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Yue Qingyuan is on the demon’s trail - because it is a demon. This region first suffered from livestock deaths, which then escalated to the occasional death of humans. Usually farmers, hunters, drunks - men out late at night, either searching for the creature killing their livestock or otherwise all alone and vulnerable. The people in the area are terrified, all hiding in their homes as soon as the sun sets, sometimes even bringing in their livestock with them if they can fit. Protecting their lives and their livelihoods as best as they can manage.
As Head Disciple of Qiong Ding Peak, it is up to Yue Qingyuan to kill the creature and end its reign of terror over these poor people. He is prepared to do so, as he has many times before. As a cultivator, he has found that one of the most direct ways that he gets to actually help people is by fulfilling these night hunts. Almost everything else around it feels like busy work meant to hide and distract from this fact, and there’s so much more of it than this bright, shining core.
He lets this sense of purpose drive him forward, even as night descends upon him. Even as he spends hours searching for signs of demonic qi or of a large creature passing through. Finally, he hears a raw, terrified scream of horror, of pain, and Yue Qingyuan rushes forward even though he knows that it is already too late for him to save the demon’s latest victim--
Bursting onto a moonlit clearing, Yue Qingyuan sees it. Him. A tall, slender shape, his lower half a long and winding snake’s tail, the scales a dark and gleaming green and the body of it thick and solid. The upper half is human, all pale skin and long dark hair falling like ink. As Yue Qingyuan watches, the demon before him lets go of the mauled, bloody husk of an innocent mortal, raising his head to watch Yue Qingyuan from across the clearing. Bright red blood smeared all across his lower face, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight as he meets Yue Qingyuan’s gaze directly.
“Xiao-Jiu,” Yue Qingyuan croaks, frozen where he stands a dozen feet away.
Shen Jiu takes one look at Yue Qingyuan, and he is suddenly painfully aware of his white and black cultivator’s robes, his spiritual weapon sheathed at his side, the hilt in his hand.
“Don’t--” Yue Qingyuan starts, but Shen Jiu turns to slither away into the tree line before he can finish. The demon, fleeing the righteous cultivator.
Yue Qingyuan looks at the dead man that Shen Jiu leaves behind, and he lets him go.
They first met when Yue Qi was very young, but Shen Jiu was even younger, he’s certain. Yue Qi’s slave group had traveled to a bordertown, searching for fresh marketground that might be willing to snap up their unwanted wares. He couldn’t quite remember how he’d ended up separated from the rest of the group at such a young age, lost and frightened, but he knows that he’d been desperately hungry and scared of not finding his way or of being found. When it had begun to rain, he had stumbled his way into the first hiding place he could find, the crawlspace underneath a dilapidated house.
Underneath, he had found a monster. Except the monster had been a young boy, a very young boy, who had looked at Yue Qi with wide, wary snake-slit eyes - as if Yue Qi were the frightening creature that had broken its way into his home. Little bones littered the ground around him, detritus from devoured mice and birds.
In hindsight, Yue Qingyuan can perfectly understand why Shen Jiu had been so frightened at the time. A young and weak demon child lost in the Human Realm, with no one to take care of him - all Yue Qi would have to do to kill him would have been to cry out, and he would have been torn apart by a crowd of terrified, furious humans, all confident in the righteousness of killing such a surely wicked creature. At the time, though, Yue Qi had been stunned silent with fear and confusion; he had never seen a boy who was half snake before.
Then Shen Jiu had bared his needle sharp fangs at him and hissed, rearing up as if to make himself big, and Yue Qi’s first instinct had been to apologize.
“Sorry!” he said. “Sorry, this-- this Yue Qi is sorry, he was only looking for a place to get away from the rain…”
“Well, get out!” Shen Jiu snapped, which was the first time it occurred to Yue Qi that he might not have understood words. But he did, so. “This is my lair, you’re not allowed in here. If you stay, I’ll eat you!”
It had been instantly difficult to believe something like that. The snake-boy was smaller than him, and his words held an undeniable tinge of fear, posturing. It reminded Yue Qi of, absurdly, one of his fellow street children loudly threatening someone larger and older than them, leaning on bravado to protect themselves. He had almost instinctively responded to it, trying to make himself seem softer and more harmless, nonthreatening.
“Just let me stay until it stops raining? I’ll leave right after, I promise. Please don’t eat me.”
The snake-boy’s bristling had lessened at Yue Qi’s apparent acceptance of his ability to eat anything larger than a mouse.
“Come any closer to me, and I’ll swallow you whole,” he muttered. “Stay on your own side.”
Yue Qi had obediently done just that, huddling on his side of the crawlspace with the snake-boy warily glaring at him from where he curled up on the ground, his own tail wound like a rope around him. He had been unable to stop himself from staring. His tail was long and beautiful, and the boy only had a few shreds of fabric to cover his upper half. There were smatterings of green scales dotted across his face and his arms, and his eyes were yellow like gemstones.
He also looked just as half starved as Yue Qi, with scratches and scrapes littering his hands and arms. Even back then, Yue Qi had recognized him as a fellow street child, just… a very strange one.
