The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fan fiction

Life of a Mob Character

Spoiler

Shanliang has learned far more about demonkin mating seasons than he had ever wanted to learn.

That was because he had the strange luck to have picked up three demons as his contracted familiars.

He had first accidentally picked up a snake demon as his contracted familiar and, after his new familiar had begged him to, he had also picked up that demon's brother.

It took a hundred or more years for some animals to become animal spirits. After that, it could take thousands of years for those animal spirits to cultivate enough to gain a humanoid form and become either fairies or demons.

Of course, the mating seasons of each tribe were different, based off the animals they originally had come from .

Mao Ruishi was a snow lion demon from a mountain region.

Shanliang had picked him up, assuming he was a mere spirit lion with unusual fur coloration, or a normal snow lion that could be raised as a pet. Shanliang had freed the malnourished and highly injured Ruishi from a trap that had already all but crushed his paw.

As Ruishi didn't have an unusually large size or an ominous qi aura, Shanliang had assumed he was relatively harmless and would be perfectly fine to raise as a pet.

Alas, he found out that he had made an error after about a month.

He had fed his pet tidbits and bone broth constantly so that his pet might regain up to a healthy weight. He had talked to his pet in a soothing manner and tended to the crushed paw and all the other open wounds with great care.
Among the demons that had come into being from mountain lions, lions, black lions, white lions, there had always been a very clear social structure.

That is to say, there was only ever one male to any certain amount of territory, and this male would have a harem of lionesses. When any of the lioness bore offspring, she would be allowed to keep the child for as long as she wanted, if the child was female. However, if the child was male, he was only allowed to stay until he grew to a rebellious age. The moment he rebelled, or tried to seize territory for himself, he would be beaten half to death and thrown out of his father's home.

Competition for territories and women was fierce. It wasn't unusual for lion demons to go off and accumulate harems of demons of other species as well if they could not find enough territory or woman in their own area . That meant that competition among the offspring in the harems of the lion demons was also fierce.

Any child in the harem that could be proven to not have been sired by the lion demon of the territory, would be immediately slain.

In addition to that automatic death sentence, the male snow lion demons competed amongst themselves, then when they were strong enough to attack their father, they would try to attack their father.

In light of this, Ruishi's situation was not unusual. He had been interested in a female demon who one of his brothers was also interested in. This brother first attempted to beat Ruishi down to show the woman was his. When that failed, this brother set the situation up so that it looked as if Ruishi desired to rebel against their father .

Ruishi was then further beaten to a pulp by his own father and cast out to get his own territory.

Obedient non-rebellious snow lion male demons could be married off by their father or could be given an amount of resources to work with, in settling a new territory. Perhaps they would even get a few animal spirits and lower ranked, different species animal demons to help them in the claiming of this territory.

Ruishi was then further beaten to a pulp by his own father and cast out to get his own territory.

Obedient non-rebellious snow lion male demons could be married off by their father or could be given an amount of resources to work with, in settling a new territory. Perhaps they would even get a few animal spirits and lower ranked, different species animal demons to help them in the claiming of this territory.

Ruishi was cast out injured and with nothing.

Naturally, having been picked up by a strong, gentle, and beautiful immortal cultivator was a gift of luck from beyond the heavens . Having been cared for and doted on to such an extent, Ruishi had already decided to keep Shanliang as a mate.

That led to Ruishi's revealing of his identity when they were alone in Shanliang's rooms in Cang Qiong.

Shanliang had been thoroughly shocked when he had been accosted by a very beautiful, very wild, very seductive and worst of all, very naked male inside his own rooms.

After finding out that he had contracted a snow lion demon for a pet, Shanliang had originally been too afraid to sleep. Part of that had been due to Ruishi's obviously amorous nature. The other part was that Ruishi was a demon which basically meant that Shanliang was in deep shit if his peak lord or seniors found out that he had inadvertently brought a demon inside a cultivator sect.

In short, Shanliang had kept zealous watch over Ruishi until he figured out that Ruishi had no intention to steal anything from the sect other than Shanliang himself, or maybe just Shanliang’s chastity as apparently Ruishi had no desire to abscond from the sect with him .
Of course, some time later, when Shanliang had picked up the injured Yu Ren by a riverside, he had also assumed he was a spirit beast.

At that time, Yu Ren had been blinded in one eye and many of his bones had been broken. He hadn't been cast out due to any scheming or anything like that . He was simply very badly injured in the process of protecting his younger brother from a natural disaster. As a direct result of this, he had been washed up on the shore of this river after having been banged around on every rock all the way down from the waterfalls.

Naturally, he had thought he was going to die right there, too bruised, battered and broken to hunt for his own food.

Yu Ren was very, very grateful to have been saved at all.

Finding out that his savior had good enough skills with medical salves to save the eye that Yu Ren had previously thought he was going to lose made this lucky encounter even better.

Of course, poor Shanliang had an even greater near-death experience when he found out that the snake he had patched up and contracted was actually capable of transforming into two other forms. The first was a form with a human upper body and an elegant snake tail. The second was like Ruishi's nearly completely humanoid form.

If Ruishi had ears and a tail, then Yu Ren had two 'bracelets' and a 'collar' of shining scales. Fortunately all of those could be hidden away with jewellery or clothing .
Of course to top off Shanliang's woes, he was also found by Yu Ren's younger brother.

Or rather, Yu Ren's younger brother stalked him for months and nearly would have killed him if Yu Ren hadn't stopped him in time .

Yu Ren's younger brother was named Changsheng and the reason that he had been attempting to kill Shanliang was that he thought his elder brother was dead at Shanliang's hands.

Yu Ren was all that Changsheng had in the world. Their mother was one of those snake demonesses without maternal instincts, their father had left right after his one night stand with their mother . If Yu Ren hadn't been there, Changsheng would never have survived.

And then the disaster had happened.

Changsheng believed that Shanliang had picked up his injured elder brother to cut him up and turn him into ingredients for a potion, draught, dan or pill.

Since all snake demon's shed skins, skins, fangs, scales, bones, venom, bile, internal organs and other parts certainly had many uses in the making of various medicines, armor, accessories and clothing, this guess wouldn't have been incorrect... If Yu Ren had fallen into any hands other than Shanliang's.

