang Jun grabbed something that looked like a smiling face and before he could react, she had stuck it onto his cheek.
“Cheer up,” she said.
He didn’t want to smile, he really didn’t, but he couldn’t hold it in. Jiang Jun was adorable.
“Okay, fine. I will try not to give up too early.”
“Good.”
As he removed the sticker on his face and placed it on his shirt, voices in the background caught his attention. Two disciples were standing well away from the crowds. The mention of a sect reignited his hope but he strained to hear what they were saying. He followed the men behind one of the mini museums, with Jiang Jun trailing behind with confusion.
They rounded the building but found no sign of the disciples. It didn’t surprise him.
However, he did notice a small nondescript building tucked away from the others. It had an eerie aura, like it held the secrets of the long past, perhaps because it did not have the shiny restoration look the others did. Either way, it was the only place the disciples could have gone, so Tantai Jin headed toward it and stepped inside.
Initial impressions were that he’d overestimated the importance of the building, as they found mainly storage items. The disciples were also nowhere to be found. Then Jiang Jun stumbled into a wall and found a concealed door. It made sense - Tantai Jin knew this small space did not account for the size of the building.
The next room looked even more dilapidated. Restoration equipment was scattered about: ladders, paint and all manner of things.
They heard footsteps and Jiang Jun panicked, pulling him into a nearby alcove before they were discovered.
There was very little room, forcing his body to press tightly against hers as they hid. Jiang Jun jostled and pushed into him unintentionally, and he felt himself become hard. He had never been someone who cared much about embarrassment or propriety, and to be honest, he had wanted Susu to know how she made him feel. But this situation was different: Jiang Jun was Susu but she also wasn’t, so this attraction was…inappropriate.
When the footsteps near the entrance passed, she quickly put space between them.
“Come on, this way,” she whispered, heading further inside the building.
It took a moment to get out of his thoughts.
“Are you coming?” she asked as she walked back towards him.
He nodded and began to follow her, but she had clearly noticed the change in his demeanor. They carried on until they reached the end of the room, opening the sliding door into a hallway, and heading into another large back room. Inside they found a plethora of scrolls, all very old.
“I wonder what’s in all these?”
When Jiang Jun yet again didn’t receive a response, she rounded on him.
“Tantai Jin,” she said with a sigh. “Men have erections. Stop being awkward about it.”
What should he say to that? Nothing, he supposed. Anything he said would just make it worse. The awkwardness of the situation was swiftly forgotten as Tantai Jin began to look around the room.
There were many artefacts and ancient writings. One passage on the wall caught his interest. It was engraved directly into the metal.
“In the year two thousand and twenty, a great cataclysm will end the world,” he read aloud.
Jiang Jun was startled. “Tantai Jin. Can you read the rest?”
This puzzled him. “Can you not read it?”
“The text is a little ancient,” she admitted.
Of course. That made sense given his earlier struggle with finding the right characters to search the internet. He continued to skim the remainder of the text, but each line just made him more concerned. Jiang Jun seemed to notice.
“Tantai Jin?” she asked. “What does it say?”
“It is not known whether the cataclysm will be natural or spiritual in nature, but it will leave the world uninhabitable.
Scholars believe the decline of spiritual energy is making the world unstable. Others believe the world’s karma is unbalanced. Some solutions suggest reverting to a simpler style of living, others insist we must seek to restore the gods of old.
This debate has been going on for many years but no solution has yet been found.”
“Why would they hide this?” Jiang Jun asked. “Are they afraid it will frighten people?”
He could tell that Jiang Jun was alarmed but not entirely convinced. However, Tantai Jin very much was . He was starting to wonder if this was more evidence for an alternate timeline. Perhaps Yuan Shuai became the devil god in this time instead and ended the world. Or maybe the Tongbei dao was opened and Yuan Shuai didn’t awaken to stop it, meaning the world ended. Regardless of the situation, they didn’t have much time. There was no information on when during the year the cataclysm would happen.
“Tantai Jin? Are you believing this?” she prompted.
“Aren’t you?”
She sighed. “I am curious but I also wonder if this is up there with Aztec or Baba Yanga predictions. None of those came true.”
“Who?”
“Right, I forget you wouldn’t know them. They always predict the end of the world, and it’s never happened when they said it would.”
“Have you considered that could be because people stopped it?”
