Chapter Text
Shen Yuan was not in the habit of being ashamed about his reading material. How could he be? Stallions, harems, trapped in a game world, trapped in a sinking death ship, transmigration, reincarnation, time loop- even those rotten works- he'd give anything a go at least once. He couldn't be a proper reviewer without a wide-ranging and eclectic sense of taste! Without experience! Without suffering . Shen Yuan couldn't have poured out as much hatred, as much vitriol and malice and shame, on those works he disliked without an equal helping of love, of encouragement and compassion and a much-tested ability to see the good in any work, the glimmerings of creativity and intent.
But Proud Immortal Demon Way had been something else, even for him. He'd slogged through the plot holes, the maimed description of A/B/O dynamics, the torturous harem scenes, the eighty-page miscarriage and baby stealing subplots, the complete lack of creativity and effort. Its only good point had been that the protagonist's journey was a deeply moving and empathetic one- shunned all his life for his omega sex and worse, harassed, beaten and more than once nearly assaulted for it and then thrown into the Endless Abyss to become meat, Luo Binghe had overcome everything to become strong- poverty, abuse, torture, betrayal, sabotage, hell, gender . No one could help but cheer when Luo Binghe castrated another vacantly cruel alpha who had foolishly desired what was not freely given, often by impotent force, and hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views had concurred. No one could help feeling a little heart-fist clench of satisfaction when Luo Binghe used his despised demon heritage to enact justice, punish the wicked, and incidentally become the god-king of all the earth while he was about it, no big deal.
It hadn't hurt that he'd done all that while by a) being so rampantly, skirt-liftingly attractive that alpha women chased him and demanded he be their mate exclusively and b) being so rampantly, skirt-liftingly attractive that all of these alpha women promptly rolled over under him and demanded he give them a good [BEEP]-ing to instead.
Luo Binghe was a good boy, and never disappointed a sister who asked nicely. This was fine. There was always the scroll button.
But did he ever take a mate? No! The traumas and betrayal he'd experienced in his early life had blackened a pure, loving heart, turning him into an omega with a hatred of being dominated. Luo Binghe used his devastatingly attractive looks, skills and smell- multiplied a millionfold by his Heavenly Demon lineage- to manipulate and charm everyone around him, not just alphas. But he never succumbed to any of them, not even his loving and beloved wives. 20 million words on, it seemed like he never would.
Was there such a thing as an A/B/O novel that didn't end on an omega being mated by their one true love, their fated partner? That fucking Airplane towards the sky! Couldn't even get the genre he was writing in correct! Yet that was the mystery that had kept Shen Yuan reading! When would Liu Mingyan and the protagonist bone down ? Even after they'd had their first five children and the harem had hit the triple digits, Shen Yuan had kept reading lured on by Airplane's glimmers of plot, backstory and writing ability slightly above that of a concussed toddler.
And because he'd read all 20 million words... and extras.. and shoddy half-assed bonus content... Shen Yuan knew full well the fate of this character.
Shen Qingqiu was a scum villain alpha who laid hands on his female students, abused and kicked out his male omega students, and murdered rival alphas left, right and center. His punishment, when Luo Binghe got around to it, was...
Shen Qingqiu came back to himself with Yue Qingyuan at his bedside asking him if he was ok.
Ok? Who would be ok? Whose twisted brain had even come up with A/B/O in the first place? How was he going to survive this off-kilter, heartless world in which he was marked for a terrible death?
He steeled himself for his first meeting with Luo Binghe. Mingfan was a beta, and had in fact beaten out several more promising students for the role simply because he was not an alpha. That was fine. Shen Qingqiu didn't get any smell off him stronger than the general smell of teenage boy. It was a little stronger than he would have thought, but perhaps that was his cultivation senses, or the fact that smelling other people had never been something that ever, ever, occurred to Shen Yuan to do in his previous life.
Liu Binghe knelt on the floor, and besides the instant, heart-piercing pain that Shen Yuan felt over the sorry state of the protagonist- just a child! Such a soft and tender embryo! So pretty, so pure-eyed, so pitiable and so dangerous- he took the surreptitious chance to draw in a good lungful of air and brace himself for a range of unrealistic animalistic urges, enough to knock out a normal man upon encountering it and enchant a continent of women.