Belts, shoes, wallets, scabbards... anything that could be made out of normal snakeskin could also be made out of the skin of demon snakes. Any part of a normal snake that could be eaten or turned into medicine or charms, in a snake demon could also be turned into medicine, cultivation boosters and charms.

There truly were sects out there who made their fortunes by trapping demons and then harvesting their body fluids, skins, body parts for resources while the demons were still alive. Those sects would continually turn the harvested body parts and fluids into cultivation boosting medicine, food or useful artifacts such as armor and weapons.
Even if Cang Qiong also considered demon corpses to be useful raw materials. However to their credit, that was corpses and the corpses were loot from battles wherein the demons had attacked human settlements and Cang Qiong cultivators had come to save the people.
That left them at a quandary. Yu Ren refused to leave Shanliang and refused to let Changsheng kill him. Changsheng refused to leave Yu Ren and wanted to make sure Shanliang couldn't kill either of them. Which Shanliang wouldn't have done in the first place.

This quandary was only resolved when Yu Ren managed to persuade the reluctant Shanliang to accept Changsheng as his third contracted familiar.

It was only after Shanliang had met up with Fei Qilin that he could finally relax, because a fellow cultivator of the same sect with a significant amount of clout was willing to support him and his demon familiars .
Different tribes of snake demons had different mating customs.

One tribes had earthen palaces as homes like Yaodongs. The males and females who lived there fought to dominate each other. The male who could dominate all the other males and chase everyone out of the palace would then hunt the female snake demons down to impregnate them, he would be the official the ruler of that earthen palace.

Some tribes of snake demons would hold grand tournaments wherein the males fought each other to impress the snake demonesses who then chose who to fuck.

Some snake demonesses led the men on a merry chase, leaving a trail of aphrodisiac scent which their bodies produced. Then they fucked as many men as they liked. The use of such aphrodisiacs in the chase was considered to be normal.

Some snake demonesses had orgies with as many men as they wanted. This was analogous to the snake mating ball that their bestial noncultivating 'cousins' of the analogous species engaged in.

In short, in the majority of snake demon tribes, the female snake demons had complete control over the process. And they took full advantage of it. Snake demon mating seasons were lethal for both male competitors and innocent passersby alike.

Naturally, having both been contracted to Shanliang, Yu Ren and Changsheng had no intention of leaving him to mate. Mating with snake demonesses was a hassle, a pain and in their eyes not really worth the effort.
In short, Shanliang had overall found himself the 'wife' of three very aroused male demons when all of their mating season hit.

Worse, the feline Ruishi had to mate for seven days straight, while both Changsheng and Yi Ren had two jade staffs.

Naturally, after they were done with him he was in no condition to do anything other than whimper.

Every day, those three 'husbands' of his could take several rounds each . They then spoon-fed him, gave him water, washed him clean and caressed him dry in between rounds but he was still ridden hard almost constantly. He would pass out after one orgasm only to wake while he was being stroked and pounded into another.

By the time they were done dual cultivating and the mating season was over, Shanliang was too exhausted to do anything and drifted off helplessly into sleep.

 

Life of a Mob Character (And resolution of Aoguang Harem arc 3)

Spoiler

***
As Aoguang continued to carefully pry Cansheng off his legs, he could only wonder... How the hell did it end up like this?!

After he had finished speaking with his peak lord, Aoguang made the decision to release Cansheng.

Firstly, the punishment wasn't working the way Aoguang had originally intended for it to. Secondly, Cansheng's Qin family had come to beg for him to be returned to them.

While most noble families would have thrown Cansheng away and cut ties, these people came and kowtowed, begging for mercy to be granted to their foolish child.

They were rather pitiful. The fact that they loved Cansheng enough to come and throw their pride away, to offer so much of their funds as they tried to bribe Aoguang to spare the boy was very indicative of what kind of people they were.

They were good people. People who loved Cansheng very much.

That was why Aoguang had decided to give Cansheng back to them.

However, since he had stated earlier that he was going to keep Cansheng a prisoner and that he would do whatever he wanted to Cansheng on a whim, he would have to continue with that line of reasoning.

In short, Aoguang told his prisoner that he was sending him back to the Qin family.... because he was bored with him.

Aoguang's excuse was that keeping Cansheng was not amusing him anymore.

Anyone else would have been overjoyed to be returned to the family who loved them.

...Cansheng then burst into tears like a heartbroken child and clung to Aoguang's legs before Aoguang had even finished speaking.

Cansheng begged Aoguang to let him stay.

Cansheng was like a koala. No. He was worse than a koala, he was a limpet. A barnacle.

It was very difficult to pry Cansheng's fingers off without accidentally breaking them, but Aoguang persevered.

This brat was so utterly ridiculous.
***

Qin Musheng had known something was fundamentally wrong with Cansheng for a long time. Years, in fact.

The first inkling Musheng had of Cansheng's lifelong problem was the first day he came home, beaten, bruised and purple all over.

Contrary to his disheveled, dirty, battered appearance, Cansheng had a wide, infatuated smile practically plastered over his face. His eyes were glazed over with the bliss of the cat that had caught a songbird.

"I think I'm in love, Cansheng said, at the profoundly unripe age of a mere eight years old. Even despite his own six tender years, Musheng had felt a chill go down his spine.

As could be expected of such a terrible omen, little at the time! Cansheng did not improve his behavior.. If anything, he began acting out and harassing anyone whom he thought was pretty.

To Musheng's gloom, the overall situation did not improve either.

Over time his behaviour escalated . First Cansheng pulled girls' looped braids. Then he pulled boys' ponytails. Then he stole people's hairpins. Then he stole their sweets. Then it was their lunchboxes.

Far, far worse was the day little Cansheng finally figured out how to pay people to harass the person whose attention he wanted.

Soon, when he was in his teens, he had taken to bribing soldiers to break doors, bribing people to lie and frame other people, buying up all the stocks of rare items to flaunt his allowance vulgarly and also crashing into medicine halls and anywhere he could make a nuisance of himself.

