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The imposter had obviously done a very good job at endearing himself to everyone because even though Shen Jiu’s statement was clearly believed, nobody outright jumped at the imposter.
“Who are you if you’re not Shen Qingqiu?” Yue Qingyuan asked quietly but firmly. “Did you cause his qi deviation to be able to take over his body?”
The imposter flinched back.
A lot of gasps and chokes indicated that most people here hadn’t thought that far. Liu Qingge’s hand twitched on his sword, but he seemed surprisingly unsure who to attack.
Luo Binghe growled and seemed ready to murder Yue Qingyuan on the spot. “Don’t you dare…”
“Binghe,” the imposter interrupted quietly. “Don’t.”
“But Shizun!”
Was the Heavenly Demon who was currently ruling as emperor actually making puppy eyes at the imposter right now? Well, whatever. Shen Jiu realized he didn’t even feel upset that Luo Binghe was taking his husband’s side. Going by what he’d learnt had the imposter been a far better Shizun than Shen Jiu.
“Don’t,” the imposter repeated pleadingly. “Please.”
That did it. Luo Binghe fell quiet, but he was clearly still ready to attack if necessary.
The imposter quietly closed the fan he’d been holding in his hand. No hiding this time. He met the eyes of the people staring at him. “It’s true. I am an imposter.”
…Shen Jiu had to admit he hadn’t thought it would be this easy.
“But it wasn’t my choice to take over your life, Peak Lord Shen, and I certainly didn’t kill you,” the imposter said. “I… I’m not from around here. I wasn’t even a cultivator back there, just a normal civilian. And actually, I died where I was from.”
Luo Binghe choked and paled rapidly. He grasped the imposter’s hand and his husband seemed grateful for it. Mu Qingfang was also rather pale while Liu Qingge seemed like he wanted to go and kill something. Shang Qinghua looked like he was going to pass out any second now, but he also appeared to be strangely concerned for the imposter.
“However, after I’d died, I woke up here. As Shen Qingqiu. I was told I’d had a qi deviation by Zhang… I mean Sect Leader Yue.”
As strange as that was, Shen Jiu believed the imposter. And something about the imposter unsettled him. Something about the hunched shoulders, the slightly bowed head, the tight grasp on Luo Binghe’s hand and the pale face.
Shen Jiu’s face.
He didn’t like that look on his face one bit.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Yue Qingyuan asked hesitantly.
The imposter smiled bitterly. “What was I supposed to say that wouldn’t have gotten me killed? The second it would’ve gotten out that I’d replaced one of the Peak Lords, I would’ve been exorcised.”
…fair.
“And also…” The imposter paused as if he was waiting for something. “The… let’s call it higher being that dropped me here had some very clear ideas of what I was supposed to be doing. Its punishments are far from harmless and it was very clear on me not being allowed to tell anyone about me replacing Peak Lord Shen.”
“Did that higher being as you call it cause the qi deviation?” Shen Jiu asked with narrowed eyes.
This was really not what he’d been expecting from this conversation.
Another pause. “I don’t know,” the imposter said.
“Is it watching you right now?” Hua Cheng suddenly asked.
“…yes.”
Hua Cheng exchanged a long look with Xie Lian.
Luo Binghe looked like he was on the warpath now. “Shizun, is it threatening you? You said punishments. What did it do to you? What does it want from you?”
The imposter sighed. “It’s been quiet for a while. But before that it wanted me to do certain things. Behave certain ways.” He glanced at Shen Jiu. “Do what Peak Lord Shen would’ve done. I could do what I wanted after a while, but some things were… unavoidable. No matter how much I bargained or wanted to avoid it.”
Luo Binghe had gone deathly still. “The abyss,” he whispered.
“Yes,” the imposter answered barely audible. He seemed strangely young and vulnerable at the moment. “I never wanted to do it.”
Luo Binghe made a wounded sound. Then a deathly aura emanated from him. “What would the higher being have done to Shizun if he hadn’t? How did it punish you?”
