The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fan fiction

Spoiler: Oyster Sauce Chicken

***
Some people dealt with the deluge of imperial favors- wealth, influence, fame- with grace and great equanimity.

For instance, Fei Chang, Fei Qilin's father, parlayed the Imperial favor into opening a string of restaurants and soup kitchens which used some of Fei Qilin's culinary artifacts and then hired refugees to run both. His next goal had been to build and run hostels to house the refugees, thus ensuring that those people were fed, housed and given livelihoods that took them off the street.

For this kindness extended to them in their moment of dire need, the refugee community thought highly of him but he never actually used his influence for anything else.

Liu Cheung's elder brother and father ran a self defense training ground for everyone in town who wanted to learn how to defend themselves, free of charge.

His eldest brother and in-laws had accepted the decree raising both their families' social status and rank on behalf of both their families and had started setting up a proper garrison of armed forces.

A scholarly family they could not be but Liu Cheung's father could certainly pull off military.

The Guo, Ma and Zhu clan members certainly accepted the imperial favor with every evidence of pride and joy in their respective scions but were fortunately intelligent enough to avoid being entangled in politics. They stayed relatively low key and didn't assert their new influence.

The Mo clan had been restored to their 'proper' position as a generals' estate and were over the moon.

However, not all clans' members were as well acquainted with history as the people in Guo, Zhu or Ma.

Zhao Fu's uncles, cousins and aunts had suddenly been awakened to the potential of their young scion.

For Zhao Fu or his brothers, it was not really a happy awakening.
***
The thing was, the Zhao couldn't exactly claim to be a notable clan.

They hadn't been descended from any emperors. They had no imperial consorts, empresses or preceptors among their ranks. They had no brilliant visionaries or philosophers. They couldn't even claim to have stellar military heroes among their number.

They were mediocre and the best that could be said for them was that they were sometimes mistaken for being descended from a previous country's ruling family after it had been assimilated by the Empire.

In short, they had no glory to their name... until today.

Naturally, having suddenly gained a measure of fame thanks to Zhao Fu, more than a few members were going to act like nouveau riche who had just struck gold in them thar hills.

Zhao Xuanyuan and Haoxuan were not among these people.

Despite the fact that they were Zhao Fu's brothers, and theoretically among those closest to him, they attempted to avoid the limelight as much as possible.

This was remarkably difficult when their friends and extended family members kept suggesting that they make use of Zhao Fu's influence for their own matters.

The thing was, before Zhao Fu had made it big in Cang Qiong as an artifact maker and monster slayer, both Haoxuan and Huanyuan had their lives on track, just the way they wanted it. They were just members of the Zhao clan, like any other clan member. They were going to ace their exams and get land, maybe become scholarly or military officials, get married and have kids.

Then Zhao Fu made it big and suddenly they got dragged into the limelight with him.

They were not happy about it.

Suddenly, everyone was saying, "You must be so proud of him!" And all they could do was respond with a fake smile and pray for the conversation to end.

Mostly because the next thing people normally brought up was either their desire to be introduced to Zhao Fu or why weren't they also cultivators?

If they wanted a position in the military or as scholar officials, people were suggesting they throw Zhao Fu's weight around to get it.

If they showed interest in a girl, they could never be certain if her family was saying yes because they were good prospects or if it was because they were related to Zhao Fu who could give anyone related to him everything they wanted because he was the inner disciple of a biiiiig sect.

It was infuriating. It was the classic dilemma, does this person love me for me or love me for my connections to a walking gold coffer that dispenses taels like candy?

They could get their own girls, thanks!

Everyone expected them to show off their connections to get anything down and THEY WERE STRONG INDEPENDENT MEN WHO DON'T NEED ANY CULTIVATOR'S SUPPORT TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS, OKAY?!

Unfortunately the most common response to these words was a befuddled, "But it's right THERE."

Their own response was to double down on their plans even harder and demand, "SO?!"

Of course, their stepmother was straining at the leash to boast about the fact that Zhao Fu was her son.

Bad enough that Zhao Fu was practically pulling out all the stops to rebuild, enhance and improve their home, bad enough that Zhao Fu was already giving her anything that he could think of, which women liked, in hopes of making her happy. She still wasn't satisfied with what they already had or what her son was giving her.

Now she wanted to marry Zhao Fu off to a princess and break her daughters' marriages to marry them off to princes whether or not they wanted it.

That woman was an inveterate social climber. Her greed for rising in social status, rank and influence was blatant. It was an embarrassment.

It was also embarrassing that they also had to admit that in different circumstances, they could use the kind of money that Zhao Fu's shifu and the emperor were willing to settle on him.

 

"they could have all thry wanted with just a word?" -> "they could have all they wanted with just a word"
It's nice to see it a bit of the Mothers bg and her pov

 

Thank you! I will fix that now. It is always good to have betas.

 

Glad I could help

 

Spoiler: Sesame Chicken

***
It was a fact known throughout history that royal privilege and royal favors tended to go to people's heads.

Some people could be so intoxicated by the favor of various members of the Imperial family and particularly the Emperor himself, that they began to do unsightly things with impunity.

Some favored consorts' families in the past dynasties rode their horses through city streets despite the fact those places prohibited the use of riding beasts simply because they felt like it. Other families who could claim imperial favor would sell sinecures and positions for money and goods to enrich themselves.

Monks and daoist masters would often leverage imperial favor into new monasteries and schools.

Some past dynasties emperors simply loaded their favored consorts' families with estates and positions in the military or the ranks of scholar officials such as ministers, counselors or advisors, even preceptors without care for whether or not those people could manage them.

Some princesses appropriated the land of impoverished commoners to build themselves pleasure parks. Some princes and officials embezzled from public coffers. Several members of the previous imperial dynasties felt free to abuse their subordinates as they saw fit, which was why the luxurious estates that were inherited by their descendants had torture rooms in the first place.

Vineyards, fields, orchards- all these, there were instances in past dynasties wherein if an influential noble with imperial favor desired it, they had taken it.

Some imperial nephews of previous rulers even felt it their right to murder people in broad daylight to claim their riches and settle grudges. And some nephews of imperial consorts felt it was their right to seduce or rape innocent maidens right and left.

A previous emperor even built an entire palace and surrounding city around hot springs. That marvel with its white jade statues, steps and pools, was in use as a jewel of the Imperial house, even to this day.

As for the previous inhabitants who lived near those hot springs before that emperor seized the area for himself, no records were left of what became of them.

In short, it was reasonable for the people of the highest ranks of the aristocracy to believe they could claim whatever they laid their eyes on.

Including people.

 

Spoiler: Lemon Butter Chicken

***
The Shang family estate of Shang Bo, and the Liu family estate of Liu Cheung were both veritable fortresses.

This was perfectly understandable given the sheer amount of mental trauma that members of those two families had suffered.

Shang Bo's siblings still had nightmares. Liu Cheung's brothers and father had embraced militant self defense.

Naturally those two strongholds were equipped with enough defenses to kill good sized demon beasts or wreck an army.

Enlai's intensely protective interest had also led him to upgrading both the defenses and interiors of his in-laws' homes. After all, their daughters were still recovering from the mental trauma inflicted upon them by the beizi.

Of course this came with very fashionable furniture and all the other 'trimmings' one could expect from a doting husband to be. This staunch and considerate method of looking after the wants and needs of his fiancees spoke well of Enlai's attachment to their daughters, or sisters, and so his in-laws were delighted.

In truth, if their daughters had been able to consider intercourse without a shiver of reflexive fear from what they had suffered before, those in laws would be in laws for real by now. As it was, Enlai was still willing to wait. And all of his ladies had gotten to like each other.

Since the Qing Jing peak lord seemed to have no problems with it, it was no longer unusual for his inner sect disciples to give domestic artifacts to the families who were under their aegis. This was most commonly their own blood relatives or their relatives by marriage.

Aoguang of course was the glaring exception. None of his harem or family members had yet been graced with any artifacts and it was clear they likely would not be.

***
Shang Ling Mei's method of dealing with anyone who claimed to be related to Shang Bo was simple.

She told them they weren't and forced them to leave if they wouldn't leave on their own.

Some fools had been pushy more than once, insisting on seeing the rest of the Shang family and Shang Bo in particular. Others even approached Shang Tai Hao, Li Jia and Bai yu, at least until Ling Mei put herself in between her adopted siblings and the aggressive interlopers.

That was why each of the Shang siblings now had a brass dragon tooth warrior golem and an iron warbeast wondrous figurine assigned to them. Ling Mei, being the head of the family and in charge of the businesses they owned when Shang Bo was not around, had two of each in comparison to her siblings' guards.

In fact dragon tooth guards had become ubiquitous when the family members of the Qing Jing peak disciples were traveling.

Zhao Fu's sisters and mother had one each. Zhou Hui's sister and cousin had one each. Liu Cheung had his group of twenty guarding his family and by extension the town, though his in-laws had one each. Fei Qilin had set his family members and suitors up with one each and with a trained Beast in a sealed bead to boot.

Yang Dewei seemingly had no one to protect other than himself, but Enlai and Wang An both assigned one dragon tooth guard each to their precious people.

Despite the fact that Aoguang had a harem, he preferred to keep an eye on them with ushabtis and keep them at home rather than give them the more blatantly obvious dragon tooth guards, however if they were to go out of town he reluctantly assigned them protectors.

A full troop of twenty guarded the Guo family, another troop of twenty guarded the Ma family and a third troop of twenty guarded the Zhu family. As for the Mo family, Mo Heiying hadn't commented on how many of his clan he kept under guard.

As for Chen Wanyong, he hadn't bothered to interfere further with his own blood family, much less send them additional guard golems or reinforce their defenses, because as he explained it to anyone who asked... "They cut ties to me first and said I was no longer part of the family."

As far as he was concerned, the fact that they had cut him loose meant he owed them nothing further. Because he owed them nothing further, he hadn't bothered to involve himself in their matters.

The only people who he had bothered to send dragon tooth guards and artifacts to, were his aunt Chen Ah Rong, and her two daughters Yu Rong and Dai Rong. The dragon tooth guards he sent them also matched the bound elemental spirit beasts and set of wondrous figurine steeds he had sent them beforehand.

Naturally, everyone who had been interested in gaining his attention also picked up on his intent just by keeping an eye on who he favored with gifts.

It obviously wasn't the Chen clan or even the Ran clan.

 

Spoiler: Stir Fried Pork and Bitter Melon

***
One of the things Qing Jing peak's inner sect disciples weren't stingy with, was medicine.

Even Aoguang, who had utterly refused to share artifacts with both sides of his family and his harem, had been willing to give his maternal family and his harem members medicines which not only repaired (or in the case of his elder maternal relatives, rejuvenated) their bodies to their peak condition, but also further upgraded those bodies and even unlocked cultivation.

Naturally the members of his paternal family, the Imperial Family, were incredibly bitter and frustrated by this.

***
Zhou Xinyi had been right, when she assumed that the fortification of the towns under Cang Qiong's jurisdiction had been motivated by a desire to hide the results of the medicines their Qing Jing peak had produced.

The problem is, medicine that rejuvenates or improves the human body so visibly, to the point that watching its effects on an elder was like watching time roll backwards, wasn't something that could be hidden for long.

It was also something that royalty craved very badly. Emperors from other countries or previous dynasties had chased immortality, cultivation and youth, accepting anything from daoist scriptures to alchemists' concoctions in search for eternal life and restored youth.

Pills or elixirs that could provide such things were naturally so valuable that past emperors would throw mountains of wealth or of human lives away in order to acquire it for themselves.

With the sudden interest of Cang Qiong in bringing together all its dependents or its people's relatives in certain incredibly well planned, well built, well supplied and well fortified towns being noted, it wasn't surprising that each faction of influential people, among the jianghu sects, the imperial family, the neighboring royal families and even every group or tycoon rich enough to drown people in gold, began sending in their own agents undercover.

The incredibly dramatic beautification medicine that the wife of Su Kewang had been given as a gift from the Qing Jing peak lord was more than enough reason to throw wealth and resources at the puzzle.

Discovering that medicines the Qing Jing peak had concocted had given youth and strength back to the elderly relatives of their people was even more groundbreaking.

The peaches of immortality was one of the few medicines that all mortals in all the territories that the Empire knew of, coveted. There had been rumors of this or that de-aging artifact or medicine, but the medicine Qing Jing had produced was so visible that no one in their right mind wouldn't want to acquire it.

It had been made amply and viciously clear that attacking Cang Qiong straightforwardly was a bad idea.

The Cang Qiong Mountain sect's original method of defense kept those who were unwelcome traveling up and down the many, many steps that led up the mountains without allowing them to escape until a sect member could lead the unfortunate person to the sect or take them back down to the foot of the mountain.

Those had not been considered good enough by the Qing Jing peak lord who had set up a massive network of traps, offensive arrays and formations and teleport formations, even converting the forested area directly around the sect's mountains into a zone where Beasts and other... creatures comprised yet another line of defense.

That had been undertaken as a response to the escalating attempts of envious outsiders to break into the sect for various reasons.

One of the reasons most widely known was the beauty of the people of Cang Qiong sect's Qing Jing peak and Xian Shu peak. A good many foolish flower thieves and roaming cultivators who relied on using fellow cultivators as furnaces fell prey to those traps.

Another reason was the obvious rise in cultivation of Cang Qiong Sect's people as well as the rise in the number of artifacts and cultivation resources that the sect's members were seen using.

Greed is one of the strongest motivators for anyone, whether they were humans or demons, righteous or roaming or demonic cultivators or secular mortals who yearned for beauty, luxury, power and eternal youth.

Of course, there was also a third reason.

Bravado.

Some people wanted to climb mountains just because they could do it. Some people wanted to fight monsters because they could do it. Some people wanted to fight the finest warriors, because they could do it. Some criminals wanted to rape, steal, torture, kidnap or commit whatever atrocity they felt could send their adrenaline running through their veins.

People can be very, very stupid.