It... didn't smell like anything, really.
Shen Qingqiu felt like laughing with relief, and covered it up with a sneer as he flung the medicine at Luo Binghe. Of course Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had exaggerated! Besides, Binghe had not yet gone through puberty, the training of the Dream Demon elder, or even tumbled into bed with Ning Yingying yet. His demonically-enhanced appeal was barely sprouted, just a bud! There would be plenty of time to build up a mental tolerance- and besides, Bing ge had never been interested in charming his old master.
Shen Qingqiu could brace himself for the protagonist's golden omega aura- and hope to all hell he didn't turn into a human stick in the process.
.0.
"A-Luo, you're back!" said Ning Yingying cheerfully. Luo Binghe smiled at her. Ning shijie was one of the few alphas on Qing Jing Peak, and still treated him kindly even after he had moved into Shizun’s house. (Luo Binghe paused to gently savour the words, into Shizun’s house.) She sniffed the air, then sighed in relief. She knelt by the courtyard and said, "Shizun really... he doesn't..." she peered sideways at him. “I’ll have to work hard to get to his level!”
Luo Binghe refused to look at her. It was easy to tell that their master was never affected by him- if he had been, they all lived on the same mountain peak, it would have been hard to miss. Not that Shizun would ever do something so inappropriate to his young students! Not Shen Qingqiu, who always smiled and tucked Binghe into blankets with soothing brews and touched Binghe's warm cheeks with a cool hand, asking so kindly how he felt today, graceful, elegant, and untouchable. Binghe would have died rather than opened his mouth to tell Shizun exactly what he was feeling, where he ached and throbbed, how graphically and bluntly the Dream Demon described the remedy to Binghe's monthly troubles.
"If I still had a body," said the Elder caustically, "I would be crawling over the rocks with my teeth to get to you. Maybe your master is an eunuch. What about that human girl, nice girl, just your age, you could get this over with so quickly! Your heat is also perfect time to decapitate your enemies, by the way, boy, while they're still drooling over your scent. Remember, the strong demon is the one who survives! And you're a good strong bloodline. Somehow. Your heats are only going to get more potent with time."
No, Binghe could never tell Shizun. He would simply have to work harder, increase his cultivation and become as pure and strong-willed as Shizun, who refused to even let poison slow him down!
.0.
"Elder brother lets that off the mountain?" said Kuxing Peak's master, sticking his head into one of the many (many) pheromone-calming plants that had madly proliferated all over Cang Xiong Sect territory, tended by a battalion of Anding Peak disciples. Even if the only thing Shang Qinghua did for the rest of his life was tend the mysterious plants he'd found from who knows where, he would have been feted as one of the best Peak Lords Anding Peak had ever known. "I know we've checked dozens of times if he's possessed, but is he mad?"
Yue Qingyuan shrugged his shoulders, helplessly. He was always helpless when it came to Shen Qingqiu.
"He's only putting off that much scent because he's coming back here," said Qi Qingqi. "He doesn't do it on my peak." She sighed. She had so many flowers! Half of whom were obsessed with Luo Binghe's obsession with Shen Qingqiu, longing drifting with the leaves on the mountain air, thick enough to choke a Black Moon Rhinoceros Python. She did not think it was healthy. "He's downright frosty."
Shang Qinghua laughed nervously. in his original story, according to Shen Qingqiu’s prejudices, Qing Jing Peak was mostly populated with betas, sure... but the handful of alpha students now adored their master passionately and refused to be parted from him. Shen Qinqiu's quasi-adoption of his formerly least-favoured disciple had at first been viewed with mild alarm, then suspicion, then relief mixed with suspicion and now, pure awe.
“Can it really be that he doesn’t notice?” mused Mu Qingfang. He saw Shen Qingqiu regularly to check on the progress of Without a Cure, and even when his dwelling stank of Luo Binghe, unfulfilled lust seeping through the walls, Shen Qingqiu never reacted.
"Of course he doesn't notice," said Liu Qingge, unexpectedly entering the lists on behalf of Shen Qingqiu. "The boy is his student. Otherwise would be inappropriate."
"If he noticed," said Qi Qingqi bluntly, "We wouldn't be subject to this every time that Luo child hits his heat and still insists he should be walking around outside because Shizun needs him and not buried up to his neck in ice water."
