Work Text:
Before the Ling Xi Caves, you had (not) been a perfectly normal child.
After them, your body feels wrong. Weak and blunted and trapped, but you bury it all behind a gentle smile and discipline. They need you to be Yue Qingyuan, head disciple of Qiong Ding Peak, future Sect Leader, the Xuan Su sword, so that is who you become.
(All you want is to be needed by him.)
Xiao Jiu Shen-shidi comes to you, flushed and feverish, and you greet him with all the poise expected of your station, even as you wish you could just shed your robes and spread your legs, eager for the taking.
(Xiao Jiu Xiao Jiu Xiao Jiu)
He takes, and he takes, seemingly never sated until suddenly he is, and he leaves you there, dishevelled and alone.
You don't deserve anything more, not that it matters. You would've given him your life if only he'd let you.
Then, one morning, when you wake up to the sound of panicked shouts, you're no longer you. Maybe you're more you than you've ever been.
For one, your residence is destroyed, which might be the reason for the commotion.
Or, perhaps, it's the fact that you're now a massive dragon, ashen brown scales marred by countless scars.
And Xuan Su, the sword you always reach for? Xuan Su has become your teeth and claws, and its joy thrums in your veins like it never has before, a perfected union that no longer hurts.
(If you hadn't crushed your mirror, you would've seen your eyes glow a blinding white.)
Driven by unknown but achingly familiar urges, you throw yourself into the air, and the Qi that surrounds you promises a swift end to anyone who'd dare stand in your path.
It had been a very dramatic exit for what turns out to be a very short flight, for it doesn't take long before you settle down in a bamboo grove on Qing Jing Peak.
Your new body knows what to do, and it's not long before an egg that appears to be carved out of the finest imperial jade is nestled in your coils, life pulsing eagerly within.
A familiar Qi approaches you, cautious but unafraid, and you look up from your egg and meet the eyes of Shen Qingqiu.