Chapter 12: Zhuzhi

Chapter 12:
Zhuzhi

 

AFTER WAKING, Shen Qingqiu opened his eyes to see a gauzy, snow-white canopy above him. Someone pushed open the door and walked in, then lightly closed the door behind them. “Are you awake?”

Shen Qingqiu rotated his neck back and forth, then looked at the asker out of the corner of his eye.

Under the light of the lantern, which was warmer than the light of the moon, that young man’s looks were indeed good: the corner of his mouth held a smile, his appearance was peerlessly clever and handsome. His eyes especially exuded a kind of gentle and quick-witted air.

He’d seen this pair of eyes before. They were eyes that had been nurtured by the Dew Lake.

When Shen Qingqiu rolled into a seated position, a bag of ice fell from his forehead. The man stooped to retrieve it and put it back on the table, then replaced it with a new bag for him.

Upon seeing this, Shen Qingqiu was too embarrassed to voice all the “who are yous” and “what do you wants” he’d been holding within himself. Coughing once, he said in a reserved tone, “Many thanks for your assistance at Huan Hua Palace.”

The young man stood by the table and smiled. “Humans have a saying: a drop of kindness should be repaid by a flood. Moreover, the kindness from Immortal Master Shen far exceeded a drop.”

First of all, this gentleman was indeed that snake-man from Bai Lu Forest.

Second of all, this gentleman knew that the person inside this shell was Shen Qingqiu.

“Tianlang-Jun…?” Shen Qingqiu asked probingly.

The reason why that ancient line of heavenly demons was called “heavenly” was because, according to legend, their bloodline had fallen from the Heavenly Realm and become demons. Only a heavenly demon with a lineage purer than Luo Binghe’s could suppress the blood within Shen Qingqiu’s body. In that case, a problem arose. Of the heavenly demon lineage, Shen Qingqiu knew of only two who had been named in the original work: Luo Binghe and his dad. Who else could he guess?

But such things only came in threes. At this juncture, Shen Qingqiu’s super unique riddle-solving method, which had succeeded every time to date, finally hit a wall.

The man shook his head. “Immortal Master Shen, taking me for my lord is truly an excessive honor.”

When Shen Qingqiu heard that “my lord,” he finally figured out which character this person was.

By the time of the original work’s prologue, Tianlang-Jun had already been subjugated and imprisoned underneath a high mountain. However, that grand battle of many years past had little to do with the male lead’s overpowered and stallion ways, and thus Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had but roughly covered the affair. He said only that Tianlang-Jun was “no match for the combined siege of numerous top cultivators of the Human Realm, and he was imprisoned beneath XX mountain, never to be free again, his trusted right hand separated from him by injury or death.”

Which mountain was XX mountain, exactly? Shen Qingqiu had never properly considered this question. But once his curiosity was piqued, he finally realized which one it was.

Bai Lu Mountain!

Bai Lu Forest on Bai Lu Mountain!

Shen Qingqiu looked the man up and down. So this was the “trusted right hand” of Luo Binghe’s father!

But looking at him now, he could find no trace of that snake-man’s deformed figure from their first encounter. Shen Qingqiu swallowed. “May I venture to ask this distinguished gentleman… What is your name?”

“Tianlang-Jun’s subordinate, Zhuzhi-Lang,” the man said courteously.

His words had only just left his mouth when the System gave a notification:

【 Increased degree of story line completion and filled in hidden character list: B-Points +300. Activated plot hole-filling event: B-Points +100. 】

A burst of uncontainable excitement suddenly welled up inside Shen Qingqiu.

“Plot hole-filling” definitely referred to those atrocities whose perpetrators had never been identified, leaving the reader defrauded and without leads, as well as the buggy setting details in the original work. This was precisely (one of) the greatest reason(s) that Shen Yuan had disdained Proud Immortal Demon Way. It was also a major reason why he’d been beating his chest, stomping his feet, and gnashing his teeth after finishing the novel.

Now he’d drawn out a character who had never directly appeared on stage, and the System had opened a plot hole-filling opportunity. Could it be that next, he’d finally uncover the truth behind those giant plot holes ripping through the sky?!

“I saved you once, then you saved me once. We’re even now,” said Shen Qingqiu.

The “saved you once” he spoke of referred to that time he’d stopped Gongyi Xiao from killing the snake-man. But Zhuzhi-Lang shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. If not for Immortal Master Shen, I’m afraid that even after many more years, I still wouldn’t have been able to approach the Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom. How could you say we’re already even?”

