What if it had been Shi Yue to wake up in the past and remember all the memories of his death? What if he returned to the time before Xie Yi was taken away by the Demonic Sect?

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Shi Yue was running with a face so strained that the other teachers broke out into a panic.

“What is the matter”, his master had called, running right after him. “What is wrong? You have to rest!”

He had just awoken from a comatose state he had been in for a week and immediately jumped up to run out, not even fixing his clothes. Not saying a single word.

But Shi Yue had no mind to care for him. He jumped right onto his sword and flew towards the city in his fastest speed, jaw clenched.

When he had woken up, things were different.

The way things were going to turn out - he absolutely couldn’t allow it.

He had to kill that child. Kill him before he could grow into the monster he was.

He barely knew enough to locate Xie Yi.

He knew the city, at least. There he could ask around. A child with red eyes wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. No matter what, there had to be hints to be found.

The citizens grew frightened at the sight of a dishevelled Grandmaster appearing with a stern face.

“I need to find someone”, Shi Yue bellowed, his eyebrows lowered darkly.

Behind him, his master - the sect leader - jumped to the ground as well and walked forward to reach out for him.

Shi Yue shook the arm off his shoulders.

He couldn’t. 

Right now, he couldn’t. Not before this was settled.

“I need to find a child, a few years old. Black hair and red eyes.”

The people cowered, falling to their knees in fright at his chilling aura.

However, their fear didn’t stop them from wanting to help one of the cultivators that always protected them.

“There is a street-rat like that”, a man dared to stutter. “I’ve seen him not too long ago! He was in the street behind the bakery over there!” 

His arm trembled as he raised it.

Shi Yue fiercely turned around and began to hurry towards where the man pointed.

“Shi Yue, what is wrong”, he heard his master ask. The man followed right at his side. “This isn’t like you.”

“It surely isn't”, Shi Yue growled.

He had lost his master due to natural causes, but the pain of losing others to Xie Yi was livid. Including… his own death.

The demon had to die. Now.

Reaching out with his spiritual energy, he easily found the single humanoid being in the net of streets right behind the bakery and strode towards it.

Just around the corner.

He pulled his sword.

The sect leader started in surprise and stopped dead in his tracks, but Shi Yue went right around the corner-

and stopped.

The little one that looked up at him was utterly confused by the sudden appearance of the man before him and froze like a startled deer.

The tiny, dirty hands were still tightly curled around some kind of rag  - maybe an old blanket - that he was trying to drag out of a pile of trash higher than his head.

The child blinked in awe, his jaw dropping.

Shi  Yue stared at him, complex emotions instantly washing away the blazing fury he had felt.

The little boy blinked his eyes, coloured like the sunset, and let go of the blanket.

Staggering, his thin and malnourished body moved to stand in front of Shi Yue. He had to place his head into his neck to look up at the cultivator.

“You are a cultivator”, he said, his voice rough and coarse but excited. It wasn’t a question and more of a fascinated statement.

“I am”, Shi Yue said, swallowing hard.

This? This was the monster that raided the lands?

Of course he knew that this was a very young version of the monster, but he hadn’t expected-

Hadn’t expected such pure eyes.

The child circled him and curiously reached out for the drawn sword. Shi Yue twitched it away.

“Are you not afraid I might cut you down?”, he threatened darkly, allowing his feelings to take over again and seep through his words.

Maybe unsettled by his disciple’s unusual behaviour, the sect leader waited at the side, watching the situation.

The child looked up again, his face nonchalant. “Know you might. Does not change anything.”

He reached out for the sword again, fascination in his eyes. “I like swords. I want one too. If I had one, I could keep everyone I don’t like away. Biting isn’t good enough...”

He smiled. It was weirdly strained, unfitting for his bright eyes. “If I was a cultivator, no one could hurt me! I bet you have it really good.”

Shi Yue frowned darkly.

Without really wanting to, he dropped to his knee to be on one height with the boy and spoke with narrowed eyes. “A sword is not to randomly hurt and dominate. It is to protect others.”

The child’s eyes widened. A complete lack of understanding was written all over his face.

“But”, he said slowly. “I can’t protect others if I’m not protected, right? I need to protect myself first but I don’t have claws or teeth like a beast.”

He raised his hands up high and went onto his tiptoes to try and show a large height.

