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Shen Yuan let out a sigh of exhaustion as he raised a hand to wipe off the sweat forming on his brow. At the movement, his bio-monitor beeped shrilly, warning him that the seal of his respirator had come loose. Grumbling, he found the nearest flat rock to sit on. He put down his notebook to fiddle with his goggles and respirator. Ever since childhood, his lungs had always been weak and he easily prone to sickness. Colds that his older brother, Jiu-ge, could shrug off within a few days would linger deep in Shen Yuan’s chest for weeks at a time, curled up inside him like a malevolent beast.
No, the last thing he needed was to breathe in the unfiltered air of the Endless Abyss, laced as it was with trace amounts of sulfuric acid. Certainly Jiu-ge would never let him live it down if he had to be medically-evac’ed only three days into his research survey.
Well, three days by Shen Yuan’s estimation, at least. Time was known to run strangely in the Abyss.
The beeping stopped once Shen Yuan tightened the straps on his respirator. He relaxed and waited a moment for the contraption to hiss reassuringly as it restarted the work of filtering the caustic air of the Abyss, making it more tolerable for his delicate human body. Deciding this was as good a sign as any to take a break, Shen Yuan shrugged off the oxygen tank on his back and sat for a few minutes, doing nothing but breathing in and out quietly. Nearly as noxious as the acidic air of the Abyss was its relentless heat, which made him feel wilted and wrung-out. Perhaps it was time soon to return to his rover, which, despite being cramped and claustrophobic, was at least air-conditioned.
The dark and ever-present clouds of the Abyss roiled above, making strange and unfathomable shapes. The entire effect was rather unpleasant, and Shen Yuan didn’t like to look at the sky for too long, as it always gave him a headache when he did. But he could never resist the urge to take a quick glance upward every now and then, wondering if the clouds ever cleared to show the stars behind them. If there even were stars in this realm.
A bolt of lightning split the sky, the rumble of thunder following soon afterward, and a gust of dry and blisteringly hot wind kicked up the reddish iron oxide sands nearby. Yes, definitely time to return to the rover. Shen Yuan had no desire to be trapped outside in the middle of one of the Abyss’s infamous and unpredictable sandstorms. Shouldering his oxygen tank and stuffing his field notebook into the pouch that was belted around his waist, he walked briskly back in the direction of his rover, which, fortunately, was not too far away.
Once he was safely inside the rover, it was a relief to take off his respirator and his goggles. They had become grimy and the goggles hard to see through during the trials of the day. Putting on his glasses, Shen Yuan blinked as the world came back into sharp focus. He blasted the air conditioner at full power, pressing his face up against the nearest vent on the dashboard. The wind picked up outside, working itself up into a howling fury, and Shen Yuan knew it would soon be a proper storm. I hope this isn’t one of those sandstorms that lasts for days and days, he thought.
Well, there was nothing to do for it now other than to wait for the storm to pass and, in the meantime, get as much work done inside the rover as he could. Shen Yuan unzipped his protective jumpsuit, pulling his arms out and pushing the jumpsuit down to expose his black undershirt. He pulled his notebook out of his waist pouch (fanny pack, Ning Yingying would insist on calling it teasingly, but Shen Yuan refused to concede, even in his head, that he was wearing a fanny pack). Shen Yuan flipped through the notes he had taken and sketches he had drawn for the day. He was only three days into his expedition, and, already, the undertaking had proven to be fabulously productive. Nearly every species of plant he had come across had been entirely unfamiliar to him, and, given his encyclopedic memory for exotic plants, meant they were likely heretofore undocumented and unclassified. Shen Yuan could almost salivate thinking about all the publications he’d be able to write once he returned from his trip. Tenure, here I come!
He knew his plant specimens, too, would elevate the botany library at Cang Qiong University and make it the envy of the entire field of daemo-botany. Whenever he had come across a particularly interesting plant, he had taken a leaf or a flower or a seed to bring to the human realm for future study, though generally he tried to be as non-invasive as possible. He pulled his laptop out of one of the rover’s storage compartments and began cataloguing the fanged flowers, the strangely variegated leaves, the jagged and spiky seed pods he’d collected during his trek today. Perhaps he might even be able to grow some of these species in the Cang Qiong arboretum, once he got back to the human realm? Oh, the possibilities were endless.
