Chapter Text
Shen Wuxian breathed in and out hard as he endured the harsh looks from that veiled woman that seemed to hate her more than anyone else. Well… anyone else but his mother. He returned the glare and retired the sword from her firstborn´s neck. The young man then looked at the empty throne and the people at the right and the left of it. Both Zushi-Lang and Mobei-Jun were looking approvingly at him. He looked away. It was obvious that they wanted him to be the next Junshang, as he had showed to be the most exemplary, be it in spellcasting or sword mastery… as well as the son of the… his half brother huffed and walked away towards his mother.
“Fucking show off” he declared as he left the training ring. “If I have taken it more seriously, then he wouldn´t have won.”
He said that as if Shen Wuxian hadn´t defeated him every time they fought since he was thirteen of age. His mother seemed to agree, glaring at him again before reunited with her other three children there. Liu Junfeng, Liu Lingyun and Liu RuoXuan nodded, along with their mother Liu Mingyan, one of the High Consorts of the Harem of the Sacred Ruler of the Lower and Middle Realms. Liu Jiahao was one of the most prideful sons of a bitch in the harem. Unfortunately, he was also talented… and older than Shen Wuxian. The same case was with twins Ning Yuxan and Ning Yùmíng, the only ones between of Ning Ying Ying´s children that wasn´t nice like their mother… of course, nice to anyone but him… and Sha Fenhua, Sha Zhong, Sha Haitao and Sha DaiLu… and the Little Palace Mistress´ oldest from the brood.
“Well done, Prince Shen” Mobei-Jun said in that moment, earning a glare even worse from his adversaries. “Your father would be…”
“I would like to retire now that the training is over” he answered. “May I? After all, my father is not here to see me any longer.”
“For sure”
Anyway, where has his slut of a father run off to now? Normally his disappearances had fights or women to be taken into account, but he hadn´t heard of any rebellion recently and. Which of his women was Luo Binghe using now? She must be really good to keep his attention away from the training of his own favored children… was she someone new? He hadn´t heard of any new addition to the harem lately, but it would be a real blessing if there was. Perhaps it might block the view of that bastard of…
“Hey, see who is coming this way” a very nasty voice made him stop in his tracks. “What´s the matter, Shen? Tired of getting your ass kicked by your betters, slave spawn… or would it be better murderer-spawn?”
“Let me pass, Qiu Jianluo”
“Is that how you talk to your older brother? Or your better, to whom your pathetic line owes a great debt?”
“That would be the case if you or yours were my betters.”
“You damn brat… I will make you eat your words!!!”
Of course, the Qiu would never attack him alone. Qiu Jianluo, Qiu Shuchang and Qiu Zhiyuan attacked the three at the same time. Those cowards were bullies and pack animals, too weak to even face the other unfavored children of Luo Binghe… or even to get a look of pity for him. Their mother, Qiu Haitang, had fallen from grace long ago. Not something surprising, considering the quality of offspring she had produced… and what he knew of her past. He knew that Luo Binghe, for all his faults, despised that woman now, only allowing her to remain polluting his harem because of the three children she had given him. Though he wouldn´t mind if they died in the struggle between siblings and he was allowed to finally exile her to the coal mines of the Northern Realm of something like that. Even so, Shen Wuxian didn’t want to give him the pleasure, even for the Qius. He barely had to pay attention to have the three of them on the ground, groaning from their injuries. A an utterly disgrace of…
“Ugh… you are… so fucking stupid” Qiu Jianluo said with a smile that didn´t augur anything good, even if the one possessing it and his only allies besides his bitch of a mother were on the floor. “Today, earlier… mother had an encounter with father… and reminded him of the sins of your mother… I bet…”
Shen Wuxian didn´t even wait to hear the complete taunt. He would be lying if he said he wasn´t panicking right now. Every time that scumbag of a Sacred Ruler was reminder of the existence of his mother, it would only end in one way. His mother, of course, would try to defend himself, but in his current state, he could only get hurt. And after so much time locked up in the Apartments of the Empress… because yes, Shen Wuxian was the only child of the Junshang and his main wife, the Empress of the Lower Realm. Such a fancy title, no? If only that would mean anything…
Because it didn´t mean anything. His mother was the Empress only in name, living in silence and locked up out of view in his apartments. He also had been forcibly married, though that was the case with many of the women in the harem… though a lot of them had more freedom than his mother ever had since he arrived to the palace. The political power the Empress was supposed to posses was taken over by the four main Consorts… always fighting for a few more scraps of it. At least three of them were. Ning YingYing stay to the sidelines, eager to play the naïve girl until the end and please her husband. Liu Mingyan was a polite woman and skilled politician, cruel only when it was concerned with Shen Wuxian´s mother. The Little Palace Mistress and Sha Hualing instead… well, they needed no excuse to be cruel to anyone. Neither did their children. He would know, he was a prime target of theirs when he was younger.
