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Chapter Text

[ERROR: CRITICAL DAMAGE RECEIVED. SLEEP MODE ACTIVATED]

“What?!” Yelped Shang Qinghua in the middle of a meeting with a merchant, letting the tea he had just sipped fall from his shaking hands. Shen Qingqiu and Lin Bingfa, Mu Qingfang head discipline, jumped at each side of Shang Qinghua at the sudden outburst and put their cups on the table with a sonorous click, while the merchant across them closed his mouth at the middle of their speech and his servants watched with horror the babbling mess An Ding peak lord had become. Shen Qingqiu and the other members of the sect looked at Shang Qinghua with variable grades of annoyance and disapprobation while the client paled at the increasing stream of word vomit. Shen Qingqiu caught the word “System” and asked who they were? Was it a local god Shang Qinghua adored?

Lin Bingfa and Shen Qingqiu straightened their backs when the word ‘demon’ was said. Sheng Qingqiu may or may not be the first to react after Shang Qinghua threw himself at the floor and began to cry like a baby, pleading forgiveness to something no one but himself could see. Shen Qingqiu closed his fan with more force than necessary and pulled Shang Qinghua from his tunic’s collar to force the pitiful peak lord to look at angry black eyes, as a blunt attempt to make the An Ding peak lord react and get out of his panicked state. A method he had used incontable times and had always worked to make his coward shidi behave. But unlike most of those times, on this occasion Shang Qinghua's eyes were unfocused and his body was heavy like a bag full of rocks, making Shen Qingqiu get angrier with each passing second. The peak lord was used to the fake faint spells of the An Ding Lord and didn't believe this time was real, as such Shen Qingqiu shook Shang Qinghua’s immobile body like a ragdoll but he didn't wake up as other times did. 

“Shibo…” Exhaled Lin Bingfa behind Sheng Qingqiu. “Stop, he isn't...” She pleaded. 

“- You!” Sheng Qingqiu snarled, turning his head towards the pale Marchant that shivered like a leaf under Shen Qingqiu's cold eyes. “What did you add to his tea?”

“I don't know…” the merchant tried to lie, but Shen Qingqiu let Shang Qinghua fall to the floor and draw his sword from his scabbard. 

“I will not repeat to myself, what did you do to his tea?” Sheng Qingqiu snarled. 

“Our teas, shibo”, Lin Bingfa said, after sniffing her cup. Sheng Qingqiu pressed the sword further towards the merchant, making the workers and servants nervous. 

Sheng Qingqiu realized it was a miracle Mu Qingfang was busy and sended his head discipline and Shang Qinghua was the first to drink the tea between the three peaks’ representatives, otherwise the three peaks lords would be intoxicated by an unknown poison and lose consciousness. The only problem was, Sheng Qingqiu glanced towards Lin Bingfa checking on Shang Qinghua's meridians, that Lin Bingfa might not be able to save his martial sibling. She was two weeks ago appointed as head discipline and may not have the expertise needed to find the cure, for god's sake themselves have less than five years since they became peaklords. 

“I don't know!”, cried the merchant, shivering and pale like a sheet of paper. 

“Wrong answer!” Shen Qingqiu pierced the man's leg while the rest of the disciplines of his own peak drew their own swords to back their shizu. Some of the merchant's men were armed and had their weapons with them. 

“Shibo! He is getting cold and I can't feel his heart beating…!” Lin Bingfa yelled, fuelling Sheng Qingqiu's anger further. Who would have guessed the Qing jing peaklord cared so much for the rat of An Ding? 

“- I did it!” cried the merchant, after being pierced a fourth time in a quick succession of sword moves and his men were reduced by the sect disciplines. Later Sheng Qingqiu would be quietly thankful to Shang Qinghua for choosing his generation peers, who didn't approve Shang Qinghua as their peaklord, but knew one or two things about how to fight and reduce an opponent in an enclosed space. 

“Obviously, who else!” Sheng Qingqiu snarled. He cut a finger from the man. “What have you done to him?” 