That night, Shen Yuan fell asleep to the sound of the ferocious winds of the Abyss, buffeting against the walls of his rover. By now, the sound was almost a lullaby.
The sandstorm, mercifully, was one of the shorter ones. It raged and lashed at the land for a few hours before fading away in the middle of the night with hardly a whimper. The day dawned as bright and clear as a day could ever dawn in the Abyss. Shen Yuan spent the first hour of the morning suiting up and brushing the peculiar red sand of the Endless Abyss off the windshield and exterior of his rover. Then he returned inside, pulling out a map and considering the next leg of his journey as he scarfed down a breakfast bar ration. He had planned to spend only seven days within the Abyss for this trip. Though short, it was hopefully only the first excursion of many. The main purpose of this trip, therefore, had been more to acclimate himself to the inhospitable conditions of the Abyss, with exploring and cataloguing merely a secondary objective. Still, there was one more place he wanted to visit before he returned to the portal that opened up to the human realm.
Maps of the Abyss were usually sparse and minimalist, and what few details they included were usually unreliable. This map, however, had been personally sketched for him by Liu Qingge, who was one of the few human explorers to have spent any significant amount of time within the Endless Abyss, so Shen Yuan was inclined to trust it. Liu Qingge was a daemo-zoologist like Shen Yuan’s older brother, Shen Jiu, and their spats at research symposia and scientific conferences were legendary. Their department head Yue Qingyuan had once tiredly confessed to Shen Yuan that the hardest part of his job was keeping the two from murdering each other. Still, despite his quarrels with Shen Jiu, Liu Qingge seemed to reserve a soft spot for Shen Yuan. He would always bring back plant samplings or other curiosities for Shen Yuan from his trips to the Abyss, no matter how much the gifts made Jiu-ge hiss with jealousy. He had once brought back a small smooth pebble the size of Shen Yuan’s thumb, which was dark and iridescent like an oil spill and seemed to draw in all the light and color around it. Shen Yuan kept it as a paperweight.
His next, and final, destination before he returned home would be the ruins of the temple of the Heavenly Demon Emperor.
Like any of the ancient conquerors, the Heavenly Demon Emperor was a figure shrouded in myth and mystery, more legend than history. Even his name had been lost to the millennia, and he survived on in the history books through only his title. Nor, it seemed, could the legends agree on his origins. Some described him as the son of a humble washerwoman, who rose to dizzying heights with nothing but his ambition and willpower to sustain him. Others described him as the rightful heir of the previous ruler of the demonly realm, who had been struck down by treachery and betrayal, but whose son revenged himself upon those traitors and restored the mighty glory of his line. Whatever the case, none could dispute the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s meteoric ascendancy to the throne, or the breadth of the massive empire he had held together for nearly a century through his martial strength—or the cruelty with which he had crushed his opponents. Fantastical tales about his military exploits, his mythical demonic sword, his vast harem (which seemed to grow in vastness every time it was described), and the boundless wealth of his imperial treasury made him a perennially popular subject for anything from serious-minded scholarly textbooks to sensationalized historical revivals. These revivals ranged in quality from nail-biting masterpieces to dog-blood stallion dramas.
Shen Yuan had always been something of an ancient history nerd, and the Heavenly Demon Emperor was one of his favorite topics of study and of imagination. He would eagerly consume every novel and show and work about the emperor that he could find. Not for the first time, Shen Yuan wondered what force of personality the ancient ruler must have had, to have been able to subdue the many vicious and infighting demonic tribes. Had he been worshipped or despised? What tales might the emperor’s demonic subjects have passed down about their fearsome ruler?
Of course, Shen Yuan knew he was unlikely to ever find out—the ancient demonic tribes had been extinct now for centuries.
