Chapter Text
The last thing he remembered was reaching out to Zhuzhi-Lang as they both fell towards the rapids below them. So he could not contain his surprise and confusion when he had woken up inside a cavern. He could still hear the rushing waves of water but the sound was muddled.
Shen Yuán pushed himself up on his arms with a groan, resting on his elbows to survey his surroundings. With a grimace, he pulled off a talisman paper that was resting on his chest. It was dark from what he could see of the shadowy area that had not been lit up by what he could only assume was bioluminescent moss that creeped over the walls like a glowing vein.
In the dim blue light of the moss, he could spot the coil of his scaled friend a good distance away from him. He reached out with his arm to pat at the ground beside him that didn’t feel as damp.
“I...” Shen Yuán tried to say, surprised that his throat wasn’t as dry as he expected.
“Cultivator Shen, you are awake!” Zhuzhi-Lang gasped, hissing out in surprise. The snake demon started to uncoil before their entire body flinched and started to circle back into a ball of intertwined scales. “Ah, this one must apologize.” Zhuzhi-Lang hung his head low, his yellow eye stood out in the glowing light of the cave yet it seemed so dim “If this lowly one wasn’t so hasty, then Cultivator Shen wouldn’t have gotten hurt because of this one. Forgive this one’s thoughtless actions.”
“Hey, what’s the need to be so formal?” Shen Yuán tried to make the mood lighter since the other man seemed so withdrawn and depressed. “And I’m not hurt?”
“Cultivator Shen is incorrect.” Zhuzhi-Lang’s sunlight colored eyes landed on him in a soft gaze. “This one caused many wounds to Cultivator Shen’s body.”
“We had fallen into the water and Cultivator Shen was cut by the rocks underneath the rapids. And this one was not able to stop Cultivator Shen from hitting his head against a rock.” Something in the snake demon’s voice broke mid sentence.
“If this one hadn’t...” Zhuzhi-Lang took in a shuddering breath, a soft hiss leaving past his lips. “This one was able to get us to this cave. Cultivator Shen had been asleep for many hours. This one tried to relieve his pain and give him as much comfort as this one could.”
Shen Yuán looked around the cave and noticed his warming talismans posted on the walls closest to him. His eyes trailed to his bag that was laying on its side open with the waterskin lying closest to him. He looked down at the discarded talisman he pulled off of him only to discover it was a warming talisman. Maybe that’s why his clothes were soft and dry despite the fact they had fallen into water.
Shen Yuán relaxed, slumping onto the cavern ground. “Oh.”
“This one cannot stand that h-he was the one who caused his friend harm,” Zhuzhi-Lang replied.
‘Navi, what happened? I feel like I’m missing something.’
[The fall into the river caused User Shen Yuán harm which made Zhuzhi-Lang’s sadness level rise due to guilt. Current Sadness points: 250.]
[User Shen Yuán can make Zhuzhi-Lang happier by giving him comfort!]
‘Okay, I’m not that great at talking but I can try.’ Shen Yuán breathed out, turning his head just in time to see his scaled friend shudder in the limited light of the cave.
“Look, the bridge thing was just a small mistake.” Shen Yuán waved his hand in the air casually like the mistake was nothing. “It didn’t throw us off our tracks that much. We can just get out with my sword and float to a nearby town if need be.”
“Due to this mistake, we have lost a day of progress.” Zhuzhi-Lang corrected him with a strict tone. “Cultivator Shen has not awakened for... a long time.” Zhuzhi-Lang looked up at him, his yellow eyes glistening in the light. “This one was very concerned.”
“Oh shit.” Shen Yuán mumbled, watching the coil grow tighter like the other was afraid that he was somehow mad at him. “Hey, don’t curl up and start growing mushrooms over there!” Zhuzhi-Lang raised his head slightly to glance at him. “So what if we miss a day? We can just make up for it when we get back on the journey.”
Zhuzhi-Lang didn’t respond verbally. But he could hear a hissing sigh escape from his lips.
Shen Yuán huffed. “Look, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I made mistakes that got myself hurt or put others in danger. That’s what it meant to be a disciple at a cultivation peak.”
That tight coil loosened upon his words. He continued, “You already know I worked at An Ding Peak, right? And if you thought that most of my work was paperwork, you would be correct.”
A muffled, raspy laugh made him smile.
“But the other half of being a cultivator, no matter which peak, is the missions that disciples take on.” Shen Yuán shook his head with a pitiful laugh thinking about all the useless missions that outweighed the interesting ones. “I can’t count the number of times that my team and I had barely escaped with our lives on some missions.”