“No, but I also never thought that you’d be in Yuan Shuai’s body either. I’m not sure we can rely on my judgement right now.”
He appreciated her willingness to adapt her worldview in light of the current situation.
“We should search the room for more information,” he said.
On the wall near the windows, there rested a few trunks, one of which was ajar. He approached the open trunk whilst Jiang Jun looked on the opposite side of the room. There seemed to be more historical documents and other items inside.
Tantai Jin pulled the lid open, gently laying it against the wall, and began to rifle through the contents. He barely noticed Jiang Jun until he could feel her breath next to him.
“Did you find anything?” she asked.
He admitted that he hadn’t, so she reached in as well and began to dig through the items. After a few more minutes of searching, he noticed a scroll in an intricate casing resting at the bottom and pulled it out.
Immediately Tantai Jin did not like it. There was something about it that didn’t feel right. It was held inside a container with a series of symbols on it which could be changed. He turned it around a few times, examining its outer shell, before attempting to open it with blunt force. Jiang Jun grabbed his arm to stop him before he could.
“This is a codex. It’s one of the ones that if you try to force it open, it will dissolve the parchment inside.”
“That’s suspicious.”
“Maybe not. It could just be really old.”
“To put a scroll inside a protective casing like this means there is something very important inside - something no one but the intended recipient should see.”
There was nothing else of interest in the trunk so he stood, taking the codex with him.
“Are you actually going to steal it?”
“No, I’m not stealing it, and I’ll show you why.”
Holding it up and turning it around, he showed her why it had caught his eye in the first place. Engraved into the codex were the characters for the emperor of Jing.
“That's just a title, held by many people,” she argued. “It doesn’t mean it was for you.”
With a smug smirk, he pointed to the smaller characters underneath, which read ‘Tantai Jin’.
Jiang Jun turned up her lip and he knew he’d won this argument.
“So you think someone meant it for you, or at least this timeline’s version of you.”
“Whatever the case, I intend to find out.”
“But you have no clues. You need a code.”
“Then I’ll find the code.”
“Tantai Jin, the clues for the codex could be anywhere! It’ll be like searching for a needle in the ocean!”
“I like a challenge,” he said.
“Of course you do,” she said. “What did I expect, really? We should go. We’ve delayed here long enough.”
He tucked the codex away in his jacket and they returned to the door, pulling it ajar to check for anyone nearby. When it was clear, they made their way through the halls and snuck out the back entrance, heading around the building and rejoining the other tourists as though they’d never left.
Before he could suggest their next action, Jiang Jun pulled him toward the main temple where one of the priestesses was talking to a group.
“Qi is a fundamental part of your being,” the priestess said.
They joined and listened to the women talk about qi and balance. Tantai Jin rolled his eyes and fought back the urge to correct her. Then she began to talk about the mind-spirit-body connections and he found himself suspicious. The woman didn’t go into much detail, instead handing out a piece of paper with something about a lesson. He analysed it carefully but there was nothing of use written on it.
Jiang Jun approached the woman as she finished her talk.
“That was all very interesting. I have some questions.”
“Of course. How can I help?”
“You mentioned qi, balance, and meditation. Where would cultivation fit into that? Is it a real concept?”
If cultivation wasn’t real, Tantai Jin would have expected the woman to laugh, and she did, but she hesitated first. It had been just a second, one he would have missed if he hadn’t been analysing her already. Was he thinking too hard?
“Cultivation? Like Xianxia cultivation?” she said with an amused tone. “Everyone asks about that nowadays.”
“And?” Jiang Jun said. “Is it possible?”
“No, of course not. The only cultivation is meditation. If you’re interested in the balance within and learning how to achieve that, please do consider joining our sessions.”
“Thank you,” Jiang Jun said. “But I have another question.”
The woman folded her arms and smiled with amusement. “Sure.”
“Are past lives real?”
Tantai Jin had already answered that for Jiang Jun, so he knew this must be her way of prodding the woman for information. It worked. The disciple seemed to genuinely be considering the question.
“Yes, we believe they are. Why?”
Tantai Jin spoke up this time.
“Have you encountered a situation where a soul from the past is exchanged with the soul from the future?”
“That would be quite the situation,” she said. “But theoretically, it is possible I suppose. It is a very odd question. Why do you ask?”