“Is it true that you cultivators have thiiis much to eat? I heard you can have whole mountains of food!” He gave the same empty smile as before. “And blankets!”

He turned his head around, ignoring Shi Yue, and staggered back to the rag he had been dragging at.

Shi Yue felt his face twist uncomfortably.

“He’s not keeping his thoughts together”, the sect leader muttered as he walked over before pulling a confused child away from the rag and placing a hand on his forehead. “He’s burning up. Child, are you cold?”

“Not at all”, the child chirped, his eyes wandering up to the sect leader and back to the rag. Then he tilted his head. “Oh. I don’t need a blanket then, right? I’m not even cold.”

The blanket completely forgotten, he turned and tried to walk but stumbled with the hand on his forehead. He made a confused sound like a small animal and blinked in a daze.

“Shi Yue, what is it that you want with this child?”, the sect leader asked. “Because if you need him for more than a day, we will have to hurry. The heat is frying his brain. He won’t survive long like this.”

Shi Yue bit his lip until he tasted iron.

He would die soon, anyway. He did not even need to kill him.

“Take him along”, he forced out, unable to control the hate in his voice but also unable to watch the scene.

That was not the one whom he hated.

The sect leader nodded gravely.

Three days later, Shi Yue found himself walking into a small room after Master Chen had notified him of the boy’s awakening.

To his surprise, he found the boy not in the bed but rather cowering under it.

“What are you doing down there”, Shi Yue asked, leaning on the ground with one arm and looking at the shadow that stared back at him.

“I did not break in”, the child sternly responded, the nervous trembling of his voice too obvious to Shi Yue’s ears.

“I know. I brought you here.”

The boy paused for a moment.

“I-I am not responsible for the sheets!”

Shi Yue turned his body to look up at the bed. Due to the boy’s high fever he had sweated a lot and the sheets looked somewhat dirty.

He pursed his lips and looked down again. “Of course not. It’s normal to sweat when you are sick.”

Silence fell upon them.

Shi Yue reached towards the cupboard and pulled the bowl he had brought in over to himself before placing it on the ground.

The soup wasn’t heavy but very nutritious.

The child’s stomach growled loudly.

He stared at the bowl like a wild cat, his eyes wide, but his body showed no signs of moving.

“Come and eat.”

“I can't pay.”

“...I know. Come and eat. It’s free, you don’t need to give anything in return.”

At that, the boy was out from under the bed before Shi Yue could count to three.

Starving, the child devoured the bowl and licked it clean, his sunset eyes shining brightly.

Once finished, he held it out to Shi Yue and smiled so widely that his eyes turned to slit moons.

“Thank you”, he chirped. “It was really, really tasty!”

Shi Yue took the bowl.

They were both sitting on the ground, a weird pair. Shi Yue felt the turmoil in his heart at the sight.

The child was staring at him motionlessly, the purity in his eyes painful.

“What is your name”, Shi Yue asked, strained. Maybe it was a coincidence.

“Xie Yi.”

...Or not. But how? How did a little child that thanked a stranger for a bowl of soup turn into such a thing?

“Would you work for food?”, he tested.

The child nodded his head up and down like a chicken. “Un!”

Shi Yue breathed in and out slowly. He would place a collar on the child and watch him for a while. One month he’d keep an eye on him and then decide how to proceed.

“You’ll stay by my side and follow my orders. In return, you will get food and a place to stay.”

“Okay”, Xie Yi agreed with a sweet, high laugh.

However, Shi Yue regretted his decision more and more with every single day.

He stayed in a separate house, farther away from the sect, hardly ever away from the child so he’d notice anything weird.

But the only thing he noticed was how Xie Yi bloomed.

He looked so innocent, so peaceful.

What had happened? How could any of this be?

The day he got his answer was only a few before the deadline he had set for himself.

Xie Yi had vanished and returned after an hour.

Shi Yue stared at the boy in horror.

He was bloody all over, his arm broken and hanging down limply, twisted.

But the child was smiling like an angel, dragging his body through the door.

“I caught it for you”, he said proudly, dragging his other arm forward to show what he was pulling after him.

The boar was a small one, but huge when compared to Xie Yi.

The way its head was bashed in showed clearly that its skull had been broken in with a blunt object - most likely a stone.

Xie Yi was bleeding all over the ground and kept himself on his feet with pure willpower. Nonetheless, he presented his gift. Delighted despite his exhaustion.

