6. Who Knew Fighting Would Lead To Checking Out Memories?
Nothing could stop him, but they could sure make it way harder than it needed to be is something he found out rather quickly. Despite making sure the training were outside of what time the alphas used, they would still come to bother them. It ended up in him fighting them in dual, showing they weren't all that great at the end of the day.
Winning did help him gain the right to the training ground for those time of the day, rather happy he was able to take care of this without Luo Binghe being involved in this. His relationship with some of the more confrontational ones became worst, but really, he didn't care, all he wanted to do was play the good Shizun again.
Then one day, as he was fighting with one of them, the omega wondered "where did Huang Hua learn to fight? The form seems familiar" he admitted, Shen Qingqiu realising he hadn't thought about hiding his Qing Jing Peak fighting style. "Mostly by myself" he lied with a small smile, "And by fighting and travelling with other cultivators" he added.
"How impressive of Huang Hua, learning all by himself, you were never with any sect before?". I hadn't really learned all by himself, he had simply gone with muscle memory in the past and what Shen Qingqiu had learned. He had simply reused it in this body.
Then a familiar and relaxing scent came from behind him, every disciple suddenly taking back a more proper stance and cupping their hand to greet Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu did the same, wondering why the alpha decided to come and see how things were going.
"I see that the training is going well" he simply commented, the disciple nodding between themselves. "Huang Hua is truly a great teacher, It has if he had done that since forever" smiled one of them, "He even has learned all by himself!".
Shen Qingqiu gave him a quick glance. Why must he throw him under the bus like this? "I am not that great, I merely learned from guide books and other cultivators I was meeting".
"Then you must have learned with many cultivators from Cang Qiong Mountain, your form seems really similar to their" comments one of the alphas that had tagged along with Luo Binghe, probably to see if something would happen to him. "Does he?" ask Luo Binghe, something weird flashing in his eyes, making Shen Qingqiu a bit worried.
He felt like he would be so screwed if it was learned that he had lied about it, even more, if his style was only from Qing Jing Peak. "I suppose I might have stumbled onto many cultivators from Cang Qiong Mountain," he said with a somewhat forced smile.
"I'll see this for myself" he then heard as Luo Binghe stepped closer to the fighting ground.
This made Shen Qingqiu freeze a moment. What was going on? Was Luo Binghe really going to fight him? Of course, he would recognise it if he was the one fighting with him. He then received a questioning look from the Demon Lord, clearly waiting for him to come.
"If Lord Luo insist" he manages to say, stepping closer a bit stiff. Everyone cleared the area, leaving space for them, or maybe because they were scared to be stuck in Luo Binghe way. He managed to calm down his nerve a bit, trying to tell himself mentally that this was just another type of training with his dear disciple, he could do it.
He just needed to mess his form enough for it not to be recognised easily. Should be... easy.
It wasn't long before Luo Binghe started, Shen Qingqiu dodging and blocking, attacking when he saw an opening, hoping he was voluntarily leaving these opening because otherwise his disciple really needed to practice more.
Luo Binghe seemed a bit frustrated that he was messing up voluntarily his fighting style so much, but he wasn't ready to let it down so easily.
Then came attacks where he couldn't do so because the Demon Lord was tricking him into fighting properly, some even as though he was really intending to hurt him.
It went like this for a couple of minutes, nothing existing besides the two of them. At some point Shen Qingqiu nearly forgot that he was suppose to hide that he was form qing Jing Peak, just enjoying being able to spare like this again with his disciple. There was something nicer in it not being with a dream version of Luo Binghe.
Then he was thrown to the ground, having lost his footing after a sneakier attack. "No one could learn so well the Qing Jing Peak forms simply by travelling a bit with cultivators, where did you learn?" came the question, Luo Binghe nearly looming over him as he had one knee to the ground between his legs.
"As I said, I simply learned with masters who were generous enough to let me travel with them, I might have been given a guide book by a cultivator from Qing Jing Peak, it was a long time ago I cannot remember exactly" he tried, his body wanting to simply curl up on itself at how irritated Luo Binghe seemed to be about his lies.
Oh. Maybe he could smell his lying? He was really screwed right now and truly had no idea what he would do now.
The Demon Lord loomed over him for a while longer, looking at him intensely, as if trying to decipher something. Then he suddenly stood up, whispering low enough for only him to hear "I better not catch you lying to me again, Huang Hua" before taking his leave.
What did this mean?! What was he supposed to do now? Was he alright or was he going to be in trouble for obviously lying to him?
His worries were cut short when his new students, or at least that was how he was seeing them now, came to him, trying to see if he was alright. He simply gave them a reassuring smile, saying he would be alright, that Lord Luo had been really soft on him.
None of them seemed to think what had happened was "going soft on him", but they didn't comment. Shen Qingqiu thought that it was true that none of them would really have been able to fight against him like this. Maybe had Luo Binghe suspected he was stronger than he was letting show?
He went back to make them train, taking some time on the side to just calm his body down a bit, still bothered by how it had just wanted to bow down to Luo Binghe. Truly he would never get used to these instincts he had to fight against.