Anyway, they were not the problem now. Qiu Haitang probably tried to seduce that piece of trash earlier and tried to remind him of their shared past when she failed, using tears to appear like the helpless flower she wasn´t anymore. In the middle of that, she must have remained that piece of shit of his favorite toy and went to impose on his Empress. It was a worst case scenario that Shen Wuxian wanted to avoid… he didn´t even want to know what his mother must be enduring now… and if his absence from the training hall earlier was related to that, was because of that… He stopped cold when he crossed Luo Binghe on the way of the Empress´s quarters. He reeked of blood and… his hands clenched in fists, his nails digging enough to draw blood. But he didn´t have time now, he needed to make sure that his mother was…
“Get out!!!” the teenager already knew he would have to dodge something flying on his way. “Get out, get out, get…”
“Shhhh, easy, Baba” he said, carefully approaching the disgraced cultivator. He knew that he could react badly, mainly if he believed that Luo Binghe would come back for more instead of leaving him finally alone. “It´s me, A-Xian.”
“A-Xian?” Shen Qingqiu asked as his son carefully approached him… or better, the elaborate drawer that was near the bed. The perfect place to hide something small. “I… I couldn´t… couldn´t protect…”
“I know” he said as he pulled a bottle from the hiding place. “Open your mouth?”
He waited until Shen Qingqiu was aware enough of his surroundings or recovered enough of the recent events that he would know where and with who he was. Then he arranged his clothing and allowed his son to approach him with the pill he got from the bottle. After he had swallowed it with some water, Shen Wuxian went to another place to draw a bath for his mother. He allowed only the softest sponge to remain there, afraid that the fallen Peak Lord would try to scrub his skin off again… then he put the privacy screen in place to block the view of the perhaps lamentable state of the adult man´s body. And, while Shen Qingqiu bathed himself, probably also trying to rub at least a layer of skin off, Shen Wuxian changed the entire bedding and prepared some fresh robes. All were on white tones and so thin… he didn´t say anything and just continued to arrange the bedroom as if that manwhore had never been there, even light some insience sticks.
Shen Wuxian couldn´t say that his and his mother´s relationship had actually started the best. He knew that he had been entrusted to a wetnurse when he was very young because Shen Qingqiu couldn´t stand the sight of him. As a living proof that he had been violated in the worst of ways, he understood now, but as a child… though, for some reason, he had put the blame for his mother´s rejection of him on the right person. When he was four, he started to get between the man that claimed to be his father and his mother. Junshang could order him to be removed, of course, but he sneaked from his wetnurse to do it again and again. Even if he was ordered to be removed by the wetnurse or merely kicked away… even when he didn´t know that what Junshang was doing to his mother was the peak of despicableness and merely thought that he was hurting his mother, that he was hurting because of how he fought and screamed no… somehow it made Shen Qingqiu to actually defend him.
Since then, mother and son had defended each other. At first, it was only tentative trust, then actual trust… finally, after years of hard working on their bond, they came to care and love each other as family. His family, that doesn´t involve any of the half-siblings that ignored at best or hurt him at worst or the step mothers that wouldn´t mind to kill him, painfully or not depending on their feelings or whims. It definitely not involved Junshang nor Zuzhi-Lang, who he wanted nowhere close to them. Nor, if he was truly sincere, any demon or cultivator he knew... he had gotten strong enough to beat his sibling so he could protect his mother and himself, so he could start anew... never to become like his scum of a father in any way. If only that wish was so simple to achieve…
“A-Xian, pass me my robe, please”
“Alright” he did his best not to breach the privacy screen. He knew his mother wouldn´t want to see the number that bastard did on his body. “Do you want some tea?”
