Chapter Text
Luo Binghe was thriving on Qing Jing Peak, unlike the first time she'd been admitted as one of its disciples, on a day in the far future that had technically never happened now. It still left its mark on her, regardless. Being Qing Jing Peak's head disciple was everything she'd ever wanted as a young girl, her talents acknowledged, her efforts praised and her peers orbiting around her in a locus of amiability.
She didn't just have her Shizun's approval, she would go so far as to say she had her favouritism as well.
The problem was that it wasn't the Shizun she actually wanted to impress. No, that Shizun was nowhere to be seen, a fact which had Luo Binghe grinding her teeth behind her practiced smile and increasingly unsatisfied despite her objective success.
She'd arrived in the past a little under half a decade ago, hunted down an artefact that was capable of reverting those who touched it to their younger states, both physically and mentally. This was supposed to include memories, but Luo Binghe had already devised an array to avoid this with the help of several experts before coming into the past. What would be the point of it all if she couldn't remember who she was searching for, the whole reason she'd bothered to figure out time travel in the first place?
She'd thought to arrive at Cang Qiong at the same time Shen Qingqiu- Shen Jiu was supposed to, so that they could be peers. Maybe her Shizun was already cruel by this point, given the unfortunate death of the Qiu family, but Luo Binghe didn't care. She'd clearly still had enough heart to be capable of some care, as evidenced by her reaction to Yue Qingyuan's death.
Terribly sorry, Zhangmen-shibo, but this Luo Binghe would get there first this time.
Unfortunately, it seemed she'd be even more of a doting older Shijie than she'd thought, given that it had been four years and Shen Jiu was still nowhere to be found. Luo Binghe was turning eighteen in just over half a year! She couldn't help but hope that maybe this round of initiate trials would be the one, but that was what she had thought every time thus far.
She could have gone to the Qiu Manor in hopes of saving her old husband's family from their unfortunate fate, but frankly Luo Binghe had chosen her priorities just by going back in time and abandoning her seat of power, and if Qiu Haitang crawled out of the woodwork to act against Shen Jiu like she had the first time around, Luo Binghe would simply get rid of her.
She was determined to make this work. The other her had won her Shizun's regard, so it was possible. And Luo Binghe was someone who had never failed to overcome any challenge presented to her.
So could Shen Jiu just show up already so Luo Binghe could spoil her to death?!
*
She clenched her fists in frustration, trying to stop her disappointment from showing up on her face. None of these children were Shen Jiu, so they were all useless. A peak at her Shizun revealed she hadn't noticed.
She eyed the empty spot beside the Qiong Ding Peak Lord - the current Sect Leader - curiously. She hadn't seen Yue Qi in quite some time, be it in passing or at sect-wide events, but to go so far as to miss the initiate trials?
She was beginning to understand why Shen Jiu was so sick of the man. All that false smiling amicability would have been enough to put her off on its own, even if she weren't already irritated that he of all people had somehow managed to capture some sliver of her Shizun's heart.
Was it the gifts? Luo Binghe could do gifts! Granted, her means were much smaller as a head disciple rather than as an Emperor.
She couldn't help but grit her teeth every time she had to interact with the man. It didn't help that he was one of the few people Luo Binghe believed was capable of beating her in a fight. If she could stop him from developing his ridiculous interest in Shen Jiu, that would be best. It shouldn't be too hard, given that she was already Qing Jing's head disciple, removing any need for Shen Jiu to speak to Yue Qi for sect business.
Luo Binghe could shield her just fine, physically or otherwise, so there was no need for Yue Qingyuan at all. Hell, in the end, he'd failed to properly shield her at all! Luo Binghe would never let anyone spread rumours about Shen Jiu, and she certainly wouldn't let them lock her up either, no matter what she'd done.
Yue Qi ended up reappearing a short while after the initiate trials, with his legendary sword, to her surprise. Huh. Luo Binghe had been under the impression that Xuan Su was made by Wan Jian and had just been stored in a vault or something, but maybe he'd actually had to go somewhere else to retrieve it?
