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Chapter Text

Luo Binghe doesn’t know how long he’s been wandering through the Endless Abyss.

He didn’t know how he expected Shen Qingqiu to react after finding out his disciple’s heritage, but after so many years of working himself to the bone, trying to do everything right, be the best possible person so his Shizun could finally look at him with something else besides absolute disgust–

Well. How else would someone react to finding out a monster has hid under their nose for years?

‘With kindness.’ A traitorous part of his mind that still has yet to die whispers ‘Or at least to grant them the privilege of still being able to walk the Human Realm.’

“Focus.” Meng Mo echoes from inside his mind just in time for Luo Binghe to blink back to reality and barely avoid getting sliced in half by the claw of one of the Abyss’ beasts. He’s pretty sure Meng Mo had said the name of the creature at the beginning of their fight but Binghe can’t be too bothered to remember it as all his attention is focused on the stinging pain flaring in his right arm, followed by the now familiar feeling of his blood parasites rushing to the wound.

In the time Luo Binghe has spent in the Abyss, he’s certain there hasn’t been a single day where he hasn’t had to fight for his life. He’s not sure if it’s been a year, a month or simply a week since he’s fallen down here, but he’s coming to the conclusion that at the end it doesn’t really matter if all he can do is live in a constant state of alarm; every day (not that there is a difference between day or night here) is the same cycle of fighting and healing and fighting while healing and healing while fighting.

Luo Binghe barely feels human anymore, but he guesses it’s appropriate.

The beast screams and vomits blood as Luo Binghe plunges his claws into its chest, grabbing its still beating heart and ripping it out, purple-ish blood spraying all over his body. He can still remember, in the beginning, the first time he had to fight only using his body and ripping into flesh, how some base instinct deep inside him felt thrilled to have to claw and bite and tear his way through his enemy and how disgusted with himself he felt for allowing his body to think that way.

He watches the beast slump to the ground, and distantly thinks he’s starting to care less and less about avoiding those wretched base instincts of his. It’s what's barely keeping him alive these days, anyways.

‘Maybe I can eat some of the meat.’ He thinks, and immediately gets rebutted by Meng Mo “Didn’t you hear me before? That’s a Blood-Drunk Midnight Lemur, they barely have any meat on them, it’s cartilage after cartilage.”

‘Meng Mo sure knows a lot about the creatures living in the Endless Abyss.’

“Barely. This elder only knows about the Midnight Lemurs because they have a weaker counterpart in the Demon Realm.”

Hm. Well, what he heard is that even if the flesh is not going to be the best thing ever, it’s one of the few ones they know ahead of time it won’t be poisonous, so Luo Binghe will take what he can get.

He’s been having quite the lucky streak recently, a few days(?) before he’d met a nymph that managed to alleviate some of his worst injuries in exchange for a moment of pleasure, and even more recently having managed to find a cave in the walls of the canyon he’s currently in where he managed to get a whole incense stick's time to rest. In fact, Luo Binghe’s ‘luck’ has been so good, he suspects someone else is deliberately helping him.

There’s been a…presence in the edge of his awareness for a while now, always just out of his sight. In any other circumstances he’d just pin it as a hallucination and try to deal with it as quickly as possible, but no matter how he circulates his qi, or rearranges his dreamscape, or how much he makes Meng Mo check him over, there has been no sign that this presence is one of the many hallucinations he’s experienced.

Fine, if not a hallucination then surely an attack from an outside source? Another demon trying to control his mind, or the side effects of a plant, but once again, no matter how many times he checks or how many beautiful demoness-nymph-spirits he lays with, the presence is still there. He even had considered the possibility of it being one of the beasts that like to toy with their prey, have him lose his mind before the beasts attacks him at his most vulnerable. But it can’t be that either! He’s been made prey of some of these beasts before, and with how his demonic cultivation is improving, whatever could be stalking him would either be something small enough to not cause him too much trouble, or something equally – if not more powerful – than a Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python, which is too big to not be noticed.

Any conclusion he might have had slipped through his fingers like sand the longer he thought about them, and even Meng Mo, who loves to gloat about his ‘infinite knowledge’, was left stumped.

The weirdest thing about this presence though, was how harmless it seemed. Like he said, he’s been having a marginally easier time going through the Abyss recently, which is an impossible feat by itself as there never are ‘safer’ places in the Abyss, only sections with different dangers for him to be mindful of; for him to have been able to sit down and meditate at all was a miracle in itself. That coupled by how it seems to be actively helping Luo Binghe only makes him think that the presence is either playing the long game with him, wanting to have him as relaxed as possible before it attacks, or the Heavens have finally set their gaze upon him.

Only one of those options is possible.

Still, as likely as it is that he is being led to some kind of trap, it sure is a relief to sometimes have time to mend his broken body just enough for him to feel a bit more like himself again. He can’t say he remembers what it was like to feel absolutely no pain however, his body has been hurting long before Shen Qingqiu’s judgment.

It seems, however, that as much as his stalker has been ‘helping’ him it is also has been hindering him with how much of his attention it attracts, as between one blink and the next a long shadow engulfs him whole, and Luo Binghe can only briefly feel a huff of air blowing onto his back before pain explodes at his side and he is flung into the air.

He flips himself just in time to land on his feet and see the corpse of the Midnight Lemur once again standing, though maybe that description is a bit too generous, as it doesn’t seem to be standing on its own but instead being puppeteered by invisible strings. It’s jaw still hangs loose, lifeless, but in the cavity that used to house the beast’s heart now sits an enormous flower, a Crimson Tear Spider-Lily, which has earned a delightful spot in Luo Binghe’s mind as one of the most annoying plants to have ever sprouted in the Abyss.

It essentially is a parasite, having its victims eat its delicious fruit and only blooms after its victim’s body dies, taking control of it. It not only forces Luo Binghe to have to fight whatever it infected twice, but it also–

His thoughts are interrupted when the Lemur suddenly jumps, but Luo Binghe manages to dodge just in time to not get crushed. Unfortunately, he is not able to dodge when the Lemur digs it’s fingers onto the ground and out of its arms blood-soaked vines spring forth and dive into the earth before sprouting from beneath Luo Binghe’s feet; he tries to jump away a moment too late and one of the vines snatches his ankle and pulls him down, making him land face first onto the ground, his brain distinctly bumping against his skull.

Frankly, it’s a very ugly fight. The Lemur has a clear advantage over him, and Luo Binghe had to resort to ripping his foot off so he could free himself from the vines; that coupled with how he was starting to see double and a strong headache was starting to make itself known, Binghe guessed he didn’t have much time to kill the Crimson Tear Spider-Lily before he lost consciousness and had to resort to every possible trick he had in his sleeves.

Eventually, after way too much time and having gained a collection of new wounds, he manages to rip out the core of the Spider-Lily and burn it to a crisp with a flash of his demonic qi, just in time for him to not be able to ignore his dizziness anymore and lose his control over his legs, stumbling backwards before dropping to his knees and falling onto the ground.

His thoughts are barely coherent and he’s not sure if Meng Mo is trying to say something or if it’s just the buzzing in his ears,warm blood runs from his nose and coats his tongue with the taste of metal as his vision spins. He knows he should get out of there, passing out in the Abyss is already a risk in itself and especially if you’re about to pass out in the open. He usually has the decency to drag himself to some cave or hole or something, but not this time; it seems his body refuses to cooperate, arms and legs unnaturally heavy, as if glued to the ground no matter how much he tries to move them.

Even amongst his confusion, he can still feel that constant, annoying presence finally making its move and steadily approach him. ‘So it was just waiting for me to lower my guard’ Luo Binghe barely manages to think before his head’s pounding hurts too much to allow him to come up with any more complex thoughts.

The last thing he manages to see through his blurry vision is a humanoid-ish figure stepping into his view, entirely faceless except the massive eye sitting where a human’s feature would be. The last thing he feels, though, is a mix of anger, of fear, of disappointment in himself, but most prominently a bone deep feeling of relief for not having to fight any longer.

*

He is standing in a grassfield, surrounded by tall gray towers with rows and rows of glass windows; it takes Luo Binghe a moment, but he’s become quite adept in recognizing the tells of a dreamscape, though it’s not a particularly difficult achievement for this particular dream – with the strange towers he’s never seen before overlaid on top of normal village houses at their bases.

It would make sense for this to be the work of his stalker, though that brings its own set of questions with it, mainly why his stalker waited for him to be on the brink of death and not the other times where he was effectively unconscious while meditating or even the other times he had passed out after a fight. His line of questioning is interrupted when something wet touches his feet, and when he looks down a stream of black water bubbles up from the ground, quickly growing wider and wider until Luo Binghe is on top of a massive river.

Thanks to Meng Mo’s training, Luo Binghe manages to keep himself standing on top of the water, though he could also just break free from the dream at any point, but he can’t help but admit that he is quite curious, if his stalker is trying to attack his mind via dreams they sure are being cryptic about it. The river stretches forward and Luo Binghe begins to walk towards its end, not worried about any tricks his stalker might pull, but also not willing to let his guard down; the river may be wide but it never seems to reach the towers or engulf the grassfield, having transformed into a road of sorts.

A wave of nausea suddenly hits him, not too different from how he was feeling before passing out, and it makes Luo Binghe stagger, his control slipping just the slightest bit; the dream begins to crumble before his eyes and his feet slowly start sinking into the river. He tries to fight back, grab the edges of the dream and pull them together, but no matter how much he tries nothing seems to work, and Meng Mo seems to be of no help no matter how many times Luo Binghe calls out to him.

Strange movement flashes at the corner of his eye, and when Luo Binghe looks up there now is a small island in the middle of the river a few meters ahead of him, a man with short hair and strange clothes standing on top of it; Luo Binghe can’t even think about calling out to him before the man starts to raise one pale arm towards Binghe, his mouth shaping up to say something before he freezes. The man’s body starts to tremble and with a sickeningly wet sound, his body splits down the middle, ripping apart not as if he were made of flesh but a hollow cocoon at the verge of decay.

Inside the husk sits another body curled into itself, and just as the husk falls to the ground, the new body, clearly a demon of some sort, with a crown of horns adorning its head and skin so pale it looks almost grey, rises up; it rises and rises and rises until the crown of horns grazes the clouds. At this point Binghe’s body is submerged up to his neck, but he can’t bring himself to move, his body locking into place like a rabbit freezing up when it finds itself face to face with a tiger, he only has enough time to see the giant’s body crack and crumble into itself, its arms and legs breaking and falling off slowly, as if they were submerged underwater, and just like the giant’s limbs, Binghe is brought into the river and his vision is filled with darkness.

With a gasp, Luo Binghe startles awake, his lungs screaming for air as he hurriedly sits up, coughing and desperately trying to catch his breath. He can already feel the memory of the dream slipping away but no matter how much he tries to hold onto it, it only seems to fade away faster.

“Brat, you’re awake!” Meng Mo echoes from inside his head just as he manages to control his breathing.

“W-what… What happened?” He says, his lips uncomfortably dry with no use.

“I’m not too sure, I couldn’t see much of anything after you passed out, but this elder is almost certain that the demon that’s been trailing you dragged you here.”

“Almost certain? Your usefulness is decaying by the day…” Luo Binghe mutters and ignores Meng Mo’s whining, instead looking around where he’s been ‘dragged’ to. It seems to be a small cave, more of a hole in the wall then anything, but what’s interesting is the straw mat he’s sitting atop of, and the thin blanket thrown over his legs; the mat isn’t the greatest and barely any different than laying directly on the ground, and the blanket is so thin Binghe can see his fingers through the fabric if he presses against it, but for those things to be there in the first place is strange enough.

His head has stopped hurting and his vision is back to normal, so enough time has passed for his blood to take care of that injury, but when he tries to move his leg, sharp pain shoots out from his ankle, making him flinch. Right, he had forgotten about his foot.

He grabs at the thin blanket and throws it aside, expecting to see a new foot forming, but to his surprise, his foot is attached back to his leg with thick bandages wrapped around the ankle. He unwraps the bandages and sees his foot was stitched back to his leg, and even if not very professionally, it’s thorough enough that his body has recognized the foot as part of itself and begun to build back the missing connections.

In fact, he notices all his other wounds were also treated as he takes off his upper layers, any tears stitched back together and bandaged up; he’s also beginning to suspect whoever helped him also tried to clean him as much as possible before redressing him, his upper half noticeably less grimy than before, though it seems they hadn’t chanced taking off his pants, as his thighs are still covered with dried blood.

He doesn’t acknowledge the relieved sigh that escapes his body when he realizes his belt was left untouched.

Looking around, next to the straw mat sits a crude metal bowl filled halfway with a water-like liquid and a rag hanging from its lip, and stuck to the side of the bowl there sits a paper note. He has to stretch himself to reach it, but he manages to drag it closer without spilling any of the liquid inside; he’s learned his lesson in assuming there is clean water anywhere in the Abyss but the liquid doesn’t smell of anything and looks minimally cloudy, and since this must be the same liquid the person who helped him used to wipe him down, it’s at least safe enough that he can clean himself.

Before that though, he takes the note from the bowl. It reads:

‘Good morning!

Binghe must’ve noticed I tried my best to get him cleaned up, but don’t worry, I kept to safe areas, so Binghe can rest easy! ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,

I’m not any kind of healer, so if Binghe thinks he needs more rest this cave will be able to keep him safe for a few days still, so don’t worry! There’s a protection talisman engraved onto the cave’s entrance, but if Binghe decides to leave, it will break the talisman, so be careful ( ˶°ㅁ°) !!

If he decides to stay and rest though, next to your boots is a little bag that will help you heal even faster, though please read the instructions on that one too! Some of the herbs there can be very annoying if not prepared correctly (ó﹏ò｡)

– 02

PS: Fairies don’t always tell the truth! The hardest path may be the safest one (◡̀_◡́)ᕤ’

This… Was it from the stalker? When he looks to his sides, just as the letter said his boots are propped up against the wall, and what looks like a qiankun pouch sits next to them. The cave’s entrance is also protected just like the note said, even if Binghe can’t see the talisman there is a visible barrier covering the opening, distorting the outside as if he was looking through a copper mirror.

Besides, the letter mentioned him by name, in quite the familiar way at that. Had they learned it from the dreamscape or somewhere else? They also mention not trusting fairies, but the last fairy Luo Binghe had come across was quite a while back, though she had said something about heading towards a forest filled with fog if he wanted to continue his journey, as the mountains surrounding it were too harsh of an environment.

Had… had she been lying to him? Not that he could trust this person either, but…

Whatever, he could think about that later, for now he needed to heal his foot as fast as possible and get out of there.The barrier at the entrance was clearly doing something since no other creatures were successful in getting inside, but he can’t be sure if the person was lying to him about what it exactly does or if the barrier’s usefulness was coming to an end.

Hmm, the letter did mention some herbs in the pouch that could help him heal. Again, not that he could trust anything said in the letter, but even so, if something there was meant to poison him, at most he would feel some pain anyways, so it would be a good test to see how trustworthy his ‘savior’ really was.

Not that there seemed any good reason for them to do all this for him, but he could wonder about that later. If they wanted something in return, it’s not like Binghe had any other pressing matters to attend to at the moment, and despite how he seemed to be betrayed left and right, he still believed in repaying kindness hundredfold.

Two days later, Luo Binghe leaves the cave, wounds completely healed and feeling more human than he has in all his time trying to survive in Cang Qiong Mountain.

*

Nothing and everything seems to change after the day he was saved. He still has to fight monsters on the daily, heal his broken bones over and over again until it makes him wonder if they are still the same bones he’s had his whole life or if they have been slowly replaced, and he still has to try to master everything his demonic cultivation has to offer, so in that aspect nothing has changed; what has changed is that after a long ‘day’ a note always seems to appear for him, with instructions where to go next, and a safe place temporarily guarded by one of those barriers, always with a new pouch of provisions waiting for him.

The tip his stalker had given him in that first note had been correct, by the way. Luo Binghe eventually came across a path that either led to a forest or a rocky mountainside, but because his body has been the best it could possibly be since he fell down here, the moment he stepped foot into the forest he could feel that something was wrong with it; earlier that day he’d managed to catch a small-ish fish demon he didn’t bother remembering the name, and after throwing it a few paces ahead of him, the second the fish touched the ground it was impaled with the branches from the surrounding trees.

The mountainside however, as steep as it was, was not much harsher than any other environment in the Abyss, and as always, at the first edge that was stable enough to hold him, there was a cave with that signature barrier, provisions and a note.

‘Good job, Binghe!

I’m glad you’ve decided to come this way, the forest down there is actually just one big creature (wow!) and it would’ve taken Binghe way too long to get through it ( ,,⩌'︿'⩌,,), but don’t worry about having missed out on anything down there, this humble admirer has gone through the trouble to fetch for Binghe, a Cracked Sapphire-Tipped Sword!

It is not worthy of someone of Binghe’s standing, but between sword and no sword, having a sword is definitely the better choice, right? (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

– 02

PS: There is a saying that if you follow a river, you’ll eventually find civilization. I wonder if that’s true (๑>؂•̀๑)’

That was something he quickly realized too, at the end of the notes there always was a hint of a place Luo Binghe should head to, be it either because he could find an important item, a healing panacea, or another beautiful demoness that needed his help and was willing to reward him with a few moments of pleasure, all of his stalker’s hints proved to be worth the effort to follow.

One thing that didn’t seem to change however, was the constant presence at his back. No matter where Binghe decided to head towards next, if he followed the stalker’s tips or not, their presence was always at the edge of his shadow; it led Luo Binghe to wonder if this presence had some sort of teleportation ability, or some sort of omniscience, but after some point, he stopped to doubt it, to look over his shoulder expecting some sort of surprise attack and he begun to almost feel… reassured by it, as if, besides already providing him with more than Binghe could ever hope to find for himself, this presence– this person was also making sure he safely made it to his next place of rest.

He doesn’t know how to feel about it, honestly. At the same time he’s expecting this person to one day come to collect their debt with him, he can’t help but slowly, very slowly, just believe the Heavens truly have gazed upon him for a second.

Though, it’s possible that because this presence is always there gifting him healing herbs and guiding him to magical healing items, he’s become a tad bit spoiled and maybe overestimates himself more often than not. Because he doesn’t have to waste so much of his time and energy mending his wounds over and over, he’s become a bit bolder and started fighting monsters that only a month back he would’ve done his best to avoid, but how else is he supposed to test the limits of his demonic cultivation if he doesn’t try to push himself?

Speaking of demonic cultivation, as much as he’s been mostly aimless wandering through the ever shifting landscape, he has been slowly gathering information about the infamous Xin Mo, which could well and truly be his only way out of the Abyss, and according to Meng Mo’s theories, the best way for him to truly unlock his Heavenly Demon heritage. Most of the time when asking for information he never gained anything of substance, mostly the same answers about how it’s almost impossible to keep track of any single place in the Abyss, or the same regurgitated speech about it’s overwhelming power Luo Binghe was starting to be able to recite by heart at this point.

Recently though, he was able to make a bit more progress in regards to Xin Mo following his latest hint given by the presence, an old demon half out of his mind claiming to have been serving the last wielder of Xin Mo and could describe where it resided.

“In a valley too beautiful to belong to this Endless Abyss, right in the center of it, there stands a mausoleum made specifically to seal the wretched sword from the rest of the realm. The black blade resides inside, my Lord, cradled between the palms of a fallen god–”

“Hm. You’ve proven your usefulness. This… This Lord shall grant you mercy.”

Just as Luo Binghe as heading to off towards his next destination, not willing to entertain a madman for any longer, the demon – apparently not willing to appreciate the privilege of continuing to live – throws himself at Luo Binghe’s feet, dirty, wrinkled hands clutching at his new robes, one of the various gifts the presence had gifted him, and smearing dirt and whatever else stained the old demon’s hands such a dark color.

Luo Binghe could feel his eye twitch looking at the handprint left on the fabric.

“W-Wait! My Lord! You can’t look for it, t-the blade– Xin Mo is cruel and vicious by nature, it will eat away at your mind, corrupt you from the insi– AGH!”

His stalker had been right. The sword he’d been gifted after curing the daughter of a small nomad demon clan truly had a blade as sharp as diamonds; it cut through muscle and bone like it was a sheet of paper.

Luo Binghe doesn’t bother looking back as the head of the demon fell to the ground with a dull thump.

Later that same ‘day’, when Binghe had finally managed to spot that familiar barrier, he spent some time meditating and healing some minor wounds before reading the note his stalker had left this time. It was noticeably shorter than the others, and it made something unpleasant stir inside Binghe’s heart.

‘Hello,

Is Binghe sure about going after Xin Mo?

– 02

PS: Head towards your northeast.’

It is quite the ominous message. Was his stalker trying to do the same as the old demon and trying to make him reconsider? As much as this person had helped him, they did so out of their own volition, and as much as Binghe owes them a lot of his current resources, he is not so willing to spend a single second more in the Abyss than he absolutely had to.

Maybe he should start thinking about repaying this person earlier than he expected.

For the next few days Luo Binghe still continued to follow his stalker’s hints, but a seed of doubt had already planted itself in his heart; was he now being led closer or further to Xin Mo? Has that always been his stalker’s goal? Did they know where the sword was sealed, or were simply blindingly leading Binghe astray?

If his stalker asked for him to rip off his own arm or his leg he wouldn’t hesitate to do it, that is how much he respected this person, but for them to deny him the chance to get out of the Abyss, to go back to the outside and give Shen Qingqiu some long due retribution…

So he came up with a plan. He needed to find a way to properly come face to face to his stalker and express his gratitude and, if they wanted something in return for their selfless services, Luo Binghe would try his best to grant this person’s wishes before they would have to part ways. The only issue being how exactly he could get close to his stalker when the only time they revealed themselves to him was when he was on the brink of death–

Hm. There was an idea.

Chapter Text

The problem with realizing his stalker only got close to him when he was face to face with imminent death was that Luo Binghe now had to force himself to go back to his miserable way of living from when he first arrived in the Abyss. Since his stalker wouldn’t get close to him unless absolutely necessary, he figured out the best way to achieve his goal was to replicate the factors of that fateful day when they first ‘met’ as closely as possible.

What that meant, practically, was that Binghe had to actively avoid any of his stalker’s aid: no more resting in barrier protected caves and no more healing his wounds with herbs carefully curated just for him; it was a lot harder than he’d thought would be, only when he pushed away his stalker’s aid that he realized how much he had come to rely on it in the past few weeks.

He knew he couldn’t waver, as much as the help was appreciated Luo Binghe would rather not have to have help at all and just escape the Endless Abyss altogether, but it sure felt like dangling water in front of a man dying of thirst; because he had gone back to fighting for his survival, naturally he had gained a lot of new wounds and became increasingly more tired, but that was exactly what he wanted.

If his stalker saw that Luo Binghe was avoiding his aid and getting harmed in return, that would force them to have to come closer and deliver their provisions personally; of course, there was always the possibility that this person would simply give up on him, realize he was becoming more trouble than it was worth and leave him entirely (as Meng Mo liked to remind him), but it all came together when, after finding a good enough place to hide for a while and meditate his wounds away, he had opened his eyes to a familiar pouch with a note attached to it.

‘Hi,

Binghe, what are you doing?

