We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.
- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
Qi, is not just a regular, standard commodity.
It's not like light, or water, or lightning. It's not like blood, that looks and feels and tastes the same and only shows individuality when you try to use it for rituals or arrays or transfusions.
Qi is the physical manifestation of a soul interacting with worldly energies. In every way that blood pretends to all be anonymous, qi is always distinct. To Liu Qingge, at least. Not all cultivators may be able to tell the colour of someone's qi or perceive the essence of it as scent and taste, as sound and sensation, but who could tell what others did or didn't experience, the Liu Clan could identify people's personal qi signatures and so could Liu Qingge.
Liu Qingge could feel the foreign qi circulating in his spirit veins soothing the burns and strain of his Qi Deviation and discern a signature from it, even with tangy blood in his mouth and a pulsing headache like a beating war drum. The cool moonlight touch of the foreign qi cut through all of it, smooth like flowing grey silk the colour of clouds- the type that threatened rain, could turn to storms or just drift past in untouchable serenity. Jasmine, sweet, fresh and heady, with a twist of bright and happy orange.
The man passing him qi in the Spirit Caves, who had probably just saved his life, should be a pungent juniper with sharp and spicy black pepper crackling at the edges, an ashy feel a contrary mix of hot gritty embers and smooth cool ashes. The face was the same. The robes, the hair, the shades of snake-scale green in his eyes, those were all the same.
Qi signature and can't be faked.
Therefore, the man sat next to him was not Shen Qingqiu.
A short time spent cultivating to recovery and a lack-lustre demon invasion later saw Liu Qingge sat across from the smiling imposter, holding a cup of finely brewed tea he had no intention of drinking.
Yue Qingyuan and Mu Qingfang had both left not long before, apparently neither of them were aware that Shen Qingqiu was currently possessed, or maybe the imposter had managed to fool the usual tests. He would have to call for Hong Jing to prove possession, if the imposter refused to cooperate and Liu Qingge had to subdue and restrain 'Shen Qingqiu' and drag him to Qian Cao for holding.
He just... wasn't sure he should. Yet, anyway.
This jasmine flower-orange blossom- silver silk stranger had somehow successfully infiltrated Cang Qiong Mountain Sect as the Second Authority Peak Lord and had... saved Liu Qingge's life. Willingly defended a disciple of 'his' Peak and taken a crippling blow to 'his' body and cultivation in the process.
From Mu Qingfang's comments while assessing the stranger's current poising, Jasmine-Qi had been masquerading themselves a Shen Qingqiu for several months since 'his' last major Qi Deviation. So they were probably a spirit-type bodiless entity. Didn't really narrow it down.
Only one way to win his answers.
He set the cup down with a clunk and stood, striding around the table to 'Shen Qingqiu' and drawing Cheng Luan in a flash of steel, bringing the deadly tip to rest at the hollow of the imposter's throat. The teasing, conversational babbling cut off abruptly, Jasmine-Orange-Silver Silk staring up at him with wide stolen eyes and an open mouth.
"Who are you. What have you done to Shen Qingqiu. What are your intentions at Cang Qiong. Answer."
A soft hitching of breath, dilating pupils and a sharp uptick in heartrate when he circulated qi to his ears to listen for it; the only fear responses Jasmine-Silk expressed, their face still placid and their tone calm and even when they spoke. "Why is Liu-shidi so certain that this master is not Shen Qingqiu?" Which was not answering his questions.
Cheng Luan pricked skin, a bead of crimson forming at the minuscule wound, at the warning it carried. The stranger held his gaze steadily as the droplet fell, a thread of red running down a white jade throat.
A mild blink, but still no explanations. Jasmine-Orange seemed almost expectant, like he was waiting for Liu Qingge to provide him a reply first. That was... daring.
Liu Qingge was reluctantly impressed. Most people broke down into wide-eyed stammering and hyperventilation just from his face frowning, never mind his sword at their throat. Still. Answers. Otherwise, the interesting stranger was going to have to be detained, interrogated and eventually executed.
...but his opponent wasn't giving any ground and the lack of tears was a large point in their favour.
Sometimes you had to cede a battle to win the war.
"This Lord is sensitive enough to the qi in the world around him to distinguish the personal signature of Shen Qingqiu to that of the stranger wearing his face." He narrowed his eyes at the other, pointedly. Your turn, Jasmine-Silk.
False green eyes blinked again, widening with a flash of something strangely like awe, then drifting off to one side, almost like the stranger was lost in thought, but focused and flicking back and forth like they were reading something in the empty air. A moment passed, a small crease formed between 'Shen Qingqiu's' brows and those wrong eyes sharpened at nothing, then relaxed all at once, expression clearing like clouds parting to reveal the sun, shoulders sagging and their whole body melting in apparent relief, despite the sword at their throat.
Did they have no self-preservation instincts? Were they not familiar enough with inhabiting a corporeal body to be threatened by decapitation? It was odd enough that they had looked away from the person and sword threatening them in the first place to have their decision-making moment. If this was their danger response, then it was no wonder they had had enough foolish courage to engaged Liu Qingge while he was lost in the savage violence of his Qi Deviation, or that they were now afflicted with Without A Cure.
Then they turned and smiled at him.
He angled Cheng Luan defensively against the soft radiance –wrong coming from Shen Qingqiu's face- despite it taking the sword point away from Jasmine-Orange Blossom's vulnerable neck. It hadn't been regarded as much of a threat anyway.
Without the hindrance of deadly spiritual steel, the strange stranger bowed and introduced himself, still smiling with something like relief. "Honoured to meet Peak Lord Liu officially, this one is called Shen Yuan-" they- he?- leaned forward, a glinting determination cutting wrong green eyes into emeralds "- and I want to help."