Chapter Text
Wheels creaked and swayed with the dirt road. Sticks and rocks were pulverized under the weight of a carriage that disappeared out of view as fast as it was discovered. Horses neighed. Their strength was being tested to their very limits.
“Senior uncle, the horses can not go any faster, and we are nowhere near Cang Qiong Mountain. This dicip-”
“Stop the carriage!”
With that, the young man from An Ding Mountain slowed the carriage to a halt. He could almost hear the horses sigh in relief, but he dared not join them. The assertive voice sounded once more from inside the carriage. “This master can stall the effects of the poison, but you must fly back to my Qian Cao peak and retrieve this vial to me immediately,” A slender hand holding a small slip of paper parted the curtains, revealing the jarring scene from within. A pale and exasperated, peak lord Mu Qingfang held onto his shixiong who was experiencing a rare bout of vulnerability. Liu Qingge’s cold eyes were screwed shut, his delicate brows knitted tightly.
The young disciple quickly looked away before he could take a glimpse at the deep blush that dusted the Bai Zhan war god’s sweat soaked cheeks. He took the slip. “This disciple will not fail senior uncle.” With those brief words, the young man unsheathed a dull sword, and took off into the skies.
Hearing the disciple’s departure, Mu Qingfang made quick work of closing the curtains and casting a simple silencing array around the carriage’s immediate surroundings. The Qian Cao peak lord grasped his shixiong’s wrist, probing his meridians once again. After a few breaths, he let go with a quivering heart. Liu Qingge’s condition was worsening. Not only was the other man feverish, trembling, and partially paralyzed, he was on the precipice of a devastating qi deviation.
Mu Qingfang looked at Liu Qingge’s sorry figure for one last time before undoing the clasps of his belt. Ultimately, Mu Qingfang knew that it would come to this…
With a well practiced, calm tone of voice, he called to his shixiong.
“Shixiong…”
“...”
“...shixiong…”
“...”
“...Liu Qingge…”
“...”
“...Qingge…Qingge…”
“...”
To Liu Qingge, the chorus of “shixiongs”, “Liu Qingges” and “Qingges” rang out like that of wind chimes dancing in the sweet spring breeze. The soft trails of warm fingertips roving across his skin soon felt hot and tingly, making the couth warrior feel something all too unfamiliar in his lower abdomen.
“Qingge, you must listen to me. The pollen from the Thousand Nights of Tenderness Blossom is too potent, this shidi must relieve its effects before it causes you to fall into a qi deviation. Qingge, can you hear me?”
Liu Qingge was a frequent patient at Qian Cao Peak, so he was well acquainted with a certain peak lord. Naturally he recognized this voice, and those smooth, slender hands… Embarrassment quickly overwhelmed him, but all he could do was let out a breathy moan.
“Try your best to relax yourself shixiong, this shidi will take care of you…”
Before Liu Qingge could process the meaning of those words he felt his legs be separated, bent, and manipulated around something smooth, something warm, someone welcoming and familiar.
The inky blackness before the Bai Zhan peak lord was no longer unbearable underneath the comforting weight of this other man. The pain he felt within his aching body calmed and was replaced with unbridled excitement at the feel of those fingers that descended from his neck, down his chest, lower, lower, and lower… Liu Qingge took a quivering breath, sweat rolling down his temples. He felt something large waiting by his back entrance. The brief fear he felt was swiftly dispersed by the shivers that reverberated throughout his body. His mind was too clouded, too consumed by wanton desire to notice the whimpers that escaped his lips.
“Qingfang…”
Liu Qingge took in a shuddering breath when the firm object suddenly charged and-
“BAH! Rereading doesn’t help at all!!”
The infamous Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky rapped the tip of his fingers against his desk. Dust bunnies awoke from their slumber, as the skins of Dragon Bone Cantaloupe seeds settled upon the pages that littered the room about him. “Thousand Years of Tenderness… no that won’t work…” Another fist full of melon seeds found its way into Shang Qinghua’s mouth as he got up from his seat to pace about his bed chambers. “Something, something, blooming affections… BAH!” While the mighty Airplane was capable of slapping together a 30,000 worded wife plot in a day without a bead of sweat in sight, coming up with a tasteful title for his work continued to elude him.
Pages from the floor lifted and settled with the livening air. “Perhaps the Deflowering the Bai Z- OOF!” Shang Qinghua was forcibly stopped in his tracks by a firm coolness. His heart began to beat rapidly as he pushed down the melon seeds that made their way up his throat.
