Chapter Text
On his eighth birthday xiao-Liu had received a precious gift. His mother was excited and going on and on about soulmates and true love as she’d handed him the mirror that took up both his little hands. she’d explained that the mirror was how she found his father. How it leads to eternal love.
He didn’t care much about the idea at the time and placed it in his room without actually looking at it. He was much more focused on the wooden training sword his father had made for him. He ran outside with his wooden blade and forgot about it for a time.
~~
Two months after his tenth birthday he'd found it again, hidden deep within a chest, while he was packing to go to Cang Qiong. He was only a little curious when he found it again. He cares more about training hard and finally cultivating at Cang Qiong mountain sect. He would protect people and make his family proud! But if there is someone out there truly meant for him, surly they’d like the same things?
Perhaps, whoever they are, they're also going to Cang Qiong to become a mighty cultivator. Or maybe they’re already there? They could fight side by side, battle great monsters and vanquish evil together.
Finally he looked at the little mirror properly. Its surface is made of glass with smoothed metal behind it to create a perfect reflection, Its gilded frame still pristine despite being passed down through his mother’s family for centuries. He doesn't know much about this sort of thing, but as a noble he can at least tell it's an expensive piece, no doubt.
He remembered his mother saying that he can keep it with him until he meets his soulmate, then it will be handed to someone else in the family. He also remembered her saying how to activate it.
He focused on the small mirror and the reflection rippled and changed. The moment his soulmate was reflected back at him he was left confused and a little scandalised.
The mirror reflected a young boy around his age, maybe a little younger. He wasn’t too surprised by that, even as a ten-year-old, in his heart that felt about right. The issue was everything else about him.
The boy had extremely short hair. So short it might have been cut recently. Surely a child that age couldn't be a criminal? He was also wearing the most revealing clothes xiao-Liu had ever seen. Even sleeping robes covered more than what that boy was wearing and the boy was clearly not sleeping. He was outside in broad daylight! anyone could see him dressed like that.
The sleeves of his shirt(?) barely reached his elbows and his ‘pants’ were just as short, barely reaching his knees. Who dressed their child like that? It was like nothing he’d ever seen. Shameless!
The boy was playing on a swing made of strange materials painted a vibrant green that almost matched his bright excited eyes. it had chain instead of rope and sat over highly manicured grass. surely and expensive piece.
“A-Yuan! time for lunch!” a woman’s voice called warmly through the looking glass, just out of his view.
“Yes a-niang!” the little boy responded happily and immediately jumped off the colourful swing. He ran up to the mansion like house, the building's style completely unfamiliar. He paused at the doorway, coughing violently for a moment before finally heading inside pretending, poorly, that it didn’t happen.
“A-Yuan, were you running again?” the woman's voice asks, her tone switching to one that Xiao-Liu has heard many times.
“No a-niang” the little boy lied.
“you need to be careful, baobei.” She scolded him, pinching his cheek. “hopefully after your next surgery you can finally run to your little heart’s content. Hm? But for now, you’re just not strong enough. You have to be careful.”
“yes a-niang.” A-Yuan pouted.
Xiao-Liu let the image fade with a little frown on his face.
That was his soul mate? That frail looking boy, dressed in practically nothing? Part of him didn’t want to believe it solely because of the shameless clothing. his mind just can't accept it.
And what was with his surroundings? His home had far more glass than any building Xiao-Liu had ever seen and nothing in the house looked remotely familiar. it all looked so foreign. Demonic...
He’d left his room in chaos and approached his mother with it after. he hesitantly explained what he saw in the mirror, hoping for some answers about what that was.
As she’d listened to his detailed explanation she’d seemed saddened by the information, a concerned frown curving her beautiful face. He didn’t really understand why at the time. How could he?
~~~~
Since the day he first saw his soulmate through the mirror, he’s checked it frequently. He’d fought the urge to look for a while. part of him didn’t want to see that shamelessness again but eventually he gave in.
He’s seen a-Yuan, Shen Yuan as he’d found later, in so many different situations. that world he lives in is truly something.
He’s seen him at what he thinks was a school, surrounded by other small children, learning to read and write in characters similar but not quite the same as what he has learned. He's seen him sitting on the sidelines while other children ran around laughing and played games with balls. Watched as the boy learned to draw just so he had something to do while the others could freely play.