Cansheng had also taken to throwing money around generously to bribe anyone to make life difficult in all ways for the person who he wanted the attention of.

Then he developed a tendency to puff up like a peacock and claim all his sins.

This resulted in even more beatings, but his morals and behaviour did not improve.

Each of these encounters tended to end with little (and eventually not so little!) Cansheng being beaten up by the girl or boy he tried to make friends with.

After which he would come home with a blissful smile on his face.

Naturally, his parents and family had seen things worsen and eventually hired teacher after teacher in hopes of leading Cansheng back to the proper path before he could reach puberty and start visiting brothels.

To Musheng's joy, there had been a hiatus after Cansheng's most intense infatuation had ended horribly. Since it ended with the teacher he fixated on having washed his hands of Cansheng and warned the Qin family that Cansheng would do them no good, Cansheng had been down in the dumps for an unusually long while.

This was understandable. The refined teacher whom Cansheng had a crush on, had also been the teacher who had stayed with Cansheng the longest.

Suddenly being abandoned by one's teacher because they thought you would grow up to be a hopeless hooligan, a total good for nothing, must have been like being struck by lightning out of a clear blue sky, inflicting countless points of mental trauma.

It had also sent Cansheng spiralling into a depressive state for quite some time.

At first the family had reasons to believe that Cansheng had maybe recovered from his broken uh... heart... and forgotten all his previous 'techniques' in the art of pissing people off...

Or so his family hoped, right up until Cansheng had caught sight of Cang Qiong's inner sect disciple, Li Aoguang.

Then Cansheng had fallen for Aoguang instead, like a ton of bricks during a landslide on a rainy day. After that, his incredibly foolish attempts to get Aoguang's attention by spiting everyone in Cang Qiong's outer sect disciples started out bad and had quickly gone from bad to far worse.

Musheng had wondered if maybe his brother was even worse off in the head! than he had originally thought.

Then Cansheng had disappeared and the entire household was thrown into a state of panic. Their parents, naturally, went off with both eldest brother Yunsheng and Musheng himself to go and kowtow in hopes of getting Cansheng back.

Well, they got him back, alright, but all he did afterwards was cry and pine after the honorable Li Aoguang!

Then Cansheng begged his parents to arrange a marriage with Li Aoguang and Musheng finally threw up his hands and gave up on him.

It took them great efforts to even get a foot in the door and in Musheng's opinion, only Li Aoguang's pity had gotten Cansheng in at all, even as a concubine.

At this point, Musheng wasn't even sure if this was a blessing or a disgrace, while his brother had married in as a concubine, yet his lord husband was one of the inner sect disciples of one of the Four Big Sects.

Given the sheer expense of cultivating materials and the fact the Four Big Sects never had problems getting such things, the 'dowry' that elder brother Yunsheng tried so hard to acquire, in hopes of making sure brother Cansheng was happy and well cared for, was probably only a drop in the bucket of the great Li Aoguang’s chests .

 

Fic incoming

Spoiler

***
Cultivation resources were punitively expensive. Everyone knew that.

That was in fact, the driving reason behind the obsessive tomb raiding and ruin exploration expeditions that cultivators went on. The news of a discovered tomb or ruin that hadn't been unsealed had cultivators of a certain level of power congregating like a migration of lemmings.

These people would camp outside a hermetically sealed ruin or tomb to wait until the stars aligned just right, in hope that when the seal went down, they could enter those ruins and pick at them like vultures.

Every cultivator knew that if you got to a ruined city or tomb early enough, you could pick up anything from cultivation resources like plants or beast parts, techniques for cultivation, manuals for martial arts, potions, pills, dan, draughts, recipes for such medicines, war puppets and weapons.

If you were really really lucky, that tomb's owner might have left a piece of his soul or his memories there, to be assimilated by anyone who could get there in time to devour it.

Of course that was based on the assumption that you could break through the ruin or tomb's defenses. There was a fairly high casualty rate among cultivators when they went on those expeditions. Not only did they need to survive the actual defenses left by the previous owners or inhabitants, they also had to survive each other.

When it came to ruin and tomb expeditions, it was sect against sect, cultivator against cultivator. To get power, you needed resources. To get resources, you needed power. It was a vicious cycle.

That was why sects sent promising individuals on such expeditions as well as on Beast hunts, in hopes of tempering their finest disciples and elders as well as getting them resources.

That was because even non-cultivation boosting medical herbs and plants such as hundred year old, five hundred year old and thousand year old ginseng were extremely expensive in mortal currency. There was a reason that godly doctors, medicine halls and rare plant collectors wielded so much influence.

Even the smallest cultivation boosting herb or potent medicinal plant could cost a fortune in gold to the point that they could be considered worthy gifts for royal and imperial families. This was also why the small kingdoms sent their princesses and princes to undertake the selection processes of the various cultivator sects whenever possible.

To put it into context, in the past, many small emperors, kings and even the Empire's Emperors had poured out gold and silver on anything that was rumored to allow them to cultivate or that could supposedly help them attain immortality and still didn't attain their goals because they were taken advantage of by quacks.

Immortal cultivators tended to zone in and grab the plants or scraps even at the lowest level from the farmers, hunters and woodcutters far faster than any mortal lord could acquire the information and once they paid those people, they also purchased the area the resources had been found in.

By the time the imperial courts or royal families could find out such things, they had been cut out of the bargaining entirely and the successful original finders were essentially considered sect resources.

Once cultivators had acquired such things, they kept them for their families, their sects or themselves and any real goods were sold in auction houses where they were paid for in spirit stones.

Spirit stones came in many variants, many grades and they were also expensive since they had to be mined. That meant plenty of gold taels had to be converted into spirit stones, then spirit stones could be gambled or used for cultivation resources or currency to buy valuable items at auction houses.

In essence, there were two commercial systems. One currency that was exclusively for cultivators only and one for mortals which cultivators could dabble in to their own advantage.

In the past, even Cang Qiong had to bid for the occasional rare cultivation boosting or medicinal herb or leaf that didn't grow in their territory.