“My king!” The smaller man practically jumped back from the stoic demon king that stood before him. “I was not expecting you. I apologize for my messiness. I can assure you that-”
“Sit. The healer is coming to see how your calf is recovering.”
“Oh my king, there is no need. See! I have been walkin-”
With one step, Mobei-Jun advanced towards his babbling advisor, grabbing him by his lapels and placing him into the nearest chair. “Stay.” He firmly pat Shang Qinghua’s head before turning towards the door. “Healer, you may enter.”
A meek spider-like demon paid his respects toward Mobei-Jun before skittering towards Shang Qinghua. The clumsy peak lord almost fell off his chair when his injured leg was lifted with two of the healer’s hands. Another two were removing his shoe, and pulling up his pant leg. His fifth hand began unwrapping the already loosening fabrics that bound the wound while the sixth and seventh simultaneously brought out a pad of paper full of notes. Shang Qinghua gawked dumbly at the spider demon that twisted and contorted his arms and legs whilst only standing on a singular leg. He felt in his heart that this demon would be better suited for the circus.
Mobei-Jun stood motionlessly behind Shang Qinghua, deigning to glance at the healer for only a moment before his advisor’s calf was unveiled. The healer bent and stretched, poked and prodded the leg without any reservations or gentleness to speak of. After which he cautiously spoke, “My king, Advisor Shang’s healing seems to be progressing faster than anticipated. The ice stake that injured Advisor Shang does not seem to have caused any long term damage. It is in this humble healer's opinion that Advisor Shang can begin his duties without harming his recovery progress. I will leave this salve just in case Advisor Shang feels any cramping or discomfort.” With that, he placed a small vile onto Shang Qinghua’s desk.
Mobei-Jun’s eyes lazily surveyed his advisor's paper-laden counter. “Leave us.”
The willowy spider demon bowed to both men, and quickly made his exit.
Mobei-Jun also made his way towards the door as Shang Qinghua sheepishly rolled down his pant leg and put on his shoe. “Begin your duties immediately. This king shall send someone to gather all the necessary paperwork into your office. Have it done by the end of the day.”
“Oh. My king-”
“Do not return to these chambers, this king will also have someone to clean the mess.”
“My king, that will not be nece- And he left…” Shang Qinghua sat numbly at his desk. Just when he was making some real progress with his book, duty called. Typical. With a heavy sigh, he donned his brown outer robe and made his way towards his office.
Shang Qinghua walked down the frozen hallways, binding his clothes tightly around himself. It had only been a week and a half, but he was already used to the blazing fire he kept in the fireplace. It was a short vacation, but Shang Qinghua would never forget those lazy days when he ate noodle soup as he feverishly wrote for hours on end. Oh, the good ole days.
Before self pity fully set in, Shang Qinghua came to a realization. Had Mobei-Jun seen his Mu Qingfang x Liu Qingge fanfiction? He surely would have said something right? Suddenly, Shang Qinghua no longer felt the biting chill. No, he definitely hadn’t seen it. He couldn’t have without saying anything right? Right. Surely not.
A shrill voice woke him from this rare yet overwhelming sense of shame. “Advisor Shang.” Shang Qinghua had unknowingly made it to his office where the stout, bird-like demon named Beady Eyes waited outside the door. “This humble servant took your place while you were away. All of the documents from the projects that we had yet to complete should all be on your desk.”
Shang Qinghua smiled. It wasn’t everyday that Advisor Shang would receive this much consideration and respect from a demon. Especially from a demon he had not personally known. Shang Qinghua had seen Beady Eyes before. Or rather, he had seen a flash of blue and green feathers dithering about the palace’s hallways like a chicken with its head cut off before.
“Thank you for bringing those over. I shall get started on them immediat- wait did you say we?”
The demon smiled nervously, his black, bead-like eyes darting about the room. He hushed his voice to a whisper that was not yet a whisper, squawking lowly: “In the time that Advisor Shang was gone, two others were appointed as temporary replacements. Our king was not pleased with their service, so they were beheaded one after the other.” Shang Qinhua was struck dumb. “It has only been two days since this servant was appointed. This Beady Eyes is relieved that Advisor Shang is well enough to take over.” The small feathers that adorned his forehead made a happy little twitch as the aptly named Beady Eyes let out a sharp toothed grin. “This servant is sure that our king’s affairs will be sorted nicely with Advisor Shang’s capable hands.” Shang Qinghua felt warmness in heart at this demon’s kind regards. “If you will excuse me, this servant is needed elsewhere.”