"He takes his medicine," said Mu Qingfang. "He's very dedicated to that ."
"There's no fear of him being overwhelmed by normal alphas," said Liu Qingge, mind firmly on Luo Binghe's martial prowess.
"Younger brother Shen must know what he's doing," said Yue Qingyuan gently. He did not need to remind them that it would have been the height of improper behavior to interfere with another Peak's student.
Shang Qinghua highly doubted this, but what could he do? The time of the protagonist's blackening was fast approaching. If they thought it was bad now, wait until... Shang Qinghua didn't want to think about it. Not even Mobei Jun's dubious protection would be enough to escape the shrapnel from that explosion.
.0.
Shen Qingqiu had been having a headache for a few days now, even before uncovering the sowers. Beholding Luo Binghe in that crypt of a brothel, the headache abruptly spiked, and then Shen Qingqiu had his answer: it was his mitochondrial cell's premonition of evil and misfortune.
Luo Binghe was so beautiful. For all the earth-shattering struggles and suffering he'd gone through in the Endless Abyss, not a bit of it was visible on his face. It was only because Shen Qingqiu had been prepared by thousands of words of Airplane's execrable prose to find Luo Binghe the most alluring omega in existence that he was able to face the light traveling gently into Luo Binghe's expression with any grace and equanimity.
Because both Luo Binghe's sweet, hopeful smile and his sudden reappearance heralded Shen Qingqiu's death.
Why are you like this, Shen Qingqiu wanted to cry out to him. I prepared you as much as I could, I made you strong, I've tried to make you upright and I've never pried into your dealings with your wives. You used to be so cute. I raised you like my child I knew was going to grow up to kill me. Can't you find it in your heart not to torture me to death?
Although Luo Binghe had always been handsome and popular, the center of attention, Shen Qingqiu could tell that he had awoken his demonic attraction powers with his unlocked bloodline in the Endless Abyss.
The Huan Hua palace disciples surrounding him all began to pant, their eyes going glassy with adoration and lust. Gongyi Xiao visibly steeled himself to escort Shen Qingqiu out of the room- such a good boy! if only your relative lack of attraction to Luo Binghe was not one of the factors marking you as cannon fodder!- and Shen Qingqiu fled to wonder miserably how Luo Binghe planned to destroy him.
.0.
Ah. This was how. The sowers were trapped and snarling, and when Shen Qingqiu lifted his head to call out Luo Binghe for his manipulations, Liu Qingge choked and lunged for Shen Qingqiu's fan, gripping his hand tightly and fanning both their faces with vigour. "Shixiong...!" he forced out.
Shen Qingqiu looked at Liu Qingge with concern. So Luo Binghe was going double, no, triple, no, ten times the intensity with his alluring scent and aura? (He dimly remembered.) Dammit! He'd been counting on having Liu Shidi on his side all along, what would he do if Luo Binghe's overpowering demonic appeal seduced Bai Zhan Peak's master straight to his side? It was very possible! It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea what Liu Qingge’s second gender was. Alpha, probably, by the way he reacted to Luo Binghe’s aura. "Calm yourself," Shen Qingqiu whispered behind the fan. "It's just a scent."
Being pulled up by his senior brother like this in public- even behind a fan, where they could have been whispering anything to each other, the noise muffled by wooden ribs, silk sleeves and hot, intimate breath- made Liu Qingge's face stiffen back into his reliable scowl. "I know that!" he snapped, but he moved his arm to Shen Qingqiu's below, holding it with only the slightest tremor in his steel-crushing fingers.
Shen Qingqiu lowered the fan with a sigh to continue to give Liu Qingge the benefit of the circulating air, only to meet Luo Binghe's furious, clenched-teeth glare. There was even a hint of redness in his eyes, almost enough that the bystanders, one and all yearning towards him like flowers towards the sun, looked between them with concern.
Don't be so angry things aren't going to go your way! Your master has been upright and (mostly) avoided the pitfalls of being a molesting asshole! You don't need to be so mad your brother-in-law is still standing by my side! Isn't being the hero here enough for you? You speed-runner, relax a little!
