Chapter Text
“Well, Shizun, here we are” Luo Binghe said as he held the body of Shen Quingqiu from the neck over the broken array. The body, which still breathed, but that the shattered soul couldn´t move or feel anymore. This wasn´t what he wanted. This was not how revenge should be. “Have you ever thought… what it could have been? If you have been gentler with me? If you hadn´t been an utter scum?”
He had already seen, a world in which he was happy with a single person, where his master was a gentle person that took care of him, where he got to feel what love really felt like instead of pure lust and anger. On a certain way, he loved his wives. And most of the children they had for him, he loved them… but that Luo Binghe he had seen in that other world didn´t have a throne, much less a harem and thousands of children, and got to feel much happier than him. He was… complete. As soon as he saw him, he wanted to steal his place, but he somehow was much more powerful than him without having dominion over Xin Mo. And that Shen Quingqiu loved him back. This one doesn´t, he never did. He doubted that he even knew what love felt like… until he saw his expression when he showed him the sword of Yue Quinyuan shattered. At first, he merely wanted his despised master to know that Cang Quiong had fallen, but as soon as he saw that expression, he knew that Shen Quingqiu indeed loved someone that was not himself, and it was Yue Quingyuan. The man probably didn´t know what set his fury alight that time, but he heard the whisper.
“Qi-ge…” the sorrow in that simple word, the pet name that probably was used since a long time ago, said with a grief that could only be from someone who loved the person who had just passed in a such a way…
He completely lost his mind. Shen Quingqiu should have been his!! His name was the only one who should have been said with such tenderness, with such… he screamed and teared his clothes, taking by force something that should only be given by choice. He enjoyed the pain in the immortal´s face, his anger… he taunted, he insulted, he screamed. And, since then, he couldn´t stop doing so over and over again. No matter how many times he slithered between the sheets of which wife of his after the event, or how many times Shen Quingqiu called him a beast and refused to give himself willingly. He always did so, always in front of the shattered sword of Yue Quingyuan. So he could tell the old Sect Leader who actually got his lover, that it didn´t matter who the immortals loved, Shen Quingqiu was his… until he escaped with Gonyi Xiao, towards this place. He searched for him until he found him, along with the child that he had forced upon him and the grandchild that was loved by both parents and lived the blessed life he should have lived… both out of his reach now.
But that didn´t matter. It was time to forget. And to forget it was the reason he was holding the immobile, breathing corpse of his Shizun over the array that his child and grandchild had used to escape. It was broken in several places, there was no way it would lead to anywhere good… or so he thought. Though he doubted there could be a worse destiny than the one Shen Quingqiu was suffering now, with his soul thorn into little pieces and unconscious for who knows how long. In fact, Shen Quingqiu was no longer there.
“Nephew” his aunt put a hand on his shoulder. Oh, yes, he forgot. Zhuzhi-Lang had been the one to win the most out of this in his eyes. He got to recover his parents, both who were standing with him. “You shouldn´t be taking so much time to dispose of someone that is already a body.”
“Then I guess this is all” he opened his hand, releasing the corpse on the array. It disappeared, but he didn´t really care. “It´s time to forget.”
“And forgive?”
“I will never forgive him. Just as you didn´t forgive that woman Baoshan Sanren for keeping you and your husband confined so much time, away from your child.”
“I hate her and those who trapped me, I hate them very much… but somehow I also could understand the immortal woman” the demoness said, looking through the window as her son talked to his father with a smile in her face. “After all, she was a mother. A mother to all those children she raised and wanted the best for them, just as I wanted the best for my own. Only that those interests clashed an, in the end, I lost.”
“I didn´t took you for an understanding woman, aunt”
“I was not, you just have to ask your father when he returns. He will tell you how much of a spoiled princess I was” she laughed, waving a hand. “But becoming a mother changed me, more than I can tell. I wanted the best for my child, though I knew that my brother wouldn´t allow me to do what I thought I would have to do to give Zhuzhi-Lang a better chance than many snake demons have… so I left and did this… and I don´t regret it. I did it for my son and I don´t regret it.”
“Both my mothers sacrificed themselves for me… I don´t know my father.”