That was because growing rare cultivation boosting plants, poisonous plants or medicinal plants was arduous. Some plants demanded specific environments in that they could only grow in poisoned earth or water. Some plants could only grow in terribly hot lands surrounded by lava, or reach fruition in icy wastelands. Some plants had even more rare and esoteric requirements for being able to bloom or bear fruit. That sort of thing was a common obstacle to acquiring those items. That was why sects had forbidden grounds, restricted areas. That was also why the sects valued people who were skilled enough to farm such plants to the point that they could even set up halls specifically for such plant cultivators.

Cang Qiong stocked such valuable resources as all sects did. That was one of the reasons that their outer sect disciples lived in conditions close to mortal penury.

The gold taels that could have been used for mortal luxuries for all the rank and file disciples had instead been used to acquire cultivation boosting items such as rare herbs, fire seeds, or even solid artifacts such as rare spirit wood or stone furniture to be used by the talents of the sect. White jade beds, ice jade beds, simple looking but horrendously expensive cultivation boosting stone chairs, tables and the like naturally came under this category.

Of course the Qing Jing peak lord's discovery of Mokuton and his subsequent teaching of the art to some of his students had rendered those auction expenses completely unneccessary.

In addition, his teaching of Doton had totally rendered the purchases of naturally qi-bearing or qi-infused stones to be used for the construction of qi artifacts unnecessary.

Then the Dungeon basically made auctions for materials of all sorts irrelevant.

In short, Cang Qiong had withdrawn its purchasing power from the existing cultivator markets but had continued to export whatever they felt like selling. Which wasn't much because the Qing Jing peak lord was well aware of what flooding the market would do. It would make them a target. Or rather, it would make him and his students targets, more than they already were. They had enough problems, no thank you!

This meant that with one of the Big Four sects having been taken off the list of automatic purchasers, there now were a lot more items on the market and in the auction houses. Now, other sects and roaming cultivators could purchase more items and resources. The prices also went down to reflect the change in supply and demand.

While they were still too high for mortals to dabble in cultivation without a fortunate encounter, this meant that more cultivators were getting chances to reach higher levels.

However, the fact that Cang Qiong had withdrawn from the market also made a statement- the statement that they had either decided to seclude themselves for some reason, or that they had reached self sufficiency.

 

25 pages uploaded. Divide that into 3 paragraphs per day, I think it covers plenty of days.

Fic Incoming

Spoiler

***
The sickening stench of burning flesh turned Luo Binghe's stomach. The night was cold, the air was damp, the rustling of the leaves and tapping of the branches was accompanied by the sounds of horse hooves at a constant trot.

Around the circle that protected them lay corpses of monstrous feline, canine or equine beasts, inhuman, ugly creatures of all sorts, limbs gnarled or overly long, hair or fur matted, bedraggled, slimy. Some beings had run on two legs, others on four. Some had looked like horrific mergers of different kinds of beasts, others had disgusting, distorted caricatures of almost-human features. Some even wore recognizable clothing such as red caps that stank of blood.

These corpses lay in piles. Some had grotesquely smoking, steaming stab wounds and were curled up around these injuries in pain. Others had skulls that were crushed. Others had had been smashed here and there, their bones broken.

In Shizun's hand was a skillet, of solid, cold-forged iron, coated in so much gore it must have been a miracle that it didn't slip out of his tightly clenched hand.

It was the skillet that was burning Shizun's flesh. Both of his hands were smoking faintly. In the largest of the macabre corpses, was a broken fire iron. Its other half was impaling a second monster.

Around the boundary that Shizun had erected to protect them both, strange riders, various types of beings circled tirelessly, probing the barrier in an attempt to break in. It was a cavalcade of shadows, monstrous and attenuated, ever restless.

Shizun had been fighting the monsters for eight hours straight, armed only with what he could grab from his storage and what weapons he could craft with his qi techniques.

The skillet and its brother kitchen tools had turned out to be extremely useful, as did Shizun's ability to manipulate plants and rock as weapons.

Bloodthirsty roots, barbed, thorny briars, erupting spears and spikes of rock, vines that crushed enemies... Shizun had gone all out in protecting Binghe.

A cauldron of solid, cold forged iron had been raised and smashed down on so many of the creatures, that it had first, lumped here and there in an unsightly manner, before eventually being flattened, with holes. Its victims were crushed to pulp, gore and bone fragments everywhere.

The terrifying riders continued to circle around the barrier, probing it with their spears to test its defenses.

Some were winged and others were antlered. Some were pale as glass, and others were so dark they almost vanished in the gloom of the forest floor. Some were exquisitely beautiful in a cold and alien manner. Others were gnarled and fearsome. Some wore silvery mail and others wore monstrous dark armor.

None of them were human.

And because of what Shizun had done to himself to ensure that they could not cast their curses on Binghe, neither was Shizun.

In the beginning of the dream, Shizun had been happy enough to see him. Shizun had picked Binghe up and embraced him. Held close, Binghe had caught the sweet scent of mint and green tea as he leaned into the warm embrace.

Binghe had thought this would just have been an easy vacation, even if the place was chilly and damp, that was perfectly alright with him. Except… Shizun had seen an old woman, an unnatural air about her, who had met his gaze as she was washing bloody Cang Qiong robes. Then, as if she had seen her own child die, the elderly woman began to sob and bitterly wail.

Shizun had gone ashen pale and fled from the water.

If Shizun had thought that being away from the water might be safe, he was proven wrong. A monstrous creature sitting on a pile of bones had caught sight of them and chased Shizun into the forest. While the creature was quickly torn to pieces by roots, the damage had been done.

Shizun had bashed many monsters to death with the cauldron. Some were gigantic in size. Others were headless. Still others were caricatures of humanity with one of everything- eye, arm, hand,leg all the way down to the foot. Some looked like distorted monkeys or hybrids of beasts and men. One of them had iron teeth but even its skull didn't survive the cauldron.

Others had been hiding in the shadows, seeking to grab Binghe the moment that Shizun let go of him, one of whom was a skeletal body with groping hands, another was a skull that bit. A third was a grotesque creature sitting on a pile of the gnawed bones of children. A fourth had been a long armed creature that sought to drag people down to drown them. There had been giant frogs with wings and stingers that jumped at unwary passers-by from bodies of water. These monsters all died from the poker.

