Thread by @bingjiuwus

#liujiu, Bai Zhan SJ AU Part XIII:

Shen Jiu had heard of Su Xiyan.

https://twitter.com/bingjiuwus/status/1649495932713713664

Years ago, when Yue Qingyuan had been recovering in his sickbed and they reconciled at last, SJ had demanded he tell him _exactly_ what the hell the Siege of Bailu Mountain had been about, and why YQY had been involved when he was still a disciple.

The siege, as Qi-ge had told him, had been an ambush by the Four Great Sects to trap and imprison Tianlang-jun, the heavenly demon ruler of the Demon Realm, for he had seduced and corrupted the Head Disciple of Huan Hua Palace, SXY.

Though TLJ had largely left the Human Realm alone in the past, this act was all but a declaration of war against the jianghu, wasn't it?

Having fallen under the demon's spell, would SXY not give everything to her lover; her sect's techniques, their treasure houses and her fellow disciples to be consumed as meat? Hadn't she betrayed humanity itself... and done it all under TLJ's magnificent lure?

And so, sects great and small heeded the call of Palace Master Chen to stop the demon before his evil appetite spread any further, and he was lured towards Bailu Mountain on the mistaken belief he would meet his human lover there...

When in fact he was greeted by dozens and dozens of Huan Hua's trapping arrays and fifty of the jianghu's greatest cultivators...

and a young powerhouse of a disciple who finally made the demon's knees buckle when his seniors failed, and gave them enough time to imprison TLJ under Bailu in time.

(As for what happened to SXY? PMC had claimed she had committed suicide in shame after he confronted her about her misdeeds, and he had buried her somewhere in secret as one last gesture of goodwill from teacher to student.

And what a nice story that would have been, if any of it had been true.)

"I confess, I've been lying low the past few years," SXY said in a deep voice as she entered the room, giving everyone a good look while never taking her guard off her old teacher.

"And I certainly had no intentions of revealing myself again to the world this early... if ever." She smiled. "But how fortunate that I happened to be nearby when I heard the news yesterday about what happened at the wedding of my benefactors', and I knew I couldn't sit still.

Debts must be repaid."

"Benefactor...?" PMC said incredulously. "What in the world are you talking about?"

SXY eyed him with amused contempt. "You must be dying to know how I'm still alive and breathing, Shifu," she said with vicious calm. "Especially when you poisoned me in the Water Prison and let me run off into the wilderness, knowing it would kill both me and my child."

"What?" said Lord Liu, looking disgusted, while Abbot Wu Chen only bowed his head solemnly and Abbess Yi murmured a prayer under her breath.

"Palace Master, you told everyone Junior Su killed herself out of _shame_ when you found out she had given into Tianlung-jun. What the hell did you mean by that?"

"This master meant exactly that," PMC snapped. "Xiyan betrayed me - us, humanity. She had succumbed to Tianlang-jun and was giving him Huan Hua's most precious secrets - "

"Lies," SXY said.

The PMC opened his mouth again, but she cut him off, raising her hand at the same time: "I, Su Xiyan of Huan Hua Palace, vow that I have never once shared intimate knowledge of my sect with Tianlang-jun nor his followers, or may the heavens strike me down and obliterate my soul.

The only _sin_ I ever committed with Tianlang-jun was by taking him to plays and puppet shows and adventures around the Human Realm... all which I did under _Shifu's_ direct orders." She raised a brow.

"Or are you going to pretend you didn't tell me to get close to Tianlang-jun and make him succumb to _me_?"

"I would never," the PMC spat, turning red with outrage. "What reason would I have to commit some folly, to order you to do something so outrageous?"

"I really don't know myself." SXY smiled. "But that's why the Scrying Bowl of Clarity exists, does it? I invite everyone present to look through my memories.

_All_ of them, from the day Shifu ordered me to approach Tianlang-jun and compel him to me... to the day he locked me up in the Water Prison and forced me to to choose between my own survival or the innocent child in my belly...

and made me drink a poison that would have killed us both had I not run into the most unlikely of saviours on my dying breath." At this she turned to SJ and Liu Qingge, her smile softening into genuine warmth.

"These two young men saw only a dying woman by the river and gave it their all to rid me of my poison and save my worthless life... and without accepting anything in thanks for it either."

