Chapter Text
They say I should feel guilty and change my ways
Leaving crumpled bodies in my wake
Swear I didn't mean to make them break
But they're so delicate and so mundane
~ Redemption by Besomorph
Part One: The Traitor, Shang Qinghua
“... and the Moon Rabbit princess laughed with her friends and they went out to eat something delicious, safe in the knowledge that they saved their home once again with the help of the mysterious prince dressed in black!” Shen Yuan ended his story with a small flourish long past the point of feeling embarrassed for repurposing stories from his old world.
“But he didn’t even do anything.” Came the disgruntled grunt from his side and Shen Yuan had to hold back a sigh. Trust his - whatever Tianlang-jun was - to comment on something like that.
He could never guess why the Demon Lord liked to listen to the nonsense Shen Yuan was spewing out to the baby in his growing stomach, but who was he to deny him?
It was by his grace only that Shen Yuan was allowed to stay and if he wanted to listen to nonsensical stories that Shen Yuan lifted out from his old world - with some changes - then that was his prerogative.
“Don’t listen to your grandfather, the prince is an important character in the tale.” He rubbed at his belly and when he could feel the press of something against his hand he let out a small sound. That was never going to be not strange but it could be a lot worse, he guessed.
At least they weren’t pressing against his bladder as they pleased for the moment.
The same red eyes that Shen Yuan’s ex(?)-husband had looked at him almost inscrutably or they would have been inscrutable if Shen Yuan hadn’t been spending most of his daylight hours with said Demon Lord. Zhuzhi-lang had been away to gather some supplies for their experiments with the few Sun and Dew Flower seeds that he managed to bring back a few weeks ago.
“More like a useless character.” Tianlang-jun scoffed and settled back down into his spot when Shen Yuan showed no further signs that he was in pain. He was getting good at hiding things though.
The thing was, most of Shen Yuan’s demonic energy was poured into his stomach, protecting his child and that meant that he was almost constantly tired and that he was almost always aching somewhere. And it didn’t help when the kid kept him awake because they started moving around in his womb.
(Once again that will never not be strange for him to say.)
Both Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-lang hounded him in their own ways to lay down even at the slightest sign of distress and he understood them. Most of the time.
He was essentially growing another person in there and it was visibly draining him.
Tianlang-jun at most seemed very unsettled at seeing the way he was losing weight while his belly grew larger and larger. Hell, it was unsettling for Shen Yuan too.
Demonic pregnancies were utter fucking bullshit in his honest opinion. And he still had no idea how it happened!
Like okay, he had the mechanics down and he knew what the original Yan Xiyan and Luo Binghe did to result in Shen Yuan having this bun in his oven, but it made no damn sense.
Luo Binghe had a low fertility rate as a hybrid.
Demons in general had a low fertility rate too.
So how in the hell did Yan Xiyan - and by the power of transmigration Shen Yuan too - end up pregnant by only having sex with Luo Binghe during their wedding nights? It just didn’t add up.
The chance of successful conception was so low that it truly, honestly, never even came up to Shen Yuan when he was still living in the harem.
Not that it mattered in the long run, how it happened.
It was what it was and Shen Yuan only pondered over the matter when it was late at night and he couldn’t sleep. Which was more and more frequent as his belly grew.
Otherwise, Shen Yuan didn’t leave the estate much.
While some of the effects of Luo Binghe’s blood could be easily taken care of by drinking some of Zhuzhi-lang’s or Tianlang-jun’s blood, his child had the exact same blood running through their body through Shen Yuan’s placenta.
At one point he knew that the kid would start creating their own blood. He very faintly remembered going down the rabbit hole one night while trying to figure out how a child’s blood type was determined by their genetics. He didn’t remember anything that could have been useful except the creeping realization that pregnancies were awfully complicated and could easily be dangerous by the most innocuous things.
At best, he had some guesses about how his pregnancy would affect his biology and he was probably going to end up being wrong in most cases because this was Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s world. The author didn’t seem to care much for biological principles or maybe they just didn’t know much about them. Or cared to learn about them.
In the end, as his pregnancy progressed, he was more and more okay with staying inside the wards, and by Tianlang-jun’s side where Luo Binghe would not be able to track him. Not that Shen Yuan thought the man would have wanted to find him, but he was afraid that the Demon Lord would be able to sense his blood.
Their child.
Just another one of Shen Yuan’s latest betrayals in the long list of wrongdoings he managed to inflict on the protagonist of this world.
At maybe around 10 months pregnant he found himself sometimes feeling nostalgic. Dwelling on his past or at least his past in this world. He tried not to think about his old life - the one he had before he transmigrated - knowing that that world was gone for him.
Maybe when he died he would return there.
Maybe he would go to the next life whatever that may be instead.
He wouldn’t know until he was at that point and Shen Yuan wasn’t the least bit suicidal. The same couldn’t be said about his usual companion.