“I don't know!”

“Try again”, Sheng Qingqiu cut another piece of the merchant. 

“We don't know!” Cried a servant woman throwing herself at a cultivator's feet. Sheng Qingqiu turned his attention towards her. 

“Keep going, you must know more”. He said, cutting another piece of the merchant. 

“A Demon, an ice demon, came and told us we must add a flower to your tea if we want to keep living. My master only did what he needed to save us all and prevent the demon from slaughtering us. Please, don't kill him.” The servant cried, and other servants agreed with her, confirming and adding more details to the story. Sheng Qingqiu planned to take the merchant to Cang Qiong to further question him, but right now it was more important to identify the venom added to the tea. 

“Do you have the flower? Show us to us” Sheng Qingqiu ordered and did as asked. It was unfortunate none of the Qian Cao’s disciplines recognized the flower, no even Lin Bingfa, and neither Sheng Qingqiu himself. But it was an emergency and if Sheng Qingqiu knew anything about the hideous they lived in, it was that god likes to punish them with sex, and so he forced himself in a apparently

dead Shang Qinghua. An big mistake. 

Chapter Text

Airplane was listening a podcast’s episode about the grim origins of some popular children tales when an idea pop up to his mind for a new arc in PIDW. The “ten hundred dreams curse” was an arc hated by some of his readers but acclaimed by most. Even cucumber-bro, his most loyal black powder fan, liked the arc. The new wife was a mix between sleepy beauty, snow white and other princesses from the grimm brothers’ tales. The new wife was a human poisoned by a female demon jealous of her beauty. She was supposed to die, but because of certain circumstances airplane didn't remember anymore, instead of dying the woman was cursed to sleep forever. Airplane must have bullshited something really good because cucumber-bro didn't complain about the curse. Now that he thinks about it, he said something about her being a cultivator and her golden core keeping her alive or some nonsense. Anyway! The woman was cursed to sleep forever until she died from old age, but because she was a cultivator her life was painfully long. She was one hundred years old when Luo Binghe and Mobei jun found her encased in an ice coffin in the deepest of a forest guarded by seven creatures. The creatures were slain and, unlike most wives, she wasn't cured with magical heavenly demon papapa. The somnophilia was discussed and hated by some readers, like everything airplane did, but for a few weeks the most important topic in the PIDW sub-forum was the heavenly pillar inability to save her. It was received like a breath of fresh air by most of the fans and they claimed Lou Binghe used his dream powers to save her!

So… how did Luo Binghe wake the woman? Technically, he didn't. She wasn't supposed to wake up. She was in a coma and airplane decided she was destined to die. So Luo Binghe made a dream about them meeting in cute and nicer circumstances, falling in love and then getting married. An idea he got from itachi from Naruto. And that 's it. Binghe made her a dream and then killed her, freeing the woman from the terrible curse. Then Binghe and Mobei-jun came back to the palace without a beauty for the emperor's garden. The arc was supposed to be about how even Luo Binghe, with all his power, wasn't able to get all he wanted and he could've made something nice for someone without expecting something nice in exchange.

His female readers, or who airplane thought were girls, and cucumber were angry. Cucumber asked, with all his vitriol, why he never writes nice romance instead of the terrible papa. How many times has Airplane to explane to cucumber that romance doesn't sell as porn does? By his part all men were angry Binghe couldn't wake the beauty and add her to his harem. Or maybe all his readers were angry about Binghe losing. Who knows? He doesn't! So Airplane, being the shameless man he was, saw a golden opportunity and wrote a special chapter with a high flee, about the woman waking up because … apparently she needed a kiss of true love. That 's right! True love like in children movies! But the twist was she was supposed to fall in love first with Luo Binghe then she could wake up. That was the reason she could only be woken up by Luo Binghe.