At this Lord and Lady Liu both looked at them with astonishment, asking in their eyes: _and when was this exactly?_

"When A'Jiu came to stay with us for the summer, and we went exploring all over the place, " LQG said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"We just knew she was in trouble. Obviously we had no idea back then that she - Lady Su," he corrected, when SXY smiled at him, "was involved in something crazy as this."

"I - I'll say," Lady Liu said helplessly. "You should have told us!"

LQG shrugged. "It didn't seem like she didn't want anyone talking about her. Besides, she was safe when we left her."

"And the babe?" Abbess Yi asked. "Forgive me for prying, Benefactor Su, but did the child survive as well?"

"Ah." SXY's expression froze, and she swallowed. "My child, he... it was a terrible labour, and I - "

She stopped mid-sentence, overwhelmed, and SJ's heart dropped like a lead weight. Hadn't the baby been fine when they'd bid her farewell? Had something happened to him after?

Had they... really left SXY behind then, unwitting to the fact her newborn would die soon after?

"Benefactor Su, do not weep," Abbess Yi said, bowing her head. "This old lady will pray for the child's eternal soul."

"As will I," Abbot Wu Chen said. "May he come back to you in another lifetime."

"Thank you," SXY said with a wavering smile, only for a disgusted laugh to burst out of PMC at that very moment.

"Abbess, Abbott, you forget one thing; demons have no soul," PMC said. "The _child_ Xiyan wanted so badly to beget would have been a malformed, repulsive thing like its father, an abomination that feeds on human flesh and only seeks to destroy.

You should be grateful that it's dead now, that it could not leech and suck blood from its mother no longer. The day there are no demons in this world will be a blessing indeed!"

"My son," SXY said, drawing her sword, "has a _name._"

She pointed her sword at PMC and said, "Palace Master Chen - no, Chen Hu - I accuse you of deceiving the entire jianghu and attacking Tianlang-jun under false pretenses.

How many cultivators died that day believing they were fighting to save humanity when _you_ were the one who started the entire chain of events!

You ordered me to seduce Tianlang-jun, to use him to weaken the other sects and make Huan Hua prosper, and when I could no longer obey your every command, you repaid my years of devotion and filial behaviour to you by torturing me and trying to kill me!"

"Filial behaviour? You call yourself filial?" PMC roared back, long golden sleeves whipping as his qi began to spark around him in fury. Even SJ took a step back in alarm and LQG pulled him close, hand on Cheng Luan's hilt.

"What filial disciple of mine would forsake me to run away with a demon, to sacrifice everything I'd given to you in exchange for becoming Tianlang-jun's whore!

I would have given you all of Huan Huan Palace if you had just stayed obedient by my side, yet you spat in my face and showed off that monster in your stomach as if it meant anything to me - as if I didn't want it dead to begin with!

If I'd known from the beginning how you would continue to spite me even to this day, I should have broken your neck the day I got my hands on you!"

The poise and majesty PMC had once shown to the world was gone, destroyed by a red-faced, raging man who looked less like the leader of one of the Four Great Sects and more a madman screaming nonsense on the street as people walked by, ignoring him all the while.

Yet only a fool would think him impotent because of his outburst, and PMC lunged for SXY with brilliant light streaming out from his sleeves, intent on killing her.

She stepped back and blocked the beam of pure spiritual energy that crashed down onto her with her sword, but just barely, the blade _cracking_ from the impact, then shattering entirely.

Then a lot of things happened immediately, and all at once:

Lord Liu grabbed SXY by the back of her robes and pulled her back from the beam of light just as it was about to slice through her body; instead, it just _sliced through the walls and floors_ and left a gap as it simply vaporised everything in its path.

SJ cursed and threw himself and LQG back from the chaos; he didn't have anything on him, not even a smoke talisman to block PMC's line of sight if the old man wanted to gut him too.

LQG drew Cheng Luan, ready for action. "Don't do anything stupid!" SJ screamed at him. "Just protect A'Niang and A'Die!"

"But - "

"We're outclassed here, Qingge! Come on!" And so, he dragged LQG by the collar to where Lord and Lady Liu had backed into a corner with SXY.

Abbot Wu Chen then immediately flung up a protective barrier to surround them from further attacks while Abbess Yi flashed a dozen hand signals in a row and cast out shields of pure qi to block and redirect PMC's light beams away from everyone.