“My brother and you might have clashed, but he would have loved you as you deserved”
Luo Binghe didn´t know what to believe. His adoptive mother had loved him, he was sure of that, Su Xiyan had clearly treasured him the short time they had been together, as she sacrificed herself for him… but he didn´t know what Tianlang-Jun would have said. And the person who loved him like a partner, like a soul-mate in that other reality, didn´t exist there. He had everything and nothing at the same time… but, with time, he surely was going to get used to it. He must… because he had a new Realm to rule and that dream he had been seeing since his brief visit to that ideal world was completely gone now, leaving a black hole behind. No, it was never real for him. That Shen Quingqiu didn´t exist for him, he never existed in the first place… and he thought he couldn´t hate that Luo Binghe more.
-In another place-
Shen Quingqiu never expected to wake up from having his soul shattered because of that array, but having a shattered soul was the better outcome than continue to allow that beast to do as he wanted, both to him and the world. Not that he cared much for people, he merely didn´t want his former disciple and personal torment to have everything he wanted. Returning to why he woke up… he was completely at the loss at that. How could it be? The last thing he remembered was… was… Gonyi Xiao and him, escaping from the beast. Then something that appeared like fragments of a dream. And they were all focused on…
“Master!! He woke up!!” he heard a voice near him. He sat down to see a boy, probably the age of Ning Yingying when she first joined the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. He was on guard in a second. He didn´t have that much of a problem with children, as he knew he could protect himself from them, but males still…
“Master!!”
The child was clearly a cultivator, from what he was wearing. Who was his master anyway? He prepared himself. He wished he had Xiu Ya with him, so he could protect himself correctly, despite the state his body was in. His limbs were stiff, he could tell that he had been unconscious for a long time and only his status as an immortal and his golden core (which was prone to qi deviations and not as powerful as his martial siblings´, but still could maintain his body in peak condition when needed) had prevented the degradation of his muscles. Or perhaps, it was the care given to him by that mysterious master of the boy. That didn´t mean he trusted him, he didn´t trust anyone, not even his own fellow Lords. He barely trusted Yue Qingyuan and that was because… well, their history. And didn´t entirely trust him, not after what happened when they were children. Though… anyway, he should get prepared for meeting that master…
“I see that you are awake” he was slightly surprised when he noticed that the person who entered was a woman. Though she was not the first immortal he met that was female. His shimei Qi Qingqi without going so far. But this one was unknown to him, which was… weird. He thought he knew all the immortals in existence in the world. “Fellow immortal master, I´m Baoshan Sanren. The guardian and owner of this Celestial Mountain.”
“I greet you, fellow immortal Lady Baoshan Sanren” he showed his respect to her. It was her territory, he couldn´t be disrespectful to her. He wished he had a fan or the option to behave like he normally would, but she wasn´t a member of his Sect and he could very well be at her mercy with the current state of his body and cultivation. “I´m immortal Master Shen Quingqiu, Lord of Qing Jing Peak from the Cang Quiong Mountain Sect.”
“Master Shen” she said, then turned to her disciple. “That is all, Xincheng. Go to your shidi and shimei and help them train with the sword. Your sword formations are the best, I´m sure they will benefit from watching you go through them.”
“Of course, master” he bowed in respect. “I will take my leave, master Shen”
“Lady Baoshan…”
“If you are going to ask, I have never heard of a Cang Quiong Sect nor an immortal master that belongs to it” she answered, her eyes serious. “But I think you already suspected that at least. That this… is no longer the world you used to inhabit.” She was right. Because, were he in the same world he was born in, he would still be in the Water Prison, in the beast´s clutches. “I guess you want to ask me how I know that.”
“Wouldn´t be surprised if one of those beasts sometime paid a visit to your own world. In fact, it can sense that definitely that was the case” his eyes sharpened. “There is one of those buried under this very mountain, is it not? You are the guardian of that Heavenly Demon… or is it Demoness?”