Airplane thought it was a really good chapter but cucumber-bro hated it and called him for plagiarism. But who cares? He doesn't! While the snob buys the damn thing …

And talking about that, why was airplane thinking about that chapter when he could be eating melon seeds and writing more stories? He was free now that PIDW had ended and…

Why was he writing on a scroll, with his hand instead of on the computer? And why did his house look like some of those historical dramas he mother liked to watch? Now that he thought about it … everything looked in low definition and all his things moved from one place to other. Weird!

====================

Mu Qingfang checked Shang Qinghua’s pulse with a grim face. Behind him, Shen Qingqiu showed a serious face and tired eyes. He hasn't left Shang Qinghua's side unless it was to investigate what was happening to his Shidi. He questioned the merchant, cut part of him, until a serious Yue Qingyuan and a furious Liu Qinge made him stop. Shen Qingqiu read all the books he could think could be useful for every library at his disposal until a tired Mu Qingfang, a worried Qi qingqiu and, again, Yue Qingyuan made him stop. No one said it out loud but all the peaklords and members of the sect thought Shang Qinghua's condition was his fault. Shen Qingqiu knew it by the way all of them looked at him. Even Mu Qingfang’s head discipline thought it was his fault, if the way she looked at him said anything. Everyone looked at him in anyway no one else had done since he was a street rat, and when he exploded no one reproached his behavior as they did a week prior.

Everything was his fault! It's his fault! If Shen Qingqiu had been more observant of their surroundings and realized the merchant's ill intentions against his shidi, this could have been prevented.

“Shioxing….” Mu Qingfang whispered, gaining Shen Qingqiu’s attention. “ You should go to sleep at your peak, he is not going to…”

“What? He is not going to wake up? I know it, Mu-shidi!” He hissed, full of venom and hate as he always did. His face twisted in guilt, even if he didn't acknowledge it as such.

“He is just sleeping, he is going to wake up sooner or later”, the medic answered, trying his best to not fall to Shen Qingqiu provocation. And also lying to himself. None of them knew if Shang Qinghua was even going to wake up. For now, all the peak lords were trying their best to not fall into desperation or into their Shioxing’s provocations. Most of them knew Shen Qingqiu felt guilty and wanted a fight, looked up desperately to be told his wrongs and faults. And some Peak Lords told him it was his fault, in a beginning, but once their heads cool down they realized their mistakes and promised they wouldn't punish Shen Qingqiu with their words. Yue Qingyuan asked them to be nicer to Shen Qingqiu and that he felt guilty and Mu Qingfang believed it. Even Liu Qingge could see how frail and full of remorse Shen Qingqiu was. Anyone who cared about Shang Qinghua would be like that, desperate to save him. It was ironic that the scary cat lord of An Ading, who feared everything and everyone, was under a sleeping curse - as Mu Qingfang could tell- and the cold hearted lord of Qing jing peak, who some though a vile man, was desperately trying to save his Shidi. It was like a tale, as if Shang Qinghua always knew he was destined to a cruel fate, while the latter showed no care about anyone but himself, now he did everything in his power to save Shang Qinghua. Most likely, no one realized how much Shang Qinghua impacted their lives until the loud lord was in coma.

“This immortal master has no need of sleep”, Shen Qingqiu hissed and closed his fan, moving on the uncomfortable chair.