The forest wasn’t safe either. Shizun had used water and air to tear apart a hairy black monster, and a poker to bash to death a black hag. Still, they were found by bluish skinned distorted caricatures of men who wore blood-dripping red caps.

They had fled from these fiends past a market place that had enticed the senses. Binghe’s gaze had been caught and despite noticing that the stands were being run by shopkeepers of a clearly nonhuman nature, the fruits had enticed him. Binghe had attempted to struggle and squirm out of Shizun’s arms. Shizun hadn't let Binghe approach that place, scooping him up and seeking another path.

The goblin market, Shizun said, would steal his life away or leave him with curses. It wasn't a safe place. If he ate there, he might never be free again.

Only after they had left the glen had Binghe been freed from the enthralling scents of those fruits, the sight of them like gems piled up high in golden dishes.

Once he was freed, Binghe had shuddered with a sudden chill at the realization that they had escaped a trap. Of all things that Luo Binghe hated, he hated the most the loss of control over himself, his body and mind. Those ‘goblins’ had earned his ire. He wanted to tear them apart.

But their freedom from the goblin market did not mean their travails were over. A single horn pealed out, followed by the baying of the hounds and the raucous calls of the hunters.

Carrying Binghe in his arms, Shizun had fled through paths like a maze. Each time one of the beasts, monsters or riders approached, Shizun had killed it with whatever cold forged iron items he could get his hands on.

Running here and there, Shizun hoped to lose the fiends, running for the ribbon of silver that meant a body of water. However, even once they had gotten back out into the open, there were still the lakes. Shizun had scooped Binghe up and avoided approaching the lakes every time he caught sight of a wet horse.

Binghe had been confused as to why Shizun had not tried to take the horse to flee faster, at least until Shizun had explained that water horses such as kelpies sought to drown and devour their riders.

All the while, they had heard the baying of the hounds on their trail. Were they to flee endlessly? Binghe could only clutch at Shizun while a shudder of terror went up his spine. Luo Binghe had once caused righteous cultivators to fear being chased by an untiring foe. Now it seemed it was his turn to fear things that did not appear to tire. He could only wonder when would it end, when would they be safe?

There were no shortage of beings that sought to take Binghe away or slay Shizun.

There had been the foreign jiang-shi who Shizun had slain. To look at her was to yearn but Luo Binghe had faced such charm spells from charm demonesses before and he had snapped out of the unwanted attraction quickly, powered by rage at the fact that she would seek to snare his Shizun. His rage was only soothed when he saw Shizun murder the wench with the poker.

There too, were the monstrous, gnarled grey humanoids who had followed them, vanishing into smoke when slain. There were the crocodile beavers of great size that devoured men, women and children before being slain themselves. There was that ancient hag who Shizun had bashed to death in a panicked frenzy when they had found her surrounded by the skins of flayed children.

There had been calves and sheep that haunted the roads after dark, seeking to throw them down. There had been saucer eyed, chained canines of indeterminate origin. There had been plenty of spectral howlers and hounds and huge unsightly, matted black dogs whose barking had been said to indicate an oncoming death. There had been sightings of a second Shen Qingqiu- this one had stunned Binghe speechless. He could only stare at the copy in stupefaction until Shizun had simply picked up the poker and set upon it brutally. The blood spattered everywhere, but the creature’s corpse lay upon the ground, half-reverted to… whatever it had originally been.

When more of the creatures began to try to take on the shapes of a bloodied, arrow-impaled Yue Qingyuan and then Luo Binghe himself, clad in bloodied robes, Shizun had simply bashed them to death even as they were beginning the change. The first strike against a Yue Qingyuan lookalike had shocked Binghe like lightning out of a clear summer sky. He knew how much Shizun loved Yue Qingyuan. That Shizun was willing to raise a weapon against a face that resembled the sect master meant that what was important was not Yue Qingyuan’s looks.

Luo Binghe felt as if his heart had dropped into his stomach and was being tumbled at the sight of Shizun beating both his counterparts and Yue Qingyuan’s counterparts to death in a frenzy. When the lookalikes teared up, Shizun froze, hesitated. Luo Binghe had huddled in closer to Shizun. Then Shizun had reacted to the monsters moving closer by bashing them to death even faster.

Then Shizun had gone off to the side to vomit and Luo Binghe wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved that Yue Qingyuan’s lookalikes and his own were treated alike.

Even now, Binghe could still hear the riders singing, "Come away, o lovely child, between the waters and the wild~"

The music was hypnotic and their voices were like those of the mermaids which Binghe had seen all those dreams ago, only it was far stronger. Those singers wove dreams of his coming to them and being taken home, home to his beloved foster mother. Binghe knew that she was dead, but the dreams enticed him nonetheless. His mother living surrounded by all the most wondrous luxuries. Binghe in a palace where everything he could want was there… Even Shizun, the illusion claimed they would accept. And there, Shizun would be healed, he would love Binghe. Everyone would love Binghe, their lives would be harmonious once he was home with them, once he followed them. His wives, his children, his Shizun, his mother, the illusions promised him everything he could hope for.

Luo Binghe’s homesickness was inflamed. He was fevered with it. He yearned to go, he struggled frantically until Shizun’s sharp words and tight grip on him woke him from the song.

The riders’ voices inflamed the senses, painted pictures, wove in scents and sounds, but Shizun's fiercely protective hold on him hadn't loosened one bit. Shizun had told him to hold on tight and not let go, explaining that those riders could curse anyone to change shape against their will.

***

Shizun had told the truth. It was a disastrous discovery.

The thing that Luo Binghe hated above all was the loss of control. And that in all its forms was what Binghe experienced this night. Luo Binghe hadn’t been able to control his actions, or even his own shape.