Shi Yue opened his mouth, feeling frozen.

The boar that was messing up his yard.

He could easily get rid of it himself and simply hadn’t done so yet. But he had said it out loud - that he wished someone would take care of it. 

Mere grumbling and nonsensical complaints but the child had taken him seriously.

“You are hurt!”, Shi Yue exclaimed. 

“Un”, the child agreed. “But I got it for you!”

“Why would you do that”, Shi Yue hissed, reaching out to lift Xie Yi up and carry him towards the bed. The more he cut open the ragged clothes, the whiter his face got.

“Because you said you want someone to get rid of it”, Xie Yi said in an empty tone, stating it as a fact. The smile on his face did not reach his eyes. “You are kind to me, so I want to repay it.”

"Not when you get hurt!"

"But I did get it for you", Xie Yi insisted. Nothing else seemed to matter to him.

Shi Yue stiffened.

Xie Yi never disobeyed him. Never. And now he was learning the extent of his absolute obedience.

“If you want to repay me”, he whispered, looking right into Xie Yi’s eyes, “then take care of yourself. Become healthy so that you can protect others. Isn’t that what you said? You have to protect yourself first. Start with that now.”

Outside, a white flake slowly made its way towards the ground.

Xie Yi’s face slowly lost its stiff smile, leaving behind nothing but an uncertain, confused little face.

With lowered eyes, the child nodded.

“Okay.”

Shi Yue reached out to place a hand on his head.

Xie Yi jolted heavily and stayed tense as Shi Yue carefully stroked over it.

He had forgotten or maybe avoided to accept.

The him right now was different than the him who had died, since he had gained a set of memories.

But the one before him was also different from the Demonic Sect leader. He could form him and make sure that these events would not happen.

“I’ll be here to protect you”, Shi Yue soothed him. “As long as you promise me to become a good person, I will always watch over you as well.”

“I don’t know what a good person is”, Xie Yi admitted. “But I’ll do what you tell me. You know what’s best.”

The Grandmaster didn’t respond. 

He stood up to get a bottle of pills and fed it to the child.

As night broke, white began to wash over the world. Higher and higher it fell, covering up everything bad.

Shi Yue started the fireplace and walked over to the broad bed where the little one was half drowning in.

He pushed the blanket aside and moved to lay beside the frightened boy who made moves to leave the bed.

Shi Yue pulled him gently back by the collar.

“I’m occupying your bed”, Xie Yi squeaked.

“Wrong”, Shi Yue rejected. “I’m sharing it with you. Now stop struggling and get some sleep.”

The child made mewling noises as Shi Yuue bluntly pulled him into his arms, making sure not to touch the broken arm.

Wrapping the tiny figure in his embrace, he felt it slowly relax.

“I don’t want you to be mad”, he heard him mumble. “What if I move in my sleep?”

“Don’t worry, Xie Yi”, Shi Yue soothingly said, nuzzling the fluffy head under his chin. “I will watch out so that you don’t ever do anything that will make me angry or disappoint me.”

The tiny figure in his arms hummed and, after some hesitation, curled a single finger around Shi  Yue’s robe.

The cultivator did not need to wait long until the other one’s breathing was slow and even. The child had a high body temperature, feeling like a tiny heater.

He closed his eyes with furrowed brows.

How often had he heard the leader of the Demonic Sect use that phrase? The elders said. It was always, always, the elders said.

So had it been them who had picked Xie Yi up the last time?

If he would have not survived much longer with that fever, did they heal him? Did they earn his stupid, single-minded obedience? The trust that was nothing other than blind devotion?

The crackling of the fireplace filled the room, the lights flickering on Shi Yue’s face.

“I’ll give you your second chance”, he sighed and a weight lifted off his heart with the words.

If he did not have to kill a child, he would prefer not to.

And tomorrow, he would go out to play with the boy. Build a snowman, maybe, and make figurines of ice.

He could make them some warm food and they could eat before the fireplace.

For now, Xie Yi would have nothing to do but grow. Once he had his time as a child, Shi Yue would begin to teach him and make sure that he would become a good cultivator.

But all of that could wait.

Shi Yue adjusted his hold and Xie Yi grumbled in his sleep.

“I don’t believe in a destiny that can’t be changed”, Shi Yue whispered as he closed his eyes to rest as well.

Story-spoiler-free Spoiler