This sounded perfect to Shen Qingqiu. “All right then, let’s discuss: Can’t you just extract both influences from my blood? Must you let them remain?”

It was as if there had been a parasite within his body and the doctor’s approach to treatment had been to place another parasite inside him to fight it. From every angle imaginable, his situation had only worsened.

“Um… It’s this humble one’s first time utilizing heavenly demon blood,” said Zhuzhi-Lang. “I’ve never even heard of a means by which to dispel it.”

Though this was disappointing, Shen Qingqiu still expressed his understanding. The blood had entered his body and dissolved without a trace, so separating it out again truly wasn’t especially feasible.

“Though it cannot be dispelled, as long as this one’s blood is also in Immortal Master Shen’s body, the other heavenly demon blood will be ineffective,” Zhuzhi-Lang said. “After we go to the Demon Realm, the tracking function will fail, and he will be absolutely unable to torment you any longer.”

Wait.

“Hold on. When did I say that I wanted to go to the Demon Realm?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

“We’re going very soon,” said Zhuzhi-Lang.

Shen Qingqiu examined his expression. “The ‘repayment’ you spoke of, it wouldn’t happen to be taking me there?”

Why go to the Demon Realm at all? It was short on supplies and natural resources, the culture and customs were incompatible with his, and the environment wouldn’t suit him either. In addition, more urgent worries were still piled up in his forebrain. For one, there was his brain’s new trauma-driven meltdown courtesy of Luo Binghe’s near-necrophiliac behavior, and for another he’d let Liu Qingge run off with his original body. What if Luo Binghe exterminated Cang Qiong Mountain in a fit of anger?!

Shen Qingqiu had to get there before him and notify his comrades. He swiftly tossed his covers aside, planning to run away. But unexpectedly, just as he began to move, he felt something slimy, soft, and icy-cold slither up his leg.

A jade-green snake lazily poked its head out from beneath the covers and flicked a scarlet tongue toward Shen Qingqiu with a hiss.

This snake was three fingers thick, and at first glance it resembled the venomous bamboo viper of the Human Realm. Its eye sockets were horribly large while its pupils were disturbingly small—a ghastly contrast. But Shen Qingqiu wasn’t afraid of this sort of soft-bodied animal. Regarding it coolly, he stealthily gathered energy in the palm of his hand, intending to catch it off guard and blow off seven inches of its body. Suddenly, the jade-green snake reared back, its red mouth gaping open.

It was merely a snake, but from its mouth came a shriek as ear-piercing as a human’s. At the same time, a dense layer of countless green spikes exploded around its head like a blossoming flower. The sharp tips were suffused with scarlet—obviously poisonous even at a glance—and the snake’s body also inflated several sizes larger, as if it had been pumped full of air. Just a moment ago, it could have been considered a cute, dainty ornamental snake, but now it was a real fucking monster.

The breeds of the Demon Realm were verily savage. Shen Qingqiu promptly dispelled any thought of touching it with his hands.

Zhuzhi-Lang poured out a cup of tea. “Immortal Master Shen, why would you try to leave before I finished my explanation?” he asked cordially as he placed the cup on the table. “This one sincerely wishes to repay you for not killing him in Bai Lu Forest; you even went so far as to assist him.”

Shen Qingqiu chewed on his lip for a bit. “You want me to go to the Demon Realm, and when I don’t want to, you put this thing in my bed. Is this your idea of ‘repayment’?”

Zhuzhi-Lang smiled. “Not only in your bed.”

Another small snake the width of a thumb slid out from Shen Qingqiu’s clothes.

This snake had been coiled in his robes all along. Warmed by his body temperature, it had been nesting comfortably, not moving an inch, so Shen Qingqiu hadn’t even noticed its presence. With an endless hiss, a flood of countless green snakes of various widths and sizes slithered out from under the bed, carpeting the whole floor.

Shen Qingqiu was silent for a long while, until he said, “The snake race?”

“My father was from the southern border,” Zhuzhi-Lang said calmly.

No wonder his name was thus.

The demon race placed a great deal of importance on social class and lineage. Common demons or demons of lowly lineages could not append “Jun” to their name. This title was a suffix representing one’s social status, similar to how the emperor’s name was taboo and couldn’t be infringed upon.

The reason Luo Binghe’s path to ascension was slightly rocky in the original work was because the demon lords took issue with him being of mixed human blood. In the early stages of the Demon Realm arc, Luo Binghe had done in quite a few characters named in the fashion of “XX-Lang.” Therefore, Shen Qingqiu had concluded that while names with this suffix weren’t necessarily all from the slums, their origins couldn’t be especially esteemed either.