With the rain drumming onto the ground outside, and the air warm and humid, they had both eventually drifted off to sleep, no matter how wary each of them were of the other. When Yue Qi awoke, Shen Jiu had slithered off to some different hiding spot, and Yue Qi, unharmed and uneaten, had crawled out to try and find his way back to the slavers.
Days later, he returned once more. He had been unable to stop thinking about the beautiful monster he’d found and no one else seemed to know about, and that seemed so hungry and alone. He had been unable to stop worrying. That was what he did, worry and take care of others. It was what he was for - and it seemed like the monster had no one else in the world to care for him, which made it all the more urgent for Yue Qi to do something. And so, he brought with him a live rat that he captured with his own two hands.
Shen Jiu had been there. Not having been dragged out and beaten to death by angry adults the day after a human boy found him, he had cautiously accepted Yue Qi’s presence and eaten his present whole. Pride had suffused Yue Qi’s body at being able to feed someone else, at earning the trust of a demon.
From there, a friendship of sorts had formed. Yue Qi would sneak off and visit Shen Jiu whenever he could, bringing little presents whenever possible, and Shen Jiu would only hiss and threaten a little before welcoming him in. There even came a time when Shen Jiu would drape himself across Yue Qi’s lap, his tail winding snugly around him, melting into him as he soaked in his body heat. Shen Jiu’s trust and affection made him feel special, chosen.
Shen Jiu was a demon, but not like the ones that people talked about in scary stories. He was a child, orphaned and powerless. He was so weak that he had to flee to the Human Realm in order to survive, even though there he was surrounded on all sides by those who saw him as a malevolent pest to be eradicated. Yue Qi, also orphaned and powerless, felt that they had more in common than they didn’t, even as a human and a demon.
Those stolen hours hidden away with a demon were some of the happiest and most peaceful of his fraught childhood. Yue Qi had felt truly happy, being able to provide for and soak in Shen Jiu’s companionship, both of them safe when they were alone with no one but each other. He had wanted things to stay as they were forever.
Shen Jiu hadn’t felt the same way.
“Stupid,” he hissed, even as he was sprawled across Yue Qi’s lap. “I’ll grow bigger, you know. Soon, it’ll become harder for me to hide. Whenever humans find demons, they try to kill them.”
“I don’t,” Yue Qi said, combing his fingers through his hair, scritching at his scalp. Shen Jiu’s eyes slipped closed with contentment at the gesture. Yue Qi made sure to remember the way he was doing it, so he could do it for Shen Jiu again later.
“That’s because you’re stupid,” Shen Jiu informed him. “And broken. It doesn’t matter, anyway. What are you going to do, put yourself between me and any angry mob that wants to tear me apart? You’ll just die too, idiot.”
“I’ll become strong, then. Strong enough to protect you from anyone.”
“You, some half starved mongrel? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’ll… I’ll become a cultivator! That way, I’ll be able to beat back anyone.”
Shen Jiu had been silent for a long time after that. When he spoke, he was quiet and tense. “Cultivators kill demons. That’s what they’re for.”
“I wouldn’t,” Yue Qi insisted. “I’d never hurt you.”
Shen Jiu turned his head enough to look up at him, his eyes slitting open.
“Then you’d be a shitty cultivator,” he said. “And all the other humans would hate you too.”
“That’s fine. So long as Xiao-Jiu is fine, I don’t care.”
Shen Jiu scoffed, and that was that. At the time, Yue Qi had meant every word, but also… it hadn’t been a serious conversation. It wasn’t like Yue Qi had any opportunities open to him to become a cultivator. He was penniless and powerless, unable to achieve anything but scraps. It wasn’t until he woke up one morning and there was a loud ruckus about a demon being found in the middle of the night that his blood froze in his veins from terror - not of the demon, but for it.
“It was a snake!” a man loudly proclaimed. “Half snake, half beast, terrifying and disgusting to behold - we barely survived! It was sneaking into our property, no doubt to kill us in our beds.”
Then, holding up a farming implement, its tines sharp and rough, he showed where it was stained by a terrifying amount of drying blood.
“I managed to stab it in the side,” the man says. “It fled before I could kill it - help us chase it down, and we’ll get rid of this terror once and for all!”
Yue Qi could have nearly died from worry for Shen Jiu’s sake, and had run all around the village trying to be the first one to find him. Luckily, he knew Shen Jiu’s hiding place, and so he did find him, curled up small and wounded. Yue Qi tended to him fretfully, and Shen Jiu looked up at him with a pale, sweaty face.
“Are you going to tell everyone where I am?” he asked. “I’ll die anyway. Maybe you’ll get a reward.”
“Don’t say stupid things like that,” Yue Qi scolded, his voice rough with unshed tears. “I’d never. Never.”
A pause.
“No. You wouldn’t. Qi-ge is too good for that. Here I am, worrying you just because I got greedy for a whole meal for once, and wanted to steal a chicken…”
Yue Qi really did want to cry. This all happened because he couldn’t provide well enough for Shen Jiu on his own. He was so weak, so useless… “It’s not your fault. I, I’ll definitely find some way to make it better, so don’t be scared.”