The rest of the day went without too many problems, Shen Qingqiu somewhat avoiding Luo Binghe, just to not get into trouble for what had happened. He was still unsure about what the Demon Lord thought he was lying about and he was not interested in making it worst with the weird way he had insisted on his name.
Was he suspecting he wasn't who he was supposed to be? Then who did he believed he was? He couldn't have linked him back to Shen Qingqiu, could he?
That night he simply wanted to go to sleep and forget what had happened, but of course, he couldn't have that.
He was dragged back into Luo Binghe dreamscape. Yet this time, he wasn't greeted by a miniature version of the Demon Lord, but by the alpha himself. This worried him a bit, wondering if it meant Luo Binghe had figured it out.
Yet, he was treated no differently than he usually was, feeling like he was still "dream" Shen Qingqiu, which did help make him more at ease. Maybe Luo Binghe simply wanted to cur it to whatever was worrying him this time rather than let him replay old memories.
A table and tea were already set in the yard, the moon illuminating them well enough in this land of imagination. It was a nice change from the inside of the bamboo house he supposed. On that he simply went and joined him at the table for some tea, letting him pour a cup for him.
"Do you think Huang Hua might be lying to me?" he heard ask, making him nearly choke on his tea. He had not expected for him to get right on the subject when he had just sat down. He tried hiding it, regaining a more poise posture. "What do you mean by this? What would he be lying about?".
"He has a fighting style of Qing Jing Peak, yet won't admit to it and keep insisting he simply learned it from some random cultivator" he started, making Shen Qingqiu tense that he had started to doubt because of that, "And sometimes its feels like... he is not an omega? He is, but the way he acts feels as if someone had trapped an alpha inside an omega body, he can barely control his pheromone and scent and when he... got into heat it was as though it had nearly never happened before".
This was a lot and the omega wasn't sure what he should do from here. Parts of it were just how his personality was and how he was fighting, he couldn't exactly change that. The other parts were all thing he had just never grow up learning and was now all stuck doing so, how was he supposed to know all that when for the longest time here he had been an alpha?! He'd challenge him to be an omega just to see how it goes.
"Some people are different sometimes" he decided to carefully say, "Maybe travelling around left him with no one to teach him how to do it" he then suggested, "You do not know the paths he took in life, maybe he was never able to learn or had been a late bloomer".
He nearly wanted to have some fun and create some back story for who Huang Hua was, but he would probably just end up messing up later on. Maybe it was a better idea to simply stay into vague a cliché idea. Huang Hua being an orphan who did his best to live on his own, learned his second gender late because of reason and then never had any kind omega to teach him. Maybe had been around alpha for a long time and this was why he had such an attitude.
Yet Luo Binghe didn't seem that convinced by his idea and he wasn't sure what to do about it. He was clearly thinking about it, yet he was looking intently at him, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. Even while explaining what seemed off about Huang Hua he had been looking at him. This only gave him the impression he knew that he wasn't dream Shen Qingqiu, yet decided to push the idea away. Clearly, it couldn't be that, it was just him worrying too much that was making him think so.
"Then maybe I should enter his dreamscape to find back some old memories and see for myself" Luo Binghe suggested, making Shen Qingqiu blood freeze. Oh no, this sounded like a very bad idea. Would this body even have old memory? Or would it be Shen Qingqiu memories from when he was still in his alpha body?
He didn't have much time to argue that they were already being transported somewhere else by Luo Binghe, Shen Qingqiu feeling a been sick and weakened from the weird and sudden shift. After some time, they seem to arrive at their destination, looking down at him to see if he was still Shen Qingqiu, sighing in relief.
He looked around, the dreamscape looking rather foggy and uneven, nothing clear like the one from the Demon Lord dreamscape. "Such a strange place" he tried commenting, only for Luo Binghe to seemingly agree, making him tense a bit at that. He then started following him around what seemed to be some kind of forest, nothing here tangible enough for them to really get stuck in the half-formed trunk.
They walked like this for a while, Shen Qingqiu slowly fanning himself as he looks at the strange decor. Was it really what his dreamscape looked like? Or was it because he was theoretically not there for it to be clearer? He could only hope this wasn't something that would make Luo Binghe suspect he was actually Shen Qingqiu. It didn't seem to raise anything in the Demon Lord so he simply decides to calm down.
They finally reach a pound with at its centre a small pergola. They reached it by passing on the path made of large stone, Shen Qingqiu careful not to slip because of the slipperiness between each of them, sitting only a couple of centimetres away from each other.
He can now see better what was in the pergola: small floating balls, each emanating a soft glow. Was this how memories looked like in peoples mind? Or was it just with him?
"Strange" he simply hears from Luo Binghe, sounding some not surprised, "For someone his age, he should be having more than these" he simply commented after the questioning look given to him. This made him tense a bit, simply nodding as he gently poked one of the balls with his fan, "Maybe the others are somewhere else?" he suggests despite having no clue how any of this works. The quiet 'mh' he receives for an answer doesn't reassure him, yet the Demon Lord didn't seem to care much about it.
