14 Stalks; Origin of negativity
They started out simply enough. Shang Qinghua settled in the main room and laid out his files in neat piles on the low table while Shen Qingqiu prepared tea. Longjing tea- Xihu Zheng Sect's best, as gifted directly to him from Ming Fan's family who operated as low-nobility merchants/cultivators for the Sect and sent their second-son third-child to curry better trade relations with Cang Qiong and better prestige for their line than An Ding would afford them.
He placed the tea tray on the table. The dark lacquer painted with brilliant white chrysanthemums- the flowers representative of the wish for the recipient to stay, a long life and a wish for peaceful retirement. The colour of the blooms denoting wisdom and purity, or if one was so inclined, death and treachery.
Exchanging empty pleasantries, the next phase of the dance initiated; to drink the tea. Lifting their cups in synch, Shang Qinghua kept a carefully relaxed pace in tilting the cup, keeping eye contact and waiting for Shen Qingqiu to take first sip before him. To check for poison. Not that Shen Qingqiu had ever done so, or that Shang Qinghua fully expected he would- he didn't use any silver needles to check after all- it was just a small slight and reminder of the lack of trust between them, a well-executed power play and even mildly amusing, given how long this had been happening.
Completing these steps again as they had before, they lowered their cups and moved to address the papers between them, carefully light, carefully civil. Hands always kept in sight, eyes speaking what their tongues did not.
The paperwork was mildly interesting, and he was certain to find them useful once he went over them again himself once his shidi had left and parsed through all the superfluous characters and waffle his dearest Shang-shidi was equally certain to have bulked the page count up with for Shen Qingqiu's specific aggravation.
For now, however, he let his shidi's words flow over him without any particular analysis as he watched his bodily reactions carefully and waited.
His shidi was babbling quite incessantly (another deliberate aggravation against Shen Qingqiu, they both knew), so he took intermittent sips of the perfectly brewed tea with higher quality leaves than Shang Qinghua ever had cause to indulge in in his everyday existence. Prattling on about the fascinating intricacies of group legislation and chattering away on long and involved tangents on anything and everything vaguely related to waste as much time and air as possible before returning to the point… his shidi was speaking a lot, very fast, without too much thought input, so it was only natural for the occasional stutter on long, complicated terms or a slight slur on words with similar vocal notes.
He was reading, so it was natural that his eyes would blink less as he focused and the writing was small in some parts of devolving into barely legible ink scratches in others, so he might need to pause and focus for a moment to make out the notes of one specificity of another.
Shang Qinghua had paused on one section of his notes, blinking slowly for a long, long moment, thin brows creasing slightly and large, rounded lychee eyes widening further still as realisation bloomed-
Shen Qingqiu struck.
His shidi leaned back, recoiled, brought his hands up- to activate a technique or draw a weapon- but the tea had slowed his reactions and numbed his body, so he couldn't evade the loop of brilliant crimson Immortal Binding Cable Shen Qingqiu threw out from the qiankun space in his sleeve.
And so, a moment later, Shen Qingqiu sat across from a bound and helpless Shang Qinghua, and smiled.
"As riveting as the inner workings of specific delegation and sub-delegation schemes for council functions may be, Shang-shidi, this shixiong of yours feels we may have a topic or two of greater import to discuss between us. Does shidi not agree?"
Shang Qinghua's expression blanked.
"What did you use?"
Shen Qingqiu drew a fan flourished it, "Tsk, tsk, shidi. Shixiong asked his question first, did he not?" Shang Qinghua's expression didn't move at all, so Shen Qingqiu gazed at him a moment with half lidded eyes over the edge of his fan before answering, "Ash-Bloom Asphodel petals. Non-powdered"
His shidi sagged minutely in relief. The petals acted as a non-lethal, mild paralytic whose effect was notably more pronounced in physical cultivators than their spiritual counterparts. Furthermore, while they were the least lethal part of the Ash-Bloom Asphodel (that being the Purgatory Pearls that grew in the centre of each flower, which if touched would pull the soul from the body and hold it in a wraith like state while the roots slowly killed the body), if ingested, by powdering and blending in tea for instance, the recipient would lose all emotion, qi and vitality, fading away until the body died and a grey shade remained. Slowly.
Of course, Shen Qingqiu had the antidote nectar of Elysian Asphodel to hand (had in fact dabbed a touch on the rim of his own cup before he had even served the tea) if the smallest of his physically cultivating martial siblings had a particularly bad reaction to it. He had other poisons he could use instead.
"... What matter did Shen Qingqiu wish to discuss?"
He waved the fan gently, "Where does your loyalty lie Shang Qinghua?"