-02’

There was only one problem with his plan however, his goal was to pretend to be unconscious to lure in his stalker but because he went back to always having to be on the lookout for any monster attacks (and even getting ambushed sometimes anyways) he was becoming quite tired, so when he sat down to ‘pretend’ to sleep or meditate most often than not he actually just ended up resting anyways. Which, honestly, was becoming quite annoying! His stalker wouldn’t get closer as long as they thought he was conscious, but when he did manage to bait them closer, he ended up just missing their approach entirely!

Meng Mo was equally exasperated and delighted by Luo Binghe’s failed attempts, but it all finally paid out when Binghe wandered accidentally (not really) into a Wingless Magma Dragon’s territory.

He was not too eager to go through that particular fight again, the only thing that mattered about it was that it was messy, it led to Luo Binghe bleeding out of more wounds than he ideally would’ve liked to have, and a near close call between Binghe’s head and the Dragon’s teeth, but at the end it achieved exactly what he wanted: a fight of a big enough scale and alarming enough damage that it was almost guaranteed his stalker would go check on him.

(Just to be sure, Binghe played up his pain just a tiny bit. Oh, how miserable he was, how pitiful, having to clutch desperately at his side to stop it from draining him of his precious blood while he had to pathetically drag himself to hide between two rocks and sleep away his wounds. It was just so unfortunate that his sword had broken just at the last second, and now besides not being able to walk properly, Binghe was left basically defenseless. How awful.)

He settles between the rocks, a spot he had checked out before going to fight the Dragon, and sat down to let his body start to heal him up, though maybe he had overestimated himself just a bit when fighting; the Dragon was the most challenging fight he’d had in a while, and that’s taking into consideration the fact his cultivation had improved leaps and bounds when it wasn’t always preoccupied with keeping his body barely functioning. The effort his body is making to heal himself is also chipping away at his energy, and Luo Binghe has to fight to keep his mind from slipping into sleep.

Meng Mo, the selfish bastard that he is, refused to help Luo Binghe any more than he strictly had to, so Binghe couldn’t lean on him to keep an eye out while he rests, so while he fights against his own head to not succumb to sleep, he closes his eyes and keeps his attention trained onto the presence.

It takes a bit longer for the presence to move than Luo Binghe would have liked, but when he feels it move the tiniest bit closer, it is like a shock ran through his body and chased away (some) of his tiredness. He has to actively take control of his own heart so it doesn’t beat too loudly, as he doesn’t know how exactly his stalker makes sure he is unconscious and he is not willing to throw away his best chance because he couldn’t control his anxiety.

It is a bit weird to be able to feel the presence getting closer so clearly, with it staying so long in the same spot at the back of Luo Binghe’s head, but eventually his patience finally pays off as Binghe hears light, hesitant steps coming his way. There is always the possibility that it isn’t actually the person Binghe wanted coming his way, maybe his stalker had fooled him somehow and it was some other demon coming to nibble at him, but he can’t chance taking a peek to check, and has to remain faithful to his own senses.

The sound of footsteps come closer and closer but stop just out of his range; it makes Binghe want to scream in frustration– ‘Just a little closer.’ he thinks, two more steps towards him and he can reach out, but the person remains stubborn, as if fighting with themselves if they should leave already or check on the ‘unconscious’ half-demon. In slight desperation, Luo Binghe rushes his blood parasites to the almost completely healed wound at his side and tears it anew, making a fresh stream of blood run through his already dirty clothes.

But it seems to be just the push the person needs, as Luo Binghe hears the rustle of clothing followed by one, two, three steps—

Red eyes snap open and Luo Binghe nearly flings himself forward as he reaches towards the person’s leg, and he is certain he would have enclosed his fingers at the very least around an ankle, but all he manages to claw at is flowing fabric before his stalker leaps into the air and jumps back.

In a second Luo Binghe is standing, throwing away the scraps of fabric he tore out and redirecting his blood parasites to heal up the freshly torn wound, but finally manages to get the first proper glance towards the person that has been accompanying him for so long now: They are shorter than him, by at least a head or so, but black-tipped curved horns growing from their forehead makes up for their height difference. Besides that, the other thing Luo Binghe notices is that he'd gotten his impression slightly mistaken at their first encounter, their face wasn't just one huge single eye but instead covered by a cloth tied to the base of their horns with a simple eye drawn in the middle of it.

The demon seems not to want to give Luo Binghe the time to appreciate every single detail about them as they break out of their shock and immediately turn and run, long black hair flowing like water snapping back, leaving a visible trail as they get more and more distant; but it doesn't matter how much they run, Luo Binghe won't ever be satisfied with just a simple glance, and immediately takes off after them, only barely remembering to crouch down and collect the new pouch his stalker had left for him.

They are fast, Binghe comes to realize, but in a strange way, as if they should be able to outrun him easily but something stops them from doing it, visible in the way their muscles spasms every once in a while, reminding them to not do too much or… or something may happen. They use their slender body to its absolute most and weave and crawl and jump over tight, hard to go through spaces, and it wouldn't be a bad idea if they intended to make any other demon lose their track, but unfortunately they are in a race against a Heavenly Demon, one who’s quickly becoming fond of playing this cat and mouse game.

Luo Binghe may be wider than the demon, but he is also highly adaptable, and if he doesn't think he can squeeze through whatever crawl space the demon squeezes through, one of the first lessons he'd learned in the Abyss becomes incredibly useful: If all else fails, carve your own way through.

He's not at his peak when it comes to qi reserves, but Binghe has enough to be able to blast away any obstacles that may make him lose sight of his target. The demon startles at the first explosion of rocks behind them, but their shock doesn't last long and it's their time to show the tricks they hide under their sleeves.

It seems that the more Luo Binghe destroys any hindrances the faster he's able to run and soon enough, as he reaches his arm, the tip of his pointed nails just barely grazes the ends of the demon’s hair, but it seems it's enough to alarm them, as they jump forward and—

And dive into the ground.

Luo Binghe comes to an abrupt stop as he watches ground that was previously sturdy, solid rock ripple like water as it swallows the demon before going back to its natural state. He stomps his foot over the spot on the ground, but it only confirms to him that it's gone back to normal.

So he was right in thinking the demon had some kind of teleportation ability, or at least something similar.

A spike of energy sparks to his left, and when Luo Binghe turns he sees the demon emerging on top of a cliff before looking back at him. Well, that saves him the time of wondering just how far they could travel through this special skill of theirs.

The moment Luo Binghe moves towards them, they once again set out on a run, and Binghe starts to have the distinct feeling that catching his stalker won't be as easy as he had hoped.

He chases after the demon for a long time but no matter how much he tries, besides that first time, Luo Binghe never manages to get any closer to the demon, but also never too far, at the very least the chase has given Binghe enough time to get used to the demon’s ‘teleportation’ ability and mostly be able to keep track of their location at all times.

Though Luo Binghe may have good endurance, he’s still unable to use his demonic side to its full power, which inevitably leads him to begin to tire after what feels like hours of running around with no progress. It’s quite pathetic, really, that no matter how many trials he goes through in the Abyss, no matter how much he trains his body it still fails him, his lungs start to burn and his leg muscles begin to strain but he refuses to go down just yet, for reasons unknown even to him; in any other case he wouldn’t bother to hunt down someone this fervently to ‘express his gratefulness’ – if someone refused to accept his help then he wouldn’t waste any more time trying to help someone that doesn’t want it – but with this demon, this one person, he can’t fathom letting them just run away and never be able to see them again.

His foot lands in a strange position and with just that small mistake Luo Binghe falls to the ground knees first, his body completely locking up at the first chance of rest and refusing to move another inch. He stares at the ground, at the beads of sweat falling off his temples as he gasps for air, and finds himself reluctant to look ahead; the demon must have noticed his fall, would they just continue to run? Or realize their efforts to keep Luo Binghe alive were all just a huge mistake? Leave him to die to some other monster while he’s vulnerable, wash their hands completely free of him without having to waste any more of their time.

It wouldn’t be the first time someone decides Luo Binghe is way more trouble than it’s worth, but he doesn’t understand why, this time, being abandoned stings a little more than usual.

He doesn’t know how long he stays there, on his hands and knees trying to fight off the burn in his lungs, but when his muscles finally start to relax and Binghe gets back his control over his own body he slowly sits back on his knees. He can’t stay here forever, no matter if the demon has left already or not, staying still for so long is like screaming to any of the monsters closest to him to just come and kill him, but even then Binghe can still feel his heart squeezing, the person that has been keeping him alive all this time just gone–

When Luo Binghe raises his head, the first thing he sees is the demon, his stalker, standing a few paces away from him with their arms behind their back and body turned towards him. Binghe can feel his heart stutter and questions fill his mind; why are they still here? They look completely calm, no trace of their previous desperation to get away from him, but…why?

His legs still feel like they wouldn’t hold up his weight, but Binghe crawls forward, the equivalent of one step, and the demon takes one back, but nothing else. He crawls forward again, two steps, and the demon takes two back, but once again, nothing else.

Luo Binghe can only feel himself blink, a million questions rushing through his mind and yet he is not able to pin down any of them. It takes him a while to gather back his strength and push himself onto his feet again, but no matter how long he took, or how many times he fell back down, the demon stayed there, looking at him as if they were silently encouraging him to get up, regardless if their whole face was covered. When he finally gets up on still shaky legs the demon waits for him to take one step forward before slowly turning and walking away, and when they notice that Luo Binghe isn’t following them, they once again stop and wait.

Binghe finally understands, the demon was never running away from him, even when he tried to ambush them, instead trying to lead him somewhere, but the revelation only brought on its own set of questions. Why? Where? And most importantly, were they trying to lead him closer or further from Xin Mo?

With no other options, Luo Binghe follows them to wherever they’re leading him; the two spend a good time walking with no rush, the demon letting him take his time with gathering his energy back but giving in to his silent requests and moving forward only if he does too, and it goes on like this for what Binghe assumes would be two to three days: they walk when Binghe can, and when he needs to rest the demon does as well, still leaving him some provisions in pouches hidden away somewhere in their clothes but never getting any closer to him, instead placing the pouches on the ground where they stood before walking away for a while, probably scouting the perimeter of wherever they decided to stop. Binghe can’t quite explain the feeling twisting away at his chest when he goes to retrieve the pouches and there are no notes left for him anymore.

When Luo Binghe is sure everything in him that needed assistance is thoroughly healed, they go back to running; he doesn’t know if they are in a time limit, the demon never mentioned anything about a deadline either, but he can’t help but feel like he was dragging them down, and if they are leading him somewhere anyways, wasn’t it better to get there sooner rather than later?

They eventually arrive at a peculiar place, planes that stretch as far as the eye can see with nothing at all adorning it, no trees, no rocks, as if a war had just passed through there, razing everything to the ground until absolutely nothing was left, even the ground is covered with burnt grass, overturned dirt and weirdly shaped holes here and there. Maybe the markings of a battle between powerful monsters, but… speaking of monsters–

As long as he was following the demon, no monster even tried to get close to them; all other times, even when the demon was still just a presence, there seemed to be beasts of all kinds seemingly everywhere, but now, besides the far away silhouette of a demon flying in the ‘sky’ above them, the entire Abyss seemed almost deserted – and it is ‘almost’– as he can still sometimes hear a roar or a scream from across the horizon. It was especially weird now, an open space such as this was a prime location for monsters, powerful ones, to claim territory, but once again, there was nobody besides him and the demon as far as the eye could see, as if any monsters that may dwell here were avoiding them.

“...What happened here?” He asks but the demon doesn’t even bother looking back at him, instead keeping his steady run. It is the expected answer, Luo Binghe had tried to talk to the demon a few other times before as well– the usual things like ‘who are you’ and ‘where are you leading me’– but it seems that when Binghe decided he wanted to get closer to his stalker he had also sacrificed any communication between them. It leaves him strangely hollow, distantly missing the notes he’d receive, adorned with their strange little drawings and comments about Binghe’s progress.

The demon suddenly begins speeding up, leaving Binghe a bit startled but he doesn’t even bother to question it anymore and speeds up after them, what does confuse him is when they sink through the ground again, ‘teleporting’ somewhere. Binghe slows to a stop, not sure if he’s supposed to come closer or not, but the demon quickly reemerges, far away and almost out of Binghe’s sight, at the edge of another hole in the ground.

They wait until Luo Binghe gets close enough before dropping onto the hole, which is when he notices it isn’t really a hole like the other indentations he’d seen, but actually the edge of a small cliff, with a river filled with black ‘water’ running at its bottom. It leaves him with a strong sense of deja-vu, as if seen it before; hadn’t he had a dream at some point with something similar to this?

He has no time to wonder about it though, as the demon slides down the edge of the cliff and stops at the edge of the river, this time looking back at Binghe and urging him forward, and what else is he supposed to do at this point besides follow them?

The moment he slides down to the bottom however, the demon turns and jumps directly into the river. It makes Luo Binghe stop, was he… supposed to dive in too? He decides to wait, maybe the demon wanted to retrieve something, but the longer he waits it begins to dawn on him that the demon wasn’t going to resurface again any time soon. He cautiously steps closer to the rushing river, the waters not exactly calm but not violent either, instead letting out the calming noise of rushing water, though with how long the river seems to stretch, Luo Binghe is surprised he hadn’t managed to hear it from further away.

The black water, and it seems to at least have the consistency of water, almost seems to be calling for him, sometimes sparkly dots shining through it’s waters in a way that reminds Binghe of the one time where he was laying down in the grass with Ning Yingying and watching the stars in a night the sky was particularly clear. It fills him with longing – not for Ning Yingying’s company though he supposes that would’ve been the more rational thing to miss– but instead of a time way back when, when his adoptive mother was still alive and he was still happy, even if they never had enough money to live a life worthy of people.

Rage bubbles up inside him, at the reminder of his poor mother dying too soon, of it leading him to try his luck at Cang Qiong, at being picked by Shen Qingqiu than immediately shunned, at the day Ming Fan decided he wanted to show off to Ning Yingying and it lead to Luo Binghe losing the last piece of his happiness somewhere inside the Qing Jing forest; it makes him want to scream, to rip off Ming Fan’s hands for touching his necklace, to torture Shen Qingqiu just as he did him for tormenting his life for no apparent reason.

He looks back at the river, like night made liquid and all the rage, all the resentment bubbling inside him immediately dies down and he’s left feeling numb and a bit disoriented, instead just able to think that the waters look increasingly more inviting. It’s where his stalker went to, the first person in many many years to care for him, to help him, even if their motives were still unknown, but they haven’t given him any reason not to trust them, at least when it comes to directions.

So Binghe takes one step forward, his boots sinking into the lukewarm water, and with one last breath he closes his eyes and jumps, letting the black waters engulf him whole, any worries about running out of air slowly dissipating as he feels his muscles relax and his mind clear; distantly, he thinks, it’s almost like the river is welcoming him, telling him he can rest now amongst it’s false stars, that there’s no need to fight anymore.

Hands come and grasp at him, but he feels no panic, he just lets himself be pulled and guided wherever he needs, sinking and sinking until he is embraced into a hug. He doesn’t know if there is someone else there, if it’s the demon or the waters hugging him, but he doesn’t care, he simply accepts it, a hug that is nothing like what the nymphs and demonesses have given him in the peak of pleasure, and nothing like Ning Yingying has ever given him in her never ending excitement. It feels like this person, this demon, this river– whatever it is, is going to protect him now. That there’s no need to fight anymore.

So he stops fighting, and sinks.

Chapter Text

Luo Binghe emerges from under the black river with a gasp; when he was deep within the waters only a few seconds before any lack of air in his lungs seemed like a minor inconvenience at best, but now he feels like he was seconds away from suffocating, his chest screaming as he takes lungfuls of air at a time. He’s so preoccupied with controlling his breathing that when he relaxes the slightest bit, he forgets there is nothing beneath his feet and sinks again.

It’s a bit embarrassing how much he flails before he manages to get a hold of himself and take a quick glance at his surroundings and locate the nearest edge of the river he can; he doesn’t even want to imagine the picture he must paint with his hair weighed down by water and all over the place, not to mention his clothes– that had been so kindly gifted to him by his stalker weeks ago– had to be damaged beyond repair at this point.

“This place is weird.” Meng Mo echoes from his mind when Binghe swims to the riverbank and flops onto his back, focusing on catching his breath back.

‘...So now is when you decide to come out of hiding?’

“This elder had nothing to say until now.”

Luo Binghe rolls his eyes, not bothering to respond the dream demon, but regardless of Meng Mo’s passive aggressiveness, now that he has a moment to take better notice of his surroundings he can’t deny the elder’s claims; he rights himself up, his body not only weighed down by his waterlogged clothes but with a sudden wave of bone deep exhaustion that runs through him, and is faced with a starkly different scene than he expected.

He is not in the same place where he dived into the black river, in fact, he is not in a river at all anymore, instead he sits in the edges of what looks like a wide lake, with strange rock formations caging it’s sides but tall and far away enough from each other that they don’t seem to pose any danger of trapping him inside. He looks up, trying to gauge how tall the rock formations are, and feels his heart momentarily stop as he is faced with the sky.

There is no proper ‘sky’ in the Abyss, instead it has an endless army of dense clouds that block the sight of whatever may extend further up, usually dyed in sad dark colors or infernal reds, but the ‘sky’ that sits above Binghe’s head at this moment looks… normal. For a moment, Luo Binghe even fools himself into believing that he’d somehow got transported back to the Human Realm, the sky a clean blue with a few white clouds in it, so absurdly mundane in its appearance it makes Binghe’s head spin; but no matter how convincing the sky looks, he can still feel he is inside the Endless Abyss.

There is this inherent wrongness in the Abyss, something a body that has experienced any of the other Realms never gets used to no matter how long he stays down here, alongside a constant claustrophobic feeling, as if someone had shoved him through a door and into a room but the door stopped existing when he looked back. This place still has that Abyss feeling to it, even if the claustrophobic feeling is not as strong as it usually is, but what it does lack is the probing little worry etched into the edge of Luo Binghe’s mind that between a moment and the next, his scenery may shift.

That is simply the nature of the Abyss, an ever shifting chaotic nightmare, but this place… There is no easy way to describe it, but Binghe is inclined to say it almost feels stable, an invisible assurance that what you see is what’ll you get for as long as you stay there.

He looks away from the sky, the illusion so well crafted it starts to feel taunting, and instead refocuses his attention on trying to find the demon that guided him there in the first place; he gets up and walks around the edge of the lake, ignoring the water still trapped inside his boots, but no matter how much he looks around the demon is nowhere to be seen. It makes a prick of doubt tug at his heart, was he in the place his stalker meant for him to be? Or was this a trap, a portal the demon had created so Binghe was even more lost?

Thankfully his worries are put to the side for the moment as he catches sight of footprints leading up the small hill that seemed to surround the entirety of the lake, and when he reaches the top, he sees the footprints head towards a sparse forest.

Luo Binghe takes a step towards the forest but a tug at his heart makes him look back at the lake. It is also filled with the black water, as expected, but with the water now calmer than that of a rushing river, the illusion of the night sky is even stronger, swirling towards the center where he assumes he’d emerged from. A strange melancholy washes over him, the idea of leaving the lake behind strangely upsetting, but he reinforces his will, having to remind himself that there is no guarantee that the demon will continue their previous pattern of waiting for Binghe to catch up to them in this strange new place.

Still, he puts his hands together and bows in respect towards the waters. The strange sadness doesn’t leave him entirely, but it noticeably lessens, as if the lake was still clinging at the edge of his robes but willing to let him go, somehow worried for him.

It’s just when Binghe is already halfway towards the edge of the forest, his clothes already dry despite how waterlogged they felt only a few minutes before, does he notice that his body had been healed. Not that he was in a bad condition before, the demon still included healing herbs in the provisions they gave him, but no matter how many medicine recipes he follows, or how much his blood parasites work away at his wounds, in the Abyss he’s never quite fully healed; there will always be something that still needs healing. It’s in the little crick on his neck that never quite goes away, a strain in one of the muscles in his back that persists no matter how much he tries to heal it, or the creaking of his finger bones that he’s come to learn isn’t as common as he thought it was.

But now? Now he’s painless, completely and utterly healed. It leaves him with a strange feeling of not fully recognizing his own body; he wasn’t aware of how much pain he was constantly in until it suddenly went away.

He looks back in the direction of the lake, now too far away to be able to glimpse the water inside, but it still makes him wonder if the sensation of hands wasn’t as abstract as he initially thought.

*

This place really is strange. Luo Binghe follows the footprints into the woods and, as is natural, happens to come across a variety of creatures, but just like when he was following his stalker, no monsters dare come close to him. It's not as dramatic as whatever was happening with his stalker, the forest doesn't go silent the moment he steps foot into it, but he's noticed there is something like a minimal distance around him where monsters just… stop.

He comes across an Armored-Back Mountain Horse, a creature he's already had the misfortune of coming across, but instead of a fight playing out like the last time Binghe happened to come across one of the beasts (all the way back when he first fell into the Abyss and his body was running on pure panic, it's no surprise the Mountain Horse managed to get the upper hand and broke not only half of his ribs but one his hands and almost tore out one of his eyes), it does charge at him just like before, but when it crosses this ‘minimal distance’ it rears back as if it was avoiding running into a wall and just stares at him, huffing and whining, frustrated it apparently couldn’t get to it’s prey.

At first he theorized it could be something about the footprint trail, the leftover energy his stalker left serving like a repellent of sorts, but that wouldn't make sense. He doesn't mean to judge when he says this, but his stalker…

They are really quite weak.

Luo Binghe never got the opportunity to see them fight since monsters avoided them, but even when there was a monster (that was fighting Binghe), they never intervened! One could argue it was because they didn't want to get too close to Binghe for whatever reason, but they still got close to him when he was gravely injured anyway! In fact, one of the earlier notes left by them even scolded Binghe because he’d gotten hurt!

It showed the demon clearly minded when Binghe got hurt, and actively tried to prevent him from accidentally wandering into places he’d have a hard time getting out of, but despite the demon’s subtle nudges and tips, the Abyss was still unpredictable and more often than not BInghe still fought against beasts he stood no chance against in his current demonic cultivation level. Wouldn’t the best course of action be to simply aid Binghe and fight alongside him? Even back when he had a brush with death, his stalker only got closer when Luo Binghe was unconscious AND the beast was dead for good.

In fact, even when they played their little game of tag, Binghe noticed that the demon didn’t have the strongest energy output, even when they weren’t trying to actively conceal their presence, so it only made sense to assume the demon just isn’t built for fighting, but that leads him back to the current mystery: if not Binghe and if not his stalker than the only possible explanation Luo Binghe had left was that it had to be connect to the black waters; his stalker had a clear connection to it even if said connection still remained unclear, and he already suspects the water has more properties than simply serving as a passageway to this place (and apparently having a very strong healing factor).

His theories are halted as the trail of footprints he’s been following swerves to the left abruptly and becomes more spaced out, as if the demon had started running; with no other option Luo Binghe follows suit and starts to run until the already sparse trees clear out and he emerges from the forest into a clearing. In the middle of it stands a decently sized temple though it looks halfway into being forgotten completely, the stone path leading to the front of the temple is almost entirely covered with leaves and the vegetation surrounding the main building is beginning to lean on looking overgrown.