The Heavenly Demon Emperor had disappeared from the historical record as suddenly as he came. No one quite knew the cause, but it was assumed to be betrayal. What else could it be? After all, a heavenly demon could never have succumbed to injury, illness, or even old age. Perhaps he was betrayed by one of his many concubines, as the dog-blood dramas loved to speculate, or, as more serious academic historians believed, by one of his vassals. Surely not all who bent the knee to their emperor did so willingly, and the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s conquest of the icy wastes to the north was known to have been particularly brutal. Perhaps some local demon king had bided his time in the court of the Heavenly Demon Emperor until he found the perfect moment to strike.
Regardless, all that was left now of the Heavenly Demon Emperor’s legacy was the crumbling old temple that was once the seat of his power. Whatever force had brought about the downfall of the emperor left its mark on the land permanently—malevolent and resentful energy emanated from the temple, and the plants and creatures that grew out of its ruins were strange and twisted themselves, truly unlike any other living things in existence.
To a dedicated botanist and amateur historian like Shen Yuan, the temple was an irresistibly attractive lure.
Yes, thought Shen Yuan as he started driving the rover in the direction of the temple, I’ll just make a quick stop. How could I come to the Endless Abyss and not visit the temple of the Heavenly Demon Emperor?
He drove for several hours through the interminable desert, checking the map now and again with his compass to make sure his heading was correct. Slowly, the landscape changed from sandy dunes to cracked but solid earth, out of which the occasional craggy tree or scrubby bush had enterprisingly made its home. Lizards and other small beasts sometimes skittered past. Having never learned to fear humans, they simply stayed in place and watched the rover as it passed, or they hissed territorially at it.
Slowly, a dark speck on the horizon appeared and then grew until Shen Yuan could begin resolving it more clearly. This had to be the temple! Excited, Shen Yuan pressed down harder on the gas, eager to be coming to the end of his journey and to visit the place that had so fascinated him as a child.
The ruins of the temple loomed above Shen Yuan. Though the temple could hardly be more reduced in glory these days, looking up at it, Shen Yuan started to get some sense of the awe and terror the emperor must have inspired in his subjects. What stones remained of the temple walls were glossy and impossibly black, drawing in the light the same way Shen Yuan’s paperweight from Liu Qingge did. A massive gate, easily at least fifty feet tall, and made of the same black stone as the walls, marked the entrance to the temple, though time had worn countless holes and openings through the unmaintained defensive exterior walls. Many portions of the roof, as well as tall towers that must have stood as silent sentinels over the land, had also collapsed inward. It was a structure clearly built first for defense and second to inspire fear, with comfort only a distant afterthought, if it ever entered into the equation at all.
Sometimes, the air around the temple seemed to twist and churn, but the effect disappeared whenever Shen Yuan blinked. Shen Yuan wasn’t overly concerned. Such phenomena were common in the Abyss, and, in his experience, had always turned out to be mostly harmless.
The area around the temple was also strangely lush. An entire corner of the exterior wall had caved in on itself in a shapeless heap, exposing one of the interior courtyards, which overflowed intriguingly with curling vines and massively overgrown bushes and grasses. Had the temple been built atop an oasis that, even now, still gave life? Was it possible that some of its irrigation systems still worked, even after so many millennia?
The terrain thus far had been relatively flat and therefore amenable to Shen Yuan’s rover, but, as he neared the castle, the land became so rough and rocky as it sloped upward that Shen Yuan was forced to don his protective gear and exit the rover. He huffed through his respirator as he continued on foot to the temple, stopping now and again to inspect and note down any unusual plants that caught his eye, of which there was no shortage. Because of his leisurely and unhurried pace, by the time he reached the top of the summit, it was already afternoon and entering the hottest part of the day. Shen Yuan stepped with relief into the shadow of one of the exterior walls.
Leaning against the wall, he flipped through his field notebook with satisfaction. He had already added twenty new pages to his total. On his way back down, he decided, he was going to collect some cuttings to bring back. But first, he wanted to bask in the satisfaction of a job well-done, and anyway it was well past time for lunch and some sightseeing. He pulled a ration bar out of his waist pouch. The silver wrapper crinkled loudly as he tore it open, and he pulled aside his respirator only long enough to take a large bite out of the bar before putting the respirator back in place and chewing slowly. His bio-monitor beeped indignantly at him.
