"Wonderful," Shen Qingqiu says quietly, a bit of sarcasm in his tone. "Something to look forward to." He shakes his head slightly, trying to stay calm. "I've some experience with creatures that invade the mind and try to play on people's fears. And of course I'm an immortal cultivator. My body is supposed to be like a...a fortress unto itself. Inviolable and perfect. Not that it ever seems to work out that way in practice." Because being able to resist the Watcher's call, however briefly, is such a mundane, unimpressive feat.
After he's ordered a second beer he sighs and says, "You're being very kind, but I'd prefer to get this over with." Folding his hands on the table once more he clears his throat and continues.
"The Huan Hua juniors seemed oddly suspicious of me, but Luo Binghe kept his distance. He'd always been very secretive and private about his vendetta against the original Shen Qingqiu, so I assumed that he was simply waiting for the right moment to spirit me away and...and do as he liked to me. I tried to behave as though everything was normal, although the juniors made it difficult with the wild accusations they kept throwing at me, and confirmed the Sower demon's identity. Luo Binghe promised to have it delivered to Mu Qingfang for study, just as if...as if he was still that loyal little disciple of Cang Qiong..." He stills for a moment, visibly fighting back another wave of tears.
"Anyway," he continues, "I eventually made my excuses and fled back to the inn I'd commandeered along with Mu-shidi and Liu-shidi. I told them about the Sowers and mentioned that Luo Binghe had returned, although I didn't...I couldn't bring myself to explain exactly why I was so worried about him. I felt...mixed up. Confused in my mind. On the one hand I hoped desperately that Liu Qingge might be able to protect me. He'd never fought Luo Binghe in the book, he'd died under mysterious circumstances while Binghe was still young and Shen Qingqiu was eventually accused of murdering him. I didn't have much hope that he'd actually be able to kill the protagonist, but I thought surely the War God of Bai Zhan Peak could at least slow him down...but on the other hand I ached at the thought of betraying Luo Binghe further, of turning the people who were supposed to be his martial family against him. Do you know how important a sect is supposed to be, in that kind of culture? It's supposed to be a family, legally and, and morally. When I call Liu Qingge and Mu Qingfang my brothers, that's not a simple courtesy title. We're supposed to support and care for each other like real blood relatives, and as for a shizun...I was, literally, the closest thing to a father orphan Luo Binghe ever had. That bond had already been severed -- in the book, Luo Binghe razed Cang Qiong to the ground, the only survivors a few martial sisters he took as wives. But somehow I just couldn't bring myself to speak it out loud, and make it official."
"And on top of all that," he adds with some remembered irritation, "I started having a Without a Cure flare-up. I said before that I'd already been poisoned by a demon once before, during a duel gone wrong. The truth is that it happened immediately after the duel, when my opponent decided to be a sore loser and attack Luo Binghe who happened to be standing nearby. Binghe was just a boy at the time, and the demon thought he could simply throw himself at him and crush him with brute strength and the ugly metal spikes covering his armor. I knew the System would protect Binghe from any serious harm apart from the Abyss, it had done it before, but in the moment I just -- I just acted without thinking. I threw myself at the demon, pushing it aside, and one of those spikes cut me across the back of my left hand."
"Without a Cure is a terrible poison, but the name isn't actually accurate. It can be cured, with the, ahem, sexual essence of a heavenly demon. However this is not exactly common knowledge; actually I believe that only I and the author were the only two people in that world with any idea. At the time young Binghe was horrified, but this grown up version who hated me might have found the whole thing terribly funny if he'd known. Anyway Without a Cure kicked in, stifling my cultivation and setting all my veins on fire -- not literally, I mean, it just hurt. So I went upstairs to my room to rest."
"Night fell, and I heard a knock on my door. I thought it was Liu-shidi, done with hunting demons for now and come to give me my normal treatment for these flare-ups, an infusion of spiritual energy from a cultivator with plentiful yang. I called out a greeting -- but it was Luo Binghe who opened the door."
no subject
After he's ordered a second beer he sighs and says, "You're being very kind, but I'd prefer to get this over with." Folding his hands on the table once more he clears his throat and continues.
"The Huan Hua juniors seemed oddly suspicious of me, but Luo Binghe kept his distance. He'd always been very secretive and private about his vendetta against the original Shen Qingqiu, so I assumed that he was simply waiting for the right moment to spirit me away and...and do as he liked to me. I tried to behave as though everything was normal, although the juniors made it difficult with the wild accusations they kept throwing at me, and confirmed the Sower demon's identity. Luo Binghe promised to have it delivered to Mu Qingfang for study, just as if...as if he was still that loyal little disciple of Cang Qiong..." He stills for a moment, visibly fighting back another wave of tears.
"Anyway," he continues, "I eventually made my excuses and fled back to the inn I'd commandeered along with Mu-shidi and Liu-shidi. I told them about the Sowers and mentioned that Luo Binghe had returned, although I didn't...I couldn't bring myself to explain exactly why I was so worried about him. I felt...mixed up. Confused in my mind. On the one hand I hoped desperately that Liu Qingge might be able to protect me. He'd never fought Luo Binghe in the book, he'd died under mysterious circumstances while Binghe was still young and Shen Qingqiu was eventually accused of murdering him. I didn't have much hope that he'd actually be able to kill the protagonist, but I thought surely the War God of Bai Zhan Peak could at least slow him down...but on the other hand I ached at the thought of betraying Luo Binghe further, of turning the people who were supposed to be his martial family against him. Do you know how important a sect is supposed to be, in that kind of culture? It's supposed to be a family, legally and, and morally. When I call Liu Qingge and Mu Qingfang my brothers, that's not a simple courtesy title. We're supposed to support and care for each other like real blood relatives, and as for a shizun...I was, literally, the closest thing to a father orphan Luo Binghe ever had. That bond had already been severed -- in the book, Luo Binghe razed Cang Qiong to the ground, the only survivors a few martial sisters he took as wives. But somehow I just couldn't bring myself to speak it out loud, and make it official."
"And on top of all that," he adds with some remembered irritation, "I started having a Without a Cure flare-up. I said before that I'd already been poisoned by a demon once before, during a duel gone wrong. The truth is that it happened immediately after the duel, when my opponent decided to be a sore loser and attack Luo Binghe who happened to be standing nearby. Binghe was just a boy at the time, and the demon thought he could simply throw himself at him and crush him with brute strength and the ugly metal spikes covering his armor. I knew the System would protect Binghe from any serious harm apart from the Abyss, it had done it before, but in the moment I just -- I just acted without thinking. I threw myself at the demon, pushing it aside, and one of those spikes cut me across the back of my left hand."
"Without a Cure is a terrible poison, but the name isn't actually accurate. It can be cured, with the, ahem, sexual essence of a heavenly demon. However this is not exactly common knowledge; actually I believe that only I and the author were the only two people in that world with any idea. At the time young Binghe was horrified, but this grown up version who hated me might have found the whole thing terribly funny if he'd known. Anyway Without a Cure kicked in, stifling my cultivation and setting all my veins on fire -- not literally, I mean, it just hurt. So I went upstairs to my room to rest."
"Night fell, and I heard a knock on my door. I thought it was Liu-shidi, done with hunting demons for now and come to give me my normal treatment for these flare-ups, an infusion of spiritual energy from a cultivator with plentiful yang. I called out a greeting -- but it was Luo Binghe who opened the door."