"What." Shi Wudu said.
"They were definitely born after you ascended and became a god. Likely during a time when you were at least very influential." Xie Lian continued.
"What." Shi Wudu repeated.
"Ah, so that's why you told me to call him." Shi Qingxuan realized. "You thought that the resentment may have centered around the missing father."
"Yes, though there were other factors." Xie Lian confirmed.
"What." Shi Wudu whipped around to turn towards Pei Ming.
Said martial good stood, looking surprised and confused as he stared at the former crown prince. He then moved his gaze to the sword, staring silently at the weapon.
"...Yes, I assumed that to be the case." Qingxuan said after a moment of making sure the martial god was alive and did not just die standing on the spot. "Its spiritual signature felt familiar."
"What?!" Shi Wudu turned to Shi Qingxuan.
He Xuan proved himself to be the only responsible person present by actually moving to secure the blade still lying on the ground. He stuck an excessive amount of high-grade sealing talismans on the weapon until you couldn't see the metal anymore, then lifted it into his arms before sealing it on an empty qiankun pouch on his person.
The junior official then handed it over to Shi Qingxuan, he gently took it with a quick thanks. The Wind Master was about to pocket it when Shi Wudu snatched it from his hands.
The Water Master slapped on several more suppression and sealing talismans all over the pouch before placing it into a bigger pouch and repeating the process.
Once the poor sword had been shoved in at least ten different qiankun pouches with active sealing and suppression talismans in place, Shi Wudu finally returned it with a nod.
"There." Shi Wudu said to his brother. "Now there's no possible way you could get cursed."
Almost as if on cue, the battlefield began rumbling with an unknown force.
Qingxuan yelped as a crack under his feet appeared, shooting a final beam of resentful energy into the sky, which the Wind Master just happened to be in the way of.
All the rumbling stopped immediately after as the entire group stared at Shi Qingxuan. The Wind Master had a thin cloak of resentful energy all over him, and all of them there, with the exception of Xie Lian, who had his spiritual energy sealed, could feel the unnatural way the resentment rolled up against the young god's own divine and spiritual energy.
Pei Ming stood there uncomprehendingly, looking between Qingxuan and his alleged son.
He Xuan didn't know whether to be concerned or to be done with the whole situation.
Xie Lian wondered whether it was the Wind Master's poor luck or his own that had rubbed off on the boy.
Shi Wudu stopped, staring at his brother with a blank expression on his face. "Qingxuan." He instructed, voice startlingly bland. "Come here."
The Wind Master silently obeyed, walking over to his older brother. He looked a bit dazed.
Shi Wudu pulled out the enchanted jade tablet from earlier and tapped it on his younger brother's head, scowl turning darker and stormier as the tablet changed from its expensive, white-green color to the tell-tale dark purple swirls that signified the presence of a curse.
"Just one mission, Qingxuan." Shi Wudu whispered loudly, shaking as he tried to rell in his incredulous fury. "Just one mission in the mortal realm where you don't get cursed or mortally wounded."
He grabbed his younger brother by his shoulders and shook him. The Water Master then retracted his hands before slapping one on the Wind Master's forehead, fanning himself quickly with the Water Master Fan in the other.
The man sent wave after wave of pure spiritual energy to pry the curse off of the heavenly official, scowling fiercely once more when he realized it was a disorientation curse, which explained Shi Qingxuan's blank but mildly confused expression.
He scoffed as he got to work, though he took to the task slowly to avoid any mistakes. Clearing up a curse strong enough to chain down a heavenly official wasn't a small matter, and it was a delicate process that he needed to take slowly and with as much care as possible.
"I should get one of those." He Xuan commented.
"What?" Xie Lian asked, turning towards the boy. He idly wondered if the standard of ascending to heaven was getting lower or if the children of the world were getting more and more powerful. Both the boy beside him and the Wind Master in front of him couldn't be any older than fifteen.
"That jade tablet." He Xuan said, gesturing to the Water Master's qiankun pouch that held the object in question. "It detects curses cast upon a person when it comes into contact with them."
"Ah." The former crown prince blinked, looking at the sibling duo. "Is it that common for him to get cursed?"
"You have no idea." Pei Ming butt into the conversation. "I don't think there's been a mission in the mortal realm where Shi Qingxuan hasn't been cursed or injured one way or another. It's a common topic of speculation among the heavenly officials."
"We're actually lucky this time around," He Xuan added, continuing with a disapproving tone. "It's usually a lot worse. Last time, a wasting curse ate half of his left arm and he had to take it easy for half a year."