Baoshan Sanren didn´t answer, certainly not used to speak to someone her own level. Shen Quingqiu felt proud of himself for guessing all from so little information. Then again, he was a scholar. And was there when Yue Quingyuan and the others fought Tianlang-Jun. His second in command was his nephew, Zhuzhi-Lang, who must have gotten out from somewhere. He had heard little about Tianlang-Jun´s little sister, who fullfiled the role of the demon´s spoiled little princess while her brother took care of everything… at least until she met a high-ranking snake demon and married. Both of them disappeared before her brother even met Su Xiyan or conceived his beastly offspring, but Zhuzhi-Lang had appeared later. And achieved a human form more easily, according to the rumors than any other snake demon. It could be attributed to his Heavenly Demon´s blood… though also could be due to something more sinister. But, if Su Xiyan had been willing to sacrifice her own life to her bastard, beastly demon spawn; then how much could a spoiled princess of Heavenly Demoness, the sister of Tianlang-Jun to be specific, do for her own viperine offspring. Well, that wasn´t something he should dwell too much in. The Demoness was sealed and, if they were lucky, the cultivators here would be strong enough to keep her contained, just as her brother was. Then he could search for another mountain to burry Luo Binghe under, perhaps with Zhuzhi-Lang for company.
“There is something that master Shen must know” Baoshan Sanren suddenly continued, joining her hands. “When master Shen arrived to this Realm, he was in a bad condition. My disciple Cangze Sanren and her husband, Wei Changze from the Jiang Sect, were the ones to find you on a side of a road. They brought you to me to heal you…”
“Send my thanks to your disciple and cultivator Wei” he answered, frowning. He didn´t like being in debt with anyone, not even to a woman, much less to a man. “I will surely find a way to return their kindness in time.”
“You have already done… besides, it would be impossible to do. I… received grave news lately, that both my disciple and her husband were killed in a night hunt gone wrong. Despite them both being more than competent cultivators, apparently the yao they were meaning to hunt was too strong…”
“My condolences to you and your Sect, my Lady” he repressed a smirk. At least he won´t have to pay the debt… or so he thought. “I´m sure they were great warriors. But what do you mean that I had already returned their kindness?”
“You… were unaware of the condition you were in when you arrived?”
“What do you mean?”
“I see” she sighed. “Well, I guess that was the least of your problems, considering that you were clearly escaping a bad situation” that was an understanding.
“My disciple, Cangse… she had some health problems during her youth, before leaving my mountain. Due to those problems she… developed an inability to conceive children. She didn´t think much of it back in the day, as she was young and haven´t experienced much in life yet… but then she left and met her husband. As she fall in love, the desire for each other grew, though at the same time… suddenly she found herself wishing to give him something he desired. And she had begun to desire too. A child.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“When I send my students off, I ask them to vow never to return, as the worldly matters shouldn´t reach this place… it´s not my concern anymore. Nothing but the children I teach and the Demon whose seal I guard is my concern” her eyes shut. “But all of them ended up breaking that promise. The first one to ask me why the world was so bad, what would it take to make it a better place… I didn´t have a simple answer and he became a monster in the process of finding a way to make the world perfect as it was in my Mountain. And when Cangze came back…”
“I guess that´s when she brought me with her and her husband” Shen Quingqiu understood how he ended in that place. He hadn´t just appeared out of thin air… though the barrier around it would make it very difficult even for him. Also, Gonyi Xiao was not there, they got separated perhaps on that road. “But how…”
“Cangze was coming to ask me if there was a way for here and her husband to be blessed with a child despite her condition.”
“She was asking for the impossible, just like your first disciple to leave this place.” He answered. “You shouldn´t have given her hope.”
Baoshan Sanren looked conflicted for a moment, not knowing how to say more. And he didn´t know how he supposedly helped to grant the couple their wish, especially as medicine and fertility were not his specialty, though he guessed that as a scholar, he had knowledge in many things. But that didn´t matter. Even as an immortal scholar and cultivator, he would have been unable to device a way to make a body who had lost the ability to conceive to produce a child, probably due to have lost it´s uterus or ovaries. He was sure that not even Mu Quingfang, the greatest healer of Cang Quiong Sect, would be able to do such a miracle. And how could he have done something for them anyway? He was no longer chaste, that beast had taken every thing he could from him while he had him in his power in the Water Prison of Huan Hua Palace, but still…
“No…” he said when he realized it. “NO!!! THAT COULDN´T… NOT THAT, ANYTHING BUT THAT!!! THAT COULDN´T HAVE HAPPENED!!!”