All in all, with the examples of those people, it became clear that the use of force was doomed- short of having a demon army working for you, probably.

There are several points of pressure that could be used on the people of the sect.

One of these was family by blood or family that had raised them. This was the reason that there were opportunists from the various Shang, Wang and Yang families who were currently trying to claim that they were truly blood related to Shang Bo, Yang Dewei and Wang An.

Shang Ling Mei had done a fine job as Shang Bo's elder sister, keeping the rest of their small family safe and well cared for.

It was a fact that if Li Hua, Bai Chun and Lei Jun's corpses had been in any kind of retrievable or salvageable condition, then Shang Bo would have gladly had them resurrected to join his family once more. However, his friends had died before the peak lord had truly taken any measures, and thus Shang Bo had to be satisfied with having a monument to them recording them as his family, adopting them posthumously.

However, Shang Bo had no real interest in finding out who his biological parents were. He had no memory of them. For all he knew, he might have been abandoned in a ditch as an infant and he really didn't care. He had better things to do with his time, like look after the family he had chosen.

That was why Shang Ling Mei had simply sent away anyone who had tried to claim him and had stood in between any such claimants and their other siblings. Most of the time, this approach worked but it also got her many enemies, right up until Shang Bo arrived to terrorize the would-be manipulators in her place.

Wang An had simply taken to telling the would-be visitors, who had tried to approach him in order to claim relations, that he literally had no family, thus he clearly had no connection to them.

Yang Dewei simply laughed in their faces.

Anyone who tried to act the elder with them had been told bluntly to their faces that they weren't related.

Of course while some people came to try to claim Shang Bo, Wang An and Yang Dewei while lying through their teeth, others actually were deluded enough to believe they really were related.
***
Despite filial piety and the teachings of Confucius, it wasn't unusual to find families where sons or daughters eloped with people their parents did not approve of. It was also sadly not unheard of, to have expectant mothers separated from their families by attacks of assassins, wild animal packs or bandit raids. Babies being stolen or swapped with children of other families by deranged people or fiendish enemies were also possibilities. The women leaving infants they could not feed out to die or be picked up by other people, on gate doorsteps or in forests were also far too common.

These things were among the reasons that Yang Dewei could not be bothered to care about any fools trying to claim a relationship with him.

So, such things happened. Why should they matter to him? These people, whoever they were, what significance should they have to him?

When he needed them, they were not there. Now that he had displayed his might, they wanted him?

They could go roll.

 

Everyone, please reload the previous fic post, I added several paragraphs to it.

 

Spoiler: The Flashback! Yang Dewei's Hidden Arc!

***
If Enlai had been here, Yang Dewei reflected, he would have quite enjoyed his stay.

Mostly he would have enjoyed the chance to crush some rapists' pelvises.

The thing was, there were a lot of bandits in these mountains. It was very likely that many of them were just refugees from the other country who had fled here after the famines, droughts and attacks from neighboring countries had ravaged their land, ruining their chances to continue in their livelihood of farming.

Without a stable livelihood of their own they became a plague on others who they preyed on for the supplies they needed.

But not all of them would be here as refugees.

While it was true that there were plenty of bandits who had switched to a life of banditry because of injustice and corrupt officials driving them from home, there were also some sick fucks who just became bandits because it meant they got off on bullying people who couldn't fight back.

The bandits may or may not have ties to the Jianghu.

If they did, then anyone who had ties to the Jianghu wouldn't go to the legitimate authorities for anything those men did.

Of course, that had nothing to do with why Yang Dewei was here.

Yang Dewei was here to sink his claws into the gambling prospects, to rescue any of the surviving womenfolk the bandits had taken, to investigate the situation of the refugees... and in Shizun's words, to kick ass and take names.

And there was plenty of ass to kick.

Ah, the joys of travel.

The scenery was great.

Beautiful, verdant green everywhere, the refreshing scent of pine and bamboo. Elegant trees, branches spread out reaching for the sky or dripping leaves and flowers like brocade curtains. The rippling water of springs, brooks, waterfalls and streams. Interestingly shaped rocks and boulders.

The sky, an exquisite azure wreathed in fluffy white clouds.

And plenty of loud people around him, all very nervous, as could be expected when a caravan of traders was passing through bandit infested territory. People who rode mules, asses and horses. Mules, asses and horses that also drew their carts, but contaminated the serene air of their travels with the stench of manure and the sounds they made.

Some of these people were here for the refugees. Here to pick them up and help them across for pay, probably?

It was a fact that if he ran into anyone trying to force the refugees into slavery, Yang Dewei would have killed them.
***
The hills are alive... and full of bandits~!

Or rather, they're currently full of men who decided to attack the caravan and got beaten to a pulp for it.

At least their pelvises are intact, which is something they don't seem to appreciate, if the groaning is any indication.

On the bright side, each of these fellows counts as a nice amount of additional copper or silver coins, because there is currently a bounty on bandits.

Yang Dewei is pretty sure that he's tagged the escaping bandits so he can hunt down where they live and investigate to see if they kidnapped or murdered anyone.

Thus far, there are eight families of farmers who are asking for any news about their lost daughters and sons.

Yang Dewei had the descriptions written down, and he's pretty sure that in a fit of cosmic irony, one of the men he's just captured actually is the lost son of one of those families that came asking if there was anyone willing to help them find their lost offspring.

Given that bandits are like cults only less religion and more ruthlessly molding cannon fodder meatshields for the bandit lord, it is likely that this guy might have been indoctrinated and recruited by the group, bringing him back to his family might endanger the family themselves. It depends if the fellow was forced into it and there are hostages held against him or if he joined on his own for what benefits the bandit boss he followed into this mess offered him.

All Yang Dewei knows is, his disguise is very efficient. Tarnhelm is a wonderful way to hide himself from any lookouts or scouts. He can wear this fake face going one way through these mountain roads and different fake faces taking other paths until he can suss out every single bandit group on these mountainsides.

After that, he can conduct a preliminary investigation using his real appearance as bait.

**
There are approximately dubiously armed men on this goddamn mountain range, carrying everything from farming tools to actual swords, quivers full of arrows, polearms and bows in various states of repair.

They could be anything from settlers trying to hide from the legitimate authorities and their enemies on the other side of the mountains, to actual bandit gangs, and he needs to figure out which is which first.

Yang Dewei would like to say fuck his life, but at least drones are being extremely useful right now in helping him scout out the gangs' headquarters.

Given that each bandit gang can number anywhere from twenty men to over a hundred, possibly closer to two hundred, this is going to be a bit of a hassle, even with the drones.

Now Yang Dewei knows exactly how Sun Jin felt like when he was searching for the slavers and murderers behind his family's various deaths and the fall of their house.
***
Of course, the best way that Yang Dewei can think of, to figure out if someone is a bandit or not is to simply use his drones and scrying crystal to seek out, specifically, injured and imprisoned women and children as anyone who would injure or imprison children and women was probably a sick sadistic freak.

To his great disgust, he quickly picked up on multiple dens that matched those prerequisites. That meant his first goal was to move these civilians out of the way and then target the dens to rescue the significantly injured innocents first.

He would attack the dens in order of whichever ones had the men who had left the captive women and children and men with the most injuries and work his way down to those dens who held innocents with the least injuries or simply held them captive but unharmed.

Working one's way through each of the confirmed bandit dens he had sussed out as soon as he could drop this caravan off on the other side of the mountains was going to be... interesting.

***
Seven bandit dens later, Yang Dewei was bemused as he found that, yes, there really were men who were foolish enough to assume he was a female, even without his wearing Tarnhelm to deceive them.

It was probably even more misleading, specifically because Yang Dewei was obviously not alone. He had been wrecking the other confirmed bandit camps to rescue women and children, after all.

Yang Dewei had used explosions to cause distraction after distraction, sending the bandits on one wild goose chase after another. He had been leisurely tracking the bandits, assassinating them one after another from a distance with the use of copper cash and pebbles. Fortunately for his clothes, he was sufficiently far from his targets to avoid blood spatter.

That meant that he was surrounded by women, girls, teenagers and children who he had been tending to, during a lull in the fighting, right after he had torn the sixth camp down and released the bandits' former hostages from their disgusting makeshift prison.

Being held as hostages for any reason was traumatic. Being held as a hostage because the man who had taken them from their family and friends by force wants to rape them and keep raping them over a long period of time was infinitely worse.

There were reasons that men, women and children tended to be wrecks after such events and suicides happened far too often.

People who had been held down and forced generally sought either vengeance or death, sometimes both, after they had been destroyed by such events.

Some people committed suicide right after the act because they could not bear what had happened to them. Others held on but lashed out at those around them. Still others went reclusive and others were all but catatonic.

Yang Dewei knew all of this because of Enlai and his endless crusade of exploding pelvises. Which left an equally near endless crusade of learning about therapy and how to help other people rebuild their lives so they wouldn't become violent offenders or out tsundere Liu Qingge.

Taking care of a rape victim was nowhere near easy. It took time. The problem was, several idiots out there thought that kidnapping people, locking them up and assaulting them, would force those people to give up and belong to them.

Which was basically bullshit. And had a high body count. Because people did not deal well with violence being inflicted on them.

The most efficient method Yang Dewei had ever seen for getting people to fall in love with the captor in a confinement strategy was basically Wang An and Aoguang's method of 'okay, lock them up but inflict no violence, seduce them with luxury and drown them in pleasure', which had no body count and basically left their bedmates really confused and lustful.

Mostly because orgasms, delicious food, sybaritically soft silks and beautiful furnishings, were a very good incentive not to fight.

These idiot bandits had basically thrown their victims into prisons and then violated them like the lowest kind of brothel sex slaves, the ones with criminal records.

Because the captured ladies were either gently bred or came from farming and crafting families that cared enough for them to look after them as well as they could manage on their budgets, the ladies had not taken well to confinement, chains and abuse.

Many teenagers, maidens and women of various ages had been taken all over the mountain because of the refugees' taking to banditry and in some cases accepting bandits from neighboring regions who were far less careful with their victims. There were children used as leverage or assaulted by paedophiles among the bandits- those paedophiles had died terribly. As an example, let us just say that one angry mother had stabbed a paedophile over thirty times after she had been released.

From the people Dewei had rescued, he learned that at each survivor knew at least two people that had been taken from their caravan who had died from abuse or suicide.

***
It could be said that the best way to gauge someone's moral fiber was to see how they reacted to the sight of an injured person in need of help.

While the bandits had fallen partway down the slope of moral integrity over time, it takes a special kind of total asshole to immediately attack visibly injured women and children, particularly when what looks like another woman is treating their injuries.

Fortunately, the most recent group of bandits who had arrived onscene weren't that kind of total asshole.

In truth they were a group sent for investigating the situation and reinforcing the closest bandit den.

They had been sent running after seven fully armed bandit dens bristling with powerful, vicious and ruthless men had been wrecked and set on fire by some unseen force.

If it had been just one bandit den that had gone up in flames one might suspect the authorities, and surround the army's detached force to crush them as they had done once or twice when staking their claim on this mountain.

However, an actual army would have been discovered much earlier.

Armies were noisy. Large groups of armed guards sent by nobles were also noisy. Qinggong users from assassins' guilds or the Jianghu hired by a noble family to bring back a daughter, sister or niece might not be as noisy but none of them would target multiple outposts full of bandits and leave the dens ruined, scorched wrecks as if lightning had struck the dens and turned them into funeral pyres.

That was profoundly unnatural.

The bandits were only mortals and thus could only deal with their mortal fellows. Against the normal army they had good chances. Against the residents of the Jianghu they still had a chance.

But this looked to be the work of an unnatural, monstrous beast out of legend and they couldn't handle that.

Naturally they were relieved to find that the disturbances they had found thus far were only unarmed women.

Given that the original reason the former refugee men had gone around attacking caravans and merchants was specifically to obtain goods and women... Given that they had gone after women because there weren't enough women among the refugees to give each man their dream of having three wives and four concubines...

A large group of injured, helpless damsels in distress in need of rescue was too tempting to ignore.

The lady in white who must have been a doctor because of her obviously excellent medical skills was treating the other women as well as the teenagers and children. She was a prize for two reasons. The first was her devastating beauty. The second was her excellent medical skills.

One must remember these refugees were all farmers, commoners of various ranks and people of those families who weren't considered to be peers by the 'good' families. In short, they were severaly lacking in medical experts and even laymen who could tend to the suffering members of the community.

Because medicine cost money.

In short, having found a lady doctor, they had hit the jackpot.

Even if the boss didn't marry her, with all the pregnant women they would likely have at some point to become a functioning community, and their elderly relatives rescued from their ruined provinces in need of care, she was priceless and invaluable for the future of their community.

So anyone who married her if the boss turned her down was going to make his fortune.

Naturally they were going to do their best to impress her.

Yang Dewei had a pretty good idea that they had pegged him for a girl by the sudden laughable attempt at gentlemanly behavior they were trying to display.

It was still a lucky break... for them. Because if they had decided to pick a fight, he would have picked their bones.

As it was, he had an excellent way into their main stronghold because they clearly wanted to take him off to see their boss.

All he had to do was make sure the ladies, children and teenagers with him were unharmed by their suddenly courteous captors.
***
It is a fact that people are swayed by beauties. Throughout history, men and women alike have fallen for fair faces, elegant demeanors, gorgeous bodies.

This is why men and women in positions of power throughout history had beautiful people as lovers and concubines.

Cities and countries fell because of beauties. Spies stole information and escaped punishment by seducing and manipulating their vulnerable targets. Generals betrayed their rulers because of their desire for gorgeous dancers, ladies or courtesans. Sons, brothers, fathers and allies fought over beautiful people of either gender. Emperors and kings made truly disastrous decisions that endangered their countries, themselves or both at the same time, just to please their consorts, spouses or lovers.

Liu Cang, bandit king of the Cang mountain range, was no exception to this rule.

The moment he caught sight of Yang Dewei, he was hooked, his breath caught and he could not help but approach what he thought was the most beautiful woman he had ever met.

