Chapter Text
When Liu Qingge gained consciousness, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Hovering over him was...was a familiar, handsome face. The face was so familiar that Liu Qingge’s first instinct was to immediately throw a fist at it when it moved closer to him. Unfortunately, the peak lord wasn’t able to move his body without feeling the aching pain that washed over his senses.
“Sh..Shen Qingqiu…!” Liu Qingge grunted as he stubbornly tried to lift his upper body with a small wince, refusing to let the hateful Qing Jing Peak Lord see him in such a terrible state. “What are you doing?!”
He was shocked and confused when the other peak lord gently pushed him back on the ground and pressed the back of his hand against Liu Qingge’s forehead.
Liu Qingge’s hand shot up and his fingers twisted around Shen Qingqiu’s wrist. He looked up at him with piercing eyes and asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice, “What are you up to now?”
The Bai Zhan Peak Lord realized that something was off when panic flickered across Shen Qingqiu’s sharp features.
Shen Qingqiu never showed any vulnerable expressions such as this one in front of Liu Qingge, favoring his bamboo fan that he always hid the lower half of his face with. Where was the disdainful glare that Shen Qingqiu always shot at him? Where were the snippy remarks at? Why was Shen Qingqiu acting so odd?
Liu Qingge stared at Shen Qingqiu who confusedly blinked at him with a nervous smile before clicking sounds escaped from his lips.
“What—”
Liu Qingge paused when he finally noticed the long fins that replaced human ears were partially hidden by Shen Qingqiu’s black hair that hung loose at his sides, a couple scales with a hint of green ran up the sides of his face, and his virescent eyes that should’ve been brown—gazed into the War God’s wide ones.
When Liu Qingge’s eyes traveled further down, he realized that Shen Qingqiu was missing clothes. Now that he wasn’t wearing his many layers of clothing, Liu Qingge recognized that Shen Qingqiu had a rather lean build. He had prominent muscles, a slim waist, a long turquoise tail, and….
Those...Those two little pink….!!!!!!
Liu Qingge felt like he was going to qi deviate until he backtracked and fixed his focus onto the tail that was lightly flapping up and down like how a person would shake their leg whenever they felt nervous.
Was...was this a demon pretending to be Shen Qingqiu?
Without hesitation, Liu Qingge quickly charged his palm with spiritual energy and swung at ‘Shen Qingqiu’ until a sudden strike of pain stopped him; the dim threads of spiritual energy that spiraled around his hand immediately dispersed.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ was a little scared of Liu Qingge after he tried to attack him just a moment ago, but as soon as Liu Qingge shrank back with a grimace on his face, ‘Shen Qingqiu’ scooped up his hand and spoke to him in a different language that the latter didn’t understand.
“pou’ʇ ɯoʌǝ ʇoo ɯnɔɥ' ʎon’ll sʇɹɐᴉu ʎonɹ qopʎ˙ ∀ɥ' qnʇ pou’ʇ ʍoɹɹʎ ɐqonʇ ʎonɹ ʍonups¡ I ʇɥᴉuʞ I ɥɐʌǝ soɯǝ ɯǝpᴉɔᴉuǝ ʇɥɐʇ sɥonlp ɥǝld¡”
‘Shen Qingqiu’ made a disappointed sigh when the peak lord couldn’t understand what he was saying. With a slight frown, ‘Shen Qingqiu’ pointed at Liu Qingge’s injuries and then gestured for him to stay on the ground to rest. He made a couple clicking sounds at Liu Qingge when he glared at him and said a few words (that Liu Qingge still couldn’t understand) before turning around and crawling into a large pool (?) of water.
Liu Qingge checked his surroundings and recognized that he was in a cave. To make things worse, Cheng Luan was nowhere to be found.
Recalling from his latest memory, Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu were sent out on a mission together to investigate the disappearance of missing villagers from a nearby village. The few wandering cultivators that entered the village to investigate the case—all mysteriously disappeared also.
Yue Qingyuan insisted the two of them go together because the other peak lords weren’t available and the senior disciples of Cang Qiong weren’t fit enough to do the mission.
It was a stupid decision on Yue Qingyuan’s part, the two peak lords kept on arguing back and forth on the way to the village, and when they finally arrived at their destination, the two wouldn’t even cooperate for a short while.
The two peak lords finally caught the culprit; it was an injured demon who fed on human lives to recover. However, as soon as the demon was caught, it bolted straight into a forest and attracted powerful beasts with its reverberating cry.
Of course, it was Liu Qingge who killed the demon, but he earned a scowl from Shen Qingqiu who yelled from behind, “YOU BRUTE! WHY DIDN’T YOU KILL IT BEFORE IT OPENED ITS MOUTH? WHAT IF IT CALLED THE OTHER DEMONS FOR HELP?!”
The Bai Zhan Peak Lord clenched around Cheng Luan’s hilt and glowered at him, “You—!”
“USELESS MEATHEA—”
Their trivial argument came to a stop when a frightening roar resounded from the deepest parts of the forest, and the pair slightly swayed back when the ground shook. The both of them exchanged a look of exasperation and readied themselves for a fight.