“It’s nothing,” he said curtly. “Never mind.”
Of course this priestess couldn’t help - what was he thinking? It was frustrating. All these concepts that were central to his existence were a joke to these people.
Before she could say anything further, Tantai Jin left, trotting angrily in the opposite direction. Jiang Jun ran after him.
“Hey!” she shouted as she caught up. “Where are you going?”
“To get away from this fake temple,” he muttered.
She grasped his arm gently. “Tantai Jin, I know this is difficult for you but we haven’t finished looking around.”
“Is there a point?” he asked crossly. “We won’t get any answers. Even you don’t believe this cataclysm is a threat.”
“That isn’t completely true…” she said.
“Cataclysm?” an older man’s voice sounded. “What cataclysm?”
They looked up to see an elder in traditional robes nearby.
“The great cataclysm predicted for this year,” Tantai Jin said.
The man tilted his head with suspicion. “Where did you hear about that?”
“Never mind. What do you know about it?”
“I know that it’s absolute nonsense,” the elder said as he turned to walk away.
“Is it the Tongbei Dao?” he asked loudly, intending to provoke the man.
It didn’t have the intended effect. Instead, the elder began to chuckle.
“The Tongbei Dao? The Devil God’s weapon? You youngsters should stop believing in fairy tales.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Well that’s because I don’t have time to entertain the delusions of those who believe xianxia dramas are real.”
There was that word again - delusion. It wound him up more than normal, given it had been Jiang Jun’s first description of his situation.
“If you had a fraction of the knowledge that I have, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
This seemed to greatly irritate the elderly priest and his face began to flush red. Tantai Jin had hit a sore spot, it seemed.
“What knowledge? You all think there are some hidden secrets that will make you powerful and you come looking here for shortcuts to power and success. Bah.”
If he’d had his qi, Tantai Jin would have performed one of Xiaoyao sect’s techniques just to shut the man up. Instead he would have to wound with his words.
“I think that Ji Ze would be disappointed to have such close minded disciples,” he said.
Tantai Jin turned to walk away, pulling Jiang Jun along toward the exit. She wrenched her wrist out of his hand.
“I know you’re angry but don’t take it out on me.”
He sighed. “I don’t even know what to think anymore.”
“Well we found out about the Great Cataclysm.”
“We found out nothing, and you think it is nonsense anyway.”
“I never said that. Stop putting words in my mouth. And why are you so unhappy? That scroll with your name on it might have a lead.”
They continued their walk toward the car and he noticed that the sun was lower in the sky. They had been here for longer than he’d realised.
“If we start driving now,” Jiang Jun said, “we should be able to make it to the temple of Chu Huang.”
“I’ve had enough of these fake temples with fake priests,” he muttered.
His annoyance seemed to amuse her.
“Tantai Jin, you really do pout like Yuan Shuai. Come on, stop throwing a tantrum.”
They passed by a stand giving out talismans and the priestess greeted them. Jiang Jun approached, accepting the fulu that was offered and giving thanks.
“This one you’ve given me is a little different from the others,” she said. “Why?”
“You seem to need something a little different.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I heard you talking about cultivation,” the priestess said.
“Yes, the disciple further inside spoke to us about it,” Jiang Jun said hurriedly, trying to cut off that conversation. “We know it’s all fake.”
“Do you?” the priestess said with mirth in her eyes. “Not all temples believe the same things.”
“What do you believe?” Jiang Jun asked.
“That is not the right question,” she said.
“Then what is the right question?” Tantai Jin asked with annoyance.
“Where should you go next?”
The more this woman spoke, the more Tantai Jin analysed her. But he found nothing remarkable - standard hanfu, if a kind he’d never seen, and no innate markings or unique traits that would give her away as a disciple. Perhaps this was just something she did to tourists to give another temple some business.
He reflected that he was becoming more cynical with each day.
“Where should we go next?” Jiang Jun asked, deciding to play the game.
“There is a temple which is not listed on Baidu maps. It’s a couple of hours drive away from here, but it is for a younger goddess, one who was rumoured to be born after all the true gods had fallen."
Tantai Jin raised an eyebrow. “What is the name of the goddess?”
“Yu Ling.”
He felt every muscle in his body tense. Yu Ling? Susu’s immortal name? This was Susu’s temple!