“What could you possibly do? Nothing.” Shen Jiu spent a while struggling to breathe around his pain, before he looked more properly at Yue Qi. “Qi-ge… go become a cultivator, like you said. I can’t stay here any longer, I have to leave anyway. Don’t stay with those traffickers like some beaten dog. Go become strong enough to live freely - even if it means that we’ll become enemies.”
“We’ll never be enemies. Even if I become a cultivator, I’ll always be your ge. I promise.”
Snorting disdainfully, then wincing from the pain, Shen Jiu clearly didn’t take his promises seriously, but he allowed Yue Qi to stroke his hair the way he liked. Waiting until nightfall, he helped carry Shen Jiu out to the woods where he could flee from those hunting him down.
Shen Jiu hadn’t looked back at him even once.
Yue Qingyuan is a righteous cultivator. It is his duty to protect the common people, to slay any demons, beasts, or demonic cultivators who dare to murder and harass innocents. And yet, last night, he deliberately let a demon who has committed a string of murders escape him.
He knows this makes him a bad person.
The next night, he tracks Shen Jiu down again. It’s easier than the last time, almost like Shen Jiu is barely trying to evade him any longer. Cornered within a cave, he glares at him warily from against the wall. Tense, hiding his fear behind anger. It’s almost painfully reminiscent of their first meeting, except everything is different now. Shen Jiu did grow larger, just like he said he would. A grown man, with a long, gorgeous tail, his eyes faintly glowing a malevolent yellow, his demon mark venomous green.
“So Qi-ge’s finally come back to put the beast down,” he says bitterly. “Will you make it quick?”
“Xiao-Jiu… why would you kill innocents?” Yue Qingyuan had to bury the murdered man’s body only last night. He’d comforted his wife and children, even as he’d known that he let the murderer get away.
“Why shouldn’t I? As if they wouldn’t kill me given half the chance? Or do you expect me to hide in the shadows and live off of birds and mice for the rest of my life, like some pathetic stray cat, always starving?”
It is Yue Qingyuan’s duty to end threats to mortals. It is his duty, the bright, shining core of it.
“Doing things like this, it puts you in danger as well,” Yue Qingyuan rasps. There’s a rock lodged somewhere in his throat. “It calls attention to yourself, so that cultivators will come and-- and put a stop to it.”
Shen Jiu sneers. “I’m a monster. What more could you expect from me?”
“Xiao-Jiu…”
“I knew it was you. I saw you, sleeping by your campfire. I watched you from the shadows… I could have come closer and killed you in your sleep. I thought about it.”
But you didn’t do it. You couldn’t bring yourself to, even though I was the cultivator come here to destroy you.
“Stop wasting time,” Shen Jiu says, making an impatient, disgusted gesture. “Just get it over with. We both know what you’re here for, what you’re going to do. I’m the evil demon, and you’re the righteous cultivator. There’s only one way for this to end satisfyingly, right?”
Yue Qingyuan could kill him. He’s stronger. Shen Jiu is, at the end of the day, a demon who has survived by slinking around in the Human Realm and killing isolated humans and animals. A bottom-feeder, really. The results of any fight between them are a foregone conclusion… that is, if Shen Jiu even bothered to fight back. Yue Qi can’t quite imagine that he would do even that much.
It is his duty. It is his duty.
Somehow, Yue Qi cannot bring himself to unsheathe his sword. He simply… he can’t. He made a promise.
“Don’t-- don’t hunt again tonight. Don’t hurt anyone.”
Shen Jiu opens his mouth to say something, his expression sullen and belligerent, and so Yue Qingyuan talks over him.
“Wait for me here, and Qi-ge will come back with a meal for you, alright?”
Shen Jiu stares at him. After a moment, he says, “I don’t eat rats any longer. I need more meat than that.”
“I know. It’s fine, I’ll find a large enough meal for you.”
“People are guarding their livestock closely. You might not find any pigs or chickens for me at all.”
“It’s fine. I’ll find something.”
No matter what it is, he will find Shen Jiu a meal tonight. Even if it means… even if it means betraying everything else he stands for, even if it means being a bad cultivator, a bad person. He’ll do it. He watches understanding wash over Shen Jiu’s face.
Slowly, the wary tension in Shen Jiu’s frame melts away. Then the demon cautiously slithers closer to him, looking ready for Yue Qingyuan to draw his sword, as if this might all be a trick. When that doesn’t happen, Shen Jiu comes in even closer and wraps himself around him, his arms clutching at his shoulders and his tail curling up around his legs. His face nestles into Yue Qingyuan’s neck, and Yue Qingyuan holds onto him tightly, desperately. For the first time in years, he feels whole again.
“Qi-ge’s back,” Yue Qingyuan tells him. “It’s okay, I’ll look after you. It must have been hard. You’re not alone any longer.”
Shen Jiu shudders, and clutches at him tighter. There’s a dampness at his neck, and Yue Qingyuan turns his face enough to kiss Shen Jiu’s head. His poor monster… It doesn’t matter if Yue Qingyuan becomes the worst sort of person. It’s worth it, in order to protect this. Shen Jiu needs him.