Chapter Text
[Warning! The critical quest "The Endless Abyss and Endless Hatred, A Sky Filled with Crystal Frost and Tears of Blood" is due to officially begin! Failure to successfully complete the quest will result in twenty thousand protagonist satisfaction points being deducted.]
Shen Qingqiu drew a shuddering breath as he looked down upon Luo Binghe where he was still slumped on his knees, clutching his head and breathing raggedly as the newly unleashed demonic qi rampaged through his body.
The protagonist's seal hadn't fully broken in Proud Immortal Demon Way, not until he finally found Xin Mo and escaped the Endless Abyss. In this version of the story, though, Mobei-Jun had already entered a cheat code for Luo Binghe to skip right past all those hurdles and have access to his full suite of demonic potential.
This was good, wasn't it? Luo Binghe would surely suffer less intensely in the Endless Abyss when he wasn't scrabbling and clawing through the cracks of his fractured seal to access some scrap of the regenerative and offensive capabilities his demonic heritage granted him. He'd been actually properly trained in cultivation techniques for these last three years. All things considered, the Endless Abyss could practically be considered a walk in the park compared to the suffering endured by the protagonist in the original work...
Wait.
Shen Qingqiu inhaled sharply and prepared to bullshit like he had never bullshitted before.
Hold on! Hold on, do you really think this situation is worthy of such a dramatic name?! Endless Abyss and Endless Hatred, pfah! Just look at him! He's already got all of his power-ups all dumped on him at once, everything except for Xin Mo! What kind of dogshit pacing is this, huh? The kid is going to tear through the Abyss like a knife through a block of tofu! Endless my ass, he'll be out of the damn place in a matter of months! Where is the drama, huh? The tension? The pathos? The struggle? We're cutting Luo Binghe's blackening arc so short, the audience is going to assume it's some bullshit filler arc just farted out to waste time and milk subscription fees!
[Are you arguing that the protagonist satisfaction points should be deducted immediately?]
Of course not, I'm only pointing out that this plot thread is irreparably frayed. There's no way that treading the same old ground as the original work, only with an already overpowered protagonist getting thrown into an utterly unnecessary training arc, is in any way going to improve the quality of this story! The plot divergence has already progressed too far, there is no choice but to break new ground!
[And what new ground would that be?]
A reversal of fortunes, of course! Shen Qingqiu, the man who purported to hate all demonkind and show a virtuous and upright facade, let him show his true colours not only as an abusive and envious poser, but as a traitor to all of the human realm. It suits the character of a scum villain, doesn't it? Seething with envy, he couldn't abide the potential and promise of not only Luo Binghe, but all of the upcoming generation of cultivators! That was why he schemed to sabotage the Immortal Alliance Conference, to cut the legs out from under the new generation. And of course when witnessing the full, unleashed potential of a heavenly demon, he could not pass up the opportunity to take such power for himself.
Give me a way to seal Luo Binghe's demonic blood again. Force him back into powerlessness, now deprived of his sword and betrayed by his Shizun. Have the heavenly demon work on the side of the cultivation world to bring down his human scum of a teacher, who has proven himself to be more diabolical than any demon. Rein in the power creep, make him scrabble to grow stronger and improve, give him time for some character development. And in the meantime, I will become a villain worthy of driving him to even greater heights! Give me a new quest instead, something like Calamity Follows Disaster, A Betrayal By The Scheming Mastermind, A Final Painful Lesson.
[...Would you like to purchase a new canon divergence questline package, with a demonic qi plot device, for 1000 B-points?]
Tch, the damn System still insisted on fleecing him even after such a masterful performance. Only to be expected, really. Still, it was a lot more affordable than twenty thousand satisfaction points, so Shen Qingqiu could soak it. He'd need to farm more B-points soon, though.
Shen Qingqiu accepted the offer, and the ominous looming window warning about the Endless Abyss questline winked out of existence, replaced with a new one that read... Hey! That hack System just copied his example questline name directly! Damn, he should have probably picked a less ominous word than 'final'. Too late now.
Still, the relief at no longer needing to push Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss make it easy to smirk villainously, looming over the kneeling Luo Binghe, who was only just starting to recover from his daze. Shen Qingqiu let out a chuckle.
“Oh, dear me,” he murmured, grabbing Luo Binghe by the chin and tilting his head up. “It looks like I collaborate with demons even when I'm not doing it on purpose. Hah!”
Luo Binghe blinked, then stared up at Shen Qingqiu in bewilderment. “Shizun?”
“Come now, Binghe, you're a smart boy. Surely you realize that a disaster of this scale couldn't have been accomplished by demons alone. They needed to have traitors on the inside, cultivators who would assist them in infiltrating the conference's security. That's where I came in,” Shen Qingqiu gloated, playing the villain he was always meant to be.
Luo Binghe's eyes widened, his jaw dropping open. “What? No, Shizun would never–”
Shen Qingqiu cut him off with a derisive scoff. “Oh my, were you really fooled by my nice act? Even after I showed my true colours at first? How embarrassing for you. I've been planning this for a long time, you see, and I couldn't afford to draw suspicion to myself,” Shen Qingqiu replied, shifting his grip to Luo Binghe's hair and tugging his head further back. He tilted his own head to one side, as though contemplating a new idea. “I was really planning to eliminate you, and tie up the loose ends, but now that I know that you're a heavenly demon, I have a better use for you.”
Luo Binghe's breath hitched, his pupils dilating in fear.
“I'm going to steal your power, and use it for myself. It will make conquering the demon realm so much easier. Feel free to tell the other peak lords about this if you please, but I think you know what will happen if they find out you're a heavenly demon,” Shen Qingqiu murmured threateningly, then pressed a finger to Luo Binghe's forehead and activated the demon seal that the System had provided as starting equipment for this questline.
Luo Binghe gasped as his zuiyin vanished and his demonic features faded away, then his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed in a heap. Shen Qingqiu let out a sigh, allowing the villain mask to slip just a bit. He looked over toward the Abyss as the tear in reality slowly sealed itself shut, then back to the crumpled form of Luo Binghe. This was much better. He would still hate his scum villain Shizun, and Shen Qingqiu would face justice at the hands of the Protagonist sooner or later, but Luo Binghe would be able to level up in the safety of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, rather than being torn to shreds by abyssal beasts. He wouldn't need to become so angry and blackened.
Shen Qingqiu clenched his hand and swallowed. “Goodbye, Binghe,” he murmured, then turned away and made his escape. There was no more time to waste. Luo Binghe's protagonist halo would keep him safe, and he'd be found by other cultivators sooner or later. In the meantime, Shen Qingqiu had a villainous empire to establish.
He did, however, make a detour to pick up the crumpled body of Shang Qinghua, who was still laying at the base of the tree that Mobei-Jun had thrown him against. When Shen Qingqiu slung him over his shoulder, the traitor tensed up just enough to confirm that he indeed had just been playing dead while the whole situation played out. "If you know what's good for yourself, you'll play along," Shen Qingqiu warned in a low voice, and Shang Qinghua obediently remained limp and unresisting as Shen Qingqiu strode off.
Shen Qingqiu managed to evade notice as the collected members of the Immortal Alliance Conference dispatched the remaining demonic beasts within the valley. He loitered surreptitiously near the edge of the barrier, in a rocky and densely forested area high in the surrounding mountains.