Shang Qinghua let Beady Eyes on his way with a stupid grin, and entered his office. It didn’t take long before he felt the beginnings of a headache. With a quick glance at the paperwork left by those temporary replacements, Shang Qinghua wanted to behead these so-called “advisors” himself. Just based on records, he wasn’t certain that Beady Eyes’s predecessors were literate, much less competent in basic administration protocol. After reading over Beady Eye’s work he was surprised that the little demon made it this far. He seemed to be a little more capable than those that came before him, but all of his handwriting was chicken scratch. The warm fuzziness he felt for that bird brained loon cooled after hours of reading his barely legible drabble. This was going to be a very long day.
And a long day it was. Advisor Shang’s capable hands spent hours rewriting previously indecipherable manifests of incoming tariffs, redirecting laborers, and untangling any other messes that cropped up when reviewing the palace’s general routines. By the time he was done straightening out the chaotic buffoonery caused by his unfortunate substitutes, in addition to the tasks assigned to him, the sun was peeking its head over the Eastern horizon.
With hours of work now behind him, he mumbled endlessly about the injustice of it all. This must be how Cucmber-bro felt back then… The weary Advisor Shang rested his aching head against the chair backing, closing his eyes to block the emerging morning rays. His injured calf cramped somewhat after bounding up and down the hallways and climbing from one stair case to another. His rear end couldn’t enjoy the rest, for it too throbbed with the unwanted exercise it was made to endure. Oh how he missed his life as an invalid.
In the midst of his self-indulgent revelry, a cold aura suddenly enveloped Shang Qinghua’s office. Would this poor author ever know peace? When he stood up to greet his lord, instead of the somber king Mobei-Jun that he expected, he stared dumbly at a somber king Mobei-Jun with a thick fur coat in one arm and a steaming bowl of noodles in another.
“Sit.”
Shang Qinghua complied without a single thought, sitting at his now clean writing desk. He had to know what his king had up his sleeves.
Mobei-Jun confidently set the bowl of delicious noodles in front of his salivating advisor, and turned to grab a chair that stood by Shang Qinghua’s bed. Shang Qinghua could practically hear the chair groan under Mobei-Jun’s weight as he settled down next to himself.
“...”
Shang Qinghua tried his best to eat his noodles as quietly as possible, but beneath the weighty silence that engulfed the room, it was his only reprieve from the unbearable awkwardness. Mobei-Jun however, seemed to be perfectly content with staring at his advisor as he ate, totally unaware of the uncomfortableness that consumed the latter from the inside.
With a large gulp, Shang Qinghua gathered his supposed courage.“...My king, if you are here to check on my progress-”
“This king does not care about your clerical duties.” The iciness of Mobei-Jun’s eyes seemed to sharpen with his intensifying glare. “Come with me.”
Shang Qinghua almost choked. “C-Come with you where, my king?”
Mobei-Jun thrust the heavy fur coat onto the other’s lap. “For the cold. We must gather herbs for Lord Luo.”
“This must be a wife plot for poor Princess Cucumber,” Shang Qinghua silently snickered to himself as he cordially accepted Mobei-Jun’s not-so-request on the outside.
Both rose from where they were seated to ready themselves for the task they had ahead of them. Shang Qinghua thought he could see a near imperceptible glow in the other’s blue eyes as he wrapped himself in the obsidian fur jacket. “ It’s just a trick of the light”, he reasoned, grasping at the fabric tighter to protect himself from the chill that traveled up his spine. “If this is an assignment rendered by Lord Luo, let’s not waste anymore time, my king!” He approached Mobei-Jun with a little pep in his step despite his exhaustion. “What exactly are we looking for?”
Mobei-Jun simply ignored him as he drew forth a shadowy portal leading to their destination. Before he entered, it seemed that he recalled something because he stopped Shang Qinghua with a large hand. Mobei-Jun looked down at the other’s leg with a meaningful look. “Do not strain yourself.” And with that, he walked through, leaving a stunned wooden chicken behind.
Shang Qinghua wandered through the portal. He didn’t fully recover from these gentle words, but he bravely continued on into a dark and dank cave. Mobei-Jun stood waiting for Shang Qinghua on the other side.