Shen Qingqiu preferred not to think too much about subsequent events. Between the townspeople desperately trying to hold on to their reason as Luo Binghe spoke (his light voice infused with the nobility of his speech like a bell), the PERFECT FUCKING TIMING of Without a Cure acting up inside him, Liu Qingge holding onto his wrist like grim death, and Qiu Huitang sweeping up her beautiful hair to bare a bitemark on the back of her neck, he was almost relieved to go into the water prison. At least there, he could regret his choice of reading material in peace.
.0.
Binghe could not keep himself from clinging to a small hope. Shizun had fled from him in Jinlan City (Shizun could not flee anymore), because he was shocked, surely. Binghe had not properly understood his new appeal fresh from the Endless Abyss, the way that seeing his master again would set his blood on fire, the effect it would have on everyone around Luo Binghe. Even Shizun (even Shizun was flesh and blood, surely). Shizun had assumed wrongly that Binghe was the instigator (of offering to come to Jinlan, so close to Sect territory) and must have been shocked to be accused himself (of belonging to that woman, who called him by a name Luo Binghe did not even know). He had come to the Water Prison to speak with Shen Qingqiu honestly away from prying eyes (to interrogate him with the very demon blood Shizun despised him for), to ask, was that it, was this why? (to see those clear eyes cloud over with desire, which in some people, could look like love) Why are you afraid of me, what have I done (than be this disgusting) to earn your enmity?
He had the best of intentions (and his blood in Shizun’s body). But pulling the ripped robe from Shizun’s body- an accident (to strip his master bare) was too far, and Luo Binghe shrugged off his robe to offer it to Shen Qingqiu before he remembered it would be saturated in his scent.
Shizun tipped his shoulder and it spilled to the floor, the look on his perfect face blankly disdainful.
"Shizun really abhors omegas," said Luo Binghe bitterly. "Especially omegas of the demon race." He couldn’t help it. Looking at his discarded robe (the white curve of that shoulder, that ridge of bone under skin), Luo Binghe’s emotions rose and with them, his desire to dominate (destroy), his heritage of desire.
The widening of Shizun’s eyes (nostrils) looked a little bit like fear.
“Demon heats are a little different, Shizun,” Luo Binghe said pleasantly. He pulled open his inner robe, baring his neck and chest, letting the (lewd) scent spill into the air. “Did you know?”
That look on Shizun’s face, like (burning) he’d been burned!
“Will you talk to my body, Shizun?” inquired Luo Binghe lightly. “Maybe you’ll give me a different answer.”
“Binghe,” said Shizun. “You… you…” his face was flushed, even up to his ears (Binghe loved those ears), his breathing was harsh, and the blood in his body pumped faster (how had Binghe lived without knowing his master’s veins from within) (where he was) (his state of being) (who could touch him) (everything).
Luo Binghe prepared himself to step forward, mouth dry. He would forgive Shizun everything (everything), and he couldn’t believe this had worked. If he had learned anything in the Demon Realm, it was that the body would betray the best of stated intentions and that no one, demon or human, could deny Luo Binghe anything because of who (what) Luo Binghe was.
“You should only do this… with someone you love!” Shizun’s eyes were closed, his teeth clenched with his endurance (embarrassment), shrinking back inside his bonds.
Luo Binghe stopped dead.
Both their breaths still ragged, Shen Qingqiu did not know when Binghe left him, miserably dragging on his clothes over flesh so filthy, it did not deserve to be loved.
.0.
Luo Binghe was still covered in dream blood, still bent in the wrong way, and still had been cradling Shen Qingqiu’s dead body for five years, but being clutched by a crying Luo Binghe was soothing, somehow. It was a single moment of rightness in a world of injustice and unfilled plot holes.
“I was wrong,” sobbed Luo Binghe. “I know I was wrong. I knew that you hadn’t done those things, I know you self-destructed to help me.”
Shen Qingqiu desperately wanted to get free and help himself. He had to make it clear, absolutely clear! Just because Binghe could be cute and act remorseful in the dreamscape, there was no way that this could happen. The mere thought of topping the protagonist made the Luo river run in his veins. But Luo Binghe kept talking, a torrent of words.
“I knew you didn’t want me, but I tried to tempt you anyway. I know that was wrong. I know you didn’t like it. But I promise, I wasn’t doing it on purpose! I didn’t even know why it was happening or why it was so strong until my seal was undone. I- I didn’t know how to control it, I just- I wanted-
"Shizun, why don't you want me, not even a little bit?" Luo Binghe begged, low and miserable, speaking into his shoulder. “What’s wrong with me?”