“Fine”, Mu Qingfang exhaled. He didn't have the heart to say “fuck off” to his shioxing, no even when he was making his work harder. Shen Qingqiu didn't realize he wasn't the only one suffering, Mu Qingfan was dealing with slowly losing hope that his martial brother might one day wake up. Because no matter what Mu Qingfang said, nothing he tried had worked so far. Not even dual cultivation with Shang Qinghua, being himself the top or the bottom. Most, if not all, peak lords made company at the figure on the bed and offered their help to find a cure. Liu Qinge was focused on trying to track down the ice demon behind Shang Qinghua's curse. Yue Qingyuan was also a rare visitor. He performed double cultivation with an unconscious Shang Qinghua, an experiment which ended with a Yue Qingyuan more stable core. Since then Yue Qingyuan can barely see his shidi’s face, besides Shen Qingqiu is most of the time at Shang Qinghua's bed and Yue Qingyuan is always trying to not upset the Qing jing lords further with a poorly timed visit. Nowadays Yue Qingyuan is focused on hiding Shang Qinghua's condition from other sects, important groups of merchants and anyone outside a selective group of people. Wei Qingwei was probably the most common visitor behind Sheng Qingqiu by far. Mu Qingfang couldn't benied the blacksmith’s visit, after all there was always a weird camaraderie between the mousy peaklord and the boisterous blacksmith everyone ignored before the curse. Qi qingqi was also a common face, coming to watch over Shen Qingqiu and his uncharacteristic closeness to Shang Qinghua. She heard, like the rest of the peak lords, of Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua dual cultivation and how that had the unexpected effect of helping Shen Qingqiu’s cultivation instead of waking up the An ding peak lord. She and others peak lords, fool shidis and shimeis, though Shen Qingqiu wanted an unconscious dual cultivation partner to stabilize his core. As if Shen Qingqiu would do something as low. Mu Qingfang wasn't Shen Qingqiu's friend but he could tell he was a nicer human being than anyone expected.

Mu Qingfang ended his analysis in silence and turned back to talk to Shen Qingqiu, only to realize the other has fallen asleep on the chair.

“What are we going to do if you can't wake up?”, Mu Qingfang asked to an unconscious Shang Qinghua. Barely two weeks had passed since the poison attempt ended with Shang Qinghua in bed. Mu Qingfang asked himself if he could had been able to do something had he being there instead of his head discipline. Or it would had been two or three peak lords in bed instead of one.

Who knows…

======================

[User 01, “Dream Mode” activated]

“Eh?” Mumble airplane, lifting his face from the scroll he was writing to look at the blue box looming over his head. And behind it a man with a shocked expression looked at him with wide eyes. He was an elegant man wearing a green hanfu and a painted fan in his hand.

“Shang Qinghua?”, mumbled the man, sitting at the other side of the table and leaning forward to look at Shang Qinghua better.

Airplane shook his face. “That's not my name. Who are you?”

“It's me, Shidi,” the man laid a hand over his chest and looked with a pained expression at him. “Shen Qingqiu…”

“I don't know anyone named that way!”, Airplane laughed, unwilling to share that one of his characters has the same name.

“Shang Qinghua!”, the man insisted.

“That's not my name!”, airplane smiled.

“Then who are you?”, Shen Qingqiu hisses, standing up and pointing the fan at Airplane's face.

“Feiji”, airplane smiled.

Chapter Text

Shen Qingqiu watched the smiling man before him with a worried expression. It was the fifth night a boisterous and shameless Shang Qinghua, though happier and underdressed, showed in his dreams with a coquettish attitude. The man in his dream was Shang Qinghua even if he denied his name and instead called himself Feiji, a creation god. Sheng Qingqiu so far has dreamed with the man for a fortnight, falling asleep in the sect instead of the safeness of the red pavilion. He had tried to wake up or not fall asleep outside the brothel but the man before him controls when and how he falls asleep. No female company in the red pavilion is enough to make him sleep if Feiji doesn't him to. Shen Qingqiu would be mad at him if it wasn't because each time he wakes up, well rested and healthier, Shang Qinghua is still uncouncious on a bed. It's only fitting that a demon using the face of the Peak Lord of An Ding controls his dreams.  

This time, in this dream, a short haired Feiji was wearing short pants that leave his legs uncovered and a big and thick single shirt covering his arms and chest. Again a short legged table was between Shen Qingqiu and his shidi, pastries, tanghulu and salty snacks on plates and two bottles with black sugary beverages on the table. Feiji knew Shen Qingqiu, more than anyone did or admitted to do so, and as such enjoyed to “feed” Shen Qingqiu with things he enjoyed. There wasn't bland food for him in this place, but tasty and sweet food Shen Qingqiu’s stomach wouldn't tolerate in abundance in real life. Or food Shen Qingqiu hasn't encountered outside these dreams, maybe popcorn or chocolate were food that only existed in Shang Qinghua’s imagination. 