“Most of the times it was nothing drastic.” The imposter grimaced. “Though one time it put me in a dream realm where I got my arm and leg ripped off. Its favorite threat was to send me back to where I came from. So basically killing me. That would’ve been the punishment if I hadn’t gone through with… you know.”
Luo Binghe clearly did even if Shen Jiu was certainly missing something crucial here. The Heavenly Demon made another wounded sound. “I’ll destroy it,” he vowed darkly afterwards.
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” the imposter said. “And like I said, it’s been quiet lately, it only acted up again now with Peak Lord Shen returning. Besides, it was helpful from time to time. It did save my life once.” He smiled. “Also, without it I never would’ve met Binghe.”
Luo Binghe looked rather conflicted, but the murder plans for this higher being were obviously not forgotten.
“I’m sorry for interrupting,” Lan Sizhui suddenly said politely. “But is it possible that this higher being you speak of calls itself the System?”
The imposter instantly stared at Lan Sizhui with wide eyes. “Yes. How did you know?”
“Because ever since arriving on this peak there have been these strange messages inside my head. I don’t think anyone else can hear them given that nobody else reacted to it. I can’t understand most of it because there are some really strange words, but it’s mostly saying something about an error with the user. Something about being unable to cleanly connect to user Yuan.”
The look of pure unadulterated horror that flashed across the imposter’s face was certainly not reassuring. The imposter exchanged a horrified look with Shang Qinghua of all people before he stared back at Lan Sizhui who was clearly uncomfortable now.
“What’s your name?” the imposter asked. “Are you named Yuan?”
Lan Sizhui nodded. “My name is Lan Yuan, courtesy name Sizhui.”
The imposter looked like he was about to pass out. “Is the System asking you to do anything? Does it want something from you? Ask it!”
Lan Sizhui paused for a moment before replying, “It doesn’t seem that way. It said there are no more missions to fulfill.”
The imposter let out a long breath while Shang Qinghua nearly dropped to the ground from sheer relief for some reason. Hm.
“Tell me the second that changes,” the imposter urged and it was clear how worried he still was. “You can talk freely to other people under the System’s thumb.”
Shen Jiu really, really didn’t like that look on his face. That fear. That exhaustion. That vulnerability.
“I will,” Lan Sizhui replied. “But if you don’t mind me asking, why can you talk about it now when you weren’t allowed to before?”
Another pause. “I think Peak Lord Shen coming back kind of broke the System a little bit. It says that former protocols of secrecy have been overwritten.”
“Alright, we’ll get back to that,” Wei Wuxian interrupted. “Until then, what’s wrong with the name Yuan?”
Shen Jiu knew that look. That was the look that people who threatened Wei Wuxian’s son saw last before dying.
“Nothing, it’s just…” The imposter sighed again. “It’s my name. From before. I’m Shen Yuan.”
…
“Shen?” Shang Qinghua repeated baffled. “For real? You had the same last name?”
The imposter aka Shen Yuan just shrugged.
“Shen Yuan, may I ask how old you are?” Xie Lian suddenly asked. “If you’ve lived a life before here.”
Shen Yuan sheepishly scratched his neck. He’d clearly dropped all pretense of being Shen Jiu. “Thirty-eight.”
…what the fuck?
“Please tell me you didn’t count the time where you were dead,” Shang Qinghua said faintly.
“Then I guess I’m thirty-three,” Shen Yuan corrected meekly.
Shang Qinghua looked like he wanted to die on the spot.
Dead silence.
Then Luo Binghe squeaked, “Shizun’s the same age as me?”
Shen Jiu quickly did the math. “You got here at nineteen?”
“Then Xiao-Shizun was a nineteen-year-old civilian with no training whatsoever when we went on that mission with the skinner demon?” Ning Yingying asked concerned. “Who had not even been here a month?”
Shen Yuan blinked at the name, but he nodded. “Technically yes. The System helped me out a bit and I had access to Peak Lord Shen’s power, though. It turned out fine.”