Zhuzhi-Lang undoubtedly belonged to the heavenly demon bloodline, but he couldn’t take the title of “Jun.” The issue was evidently due to his mixed heritage.

The snake race resided on the southern border of the Demon Realm. Strictly speaking, they still counted as part of the demon race, but their true forms took on the appearance of giant snakes. They were born in this form, and as they grew in age and cultivation, a terribly small number would over time shed their scales and take on a human appearance. But even more stayed in the shape of a snake for their entire lives.

“Who is your mother?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

“Tianlang-Jun’s younger sister,” said Zhuzhi-Lang.

Tianlang-Jun’s younger sister counted as something like the demon race’s princess. How foolhardy was she, that out of all her options, she had to have a child with a snake? Way too fucking hardcore!

As Shen Qingqiu endured those two snakes creeping around his leg and stomach, he asked, “So you’re technically Luo Binghe’s senior cousin? …I say, can’t you tell these fellows to not…slither into my clothes?”

“If by ‘senior’ one only means older, that can certainly be said to be true,” Zhuzhi-Lang said. “And they seem awfully fond of Immortal Master Shen, so there’s nothing this one can do.”

Who the hell would believe there’s nothing you can do?!

Shen Qingqiu bore with it to ask, “Why were you at Huan Hua Palace?”

“Originally I went to take care of official business, and I never thought I’d see Immortal Master Shen,” Zhuzhi-Lang said with great patience.

Shen Qingqiu’s heart thumped. “Official business? This official business you speak of, does it have to do with Luo Binghe?”

To offer an alliance and rule jointly as overlords? Or had there been a falling out within the demon race? Or maybe it had been for a “Heartbreaking! Demon Family’s Reunion After Many-Year Separation, Overcome by Tears of Emotion”?

This time, Zhuzhi-Lang smiled and didn’t answer.

“I fear this official business wasn’t as heartwarming as reconnecting relatives,” said Shen Qingqiu.

“This one was only obeying his lord’s orders,” Zhuzhi-Lang said, unhurried.

“This body of yours, was it sculpted from the Sun-Moon Dew Mushroom?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

If Zhuzhi-Lang had used that one sprout for himself, it would make things easier. If he hadn’t used it for himself, then it was possible that he’d used it to sculpt a body for Tianlang-Jun.

Tianlang-Jun had been imprisoned under a mountain, hanging on by a single breath for many, many years, and his original body was likely long ruined. But if like a cicada he shed his carapace, Shen Qingqiu really couldn’t guess what sort of waves would result. He had an uneasy premonition that his own careless flutter of butterfly wings had released something monumental.

Having received no reply, his mind couldn’t settle down and he continued. “Is taking me to the Demon Realm another one of your lord’s orders?”

Whenever a question touched upon the subject of Tianlang-Jun, Zhuzhi-Lang clammed up and refused to answer, offering nothing but a polite smile; it was truly infuriating. Only when Shen Qingqiu finally withdrew in defeat did he open his mouth, retaining his usual refined and courteous manner. “Rest well, Immortal Master Shen. If there is anything you need, please say so, and I will certainly handle it for you. We will depart for the borderlands tomorrow at the latest.”

Exhausted from all the talking, Shen Qingqiu asked, “Do you have money?”

“Yes,” Zhuzhi-Lang responded.

“Can I use it?”

“As you wish.”

“I want women.”

Zhuzhi-Lang stopped, staring blankly.

“Wasn’t it you who said that if there was anything I needed, I should tell you, and to feel free to do as I wish? I want women,” Shen Qingqiu repeated. “Get rid of the snakes.”

A small crack finally opened in Zhuzhi-Lang’s smiling expression; after a long while, he did as instructed. Shen Qingqiu hummed a laugh and turned to get off the bed; he threw on his outer robes and tidied his clothing. For some time, Zhuzhi-Lang seemed to be hesitating, wavering over whether to follow. But when Shen Qingqiu stepped out the door, he tagged along after.

As peak lord of Qing Jing Peak, Shen Qingqiu had been obligated to be mindful of his image. Though a thousand curiosities had gripped his heart, he’d cleaved to the tenet that brothels were not to be entered. But now he had the opportunity. Shen Qingqiu acted as though his Zhuzhi-Lang-shaped shadow didn’t exist, and after strolling through the streets once, he picked the Warm Red Pavilion for its more hospitable appearance. He strode in, expression utterly at ease.