As Shen Yuan chewed, he looked up at the sky, as was his wont to do. The clouds were as confounding and headache-inducing as they had always been, and Shen Yuan averted his gaze. As he did, his eyes fell upon the path from which he’d just come, and he cursed as he saw a sandstorm kicking up in the distance. He started gathering up his notebooks and oxygen tank to return to the rover, but then he paused in consternation. Over the past few days, he had become acquainted with these sandstorms and with how swiftly they could sweep across a landscape. For now, the storm was still a small blot on the horizon, but he knew how very quickly that could change. And it had taken him hours to get from the rover to the summit. Sure, it would be quicker for him to return as he was going downhill instead of uphill, and he didn’t plan on lingering on any plants on his way down, but it would still take him some time to get back to where he had left the rover. And he would be walking back toward the direction of the storm. What would he do if he got caught in the storm while still on the mountain?
Biting his lip, Shen Yuan turned back toward the ruins. Though much of the temple had been ravaged by time, some of the outer walls, and many of the inner walls, still stood defiantly intact. If they had withstood sandstorms for all these millennia, surely they would be able to withstand one more? Perhaps, if he ventured inside the temple, he would be able to find some sheltered place to protect him from the storm? And anyway, he hadn’t gotten a chance to do his sightseeing yet, had he?
Shen Yuan grabbed onto one of the walls for support as a sweltering gust of wind picked up. Glancing at the sandstorm on the horizon, he saw that it had become much bigger. It looked as though it was heading directly toward him, swallowing up whatever trees and small animals and boulders were unfortunate enough to be in its path. Okay. This was going to get bad if he didn’t find shelter soon.
Cursing himself for his carelessness, but also grateful the storm hadn’t come upon him while he was still making his way up to the summit, Shen Yuan rushed past the entrance gate and into the grand entrance hall of the temple, which was massive but empty. Whatever furnishings had been inside the hall had been lost, or decayed, or taken by ransackers long ago. Light streamed in through the holes in the ceiling, illuminating carved reliefs in the glossy black walls that Shen Yuan resolved he would take more time to inspect once the storm passed. There were two symmetrical hallways leading out from each side of the entrance hall. At random, he picked the one leading out from the east side. Didn’t the emperors of old consider east to be the most auspicious direction? He followed the twists and turns of the hallway, seeking out a sheltered interior room from which to ride out the oncoming sandstorm.
His focus elsewhere, his vision obstructed by the goggles and respirator on his face, Shen Yuan noticed too late where a section of the floor had collapsed, giving way to darkness below. There was a brief moment of weightlessness as his foot hovered over empty air, and then, screaming, he toppled forward into the dark. For a long moment, he experienced the sensation of falling. The next thing he knew was a searing pain in the back of his head, and then, after that, nothing.
“Shizun, Shizun, wake up. Haven’t you kept this disciple waiting for long enough?” crooned a sweet voice, somewhere distantly above him. Shen Yuan groaned, turning away from the voice. His head was agony, and he wanted nothing more than to return back to the darkness. There was an unpleasant, cooling, tacky sensation on his forehead. He must have hit his head, he thought, when he fell through the hole in the floor. A metallic taste coated the back of his mouth.
The voice above him chuckled. The sound of it was so menacingly dark, so devoid any real good nature, that Shen Yuan’s eyes snapped open immediately, the instinct of a prey animal to keep its eyes on a predator at all times. He regretted the action at once. The dim light from the room pierced into his eyes, making the pain in his head intolerable. His vision was too blurry for him to make out any details. He screwed his eyelids tightly shut, letting out a whimper of pain.
“Shizun must have become truly soft and pathetic while I slumbered. This lord remembers when it would take much worse injuries than this to coax any sounds out of you.”
Okay, what…? What is this guy talking about? Sensing that he was in true danger and needed to take stock of his surroundings, Shen Yuan gathered his willpower, forcing his eyes open and bracing himself for another lance of pain, which, mercifully, was less intense than the previous one.
I… I need to figure out what’s going on here.