Two fast blinks. Thoughts flashed behind those earthy eyes, trying to determine which angle would get him out of this situation the most unscathed.
His traitorous shidi was a cunning beast, he would not choose the route of stupidity and spout something like 'this poor, bullied shidi has no idea what mean, cruel shixiong could possibly be insinuating. At all".
Mercifully, for Shang Qinghua's un-bleeding flesh, he seemed to catch that particular warning somewhere in Shen Qingqiu's countenance and chose a neutral answer.
"... What does Shen Qingqiu imagine my loyalties to be?"
Slowly closing the fan, he set in down with a deliberate tick, tick.
Green eyes met brown.
"This Master knows of Shang Qinghua's operations in the Frozen North, in the Palace employ to the King of the Northern Desert. Of this, this Master has two questions," he lifted two fingers, folding one when Shang Qinghua's frozen attention locked onto them. "One; is this service- truthfully- fully willing. Two-" he leaned closer, voice softening to a silky, deadly whisper, "Two; if all the plans and pieces fell apart, if fates and fortunes conspired to set you in a circumstance to make the choice, if to fall in with one was to forsake the other, would you, Shang Qinghua, choose them or us."
Shang Qinghua looked at him. Stared, unblinking, analysing. His head tilted a bit, cocked to one side.
Shen Qingqiu was distantly reminded that while weasels, stoats or ermines were creatures small and generally overlooked as a threat, regardless they were predators.
They hunted and for once, finally, Shen Qingqiu had the privilege of watching Shang Qinghua's beast stalk.
.
.
.
Shang Qinghua stared at Shen Qingqiu, mind whirling frantically. He had never anticipated that Shen Qingqiu would go this far- would actively confront him within the Sect, pin him down helpless without means of escape.
Too much, too fast, not enough information. He had to, he had to-
"…And what would Shen Qingqiu do, once I chose?"
Jade blades watched him with intent that seemed almost seductive- like that Giant Mesmeric Python he'd been almost eaten by in the Eastern Jungle; each slow blink was akin to that sway from side to side, his sharp mind like a maw full of long, curved fangs, dripping with hunger.
Fangs that Shen Qingqiu's slow, patronising smirk put on viscerally threatening display.
"Shidi hasn't quite grasped the curtesy of answering questions with information as opposed to a counter question, it seems. No matter, this shixiong will indulge his shidi until his mind catches up to the exact nature of this situation." He did not reach for the fan he always used to shield his expressions. There was no escape of distraction from the finely sculptured lines of his willow leaf eyes framing the rare rich green irises. "If Shang-shidi is tied to the Northern Desert in unwilling, indentured service of some expression, then this Master would offer aid in… escaping his situation by whatever means are most fitting, up to and including the thorough structural dismantling of the Northern Desert seat of power and succession line."
W-What?!
Dismantle-
Escape his situation-
Shen Qingqiu was offering to help him destroy the entire Northern Demon power base, as decadently bloodily as he liked, in revenge and back him against ridicule for it!
But the madman wasn't done yet, he was still speaking, what, oh no-
"Whether Shang-shidi says he chooses his Liege or his Sect, the outcome is the same; this Shen Qingqiu will ask him to swear a vow upon his Golden Core that he will not knowingly, deliberately cause harm to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect or any of its inhabitants, through action of his own, arrangement of his making or calculated non-action." He paused for a moment and sipped the tainted, delicious tea (the only reason he had actually come here in person), peering at him through the hazy curls of steam, "And if he refuses, I'll kill him."
Ice crystallised in every single one of his veins and all the way down his spine to his stomach, which felt like it had dropped to about the position of his ankles. The room swayed like the damned hypnosis trap of that despicably huge snake-
His chest burned, he wasn't breathing- he gulped in a breath and desperately cast about for something so say that wasn't the hysterical jibbering coming from that one corner of his mind.
"They'd kill you too!" No! DON'T ANTAGONISE A HOSTILE SUPERIOR SHANG QINGUHA. Why would you do that?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! "If you kill me then they'll feel it and find out and kill you too, you know your reputation is bad enough that Yue Qingyuan can't protect you if you do this!"
Shen Qingqiu's face suddenly got frostier than a pissy Mobei-Jun about to paint his courtroom with blood and entrails. Why did you mention Yue Qingyuan. Even the Heavens themselves can't save you now (not that they would bother for a demon-colluding traitorous scum)!
"Shang-shidi forgets that this Shen Qingqiu has notoriously weak, unstable cultivation and has just recently suffered a major Qi Deviation. Our own Mu Qingfang would be the first to attest to this." He leaned in the smallest increment, like a serpent coiling closer and Shang Qinghua was too frozen to move his tender meal-shaped self away, "Does my most cunning shidi truly believe that I couldn't set one off if I needed to?"