Instead of cutting through flesh the beams cut through rock and beam and column, destabilising not only the welcoming hall but the _entire fucking Liu manor_ as the rafters began to groan and slide, no longer tethered to anything -

And then the world went mute.

It was if they had suddenly become submerged in water; time itself slowed, grew sluggish. Everyone was moving in slow motion, then barely moving at all.

It took SJ what felt like a century just to turn his head and see what had become of PMC, light streaming out from his eyes and mouth as if the accumulated power of hundreds of years of qi wanted to escape his mortal coin and flee towards the heavenly realm at just that moment.

He no longer looked in control of himself, his visage twisted in a horrific grimace, beams of light frozen around him in a thousand bent angles like a fly trapped in a web of glass and prism, unable to move lest he be vaporised to a bloody mist and his very soul obliterated.

And in the surreal nightmare they had all suddenly found themselves in, the only person who could still stand and move and _speak_ was Yue Qingyuan.

_Oh, Qi-ge_, SJ thought with hysteria as he watched YQY walk towards PMC, beams passing through his body as if they _were_ made of light alone and not the qi of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

No wonder the old Qiong Ding Peak Lord had dragged him along to Bailu, if his power had been even one-tenth of what it was like now.

Quietly, somberly, as if demonstrating for a class of children, YQY pressed the puncture points in PMC's body until the beams disappeared one by one, the old man falling slump in his arms.

Then he spoke.

"Abbot Wu," YQY said, as calm and terrifyingly empty as SJ had _ever_ seen him. "The manor is unstable and this area will soon collapse. I will lessen Xuan Su's range of influence so everyone can leave safely, but you'll have to hold up your barrier the whole way through.

Please, nod if you understand me."

It could have been a second; it could have been a thousand years. But finally, Abbot Wu nodded in YQY's direction.

Then time began to flow again.

SJ could move again, and he stumbled out of the welcoming hall and the Liu manor itself in a daze with everyone else, holding onto LQG's hand the entire time, terrified that if he let go he would never be able to touch his husband again.

Only when they had made it all out, even a drained Master Hu carrying Qiu Haitang's unconscious body over his back - and not just _them_ in the welcoming hall, but dozens of Liu family members and servants in other parts of the manor,

all who looked similarly lost and disturbed about what had just unfolded as they milled in nervous groups in the courtyard - did YQY step out from under the threshold, the last one out - and a moment after, Xuan Su let go, and the manor collapsed behind him.

SJ wanted to collapse too, lie down in the grass and not do anything else for the next five hundred years. Surviving _that_ ordeal had been enough.

He... he would have to settle for leaning against LQG instead, and being glad that both of them had made their wedding out alive.

Yeah. That might just do the trick.

(Just kidding; after this, they were _never_ leaving Bai Zhan again.)

*

The main Liu manor having been destroyed, everyone had reconvened at the family's medical pavilion for the aftermath. Surprisingly there were very few injuries among those who had escaped the manor, to their relief.

Most people were just shaken and traumatised, understandably, by experiencing the might of Xuan Su for the first time... and that was when the sword was _protecting them._

SJ shuddered in his seat, just remembering the whole thing. At twenty-five, YQY was the youngest of the head of the Great Sects by hundreds of years, but after this overwhelming display, no one would dare challenge his might ever again.

Really, if he didn't know it was his foolish Qi-ge underneath it all...

Well, he thought dimly as he saw SXY, looking pale but resolute again, as she spoke to YQY and Abbot Wu and Abbess Yi... there were certainly going to be some changes in the jianghu from now on.

He just... hoped he wouldn't be involved in them from now on. He'd had enough of being at the heart of the drama for a lifetime, thanks.

*

"Are you doing alright?"

SJ didn't expect SXY to approach him and LQG again; they were just about to head back to SJ's guest house for the night, since their marital courtyard had very much been destroyed too. They'd head back to Cang Qiong with Qi-ge in the morning, and then...

"Lady Su," SJ said, bowing his head respectfully. Then he thought about it. "Or is it Palace Master Su now?"

"Ah, you heard," she said wryly.

"What's going to happen to the old man now?" LQG said, not bothering with pleasantries.

"Alive and well-bound," SXY said. "But perhaps not for much longer."