The riders had stripped even that from him. They turned him into a poisonous lizard and he was helpless, to his horror, as his body writhed, clawed at Shizun with his poisonous claws. He could feel the blood over what had been his hands, he could smell it in the air. Then they turned him into a venomous snake and forced him to bite Shizun over and over. He could not only smell the blood, but now he could taste it too. After the poisonous reptiles he had been forced to crush Shizun in his embrace and bite down into Shizun’s flesh while he was changed into multiple kinds of predatory beasts and even carrion eaters. All throughout this, Luo Binghe could do nothing. He couldn’t stop himself no matter how hard he tried, and he couldn’t even weep. All he could do was howl his anguish to the uncaring skies. Shizun didn’t let go. Shizun kept telling Binghe gently that he just had to hold on, keep holding on, it would be over. He felt suffocated, ill, nauseous and he couldn’t even vomit.

Then, the worst of horrors, they turned him into a living flame, and he could feel , see, smell and even taste Shizun’s flesh roasting and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He wanted to cry and vomit but he couldn’t because he was the fire and he had no mouth, no nose, no eyes. Every move he made hurt Shizun more as he burnt him. He wanted to scream. He wanted to scream.

And then, finally Shizun did… something… and then Binghe was free. Binghe was human again.


Binghe was human. Shizun was not. Shizun smells different, Binghe thought, then the gravity of the matter sunk in. Shizun smelt different. His ears were pointed. His skin was pale, too pale. Humans didn’t come that pale.

Binghe could feel the sensation of the chill wind on his skin, his own hair brushing over his skin sent goosebumps down his spine. Some of his fingers hurt from clutching at Shizun too tightly. He could feel the sticky warmth of Shizun’s blood as it dried. He felt horror as he watched the burnt skin flake and fall off, opening the burns to the air, causing them to fill up with transparent fluids and blood.

Binghe was scared for Shizun, who is hurt and still hurting and also now no longer human.

But at the same time it was all for him, all for Binghe. Shizun gave up his humanity for Binghe so that Binghe could have his human form back. Did that… Did it mean that Shizun couldn't mind that Binghe is part demon, now?

Luo Binghe’s mind was full of questions. What were these things? Why did Iron hurt them when other stuff may not? Why does Iron now hurt Shizun? WHAT DID SHIZUN DO?


Binghe was unable to settle on one train of thought.

Now that he was human again, Luo Binghe was too scared to move. Every move he made had hurt Shizun so he couldn’t move. He was trying to breath but each breath felt constricted and shallow, not enough to hyperventilate but not comfortable either. He could only hold on to Shizun, and not too tightly because if he held on tightly his hands were covered again in the sticky blood and fluids as his fingers’ tight grips broke the charred skin and he couldn’t help himself. Binghe was shivering in shock, his hands and feet unresponsive.

Binghe’s eyes were hot and burning, but the tears felt cool on his cheeks. He wanted to be cold, he wanted to be in water. Cool clear water, he wanted to dive deep. He did not want to think of heat and fire burning Shizun.

***

The hours of the night were almost up and Shizun had been burned and bitten. Shizun's veins were going black so it was horribly clear that he had poisoned himself while fighting those things off. His robes were all but bloody rags.

Shizun's dark hair was wavy and tinted with green, his eyes were now tri-ringed and tinted with violet and purple. His skin, what of it wasn't bruised scraped, bleeding or covered in burns, was alabaster pale, almost as if he was a lamp glowing softly and weakly from within. He was clearly poisoned but despite this he didn't falter or let down his guard.

Binghe on the other hand, was still unharmed. Perhaps he was grimy and blood spattered but none of the blood was his. He felt sick. He’d vomited but it wasn’t enough, he could still smell the sickening scent of charred human flesh, he could still taste the blood in his mouth even under the bile he had vomited out, even after his convulsive sobs had filled his nose and his throat with the tang of tears. He wanted to scrub himself and be clean. He couldn’t even contemplate the thought of hurting Shizun again. Not… Not with the scent of burning flesh, the smell and the taste of blood.

Luo Binghe remembered how he had hurt his Shizun before, now, he had done it again. Before, Binghe had done it of his own free will, this time he had been robbed of his control over his own body. He shivered at the thought of what he used to want, what he used to do.

The frustrated Wild Hunt was forced to give up even as the dream ended.

Luo Binghe woke up to sheets that resembled an abbatoir, His body was covered in blood and ash with a few traces of burnt skin and hair. He felt like he would never be clean again and he could only run to the bath in a frenzy, wanting to scrub himself clean.

What had Shizun done?! What were those things?! No matter how hard he tried, Luo Binghe couldn’t remember any entries in the books of Cang Qiong’s Qing Jing that corresponded to those monsters.

 

@Melonee_Mizu

I'm finally done! It's 4,800 words.

New MBJ/SQH oneshot, Sequel to Sanctuary called Ice Cream

spearpointtranslations.home.blog/2018/10/28/fic-ice-cream-one-shot/

Teaser:

Spoiler

“There’s something I have to show you. Can you promise me you won’t get enraged?” Shang Qinghua asked.

Mobei Jun made no such promise, and instead demanded that whatever it was, Shang Qinghua had to show him now, immediately.

...

Shang Qinghua showed Mobei Jun the blueprints.

It was a building especially designed to trap an ice demon within its walls. A prison for this purpose.

Features included flowing lava, sun’s rays strengthening mirrors, huge furnaces, ice destroying salt and hot oil, and of course chains and arrays.

“It was designed to imprison me.” Mobei Jun said, his cool voice belying rage. Shang Qinghua could hear the unspoken words. This should have been long destroyed by you or not have been created at all. The papers were promptly frozen, and then smashed into a billion small pieces.

 

Yue in his protective mama bear mode!

 

You and @Gin_Seishin should go and check out the discord because I posted the Raising Jiu project fanfic there.
I have missed you guys.

 

Dear, Shanliang.
I recommend you to write a 'How To...' Guide Book for those who want to acquires demonic husbands/pets. How to care for them and survive the mating seasons. Since you have personal experience, hehe

...ah, brother Musheng, it must have been very stressful having Cansheng as little brother. I commend you for being able to maintained your sanity after all the shenanigan Cansheng pulled in his attempt to woo people

 

That is the ironic thing you see. Musheng is the YOUNGER brother.
Cansheng is just too emotionally immature to do his big brother duties.