Luo Binghe instead gently stroked some of the floating balls, making them grow a bit bigger and what seemed like a mini film playing on it, clearly giving more attention to some that looked older. Maybe he was looking for Huang Hua past to see if he was lying?
Anything that seemed to come from his past was more than blurry, making even him unable to really remember what it was. Many had a bamboo forest setting, although with how the area around the pound had bamboo, it could probably be dismissed as "Huang Hua" growing up somewhere you could find a lot of it, a contrast to the rest of the forest which were trees.
"Could he have received damage to the head causing him to lose his memory?" he asks, Luo Binghe giving him a side glance before simply looking at another one. "It could probably affect the memories I can reach, but usually I would still find some that I can view and bring forth, this is unusual as if something was simply blocking all of his previous life until only some time before we meet".
Shen Qingqiu quietly swallowed, nodding a little bit as he decided to try and look for himself in some of the colourful light balls. "Then maybe he was struck by something and only came back to himself not long ago" he suggested.
He finally managed to make the ball bigger like Luo Binghe would do, stumbling onto something he could watch. It was a bit strange looking at his own point of view, like what a first-person movie would look like. It was from his first days at the Huan Hua Palace, where Luo Binghe would barely even spare him a glance if he was close by.
Then the next showed the Demon Lord, now looking more at him, but always with a cold expression on his face. The more recent the memory was, the warmer Luo Binghe expression and stance would be towards him and he only now realised it. When had the Demon Lord really started warming up to him in such a way? He had not noticed just how far they had gone. It had gone from making sure he nearly never crossed Luo Binghe's path to him something voluntarily starts a conversation with him, even though it was usually about sect and cultivation matters. It was still a huge change! He was even able to make him chuckle a bit sometimes and now seeing these event back, he could see some things he had missed.
He couldn't keep the small smile from growing on his lips, something in him feeling warm at the idea that the Demon Lord had managed to get more used to him, despite being an omega who looks like his Shizun. Maybe he could grow closer and more useful in the future?
Then he remembered he shouldn't be getting his own hopes up. He had been brought here only for his spiritual energy and once he wasn't able to take that task correctly, he would probably be tossed away if he ended up broken. He shouldn't believe he had any chance with Luo Binghe, how could the protagonist choose a cannon folder like him?
It made the warmth in him dissipate a bit, still keeping some fantasy to himself, his smile growing a bit sad.
"Is something wrong Shizun?"
This took him by surprise, closing the memory and squeezing it by accident, causing some pain to shoot in his mind. He forced a smile on his lips, trying to wash away the spike of pain and the morose mood he had suddenly gotten into.
"Everything is alright" he forced out, turning to a Demon Lord who was strangely really close to him, hand reach out to help him if he felt ill. "The memories over here seemed to be about his more recent days, nothing to answer your questions about him, did you find anything over here?".
He simply receives a shake of his head, "Nothing put broken memories I cannot look into" he explained. Shen Qingqiu was sure this was probably the doing of the System and for once he was happy with what it had decided to do. "I suppose this was a fruitless research then, we might as well leave his mind alone now" he suggested, still feeling a bit weird about being in this foggy space.
He was ready to turn and cross the stone path, only to feel a hand grab his wrist and Luo Binghe called out to him. He turned around to find him looking at him worried, as if not convinced by his words of earlier. He reaches to pat his head, only to instead gently cup his cheek, deciding he would take advantage of being physically Shen Qingqiu to do it. He could probably cheat a little like this, couldn't he? Since he couldn't do that outside of the dreamscape.
Warmth bloomed back in his chest when he felt Luo Binghe lean into the touch, allowing his thumb to brush gently against his cheek. "Everything is alright, Binghe doesn't need to worry about shizun, he only as a small headache, it will go away soon".
He wasn't sure if it was possible for him to have one here, as dream Shen Qingqiu was probably supposed to be controlled by Luo Binghe. But he did have a small one and denying it more would probably make the Demon Lord more restless.
He was brought a bit closer by a hand placed on his hips, Luo Binghe looking as if he wanted to ask him something. Yet he only looked a bit distracted before doing so, frowning a bit. Shen Qingqiu was going to ask what was wrong, only to feel everything slowly crumble around him.
Oh, so someone had come to wake up Luo Binghe?
He was enveloped in the darkness, only to wake up after. He laid on his back, groaning a bit at his headache. Maybe they shouldn't have been probing at his old memories and maybe he shouldn't have squeezed one by accident, this surely hadn't help.
He turned to the side when he heard a knock at his door, finding the timing rather good to be woken up like this. It was simply to tell him he would be late for breakfast if he didn't wake up, replying that he would be there soon.
He still laid there for a bit longer, passing a hand on his face, feeling a bit bad. He really needed to stop indulging in his desire when he was in these dreams, he would only make Luo Binghe seemingly even worse than before.
Although he did wonder what the Demon Lord had wanted to tell him when he pulled him closer. Well, it was too late now and he probably better forget about it, maybe it was just to check on him anyway.