It didn’t take long to realize that Tianlang-jun was suicidal and Shen Yuan was fairly sure that the demon was not alright on most days. The biological father of Luo Binghe… he couldn’t help but wonder what happened to his mother then. What was their story?
All they knew was that Binghe’s father was a Heavenly Demon, but even less information was in the novel about Binghe’s mother.
Two theories ran rampant across the forums, one was that his mother was just a common human, and the other, the more popular one, was that she was a cultivator too. The second theory seemed to be more popular because of the enemies-to-lovers implications. Romantic fans liked the implied yearning while others preferred it because of the option for hate sex.
Shen Yuan liked both theories but he thought the cultivator theory was a bit more plausible once he read through the beginning of the novel again before the filler wife acquisitions started. Not that his or anyone’s preference mattered, Airplane stayed quiet about the parents’ backstories.
So it could have been a prime option for Shen Yuan to ask, but he never did, because he was afraid that Tianlang-jun would just… shatter. He didn’t want to be the reason why the Demon Lord stopped trying to survive and he could guess that their story wasn’t one with a happy ending.
Asking would just dredge up unwanted memories.
Maybe once Tianlang-jun was in a proper body, he would ask… Maybe.
Or maybe not, Shen Yuan thought and rubbed his stomach, feeling those strange fluttering feelings again. He hummed a song that may or may not have been a certain pop song of international renown, but he drew the line at actually singing it.
It was telling that after a few seconds Tianlang-jun started humming it too because he heard it a few times before.
The Demon Lord interrupted their little humming session with a small frown. “When is my nephew coming home?”
Shen Yuan stopped too and thought about it for a few seconds. Zhuzhi-lang said that he would be back within a week. Shen Yuan quickly counted down the days left. “In two or three days, why?”
Tianlang-jun stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking and Shen Yuan waited.
“Just a strange feeling, nothing to worry about.”
Heavenly Demons didn’t have prophetic dreams, or at least as far as Shen Yuan knew they shouldn’t be prophetic, so hopefully whatever unsettled Tianlang-jun was nothing more than just a bad dream from indigestion or something. They had a few of those because neither of them was even close to Luo Binghe’s mastery in the kitchen.
(And that might have been an understatement… Maybe what they did in the kitchen could have been categorized as a war crime.)
He settled back with a small sigh, continuing to softly hum to his stomach and the other demon at his side.
A few weeks before that, he was accompanying Zhuzhi-lang to the Human Realm for supplies and then they started looking up an old friend of Tianlang-jun who supposedly knew something about healing. Shen Yuan would be happy to meet a demonic healer. It made sense that there were demons who specialized in that field even with their not-so-peaceful nature.
Healers made the best killers if he thought about it. There were no better people or more knowledgeable about how their enemies’ bodies worked and how to stop them from working correctly in the fastest way. To cause the biggest amount of pain needed or to keep them long enough to torment them.
Tianlang-jun gave them instructions on how to reach out to one, who might or might not agree to check Shen Yuan and the kit. After all, it would be up to them to decide if they wanted to take on a pregnancy such as his.
(This was a moment when Shen Yuan missed the convenience of his old world, including the availability of specialized doctors who had to provide care by their oaths no matter what.)
But first, they needed to get some things, especially for his continuing experiments with the Sun and Moon Dew Flowers.
In theory, it seemed like the perfect plan to make a body for Tianlang-jun, but there were a few things that Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky seemed to forget to mention in his brief description of the flower.
Like that, it would only work properly with spiritual energy and not demonic energy. Sadly, Luo Binghe’s general existence was an outlier in that he was one of the few beings capable of manipulating both without any issues. For anyone else, there would be some setbacks as the two energies were not exactly capable of synergizing without issues.
Contrary to popular belief demonic energy and spiritual energy were not quite two sides of the same coin but they were close to that. They were not exact opposites, which gave Shen Yuan some hope when they managed to speed up the process of growing a body for Tianlang-jun and found out that as a Heavenly Demon, he wasn’t exactly compatible with it in reality.
Namely, it started falling apart quickly and there was nothing Shen Yuan had seen as disquieting as the Demon Lord’s hand falling off and then him waving the lost appendage with his other arm with a shit-eating grin until the other arm also fell off from the rigorous motions.
Okay, it was kind of funny at the time, but they really needed to fix that issue, because the transmission of Tianlang-jun’s soul into a new body couldn’t be repeated a lot of times. He wasn’t a soap dispenser to be refilled over and over again… Shen Yuan thought for a second then decided that the analogy wasn’t completely right. In Tianlang-jun’s case, he wasn’t the soap dispenser but rather the soap in the refill bag?
But never mind that.
They had some leeway, they could probably try it a few times, but it wouldn’t be easy on the Demon Lord who was already dying and mainly clinging to his life by sheer stubbornness at that point. Each time they failed, the transferring process sped up Tianlang-jun’s deterioration both physically and mentally. Shen Yuan’s mused that he might even be losing memories because of the leakage.