But it was impossible!! He couldn´t… he wasn´t a woman!! Though he would hardly be the first powerful cultivator to… and Heavenly Demon blood was said to work in different ways than any other… but no, no, that couldn´t have happened… not to him, not from that beast… no, never… not that, anything but that… he couldn´t have… not from that thing that destroyed his life and killed Qi-ge… anything but that… he quickly ripped his upper clothes open and saw with horror that he had a new scar, one that showed what kind of operation had been performed on him. One to remove a child from his male body, unable to birth a child without that kind of procedure. He started spiraling in that moment, pleading to whatever deity that might heard him, though he had never believed in them (they never heard his pleas), and asking them for that not to be truth… Baoshan Sanren put a comforting hand on his shoulder when he started hyperventilating. He stopped spiraling in that moment, looking at her.
“I see” she said with a sad voice. “I´m sorry”
“For what?” he asked. he had not said anyone about what truly happened to him, as he didn´t want anyone to know about his humiliation. He still had his pride, after all, and he refused to part with it. Not even with what the beast had done to him. “You don´t know…”
“Only a man who has been hurt in the worst of ways possible would have such a visceral reaction to the news. I see now and I´m sorry for what happened to you, no one deserved something like that.”
The beast would differ with her, but she continued to offer her support and compassion, helping him come down from the shock. Shen Jiu didn´t know what was it with him and women, but somehow her motherly presence and comfort managed to calm him down enough for him to start cursing the beast and the bastard that he put in him. And it was just that… why him? Why did he do this to him? They hated each other!! Besides, that animal had an army of bitches ready to spread their legs for him and birth spawns, why to use him only to have one more? He didn´t want… then he remembered what Baoshan Sanren had said about her disciple Cangse getting a son through him.
“Tell me you didn´t…” she didn´t answer. “You know what that thing is!! And don’t try to convince me that you don´t, because I don´t believe that an immortal such as yourself, especially one that has been in contact with a Heavenly Demoness in such a way, wouldn´t recognize another one when she sees him” he nearly spat at her. The last thing he wanted was… “Not when they even share the same blood.”
“I put a seal on him, I thought he might…” the woman lowered her gaze. “Part of him was human, he deserved a chance. Besides, Cangse took to him as soon as she held him in her arms, fresh from your womb. A-Ying became her son the moment she landed her eyes on him and Wei Changze´s when she approached him with him in her arms. I know this was probably not something we should have done without your consent…”
“Consent? Consent was what I wasn´t asked when that thing formed inside of me, so I would have killed it as soon as I knew it was there, had I know it before” he glared at the woman. A seal? That was her answer? A seal didn´t prevent the cursed mark from appearing in the face of Luo Binghe, no matter what a powerful seal Su Xiyan had placed on her demon spawn. Sooner or later, that boy would become a Heavenly Demon just like his ancestors. “The fucking spawn didn´t…”
“A-Ying is not to blame for his father´s crimes” the other immortal signaled, her eyes turning hard at his word. “I know that being hurt in such a way might cause you conflicting feelings towards the child, but you know, deep inside of you, that he is innocent. He didn´t ask to be created in such a way, just as you didn´t ask for what that man did to you.”
“Should I care? The thing shouldn´t have even been born in the first place” he tried to get up, but his body wasn´t responding very well. His golden core had
worked hard to keep it healthy, though it was still hard to move with the same grace as before. Then he realized something. “A-Ying?”
For some reason, that name woke up something in his fractured memory. He remembered a young man with grey eyes, dark hair flying around him as he played a flute, controlling the corpses on a battlefield. A white figure approached, calling him Wei Ying, asking him to go back to a place called Gusu with him, to which the other man laughed… another in purple claimed that Wei Wuxian was part of his Sect, so he would go with them to Lotus Pier. Then he saw a Massacre in a very poor village, filled with old people and women. Cultivators, because they were clearly entire sects of cultivators, were running through those elders with their swords, then dumping their corpses on a pond that looked red. It seemed that no one would survive… and an explosion of what he could only call resentment energy happened. Then the image changed to the white figure from before carrying the young man from before… Wei Ying… Wei Wuxian… with him, trying to save him… he must have, because another memory showed him again, looking different but clearly being himself, fighting against Luo Binghe. And they weren´t faring that badly.