"What do you mean?" SJ frowned. "Is it because the Scrying Bowl was destroyed in the attack? Will Huan Hua's cultivators not believe you over him?"

"No, they will." SXY smiled. "Especially as I have Abbot Wu's testimony to support me. You may not know this, but before you two saved me back then, I ran into him along the way. He helped me escape my former sectmates who tried to capture me again.

Sect Leader Yue has also been quite insistent about supporting me, even if the sect elders protest against my becoming the head of Huan Hua. You have a very good shixiong on your hands."

"We do," SJ said, although he probably meant it differently than she did.

He added, "Can we ask what your plans are from now on?"

SXY's lip twitched. "Would you be particularly appalled to know I fully intend to free Tianlang-jun from Bailu?"

"That's - " LQG started. "Incredibly reckless and dangerous. Won't he _actually_ try to kill everyone this time?"

"It's not like that." SXY shook her head. "I've... spoken to him over the years. Visited him too, if you can believe it. I've been slowly undoing his seals as well, but there was only so much I could do on my own. Now I'll have my old sect's resources at hand."

"Even so," SJ said doubtfully. "He won't be... angry at what happened to him? How can you be so sure he won't seek revenge?"

"Because," SXY said, "I promised him Shifu's head."

They both gaped at the implication, yet she just shrugged and smiled. "My husband is a good man. He also deserves catharsis."

_That_, SJ thought helplessly, refusing to imagine what someone like TLJ might do to PMC when he finally had the old man in his reach -

Wasn't even his problem, so he wasn't going to waste time thinking about it anymore.

"Uh huh," LQG said, sounding equally unconvinced yet uninterested. "Well, whatever he chooses to do, tell him to stay far from Cang Qiong in the future."

"Sure," SXY said with a laugh.

"We owe you both a debt as it is."

It was growing dark, and SJ could tell his husband was restless. "Thank you for coming to support us, Palace Master Su," he said.

"And thank you, for everything you two have done for me and my family." SXY bowed low, far too low for a senior of her ranking to her juniors. "Me, my husband, and our son... we're all grateful to you."

Oh. That. SJ swallowed. "I'm sorry about your loss."

"My loss?" SXY looked puzzled.

"Your child," LQG said. "We tried really hard to save him... I didn't realise he didn't make it. We're sorry about that."

"What? Binghe? No, my little boy is just fine," SXY said, laughing a little. "You'll have to forgive me; I was embellishing a little there. You saw how Shifu talked about him when he wasn't even born yet; I couldn't be sure other people wouldn't feel the same way.

Not to mention that if things had gone sideways, I wanted him to stay safe with Hui-ayi..."

"Wait, what," LQG said flatly. "Your son is _alive_?"

"Very much so," SXY said. "And a sweet, lively boy. It would please me greatly if he met you one day."

No doubt. "We'd like that too," SJ said, and SXY bowed again in thanks before finally bidding them farewell.

"God," LQG said after she left. "I just want to go home to Bai Zhan and not have any more ridiculous crap happen to us for a lifetime. This was supposed to be our _fucking wedding_."

SJ giggled at his frustrated he was. "Me too," he said sympathetically. "Maybe we should have just eloped."

"Yeah," LQG huffed. "We definitely should have. We'd have skipped so much bullshit along the way too."

And then SJ laced fingers with him, and they walked back to the guest house in the dark just as the moon began to rise in the night.

And for once, the world let them be.

END OF PART XIII

(random late night update, haha! Finally, the climax is OVER; the truth has been revealed, wigs thoroughly snatched, and tea spilleth over 😂 SJ and LQG were basically bystanders here, but eh, this isn't their rodeo so w/e. YQY was very cool though, wasn't he?

And I definitely forgot about Master Hu and QHT until the very last moment, this is why I don't like writing group scenes 💀

Believe it or not, we have one more main part and then the story is over!! It's gonna be a denouement chapter because yeah, these kids need a moment to breathe after all that, they're freaking exhausted 😭

BUT I do have plans for two extras, one that's going to be a multi-part adventure and a fun look at older married liujiu hehe!! I've got other writing to take care of at the moment, but we'll be revisiting this AU soon enough, I promise!!

So yes, one more chapter and then this wild and wacky AU will finally be over!! Thanks for reading!!)