It was plain to the three of them that the two transfers they had to do to try out the body and then to get him back in his augmented failing old one when the new body failed that Tianlang-jun was in significantly worse shape than he would have been if he had been left alone.
So yes, it was imperative that Shen Yuan and Zhuzhi-lang found a way to make the flower work and that they did it as fast as possible.
In this, thankfully they had some luck, and this was a point where Shen Yuan was happy that he was in this bullshit world where not all the usual rules applied. Plant breeding and modifying them to fit a certain goal took years of trial and error in his original world. He hoped it would be a lot shorter in this one.
And Tianlang-jun’s collected treasures included tons of books. Granted, the former Demon Lord’s collection was skeeved heavily towards sheer entertainment stuff, not-so-surprisingly a lot of them written by humans, which Shen Yuan would have to revisit later, but he also had an untold amount of knowledge at his disposal even if they didn’t have the complete solution for their problem.
But it was good. Shen Yuan would figure something out.
He always liked biology after all.
This was a world where demons and spiritual powers reigned; he truly believed that almost nothing was impossible in this case. Luo Binghe on his own broke several laws of the world just to be able to have papapa over the years, so Shen Yuan was sure that they would find something they could do.
There was one way that would obviously work in this world, one that Shen Yuan didn’t want to acknowledge.
Tianlang-jun needed a body that was compatible with Heavenly Demon energy.
Possession of someone who had Heavenly Demon blood was the most direct way… and they established that only a certain concentration of Heavenly Demon blood would work.
Shen Yuan’s baby with Luo Binghe who was a half-demon wasn’t in danger because of that. If he had kids with Zhuzhi-lang, they would be in no danger either, because Zhuzhi-lang was only a half-Heavenly Demon like Shen Yuan’s erstwhile husband.
Luo Binghe and Zhuzhi-lang however would be good candidates for Tianlang-jun, but he would not possess either of them. So Shen Yuan knew that half-heavenly Demons would work… and the only person who could make another half-Heavenly Demon was Tianlang-jun himself.
Traditionally it wouldn’t work though because Tianlang-jun didn’t have the necessary… equipment anymore. But in theory? If Tianlang-jun still produced sperm and if they could extract it? It was an option, yes, but not really one that Shen Yuan was keen to explore more than as a thought exercise.
There was the question of morality in possessing his own children and then trying to create a new kid for just this reason… Shen Yuan wasn’t even sure that the Demon Lord would even allow it if they could make it happen.
He would just call it a hunch, but he would bet on the Demon Lord blithely telling something about how the ‘borrowed’ body was nowhere near his handsomeness, so obviously he couldn’t possess them.
Reading through that library day by day, he had a few ideas on how to create a new body, and if the flower-body failed they still had a few other leads that Zhuzhi-lang could check out. Certain artifacts, spells, and some old tales.
And once they had everything for the next batch of flowers, the snake demon would start going through them.
After all, why would they put all their eggs in one basket?
The two of them stepped into the mostly human town, Shen Yuan carefully not trying to bring attention to the heavy cuffs he was wearing as armbands while Zhuzhi-lang moved naturally. His long, high-necked, and unremarkable robes hid the fact that he was wearing the same cuffs on his ankles and around his neck too.
Also, the painted spell arrays looping them together.
The five pieces of jewelry were not enough on their own to hide him; Heavenly Demon blood was just too damned OP. And with him being pregnant, Shen Yuan read as more of a Heavenly Demon than a Celestial Fox, because the child in his belly completely overpowered his own demonic signature. Everyone and their mother knew who was supposed to be the only Heavenly Demon running around (even if they were wrong about that), so Shen Yuan had to hide for his own safety.
He dreaded to think how his child would live in this world where they would have to hide their ancestry if they didn’t want to get buried under the resentment of thousands.
Luo Binghe didn’t make friends while he was gunning for the top, but he was safe because he was powerful. Arguably the most powerful being in the merged realms, in this whole world.
Luo Binghe could easily deal with the consequences of his actions, he could protect himself and those living in his graces.
Shen Yuan wasn’t so lucky and he thought that his child wouldn’t be so lucky either.
So they went to get some food, some clothing because Shen Yuan was growing out of his older ones, some gardening equipment, a herb or two, and a few other ingredients. Then they would be off to meet an old friend of Tianlang-jun who finally agreed to see them for a consultation. Shen Yuan just hoped everything was alright and tried not to panic too hard.
What was it with going to the doctor and suddenly not being able to think of anything but the worst-case scenarios?
Shen Yuan braced himself by using Zhuzhi-lang’s arm as a crutch and they walked through the crowds of the market. He could feel the slightest restrained flinch of his snake demon every time someone brushed up against them. Shen Yuan patted the clenched hand he was holding, reminding him to keep calm.
Freaking out would just bring attention to them and they didn’t need attention.
He didn’t look at the other demon, knowing that he would just feel strange at seeing the barest resemblance to how he usually looked. It wasn’t just the absence of those beautiful scales, or the pretty slitted pupils of his friend, but rather how the demon’s own set of spells made his facial features different too.
