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2025-02-17
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Poppy Dream Spider Demon

Summary:

A demon traps disciple Yue Qingyuan inside his happiest memory, and Shen Qingqiu has to enter the dream construct in order to free him.

He's expecting to see Yue Qingyuan being accepted into Cang Qiong Mountain sect, or becoming head disciple of Qiong Ding. Maybe being a heroic righteous cultivator and winning the adulation and love of the grateful populace.

He's not expecting this.

Work Text:

When Shen Qingqiu opened his eyes, he expected to be back at Cang Qiong Mountain—or rather, a dream-construct of it—maybe witnessing a young Yue Qi being accepted into the sect, or else his triumphant elevation to the position of head disciple and the name Yue Qingyuan.

Instead, he found himself in a narrow, stinking alley. With a flinch of disgust, he swept the hems of his robes up out of the filth of the street. It didn't occur to him until the next moment that it didn't matter, since none of this was real.

Well—Yue Qingyuan was very smug and righteous nowadays. Maybe his happiest memory was of saving some common people from demonic cultivators and receiving their gratitude and adulation in return.

There was a commotion in the street beyond. A burly man in a cook's apron ran past the mouth of the alley, shouting curses and threats, and a pair of street rats darted into the shadow of a ramshackle building within arms' reach of where Shen Qingqiu stood. They were both skinny and underfed, but one of them was tall and rangy, with big bony wrists sticking out of the sleeves of his too-small shirt, while the other one was small, his burning eyes nearly hidden behind his tangle of unkempt hair, clutching a pork bun the size of his head still warm from the steamer.

It was like an icy hand closing around Shen Qingqiu's stomach. He remembered this. Qi-ge had scolded him for being too bold in his theft, but it had been a half-hearted scolding. They had gotten clean away, and hadn't had to share with anyone.

What the hell was Yue Qingyuan doing here?

It didn't matter. It wasn't real, and would be gone in a moment—

There was a tug on the hem of his robes. It was the bigger urchin, bent over in a bow. "Please, gongzi," the boy said, "spare a coin for these unfortunate ones—"

"Stop that," Shen Qingqiu hissed, yanking his cloak out of the boy's grubby hands. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"What?" The boy's eyes, clouded in confusion, strayed up in the direction of Shen Qingqiu's face before dropping back down, properly deferential. "This stupid one doesn't understand."

This could happen, Shen Qingqiu had read—the victim becoming so lost in the blissful memories that the demon summoned that they forgot their present circumstances, and rejected any intrusion of the outside world. He just hadn't expected it to happen to Yue Qingyuan, like this.

A sudden sharp pain in his left hand distracted Shen Qingqiu from these thoughts, and he whirled to find the other urchin latched on with his teeth, with a look of fierce concentration. Disgusting. The wretch had diseases, Shen Qingqiu could say with the confidence of having once been him.

"Xiao-Jiu!" Yue Qingyuan gasped. He shoved the other boy behind him and groveled in the dirt at Shen Qingqiu's feet. "Please, gongzi, a thousand apologies, it was a—an accident—"

"You're so stupid, Qi-ge!" the little beast shrilled. "The robes beneath that cloak are way too fancy! What's someone like that even doing here? And he was trying to, to take you somewhere—"

"To wake shixiong up," said Shen Qingqiu. "You are Yue Qingyuan, head disciple of Qiong Ding Peak, and this shidi had accompanied shixiong on a night hunt, where we found—"

"—A Poppy Dream Spider Demon," Yue Qingyuan finished for him, comprehension starting to dawn on his face. He went on, reciting from the same text that Shen Qingqiu had read on the monster, "It traps its victims in a dream-construct made of their own happiest memories, where it can keep them alive for years while slowly siphoning off their qi. The only way to save them is for someone else to enter their dream, and bring them out again."

"Yes," said Shen Qingqiu impatiently, "so—"

"No," said Yue Qingyuan. "Doesn't the book also say, 'there have been cases where the victim has refused any help, and perished in the dream?' So it's not enough for shidi to fetch this shixiong out; this shixiong must agree to go. And, with apologies, this shixiong is fine where he is."

"In this filth? With this—didn't shixiong hear me? In real life, he's the head disciple of Qiong Ding Peak, heir to the entire sect—"

"Someone else can be." Yue Qingyuan smiled beatifically. "It's alright, shidi. I'm really very replaceable."

Shen Qingqiu wanted to scream in frustration. "How are you this stupid, Qi-ge?"

"Xiao-Jiu?" Yue Qingyuan looked up into Shen Qingqiu's face for the first time, something frighteningly avid in his eyes. "Xiao-Jiu came for me?"

Shen Qingqiu scoffed. Wasn't Yue Qingyuan the one who had left, and never come back? "Not out of some tender concern for Yue-shixiong. It is simply that, if this shidi had left on a night hunt with the precious, golden head disciple of Qiong Ding Peak, and returned without him, where would suspicion naturally fall?"

"I see," said Yue Qingyuan quietly, dropping his eyes once more. "This shixiong apologizes—he never intended to cause trouble for Shen-shidi. Of course, he will wake up."

When Shen Qingqiu opened his eyes, there was a giant spider demon with too many legs and too many eyes in its otherwise-humanoid face launching itself at him, fangs bared and dripping with venom. So he couldn't really worry about anything else at the moment.

He drew Xiu Ya just in time to check the thing's attack, opening a gash in its side with a gush of ichor, while one of its hook-haired limbs missed connecting with anything vital and simply shredded the shoulder of his cloak to streamers.

It howled in pain and fury as he forced it back, while beside him, he could hear rustling and a soft groan, as Yue Qingyuan fought his way free of a cocoon of spiderweb.

All Shen Qingqiu had to do was hold the creature off for a few more seconds. As soon as Yue Qingyuan found his footing, a single blast from a sheathed Xuan Su threw it across the cave, where it hit the opposite wall with a loud thunk, and then, after a final twitch of its ugly limbs, expired.

"Thanking Shen-shidi for his rescue," said Yue Qingyuan, settling Xuan Su back on his hip and dusting off his robes.

"Never mind that!" Shen Qingqiu snapped. "What exactly was going on back there?"

Yue Qingyuan blinked innocently. "Back where?"

"You know! In the dream!"

"Ah—I apologize. I'm afraid I don't remember anything about it. It's all faded, the way dreams do when you wake up."

Shen Qingqiu narrowed his eyes at Yue Qingyuan, who looked placidly back, not a hair out of place, looking not at all like he'd just been in a fight after being captured by a spider demon.

Yue Qingyuan used to be a terrible liar. Once, Shen Jiu had believed that Qi-ge would never lie to him. Now… he had no idea whether the man was telling the truth.

"Ugh," said Shen Qingqiu. "Never mind."