Xie Lian's face slightly scrunched up into a small frown at this. "But… that shouldn't be possible."
"Hm?" Pei Ming turned to the fallen god. He could sense the comment had attracted both Shi Wudu and He Xuan's attention as well.
"It's just…" Xie Lian hesitated, feeling the attention of three gods focused on him and his words. "Even as a fallen god, it's incredibly difficult for normal curses of any kind to take effect on me. For Lord Wind Master to have been cursed in such quantities with curses of such magnitude…"
The former crown prince trailed off, but the three listening to his words could fill in the blanks fairly easily.
The curses, the wounds, the pain that Shi Qingxuan suffered-
It wasn't natural.
Shi Wudu stiffened, but forced himself to relax. He tried to ignore the shining jade fan tassel attached to the Wind Master Fan that shifted from the sandy winds. Even if he had his own suspicions, it wouldn't do to just spill them out in the presence of a stranger, regardless of how much Qingxuan seemed to respect him.
The four shut up quickly once they realized Shi Qingxuan was beginning to wake, eyes blinking away the fog.
"Okay, okay, I think that's enough spiritual energy." Qingxuan yelped as he fully shifted back into focus to face his brother, who was still transferring excessive amounts of it to him. "Ge, please-"
Shi Wudu huffed as he took his hand off of his younger brother's forehead. Their interaction broke the building tension. "Shut up and take it." He snapped, sending over another wave of energy with a flick of his fan.
He Xuan surged forward, though he hesitated at the Water Master's glare before continuing to move to check Shi Qingxuan for injuries.
Qingxuan settled as he allowed the coddling, occasionally twitching when He Xuan nudged him at some points to ensure he didn't get hit by a layered curse again.
He ignored Pei Ming, Xie Lian, and He Xuan's inquiring gazes on his figure. He ignored Shi Wudu's short but sharp glances at his jade fan tassel. He ignored the conversation that had occurred during the time he was cursed.
The Wind Master had been cursed many times, and had fought under those conditions more than once. Paying attention to a simple conversation under a small curse like that was easy, but he didn't point it out.
He was willing to play along, though his stomach curled at the thought of having to inform him of the development.
A hand shot out to grab his wrist, curling around it in a tight hold. He could feel the unspoken threat that hung in the air.
Shi Qingxuan played with the new jade fan tassel attached to his Wind Master Fan, silently admiring how the work was identical to the last, down to the last carved stroke.
He turned in his report directly to Ling Wen, not flinching under her assessing gaze in search of any injuries. She was surprised, he could tell, at the lack of them and a curse. Her eyes lingered on the fan tassel, and the Wind Master's smile twitched as her eyes moved on, instead noting any absent decorations that he usually wore on his person.
"Thank you." She said, though she prodded at his purpose in her palace immediately afterward. "Though, did anything happen? You don't usually bring your mission reports in directly."
"It's nothing." Qingxuan dismissed. "You weren't able to make it to the joint lunch yesterday, so I thought I could see you today instead."
Ling Wen hummed, likely filing the information away for later. "I see. Perhaps we should celebrate you coming back from a solo mission intact? Your brother would be elated to hear you're not cursed, maimed, and/or in excruciating pain."
Shi Qingxuan flinched, a movement that wasn't missed by the literature goddess. She stared at him in silent inquiry. He stood his ground against her sharp stare for a solid minute, but folded not long after.
"I didn't…" Qingxuan weakly began. "I didn't actually tell him I was going."
Silence stretched between the two of them in Ling Wen's office, and he could tell she was tempted to chain him down to his desk to keep him there. She seemed to have forgotten any suspicions of his direct delivery, and would likely brush it off as his typical, too-helpful attitude.
The Wind Master offered her a wobbly smile, and snapped down on the guilt that bloomed in his heart.
Ling Wen brought a hand over her face, a long-suffering sigh dragging itself out of her. She wearily looked up at him, eyes dead and tired.
"Your brother will murder me." The civil god murmured, looking away.
"He thinks I went to visit the Rain Master." Qingxuan informed her. "Which I technically did."
"Right." Ling Wen said, straightening up her back. "A base to work off of."
It wasn't the first time he'd gone on a mission behind his brother's back. It wasn't that he didn't care about him, or that he hated him in any way, it was just that Shi Wudu could get a bit fierce in his defense of his brother. He Xuan, Ling Wen and Pei Ming helped cover his tracks at most times. One thing led to another and most gods had helped him in his escapes- it was their work he was doing, after all. It was an open secret in the heavenly courts, really.