He set Shang Qinghua down on a slab of granite and unsheathed Xiu Ya, prodding the man with it just enough to lightly prick the skin of his arm. "All right, Shang-shidi. Stop pretending and let's have a conversation, shall we? Quietly, now."
Shang Qinghua abruptly scrambled upright and edged away from the blade in Shen Qingqiu's hands. "Ah, Shen-shixiong, please don't do anything hasty!"
"Hasty? Such as what, do you have anything particular in mind?" Shen Qingqiu asked mildly.
"No, no, nothing at all! Just… There are still an awful lot of cultivators in this valley, and this shidi would not wish for them to come across us and draw any incorrect conclusions," Shang Qinghua replied, lifting his hands in a conciliatory gesture as his gaze flicked from Xiu Ya and back to Shen Qingqiu's face.
"They're looking for disciples and demonic beasts; they won't bother searching this isolated thicket unless anyone does something to draw their attention. Which won't be happening, will it?" Shen Qingqiu inquired, raising his sword to set the point of it at Shang Qinghua's throat.
"Haha, no, of course not!" Shang Qinghua agreed with a rictus grin as he leaned further away from Shen Qingqiu.
"Good," Shen Qingqiu said, lowering Xiu Ya once more.
Shang Qinghua licked his lips nervously. "L-look, I don't know what this is all about, I didn't even hear anything you said to Luo Binghe, so, you know, if you're worried about me telling anyone, there's no need!"
"No, that's not it. I have no intentions of hiding my complicity."
There was a flicker of confusion in Shang Qinghua's eyes for just an instant, but the obsequious nervousness swiftly returned. "Oh. Then, uh, do you want this shidi to deliver a message?"
Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be complaining about me stealing the credit for all of your hard work, Shang-shidi?"
This time, Shang Qinghua did visibly falter, before pasting the smile back on his face. "Apologies, shixiong, but I'm afraid that I do not follow."
"Really? You should take more pride in your accomplishments. You even found demonic creatures like the ghost-head spiders, Nu Yuan Chan, and bone eagles—none of which ever enter the Human Realm of their own volition. It's all rather impressive."
"Shen-shixiong, it's been a horribly stressful day for you, and I'm afraid you might be a little confused, to be saying such nonsense," Shang Qinghua protested.
"Shang-shidi is much too humble, but I suppose we can cut to the chase. I have just one more question, do you dare respond?"
"Why wouldn’t I? I have a clear conscience. Why would I fear a false accusation?” Shang Qinghua retorted.
“Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky?” asked Shen Qingqiu.
In that instant, it was like a bolt of lightning from the heavens had struck Shang Qinghua in the head, rendering him unable to speak. After a long time, he managed to stammer out, “You… How do you know my ID?”
In that moment, it was like Shen Qingqiu had also been burnt to a crisp by the aforementioned bolt of lightning. After Shang Qinghua yelped out a 'WTF?!' when Mobei-Jun has first shown up, Shen Qingqiu had suspected that Shang Qinghua was also a hapless reader of Proud Immortal Demon Way, who had been similarly shoved into the position of cannon fodder, but given his reaction…he wasn’t just a reader, was he?!
After three long seconds, Shen Qingqiu jammed Xiu Ya back into its sheath and lunged forwards to seize Shang Qinghua by the front of his robes. “It’s you?! How could I not know your ID after reading your entire fucking novel?! If you hadn’t let something slip when Mobei-Jun appeared, I really never would have known what hole you’d really crawled out of, ‘Great Master’! Digging plot holes and not filling them!” Shen Qingqiu finally burst out. “Foreshadowing gone to waste! Landmines all over the place! The writing style of an elementary schooler! If you’re going to write a stallion novel, then write a proper stallion novel— don’t fool around writing whump!”
"What— hey, I'm also a victim here! Even though I'm the author I didn't get any special treatment; even if I didn't get to be the protagonist, thematically I should at least be the System, not some random henchman! I'm supposed to be the one in charge of the story!" Shang Qinghua protested.
"We both know how well that turned out the first time, don't we? The whole reason I'm here is to fix your goddamn mess!"
"Bro, that's hurtful," Shang Qinghua replied morosely, then sighed. "…though I suppose it does explain the mess that's currently happening. I was starting to think that I was… well, what was your Zhongdian ID? Were you one of the folks who wrote a lot of fanfic?"
"WHAT?! No!" Shen Qingqiu squawked. "My ID was Peerless Cucumber."
Shang Qinghua seemed to take a moment to think about this, then nodded. "Oh, yeah, I think I remember you. Weren't you one of the people who kept calling for Shen Qingqiu to be—"
"Obviously under the current conditions, we both have things that we would have preferred to have done differently, had we known what we do now," Shen Qingqiu cut in dryly. "In any case, I have no intention of ending up as a human stick, which is where you come in."
"Look, bro, you seem to be doing pretty well with the canon divergence on your own, what do you need me for?" Shang Qinghua asked.
Shen Qingqiu sniffed haughtily. "This story needs a proper villain. A pathetic piece of scum who heartlessly abuses the protagonist when he's weak and vulnerable, only to be utterly demolished without any resistance after the main character completes his training arc is all well and good for a dog-blood revenge plot, but it's hardly narratively complex. There's no character development, no nuance, and barely any actual conflict, at least not between the protagonist and the supposed main antagonist. A completely one-sided fight both times, just with the positions reversed on the return. Extended torture scenes aren't thematically rich explorations of human nature, they're just shameless fan service!"
"I don't remember that being the fan service that Peerless Cucumber complained about," Shang Qinghua muttered, but Shen Qingqiu silenced him with a sharp look.
"My point is, it is simply not a mark of high-quality storytelling to dedicate so much emotional and narrative weight to a villain at the start of a protagonist's story, only to have that villain unceremoniously disposed of less than halfway through the narrative. It robs the story of any sense of closure. The antagonist provides motivation, conflict, excitement, and no villain has had as deep and lasting an emotional impact on Luo Binghe as Shen Qingqiu has. Any other opposition is simply going to feel underwhelming and half-assed after Luo Binghe has finally defeated the man whose shadow looms darkest over his heart. A good story comes to an end shortly after the defeat of the major villain; dragging it out any longer is just padding to try to milk a cash cow for a little longer," Shen Qingqiu declared. "Therefore, if I'm going to make this mess into any proper narrative, I need to ensure that Shen Qingqiu doesn't fizzle out and leave the story limping along on fan service and ideas scraped from the very bottom of the barrel."
Shang Qinghua listened to the tirade and seemed to take a moment to process all of what Shen Qingqiu just said. He blinked, and raised his eyebrows. "...Oh you crazy bastard, you're angling to set yourself up as a recurring villain, aren't you?" Shang Qinghua breathed.
Shen Qingqiu grinned. "You have to admit, a Joker-Batman arrangement is a significant upgrade from Shen Qingqiu's original fate."
"It is," Shang Qinghua agreed, nodding. "I'm impressed, Cucumber-bro."
Shen Qingqiu allowed himself a brief moment to preen. "Thank you. But in order to pull this off, I'm going to need to lay a significant amount of groundwork, which is what I need your help with. You work for Mobei-Jun, you have a better idea of the current political conditions of the demon realm than I do. And you can also help me iron out some of the details of my plans that are going to rely on your bullshit plot devices."
