Chapter Text
Luo Binghe fell down into a puddle. The hand that slipped through the wall first was also the first to go into the ice cold water, while the other covered his heart. He couldn’t let that last mark made by his Shizun be disturbed by the maze.
A human- no- a creature that looked like a human without a face walked past him. It seemed so similar to those faceless people seen in the dream realm. Their features however, weren’t blurry like those in the dream realm, they were just empty.
Senior Meng Mo, do you recognize any of this?
No. This isn’t the work of an illusion, and they don’t look like any demon I’d seen. And this master has been alive for a long time.
Luo Binghe had no weapon, if the creature turned out to be dangerous he had no way to defend himself. This wasn’t the abyss, but he had no guarantee that it would be any better than the eternal flames.
If it was a peaceful beast and could be provoked, it was better to prepare for an attack than attack first. The creature had criminally short hair and clothes that showed too much skin. It didn’t really seem to notice him, taking a turn around pillars upon pillars that looked as if they were made of nothing but mortar.
The creature walked off out of his sight; Luo Binghe let out a sigh of relief.
The buzz of the lights in this place was replaced by a soft hum. There were no windows but it was still bright.
There was nowhere to go except deeper into the maze.
Unlike whatever faceless being was haunting this floor, Luo Binghe’s steps echoed off the endless halls. The puddles on the ground smelled vaguely of almonds before roasting. His Shizun had told him before of a certain poison that had a very similar scent.
Shizun had taken great lengths in educating his disciples on all sorts of creatures or plants that could have harmful events on cultivators “This world is filled with dangers any cultivator should be able to identify. Landing on a bed of hazardous flowers while fighting a demonic creature can put one’s life in even more serious danger.”
“Cyanide isn’t much of a problem once one builds up their golden core or for any powerful demon, but when working on diplomatic missions with ordinary humans its better for them not to be lethally poisoned, so it’s important when out of the peak to try and trace the signature smell and taste of it.”
His Shizun had not known he was a demon then, that he was aiding a heavenly demon- would he have still told him this? At least- at least he had something to drink if he really began to wither away.
The floors, turned out there were several, had a very specific structure. Each had what seemed like endless large rooms made of mortar filled with puddles of the water. Those faceless beings walked his direction once or twice, but never got too close, and he was careful to trust his instincts on where to avoid a looming feeling of danger. On each floor there would be several ramps leading up and down. Luo Binghe knew that realistically, he’d fallen “down” into whatever place this was meant to be. This place didn’t follow any laws at all, it seemed more like the dream realm than any other realm.
It could be something like a hidden realm. Meng Mo had mentioned. They don’t have to obey every law of the other realms, but they have to have some form of energy. This place is devoid of either.
Meng Mo was right. On the one occasion he attempted to cultivate any spiritual or demonic energy, Luo Binghe couldn’t sense any of it around. It was as if a whole sense was suddenly taken away from him, maybe that was why this place was putting him constantly on edge.
Luo Binghe had been traveling upwards for an uncountable amount of time. His few attempts at trying to sleep were terrible. He would close his eyes for a few minutes only to have them be shot wide open at the presence of an unknown being. Neither his body nor his mind were able to point out what exactly was so dangerous in here, but there was enough of it to make it impossible to stay unconscious for long enough. At most he could only get about an incense stick of sleep and walk up another floor to look for another way upwards again.
By the time he’d reached the first wall of this place, he was exhausted out of his mind. It was only that instinctual drive of Danger kept him from collapsing on the floor
Child, you need to find a place to rest. Heavenly demons are capable of many things, but this teacher does not know the effects of sleep exhaustion on demons of your kind.
As if Luo Binghe wasn’t trying to rest already. He’d tried using Meng Mo’s abilities to send people into deep sleep but woke up in what felt like pure visceral fear. Every second he tried to close his eyes, it felt akin to those first days where he was sent to the woodshed and could only wait for his Shizun to whip him until he could no longer scream.
He used the wall as a clutch, walking forward looking for another ramp leading upwards. He found a door instead.
Luo Binghe had perhaps gotten his hopes up on what could’ve been behind the door, another room, some grass, an exit. Instead there were more rooms made of mortar, smaller and a bit cramped, but once he closed the door behind him, that feeling of danger and wrongness began to disappear. As if a creature that was hunting him finally gave up on the chase.
Luo Binghe found a dry piece of wood on the ground, and in a position similar to how he would sleep in the woodshed, finally was able to rest.
Meng Mo will keep watch. Was the last thought he had before he was out. Distantly he could interpret a gesture of agreement from the back of his mind, but the exhaustion had really caught up to him.
By the time he woke up, Luo Binghe was incredibly thirsty. It wasn’t something he’d thought about at first, but beside the puddles on the floor there was no water wherever this place was.
This place had no weather, it was all covered by ceiling on floor on floor of mortar, and even though there were puddles, there was no drip from the ceiling.
Even when living on the streets, Luo Binghe could collect rainwater and beg for any water or food from people, but there were no people wherever this was. There was no rain wherever this was.
Senior Meng Mo. Do you know how long a demon can live without water? He felt afraid to ask, the longer he could go, the less he’d have to worry about drinking from the floor, but then, that would mean his demonic nature was very far from being human.
This teacher doesn’t know. But it might be better to not find out. It’s already been longer than a regular human could go without food or water. Replied Meng Mo.