His pounding heartbeat ratchetting up another level like a trapped Golden Lightning Rabbit in the cage of his ribs. His escape routes were rapidly shutting off. Shen Qingqiu could kill him, could get away with killing him. So- so refusal wasn't an option, could he- maybe he could try to change the terms?
"A vow on my Core though? Shen-shixiong knows that would be felt by our ten other martial siblings! They'll know and I'll tell them what you made me swear, you know we can't lie about Oaths, they'll know it's true! I'll-!"
Could he threaten him? Could he afford to try?!
He had to try. It was his last straw of hope, stupidstupidstupid, because he had thought he could always run away oh-so-easily to Qian Cao in the aftermath and used that as an implicit threat against Shen Qingqiu. But this man wasn't the same Shen Qingqiu, he wasn't playing the game. He wasn't playing any games now. He was going to secure Shang Qinghua's unbreakable oath of loyalty or kill him, right here, right now, no mercy, no chance to escape.
He sucked in a deep breath, tried to focus his mind into the sharp, crystalline state of ice-cold strategic analysis he so desperately needed right now and prayed to the Heavenly he didn't trust that this wouldn't make the person opposite him snap and rip his throat out.
"I'll tell them you're paranoid. That the Qi Deviations have worn down your mind and twisted it irreversibly. Then they'll have to keep you here for tests and very, very close surveillance and you won't be able to serve as Tactician! The demons Clans are recovering stability from Tianlang-Jun's subjugation and are starting to expand and enrich their territories, and you know that means raids in the Human Realm and attacks on disciples and minor Sects and Clans and Families allied to us. Some of them will die and they'll look elsewhere for trade and aid, which will weaken Cang Qiong and Huan Hua Palace is-"
He shut his mouth with a click.
Shen Qingqiu's eyes had not left his once as he leisurely sipped his tea.
Slowly, he set the cup down.
"Huan Hua, hm?" He casually pulled his spirit sword up, sheath and all, and leaned it on his shoulder, long artists fingers tapping distractingly at the hilt. "It is interesting that Shang-shidi brings up Huan Hua Palace Sect, given the things this shixiong intends to share with shidi about Huan Hua Palace, either as knowledge for his own use, or… as a gift of service for his Northern King."
Shang Qinghua's mind just. Stops. For a moment.
Shen Qingqiu (if it was Shen Qingqiu. Was he possessed? Had his psyche possibly really genuinely been damaged by all his Deviations over the years?) was saying he was just going to- share intelligence. Free of cost. And. That he would accept and support Shang Qinghua's connection to the North. Actively helping him curry favour and run operations for the establishment also he'd offered help to completely massacre if Shang Qinghua asked.
He… felt weirdly, terrifyingly, touched. No one had ever really cared that much about his personal wants and ambitions. And certainly no one had ever offered their genuine, complete support- and open for any way he wanted it.
It was… nice.
And it came at the price of his sworn loyalty to the Sect, which. Well, he'd already sworn a superficial oath to when he Ascended to Peak Lord and… if he had an ally like the Bamboo Scholar, Xiu Ya Sword, Qing Jing Tactician-Lord Shen Qingqiu… maybe the Sect would be worth risking his neck for if it came to it. It would be easier than trying to get his disciples to defect to the Frozen North or to have to leave them behind if his treachery was ever to be discovered and irrefutably proven.
Shen Qingqiu was still watching him. Closely.
"So the question remains; Shang Qinghua, will you swear to us?"
And Shang Qinghua thought about it. Carefully. Fully. He thought about how it might inhibit him, how it might assist him. He thought about the Sect and his grumbly, under-appreciated disciples. And the comradery between his Hallmasters at all their perpetually over-worked, sleep-deprived, behind-schedule states. He thought about Mobei-Jun and his precarious position and unknowable life expectancy in the Northern Desert, even after so many years of service already. He thought about Shen Qingqiu, who was offering more than anyone bar his Shizun had (and even more, because Shang Qinghua never really forgot that he was only paid attention to for surviving what he shouldn't have, not for his own self. That ultimately, Zhou Qiongchao had needed a successor and thought he'd do). His er-shixiong Shen Qingqiu who also had his hand firmly wrapped around Xiu Ya's hilt.
It wasn't really a choice.
But it was one whose outcome he didn't completely despise and wholly resent.
He swallowed, throat suddenly thick and dry. Shang Qinghua straightened as much as he could still bound, lifted his chin and spoke.
