Chapter Text
Luo Binghe decided not to waste any time, today was one of his days off as a student, so he could stop by the Northern Ice Castle if he was careful about it.
He went to one of the Huan Hua Palace’s less popular gardens. Still gigantic, just not very crowded. If he was seen entering this place, then it would make at least a little sense if he couldn’t be found: maybe he was relaxing somewhere unseen, or walking away. If he was never seen exiting his room, it would look suspicious if he couldn’t be found there.
Luo Binghe extended his senses to confirm he was alone, then used Xin Mo to tear a way to his destination.
He cut a portal directly into the throne room, feeling the warm, humid air of a summer day flee as the dry, bitterly freezing air of the Northern Desert closed around him. He didn’t pretend to shiver. Ever since escaping the Abyss, he’d found that his tolerance for pain and discomfort was almost numbing.
Among humans, he had to pretend he had weaknesses. Here, he had to show off a lack thereof.
“Mobei-Jun.” Luo Binghe called. “I need—” He blinked at the scene before him.
Mobei-Jun sat on his throne, not surprising. Kneeling before Mobei-Jun and fearfully looking over his own shoulder was a small human-animal hybrid that radiated spiritual energy. Luo Binghe wondered how Mobei-Jun could stand it. The ears on the top of this new person’s head were round and golden, like a mouse, or…
Luo Binghe grinned and cocked his head. “Xiang Fei,” he greeted, “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
Admittedly, it was easier to identify him since Shen Yuan had fragmented memories of Xiang Fei in the hard-earned humanoid form he’d cultivated. Xiang Fei laughed, nervous and chittering, and slowly got to his feet.
“To remember the name of this lowly rodent, Junshang is such an attentive ruler! Your memory is unmatched!” Xiang Fei chirped, backing away. Luo Binghe matched him step-for-step. “This one was just debriefing my king on matters of strategy. What can this court do for our emperor?” The hamster continued backing up until he was by Mobei-Jun’s side. Luo Binghe stopped by the arm of the throne and shot Mobei-Jun an inquisitive look, who matched his glance with a vaguely annoyed glare. The expression reminded Luo Binghe of the students on Qing Jing whenever he cleaned their rooms, a general aura of ‘I know you have to, but I don’t like you touching my things.’
“Disrespect! Kill them!” Cried Xin Mo. Luo Binghe crossed his arms to get his hand off the hilt.
“I didn’t know you had such a strong tolerance for spiritual energy.” Luo Binghe probed. Mobei-Jun nodded once.
“I do.”
Luo Binghe waited for him to elaborate. He did not.
Luo Binghe tried again, “So, how long my general known this… advisor of yours? It must have taken a while to build up a tolerance.”
Mobei-Jun glanced at Xiang Fei, who had a hand clenched tightly on his king’s shoulder. The general made a beckoning gesture, which prompted the spiritual creature to immediately morph back onto a hamster and crawl into the thick fur lining of Mobei-Jun’s collar. Definitely the same creature, Luo Binghe observed.
“About two years.” Mobei-Jun finally answered. “Intolerance of spiritual energy is a weakness that cannot be ignored. This one captured many spiritual creatures in his search for a food source that would safely build up such a tolerance, but this creature turned out to have good advice.” Mobei-Jun curled his claws through the fur collar, captured the hamster in his fist, and presented the squeaking man to Luo Binghe for inspection.
“So, you kept him alive,” Luo Binghe finished for him, bending his head for a closer look. The hamster looked even smaller than usual with just his head popping out of the ice demon’s fist, yet he looked quite used to such an indelicate hold.
“Yes, Junshang.”
“What kind of advice? Give me an example.”
Mobei-Jun looked annoyed that he had to talk even more, so he followed Luo Binghe’s lead and dropped the formal language. “He told me Shang Qinghua would be a useful ally for the conference, but he would betray me sometime after.”
“And he did?”
Mobei-Jun smirked. “He tried.”
“What else?”
“He told me you would be a worthy opponent. That I’d survive, but I wouldn’t win.”
A cold feeling was creeping up on Luo Binghe. He narrowed his eyes and scolded, “Mobei-Jun, those aren’t advice, those are prophecies. You’ve had a seer around this entire time and you didn’t tell me?”
(“Cut out his lying tongue!” Suggested Xin Mo.)
