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Luo Binghe had a lot of time to think of the perfect punishment for Shen Qingqiu. His cold shizun, the beautifully elegant immortal master, the respected Xiu Ya sword; Luo Binghe's worst abuser. He still didn't know what it had been, all those years ago, that made shizun hand-pick him from the crowd of wannabe disciples and yet reject him once they stepped onto Qing Jing proper. What had changed, over the course of that short walk?
No matter how hard he thought over the matter, neither the ten years he had spent on the peak nor the five years he spent in the Endless Abyss had been enough to crack that mystery.
He did come up with a perfect way to take his revenge, though.
The Old Palace Master was useful, getting Shizun in place for the first part of the plan. But Luo Binghe had no interest in a trial or physical torture, no matter how Little Palace Mistress kept begging to use her whip; All he needed was to just keep Shizun somewhere secure, somewhere where his body could be kept in an artificial sleep. Water Prison, as hard to access without authorization as it was, wasn't exactly ideal.
So Luo Binghe let Shizun be publicly disgraced, brought into Huan Hua Palace's custody, and promptly spirited him away into a human-habitable room in Mobei Jun's palace.
Not that Shizun had seen any of it; He was already deeply submerged in a dreamless sleep Luo Binghe sustained with his powers.
Once the peak lord was settled on the bed, dressed down to two layers — because merely one did not feel like enough to preserve his dignity — with his hair fanned out around him: that's when Luo Binghe began crafting his masterpiece.
His skills had grown exponentially in the years since he had welcomed Meng Mo into his head; He could easily create a perfect replica of the entire Cang Qiong, with a particular focus on Qing Jing. The other peaks weren't as life-like, since Luo Binghe had based them off of what he had gleaned through the dreams of other disciples, but it's not like Shizun would have much reason to visit them anyway.
Or, should he say, Shen Jiu.
This replica of Cang Qiong was an exact copy of the sect as it was on the day when Luo Binghe joined, with only one vital change: instead of Luo Binghe himself, the one admitted that day was Shen Jiu. (He had changed Shizun's name, too, shamelessly naming him Luo Anwen, but changed nothing else about his temperament.) He had dug deep into Shen Jiu's psyche, locking away his memories and skills until his dream self was nothing more than what he was at ten years old, leaving him no advantages.
Let's see how well shizun would fare, in the same hateful environment he had crafted for Luo Binghe!
Each hour in the dream covered a day of this simulation. As much as Luo Binghe wanted to inspect Shen Jiu's downfal closely, he couldn't exactly spend the entire three months ensconced in the dream realm. He did stay for the first couple of days — seeing Shizun with his hair dripping wet, looking like a drowned kitten, almost made all of Luo Binghe's hardships worth suffering — but then, he let the scenarios unfold on their own.
No matter what Shizun did, how he tried to ingratiate himself, the Dream!Shizun would scoff upon any of his attempts, dishing out the exact same punishments Luo Binghe had taken, regardless of excuse given.
When Luo Binghe entered the dream realm agan the following day, Shen Jiu had spent almost a month on the peak. Luo Binghe was amused to find that he had exiled himself out to the woodshed — didn't even have to be run out of the dorms the way Luo Binghe had been! — although he had made a concerted effort to make the shed a bit more liveable. Shen Jiu had made himself a hidden nook out of the way, one which would have been difficult to access even when someone already knew it was there.
It would have made Ming Fan's beatings far easier to avoid, Luo Binghe was forced to admit.
He continued monitoring the situation at random intervals, overseeing Shen Jiu's first half a year on the Qing Jing peak. He saw the boy getting relentlessly bullied; Even more than Luo Binghe himself had been, he thought, probably because Shen Jiu seemed physically incapable of not arguing back and insulting his shixiongs whenever an opportunity arose. He saw him spending time with Ning Yingying, which Dream!Shizun had taken to just as kindly as real Shizun had. He saw Shen Jiu being given extra chores, just as Luo Binghe himself had been saddled with, but somehow, Shen Jiu had managed to attend his lessons regardless.
There were some major differences in their experiences already, though. It wasn't enough that the outside factors were identical: Their characters differed, and so did the reactions to the obstacles in their way.
Shen Jiu was fond of taking refuge in the library, studying in the dead of the night under the light of the night pearls he had gotten who-knows-where. He volunteered to help with the upkeep of guqins and other instruments, stealing short moments of dedicated instructions from the hallmasters, until he knew enough to practice on his own. He spent long hours in the kitchens, too, helping with the cooking and getting endless servings of extra food.
Luo Binghe could do nothing but gnash his teeth and wonder why he had never thought to do any of it.
The uncomfortable truth was: he had been waiting for Shizun to accept him. He had been waiting for Shizun's instructions, for Shizun's acceptance.
Shen Jiu cared not for what Dream!Shizun seemed to think of him. He bore the punishments with a bored airs, like a chore he had to complete, just a small price to pay for the priviledge of studying on the scholarly peak.