Shen Yuan could change his face using his own powers, though he couldn’t hide the mark on his forehead. But Zhuzhi-lang bought him something to cover it up early on, some kind of make-up that he brought back from this market weeks ago. His original skin tone didn’t quite match the color of the coverup, but once again shapeshifting came in handy.
He was sure that nobody could tell that something was smeared over his skin, especially not with the way he messed his hair up.
“Shen Yuan.” A whisper came from his side and he glanced at Zhuzhi-lang to show him that he was listening. “Would you like to eat something?”
It was a valid question, he was pretty much always hungry these days. He nodded and the snake demon carefully guided him towards the stalls. After a few steps, Shen Yuan took over leading, or well his nose and stomach did, stopping before a certain stall.
Zhuzhi-lang wrinkled his nose, but Shen Yuan’s eyes were riveted on the eggs, the mushrooms, and the dark broth. He breathed in deeply, tasting the sourness and spices on his tongue and he tugged on his companion’s sleeves. The snake demon only needed one look to herd him to sit down at one of the tables and to go up to the stall owner for a bowl of simmering soup.
He made grabby hands when Zhuzhi-lang was close enough with the dish cradled carefully against his chest. When the other demon was just a few steps away, Shen Yuan suddenly understood the need for being so slow, because the bowl was almost full and the toppings were at a high risk of falling off.
Shen Yuan watched the snake demon and his second breakfast arrive and if he wasn’t so hungry and if he didn’t want to bring even more attention to them he might have started crying at the glorious sight. He absently accepted the spoon that Zhuzhi-lang placed near his hand with a quick thanks, just inhaling the aroma of the dish before him so different from anything he had eaten since he transmigrated into this world.
With Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-lang being both demons, they had a completely different diet than what Shen Yuan was used to in Luo Binghe’s palace. Somewhat inedible, painfully bland, not exactly hygienic most of the time.
Like that one time when they had to fish out some of Tianlang-jun’s body parts from a stew.
Or when Shen Yuan couldn’t figure out how the stove worked in the manor, and he would have burned the place down if there weren’t spells woven into the wood to prevent something like that from happening.
Truth to be told, Zhuzhi-lang was the only one who could somewhat consistently make things in the kitchen without things going wrong… but the food came out either rawer than Shen Yuan was comfortable with or blander than he liked. And there was not enough spice in the world to mask the taste of the missing ingredients.
He started eating quickly, appreciating every bite and humming happily all the while.
However, his eating was quickly interrupted when he looked up from his bowl and finally noticed the increasing jumpiness of his companion. Zhuzhi-lang was shifting in his seat, looking around and there was something in his stance that to Shen Yuan's eyes reeked of his nervousness. Shen Yuan put down his spoon, even though he hadn’t even finished half of his meal.
He patted his stomach apologetically and got ready to leave but the movement drew the snake demon’s attention to him. “Shen Yuan?” His name was almost blurted out, and yes, Shen Yuan could definitely hear the anxiety in his voice.
“I’m ready.” He said and at the other’s confused look, he added half a second later. “To leave? We can leave now.”
Like a deer caught in headlights, Zhuzhi-lang shook his head. There was a split-second of hesitation before he reached out and placed the spoon back in Shen Yuan’s hand who took it with a questioning noise. “Zhi-er?” He asked, using a nickname because he wasn’t sure blurting out the name Zhuzhi-lang would be a good idea. His name was unknown, while the other’s was… not.
Now if Shen Yuan still went by Yan Xiyan, he might be in trouble, but that was a hurdle that they’ve already resolved.
“Eat, you need to eat, Shen Yuan.” The other demon said while he was blushing a bit and Shen Yuan manfully resisted the urge to coo at him.
“But we should hurry back home, Zhi-er.” At that, Zhuzhi-lang shook his head and pointedly pushed Shen Yuan’s hand closer to the bowl.
“You should finish eating, Shen Yuan.” He repeated then looked around the marketplace with a small frown before looking back at him. “If I go get some of the supplies while you finish eating… would that be alright?”
Shen Yuan didn’t even need to think about that. “Yes.”
He had some money too, so he could buy himself something else to eat if it came down to it, and to be honest, he was getting tired more easily these days. If he could stay sitting somewhere that would be much more preferable than moving through crowds to chase down one thing or another no matter how much he liked looking at the shops’ wares.
“Go on, Zhi-er.” He added with a small smile. “I’ll wait here.”
“Don’t worry, Young Master!” Came the boisterous laugh of the stall keeper, an older sort-of-heavy-set man, who was quickly hushed by his wife.
“We’ll look after your wife, Young Master.” The woman said with another warning look at her husband who essentially pouted down at her.
So with some nudging Zhuzhi-lang eventually went on his way, while Shen Yuan stayed in his seat and managed to chat a bit with the shopkeepers for a few minutes until the crowds surged again and they were needed back in the stall.