Luo Binghe and Ning Yingying exchanged a very, very disagreeing look.
Yue Qingyuan looked faint. “I sent a mortal civilian, a child, to deal with a demon alone?”
“You… you were nineteen at the caves…” Liu Qingge whispered.
“Oh gods, so when you got poisoned with Without-A-Cure…” Mu Qingfang’s hands were trembling.
Shen Yuan smiled sheepishly.
“You got what?” Shen Jiu asked.
“It’s gone now anyway,” Shen Yuan said quickly. “And no need to worry, Peak Lord Mu, it wasn’t that bad. I was rather sickly in my first life as well. I was basically just waiting to die.”
Unsurprisingly, that reassured exactly no one which Shen Yuan seemed to find very strange for some mind-boggling reason. What was up with that child? The civilian child who was just dropped here by this system. Who’d been threatened and punished and poisoned and killed. Who’d actually just been trying to survive in a place not his own, always having to pretend to be someone he was not.
His sect siblings and disciples then started listing a lot of other stuff Shen Yuan had gotten into over the years when they were realizing how old he’d been exactly at those times. Including but not limited to getting infected by a sower demon, getting thrown into the Water Prison, self-destructing, being kidnapped and poisoned more times than one could count and all in all just having next to no self-preservation.
Shen Yuan looked rather confused the whole time as if he couldn’t understand what everyone was panicking about.
“He’s as bad as Uncle Wei,” Jin Ling commented baffled.
There was one key difference, though. Wei Wuxian had gained a lot of people constantly keeping him in check and reining in his self-sacrificial tendencies. His husband, his parents, his siblings – which considering all those marriages, half-siblings and sworn brothers were basically endless – and all those other friends, gods and ghosts connected to him. These people had even managed the nearly impossible feat of starting to get Wei Wuxian to actually get what they were complaining about.
Shen Yuan didn’t have that. He’d been here for almost two decades and he didn’t seem any better off than when he got here.
When Yue Qingyuan mentioned an incident with some flowers two weeks ago, something in Shen Jiu snapped.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Shen Jiu hissed furiously.
Shen Yuan flinched back slightly while Luo Binghe glared at Shen Jiu. “You…”
“This master is not talking to your husband, Luo Binghe!”
Both Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe were clearly taken aback by that answer.
“Nor is this master talking to any of my disciples as they are disciples and it’s very much not their job to protect their seniors.” Shen Jiu glared at Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, Mu Qingfang and Shang Qinghua. “I’m talking to my dear sect siblings. What the fuck is wrong with you that you are so utterly incapable of protecting one single person?”
Mu Qingfang at least had the decency to look ashamed and Shang Qinghua appeared properly afraid. Liu Qingge on the other hand glared back just as furiously while Yue Qingyuan had put on that damn guilty face of his that he’d been wearing forever. An expression which meant nothing.
“Not noticing my death and replacement is one thing,” Shen Jiu seethed. “I guess you were all too happy with me being different that you never bothered to ask yourselves why. Truly, this sect’s bonds are a real beacon of virtue that you were all too ready to ignore this matter simply because it concerned a sect sibling you all loathed. But alright. However, you clearly like Shen Yuan! And you’re still utterly incapable of protecting him? So yes, I am asking what the fuck is wrong with you! You are being hailed as the most powerful sect and yet you’re not able to protect one civilian child that got stranded here!”
Shen Jiu’s disciples definitely would’ve preferred to be anywhere but here at the moment with how uncomfortably they shifted. Yue Qingyuan was the personification of guilt and Mu Qingfang also seemed rather faint while Shang Qinghua was clearly debating whether or not to hide behind Shen Yuan.
Liu Qingge on the other hand had gone red, presumably with rage. “You have no right to talk!” he shouted. “You’re the one who wouldn’t even have batted an eye if we died! Hell, I bet you would’ve jumped at the chance to get rid of me!”
Shen Jiu stilled.
Liu Qingge wasn’t done, though. “We were and are way better off with Shen Yuan!”