“I see that you recognise the name,” the priestess said. “If you allow me your phone, I can put a pin on your map.”
Jiang Jun handed over her phone and the woman placed a marker on the place where the temple should be. As they headed to leave, Tantai Jin felt his hope return.
“It’s Susu’s temple isn’t it?” she asked.
He nodded.
“We need to go there,” he said, glancing at the sky. “But it’ll be sundown soon.”
“If this pin is correct, it’s too far for us to drive today. Tomorrow I have to work, and you can’t get there on your own. I’ll take a day off as soon as I can and we’ll drive there.”
She paused and he faced her, wondering what had her worried.
“Tantai Jin, just…don’t get your hopes up. This could be someone luring us into a bad situation. We need to be careful.”
He could have laughed at the irony. “Get my hopes up? You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I will do everything in my power to get you home,” she said. “I promise.”
The discussion had gone around in circles and Yuan Shuai was quickly tiring of it. If this was a usual work meeting he would have corralled them into a conclusion by now, but his lack of background knowledge put him at a disadvantage.
“We’re about halfway through the library,” Luo Guiying said. “But we've yet to find anything.”
“It’s the same for us with god realm,” Susu admitted. “We've got Mo Nv searching the library in the devil palace. She’s been instructed to report directly to us if she finds anything."
“This isn't looking good, Susu. What will we do if we can't stop the Tongbei Dao? More die by the day,” Xun Hua said.
“The information we’re looking for may be in the human realm,” she admitted.
“But then how will we find it?” Teng Yazhu, leader of Yaowang Valley asked. “We cannot possibly search everywhere.”
They all let out a breath, knowing it would be difficult to scan the entire human realm before irreversible damage was done.
“What if we sent our most trusted demons and immortals to mitigate the damage? If a demon is accompanied by an immortal I would think the help would be welcomed,” Susu suggested.
Most of the sect leaders seemed apprehensive about that suggestion.
“Now you want us to work with demons?” Cen spat. “Will no one see sense?”
Zang Lin spoke for Xiaoyao sect. “There are some of ours who would be willing.”
Sect Leader Cen regarded him with disgust but it didn’t seem to bother Zang Lin.
“Hengyang sect as well.”
The confirmations went around the room, aside from Chixiao sect, and Yuan Shuai took great satisfaction in just how much that bothered Cen Haoran.
“What do you think?” Susu suddenly asked, jolting him out of his gloating.
He took a moment to consciously revert to the older way of talking.
“We can choose some devils if you want to do the same,” he said, addressing the room. “We will also need to select people to search the human realm.”
“Then it’s settled,” Xun Hua said. “We will make our selections and wait to hear from you.”
“We should assess some strategic locations to send them - those which are the worse affected,” Wu Tao said.
“We have already been keeping an eye on the worst-hit areas,” Xun Hua said. “We will need five pairs to start with, for the protection task. I would recommend three pairs for searching.”
They all nodded in agreement.
“We will carry on with our search in the god and devil realms for the solution to the Tongbei Dao,” Susu said. “You can inform us if you come across anything in the immortal libraries.”
Zang Lin seemed to have one final point and it was allowed.
“I have an idea. You claim to have subdued Chu Mo. Do you have his memories?”
That took Yuan Shuai aback. He looked at Susu for guidance.
“Not at present,” she said. “Why?”
Zang Lin seemed disappointed. “I had hoped perhaps he could remember how the formation was created - this may give a clue how to unravel it.”
They could easily call Tantai Jin. He said he had Chu Mo’s memories. Yuan Shuai didn’t think they should be dismissing this so easily.
“We may be able to find out,” he said, urging her to understand.
Thankfully she got the hint. “We will see what we can find out.”
The meeting convened, and everyone began to leave. They approached Xun Hua.
“Devil god. Lady of pure spirit,” she acknowledged.
They bowed their heads as well.
“I have a request,” Susu said. “I need to access the sect leaders library.”
“Susu, do you not trust us?” she asked, only partly serious.
“I do, but this is…another matter.”
Yuan Shuai knew from earlier that Susu was hoping to look for information about getting him home.
“I will get a key for you," Xun Hua said.
He meandered around the hall while they waited. Suddenly Yuan Shuai was turned around by the man he recognised from before as Zang Lin.
Oh no. This could go very wrong. What if he asks about things I don’t know?