This wasn’t their first time talking, as Shen Yuan started showing and getting cravings, some of the women in the market started approaching him during their occasional visits. Most of those women were older with several kids, some with grandkids or even great-grandkids.
Shen Yuan heard some useful advice, the ladies got to gossip with a new face and Zhuzhi-lang could gather up whatever they needed more quickly.
It was safe to say that they weren’t the only ones who approached him, and he got used to people just plopping themselves down before him without asking whether the seat was taken or not, so it was a surprise when someone did ask.
“Hello…?” The hesitant voice was new, someone whom he hadn’t met before, so he raised his head. A stranger, specifically a somewhat strange-looking human man. Nothing too different, just his clothing didn’t quite fit the climate. Could have been a cultivator from somewhere colder but then why wouldn’t Shen Yuan feel his presence stronger?
Shen Yuan wasn’t quite on guard from this alone but there was something else. There was a smell, something that made his nose twitch and he might have growled if he didn’t clamp down on the immediate instinct. In a way, it could have been called an almost familiar feeling, though he couldn’t quite tell why.
He looked at the man who stood nervously before him with some food and noted the slightly plump cheeks, the nose that was slightly red from the cold, and the furred coat covering clothes that didn’t seem cheap from the brief glance he got as the man tried to gesture something, momentarily forgetting about the bowl in his hands.
“Ah, is this seat taken?” He blurted out after he was not in any danger of pouring all his food on himself and Shen Yuan looked around for a second or two, trying to decide what to do.
He presented himself as a human woman, alone in this crowd and this man was a strange man. Yet, there were eyes on them, watching carefully, not just the more familiar merchants who might have been worried about Shen Yuan but the city guards too.
There weren't any free seats left, so maybe things were as they appeared, and Shen Yuan’s instincts were just going haywire over nothing. A part of him however noted that the guards seemed more interested in the man than himself.
So, he nodded, and the stranger babbled a bit thankfully before he sat down and dug into his food. Shen Yuan at first thought that would be all, but he didn’t count on the man being as chatty as he was. “We are visiting the city to buy some supplies before going back to the North, and this is the best place to get some mapo tofu in the area, of course, it was not as good as the one I ate in Chengdu, but close enough, right?”
After that, when the man started going on about their shopping list, Shen Yuan mostly hummed in answer, pretending to be very interested in his food right until the man seemed to find a new topic.
It was something about food again and Shen Yuan wouldn’t have noticed it being strange if the man didn’t say something about wanting to eat ramen.
To be honest, Shen Yuan wasn’t sure if the mess of worldbuilding made by Airplane had ramen as a food option or not, but now that he was reminded of the existence of that dish he found himself wanting to eat it too. He would be alright with even some instant ramen; it didn’t need to be something made by a professional chef.
Maybe he would even prefer it if it was instant ramen. The cheap kind that he and his sister sneaked into their home to eat in secret in the middle of the night. He couldn’t remember her face, but he suddenly could smell the chili oil and the spices when he ripped apart those flimsy packets to pour them into the hot water. The memory was so strong that he almost sneezed.
The guy was waxing poetic about his favorite ramen broth (spicy duck) and the more Shen Yuan heard about it the more he hungered, and he was losing his appetite for a different, new craving instead. If this guy knew a place that served it, then Shen Yuan most likely could wheedle Zhuzhi-lang to go with him.
Probably wouldn’t need to actually wheedle him at all, Zhuzhi-lang would gladly take him there if he asked even once.
“Where can this one find some of the dish you speak of?” He asked, interrupting the man when he was taking a breath between two sentences. It might have been rude, but the man was babbling so much that Shen Yuan couldn’t quite interject without interrupting in some way. “You were talking about ramen, right?”
“I…” He started saying before slumping forward over his - Shen Yuan briefly looked down to check - mapo tofu with a sigh. “Sadly, it’s not available in this town.”
“That’s unfortunate.” Shen Yuan managed to say, feeling a bit annoyed that he got his hopes up for nothing after all.
If he had some culinary talent maybe he could try his hands at making ramen from scratch, but frankly, there was not much of a chance that he could work that one out without giving himself food poisoning. Making the noodles itself would be an ordeal and let’s not even speak of the broth. Demonic digestive systems could take hits, but he was already on thin ice and he didn’t want to test his luck.
Suddenly there was a bowl of something that smelled suspiciously sweet before him and he looked up to see one of the daughters of the stall owner smile down at him before throwing a glare at the stranger. “Yuan-er, Mother made some dessert and thought you might want to try it!” She chirped before sitting down next to him.
Shen Yuan thanked her and then dipped his spoon into the hot red bean soup with a small smile, and enjoyed the silence. It didn’t even take ten minutes for the man to finish his food and hastily leave. “Was he bothering you a lot, Yuan-er?” She asked once the strange man was out of sight.