***
The stronghold had been imposing, for the work of mortal hands. No gold, no jade, no mural caught the eye. Every part of the architecture was stone and wood, full timbers used as smooth polished beams and pillars. The natural grain of the wooden furniture was unadorned. Not a single piece of gold leaf, not a stroke of paint or lacquer was used to decorate the place.

The only concessions to decoration were pillows, ceramics on display, ornate carvings such as statues of people, places and animals, root sculptures and elegant reliefs of wood, the animal furs of bears, wolves, tigers and other large mundane predators used as rugs or throws over this or that piece of furniture.

This bandit king, Liu Cang, was what many women might call tremendously handsome and completely masculine. His frame was wide-shouldered, well muscled, lithe as a jaguar and tall, with slim hips, long legs and elegant long fingered hands. His grey robes showed off his grace of movement- fitting for a man of the Wulin who had molded several small bandit gangs and a large number of refugees into a force strong enough to keep most mundane armies at a distance.

And right now? He was clasping Yang Dewei's hands in his own, staring at his prospective bride with his heart in his eyes, completely besotted to the point he couldn't tear his gaze away from Yang Dewei's bemused eyes.

"Reward!" Liu Cang managed to say, a hand gesturing to someone else, who quickly handed over gold to the 'lucky' men who had found the ladies, teens and children in question.

Those lucky men were all too pleased with themselves. In fact, they were so pleased that some of them began to regale their fellow bandits with their tale of having found these clearly injured beauties and brought them home. (Like heroes!)

It was a fact that the women and teens had clustered around the crying children to protect them, but none of them need have bothered. Not a single one of their captors had so much as harmed them, in fact, some had even (in the interest of showing off) solicitously looked after the injured people who,unbeknownst to them, had been their former fellows' victims.

Naturally this was confusing to the ladies, teens and children who had expected these bandits to be as monstrous as their fellows and had begun nerving themselves to fight to the last breath.

Right now, the women and teens were torn between simply trying to murder all these bandits or well, maybe not murdering them.

They hadn't figured out what to do yet, but they were naturally still very angry.

However, Yang Dewei had told them he had a plan, and he had saved them from the other bandits, so they were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

More to the point, they weren't blind. These victims had seen that there were even more small strongholds that they could only assume were bandit dens, on their way out. There were far more of these bandits than any of them had originally believed and without Dewei, they stood no chance of escape at all.
***
Zhao Jin Zhan was the elder of two daughters of a minor official by the name of Zhao Chang Chun. She had been taken by bandits from the wreckage of the caravan that should have brought her to visit her brother in another city where he had gone in order to further his education at their well known Academy. She was both glad that her younger sister, Zhao Jin Yu was not with her when she was captured and saddened that her father, mother, brother and younger sister must be so worried about her by now. Had they given up?

Miss Mu Jin had been the younger sister of Mu Tong, the steward of a certain Wang of high standing. She was his only living relative, the apple of his eye, and he probably had not taken the news of her kidnapping well, particularly not after he had taken such care to prepare her dowry for a future marriage.

Lady Pu'er had been the beloved wife of a tea merchant who had treasured her for her skills in accounting, her ability to suss out the next trend and her fine tea-brewing skills. Her husband had been one of the casualties of the caravan, he had died defending her and their son, Han Xuan. Unfortunately, the bandits who had attacked the caravan had more than a few perverts in their number, and her son had been forced to suffer the unthinkable.

Lady Pu'er was in fact the very same woman who had stabbed that filthy, life ruining fiend thirty times before he bled out, as retribution for the horror he had inflicted on her child.

Right now, these three ladies and a few others had been entrusted with the task of discovering all the details of the stronghold so that Yang Dewei could bring it and the surrounding, smaller bandit dens down and bury them.

For instance. There were over a hundred tables groaning under the weight of dish after dish of food, and each table was the center of a group of very happy bandits. .

The thing was, the stronghold wasn't just full of bandits.

There were elderly men and women being treated with genuine respect by the bandits in question. There were children running around. Some of those closer to the age of majority were helping the kitchen staff serve the food.

This place didn't look like the other bandit dens the three ladies remembered being imprisoned in.

For one, the part of the other dens that they had bern incarcerated in had been literally barely more than prisons, with chains. Those dens also had a treasure room and had whatever furniture the bandits could get their hands on, from whatever caravans, merchants and travelers passed their way and fell into their clutches.

This bandit den was far more settled. It looked to be inhabited by entire families.

Which begged the questions, exactly how many bandits were there in this stronghold, how many civilians lived and worked here, and why were those elders being treated with respect?
***
There had been thousands of men among the refugees. Entire families had joined the exodus- rather than stay in their dying province and die with it, they had chosen to climb the mountain to get meat, bamboo shoots, mushrooms and fruit instead.

Of course, building homes on mountains when the people are used to living on flat land is a drastic change of lifestyle.

For one, while the mountains were full of herbs, ores, animals, birds and edible plants, they still needed grain, cloth, and all the products of intensive, civilized agriculture.

Hunting for meat and fishing in streams and small rivers was quite productive, but even the best hunters had to trade for many things.

Small gardens were all very good but could not replace having large fields and it would take time and significant effort, perhaps years of work to terrace the mountain side for fields to grow grain and vegetables. Raising animals was easier, but it didn't cover all the angles.

That was one reason why the refugees had turned to banditry in the first place. Easy and quick access to goods.

The second reason of course was that there were plenty of unmarried men who had made the climb but not a matching number of marriageable young women. Either the ladies of a relatively close range were already married- young aunts, mothers, widows- or they were too young, in the case of daughters and younger sisters.

In addition when men think of the kind of husband that their female family members should marry, they tend to get ambitious for the prerequisites the husband-to-be must have at hand (like a REAL house and not a damn cave!) because marriage was a way to tie families together.

So, taking daughters from the surrounding areas and women from merchant caravans were much easier for some bandits than building a fine residence to attract a wife from one's fellows.
***
People tend to be less closemouthed and more at ease in their own homes and in a position of power.

These bandits and the people living with them were no exception.

It was rather suspicious that so large a group of injured women, children and teenagers were found on their mountain's grounds to be brought back by some of their men.

The bandit's strategist, Liu Cuo had still wanted to interrogate the ladies, children and teenagers, but there was no real effective way of pressuring them while they were surrounded by the bandits' families, including Liu Cuo's own mother.

Still, at least they hadn't seen any blades or weapons on the women, children and teenagers they had brought into the fortress during the cursory check.

Naturally, Liu Cuo had left it to their elderly to gently question them as to their circumstances. This approach got him the profoundly disturbing answer of, "We were fleeing from a group pf paedophiles." amidst a shower of tears from all the recent arrivals.

Of course, Mu Jin and the others had quickly managed to get their own share of information in exchange, and it was a significant one.

These elders were the bandits' parents or in some cases, grandparents. The children wandering around were the bandits' children. And the women here who were clearly unharmed and in good health, were the bandits' wives.

This was a settlement that was made of former refugees who turned to banditry after they had been forced to flee from their suffering province after a revolt against the corrupt officials administrating the areas who had embezzled the funds which had been intended for use in case of disasters.

Well, the elders were naturally distressed by this as their grandchildren were here, on this mountain. The bandits' wives and those bandits who were fathers were also equally distressed.

It is a fact, no one with a family wants paedophiles anywhere near their neighborhood.
***
Some say there is a heirarchy even in prisons.

Prisons are a microcosm, a fermenting, seething boil of violence.

Paedophiles were at the bottom of this heirarchy, and even their fellow inmates considered assaulting them and killing them off as a service to society, a service to the victim's families, and, if they had children, this was also a safeguard for their own families.

Well, this was not a prison, but it was a settlement of criminals and none of these bandits who had families were happy to learn there were paedophiles who might target their children in what was essentially their own back yard.

Liu Cuo's enraged mother was giving him an earful. It was not a pleasant earful and he was going to have an ulcer at this rate.

Even as the banquet had been prepared, their own womenfolk were tending to the children and teenagers.

Earlier, Liu Cang's bride had insisted on continuing to tend to the people who had arrived with her under the watchful eyes of her soon to be husband and the elders were happy to find a medical expert who could tend to their own complaints.

Now, the festive mood was dimmed because there was going to be a grim purge of paedophiles on this mountain.

It had taken a bit of time, but Liu Cuo had eventually calmed their people down. Yes, there would be a purge. Yes, the mountain would be made safe for everyone's families.

Yes, these poor people would be looked after.

Some of the unmarried bandits even offered to marry the ladies in front of them. After all, the original reason for the kidnapping of women had been because they wanted to turn their makeshift settlement into a real 'country'.

That meant marriage, children, homemaking and everything that went with it.
***
The crisis having been averted and the retribution pushed to another day, everyone could now return to celebrating their 'king's' long awaited marriage.

Some bandits chatted about how hard it had been to find their master a wife.

Granted, it had benefited several of them because the women who their master had refused had been married to them, but it had still taken a long time as Liu Cang was apparently horribly picky.

In fact, Yang Dewei had been the only one who Liu Cang had even showed any interest in and when Liu Cang had fallen, he fell hard... As was evidenced by the way he could not take his eyes off his spectacularly beautiful bride.

Well, no one could blame him. 'If a man could look at that beauty without falling in love, he wasn't a man!' was the general consensus of the peanut gallery.

The happy bridegroom left the banquet room to go to his new bride as if there were wings on his feet.
***
Yang Dewei was very amused. His 'husband' was positively cute.

First, the man had confessed that he had fallen in love with Yang Dewei at first sight. Then he said, while blushing, that he was very happy to marry his bride and he promised to be a good husband. He would look after her, he would protect her, and he would go purge this mountains of paedophiles to keep their future family safe.

How cute. How adorable.

The man had leaned in to touch his cheek with a gentle hand and Yang Dewei decided to play along a bit.

That love confession was too cute, he was certainly going to make the best of his new 'husband'.

He tugged Liu Cang down into a kiss, and once the man was ensnared by the slick glide of their lips and tongues, he rolled them onto the bed so that he could continue to distract the dazed bandit king with hungry, ravishing kisses while capturing the distracted man's hands and tying them to the headboard with his own hair ribbon.

That done, he pulled away and smirked as he pulled Liu Cang's robe open to caress him.
***
Liu Cang had started to tug at his bonds when he was distracted once again by his 'bride's' elegant hands stroking all the way down his body, stripping him and pulling off his underwear.

Firm, gentle hands fondled his soft skin, stroked his pectorals and his well formed abs, kneaded his waist, as his bride bent down to lick and nibble at his graceful neck and collarbones.

That thoroughly distracted him from his struggles but he could only gape as his 'bride' murmured next to his ear, in a melodious but most certainly male voice.

"I hadn't expected to be married so early but since you've offered, I'll gladly accept."

Wait. What.

"I'm going to enjoy consummating our marriage."

That was a man's very amused voice and... oooh those hands were stroking him, sending pulses of pleasure up his spine.

But it was a man!

But it felt good.

But it was still a man!

Those moments of stunned indecision and complete confusion cost Liu Cang dearly as his bride caught his lips in more thirsty kisses, stealing his breath away while those hands were stroking his flesh to daze him with pleasure.
***
It hadn't taken Yang Dewei long to find every single exquisitely sensitive spot on Liu Cang's body.

The bandit 'king' could only writhe as he was being caressed and fondled with increasing fervency, helpless in the palm of Dewei's hand, as Yang Dewei began to lick, suck and nibble his way down the bandit king's beautiful and quite sensitive body.
***
Liu Cang could only gasp, dazed, and then begin to moan as his dusky pink fruits were suckled and nibbled into redness, and his legs were pulled apart in his distraction.

His knees went weak as certain sensitive parts of his body were firmly massaged.

He could barely think.

Yes, being at this man's mercy was frightening, but at the same time, his body felt so... good.

But it was a man!

It was the feel of his half-hard member being taken into that man's hand to be 'played with' and stroked into full hardness that shocked him out of his pleasurable daze.

"H-Hey, don't t-touch that..." Liu Cang managed only to catch the hungry gaze in his 'bride's' eyes. His stomach fluttered with fear and arousal.

Liu Cang registered that he was completely naked except for his robe that had been pulled completely open to decoratively frame his body.

Then with a seductive smile, his 'bride' moved down to take the head of Liu Cang's cock into his hot, wet mouth, to suckle and lick at it, and particularly at its slit.

The wet heat of his 'bride's' mouth on him undid Liu Cang completely. He moaned, and his hips moved involuntarily. His 'bride' pressed his jerking hips down, stroking his length, and fondling his balls before firmly massaging an incredibly pleasurable place behind his balls that made his vision go white as his hips madly jerked over and over again, trying to enter that hot, wet, hungry mouth that had driven the coherency right out of his head.

White heat, pulses of continual pleasure set his body afire with need.

By the time the inexperienced Liu Cang noticed the fingers that were gently stroking his chrysanthemum were slick with some kind of oil, his knees were weak, his hips were trembling, his body was exquisitely sensitive and he could barely catch his breath, moaning helplessly.

The feel of those fingers touching a place that no one else ever had explored, managed to shake him out of his daze.

"W-Who are you?!" Liu Cang asked, trying to shift away from the questing fingers.

His 'bride' smirked. "Didn't we just get married? Shouldn't you be clear on our relationship by now?"

But you're a man! Liu Cang wanted to roar in protest.

Then his 'bride's' greedy mouth was back on his cock, that long, silken hair sliding against his oversensitized skin and Liu Cang was thoroughly distracted again with the hot wetness. Right until those fingers finally coaxed their way into his body, slick oil easing their way.

It wasn't a forceful, painful entrance. It was slick, like fish darting in and out of a reef's tight crevices, gently stroking, gently coaxing that secretive part of his body open. Those fingers rubbed against his sensitive inner walls and Liu Cang's chrysanthemum instinctively tightened on them. Undeterred, they quickly found a place that sent what felt like pleasurable lightning up his spine.