She'd seriously underestimated the stern seriousness of his otherwise neutral teacher, if that were the case. What a harsh task for such a young disciple! Not that Luo Binghe really cared what happened to him. Let him die for all she cared, then he could never cause problems for her or Shen Jiu. She supposed it would be necessarily harder to become the successor of the Sect Leader rather than a regular Peak Lord, but her new Shizun certainly hadn't required anything of the sort from her.
Getting his sword must have really taken it out of him, she thought, eyeing his subtly haggard appearance and the dull, flat look in his eyes. He'd always been a placid man, but the yawning abyss Luo Binghe had suspected him of hiding underneath his geniality seemed closer to the surface than ever before.
But Yue Qi was back, just a few months ahead of the Immortal Alliance Conference. After someone won once, it was considered polite to avoid taking first place a second time, so even if he was participating with the rest of them, she knew he wouldn't be trying overly hard. Neither could she, having already taken the top spot last year.
Unfortunately, she'd failed to predict the little annoyance that would come with that. The newly named Liu Qingge, having earned his position just a few weeks after Yue Qingyuan was given his, loved combat and pretty much nothing else, from what Luo Binghe could tell. He was determined to be a pain in her ass by hounding her for spars all the time, thankfully with no ulterior motive that she could discern. He really did just want to fight.
She'd heard stories about Liu-Qingge-the-older-brother from Liu Mingyan, but her old husband had failed to impress upon her how goddamn irritating he was. Tunnel-visioned and utterly full of himself, Luo Binghe couldn't even avoid him by citing her head disciple duties, because he would just engage her in combat anyway! She summarily knocked him flat on his ass every time he was rude enough to do so, but it never discouraged him from coming back.
And now, he'd taken it upon himself to follow her around Jue Di Gorge begging for a fight. Where's your sense of timing, Liu-shishu? She was beginning to understand why her Shizun had gotten rid of him when she had the chance.
"Shidi, this Luo Binghe cannot fight you right now," she explained with strained patience.
Mercy of mercies, he seemed to have some social awareness, because he didn't just attack her anyway like he would have if they were in Cang Qiong.
"Why not?"
She tried very, very hard not to roll her eyes. She wasn't sure she'd succeeded. "Because we're in the middle of the Immortal Alliance Conference."
"So?"
"So," she emphasised, "The masters are watching."
"Neither of us cares about that," he asserted, very confidently for someone who as far as she knew wasn't privy to the inner workings of her mind.
"It's not appropriate," She declared flatly.
He huffed, breaking away to go seek out one of the monsters in the gorge - like they were supposed to be doing - now that he knew he wouldn't be getting a fight from her.
God, imagine putting up with fifty years of that. She lit a candle in her heart for Shen Jiu. Liu Qingge was another one she'd have to shield her from, clearly.
*
It wasn't until later, after the Conference when they had already returned to the sect, that Luo Binghe would learn from the rumour mill that Yue Qingyuan had never managed to get around to participating in the competition after all.
Apparently, he'd run into the infamous demonic cultivator Wu Yanzi and been saved by a mysterious individual - beautiful and charming, by all the (undoubtedly romanticised) accounts - who was now recovering on Qian Cao.
She didn't pay much mind to the tale at first. It didn't concern her and she didn't see any reason to stick her nose in Yue Qingyuan's business. It was likely that there was such an encounter, but the details had been absurdly exaggerated or misconstrued, as tended to happen. Either way, nothing to do with Luo Binghe.
Of course, she cursed him from the bottom of her heart when she was called by her Shizun to attend to Qing Jing Peak's newest disciple, Shen Jiu, and show her to the girls' dormitory. Luo Binghe spent years waiting for Shen Jiu to show up, and Yue Qingyuan still managed to get ahead of her by sheer coincidence?
She was enraged enough to spit blood. Yue Qingyuan, you undeserving bastard! Luo Binghe will kill you with twenty- no, thirty thousand arrows this time!