Liu Qingge couldn’t trust his back to Shen Qingqiu and made sure to keep an eye on him, in case that hateful bastard tried to stab him in the back while he was busy fighting whatever it was that resided in the forest.
The peak lords expected to see one giant beast to show up.
Not five at the same time.
Liu Qingge didn’t struggle too much when he went up against them, in fact, it was quite refreshing for him. There was only one small problem.
After he killed off a Two Faced Wolf, he tossed a glance over his shoulder and his eyes widened slightly when he saw the demon (who should be very dead right now) standing behind him with bared fangs.
“...If I die, then I might as well drag the War God with me to hell!” The demon exclaimed, excitement dancing across his haggard face.
Liu Qingge would’ve cut that demon into two with Cheng Luan if it weren’t for the large claw that hovered over Liu Qingge’s figure and dove downwards, pushing down against his blade with glee.
Liu Qingge withstood the attack and leaped backwards to avoid getting crushed. However, he was aggravated when the stubborn demon latched onto Liu Qingge and began to self-destruct with a hysterical laugh.
Shen Qingqiu was too distracted by the remaining ferocious beasts to fully know what was going on, but he trusted that Liu Qingge would be fine.
The Bai Zhan Peak Lord threw the demon off of him and drove his sword straight into the demon’s heart, but things turned for the worse as the sudden waves of demonic energy sent him flying.
That was all Liu Qingge remembered.
Liu Qingge closed his eyes and quietly sighed to himself.
Although he managed to survive, he was going to actually die if he didn’t do something before ‘Shen Qingqiu’ came back.
But just as soon as Liu Qingge lifted his upper half from the floor, he heard loud splashes coming from the wide pool of water.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ cautiously peeked over at the peak lord from the edges of the pool. His black hair stuck to his smooth skin, a water droplet clung on to his long lashes, and his fins twitched when Liu Qingge’s gaze turned towards him.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ nervously scratched the nape of his neck, guiding the peak lord’s eyes to his slender neck that resembled an elegant crane’s. Liu Qingge had to tear his eyes away from ‘Shen Qingqiu’ when the latter hauled themselves up from the pool and crawled towards Liu Qingge.
“Y–You! What are you doing?!” Liu Qingge sputtered, his eyes flickering back and forth from the ground and the half-naked (?) demon. “D...Don’t you dare come any closer!”
When ‘Shen Qingqiu’ didn’t listen and closed the space in between the two of them, Liu Qingge struck out a fist at him.
To his surprise, ‘Shen Qingqiu’ didn’t react to his attack.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ patted the fist that struck his abdomen and guided it further down….
—Down to his left arm that held strange aquatic herbs, that is.
Liu Qingge furrowed his eyebrows and looked up at ‘Shen Qingqiu’ who patted the ground and waited for him to lay down.
He stared at him with some confusion until the latter muttered something under his breath and demonstrated for him, only then did Liu Qingge lay down on the ground with great hesitation and doubt.
The peak lord was caught off guard when ‘Shen Qingqiu’ suddenly grabbed onto the end of his robes. He was ready to throw another punch (a much stronger one this time) at him until he realized that ‘Shen Qingqiu’ was only ripping the bottom of his robes to get a couple long strips of fabric, creating makeshift bandages. ‘Shen Qingqiu’ discarded the strips that were stained with blood and kept the clean ones only.
Afterwards, he brought up a plant that looked to be special (but Liu Qingge wouldn’t know what it was) and plucked the glowing cerulean bud and removed the leaves. ‘Shen Qingqiu’ pressed the bud against the peak lord’s lips and opened his mouth to show Liu Qingge what he should be doing, language barrier and all.
Liu Qingge followed his action and chewed on the plant for a bit before he swallowed it, his face slightly scrunching up at the disgusting taste. Meanwhile, ‘Shen Qingqiu’ pulled apart the lapels of Liu Qingge’s dirtied Bai Zhan uniform, his gaze traveling from Liu Qingge’s fine pectoral muscles and down to his abs.
That seemed to snap Liu Qingge out of his daze.
To think that his guard would be lowered this easily…! This ‘Shen Qingqiu’ is truly a demon, a strong one at that! He was the exact same as Shen Qingqiu, both used underhanded tricks on Liu Qingge!
“Shameless demon!” The Bai Zhan Peak Lord shouted as he pushed himself up from the ground to kick at ‘Shen Qingqiu’ despite his worn body screaming at him to stop moving so much.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ crashed against the cavern wall, a small spurt of blood escaping from his lips. He helplessly glanced at the empty air (what was he looking at?) before looking at Liu Qingge like he had been wronged. A single tear trailed down his chin before it fell and hardened into a white pearl.
Liu Qingge oddly felt guilty.
No, he must not give in to the guilt! This was a demon that Liu Qingge was dealing with!
‘Shen Qingqiu’ helped himself up from the ground and picked up the scattered green leaves one by one and crushed them hard enough that they turned into some sort of paste. He stiffly turned to Liu Qingge and stretched out his hand with the herbal paste, his sad pout betraying his calm demeanor.