Before long, Shen Qingqiu was surrounded by brightly colored decorations, his nostrils assailed by the scent of talcum powder. Zhuzhi-Lang took a seat beside him at a round table, as motionless as Mount Tai.

“What’s with the look on your face?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

Zhuzhi-Lang averted his eyes. “It’s just… I’m a bit surprised. That Immortal Master Shen would actually be interested in this place of prostitution.”

“Wait a moment. You’ll see what I’m interested in,” said Shen Qingqiu.

Just as he spoke, a new songstress leisurely walked up from the side. She was somewhat older, and the cosmetics she wore were also quite colorful. She sat on a flower stool while cradling a pipa before meeting eyes with Shen Qingqiu and startling briefly.

Not comprehending, Shen Qingqiu nodded at her. “Miss?”

The songstress snapped out of it. “My apologies, sir,” she said with an easy smile. “Your appearance is excellent and reminded this servant of an old acquaintance. My eyes deceived me.”

When she had said her piece, she lowered her head and didn’t mention anything further. Then, with a few plucks and strums, she began to sing.

At first, Shen Qingqiu just whispered into the ears of the girls next to him, not bothering to listen to the music, but after catching a couple of phrases, he suddenly felt that he’d heard two incredibly unbelievable things. He called for the songstress to stop. “Miss, what is this you’re singing?”

“This servant is singing the popular new ballad, Regret of Chunshan,”10 the woman said with a delicate voice.

“That’s odd,” Shen Qingqiu said, his face full of black lines. “Just now I seem to have heard you singing two names? Could you repeat those?”

The pipa player smiled behind her sleeve. “What’s odd about it? Could it be that you’ve never heard it before, sir? The leading characters in Regret of Chunshan have always been Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe.”

…

…

…

When did we get fucking turned into a popular ballad?!

Zhuzhi-Lang had originally been refusing all services, quietly sitting to the side and pretending to be the air itself, but he unfortunately exposed himself when his shoulders faintly shook.

“Uh… Could I ask…this Regret of Whatever Mountain, what story does it tell?” asked Shen Qingqiu.

Several women next to him spoke with chirping voices. “Sir, you don’t even know that? Regret of Chunshan tells of the poignant sentiments between Shen Qingqiu and his beloved disciple, Luo Binghe—the unspeakable and taboo…”

Shen Qingqiu forced himself to listen from start to end in a petrified state.

To summarize the plot: In short, this was a “shameless master and disciple pair who spent all day on some nameless mountain ignoring their duties to knock boots, who went down the mountain to fight monsters and take trips to pound town, who used two person push-ups to settle misunderstandings, who still needed to play a round of hide the sausage before dying, who continued to ride the bony express after death, and who after resurrection would still gleefully smack each other’s salmons as before”…sort of story.

The pipa player sighed faintly, plucking a string with her fingertip. “Having never understood the affection in the other’s heart in life, and lying with the body in death—this manner of abiding love is truly matchless in this age.”

All the women followed up with incessant sighs and sobs, some already beginning to shed tears of emotion.

Shen Qingqiu buried his head deep into his hands.

Dammit, isn’t this just some fucking porn? Who wrote these lyrics? What mountain is “Chunshan”? Qing Jing Peak? Cang Qiong Mountain? Cang Qiong Mountain Sect’s gonna wipe out your entire family in a minute flat, okay?!

Exactly how was this gossip’s reach so wide that not only had it infested the borderlands, even the over-the-top porn in bookshops was milking it for content—as if he and Luo Binghe had been caught rolling in the sheets in front of the whole world!

Zhuzhi-Lang let out a chuckle and turned. “Master Shen…are you…interested in this ballad?”

Shen Qingqiu looked at him coldly. Zhuzhi-Lang hurriedly corrected the expression on his face, but he still struggled to hold it in. “It… It would be best if I removed myself for a bit…” he said.

However, just as he was about to get up, his movements slowed, and he froze in his seat.

Shen Qingqiu observed his expression and smiled. “What? Finally starting to feel unwell?”

Standing up, he shook out his robes, and the green snakes that had been curled against his chest fell to the ground with a splat, rolling over to show their yellow bellies. The women in the hall began to scream, and the pipa player flung her instrument away altogether.

Holding his forehead, Zhuzhi-Lang stood while supporting himself against the table, swaying back and forth. Staring at Shen Qingqiu, he raised his right hand and grabbed a handful of the little snakes that had slithered forth from his sleeve, but they remained twined between his fingers, entirely impotent. Zhuzhi-Lang shook his head and said weakly, “…Realgar.”

For a while now, without his notice, the entire brothel had been soaked in the scent of realgar wine.

