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“Although your mothers blood will safeguard you from poisons and the world's flora, I fear your fathers will leave you vulnerable to a very…particular threat.”
Zhuzhi-Lang watched as the Huan Hua Palace disciple walked away from Peak Lord Shen, his fangs slowly descending. It was the same youth that had desired to kill him back in the Sun and Moon Dew Mushrooms grotto. He really should have approached Lord Shen and taken him to the Demon Realm but, he also had a debt to repay to Huan Hua’s head disciple.
A drop of kindness must be repaid by a flood, and cruelty the same.
Sending one of his snakes to shadow Peak Lord Shen, he turned and followed Gongyi Xiao. As the distance between them chipped away, Zhuzhi-Lang avoiding detection by virtue of his silent movement, he noticed his prey seemed to be lost in thought. Perhaps he could use his snakes to finish the deed…?
But no, that would be… unsatisfactory. He would use his own fangs for this.
“These…creatures can live their whole lives believing themselves human. It is only when they have come into contact with snake demons,"
Gongyi Xiao paused just as the view of Huan Hua Palace came into sight, the feeling of being watched, followed, no longer something he could ignore. "Who's there?" he asked, placing a hand on his sword as he slowly turned, trying to locate the source of his current unease. "If you require aid-"
A blur heading towards him cut off his question, his training only just allowing him to draw his sword in time to block the grasping hand that was aimed for his face.
Biting back a curse, he jumped backwards, his form falling into a crouch with his free hand poised over the earth for balance. He was hoping to gain enough ground to see who, or what, exactly his opponent was. When he looked back up, the image of a sneering youth greeted him, his pointed ears and the mark upon his brow proudly procaliming his heritage. "Demon," he called, both surprised and thoroughly perplexed. "What-" but then his opponent dashed forwards again and he needed to focus on defending himself.
"Like your father, like you, that their other nature manifests.”
Zhuzhi-Lang would say this only once, but Gongy Xiao was skilled with his blade.
Whether he was straightforward with his attacks or employing a feint, the cultivator was able to read his movemants and block or parry. Of course, Zhuzhi-Lang's speed made it difficult for him to properly keep up and counter attack, but such was often the case when a mere human went against demonkind.
It was irritating.
He should have at least managed to draw his blood somehow by now! Instead the only damage was to the scuffed earth. Each of Gongyi Xiao's footprints easy to map out if one knew how to read the signs of battle.
It would only be a matter of time before one of them slipped up. Zhuzhi-Lang had no intention of it being him, so he adjusted his attacks to lead Gongyi Xiao's back towards a large tree nearby. The human was so focused on reading him that he wasn't paying as close attention to his footwork as he should.
Soon enough, Gongyi Xiao's heel hit a root breaking through the dirt, and he lost his balance.
Zhuzhi-Lang knocked his sword out of his hand, not caring where it landed. A hand to the throat and he quickly had his opponent pinned against the tree's trunk, Gongyi Xiao's hands trying to pry his grip away useless.
Their eyes meet and Zhuzhi-Lang squeezes at the flesh under his hands just enough to make Gongyi Xiao's beathing difficult and laboured. He could just snap his neck-
A hand reaching towards him catches Zhuzhi-Lang off guard enough he strikes out and bites down on it, his venom flooding into the viens. A pained cry leaves Gongyi Xiao as his fangs withdraw. He releases his neck and watches passively as the cultivator collpases, his shoulder trembling as he clutches his bitten wrist.
He'll be dead soon. With that thought firmly in mind, Zhuzhi-Lang flicked his sleeves back into order and turned to walk away, mind already turning to the matter of Master Sh-
A grip on his robes.
The impact of his back hitting the tree.
Horizontal pupils and the hint of sharp canines from a panting mouth.
“Listen carefully, nephew. Your flesh will make them stronger. Your tears will make them drunk. Your blood will make them faster,"
In a flash, Zhuzhi-Lang remembers words Tianlung-Jun once offered in caution, and a coldness he'd not felt in decades sinks into his gut. As he leans backwards into the bark behind him, his lips part around the word 'Mongoose'.
Gongyi Xiao's unfocused gaze snaps onto him and the chill under his skin spreads further.
"No," he says, voice soft as his hands move to try and dislodge the grip on him. "No," he says again, his movements turning uncoordinated as the grip he was trying to push away shifts and holds him firm. Trapped. "Let, go!" he grits out, kicking out at one of Gongyi Xiao's legs in an effort to break the bones.
But his legs remain steady. Instead, Zhuzhi-Lang finds his wrists being pulled down to level with his waist, and as he flicks his gaze towards the motion to try and guage why-
Pain radiates from the side of his neck, piercing and crushing and- "No!" he cries, even as he feels the trickle of his own blood flowing into his robes.
A deep, gutteral, and trilling sound emanates from Gonyi Xiao, the vibration of it against Zhuzhi-Lang's now bleeding skin lancing the cold further through his body, leaving his fingers numb. The grip on his wrists squeezes and he flinches into the wood at his back, mind screaming 'no' again and again as the mouth on his neck bites deeper.
"You're blood tastes off," Gongyi Xiao says, pulling away from the bite he made. "Was only one of your parent's a demonic snake?" he asks, moving one of his hands to painfully grip Zhuzhi-Lang's jaw with golden irises gazing up at him.
It takes a moment for the question to register past the bruising grip on his face, but once it does Zhuzhi-Lang's breath hitches and he instincively reaches for his blood now inside of Gongyi Xiao.