Most of the missions he went on were more boring than not. Although it did provide good chances for cultivating points with Navi and getting samples from the flora around. However, he won’t forget the sex pollen collecting ones that Mu Qingfang often gave out so he could make antidotes and medicines to relieve the symptoms. He could count the number of times he had to stop other students from getting too close.
“And other missions... Well, they didn’t go as well as the others.”
Only a small portion of the missions he went on actually had a sense of danger. One mission, however, still haunted his mind to this day.
Disciple Yu was a younger disciple that reminded him so much of his younger sister. Even her perished screams matched the same of his sister’s when she had woken up from nightmares and needed her brother, needed him, to come in and rescue her.
The only difference is that he didn’t have the chance to comfort or save Yu before she got dragged into a tar pit by a vicious Sharp Beaked Tar Vulture. And now, he was the one suffering from nightmares that left him screaming for comfort from his sister, a sister he would probably never see again.
Shen Yuán sighed. “What I’m trying to say is that you should not let this mistake ruin the journey. You have to keep pushing forward no matter what.”
“But Cultivator Shen got injured because of—“
Shen Yuán interrupted before Zhuzhi-Lang could continue. “I got injured because I couldn’t help the situation as well as I thought I could!” Zhuzhi-Lang looked at him with a tilted head like he was still doubting his sword. “I can blame myself for getting myself hurt due to me not being strong enough or quick enough to deal with the situation.”
Zhuzhi-Lang looked pained. “Cultivator Shen, that wasn’t your fault.”
“And it wasn’t yours either!” The snake demon flinched back at the strong tone of his voice. He opened his mouth to say something, his fangs glimmering in the dim light. “Ah, ah! No buts!”
Zhuzhi-Lang’s mouth closed with a sad pop then he couldn’t help but notice a full body shudder down the scaled tail. He squinted, watching the demon shiver in the dark.
[Current Sadness Points: 240! Keep going, User Shen Yuán!]
“Ha,” Shen Yuán breathed out, surveying the shaking snake demon. He looked like he was freezing. “Why are you shaking?”
“Th-this one used the warming tali-talismans on Cultivator Sh-Shen to keep him from getting sick.” That one ‘sick’ had its ‘s’ extended far longer.
“No need for the formalness.” Shen Yuán corrected with a mumble, paying more attention to the way his voice was starting to noticeably shake. “Zhuzhi-Lang, don’t you think you need these talismans more?”
“T-this one—“
Shen Yuán frowned as the snake demon continued to shiver under his gaze and the absence of warmth. “Better yet, if you are freezing, why aren’t you closer to where all the warmth is?” He made a gesture to the immediate area around him.
“This—I slept in a circle around Cultivator Ss-Shen to keep him warm. This one s-s-slithered over here when he showed s-signs of waking.”
“Then come back.” Shen Yuán started. The snake demon froze where he was coiled, backing away with a low, sad hiss. “Oh for crying out loud.” Shen Yuán muttered under his breath, pushing himself up to finally sit up in the cavern. “Xizhi-Lang, come here.”
Zhuzhi-Lang still looked hesitant, shaking his head back and forth. His long hair looked disheveled the more he looked at it, like the demon had pulled at it sometime when he wasn’t paying attention. Did he worry himself too much when he was asleep? Ah, that doesn’t matter right now. He can’t continue this journey with a frozen snake!
“Come here. Now.” Shen Yuán ordered, wincing when Zhuzhi-Lang perked up.
[Current Sadness Points: 200! Keep going, User Shen Yuán!]
‘Why did he become less sad when being ordered? Did he find comfort in that?’
Softly, he tacked on, “Please.”
Slowly, Zhuzhi-Lang uncoiled, trembling on the ground as he slithered over to the warm spot tucked away amongst the rocky surroundings. Once the demon slithered his head inside, Shen Yuán could see a noticeable difference in the way the demon carried himself if that sigh of relief passing through their lips wasn’t enough indication.
“There. That’s better.” Shen Yuán reached out to swipe his hand over Zhuzhi-Lang’s hair. The snake demon froze under his touch yet leaned into it for just a moment, a brief moment which ended quickly with Zhuzhi-Lang pulling away quickly with a whispered apology.
[Current Sadness Points: 175! Keep going, User Shen Yuán!]
Shen Yuán waved it off and gestured to the area around them. “It's a little bare but this might as well be our bed for the night.”
Zhuzhi-Lang hissed harshly, his yellow eyes widening as he stared at him. “O-our?!”
[0.0 Current Sadness Points: 175! Keep going, User Shen Yuán!]
“Just relax, Xizhi-Lang.”Shen Yuán tried to reassure the demon who started to loosely coil around the area. Yet he frowned when he noticed how stiff the snake demon looked.
