There’s something seriously wrong with him; Cheng Kong finds himself increasingly aware of the fact. He tries to put it well out of his mind too, and yet⸺

Bai Mingyue has chosen Jiao Ziyu, and as much as Cheng Kong finds the other’s taste questionable, he’s by no means displeased – a definite change of heart since the thought had originally occurred to him. If anything, then Cheng Kong is happy with the other’s choice, even if he does recognise that happiness is not a suitable emotion for the occasion. And yet⸺

With Bai Mingyue officially cured from his affliction, there’s no longer any need for Yi Yeguang to take care of him. And should such a need still remain, then it would be Jiao Ziyu’s job to deal with it from now on, freeing up Yi Yeguang’s schedule for other things – like sleeping, training, and taking part in spars.

Today, Yi Yeguang is not in attendance however, and Cheng Kong tries not to let it affect him. There’s no real guarantee that Yi Yeguang would keep coming after all, and what right does Cheng Kong have to develop expectations? None, he has none.

Taking charge of afternoon practice proves a decent distraction however, and Cheng Kong dedicates himself wholeheartedly to it. His disciples are after all doing their best, so why shouldn’t he do the same?

Those fluttering feelings are unwanted, and he must not let them distract him from his duties. It wouldn’t do to be distracted – at best, it’s disrespectful, and at worst, dangerous. As such, he makes an effort to empty his head of unnecessary thoughts, going through the motions with his trusted blade, Zhènglíng. But then⸺

He stills midway through a strike, finding something familiar fluttering before him; a messenger talisman, and a familiar one at that.

Experiencing a sense of foreboding, Cheng Kong snatches it out of the air to read the short message recorded there: Peak Lord meeting, now.

He immediately hands things over to Head Disciple Jingyi and promptly departs for the main peak and the pagoda wherein Peak Lord meetings are typically held. He probably makes it there in record time, and yet, he isn’t the first, because Elder Huang is already in his seat, offering up a toothy grin and a wave before motioning for him to claim his seat.

Cheng Kong doesn’t however, far too restless to be sitting down before he knows what’s going on.

Next, Elder Lin and Elder Wen appear, and followed by Peak Lord Xiu, and they all claim their own seats.

After that, Cheng Kong is once again urged to follow suit, and he reluctantly does, frowning at the sight of the seats that are still empty.

Coming to think of it, when was the last time he’d seen either of them? It feels like it hasn’t been particularly long since he had last seen Peak Lord Bai, but it feels like it has been a lot longer since he had last seen Peak Lord Jiao.

This soon becomes a thing of the past however, because when the doors reopen, Yi Yeguang is standing there, and flanking him are both of the previously absent Peak Lords.

Cheng Kong moves to rise, but Yi Yeguang motions for everyone to remain seated before promptly claiming his own seat, taking a long and pointed look at the pair who’d accompanied him before finally waving them off, signalling for them to go ahead and take a seat as well.

Then, following a deep breath, the Sect Leader finally speaks up.

“Welcome,” he says. “It has come to my attention that we will be receiving guests.”

“Such is indeed the case,” Jiao Ziyu replies, standing back up to offer up a deep bow.

“Such is indeed the case,” Bai Mingyue echoes, without moving from his seat.

Then, before anyone else has the time to interrupt, Yi Yeguang stands up himself.

“It’s a complicated story,” he says. “Details aside though, the end result is the same.”

“Peak Lord Jiao,” he then says. “You may begin.”

 

---

 

“So,” Jiao Ziyu says, after clearing his throat. “Like Sect Leader says, it’s a complicated story. But in essence, Mingyue and I have just returned from the Demon Realm.”

The Demon Realm?

“Why were you in the Demon Realm?” Elder Lin immediately asks, but he certainly isn’t the only one wondering.

“Well,” the younger Peak Lord says next, glancing sheepishly in Bai Mingyue’s direction. “It’s complicated?”

“Is it?” Elder Wen asks, directing herself towards Bai Mingyue, who only scowls.

“Complicated how?” Peak Lord Xiu asks, leaning forward in obvious intrigue.

“It’s not complicated,” Peak Lord Bai finally scoffs.

“It’s not particularly simple either,” Yi Yeguang says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Peak Lord Jiao, explain.”

“Well,” Jiao Ziyu says in turn. “Long story short, we went over there to retrieve Mingyue’s disciple. And we did, but⸺”

He trails off, sending another meaningful glance Bai Mingyue’s way before finally averting his eyes and bowing once more, saying: “In summary, we will be hosting one Prince Youming Jun, the presumptive heir of Demon King Youming Hongyan, and⸺”

As if in response to this, something shifts, and moments thereafter, the air itself splits open in their midst – admitting a masked person of obviously demonic origin, and while there’s definite alarm, Yi Yeguang calmly motions for them to remain seated, and so, they do.