“And your venom will arouse them until you collapse under their touch.”
Gongyi Xiao never thought he would be something other than human, but when fangs pierced his flesh and a wealth of knowledge flooded his mind, the arousal of the bite became just enough noise to distract from the overwhelming urge to eat, devour, consume, engulf. Even then he couldn't resist returning the act and making the snake bleed.
Cocking his head with a hum, Gongyi Xiao registers the stirring under his skin as something other and narrows his eyes at his newfound prey. "What are you doing?" he asks, voice a low purr.
Instead of answering, the snake demon bares his teeth, fangs glistening with new unshed venom.
Clicking his tongue, Gongyi Xiao attempts to grip the jaw in his hold tighter. Only…
Raising a brow, he watches in morbid curiosity as his grip instead loosens and his fingers peel back one by one. "And how are you doing that?" he murmurs, looking back into fear-filled eyes. He distantly notes his hand moving away and coming to level with his head, palm forward and fingers spread straight, as the gaze he seeks instead flickers towards his legs.
One of his legs jerks backwards and he has to adjust his balance to keep from falling, a chuckle leaving him and drawing the snakes attention. "That's a clever trick" he purrs, licking some of the blood from his lips. He's still close enough to see the shudder that passes through them and tracks the motion of them covering thier bleeding neck. "Think I could learn it?"
He's teasing, mostly. He has a vague recollection from his human upbringing of only one demonic bloodline having natural control over thier blood, even after it's left the demon's body. So the other parent was a Heavenly Demon, he thinks, watching the half-snake back away from him while still clutching at his wounded flesh. Then does that make you a poison, or a delicacy?
Their gaze seems to flicker and then they're dashing away, back towards him, and Gongyi Xiao's legs are still, despite his best efforts to chase after. "You can't hold this forever, though, can you?" he asks the wind.
No sooner has he finished the query does the sound of breaking underbrush meet his ears and his limbs are responding to his will once more. He's caught up to them before they can even push themselves back upright from where they've fallen, and this time he sinks his teeth in over the knot of their spine. Their hissed scream a more beautiful music than anything he's learned within Huan Hua Palace.
“Nephew, If you ever find yourself facing a Mongoose, promise me you will run.”
Zhuzhi-Lang didn't know he could sound like that, he didn't know pain could make him freeze with fear like the cold now coursing through his lungs and stalling the breath in his throat. He's instincively calling out to the snakes around, both demonic and not, hoping that…that,
"Are you wanting me to eat your friends instead of you?" is pressed into the new bite upon him and Zhuzhi-Lang cannot help gagging as he commands all the snakes away, away, instead because he would not wish this on any of his kind. This chill, this pain, this-
"You know what I am, your bite, your venom woke me." A hand, deceptively gentle, is guiding his face to meet gazes with the predator keeping him pinned to the ground, Gongyi Xiao's hands steady while Zhuzhi-Lang's tremble half clawed into the dirt. "You tried to run," he continues, tone mild as though he were noting the weather. "You really would have left me to deal with this," A firmness pressed into his backside, "on my own?"
Zhuzhi-Lang knows better than to ask, knows that no demon would grant it but Gongyi Xiao was raised human. If there is any species that would answer it would be humans-! "Mercy," he whispers, closing his eyes as he forces the words out. "Mercy, cultivator. P-" He swallows past the bile he can feel at the back of his mouth. "Please,"
"Bite me again,"
Zhuzhi-Lang's eyes snap open and he stares into Gongyi Xiao's eyes. "What..?" he breathes.
Gongyi Xiao's gaze lowers to his lips and he can feel his bottom lip being brushed against gently, madeningly. "Bite me again," he repeats, looking back up to meet Zhuzhi-Lang's gaze. "And then let me take care of you,"
A scoff leaves Zhuzhi-Lang, "Take care of me?" He asks, derision dripping from his words. "You're a Mongoose."
"And I'm giving you the choice," Zhuzhi-Lang flinches as he finds himself moved to his back, Gongyi Xiao's hands pinning one of his shoulders and the opposite wrist. "Between pleasure, or dying."
For any other demon, it would be a simple choice. But Zhuzhi-Lang must still repay Master Shen's kindness, and he cannot abandon his uncle who is still growing accustomed to his new body. But…to allow Gongyi Xiao even closer than what he's already taken? Zhuzhi-Lang looks to the side, his gaze falling onto one of the demonic snakes he'd subconsciously called for in his panic. A smaller species, venom as potent as his and…
Gods, she's shaking at Gongyi Xiao's presence, her coils too stiff for her to move in any direction.
"What are you looking at?"
Zhuzhi-Lang snaps his gaze back towards Gongyi Xiao. "You," He answers, refusing to let his gaze stray again.
One side of Gongyi Xiao's lips pull upwards into a smile. "Oh?" He leans down, closer to Zhuzhi-Lang to where they are nearly sharing each others breath. "Do you like what you see?" is whispered just over his lips, and Zhuzhi-Lang cannot tell if the shudder that passes through him is from revulsion or arousal.
"Promise me," he starts, swallowing past the dryness of his throat. "That you will not harm, any of the snakes under my control."
Something in Gongyi Xiao's expression softens, and he brushes Zhuzhi-Lang's hair behind his ear with a touch more gentle then should be possible. "Bite me again, and I promise that I will never harm any snake, not even you."
Zhuzhi-Lang studies golden irises, but if there is deciet or insincerity within them, he cannot see it. Mentally bracing himself, he leans upwards and gently nips at Gongyi Xiao's bottom lip.