In their previous encounter Feiji, scandalously single layered dressed, was hand feeding a young and malnourished Shen Qingqiu. Like a mother bird feeding on their chicks. Shen Qingqiu tried to resist, push away Feiji, but the so-called god laughed and touched him on the back. Shen Qingqiu lost all strength, he couldn't talk or move and Feiji, using his demonic dream powers, appeared a bed under them, then feeded him all kinds of tasty food. Like a prostitute to a client. After such a scandalous dream, Shen Qingqiu had a hard time looking at Shang Qinghua's unconscious body. Especially those callous hands that gave him food and caressed his head, or pink lips that told him sweet things in dreams. 

“Take as much as you want”, said a purring voice, bringing Sheng Qingqiu back to the present, pushing a plate towards his direction. The table, once wood, was now of a transparent material and Shen Qingqiu could see naked, pale and hairless legs. They looked softer than any man's legs should look like. There's a soft chuckle. Shen Qingqiu raised his eyes and encountered soft and warm brown eyes looking at him with an emotion hard to describe. “You like it, I know it…”

“- Stop!”, Sheng Qingqiu raised from his seat, pleading to the demon who had taken his shidi’s face. Who knew what he did to his shidi, how he abused him in a desperate attempt to save Shang Qinghua and failed, and the so-called god, nothing more than a vile dream demon wanted to bewitch him and provoke him into committing the same atrocity again. Sheng Qingqiu promised to himself he wouldn't touch Shang Qinghua, not again, not ever. 

“What happens?” said the demon, looking at Sheng Qingqiu with Shang Qinghua's big and brown eyes, with thin and pink lips. 

“Stop using Shang Qinghua's face and his voice!”, Shen Qingqiu ordered, trying to call his sword and make the demon stay silent. But nothing came to his call, no sword or leaf or anything at all. 

“Shen…”

“-Shut up, demon! Don't call my name dirty…!” Shout, throwing the plates and bottles to the ground. He throws a punch to the demon's face. 

“Qingqiu”, said the demon. Shen Qingqiu found himself sitting before Feiji, as if he had never stood up, with all the plates and bottles on the table in the An Ding Peak Lord's home. 

Shen Qingqiu covers his face. He should know already he doesn't have control in the land of dreams, just like he doesn't have control in real life. 

“Shen Qingqiu,” called sweetly the demon. He had appeared next to Shen Qingqiu, as if he had always been there, wearing an adequate five layered outfit befitting of a Peak Lord and auburn wavy hair falling behind hair. He looked more dignified and composed than the real Shang Qinghua in life. “Shen Qingqiu, are you alright?”

The demon always used the same tactic, each time he pushed too far, he turned into something closer to his shidi. 

“Shen…”

Shen Qingqiu pushed away the demon and looked away. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again, in his second dream with the demon, he pushed Feiji away and the demon fell on a bed with less layers of clothes. Shen Qingqiu gulped and sneaked a glance back at the demon when it called him. Feiji was on the floor, with all his clothes -thanks gods-, and looking at him with watering eyes. 

“There's really nothing I can do to make you happy?”, the demon proclaimed more than asking. 

“There’s nothing this Lord wants from a thing like you.” Sheng Qingqiu said coldly. The demon shuddered under his gaze. Feiji came with the idea of making him happy from their second encounter, even inventing a stupid story about the sect leader trying to come back for him and failing because he suffered an almost lethal qi deviation. 

“Maybe if you accepted my help your life would …”

“-Shut up! This Lord already told you there's nothing…”

Shen Qingqiu's eyes widened when he realized Feiji and him were over a comfy and rare pelts. Feiji was wearing female clothes and jewels, he had turned into a woman, and had her delicate arms around his neck. “If you only listened to me …”, said a sweet voice, wide and wet eyes looking pitifully at him. “If you dual cultivated with me, you would break through,” whispered Feiji against his ear, making Shen Qingqiu's whole body trembling. 