Just as Binghe is about to question when was the last time a person had tended to the place, the doors to the temple slide open (with a bit of effort, they get stuck in their frames briefly) and out comes a demon. Binghe’s heart jumps for a second at the sight of his stalker but thankfully his brain catches up to his body just in time to stop him from running towards them as he notices he’d made a mistake; the demon looks like his stalker, but there are some differences the longer he looks.

They certainly have similar builds but the temple demon appears to be slightly taller, and they are dressed differently from what Binghe remembers last seeing his stalker in: his guide wore dark robes with big sleeves and a belt with a bunch of talismans attached, and while the temple demon wears similar robes, their clothes are way more… revealing than his stalker’s. Their top robe is of a lighter colored fabric that is long enough to cover their arms down to their hands, but in contrast to how much their arms are (even excessively) covered, their robes barely cover anything of their chest and most of their abdomen; not to mention their pants, that also have so much dark fabric it sometimes starts to look a skirt and have a hole at the hips that goes down far enough to get a glimpse of the top of their thigh.

It’s simultaneously too much and not enough, and if Binghe didn’t know any better he’d have thought he might’ve accidentally stumbled into succubi territory and the only thing stopping him from thinking that anyways was their other similarities to his stalker: their horns are a slightly different shape but they are also tipped in black, and their hair is just as long and inky as his stalker’s, though theirs is braided down their front instead of loose as Binghe had come to grow familiar with. The only thing that stayed absolutely identical between the two demons was the piece of cloth covering their face with an eye symbol painted on it.

It made Binghe relax a bit even if against his will, the mask must signify that the two demons are correlated in some way. Well, the footprints did lead him here, so it was more than likely that the demon can be trusted not to attack him, but Binghe can’t help but still be a bit on the fence about getting closer; any demon able of coherent thought in the Abyss usually wanted one of two things: power or sex (and in a lot of cases, both), and the only demon so far that broke that mold was his stalker themselves. There really is no guarantee that – even if the demon is someone his stalker trusts enough for them to think Binghe meeting them would be good – they won’t ask something in return from Binghe.

The wisest course of action would be to temporarily fall back for a while, maybe observe the demon for a day or two before deciding if–

“Ah, Binghe!”

Luo Binghe startles and sees the temple demon fully turned towards him, waving one long sleeve and beckoning him closer, and when it becomes Binghe doesn’t intend to take one step closer, they put their hands at their hips and audibly huff before walking over to where Binghe stands at the edge of the clearing.

Binghe, on the other hand, can’t help but feel a bit out of place; besides acting like a mother inconvenienced by her child being stubborn and not wanting to come home, they immediately noticed where Binghe had been half hiding even if he had been making the (un)conscious effort to suppress his presence and already knew him, apparently enough to immediately settle on calling him by his first name.

“Binghe, you finally got here. Was it a hard journey? Ah– Aiyah, look at you, you look like you’ve just left a battlefield. What happened to your hair? It’s all messy…” They say, presumably checking him over. Honestly, with the way the demon talks, it makes Binghe think that he was right on the money with the ‘mother’ analogy.

In his startled state he takes a bit too long to answer, and it gives the demon the impression that they are allowed liberties as they ‘tsk’ under their breath and raise one sleeve-covered hand to tug at Binghe’s clothes; not even a second passes before Luo Binghe slaps their hand away and he takes a few steps back. It makes the demon freeze for a second, surprised by Binghe’s reaction, but they don't need more than a moment to collect themselves again and put their arms behind their back.

“Sorry, sorry. I still think Binghe looks in need of a refresher. Come, I’ll prepare you some tea and while that’s brewing you can clean up and change to some new clothes.” They say, brushing past Binghe’s attitude as if it were nothing serious and turn back to head towards the temple.

When they notice Binghe isn’t following them they stop and turn back at him, in a way painfully similar to the other demon’s back in the Abyss. “Well, is Binghe coming?” They ask with a tilt of their head, and Binghe for no other apparent reason than his own dwindling sanity, simply blinks with wide eyes before following behind the demon.

‘Am I… Am I in a dream?’ He thinks, feeling a little dazed.

“You’re awake, kid.” Meng Mo says. Binghe doesn’t know what answer he’d have preferred.

*

The demon’s offer for a bath was, in fact, genuine. It was not uncommon for demons in the Abyss to not be honest in their offers most of the time, so for the demon to actually direct Luo Binghe deeper into the temple and show him into a large room that looks like it used to serve as a communal bathhouse of some sorts is quite the surprise. He must've been a bit too slow to hide his expression as the demon lets out a fake cough, seeming a bit embarrassed.

“Ah… This must be strange for Binghe, but this temple is a bit different from what Binghe must be familiar with. The baths usually are used for, uhm, ‘ceremonies’ and important events, but Binghe shouldn’t worry about anyone entering while he cleans himself up! Right now it’s just you and me here.” They had said before providing Binghe with a new change of clothes and leaving to prepare some tea.

So now here Binghe sits, in the largest bath he’s ever witnessed, soaking in hot water as months of dirt and grime are scrubbed away. It still leaves him a bit winded, so much has happened in the past few hours he never could’ve imagined this is where he’d end up when he jumped into the black river, though he certainly is not complaining since it was immediately made clear how much he needed a proper bath the moment he stepped into the water.

He dunks his head under the water– and it does seem to be normal, harmless water; he’d questioned how his stalker had managed to give him waterskins and buckets filled with water from time to time but those were small enough portions for him to not think about it too much, but here? There are at least three different pools Binghe could see (not even counting the one he was in) and bamboo pipes streaming water of different temperatures in their respective pools. It’s honestly more water than even Qing Jing’s communal baths, though it’s not like he got to enjoy the baths there more than two times before Ming Fan ratted him out to Shen Qingqiu.

The point is, nothing is quite following any of the rules he’s come to expect from the Abyss and in all honesty, it’s starting to feel slightly grating. Everything has been going surprisingly well for him ever since he started following his stalker, but the thing with Luo Binghe’s life is that nothing ever stays this good for him for this long, and it’s making him feel half crazy.

Anything could happen next. Maybe the baths are actually contaminated with a slow acting poison that’s corroding him (he’d have noticed if even the slightest drop of poison came in contact with his skin), or maybe the temple demon was just waiting for him to lower his guard before attacking him from behind (they had kept their hands ‘visible’ the whole time they lead Binghe to the baths, and always walked in front of Binghe with their back turned to him), or, or… Something!

He could feel it in his bones, everything was too peaceful, a glimpse of normalcy– luxury even– so out of place in the torture it was the Endless Abyss that there was no possible way that there isn’t another side to the coin. It’s an awful feeling to have, it makes Binghe paranoid of everything and highly alert for any changes to his surroundings, and, most importantly, it’s exhausting; his muscles are completely tensed up and every water droplet that hits the ground makes his heart jump, but his arms and legs are becoming heavier and heavier the more tired he feels, and his eyelids battle him for a chance to close and not open up again.

Wait… Is… Is this it? He’s been feeling tired since he emerged from the lake, but it only took a few minutes in the bath for it to hit him all at once; the demon must be aware of his exhaustion and are just waiting for him to give in so they can get to him (and do whatever it is they plan on doing). Binghe’s heart pounds, the black water must've started the process but the baths are just aggravating the effects of whatever’s infected him.

He hurries out of the bath, almost slipping on the slippery tile before drying himself as quickly as possible and reaching for his clothes, though… Shit, he’d left his old robes all the way at the entrance of the room, and the only thing closest to him are the clothes provided by the temple demon. He groans as he’s hit with a wave of dizziness that makes him stumble onto the walls with a loud bang – whatever, he has no time to decide if the clothes are safe enough, he puts them on haphazardly and makes way for the entrance.

Just as his hand reaches for the doors, they suddenly slide open as the temple demon steps inside; they freeze at the sight of Luo Binghe but he is not one to let any chance get past him, and he wastes no time before extending his nails into claws and swiping them at the demon. Unfortunately, whatever he’s been contaminated with works fast as another wave of dizziness hits him and the demon has plenty of time to sidestep his attack, which makes Binghe lose his balance and stumble forward; he only doesn’t fall onto his face as the temple demon quickly acts and pulls Binghe into their arms.

“Binghe! Are you okay?!” The demon exclaims, a concerned act that’s quite impressive considering that they can’t rely on any facial expressions, and if Binghe wasn’t so familiar with the manipulation tactics of Abyss demons, he could’ve even fallen for it. Thankfully, whatever is weakening him has yet to cloud his mind.

“D-Don’t act stupid… I know you’re the one that… that did this to me…!” He breathes out, alarmed at how he hadn’t even noticed his lack of air. He struggles in the demon’s arms, but whatever is ailing him has taken enough of an effect to block a significant portion of his strength, though a Heavenly Demon at half strength is still Heavenly Demon, and he does manage to break free from the demon’s hold–

“Ah, w-wait…!”

–Only to fall face first onto the floor.

Immediately, any strength that was left instantly leaves him the moment his body touches the floor, and he stands no hope to even attempt to move as his dizziness hits him with full force and his vision starts to darken.

There is a heavy moment where both he and the demon stay silent save for Binghe’s heavy breaths, but even if he can’t see clearly he can still hear the rustle of clothes as the demon gets closer to him. They put their hands on his shoulders and after a moment of struggling manage to turn him over so he at least lays on his back. How noble of them, to kill him in a slightly less embarrassing position.

“Aiyah Binghe… If the water temperature was too hot you should’ve just called me…” The demon sighs.

“...W-What…?” He manages to breathe out.

“...When was the last time you ate something?”

What is the demon talking about? “A… A few days ago…”

The demon lets out an annoyed groan before repositioning their hands and (struggling) to pull Binghe’s limp arm over their shoulders and drag him up. Binghe, on his part, only has enough strength to ball the fist of his raised arm and lightly tap it against the demon’s chest in a pathetic attempt at retaliation.

“Release…me…!”

“Hush now. Really, how can a young man like you let your blood pressure get this low anyways?”

…

…?

*

It turns out that the demon was in fact, correct, and there was nothing in the baths weakening him; instead, the combination of running after his stalker for hours in a row, getting transported to this part of the Abyss, hot water steam and not enough meals really does a number on a person’s blood pressure, half Heavenly Demon or not.

So.

Good to know.

“Ah? Binghe, you can’t stop now, half a bowl of congee is nowhere near enough to make you feel better. Eat up, eat up!”

The demon had managed to drag him to a dining room of sorts and after giving him a cup of water mixed with some salt, had prepared him a bowl of congee. It honestly wasn’t anywhere near the best congee he’d eaten, but it was serviceable enough for him to take some time to fill his stomach and direct his blood to flow at a better pace; he’d never felt as lucky to be able to manipulate his blood until now, or else he is sure his face would be colored with an embarrassing flush.

After a few minutes and a few more jabs at him from the demon, the bowl was empty and any of the ‘weakness’ Binghe had felt had completely vanished; he places the spoon back inside and pushes it to the center of the small table before bowing slightly to the temple demon.

“This Luo Binghe apologizes for inconveniencing this kind host.” “Don’t bother, it’s alright! I’m just glad Binghe’s feeling better now.” The demon chuckles, waving away any of Binghe’s formalities, though any elegance they might have wanted to accomplish with the motion is significantly diminished by their hands being completely covered by their sleeve. They make no motion to get it out of the way.

Binghe takes a second to observe the demon sitting across him, and how it would be quite awkward for them to try to attack him by surprise from across the table, but he keeps in mind there is plenty of space under their sleeves for a knife or needles to be hidden. Thankfully they place their hands on the table and it appears they make no motion to reach for anything under there.

“...If it isn’t too much trouble, this Luo Binghe would like to ask some questions to this kind host.”

The demon laughs again, light and airy; Binghe can admit their voice is quite pleasant even if he’s yet to ascertain how trustworthy they really are. “Ah, Binghe has no need to be so formal! You can just call me by my name.”

“...”

“...?”

Binghe has to stop himself from raising an eyebrow and remembers all the discipline ‘lessons’ he’s received in Qing Jing. “And what may this– may I refer to this host as?” “Oh!” The demon physically jumps in his seat, making Binghe almost flinch in response. “I thought I’d already– Ah, no matter, Binghe can refer to this humble Watcher as Shen Yuan.”

This time he doesn’t stop himself from raising an eyebrow. “Watcher?”

“I also didn’t…? Ah, Binghe, excuse my rudeness.” Shen Yuan says, pulling up his sleeve to cover half his face as if trying to hide a blush, not that Binghe would be able to see anything anyways. Shen Yuan shuffles a bit out to the side and bows – way lower than Binghe had – before straightening himself back up; the eye mask feels way more intense all of a sudden, as if it really were looking straight into Binghe’s eyes.

“My name is Shen Yuan, I am the keeper of this temple and a part of The Watchers.” He says, ‘pointing’ at the eye mask at the end.

That catches Luo Binghe’s attention. “So… The other demon, the one that led me here, is also one of these… Watchers?”

“Binghe must be referring to Di-er.” Shen Yuan shuffles back to his seat, pulling out a tea set from somewhere beneath the low table and pouring some for himself and Binghe. The tea smells nice, if a little oversteeped; he has no intention to touch it, and if Shen Yuan notices his lack of interest in the tea, he makes no comment. “Yes, you’re right. Di-er is usually one of the few of us that wanders beyond the Titan’s borders, and he was the one to warn me about Binghe’s arrival.”

‘Di-er’ he can’t help but repeat to himself. His heart throbs in a weird way for not having to refer to him as ‘his stalker’ any longer.

“Titan?” He diverts, swirling the tea in his cup a bit to distract himself from whatever his heart is doing in his chest. If he looks at it long enough, the same night sky pattern that appears in the black waters’ seems to peek through.

“Hm. The Titan is what allows this part of the Abyss to exist in a ‘calmer’ state.”

“So this is still the Endless Abyss. This– I’d theorized this may be some sort of pocket dimension, since the only way to enter is through the black river…?”

Shen Yuan chuckles, once again raising his sleeve. “Binghe truly is as smart as I thought. You are not wrong, though not entirely correct.”

When it becomes obvious Shen Yuan doesn’t plan to elaborate on the topic, Binghe moves the conversation along – he didn’t expect to have all his questions answered in one go anyways. “Shen Yuan had mentioned he is the keeper of this temple. A priest?”

The demon fully laughs now, waving both of his sleeves. “No, no, I don’t think I’d be fit to be a priest, but if it makes it easier for Binghe, you can think of this Shen Yuan that way.”

It’s becoming increasingly obvious Shen Yuan is not willing to fully answer his questions, no matter how friendly he seems, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Binghe right now. Through the window he can see the sun has begun to set, and isn’t that a weird thing to be able to see again – the sky illusion had no actual ‘sun’, but it had begun to shift to orange hues Luo Binghe thought he would only be able to see many years in the future. Or possibly never again.

Shen Yuan notices where Binghe’s gaze has drifted to, and promptly begins to gather up the dishes on the table, piling them up and placing them on the corner. Luo Binghe knows how to recognize when someone is politely kicking him out, so he prepares to stand up–

“Ah, Binghe, I still need to show you to your room. I’ll just clean this up and I’ll take you there.” Shen Yuan says as he brings the dishes to a side room, presumably the kitchen, and in any other moment Binghe would do the polite thing and offer his assistance, but what the demon said makes him pause.

“My… room? I can stay the night?”

The priest ‘looks’ back at him, visibly offended. “Of course Binghe can stay, he’s my guest! What type of host would I be if I just let Binghe fend for himself at night?” He huffs.

“Is the night dangerous?”

“Ehh…” Shen Yuan disappears for a second into the kitchen, though it doesn’t take longer than a few seconds for him to reemerge, apparently having deemed the dishes not as important as entertaining his guest. “I’d say it is about as dangerous as walking around any other place in the Abyss. The Titan’s protection weakens, so Binghe would have to go back to fighting most of the creatures he comes across.

Oh, so he didn’t even have to ask about the strange phenomena. “So that’s what was blocking monsters from attacking me.”

“No, not ‘blocking’, the creatures can simply feel the Black River’s smell on you. They know not to mess with someone blessed by the Titan.”

Interesting, so this ‘Titan’ Shen Yuan keeps mentioning could either be a sort of religious figure to The Watchers based on the Black River or an actual higher power. He’d never considered there could be something similar to the Heavens that rule over the Abyss, but it doesn’t feel too much like a surprise either; maybe Binghe has just accepted that everything is possible in the Endless Abyss, even if the thought of a god that looks over the this hellish place is quite the terrifying thought. Still, if the ‘Titan’s’ doings only limit themselves to what Binghe has witnessed until now, he’s at least confident that they aren’t a completely malicious figure; it also explains why the ‘Titan’s protection’ – as Shen Yuan called it– had a stronger effect for Di-er, as it is only fair a deity’s follower receives more of their deity’s favor.

Still, if the danger in the night is comparable to the ‘normal’ parts of the Abyss… “Shen Yuan is very kind for offering this Luo Binghe shelter, but I do not wish to inconvenience him any further. This Luo Binghe has survived for long enough outside of the… Titan’s protection that one night should be no problem.” Binghe says and gets up, offering the priest a slightly more respectful bow.

Shen Yuan however, doesn’t seem amused, and puts his hands on his hips before walking up to Luo Binghe. This close Binghe can clearly see that Shen Yuan is in fact half a head shorter than him (not counting the horns) and has a presence as strong as Di-er’s, which is to say, not very strong; if his intent was to intimidate, he missed his target by a mile and instead landed once again in ‘annoyed mother’.

Binghe can’t help but think it’s even a bit…cute.

He immediately regrets thinking that as, before he can react, cloth-covered fingers pinch at his cheek, and even here there is barely enough strength to make Binghe’s cheek hurt the slightest bit – he’s more stunned by the action than anything else.

“Aiyah, Binghe is so stubborn! Who’s to say your blood pressure is better now, ah? If I let Binghe out into the night and he gets hurt, what am I supposed to do with him then, hm?” Even if Luo Binghe has no idea what expression Shen Yuan must be doing under his mask, it’s almost visible how his brows must be furrowed and his lips form into a pout.

The demon lets go of his cheek and sighs strongly enough his mask flutters a bit. “I can’t force Binghe to spend the night here if he doesn’t want to, but if I can provide Binghe a safe place to rest at least for a while then I’ll be happy.” Shen Yuan lets go of Binghe’s check and his hand rests on his cheek for only a second before dropping back to his side. The demon checks him over head to toe before sighing again and walking towards the deeper part of the temple.

Just before they disappear behind a door and into a room they pause, and Binghe has to take a few seconds before his body catches up to his brain and he makes himself turn to look at Shen Yuan. He doesn’t know why his mouth is suddenly dry.

“Binghe, you don’t need to fight anymore.”

His heart jumps. His eyes burn slightly. He doesn’t know how he knows Shen Yuan is smiling at him.

“Your room will be ready in a bit.” Shen Yuan observes him for a few seconds longer before heading inside the room.

Luo Binghe feels his muscles relax against his will. He feels like he’s sinking all over again, the only difference is that he doesn’t know if he should just let the waters wash over him.

Chapter Text

“Binghe, are you sure you packed everything you need?”

“Yes, there is no need for Shen Yuan to worry about m–” “Ah, but what if you get cold? Hold on, I’ll go get you a warmer change of clothes.” “W-wait, Shen Yuan–”

Luo Binghe has no hope of stopping Shen Yuan as the demon quickly runs inside the temple again. This is the third time already he interrupted Luo Binghe from leaving while claiming he forgot just one more thing.

Binghe sighs but makes no move to walk away while Shen Yuan is not looking, instead thinking back on the sequence of events starting from the night before.

The room Shen Yuan had prepared for him was perfectly decent, clean and impersonal, and up to par to some of the nicest inns Binghe had the (rare) opportunity to stay in when he embarked in night hunts for Qing Jin Peak; still, no matter how nice his accommodations or host had been to him, he still couldn’t afford to let down his guard, and he had only settled in for the night when he made sure there was nothing suspicious in the room.

It was, by far, one of the best night’s sleep he’s had in years, the bedding unusually thick with soft, fluffy pillows surrounding him. Just laying down onto the mattress had the tension in his muscles rolling off in waves, and he still blames the surprising comfort of the bed for making him forget to check for any strange activity in the dream realm (not that there was a dream needing investigating to begin with, he simply slept the night away, dreamless and unperturbed).

By morning, Shen Yuan had once again served him a simple meal – egg drop soup with a side of peeled mandarins – and after Binghe was done Shen Yuan presented him with a sword and a map. “I’m sure Binghe is eager to continue his journey as soon as possible, so I figured I might as well make Binghe’s travels a little bit easier.” He had said, and Binghe once again ignored the way his heart stirred.

Luo Binghe is pulled away from his recollection as the door of the temple rattles open and Shen Yuan comes out of it, holding onto a bundle of clothes. Binghe barely has enough time to stop the demon from pulling out a scarf and wrapping it around him, instead redirecting his hands to simply place the clothes onto the qiankun pouch Shen Yuan had gifted him in one of his earlier trips back to the temple.

This time Shen Yuan seemed to finally realize his constant back and forth was starting to become ridiculous, taking a step back and letting out a huff, though not before scanning Binghe head to toe one more time. It’s honestly a bit endearing hilarious, and Binghe can’t help but want to tease the worried demon.

“Is Shen Yuan satisfied already or will he have to gift this Luo Binghe a second sword for him to be reassured of my competence?”

Shen Yuan huffs again, shaking his head. “Cocky brat.” He mumbles, but Binghe can clearly hear the amusement in his voice. The half-demon doesn’t even bother to hide his laugh, delighted in the way Shen Yuan bristles even further.

“Aiyah, I get it, I get it! Yes, Binghe is ready to go now. Safe travels and all.” Shen Yuan grumbles, waving Luo Binghe away with his sleeve as if he wasn’t the one delaying his departure just a few minutes ago. Binghe chuckles, amused by the demon’s embarrassment but heeds his words anyways, bowing slightly to his host one last time.

“Thanking Shen Yuan for his hospitality, this Luo Binghe will endeavour to one day repay Shen Yuan’s kindness.” He says, a bit surprised to realize he sincerely means it, but thankfully Shen Yuan doesn’t get hung up at the sudden sentimentality and crosses his arms, shooing him away with an annoyed huff.

Binghe chuckles again and sets off towards his next goal. He’d told Shen Yuan he meant to go after Di-er, as he wanted to repay the demon for their time running around the Endless Abyss as well as ask him some questions, and Shen Yuan had said Di-er should be headed northwest, towards the Guardtown Ruins for a simple check of the area.

He’s yet to even lose the temple of sight when he’s being called out again. “Binghe, wait!”

He stops and turns back, watching as Shen Yuan runs towards him. “Hm? Did Shen Yuan remember something else this Luo Binghe forgot to bring with him?”

“Very funny.” Shen Yuan answers dryly, ignoring Binghe’s amused chuckles. “But no, it’s not about that. It’s just…”

“?”

Shen Yuan sighs and squares up his shoulders, as if he was preparing himself for a heavy blow. “Binghe is… Is looking for Xin Mo as well, correct?”

Luo Binghe’s breath catches the slightest bit, but he forces himself to stay relaxed, gazing at Shen Yuan as if the other had asked him about the weather. Still, he makes no move to hide how his hand now rests in the handle of his new sword, not caring if the sword was gifted to him by the very same demon standing in front of him “Shen Yuan sure is well informed. Is there a problem?” He says, keeping his voice light.