He smiled at her, then looked at her mother who was watching over the two of them with hawk-like eyes, and shook his head. “He was a bit strange, but he seemed harmless.” He didn't add that he was almost sure that he could have taken the man because he didn’t seem too strong even if he could feel some spiritual energy in his body.
A cultivator yes, but not a strong one.
Over the time he spent in the man’s presence, he had found himself gradually relaxing, until he couldn’t even remember what raised his hackles so strongly at the beginning.
Maybe he was vastly underestimating the man or maybe he was vastly overestimating himself, but even in the worst case, he knew that he didn’t need to do a lot to have his backup at his side in a minute if push came to shove.
He was sure that Zhuzhi-lang would come the moment Shen Yuan’s distress would be noticeable, his scent souring in the air. The snake demon was rather attuned to him by now, almost as attuned as he was to Tianlang-jun’s every whim.
It was something Shen Yuan wanted to make sure not to ever abuse because Zhuzhi-lang was… important to him and he wanted only good things to happen to him because he deserved that. The snake demon has become his rock in the last few months and Shen Yuan was ready to become someone he could rely on too in return.
"A-Yuan."
Think of the devil and he shall appear.
Shen Yuan turned his head around to look at Zhuzhi-lang who showed up so unobtrusively that the human next to him gasped out loud. Then colored red when he noticed the eyes on him.
Shen Yuan smiled and nodded at the other demon who gravitated closer at the permission. Leaning down he allowed Shen Yuan to press their cheeks together.
It worked in two ways.
It gave the illusion that they had just kissed, which was useful as they were masquerading around as a married pair. It also calmed down some of Shen Yuan's instincts which started to associate safety with the snake demon's scent.
He felt the other man's jaw move, his mouth opening slightly so that he could taste the air, an interesting movement that at any other time might have raised people's suspicions… but Zhuzhi-lang was protected at that moment by the perceived intimacy of their actions.
Frankly, most people didn't like looking at PDA, and those who found an interest in them, well, Zhuzhi-lang reserved his creepiest blank stare for those people.
But Shen Yuan did feel Zhuzhi-lang tense up and the way his head snapped to the vacated seat across Shen Yuan. The stillness of him immediately raised alarm bells in Shen Yuan's mind.
"We need to leave; we will visit the healer on another day." He spoke up, the tone authoritative and Shen Yuan knew that he was looking at Tianlang-jun’s general at that moment.
He nodded, said his goodbyes to the stall owner's family very quickly and they left the city within minutes.
All the while, Zhuzhi-lang was as tense as a bowstring ready to release.
When they were out of the gates, he got swept up in a bridal carry and they ran like the hounds of hell were on their heels.
And for all Shen Yuan knew, they might have been.
A few hours later after some detours and backtracking and feints they walked into the mansion with Shen Yuan being completely exhausted. And it wasn't like it was him who essentially ran a marathon all the while carrying another adult man. A very pregnant man.
Shen Yuan didn't ask while they were running this way, more focused on trying to keep his lunch down, but the moment his feet touched the ground he looked up at Zhuzhi-lang for an explanation.
"One of Lord Luo's generals was close by." The snake demon offered without preamble and Shen Yuan took a step back in surprise.
"What?"
Zhuzi-lang looked at him and repeated. "One of Lord Luo’s generals was close by." And then he added. "The ice demon."
Mobei-jun. So it wasn't Sha Hualing.
But why would a demon general such as Mobei-jun visit a nondescript human town?
The Demon Lord wasn't well known for his interest in humans. No, he was actually the exact opposite regarding that if Shen Yuan remembered correctly.
Could he be searching for something? Or maybe someone?
Could it be possible that Mobei-jun was searching for Shen Yuan or would that be too conceited of him to think?
He rocked back on his haunches, one hand held under the weight of his stomach in an unconscious gesture that kept him calmer, and he tried to figure out this new conundrum.
He met Mobei-jun only a few times, briefly, but those moments were still long enough to get the barest familiarity with his scent. Now that he was back safe in their home he could recognize that he had been on the edge almost the entire time they were in the human city and it wasn’t necessarily only because of the environment.
Crude as it was, as a demon, his instincts wouldn’t categorize normal humans as a threat but a Demon Lord of Mobei-jun’s calibre? In his present state, he absolutely would… just like he still felt that same alarm whenever he was alone with Tianlang-jun despite living with the Heavenly Demon for a few months by then.
Both Demon Lords spent decades spilling blood and Shen Yuan didn’t. They knew how to use their powers and they knew how to use their powers in a fight while Shen Yuan only had the barest memories of self-defence he learned years and years ago.
So, yes, he might have spent the entire time in the markets with a tight ball of worry in his stomach even as unaware he was of Mobei-jun’s appearance in the area.
The thing was, if Shen Yuan with his rocky understanding and handles on his senses could unconsciously recognize Mobei-jun after a meeting or two, that meant that the Demon Lord would be able to recognize him too, right? However, it was also possible that he had been so beneath the Demon Lord’s notice as one of Luo Binghe’s many spouses that Mobei-jun wouldn’t, right?