Shen Qingqiu’s entire body shuddered. It was pitiful, too pitiful! Wasn’t there a whole world to love him? All 613 wives, and countless followers, worshippers and concubines? It wasn’t his- no, Shen Qingqiu amended his thoughts, according to the plot of the novel, according to the evidence of Shen Qingqiu’s eyes, there were still many, many things that were Luo Binghe’s fault, but this was not specifically one of them. Shen Qingqiu had failed him, somehow, somewhere along the line. With this thought, he felt like his own heartbreak points were spiralling.
He patted Luo Binghe’s head.
Against his neck, the dream-smell of Shizun false and unreal, the hand in Luo Binghe’s hair moving of its own volition, warm and certain, unpuppeted by the demon king, Luo Binghe smiled.
.0.
The slopes of Cang Qiong Peak were covered in the pheromone-suppressing blooming trees, and fire, destruction and demons.
“Caught you, Shizun,” said Luo Binghe. The wind seemed to pick up on cue, sending his hair and white flowers flying, framing the joyous, triumphant gleam of his eyes with the sounds of disciples retching as they scrambled for flowers and the adoring sigh of Luo Binghe’s entire army.
It seemed as though years of early exposure had toughened up the Cang Qiong Peak Sect disciples. Hatred and anger set their features further. Luo Binghe also had no interest in turning his powers upon them, at least until a dead man had shown up to stop the fighting.
‘No!” called Ning Yingying. She held a precautionary crushed handful of blossoms to her face, streaked with tears and anger. Her other hand clutched Shen Qingqiu’s sleeve, as though she could rip him from Luo Binghe’s grasp. “Shizun, why does it always have to be you who suffers!”
It’s my fault, Shen Qingqiu silently told her. I read an A/B/O stallion novel when I could have been reading anything with taste, and this is where it got me.
Ming Fan also spoke up, though thankfully from a much safer distance. “Shizun!” he cried, anguished. “Don’t be affected by his demon scent! Even Master Liu is suffering! Don’t give yourself up to that demon!”
Liu Qingge growled. “It doesn’t affect omegas,” he said. “This filthy bastard’s smell only sickens me! Shen Qingqiu! You’re in front of me, but you intend to sacrifice yourself by surrendering your body to him?”
Luo Binghe sneered, “You’re in front of him, but he can’t seem to smell you either?”
...Shen Qingqiu was beginning to get the impression he’d missed a lot, around the specifics of Luo Binghe’s omega aura and his own life at Qing Jing peak.
“I’ll go with you,” he said. In his field of vision he could see Mobei Jun absently stifling Shang Qinghua with his sleeves, Ming Fan holding onto Ning Yingying, Yue Qingyuan, face impossibly grave and hopeless.
And Luo Binghe, looking at him as though the sun was coming over the mountain.
.0.
If anything, the demonic bamboo house had even more of the pheromone-suppressing blooming trees than the outside world. Were they some kind of demonic plant? Had they changed the course of the world by spreading these plants through the peddlers arm of Anding Peak? He supposed it didn't matter.
“Junshang is so wonderful and does smell very good,” said the demons serving as landscape maintenance. “But it is nice to have a break. And we can sell the prunings to the rest of the army, so many perks!”
Shen Qingqiu gloomily jabbed at the SYSTEM menu. Wasn’t there any way out of this? Some reset button? He’d earned so many points, system! There was nothing useful to him here! He'd have given anything for a real understanding of how Proud Immortal Demon Way's alpha stuff even worked- he'd never felt VERY different. Shang Qinghua had only been able to shrug his shoulders and list off the ways it made papapa possible, plentiful and plot-relevant. Maybe Luo Binghe had imprinted on him as the first alpha he smelled after he hit puberty instead of Ning Yingying like a just hatched chicken that had grown up to be an eagle and there was a plant, a flower, a potion somewhere that would reset him to normal. That would let Shen Qingqiu fix all of his terrible mistakes.
He cursed without focusing on the text scrolling in his vision.
SMALL SCENARIO LUXURY PUSHER: PHEROMONE PACK FIRMWARE UPDATE.
INSTALLING.