He’s seen Shen Yuan in a sterile looking room, covered in cords leading to things that beep and chime constantly. He’d looked so frail, weak. For a moment when he saw him in that condition he thought he had died, while Xiao-Liu was focusing on his training for the week.
His soulmate was in a completely different world, so far away. And while Liu Qingge grew stronger in the sect, he watched as his soulmate grew weaker far from his reach. He’d never met him and he realised that he never ever will.
He was never great with showing his emotions, but this hurt. it was an ache that settled deep into the very core of his being as time went on. He knew early on that he’d never meet his soulmate. How could he? They were from totally different worlds. Someone out there was meant for him, and they’d never know he even exists.
He’d thought once that Shen Yuan’s parents would just send him to a sect when he came of age and he could learn cultivation to heal whatever it was that was making him sick. It’s well known that many in Cang Qiong are there to fix illnesses they’ve had since birth, that it’s possible. all he would need to do was start establishing his foundation and he'd already feel better than he does.
But they never did. He went to doctor appointment after pointless doctor appointment, surgery after surgery but they never tried to heal him with cultivation! He’d yelled, begged and demanded into the stupid mirror that they send him to a sect but obviously they couldn’t hear him.
Eventually he figured out the reason. They didn’t send him to cultivate, because cultivation doesn’t exist where he is. To them it’s nothing but fantasy, something to dream about but ultimately impossible. Shen Yuan would remain sick and maybe not even get to live out a normal mortal life. He would die no matter what.
When Shen Yuan moved out of his parent’s home, seemingly better than he used to be, Liu Qingge had hoped that at least he’d get to see him grow old in his world. Surely since he was healthy enough to live on his own, they had finally fixed whatever was wrong. Otherwise he’d have stayed where he had caretakers.
He still looked skinny but that could be fixed with eating more. Not that he seemed to know how to cooks. He still worried just a bit. But he was surely better!
He thought he’d see him really shine though. Whenever he checked on him, he was reading something knew on his ‘computer’ or ‘phone’. Sometimes to the side he’d be drawing whatever creature in the story that had caught his attention.
Liu Qingge liked looking at the drawings a-Yuan made. The attention to detail was amazing, he was truly talented. Animals came to life on each piece of paper as he went.
What especially started getting his attention was when a-Yuan started sketching creatures from his own world. A black moon rhinoceros-python, a false pearl dragon lykoi, an orchid ghost-bat wyvern and so many others that he had no way of knowing.
How did he know of so many creatures from Liu Qingge’s world? Was Shen Yuan getting visions because of their soulmate connection? Was Shen Yuan’s soul telling him that he was meant to be here, with Liu Qingge?
it took him two more checks to figure out that it was another one of his 'online' stories. Someone else was having visons of Liu Qingge’s world and was writing it out for entertainment. it was small but it was some tiny connection between him and his soulmate.
~~~~
Today, Liu Qingge grabs the mirror again wishing to celebrate, or at least pretend to celebrate, his great achievement with his beautiful soulmate.
The mirror swirls and shows his soulmate once more. He’s sitting at his desk as usual, staring at his glowing screen with a twitching eyebrow. His round glasses sit proper on his nose so he can see. His green eyes are filled with long familiar irritation at the story he’s reading. Why he still reads it despite hating it, Liu Qingge doesn’t know.
“Hey a-Yuan.” he says quietly despite knowing that Shen Yuan can’t hear him. Shen Yuan will never hear his voice and it still aches inside that this is the only way he can talk to him. “I have officially been named succeeding disciple of Bai Zhan peak.”
Shen Yuan huffs and sits back, still glaring angrily at the screen. He doesn’t really have another expression when it comes to ‘Proud Immortal Demon Way’. Whatever the story is about, it’s certainly not a-Yuan’s favourite.
“it was a big ceremony on Qiong Ding peak. We officially received our curtesy names. I’m now officially Liu Qingge, future peak lord of Bai Zhan.” He’d worked hard in training and finally beat his shizun in combat, earning his place as successor. It’s something no one for five hundred years had been able to do.
“I wish I could celebrate with you properly” he sighs. Gods he wishes he could see a-Yuan's proud smile as he tells him the news. He knows he'd be proud of him.
He goes to put the mirror away when he notices something wrong with Shen Yuan.
He was writing one of his anger filled comments, took a bite of his pork bun which was probably cold at this point and something happened. he freezes in place, his hand reaching up for his throat.
“no, no. a-Yuan.” his heart races and his hands itch to help despite knowing he can do nothing but watch.