Ling Wen pulled out a blank sheet of paper and began writing out a private letter to the Water Master, occasionally stopping the elegant strokes of her brush to contemplate on the words used.
"You know…" She continued after the silence had stretched out for some time. "Your brother's just worried about you."
Shi Qingxuan hummed in reply, giving away no more acknowledgement of her words than a small twitch of his hands. Ling Wen observed and took it all in anyways. Qingxuan knew she was one of the ones he had to be the most careful around.
She was pleasant company, but having to sort through his words to avoid anything that could tip her off was exhausting.
"I know." Qingxuan answered quietly. "And I'm thankful. It's just…" He hesitated for a second. "I can't just stop helping people."
Ling Wen studied him for some more time, and he assumed she found what she was looking for when she finally looked away without comment.
"I'll tell him you got back from visiting Yushi Huang." She informed him. "Then you went to your palace and got rest, alright?"
"Of course." He smoothly agreed, the lie rolling off his tongue easily.
Ling Wen nodded in satisfaction before she shooed him away, snapping at him about the amount of work she'd have to do to make sure Shi Wudu didn't find the hidden missions. A vial of some kind of stress-relieving medicinal elixir was shoved in his hands as he was practically kicked out of her palace, a monotonous voice calling out behind him for him to hurry and go rest at his palace.
He knew that the civil goddess would've preferred to keep him there and ensure he was getting rest, but he was quite lucky that Ling Wen was such a busy goddess and unfortunately simply did not have the time nor the manpower to make that happen at the moment.
Shi Qingxuan was relieved that the martial gods he had pulled a small favor from had done their jobs right.
It wasn't anything incriminating, don't get him wrong. He simply requested to witness a spar between the two to help improve his own forms, but if the two martial gods held an old grudge he had no knowledge of and the spar became wild and damaged the surrounding area, well. He compensated everyone for the damages, and that was that.
He did feel guilty for hoisting more paperwork onto the already busy civil goddess, and noted to himself that he'd convince some of the rowdier gods to keep it down when he could.
Besides, he told himself. Ling Wen's burdens in paperwork and heavenly dealings had decreased in this universe due to his interference and aid. Surely she could give back, just a little bit?
Shi Qingxuan slipped away to a less crowded area, wings stretching behind him before he kicked off to the skies. He began flying in the direction of his palace, enjoying the cool breeze that caressed his face.
The Wind Master eventually flew over the back terrace of his palace and moved to land, feeling the gaze that had been following him slip away once it saw he had landed.
He sighed as he shook off the sudden feeling of the eyes on him disappearing, thanking whatever entity that presided over this world and its gods that he had sensed himself being tracked.
Qingxuan silenced those thoughts quickly as he shook himself and walked over to enter his palace. He quietly shut the door behind him as he arrived, heaving a quiet sigh. He looked up to see He Xuan standing before him, steps as silent as always.
"He Xuan." He greeted with a smile. "How has your day been so far? Have the heavens been treating you alright?"
"It's been good, thank you." He Xuan answered like usual. "You didn't get caught?" The junior official's voice had an air of surprise to it, Shi Qingxuan noted.
"No." Qingxuan confirmed. "Ling Wen is covering for me."
He Xuan made a noise of understanding, the boy walking forward to gently tug on Shi Qingxuan's sleeve to guide the Wind Master in the direction of his bedroom. Qingxuan complied, the two of them slipping into a calm, familiar silence as the sound of Shi Qingxuan's footsteps echoed through the mostly empty halls.
"How straightforward of you." Qingxuan teased suddenly, voice mischievous but eyes tired. "At least take me out to dinner first."
His junior official's ears burned, and He Xuan turned away so the Wind Master couldn't see his expression. "That's not…" He trailed off, the gentle grip on his arm turning tense as the boy unconsciously tightened his grip. "I already did."
Qingxuan's mind went blank.
He Xuan did indeed do that, didn't he? Their occasional outings were always with each other, very rarely accompanied by another god, who even then often left the two to their own devices. Their dynamic was the opposite of what was shown in canon. He Xuan was the one guiding their adventures, oftentimes dragging a reluctant Qingxuan away from his work.
The Wind Master didn't reply, and the two slipped back into the silence that accompanied the two so easily.
Shi Qingxuan removed He Xuan's hand from his arm and instead slipped his own into the grasp. The two held hands as their pace slowed, taking their time, the two of them doing so for entirely different reasons.
Qingxuan honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
How cruel. He whispered mentally. The Wind Master feared his thoughts could be overheard if he thought loud enough. Even if you tell me that now, it's too late.