“No, it will only taste like ash in my mouth”
Shen Qingqiu limped to closest sitting stool, obviously in pain. The bastard obviously did a number on him, but he refused to show weakness even when he was so hurt. Proud until the end, even if he and the Sect he had belonged to had long since fallen. Another reason to hate Liu Mingyan and Ning YingYing. Apparently, they had helped their husband to destroy the Cang Qiong Sect, betraying not only their martial siblings and Peak Lords, but their very own masters, who had been as parents to them: Qi Qingqi and… and Shen Qingqiu. Of course, people would say that Shen Qingqiu deserved whatever he got, but Shen Wuxian wasn´t sure anyone deserved this. He had seen the marks on his mother´s body, not only from the constant marital abuse of Luo Binghe, but of his torture on the Water Prison. He knew… that he needed to find a way to take his mother and himself away from there soon, away to a place where that bastard would never be able to find them…
“How was your morning training?” Shen Qingqiu asked as he looked down at the table. It was upturned when Wuxian arrived, though he was not sure if it had become a weapon or if his mother had been thrown over it.
“Like always”
“A-Xian…”
“What? It´s the truth” he sighed. “I made no friends amongst the people I call my siblings. You should also be wary of Liu Mingyan. She was there to see me beat her spawn one after the other and be angered about it”
“I see”
His eyes sharpened, just as Wuxian expected. Shen Qingqiu was already thinking of ways to stop any poisoning attempt. Sure, he actually welcomed the abortion medicines Sha Hualing or the Little Palace Mistress… or any other concubine, really, tend to sneak into his tea or food from time to time, but actual poison was a pain. It was not the first time one of the concubines or Consorts tried to poison his mother. The concubines were dead now, but Liu Mingyan… that veiled menace was capable of doing something dangerous only to sate her thirst for revenge. A revenge that Wuxian didn´t even think was pointed at the right person. Anyway, that woman would hear to no reason anyway. And the worst thing was that…
“Though I might welcome a good dose of poison now, maybe it will work this time” he answered as he tapped the wood with his finger. “And take that traitor with me to the tomb, because there is no way the beast would let her live if she actually released me from this place.”
Shen Wuxian felt like he should mention something about the Holy Mausoleum, which could make him come back, but stopped himself. Better to let his mother dream with an afterlife free of the pain he suffered in this place, the isolation and constant abuse. His hate and bitterness had only increased, according to Ning Ying Ying, who from time to time approached him, as if it wasn´t partially her fault that her Shizun was trapped in the situation he was. And she didn´t seem to understand how terrible it was either. The woman was either very stupid or very naïve, calling her former master her brother-wife and trying to enter the Empress´ rooms to take tea with him. Shen Quingqiu of course refused any attempt by his former disciple to even see him… he would prefer to see one of his enemies. Hadn´t Sha Hualing sent him abortive medicine? Hadn´t Liu Mingyan tried to free him from this place?
Her tendency to see everything in that horrible place through rose tinted glasses, to call Luo Binghe the best of husbands to all the members of the harem, that he was even magnanimous enough to forgive Shizun for past mistakes and take him as a wife, to give him a child and a family to call his own… all of that made him want to puke. And he was sure that his father enjoyed to keep her ignorant of the finer details of the arrangement… mostly that Shen Qingqiu refused every time he came to take his marital rights, that he fought all he could with his core sealed and was probably thrown around the room a few times and tortured with the blood parasites before the Junshang actually took his Empress until he was covered in bruises and cuts. There was even an opportunity where…
“Could you brush my hair? At this point, your hands are the only ones I can take”
“Sure” the son answered, going to the night desk. There sat a whole collection of overly elaborate things, combs and jewels that would certainly be worth millions, all of them gifts from Luo Binghe. They were never willingly used. “Would you like a topknot?”