Liu Qingge watches helpless and horrified as his soulmate starts choking on the bun. He’s grasping at his throat, clawing at it as he tries but can’t pull in any air. He tries to beat his chest. His face starts going red as he tries over and over to cough up the food lodged in his throat preventing him from breathing.
He falls off his wheel seat as his face loses colour. His green eyes are wide with panic as he collapses beside his desk. His body convulses for a few moments before eventually he stops moving and the light in his eyes slowly disappears.
Liu Qingge stares in horror as his soulmate, the one he found himself loving despite never actually meeting him in person, dies right in front of him, just out of reach.
He’s never felt more helpless in his life than in this very moment. His heart aches at the sight and for the first time since he was a child, tears prick at his eyes. his qi moves slightly out of alignment.
This was meant to be a day of celebration, but he just watched his wonderful, foolish soulmate die. He couldn’t hold him. He couldn’t help him.
He stares blankly at the looking glass as it starts to ripple once more. He thinks it’s about to deactivate, show him his own reflection and that he no longer has a soulmate to love. But that’s not what it does.
The mirror ripples like the tiny waves after a petal lands on a bird bath and the environment within it changes. It goes from the barely lit bedroom with the little character figurines on shelves and posters covering the walls, to a forest with blackened trees and a large lake in the distance.
Cyan pixels like he had seen from those devices in Shen Yuan's world start forming above the reddish grass, building up as he watches in confusion.
A body forms in the pixels, long and sinuous. Steadily the pixels disappear leaving behind a massive naga with a very familiar face.
He watches as those beautiful green eyes spring open and the naga gasps for breath, launching himself upright. He looks around frantically at the place that surrounds him now, then down along his own body.
“what the fuck?”
‘what the fuck’ seems pretty accurate as far as Liu Qingge can tell.
He just watched his soulmate die what was most likely a painful death, only for… something to bring him back somewhere else and not as a human.
A-Yuan has long hair now, falling loose down his back and over his shoulders like fine black silk. instead of the extremely skinny unhealthy body he had, he now has muscles perfectly toned to match the long powerful snake tail he now possesses instead of legs. His pale skin is now littered with light green scales, including a dusting on his cheeks just below his eyes. His pupils are now slitted instead of round.
Shen Yuan seems to pause in his attempts to figure out what is happening, staring at something in front of himself with unfocused eyes. He seems to grow irritated once more, though what is causing it now Liu Qingge can’t see.
“what the fuck do you mean, I’m in Proud Immortal Demon Way?!” he exclaims, swiping at something invisible with sharp green claws.
Is something talking to him? the thing that brought him here? And that name… he had figured out some time ago the name of his universe in Shen Yuan’s world.
does that mean?... his soulmate is somewhere… in his universe? right now? He has been placed all alone, with no survival skills, into his world, but he can find him now… he needs to find him now before something from this world kills him. a beast he can’t fight, or worse, another cultivator thinking they're doing the right thing.
Shen Yuan doesn’t know how to fight. He was always too weak to even take a single set of stairs without becoming out of breath. And now he’s in the middle of the forest in a world where real monsters roam, savagely tearing apart whatever they consider food.
He charges out of his rooms to find shizun. He doesn’t care that his beloved Shen Yuan isn’t human anymore. All he cares about, is that he can finally find him! He can finally be with him.
He knocks on the door of the peak lord’s home. The moment the door is open, he starts. “Shizun. This disciple requests permission to travel.”
Li Huasong frowns at his dishevelled and frantic state “is something wrong with your family?” family would be a safe guess he supposes. She’s so far off though. And at the same time not far off at all. A soulmate is considered family.
“it’s complicated, shizun.” He answers. After all, not everyone believes they have a soulmate, the red strings of fate just a fantasy to most and there’s only two mirrors in existence so not everyone can find theirs if they do.
“you may have a month.” his teacher answers.
“This disciple may need more than that.” The world is too big to find Shen Yuan in a month. He doesn’t even know where to start looking.
“this master is sorry Qingge, but you have just been promoted to succeeding disciple. You will have to start training to take over as soon as possible. You have a lot to cover and not a lot of time to do it. one month, dismissed.”
With permission to leave, however limited, he rushes to pack and leaves just an hour later. The best place to start might be the southern border to the demon realm.
“I’m coming a-Yuan.” he whispers as he looks at the mirror once more. “I’ll find you.”