Oh.

Liu Cang's brain gave up at that point.

One finger became two, two fingers became three, like little fish determined to coax him all the way open, grinding and gliding against his sensitive inner walls.

Liu Cang could only moan lavisciously and his hips continued jerking helplessly.

Then, the fingers were mercifully pulled out, only to be replaced with a larger, very solid length that pushed into Liu Cang's tight entrance, as his 'bride' had clearly finished preparing him and was now going to enter his body to claim him. The pink bud had been coaxed open a bit, but the length entering it slowly was stretching it further, rubbing against the sensitive inner walls very firmly to the point that Liu Cang's tight passage instinctively clamped down and was even more stimulated by the firm, solid shaft that was penetrating him completely.

Then the head ground against a part of Liu Cang that made him see white and he moaned.

His 'bride' took that as incentive to start thrusting, letting go of Liu Cang's cock and simply aiming directly at that part that set Liu Cang's body afire with pleasure.

The grinding made Liu Cang shudder from head to toe, wringing moans and incoherent pleas out of him.

He didn't even know what he was begging for. He couldn't think straight.
***
Yes, Yang Dewei's new 'husband's' body was certainly virginal and untried... at least until Yang Dewei had claimed it.

Untried, innocent and eager in its reactions, that tight, hot, slick chrysanthemum gobbled him up greedily and Yang Dewei enjoyed every minute of it.

He was going to fuck his new 'husband' until the man couldn't move the next morning. Dewei was going to do him until he laid limp and helpless so that the remaining targets could be slain.

This was going to be the most enjoyable part of the plan. And part of that enjoyment was taking advantage of the bandit king's helplessness to play with his defenseless body.

Yang Dewei was going to fuck that sweet ass so thoroughly and firmly that the 'king' was going to spill his seed without being touched. And after that, he would toy with him until his body was covered in lovemarks and their mingled fluids.

In the meantime, the people he had rescued continued to try to coax information out of their hosts.

Information like the bandits' numbers.
***
There is a phrase, 'fucked senseless'. It certainly described what Liu Cang felt.

He was drowned in pleasure, so much of it that he was completely helpless as his 'bride' did whatever he wanted.

He was fucked in position after position until his limbs were like wet noodles, his hips felt weak, his entire body was limp.

His insides felt tender and ached pleasurably from the fervent, thorough pounding he had received all night. He may as well have been as soft as sweet rice candy.

He was buried in the afterglow so deeply that he lost track of time, and then he was exhausted so thoroughly that he passed out and couldn't wake up.

When he had finally woken up, it was to find his 'wife' fully dressed, clearly newly bathed and currently carrying a basin of hot water in one hand and a tray of food- nourishing soup- in the other.

He returned to his senses only to find that he was still, in fact, bound. And naked but for those binding ribbons.

What.

He tugged at the ribbons that kept him bound, and discovered to his mounting fear that his ankles had been bound too.

Glancing at his 'wife' sent reminiscent pleasure and fear pounding through his veins. His 'wife' was fully dressed now, but he remembered the sight and feel of that body, silken soft skin over strong muscle, pinning him down to go for what he had felt were endless rounds.

The bed seemed to have been changed, and thick towels had been placed under him. His robes had been utterly ruined, having received much of their mingled fluids, they lay with the equally tainted bedding.

Now, his 'wife' had placed the food on a nearby table, and was approaching him with the hot water basin and a wet towel in hand.

Liu Cang's throat was parched. He coughed as he was gently washed and wiped clean, firstly with the hot and wet towel, then, with a wet towel that held a refreshing scent. Even his hair was washed clean with a surprising amount of gentleness that set his insides fluttering with confusion.

Then he was helped to sit up and given a glass of surprisingly chilled tea to drink.

Wait. Chilled tea? They didn't have any snow to chill it with...

"Good morning." His 'bride' smiled.

His bride was a man.

Liu Cang shivered.

His bride had mounted him and ridden him thoroughly. His body ached pleasurably in reminiscence.

Liu Cang's cheeks turned red. "You're a man!" He blurted out, scandalized.

"You've had plenty of proof of that last night, yes." His 'bride' smirked.

"Why are you here?! What do you want from me?!" Liu Cang blazed up, now on firmer footing as he tugged at his bindings.

"What I want from you, I have already taken." Yang Dewei replied, mildly.

While his new 'husband had been out of commission, he had drugged every last person in the stronghold down to the scouts, using sleeping potions and sleeping gas to keep them under while he trussed them up like turkeys.

Of course, Liu Cang had no idea of that so all he could do was draw... the wrong conclusion.

"You wanted me?!" The bandit king's eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.

Yang Dewei decided not to ruin this beautiful misunderstanding.

What he actually meant was that everyone in the entire stronghold had been captured and tied up by his group, and that he himself had gone out on a massive murderspree with those of the women and teens who wanted vengeance on bandits who... weren't these idiots who had taken them in and treated them relatively well.

Of course, not all the bandits were refugees like these people. Several of the older bandit bands were actually led by the bandits already in the area before the 'king's' father ever got here and those bands had merely been beaten into subservience to Liu Cang and his father.

Liu Cang and those like him may not have been willing to have children abused but then it must be said that Liu Cang had nominal control over those men.

He didn't know what they did or when they did it. He didn't dictate what rules they lived by. They were simply forced to obey him when he was there in front of them, giving them orders.

Such men were in the business of robbing others because it was easy, preying on their fellow men to take what they want. Such men weren't in this to build families, they were in it to get their hands on gold, luxuries and living toys that they could use or break.

It was those kinds of men that Yang Dewei and his companions had hunted while the denizens of the stronghold were asleep.

In short, he and the others had killed assholes all night and all day and come back with the rescued people from the nearby ruined dens for baths and clean clothes.

Naturally there was a hue and cry when the bandits and their families awoke to find themselves trussed up after the sleeping drugs finally wore off.
***
Liu Cang was full of questions. Since his 'bride' was being gentle with him and had admitted that he already wanted him, Liu Cang dared to believe that he wasn't going to be slain.

"Why am I tied up?" Liu Cang asked, tugging at the ribbon again.

"If you weren't tied up, wouldn't you have attacked me pointlessly?" His 'bride'-no,'wife' now since they had consummated the marriage- pointed out gently, brushing Cang's long hair to a fine gloss. "This way you have plenty of time to calm down."

"I'm already calm." Liu Cang said, stiffly, tugging at his ties. "You can untie me now."

"Not quite yet." His 'wife' smiled. It was such a gentle expression, it made him indescribably beautiful. Despite his misgivings, Liu Cang could only stare at him, hooked like a fish once more.

"Let me feed you breakfast and put some clean clothes on you first." His 'wife' leaned in close to kiss his cheek.

Liu Cang flushed deeply as his heart felt like it was being scratched at by a little cat. That smile lit a warmth in his belly at the sight of it, a warmth that made him feel even more comfortable and sweet. But no. No, he needed to know his 'wife's name first.

"You still haven't told me your name." Liu Cang stated stiffly.

His 'wife' smiled. "My name is Yang Dewei. As for the rest of the matter, it would be best explained to you and the rest of the denizens of this stronghold at the same time, so you shall have to wait."

At least until the dragon teeth brass warriors could pick up every single person who lived in the citadel and put them all in the great hall for an explanation.
***
In truth, Yang Dewei was already considering how best to break the news to these people that he had originally come here to stop the kidnappings of womenfolk from the surrounding areas. He hadn't actually been hired for such a thing, he had simply come to do the job as it suited his agenda and furthered his other purposes to do so.

Hm. Best to emphasize some things and gloss over others. After all, he wasn't paid, he was doing this on a whim, and that was never going to sound good, he thought, as he attentively fed Liu Cang the truly excellent eight treasures chicken soup that he had taken the time to prepare as a hedge against his temper flaring up.

He would prefer that Liu Cang kept calm and obeyed him so he wouldn't have to use his superior strength to force him. He didn't want to hurt him but he had already decided to take this man home with him to the sect.

*
The food was excellent and served to quiet Liu Cang's rumbling stomach, his flaring temper, his anxiety and his worry all at once.

Immediately, Liu Cang felt more favorably disposed towards his new 'wife'. Of course, he wasn't going to make a big deal of it, he didn't want the other man to see how badly it had affected him. "...Just be sure to give me an explanation then." he allowed, generously, as his 'wife' pulled this morning's robes out of his clothes chest.
***
Liu Cuo's life was a roller coaster of suffering.

First, he and everyone else found out there were paedophiles on this mountain. Next, he had the relief of finally having his elder foster 'brother' married off, only to wake up the next morning, trussed up, to be picked up by what was clearly a massive warrior made out of solid brass or bronze.

He wasn't alone. Even as he was being carried, he could also see other massive metal warriors carrying in his fellow bandits, their parents, aunts, uncles, children, nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters.

On the bright side, no one seemed to be injured. On the bad side, all of them were clearly bound, just like him.

The only people who weren't bound were the ladies, teens and children who had arrived at their stronghold with their master's new wife.

Liu Cuo had a bad feeling about this. It deepened as he saw his master, hands tied, being gently maneuvered to sit next to him by his new wife.

The same new wife who now seated herself at such a place that she could cast her gaze over all of them.

The ominous feeling intensified.

Then his brother's wife opened her mouth and a melodious but very male voice came out.

Liu Cuo was one of the multitude of people that were now gaping in shock at this.

"All of you may be wondering why you are tied up," his elder brother's MALE wife was now speaking. That sentence quickly caught everyone's attention.

"My name is Yang Dewei, and I am a cultivator from Cang Qiong Mountain sect." The beauty now spoke, clearly and concisely. "And I came here to investigate the kidnapping and violent deaths of nineteen children, thirty eight women and fifty one men."

Wait. What.

Liu Cuo had turned ashen pale.

"Signs on the corpses indicated that both the women and children were raped, violated multiple times and violently abused, some of the men also received the same treatment, some corpses were mutilated past recognition." His elder brother's male wife continued counting off the gruesome details. "I am not speaking of death by combat. I am not speaking of deaths from quick stab wounds in robberies gone wrong.

I am speaking of the kind of sick, twisted acts of deranged men who are unapologetic torturers, paedophiles and rapists."

Liu Cang had gone ashen pale.

"I also came to rescue any civilians who were still being held captive by those very same torturers." His wife finished mildly. "There seem to be no victims in your stronghold, but the torturers in question claimed to be under your banner."

He gave Liu Cang an eloquent gaze, letting him read between the lines.

That particularly unpleasant bombshell caused a furor of cursing, since no one had been gagged.

"While your compassion towards the women, children and teenagers I liberated from those torturers was pleasant, if unexpected, I have to complete the investigation," Yang Dewei continued mildly, "and regrettably right now, because of those men who claimed to be working for you, all of the Cang mountain range bandits have been tarred with the same brush... which is why everyone here is tied up, right down to the last child."
***
Liu Cuo, being the strategist, was the first to recover.

"So you mean you deliberately allowed yourself to be captured in order to gain access to the stronghold?" he asked, as their king reeled, his formerly healthy complexion now greyish and pallid.

"I was busy healing the rescued victims when your men came across us," Yang Dewei corrected him mildly. "My original intention was to search in the outlying bandit dens first, to see how many more hostages and survivors I could find. However, the people I interrogated claimed to be working for your king, so..."

So he was always going to come here.

"Why did you-" Liu Cang now seemed to believe the worst about their liasion if the expression of heartbreak on his face was any indication.

Yang Dewei raised an eyebrow. "I already told you why I went to your bed earlier. But to be precise," he elaborated, "your speech was very... stirring. I found you attractive at first sight, but it was your stated commitment to purging the paedophiles in the area that really made me want you."

Liu Cang looked dumbstruck, then relieved. Yang Dewei didn't ask why, because people came up with strange ideas all the time.

"Then why am I still tied up?" Liu Cang demanded, finding his footing in the conversation once more.

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Yang Dewei asked him, amused.

Liu Cang turned red.

"Then why are our elderly, women and children also tied up?" Liu Cuo asked, frowning.

"If I left your elderly or your women untied, they would cut the ropes that bind you." Yang Dewei explained patiently. "If I left the children untied, they might run off and get themselves injured or untie you or most likely even both."

It was unpleasant if painfully realistic reasoning. Liu Cuo wished he didn't have to understand it.

 

Hi! Super new here, nice to meet you ~

I've been reading ATSVT on the Docs that were posted(link to Tale 22 is broken), and... the plot is so intricate I'm a little lost. I'm pretty sure this could be an official spinoff with how much information packed into there. So this is what I took from it -

Spoiler: My Summary

'Geten' or 'G' lives in a world where you can live your life in MMORPG games like VR. All of her 'past lives' are basically the games she's played. She inherits skills from each game she plays which she can use in following games like Mokoton(?). 'G' dies in an explosion from her irl computer and transmigrates into Shen Qingqiu, from Immortal Demon Way. At the time she has transmigrated, Luo Binghe hasn't been born yet.

She hardcore trains her current disciples into friggin beasts and builds up her Peak. Shenanigans occur between SQQ, YQY, LQG, and disciples. A mountain of text of scheming, marriages, politics, perverts, etc. Lots of disciple monologue and arcs. I love you, I hate you punishments with LBH at night. 'G' is head-over-heels for YQY. LQG is a continuous cockblock. SQQ almost dies from cultivation gone wrong. She goes back to her game world but not real(?). She triggers guilt trips back at the sect. Wakes up, YQY fluff.

Sooo muchhh poliiiticcsss anddd scheeminggg and marriaaages anddd smuuuttt. G goes with YQY to court. For some reason they're looking at SQQ's past lives in particular?(not that I'm complaining, it was pretty interesting, compared to pooollloootiicss.)