In the meantime, the presumed demon prince extends a hand towards the seeming portal, and then pulls another through – this one isn’t a demon though, but rather a young man dressed in black and purple robes.

“Sect Leader,” Bai Mingyue says, finally rising to his feet. He then moves to stand beside the pair, cupping his hands together. “This is my successor, Yue, and⸺”

At this point, he sends an undeniably venomous look the masked demon’s way. “⸺the Demon Prince, Youming Jun.”

“Yes,” Yi Yeguang says. “We’ve met.”

They’d met? When?

“Regardless,” the Sect Leader continues, pushing onward in spite of the gaping of some. “We welcome you to the Green Jade Peaks.”

 

---

 

Then, once the young couple has stepped back out, there’s a brief moment of silence. It doesn’t last particularly long though, as multiple Peak Lords forego any sense of propriety to openly voice their opinions – and in spite of being quite shocked himself, Cheng Kong finds their current behaviour quite unbecoming. He holds himself back though, both from acting and from speaking up. Instead, he turns his attention towards Yi Yeguang, quietly hoping to receive some sort of directive.

None comes however – not for him, at least. Instead, Yi Yeguang looks towards Elder Huang, who – evidently prepared – immediately flicks one of his accursed screeching stones into their midst.

Fortunately, Cheng Kong sees the thing in time to quickly shield his ears before the sharp whistling starts. Others aren’t quite as attentive and end up having to deal with painfully ringing ears – something that Cheng Kong is intimately familiar with, having been one of Elder Huang’s unwitting test subjects.

Yi Yeguang remains unaffected though, having activated a noise cancelling talisman just in time, while Bai Mingyue remains similarly unaffected, but glares daggers at him, clearly annoyed on behalf of Jiao Ziyu, who stands with his eyes screwed shut and his hands covering his ears until the screeching stone finally goes quiet, having fulfilled its intended purpose.

“Understandably, there are concerns,” Yi Yeguang finally says, perfectly calm. “However, before these are addressed, I would like to summarise some of the events leading up to those that we’re dealing with in the present, in order to provide additional context.”

There’s some additional grumbling at that, but Cheng Kong hardly pays any heed to it, focusing his attention solely on Yi Yeguang, who appears calm but weary.

“As everyone present here is already aware, Peak Lord Bai has spent many years struggling against a particular poison – the very same one that caused the death of my predecessor,” the other says. “For Peak Lord Bai however, this poison is no longer an issue.”

“It is not,” Bai Mingyue says in turn. “Thanks to the efforts of my disciple and Peak Lord Jiao.”

The aforementioned Peak Lord Jiao just smiles sheepishly in response, scratching the back of his neck.

“Well,” he says at last. “As per the Sect Leader’s request, this humble one sought out Peak Lord Bai in order to ascertain why he had suddenly opted to dismiss all of his disciples. And as such, this one learned that Peak Lord Bai had done so in a fit upon receiving some shocking news.”

Shocking news?

“Yes,” he says, responding to an inquiry by Peak Lord Xiu. “Peak Lord Bai had received some shocking news from his long-time disciple, and, well⸺”

He trails off, and then says: “It was a message from his disciple, who wrote to tell him that he’d accepted a marriage proposal from Demon Prince Youming Jun in exchange for the latter’s assistance in restoring Peak Lord Bai's health. And then⸺”

“Wait!” Elder Lin interrupts. “Why would Peak Lord Bai keep a disciple not associated with our Green Jade Peaks? There’s no ‘Yue’ in our admittance records, is there?”

Saying this, he turns towards Elder Wen, who confirms this – though there isn’t actually much reason for such, given that none of them had seen the aforementioned disciple before this.

“Given that the Selection only takes place at certain intervals, it isn’t all that strange that Peak Lord Bai would find a disciple outside of the Windward Sect,” Yi Yeguang says. “Furthermore, there might’ve been reasons for him not to join us officially. Now, if we may continue.”

“I had faith in Peak Lord Jiao’s abilities, both as a cultivator and as a negotiator,” he says. “I had faith in him, much like I had faith in this disciple, and in the rest of you handling the matter of Peak Lord Bai’s former disciples.”

The latter remains a sore subject amongst the other Peak Lords – not so much for Cheng Kong, but for some of the others. Cheng Kong hardly pities them though, given the role that they had played in saddling Bai Mingyue with those disciples to begin with.