"Ah. Well, I can give you some advice about what some of the demon clans are up to, but I was born in this world as an infant, bro. It's been a long time since I wrote the story," Shang Qinghua replied.
"An infant?" Shen Qingqiu repeated, surprised.
"Yeah! Not only did I need to do all of the cultivation stuff the hard way, I even needed to go through puberty again! I told you, both of us got the short end of the stick here!" Shang Qinghua complained.
Shen Qingqiu winced. "That's... Well, that's definitely not good for plenty of reasons. Still, nothing is set in stone; I've already got an opportunity to change the course of things moving forward. If... If you wanted, you could join up with me? It might be a safer bet than sticking with Mobei-Jun."
Shang Qinghua snorted. "Thanks, bro, but I think I'll pass. Even if you manage to succeed in getting recurring villain status, that plot armour doesn't usually apply to the henchmen, you know? I'd rather not sign up to be some minor mob that serves as a speed bump to Luo Binghe having his sixteenth face-down with you. And that's assuming that I manage to live long enough for that to happen, because odds are very good my king would kill me for the betrayal first, like he did with the original goods."
"That's... fair," Shen Qingqiu admitted. "Well, I'll ask for your advice and information now, and then we can go our separate ways. We'll probably be crossing paths in the demon realm, and if all goes well, I should be able to muster a fair amount of resources and support. So if you ever need to hide out or something, let me know."
"That's appreciated, Cucumber-bro. Just don't count your chickens before they're hatched, hey?"
"Failure is not an option at this point," Shen Qingqiu replied flatly.
"...yeah, I know that feeling. Well, let's see if we can identify a nice starter clan of demons you can recruit."
The Creeping Mists Clan was, strictly speaking, not so much a proper clan as it was a loose coalition of misfits and outcasts who only co-operated with one another due to not having many other options. The clan primarily scraped out a living as scavengers who lurked around the borderlands of the human and demon realms. Unable to muster the strength of arms that was highly prized in demon culture, the clan focused their energies on subterfuge, stealth, and generally not being enough of a nuisance for any of the stronger factions in the area to bother taking notice of them.
In short, they were the polar opposite of the prideful, powerful, and impressive warrior clans that Luo Binghe had gathered under his banner after escaping the Endless Abyss. But they did perfectly suit Shen Qingqiu's needs, being easily accessible from the human realm, on top of being able to be bribed and/or threatened into subservience with just the resources that Shen Qingqiu currently had available to him. And it was thematically appropriate, the scum villain being in charge of a shady band of sneaky and cowardly thieves.
Shen Qingqiu was never going to be able to rival Luo Binghe in a battle of might in any case, so his only option was going to be utilizing every underhanded tactic in the book and then coming up with a whole batch of new devious ploys on top of that, too. Having more firepower certainly would have been a nice luxury, but for now he needed the skills of the scavengers and thieves more than he needed combat prowess.
But first things first, of course, and that was the need to dress and act the part properly. The Creeping Mists Clan didn't strictly have a permanent place of residence. There were several caves or shacks that they would sometimes retreat to if necessary, but the nature of their work and the volatility of the borderlands necessitated something of a nomadic lifestyle for the misfits. Staying in one place for too long ran the risk of depleting what resources and abandoned battlefield pickings would be available to them, not to mention increasing the odds that one of the more powerful forces of the borderlands finally took notice of the easy target.
Shen Qingqiu needed to be realistic about his capabilities at the moment, but he also needed to keep in mind the deal that he had cut with the System. Trying to maintain a low profile and entirely disappear into the shadows was tempting; it would surely be much easier if Shen Qingqiu could simply duck out of the demands of the plot and live a relatively peaceful life in some dusty corner of the demon realm, but it was not an option. Shen Qingqiu needed to be the primary antagonist of this story, and that required him to be sufficiently impressive. And that meant he needed a proper lair. Well, preferably multiple lairs, as he would doubtlessly be losing some of his centres of operation due to attrition caused by his upcoming scuffles with the Protagonist. But he needed to start with at least one!
"...Junshang, are you quite sure that you know where you are going?" Bone-Dry asked him in a nervous rasp, the tangled vertebrae that made up his hairstyle rattling as he peered suspiciously at the twisted and dark trees looming over their group.
Shen Qingqiu fixed the demon with an imperious look over his fan, arching an eyebrow slightly to indicate his irritation at being questioned. "I certainly do. We've made it through the part of the Death-Shadowed Woods where the trees are bleeding, and now we're—" His haughty explanation was interrupted by the sound of a startled yelp and a flurry of movement behind them.
Shen Qingqiu let out an exasperated sigh and raised his voice. "We're in the part of the forest where the Pulse-Snatching Vines grow. A stupid name, since they're not really vines at all; they're a parasitic growth that attaches to the trees and mimics the look of normal branches in order to trick the unsuspecting into coming close. Don't be so pathetic; treat the pests the same as you would treat any fool who dares to grab at you uninvited," he announced, snapping his fan shut with an audible crack and using the guard to viciously backhand a woody growth that had begun to reach for him from his blind spot. The thing recoiled from the strike with a disconcertingly audible squeal and fell out of the tree entirely, scuttling away into the undergrowth. "Find a buddy to watch each other's backs, if you must. The Pulse-Snatching Vines are only really dangerous to lone travelers who might become restrained with no one around to help them, so I expect all of you to be able to handle yourselves."
Shen Qingqiu unfolded his fan again and used it to cover his hint of a smile at the impressed murmurs and echoed calls of "Yes, Junshang!" from behind him. Ah, sometimes it still felt like he was a teacher. He shook off that thought before it started leading him down the route of melancholic wondering of how everyone on Qing Jing Peak might be doing in his absence. That part of his life was behind him, now.
It was another incense stick of time, interspersed with the occasional thuds and squeals caused by the Creeping Mists Clan fending off the grabby plants, before Shen Qingqiu reached a narrow line of white tiles that laid across the path ahead of them. The marking practically shone in the gloom, somehow untouched and unobscured by the dirt and leaf litter that covered the rest of the ground. "Ah, here we are. We have reached the Mai Egui lands. I expect everyone to conduct themselves with dignity and courage, am I understood?" Shen Qingqiu demanded, wheeling around to face his followers.
"Yes, Junshang!" the demons replied.
"Good," Shen Qingqiu said. He faced forward once more and stepped over the white tile boundary.
Immediately, a blood-curdling scream sounded as though it was shrieked directly into his ear.
"Turn back!"
"You are not welcome here!"
"You will die!"
"Your voice will join the choir!"
"Turn back!'
Shen Qingqiu only sniffed and continued down the path without breaking stride. His minions followed behind him, though he could tell that they faltered when they stepped over the line and were able to hear the screams as well. Still, they did not flee, which was good enough for him.
Soon they reached a break in the trees and came within sight of a moderately large mansion. The walls surrounding the structure were large and imposing, painted with grim depictions of a wide assortment of violence and death, at least where images could be made out past the chipping paint and scorch marks. The place seemed utterly deserted, left to fall to ruin in the wake of some disaster that had the main gates hanging half off of their hinges. Despite the evident lack of maintenance, no plants had grown through the cracks in the cobblestones or even in any of the garden beds in the courtyard. In a radius of approximately a meter around the outer walls, the only vegetation that existed in the mansion was apparently withered and dead.