MORE POLITICS. MORE SCHEMING. MORE DICIPLE MONOLOGUES. LBH heavy regrets, lots of fluff. MORE TOFU EATING, MORE SCHEMING, MORE MARRIAGE STUFF. LBH travels through multiple dimensions and laments how unfair the universe treats him compared to his counterparts. Lots of confusing deep soul stuff(I feel like if he just explained to G that the SQQ from his world abused him and pushed him off a cliff that would at least make it a little better). More mooonnoollooguueess.

Gosh, I really love this story, the cream of the crop, but damn, is it confusing. I think that having multiple P.O.Vs is cool, but the story kinda jumps between arcs in the middle of each other. It's really, really, hard to keep track of all the characters as well as their backstory and current arcs. Cannon fodders, concubines, sisters, brothers, other sects, other peaks, inner sect disciples, outer sect disciples, multiple families, kings, marquises, dukes, G's children, friends, past lives, plus Chinese names. There could be a person names Su yi and Su Yin and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, haha.

I feel like it would make more sense to have arcs that were clear cut in what they were about. For example one day, and this time and place, with active dialogue and descriptions of the environment around them. The arcs feel like it was someone talking about it, and such events have already passed. But then again that's just my opinion lol. I just kinda don't feel attached to the characters that aren't SQQ(G), YQY, LBH, LQG.

All that aside, I'd be willing to shovel my way through 699 pages of content to read this. Because it's that good. I patiently look forward to the next chapter ~

One more thing! I freakin love how G is the top but feels like a bottom with YQY! I also love tsundere LQG!

 

WELCOME TO MY GARDEN OF EVIL FLOURISHES!

Yes, my writing is disorganized. Yes it needs to be put together into arcs. Sadly, my brain tends to bounce all over a massive plot (I have so many notes and actually have books open for research for this thing.) soooo I am sorry it is somewhat confusing.

We had a volunteer who was compiling character data but the doc for that hasn't been updated since they vanished.

Basically G arrives around or over a decade before Binghe is even born. This derails things a lot.

Also, have you ever read the Overlord series with Momonga? Because G was originally intended to be transmigrated into his Game avatar skin made real, like Momonga's.

Except that transmigration went wrong due to System interference and he got stuck as SQQ instead.

Consider it the soul of an ascended level 100 creator suddenly squished into the body of a squishy scholar peak lord, like a whale smooshed into a sardine can and strangely enough, fitting, but being utterly miserable about it.

 

Spoiler: FLASHBACK: YUE QINGYUAN

ATDSVT-Yue Qingyuan
***
Yue Qingyuan was fairly sure that short of the drastic, deeply condemned step of raising the dead, he would never find out what had happened to Qingqiu when he was in the hands of the Qiu family.

He was well aware that it must have been horrible and traumatic. There was ample proof in the marks on Qingqiu's skin, that monstrous enslavement seal, that the Qiu were far worse than they had ever seemed to be on the surface.

No run-of-the-mill abusive noble family could use enslavement seals and the talisman peak had confirmed that was most certainly what it was. They had also confirmed that it probably had negatively affected Qingqiu's cultivation, which was a fact that had kept Liu Qingge silent for a good while and put a profoundly sickened look on his face.

It was probably petty of him, but Yue Qingyuan was glad to see the nauseated greenish cast of his complexion.

Qingge and their fellow brother disciples had derided his friend so often and in the past he hadn't been able to silence them or prevent their petty cruelties no matter how hard he tried.

Well. Now they knew that Qingqiu's shortcomings weren't something they had the right to mock.

However that still left both he and Qingqiu adrift, without the anchor of their past. Because Qingqiu had forgotten their past, he knew nothing of Yue Qingyuan's mistakes, his shortcomings or both of his great failures.

Because Qingqiu had lost his past, Yue Qingyuan had a chance to see under his shell.

When they had met and gotten to know each other in those slavers' clutches, forced to beg for their living, under the constant threat of being sold, Shen Jiu had quickly developed some sort of armor. A hard facade that helped him deal with the day to day sufferings.

As far as Yue could remember, Jiu had always been protective of the person whom he cared about (who had always been Yue). Jiu had always been adaptable. Resilient.

The Qingqiu who had lost his memories had been frightened, oddly fragile. He had followed Yue Qingyuan everywhere as he had been trying to make sense of.. well, everything.

If Yue Qingyuan had to guess, he would have said that Jiu had lost his sense of self.

That time, at least, Yue Qingyuan hadn't failed him. That time and after, he had finally been able to take care of Qingqiu as he had hoped to be able to do.

However, taking care of him hadn't been enough. The Qius had obviously done their best to ruin him. Further, there was still that unknown person whose curse tormented Qingqiu over and over at night.

The first time the curse had struck, Qingqiu had cursed him for... letting him suffer it?...but had quickly apologized for it.

Once again, Yue Qingyuan had failed to protect him. No matter how hard he tried, even going to the demon realm in order to try to get some kind of information, or any hope of freeing Qingqiu from his suffering, he couldn't help. The talisman peak couldn't help. Formations, arrays, artifacts... nothing worked.

All he could do was hold Qingqiu close at nights, tend to the injuries the curse inflicted upon him and accompany him through the days.

Without his memories, without that shell that Shen Jiu had built up to shield himself from disappointment and pain, Yue Qingyuan had seen him adapt to being a peak lord, had seen him throw himself into learning how to fit into his place here.

He had seen that protectiveness, that affection, that kindness that had been given to him and him alone in the past, being opened up to Qingqiu's students, that generosity and watchfulness extended over all Qing Jing peak's disciples.

Without his memories to hurt him, to cripple him with self-doubt, Qingqiu had recovered and adapted wonderfully.

Of course, that didn't stop Qingqiu from surprising him.

When Qingqiu had found out about their past, it hadn't been because of his memory returned to him.

It had been because he had found out through the grapevine. To be precise, one day, Qingqiu just walked right into Yue's office and the first thing he said was, "So I heard from the Xian Shu peak girls that we were star crossed lovers and your deepest regret was leaving me behind."

The tea Yue Qingyuan was drinking came right out of his nose, and he could only choke and splutter, his eyes watering.

 

Yes! Overlord was a really good one. I remember re-watching the first season over and over again, hehe. So he wasn't born yet? Ahh, that makes a lot more sense. I was kinda confused about where the original disciples were at the beginning, glad that's cleared up. It's pretty damn cool how complex this fanfic is though. Like I said, I could totally see this becoming a whole different novel entirely.

gahHh need another cHapTer

 

The native Luo Binghe wasn't born yet in the world G was transmigrated into, no.

The Bing-ges and Bing-meis we see in this fic all are in other worlds.

In this world, Miss Su Xiyan (as yet unmarried) is Binghe's mom to be and she just started her relationship with Binghe's dad some posts ago.

Also ask, and ye shall receive.

Spoiler: FLASHBACK: YUE QINGYUAN

***
Qingqiu's past was full of potholes.

After Qingqiu had confronted him in his office with the Xian Shu peak girls' rumors about their being star-crossed lovers and then patted his back until the inevitable choking and spluttering stopped, Yue Qingyuan could only apprehensively approach the subject with extreme caution while trying to correct Qingqiu's misunderstandings on the situation.

However, trying to explain everything only made Yue Qingyuan feel as if he had a thorn in his side.

How do you tell your closest friend, who doesn't remember your failures, that you failed to rescue him when he needed you the most?

How do you encapsulate years of misery, guilt and suffering in words? How do you say that you regret failing to rescue your closest, dearly beloved friend from first, the slavers, then the abusive noble family who imprisoned him, then after that, the unscrupulous roaming cultivator who took advantage of him?

Yue Qingyuan could only apologize over and over, that he hadn't been on time when Qingqiu had needed him.

He hadn't put together a feasible plan to run away with Jiu when they were children. He'd put Jiu in danger and had been the reason why Jiu had been taken by the Qius. He hadn't come back in time to rescue Jiu from the Qius, because he had been so impatient to gain the power to rescue Jiu, that he had injured himself grievously and been forced to stay in the sect to heal for over a year. And then, when Jiu had been in the clutches of that unscrupulous cultivator, it had taken Yue years to find him.

All these, Yue Qingyuan could only see as grievous failures.

When Yue had needed help, Jiu had been there to support him. But when Jiu needed help, Yue had failed him.

Now that Jiu had lost his memory, Yue could only tell him the truth and beg his forgiveness.

All these years, Yue had longed to reach out to Jiu. He had wanted to reconnect with Jiu and bring him back home the very moment that they met each other again, while that unscrupulous roaming cultivator had been murdering sect disciples for their goods.

He had been hopeful, because he knew that Jiu still cared for him. If he hadn't cared, then why would Jiu have killed his own teacher to protect Yue?

But even if he had succeeded in bringing Jiu back to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect with him, nothing had been resolved.

Yue had tried to protect Jiu from his fellow disciples but Jiu had refused to rely on him and stood on his own two feet despite their brother disciples' mockery.

And for the following years, Jiu had been resentful, bitter and cold. He had never mentioned past events, had never acknowledged their past together. He only called Yue 'brother-disciple'. It had driven Yue Qingyuan up the wall with worry.

As a result of that, Yue had tried to give Jiu all the support he could, even bending over backwards to accomodate his whims in hope that someday, maybe, Jiu could forgive him. Maybe someday, Jiu would call him Big brother Qi again

But Jiu had lost his memory and Yue had failed him again. And now, not only was he still unable to cure Qingqiu of this curse, but it seemed that Jiu's memories were lost and he... would never be forgiven.

Qingqiu listened to his shaking voice as he explained everything as best as he could, brow furrowed.

Yue felt as if he was literally spilling his guts.

Qingqiu's gaze was soft, gentle. He took Yue's hands in his own.

Then, Qingqiu raised Yue's hand to his lips to kiss it.

And as Yue had stalled in his explanation and shaky- voiced apologies, Qingqiu stroked his hand to calm him and soothed,"You did the best you could with what you had on hand."

Yue Qingyuan wasn't convinced and he still felt stained by his failures.

Qingqiu wasn't willing to let him keep beating himself up. "If you had tried to rescue me from the slavers, to run away with me, you could have been killed. You were outnumbered and had nothing that could be used to negate their overwhelming force. If you had tried to break me out of the Qiu's imprisonment, you could also have been killed, as the Qiu had guards and from the way you described it, my legs were injured. You would have had to support me all the way back.

You tried to rush gaining the power to rescue me by cultivating and you were terribly injured. You were laid up and healing for over a year, I cannot blame you for that.

And as for rescuing me from that cultivator, you never knew where I had gone and there was no information on how I had left the Qiu household, how could you expect to find me?"

Yue was still unconvinced, but Qingqiu hadn't let go of his hands, looking at him with ten thousand kinds of tenderness.

It was a warm, gentle, soft and loving, eloquent look that made Yue Qingyuan feel warm and silenced him.

Qingqiu kissed his hands again.
"If you still feel guilty about it, don't. The past is dead. We have a clean slate and we can start over." He stated firmly. "And even if we weren't the green plum and bamboo horse as everyone thinks we were, it doesn't matter. I love you, Yue. I want you to know, I know how I feel about you. I'm not confused about this. I know what I feel, and I know what I want. And what I want is to be with you."

 

Spoiler: YANG DEWEI'S HIDDEN ARC PART 2

***
Yang Dewei was very displeased.

As for why he was displeased, it was fairly obvious- his new 'husband' was absolutely refusing to accept his very rational plan of leaving this damn mountain before his settlement of undereducated little idiots ran into a bigger fish, say, an army sent by one of the neighboring countries' governments with orders to wipe out the bandits who had infested the mountain.

It wasn't as if it would be a long time before such a thing happened, either, given the sheer number of complaints that were probably flooding in on all their borders.

If they had been more moderate, policed all the other bandit gangs their previous king and current king had squashed and forced under their banner, their reputation wouldn't have been so appalling.

If they had simply placed a toll on each passing caravan in exchange for, say, escorting them through the mountains or just letting them pass, that wouldn't have been a problem either.

But no, they had to go the quick and easy route of self sabotaging their own reputation by attacking caravans for profit, wives and goods. They had to fail at policing the native bandit gangs who had been subjugated by their leaders.

As it was now, they were wanted for wrecking trade by attacking caravans (which they did do), blamed for multiple instances of rape and torture (which the vast majority of them hadn't done, since their real goals had been bride theft and badly needed supplies so they could entrench themselves further) and considered a public menace to life, limb and livelihood of the countries on all four sides of the mountain range.

Yang Dewei had explained this to them and additionally pointed out that he was still going to keep purging the paedophiles, murderers and rapists in the area, and if they didn't leave on their own volition, they would also be considered fair game.
But no. No, his man wanted to stay here in the hole he had dug for himself.

He wanted to fortify it, build a proper city-stronghold.

And not just him, everyone else was recalcitrant about moving. None of them wanted to leave the place they had built for themselves even with the enmity of their neighbors turned against them because of their ill thought out actions.

No, they were willing to get rid of the unscrupulous fellows who had wrecked the reputation of all the bandits in their mountain range, but they persisted in believing themselves to be good men who had been forced into this because of circumstance, for the sake of their families.

Such self justification didn't really hold up to the light of day when Yang Dewei had pointed out that they themselves wouldn't want to be preyed on in the same manner they had preyed on the people around them.

However, it was a cycle. Despite their awakened consciences, and their understanding that their unwilling comrades had ruined their chances of being considered a legitimate town-state, they still refused to leave.

When they were reminded of their wrongs, they expressed regret and sheepishly offered that the errors would not be repeated. But when they were asked how they planned to make a life for themselves now, without banditry, they didn't know.

When it was suggested they separate themselves fron the people who had ruined so many lives, by leaving the mountain so that they could rebuild somewhere else, they refused to leave.

They could have simply packed up and left the worst offenders to be purged visibly, so that those offenders would be the only ones known to be bandits on that mountain range, but no, they weren't willing to lose what they had built.

They kept offering to hand over the offenders to the authorities but they refused to consider the fact they themselves were offenders because they had taken what they needed to live on, as a settlement.
Yang Dewei was really seeing the proof of his Shifu's words, 'the intelligence of a mob was the intelligence of its most stupid member, divided by the number of mobsters' and 'human stupidity is infinite'.