After that first week, Luo Binghe had to return to Huan Hua Palace, if only for appearances' sake. He promptly got trapped in the courtly intrigues which seemed to be seeping through the very foundations of the place, and found himself unable to return for over two months. Nearly five years of Shen Jiu's dream life would pass by, and Luo Binghe could only comfort himself with the thought that he could easily do it all again. Reset the stage, erase Shizun's memories, play it all out from the start.
When he finally got to sit by Shizun's bedside again, he took a moment to take in the state of his body. Supported by inedia and suspended in sleep, it was in the exact same state as he had left it. A bit dustier, perhaps, which Luo Binghe found mildly amusing.
He took Shizun's wrist in hand and entered the dreamscape. Shen Jiu would be about fifteen in the dream, now. Approaching that time when Sha Hualing tried to attack Cang Qiong, Shizun coming back from seclusion at the perfect moment to intercept her efforts and try to use her presence to murder Luo Binghe; Just one of the many failed attempts.
Luo Binghe was absolutely flabbergasted to arrive in the Bamboo House and watch as Dream!Shizun sternly doled out responsibilities to uphold in his absence. All things the Head Disciple should be handling; And all being said to Shen Jiu.
Dream!Shizun didn't seem to feel any warmth towards Shen Jiu — not if the frosty tone of voice and a slap with his fan as he passed by were any indicators — but the boy had somehow wormed his way into a position of power regardless! He had ousted Ming Fan out of the position he had been holding since before Luo Binghe had even come to the Peak!
How?!
He waited until Dream!Shizun had disappeared, off to the Lingxi Caves, and he entered the dream properly instead of simply observing.
Shen Jiu didn't startle to find him suddenly appearing out of thin air; The dreamscape had blurred the edges, making Shen Jiu think he had walked in as logic would dictate.
"Greeting esteemed guest," he bowed towards Luo Binghe, ever so slightly too shallow. It was almost certainly carefully calculated, a slight given for a slight received, since Luo Binghe had seemingly invited himself straight into the Bamboo House. "Shizun has just left; May I take a message?"
"How did you do it?" Luo Binghe asked, too impatient to wait. He's started unravelling the memory blocks, but it would take a while. "How did you become Head Disciple?"
Shen Jiu watched impassively, those phoenix eyes of his exactly as cold as they were in real life. "This one endeavoured to become the best, rather than simply better than the rest. Shizun recognized the strategic value such a difference in skill would make in the future."
He could feel the memories returning, a rush that made the details of the Bamboo House sharpen with Shizun's added recollection. Shen Jiu was looking ahead blankly for a moment, eyes unfocused. Then, between one blink and another, Shizun was fully back.
"You've made me experience your life on Qing Jing, every punishment and cruelty exactly as you had suffered," he said, producing a fan with a wave of his hand. It did nothing to obscure his smirk. "Are you satisfied with the results, Little Beast?"
"No!" Luo Binghe cried out, just barely stopping himself from crying. He had never cried ever since the first day on Qing Jing, he wouldn't break that streak now. "It was meant to be a punishment! You were supposed to suffer!"
"You thought you were hurting me?" Shen Jiu laughed. "Even without my memories, this was easy. Luo Binghe, this is all I had ever wanted."
Luo Binghe gaped, struggling to understand it. That's what shizun had wanted? To be picked on by both his teacher and fellow disciples, constantly met with scorn and unearned ire?
Shizun seemed to take pity on him. "Do you know why the disciples are accepted while so young? Meridians and cores grow best early on. The older you grow, the harder it is to start cultivating. It's even worse if you start dabbling in demonic cultivation before learning proper techniques, then you're risking shredding your meridians, stunting your spiritual growth and making you unable to ever reach full potential."
Why was he saying all this? What was the point? So what if Luo Binghe had joined at the perfect age; Shizun had already said as much while pouring tea onto his head. Hasn't shizun also-?
"I had to claw my way into the sect when I was sixteen." Shizun fanned himself lightly, appearing unruffled. "If it hadn't been for Zhangmen-shixiong and the debt he owed me from our childhood days, I wouldn't have been allowed in at all. And yet, I had still managed to get all the way to the top, simply because I had to. Watching you being given every opportunity on a silver plate, squandering it all for no reason... It enraged me. I would have killed to have had your life."
Silence rang for a moment as Luo Binghe tried to come to terms with those revelations. Shizun laughed; Whether at his expression or at the situation in general, Luo Binghe couldn't tell.
"In the end, it only took failing to kill you." Shen Jiu grinned. "I should thank you, Little Beast. You've made my dreams come true."
Luo Binghe left the dreamscape in a rush, leaving shizun behind. He didn't care to block the memories again, or to ensure that the dream would proceed the way he had initially set it to; It didn't matter anymore.
Shizun could stay put in the life of his dream for as long as it took Luo Binghe to come up with his next course of action. Since he liked it so much.