“Cangse started to call him like that during his first week of life, while she and her husband were there, to wait and see if you were going to wake up soon” Baoshan Sanren explained with a sigh. “When it became obvious that you wouldn´t be in shape to take care of a child for a long time, then they finally decided to leave. And Wei Ying became his name, as they decided to adopt it… but they said that if you were ever to wake up, that they would be… willing to have a chat… about you being in his life.”
“I would have told them to kill him”
“And Cangse would have told you that you could go kill yourself… then told you that she was sorry for what happened to you, but her son wasn´t at fault for how he was conceived, no matter the crime that his sire committed… or what he was” she sighed. “But that doesn´t matter. Cangse and Changze hadn´t been in this world for a year and I know little about the fate of their child. He could have been taken in by his father´s Sect or been left to die in the streets of Yiling… I don´t know. I can´t leave, or I would have gone to bring A-Ying here myself, nor can I send a disciple for him… once they leave, they can´t return so easily.”
“I thought they always return”
“By then, they have been corrupted by the world and that makes the seal a bit unstable. The Demoness stirs and I can´t allow that. Not when our preparations are… so few” she presented him with a sword. “But you could leave and return. You are an immortal like me, you won´t affect the seal as the others do.”
“Neither I want” he looked away. “And what makes you think that I would go find the little monster? He could go die on a street for all I care. Besides, even if I do, why do you think I won´t kill him on spot?”
“Because you know what it´s like to be a child abandoned in the streets or something worse, I can see it in your eyes.”
“Maybe a long time ago”
“But those things are something people don´t forget, no matter how much time has passed. Just like I haven´t forget what it was like to be a mortal woman, being undervalued by everyone and not even considered a proper cultivator. Not until I managed to show them what I can do, by participating in the war against Xue Chonghai and becoming an immortal. And in the way, I learned something very important” she put a hand on his shoulder. “What happened to us is what shapes us.”
“True… but it hasn´t shaped me into a compassionate person. Compassion is a weakness after all” he shouldn´t have felt compassion for Qiu Haitang after all. He should have killed the spoiled little girl along with her monster of a brother, perhaps that way he would have been able to keep his life. “Compassion was part of why I got into this problem.”
“I see” she still handed him the sword. “Though I suggest that you actually go and see what´s become of the child before you decide what to do. You might find yourself surprised by what you felt on his presence… and even if you feel nothing, I urge you to give him a chance. He might not be what you expect.”
Shen Quingqiu doubted that. After all, what else but a beast could come from a beast? Still, he took the sword that was offered to him and went to Yiling, where the Wei family was last seen before that fateful night, so he could see what had become of the little demon. He found him rather quickly, getting a surprise when he saw that it was indeed a younger version from the man he had seen in his dreams. The man whose eyes glowed red when he was using his cultivation, demonic cultivation. He was about to use his sword when he saw the boy rummaging through the trash for food. It was just as… the immortal bit his lip. There was no use in thinking about his past, he wasn´t that scared little slave boy anymore. Nor was he the one that begged on the streets. But as he followed the child as he went onto his day, for the following days, he started to lose his conviction about killing him. And it was just… Wei Ying reminded him so much about Shen Jiu that he simply couldn´t do it. Wei Ying also didn´t have a Yue Qi to be by his side, he was completely alone. So, one day, when he saw the boy getting attacked by dogs, he ended up revealing his presence by saving him. The beast´s child, a demon boy, the thing that has been forced on him right before Yue Quingyuan´s shattered sword… but he saved him.