Shen Yuan looked insanely uncomfortable and clearly wanted to object but didn’t know how to.
“He put in the work instead of being a lazy and lecherous young master that hated everyone around him!”
…really, what had Shen Jiu expected? And obviously, Yue Qingyuan didn’t intervene. Of course he didn’t. He never had. Nobody ever had. This…
“I suggest you shut up,” Wei Wuxian said darkly and stepped forward until he was standing next to Shen Jiu, Lan Wangji directly by his side. “Because I really don’t like people insulting my friends, you know?”
“I think this sect could really use the Lan’s no-gossip rule,” Jin Ling commented dryly.
“Or a working brain,” Lan Jingyi added.
Lan Sizhui didn’t even admonish his friends this time.
“I have to say, I expected better of Cang Qiong Mountain,” Xie Lian stated calmly.
Hua Cheng chuckled darkly with a hand on E-Ming. “Which is my husband’s way of saying you’re absolute trash.”
The cultivators of Cang Qiong Mountain just stared with wide eyes.
Shen Jiu felt strangely warm and took a deep breath. Right. He did have people now.
Liu Qingge glared. “Still can’t fight your battles honorably? How dare you lecture us if you were too busy playing around with these people? Found some other criminals to hang out with? What are you complaining about if you’re clearly living well?”
…that’s it.
“I’m dead, you moron!” Shen Jiu snapped back. “And don’t you dare insult my friends! Because they are the ones who picked up the pieces when I was nothing more than a half-dispersed ghost fire!”
Liu Qingge finally stopped and blinked at the reminder that Shen Jiu was literally dead. Yue Qingyuan stared wide-eyed at Shen Jiu’s companions as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Shen Jiu suddenly had to laugh dryly. “Liu-shidi, you’re really something, you know that? If I wanted you dead, I could just have let you get killed instead of saving your life.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The mission with the ghost well when we were head disciples,” Shen Jiu replied. “You thought I’d deliberately tried to attack you when one of my attacks brushed you when all I had done was disperse the spirit you hadn’t noticed sneaking up on you. If you don’t believe me, ask Shang-shidi, I’m sure he remembers all too well considering the weird and cryptic advice he decided to give me afterwards.”
Shang Qinghua nearly squeaked at being the center of attention, but he quickly admitted, “Shen-shixiong is telling the truth.”
Oh, that shocked look on Liu Qingge’s face was absolute gold.
“Don’t get me wrong, I can’t fucking stand you,” Shen Jiu said. “You’re stupid, can’t form a proper sentence if your life depended on it, constantly harassed me and always had nothing better to do than assume the worst of me. You want to know why I went to the brothels? Because that was the only place I could sleep at peacefully considering I’ve never felt even remotely safe on this stupid mountain!”
Shen Jiu would’ve rather died than admitting that while he’d lived here, but he was already dead and the years spent in the other world had put things in a new perspective. He didn’t care to keep it a secret anymore.
Liu Qingge stared disbelievingly.
“I’ll be the first to admit I was far from easy to be around. Fine, that’s on me.” Shen Jiu glared furiously. “But you know what’s on you? Never letting me be anything else. Never asking yourself why. Jumping to conclusions because it was easier that way. Making me feel so unsafe here that I literally had to flee to sleep.” Shen Jiu’s voice became tight. “Hating me so much that you ignored me dying even though you were supposed to protect me as a member of the same sect! I never would’ve missed something happening to you!”
An unnamed emption flashed over Liu Qingge’s face. “You…” And that was all he said.
Shen Jiu hadn’t planned on throwing all of that into his face and he felt strangely exhausted now. “Why did I even bother coming back here?” he whispered. “You clearly want me gone again.” Shen Jiu looked at Yue Qingyuan. “I wanted an answer, but I guess I’ve gotten it already, haven’t I?”
Qi-ge looked heartbroken, but Shen Jiu turned away. He didn’t have the heart to look at his friends or his disciples. He didn’t want to see anyone right now, so he just walked away and ignored the way his hands were trembling.