“No, no, it’s just…” Shen Yuan hesitates, shifting his balance from foot to foot before sighing again, defeated. “Is Binghe sure about going after it? It is a cursed artifact after all, it may bring Binghe more trouble than it’s worth.”

A pulse of irritation spikes through him, but he is careful to not let his expression so much as twitch. “And what alternative is Shen Yuan offering? For me to wander the Endless Abyss until I happen to come across a spacial rift in who knows how many years?”

Shen Yuan flinches. “N-no, I–...”

“Or is he implying that I ought to stay here for the rest of my life?” He takes one step forward, trying to push away the strain in his jaw from keeping himself from baring his teeth. He commends Shen Yuan as, even as he becomes visibly nervous, refuses to take a step back, though he is not sure if it comes from bravery or stupidity.

Luo Binghe stops barely an arm’s length away from Shen Yuan, looking down on the shorter demon. He’s not sure what expression he must be doing, but it must not be too friendly with the way Shen Yuan tenses even further.

He takes a step closer “So?”

“...This Watcher wishes Luo Binghe a safe journey towards Xin Mo.”

Silence reigns heavy above their heads, a sharp contrast to the easy atmosphere they shared just a few hours before. When it becomes clear neither of them have anything else to say, Shen Yuan takes a slow step back before bowing slightly and turning away, walking back to the temple with his head slightly lowered.

Binghe stays still in the middle of the path for a few more minutes, muscles refusing to relax, and he doesn't bother to try to understand the sharp sting in his heart, or how he feels a burning feeling at the back of his mind, something similar to roughly handling fragile ceramic and still being surprised it shatters when it falls onto the ground.

He turns and continues his path towards the Ruins.

*

Luo Binghe is at the halfway point towards his destination when he settles down to rest for the night; it had begun raining and no matter how strong the illusion of normalcy is in the Titan’s Realm, as he’s taken to calling this place, a piece of the Abyss is still a piece of the Abyss and it doesn’t take him long to find out the rain is still just as corrosive as ever.

Luckily, he finds himself a shallow cave before anything important corrodes, not so luckily though, he now finds himself alone with the weight of his actions robbing him of any success in his attempts to fall asleep. Ever since his parting from Shen Yuan, his mind hasn’t stopped racing, shifting between anger, that Shen Yuan had even tried to stop him from getting out of the Abyss in the first place, and overwhelming guilt for not handling the situation in a… better way.

Which is something he shouldn’t even be feeling in the first place! What did it matter if he was a bit rude to Shen Yuan anyways? Sure, Binghe was grateful the priest had offered him food and a warm bed to spend the night in, but that didn’t give him the right to try to dictate Luo Binghe’s actions! He may have grown used to living in the Abyss, but unlike him, Binghe has no connection to whatever the Titan may be, and he has quite the mountain of unfinished business back in the Human Realm.

Just the thought of all those who wronged him – of Shen Qingqiu – being able to live the rest of their lives peacefully after breaking Luo Binghe over and over again, after choosing him and ignoring him like he was the lowest of scum to the point his Shizun didn’t even hesitate to throw him into the Abyss-

No, it doesn’t matter if the road ahead is dangerous, or if Xin Mo might try to take control of his mind; as long as the real monsters still lingered in the Human Realm, Luo Binghe wouldn’t rest until he got the revenge he deserved and obtained the power owed to him by his blood.

…

Usually, Binghe is able to re-center himself after being reminded of his ultimate goal, but this time, the heavy feeling in his chest only grew stronger, and a memory of Shen Yuan, of Di-er, flashes in the back of his mind. He shakes it off with a growl, annoyed at being so distracted by demons that he owes nothing to; he needs to remember that they helped him out of his own volition, and even if Binghe still believed in repaying kindness hundredfold, he couldn’t afford to not put himself first and foremost.

He rubs at his chest, feeling his mood souring by the second, and lays on his back over his spread-out outer robe; he can deal with any minor inconveniences in the morning.

He only manages to fall asleep when he finally gives in and uses his dream manipulation on himself, forcibly pushing his mind into restless slumber.

After what feels simultaneously like mere seconds and an eternity, Luo Binghe is pulled from his shallow sleep by the soft sound of rustling fabric just outside his cave; immediately he notices a familiar yet weak presence, the same as Shen Yuan’s – his muscles tense involuntarily, and his hand twitches with the need to reach for his sword but he decides against it, instead steading his breathing and pretending to still be asleep.

If Shen Yuan had come after him anyways to try and stop him from going after Xin Mo, Binghe’s biggest ally would be the element of surprise; even if Shen Yuan may not be physically strong, Luo Binghe was still left in the dark about any abilities he might have. Just in the possibility Shen Yuan might have the same teleportation ability as Di-er, it could be a great advantage against Binghe, who mostly relied on close range attacks.

Tsk, he knew he should have put a drop of his blood on Shen Yuan’s tea when he had the chance.

Minutes pass and besides the occasional rustling of clothes, the presence moves neither closer or further, and eventually Binghe decides that the longer he waits, the longer he was delaying his arrival at the Ruins; he subtly opens one eye, glad he had decided to sleep with his back facing the cave instead of the outside, but instead of being greeted with the sight of Shen Yuan, he feels his heart jump a beat when he recognizes Di-er.

Right. Right! Di-er is the same type of demon as Shen Yuan as well as a Watcher, their presences are so similar they might as well be the same.

In his excitement in seeing his guide again, Binghe had forgotten his original plan to fake sleep and instead shoots up to a sitting position, a bit too fast as Di-er’s head snaps towards him from where he was watching the surrounding forest and Binghe is reminded all at once at his guide’s avoidant personality. He freezes where he sits, as if Di-er was a startled deer and any sudden movement might drive him away.

Thankfully, after a few seconds Di-er seems to relax the tiniest bit and gets up from where he had sat on a rock and places his arms behind his back, the same way he did when he waited for Binghe to catch up to him in the Endless Abyss.

Luo Binghe’s heart flutters at the sight, not having realized how much he had missed the demon’s silent reassurance; he dresses himself as quickly as possible, though just as he’s stepping out of the cave he’s hit with a sharp sensation that he’s forgotten something, but no matter how much he looks around, the only things left in the cave are tiny pebbles and dried leaves that laid there long before Binghe’s arrival.

His attention is pulled away when he hears a breathy laughter, turning around to find Di-er with a dark sleeve raised and shoulders shaking slightly, hiding away his smile even if his mask is already doing the job for him. Binghe’s heart squeezes with something and he feels his cheeks warm slightly – that is, until his traitorous mind ruins the moment and whispers ‘He laughs just like Shen Yuan’.

A sour taste coats his mouth and he shakes the thought away, not wanting his mood to worsen right as he’s able to meet with Di-er again. He, thankfully, either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care to point out Binghe’s momentary distraction, and slowly begins to walk away, looking back from time to time to see if Binghe’s still following him.

Binghe wastes no time and follows his guide through the forest.

*

Luo Binghe doesn’t know why he expected this encounter to be any different than their previous ones, throughout the few hours Di-er guides Binghe through the forest, at no point does he try to speak to Binghe, and he, in turn, stays equally as silent.

It’s equal parts frustrating as it’s reassuring. Seeing as it appeared like Di-er and Shen Yuan had exchanged information about him before, he half expected Di-er to berate him for his attitude in regards to Shen Yuan, or at the very least mention it, as they seem somewhat close; it definitely doesn’t turn out to be the case, as Di-er stays just as tight-lipped as before, though at least the carefree way he acts also hasn’t changed, which is a relief of its own, since just the thought of Di-er being upset enough at Binghe for him to visibly notice it makes his blood run cold.

The silence unexpectedly provides him a good enough distraction from his own mind, strangely enough. Maybe it’s the gentle swaying motion of Di-er’s pitch-black hair as he walks, or the way he stops briefly from time to time to check in on Binghe or look around, trying to remember whatever route he’s taking them on. It’s a simple enough loop that manages to make Luo Binghe forget about his previous worries, even if momentarily, and makes him pay attention to finer details he never got the chance to notice in their time outside of the Titan’s territory.

In their silent walk, he notices how Di-er’s belt of talismans clink against each other ever so slightly, like tiny little bells, how he also has talismans clipped onto his pointy ears like earrings, and how Di-er’s mask in fact isn’t the same as Shen Yuan, as the pupil in Di-er’s mask is filled in instead of left blank like Shen Yuan’s. His most important discovery is that even if Di-er can’t or doesn’t want to talk, he still makes a lot of little noises.

The Abyss beyond the Titan’s protection is everything but silent, the air always filled with the sound of distant cries of terrifying creatures, the sound of battle, the crackling of fire and all other sorts of haunting cacophonies. The point is, there is always some sort of noise ringing out, the Abyss set on overwhelming all of its inhabitants' senses all the time. The Titan’s Realm however, manages to block out the constant noise of the rest of the Abyss quite well, instead mimicking the Human Realm’s soft harmony that consists of gentle winds, rustling foliage and the distant cry of some bird-like creature.

Because of its relative silence, Luo Binghe can hear the way Di-er hums quietly to himself when something of note catches his attention (which usually consist of passing beasts and interesting plants, from what Binghe was able to gather), or the little confused noise he does when he’s deciding whether they should turn left of right, or the annoyed click of his tongue when his long robes briefly catch onto a fallen branch.

It's… endearing. Di-er so often looks untouchable, an ephemeral mystery that continues to guide Binghe towards some far away destination he refuses to elaborate on, but being able to catch these little glimpses of what he’s feeling makes him seem, ironically, more human. It’s equally maddening, as it makes Binghe want to pull at Di-er’s hair to see if he’d cry out in shock or pain, to rip off his mask and see what expression he makes when he realizes there is no way to go except closer to Binghe.

He’s embarrassed when he notices his hand, clutched at his side, shaking with want.

Eventually, they arrive at the edge of the forest, and just as Luo Binghe is about to take the first step out, Di-er suddenly turns towards him; Binghe immediately stops, not daring to take a step closer, but he still manages to overhear the satisfied hum that Di-er let’s out before he reaches into his sleeve and pulls out a piece of paper – a note, Binghe’s mind supplies – and gently places it on top of a rock to his side. He rights himself back up and steps back to where he’d stopped in the first place and waves at Binghe, who only has time to catch a glimpse of porcelain pale fingers before Di-er sinks into the ground through a portal.

Luo Binghe stays still for a few minutes longer, but when it becomes clear Di-er has no intention of re-emerging near him again, he understands that their time for today has ended. He swallows the disappointed sigh threatening to escape him and walks towards the note left behind (He refuses to acknowledge the way he drags his feet during the short walk, but the sharp feeling of Meng Mo judging him from the back of his mind still makes his cheeks burn ever so slightly).

He picks up the note, immediately noticing how short it is despite not having read any of it yet. It simply says:

“Tutorial Mission, START! ୧(๑•̀ヮ•́)૭

–02”

He frowns. Is this supposed to be a hint?

A loud sound, more or less similar to an explosion, echoes from the distance, and Binghe pockets the note in his sleeve; he’ll have time to think it over later, for now he’ll check out whatever Di-er is so intent on showing him.

Only a minute after he begins walking, a dirt path makes itself known, and after checking his map (since his guide abandoned him), the path should lead him to his original goal of the Guardtown Ruins. The sound of screams and distant battle reach him before the sight of the Ruins does, but eventually he manages to see the crumbling remains of an entry archway to what used to be a small village, as well as the silhouette of someone leaning onto the unstable leg of said archway.

As he walks closer, the silhouette seems to notice his approach and jumps away from the archway, waving their sleeve-covered arm with way more enthusiasm than anything in the Abyss has the right to have. Luo Binghe has only a second to feel his heart lurching in his chest – had Shen Yuan come here…?– before his mind catches up to his eyes and he notices that while they look similar to Shen Yuan, something seems different–

Before he can get any closer, a portal opens at the person’s feet and they sink into the ground, making Binghe stop in his tracks. Well, that at least confirms that they must be a Watcher.

A chill runs down his spine, and before Binghe can think, he’s already dodging the Watcher’s surprise attack from his back, though the demon must either be or think Luo Binghe’s stupid, as he lets out a surprised squeak that his target somehow managed to move out of the way and makes no effort to stop himself from losing his balance forward and falling to the ground.

Or, well, almost falling, as Binghe manages to grab at the Watcher’s arm and halt his fall just at the last second.

Luo Binghe looks down at the Watcher he’s still holding up by the arm with a frown, ready to stop any more of the demon’s attempts at attacking him. The Watcher looks back at him, eye mask still in place but hanging to the side just enough that Luo Binghe manages to see a portion of his mouth, previously open in surprise, morphing into a wide smile.

“Hi, Binghe!”

Luo Binghe raises an eyebrow at how excited the Watcher sounds, but decides that, due to the lack of any more attacks (and the way the Watcher hasn’t even tried to make Binghe let go of him), Binghe pulls the demon back onto his feet and let’s go of his arm. The demon let’s out another surprised squeak at the sudden movement but gets over it quickly enough, patting away any dirt that might have gotten onto his clothes before turning back to Binghe with one sleeve resting on his hip.

“Thanks for not letting me fall! I wanted to give Binghe a surprise greeting, but as expected, Binghe is much too fast for me.” The Watcher says, physically not able to stay still, as he emphasizes every part of the phrase with a swish of his sleeves, who work wonders to add even more flair to his already dramatic movements. It’s such a big contrast to the two previous Watchers Luo Binghe had gotten to interact with before, it takes the Watcher having to wave their sleeve at his face for him to remember that he’s being talked to.

“Hello? Binghe?”

His hand twitches at his side, but he manages to fight back the urge to slap away the arm in his face, instead opting to simply take a step back, which works just as well to make the Watcher keep his arm out of Binghe’s personal space. Now that the Watcher’s standing at an appropriate distance, Luo Binghe is finally able to take a proper look at him, and as was the case with the two previous Watchers, he differs just enough from Di-er and Shen Yuan to set them apart.

The bottom half of his clothes is similar enough to Shen Yuan’s to make Luo Binghe not bother with any differences, but the top part of his clothes make him pause. If he’d thought Shen Yuan was already being shameless with not properly covering up his chest, the Watcher before him doesn’t even bother to try, the robes hanging from his elbows just enough to cover his right arm with, what Binghe’s coming to learn, must be their signature oversized sleeve fashion; his left arm is still also covered, though this sleeve is not connected to the rest of the white outer layer, instead attaching to his bicep with a strip of thin, golden metal.

He still wears the same heavy neck piece that Shen Yuan wears, framed by a tight dark layer that only covers the arms and neck, and as one last difference, the Watcher’s hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, though his hair is long enough to still reach to the middle of his thighs. Luo Binghe blinks, redirecting his gaze to the eye mask lest the Watcher gets the wrong impression of him.

“This Luo Binghe was informed that Watcher Di-er should be making some rounds around the area.” He says, even if he feels he’s saying a contradiction since Di-er left before even reaching the area he was supposed to be checking in on.

“Ah, did Di-er tell you about the Ruins?”

“Watcher Di-er did guide me towards this place, but he left shortly after we crossed the forest. Watcher Shen Yuan was the one to inform me about Di-er’s task.”

The Watcher stood silent for a while, and even if Luo Binghe couldn’t see his face, he got the distinct feeling that the Watcher was waiting for him to continue explaining. Not that there was anything else to explain, so the both of them just stared at each other for a heavy second before Binghe spoke up again.

“Is… There something wrong?”

“No! No, it’s just… Shen Yuan?”

“En.”

“...” The Watcher falls back into silence, and Binghe is beginning to think he’s being made fun of in the most vague and confusing way possible.

Maybe he just needs to be more specific. “Shen Yuan? The Watcher residing in the temple southeast of here, in the forest?”

“Oh!” The Watcher jumps as he finally understands who he’s been referring to “You mean Thirty Four! That makes much more sense, Binghe had me confused for a second there.”

“...Thirty Four?”

“No matter!” The Watcher cuts him off, abruptly turning towards the Ruins, the movement fast enough for his ponytail to smack onto Luo Binghe’s chest, who should be commended by the Heavens itself for the truly divine willpower he puts into biting back any ‘impolite’ comments. “Since Binghe is already here, he may as well help me with the little situation that’s been going on here!”

He prepares to argue that he’s only come here to try and speak to Di-er, but he stops himself when he remembers the little note from before. Di-er had mentioned a ‘mission’, was helping this Watcher supposed to be it? Maybe it would be like one of the hints Di-er used to leave him and Binghe would walk away from this small setback with something worth the hassle, or maybe this was Di-er’s way to demand Luo Binghe’s favor back after he went through the trouble of helping him through the Abyss.

Either way, it could be a way for him to start paying back Di-er’s kindness towards him. Besides, he could use this time to poke around a bit more for any information regarding Xin Mo; with the way Shen Yuan had questioned him earlier, it almost sounded like the sword was located somewhere in the Titan’s territory, and if that’s the case, having a good relationship with the Watchers seemed like the best way forward.

“This Luo Binghe is willing to repay the kindness the Watchers have shown him in any way possible. What seems to be the problem?”

The Watcher laughs airily at him, making Binghe’s eyebrows furrow and blood rush to the tips of his ears – is this demon making fun of him or not? Said demon simply laughs again at his expression.

“Maybe I wasn’t clear enough earlier, but let this be Binghe’s official confirmation that he doesn’t need to bother speaking formally to any Watcher from here on out.”

“...Right.” Demons really had a different set of standards than humans, if Binghe dared ignore social ranks amongst cultivators, no matter if they were all from the same Sect or not, he’d definitely get bullied if not whipped for ‘improper’ manners.

The Watcher nods, apparently satisfied with the half-demon’s answer and walks towards the inside of the Ruins, where the sounds of some sort of battle still haven’t ceased, and waves his sleeve over his shoulder, silently urging Binghe to follow him, who has no other option but to follow the silent orders.

“Binghe was told that Di-er was in charge of doing a routine inspection of the Guardtown Ruins, right?”

“Something like that.” “Well, that was what should have happened, but while Di-er ran around with Binghe outside of the Titan’s borders, a small demon clan, that usually resides in the mountain range south of here, started a siege of the Ruins and blocked off a portion of the Black River, making it not be able to flow properly.” The Watcher explains. Binghe had actually wondered before if there were more demons with sentience similar to humans besides the Watchers, and it’s honestly surprising they are peaceful enough to allow whole clans to bask in the Titan’s protection alongside them; most groups of demons would guard the secret of a pocket dimension as nice as this one with their lives.

He dismisses his musings for some other time, focusing his attention back on the Watcher, who’s still speaking. “Honestly, I don’t mind if they want to mess around in the Ruins, the place is abandoned anyway, but if they continue blocking off the Black River, it’s possible it could lead to some interference on the Titan’s protection, and who knows what would happen if that came to pass.”

“Hm. Is this demon clan a particularly powerful one?” Binghe asks.

“Ah…” The Watcher laughs, sounding a bit embarrassed. “No, they’re honestly not particularly strong, but Binghe must’ve noticed by now that us Watchers tend to lean on the more… frail side.”

The demons are weak but we are even weaker, is what Luo Binghe heard. He can’t stop the huff of laughter that escapes him, but he manages to disguise it as a cough at the last second; with the way the Watcher’s pointed ear flushes two shades darker however, makes him think he didn’t manage to hide it completely. Oops.

“Apologies, I’m sure your fighting abilities are decent enough… Ah, I don’t believe this Watcher mentioned his name before.”

“Oh, I didn’t? Sorry, it’s Shen Yuan.”

…

…

…?

*

Chapter Text

The Guardtown Ruins was, as the name suggests, once specifically made for housing a small quantity of soldiers, though because of their limited number, it was said that all of the soldiers allocated to this small corner of reality, cut out from the rest of the Endless Abyss, were some of the best warriors the whole Three Realms have ever witnessed. Despite its size, the Guardtown was quite the sight– all the buildings served a strategic purpose, a necessary limitation taking that the Endless Abyss isn’t exactly filled with abundant resources, but at the same time the warriors’ pride still shined through the sheer artistry carved into every corner– all in all, a rare sight amongst the denizens of the Abyss, but one deeply appreciated by those that held love for the finer things in life.

Or that’s what Shen Yuan told him. Luo Binghe, in fact, is still not sure why they are having this conversation in the first place.

“Apparently, all the sculpted details in the houses were handmade by one of the Seven Divine Generals that used to live here, a renowned scholar proficient in all manners of art, General Jingyan Sui. I actually like his work a lot! At the same time that its practical, it still doesn’t fail to show a certain delicate touch–”

Only a few minutes ago, Shen Yuan had suggested they not head into battle head first just yet, and instead go to a higher place in the city to assess the situation from afar and come up with a plan since, as a Watcher, Shen Yuan wouldn’t actually be able to help with much of the fighting, and Luo Binghe had already learned his lesson about underestimating any of the creatures that are native to the Abyss, so he saw no reason to protest the idea. In fact, the other reason that Binghe wanted to take his time with this ‘mission’ was because of Shen Yuan’s earlier revelation of his name being, well… Shen Yuan.

In fact, there were still a lot of things Binghe didn’t know about any of the Watchers in general, be it Shen Yuan, the first Shen Yuan he met, or Di-er. Seeing how this Shen Yuan seemed considerably more outgoing than the previous two Watchers, Binghe figured he had a better chance of getting some clearer answers. The only thing that became clearer, however, was that he’d been way too optimistic.

“–And the highlight of Jingyan-qianbei’s work has to be the statue at the city square. ‘City’ square? Maybe more like a village square, seeing that, over the years, the city gradually became smaller and smaller, but– wait, actually, now it would be ‘ruin’s square’, right? Well, whatever, it doesn’t matter! What does matter is that the statue–”

“Shouldn’t we be discussing strategies…?” Binghe doesn’t even bother to hide how unimpressed he is, but just like the other two times he tried to cut Shen Yuan’s ranting off, the other stopped in his tracks, arms freezing in the air from where he had been excitedly motioning all over the place, and turned back towards Binghe completely silently. Just like the other two times, Binghe could physically feel the judgement emanating from behind Shen Yuan’s mask from being interrupted.

This was getting ridiculous. He’d heard from someone that ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results’; he doesn’t remember who said that but whoever it was they were absolutely right, since he very much was feeling like his sanity was slipping away the longer he stayed in this never ending loop.

Well, maybe he could at least stir the topic towards something that could help him understand this place a bit better. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em or whatever.

“...Apologies. Actually, this Binghe has been curious about something for a while now, if Shen Yuan could be so kind as to help me find an answer.”

“Is it about the Ruins?” Shen Yuan’s voice is dry, a stark contrast to how excited he sounded just seconds ago, and a clear indication that there is only one right answer. It still does nothing to stop the way Binghe feels the strongest urge to roll his eyes he’s had maybe in his entire life.

He manages to hold himself back. “Yes.”

Shen Yuan visibly jumps in his excitement, and suddenly all coldness in his voice melts away, going back to walking in a half-skipping motion.“Oh, then go ahead!”

Seriously, this guy…

Luo Binghe puts his arms behind his back in a display of easy casualness, and certainly not because he’s hiding the way his hands have curled into fists. “I’ve been wondering exactly why the Guardtown was built in the first place. From what I noticed in my time here in the Abyss, demons, no matter if they belong to the same species or not, never join forces.”