Liu Qingge awkwardly accepted it after a long minute passed. He studied the paste in his hand before glancing up at ‘Shen Qingqiu’ who no longer looked him in the eye, "What...what am I supposed to do with this?”
‘Shen Qingqiu’ tried to comprehend what Liu Qingge was saying before realizing what he was being asked of. He pointed at the herbal paste in Liu Qingge’s hand and then over to the wounds that spreaded across his front half.
The peak lord did what he was instructed to do, he applied the paste over his wounds and then reached for the makeshift bandages that ‘Shen Qingqiu’ held out for him. When he struggled to wrap the bandages around his wounds, ‘Shen Qingqiu’ lost his patience and snatched the makeshift bandages from him, winding the strips of blue fabric around his chest with slow, gentle hands.
After his wounds were treated, the Bai Zhan Peak Lord scrutinized the demon and asked, “...Why are you helping me? What do you want from me?”
‘Shen Qingqiu’ once again tossed a glance at the empty air and then frowned at Liu Qingge, “I pou’ʇ ǝʌǝu ƃǝʇ ɐ ʇɥɐuʞ ʎon ɟoɹ ɐll oɟ ɯʎ ɥɐɹp ʍoɹʞ¿ Sʎsʇǝɯ' ʇɐʞǝ ɯǝ onʇ oɟ ʇɥᴉs nuᴉʌǝɹsǝ˙”
Liu Qingge didn’t understand a single word, but he felt like he did something wrong as soon as ‘Shen Qingqiu’ quietly returned back to the pool.
He didn’t quite understand why a demon was helping him. All demons harbored malicious intent towards humans, no? What did that demon gain out of helping Liu Qingge?
And why does Liu Qingge feel like he had committed a major sin?
As if to answer his question, a Horned Seal emerged from the pool and glared at him menacingly.
Caught off guard by this bizarre turn of events, Liu Qingge stared back at the Horned Seal with confusion, wondering if this creature was going to be a threat. Less than a few seconds later, the Horned Seal squirted water out of its mouth and made sure that the water got on Liu Qingge’s face.
This little….!
‘Shen Qingqiu’ surfaced from the pool and hurriedly dragged the stubborn creature down into the water with him. When he came back up to the surface, he brought back an armful of fish with an apologetic expression.
“Sɥǝ’s˙˙˙sɥǝ’s uoɹɯɐllʎ ʌǝɹʎ sʍǝǝʇ ɐup ʞᴉup˙ I pou’ʇ ʞuoʍ ʍɥɐʇ ɔɐɯǝ oʌǝɹ ɥǝɹ' qnʇ dlǝɐsǝ dɐʎ uo ɯᴉup ʇo ɥǝɹ lᴉʇʇlǝ dɹɐuʞ˙”
Liu Qingge huffed and directed his attention to ‘Shen Qingqiu’ who scooted closer to the peak lord and offered him the pile of flopping fish in his arms.
Click, click, click.
“...Is that for me?” Liu Qingge quietly asked with an arched brow.
‘Shen Qingqiu’ responded by raising his arms up higher, urging the Bai Zhan Peak Lord to eat.
After witnessing his kindness, Liu Qingge hung his head low, his insides churning with unspeakable guilt.
He...He really helped him out of good-will?
….
…….
……….
Liu Qingge lifted his head and looked at ‘Shen Qingqiu’ with great shame, “....I’m sorry for hurting you earlier. Th...Thank you for saving me. I will surely re….”
He trailed off when he saw the other’s lips curve up into a warm smile, nearly blinding Liu Qingge’s eyes with its radiance. The demon’s eyes curled up into crescents, satisfaction dancing across his striking face as his turquoise tail happily flapped against the ground. Lilac flowers abruptly bloomed around ‘Shen Qingqiu’ and made Liu Qingge’s eyes widened with astonishment before he blinked away the hallucination.
As Liu Qingge traced every single detail on the demon’s face with his eyes, he came to the realization that this ‘Shen Qingqiu’ did not look exactly like the Shen Qingqiu he knew and hated.
His facial features were much softer than the Qing Jing Peak Lord’s sharp ones that never seemed to relax whenever Liu Qingge saw him. Liu Qingge always felt annoyed whenever he saw Shen Qingqiu’s face—but the face in front of him, however? No matter how similar he looked to Shen Qingqiu, Liu Qingge somehow couldn’t take his eyes off of him.
“Hɐɥɐ' ɯɐʎqǝ ʎon ɐɹǝu’ʇ so qɐp ɐɟʇǝɹ ɐll' ˥ᴉn Qᴉuƃƃǝ¡” ‘Shen Qingqiu’ remarked with a delighted laugh. “∀ɥ' ᴉʇ’s ɐ sɥɐɯǝ ʇɥɐʇ ʇɥǝ sʇndᴉp ɐnʇɥoɹ' ∀ᴉɹdlɐuǝ' ʞᴉllǝp ʎon oɟɟ ʇoo ǝɐɹlʎ˙”
Hearing his sweet laugh sent a blush scattering over Liu Qingge’s cheeks, the tips of his ears heating up and his racing heart skipping a beat.
This...This was dangerous!
Liu Qingge was going to have heart failure if this heart of his won’t calm down!