“Do as you wish”
Shen Wuxian went to where a simple box sat. A carved bamboo decorated comb was sitting inside of it, one of the few belongings that Shen Qingqiu managed to endure these days. It was something he had bought himself when visiting a market on the Middle Realm. He was never given enough money to give his mother something overly fancy and he had never wished for that. He knew that overly fancy things only reminded him of his abuser and might cause a panic attack. So he preferred, the counted times he was allowed to leave that rotten harem and the even more rotten palace, to come back with something that would actually cheer him up a bit. A special blend of white tea that was said to come from the ruins of Cang Qiong, a fan and implements to paint it, papers so he could continue painting, even a guqin once, though he had to steal it… and the comb.
“There, all is well now” he smiled. “I think I made it good.”
“A-Xian… A-Ying” the tone was now one he had never heard before. It was as if… “I don´t know how much longer I can take it… I thought that I could survive, considering everything I have survived before, but… today I thought why to fight if it was going to end the same way as ever… and why would I care, if I´m never going to be free. He will never going to allow me to die, no matter what I did or do…” there were tears in his eyes. “It´s absurd, I know, I despise him and despise every time he crawls over me and forces himself on me, but it´s been so long and me fighting hadn´t… oh, Heavens, when is this going to end…” he collected himself after a few moments of weakness. One he would have swore in and again had never happened. “I think I would like that tea now.”
“Sure”
Shen Wuxian spent the entire day and night sitting down by his father´s bedside. It was obvious that neither of them was going to sleep when Shen Qingqiu didn´t even made an effort to close his eyes. There would be no dreams that night, anyway, just nightmares. Nightmares from the time he was forced to witness that horrible act, with the concubines and consorts enjoying the show as if it was a performance put only for them instead of something horrible that very well could happen to them too… only because it was subjected on the Empress who everyone hated it was fun. The Nightmares would also come for the other party, memories of every time he was forced against his will despite his attempts at defending himself… he was supposed to be strong now, strong enough not to bow to anyone he didn´t want to… but now he was…
“A-Xian, you should just go to your lesson”
“But…”
“You staying here is not going to do any of us good” Shen Jiu continued, looking down at his lap. The light of the day was already going through the windows, so the morning had come. And with it, time for classes for the Junshang´s possible heirs. “Whatever that happens, it´s going to happen no matter if you are here or not.”
“But…”
“Just do as I say”
Shen Wuxian wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that he was able to protect them both… but was that sure? He was strong, enough to be hated by the Consorts and looked as a prospective heir despite the bad rumors going around about the Empress… and him being the only son of an Empress who had miscarried (or more precisely aborted) all the other possible heirs he might have given the Junshang… he knew what Liu Mingyan was already thinking, along with Sha Hualing and the Little Palace Mistress. It was better that…
“I will return as soon as I can”
“Just go”
Shen Wuxian nodded and went along with his day. Unfortunately, apparently this day was already posed to be a bad one. First, his written lessons for some reason were along with Qiu Haitang´s unruly spawn, who laughed and made comments about what happened to the Empress the day before. He had to clench his fists very hard not to attack them, even if they deserved it. And it didn´t end there. It turned out that Luo Binghe actually was present for once for his children´s martial arts´ class. Feeling his sight on him was enough to distract him into actually losing some matches against some of his half-siblings. He ended up hurting all over him… but it was better than seeing that monster feeling proud of him. It made Liu Mingyan´s day, though, as she could show off her children in front of her husband… the same one she shared with thousands of other women.
“You are nothing against me”
“I will tell you when I care” Shen Wuxian said as he sheathed Suibian and escaped into the harem´s endless halls and gardens. He merely walked, not stopping at any part, no matter how many looks he got nor the meanings behind them. He didn´t care. The only thing that he had ever wanted to was to escape that hellish place and…
It was then that it happened. The Qiu brothers apparently didn´t have enough with messing with him in the morning, so they attacked him with life steel. He defended himself, trying not to gain more notice or troubles by not killing them, but it seemed that they were decided to kill him there and then. He had no option but… he was all splashed with the blood of his kin when it ended. Though they hardly were considered by himself as siblings, half-siblings to be more accurate, he couldn´t deny that they held the same blood in their veins as him and thus were kin. Even between the demons, such a blatant…
“Foolish you…” Qiu Jianluo spat blood as he spat spoke his last words. “You don´t know that while we were fighting here… father is making a visit to your mother… a visit that our mother arranged… you probably won´t see… that murderer again… our family will be… avenged…”
Shen Wuxian felt his heart stop in that moment. Like he always said, whatever involved Qiu Haitang couldn´t spell anything good for either of them. He ran as fast as he could towards the Empress rooms, finding Luo Binghe holding Xin Mo and screaming something. Of course, Shen Qingqiu screamed back, something that could only end in violence. Before he could do something, Luo Binghe claimed that his Shizun was his, HIS, and no one else´s. And that he was going to show everyone tonight, that he had already made preparations for it… Shen Wuxian could feel his heart stopping in his ribcage. He couldn´t get through this again, not again… never again. He needed to protect his father, protect the only parent that actually cared a bit for him as a person, protect himself… before he could think again, Suibian was clashing with Xin Mo. And resisting, for some reason. Though Luo Binghe seemed to find it funny.