Shen Yuan stops in his tracks, and Binghe can feel how his mouth wants to curl up into a satisfied smile at having managed to probe into a sensitive vein; it’s through an honest effort he manages to keep his expression pleasantly neutral.

“However” He continues “The times I did see demons work alongside each other, was when there was another, much stronger demon threatening all of them.”

He looks back at Binghe, though Binghe feels that, contrary to how he expected Shen Yuan to react– maybe anger, suspicion, anxiety, something along those lines– all he can feel instead is… Awe?

“Wo~w, Binghe really is smart!”

…

Was that supposed to be a compliment?

“Alright, alright. I wanna show you something, then! And don’t give me that look, this time it actually is pertinent to your question!”

So he’s aware he’s been avoiding Binghe’s other questions???

Before Luo Binghe can even think about opening his mouth, Shen Yuan sinks into a portal and pops out on top of a hill a few meters away, wasting no time in catching sight of Binghe again and waving his arm in big, swaying arcs. Shoving away the slight feeling of deja-vu, Binghe sighs but heads towards the hill without any further complaints (even if Shen Yuan makes him climb the whole thing when the half-demon notices there is no path upwards. This! Guy!) and eventually stands besides the Watcher once more.

Besides a small chuckle when Shen Yuan notices Binghe is (slightly!) out of breath, he spares the other from having any more of his time wasted, and gets straight to the topic at hand. “Binghe was right about his observation of demons in the Abyss. It’s true, demons would often rather die than work alongside one another, but that mostly applies to demons native to the Abyss.”

Binghe can’t help the little confused noise that escapes him, but thankfully Shen Yuan makes no mention of it besides a small laugh, instead starting to slowly walk forward. The sound of shouting and fighting gets closer and closer, a reminder of what they were supposed to be doing in the first place that Binghe momentarily pushes aside as he falls into step besides Shen Yuan.“The demons that built this place were all servants of the ancient lords of the Demon Realm, sent here for their final mission.” the Watcher says.

Shen Yuan comes to a stop just as the city square becomes visible, alongside the demon clan that built the blockade over the Black River, though their work seems to have halted for the time being, as there seems to be some sort of fighting between a small group of them. What they are fighting over isn’t clear and doesn’t seem all that important, so Binghe directs his gaze back to Shen Yuan, who watches over them serenely; eventually however, Binghe’s stare is persistent enough for the Watcher to snap out of it and direct his attention over to his companion again.

“Ahh, Binghe, give me a second, won’t you…” Shen Yuan mutters, his words colored with a cheapish laugh “...This place was constructed back when the Titan was sealed.”

“Sealed…?”

Shen Yuan nods, and quickly looks back over to the river blockade “Those demons are most likely trying to redirect the River towards their own territories. It could be that they’re just desperate for a water source, but I think they’re just trying to get a bit of the River for themselves because of the magical properties. Y’know–” He looks briefly back at Binghe, vaguely motioning towards the half-demon’s body “– the whole healing thing and all.”

As is becoming increasingly more common with Watchers, Luo Binghe finds himself once again confused by the sudden change of subject; he decides that trying to keep up with the Watchers is more trouble than it’s worth, so he just follows along “...Why don’t they simply move onto the Ruins then? You’ve already said you don’t mind if they settle down here.”

“And that continues to be correct, I would have no issue with a few new neighbors over these parts, but they just want the Titan’s power, without having to stay so close to it.”

“...?”

Shen Yuan chuckles again and takes no more than ten steps before he points over to the horizon; when Binghe walks back to his side, he sees Xintiao Lake, the place he’d emerged from according to the map the other Shen Yuan had given him. They stand there in silence for a few moments, and Binghe gasps when the puzzle pieces seem to fall in place all at once.

“...Then, does that mean…?”

“Mhm! Binghe emerged into the Titan’s protection through the Titan’s ribcage! The main gateway to and from the rest of the Abyss.”

It takes a bit longer than Binghe would like to admit for his brain to catch up to the information that’s being presented to him; he remembers emerging from the center of the black lake, and even if he was slightly panicking at the time, he still remembers it took at least a few minutes to reach the closest edge, and then several more minutes walking away from the spikes– the ribs– for them to disappear completely over the horizon. Even from this distance, the ‘lake’ still looks considerably big, so to even think that what he’s looking at was once alive…

‘Was’, he thinks. The Titan’s protection is still active, the creature might still be very much alive.

Luo Binghe feels a chill down his spine, the hairs on his arms standing straight. ‘Titan’ indeed.

He opens his mouth, not even sure what he wants to say yet, but he’s interrupted anyway by an explosion coming over from beside the River. It seems the demons settled whatever dispute they were having long enough for them to go back to redirecting the River’s flow.

Shen Yuan sighs, body deflating dramatically “Aww, we didn’t even have the time for a cool ‘action plan montage’...”

Binghe knows better than to question any strange terminology coming from Shen Yuan by now, instead focusing on tearing his eyes away from the Titan’s corpse and back to matters he can wrap his head around. “...It’s fine, we’ll just have to make this quick. Is there anything I need to know about those demons?”

“Right! Uhmm, from what I remember they’re kind of like gargoyles– that is, their skin is as hard as stone and while they don’t possess any magic worth mentioning, their wings can make them quite the annoying target. I suggest Binghe focus on the little gems inlaid on their backs between their wings, that’s their weak spot.” Shen Yuan says, pacing from one side to the other as if it’ll help him remember any other important details that might be worth mentioning. “When the demons first settled here a few days ago I managed to sneak a peek on what they might be using for the explosions, and I’m pretty sure it’s some sort of array, so…”

“Shen Yuan wants me to serve as a distraction while he deals with the array, then.” Binghe concludes, a little annoyed to have been downgraded to a distraction.

Shen Yuan, of course, either doesn’t notice the slight irritation on his voice or does not care to acknowledge it, as he lets out an obnoxious laugh and plants his hand on top of Binghe’s head, unbothered by having to stand on the tip of his toes to even reach that high.

“As expected of Binghe! I’ll be counting on him to deal with them!”

Luo Binghe bristles, batting away Shen Yuan’s hand immediately and pushing away the feeling of his cheeks heating up; the Watcher pays him no mind, laughing loudly at Binghe’s embarrassment and giving him no time to react as he jumps down the hill effortlessly, a melodious giggle all he leaves behind in his haste.

Binghe doesn’t want to acknowledge the way his heartbeat suddenly speeds up, and so he doesn’t, instead brandishing his sword and jumping down the hill, following behind a slick, black ponytail, its motion achingly similar to a certain River.

*

It’s honestly a bit embarrassing how easy it is to cut down through the demon clan’s ranks.

Maybe he’d gotten too used to the average difficulty level of the creatures that inhabit the rest of the Abyss, so when he ambushed one of the demons and aimed his sword at the gem inlaid in it’s back, he half expected something else to happen; a counterattack of some sort, or the gem being way harder than he expected, or for the demon to somehow dodge at the last possible second–

But no. The sword easily shattered the gem and impaled the demon, who dropped down dead with a cry and not much else.

It was mostly the same with all the other demons; some had a slightly better reaction time, or were a bit stronger– one even managed to graze their claws against Luo Binghe’s side (wow!) – but at the end, the ‘sun’ had barely moved its position in the sky when Binghe managed to kill most of the demons, and now faced who he assumed was their leader. The demoness is quite pretty, don’t get him wrong, and in any other circumstances their fight would probably have ended up with her laid on a hastily made bed made out of outer robes instead of kicked up dirt, but the sheer incompetence in her ranks had killed any interest Binghe might’ve had.

(And maybe because she was maybe a bit too muscled, and her hair wasn’t long enough or dark enough, and there was nothing covering her face; no allure, no mystery, nothing like–)

“YOU WASTE OF SPACE! UNHAND ME AT ONCE IF YOU EVEN VALUE YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!” The demoness screeches, thrashing where Binghe pins her to the ground with his foot, uncaring with the way the tip of his sword grazes her neck the more she wiggles.

He feels his eyebrow twitch. Her voice is too grating, maybe this outcome was indeed inevitable.

“YOU DENY MY PEOPLE– ME, OF MY BIRTH-GIVEN RIGHT TO BECOME THE MOST POWERFUL– AHHG!” She chokes on her words as Binghe presses his foot down on her chest, effectively tuning her out as he blows away a curl that’s fallen over his eye, a little annoyed that the ribbon holding his hair up had fallen at some point. Thankfully it didn't take long before he managed to hear hurried steps approaching his location under the demoness’ screeching.

“I’m here, I’m here! Binghe, do you need any– Oh, wait, where is everyone?” Shen Yuan gasps as he comes out from behind one of the buildings, stopping when he sees that there is only the demoness left ‘standing’. “Binghe’s already done?”

Binghe simply raises an eyebrow, pushing his sword just the slightest bit closer to the demoness’ throat. “What does Shen Yuan think?”

The Watcher takes no offense to Binghe’s rudeness, instead letting out a disbelieving laugh as all of the earlier rush leaves his body at once, his hands coming to rest at his hips as walks towards the ‘confrontation’, slowly looking over the corpses. “Haha, well, I guess this is to be expected, Binghe is in much better shape than he originally was when this happened.”

He says nothing in reply, instead silently waiting for a clarification on whatever that was supposed to mean; he’s not even surprised when Shen Yuan glosses over his own comment completely, skipping towards Binghe the rest of the way and once again planting his hand on Binghe’s head, patting him excitedly.

“Well, no matter! Good job Binghe! I knew I could leave this up to you!”

Binghe freezes for a second, his free hand already half towards its path to slap away Shen Yuan’s hand, but a slow warmth bubbles up from his chest, and he feels himself puff up his chest slightly. Yes, yes, he did do a good job! It was only right Shen Yuan acknowledge it and give him pats–

“You! YOU! OF COURSE YOU BLIND RATS HAD TO BE BEHIND THIS!!!” The demoness screeches once again when she finally catches sight of Shen Yuan, her stirring beginning anew with even more insistence than before. Binghe feels a sharp sting of anger and pushes her onto the ground even harder, and she coughs momentarily, but just as she opens her mouth again, Shen Yuan steps forward.

“Ma’am, my offer still stands. You and whatever is left of your clan are more than welcome to enjoy the River’s blessings, is just that disrupting it’s natural course could bring problems for everyone here–”

“Well, Watcher–” She drawls the word like an insult. Shen Yuan doesn’t even flinch. “–Since not only are you blind but deaf as well, I’ll repeat the same thing I said to that other you: I'd rather die a thousand deaths than breathe the same air as that old, rotting corpse you PIECES OF SHIT!” To top it off, she angles herself the best she can and spits at Shen Yuan’s feet.

Her gaze lands back on the sword hovering over her throat and flinches when her eyes land on whatever expression Luo Binghe must be making. He can make a guess as to how he looks given the way he’s gripping at the sword’s handle so hard it starts to shake; he takes a breath, not that it does anything to abate the ugly sensation clawing at his chest, but it does center him enough that his voice comes out even, if not coldly monotone.

“Would Shen Yuan grant me the honor of shutting her up at once?”

Shen Yuan tilts his head towards the half-demon for a second before he looks back at the demoness and sighs, the hands on his hips dropping to hand limply by his side “...It’s fine Binghe, let her go.”

There is a solid second where Luo Binghe heavily considers just doing as he pleases, to kick the demoness to her stomach and just drive the sword through that fragile gem–

But he doesn’t. He takes a deep, deep breath and takes his foot off of her sternum, though he makes no move to put away his sword, as a physical reminder he’s not doing this out of any kindness towards her. She coughs, hand rubbing at her chest as she tries to kick herself away, her eyes narrowed in hatred as she stares at Shen Yuan, apparently completely forgetting Luo Binghe the moment he isn’t physically pinning her down.

Shen Yuan kindly, naively, stands still and patiently waits for her to catch her breath, which she does a bit too quickly (in Binghe’s opinion), letting out a grating, half-manic laughter just in time for a loud whistling sound to echo from the distance; Shen Yuan and Binghe both snap their heads towards the horizon, where a trail of smoke flies into the sky and a warning firework explodes loudly.

“Ha! Y-you Watchers really are blind!” She laughs, slowly standing up on wobbly legs “What do you think we are? Stupid?! We never aimed only for the River, not when there’s a much easier, much stronger power source right there!”

Shen Yuan visibly freezes up and Binghe takes it as confirmation enough for him to ready his sword once again; the demoness smirks as if she’s already won, but the moment she takes a step back, towards the firework signal, Binghe jumps forward and kicks her to the ground, not letting her get another word out and immediately stabs his sword through her back, the crystal shattering all too easily. A beat of silence passes by and Luo Binghe straightens up, flicking his sword to the side (even if there isn’t any blood to flick off of it) and sheathes the blade again before turning to Shen Yuan, who cradles his head with one hand while the other perches on his hip.

The Watcher lets out a loud sigh, slipping his hand beneath his mask to massage at his temples. He honestly looks more annoyed at being inconvenienced than truly worried or upset, so Binghe doesn’t let urgency cloud his mind.

“What did she mean by that?”

Shen Yuan stays silent for a little longer before shaking his head slightly, physically pushing off his annoyance “It’s…fine. We can deal with this a bit later, first we should clean up all these bodies. It’s not polite to just leave them here.”

“And they could attract more monsters.”

“Eh, that too.” Shen Yuan shrugs, and when Binghe doesn’t respond, he turns to face the half-demon and is met with his deeply unimpressed stare; of course, it does nothing to Shen Yuan, who bursts out laughing and skips over towards Binghe’s side once again, throwing his arm under Binghe’s and pulling him along. “No need to look so grumpy! With the two of us, we’re going to be done in a flash!”

Luo Binghe doesn’t grace the demon hanging off his arm with anything more than a grunt, even if, secretly, his heart skips a beat at how surprisingly warm Shen Yuan feels pressed against him like that.

*

Shen Yuan is a filthy, dirty liar.

‘With the two of us, we’re going to be done in a flash!’ he’d said. Only when the sun is beginning to set does Luo Binghe finally finish burning all the bodies. Yes, that’s right, Luo Binghe!

Shen Yuan, that lazy, good for nothing brat, had helped move two bodies before he promptly got distracted and went on a tangent about how the demons weren’t ‘careful enough’ in their siege (truly, what did he expect?) and ended up destroying a few bits and pieces of the ruins closest to their explosion arrays, which led him to picking up a small broken statue and trying to fix it back up, which of course, he had to narrate all the steps in his restoration journey, which then led him into another tangent about how ‘a long time ago, I used to watch videos– ah, live demonstrations of people restoring really old paintings, and I always thought it looked so interesting how–” which, consequently, made him forget all about restoring the small statue he’d first picked up.

Thankfully, by the time Binghe throws the last body in the firepit Shen Yuan has also finally finished up his thoughts about art restoration and how he’d love to some lost library or something one of these days and study more about the past, which, good for him, but Binghe had to stop him as he remembered the warning (the other) Shen Yuan had given him about nightfall and they both settled on a clearing for the night.

Finally, Binghe had been graced with Shen Yuan being actively helpful, as the Watcher took his time to set up a temporary protection array around their clearing while Binghe took a look around the woods near the Ruins entrance and managed to hunt them two rabbit-like creatures for the night.

The events of the day seemed to settle onto them all at once as a comfortable silence settled over them as Binghe grilled the rabbit meat over a small fire, the cracking of burning wood and the rustle of leaves making for a gentle background noise as they took the time to simply relax.

After a while, the silence seemed to relax Shen Yuan enough for him to lean against a tree and his ever-present excitement simmered down to a comfortable muttering as he called to Binghe.

“Hm?” He hums, eyes focused on the meat skewers.

“When the Titan was being sealed, who knows how many centuries ago–” He begins; Binghe has to stamp down the spike of interest that courses through him and not appear too excited last he distracts Shen Yuan “–the demons doing the sealing couldn’t actually handle the Titan’s power in its entirety, so they came up with a plan, which was to be enacted by those Seven Divine Generals I told you about earlier–”

The glare Binghe shot towards seemed to be indication enough for him to focus. Shen Yuan laughs sheepishly, but settles down again “Ahh, fine, fine, I’ll keep it brief. Anyways, they came up with the idea to quarter the Titan’s body and seal the body parts individually.”

Luo Binghe finally turns to look at Shen Yuan’s figure properly, the way his voice dropped to a careful neutrality making Binghe’s heart clench painfully in his chest; he dared not speak a word. “It took years of hacking away at flesh and some three new demonic cultivation techniques to be invented, but eventually the Divine Generals succeeded. Obviously.” Shen Yuan chuckles, though no warmth is present in his voice.

“It was practically an open secret around these parts that, even if the Titan had been sealed, the body parts still held enough power in them to grant someone the power necessary for them to become a Demon Lord almost instantaneously.” He says, scooting over closer to the fire when Binghe silently offers him the finished rabbit skewer; Shen Yuan mutters thanks before continuing.

“The problem isn’t that people want to exploit the Titan’s dead body; I get it, you know? Living in the Endless Abyss, you need power, but the problem is that if someone were to try to unseal any of the parts in the wrong way, they would only get themselves and everyone around them hurt.”

Binghe stares at Shen Yuan, a bit taken aback. He speaks so casually, absolutely neutral, just as someone might state that the sky is blue or the grass is green. Demons will want to take a piece of the deity Shen Yuan serves to, and will get nothing in return but pain for their audacity.

“Aren’t you… mad?” Binghe starts, brows furrowing against his will “These people– these demons invading your Titan’s resting place to desecrate it’s body, all for their own personal gain?”

Shen Yuan stares at him for what seems simultaneously like a second and forever, before shrugging “The Titan’s body has always held way too much power for my–... For its own good. It’s no problem to share it around, but almost no creature alive can even handle a fraction of its power.”

Binghe notes the peculiar use of ‘almost’ there, but decides to keep it to himself for now. After a few seconds of silence, Shen Yuan seems to think this is all he is willing to share with Binghe for the time being, and finally brings the rabbit skewer behind his mask and takes a bite; Binghe almost wants to stop him, the meat has to have cooled down significantly in the time being, but the pleased moan that echoes through the air makes him freeze up.

“Hmm! Binghe, this is so good! Ahh, it’s been so long since I’ve eaten something so tasty!” Shen Yuan says, excitement coloring his voice again at record speed. It gives Binghe a bit of backlash, but he eventually manages to unfreeze himself and give his companion a stilted nod.

Shen Yuan, oblivious to the mental damage he just inflicted in Luo Binghe, continues. “The meat is so tender, and even with the lack of proper spices, Binghe still managed to make use of what he could and created quite the complementary seasoning, just enough to complement the rabbit’s natural flavor without overpowering it!”

It’s… perhaps a bit much, and it makes Binghe want to squirm a bit where he’s sitting; still, no one has ever complimented Binghe’s food this extensively, after all, who would even have the opportunity to tell him all that? The only person he had cooked for before was his late mother and, while he’d considered cooking something for Ning Yingying, he’d never gotten the opportunity to sit down and actually do it. It warms him inside in a way that has nothing to do with the food he’s eating, and he doesn’t even have the opportunity to doubt if Shen Yuan is even being honest or not, because just as quickly, the Watcher has finished devouring his skewer, nothing remaining besides the rabbit’s bones who have been thrown into the small fire.

Shen Yuan sighs, content, and flops down on his back with his hands atop his belly, as if he’d just finished a feast instead of one measly skewer “Waa~ That was so good! I could die happy now, having had a taste of Binghe’s heavenly cooking!”

Binghe coughs a bit, heart speeding up and cheeks burning in embarrassment and something else he refuses to name.

“S-Shen Yuan must be… exaggerating…” He mumbles. “I… I’ve always liked cooking, but it’s just something I dabble with in my free time…”

“Aiyah, Binghe, no need to be humble! If Binghe wanted he could become a world renowned chef!” Shen Yuan protests, rolling himself so he’s laying on his side with his head propped up on one hand. “Binghe seems like the type of person that puts his heart in everything he does, so it’s no wonder his cooking is just as amazing as he is!”

That’s… That really is too much…

His cheeks must be flushed enough to be visible even with the low light of the slowly dying fire; he knows to withdraw from a battle he has no chances of winning, so he simply nods a few times, brushing his hair in front of his face in hopes of hiding his embarrassment even more.

“T-this lowly one thanks Shen Yuan for his kind words…” He mumbles, barely loud enough for the demon to hear.

“Haha, I didn’t know Binghe would be so shy! It’s okay, I’ll be sure to remind him often so he can get used to my compliments!” Shen Yuan laughs before rolling onto his back again and folding his arms behind his head in place of having no actual pillow. “But fine, I’ll back off for now~”

Shen Yuan, in fact, does not back off when Binghe accidentally lets out a miserable little whine, and instead spends the next few minutes laughing and teasing him.

Luo Binghe’s not sure if he’ll be able to survive until morning.

Chapter Text

The rest of the night passed with no issues besides Luo Binghe’s heart beating a little faster than necessary, and come morning, he and Shen Yuan cleared out their impromptu camping site and went back to just outside the Guardtown Ruins; thankfully, from a cursory view, it seemed no other demons had tried to mess with the River any further.

With no distant sounds of battle distracting him this time, Binghe can actually appreciate the view presented before him. Hypothetically, if he were to suddenly lose his memory and wake up in this exact spot, the last place he would guess he ended up in would be the Endless Abyss; the fake sky was still dyed an infinite blue and a gentle, chilly wind rustled foliage almost lazily – it didn’t exactly look like the Human Realm, there still was this inherent ‘wrong’ feeling that lingered in the back of his head that no illusion could hide, but even with that minor flaw, he has to give credit where credit is due, and what a good illusion this is.

It’s so quiet and peaceful, it almost reminds Binghe of the lazy mornings he’d spend with his mother, some exceedingly rare times where they didn’t immediately have to worry about money or food for the day. Once upon a time, after the death of his mother, a young and naive Luo Binghe thought that maybe he would get to experience such calmness again somewhere in the illustrious Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, and when he’d been chosen by Qing Jing Peak, he remembers thinking to himself ‘this is it’.

As it turns out, he would never experience a moment of peace again from that point on. Or well, that was what he used to think anyways, but for once in his life, he’s been proven wrong.

It’s almost enough for him to want to give everything up and settle down. Surely, how much harder could it be for him to live here compared to his time in Qing Jing Peak? Sure, he’d be constantly at the mercy of the elements and whatever monsters still roam this part of the Abyss, but there would be no one to bully here, no Shizun he’d need to try reaching vague and impossible standards for, and he’d even have a network of allies with the Watchers, which is already a lot more than the singular friend he’d had in the Human Realm.

But then he remembers his actual goal, beyond following traces of Di-er for reasons that become fuzzier by the day; he still needs to find Xin Mo, claim his rightful place in Demonic Royalty, and pay Shen Qingqiu a visit. Nothing he has right now is a guarantee, no matter how friendly the Watchers may act, but at least in this goal he can never lose focus on, or else what would he even have?

His peace is broken by soft footsteps coming from his side, and he’s dragged back to present time. Binghe blinks a few times, forcibly pushing away the hazy fog of distant memories, and turns towards Shen Yuan, who stands a few paces away from him with his arms behind his back, patiently waiting for Luo Binghe to come back to reality; a weird sight in this particular case, as he is not sure he’s ever seen this particular Shen Yuan ever sit still.

“How are you doing, Binghe?” the Watcher asks, almost a whisper. There’s a lot of gentle things this morning, it seems.