“Illuminate the cave.”
Shang Qinghua mindlessly did so with a small amount of qi, sparing none of his mind power to observe his surroundings. Life with Mobei-Jun had been different ever since that fateful cart ride back to the Northern palace. Advisor Shang still had to perform his normal obligations, but he could enjoy the tedious tasks without his regularly scheduled beatings throughout the day. Not only this, but Mobei-Jun seemed to be more careful with his small advisor, so much so that the other demons noticed this as well. They had treated him better. The ungrateful creetons did not respect him, but at least they only spoke ill of him behind his back rather than to his face at every given moment.
Water trickled down the stalactites that hung menacingly from above. The flowing water from the river below their feet bubbled, echoing endlessly. Only the faint glow from Shang Qinghua’s outstretched hand parted the curtain of darkness that enveloped both king and servant. Mobei-Jun had walked further ahead for the simple reason that Shang Qinghua’s legs could not keep up with his king’s longer ones.
“Why are you so quiet?”
Shang Qinghua jumped at his words. Had he been silent this whole time? “Oh um- sorry my king. I was just wondering what we were here to find.”
The small light revealed Mobei-Jun’s solemn nod. It was a little more stiff and rigid than usual. “We are close. On the cave wall not far from here, there is a collection of flowers with a red stem, and five blue petals. Do not approach them.”
“Yes my king.”
They soon reached a fork in the road. Two cave openings stood before them. “We must not waste any more time. You go left. This king will go right. Yell for me if you find them.” A bright, blue flickering light sprung out of Mobei-Jun’s hand.
Shang Qinghua gave him a small nod, and entered the left cave with light that quivered with his heart. “Red stem. Blue petals. Red stem. Blue petals. Red stem. Blue petals. How hard can finding a small plant be? There shouldn’t be any beast guarding such a silly plant right? I wouldn’t write anything so silly. PAH! Definitely not. That would be ridiculous.” Beads of sweat gathered on his brow, his hand clenched on his sword. “Utterly ridiculous.” With every step he neared the deepest part of the cave. Shang Qinghua’s light orb illuminated the small lake that reflected hazy ripples onto the jagged ceiling above. “A beast boss fight would be much too cliche.” Suddenly he heard movement on the corner of the cave on the opposite shore of the lake. Shang Qinghua’s body clenched and shook as whined under his breath, “I-I’m doomed…” A shadow flashed from one side of the cave to another. “S-s-show yourself!” Just as a sweaty hand grasped at the pommel of his sword, a familiar plump, feathery demon glided across the lake’s surface towards him.
The small demon knelt at Shang Qinghua’s feet. “Advisor Shang, it is me! Please spare me!” He could almost hear the clacking of a quivering beak.
“Beady Eyes?” The demon’s black eyes mirrored Shang Qinghua’s bewildered expression. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”
“W-well- this servant- um-” Beady Eyes nervously preened the small feathers on his fingers, eyes twitching erratically. “I AM COMING MY KING! Come quickly Advisor Shang we must aid our king!”
Shang Qinghua held his head in his hands. “What are you-”
“QINGHUA!”
Shang Qinghua turned towards the source of Mobei-Jun’s distressed voice. “My king!” He ran towards the dark cave that his king disappeared into with Beady Eyes close behind him. Only a weak blue light in Mobei-Jun’s palm could be seen through the inky blackness. The demon himself lay prone on his stomach with the infamous flower with a red stem and blue petals wilted before him. A blue mist lifelessly settled to the floor, and disappeared into nothingness.
Shang Qinghua wasted no time settling by the larger man’s side. “My king, are you alright?”
Mobei-Jun could only huff in Shang Qinghua’s arms, his eyes firmly shut. The little advisor braced Mobei-Jun’s broad shoulders as the demon king shakily rose with him.
“Come, I know a way out, Advisor Shang.” Beady Eyes chirped.
Shang Qinghua stood still for a moment to take in Beady Eye’s countenance. The smaller demon’s delicate hand feathers littered the floor about him, his seemingly bottomless eyes were pooling with anxiety. His presence here was even more suspicious. The mighty Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, a writer who wrote more than a million words pertaining to a harem numbering in the triple digits, could smell a scheme from miles away, but with Mobei-Jun’s condition, he thought it most important to find help as soon as possible. He also figured that with Beady Eye’s track record, whatever conspiracies he cooked up would implode on their own. Watching the impending circus from the sidelines would bring some levity to this situation.