“I will never touch my Shidi!”, yelled Shen Qingqiu, holding the demon's wrist. The demon shivered and her eyes shed tears. “No matter what you or Mu-shidi says, I will not touch Shang-shidi, no even if it makes my golden core stronger! Nothing is worth it, I will not force myself…”

“-Then make it for Yue qi!” the demon cried, taking Shang Qinghua form again. 

“What nonsense are you…?” 

“-just marry me, dual cultivate with me and I will save his life” Feiji threw himself at Shen Qingqiu. “If you don't, bad things will happen and everyone you have ever loved will die.” He talks so fast Shen Qingqiu can hardly understand him. 

“Are you threatening me?”, Shen Qingqiu hissed, forcing the demon back to the bed and holding painfully -if they were in the real world- the thick wrist of a man. 

“No…” 

The man under him disappears, just like everything around him, and Shen Qingqiu reappears in Huan Hua’s famous water prison tied up in red cable. In front of him the silhouette of a man shows himself with Hua Hua's Golden's clothes. 

“But I have seen your future…” said a voice in off, coming from everywhere at once. “And if you don't change things will turn ugly for Yue Qingyuan”. The silhouette throws the shards of a sword before him and Sheng Qingqiu knows they belong to the sect leader's sword. If Shen Qingqiu could cry and curse the demon but he finds with horror he doesn't have a tongue, nor does he have limbs -even if there's no pain-. Shang Qinghua reappears at his side and softly, like a mother holding a troublesome child, caressea Sheng Qingqiu’s face. “It is curious how the future, past and present coexist in the dream realm, shioxing”, confesses the demon with a serious face.“I have seen your past, present and future, your memories…”

Shen Qingqiu is now back in the Qiu mansion, a dirty slave, and at his side it's an immaculate peak Lord holding his hand. “Do you really think I want to harm you?”

Before Shen Qingqiu can answer their back at the An Ding Lord’s home, a table full of delicious food, tea -this time-, and a properly dressed Shang Qinghua. “If I wanted…”

“I won't dual cultivate with my Shidi, Feiji” Shen Qingqiu snarled, suddenly feeling exhausted after visions of his supposed future and painful past. 

“Why? Why don't you want to? You already have done it.” Shang Qinghua stood up and sat at his side, with big and doe eyes. “Don't you want a stronger golden core?”

“Not this way…” Shen closed his eyes. 

“Shen Qingqiu,” Feiji carefully turned his face and they looked each other in the eyes. “If you don't have him, then someone else would.” Feiji said seriously with a troublesome expression. 

“Then let them…” he said with disgust, pushing Feijin away. 

“-Liu Qingge?”

“What?” Sheng turned back, confused and tired. 

“If you don't want to be with him, then convince him to marry me”, Feiji said seriously. 

“Why him?” Shen said, disgusted and exhausted. 

“Because he is the most prone to a lethal qi deviation”. 

*

Shen Qingqiu woke up on his escritory, scrolls and rice paper under his body, thankfully there wasn't ink on his body or clothes. Shamefully a puddle of saliva tainted a paper under his cheek. He massaged his head. If what the demon, Feiji, said was true, he needed to stop Liu Qingge for doing

dual cultivation with Shang Qinghua or for suffering a mortal qi deviation. 

Chapter Text

Shen Qingqiu twisted his face in disgust. Most of the peak lords, save Liu Qingge and Qi Qingqiu, agreed to dual cultivate with Shang Qinghua once or twice. So far Shen Qingqiu, Yue Qingyuan and Mu Qingfang had done it and Shang Qinghua hasn't wake up. What made those fools think that others forcing themselves into a sleeping man would change things? They should have learned something from the sect medic explaining the situation’s development. Some of his disgusting sect siblings, if such a filth deserves to be named as such, had heard about the “core enforcing properties” of dual cultivating with an unconscious peaklord from Mu Qingfang himself and now "desire"to help the sect siblings they didn't give a shit an hour ago. 