As the battle dragged off, Shen Qingqiu managed to move out of the way. He was clearly being affected by the blood parasites, but he wasn´t about to let himself be defeated, not as his son was in danger. He could also hear footsteps on the other side of the door, probably people getting ready to see the show… so he grabbed the first thing he could and quickly hurled it at the rapist that called himself his husband. Apparently, it was all his boy needed, because he made a daring decision. He let go of Suibian to grab Xin Mo and wrenched it from his sire´s hands. Luo Binghe was livid now, screaming at him that he was nothing without him, that how he dared, that he wouldn´t even exist without him…
Shen Wuxian felt more than anger in that moment, remembering what he endured just because that monster decided that both him and his father belonged to him. He sliced Luo Binghe right in half with the cursed blade without remorse. The look on his face… wasn´t he supposed to have the ability to regenerate? The man´s face became unbelievable before he felt to the ground, his blood being spilled. He was… dead… Shen Wuxian couldn´t believe it, he had just murdered his father, the current Junshang… or was he already the previous Junshang of the Lower and Middle Realm?
“All hail the new Junshang” suddenly he realized that he was not alone. Zuzhi-Lang, Mobei-Jun and the Consorts, as well as several Concubines, were there. The women were looking at the remains of their husband with confusion… and then at him with hate or calculating gazes. After all, they were all after the Throne and now he was the… “Your Majesty, I will take you…”
“No” he said, gritting his teeth. This was… this was not what he wanted. He didn´t care what everyone said that he must do or what they believe he should be now, he would never be what they wanted. And would always be what HE wanted. “I am not the Junshang”
“Your Majesty, you just…”
“I killed that scum because he deserved it, not because I wanted to have the Throne or because of some sense of filial piety that demons might believe that I have to kill him before he falls to madness from using the cursed blade” he looked at it in disgust. “Luo Binghe is no father of mine, he had never been and never was. I want nothing from him, not even his accursed Throne.”
“Your Majesty, you still…”
“No!!!” he screamed at Zuzhi-Lang, who took a step back. The snake was scared? Good, he wanted them all to be scared, maybe like that, he and his father would finally be left alone. “I am no Junshang and I don´t care what becomes of this accursed place!!!” faster than a snake, he grabbed Shen Qingqiu and sliced a portal with the sword before sinking it on the ground so that only the handle could be seen. “You want it? You can take it!! My half-siblings and stepmothers, kill yourselves all you want over it and that bloody Throne, I don´t care!!! Just leave us out of this!!!”
As he said this, he jumped on the portal before it closed, Shen Qingqiu with him. Whatever place they were going to land in, it was going to be much better than whatever waited for them inside the harem as Empress Dowager and new Junshang. Besides, neither of them wanted to ever go back to that place ever again. NEVER.
-In another dimension-
They had landed in the middle of a forest, something that he didn´t care until he realized that his father was only wearing the white garments that he was permitted as Empress of the Lower Realm… in fact, they were thin and completely inadequate for anything else that laying on the bed, probably the only thing that Luo Binghe wanted him to do. Laying in bed and… he didn´t even want to think about it. But considering that he had just run out and forgotten completely about his preparations in the hurry…
“This is what you are looking for?” Shen Qingqiu asked, looking around his sleeve to pull out the qyanku pouch where he had been storing whatever riches he could. Shen Wuxian gave him a puzzled look. “Every plan gets derailed when you are in the hot of the moment. I learned that the bad way… but I also learned that there are some ways to keep the key aspects in check. And, for our escape, this was certainly needed.”