It takes him a second too long, but Shen Yuan waits nevertheless; in truth, it kind of reminds Binghe of how Di-er would wait seemingly forever until Binghe was ready to follow. It’s a bit funny, how the Watchers reflect some thing or another from other members – they all must be really close.

“...I’m fine. Shen Yuan doesn’t need to worry.”

Shen Yuan hums, a smile clear in his voice. “Well, as long as Binghe is alright.”

The Watcher takes a few steps closer, head going up and down slowly, most likely taking in Binghe’s appearance from head to toe, and when he is seemingly satisfied with the sight, he props his sleeve-covered hands in his waist with a flourish, his excitable personality seamlessly back in place.

“So! Binghe’s ready to continue his journey?”

“Hm. I’m willing to look into where the rest of the Demoness’ clan members went. I’m guessing the firework and Shen Yuan’s story about the Titan’s sealed body parts somehow correlate, no?”

Shen Yuan laughs, delighted. “Yes, yes! Nothing can get past Binghe!” The demon even claps a few times in his excitement (not that it makes any sound, muffled by the two sleeves), and even if Binghe feels slightly embarrassed by being treated like a dog who successfully learned how to sit, he’s secretly glad he’s getting praised at all.

The demon settles and points one sleeve towards the horizon, the same direction where the firework signal had set off the last day. “If we were to follow the River upstream, in one or two incense stick’s time the Silent Palace will become visible. Did you know, the Palace w–” Shen Yuan sharply cuts himself off, stiffening his whole body as if he’d been caught red handed committing a crime.

He clears his throat, a little embarrassed, and turns back to Binghe, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. The half-demon opens his mouth, not even sure what he would say, but Shen Yuan speaks back up. “Ahaha, sorry, Binghe doesn’t need a history lesson right now.” He lets out a fake cough and rights himself back up, forcing himself to get back on track. “Anyways, the Silent Palace is where one of the Titan’s Eyes is being sealed, so the demon clan is probably dealing with that right now.

“They’ve been there all night, but Shen Yuan looks surprisingly calm. Aren’t you worried they’ve done something to the Eye in the meantime?”

“Ahh, no need for Binghe to worry! It’s been a few years but the protections we Watcher’s came up with are nothing to scoff at! In the absolutely worst case scenario, the seals should still hold up until reinforcements–” He motions at Luo Binghe’s general direction “–get there.”

Binghe lets out a small laugh, a little exasperated the ‘reinforcements’ consists of only one person, but he lets it slide, instead adjusting his robes and the sword at his side. “ Alright then. Should we head out?”

“... Oh, sorry Binghe, you’ll have to go alone for a little bit. I’m still going to stay a while and deal with the remnants of the blockade and take care of the River a bit, but Binghe doesn’t need to worry! Di-er should’ve run off towards those parts anyways, maybe Binghe will be able to catch up to him.

“En.” He nods, pushing back the slight disappointment coursing through his chest.

“Ah, wait, before you go!” Shen Yuan suddenly pulls the side of his robe to the side, exposing his whole chest; Binghe feels his eyes widening in shock and can’t even decide if he wants to look away or keep staring before Shen Yuan pulls out a white ribbon from inside his robe. “Here!”

The demon practically hops towards Binghe’s back, stopping for a second before letting out an annoyed click of his tongue; he pokes at Binghe’s shoulder, but stops him from turning around. “Face away from me, but lean down or something, Binghe’s too tall for me to tie his hair properly!”

That makes him hesitate for a second, anxiety built over many years tensing up his shoulders involuntarily for having someone stand out of his sight like that, but he eventually relents and leans down until he’s propped up on his feet, but without having to kneel in the dirt.

“Does this work for Shen Yuan?”

“Hm! Now stay still.”

It’s quick work, maybe a bit quicker than Binghe would’ve minded, but eventually Shen Yuan taps his shoulder again so he can get up, turning so he can face the demon and have the final result inspected. Shen Yuan had pulled all his hair back in a secure ponytail, a perfectly serviceable hairstyle, but with the way he puts one hand on his chin and hums, it still doesn't meet whatever standards he’s trying to achieve.

“Something’s missing… Here, let me…” He mumbles, mostly thinking out loud, and raises his hands, who are just short of Binghe’s forehead. Shen Yuan huffs, annoyed, and motions for Binghe to lean down again, which he does and, as retribution for letting Shen Yuan have his fun, doesn’t bother to hide his laughter.

Shen Yuan simply ignores him and tugs at the front of his hair, letting some curly pieces fall and frame his face. The demon takes a step back, cautiously, and finally appears to be satisfied, putting his hands on his hips and puffing his chest out proudly.

“Hmm, hmm~ This is perfect! Now Binghe doesn’t have to worry about hair getting all over his face, and he doesn’t get to hide when he’s feeling shy!” Shen Yuan declares, which only makes Binghe feel heat quickly rising to his face, and his hand automatically goes to pull at his hair, ultimately proving Shen Yuan’s point.

“S…Shen Yuan didn’t need to bother himself with this…”

“Haha, it’s alright. I figured I might as well make Binghe’s travels a little easier.” Luo Binghe’s eyes widen, a strong feeling of deja-vu washing over him, but before he can think on it any deeper, Shen Yuan is already running off towards the blockade, looking over his shoulder and waving enthusiastically all the while.

Even as he’s actively walking away, Shen Yuan stills seems to not have finished saying everything he wants, and without any care, shouts back at Binghe. “Safe travels and all! When we meet again, Binghe should teach me some recipes!”

It makes Binghe chuckle, and he tentatively raises one hand to wave back at the retreating demon. “Sure! And Shen Yuan should continue his story about the Silent Palace while we’re at it!” he shouts back, and it makes Shen Yuan stumble slightly, almost stopping him in his tracks, but the demon quickly recovers and lets out a deeply pleased laugh, the type someone lets out when couldn’t get any happier; it makes Binghe’s own fond smile grow wider.

“I’m gonna hold you to that! Bye-bye, Binghe!” And with that, Shen Yuan disappears from view over the horizon line.

Hm. ‘Safe travels and all.’, hadn't Shen Yuan, the first one, also said something like that to him before they…

Luo Binghe makes a promise to himself to come back to the temple when he finds some free time, but for now, towards the Silent Palace he goes.

*

The way to the Silent Palace is, perhaps not too surprisingly, silent; it’s not an eerie silence, but a continuation of the easy morning as Binghe follows the River’s waters, with warm sunlight peeking through the treetops. It is, all in all, a very pleasant walk, but not exactly a fitting one considering the situation at hand. The Palace is a rather short distance from the Ruins, and from what Luo Binghe could gather from his short time observing the demon clan, they did not seem like a bunch that could keep their peace for too long before some petty fight broke out between its members, so with those pieces of information in mind, it was quite weird for ambient noise to be all Binghe could hear.

The sky’s eternal blue hasn’t even changed hues when he comes across another trace of Di-er – a note, of course, stuck to a rotting wooden plaque, whatever may have once been engraved on the wood completely wiped off with time. No matter, the plaque isn’t important anyway, and he focuses back on the note, gently prying it off the rotting wood.

‘Congrats!

The first part of the Tutorial has been successfully completed! ヾ(｡✪ω✪｡)ｼ

Thanking Binghe for helping #26 ദ്ദി（• ˕ •.ᐟ

– 02’

As usual, his heart skips a beat knowing that he’s managed to live up to Di-er’s expectations, but something else catches his eye: ‘26’. When he’d met Shen Yuan, he’d referred to the Watcher in the temple as ‘Thirty Four’, and now Di-er is referring to Shen Yuan as ‘Twenty Six’; was it that they all had coded numbers for some reason? But it also didn’t seem to matter too much, since both Shen Yuan’s introduced themselves by name, so it didn’t seem like personal names weren’t allowed, unless all of them were named ‘Shen Yuan’, and they just gave themselves numbers to better distinguish one person from the other, but that can’t be it either, it just sounds so… so…

That can’t be it, can it?

…No, no, it can’t be.

…..Can it?

He is pulled away from his musings when his foot catches on a particularly large rock, making him almost fall face first onto the muddy riverside, thankfully he manages to steady himself before he undoes all of Shen Yuan’s work on his hair, but it is annoying enough he considers kicking it out of the way, or smashing it into a million pieces under his boot. When Binghe properly looks at the offending rock, however, he is met with the broken and unmoving corpse of one of the ‘gargoyles’ from the demon clan.

It makes Luo Binghe raise an eyebrow, and slowly turn to look at the River in front of him, and just as he suspected, a trail of bodies line up the riverside all the way to the edge of the trees, presumably going all the way to the Silent Palace, where the roof peaks out from over the trees. At the very least it means that Binghe won’t have to bother with too many enemies this time around.

Mostly out of precaution than out of any real concern for the dead demons, he kneels down next to the corpse to inspect it – it would be quite the inconvenience if all these demons fell dead because a bigger and stronger demon also decided to try messing with the Silent Palace, though, because of the nature of these demons to have such stone-like skin, any wounds in their flesh just end up looking like cracks, so any of Binghe’s plans to try and identify claw or bite marks are immediately thrown out the window. Still, not all hope is lost, and with a tiny drop of his own blood, Binghe manages to do a full internal check of the demon’s organs, which indicate no signs of trauma or poison; it’s almost as if they became actual statues and simply fell down, fragile marble breaking upon impact with the hard ground.

He’s not able to get any more information out of the bodies, and after a quick check of the area for any hostile entities, Binghe decides that any chance of his questions getting answers could only lie at the Silent Palace itself, so he sets off once more, burning any bodies he comes across just in case with a flicker of qi.

In no time Luo Binghe finds himself looking up at the Silent Palace, its appearance closer to that of temples dedicated only to the most important of deities, or perhaps to the Heavenly Emperor himself; still, even if he didn’t know about what is sealed inside there, the mounting pressure on his shoulders from the resentful, almost malevolent energy spilling out from the building could give him a pretty good guess as to what it could be.

As the half-demon approached the main gates, he instinctively began to look for a horned figure clad in black and white, but as it appeared, this time no Watcher was there to greet him, and no matter how much Binghe looked around, it didn't seem like one was going to materialize out of thin air either. His eyebrows furrowed, was there something wrong? From what it seems a good portion of the demon clan’s gargoyles got naturally countered by the Eye’s natural energy(?), but that didn't erase the possibility of there being a demon with stronger endurance among their ranks; had one of these demons done something to the Watcher that was supposed to wait for him?

Not that either Shen Yuan (Thirty Four), Shen Yuan (Twenty Six) or Di-er mentioned that there was going to be a Watcher waiting for him at the Silent Palace, but it just seemed like the standard at this point… Was the disappointment prickling at his mind an issue entirely of his own? Maybe, despite his best efforts, Binghe hadn’t actually managed to lock up his heart as well as he’d thought and, like he was fourteen again, got a tiny bit attached a tiny bit too quickly to creatures that would never hold him in the same regard as he does th–

Snoooore.

… …?

Did he… Did he hear that right? Just in case, he stills himself as much as possible, careful to not breathe too loud, and puts all his attention into the sounds surrounding him. The ruffle of leaves, running water, a small creature running around somewhere, a soft, rhythmic rustle of clothes that were not his own, and–

Snoooore.

Luo Binghe opens his eyes – he hadn’t even realized they were closed – and turns his head towards a seemingly unimportant tree, and, still mindful to distinguish which noises came from his own movements, carefully approaches the tree. It is not particularly wide, and there seems to be no hole for an animal to hide inside, as well as not having any foliage around it that could hide whatever seems to be… snoring. If the noise isn’t coming from around it nor inside it, then the only place left to check would be…

Slowly, he turns his head up, up the length of the trunk and towards a thick enough branch that could, hypothetically, hold the weight of an entire person– and just as he suspected, laid atop the branch is a familiar figure of dark tipped horns and black and white robes.

He feels a vein pulse on the side of his forehead.

Uncaring of the peaceful sight of the sleeping Watcher above him, Binghe mouth curls into a tight lipped smile as he takes one, two, three steps back, and with one last look at the undisturbed sight, digs his heels on the dirt launching himself up and forward, legs set straight as he slams into the trunk–

“WAHH–!”

The whole tree shakes from the impact, and the Watcher flails as the tremor runs from the trunk all the way to one specific branch, a careful line of qi helping ease the process as the impact manages to weaken the connection between the branch and the trunk enough that it breaks clean. The Watcher tries to catch onto anything that can break his fall, but it all happens too fast, and soon enough, his body will make direct contact with the hard forest ground–

But instead of falling onto the ground, the Watcher instead falls into a pair of strong arms, saving him from splattering onto the ground like rotten fruit. Still a bit disoriented, the Watcher groans in the arms of his savior, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes from over his cloth mask, and only after taking a few seconds to relocate himself does he finally look up towards Luo Binghe.

“Ugh… Thank you for catch– Ah.”

“Good morning. Did this illustrious Watcher sleep well?” Binghe smiles, jaw tensed in irritation. With the way the Watcher seems to slightly stiffen in his arms, his attempts to mask his annoyance were in vain. Taking note of their unusual positions, the Watcher wiggles himself out of Binghe’s arms, though not exactly bothered to get himself back to his feet with any haste, and only after a few painfully awkward seconds, does the sleepy Watcher gets off the arms holding him, stands up and adjusts his robes before properly addressing his new companion.

“Ah, what was it… Oh, right, um–” It’s how it starts; not great, in Binghe’s opinion.

“Welcome Luo Binghe. Congratulations on making it to the Endless Abyss and, consequently, the Silent Palace.” The Watcher says, reciting a clearly pre-planned introduction, though the whole performance lands a bit flat with how noticeably sleepy the speaker sounds. He pauses for two seconds, perhaps noticing how unenthused he sounds, and for an extra flare, extends his arms a little and wiggles them from side to side in mock celebration. Wow, Luo Binghe’s really feeling the weight of his achievements now.

“I am the Watcher that will guide you through this part of your journey, number Twenty Two, but Binghe can call me Sh–”

“Shen Yuan.” Binghe interrupts the demon. He lets out a long suffering sigh, so it’s really going to be like this.

“Ah, yeah…”

The two stare at each other in awkward silence for a few seconds, them both waiting for the other to start speaking; a weird moment overall, but a great opportunity for Binghe to take in the appearance of the new Shen Yuan he’s been introduced to. The bottom part of his robes stays the same as the other Watchers, as well as the characteristic long white sleeves that extend way past the hands, but he differs in the way that the white top piece hangs onto the crook of his elbows, draping over the small of his back not unlike someone who just woke up from a nap and hastily put something on – which, well, was what actually had just happened – but besides that, this Shen Yuan sports the addition of a loose white hood over his head just behind his horns, with his hair parted in two low pigtails over his chest, and his mask, while still portraying the eye all other Watchers have, his is drawn closed.

Shen Yuan (Twenty Two) says nothing throughout Binghe’s entire inspection, not bothered by being looked over top to bottom. Hm, maybe a bit too unbothered, since, as the silence stretches on, he makes no move to explain their next steps or any move in general, as if he’s fallen asleep–

…

Slowly, Binghe brings one hand close to Shen Yuan’s face, waving directly in front of it, but it brings no reaction from the demon – ha, so he did actually just fall asleep while standing up. Binghe huffs, not as annoyed as he perhaps should be, but that probably is an effect of him getting used to the Watchers as a whole, after all, each one of them seems… unique in their own ways.

It’s honestly a bit impressive that Shen Yuan fell asleep so quickly, especially with Binghe around. It's actually a bit flattering if he thinks about it, for Shen Yuan to be so at ease around him that he managed to fall asleep around Luo Binghe even if they’ve just met.

Quite an awful amount of trust to freely showcase around like that…

If Luo Binghe were a better person, he’d take this trust and honor it, and maybe if they met a few years before, he would do exactly that, but the Luo Binghe of the present is, unfortunately, not the same person he was back then, and because of that he can’t help but take just a little advantage from the situation. After all, the way the cloth mask flutters in the wind is quite the tempting sight, especially since no other Watchers managed to slip up in regards to it.

Until now.

Carefully, so very carefully, he pinches the edge of the mask between two fingers, willing his hand to be still despite his increasingly faster heartbeat, and, with bated breath, slowly pulls the cloth up. Up, up, until he catches sight of a pointy chin and up, up, until he sees a relaxed mouth, adorned with plump, delicate lips that make his own mouth feel dry. He should stop, their faces must be covered for a reason, and it shouldn’t be up to him whether any of the Watchers decide to reveal their faces to him but… He’s already come this far, just a bit more shouldn’t hurt, right? Besides, he just wants a little glimpse, just one, and then he’ll put the mask back in place and wake Shen Yuan up so they can do what they need to do.

But just a bit more, so up, up he goes, far enough to reveal a straight, elegant nose.

A bit more, just a bit more. So up, up–

CRASH!

Demon and half-demon jump in surprise as a loud noise sounds from inside the Palace; Binghe lets go of the cloth in his surprise, and Shen Yuan jolts awake “Wh– Ah, I’m awake, I’m awake!”

Binghe takes a step back as Shen Yuan tries to drive off any remaining sleep from his mind, internally grateful that the Watcher doesn’t seem to have noticed Binghe’s… transgressions, and as Shen Yuan rights himself up, Binghe takes the time to calm his frantic heart and rid his own mind of his own less than useful thoughts.

“Haa, okay, I’m really awake now.” Shen Yuan mumbles, before rubbing at his eyes from atop the mask one last time and addressing Binghe “Right. Um, Binghe was here to help out with the demons trying to get to the Titan’s Eye, yeah?”

“...Correct, I was sent here by Di-er and yesterday helped Shen Yu– ahem, Twenty Six with the barri–”

“No, yeah, I know, don’t worry. I really thought the Eye’s residual power would be enough to stop them from getting closer but, as you can see–” He stops for a second, before letting out a long yawn and getting back on track, voice still slightly monotone “– haa… As you can see, one still managed to get inside…”

“Alright, though, if Shen Yuan doesn’t mind, I’d like to ask him a question.”

“Oh, sure. Shoot.”

“...Shoot?” Binghe tilts his head slightly, a bit confused. Shen Yuan doesn’t bother giving him an explanation, instead tiredly waving one sleeve towards nothing as a sign for him to continue. Well, whatever then.

“The Eye sealed in the Silent Palace, is its energy strong enough to really have killed those stone demons? I do feel a certain pressure coming from inside the Palace, but it doesn’t feel strong enough to the point of causing physical harm, much less killing something.”

That seems to make Shen Yuan perk up a bit. “Oh… The demons died?”

‘Was that not supposed to happen?’ “From what I could gather, yes.”

“Hmm.” Shen Yuan once again falls silent, though obviously he stays awake from the way he sways slightly from side to side while thinking. “Well, Binghe doesn’t have to worry about it for now. It only affected those demons because they are weak, but Binghe is very strong, so he should have no problems with it.”

The way Shen Yuan states Binghe’s strength so casually, like it’s an undeniable fact, makes Binghe have to bite back a giddy smile. He knows he is strong, and continues to grow stronger by the day, but having Shen Yuan casually stating it like that… It makes it feel more real, somehow. And while Binghe was thriving over the unintentional compliment, it seems Shen Yuan has slightly hurried his pace, and now stands beside the main gates.

“Binghe, let’s go.” He says after another yawn, and Binghe doesn’t even register that he’s being ordered around– he simply nods and happily goes along.

*

The difference between standing outside of the Silent Palace and inside is almost comical in how drastic it is. While outside the oppressive energy was already present and quite heavy, there is no comparison to the almost crushing energy bearing down on Luo Binghe right now; no wonder lesser demons couldn't bear the weaker energy outside if even a (half) Heavenly Demon was feeling its enhanced presence now.

Shen Yuan, of course, remained completely unaffected by the Eye, another one of the benefits that came with being a Watcher. “...Binghe? Oh, you’re all the way back there, do you need any help?”

“Haa…” Binghe heaves, leaning onto a wall to catch his breath; they’ve gone up two flights of stairs now, and while Binghe wasn’t worried at the beginning since none of the weaker demons would’ve survived the pressure, it quickly became obvious that what he should concern himself with was if he was going to fall victim to the overwhelming power of a piece of the Titan’s body too.

He jealously looks back towards Shen Yuan, posture slightly curved not from the pressure but, apparently, tiredness.

“Explain to me… exactly what are you again…?” He manages to say through gritted teeth.

“Hmm… Explaining everything would take too long.” Shen Yuan mumbles, not exactly something meant for Binghe’s ears, but he breezes through it fast enough that Binghe has to store away the information for later. “Well, I’ll make it quick. Watchers have three main purposes to our lives: cataloguing everything there is in the Abyss, report it back to the Titan, and uphold the balance.” He explains in that same monotone voice he uses when letting out rehearsed pieces of information.

“That’s why we can’t let just anyone mess with the Titan’s body, y’know? Messes up with all of those three things at once…” He continues. “What was it that I said? Ah, that ‘it would throw everything into chaos’. Or something, I’m pretty tired.”

Interesting. A few things jumped out in Binghe’s mind during the explanation, mainly that Shen Yuan had a speech prepared specifically for explaining the Watcher’s objectives just up and ready to go, and that tiny bit where he mentions ‘reporting back to the Titan’.

Isn’t the Titan dead? Well, maybe not dead, but sealed enough that its body has become one with the environment; is it still conscious though? Its limbs were hacked up and sealed away probably because those Divine General demons Shen Yuan (Twenty Six) mentioned couldn’t actually kill the TItan, but for it to still maintain enough of its consciousness to communicate with the Watchers… Luo Binghe doesn’t know if the more he learns about the Titan, it’s his fear or respect that grows.

Ugh, this damned pressure is really not helping him think, he’ll have to try to piece everything together when he’s out of this damned Palace. And, speaking of things revealed to him…

“That’s… That’s nice and all, but Shen Yuan still… hasn’t explained how he’s walking around just fine…” Binghe asks, still out of breath, to which Shen Yuan replies with “Ah. That’s because I’m strong too.”, bringing his arms up and flexing his thin, barely muscled arms, all the while talking with that same monotone, matter-of-fact voice. Binghe huffs, a smile making its way to his face without his consent. Maybe the Palace isn’t that bad, all things considered.

Alright, it seems he’s rested enough that Binghe can walk for a little longer without having to stop for another break, and after denying Shen Yuan’s help for a second time, they continue onwards.

The Silent Palace, surprisingly, doesn’t have all that much to look at inside it. He’s not sure whether the place was constructed specifically to house the Titan’s Eye or the Eye was sealed here after, but despite the order of events it’s made abundantly clear that the place is quite old; a thin layer of dust covers every surface and Binghe has had to duck beneath at least through three spider webs. Beyond that, the halls consist of mostly paper sliding doors closed shut, and the rare door that is open reveals an empty room, usually adorned with only a mural on the wall opposite to its entrance.

The place is also very dark, a side effect of its lack of windows, and even with Binghe’s enhanced vision (from both cultivation and demonic sides), darkness stubbornly clings to every corner – with that said, Binghe can barely make out some of the murals in the painted rooms, all slightly different from each other, but almost always depicting a tall, naked figure with a gaping hole in it’s chest, long, dark hair and a crown of horns adorning it’s head. Binghe never stays to look at them for long, as the sight of the figure makes something tug painfully at his heart, and he doesn’t need another hindrance slowing him down.