As for this new disciple, Cheng Kong honestly doesn’t care about when, where or how the current Peak Lord Bai had found him.

As for the demon prince however⸺

 

---

 

Fundamentally speaking, Cheng Kong has nothing against demons. He has nothing against them provided that they don’t enter the Human Realm to do harm to its inhabitants.

However, the demon spouse of Bai Mingyue’s errant disciple seems determined to change Cheng Kong’s private convictions, and neither the newly returned Bai Mingyue nor the man’s disciple seem particularly inclined to deal with the problem.

Worse yet, Yi Yeguang won’t do anything, allowing the other free rein, turning a blind eye to it all – and while this had frustrated Cheng Kong initially, what comes after is definitely worse.

“Honestly,” Yi Yeguang says, addressing the culprit in front of him. “I honestly don’t know and I honestly don’t care if this sort of conduct is acceptable over in the Demon Realm. Because this is the Human Realm, and this is the Green Jade Peaks...”

And this is basically a public execution as far as Cheng Kong is concerned.

“Prince Youming Jun,” Yi Yeguang says, clearly exasperated. “While my fellow Sect members ought to have known better than to retaliate, the fact that you are the aggressor does not change. Peak Lord Cheng’s poetry collection is private, and not to be recited to the masses.”

The book had originally been Peak Lord Xiu’s idea. She’d claimed that reading and writing poetry might alleviate the state of emotional turmoil that Cheng Kong had found himself dealing with these last few months.

The first shock had naturally been witnessing Bai Mingyue and Jiao Ziyu in bed together, and Cheng Kong would’ve probably dismissed it as some strange hallucination if not for Yi Yeguang’s later confirmation of the fact – and even then, he’d struggled to believe it.

But Yi Yeguang had confirmed it, and Cheng Kong hadn’t only opted not to talk about it, but also strongly encouraged his own disciples to follow suit. He had also ended up disciplining no small number of disciples discussing it out in the open.

For his own disciples, it had been especially important, seeing that Yi Yeguang would join them for practice every now and then. And now, courtesy of a certain demon prince, Yi Yeguang might just shun him altogether, and Cheng Kong wishes that he could’ve been literally anywhere else at time.

However, his feet remain firmly affixed to the tiles below, and he keeps his gaze down, determined to endure the outcome, whichever it might be. Because while this isn’t how he had wanted his feelings to be known, they are still his feelings and he isn’t ashamed of them, only of how they had come to be revealed. But⸺

“Which one of you fuckers allowed former Peak Lord Jiao to breed?!”

Hearing such uncouth language right out of Yi Yeguang’s mouth, Cheng Kong looks up to find him glaring daggers at Bai Mingyue and Jiao Ziyu. Then, Cheng Kong looks towards the Demon Prince, now unmasked, and promptly freezes. Because as it turns out, Demon Prince Youming Jun bears a startling resemblance to someone that Cheng Kong knows, and the implications send him reeling. He quickly snaps out of it though, because Yi Yeguang looks like he’s about to faint, and Cheng Kong needs to be prepared to catch him if he does.

But as ever, the Sect Leader proves resilient, going straight back to demanding answers from those he could think to interrogate – and in the meantime, Cheng Kong can only stand there uselessly, unable to say anything at all.

Could it be? Could it truly be that⸺?

The sound of a folding fan snapping open has him look up towards the source; Bai Mingyue. Seeing the latter with a fan is nothing new to him though, unlike the looks on the Elders’ faces as they lay eyes upon it.

Yi Yeguang is eyeing the thing as well, shock largely absent but recognition evident. Then finally, he says: “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

And Mingyue slowly lowers the fan, and simply says: “No.”

After that, everyone is dismissed. Then Yi Yeguang leaves with Bai Mingyue to discuss things in private, and the rest of them are left trying to put together the situation at hand – and since Jiao Ziyu is here, pursuing answers from him seems to be the most logical option.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” the Peak Lord quickly says, smiling sheepishly before taking his leave.

This doesn’t stop others from following him however.

“Why ever not?” Elder Wen says, walking briskly in spite of her old age.

“Yes,” Elder Lin says, doing the same with his cane. “Why ever not?”

“Because it’s not my story to tell?” Jiao Ziyu says, walking even faster.

“Oh, don’t let that stop you!” Peak Lord Xiu says, practically attaching herself to his sleeve. “Tell us all about it!”

Really. There’s no dignity, no dignity whatsoever.

“I’m certain that Peak Lord Jiao has his reasons,” Elder Huang says in turn. “Though I must say that I am also quite curious as to what former Peak Lord Bai might be doing off in the Demon Realm.”

Former Peak Lord Bai?