They looked at each other for a long time as soon as the animal fled. The dirty child then smiled at the cultivator, who didn´t return it. He still didn´t feel love or anything soft for that child, but something prevented him from killing the boy in that moment. So he did the next best thing that came to his mind and grabbed him, taking him to Baoshan Sanren´s mountain. It had, after all, held his great aunt for a long time, it must have some effect on the boy. He kept his distance for some time, but the boy seemed like a clingy little menace, who liked to ambush him with hugs, with the brains to make a scholar like him pay attention to him. and suddenly, he found himself sharing much time with the child that he had initially rejected. Not killing him was an act of compassion, because he reminded him of Shen Jiu; speaking with him was a result of recognizing that the young boy was as smart as a whip, coming up with amazing ideas at such a young age, worth of discussion; and starting to look at him from the distance after a year of being in contact…
“You have come to love him, despite how he came to be” Baoshan Sanren spoke, surprising him. When had she come? Perhaps he was putting too much of his attention on Wei Ying. “As more than a disciple or someone you identify with, but as a father…”
“He already had parents”
“There isn´t any reason why he can´t have more” she answered, patting him on his back. “Go speak to him. He is young, but he will understand… and with time, you are going to be as close as father and child should be.”
“I don´t want to replace his parents.”
“You don´t have to do that. He can remember Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren as his parents, and at the same time recognize you as a father, if you put some effort in that. And love him” she pushed him. “Go talk to him”
“Wei Ying” Shen Quingqiu spoke, for once following the advice of someone else. “I have something to talk to you about.”
-In another place-
The last thing Gonyi Xiao remembered was that A-Yao killed him, tears in his eyes, as he refused to turn back on his path. The path that made him a spy on Wen Ruohan´s court, which lead him to become the darkest version of himself and the one that would lead to his untimely, tragic death. And the strangest part was… that he forgave him as soon as it happened. He couldn´t help it, the boy was like his son after all. The strangest part was that in death he saw what happened to A-Yao and… also alternative versions in which he might be able to save him. He still wasn´t sure if he will be able to save him, but he at least needed to try. It was what being a father was. And he had been much more a father to that boy, no matter what Meng Shi put on the boy´s head, than that trash Jin Guangshan.
Also not only him, but another one his different versions and somehow himself had come to think of as a second son, Mo Xuanyu. He had destroyed his soul to bring Wei Wuxian back from the death in the original version of the history, something that made his heart clench when he started to like the boy. He sighed, turning around and getting serious. Mo Xuanyu was another case of a life that was ruined by Jin Guangshan. The boy´s sense of normalcy in love and sexuality had become warped after he had been used by his father as a prostitute during parties with Sect Leaders and then blackmail them into following them. Jin Guangyao tried to be nice to him, after all they were both bastards, but his warped sense of normalcy had led to Mo Xuanyu to harass his half-brother. Also to do other questionable things… no, Gonyi Xiao needed to save that child too. He was his son too.
He smirked as he thought of a plan to make sure that the brothers wouldn´t get close to that pile of trash that sired them.
“Gonyi-shixiong? I wasn´t expecting… what is that?!!”
“A gift” Gonyi Xiao answered as he threw Jin Guangshan into the room where Meng Shi and her son were in. Kidnapping the Jin Sect Leader had been awfully easy, which didn´t speak well of his Sect. The man glared at him and started to scream at him, demanding to be taken back to Koi Tower. “Please, as if you aren´t used to this kind of places.”
“What?!”
“My dear” Meng Shi approached the man she remembered, her pearl tassel in her hands. Her smile was wide and luminous, as if she had seen a deity itself.
“You are back. You have finally come back for your Shi-er and our son…”
“Who are you?” Jin Guangshan asked, raising an eyebrow. This made the woman stop cold, her expression changing to one of confusion. But she recovered quickly.
“What are you talking about? I´m Meng Shi, your Meng Shi” she showed him the tassel. “You must remember me, you gave me this pearl when you promised to come back for me, for our son. I have been waiting all this time for you…”
“That cheap thing?” Jin Guangshan grabbed it, crushing it in front of the woman´s eyes. Her expression turned into one of horror. “I have thousands of those to give it to cheap women like you, stock to use until you are bored and then throw like the trash you are. I don´t even remember the time I used you… and how do I know that the bastard is mine?” he said, looking at the child with disgust, who was crying by his mother. “From what I could see, you are a prostitute. You were mounted by thousands of men, thousands of possible fathers for that little trash you produced.”