Even tied up as they were, they were still not getting the point.

No, they were assuming that they would be untied and since he had 'married' their king, he as well as the ladies and teenagers who had been rescued, would all be on their side.

In fact, they were offering suggestions that not only should he untie them, he should also help them entrench themselves further into this mountain, since he was from a righteous sect after all and everyone knew that cultivators from the biggest sects could fund, back and protect entire small kingdoms.

If anything, once they had processed the fact that he hailed from Cang Qiong mountain sect, they lit up like (very stupid!) children given cake.

By now everyone knew that the Cang Qiong mountain sect was the greatest righteous sect and its cultivators were formidable (other than those from An Ding peak) so didn't that mean that a great meat pie had fallen from the sky and into their laps?

With him there, surely they could prosper and flourish as a people! He could improve their settlement, and he could intercede with the surrounding governments for them and...

They really were stupid children.

Yang Dewei covered his face with his hand. Of course he wouldn't do those things so blatantly because they would tarnish the reputation of his sect!

That was exactly why he had tried to talk them all into leaving, because he needed to kill all the other bandits to take their place as scapegoats! He couldn't do that if they refused to leave!

***
Shifu once told Dewei that the vast majority of people were like sheep. Take what they produce, but let them live, and they will eventually get it back. Then this cycle repeats itself again.

This is known by all governments and it is the reason why taxation exists. It is also why banditry exists, and extortion, and road tolls.

A sane and rational man therefore, would take only as much as the sheep could spare and leave them their lives.

Unfortunately many rulers throughout history, many warlords, bandits and even the more rapacious examples of their fellow man, weren't sane enough to follow the cycle.

And some people, the rapists, the murderers, the torturers, the sadistic freaks, couldn't do that.

No. Society said that such people were wolves, but Shifu had seen wolves, okay, wolves were better than that. Wolves didn't take to the point that the entire population of was pushed to drastic measures to ensure the survival of the species or the community.

It would be better, Shifu said, to view those people as rabid. You didn't let the rabid near your people, just as you didn't let rabid predators near your livestock.
***
"I can't... No, rather, I won't do that." Yang Dewei had stated firmly, while he was the focus of all those hopeful and expectant gazes.

One could have heard a pin drop. Then there was an explosion of noise as everyone burst out talking.

Yang Dewei sighed and rubbed his temple as the tidal wave of sound hit.

He let the confused and angry people shout on for a good while, before raising a hand to have a dragon tooth warrior slam his shield against his sword, a brassy, clashing sound that echoed worse than a cymbal, causing the arguing people to halt their arguments.

Then there was a stunned pause as the dragon tooth warriors raised their halberds and slammed the butts of their weapons against the stone of the floor, moving into an aggressive stance.

Then people shrank back like turtles.

"Enough." Dewei folded his arms in the ensuing silence. "I will not help you entrench yourselves into this mountain.

Doing so will only smear the reputation of Cang Qiong and I will not allow you to befoul the face my sect shows to the world.

Your choosing to stay here will make it clear to everyone in the countries around you that you are the Cang mountain range bandits. It is a fact that the bogeyman of the surrounding regions which the other dens have built your reputation into, cannot continue to live- not when their mere existence will give the surrounding governments an excuse to crush everyone alive in this mountain range."

Yang Dewei sighed,"If your people had policed the actions of the other bandits, purged the rabid fools who felt they could torment their neighbors with impunity, this would not have happened.

If you had simply set up a toll for the merchants to pay rather than blatantly attacking caravans, this would not have happened. If you hadn't gone around kidnapping women, this would also not have happened.

But the deed is done and there are a great number of corpses, possibly thousands in the area over the years of your residing here, that will also be pinned on you by extension because you make excellent scapegoats for them.

Whether or not you did them will not be investigated, governments don't work that way. They died within your range, you can plausibly be blamed for them, they will blame you and cover their own asses.

You will be considered the reason for all those deaths the other bandit gangs have gotten up to over the past decade and more, since they go around doing those atrocities while saying. They. Work. For. You."
That silenced them.

"But what can we do?!" One plucky fellow demanded.

"Leave the original bandits of the area to suffer for the crimes they themselves committed." Yang Dewei stated bluntly. "Pack up and move on as your fellow refugees did. Don't stay here while you can conceivably be tied to the deaths- let the aggressive bandits be purged in your place. Wait until the area has been confirmed to be empty before making any further plans and for the love of your continued existence. Keep. Your. Heads. Down. And. Act. Low. Key."

"But if we leave, we will lose our home." one elder quavered plaintively.

"If you stay everyone will consider you to be rabid wolves to be put down." Dewei stated bluntly. "A purge needs to be done, the culprits need to be excised, the kingdoms around you will not settle for less."

"Excised?" Liu Cang frowned slightly in confusion.

"They're a pustule on the community. As long as they exist, you can't ever show your faces." Yang Dewei explained pithily.
***
The news that yes, there was a sudden spirit and demon beast migration or as it was colloquially known, a Beast Tide coming down through Lingyu Jie and Senlin Jie's border (two countries that neighbored their mountains!) made these people even more unwilling to contemplate leaving their home.

They had seen the wreckage of those other dens and in fact, the original assumption had been that they had been destroyed by Beasts, but since it was clear the Beasts hadn't arrived in their vicinity yet, they had become even more mule-headed about leaving.

The fact that the Beasts might actually head into the mountains after rampaging through the two countries' shared border territories in search of two legged snacks had been scoffed at.

They had a fortified area here, it was agreed, and it was clearly solid and safe enough to withstand an attack, while the other bandit dens would likely fall and be crushed if the Beasts got this far, which, the consensus was, they probably wouldn't.

And even if the monsters got this far, they had a cultivator on site, right?

Yang Dewei covered his face with his hands again. Ugh.

Beast Tides could take entire lesser sects to quell, and Jianghu mortal sects of assassins and heroes alike would both be involved. In short it was going to be the equivalent of a small war on its own, claiming scores of lives right and left, ruining villages as the Beasts fed on mortals within their feeding range.

There was a reason the last immortal alliance had ten thousand practitioners, after all. That had been a simulated Beast Tide. Yang Dewei was not willing to go at it alone with thousands of mortal souls for baggage, the vast majority of them being women, teenagers and children.
In addition, several things had come to light. Yang Dewei had looked for armed men during the original census of targets on the mountain range. He hadn't looked up unarmed men.

The mountain currently hosted more people than he had expected specifically because this wasn't the first large group of refugees to flee into this area.

A generation ago, another small Jie country had fallen and its last remaining royal family member, her bodyguard and a massive number of refugees from their own wrecked and ruined country had fled here after their neighboring country, Senlin Guo, had attacked them in the middle of the famine to devour their small Jie whole.

That meant there were even more noncombatants on this mountain which was why the bandit king's elders had been so confident of eventually making it a country, with so many prospective workers to help them build, the future must be bright, right?

The princess' descendant had married one of their bandit lords after all, and they were one of the strongest voices of proponents of staying behind, in these mountains.

Fuck.
***
And now Dewei was seeing the reasons why Shifu had been so very, very intent on getting him and the other street rats properly educated, with mathematics, tactics and strategy.

It was because if they had stayed uneducated, they might also have made the horribly erroneous mistake the refugees had.

To a group of uneducated former farmers, ten thousand armed men was plenty. It was an awe inspiring number. It was an army. It was capable of wonders.

Never mind that most of them had rusty, used weaponry. Never mind that the vast majority of them weren't really trained in qinggong.

It hadn't occurred to them the real reason no one had torn them a new one thus far was that no one actually wanted to have to climb up here to beat them to a pulp for it.

Yang Dewei could already tell, from the way the discussion was going, that this was the exact same reason they didn't really clean up after themselves when they moved into this territory. This was also the reason they hadn't bothered to investigate about the people in the gangs they had beaten up and pressed into service as part of the bandit gangs under their king. They clearly thought they had beaten those men and so they could serve as part of their nascent army.

They did not consider that the men they had taken under their banner might be monsters in human flesh with a taste for suffering and a mentality of 'the strong devour the weak'.

And now all their miscalculations and assumptions had bitten them in the ass. Again.
***
Currently, both Lingyu Jie and Senlin Guo were between a rock and a hard place.

In truth, while Lingyu Jie was smaller and far more vulnerable, Senlin Guo had also stretched itself thin, expending valuable men to gain territory.

This strategy had partly worked- none of the princes had killed each other or managed to set up schemes to sieze the throne, no assassinations or political skullduggery was going on and all six princes who were competing for the throne had managed to take at least small province each, with two of the neighboring small countries feeling the pinch. Lingyu Jie was the hardest hit. However it also left irate neighbors.

And then, the Beast Tide hit everyone involved from behind, while their armies were defending or expanding their borders.

There was a saying,"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind."

In this case, the cicada was Lingyu Jie, the mantis was Senlin Guo and the oriole was the Beast Tide.

There also was a far ruder western saying that a certain Qing Jing peak lord had once shared to his scandalized students and the irate Liu Qingge by complete and lamentable accident.

(Said accident had ensured that Yue Qingyuan had looked scandalized for the entire day and the Qing Jing peak lord frantically begged him for forgiveness because he was banished from the bedroom.)

"Prepare your anus, they're going in dry."

Right now, that was exactly how the people of Lingyu Jie were feeling while they were being doubly penetrated by Senlin Guo's invasion and the Beast Tide, at the same time.

Of course the populace of Senlin Guo wasn't happy with the sudden invasion of Beasts either, which meant that the weaker princes' territory grab had been stopped in their tracks, as their forces were redirected to protect the populace from Beasts instead.
***
As for the test to choose a successor, in the end, the two most successful princes were Zhong Jing and Zhong Xicheng, as they had managed to claim the largest amount of territory. Now that the others had been removed from the line of succession, relegated to be idle princes, the race between the pair to get the largest amount of land and win the throne became neck and neck.

Of course, the eldest son, Haotian, had long thought of the throne as his by right and didn't accept his father's judgement.

In short, he attempted to poison both of the front runners for the position he believed was his.

It didn't go as he had hoped. If anything, his agents were quickly caught and tortured until they spilled the information with their guts.

Haotian's actions were quickly punished by his father, who had his unfortunate, resentful son condemned to have his holdings and position stripped from him and then relegated him (and by extension, all his descendants) to be a commoner.

Stricken and enraged, the poor fool's last temper tantrum and accusations were only rewarded with a severe birching that left him laying in his bed and would conceivably keep him there for three months more.

He was lucky he hadn't been stripped of his money and possessions, too. As it was, he now had to live in a lower abode, as his estates had been taken from him as part of his punishment. His Imperial Consort mother fell from favor with him, when she begged his father, Zhong Feng, to spare him. Her Chen family fell with her. Previously, they had been proud and powerful. They had flaunted her connection with them, as she had been favored, but now, all of them became low key, all but hiding themselves in fear of further reprisals.

The other politically unsuccessful princes, awakened to their precarious position by his fall, meekly turned their full efforts to using their armed forces to protect the citizens from the Beast Tide, and didn't attempt to bring up the succession issue further.
***
Nangong Fa and Guan Yue were brother disciples under the same master.

Nangong Fa became the king of Lingyu Jie, married Lady Qisi, the most beautiful woman in their small country and had a daughter.

Guan Yue succeeded their master as the leader of their small sect and adopted ten sons of dubious lineage. Some were street rats. Some were orphans of defunct noble families. It was even rumored that one of them was even the son of a whore.

However, their reputations as fierce warriors were more than enough to quiet detractors. Especially in times like this, when warriors were needed because of the Beast Tide and the invasion of Senlin Guo.

Thus, Nangong Fa could easily act on his longstanding wish to tie his family and his sworn brother's family together in marriage.

With his sworn brother's sons serving in their army as their ten generals, it was easy to silence the dissenting voices in their court. Particularly when Nangong Fa pointedly stated anyone who had a problem with it could pick up their weapons and fight on the border.

Nangong Fa had long been in conflict with his court because he refused to take their counsel about the matter of his lack of sons.

This lack of sons meant that despite Queen Qisi's fine bloodline, elegant bearing, famous beauty and impressive dowry, she was considered a failure as a wife.

She did not take it well.

The thorn in her side was the well known fact that Nangong Fa once had a beloved concubine by the name of Yun Niang. This lady had given her husband a son but both mother and child had died in childbirth despite all the efforts of the court physicians and midwives. Nangong Fa had spared no expense to try to save their lives.

That was years before Nangong Fa even met Qisi, but it still rankled.
Fortunately for Queen Qisi's peace of mind, her sanity and general mental health, her husband was completely loyal to her and deeply in love, to the point that he never took a concubine after their marriage.

Eventually the Queen got over the disappointment of not being able to give him a son. The court officials, however, didn't get over it and kept bringing up suggestions for their king to take a concubine.

Thus, the Queen and the court officials didn't get along. It didn't help that Queen Qisi had suspicions that their prime minister and grand preceptor both had plans of foisting their daughters off on her husband.

Princess Siqi was the apple of her parents' eyes, an intelligent, headstrong girl with all her mother's beauty and love for adornments such as jewels, beautiful gowns. She also inherited her father's love for fine horses and hunting, often riding out to hunt pheasants with a group of young nobles.

Her engagement to Guan Yue's eldest son scandalized the court officials.
***
The engagement of Guan Wen Guang to Princess Siqi was a matter for celebration for their men in the army, one needed in these hard times.

The first phase of the war, the people of Lingyu Jie could hope to win. They had been fighting against men. Fighting men was a matter of pitting qinggong users against qinggong users, armies against armies. The better tactician won.

For the first phase of the war, their generals were doing a fine job of countering their enemy's tactics. They were holding their own.

Then the Beast Tide arrived and suddenly it wasn't just a matter of outflanking the enemy army, it was also a matter of evacuating civilians so that the Beasts couldn't devour them.