It could be entirely like when going through a checkout at a store, you might recognize the cashier but to the cashier, you would be just one of the hundreds of people they saw during their work hours.
Shen Yuan could change his face, he could change his body, but he couldn’t change his scent. Yet. Maybe he would be able to do that one day, but currently, that option was outside of his capability. In theory, he was almost sure it had something to do with changing some of the chemistry of his sweating glands but he wouldn’t want to start experimenting now of all times.
Yet, all of these theories and questions assumed that Mobei-jun - and by extension Luo Binghe - searched for him. He knew how unlikely that was based on the way he left the palace. If Luo Binghe knew that he was pregnant that might have been different but to be honest Shen Yuan wasn’t sure it would be too different as Luo Binghe might already have his first heir by someone else... though there had been no celebrations so far.
Fact was, he had no idea what was the real reason behind Mobei-jun’s appearance in that town; whether it was by design or by chance that they sensed him there.
“You are back early from your date. Did you miss me so much?” The idle observation came from the pier and Shen Yuan looked at Tianlang-jun who was lying down on several pillows, his legs dipped into the water. Were his cheeks more sunken in than when they left, Shen Yuan wondered. Red eyes bore into his after they were both quickly inspected rigorously from head to toe. “Or did you run into some trouble?”
They moved towards the Heavenly Demon and when they reached the pillows, Shen Yuan was helped down to sit while Zhuzhi-lang knelt before his lord. “Yes, uncle.”
“What kind of trouble?” It was both a prompt to elaborate and an order based on who said it though it might not have seemed like that if one didn’t know Tianlang-jun. His voice was almost bored.
“One of Luo Binghe’s generals showed up in Yunfu city.” Zhuzhi-lang started his report while Shen Yuan grabbed the small dish and started peeling the lotus seeds from it. When they left the bowl was full and when they got back there weren’t too many missing from it.
It wasn’t the easiest for Tianlang-jun to peel the seeds, his prosthetics made the precise movements somewhat hard but it wasn’t impossible. Shen Yuan dropped a few into the demon’s hand and looked at him until he ate them with a grimace before he popped one into his own mouth too.
The seeds came from the lotuses blooming on the estate’s lakes and they were rich in energy. Very nutritious. Sadly, they were also quite bitter and that was the main reason why the fearless Demon Lord refused to eat them.
“Of course, I’ll head out immediately, uncle.” Zhuzhi-lang declared in answer to whatever Tianlang-jun said and Shen Yuan stirred from the trance the rhythmic movements caused. He looked down at his lap at the fistful of seeds and started giving them to the Heavenly Demon.
For every five Tianlang-jun ate, Shen Yuan ate one.
Any more and the demonic core inside his body would get overwhelmed.
Energy was energy, but pure spiritual energy was not an easy thing for a demon to overcome, that was why Luo Binghe was such a special existence.
That was why adapting the Sun and Moon Flower Seeds into a working body for a Heavenly Demon was such a hard task.
But they would do it because they must.
Shen Yuan owed it to them to try until they either succeeded or they ran out of ideas or time. And if that happened… well.
It wouldn’t. Shen Yuan would make sure.
Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had a somewhat odd day.
Well, most of his days could be called odd since he woke up one day in his own novel and found himself face to face with a very unimpressed ice demon that he might or might not have written as a very specific fantasy of his. Whatever transmigration gods were there couldn’t even be bothered to punt him into someone who wasn’t a cannon fodder character waaaay after he made the first impression on the king who would one day decide his fate.
So, let’s just say that Airplane’s tenure as Shang Qinghua had a few very stressful years before he could iron out something of a deal with his dream man.
On the surface, the original Shang Qinghua wasn’t that bad a character to transmigrate into. He was high ranking and old enough by the time Airplane usurped his place that he didn’t have to deal with the drudgery of growing up in this world (no second puberty yay!) or doing the work of forming a golden core or going from outer disciple to inner disciple. On the other hand, Airplane definitely didn’t remember what he ended up writing and publishing about Shang Qinghua’s fate.
It was entirely possible that he horrifically killed his sorta-namesake in a fit of insomniac pique. Between worrying about his rent, his grocery bill, and trying to make ends meet while pumping out a couple thousand words each day, his voluntary burning of the candle at night quickly became involuntary. Even if he found some downtime, he found that he couldn’t sleep restfully. Sometimes he couldn’t even fall asleep at all for days at a time.
It was no wonder that he died the way he did, he never really functioned well on little sleep.
But that was all in the past, as were Shang Qinghua’s days as a Peak Lord.
These days he just followed his king around, except when Mobei-jun went to visit Luo Binghe. Shang Qinghua carefully made himself scarce whenever the ice demon had to meet face-to-face with Airplane’s prodigal son.
He was probably the only person in this world who knew the entirety of Luo Binghe’s story and thus knew Luo Binghe better than he knew himself. Even if he forgot a lot of stuff he wrote down between the all-nighters and the general unhealthy choices he had to make when he was still Airplane.