“Ah, you’re still shivering.” Was he still cold? Maybe the area wasn’t warm enough? Shen Yuán hummed, rubbing his chin in thought for a few moments. Then, he had an idea when he stared down at his robes. He replied, “Xizhi-Lang, maybe you can change into your small form? I think I can keep you warm like that.”
“How?” The snake demon asked.
“Body heat.” Zhuzhi-Lang gasped so quietly yet with such a high pitch that he thought he was transmigrated into a harem anime where he was about to be slapped by a girl who mistaken him for a pervert. Because that’s exactly how his gasp sounded. “Xizhi-Lang, you are way too cold to function. I have all the warming talismans up, but they are clearly making a dent on the cold rock beneath us because you wouldn’t still be shivering if it worked. So this is the best answer I have.”
[Current Sadness Points: 120! Keep going, User Shen Yuán! Give Zhuzhi-Lang more comfort!]
“I’m—this one is not shh—“ The other tried to protest.
“If not, I have to use the talismans on my other robe so you could use that as bedding for a nest.” There was that gasp again which sounded dramatically scandalized with the voice crack in the middle.
“Zhuzhi-Lang?” Shen Yuán raised an eyebrow at how the other was reacting. Was the idea of using a spare robe that bad? He didn’t have any better bedding, Xizhi!
Zhuzhi-Lang gently slithered to him, his scaled body circle around him. He watched as the snake lowered his head to him. “This one w-will do what is best to continue forward.”
Then, in a slow blink of an eye, Zhuzhi-Lang had shrunk down into his smaller snake form. Shen Yuán bit down on a smile at the familiar sight of little Jade.
“Alright. Looks like it's back to our situation in the beginning, huh?” He lowered his hand to softly pet his scales. He allowed Little Jade to slither into his hand and laid back down on the cavern floor.
[Current Sadness Points: 100!]
With a sigh, he grabbed at his bag that was stuck in a corner to pull out his spare robes. He fluffed them up and arranged it beside his head.
It took a few minutes to get both of them comfortable with Zhuzhi-Lang settled in the bedding made of his robes with him resting his head right next to it. Yet despite his attempt at making the nest, his snake friend couldn’t keep still. “Hmm? Are you not comfortable?”
His snake friend stopped moving and apparently curled up in a coil out of spite just from his words. Yet that spiteful coil ends up unraveling almost immediately.
“Did you want me to do something?” Shen Yuán asked which made his friend look up at him, almost longingly. “Yes?”
“What is it?” Zhuzhi-Lang bobbed his head. Shen Yuán took a moment to start questioning his friend who used their entire scaled body to communicate. “Petting? No. Did you need my outer robe too to make it—No. Okay. Talking?... Yes?” He almost laughed at how quickly his friend was bobbing their head. “Okay, I guess I can talk about something.”
“Um, I have more sect stories since I did live there for several years before I got kicked out. I can focus on those.” Shen Yuán hummed, moving his hands to cross them underneath his head for cushion. He said, “Oh, I can tell you how I ended up having musical lessons on Qing Jing peak after Shen-Shibo discovered I had musical cultivation.” He grinned mischievously at his snake friend who had slithered closer to him. “He always made comments on how Shang Qinghua, my Shizun at the time, should have set the lessons up sooner.”
Slowly, he started to relay the story to his snake friend who coiled beside him. He was somewhere near the part where Shen Qingqiu showed up at An Ding peak when he felt a presence drawing closer to him. He glanced to see Zhuzhi-Lang slithering to situate himself in the bend of his arm and part of his robe sleeve.
[Current Sadness Points: 75!]
He smiled as he continued talking, detailing how confused he was that he had to take classes each week at the Qing aging peak when he wasn’t busy with work or mission. With each word, it felt like Zhuzhi-Lang grew closer to him. It eventually got to the point where he was describing how he accidentally made an instrument when he interrupted himself with a laugh when his snake friend slithered to his chest and coiled up there.
“Are you warm yet?” He asked his snake friend who hissed softly in response.
“Good,” Shen Yuán mumbled. He pulled his arm away from behind his head to tug at his outer robes. He gently laid part of his robe over Zhuzhi-Lang as far as he could. And, almost like it was instinct for him, Zhuzhi-Lang dug his nose into his clothed chest with his snout.
[Current Sadness Points: 50!]
He chuckled, muttering under his breath. “Silly, Little Jade. Hm? Silly, Xizhi-Lang.”
Slowly, he trailed off from his story as he started to fall asleep. He heard the system beep with satisfaction B-points as he started to fall into a deep slumber. Nothing but the distant sounds of water and a low hum of hisses drifting him away to dreams.