Shen Qingqiu sighed. "Well, it is a bit of a fixer-upper, but it will do for now," he remarked, putting his fan away and drawing Xiu Ya. He fished out a few talismans with his other hand. "You lot stay out here, and I'll take care of this."
The demons seemed all too happy to not go into the spooky mansion, and Shen Qingqiu slipped through the broken gates alone.
He immediately needed to raise his sword to parry the clawed strike of a spectre that manifested before him.
"Interloper! Defiler! Thief!" the ghost screamed in rage as the warning shrieks of the area tapered into an ominous background murmur.
"Yes, that's me," Shen Qingqiu agreed, turning aside another lunge that was aimed to tear his heart from his chest.
The ghost was, disappointingly, essentially a Sadako rip-off, dressed in white funeral robes and with her face entirely obscured by long dark hair. The main distinguishing feature was that this ghost sported a fine voluptuous figure, because it was important for the sake of fan service that even the undead had a nice set of tits.
Mai Ji'e in fact was one of Luo Binghe's many conquests in Proud Immortal Demon Way, though in her case her soul was sent back into the cycle of reincarnation rather than being added to the harem. So Shen Qingqiu felt that it was acceptable in this case for him to cut the arc short. He wasn't stealing a wife, only editing out a one-night stand! And Shen Qingqiu didn't need to seduce the enraged spirit in order to actually learn her story, either. Nothing untoward was going on!
Shen Qingqiu leapt aside to evade another attack and flicked out his hand. The talismans flew across the distance to slap against the ghost's head and chest, freezing her in place.
"Impudence!" Mai Ji'e snarled, and black flames began smoldering at the edges of the talismans, eroding the restraints.
Shen Qingqiu clicked his tongue in disappointment and rushed further into the mansion grounds, skidding around a corner and heading directly for the well in the main courtyard. Because of course it was the well where Mai Ji'e's body had been dumped, where else would it have been?
Shen Qingqiu leapt down the well and plunged into the icy black water at the bottom with a grimace. Fortunately, it wasn't all that deep, and Shen Qingqiu managed to find the forlorn bundle containing Mai Ji'e's remains without too much difficulty. He bounded back up the walls and emerged from the well just as the ghost caught up with him again. Shen Qingqiu hissed and twisted aside, but Mai Ji'e's razor-sharp claws managed to snag on his robes and tear through the layers to expose his shoulder.
Aiyah, he's already in soaking wet and light-colored robes, and now he was suffering wardrobe malfunctions too? Shen Qingqiu cringed and internally sadly waved goodbye to his dwindling chance to farm any B-points from this disaster.
He used Xiu Ya to keep the ghost at bay as he fought his way to the Mai Egui burial grounds, rather unceremoniously dumping the bundle of bones on the altar as he ducked under Mai Ji'e's attempt to decapitate him. He kicked the ghost away to give himself the brief opportunity to light some incense in the burners.
"I'm sorry, you really do deserve better funeral rites than this," Shen Qingqiu remarked, fending off another furious attack. "But I'm afraid I'm in a bit of a hurry."
"Die!!!"
"I don't have time for that, either," Shen Qingqiu replied, and began to chant. He held his ground against Mai Ji'e's attacks as he finished the rites.
This time, there was no heartfelt goodbye, only a final snarl before the ghost dissolved. Shen Qingqiu heaved a sigh and sheathed Xiu Ya. He turned to the altar once more and bowed. "Farewell, Mai Ji'e. May your next life treat you more kindly than this one," he murmured, before unwrapping the bones and moving them to rest amongst the remains of the rest of her family.
Shen Qingqiu left the burial grounds, squeezing water from his hair and generally trying to make himself more presentable before he reached the main gates once more. It was honestly a bit of a lost cause, but at least he didn't look quite as much like a drowned rat as he peeked back through the doorway and beckoned for his minions. "All right, you can come inside now," he called.
The demons shifted uneasily. "The voices are still screaming, Junshang?" Bone-dry asked.
"Oh, yeah, they do that. Don't mind them, it's mainly just a security measure. They'll be quiet when you actually get inside the buildings. Now come along," Shen Qingqiu explained, pushing the broken gates open just a little wider. "We've got a lot of work to do on this place."
The Creeping Mists Clan cautiously filtered into their new home, gazes darting around the courtyard as if expecting more ghosts to lunge out of the shadows. Shen Qingqiu scoffed and strode over the flagstones to the entrance of the main building. He pushed the doors open with an ominous creak and let the gloomy light of the Death-Shadowed Woods filter into the darkened interior. "Hm, a bit dusty, but not bad. At least we shouldn't need to worry about any vermin."
When Shen Qingqiu stepped over the threshold, the ominous shrieks that had been constant background noise suddenly shut off, as though the sound had been cut with a knife.
And then, because the Mai Egui Clan were dramatic bastards, the sound of Shen Qingqiu's footsteps echoed through the space as though he was wearing hard-soled shoes on a polished marble floor in the center of some vast and cavernous chamber, rather than walking through a slightly larger than normal receiving hall.
The effect was impressive, admittedly, though more so when Shen Qingqiu was the only one walking through the space. The clatter of all of his minions entering the hall at once did spoil the impact somewhat.
Shen Qingqiu crossed the hall to settle on the grand seat facing the doorway, and waved his hand imperiously. "I have done the hard part of exterminating the prior inhabitants of this place, now it's your turn to earn your keep. This will be our base of operations moving forward, and so it's your job to make it habitable. Get to it," he commanded, then glanced down at his bedraggled attire. "And find me something new to wear."
As was to be expected from a clan of demons that had harnessed the wails of the dead as their own personal intruder-deterrent mechanism and generally leaned into the necromantic aesthetic as much as possible, the majority of the clothes that remained in the mansion were black. That was just fine, though. Shen Qingqiu was no longer in the phase of his character arc where he was fair without but foul within; now he was expected to be foul inside and out. Shen Qingqiu needed to become an imposing and long term villain, and that meant that he needed to dress for the job that he wanted!
And while he was changing up his aesthetic, he should consider changes beyond simply the color scheme. He was in a stallion novel, and the most important rule of survival when in those was to never act in the role of any kind of rival for the Protagonist's love interests! The original goods was condemned for being a lecher amongst his other numerous crimes, and there was no way that Luo Binghe would allow him to live if he thought that Shen Qingqiu might be plucking some of the flowers that rightfully belonged to the Protagonist!
Fortunately, there was a long tradition of deeply queer-coded villains whom Shen Qingqiu could follow the lead of. Surely if he played the campiest villain imaginable, no one would suspect Shen Qingqiu of having any unsavory designs on Luo Binghe's future wives! No sir, Shen Qingqiu was only interested in villainy and dramatics, and certainly not in the opposite sex!
…Shen Qingqiu wondered if he could weasel some extra points out of the system if he arranged for some kind of musical number. Something to consider; there were several parrot-adjacent creatures in the demon realm that could serve to provide backup instrumentation or vocals if he only planned a bit ahead. Maybe he could find a demon who could come up with some choreography as well?