“Thank you”
He received the pouch. Then he extracted two pins that were made of jade and exquisitely carved. A piece worth an Empress… something the former Qing Jing Peak Lord never wanted to be, so he never used. And Luo Binghe simply forgot after he gifted them, as his Shizun never adorned himself like his other wives for him. In fact, he seemed to like him even more for that. So much that Shen Quxian had suggested arranging himself a few times to his father to avoid the attention from his unfilial former disciple, but he had outright refused. Not even for that would he renounce to his pride. He was not going to arrange him like a courtesan, like all of those idiot girls that made the harem, for that little shit. He simply would not. Which meant that the jewels were practically new.
“How much do you think that we could get for these jewels?” he asked, wanting to keep the others for when they needed them the most.
“Enough to buy clothes, food and a bed for a few nights” Shen Qingqiu certainly was not a logistician, even when he was Peak Lord of Cang Qiong (that was the rat), but he could manage his accounts much better than the brutes from Bai Zhang. Though he could say the same of every other Peak of Cang Qiong. “We should keep as much money as we can.”
“Right” he passed the pouch again. “I will search for a place where I could exchange them for money and search for a place to stay at. I will come back for you soon…”
“A-Xian”
“Ah, right”
Shen Wuxian focused on his forehead, hiding the demon bloodline crest. Like that, looking like a normal human, then he wandered a bit more. It didn´t take much for him to find a town by a lake. His eyes gazed at the lake suspiciously. There was something dark in the water, a being that was formed by resentment, he was sure of that. Did no one in this village knew how to swim? But there were a lot of boats in the lake, so probably their economy depended on it… so why were there enough drownings to form such a being?
Well, it wasn´t like it was his concern. He only needed to carry his business and find an inn where he and his father could recover in before continuing on their way. Though perhaps he should take the chance to earn some money as a wandering cultivator. He found some commerce where they seemed to sell good objects and, after a brief flirting with the proprietor’s daughter and a tense talk with the man himself, he seemed to get a good price for the hairpins. It was even a bit more than he would have expected. Enough for him to get them a room in a nice inn despite the bustling city apparently being a center of commerce, one where they could bathe and have some meals delivered to their room. He took a time to walk around the market after that, searching for tunics or clothes that could fit them. In the end, he decided to actually buy some fabrics in green and white. If he put a little effort, then he could… well, it didn´t matter now. With his gains, he walked around the market for some snack. He bought a couple of chicken sticks at a stand, and brought them back to where Shen Qingqiu was. He offered one to him, who mechanically ate what he was given.
“It´s the first time in a long time that I ate something that was not cooked or baked by that beast” he said as he finished the first stick. “It´s… good.”
“Yes, it is” Shen Wuxian wondered for a second if that was a form of torture Luo Binghe had for his Shizun, forcing him to eat what was prepared by his worst enemy. “Come, we have a room at the inn now. And I had a bath drafted and ready for us.”
The son then took his father to the place, making sure to never let go of his hand. He even took off his outer robes to put them over him. His dark clothes allowed him to keep more modesty than the white, wet ones Shen Qingqiu was wearing. He guided them to the room as quickly as he could and, just as he was promised, there were already two bathtubs prepared for them. The son moved things around the room to block his vision of the other bathtub, knowing his father hated for any man to gaze at his naked body, even his own child. He then left another set of nightclothes, already made, for him to use.
“Do me a favor and burn those things” Shen Jiu suddenly said, appearing when he was already changed. He was clean enough. “You said you got fabrics?”
“Yes, and some needle and thread” he answered as he threw both of their old clothes to the fire. They were fine clothes, probably could be sold for some money, but they were a symbol of their old life… it was preferable to simply get rid of them. “I thought that you might like them more than several of the robes I saw.”
“Hummm”
Shen Qingqiu didn´t even make an effort to sleep that night. Shen Wuxian was worried, but when he was shown that his meridians were flowing with spiritual energy again, so he didn´t need to sleep as much… apparently, Luo Binghe´s death had destroyed the seal that had been placed over the immortal master´s golden core. More soothed and conscious that his father could take care of himself, he laid down to sleep. In the other morning, he was surprised to be greeted by the sight of new robes. Shen Qingqiu didn´t even seem tired, though it was obvious that he had been working the whole night to use the fabrics to emulate his old Peak Lord robes and also a Qing Jing disciple robe for him. It felt… good.