Shen Qingqiu’s sharp eyes looked at Mu Qingfang over his fan. The man in cuestiones looked uncomfortable, as if he just realized the big mistake he made at sharing his discoveries with the rest of the peak lords. He had finally understood that by inviting to dual cultivate with Shang Qinghua, and in a desperation to help a sect siblings, he had accidentally whoring said sibling. 

“Shameless!” Qi Qingqiu said, crossing her arms in a lady like move. 

“I will find the demon, there's no need for this!” Exclaimed Liu Qingge, rising from his seat and holding the sword at his hip. 

“Shidi, shime, calm down”, pleaded in a mod voice Yue Qingyuan. Shen Qingqiu knew the man was nervous, even uncomfortable with the decision taken by the group. You Qingyuan, as the sect leader, could demote the notion and decided they weren't going to use Shang Qinghua as a doll for the eleven peaklords and ladies to use as fit. If Yue Qingyuan was anything as the Feiji told him about, and Shen Qingqiu is beginning to see his childhood friend in a new light - a nicer and forgiving one-, anyone would say he was overwhelmed by the situation. To give an unconscious and defenceless peak lord to a whole sect as a guck toy, because it was now the peaklords but sooner or later would be the disciplines. No! Shen Qingqiu would allow those filthy men and women to defile his shidi. 

While the discussion kept going with Liu Qingge promising to find the ice demon, so far he has made a fool of himself destroying buildings and “following” a shadow around the peaks; Wei Qingwei tries to dissuade some of the lowest ranked peaklords from dual cultivate with Shang Qinghua; Qi Qingqiu promises to help Mu Qingfang find a solution; the others peak lords argued they could help and, the most shameless, subtly mentioned the whole sect could be beneficed by the increase of power they would receive. Everything happened while Yue Qingyuan waited with a stupid smile. Shen Qingqiu couldn't tolerate it anymore, he needed to do something! It was his - self imposed- duty to protect the man who he had failed to save. 

“Shang Qinghua will…!” He closed his fan and raised his voice over the voices of his sect siblings when he fell back to his seat and the fan almost fell from his hand. It was just a few seconds, enough to get the sect leader attention while others ignored them. Between them Mu Qingfang and Wei Qingwei, who had seen Shen Qingqiu sleep spells on the past days. Something Mu Qingfang theorized was a second effect to be exposed to the same poison as Shang Qinghua. Liu Qingge stayed quiet and looked surprised at Shen Qingqiu. 

Then Shen Qingqiu opened his eyes and without saying anything went out of the hall, he flew to Qian Cao closely followed by Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge. 

================================

Mobei watched an unconscious Shang Qinghua sleep, it didn't matter how strong he hit the man - without breaking his bones- this one didn't wake up. He slapped him again, watching a red mark form on his cheek, and the man on the bed didn't react at all. He was as unconscious as the first time he slapped him. Mobei twisted his face in annoyance. If his servant was alright, he would have awakened so far. No, if Shang Qinghua was fine they would have communicated four days ago before the banquet in the north fort. In the past days he had tried to communicate with his servant the past four days without success. He searched for him in his home and office, being careful to not be discovered by An ding so called “working bumblebees”, looking for anything that could give him a clue. Then he jumped from An Ding peak to the closer peak and again to the closer one, from one building to the next, being hunted down like a beast by a human cultivator in white. He could beat the cultivator - he knew it- but it was unwise to fight in the middle of the sect in which inhabited the man able to seal the previous Demon emperador. And until recently he was unable to find his little spy and mobei wouldn't call it worry, but annoyance, to guess what had happened with the rat. Has Shang Qinghua turned against him? Or has he been captured by the humans? Has he deserted the sect as he often moaned? Should Mobei-jun save his miserable life if he is kept prisoner?

