Chapter Text
Shen Qingqiu frowned as he sat up slowly in what he knew was his bed, rubbing his eyes with his porcelain hands, trying to remember what had happened.
“Shizun, you are awake!” A familiar voice he knew was the beast’s said in a tone that was far to chipper for the presumably early hour
“What happened?” The former Peak Lord asked simply, yawning slightly while covering his mouth with his palm
Luo Binghe immediately replied, “You were poisoned at the feast, it was in your wine. But do not worry-“
The green clad man immediately interrupted him, his pale jade eyes widening slightly, “I let Yingmei taste my wine, she needs to be looked after!”
“She is alright, Shizun. The poison used on you has no effect on heavenly demons.” Luo Binghe soothed, “I had the healers check on her and she did not even have an upset belly.”
Shen Qingqiu relaxed when he said that, having been deeply concerned about his favorite current student -granddaughter, his mind whispered.
Still, Shen Qingqiu regained his composure, his hand reaching towards his bedside table to get his fan.
With the familiar weight of it in his porcelain palm, he snapped it open and started fanning himself, “Have you figured out who poisoned me?”
“My former wife, Liu Mingyan.” Luo Binghe replied
Shen Qingqiu was not surprised, he had wondered when she would make a move as she had been not at all trying to hide her hatred for him.
“I see. I take it you divorced her.”
“I did, and since she hurt you I will execute her.” Luo Binghe replied
The former Peak Lord made a ‘hm’ of acknowledgement and asked, “How long was I asleep?”
“Just through the night and most of the morning, Shizun, it is nearly noon.” The Emperor answered
That answer did not comfort Shen Qingqiu at all, in fact it worried him deeply; as he had been deeply asleep and had dreamt of his past, and he was well aware of the beast’s skills with dream magic.
He had spent over half a decade keeping the beast out of his mind with sheer willpower, and only let him touch his surface level thoughts when he made him think he was amnesiac, all of his work could have been undone last night when he was too weak to keep up his guard.
“I see. What all has happened since I collapsed?” Shen Qingqiu inquired, fanning himself and trying to act nonchalant
The Emperor answered, telling him about how he had solved the two simultaneous assassination attempts and how he had been tending to him since.
Shen Qingqiu’s eyebrows twitched at that, annoyance barely kept hidden behind his facade, he was almost certain the beast had been in his head.
But, since he had not been tossed back into the Water Prison and gotten all four of his porcelain limbs torn off, Shen Qingqiu was fairly certain the beast had not seen anything recent and hence nothing particularly damning.
***
Hua Yuelian, the Palace Mistress, hummed softly as she entered the Water Prison through a secret entrance, making her way towards Liu Mingyan’s cell.
She was very pleased about the situation of course, because while Liu Mingyan’s son -Lou Qingge- was behind her own son -Luo Junhao- in the line of succession and there was no way for her son to gain rank currently, the position of ‘Head of Harem’ had just opened.
Ever since she was a little girl, her father -the late Palace Master and Leader of the Huan Hua Sect- had trained her to be in a rich man’s harem; or, more accurately, to lead a harem.
(Though, her training had been under the assumption that she would be the primary wife as whomever she married would inherit her father’s sect, but she had taken that change and the sect being dissolved in stride.)
And ever since she had married Luo Binghe, she had been trying to climb her way up to Empress and get her son up from Second Prince to Crown Prince, but in the past near year she had also realized that the winds had changed and the path for her to become Empress had closed.
Because there was one unwavering truth her harem training had taught her: her husband’s whims were law, and his beliefs are truth.
When Luo Binghe had been on his crusade to conquer the cultivation world and dissolve all the sects, he had claimed that Shen Qingqiu was the most heinous of scum villains and she had taken that belief and echoed it and threw the power of Huan Hua Sect behind him.
But now, ever since that day where her husband had acted so strangely, he had decided that Shen Qingqiu was his peerlessly enlightened Shizun, which meant that he must be treated as an honored guest and tragic victim of a fake kidnapping story.
And clearly, Liu Mingyan, despite being the Head of the Harem, did not understand the way of husbands and harems.
Even with that truth notwithstanding, there was another fact that seemed that Liu Mingyan had missed: this was Luo Binghe’s world, the universe had always seemed to bend to his desires.
It was strange, almost funny to the Palace Mistress, that the greatest female cultivator of their generation had been so ignorant on a matter such as how marriage worked in this world.
Luo Binghe had decided that Shen Qingqiu was pardoned or innocent of his crimes, which is was specifically truly did not matter and was just pure pageantry, as regardless the result was the same.
Liu Mingyan had been too blinded by her lust for revenge to care that she had signed her own death warrant and put her son under heavy scrutiny.
But her loss was Hua Yuelian’s gain and she would take full advantage of it before any of the other remaining wives did; especially Sha Hualing, who she considered one of her greatest threats to such a role as the saintess was one their husband’s closest advisors (the other threat was Ning Yingying, but Hua Yuelian did not feel threatened by who she thought of as just a ditzy clumsy girl who just happened to be their husband’s first love due to luck and proximity).
She walked up to Liu Minyan’s cell, standing smugly in front of the bars.