Mobei-Jun furrowed his brow. “He’s not.” The general shifted his grip to instead dangle the hamster by his short tail. “He’s also said that, if I was willing to risk it, the Bai Zhan War God would be in the Lingxi Caves. Volatile, eager to fight, but stupid and weak from a qi deviation. He said I could easily lure him out, defeat him, and then go back in to get rid of Shen Qingqiu while the peak lord was meditating. Neither peak lord was there.” Mobei-Jun gave the hamster a punitive jangle, sending it into a riot of squeaking and squirming.
Xin Mo clamored some more violence about how Shen Qingqiu was Luo Binghe’s rightful kill, and while he agreed on that front, he also felt much more friendly towards someone who would use their mysterious knowledge towards such a goal. Attempted kill-stealing aside, it was nice to know where the rodent’s goals lay.
He also had suspicions about why the two peak lords weren’t there, and it had nothing to do with thinking the hamster was caught in an unlucky guess. A soft-hearted snake came to mind. While he’d never seen the snake send any letters, there was also no possible way for Luo Binghe to comprehensively review three years of memories in just one night. Something probably slipped through.
Luo Binghe didn’t care one way or another about how or when Liu Qingge died so long as it happened eventually; he was just as complicit in Luo Binghe’s abuse as the other peak lords. But why save Shen Qingqiu? Did Shen Yuan regret it? What was the original prophecy, the version of events where Mobei-Jun hadn’t been invited to intervene? If the snake and the hamster had such opposite goals, why the friendly visits?
It was time to ask directly.
“Mobei-Jun,” He ordered, “I need you to steal something for me.”
“Yes, Junshang?”
“A snake in Huan Hua Palace.”
The hamster sang a surprised and ecstatic squeal.
/
Xiang Fei disappeared into Mobei-Jun’s collar for their walk, but Luo Binghe demanded he come back out once they reached the warmest room in the ice palace: the hamster’s office.
Luo Binghe surveyed his surroundings. The room’s ice ceilings and floors were replaced with dark polished wood, while the walls were chiseled marble slabs. Luo Binghe could not see much of the carvings, however, seeing as they were covered in furs and tapestries to better insulate the room. The ceiling had a patina of black soot despite the signs of daily scrubbing, probably because of the brightly lit braziers and a large stone fireplace. Laid out before that fireplace was the enormous fluffy hide of a pure white bear.
There was a messy ink-stained desk by the double-paned glass window. Luo Binghe took a quick look at the many papers littering the surface: the one positioned directly in front of the chair had lines upon lines of numbers written on it, each line labelled in the margins with things like “staff wages” and “trade income”. There was a sheet of paper peeking out beneath that one, so he could only see a corner of text: grasped firmly in her… twitching pillar… copious…
Luo Binghe quickly turned his attention to the bookcases, but didn’t find much difference there. Economic History of the Northern Desert. Waxing Moon, Pulsing Meadow. 101 Demonic Dialects, Volume 6, Northern Edition. The Aurora’s Caress. Luo Binghe wondered when and where the hamster was allowed to acquire some of those tomes, and with whose money.
The most suspicious piece of furniture, however, was a narrow bed with luxuriously plush blankets and pillows. The sheets were made of the deep blue silk characteristic of the Mobei court, but the golden embroidery of frolicking hamsters ruined any chance that this finery just happened to be lying around. No, everything in this room was brand new, custom made. The quality and care were better suited to a consort rather than an impulsively employed advisor-accountant.
Luo Binghe side-eyed Mobei-Jun, who was staring at the hamster, who was warming his hands by the fire. Luo Binghe supposed that dual cultivating with a spiritual creature was a risky but effective way to gain tolerance and improve your own power, but… really? Weren’t demons supposed to be attracted to strength?
“Your choice of first wife is… fascinating.” Luo Binghe muttered. Mobei-Jun grunted.
Xiang Fei either didn’t hear the comment or was electing to ignore it, since he straightened up and clapped his hands with an all-business demeanor.
“What do you need from us to find Shen Yuan, Junshang? This lowly servant is at your full disposal.”
Luo Binghe crossed his arms. “The basic plan is to have Mobei-Jun create a small portal inside Shen Yuan’s cell, grab him, and push the drawer open a bit from the inside. This will make it look like he got loose on his own without making the palace suspicious of outside intruders, and any demonic energy the portal creates will be hidden by Shen Yuan’s own residual energy.” He nodded to Mobei-Jun. “I’ll draw a map so you can get a general idea of where you’ll be aiming.”