“Top-quality realgar wine,” Shen Qingqiu said approvingly. “All purchased with your money, by the way.”

His assistants didn’t need to be superhuman. With a couple of whispers, the brothel girls accepted Shen Qingqiu’s money and secretly purchased the entire town’s stash of realgar wine, then placed it all around the Warm Red Pavilion and fanned the fumes as it boiled. After it boiled all night, no member of the snake tribe would be able to resist swooning under its influence.

Zhuzhi-Lang’s guard might have been up, but he’d been aiming to prevent Shen Qingqiu from contacting other cultivators, not these brothel girls. In the end, he’d been too careless.

When Zhuzhi-Lang raised his head, the whites of his eyes had turned gold, his pupils elongated into slits at a speed visible to the naked eye. His face had also begun to change shape.

Shen Qingqiu quickly opened the door. “Aren’t you going to leave?” he asked the prostitutes huddled and shivering in the corner.

The women immediately began fighting to run outside; the pipa player was last, her movements deft. Shen Qingqiu stuffed a bag of silver in her sash, compensation for her pipa, then closed the door behind them. When he turned around again, where Zhuzhi-Lang had once stood, a giant, jade-green serpent was coiled, its body thick enough to be encircled by three men with their arms outstretched. The giant serpent’s head was enormous and triangular, its large yellow eyes like copper bells, its pupils the finest of lines. It seemed dizzy, like its thin neck was unable to hold up that heavy head, which kept drooping.

The realgar wine’s effect had exceeded Shen Qingqiu’s expectations: it had forced Zhuzhi-Lang to reveal his original form.

Now this was a bit of a headache for Shen Qingqiu. He picked up a nearby folding fan that someone had abandoned and snapped it open, giving it a couple of waves. The giant serpent slithered toward him and looped around him twice as if to wrap him up, but Shen Qingqiu easily jumped free.

The giant serpent roiled and twined, then burst out of the building like it was drunk, crashing down into the middle of the street and alarming the passersby, who screamed and fled in all directions.

Shen Qingqiu followed it down from the upper floor and shouted, “Going outside is useless—the entire town is filled with the smell of realgar wine!”

A piercing shriek erupted from the giant serpent’s mouth. It shook its head and thrashed its tail in its spot on the road.

Shen Qingqiu decided to draw it away from places with large volumes of people, and he flew to leap onto the serpent’s head. Whenever it moved in the wrong direction or was about to crash into a passerby or residence, Shen Qingqiu jabbed the side of its head with his fan. The serpent’s scales were like armor, and they made a great rumbling sound as it slithered over the ground. Shen Qingqiu often had to pour large amounts of spiritual energy into the fan before he could make the snake change direction. In this manner, he just barely managed to pilot it toward the edge of town.

After taking his money, the brothel girls had done their job with everything they had. No one could say how much realgar wine they’d boiled. Carried by the wind, the smell drifted far and wide. Even after finally arriving at the foot of a nearby mountain, it still continued to waft toward them from uphill. The giant serpent was overwhelmed by the smell to the point of agony, and moreover Shen Qingqiu had jabbed, poked, and ridden it all the way here. Exhausted and spent, it could no longer move.

Deciding they were far enough from the city, Shen Qingqiu finally jumped down. The giant serpent was weak and dispirited; its head sagged while its body was coiled like a meandering mountain road.

“Although I’m very interested in filling in plot holes, I have no interest in emigrating to the Demon Realm,” said Shen Qingqiu. “Besides, I already have enough on my plate to drive me mad. Since you can’t remove the heavenly demon blood, you can forget about the repayment or whatever. Xizhi-Lang,11 goodbye!”

Shen Qingqiu was incredibly afraid that once the wine’s effect dissipated, Zhuzhi-Lang would return to his original form and release another torrent of snakes to ensnare him, so he ran like the wind. Once he reached the next sizable city, he found an eminently reliable chain store and rented a flying sword.

Yes, that’s right, he really rented one. Just like rental cars, immortal swords could be rented. And the prices were entirely fair and reasonable!

Basically, he was still using Zhuzhi-Lang’s money, so Shen Qingqiu pressed both hands together and gave thanks to this benevolent brother. Then he sped off toward Cang Qiong Mountain Sect by sword.

After no more than half a day, a continuous, rolling jade-green mountain range with twelve peaks of irregular height appeared from within the sea of clouds and mist.

It’s been a while, Cang Qiong Mountain.

Two characters rose to his mind as he thought that: “Chunshan.” Shen Qingqiu silently crossed them out.