Chapter Text
The Nine-Headed Demon Xiangliu has been working a long, long time to escape this world.
He forgot how long ago it was when he first discovered the beautiful chaos beyond. He knew for certain that it was many cycles ago, though. Since then, he's been trying to find ways to escape the cycle. And each time, he's been unsuccessful.
He's tried recruiting the Great Sage himself, Sun Wukong. Some cycles it worked (barely), and others he wouldn't be so lucky. Not that it mattered, he was never able to escape anyway. On a couple occasions, he would try waking up the Harbinger of Chaos just a couple years early, only for him to still sacrifice himself in the end before Xiangliu could even attempt to get out.
He needed a new plan.
That's how he found himself at the Harbinger's egg, over an eon before he was due to wake up. Xiangliu would open his cage, allow him to choose for himself. Give him the time to truly view the world, let him choose whether it continued or not. After all, wasn't it fair? He's sacrificed himself countless times before without truly getting to experience life, shouldn't he get to choose for himself at least once?
It was a simple process, waking him up. In no time at all, the egg shattered, and a surprisingly small simian fell into his arms.
That's when he realized that he didn't exactly think this particular plan through.
Apparently, the Harbinger did more than sleep in that little egg. In past cycles, he only woke the Harbinger just two or three years before he was actually due, never almost an eon before. Perhaps Xiangliu should have considered the fact that he would have been just a little younger upon waking him up so early. He couldn't just leave him like this!
The snake demon's mind raced, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn't just dump him in a random city, someone could discover him for who he was, and he was only a child! What, was he supposed to just throw him at the door of some random food shop?!
Suddenly, an idea came to mind. Perhaps... it wasn't a bad idea to hide him away for a little bit, raise him and teach him how to defend himself. Then, he would feel more comfortable finding somewhere out in the world for him to live and judge the world how he saw fit.
He shifted his grip on the boy so he would be more comfortable, whispering words of reassurance. He didn't know why this was his first instinct, as all the child did was stare up at him silently with those wide, golden-brown eyes.
Yes, there would be no harm in keeping the boy for a little while... right? It's not like Xiangliu was gonna keep him forever, that would ruin the entire point of waking the Harbinger prematurely in the first place.
Eventually, the demon shifted his grip again so the child was more secure (which he already was previously, so Xiangliu couldn’t think of why he did that), and left the mountain peak. He wouldn't rest until he found a place to build a (completely temporary) safe place for the boy to spend the first decade or so of his life.
Everything would go according to plan.