Chapter Text
Sunlight filtered through the thick foliage overhead, birdsong and the rustling of leaves a backdrop to the quiet progress of the two men through the wood. Here the trees stood thin trunked and barren in their lower branches, as if they'd reserved all their bounty for the upper reaches, spreading limbs both thick and thin outward to capture the most of the light their neighbours competed for in equal abandon. With the turning of the season, a number of said leaves were fading from greens to golds and oranges, some so deep a scarlet he could only remember with a pang the seal as it flickered to life on his disciple's forehead.
Luo Binghe. He tried not to think too hard about him, but it was impossible not to, knowing his role in the young man's suffering and the probable ending he faced at the same young man's hands. The smile in his eyes faded, and his fanning slowed further, until he walked slowly one step behind his current mission partner, mind already a far distance away in time.
Liu Qingge spared a glance when Shen Qingqiu fell more than a step behind, speaking in a brusque manner. "Keep up," he said, "Don't let your mind wander."
Shen Qingqiu blinked, his lips curling up at the corners in a subtle, suggestive way. He fanned himself a little harder, clearing the haze out of his mind and amused on some level by what he considered Liu Qingge's tsundere way of saying, Stop acting lost. He still didn't understand why everyone believed he'd faded in mourning over the loss of Luo Binghe, but he supposed the burial mound of his sword might have been part of the problem, or the way he still called out for his disciple in the mornings before he was awake enough to remember he was gone. It was usually fear that chased that returned awareness, and the numbness of his own inability to change a plotline he found more bullshit having lived through it now than he did in reading through it however long ago it'd been.
Bullshit to which he'd found no other answer, and shut down thoughts wondering if he could have changed anything about it, if only he'd tried harder. Or if he'd considered his own life less precious… but what would have happened if he'd died, preventing Luo Binghe from falling, only to leave a newly unsealed teenager facing the incoming forces of the human cultivation world? Would that have been any different in the end? Maybe one less betrayal, but instead setting up a whole world to be against him over a death he wouldn't have caused?
"Liu-shidi, you needn't worry about your shixiong. I'm as attentive as I need to be with you here."
If it was flattery or simple observation, did it matter which? Liu Qingge was the Cangqiong Sect War God, or Baizhan Peak War God, whatever one wished to refer to him as. Short of Luo Binghe returning at full strength from the Endless Abyss and the Demon Realm he was fated to stumble into first, was there any living cultivator who was his match?
(Part of him wondered what a full on fight between Liu Qingge and Yue Qingyuan would be like. Another part of him lamented that in such a fight, doubtlessly Yue Qingyuan would stand as the more handsome while Liu Qingge would shine as the more beautiful. He sighed in his heart over the manly war god of his imagination, still sending a fond glance at the far too lovely Liu Qingge who was the war god incarnate. Life was full of jests like these.)
Liu Qingge glanced away, breathing out in a sharp, dismissive snort. "It's not a matter of defense," he said. "You said you had a method for identifying where this beast lurked. So identify."
Shen Qingqiu paused in his fanning, then resumed, inwardly sighing. Ah, young master, you could simply state your concerns! He did indeed have a means of identifying where the Penghou causing troubles for the common folk attempting to hunt and forage these two mountains resided, or at least what tree had birthed them. Knowing if the creature lingered around it or not was more Liu Qingge's speciality, and he and every other Peak Lord was equally aware of it. Who regularly went out and hunted down whatever creature was raising a ruckus? Liu Qingge! Not the head of the Scholar's Peak!
Still, if he was inclined to give his shidi face, that was his business. "I see, I see, Liu-shidi is leaving the tracking to this Shen today. If that's the case… duly noted and accepted." He closed his fan with a turn of his wrist and a click, grateful all parts of it cooperated for once and allowed the motion to be smoothly completed. He took several quick steps forward, smoothly leading before Liu Qingge and throwing him a subtle look. "If you please."
Gesturing over his shoulder, Shen Qingqiu set off down the game trail they'd been following, pulling his thoughts together and sending out tendrils of spiritual awareness. From his readings, the trees responsible for producing such a creature as the Penghou had spent anywhere from a hundred to a thousand years gathering spiritual essence. The tree itself would be a beacon of sorts, and the Penghou by extension should share some tying essence of qi to its source tree.
He didn't have to be an excellent tracker to get a sense for which currents of spiritual energy here were strongest and where they flowed. Following those to areas of pooling energy should lead them to the tree, and hopefully toward the creature as well. Or their slow progress across the mountain would attract its attention, as long as Liu Qingge kept his aura contained. Shen Qingqiu's was always held close, far too elegant to go around brandishing his spiritual power without reason.
No, he still hadn't figured out the most opportune moment to try and use spiritual energy to suppress others, and didn't it feel weird anyway? He wasn't uncouth enough for that, he was a scholar! Or at least did his best to give every pretense of being a highly educated individual aloof from the concerns of the world, regardless of the source of his education.
Yes, he knew he failed the aloofness check. No, he wasn't hell bent on fixing it.
Thanks for asking anyway.