Ah, but that was low on the list of priorities, and probably something he should consider for a suitably dramatic time frame, after Luo Binghe re-entered the picture. It would be a waste of time to engage in extensive theatrics when the narrative focus of the story was somewhere else entirely, following Luo Binghe's exploits.
For now, it was enough that Shen Qingqiu made up his mind to dress for success, and that meant making proper use of all of the skimpy black robes he had at his disposal, not to mention the fishnet material and dramatic eye makeup.
The leather accessories he mostly set aside, to be considered at a future date. He wanted to exude an aura of fabulousness, not perversion, and he felt that too much leather could risk crossing that line.
Though the available footwear selection was sadly limited, and seemed to be mostly sandals. Between this and Sha Hualing, did the demons just like leaving their toes exposed to the air?
In any case, Shen Qingqiu was not feeling aesthetically fulfilled by the footwear he had been able to scrounge up from the depths of the Mai Egui closets, and would likely need to commission some kind of cobbler to make him properly fitting boots to complete his outfit. Something at least knee high and with tasteful heels should complete the appropriately campy look.
For now, a moth demon who had been cast out of their previous clan due to being more interested in working with silk rather than devouring it was even willing to help him make some tailoring adjustments to the garments so they could better fit, as well as puzzling out a few of the more esoteric pieces of clothing.
Even with the look not quite perfected, Shen Qingqiu was quite pleased with the current effects of his efforts. He had evidently managed to become much more intimidating in his new wardrobe, because there were few demons remaining in the Creeping Mists Clan who could look upon him for more than a few moments before feeling compelled to break their gaze away and instead examine the nearby floor or wall instead. Step one in his transformation to become a proper endgame villain, complete.
The renovations were also going well, and morale had been significantly improved after Shen Qingqiu found the brooches that muffled the threatening screaming that could be heard anywhere outside of the proper buildings of the mansion. One of his underlings had taken the opportunity to paint bamboo growing up through the bodies of the dead and dying in the murals that adorned the outer walls, which was a nice touch.
Now that the main buildings were beginning to become properly liveable and Shen Qingqiu felt confident in having settled into his new role, it was time to set the next phase of his plan in motion. He needed to get his hands on as many overpowered deus-ex-machina plot devices as possible.
Considering that he was working with source material where Luo Binghe couldn't go five li without tripping over some thousand-year flower or long-lost artifact of some long-extinct clan, you would think that wouldn't be difficult, but Shen Qingqiu was working without the benefit of having a protagonist halo, and he needed to maintain control of his motley crew of canon-fodder level demons. He couldn't just go off on an adventure of his own and leave his minions to their own devices; the power structure would collapse almost immediately in his absence and he'd come back to the aftermath of one or multiple schisms and infighting as the trash-tier mobs succumbed to the instincts they'd been written to have and made a power grab in his absence.
And Shen Qingqiu definitely could not retrieve any of the plot devices that required seducing or wooing voluptuous maidens, for obvious reasons.
So, at least for right now, Shen Qingqiu had to aim for artifacts that could be retrieved by his minions, which meant nothing that required significant martial prowess or charisma. There were several he could think of that could be simply stolen if one was stealthy enough, which played into the strengths of his underlings. As for the rest, well, if he focused on raising the IQ of his minions, he was sure that he could scrounge up a few promising individuals who could nab items that could be retrieved by solving puzzles or navigating challenging mazes, when given clear and comprehensive instructions.
Shen Qingqiu would just need to find promising candidates for those roles quickly.
Shen Qingqiu drummed his fingers against the armrest of his throne, using all of his poser abilities to make the movement come off as bored and impatient instead of desperately anxious.
This was fine, he told himself. Everything was fine. There might have been a few minor setbacks, but Shen Qingqiu was making progress. It was just like that story about a guy who started making trades with just a single paperclip until finally being able to increase the value of the items exchanged enough to afford an entire house. Just follow the plan, walk the tightrope, and make it to the other side.
What was the big rush, someone might wonder. It had barely been two months since the Immortal Alliance Conference. Luo Binghe was still just a disciple, and currently sealed to only have the power and appearance of a human cultivator. It would surely take ages for him to muster up enough experience and expertise to be able to seek justice from his treacherous teacher. Surely Shen Qingqiu bought himself at least a few years of breathing room with this gambit?
Haha, wouldn't that be nice.
Unfortunately, Luo Binghe wasn't the only complication he needed to deal with.
Shen Qingqiu felt that was doing an admirable job of lounging in his stolen seat and aping nonchalance while frantically trying to come up with contingencies and back-up plans.
"Junshang!" Cong Qianfu exclaimed excitedly, scampering into the makeshift throne room with a box carved from unnaturally pitch-black wood. The hue of the material was so dark that no light whatsoever was reflected from the surface of the object; the only way that one could know of the intricate carvings etched into the box was with touch. Or from having read narration about the object ahead of time, of course.
"Ah, Qianfu," Shen Qingqiu remarked with half-lidded eyes, allowing a slight smirk to curl his lips. He did not heave a sigh of relief. "It seems that you have finally managed to bring me back something interesting."
"It was just as you said, Junshang! At the base of the Knifepoint Cliffs, there was an entrance to a vast cavern network that stretched for miles and miles! The advice you gave about how the eye colors of different colonies of the Compound-Eyed Strikebats varied depending on their location in the complex was very helpful in navigating the further extents. As you described, there was a waterfall in a cavern just south of the violet-eyed Strikebats, one that hid a doorway secured with a combination lock. The code you provided opened the door, and we were able to avoid the traps and pitfalls thanks to the warnings we were given beforehand."
"And the Barb-Tongued Cockatrice?"
"It was too busy chasing the two dozen rats we released after passing through the initial doorway to pay us any mind at all, Junshang," Cong Qianfu reported. "It does seem like it had a recent clutch of eggs, however, so anyone going that way again may need to bring more rats."
Damn, that sounded so cool! Shen Qingqiu wished he could have seen it in person, but he already had his hands full with managing the logistics of the lair, establishing diplomatic relations with nearby demon clans, building his fledgling spy network, and wracking his brain for more useful and accessible plot devices that could be plundered. He still didn't have the leeway to go on an adventure when he needed to be building the base of a villainous empire. Besides, what kind of villain did his own busywork when he could delegate those tasks to his underlings?
…Oh, there were going to be very few opportunities for him to do any solo adventuring in his new role, weren't there? Shen Qingqiu internally wept a little at that realization.
"I see. It sounds like you had quite the journey," Shen Qingqiu replied, valiantly managing to keep any tone of envy out of his voice.
Cong Qianfu nodded enthusiastically, lifting the box with both hands to emphasize its importance. "Indeed, but it was also a fruitful one! With all of the security measures sealing this away, it's bound to be something really powerful! ...What is it?" the demon asked, tilting his head curiously.
"Something that strikes fear into the hearts of any righteous cultivator, my friend," Shen Qingqiu replied, taking the box from the excitable demon and running his fingers over the maze-like lines carved through the surface of the wood.
"You said that already," Cong Qianfu grumbled, and several of the other demons in the room echoed the sentiment. "But you didn't actually say what it was."
"You may patiently wait until I deign to explain my plans, Qianfu, or you can challenge me to a duel and win the right to take the answers by force," Shen Qingqiu retorted coldly, fixing the demon with a glare. "Do you think that you stand a chance with that latter option?"