“Cang Jiumin,” he said. “It is a relief to know you did not succumb to the darkness like we once thought. I speak on behalf of myself and our sect brothers when I offer my apologies in judging you.”
What should he say to that?
“Thank you,” he said. “But I played the role well. You couldn’t have known I planned to sacrifice myself.”
“No, and I admit my grief prevented me from pressing further. But I have to ask. I know you have great mental fortitude, my friend, but are you certain that you have not been misled into complacency by Chu Mo?”
Tantai Jin had been sure, hadn't he? So Yuan Shuai knew he should put on the same confidence.
“I am certain,” he said, trying to mimic Tantai Jin's demeanour.
“That may be so, but you also said you do not have Chu Mo’s memories.”
He didn't but Tantai Jin did. He couldn't tell that to Zang Lin though.
“If you had truly ascended and were one with Chu Mo, you would have them, would you not?”
Damn it.
Zang Lin wasn't going to let this go, not if he thought Cang Jiumin was in danger.
“Maybe I’m not meant to get his memories,” Yuan Shuai said. “It's not like any of us really knows how this works.”
“Ever since that day on the plains, you have used an odd manner of speech. At times I barely understand you.”
Great. Yuan Shuai thought he had been doing well with adapting to the ancient vernacular. Had everyone noticed his dialect?
He already spoke the common speech, Cantonese, and his home dialect fluently, and knew enough about other dialects that he had always been able to adapt when doing business. It had made him complacent.
But he had an idea.
“It's how the demons speak,” he lied. “I just picked it up.”
Zang Lin narrowed his eyes and looked at Yuan Shuai with suspicion.
“We have had no problems understanding the demons when they fought us. You are lying.”
He sighed. Now what?
“Cang Jiumin, you must tell us the truth. Is Chu Mo using you? Is he really the one in control?”
Susu suddenly got between him.
“Zang Lin, I thought you supported us! You sound like sect leader Cen.”
“Something is not right, Lady of Spirituality, and I think you know it. Keeping this from us puts the world and Cang Jiumin in danger. I would hope that you still want to protect both."
“Why do you think he is Chu Mo?”
“My dialect,” Yuan Shuai said. “And not having Chu Mo's memories.”
She let out a soft sigh, and he knew she was thinking.
“How about this? Let me test you. If you pass, I will believe you are in control, at least for the moment.”
“Fine,” Susu agreed.
Yuan Shuai glared.
Fine? No, not fine! Not before knowing what the test was.
“Then let's begin. Answer the questions. Cang Jiumin, when we first met and you told us your name, why were we surprised?”
I don’t know.
He looked at Susu who shook her head.
“Too difficult? Fine. What was your first weapon?”
I don't know this either.
Zang Lin looked somewhat smug now.
“Last question. Recently you made a breakthrough in your cultivation. How did you achieve this?”
I give up.
When Yuan Shuai didn't answer, he continued.
“Let me give you a hint. It had to do with a certain artefact.”
“He restored the heart guarding scale after it broke from blocking the last three soul-shattering nails from embedding into his heart.”
“Correct, but Cang Jiumin didn't answer this.”
Yuan Shuai knew they were caught now. He simply didn't know these things and wouldn't be able to provide any answer that would satisfy Zang Lin.
“Stop!” Susu said, finally having enough. “There's a reason he's like this but it isn't Chu Mo. I need you to trust us.”
“I do trust you, Lady Yu Ling, but I cannot keep a secret that could bring the downfall of the realms.”
“Something happened and he lost his memory. I've been helping him remember.”
“The memory loss could be Chu Mo's doing. When he remembers, we might end up facing the devil god again,” he said. “The other sect leaders should be made aware of this.”
He turned to leave, and it seemed like everything would unravel.
“Wait,” Yuan Shuai said, surprising even himself. “I'll tell you the truth.”
Susu glared at him as she folded her arms and tilted her head in question.
“Memory loss won't reassure him,” he explained. “The sect leaders would just be watching me with more scrutiny, waiting for me to snap.”
Yuan Shuai turned to face Zang Lin.
“You're right. I'm not Cang Jiumin, but I'm also not Chu Mo.”
Zang Lin’s eyes narrowed. “Then who are you?”
“My name is Yuan Shuai, and Tantai Jin is my past life.”
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