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"Shizun," Luo Binghe murmured, his eyes locked at the figure of the man he despised through the crowd. How funny isn't it? First you were above the clouds and so out of touch but now you're on the floor, just like how you made me.
Of course he did not say out loud, alas the entire hall realise his demonic heritage which he had tried to supress. Shen Qingqiu easily knew he was a demon, heavenly demon at that, and had no problem with trying to take him down since the shizun of his just happens to be a petty man who fights even when on the verge of death. The men and women in pristine robes all murmured to each other, hands covering their mouths like scheming officials of an emperor.
The man in question was Shen Qingqiu, a former slave he heard. He had been taught by a former slave, the one person he considered an aloof immortal with how cold and heartless he was with his punishments and teachings. What teachings? Luo Binghe's eye twitched, all that he was 'taught' was to fetch water, allow himself to be bullied and beaten, in fact he was his own teacher before Meng Mo came along.
"What are you keeping him for?'' Meng Mo questioned in his mind, Luo Binghe heard a tsk when he ignored the dream demon. With all the people around, Luo Binghe thought it would be difficult to get his shizun. A woman shoved against him, her arms wrapping around his arm and her slender hand tracing his sleeve patterns. Luo Binghe scoffed, it was one of those women that thought it would be smart to get his attention when in reality, he was in a terrible mood.
"Won't you look at this jiejie?" Her sweet voice was like honey to the ears but Luo Binghe felt it no different to a sword scraping against concrete.
"This one apologies but please let go," he managed to grit out with a forced smile which only encouraged her to press close to him, now eyes were on the two and not Shen Qingqiu who was still chained up.
At the moment, a rift suddenly cut open in the air in front of Shen Qingqiu, a figure identical to Luo Binghe's came out. He looked far older than the current Luo Binghe, his crimson eyes were dark and dull, the zuiyin was no longer a small fire-like marking on his forehead but a longer one, as though it had evolved. The wavy hair was put in a ponytail with a silver headpiece that matched his white mourning robes, the question was, who was he mourning?
"A demon!!"
"It's a heavenly demon!"
"Impossible!"
"How could Tianlang-jun escape!?"
Even Shen Qingqiu's hazy green eyes looked up at the figure above him, those dead eyes met his and he could see his own reflection. 'Luo Binghe' picked the man up from the back of his robes like a stray cat, silently gazing at his face before nodding. Luo Binghe pushed the vile woman away and came through to face the newcomer, his handsome face twisted into a scowl. "Who do you think you are taking what is mine?"
Shen Qingqiu's eyes were wide, two Luo Binghes standing face to face before the cultivators decided to step up. They came at the two demons and the disgraced peak lord from all sides but the larger mature Luo Binghe had written a seal in the air faster that they had expected, a barrier! The barrier was small, enough to accompany the two Luo Binghes and the cultivators were hit with a dead end. Yue Qingyuan came through, weilding Xuan Su, "Xiao Jiu!!"
"The barrier won't hold long," the Luo Binghe finally said, putting Shen Qingqiu in the younger Luo Binghe's arms, "take him."
Luo Binghe weighed his possibilities and nodded with a grim expression, for once he had no choice but to cooperate. His shizun was finally in his arms, he could now kill him, burn him, make him watch how the beast he despised came back from the dead much stronger than he had expected-
His thoughts were cut off by a warning, "Don't kill him," the words only seemed to anger him when he thought of all the things that were done to him and yet this version tells him to save this scum!?
"WHY!?"
The barrier cracked silently from the cultivators outside, the demon clad in white did not respond.
"ANSWER ME!"
And yet the answer never came.
The older demon raised a finger, his dark claw tearing through reality, a rift of black forming. This version of him was not like he had thought, capable of creating rifts without Xin Mo, Luo Binghe shook that off and with a sudden burst of animalistic rage, bit at Shen Qingqiu's ear, aggressively pulling it off and spitting it on the floor. His shizun could not speak from the silence spell but that seemed to be the only thing it took for the annoyingly calm demon to snap.
'Luo Binghe' sent a ball of demonic qi that missed just a breadth away from Luo Binghe's ear, then suddenly the latter felt the weight in his arms gone. Shen Jiu was in the arms of his older counterpart, still chained and bleeding. "Go ahead and try to hit me if you think you are able," the demon taunted, throwing Shen Qingqiu into the rift he created before turning his attention to Luo Binghe. "I can see you hate the way me and your shizun intermingle."
The barrier immediately broke and the demon grabbed Luo Binghe by the arm, forcefully tugging him into the rift. "This is just who we are in every life."
--
"Thank you for your sacrifice," Luo Bingge smiled thinly, using his claws and scratching Luo Binghe's eye, "I will be reborn once more with my shizun, he will love me. He has to. He can't keep killing himself in every universe."
He dug into the eyesocket, pulling out the eye and crushing it in his hand.