Anyways, since there isn’t much to look at while the pair climb up seemingly an endless flight of stairs (seriously, how many floors are there?), only the sounds of clothes rustling, two pairs of footsteps and Binghe’s heavy breaths fill the air while they walk – a drastic change from hearing Shen Yuan (Twenty Six) endless stream of thoughts all the time, and surprisingly, not a welcome one.

This Shen Yuan seems to not have any intention of making conversation besides yawning every now and then, so Binghe decides to take this sacrifice for the team, and clears his throat.

“So… Do you Watchers have specific… haa… specific naming rules, or something?”

“Hm?” Shen Yuan’s head straightens up, snapping him out of dozing off even while walking. “Oh… No, not really.”

“Hmm… Then, how come I’ve met three of you with the same name? In a row, too.”

“What…? Oh. Oh! Well it’s because–”

CRASH!

A door a few paces away from them suddenly gets blown wide open, a hulking body crashing straight through the plain paper screens and slamming onto the opposing wall with a bang.

Right, Binghe had forgotten that at least one of the demons had managed to infiltrate the Silent Palace and not immediately succumbed to the Eye’s pressure. On the bright side, when looking over to the wall the demon had crashed onto, it seemed to actually be a set of two heavy-looking metal doors, something similar to the entrance gates, though with a big, decorated lock right in the middle of them; if the Titan’s Eye wasn’t behind those doors, Binghe wasn’t sure where else it could be.

“We need to stop it… I doubt the demon could actually break down the doors, but still…” Shen Yuan half mutters, speaking with the same urgency as his soup having gotten cold, though it’s obvious it is ultimately Binghe’s call to action, to which he gladly steps up to answer.

“Shen Yuan shouldn’t worry, this shouldn’t take too long.”

“Hm, be careful…”

Binghe smirks at Shen Yuan and takes a step forward, brandishing his sword and pointing it at the demon, who, upon seeing the glint of metal pointing at it, stops in its second attempt to slam onto the metal doors. Upon closer inspection, the demon seems to be one of the gargoyle variations Binghe had already fought back in the Guardtown Ruins, though perhaps slightly bigger – in any case, all the demons in the Ruins were embarrassingly easy to defeat, so perhaps this one will give him a bit more of a challenge, but he doesn’t dare set his expectations too high.

The demon snarls and rushes towards Binghe, claws scraping against the floor in it’s desperation to eliminate an unforeseen enemy, but this already slow demon grows to become even slower when under the pressure of the Eye just beyond those closed doors, so Binghe has plenty of time to imbue his sword with concentrated demonic energy and slash the demon’s body in one bl–

It turns out that just because the demon is not at it’s best shape due to the pressure, it doesn’t mean Binghe magically stops being affected by it as well, and even as he manages to slash at the demon, the pressure combined with his already present exhaustion causes his aim to be slightly off, and instead of the demon’s neck, he slashes at the demon’s shoulder, with doesn’t do much to stop it’s charge.

It slams its head against Luo Binghe’s stomach and sends him flying, crashing through paper doors and murals until he slams onto a wall and slumps to the floor in a pile of smoke, paper and shame. He groans, reaching for his sword and just as he grasps the handle, the demon jumps through the broken murals and on top of Binghe, a stone-like hand immediately flying to slash at the half-demon’s stomach.

At the last second Binghe manages to take hold of his sword and sparks fly when metal crashes against stone, his arm shaking as he struggles to block the gargoyle’s heavy stone claws away from his vitals and when the demon leans a bit too much of its weight onto the sword, it’s only a matter of Binghe digging his feet on the floor to throw the demon to the side, getting to his feet despite his own shaky legs and brandishing his sword once more.

The demon growls and claws at the floor as it scrambles to get up, but this time it doesn’t immediately charge at it’s opponent, instead it makes sure of its footing, digging it’s nails under the wooden floorboards before taking in a breath so big it puffs out its chest quite comically; Binghe’s seen this trick before though, and no matter if the gargoyle is reading a breath of flames, ice or poisonous mist, he’s seen it all and evidently survived to tell the tale.

What he is not ready for, however, is when the beast lets out a shrieking scream, so absurdly loud and high pitched Binghe can feel the structure vibrating beneath his feet – in fact, not just the building but his insides too,as his muscles tense up until they lock in place as the scream resonates with his bones, his joints screaming in pain as they shake inside his skin. He clenches his eyes shut and his hands spasm around the handle of his sword, itching to plug his ears in a desperate attempt to try to snuff out the noise but Luo Binghe manages to not give into the temptation, his sword the one advantage he has over the gargoyle.

It takes way longer than appreciated, and Binghe has to use the blood coming out of his ears as earplugs after a certain point, but eventually the demon finally runs out of breath and seizes screaming. Binghe slowly opens his eyes, the sensation of his eardrums reconstructing themselves a feeling he would rather not have to experience again, and prepares his sword–

Only to see that the demon’s screeching managed to shatter the blade like crystal glass.

He takes too long looking in shock over his now bladeless sword, and when he finally manages to be able to hear again, his eyes shoot up as the demon is suddenly right in front of him, just centimeters away of clawing Luo Binghe’s face off–

A puddle of black liquid forms on the ceiling just above the demon and just as quickly as it appeared, Shen Yuan emerges from it and drops down, slamming onto the demon’s back, wielding a pitch black sword as its blade sinks straight through the gemstone inlaid between the demon’s wings.

It gives one last pitiful screech as it crashes to the floor before becoming limp and, finally, succumbing under the Eye’s pressure, crumbling like a broken stone statue. Luo Binghe can only blink at the scene before him, stunned, as he tries to catch his breath and his blood parasites try to heal all his new wounds, and watches as Shen Yuan casually rights himself, slightly stumbling as he backs away from the demon’s remains, the black blade he holds melting away before vanishing into a puddle of black water.

Shen Yuan barely spares a glance at the corpse before rushing over Binghe, hands hovering in the air as he checks over his companion, hesitant to make any of the wounds worse by touching them. “Is Binghe alright? Sorry I didn’t help earlier, but at least that’s done with.”

“...Y-yeah…” He answers, still dazed.

Binghe imagines that, if he could see Shen Yuan’s face, the man would be frowning in concern. “Hmm… Maybe we should take a break–”

A wave of energy pulses from behind the door, strong enough to almost topple over both of them.

“...We should continue first.” Binghe says.

“Mhm.” Shen Yuan nods, a bit taken aback by the phenomena, and it becomes clear enough to Binghe that, potentially, something could be wrong with the Eye itself.

They both head towards the doors and Binghe finally manages to see it with a bit more clarity; the door itself is engraved with various ornaments, a lot of which Binghe doesn’t recognize or understand, but he can see the same tall figure from the murals, surrounded by veiled servants – it’s quite clear what the door is depicting, but what catches Binghe’s attention is a small gemstone inlaid in the engraved Titan’s left eye, softly glowing an unnatural red.

Binghe can see from the corner of his eye the way Shen Yuan stops and observes that same gem, but he doesn’t say anything else before extending his arms and carefully putting his hands on the door, each hand on top of an indent apparently made for this specific reason.

The weighing pressure starts to shift, swirling and gathering over the door as, once again, black liquid comes out from underneath Shen Yuan’s sleeves and starts to travel through the indents of the door, highlighting a path hidden in plain sight before it reaches the Titan’s eye. With a sequence of clicks the complicated looking metal lock on the door’s center starts to shift and turn and finally, the door opens with a rumble, but before Binghe can even think to look inside, he sees Shen Yuan stumble back and rushes forward to catch the demon in his arms before he falls (there is no need to mention the way he also stumbles back with even more weight pressing onto him, it’s a bit embarrassing considering how light Shen Yuan actually feels.)

“Shen Yuan?”

“Ah… Sorry, sorry, we can keep going.” Shen Yuan says, voice a bit breathier than before. Binghe has half a mind to question him further, but considering the way he is rapidly approaching his own limit, and their goal is just a few steps away, he settles with helping Shen Yuan right himself up.

Floor to ceiling, the room housing the Titan’s Eye is covered with all manners of talismans and arrays possible, and in the middle of it floats the Eye itself; in all honesty, it looks more like a giant boulder than anything else, engraved with an iris in its middle and also covered in hundreds of talismans slips, so perhaps Binghe isn’t as impressed as he thought it would be – he’s having a hard time truly understanding that what he’s seeing is a massive eye as tall as he is, belonging to an even larger creature. He shakes his head, focusing on his objective but besides the pressure increasing the closer he gets to the eye, the room is completely empty besides him and Shen Yuan, and none of the talismans or arrays look damaged.

The Eye pulses with energy again, aggravating the injuries he got from fighting the gargoyle, and it takes way too much of Binghe’s strength to keep himself from falling to his knees; he takes a shaky breath and turns to Shen Yuan.“Everything looks…as fine as it can look. Are we done here?”

“Umm…” Shen Yuan stiffens up, suddenly awkward, and Binghe already can feel a headache (unrelated to the Eye) building up as he prepares himself to hear whatever it is Shen Yuan is about to say. “I haven’t been exactly clear on what we have come here to do…”

Luo Binghe lets out a heavy sigh, but when Shen Yuan turns to look at him expecting some sort of reaction, Binghe just stays silent, which prompts the Watcher to continue: “There’s still one more thing left to do. I told Binghe that Watchers are responsible for keeping order and not letting the Titan’s parts go onto the wrong hands, but we aren’t here to ensure the parts are kept sealed, we…are here to actually unseal them.”

…

Binghe blinks. His whole body hurts, he’s one gust of wind away from falling on his face and there’s way too many things he wants to ask, but right now, the thing that matters the most to him is getting out of his place.

“...You know what? Sure, whatever. Shen Yuan should hurry up, then.” He says, urging Shen Yuan forward with a nod of his head.

“Ah, I can’t. I actually had to use a lot of energy to ambush that demon and open the door… So…” He deliberately turns his head towards Binghe, ‘looking’ at him expectantly. So that’s actually why Shen Yuan was acting all sheepish.

Binghe sighs. At least Shen Yuan’s aware of how much he’s asking.

The half-demon drags himself towards the Eye and examines the talismans covering it, though they look complicated, there doesn’t seem to be anything in them that indicates a defense mechanism, and since Shen Yuan hasn’t mentioned any special way of going about this, Binghe decides to try the simplest method first and takes hold of one of the talismans closer to him; he closes his eyes, struggling to concentrate to how tired he feels, but he manages to send in a trickle of qi towards the talisman, saturating the paper until it–

His eyes snap open as the talisman suddenly becomes alight, a demonic fire consumes it and quickly travels towards all the other talismans, some pieces of burning paper fluttering down until just as setting fire to the talismans on the floors and up the walls too. There is no time to react, in one moment the room is filled with fire and the other he is faced with the full, unsealed power of the Titan’s Eye, and just as he is hit with such overwhelming power, his body fails, sending him to the floor and his consciousness along with it.

The last thing he manages to see is the Eye, now cleared from whatever effect the seals put on its appearance as it stares directly at Luo Binghe’s fallen body; from the corner of his vision Shen Yuan slowly walks closer before kneeling beside him, gently patting his hair in comfort. He takes Luo Binghe’s hand and presses it back to the surface of the eye.

“Goodnight, Binghe.”

It feels nice. Luo Binghe closes his eyes, and falls asleep.

Chapter Text

When Luo Binghe opens his eyes again, he knows he is inside a dream.

He's lying down on his back in what appears to be a grassfield surrounded by strange, tall grey buildings adorned with rows and rows of square glass windows; his body feels unnaturally heavy but he eventually manages to force his muscles to obey him, standing up only to immediately be faced with a strange sight: in the middle of a small black lake is an island, and just behind it floats a giant demon with crumbling limbs and a crown of horns that goes past the clouds. In the middle of its chest sits a gaping hole, or perhaps a wound bound to never close, filled with the same black water of the lake.

Binghe's head hurts, and it feels like it's spinning, so it takes him a second longer than usual for him to remember he's been here before, and it really hasn't been that long either, he's had this 'dream' when he was still wandering the Abyss, but at this point it almost feels like a lifetime ago.

Hadn’t he tried to take control of the dreamscape back then? Or reach out to Meng Mo? For some reason, he feels no such urgencies this time as information slowly trickles into his brain. He knows he's in a ‘City’, even if logically this defies all his knowledge of what a city should look like, and he knows the demon floating in the sky is a ‘Vessel’.

He walks towards the island. He knows there is someone waiting for him.

As he gets closer (slowly, he’s not usually this slow), he takes in the sights of the City, and it mostly looks just like he remembers it from the first dream, even if he instinctively knows he’ll forget it as soon as he wakes up, though there is one main difference: at the edge of the horizon, unnaturally overlaid on top of the grey towers, there is red and black smoke. Hm, maybe ‘smoke’ is not the best word to describe it, since Binghe can see it pulsing like a heart, but he can’t think of any other way to describe it. He knows the corruption comes from the ‘Heart’ anyways.

When he reaches the edge of the lake, he notices that there is someone sitting on the island; he’s not sure when they appeared, but he knows they’ve always been there.

“Hello, Binghe.” They say. Their voice is strangely familiar. He doesn’t answer though, he knows he doesn’t need to yet.

“Come closer, let’s have a chat.” They say. Binghe looks down at the calm waters of the lake, and maybe it’s because of its color or maybe because of its depth, but he doesn’t see anywhere he can go; he looks back at the figure and they smile – Binghe can’t see their face clearly from where he is, but he knows they’re smiling.

He looks back down and hesitates only for a second before taking a step onto the lake. His foot stops just above the gentle waves. He walks forward until he reaches the middle of the island.

When he’s some ten paces away from the figure, a low, guttural groan echoes from above, and when he turns his head up, he remembers the Vessel is there, towering over him, though somehow it doesn’t cast its shadow over Binghe.

“Binghe.” The figure says, and Binghe snaps his head back down. “Don’t mind that. Here, let me look at you.”

They stand up and Binghe realizes he can get a clearer look at what they look like. They are small, maybe half a head smaller than himself, with criminally short hair that barely reaches their cheek at its longest, and weird, baggy clothes that Binghe has never seen before. They also sport square-ish glasses, though for some reason, he can’t quite see what their face looks like; he knows they are looking at him, however, and that their eyes are kind.

“Hello, Binghe.” They repeat and slowly walk closer to him; Binghe doesn’t understand why they’re being so careful with him, as he knows they won’t harm him, but still, he waits patiently until they stand before him, letting them inspect his body from head to toe.

They hum, pleased. “I’m glad to see Binghe’s doing well.”

“...Who are you?” He replies, and immediately wants to take his words back. Thankfully, they don’t seem offended, chuckling in good nature, before extending one hand.

“It’s okay. I am SHEN YUAN, Binghe can just call me YUAN, though.”

Binghe blinks, feeling a bit dazed, but he manages to extend his own hand and lightly grab onto YUAN’s. He doesn’t understand why his heart skips a beat when he sees bony, long pale fingers contrasting against his rough palm. It feels like way too long and not long enough when they let go of each other.

“Sorry for the rather abrupt meeting, I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.” YUAN says, sheepishly looking down and lightly kicking the ground; Binghe is a bit taken aback with how he wants YUAN to look only at him. It feels especially silly when not even a second later YUAN turns his head back towards him.

“Binghe, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

YUAN’s smile widens at his enthusiasm, but it quickly becomes saddened by something beyond Binghe’s knowledge. “Then tell me, are you willing to do anything to become stronger?”

“Yes.” He says, but he feels like it’s the wrong answer.

YUAN hums, neither pleased or displeased, and takes one step closer to Binghe, raising pale hands to adjust Binghe’s clothes, but when YUAN reaches for his hair, he takes a step back; YUAN immediately pauses, and Binghe is just as startled as him, as he had not intended to move at all, but he finds that he doesn’t regret it.

“Is something wrong?” YUAN asks, gently, and Binghe feels a bit embarrassed to have made him worry at all.

“I-I’m alright, it’s just… Someone I ca– uhm, know did my hair for me so…”

Binghe can tell YUAN’s eyes widen even behind the blurry vision, before the shorter man breaks out in laughter, having to place a hand on Binghe’s shoulder to support himself as he laughs his breath away; not sure how to react, Binghe can only stand there and make sure YUAN doesn’t fall over, but he makes no move to hide his confusion.

“I–...”

“S-sorry, sorry, haha–” YUAN says, pulling back as he eventually gets his laughter under control. When he’s done catching his breath, he sighs, pulling himself together. “It’s nothing. I’m glad Binghe is having a good time, is all.”

“...?”

The way Binghe slightly tilts his head in confusion almost makes YUAN break out in another fit of laughter, but he manages to get himself under control before leading Binghe to the edge of the island and sitting down to dip his toes in the black water, which has expended to cover everything at some point, with a setting sun making the waters glimmer over the horizon.

YUAN beckons Binghe to sit next to him, and only when the half-demon does, YUAN speaks up again.

“Binghe has been fighting for so long.” he says “I’d love to just give you a place to rest for a bit.”

“...This Binghe appreciates YUAN’s wishes, but I couldn’t rest right now even if I wanted to. I still have to catch up to Di-er, and eventually find Xin M–”

“I know.” He interrupts, tensing up when he realizes his voice came out a bit harder than he intended. He sighs, and tries again. “I know.”

A strange silence settles over them as the pair continue to watch over the black ocean; there are calm waves lapping at their feet every so often, but they make no sound.

“Binghe.”

“Hm?”

YUAN hesitates for a second, the hand casually propping him up closing and unclosing in a rhythmic pattern before he finally makes up his mind. “I’d like to help Binghe. In finding Xin Mo.”

Binghe turns his head towards YUAN, who’s still looking at the horizon. “...Really?”

“Hm.” YUAN nods, and turns towards Binghe. “Though, Binghe would have to help me first.” He says, tone apologetic.

At the back of his mind, Binghe thinks he probably should have a stronger reaction to YUAN pulling a condition like this out of nowhere, in reality he does feel a tiny bit disappointed that YUAN wouldn’t just help him with Xin Mo for no additional price, but his minds stops there and doesn’t question it any further, and before he realizes, he’s already nodding.

“I’ll help YUAN with anything.”

SHEN YUAN smiles. The dream crumbles around them.

*

The next time Luo Binghe opens his eyes, he is greeted with gentle sunlight and a comforting breeze.

He stares dazedly at the gentle silks of an unfamiliar canopy bed, mind empty as he tries to understand what he had just dreamed of; already he can feel the dream slipping away, but everything feels oh so heavy, and he can't muster up any motivation to grasp at the slipping dream.

Either seconds or hours pass, he’s not too sure, before Binghe hears far away sounds coming from behind the room's doors, and it's just enough disturbance that whatever spell binding his body to the mattress is broken, and he manages to sit up just as the sliding doors open.

A familiar figure steps into the room, and no matter how many similar demons with similar names he comes across, it still hasn't been enough to wipe away the tightness in his heart when his gaze falls upon Thirty Four.

Shen Yuan falters slightly when he notices Luo Binghe is already awake, the neat braid hanging down his chest swaying gently as he balances a tray on his sleeve covered hands. The two stare at each other for no more than a second, but Binghe’s feeling particularly out of sorts this morning, and doesn't even think twice before breaking eye contact to instead stare at his hands, clutching at the sheets.

He doesn't have the courage to look up when he hears Shen Yuan move around again, nor when the pottery slightly clicks against itself when he puts the tray onto the bedside table, nor when Shen Yuan carefully moves over so he sits by Binghe’s bedside, somehow still feeling far away even if he's sitting by Binghe's legs.

They sit in silence for a while, Binghe desperately trying to think of something casual to say, palms starting to grow sweaty as he clutches them against each other; Shen Yuan is apparently braver than he is, as he softly clears his throat before speaking.

“How is Binghe feeling?”

A perfectly normal question. Binghe can figure out that he most likely was brought here after whatever happened with the Eye.

Still, it makes shame bubble up in his throat.

“I–... I'm sor–”

“Binghe.”

He looks up at Shen Yuan; of course, his face is covered, but something about the way he holds himself makes Binghe feel like he's a child all over again, getting scolded by an adult.

Shen Yuan shuffles closer –gently, oh so gently– and takes one of Binghe’s hands, carefully spreading out his fingers from where he'd unconsciously dug his nails into his palms.

The Watcher ‘tsks’ slightly. “Aiyah, don't do that Binghe. You're still recovering.” He says with no bite whatsoever, rubbing a covered thumb over the little half-circle indents in his palm. When he makes sure the wounds are not serious enough to need treatment, he lets go carefully, placing the hand back on Binghe’s lap; his hand suddenly feels awfully cold.

After another awkward pause, Shen Yuan speaks up again “I'm glad Binghe seems to be feeling better at least. Are you in any pain?”

“...No. Just feel tired.”

Shen Yuan chuckles. Binghe had no idea how much he missed that sound. “Well, that's to be expected. Binghe had quite the adventure.”

“Mhn.”

Once again, silence falls over them, an almost identical recreation from their last interaction. Binghe hates this, hates the way his throat closes up whenever he tries to open his mouth again; his eyes burn as he clasps his hand, trying to keep the warmth of Shen Yuan closer for just a bit longer. Should he even say anything? He was clearly shot down when he tried to apologize, but if Shen Yuan continues to treat him just as kindly as before, Binghe feels like his chest might explode if he doesn’t do something. He needs to say something, anything– “S-Shen Y–” “What did Binghe dream of?” He pauses, thrown completely off guard at being interrupted so abruptly. “...Huh?”

Shen Yuan chuckles slightly, repositioning himself so he sits with his back straight. “Binghe was mumbling while asleep. Did he dream of something?”

A dream. He did dream of something, didn’t he? It hasn’t been that long since he woke up, and all that remains already are just vague images and something swirling inside his chest, like he’s just made a very important decision.

He considers, just for a second, not telling Shen Yuan about it, to lie and say he doesn’t remember any dream, but the moment he peeks at Shen Yuan from behind his lashes, sitting by his side and patiently waiting his response, he feels whatever need he had to keep the dream only to himself loosen, just a bit. ‘I can just be vague about it, it’s not like I can actually describe it too much anyways.’ he reasons with himself. ‘Besides, it’s the least I could do for someone who went through the trouble of looking after me not once but twice now.’

“...Hm, I did dream about something, though I don’t remember much about it.”

“That’s alright. What do you remember?”

“I… I talked with someone.” He says after a deep breath. “We were in a city, but also on an island, surrounded by black water. We talked for a while, though all I remember is that I think I made a… promise of some sort. To help this person do something, and then they would help me.”

Shen Yuan takes a sharp breath at that, startling Binghe away from the lingering haze of the dream; the demon looks uncharacteristically tense, but before Binghe can question him, Shen Yuan has already stood up from the bed and busied himself with pouring a cup of tea.

With how the air of the room seemed to suddenly tense, Binghe opted to silently watch as Shen Yuan busied himself with the tea, a perfect vision of calmness; he would never guess what he said bore any significance if not for Shen Yuan’s veil tilting forward just enough to reveal the tense curl of the his lips.

His focus is broken when he’s handed a cup of tea, and he drinks it slowly as Shen Yuan circles around and sits back at Binghe’s side. It takes a few false attempts and heavy sighs before Shen Yuan lets his shoulders drop heavily. “Binghe… Must have noticed that something was wrong with the Titan’s Eye.”