Cong Qianfu grimaced and lowered his head. "This one meant no disrespect."
"Hm, good. Because this really is the best to be explained with a demonstration, anyway." Shen Qingqiu channeled a spark of qi into the specific symbol he had finally found, and the box opened with a click. The inside of the device was just as black and lightless as the outside of it. Shen Qingqiu reached into the recess and hooked his fingers around something just as the doors of the throne room burst open.
Literally burst, with the two sides of the doorway being blasted clean off of their hinges and ricocheting into the open hall. One hapless salamander demon was flattened under the left door with a yelp, while the demons on the right side of the hall were a bit quicker on their feet and managed to evade the flying chunk of wood.
"Shen Qingqiu," Liu Qingge said, striding into the hall in the wake of the destruction.
Shen Qingqiu swiftly snapped the box closed and shoved it up his sleeve. "Ah, Liu Qingge. I see that your manners have not improved any in my absence."
"What do you think you're doing?" Liu Qingge demanded, his gaze drifting down to the open neckline of Shen Qingqiu's black robes, plunging all the way down to his navel. The War God's face seemed to take on a slightly redder shade and he snapped his eyes back up to Shen Qingqiu's face.
Shen Qingqiu tilted his head to one side with a slight smile. "Well, what does it look like?" he asked, gesturing lazily at the demons and ominous decor surrounding them.
"It looks like you had another qi deviation and have decided to act even crazier than the last time," Liu Qingge replied bluntly. "Did you lose your memories again?"
Shen Qingqiu tossed his head back with a laugh. "Oh, don't tell me you really believed all that nonsense about me turning over a new leaf. Out of all of the fools on Cang Qiong Mountain, I thought that you at least had realized my true nature. You're really so simple that a few years of playing nice was enough to wash away more than a decade of enmity? Honestly, I'm a little disappointed."
Liu Qingge grit his teeth. "You saved my life, Shen Qingqiu."
Shen Qingqiu rolled his eyes. "Of course I did, you fool. How do you think it would have looked if I had just left you to die? Obviously everyone would assume I was a murderer, and I could hardly afford that kind of suspicion."
Liu Qingge's determined expression didn't change. "Whatever this nonsense is, you can explain your latest mental break to Mu Qingfang. I'm taking you back home."
"I decline," Shen Qingqiu replied, waving his hand dismissively.
"I wasn't asking." Liu Qingge lunged forwards, too quickly for any of Shen Qingqiu's minions to even try to intercept him. That was probably for the best, really; it wouldn't have ended well for them if they had.
Shen Qingqiu himself barely had time to flinch before Liu Qingge grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up out of his throne. The War God's arm curled around Shen Qingqiu's torso like a band of iron, pinning him firmly against Liu Qingge's chest while leaving the man's other hand free to wield Cheng Luan.
Liu Qingge glared fiercely at Shen Qingqiu's underlings, and the spiritual pressure his qi exerted alone was enough to leave most of them pale and shaking. "We're leaving," he said, in a tone that left no room for argument. He was barely paying any attention to Shen Qingqiu.
To be honest, being treated like some swooning maiden in need of rescue instead of a highly dangerous prisoner was more than a little insulting. Though, admittedly, it did make things more convenient.
"Oh, Liu Qingge," Shen Qingqiu murmured in the man's ear. "It was a very bad idea to get this close to me."
Shen Qingqiu felt the War God shiver, but his grip on Shen Qingqiu didn't falter. Unfortunately for him, because in the next heartbeat, Shen Qingqiu snapped his hand out and clamped something cold and heavy around Liu Qingge's wrist.
Liu Qingge made an involuntary and wordless exclamation of pain, and staggered. Shen Qingqiu pressed his hands against Liu Qingge's chest and shoved, and the War God moved, losing his grip on Shen Qingqiu and stumbling backwards, falling to one knee.
Shen Qingqiu landed gracefully on his feet and tutted, shaking his head. "I did warn you," he said.
Liu Qingge sucked in a shuddering gasp and raised his right hand to clutch at his left wrist, where instead of a thick metal shackle, there was only an unbroken black band imprinted on the skin itself. "What... what did you...?"
"It's a cursed shackle, Liu Qingge. I'm sure that you've heard of them before, haven't you?" Shen Qingqiu asked.
Liu Qingge let out a shaky exhale and tightened his grip on his wrist. "You... you wouldn't..."
"What about me makes you think that I wouldn't take great pleasure in rendering the oh-so-mighty War God mortal? But if you don't believe me, you can go ahead and test it. Go on, try to use your qi. I'll wait," Shen Qingqiu drawled.
Liu Qingge grit his teeth hard enough that Shen Qingqiu could see the muscles in his jaw work, and closed his eyes. After a heartbeat, he opened them and lifted his gaze to Shen Qingqiu. "This... this doesn't change anything, Shen Qingqiu. You still need to come back to Cang Qiong."
Shen Qingqiu tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow. "Your stubbornness is truly impressive, Liu Qingge. What makes you think there's any way you can get me to return there when you no longer have any leverage?"
"This isn't about me! You need to go back, or Without A Cure will kill you!" Liu Qingge snapped.
Shen Qingqiu faltered, just for a moment. He hadn't expected that to be Liu Qingge's motivation. He quickly scoffed. "You shouldn't worry about me. Worry about yourself."
Shen Qingqiu snapped his fingers and the demons in the throne room came to stand at his side and leer down at Liu Qingge. "Now, I'm in a good mood, and I'm not interested in expending all that effort to get a cursed shackle on you just to kill you so unceremoniously. Besides, I think that Cang Qiong should be able to hear the news of what their former martial brother has been getting up to, don't you?" Shen Qingqiu asked with a smirk, leaning down to tip Liu Qingge's chin up with one finger. "So here is what is going to happen. My lovely associates will escort you safely to the edge of my territory, and you can run back to your Sect with your tail between your legs."
Liu Qingge glared murderously up at him.
"Oh, and don't worry so much about the shackle. It's still an imperfect prototype. As long as you are at least two li away from me," —well, technically away from the box, but Liu Qingge didn't need to know that— "you'll be able to use your qi just fine. If you really want to bring me back to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect to face justice or receive treatment or some other nonsense, then teach Luo Binghe how to fight. That boy is the only one in the whole sect who has the potential to rival me. Now, off you go."
Two of Shen Qingqiu's henchdemons moved forward to grip Liu Qingge by the biceps and heft him upright, beginning to drag him away. "This isn't over!" Liu Qingge shouted as he was carted off through the broken doorway.
"It will be if you know what's good for you. Don't expect me to be so merciful the next time," Shen Qingqiu replied, turning his back on the doorway and striding back to his throne. His knees were feeling just a little like jello, but he had managed to get past the first hurdle. He'd definitely cut it close; without something to negate Liu Qingge's overpowered martial skills, he and his crew of scrub-level demons would have stood no chance in chasing him off.
Shen Qingqiu sank down to sit on his throne and exhaled. He watched the embarrassed salamander demon finally scuttle out from under the left half of the door and up into the rafters to hide and lick her wounds.
"Well, Qianfu? What did you think of that little demonstration?" Shen Qingqiu asked idly, tapping his finger against the arm of his throne.