And here it was the snivelling rat, sleeping in his inner robes on a soft bed and not a dirty cell as the demon feared, smelling like sex…

Mobei punched the ceramic pillow a few centimeters from Shang Qinghua’s head, breaking it. And the rat didn't wake up. Some fragments of the pillow jumped to Shang Qinghua's placid face. Briefly, Mobei asked himself which type of curse was over him? Was this imposed slumber some kind of punishment between humans? How can he break it? Was Shang Qinghua willing the effort…?

Mobei carefully lowered his upper body, removed the broken pillow from Shang Qinghua's head, as it would only injure the human further, and held the placid face between his hands. Blue eyes observed in silence his servant face, he looked healthier than the last time Mobei-jun laid his eyes on him. A finger touched the bags under Shang Qinghua's eyes, they used to be black and swallowed, but now were red and soft. His skin was clearer and his lips redder. 

What should he do? What is he going to do with Shang Qinghua? He foolishly wished to take the human with him, but it was impossible, there wasn't anywhere safe in the northern desert where a human could be. No while his brothers and uncle were alive, as the fifth prince -in a few days third one- he held little power. What was the purpose of taking the human from his ‘prison’ to a death sentence?

The door of the room opened with a loud sound and a voice crying “ get away from him, demon!”. Mobei raised from his place at Shang Qinghua's side, he stared with cold eyes at the three men before him and before their swords could touch him disappeared in the shadows. The man in white and the other in green were no problem, he could beat them, but he couldn't say the same from the other one. The man who defeated Tianlan-jun, the Xuan Su sword, was there and he couldn't fight him. Shang Qinghua told him a dozen times why he shouldn't fight him like he talked to a spoiled child, he even forced him to promise he wouldn't do it. Even if Mobei didn't promise a thing and only answered with pinches or growls. 

He didn't stay to fight because he promised anything to anyone, or because he may not be able to protect Qinghua. He didn't stay to fight because it wasn't wise…

He couldn't be unwise now that Qinghua wasn't at his side. 

============================

Shen Qingqiu panted. He couldn't believe it, Feiji was right! When Feiji forced him to fall asleep in the middle of the peak lords meeting and told him to save him from “the demon destined” to kill him, Shen Qingqiu didn't expect to find anything when he opened the door. But whatever trick the demon had to hide his presence disappeared when he heard a sonorous crack and an unnatural cold coming from Shang Qinghua's room. He entered and there was a high ranking demon holding his shidi like a man would hold a lover. It was disgusting! He tries to think how to separate the demon from his shidi when a sword flew behind him towards the demon, and a battle cry came from Liu Qingge. Before the sword touched the demon, it disappeared and left his victim behind. Shen Qingqiu has little time to ask himself why the demon decided to escape instead to fight when the overwhelming presence of Yue Qingyuan reminded him why he was the sect leader and no one else. 

“He is gone”, Liu Qingge ran towards the place the demon used to be. 

“And he didn't take him”, Yue Qingyuan intercepted before Shen Qingqiu could make nasty remarks about Liu Qingge saying the obvious. 

“For now…” Shen Qingqiu said, standing a Shang Qinghua side. “But who knows when the demon is coming back”. 

“How did you know…”

“Um?” Shang Qingqiu pretended to be obtuse just to annoy his shidi. 

“How did Shen Qingqiu know the demon was here?” The sect leader asked softly. 

“Qinghua told him”, he said, signaling the sleeping form. Now Shen Qingqiu believed Feiji may be at his shidi’s side, which was enough for now. 

“Told you? But how? That 's impossible, he is in comma” Liu Qingge exclaimed, suddenly más at Qingqiu. 

“Yes, Shidi es right”. 

“He talks to me in my dreams”, Shen Qingqiu confused, trying to hide his face with his long sleeve because his fan fell on the way there. 

“Are you sure is Shang Qinghua? It could be a sleep demon”,

Yue Qingyuan asked carefully. 

“Yes, now I'm sure”.