As he went to pick their breakfast, Shen Wuxian wondered if they should intervene in the Lake thing. Now that Shen Qingqiu had an active golden core, between them should be enough to get rid of whatever it was. The boy asked the owner, a nice old woman, about it and she told him that there was no problem, that they were very close to a Great Sect, the Gusu Lan Sect, and the heir to the Sect, Zewu-Jun himself, would bring some of his best disciples to get rid of the water ghouls. Shen Wuxian frowned, it was better not to get involved. They still haven´t taken a good peak at the political power in this new world they had landed in, so it was better not to get involved with the Great Sects… at least for now. And if they couldn´t make money out of what was living in the lake…
So he decided to spend the rest of the day doing some leisure activities. He took father to the market, even if he seemed more than a bit uncomfortable at being outside, surrounded by so many people. He decided to buy some pretty chimes to make it easy for him. A jade circle token, so his belt looked more like the one he had wore as Qing Jing Peak Lord, and a fan of bamboo and implements for him to paint it. Small things that would cost some money, but might cheer him up for a while. It was while he was making that purchase that he saw them. Several people in cultivator robes, most of them in white… but there were some purple and black and even golden robes. Huan Hua Palace? He had heard that the disciples from said Sect wore those gaudy colors. And then he saw them boarding boats like that, talking about water ghouls… had they really made an investigation there? Many would die if they didn´t make the right preparations…
“Well, it´s not like we should care” he answered as he paid for the fan. “Come on, let´s go back to the inn.”
But he couldn´t allow himself to remain away from that. He didn´t know why, but it was just… impossible to leave it alone. He was drawn to that lake like it was a magnet, which was why he and Shen Qingqiu ended up in their own boat, following the party of cultivators. And they seemed even more of a bunch of idiots than he believed. They didn´t even noticed that one of the boats, holding just one person, was being slowly brought down to the water. But that was not the worse, he could see it well. Without a second to lose, he used his paddle and lifted the boat without a warning. The cultivator jumped to another boat, then attacked the water ghouls that were revealed. He looked at him with a frown…
“Hello, fellow cultivators” the one that was clearly the leader… and the splitting image of the frowning one… bowed to them. “Might I ask why you intervened in our night hunt? The Gusu Lan is more than enough…”
“I don´t believe that, considering that you didn´t even noticed the presence of the water ghouls… or that they were taking you to an ambush” the man in white seemed taken aback. “Basic strategy, one would think that fellow cultivators would know.”
“What do rouge cultivators have to do in Gusu Lan territory?” a purple clad cultivator with a frown asked him. “And I doubt water ghouls are smart enough…”
“It´s not just water ghouls” Shen Wuxian said, his eyes going to where they were being led. Now that their trap was in the light, the most powerful evil being in the Lake was going to emerge. “Here it comes”
The Waterborn Abyss launched it´s attack immediately, having been already discovered. He used Suibian to cut some of it´s tentacles and he could see a pure white sword sailing towards it. Talismans also did the same, and Shen Wuxian turned for a second to see his father also standing on his boat, sweat on his brow. He got worried immediately. He knew that his core was unhealthily unstable, more for an immortal master, and now he didn´t have Xiu Ya. He wished he had the foresight to take the precious sword from where Luo Binghe had put it as a trophy of his conquest… maybe Shen Qingqiu would have been able to do better with it, more against a something like a Waterborn Abyss. After all, the most powerful demons were those that wore human form. A mass of resentment and corpses wasn´t even a threat to the likes of Mobei-Jun or Zushi-Lang.
It was then that one of the disciples did something stupid. He sent his sword towards the Abyss, imitating the Young Master from before… what was he supposed to be trying to achieve with that? He wasn´t even a minimum as powerful as him, why to do something so stupid? The Heavenly scion was about to let him die, when the Abyss grabbed him by the ankle, but Shen Qingqiu yelled at him to get the idiot out of the way, that he would ruin the formation. Shen Wuxian, quite reluctantly, did so.
“No one asked for your help!!!” the cultivator screamed.