 

I've been busy lately, Gav. I'll go check the discord channel on weekends

Oh woops, didn't notice that Musheng is the younger one.

 

You rang

 

Sorry for the long absence, all I'll say is that - real life sucks
Time to do some catching up.
Happy Halloween for those whose time zones is already the 31st.

 

Revised Doc 30
New posts were added, gave permission to everyone, sorry for the mishap if you couldn't access the previous doc 30!
/bows
°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

 

Thanks @LCC

 

On monday and tuesday I worked on Grandmaster of Diabolism fic, half on a idea I've listed before and half on an entirely new idea I thought of on monday.

Now today, on Wednesday I've thought of one solid TSVSSS fic idea that is not LBH/SQQ(SY) festival date but actually original LBH/original SQQ. I'll just say the fic idea will be the twin brother of Speechless(SQQ/YQY), meaning same issue with SQQ but different execution of the idea. Since I finished writing the MBJ/SQH sequel oneshot I think I'll try to work on Speechless next, and I'll be sure to @ everyone who liked the original post I mentioned Speechless in once I'm done. My mood music is Simon & Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence. So many people in this series really fail to communicate with each other.

 

Happy Halloween Everyone~

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Today, here are GHOST Marshmallow Mob Character Fic Posts! Because naturally Halloween means CANDY BAGS

Spoiler: Life of a Mob Character

The young lady who was slated to marry the cockroach that Huanying didn't personally hold any respect for, came from a wealthy and influential family. This family was one of three great families in a city and therefore it was much larger than the one that Huanying had been reincarnated into.

It was because of the power and wealth of her family that her prospective husband had picked her as his target. He wanted to be able to leech off her family, to use her dowry and her connections to rebuild his own nearly ruined fortune.

Huanying has never been a hero. He may have fallen in love with a man who he personally felt was as pure as moonlight on snow, but that didn't mean he cared to interfere in any other people's misfortunes.

After he cleared the obstacles from his own path and had managed to get rid of the bugs that had been flying around his new family, he hadn't really cared what would happen to anyone who was any further removed from him.

This bug was a cockroach by the name of Dongfang Yanhao. He was one of those cool, 'big frogs in their own small pond' fellows. He was also incidentally responsible for having the original Huan Ying beaten to death.

Huanying had overheard as much from his undead animals spies that he was using to keep watch on the cockroach.

It wasn't really that unknown or that unusual a ploy. Huanying had seen plenty of schemes just like this over his long, long life. There were men who made promises to their childhood sweethearts, then married women of better families. Sometimes they literally married in as son in laws of those families and then took over as the next family head after their in laws died. Those men who had used their wives's skirts to climb up, only to then bring their childhood sweethearts into the family as concubines.

Once the women they married had died from fair or foul reasons , the men would then marry their childhood sweethearts and proceed to dote on them. They would then take advantage of their first in law family's financial and social connections, leech off of their funds and the women's dowries. If the first wife's family fell, these men would never bothered to help them.

Since Huanying had seen plenty of these schemes before in the varying levels of society, he was quite clear on what the progression of events would be .

That was why he had quickly come up with a plan.

Huanying would rescue her, while faking her death in such a way that the shitty cockroach would become the clear main suspect for it. Then her family would crush the cockroach thoroughly.

Meanwhile, the girl herself would be running away with a nice young man, so that her family couldn't marry her off again.

That would be perfect, right?

Huanying had then quickly dug around for possible nice men he could set her up with. There was a very beautiful young man by the name Nie Mingjie who seemed at first to fit the bill very well. He was a siscon and doted on all three of his unreasonably spoiled younger sisters.

Alas, Huanying had failed to account for one thing when he then kidnapped the girl in question in order to save her from her impending demise.

....Miss Su Xiaonian was gay. She liked girls.

 

Marshmallow Rice Crispies

Spoiler

***
Originally, Huanying's plan was simple.

Sneak into Miss Su's room and then press a handkerchief heavily scented with sleeping potion to her nose. Pick her sleeping form up and wrap her in a blanket. Steal all her jewelry. Take her to the warehouse he had designated as a safehouse. Set up the scene to look like she had been killed and set a fire in the room. Leave clues that the arsonists were sent by the cockroach who had approached them to ask for the girl's hand in marriage and make sure everyone woke up before the fire could expand further past her room.

Except, when Huanying had managed to sneak into the girl's room, the girl was not alone. Miss Su Xiaonian was very much awake and both she and her maid were stuffing things into bags.

The room wasn't the typical room of the little princess that someone of her age and rank should have been.

There were writing desks littered with stacks of paper, paintbrushes, inksticks, fine inkstones, ceramic brushrests. It looked more like the study of a scholar.

An alcove bed was the biggest piece of furniture in the room. The girl had two chests for clothes, as well as the expected frames to drape clothes over. She also had some room dividing screens, but a glance at the papers on her tables quickly informed Huanying that this girl was the same artist who had painted the screens she was using.

The screens themselves were clearly refurbished and from the carvings it was clear the frames of the screens were from Huanying's century. They were not new or fashionable. The paintings on them were very new, bright and colourful. At a glance Huanying could tell the girl had talent. She could have sold paintings like those for good earnings.

It was a good thing that the girl and her maid hadn't anywhere near the level of skill to notice Huanying.

In addition, they were quite distracted, discussing where to go, what to do and what to bring.

The maid was uncertain that her young miss was making a good mood and had clearly tried to talk the young miss out of running away, with no success.

Ah, well, this seemed to be a perfectly good time to introduce himself to the ladies.

Huanying made certain the mask he was wearing still covered him perfectly well and coughed lightly. The sound caused both girls to turn around to stare in his direction, eyes wide with fear.

The maid would have screamed if Huanying hadn't covered her mouth with his hand.

"Calm down." Huanying told both girls. "I came to get you two out of here."

Naturally the two girls were suspicious, so Huanying had to make his reasoning clear, very fast.

"If either of you scream, the fact you intended to leave will be discovered, won't it? I'll let go of your maid, and then we can talk this over like civilized people."