"It was most impressive, Junshang. But are you sure it was wise to leave the cultivator alive?" Cong Qianfu asked, glancing in the direction of the doorway. "He was at our mercy."
"And so he will remain, should he ever return," Shen Qingqiu replied flippantly. Murdering Liu Qingge was one of the main charges that led the original goods to his fate of becoming a human stick, there was no way that Shen Qingqiu wanted to repeat that mistake! But his underlings would want to have a more cold-blooded rationale for why they wouldn't want to eliminate one of their enemies when given the chance. "As I said, it would be a waste to kill him now. There are any number of ways to kill a cultivator, but simply killing one of them will not serve to strike the appropriate level of fear into their hearts, nor will it serve to significantly raise our standing. Any dumb brute can get lucky and manage to land a critical strike, or merely take credit for some freak twist of fate; it is not as though the dead can speak to refute the claim. And for those who deal in violence, death is always something of an expected outcome, an accepted risk.
"Powerlessness, though, that is what truly scares them. Death is simple, in its way, over and done, but being forced to linger, to suffer, to be able to do nothing but watch as that which you value most is taken or destroyed, that is a terrifying prospect," Shen Qingqiu continued, though his eyes strayed to the demons who had gathered around the battered doors and begun to argue over who would be responsible for making the repairs. "Well, perhaps not for those who have always lived with the knowledge of that reality. At least that fear is a long familiar one. But for those accustomed to power, being deprived of it is a frightening concept indeed."
Cong Qianfu made a little hum of acknowledgment.
"We are still establishing our reputation at this point, Qianfu. Any extraordinary claims must be backed up with extraordinary proof. Claims such as besting the War God of the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Liu Qingge will serve as living proof of our power and deviousness. Normal cultivators will hesitate to oppose us, for fear that their hard won cultivation might too be stolen from them. And more than that, this leaves Liu Qingge free to wreak havoc on any other demon clans beyond our territory. He can weaken our rivals and yet do nothing against us, is this not a fortuitous arrangement indeed?"
Cong Qianfu nodded. "You make several good points. In that case, I only have one more question. Is it true that Junshang is afflicted by Without A Cure?" he asked, his tone of voice dropping into a lower register as his slit-pupiled eyes remained unblinkingly trained on Shen Qingqiu, tasting blood in the water. It was the way of demonic culture, to strike at any sign of weakness. If Shen Qingqiu couldn't demonstrate his power and superiority, the demons would turn on him in a heartbeat.
Shen Qingqiu smiled blithely. "It is true, but come closer, I have a secret to tell you about that first. No, closer. Closer," he coaxed, crooking a finger to beckon to his underling.
When Cong Qianfu was only a few cun away, Shen Qingqiu struck like a snake, grabbing the demon by the throat and hefting him off of his feet entirely. "The secret, my friend, is that Without A Cure is only deadly to humans," he declared. He used the point of contact of his fingers against the cannon fodder's jugular to tap into the demon's meridians and forcefully siphon the qi away, channeling it into his own spiritual veins. "And I have no intention of being constrained by any such label any longer."
In fact, the B-points that he had just earned from engaging in so much villainous scenery-chewing with Liu Qingge had finally gotten him enough to purchase a very important update from the System.
Shen Qingqiu had, after all, been trained by an infamous demonic cultivator before the bastard managed to weasel his way into the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. It was only reasonable to assume that meant that he had learned some horrible and underhanded demonic cultivation practices during that time, ones to benefit himself at the expense of others.
Shen Qingqiu had already bargained two month's reprieve from the Without A Cure symptoms on the basis of having 'used' Luo Binghe's qi like a power-up, just as he claimed during the Conference. And now, he had a dedicated system for managing his symptoms, painting the channels of his meridians with demonic qi and driving the Without A Cure into dormancy, isolated from the spiritual qi it stagnated and fed upon. It was only a temporary solution, but it was a solution that worked well enough so long as he had plenty of demons at hand.
He finally released Cong Qianfu, who slumped to his knees, staring wide-eyed up at Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu, who sat back and crossed his legs, meeting Cong Qianfu's gaze with eyes that now gleamed a slightly luminescent green. He grinned, showing off subtly pointed teeth. "Your qi was quite a treat, you're really too kind," he taunted, running his tongue along the edges of his altered teeth.
Cong Qianfu made a strangled noise.
"Hm, speechless, are you? Well, that's all right. I won't be satisfied with just one taste, you know. So if you no longer want your neck to be the one on the line, you'll figure out how to grab me some appropriate captives to feed off of, understood?" Shen Qingqiu explained, raising his head to meet the gaze of the rest of the demon's in the throne room. "That goes for all of you. You will find a way to fulfill my demands, or I will force you to do so. Have I made myself clear?"
A shiver seemed to run through the members of the organization, and almost as one they straightened up and bowed. "As Junshang commands!" they replied in near-unison.
In order to maintain his current demonic cultivation equilibrium, Shen Qingqiu needed to feed on demonic qi at least once every two weeks. It seemed that in order to determine who was the "donor", Shen Qingqiu's subordinates had organized a tournament.
It was a very strange way of deciding things, Shen Qingqiu thought, since it was the winner of the tournament who ended up being the one to go to their knees at the feet of Shen Qingqiu's throne. The winner was the one to have their villainous leader wrap his hand around their throat and siphon away their qi until they were a shivering heap on the floor. Like it was some kind of prize!
Shen Qingqiu thought that it was maybe a weird quirk of demonic culture. Perhaps they wanted to make sure that the one who provided their qi to their leader was the strongest, so as to support the power structure in place? Or perhaps the demons just enjoyed fighting so much that they took any excuse to do some more of it?
In any case, Shen Qingqiu wasn't about to be someone to look a gift horse in the mouth! There were a lot fewer grumblings and plots arranged behind his back now that he had demonstrated his capabilities sufficiently, and his reputation seemed to be improving enough to attract even more members of the gang.
The additional manpower was appreciated, especially now that Shen Qingqiu was beginning to branch out. The pool of useful artifacts he could think of which were both within the demon realm and able to be pilfered with minimal conflict with any future wives was starting to run dry, and in any case, aside from consorting with demons in general and shackling Liu Qingge when he came looking for trouble, Shen Qingqiu and his underlings hadn't done anything particularly villainous yet.
And while not doing anything particularly evil was good for Shen Qingqiu's chances of not being brutally murdered by Luo Binghe, simply being generically ambitious or power hungry was not enough for the role he had selected. If he wanted narrative staying power, then he needed to engage in underhanded and evil practices beyond just the initial betrayal he committed against the Protagonist.
The betrayal was a good start, don't get him wrong, but it wasn't enough fuel to get him into recurring villain territory. Shen Qingqiu needed to have his own machinations and schemes, opportunities for Luo Binghe to intervene and deal out humiliation and failure to the villain without involving any specific bodily harm to Shen Qingqiu's own person. He couldn't simply be a figure for Luo Binghe to take revenge upon, or the narrative arc could easily be truncated by Luo Binghe getting that revenge and eliminating the villain. Worse still, if Shen Qingqiu didn't engage in anything particularly evil, the System might decide to lock him into the role of "flawed but remorseful mentor figure who tragically sacrifices himself in a final act of redemption", and Shen Qingqiu did not want to die, please and thank you. Especially not while he was already putting in so much work to cultivate his own army of minions!