“What do you want?” The veiled woman asked
“I came to thank you.” Hua Yuelian smiled, “I had been wondering how to snatch your position away from you without upsetting our husband -only my husband now, I guess, since you have been cast aside as a traitor- since he so hated harem infighting. But you made it so easy by foolishly harming his Shizun.”
“Shen Qingqiu is a monster, he killed my brother.” Liu Mingyan hissed
The Palace Mistress rolled her eyes, “So what? Avenging him will not bring your brother back to life, all the attempt did was cause your own death. And husband said that Peak Lord Shen is innocent of all crime, so he is. In case you forgot, an emperor’s word is law.”
“Shen Qingqiu has done something to him, the same betwitchment he had over Sect Leader Yue, no doubt.” The purple-clad woman said
“I think you have forgotten something.” Hua Yuelian hummed
“What?”
“Your son.” Hua Yuelian crossed her arms, her elaborate pink and gold robes flowing at the motion, a sadistic smirk forming on her lips, “If you beg nicely, I might be tempted to look after your son. After all, the vultures of the court will undoubtedly think him accessory to your harebrained scheme.”
“Qing-er is five years old, he could know nothing.” Liu Mingyan defended
“Sure, but will others think so?”
But, before Liu Mingyan could say anything in response, a third -distinctly feminine- voice spoke.
Both women’s heads turned and they found Sha Hualing walking down the hallway along with Mobei-Jun.
“I do hope you are not scheming with the prisoner, I would do hate to inform husband of another traitorous wife.” The Demon Saintess cooed at Hua Yuelian
The Palace Mistress took the unspoken threat with grace, “Of course not, I merely came to admonish her and make sure she had no co-conspirators to her plot.”
Sha Hualing rolled her eyes and sighed in clear disappointment, “Of course.”
Mobei-Jun said nothing, clearly not at all interested at the harem squabbling as he opened the cell door and dragged Liu Mingyan to her feet before creating binds of ice to hold her arms behind her back.
“Is it time for her execution already?” Hua Yuelian asked the ice general, surprised as Luo Binghe always did executions as either instant after the crime or drawn out and made into an elaborate affair
“Junshang wants her dead today.” Mobei-Jun said simply, his voice as monotonous as it always was on the few occasions he deigned to speak at all
***
Shen Qingqiu fanned himself slowly as he watched Mobei-Jun drag Liu Mingyan into the throne room from where he sat on the throne.
Very few of the harem and none of the children were present, mostly the various lords and so that had been in attendance for the spoiled celebration as well a sthe typical members of the court.
The beast had told him to sit here since he was ‘still recovering’ like he was some sort of frail newborn deer, the entire concept made him want to roll his eyes but he just let it happen to keep up the ruse.
Lou Binghe was nearby, like a feral guard dog pacing back and forth on the steps of the dais.
Liu Mingyan was brought to the front and forced to kneel, being frozen in position due to the ice chains -courtesy of Mobei-Jun.
“Liu Mingyan.” Lou Binghe said with a half-snarl, not using the courtesy title of ‘shimei’ or any titles, “you are guilty of treason, you attempted to assassinate my Shizun in front of me. The only punishment is death.”
The Emperor then turned to face the throne, and his tine changed from anger to being calm, “Shizun, as the one attacked, how do you wish for her to die?”
Shen Qingqiu was silent but ultimately decided upon, “Let her have the same poison she wanted to use on me.”
“Of course, Shizun.” Lou Binghe said, then turning to his Second in Command, “Did you find out what poison it was?”
Mobei-Jun nodded and reached into a pocket on his robes, pulling out a glass vial holding a reddish-pink liquid, “This was on the maid she enlisted.”
Lou Binghe took the vial and smelled it, recognizing it from his education at the sect, “The Hollow Bloom.”
It used to be common among human nobility before sects became commonplace, used to quietly kill those considered ‘undesireable’ in a family, so it made sense that Liu Mingyan -who had come from an ancient noble family- to know about it.
“Open her mouth.” He ordered and Sha Hualing got behind Liu Mingyan right away and forced her jaw open.
The emperor opened the vial and poured the entirety of the contents down Liu Mingyan’s throat.
The affects of this poison took several hours to kill: taking around an hour for the first symptoms -blue-tinged lips, coughing up blood and then seizures- to start; in the subsequent hour or hours the body temperature would drop significantly, breathing slows slowly until it completely stops and after death all of teh qi in the body would be released like ‘smoke’ that forms in the shape of the flower used to make the poison before disappating.
(The only antidote was crushed pearls inhaled through the mouth, and even that was useless after the first half-hour, so before even the first symptoms began. But it had been useful for said nobles of the past who immediately regretting poisoning family members).
While they waited for that, Lou Binghe had the other would-be killer brought in: the disgruntled noble that had hired that troupe actor to throw a blade at his Shizun.
“What death for him, Shizun, he hired the one who tried to throw a blade at you?” Lou Binghe asked
Shen Qingqiu pondered it, and decided, “Qingsi. Let him be torn apart by the vines of the Ties that Bind.”
The man begged for mercy pathetically, but within a few minutes the seeds were procured for the emperor and he cut into the damned’s skin to make him bleed and the seeds to germinate faster.
While the two would-be killers awaited their agonizing deaths, Lou Binghe made it known that this was the fate of any who hurt his Shizun.