Mobei-Jun inclined his head, and Xiang Fei pushed the old papers on his desk aside for a fresh sheet. They all spent the next half-sichen mapping out the Huan Hua Palace together, until finally Luo Binghe was describing the venom farm’s room in detail. Luo Binghe drew a picture of the wall of shelves and pointed to the general area he remembered the beast-keeper pull Shen Yuan out of. Finally, he described the snake’s size and pale coloration so Mobei-Jun would know he was in the right drawer or not. Xiang Fei chipped in with semi-helpful details on Shen Yuan’s lavender markings, such at the heart on his head and the dick on his mid-back.
Luo Binghe admired Mobei-Jun’s natural portal ability quite a bit. As long as he had a general idea of where something was, he could pinpoint a specific location with eerie accuracy. Sheer intent seemed to factor into the process a lot more than to be expected. Xin Mo had similar capabilities, but tended to tear a path to where he wanted to go rather than just creating a temporary door. As a result, the only size of portal Luo Binghe could manage was “big,” and it always expended a lot of energy. Maybe in the future he’d master it more, utilize more refined sword techniques, be more efficient. Maybe in the future just a single trip wouldn’t make the sword scream at Luo Binghe to kill his most powerful ally over a bratty look.
Once Mobei-Jun was concentrating on placing his portal within a set of drawers he’d never seen before in a place he’d never been, Luo Binghe turned his full attention to the hamster-wife again.
“You seem eager to help.” He stated with a neutral tone.
Xiang Fei’s face lit up. “Of course, Junshang!”
Mobei-Jun made a head-sized portal, peeked inside, and closed it. He repeated this a few times; must have been the wrong drawer.
“Why haven’t you asked Mobei-Jun to do this for you before now?” Luo Binghe asked.
Xiang Fei’s face fell with guilt. “… Junshang’s detailed knowledge of the room’s general appearance and location is the bare minimum needed to conduct a quick, successful, and safe rescue attempt. Creating unnecessary portals in secure public places could put the entire cultivation world on guard.”
Mobei-Jun finally created a portal and reached inside. Luo Binghe could hear shifting sand and the jingling of chains.
“Close enough to worry, not close enough to risk your own skin, hm?” Luo Binghe asked with a humorless smile, cocking his head to the side.
Xiang Fei was working on a response when Mobei-Jun pulled his hand out of the portal and dragged out an overcooked noodle of an animal, its head catching on the edge of the portal just briefly before swinging free. Luo Binghe was at a loss for words, and neither of his subjects dared to speak. He could hear the crackling of the fire, the creaking of the ice behind the stone walls continuously re-freezing. All eyes were on the insensate viper dangling from Mobei-Jun’s fist. The portal closed.
It was definitely Shen Yuan, just…
“I tell the brat he’s forgotten something, and he ignores me.” Meng Mo gripes. “As if the venom of these things isn’t unbelievably valuable. As if he doesn’t have potentially priceless information about your future. As if both of those things don’t depend entirely on him having a functional mind. Sure, just get elbow-deep in the boy’s brain, rummage around, and ignore your mentor when he tells you there’s a mess to clean up.”
Mobei-Jun holds out the peach-and-jade snake to Luo Binghe with a flat and unreadable expression. Shen Yuan swings around a little more from the movement.
“As Junshang requested.”
Luo Binghe takes Shen Yuan in both hands and probes a bit of his qi into the body. Shen Yuan is still alive, he notes with a sigh of relief, just… very asleep.
“Brumation, I believe it’s called.” Meng Mo explains airily.
I didn’t ask, Luo Binghe snaps back, carefully coiling the snake’s body like a rope so he wouldn’t swing around anymore. He keeps the head cradled in his palm and takes care to prevent the spine from twisting as he does so. Meng Mo, meanwhile, keeps rubbing it in.
“But you did forget, so the lesson bears repeating.” Meng Mo takes on a bright and chipper voice like he’s teaching an infant, his diction painfully precise and slow. “Most plants and some animals become dormant in winter, meaning they sleep very deeply for a while!”
Understood. Remembered.
“Some demons are hybrids of plants or animals, so they share this instinct!”
Got it, thanks.
“If you pull one of those people into deep sleep, it might trigger their dormancy instinct early, so they won’t wake up on their own for a long time.”
For fuck’s sake.
“If you don’t want that person to starve in their sleep from going dormant ahead of schedule, you’ll have to pull them back into a normal level of consciousness manually.”
Are you done?
“For now.”