No, Shen Qingqiu had to spread his presence and influence wide and stick his fingers into as many pies as possible, so that Luo Binghe would constantly be reminded of his looming presence and uncovering even more layers of manipulation and deception behind every scene.
Still, Shen Qingqiu couldn't commit anything too truly heinous, for risk of classifying himself as a threat that needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible without any possibility of a trial or imprisonment. As someone whom it was truly too dangerous to keep alive. If Shen Qingqiu was in a different story, perhaps he could engage in more unforgivable evil, but Luo Binghe was not a protagonist who took any principled vows to not kill his mortal enemies, and indeed often took great pleasure in savagely and bloodily murdering them in retaliation.
(Besides, Shen Qingqiu's conscience would also have a hard time handling being responsible for purely evil acts.)
He had known that he was signing up to walk this tightrope the moment he cut the deal with the System, but that didn't make the task any less daunting now that he was staring down the barrel of actually needing to achieve it.
First things first, he needed to establish that he was not merely confining himself to the demon realm. Luo Binghe had minimal emotional attachment to anyone or anything in the demon realm right now, and wouldn't have any particular reason to care if Shen Qingqiu was only wreaking havoc there.
Therefore, Shen Qingqiu had come to the conclusion that what he needed to do was some kidnapping and ransoming of important figures in the human realm. Certainly a reprehensible act, and one that had the worrying potential to escalate into worse practices if not addressed, but ultimately something that was mainly measured in the form of economic losses.
Plus, it was a very convenient way of helping himself to additional useful artifacts that were currently being held in the human realm, and thus much more difficult to access.
Shen Qingqiu had the dungeons of the Mai Egui mansion renovated and expanded, and made certain that they had plenty of supplies of human-safe food options. By the time he was satisfied, the holding cells were perfectly humane but by no means luxurious, and the alchemist and mad scientist demons he had at his disposal had worked out the kinks of what was essentially a massive supply of tranquilizer darts.
He was also training up a workforce of demons that specialized in espionage and infiltration. Ransoming their captives was all well and good, but it ran the risk of running into more obstinate or particularly greedy groups who would refuse to negotiate and just abandon the hostage to their fate, in which case what was Shen Qingqiu supposed to do? He couldn't just execute helpless prisoners and tip the scales too far into being irredeemably evil. But he also couldn't simply release the hostages after receiving nothing for his troubles, else no one would bother to take him seriously at all.
The solution was to train a strike force that could be assigned to go into the recalcitrant sects or noble estates and simply steal whatever item that Shen Qingqiu was initially asking for. Then he could show off his success, gloat infuriatingly about it, and then issue a new demand for some other payment in exchange for the hostage. After two or three rounds of this, even the most stubborn of places should learn their lesson about simply paying the ransom request.
As a last resort, however, Shen Qingqiu also had the potential to speak to the captive and tell them about all the refusals to even try to buy them back, about how clearly undervalued and unappreciated they were in their current location, and try to entice them into instead joining a team that would appreciate their skills and abilities much more. He needed as many potential agents planted in the human realm as he could get, not least because they were the most likely ones to pick up any news of Luo Binghe finally taking action.
The next phase after that was to become something of an information broker, a shady influence who lurked in the background of the decisions made by more powerful and influential demon clans and cultivation sects. Shen Qingqiu's character archetype obviously lent itself best to the scheming, evil, and morally corrupt advisor role to the wealthy and powerful, but he was not content with merely fulfilling that role with a single ruler, no. Shen Qingqiu needed an empire, and that meant he needed a wide power base.
Shen Qingqiu was never going to be able to establish an empire the same way that Luo Binghe did, through overwhelming and blinding power, and certainly not through marriage!!! He didn't want to do that either, not when it would clearly step on the toes of Luo Binghe's nature and future conquests.
No, Shen Qingqiu would rule from the shadows, a puppet master pulling the strings of all those involved, playing both sides in order to ensure that the one who profits most from any given conflict was himself, all while maintaining an absolute minimum risk to himself or his own resources.
A proper empire for a scum villain, and as the years went by, arranging for such outcomes became more and more simple and frictionless. His reputation of having access to information that simply was unavailable in any other form preceded him, and that was too valuable to ignore even with the knowledge that Shen Qingqiu would absolutely exploit the situation to enrich himself, and that he was most likely providing the same services to the other side as well.
The people who held the reins of power tended to be arrogant, and often seemed to believe that clearly they would be the special one in this arrangement, that Shen Qingqiu would be convinced of the righteousness or surety of their victory. Obviously it was the other side who was merely being exploited to line the pockets of the shadowy information merchant, rather than being provided with actual advice.
Shen Qingqiu certainly hoped that this was only reflective of the low-IQ villainy that had been found everywhere in the source material, and wasn't actually reflective of the typical mindset of leaders and rulers, but he wasn't entirely confident in that assertion. Ultimately, he supposed that it didn't matter; this was the world he was in now, so this was the behaviour he should be accounting for in his schemes.
Ultimately, the side that he tended to provide better information towards tended to be the ones that would later serve as Luo Binghe's seats of power, or the one that hosted one of his future wives. It was all a bit up in the air how much he actually helped versus how many of them were always narratively destined to win, but at least he had established a name for himself within the courts of those places, had earned a reputation that resulted in his name being talked about in hushed whispers in the halls of power.
He also might have purposefully targeted specific groups that had originally caused Luo Binghe a significant amount of suffering and distress, in Proud Immortal Demon Way. It was completely reasonable and justified for him to demolish the minor sect that had developed imprisoning arrays powerful enough to trap Luo Binghe for a full three months before he managed to talk a sympathetic maiden into setting him free! For one thing, Shen Qingqiu needed all the anti-Luo Binghe devices he could get his hands on, and for another, it would only make sense for him to replace the villains that Luo Binghe would have otherwise gone up against! He was eliminating the competition so that he could establish himself as the top dog antagonist!
It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they had whipped and tormented Luo Binghe in the novel when he had been imprisoned, thus reminding him of his abuse and trauma at the hands of his scum teacher! He had only been less considerate or willing to have negotiations with the sect because he had to be wary about his own underlings being trapped and interrogated, and not because he particularly hated the slimy asshole who was the head of the family.
Who did he think that he was, anyway?! Some cheap knock-off version of Shen Qingqiu, taunting Luo Binghe for being a beast and making slimy advances on the Protagonist's wives?! No sir, Shen Qingqiu didn't take kindly to people trying to encroach on his turf!
Anyway, once that sect had been burned to the ground and its survivors scattered to the winds, the cultivation world certainly seemed to be taking Shen Qingqiu more seriously as a threat.
And by the time that three years had passed since the Immortal Alliance Conference, there were almost no demonic courts who did not speak his name with an air of both envy and reverence, and there were few human sects or courts near the border who did not speak his name with fear. Seeing any of Shen Qingqiu's more well-known agents soon became considered a harbinger of future strife, of war or revolution. But of course, typically the agents of the shadow lord were just as subtle and surreptitious as the man himself, so one could never consider themselves fully safe from the creeping nefarious influence of Shen Qingqiu.