Armies of men didn't breath fire, didn't rise up from lakes and rivers and ponds to drown men. There were many ways to kill men.

Some of these monsters could only be downed by qi attacks, or talismans or specific substances often used by priests or other masters of esoteric arts. Some of them moved too fast for mortal men to fight back, some had virulent poisons, others could crush mortal skulls and bones easily.

Between saving their civilians and fighting the other army, the Lingyu Jie infantry, cavalry and archers were hard pressed.

Of course, the invaders also had the exact same problems. They too were attacked by Beasts who considered them to be food sources, they also had to get their own civilians out of the way.

Beasts could charge into an army skirmish, devour people right and left. Flying beasts could dive down from the sky to scoop up people for their meals, like eagles stooping to catch rabbits. Some Beasts even attacked like ambush predators in the dark of night, or dropping down from the trees to devour their targeted human prey.

Qinggong users were stronger, faster, had more durable bodies than other men. Cultivators were stronger, faster and more durable than qinggong users.
***
The Qinggong users of both countries, ranging from the evil sects including assassins and the righteous sects of martial artists, flower thieves, wandering heroes and heroines alike, had been embroiled into the conflict.

Some were there for pay, as the governments of both countries opened their coffers to hire these qinggong experts to fight for them. Some had taken up arms to protect their assets or territory. Others had stood forth to protect the people around them.

Either way, even with the qinggong users fighting the Beasts, the number of casualties was still, sadly massive.

As such, the news that both righteous sects and roaming immortal cultivators would be arriving to slay Beasts was deeply appreciated by the governments on both sides of the war.

All the generals were quite relieved by the idea that the monsters would be dealt with so they, the soldiers, could get back to bashing and slashing each other to death.

In truth, those cultivators were only really coming because of the sheer amount of cultivation resources that a Beast Tide represented.

And it wasn't just the righteous sects that were coming. The evil sects and demonic cultivators were also coming.

The Beast Tide was a free for all.
***
It was a fact that Zhong Xicheng had more than a passing knowledge of the generals who were his adversaries during the war.

He had, like his fellow princes, sent over agents, saboteurs and assassins. However, he had never actually had the good fortune to get close enough to any of them to attempt to turn them to his side. If he had a chance to meet any, most certainly he would have tried to manipulate them, befriend them, inch his way into their upper echelons under his mother's name.

As it was, the Beast attacks had ruined one of the ways he was best suited for conquest. His infiltration skills were high, his methods were very effective and the results of his manipulations of both men and women had earned him the reputation of being a heartbreaker.

Most certainly he could have gone out on his own when it was just a hostile army. But going out alone in the middle of a Tide when he wasn't a cultivator? That was suicide. It took a full armed force to bring down the more blatantly obvious Beasts, and don't even mention traversing the forests at night when an ambush predator beast could take your head off or drill a hole in your skull to chew on your brains.

The nights had become a nightmare for defense, and he had to turn his attention towards ensuring his own men weren't devoured in the night attacks that many smaller Beasts had made once they were close to what they sensed was a source of food.
***
A massive monster charges downhill and into a formation of armed men, flinging everyone around like rag dolls before it crushes a screaming man's head in its claws. It continues on its gluttonous, macabre feast, tearing people limb from limb right and left, before devouring them while they are still alive and screaming.

Then one man who managed to get away from the beast looks up.... and sees even more monsters of that creature's species are right behind it.

Men, women and children who try to cross a river to get to the other side, or who wade into those rivers to bathe, naked and unarmed, scream in terror as they are dragged underwater and drained to husks by a squirming mass of tentacles as fine as hair.

Despite the best efforts of a massed group of archers, a flying monstrosity swoops down under a hail of arrows, to scoop up a screaming man with its claws, using the unfortunate victim as a shield while it makes a second pass to take a second. And a third. Just so it can eat its fill.

People had started huddling in groups in the fortified towns as the smaller villages with weaker walls were the subject of multiple Beast raids until the entire villages were empty husks.

These were exactly the kind of things one expected to see in horror films and these gruesome scenes were what the populace of both countries along the border were suffering through.

Of course, Senlin Guo had more men to stave off the horrors. Lingyu Jie's people on the other hand, were forced to retreat ever backwards, towards the more heavily inhabited and well defended walled cities. Some refugees from the areas infested by Beasts went even further.

Despite Yang Dewei's disgruntlement, this meant that even more people were starting to consider the mountains a sanctuary. This made the people he was trying to convince to leave become even more recalcitrant to pack up and go.
***
Now what made this argument even more ludicrous was that Yang Dewei had already pointed out that he wanted to take them down the Empire's side of the mountain as a group of refugee caravans.

However, they kept insisting they were safer up here now that he was here, which was the most shortsighted reasoning he had ever heard of. He knew most people who weren't cultivators tended to spin tall tales about them as overblown hype, but this was ridiculous.

Firstly, this was a goddamn mountain range. Yes, Cang Qiong was a mountain range with twelve peaks. Yes, it was a fortified cultivator fortress. However, Cang Qiong had an entire sect of literally thousands of cultivators of various levels, and this place? It only had him. And while Yang Dewei was no slouch, he couldn't guarrantee thousands of peoples's lives in the face of a Beast Tide if he was all alone. That was the whole point of moving them down the mountains on the Empire's side!

He wasn't Shifu, goddamnit, turning mountains into mountain fortresses in the space of a... a month... wasn't within his current skill level!

Secondly, if everyone congregated on this goddamn mountain range because of the Beast Tide, without turning this mountain range into a warded fortress, it would only turn the mountain range into a massive eat-all-you-can buffet for the Beasts!

Thirdly, as a goddamn righteous sect cultivator, he himself was supposed to be in that Beast Tide, bringing home really nice resources for Cang Qiong and Shifu!
Of course, pointing this out immediately apparently did no good for him as the people only became more anxious.

Well, it could be expected as they had woken this morning all tied up, but still!

Still!

Ah, fuck it all, he was going to have to untie his husband to make sure he could keep these idiots from starving, put all the dragon teeth warriors out on watch to keep them all in this fortress to keep them out of his hair.

Then he needed to murderhobo his way through the remaining targeted bandit dens. After that, he still had to bring all the rescued people to this place to keep them safe FOR TODAY while he sets the scenes of the destroyed bandit dens with blood and gore and horrible carnage to make it obvious to all neighboring governments that he has 'purged' the bandits responsible for all the caravan wrecking, the kidnapping and murders.

That will be much easier to do than explaining things to these idiots for the nth time.

And, well, at least he knows that he can do that today!
***
Purging the remaining bandit dens was the easy part.

Shepherding people, lots of people that he had rescued was hard. First he had to heal them.Then he had to take them back to the fortress in batches.

At this rate that fortress was going to be full up and then he was going to have to use the Mage's Magnificent Mansion artifact Shifu had taught him to make, which was basically capable of expanding into second fortress to store all these idiots in

Yes, he knew it was a fortress. Yes he knew how to make more. That wasn't the point.

The point was, it was a portable castle for a reason. It wasn't intended to be kept out in permanent activation and that is what it would take to house all the people who wanted to keep living on this mountain range. A series of such castle artifacts in permanent activation, preferably in a truly massive array covering entire mountains of this mountain range.

Did these people have any idea how much energy that was going to take?! Of course not!
***
Yang Dewei had a headache. He was unfortunately right.

These idiots finding out that he had a portable castle because he needed somewhere to store the rescued civilians had not been good.

He had a feeling this would happen. Now they really were refusing to go down the other side of the mountain.

His 'husband' had been badly shocked by his return with many, many more survivors and immediately had taken to following him around, trying to check him for injuries because when he had arrived he looked like he had passed through an abbatoir. He had washed up and then gone to heal the survivors further and then had gotten them settled in. Alas, that meant interaction with the rest of the refugees-turned-bandits and there were a few squabbles which Yang Dewei had pressed his 'husband'to help him break up, and pacify both parties involved.

It could only be expected, they had been held by bandits, even if the bandits who had actually been the ones responsible for their suffering were all dead and used as scarecrows.

Liu Cang reached out to clasp his hands, cheeks red, glancing at him then glancing away.

So cute.

***
Liu Cang shuddered as pleasure pulsed through him over and over again. He was all but folded in half, his legs wrapped around his new 'wife's' waist as he was being pounded into.

His sensitive insides were being vigorously stirred and stimulated by his 'wife's' hard member. All Liu Cang could do was shamefully moan and mewl under him as the force of the thrusts sent his body into feeling as if it was shaking apart from ecstasy. The canopy's fabric billowed and the bed frame shook. Liu Cang couldn't concentrate on anything but the incredibly seductive beauty who was driving him over the edge and into climax.

His gaze whited out and he clutched at his 'wife' for dear life.

As Liu Cang lay in his 'wife's' arms, still dazed from the afterglow, he relished the feeling of being tenderly fondled and caressed.

That.. His mind couldn't help but play back the series of events that had Dewei enticed to tumble him in this bed again.

He had clasped Dewei's hands and Dewei had tilted his head slightly as he looked at him, before smiling a sly and charming smile, as erotic as a fox maiden.

Liu Cang's heart fluttered in response, and he lost track of the words being spoken, only noticing that Dewei had gently maneuvered him around and was tugging him back to his bedroom.

Kiss after slick, hot, wet and tantalizing kiss. Those elegant, gentle hands stroking all over his body, sliding under his garment, tugging open his belt, removing his sash, then stroking his chest and abdomen with great delight.

He had been kissed until he was panting for breath, dizzy from lack of oxygen, then he had been gently tumbled into his- no, their- bed.
The complete focus his 'wife' had on his every movement and sound set his cheeks afire.

Liu Cang felt even more naked and exposed, but... it wasn't... bad... or anything. There was not the slightest hint of disapproval, ridicule, contempt or superiority gleaming in those bright eyes. Just.. his wife clearly found him to be beautiful.

His 'wife' only murmured compliments to him while stroking his flesh tenderly, setting his nerves alight. It felt as if every part of his body that Dewei was stroking was so much more sensitive than before.

He could only feel helplessly embarrassed and exposed, but pleased at the same time.

What, his skin was soft as silk, what flexible waist, what perky buttocks?!

Wife! Stop ...talking... about your husband's body like this! Liu Cang managed to think in exasperated pleasure before his 'wife' kissed him into a pleasant daze again.
Then his 'wife' was soon busy leaving a necklace of hickeys all over his neck and collarbones, even across his shoulders, the slim fingers kneading his waist before gliding down.

And before Liu Cang knew it, his 'wife' had gently tugged his legs open and into place, positioning him in such a way that Liu Cang was fully exposed to his 'wife's' sight. He could only watch as his 'wife' retrieved oil and slicked his fingers and a... very formidable... very proudly erect shaft that had apparently fit very snugly inside his body before.

Just looking at it sent a frisson of fear down Liu Cang's spine.

"That isn't going to fit..." Liu Cang froze up.

"It fit perfectly well before." Yang Dewei pointed out gently, and then his elegant fingers were gently stroking Liu Cang's currently tightly clenched chrysanthemum bud.

Dewei leaned over to distract Liu Cang with caresses and kisses again.

He was as nervous as a virgin.
(It was so cute.)
***
By Liu Cang's reckoning, the less said about the preparation, the better.

His cheeks were aflame constantly and he had been so nervous that it had taken what felt like ages for the admittedly gentle stroking and his 'wife's' soothing murmurs to coax him open enough to be entered, but once Dewei had entered him... then the feel of being stretched, filled completely, the sensation of every part of his insides wrapped around his 'wife's' hardness and being constantly stimulated...

Liu Cang had been drowning in pleasure with his 'wife's' vigorous rocking movements, each thrust hitting the most sensitive part inside of his body.

The exquisite pleasure had driven his fears and his sense of shame right out of his mind, he had only been able to cling to Dewei and move even more eagerly and shamelessly against him.

He didn't want to think of how... how completely he had given himself over to those touches, those caresses, what felt like the complete stimulation of every pleasurable nerve in his body, including parts he didn't even know could be made to feel so good.

He felt like he had been brought to the ninth heaven, with the resulting explosive pleasure.

And his 'wife' had brought him to spill himself over and over again.

Of course, now that he had begun to recover from the afterglow, he could only turn even redder as he remembered how he had begged Dewei not to stop, begged to be taken over and over, the sounds he had made...

He ducked his chin down and flushed crimson, unable to meet his 'wife's' eyes.
***
His 'wife' was exquisitely considerate. Once again, he brought over some nourishing soup and chilled sweetened tea, feeding Liu Cang with such care that Liu Cang's heart felt like it was overflowing with warm honey.

He had been upset when his 'wife' had left the bed, but the sight of him returning with the steaming bowl, cups and a chilled bottle was enough to settle him down and soothe a part of him that was helplessly anxious.

Little by little, Liu Cang relaxed, until he could eat as if their cuddly arrangement in bed was completely normal.
***
If he were to be asked, Liu Cang would have admitted that he had a certain vision of what his married life was supposed to be like.

He would marry the most stunning beauty and he would love her. He would protect her from every danger, and she would be the honored and respected lady of his stronghold. She would be the queen of his kingdom. He would provide her with any luxury she could ever think of. He would give her everything she could ever want. They would have many beautiful children.

Of course she would have to obey his commands and as the husband, his word would be law. He would pamper her so thoroughly and she would obey him completely.

Of course that vision didn't really cover what might happen if he married a man.

Except he didn't know he had married a man until after the wedding feast.

Which meant they really were married, consummation and all.

When he had thought of being married, Liu Cang had imagined that all of his brothers would like and respect his wife, for his sake if nothing else. They would never be coarse around her and they would protect her like he himself did. They would all live happily and safely in his stronghold, here in the mountains.

Except when he did get married, the marriage was nothing like that.
Firstly, his wife was a man. This was something he could not get over. While in terms of grace, elegance, movement and beauty his wife outshone everyone else.. Well, there clearly would be no babies coming from him.