For days and days, Luo Binghe spent his time wandering until he could find a puddleless corner to sleep in, and drinking water out of any surface he could find. Food was harder to find, and at one point he had to decide between eating his own skin or letting his hunger eat away at his insides. It was easier to let it do its own thing.
After traveling what must have been several li, a clump of pieces of paper happened to be stuck on a nearby wall. The closer he got to it, the more he could make out of what was written. Stuck on there were three sheets in texts that varied severely. One was written with characters far too curved and oddly simple, it could've been a demonic text, his Shizun hadn't covered them in his lessons. The other with some characters he could recognize but written in a very strange manner, but it still consisted of so many different characters he could only make out a few words. The third was a script he was familiar with. Whether the other sheets held the same information, he couldn't be sure, but on the comprehensible sheet was a warning.
[Careful where you step. Some of these puddles lead down to an endless pit where nothing awaits but death's maws. Don’t attack the faceless.
If someone is to find this note please leave it where it is. Other wanderers may find this information useful]
If it wasn't obvious enough from the fact that there was a note stuck to the wall, then a bundle of notebooks with those same three scripts and an arrow pointing towards them was a sign of previous life in this maze. His Shizun always liked taking notes and research on strange creatures and environments in the human realm, this place seemed to be mostly inaccessible to any regular cultivator, and Luo Binghe wasn’t sure that his Shizun had heard about such a thing as another realm in-between realms. Perhaps if he recorded some information on this place, it would make an appropriate courting gift for an immortal master like his Shizun?
Your “Shizun” threw you into the endless abyss. Meng Mo nagged in his ear.
Luo Binghe couldn’t hold in the physical scoff towards his demonic teacher. And? This is not the endless abyss.
He hates demons. Meng Mo continued to pester. Likely, he hates you for being one. If you had been thrown into the Abyss instead, this master doubts you’d still be holding up so well.
Though Luo Binghe had not fully mastered the ability to shoo Meng Mo from his head, he had mastered the ability of ignoring him until he felt insulted enough to leave on his own
Regardless of what a random demon thinks (he could feel Meng Mo get even angrier at that statement) Luo Binghe would present himself to his Shizun as someone worthy of returning to Cang Qiong. If a record of an undiscovered realm wasn’t enough for the sect to consider a marriage offer, it would be a big enough achievement to establish Luo Binghe as someone worth keeping.
Up higher and higher, Luo Binghe stumbled upon a section of this strange space with painting that looked to be made with cloth dyes instead of ink. Each paper barely stuck to the walls of pure mortar and rippled with small blows of wind that didn’t seem to come from any direction.
Some paintings farther away looked to be made with ink, each drawing throughout the walls seemed to follow him. It reminded him of cursed paintings, his Shizun had sent him on a mission to investigate one back when he lived with him in Qing Jing peak. Once he gets out of this maze, Luo Binghe will make sure he can earn enough favor with his master so that the two of them could go on a mission together.
It was while musing that he stumbled upon a large painting, this one framed within a painting frame made of gold and decorated with carvings. As Luo Binghe looked closer, he could make out the features inside the painting. Long hair and green robes that looked so close to the Qing Jing colors. The closer he got the more he could make out the face of his Shizun in the painting. The instincts on the abc of his mind were telling him this was a sign of danger, his Shizun wasn’t here, he couldn’t be, but a force stronger than himself pulled him towards the painting.
There is no spiritual or demonic energy coming from here. Luo Binghe mused.
That doesn’t mean it’s safe. Replied Meng Mo.
Wherever- whatever this place was was definitely not under any traditional laws of reality. It was better to keep his distance, but all the same, he could just look at the painting, right?
When he was distracted by Meng Mo’s chatter, Shizun’s face looked about right, maybe a few details were off, not even the highest skilled painter would be able to capture his shizun’s beauty after all- but now that he was really looking, it felt more and more off. Luo Binghe slowly backed out of the way, and in just a few seconds the face within the painting (now very decisively NOT his Shizun’s) melted to reveal a dark being without any features, the lights above it flickered like candles about to extinguish, and the mass of limbs climbed arm by arm out of the painting.
As used to fighting demons during his missions, Luo Binghe still flinched back, the creature emerging out of the painting caught on his robes and pulled back. His Shizun had talked about creatures similar to whatever was in the painting, but whatever was inside was different to all that was spoken in his lectures.
It didn’t seem to be too intelligent, only taking hold of the robes around his chest and not his arms, and its only objective seemed to drag him into the painting. The landscape of Cang Qiong mountain slowly turned into a black inky void, Luo Binghe very much didn’t want to be dragged into whatever place the hands were pulling him towards.
To a cultivator, the maneuver he took to take the monster’s hands off of him was simple. For a regular human, that would have been the end.
Luo Binghe stumbled backwards from the move, only landing a step away from the being in the painting. Its feet were the only thing anchoring them to the painting, and like some creatures in the demon realm, gravity didn’t seem to anchor it downwards.
Trying to sense any spiritual or demonic energy on the creature seemed to be useless. There was no energy at all coming from it. In a similar way, no energy came from the puddles below, but Luo Binghe knew better than to blindly step on them.
The eyes of the other paintings nearby seemed to follow him as he progressed through the floor.
By the time he reached another ramp leading upwards, Luo Binghe was ready to leave this cursed place. At least this section had no paintings.
The ground was devoid of any puddles or paintings, leaving him tired and ready to sleep. Though it was out in the open and those faceless beings seemed to wander a lot in this area, Luo Binghe chose to rest his eyes, only to feel a warping sensation from below.