“What are you standing there for? Show us the way out!”
With that, both king and advisor followed behind a winding trail of blue and green feathers. Initially, Mobei-Jun had transported them here by portal, so Shang Qinghua was unsure about what awaited them at the cave’s mouth. If that wasn’t bad enough, Mobei-Jun’s health was deteriorating rapidly. He no longer had the strength to sustain his light source, so Shang Qinghua had to take over once again. The pale orb of light that he produced was not as bright as his king’s, but it was effective enough to capture Mobei-Jun’s deathly pallor. Sweat seeped into Shang Qinghua’s outer robes. As he dabbed the beads of sweat off of the ice demon’s brows he caught wind of the latter’s unusual ramblings that was muttered under his increasingly labored breaths.
“We are almost out, my king.”
It wasn't long before their luck seemed to turn around. Sun rays from the outside world trickled in from far away. Shang Qinghua had caught sight of Beady Eye’s cowering silhouette when a sharp pain reverberated from his arm. Mobei-Jun's vice-like grip around his advisor's shoulder tightened. Shang Qinghua could practically hear his bones cracking.
“M-my king?”
At Shang Qinghua’s whimpering, Mobei-Jun’s grip gradually slackened.
“Qinghua. Run.”
“What?”
Mobei-Jun suddenly grabbed Shang Qinghua by the shoulders and threw him towards the entrance of the cave. With a low guttural roar, a wall of sharp ice shards surrounded himself.
“RUN!”
Shang Qinghua had no time to react before Beady Eyes grabbed his sore arm, dragging him towards the light. “Come quickly now, Advisor Shang!”
The shock of it all quieted Shang Qinghua’s cluttered mind to one singular thought: what the fuck is going on? The shrill shrieking of splintering ice echoed throughout the caves giving the illusion that hundreds of condemned spirits were screaming in agony. Feathers flew into Shang Qinghua’s face and eyes, blinding him from the sight behind him. Beady Eye continued forward, towing his superior behind him with his talon-like hands dug into the other’s flesh. The river that gurgled lazily at their feet solidified and shattered, giving off a blood curdling screech.
“Almost there, Advisor Shang. Almost there.”
The shell-shocked duo clambered out from the cave’s slippery mouth.
“We just have to make it over that ridge Mr.Shang!”
The moon shone brightly over a dense forest that surrounded them. A cold breeze woke Shang Qinghua from his stupor. He needed to help his king! “Let go of me you damn bird! What the hell is going on here?”
Beady Eyes instantly let go, straightening his back and bowing his head in submission. “Ad-advisor Shang, o-our king forbade this Beady Eyes from-”
“QINGHUA!!!” A harrowing bellow cut the demon’s groveling in its tracks.
The almost animalistic howl grew closer. “QINGHUA!!!”
“QINGHUA!!!”
It was at the third shout when Shang Qinghua noticed that the call came from somewhere deep within the depths of the forest. This was not good. Shang Qinghua grabbed the quivering Beady Eyes by the collar. “Tell me what the fuck is going on, or I will pluck the rest of your feathers off and feed you to the Scorpion Tailed Snowy Owls!”
Beady Eyes yelped, covering the few feathers that adorned the top of his head. “This s-servant has a carriage over the c-crest of the hill just the-there. This Beady Eyes will explain everything once we make it there. Y-yes?”
Shang Qinghua was still uneasy about trusting the demon, but there was no way he could face this seemingly deranged Mobei-Jun on his own. “Yes. To the carriage then.” As Beady Eyes cautiously scurried up the path, Shang Qinghua reasoned that if worse came to worse, the chicken of a demon could work as a delicious distraction while he himself could escape. He would escape for the purpose of finding help of course. Shang Qinghua was not that cowardly. Surely not. It was an honorable sacrifice for their king!
“QINGHUA!!!”
The shout that came from the cave’s entrance had that very Qinghua jumping into Beady Eye’s arms.
“...”
“There it is, Advisor Shang!!” Beady Eyes hefted the larger Advisor Shang into his tiny embrace and ran towards the carriage. “Take shelter inside, this servant shall take you somewhere safe!”
Shang Qinghua stubbornly sat at the driver's seat by Beady Eyes’s side. “Head for the nearest safehouse.” As the smaller demon readied the steeds, Shang Qinghua grasped the other’s already wrinkled lapels. “And tell me everything!”