I had a fanfic prompt that was essentially banished to the shadow realm in my mind. I already had it posted on my Twitter account more than 2 years ago. I only remembered it because of @kimbapchan part 2 of their sssvs fic prompt where Bingge goes back in time to "obtain" his own "nice shizun".
Here's the basic premise:
Realizing the nice shizun isn't here Bingge goes back in time to get "proper" revenge. Only to realize, nothing is as it seemed the first time. SJ originally had tried to teach him to cultivate.
Ning Yingying isn't as innocent as she appears. The people he originally trusted are hiding something. And the HHPM is a lot creepier than he remembers. Confronted with truths he's been originally unaware of he uses Xin Mo's last reminent of power to turn back time except it doesn't work.
This time, there are no do-overs. He's stuck in this time-line forever. XM broken, Lou Bingge forced to confront his own mind after realizing his memories don't match up with the actual events in honest clarity.
Without XM whispering dark words into his head he has no excuse - no reason to deny what's right in front of him. The sheer weight of it causes his originally all powerful heavenly demon blood to corrode his insides. Stripping any residue of his human cultivation to filth.
He's felt something similar but not on this level. Heart demons, the bouts of insanity he's been having are heart demons. He remembers a rouge cultivator describing this once before he stripped her bare. The heavy imbalance of qi made it hard to recognize her voice until she finally stopped screaming.
It started getting worse the longer he held the sword, but XM was his easiest access to power and despite his refusal to admit it he enjoyed it too much to destroy it himself it did make travel difficult. He couldn't keep his head out of the fog waking up bloody, disheveled, and covered in the scent of sex.
It happened so often he eventually stopped getting surprised when a new faceless - uninteresting woman was crushed beneath his body in a tangle of limbs. Women begin to blur with each other when they all end up in the same place. Wet, sobbing profusely, and screaming their head off by the middle.
It was a surprise when some actually demanded he married them, but that went away when he heard talks of honor and responsibilities. It became worse when he took the title of demon lord. Families rich, poor, cultivator and otherwise practical threw their daughters at him.
Something about appeasing a petty lord?
It didn't matter when there were only a few and it didn't matter when there were so many other "wives" or even when they got killed ran away or take their own lives for his attention. He could find more, there are always more.
What broke him out his foggy stuppor was Shen jiu, his former tormentor and shizun wailing profusely at the sight of his shattered spiritual sword. The man didn't cry when he was whipping, beaten, stabbed, touched, tortured, torn limb from limb, but a sword. A sword he apparently held with such regard he swallowed the broken bits to take his own life.
It didn't even feel satisfying, just sad. This sad broken man was SJ, the peak lord capable of shredding warriors demon and human alike? What happened to the inherent power, the eyes that could freeze someone solid?
This isn't fun. It's even worse now when he waited months only for this sad thing to turn into a weaping spirit and not a vengeful one like he hoped. It was down right insulting when NYY snuck in to talk to him in between his "official" visits like he was stupid. Does she think I'm blind?
He expected her to laugh at SJ's plight, maybe declare his punishment worthy of him. Not crying, most definitely not apologizing for not telling the truth. SJ didn't appear to hate her or any of the women in the palace outside of the Hua Huan palace princess, but she was the only one who still took pleasure in torturing him.
It all came to ahead when NYY along with the other wives and their eldest children - (why aren't these brats dead yet?) poisoned him, and ambushed him in the middle of a court meeting he already mentally checked out of 10 minutes in. He was run through with at least 24 different weapons. His demon blood unable to close his wounds and defend himself from the final blow made by none other than Ning Ying herself.
XM was all he had left now, channeling the dreggs of his dwindling cultivation burned from the inside out. He only managed to buy himself half a second before it glowed with power. He had trouble bracing himself when even Mobei Jun tried to take a slice at him. Why was he still mad?
(BTW there is no shen yuan in this au. I kind of felt that keeping him would invalidate any actual effort people had to make to order to see shen jiu as a person.)
Should I continue?
Voting ended onFeb 12