“He did” Shen Wuxian simply answered, moving his head towards his father, but the boy didn´t seem to have heard him. He continued to glare holes into him… though those were not the only eyes on him. Why was that young master looking at him that way? His eyes returned the icy glare. “Keep out of the way”
“I´m…”
In that moment, the talismans Shen Qingqiu had set around activated, then the Immortal Master activated his array. Shen Wuxian had already thrown the ungrateful brat towards his companions. He was their problem and he needed to worry about other things. Mostly, his father´s endlessly unstable golden core, which had not been used in a long time because of the seal. If he got out of using that much spiritual power without having a qi deviation, that would be very fortunate. And they were not used to that. As soon as the Waterborn Abyss was dealt with, he approached Shen Qingqiu. He seemed pale and sweaty, tired from something, but he brushed it off when his son felt his meridians.
“I´m fine, you don´t need to worry” he said, frowning at being cared, thus showing weakness, in front of such company. The cultivators approached.
“I thank you, Master Cultivator, and you, gongzi, for the help you have given us. Without you, many of us could have ended up dead” the leader of the party bowed. Shen Wuxian merely rolled his eyes. Why had they helped those idiots? It wasn´t like they should care about their lives. “A Waterborn Abyss was truly something we were not prepared to handle with just a handful of disciples. Also, I thank you in name of Caiyi Town. If it weren´t for your help, for that array you used, we would have needed to drain the lake for decades to eradicate it and the town´s economy depends on…”
“Great for them” he continued being worried about his father, but at least he relieved that he was not about to suffer a qi deviation. “If you excuse us”
“Xionzhang” the golden eyed one talked for the first time, gazing at him.
“It´s true, the master seems tired” the way the leader smiled seemed gentle, but Shen Wuxian had grown to doubt those smiles. It was what happened when you grew up in a place like the harem of Luo Binghe, you learn fast to doubt gentleness and help even from your own blood siblings or you don´t survive. “I offer you a room to rest and treatment at our home in the Cloud Recesses.”
“We are staying at an inn and Fuqin only needs to rest” Shen Wuxian answered in a rather hostile way. He won´t allow anyone to…
“Zewu-Jun” a purple clad, angry looking person about his age approached too. “Caiyi Town hasn´t had any drownings lately, much less enough to create a Waterborn Abyss. How is it that one was found here?”
“Obvious” the Heavenly scion shrugged. “Someone chased it here. And don´t tell me it isn´t something that some cultivation Sect or another wouldn´t do, many of them would merely pass their problems to others if they can´t handle it by themselves, both to cause harm to them and to get rid of it.”
“Xionzhang”
“I know, Wangji” the two exchanged a gaze. Then the leader pointed right at the sky, at the sun… it meant nothing to the Shens, but obviously to the others did. “Maybe we should talk about this in a more private setting.”
“I already said…” it was then that he felt his father starting to shake. His eyes were on the place where the Waterborn Abyss had disappeared, where now a human body seemed to have floated to the surface. That face… it was male, but it reminded him a lot of Liu Mingyan. Or her sons. “Fuqin, what´s the matter?”
“This… this can´t be…” Shen Qingqiu continued to pale and shake. “Liu… shidi…”
The expected qi deviation happened in that moment. And, as Shen Wuxian screamed for a healer and fought to stabilize his father´s qi, he tried to calm the voice in the back of his mind that told him that he should send Suibian to stab and drown that man. He recognized the name immediately, Bai Zhang´s War God, Peak Lord, a brute that trained brutes… Liu Mingyan´s brother, the reason she had betrayed Cang Qiong to Luo Binghe… the reason his father was accused of murder when he was only unfortunate enough to be there when the reckless brute had a qi deviation and he wasn´t able to help, in part because of his own unstable core. He should kill him…
But right now, his father was the priority. He could deal with Liu Qingge in another moment, perhaps even when the man awoke. He was good, he had the confidence that he could defeat the so-called War God. With a bit of reticence, he accepted the hospitality of the Lan Sect so they could provide medical attention to the former Qing Jing Peak Lord. Shen Wuxian accepted their help, but he didn´t trust him and wasn´t going to let his father out of his sight during their whole stay at the… Cloud Recesses…