Liu Qingge was silent but present at his shoulder, wary as Shen Qingqiu felt their way forward, adjusting direction as the natural flux and flow of the spiritual energy on the mountain shifted around him. Birds and insects alike kept companionable background noise, breezes through leaves and grasses and the times they brushed up against bushes all louder than their footsteps on the ground. A brook babbled in the near distance, found soon enough as Shen Qingqiu's meandering took them to the bank beside it. Once there, he found the brook was more of a stream, surprisingly deep but not wide, coming out of the mouth of a ravine stretching a few metres overhead.
Shen Qingqiu paused at its mouth, glancing back at Liu Qingge with his brow subtly quirked. Liu Qingge met his gaze and grunted, flicking his eyes forward again, and after that manly bit of in depth conversation, they proceeded into the ravine.
There was enough space to walk near the water on the stones and sand and clinging grasses that grew alongside the stream, making for an almost idyllic stroll. The rock on either side of them was striated with dark greys and lighter greys, moss and lichen and larger plants clinging to any available surface, tumbling down toward the center as if the stream itself had a gravitational pull.
"The waters here should be rich in spiritual energy," he said, using his closed fan to brush aside the reaching limbs of a particularly robust bush.
"Mm."
"Mu-shidi might appreciate us bringing back samples."
"Mm."
"In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?"
There was an audible pause in Liu Qingge's quality of silence before he said, "What?"
Shen Qingqiu smiled to himself, fan raised to hide his mouth from whatever creatures of nature lurking up ahead that might witness his less than stoic countenance. "Checking if Liu-shidi was paying attention."
Another silence, then an aggrieved sigh. "Isn't Shen-shixiong the only one suffering from a wandering mind?"
He chuckled, waving his fan over his shoulder to dismiss it. "Liu-shidi, don't worry! This Shen has kept perfect… focus…" Trailing off, he stopped moving, canting his head to the side and listening intently to the soft and growing roar in the distance. Not animal, from what he could tell, and nothing related to the Penghou. It couldn't be the weather, the only clouds in the sky were the thunderheads hanging over the tops of the mountains far upstream to where they stood now.
Shen Qingqiu, having no familiarity with countryside weather phenomena, didn't realise how wrong his assumptions were until the stream to their side started surging, and a veritable wall of muddied, roiling waters with broken tree trunks and uprooted bushes bore down on them like a tidal wave. Shen Qingqiu stood frozen in shock, mind blank beyond the oh, fuck my mother that flitted through.
He found himself abruptly pulled back and upward in rapid succession, Liu Qingge's "Shen Qingqiu!" a cry almost shouted by his ear as they all but flew upward, Cheng Luan under their feet in a flash of sword qi he felt as well as saw. The wall of water and detritus charged past, spray hitting them as Liu Qingge steadied them out above the top of the ravine, the foaming, muddy roiling waters roaring on and on without pause below. Shen Qingqiu unthinkingly clamped down an arm over the arm around his waist, uncaring of how tightly pressed he was against Young Master Liu's front. How the hell did we walk into a fucking flash flood scenario?! What kind of luck is that!
As if his thoughts had been heard, Liu Qingge spoke through grit teeth by the side of his head. "The rains must be melting the snows up-stream in the mountains."
Turning his face enough to catch sight of his shidi's face, Shen Qingqiu noted Liu Qingge's gaze turned down toward the violence of the waters below. "You've encountered flooding like this before?"
Liu Qingge lifted his head, meeting Shen Qingqiu's gaze with his own. Their faces were close enough Shen Qingqiu wondered if they'd bump noses if he leaned forward a touch more, but he blinked and Liu Qingge had already pulled his head back and shifted his gaze to stare upriver.
"Once or twice. Not from where I'd be swept away in failing to pay attention."
Shen Qingqiu blinked, patting Liu Qingge's arm with an awkward chuckle. "I was moving, Liu-shidi."
"Oh?"
He patted his arm again, more firmly this time. "Yes."
"Then I can let go?"
He fluttered his fan, offering a smile for his shidi. "My most reliable flyer? Liu-shidi, would you really let this Shen Qingqiu go?"
Liu Qingge darted his eyes back to Shen Qingqiu, staring him down with a slightly offended air for a long, long moment. The silence stretched out, Shen Qingqiu utterly certain that his tsundere shidi would not, in fact, unceremoniously throw him from his sword, because as much as Liu Qingge complained, he never failed to be there whenever Shen Qingqiu needed. It was what gave him the confidence to hold Liu Qingge's gaze, even at the awkwardly close angle working at giving him a crick in his neck.
Then, finally, with a huff and release of the arm around his waist, Liu Qingge unceremoniously swung Shen Qingqiu around so that he was now at his back. "We'll return to the village. We've lost that thing's trail for the day."
At his back, Shen Qingqiu stood off balance but chuckling as he grabbed onto Liu Qingge's robes, steadying himself as Young Master Liu turned his sword back toward where they'd left the wagon and horse waiting.
"As you say, Liu-shidi. Better luck to us both tomorrow."
Liu Qingge grunted, and Shen Qingqiu folded and tucked his fan away into his waistband, looking back once at the swollen river and wondering just what kind of poor luck he'd had to almost walk blindly into that. For fucks sake, couldn't he get a break for once? Liu Qingge had been doing all the heavy lifting, Shen Qingqiu could have warned him about this! Even more so, they still hadn't found the Penghou's tree, let alone glimpsed the creature. What a wash…
He sighed in his heart, turning his head forward and anticipating what the tea house might have available for a meal, regardless of how he didn't technically need all that much to eat.