Second, his wife was an immortal cultivator. Liu Cang was not. His wife would inevitably outlive him. Liu Cang would have to be lying if he claimed this didn't discomfit him. The idea of being outlived by his wife had been fine when he had imagined dying young majestically, in a blaze of glory like a Wulin hero should.

Except instead, he now suddenly, out of nowhere, had the persistent and sobering mental image of his wife still being young and beautiful while he himself was an old grandpa.

QAQ

Any man who said they didn't feel disquieted by that would be lying! His wife would be young and beautiful for centuries and... and clearly Dewei liked his looks. What if Dewei later decided someone else was more attractive...?! He could leave Liu Cang later when he was in his forties. He might divorce him. Then where would Liu Cang be, with no wife and no children? QAQ

Liu Cang felt as if he was entering a crisis about his looks which was especially depressing when he had never cared about them before. His anxiety was hidden under his stiff exterior but Dewei was perceptive enough about the way that Cang had refused to let go of his hand and the stiff set way that he held his shoulders that Dewei refused to let Liu Cang out of bed, cuddling him and murmuring reassurances to him to get him to calm down.

Except Dewei clearly believed this panic attack was basically because he worried for his brothers. Which... okay, it was a reasonable assumption given their current situation.

It also added an even heavier load on Liu Cang's shoulders because his wife didn't like his brothers or his people.

Shit!
***
Liu Cang had always thought he would protect his wife and be admired as a hero by his wife. This would have been natural, as he had always believed he would be the stronger one of the pair.

As an immortal cultivator from a big sect, Liu Cang's 'wife' was an existence whose attention and support was coveted by those around him.

In this world, the strong could do whatever they wanted to the weak. The commoners without power bowed to the wealthy merchants and influential nobles who could afford to have armed forces. Those wealthy and powerful merchants and nobles would in turn flatter and bribe qinggong users and roaming immortal cultivators in hope of getting their support. Qinggong users also wanted to try to gain immortal cultivator support and maybe try to cultivate themselves. Kings and emperors of small countries could only flatter and try to bribe immortal cultivator sects in hope of a better life for their children as sect members.

This was of course, only a rough overview of the situation.

In society, the heirarchy then went with the nonpowered commoners under the nonpowered nobles, who in turn were seeking the support of qinggong users or seeking to become qinggong users. The lineages of qinggong users were those that roaming qinggong users sought to marry into and the qinggong users wanted to enter qinggong sects. In turn, those sects and lineages respected and often sought support from roaming cultivators. Most of the roaming cultivators could only be cannon fodder to people of cultivator lineages. Even cultivator lineages had noble cultivator lineages they looked up to. Both cultivators from such lineages and the weak majority of the roaming cultivators looked up to sect cultivators. And everyone on that list looked up to the big sect cultivators.

While there were roaming cultivators and cultivator lineages who had advanced to the strength necessary to cow entire small sects, and there were those cultivators who could challenge even big sect members, they were anomalies.

Yang Dewei was from Cang Qiong Mountain sect, which was known to have complete control of twelve peaks ruled by their sect master.

It was said that a peak lord from one of the big sects could easily acquire anything on this world that they wanted.

Women and men to be bedded and used as cauldrons, gold, jade, cultivation resources, treasured weapons, the finest silks... Any kind of good thing had been offered as bribes to immortal cultivators before.

Immortal cultivators on Dewei's level could probably have anything he wanted. Anyone he wanted. If he wanted to have a massive harem, kings would gladly send their daughters or their sons for the honor.

And he wanted Liu Cang.
While this was a wonderful boon for their people, it all depended on how long Dewei wanted Liu Cang.

And since Dewei could have anyone, Liu Cang was at his mercy. If, tomorrow, Dewei tired of him, Liu Cang knew that marriage or not, he had no leverage. He himself was not a cultivator. They were not dao companions.

It came as no surprise that as soon as it occurred to him that he was not the one with leverage in this relationship, Liu Cang started to worry.

Of course, his 'wife's attempts to calm him down only brought to light a third problem.

Liu Cang had very quickly picked up on the fact that despite his brothers' clear belief that this marriage had solved all their problems, that was very far from true.

His 'wife' did not like his brothers or he wasn't getting along with them at all.

No, perhaps it was more accurate to say that his 'wife' had no liking for the brothers' assumptions nor those of their families. His 'wife' intended to leave this stronghold. Of course that left the open questions, did Dewei want to take Liu Cang with him? Was Dewei willing to take all the brothers' and their entire contingent including families and refugees with him?

His brothers all thought that Dewei would claim this mountain range as their shared fief and Dewei would handle the problems that they were having with their neighbors. However, Dewei had stated clearly that he was against that idea completely and he felt it was an insult to his sect.

If what Liu Cang understood of immortal sects was anything like what be had seen in mortal sects, then Dewei would put the sect's needs before his or his brothers' own needs.

 

Spoiler: SOY CHICKEN

(Ooc: I blame LCC for this fic post)
***
There is nothing quite like being held close and cuddled by someone who loves you. Nothing compares to being loved and treasured.

Luo Binghe had found that every time he burst into tears, Shizun would scoop him up and cuddle him close, checking him for injuries.

Shizun's obvious care for him, his very visible worry, made Luo Binghe feel all warm and soft inside.

The first time Shizun had picked him up after he had gotten injured in a fight with one of his counterparts in the waking world, Shizun had been utterly appalled.

Then, after finding out that Binghe's child form was injured, Shizun had been enraged. Not at Binghe, but at whoever had harmed him.

Shizun was always worried about him now.

Binghe was scooped up, held close to Shizun's heartbeat, his body thoroughly inspected by exquisitely gentle, careful hands. Shizun's brows were furrowed with worry.

And when Shizun found an injury, he was always so indignant, so enraged on Binghe's behalf. He grew more and more upset as time went by and Luo Binghe failed to tell him who had hurt him.

After all, how could he tell Shizun that he was fighting his own counterparts in other worlds?

No, all Binghe had been able to do was burst into tears, or shake his head and cling to Shizun like a tiny baby bear... which only meant that Shizun would refuse to put him down, look at everyone with suspicion and try to pamper Binghe all throughout the dream.

Any dream figment that thought to bully either of them at that point was treated with pragmatic brutality.

Shizun was displaying all the protective urges of a mama bear and Luo Binghe loved it.

Shizun had begged Binghe to tell him what was going on, had coaxed him, had pleaded with him, but Binghe had told him nothing. That only made Shizun assume the worst.

Binghe knew that Shizun was assuming that someone was hurting him, bullying him and attacking him in the real world, and that was why Shizun was growing more frantic and more worried the more Binghe refused to tell him what was going on or how he was injured.

He didn't disabuse Shizun of his notion, only looking up at him with teary eyes to gain more cuddles.

Shizun refused to let him out of his sight after that. He fed him healing potions and medicines, cuddled him, let him sit in his lap and carried him everywhere, constantly.

And woe to any bully who so much as tried to harass Binghe, for they would be punted by an angry Shizun, straight into a wall.

***
Binghe had found out that Shizun could remove his backlash problem quite by accident. He had been so exhausted after fighting one of his more deranged (disgusting!) counterparts, that he had simply passed out right after putting the poor fool out of his misery. He hadn't been able to go and get the backlash out of his system with his harem's assistance.

Shizun had simply picked him up and... gotten rid of the backlash with a gentle touch and a pulse of energy, even as he healed Binghe and cuddled him.

The healing was even more sweet. Binghe had felt that energy of Shizun's pulse through him, warm, somehow conveying Shizun's genuine love and care for him. The emotions were as sweet as honey, to Luo Binghe's long deprived psyche, quenching the thirst of Luo Binghe's parched heart.

Because being healed meant knowing that Shizun loved him, Luo Binghe no longer disliked getting injured quite as much. If he was injured after a battle, didn't that mean that Shizun would heal him, love him and cuddle him?

He loved it. He wanted to lay in Shizun's arms forever, and kiss him and be loved by him, treasured and doted on.

Of course that didn't mean he slacked off on his own defense when he was fighting his counterparts, those of them who had gone insane after losing their Shizuns because of their own faults.

No. He didn't want any of them using their swords to go transdimensional.

He didn't want them to find his Shizun before he did, and claim him against his will. They wouldn't treat his Shizun well.

He didn't want his Shizun to suffer what he and they had once made their own Shen Qingqiu suffer.

***
In truth, the memory of what he had done in the past now made him feel acute pains of regret and unease. He definitely regretted what he had done to his Shizun and everything he now did, every time he put on his mask to try to fight side by side with him, every time he nuzzled at his fingers as a dog and every time he tried to reach out to him without covering his face was now an attempt to... to make up for his mistakes.

However, because of his travels through those other worlds, he also now felt deep unease over what he had done to his own world's Shen Qingqiu.

In short he was having a very very bad time of it. He isn't used to guilt. He's found so many worlds where Shen Qingqiu was proud of his student rather than resentful so he couldn't continue to assume it was petty jealousy that triggered the cruelty of his world's Shen Qingqiu.

Luo Binghe didn't want to look too closely at the justification for what he had done to his world's Shen Qingqiu, but he had no choice but to face the fact that he might have been completely wrong, because while that man had taken his secrets to his grave, he had seen plenty of his counterparts.

Many of his counterparts, even one that deeply resembled the Qingqiu from his world, had doted on their students. He still remembered the way that man had puffed up in genuine protectiveness towards Binghe's own counterpart in that world. Come hell or high water, it had been clear that he wanted to protect the boy.

When he had checked that world again, his now older counterpart was at the head of a demon army, hellbent on taking over the human realm and crushing the righteous sects because that Shen Qingqiu had been locked up in the restricted zone with the sect master, imprisoned for protecting him... from the Huan Hua palace head.

One of the other counterparts of Shen Qingqiu had been confirmably forced to betray his Binghe by an outside agent and hadn't been able to deal with the grief, so he had committed suicide.

One of Binghe's younger counterparts had claimed that his Shen Jiu- Shen Qingqiu- had been a loving and doting father to him before Qingqiu had been murdered by the Qiu family and cultivators for trying to protect Binghe's counterpart from the head of the Huan Hua Palace sect. Again. Hm..

Loving parent, doting teacher, loyal friend... Where did those end and the man who abused him begin?

Luo Binghe wasn't comfortable. His past actions now only left him uneasy, confused and slightly nauseous at the idea that he might have been... wrong.. to do what he had done.

He was beginning to believe that something must have gone horribly wrong. Perhaps it was even before his arrival in Cang Qiong.

The Shen Qingqiu who had married his female counterpart had certainly stated that Binghe reminded him of some old enemies from before he joined the sect.

Come to think of it, Luo Binghe's female counterpart had also suffered greatly from the actions of the Huan Hua palace sect head who had wanted to claim her for himself.

Hmmm. Luo Binghe was sensing a pattern here.

***
It was all too obvious that his Shizun was real.

Luo Binghe went to sleep injured and met Shizun in his dreams and when he woke up, he was safe, his injuries were healed and his backlash was gone.

Clearly Shizun was really there and really his. (And just as clearly, really his soulmate, obviously, since they were constantly with each other.)

That meant he certainly wasn't going to let these idiots near his Shizun, not when some of them who had been soulbound to their own Qingqiu had even been stupid enough to torment their own soulmates to death before even finding out they were theirs.

Hindsight was always painful and no matter how hard some of those counterparts of his had tried to bring their soulmates back from the dead, their efforts hadn't worked. That was exactly why they had degenerated to the extent he had found them in, before putting them out of their (and his!) misery.

 

Our Binghe has grown up a smidge!
I request MORE SHHIZUN CUDDLES Fairy~!

 

Spoiler: The Subversive

***
Immortal Chen was not a happy man.

It had not originally been his intention to pick up a little girl to raise as a wife when he had accepted Su Xiyan into his tutelage, but it had been, loathe as he was to say it, love at first sight.

At ten years old, Su Xiyan was a wonder, a brilliant shining star of potential. Some children went through phases of being awkward or gawky, but beautiful, dear Su Xiyan seemed to glide from year to year untarnished by blot or stain.

Watching Su Xiyan grow up was like watching the rarest of all flowers blossom. Watching her grow more and more graceful and powerful, skilled and beautiful was endlessly fascinating, and despite himself he could not tell when he had fallen into the pit of loving her.

At twelve, she had already begun to show the grace her adult self would have. At thirteen, she was as pure and perfect as a fairy. At fourteen, Immortal Chen had begun to turn away every single proposal for her hand in marriage that came his way.

By fifteen, Immortal Chen had begun matchmaking every single suitor who applied for her hand with someone else.

Gongyi Su who had expressed interest in Su Xiyan for example, was quickly married off to a Miss Xunmi from a cultivating clan who had maternal ties to one of the other elders.

While their marriage was happy, it didn't exactly bode well for other suitors for Xiyan's hand in marriage.

Unwilling to let her have a relationship with anyone else, Immortal Chen's once pure motives had fallen into a tar pit. His lofty bearing now hid squalid scheming. If the man pushed themselves forward for his girl, he would set that man up with other women. If that didn't work, he would come up with ways to send those men far away. If he didn't do either of those, he would happily ruin their reputation. If ruining their reputation wasn't good enough, he would ruin their cultivation.

He had been worried when Mo Heiying had been suggested as a possible spouse for his girl, but Heiying's own peak lord cut off that problem at the root, refusing to even consider it because he had (clearly!) noticed that Immortal Chen was best suited for Su Xiyan.

To look at Su Xiyan was to love her as deeply as Immortal Chen could love anyone or anything in this world. He loved her more than power, loved her more than cultivation, loved her more than his family or his reputation or the prospect of immortality.

It could have been said that Immortal Chen had been driven mad with tenderness for his ward.

And no one ever noticed. Or if there were people in his sect who noticed, they didn't really care.

 

- a mama falcon? Wouldn't a papa falcon be more like it?

You are a little too late.

- Who asked if you are one of the. G haven't asked... right?

- I am not sure if this was the only resentment that he had...

 

I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for this old man or feel that this man need therapy...