Chapter Text
While on a tedious mission by the Heavens, getting more and more complicated, something came out of it. Mu Qing was the one on this mission, soloing it. His goal being to putting a end to a demonic spirit, located in ancient ruins, a cave. Before entering the cave however, Mu Qing had to break a nasty seal that required a lot of his spiritual energy. Mu Qing was aware of the seal prior, but losing a bet with Feng Xin awhile back, he couldn't go and ask him for assistance, and hell! Mu Qing thinks as the the seal broke, I don't need that stuck up asshole to assist me in anything, Tsk, he's useless himself... bringing him would be nothing but a bigger burden. Out of these acts of haughty pride Mu Qing was fated to be the center of a slowly warring off curse as he fought the demonic spirit as its pesky and troublesome tricks and pranks would only irritate Mu Qing to soon acting out irrationally. This aggravated Mu Qing as he forgot all about how actually cunning and powerful this demon was, so long goes his vigilance, bye bye. As his new mindset put him at greater risk, Mu Qing was suddenly hit with another one of the demons infuriated tricks, Mu Qing barely dodged this time, it had more power than he thought, he underestimated this demon as being the Martial God of the Southwest. Its attacks were gruesome and dirty, Mu Qing had great incredible speed, but the swiftness of this spirit was twice as fast and strong. Mu Qing had no choice but to call for backup to help him fend this thing off, or help him make a escape. He quickly activated the spiritual array and contacted Feng Xin to arrive quickly with making it sound like he needed less help than he originally does. In the time between Feng Xin's arrival Mu Qing was tossed and beat and could only really dodge and stall until help arrived, hit with a nasty power shot of who knows what, made Mu Qing's energy drain more, he kept at it however. As time passed his body felt weaker and weaker, every leg he had to pick up and back down, every breath he took, every blink he blinked, he was losing his eagerness and motivation. At this point, his body was feeling as cumbersome as his sword, why was it so heavy? The weight of Mu Qing's sword has never greatly affected him, nor has it every been heavy at all. What was happening to him? Fear and panic took over his mind, his normal behavior and reactions slowly becoming less and less rational as his ears began to ring and ring! His eyes became so heavy and everything looked blurry, a terrible headache over took him making him stumble back behind a great big rock, his head hung in his hands, his fingers twirling and knotting his hair, he fell to his knees on the cold ground. Finally everything went black, he was out cold. The next thing he heard was his name, a deep voice.
"Hey! Mu Qing, are you fucking with me again? Where the hell are you?" Feng Xin called out wondering around the cave.
Mu Qing wanted to call out for Feng Xin but when he did his voice was at a higher pitch and he sounded almost like he reverted back to a younger version of himself. He chocked on his own words.
“F-Feng Xin! I— I’m over here!” Mu Qing called out from behind the rock
“Hey kid listen, this isn’t a area to be messing around in!-” Feng Xin is about to scold but stops as he suddenly whips his head around and sees a young boy’s head peeked out from over the rock. Feng Xin froze. The young boy looked to be around 4-5 years old, long brown hair and a concerned fearful look on his face, why did he look so similar to Mu Qing?
Feng Xin huffed and walked over to the boy to get a closer look at him. The boy pulled his head back down behind the wrong. When Feng Xin got a better look at him, the boy seemed to be piled in large robes way bigger to even fit him, still the patterns on the robe looked familiar and all the parts of it.
“M-Mu Qing?!” Feng Xin questioned startled, about to curse out of shock but stopped himself.
“Unnmfff, Feng Xin!” The little boy whined, as he kicked his feet a little.
Feng Xin thought to himself, No way this little brat is Mu Qing, he wouldn’t whine like that! Feng Xin continued, contemplating if the child was really who he thought.
“Hah, if your really Mu Qing than tell me who were you the personal attendant of 800 years ago” Feng Xin quizzes him, looking at the boy’s quivering eyes, as they shook back and forth like water being shook in a basin.
“Xie-Xie Lian!” The boy replied as he started to get tears in his eyes, why was he crying? He never cries, and over something like this? Absurd! He thought. It was like his mentality and maturity started to decrease, he felt like a little boy now, one that has now long forgotten most vocabulary, only using simple sentences.
Feng Xin started to sweat, so this is Mu Qing, this small, incapable, whining child is Mu Qing.
Feng Xin couldn’t help but be insincere at the moment, “Tch, should’ve known something bad like this was going to happen to you, yet your arrogance and pride overtook you. This is all you really deserve.”
At this point, the little Mu Qing could only cry as he rubbed his eyes and Hic, so vulnerable and incapable, Feng Xin looked down at him with almost a sympathetic expression but quickly wiped it off.
“Hmph, let’s go, I’ll take you back to your palace, and you can stay there until you recover” He said waiting for Mu Qing to stand up, than realizing he would have to be the one to carry the child.
He wraps the long robes around the child enough just so he was appropriately covered up, than scooped him up in his arms.
***
They soon made it back to the Heavens we’re Feng Xin tried to avoid as much attention as he could draw with the small child. He successfully snuck Mu Qing in back to his palace. Through the spiritual array, Feng Xin contacted a two other Heavenly Officials to come help out, Ling Wen and Xie Lian. When they arrived to see what his current predicament was, Feng Xin noticed that General Ming Guang and the Crimson Rain Sought Flower had tagged along too, just making the room feel more crowded.
“Well, Feng Xin we’re here, you sounded worried are you okay?” Xie Lian asked stepping forward.
Feng Xin said nothing as he picked up the small little boy and held him out all jumbled in his robes. “Mu Qing had a little incident…”