"I, Immortal Shang Qinghua, affirmed Peak Lord of An Ding Peak, Fourth Seniority of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, do hereby swear Vow and take Oath upon my Golden Core that I, by knowing action or deliberate inaction, shall not cause nor arrange harm to befall the Sect of my dominion or its inhabitants in such a way that conflicts with my Oath to my station and-" his eyes found Shen Qingqiu's through the glowing bands of golden qi circulating around him directly from his Core of Immortality, "…and, the trust placed in me by my martial kinsmen Shen Qingqiu to take this for truth." And not just kill me and have done with it. "So I swear upon my Golden Core to shatter and my soul to tear asunder if I, Shang Qinghua, betray this my solemn word."
The bands condensed and wrapped tight around his body, across his skin, before bypassing the limitation of his mortal form and binding intrinsically to his Core, settling not as a chain but like a warm layer of insulation bolstering the connection between his body, qi and soul.
He opened his eyes and saw Shen Qingqiu's closed for a moment, the sheer relief in his uncontrolled, open expression shocking and completely unexpected for the smug, superior master strategist.
Then it was hidden away and he rose to release the Binding Cables. Then, he prepared a fresh pot of tea and handed Shang Qinghua a vial of Elysian Asphodel nectar, which as spirit plants go would bolster Shang Qinghua's cultivation a comparably middling, but still very, very nice degree while curing the effects of its cousin's poison. An unnecessary perk and a surprisingly nice gesture from his shixiong- there were many cheaper, more common plants and essences that would near enough accomplish the same thing. Though using the nectar would completely erase all trace of the mild Ash-Bloom poisoning, so maybe Shen Qingqiu was also just being pragmatic, Shang Qinghua didn't really mind- efficiency was almost synonymous with his Peak's purpose after all.
His shixiong set out a new tea set (white with persimmons and tangerines painted in oranges and yellows and a warm looking glaze, he'd be very happy to see this sort of symbolism if he was meeting with a trade associate as together, they indicated a wish for success in all things. He'd never seen a set of Shen Qingqiu's that wasn't painted with a death threat), with accompaniments! Shixiong never gave him accompaniments! He was served Zhejiang black tea with a plate of nutty Five-kernel mooncakes (and tailored to his preferences as well. A stronger tea anyone could probably guess given his workload, but Shang Qinghua would not wager his spirit stones on any other of their martial siblings being aware of his snack preferences except maybe Kai Qingmei who obviously paid the most attention to food and Xia Qingfeng who could probably smell it on him).
Then Shen Qingqiu. Bowed. To him.
"This Shen Qingqiu offers his thanks to Shang Qinghua for what he has done here today and what he will fo in the future. You have my gratitude."
Fortunately, he was saved from responding to… that by Mu Qingfang arriving.
.
.
.
Shen Qingqiu sighed and relaxed back into his bed, exhausted. It was still padded with some of the more comfortable cushions and throws from his treasure-stash, chiefly because his body had once again been spoiled by Mu Qingfang's opinion on bedding suitable for post-Deviation recovery and it was proving more difficult than usual to sleeping without the comfort.
A crooked smile curled around his lips; he'd gained a powerful ally for the Sect today, one that would serve it well and fulfil Shen Qingqiu's duties adequately when he was gone.
The Healer Lord fluttered about them for a great deal too long, one he had ascertained that his shixiongs were both hale and not in fact dying nor anticipating duelling to the death, until Shang Qinghua had until Shang Qinghua had spoken up about his 'personal vow' that he felt he 'needed to make', twisting how the compulsory truth (the truth enforced by the Oath when speaking about it) was perceived, quite masterfully.
Additionally, showing Shen Qingqiu that Shang Qinghua would not try to undermine his position or sabotage him, at least until he received his information.
They had both watched as Mu Qingfang visibly softened at the words and accompanying words implying a link to Shang Qinghua's bond with Shen Qingqiu and also their generational 'family' overall.
Then he was finally gone and Shen Qingqiu took a sip of tea and got started. There was a lot of information to cover, after all, and so little time.
Notes:
• SQHs usually more of a predator, but he's been severely thrown off his game by all of- that. All Shang Qinghua's are anxious rodents, but this one keeps it internalised for the most part. :P
Not much to note this time, I was still writing this on the end of last chap, but the word count was creeping up to 10k, which was a bit much in one go so ~splits… and then I cut a bit off the end anyway for a different scene. Stay tuned for the actual Huan Hua goss sometime in the future~
I would, however, like to thank everyone who has commented/favourited/followed this. It really has given me the motivation (and confidence) to keep writing pretty regularly, which has ALSO turned out to be a decent stress relief! (who knew huh?) So yeah, thank you all so, so much for following along with me thus far! 3