The maid was clearly suspicious. However she was also vacillating because a masked, elegant gentleman who showed up in ladies' bedrooms was either a flower thief or one of those male leads from the kind of romance novels she liked best.

The two girls stared at him for a long moment, before the masked gentleman let go of the maid's mouth and moved to sit elegantly.

"I see that Miss Su Xiaonian is attempting to run away before the wedding." Huanying stated mildly.

"Are you working for my fiance?" Xiaonian asked, her knuckles tense and her grip on her bag tight.

"Hardly." Huanying denied, shaking his head. "I was going to rescue you, but I see you already made your own preparations."

"Because you saw the young miss and fell in love with her?" Asked the bright-eyed maid, who had clearly read too many novels.

"...No." Huanying felt profoundly uncomfortable under that expectant look. "I came to rescue her because that fiance of hers intends to kill her after the wedding. I had thought to set her up with someone else."

Ah. Well. That piece of information was certainly a big bomb. It sank the equilibrium of the conversation and only fear of what could happen prevented the girls from screaming 'What!' at the top of their lungs.

"That won't be necessary," Miss Su Xiaonian stated,rebuffing his intentions politely. "I am going to run away to the home of the girl I am in love with."

Well. This evening was full of surprises. He hadn't seen that one coming.

Very well, she liked women, she had a sweetheart. He could still work with this.

"Then please allow me to help you in your endeavor." Huanying politely stated, and refused to take no for an answer.

Taking two girls who were very much wide awake out of her family's compound and the city was a much more difficult thing to set up than simply picking one girl up in her sleep.

Nevertheless, it could still be done. Using his undead rats and birds, Huanying set up the scene of the girls' demise even as he picked up and smuggled both girls with their rather heavy bags over the walls of the family compound.

Another set of undead rats and birds could easily set the fire that would cover their tracks.

The converted warehouse under his control was fairly far away by normal human standards and it would serve these girls as a place to hide and wait the night out. However, in order to prevent them from fleeing while he ensured that no one died during the house fire he set up to fake their deaths, he had some undead animals and birds spy on the two girls in his absence.

Having set the stage and ensured no people would be harmed in this farce, Huanying then returned to the two girls with some food and other necessities.

He had taken a peek at their luggage. The packing wasn't very well done and it was fairly clear the young miss had never had to pack for a long trip before, much less permanently leaving the paternal home. The jewelry was pretty much the only thing they had gotten right. For example, the clothes weren't fit for traveling in. They needed boots or other sensible footwear. They didn't have enough food or other necessities.

In the process of helping the girls escape, while Huanying was taking them around the warehouse to pick up and repack more supplies, Huanying learned quite a lot about the two girls.

 

Marshmallow Cream Pie

Spoiler

Miss Su Xiaonian was the daughter of the deceased first wife. She had a sister and several female cousins. Her dowry was fairly large because her mother had belonged to a good family of lower rank but higher wealth than her paternal family.

The cockroach was her second engagement, because her first engagement had been to someone who her younger half sister had fallen for

Since Xiaonian only found women attractive, she had quickly ceded her engagement to her younger half sister with good will.

Miss Su Xiaonian had met the love of her life through the wedding of her younger halfsister. Miss Shi Li was a skilled artist from a commoner family. Her works were well regarded but everyone assumed the artist was a man. Miss Shi Li had been the one who had made some of the fine scrolls, screens and paintings that were part of the groom's gifts to his bride's family.

Miss Shi Li and Miss Su Xiaonian had exchanged their fans at the wedding feast and then set up a constant correspondence.

In time, they fell in love, but Miss Shi didn't have the kind of clout or wealth that would allow her to try to propose marriage and flout tradition for Miss Su's sake.

Miss Shi' s daily life was supported by her honored patron, Miss Youyue of the Zhao family. Miss Youyue gave her the money, materials and supplies to work in comfort, but even if she saved for her entire lifetime, Miss Shi Li would never be able to bribe the Su family enough to overlook her gender or her artisan status.

So. Now, Miss Su had decided to elope, run to her sweetheart rather than marry a man who she had no feelings for.

While Huanying was a demonic cultivator in his past life and had become a member of a noble family, he did have some inkling of what commoners needed to support their lives. Miss Su was a sheltered maiden so she probably needed someone who could handle management of funds. The maid wasn't any better really. While the maid could embroider, clean and cook very well... While the maid could even make new clothes, she didn't have the kind of money management skills that were needed to set aside funds for ingredients, materials, cloth and the like.

In short, this jewelry that Huanying had handed over to them wouldn't last them very long if he just left them to their own devices.

In addition, if the only support was Miss Zhao Youyue, then when Miss Zhao married out, the three relatively sheltered maidens would be in trouble once Miss Zhao had moved to her husband's home.

Clearly the answer was that Huanying had to help them set up a life for themselves. Otherwise, that was just leaving them to the non-existent mercies of fate.

There were plenty of maidens from former good families in the brothels to serve as examples of what happened to ladies without protection or backing.

Fortunately, Huanying could safely say he... or at least his family... had plenty of resources to serve as backing, as long as he could hash this out with Miss Youyoue.

If worst came to worst, he could dig up some of his old stashes of coin and other valuables for these girls to use.

As Huanying had expected, the attempted arson and 'successful' murder he had set up with signs of the cockroach's hands all over it quickly put an end to the cockroach's marriage plans. It also landed the cockroach in jail.

While Huanying had been hashing out some lucrative deals with Miss Youyue, the cockroach had been left to rot in jail. As far as Huanying was concerned, whether the cockroach lived or died was none of his business. Having settled the ladies' matter, Huanying returned home to his family and his (absolutely perfect!) Xiao Ran.

(Later, unbeknownst to the ladies or Huanying, the cockroach, Dongfang Yanhao, was finally able to get himself released from jail. He had been abused and battered. His right leg was crippled.

His resources were all but spent, and all he could do was pick up his favoured concubine, pack up everything he owned in a large covered wagon and start over under a new name, a new life in a small village.

Naturally his favored concubine had been unhappy before and was still unhappy now, but then that could be expected. She had after all been raised in expensive surroundings. Not having a luxurious life was unacceptable to that kind of girl.)