Xiang Fei cautiously approached, his eyes flitting between Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan. His hands were half-extended, like he wanted to touch but (rightfully) didn’t dare. Luo Binghe raised a brow at the rodent.
“Surely Huan Hua would need him alive, right?” Xiang Fei whispered to himself. “Why would they keep a dead body in a cage? He’s okay, he has to be…”
“Your concern is touching.” Luo Binghe stated, holding Shen Yuan up and well out of the shorter man’s reach. Might as well continue the interrogation. “What’s your relation to this man?”
Xiang Fei looked up at Luo Binghe, allowing him to see the fearful calculation hidden in those eyes.
“We’re from the same hometown.” He finally answered. Luo Binghe scoffed.
“It would take less time to rip you apart than it would to dissect that lie.” Luo Binghe gestured to Shen Yuan. “You should know I’ve already been through Shen Yuan’s memories. Many are blocked off to me, including his conversations with you. Why?”
Xiang Fei looked sick, but not particularly surprised. “I cannot say.”
Luo Binghe laughed incredulously. “You don’t know?”
Xiang Fei narrowed his eyes and hunched over on himself, a defensive posture that was just short of bowing. “My deepest apologies, Junshang, but I cannot say.”
Luo Binghe considered this. “Then shall we find a question you can answer?”
“Junshang’s will and might are absolute, not even the heavens could stand in his way.” Xiang Fei answered with a wobbly smile, tucking his chin against his own shoulder. Luo Binghe glanced over at Mobei-Jun, who was standing at the edge of the room with a soldier’s rigid posture and his fists clenched at his sides. It was nice to know who to threaten in order to make each person in the room bend… save for Shen Yuan, but the snake demon would submit to captivity to save a village of humans he’d never met. Luo Binghe wasn’t too pressed about the scarcity of that information.
“Are you friends?”
Xiang Fei looked caught off-guard by such a tame question. “Yes, Junshang.”
“Mobei-Jun tells me you’ve had many theories about the future, and most of them are proven facts by now.”
“… Excellent recall, Junshang.”
Luo Binghe held himself back from rolling his eyes. “If you’re so skilled at ‘theorizing’ what’s going to happen in the future, why didn’t you save your friend from being captured?” Luo Binghe watched Xiang Fei carefully for his reaction to this question. The hamster didn’t look guilty, as Luo Binghe thought he would, but instead took on a tired and beaten expression. Luo Binghe went on, “there were many different avenues to prevent his fate, especially since a spiritual creature with a human form would have been much more warmly received by the villagers. What kept you?”
“I didn’t know.” Xiang Fei murmured. “By the time I got around to visiting again, they’d already sealed off his cave and burned all his things. I was able to ask around about it, you’re right about that, but I still had to hide what I was. I don’t want to be eaten or turned into ingredients.”
In that case, whatever seer abilities Xiang Fei and/or Shen Yuan possessed had serious blind spots.
“If I were to look into your memories tonight, do you think I’d be blocked from your conversations with him in the same way his are with you?”
The answer was immediate and quietly confident. “Yes, Junshang.”
“Are you still allowed to access those memories?”
“Yes, Junshang.”
Then whatever was blocking Luo Binghe could select who could see what, and might be withholding prophecies from Xiang Fei in the same manner. Additionally, the two friends were both quite familiar with whatever entity was dictating Luo Binghe’s access to this information. Worse yet, they were more afraid of it than they were of him.
Gods, this was annoying. Was there a way to cut to the heart of this?
“The thing that blocks my access to your memories and keeps you from answering my questions directly: can it bleed?”
Xiang Fei went very pale, but again, didn’t seem surprised by the question. He turned his eyes to Shen Yuan again. “If this servant may be so curious, Junshang, what are your plans with a Heart’s Truth Viper Demon?”
Complete avoidance of the question. The entity was probably listening even now. Luo Binghe allowed it since he could recognize it as a veiled prod in the right direction.
“I’ll be making sure your stories match.” Luo Binghe stated. “After that… it depends entirely on whether he’s willing to swear his fealty to me.”
Xiang Fei failed to hold back a snort. When the emperor’s eyes darkened, Xiang Fei waved his hands and stammered, “ignore this lowly servant, Junshang! It’s just… well,” Xiang Fei grinned, “I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with that.”
Luo Binghe arched a brow. “Another one of your theories?”
Xiang Fei shook his head. “No, no. But if there’s one thing Junshang missed in those blocked memories, it’s the way Shen Yuan talks about you.”