“No… you promised… promised to come back to… to free us…”
“I might have said it, I might not… I don´t really remember” he shrugged. “You must not have even been pleasing enough to remember.”
“No!!! You promised me!!” Meng Shi tried to grab him. Jin Guangshan raised a hand to hit her, but Gonyi Xiao acted to stop him.
“Shi-er, it´s been enough. And you, you call yourself a man when you hit a woman?” the man was about to say something, but Gonyi Xiao sent him flying through the door with a sure kick. “Get out, we have lost enough time with you.”
“You are going to regret this!!!” he escaped.
“Yeah, yeah” he turned around, staring at the crying Meng Shi and A-Yao, who was hugging her. “Shi-er, you have enough to buy A-Yao´s freedom, no? I know that you have been gathering money for that?” she nodded. The child hugged her tightly, he won´t go anywhere without her. “I have recently came into some money. I think… I can buy yours too. So, if you don´t mind a life on the road…”
“Anything is better than being here, forced to entertain and open my legs for any man that can pay enough to sate the greed of the madam. And A-Yao… there had been some inquiries from clients that… like children. I can´t allow that to happen to him.”
“Me neither”
So, Gonyi Xiao spent even the last silver coin he had to buy Meng Shi´s and her son´s freedom. After that, the Madam yelled at them to grab their things and get out of her establishment. It was done. As they walked away from that town, to where Gonyi Xiao could earn something to feed his new charges at the same time that they started the trip to Mo village, he wondered what else should he do now. A-Yao surely wasn´t going to search for his biological father anymore and Meng Shi wasn´t trying to put those dangerous thoughts about Jin Guangshan in his head. Apparently, hearing it from his mouth had shattered all her delusions, leaving her with the harsh reality… though she now had her freedom. As he trained A-Yao in the way, her smile seemed to return little by little.
“You really look like father and child, Gonyi-gonzhi” the former prostitute said one night, while her child slept. They were staying in an abandoned shed for the night, finally being able to eat something that they hadn´t foraged from the forest. “Perhaps I could…” he shook his head. She nodded, a bit relieved, though he had never asked her for payment for teaching A-Yao. “Did you have a Sect, Gonyi-gonzhi?”
“Yes, but it was destroyed some time ago. It was called Huan Hua Palace” he answered, remembering those times when life seemed easier and the Demon hadn´t taken over his home with the ease of someone entering his home. “I have the dream of rebuilding it though. And then, A-Yao could be head disciple.”
“Sounds like something wonderful” she answered.
He nodded; it indeed was. And they would see that done. So, when they arrived to Mo village, he told Meng Shi and A-Yao about Mo Xuanyu. At first, the boy was worried about being replaced, but Gonyi Xiao assured him that he was not abandoning them, he was merely giving him a shidi, someone who would look up to him and train with him… also that was going to be partly his responsibility, so he had to behave well, as it was fit of a shixiong. Convincing the Second Lady Mo was a bit hard, but Meng Shi proved her value convincing her by telling her about her own history with Jin Guangshan. After a bit of thinking… and perhaps thinking about the bruises in her child, courtesy of her sister and her husband… knowing that they won´t let her go that easily, but her A-Yu could escape… and if he became a cultivator…
“Alright” she finally accepted, calling her son forward. “But please, take care of him. He is all I have in this world.”
“On my honor, I promise that” he put a hand on his A-Yao´s shoulder. “I will threat him as if he were my own son. Xuanyu and my A-Yao will be brothers in all ways.”
“Thank you”
Gonyi Xiao smirked. Like that, he had gained two sons. And Meng Shi, who was… well, not a wife, but a servant neither. The mother of his first child, perhaps, and she could be a mother figure to Xuanyu too. As he trained both of his disciples later, after practically escaping the Mo village before the Lady could do something about his nephew leaving, he could say that both of them have talent. A-Yao was versatile and smart, A-Yu was completely new to cultivation, but he seemed quick on his feet and to learn. And was already looking up to A-Yao. Maybe this could work after all.