He blinks, a bit surprised any of the Watchers would be willing to talk about it, never mind put it so bluntly. “Ah, yes. I did notice that Shen Yu– uhm, Twenty Two had been acting a bit strangely around it…”

Shen Yuan nods. “Binghe truly is very observant. But you are right– you see, the Eye hasn’t always been like that, in fact, only recently does it seem to show signs of it starting to become… corrupted.” The demon sighs, body slumping slightly in exhaustion. “For a while I thought it was a problem specific only to the Eye, maybe the seals around it had been damaged somehow, but…” “It started happening to the other body parts?” Binghe completes. Shen Yuan can only nod dejectedly.

“Hm. This has never happened before, so I’m not sure what could even be causing this, but I worry about what it could mean…”

Shen Yuan sighs once again before straightening his back and turning to look at the half-demon; for some curious reason, Binghe thinks he already knows what Shen Yuan is going to say next. He raises one hand, interrupting Shen Yuan before any words can get out. “Slow down a bit. I get it now, why Shen Yuan is even explaining all this to me, but I feel like I should get some questions out of the way first before I agree to help the Watcher’s body part problem.”

Shen Yuan freezes for a second, but eventually nods, even if a bit stiffly. “...Of course. What does Binghe want to know?”

He huffs, equally satisfied that Shen Yuan agreed to answer his questions so easily and disappointed that he’s already being asked for favors. Whatever, at least he gets to clear some of his doubts.

“Shen Yuan seems to be very concerned about this situation, but why ask for an outsider to get involved? If any of the other body parts are as powerful as the Eye, it seems like I would just become dead weight after some point– When me and Twenty Two got to the Eye, I was barely managing to stand up.”

Hmm, now that he’s thinking about it, why was he even helping with the Eye before anyways? He went to the Palace to get rid of any remaining members of the demon clan that had managed to get away, but the Eye itself had managed to kill off most of them on its own, and the one that was still alive only died because of Twenty Two’s surprise attack.

“...Besides, Twenty Two seemed to have the situation perfectly in control on his own. He wasn’t even phased by the Eye’s pressure aside from the very end.” He decides to say instead, ego a bit wounded for not being as helpful as he would’ve liked, looking back at it.

Shen Yuan stays silent for a second, a bit stunned by the barrage of questions before laughing. “Haha, I did say Binghe was observant, but I didn’t know it was to this extent!”

Binghe feels his cheeks starting to flush, a bit offended that Shen Yuan seemed to assume he wasn’t keeping track of his questions.

“Haa, but it does put it into perspective how I’ve failed to explain things to Binghe.” Shen Yuan says. “Binghe is right, for centuries now, Watchers have had no problem taking care of the Titan’s body, and despite being physically weak, we’ve come up with ways to handle stronger opponents, but as I’ve said, this situation is unlike any other, and… alternative means have to be considered.”

It feels like something clicked inside Binghe’s head. “Is that why you’ve turned to unsealing the Titan’s body?”

Shen Yuan chuckles. “Exactly. I’ve come up with a theory that, since it’s still unclear what is causing the corruption, the next best thing would be to put it all together and go from there.”

Right, looking at the whole painting instead of just it’s fragments could make it easier to see where the problem is stemming from– but, wait, if the Watchers were aiming to unseal the Titan’s body, than that can only mean they are going to unseal the Titan itself, and despite knowing the Titan had its body quartered in a years long process, never did Shen Yuan (Thirty Four or Twenty Six) ever say that the Titan is dead.

“...Why was the Titan sealed again?” Binghe whimpers, too shocked to even register the embarrassing tone of his own voice.

“Hm?” Shen Yuan questions, placing one sleeved hand on top of his chin. “Oh, that’s right, I only told Binghe ‘how’ the Titan was sealed, but never got into the ‘why’.” The demon hums before getting off the bed and standing right in front of Binghe with his arms tucked behind him.

“The Titan was sealed after destroying half of the Demon Realm.”

…

…

…?

Binghe blinks. “...And you want me to help you unseal it?”

“Ah.” Shen Yuan jumps a bit, finally realizing how he sounds. “Binghe doesn’t need to worry! The Titan will only fully awaken once all of the body parts are together, and I’ve already come up with a way to prevent any further damage!”

He can’t help but stare at Shen Yuan for a few seconds longer, but it quickly becomes clear by how earnestly the demon talked, this seems to be the best plan they’ve got.

He sighs, suddenly feeling quite tired even if he still hasn’t gotten out of the bed. “...Alright, but what does any of this have to do with me?”

Shen Yuan squirms a bit, suddenly sheepish, and Binghe can already feel a familiar ‘Watcher-induced’ headache coming up. “It’s… Well, it’s a bit embarrassing saying it out loud, but Watcher’s can’t actually undo the seals placed on the Titan’s body parts…”

“Wh– No? Then why did I have no problem with it?”

In the blink of an eye, Shen Yuan is suddenly right in Luo Binghe’s face, making him slam his back onto the bedframe as his heart seems to almost jump out of his chest by the close proximity; Shen Yuan takes hold of Binghe’s hand again, caressing it slowly, and Binghe has to do everything in his power to not let his face flush pathetically.

“Binghe shouldn’t doubt his abilities. Luo Binghe may be strong, but he also has a hero’s heart, and I know I could only entrust such an important task to you, after all, you’re the only one worthy of touching the Titan’s body.” Shen Yuan says, voice almost a whisper. Binghe’s whole body shivers when Shen Yuan tugs his hand and places it on top of his (bare!!!) chest, right below his golden neckpiece.

“I trust you, Binghe.” He says, and Binghe feels all the air leave his lungs.

“...Shen Yuan…”

Before Binghe can say anything else, Shen Yuan leans away and lets go of his hand, instead placing his covered hands on his hips. “Oh, and because only a Heavenly Demon can undo the seals!”

“...”

“...Hm? Binghe? Wait, don’t get up yet– Where are you going?! H-Hey, Binghe, wait! Come back!!!”

*

It took a bit of persuasion and a threat to jump back into the Titan’s ribcage and return to the Abyss (from Binghe), but eventually Shen Yuan manages to pull Binghe back into the temple and offer him some more tea.

“So does that mean that Binghe is willing to help me out?”

“Shen Yuan is quite shameless if that’s the first thing he says after everything.” Binghe says, eyes strictly focused on his teacup and trying to will the redness on his cheeks to cool down– cheeks that are red only because he tried to run towards Xintiao Lake, of course, not because his mind keeps repeating the way his hand felt pressed against Shen Yuan’s chest.

“Haha…” The shameless demon laughs, and drinks his tea as if nothing is wrong; Binghe kind of wants to strangle him, just a bit.

He sighs, the tea doing its job of melting away the fight from him, and he takes his time in calming his heart and thinking about Shen Yuan’s offer. It honestly wouldn’t be much trouble, he’s not really against helping the Watchers, not after they’ve gone out of their way to be kind and helpful towards Luo Binghe, and it’s a great way for him to train his abilities and build up some resistance, but…

“What did Shen Yuan say I would be getting out of this?” He asks, because as much as he is willing to lend a helping hand, he at least expects some sort of compensation, and it’s not like he’s demanding much either, he’d be pretty happy with anything– money, some better clothes, an official alliance, a promise from Di-er to sit down for a second and let Binghe touch just a little bit–

“Is Xin Mo good enough?” A voice suddenly appears behind Binghe, startling both Binghe and Shen Yuan, though when he turns back…

“Ah, Twenty Two! Welcome back.” Shen Yuan (Thirty Four) says, preparing to get up and welcome his fellow Watcher properly, but Twenty Two simply waves him off and plops himself next to Binghe, immediately leaning onto the other’s arm.

“Shen Yu– Hey, don’t just lean on me so suddenly…” Binghe complains (weakly), pushing his teacup away so it doesn’t splash onto Twenty Two.

“It’s fine. Besides, I’m tired after carrying you all the way over here…” Twenty Two yawns, pressing even closer and nuzzling his face onto Binghe’s arm. “You’re kinda heavy, d’you know that?”

“Twenty Two…” Shen Y– Thirty Four admonishes slightly. Damn, Binghe has never been with two Watcher’s in the same room, he needs to get used to calling them by their numbers, even if he’s not particularly fond of the idea, until he figures out a better solution.

“Hmm, fine, fine.” Twenty Two mumbles before slowly getting off of Binghe’s arm only to slump over the table. Binghe decides it’s better to keep it to himself that he doesn’t mind (any) Shen Yuan leaning on him. “Anyways, Binghe, what do you say?”

“...Huh?” He says, rather unintelligently, before his normal brain functions start again. Right, Xin Mo–!

“Is… Is Twenty Two being serious? You know where it is?”

“Hm, I sure do, and that guy right there also knows it.” Twenty Two says, lazily pointing at the Watcher across the table. Binghe feels his heart lurch painfully when his gaze lands on Thirty Four, guiltily curling onto himself.

“You… do? You’ve known all this time?” He mumbles, feeling a bit like his mind and body aren’t exactly aligned. “Then–!”

Before Binghe can get any more worked up, Twenty Two puts one covered hand around his bicep and pulls him so he can sit down again; he hadn’t even noticed he’d gotten up. He looks at Twenty Two, arm flexing with the need to pull it away from the weak grasp, but when he notices the way Twenty Two looks at him– It’s not like he can see anything, really, but his stare can still be felt, and it’s enough for Binghe to sit back down with a huff.

Thirty Four looks at Twenty Two for a second before addressing Binghe, though the half-demon can still tell Shen Yuan isn’t quite looking at him. “What Twenty Two said is true. I, and every Watcher, in fact, have known the location of Xin Mo for centuries now.”

Binghe tenses his jaw lest he once again says something he may regret later; thankfully Shen Yuan doesn’t make him wait long. “I didn’t tell Binghe about this until now because… Well, does Binghe still remember Di-er’s note? The one he received before getting to the Guardtown Ruins?”

Binghe blinks, a bit taken aback. He pats around his clothes, and breathes a sigh of relief when he finds the note still tucked away in his sleeve, momentarily worried that Thirty Four or Twenty Two had taken it out whenever they were moving him around.

Though, for Thirty Four to even bring it up… Did he read the note? Unless Di-er has been sharing every single note he’s been giving to the other Watchers (which seems a bit unlikely, why would he even do that?), there is no reason for Shen Yuan to even know about the notes as a whole… Ugh, can he ever go through a conversation with a Watcher and not leave with even more questions? He decides to put it away for now, however, since the matters at hand seem slightly more time sensitive.

“...En. He said something about the start of a ‘tutorial mission’...?”

Thirty Four seems to freeze up at his answer, while Twenty Two doesn’t even try to hide his amused chuckles. Thirty Four sighs, bringing one hand up to massage his temples under his veil, mumbling something like ‘of course that would be how… ugh.’

“Yes, well, the tutorial mission Di-er was referring to was more akin to a test of sorts.” Thirty Four says after clearing his throat.

“A test…?”

“Hm. I sent Binghe there to help Twenty Six deal with the demon clan, but also to see how Binghe would react to being in close proximity with the Titan’s body.”

Binghe can feel the dots connecting in his mind; Thirty Four sent him for a test, so surely Di-er must’ve been in on the plan too, and since both of them knew Binghe is in search of Xin Mo, it is also likely Thirty Four told Di-er Binghe wanted to catch up to him first, to thank him for his help in the outer Abyss. Putting aside how tremendously embarrassing that is, they used this opportunity to test how his body handled being near the Titan’s body– and to kill two birds with one stone, already used the trip to have Binghe unseal the Eye, since they needed a Heavenly Demon to do it.

But, wait, something was missing in this explanation.

“Why have me go help Twenty Six in getting rid of that demon clan?” Binghe asks.

“Oh, no, technically speaking that had nothing to do with the test. But the matter was handled way faster than if it were only Twenty Six handling it.” Thirty Four explains, and even offers a small bow towards Binghe.

These guys really are shameless, huh?

No matter, it’s not like he disliked helping Twenty Six anyways. Binghe focuses back on the matter at hand.“...I see, so depending on how I handled the Eye’s pressure, Shen Yuan would then share Xin Mo’s location. I’m guessing then that Xin Mo must be in close proximity to one of the Titan’s body parts.”

“So close in fact, Xin Mo is currently being guarded by the Titan’s Hands…” Twenty Two adds with a yawn.

“As Twenty Two said. But because of this unknown corruption spreading on the Titan’s body, some parts have been more affected than others.” Thirty Four sighs, already exhausted just thinking about the topic. “And, unfortunately, the Hands have been the most affected. The corruption is most likely being aggravated by Xin Mo’s natural malevolent energy as well…”

“To keep things simple, it basically means that if Binghe got knocked out after unsealing the Eye, with the level of corruption in the Hands, it’s likely you would either not be able to get close, or die trying.” Twenty Two casually adds, with no concern to how he has directly attacked the half-demon’s ego.

Binghe can feel himself deflate onto the table, unknowingly mimicking the demon at his side and forming a more pathetic version of Twenty Two’s lazy spread. “So… Even if I tried to go to Xin Mo right now… Shen Yuan is saying I’m just too weak to even get close to it…” He can’t help but whine, any progress he’d thought he’d gotten in the past few days thrown straight out the window.

Twenty Two pats his head in consolation. He’ll never admit it does help him feel a tiny bit better.

“Ah, Binghe, no need to feel so down! That’s why I’d like for you to unseal the other body parts first, we can guide you from least to most corrupted, and your body will naturally build up some resistance to the Titan’s pressure.” Thirty Four soothes, extending one covered hand to rest on top of Binghe’s.

With Thirty Four holding his hand and Twenty Two petting his head… Binghe’s mind starts to become stained with greed, with the way the first thing he thinks of is how much better he’d feel if Di-er and Twenty Six were there to comfort him too; and just like that, his traitorous mind flashes him an image of himself surrounded by four veiled demons, first in the same situation he finds himself in before his imagination leans towards a more… comfortable scene. Something like a bed, perhaps–

He startles, basically throwing himself out of both Shen Yuans reach, scooting as far away as possible in his panic. His heart beat feels so loud all of a sudden he fears the Watchers can hear him, which only makes it worse when both of them (understandably) stare at him in confusion.

“...? Is something wrong?” Thirty Four hesitantly asks.

“It’s– I’m fine! In fact, consider Thirty Four’s request accepted!” He says, a little louder than intended. Unfortunately, his hasty response isn’t enough to suddenly wipe the demons’ mind of his embarrassing actions, fortunately, however, they are merciful enough to let the matter slide after sharing one last confused look towards each other.

“Right… Well, thank you Binghe, from the bottom of my heart. I hope to one day repay you with something worthy of your character.” Thirty Four says, and as much as it is really sweet, and Binghe feels his heart warm up, he also feels another part of his body stir at the idea of Thirty Four– of Shen Yuan repaying him at all, specially with more unconventional methods…

He seriously needs to get out of here.

His discomfort becomes apparent enough that Twenty Two decides to take matters into his own hands. With a yawn, he stretches his arms slightly before getting up and grabbing onto one of Binghe’s sleeves and dragging him towards the temple’s door.

“Well, now that that’s settled, Binghe and I are going to go take a walk. We’ll be back in a bit~” Twenty Two says as he drags a dazed half-demon and opens the sliding door, hurrying Binghe outside before sending one last lingering look towards Thirty Four and closing the door.

Shen Yuan sits by the low table, still a bit disoriented by the quick chain of events, but eventually he feels his body relaxing, and a chuckle breaking through, amused at his fellow Watcher’s straight forward way of dealing with awkward situations.

He listens to Twenty Two and Binghe talking a bit, Twenty Two saying something about showing Binghe an interesting place, and quickly enough their footsteps become fainter and fainter until Shen Yuan can only hear the subtle rustling of foliage alongside his own breathing; only then does he sigh, leaning back until he lays down on the floor, exhaustion from the last few days hitting him all at once. He grumbles gibberish to himself before ripping off his eye mask, sleeves grasping onto the fabric as he thinks back on… everything.

He lets go of the veil and places one sleeve on top of where his heart should be, centuries of repeating the same motion making him used to no longer feeling a heartbeat.

Shen Yuan sighs again. “Binghe needs to do this. Luo Binghe is destined to wield Xin Mo.”

…

He rubs at his chest, af if that’ll help him find his missing heart.

“I’ll only be a footnote on his story when this is all over.” Shen Yuan whispers to himself, a mantra he’s been repeating ever since he first laid eyes upon the golden protagonist.

Shen Yuan can only hope Binghe won’t hesitate to do what he needs to do in the end.

*

“How is Binghe feeling?”

Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe are sitting on top of a tree overlooking Xintiao Lake, the black water sparkling as light reflects on small ripples. It is indeed an interesting place, as Twenty Two had put it, and it sure does help Binghe calm down and let go of his embarrassment from earlier. “I’m… fine. Apologies to Shen Yuan for my actions earlier.”

Shen Yuan, who was swinging his legs mindlessly, stops for a second, laughing under his breath before continuing the motion. “I wasn’t talking about that, but good to know. I’m asking how Binghe is feeling regarding Thirty Four’s request.”

So much for letting go of his embarrassment. Determined to not let it get the better of him, Binghe clears his throat and decides to simply ignore the flush going back to his cheeks.

“I’m alright. Even if a bit disappointed to know I’m not as strong as I believed myself to be.” He says, and finds that he actually means it. Granted, it was quite a lot of information to take in after he’d just woken up, but it did help clear up some of Binghe’s questions and, well, he’d rather know now that he needs a bit more training to reach Xin Mo then to arrive at the sword’s doorstep and be faced with an overwhelming defeat, if not the end of his life.

“Binghe shouldn’t be disappointed. It’s already impressive enough that he held out for that long in the Eye’s presence!” Shen Yuan adds, which doesn’t really help ease the sensation of defeat, but Binghe appreciates the intention all the same.

“Hm…” He hums, neither agreeing or disagreeing, as he mindlessly watches Shen Yuan’s swinging legs and the hypnotic motion of fabric before sliding his gaze over to the view before them. It always feels slightly surreal to watch the lake and try to understand that what he’s seeing before him is actually the body of an ancient, near divine being; it makes him curious to know how the Titan must’ve looked at its prime, but then he remembers that the creature before him apparently destroyed half of the Demon Realm when it was still up and going, and feels grateful that no matter what he’ll have to deal with when he gets out of the Abyss, no problems he’ll come across will be quite as dramatic as the one laying before him.

Speaking of…

“Why does Shen Yuan serve the Titan?”

Shen Yuan, who had started to doze off the moment they fell into silence, startles awake. “...Huh?”

Binghe has to fight to not let his eyebrows furrow. “I said–”

“Ah, wait, sorry. Why do I serve the Titan, yeah? I got it, I got it.” The demon interrupts with light taps to Binghe’s arm, who can’t help but huff and roll his eyes slightly. Shen Yuan gives him one last (weak) slap to his bicep before scooting closer to the tree’s trunk, crossing his legs over the branch they’re sitting on.

“Hmm, well, Binghe’s question is a little difficult.” He mumbles mostly to himself, and after thinking over the answer for a few seconds, he nods to himself. “...If I were to keep it short, I’d say I didn’t really have a choice.”

“...What?”

Shen Yuan's laugh is cut off by his own yawn, and he rubs his eyes over the veil before continuing. “That sounded kinda bad. Uhm, Binghe wants to know what type of demons Watchers are, right?”

Binghe tenses, feeling like he’d just been caught red handed, even if Shen Yuan’s claim is correct. “How do you even know that…” He mumbles, avoiding looking at Shen Yuan.

“Haha, it’s ok. If I were in Binghe’s position, I would be wondering the same thing.”

The tree branch shakes slightly as Shen Yuan drags himself closer to Binghe, the half-demon’s heart stirring not because of the sudden movement, but with the way Shen Yuan basically presses himself to his side; it’s a bit shameful the way he has to redirect his gaze to not fall to the way Shen Yuan’s thighs are straddling the tree branch.

“You see, Watchers were made by the Titan, for the Titan.” Binghe blinks, his mind a bit dizzy from how his emotions seem to be jumping around all over the place today. Shen Yuan just laughs at the visible confusion in his face.

“Think about it Binghe, I know you know Watchers don’t exactly fall in line with other demons you must’ve seen in the Abyss. I mean, humanoid demons are already quite a rarity down here, and if we were to just take off the horns and the weird skin color, Watchers would be no different than normal humans, if not weaker than that–”

“And no demon like that could survive the Endless Abyss.” Binghe completes. “So Watchers are demonic life forms specifically created from Titans?”

“Almost!” Shen Yuan leans forward and grasps one of Binghe’s hands, looking at it for a moment before turning back to his companion’s face. “Can I show you something?”

Binghe doesn’t even want to know how lost he must look, but he nods anyway, and for the second time today, his hand is pressed to Shen Yuan’s naked chest.

“W-Wait–”

“Shh. Pay attention.” Shen Yuan cuts him off, pressing his hand even harder to his chest. “What do you feel?”

He blinks a few times, arm muscles jumping in place with the instinct to pull away, but he eventually concentrates, closing his eyes to feel Shen Yuan’s heartbe–

…?

His eyes fly open. “Shen Yuan, your heart–!”

“Hm.” Shen Yuan nods, not the littlest bit worried, and slowly lets go of Binghe’s hand. “Wouldn’t call myself a ‘life form’ if I’m not even ‘alive’.”

Contrary to Shen Yuan, Binghe feels like his heart is almost jumping out of his mouth with how frantically it’s beating, but he forces himself to take a breath and calm down, at least for the moment. “Then…”

“Watchers are more like projections, or constructs, made entirely from the Titan’s power. But uh, since the Titan’s power isn’t connected to life or creation or anything like that, we have to make do with what we have.” He explains, going back to swinging his legs as if he was talking about the weather.

It does explain a few things however, mainly why Twenty Two was not bothered by the Eye’s natural pressure, but was visibly affected by what must’ve been whatever is corrupting the Titan’s body.

Though, it also must mean the corruption could eventually reach the Watchers, couldn’t it…?

“Is this the true reason Thirty Four wants to unseal the body parts as fast as possible? So it doesn’t reach the Watchers?”

Shen Yuan merely shrugs.

The two sit in silence for a moment, both looking towards the ribcage and the calm, dark waters inside it. It’s a particularly nice day – though it’s hard to know what a ‘nice day’ even means in this realm, since Binghe doesn’t even know if the weather can get any worse than a short corrosive rain – but he’d love to spend the rest of it resting, or just enjoying the company of the two Watchers; it’s a bit hard to do that however, when it feels like this particular dream is nearing its end.

Is he wasting time, then? Watching the lazy rustle of foliage and talking to Shen Yuan like this. Thirty Four made it feel like the corruption is quite the pressing matter, and if Binghe were to take too long and it somehow started to reach the Watchers…

“I should probably get a move on, shouldn’t I?” Binghe says, even if his body feels glued to its spot. Shen Yuan yawns by his side before once again leaning on his arm without any shame.

“You can do that tomorrow. I’m tired after talking so much, so let’s just stay here for a little bit more, hm?”

And what is Binghe supposed to say to that? He ignores his growing anxiety for now, even if it feels nearly impossible, and rests his head on top of Shen Yuan’s; he feels like he shouldn’t waste opportunities like this when they are handed to him.

They stay like that until the sky becomes dark, and fake stars gently twinkle in the distance.

*