It kind of sucked that his knowledge or status as the author didn’t actually translate into something useful like god-like powers. Sure, sure Shang Qinghua was a cultivator but his talent at actual cultivation was somewhere in the middle of the pack which was the bottom of the barrel in this setting chock full of one-of-a-kind saintesses and cultivational prodigies.
Funnily enough, it was his mediocrity that saved him from the fate of every outstanding man who wasn’t the protagonist or protected by plot armor written by the almighty author in a stallion novel.
So yes, these days Shang Qinghua lived a somewhat cushy life even with Mobei-jun running around like someone lit a fire under his very very fine ass. Hey, Shang Qinghua was a man who could appreciate a man’s assets just as much as he could find himself preoccupied with someone’s bountiful chest.
Luckily for him, Mobei-jun was blessed in both areas!
For some reason, he didn’t immediately behead Shang Qinghua when he caught him looking the first time, Shang Qinghua thy name’s not subtlety, and neither did he quarter him the next time or eviscerate him the time after that. At this point, Shang Qinghua stopped counting and just looked his fill whenever Mobei-jun had a wardrobe malfunction or when he turned in a specific way that highlighted his goodies.
Mobei-jun had a lot of wardrobe malfunctions, now that he was thinking about it. It was like the universe or something was conspiring to have him half-naked whenever Shang Qinghua saw him lately. It was rather strange.
Almost as strange as the places they visited in the last few weeks.
Mobei-jun seemed hell-bent on combing through every village, town, and city in the South.
Shang Qinghua shrugged and continued on his way out of the city that he could never remember the name of. There was a reason why he just called some towns A, B, and C in his drafts. And when it came to publishing a chapter he might have opened up the index of an atlas at a random page just to choose the first city name he could see.
He might have fucked up the placeholder names once or twice… sometimes he didn’t even have the energy to finish running his stuff through a basic spellcheck before a deadline either.
If enough people complained, or certain people complained loud enough, he might have gone back to fix some of it. Or not.
Sometimes he just preferred to be a contrary little shit after all.
That day he had a lovely though somewhat one-sided chat with a pretty lady. He thought about shooting his shot with her but decided not to when faced with the glares of the stall owner’s wife and daughters.
Shang Qinghua had no idea what the relation was there, especially as the younger woman looked nothing like either of them. There was something about her though that made some part of Shang Qinghua sit up and take notice from the moment he asked to sit down while waiting for Mobei-jun to finish whatever errand he was running.
Something about her reminded Shang Qinghua of someone, though he had no idea who.
She wasn’t as breathtakingly beautiful as some of the women he had seen in Luo Binghe’s harem and her clothing was modest, covering her body well enough that Shang Qinghua couldn’t even guess at her body type. His staring had been noticed though and after that, she was visibly uncomfortable enough that Shang Qinghua hurried through his meal.
He bid her goodbye, already forgetting most of what he told her as he followed Mobei-jun’s demonic energy.
He didn’t need to walk too long, the ice demon found him first.
“My king!” At Shang Qinghua’s exuberant greeting, there was an answering hum that was somewhat questioning too. Shang Qinghua got really good at deciphering various hums and grunts whenever Mobei-jun didn’t feel up to verbalizing things. Which was most of the time.
He didn’t mind it; it was just another of the ice demon’s little quirks after all. He spoke up when it was needed and that was the important bit.
He chattered at the demon and started telling him what he had seen and what he had overheard when Mobei-jun stopped him with a hand tugging on his robes. More like grabbing a fistful of it and dragging him into close quarters only to take a big lungful of air right next to Shang Qinghua’s neck.
Shang Qinghua froze at the icy breath so close to his skin. It was nice if only it wasn’t happening in the middle of a somewhat crowded street and for reasons that he couldn’t figure out. “You met her. Where?”
“Met who, my king?” He asked pretty perplexed when faced with the sniffing ice demon.
“The runaway.”
The who now? His face had been always expressive and Mobei-jun could clearly read the question on it. “Lord Luo’s runaway wife.”
If Shang Qinghua was back home before all of this transmigration business happened, he would have described his thoughts similarly to the BSOD his old shitty laptop did whenever he dared to open up more than three programs at the same time.
And yet things started to make sense slowly, he put together the pieces of why Mobei-jun of all people was running around these human towns in the South.
“She was in the city?!”
They started hurriedly walking back to the market, with Mobei-jun in the lead trying to catch the scent he was tracking, while Shang Qinghua hung back a bit trying to remember if any of the women he had seen that day could have been Luo Binghe’s erstwhile wife. But no, none of them stood out and he was sure that he would have noticed if he came face to face with one of the members of the harem. There was the protagonist’s wives’ halo that would make sure of that.
And then Shang Qinghua recalled with crystal clarity that he had never actually written ramen into Proud Immortal Demon’s Way and he never actually named the dish when speaking with that mildly strange woman.
So how did she know it?