He found himself on a large bed, the sheets beneath him dark red and soft. Was he still in the temple? Yes, he must be—the walls were the same dark stone as the rest of the temple. But this was the first room Shen Yuan had seen that was fully intact, with furnishings and lighting. Who would be maintaining a room within the ruins of a temple in the middle of the Abyss?
Most importantly, though, sitting beside him in the bed in some mockery of a vigil, was… the most beautiful man Shen Yuan had ever seen. Long, fluffy black curls framed a face with a chiseled bone structure that might make a statue weep in jealousy. An unfamiliar red sigil glowed in the center of his brow. He wore black robes in an ancient and bygone style, fringed with red and gold thread, tied with a red belt at the waist, which was open at the chest and revealed an absurdly sculpted chest, which, again, might make a statue weep.
The man smirked knowingly as he saw Shen Yuan’s eyes dip, and, flushing, Shen Yuan snapped his eyes back up to the stranger’s face. His carmine eyes glittered. The expression in them was the same as in Jiu-ge’s eyes when he was inspected a particularly vibrant and interesting pinned butterfly.
Disturbed by the comparison, Shen Yuan tried to sit up in the bed, which was when he made an important realization: that he was no longer wearing his goggles, respirator, or outer jumpsuit.
Shen Yuan swallowed hard. His throat had suddenly become very dry. “Who are you? Um, and why are you calling me ‘shizun’? My name is Shen Yuan.”
The man smiled so sweetly it sent a chill down Shen Yuan’s spine. “Shen… Yuan? Trying to play stupid, Shizun?”
Oookay, so this guy clearly hates this Shizun, whoever they are. Shen Yuan suddenly realized it was critically important for his continued life expectancy to convince this stranger that he was not his Shizun. “I’m not playing at anything! My name is really Shen Yuan! I’m just a botanist, I’m just here on a research expedition. I’m sorry, but I have no idea how I ended up here or what is going on.” His voice wobbled.
The man tilted his head with the cool interest of a vulture inspecting a carcass. “Really? You say you have no idea who Shen Qingqiu is?”
Shen Yuan shook his head frantically. The motion, unfortunately, exacerbated his headache, which had been fading into a dull throbbing ache until then. He grit his teeth and continued on, “No, I’m telling you, I don’t know who that is or who you are, I’m sorry. I must have ended up here by mistake.”
The man leaned closer to Shen Yuan. The effect was truly breathtaking, much like a punch to the stomach was breathtaking. Focus, Shen Yuan, focus, he urged to himself. This is not the time to be thinking about how hot the crazy Abyss squatter is. “Is that so? You still have no idea who this lord is?” the stranger asked, amused.
Shen Yuan swallowed again. Ever since he had awoken, a terrible suspicion had been brewing like a storm in the back of his mind, growing larger and larger. The man’s glowing mark, which could only be demonic; his archaic clothing and manner of speaking; his presence within the heart of the temple… His heart beat faster. “Y-you’re the demon king. The Heavenly Demon Emperor. But—but how? You would have to be… thousands of years old by now.”
The emperor, strangely, looked slightly miffed at this. “Then this lord has been slumbering for longer than he thought. That must be why I found the Abyss so changed when I awoke.”
Shen Yuan shrank back, more afraid than if the man had begun ranting and raving. Who reacted with such nonchalance to the news that he had been sleeping for millennia? Without a doubt, he must have been driven insane by the passing years. Or, more likely, he must have been insane to begin with.
Desperation, though, made Shen Yuan bold, and he decided to risk braving a request. At the very least he needed his respirator and goggles back, before the acidic air of the Abyss burned away his mucous membranes. “Junshang, please, I’m clearly not this ‘shizun’ you speak of. And could you please return my protective gear to me soon? Otherwise, the air of the Abyss is going to damage my eyes and my lungs.”
The emperor smiled at him again and leaned in. Shen Yuan tensed in fear and confusion as the emperor’s hand, which was very large, cupped Shen Yuan’s cheek, and he rested the pad of his thumb on Shen Yuan’s bottom lip. It covered the side of his face entirely. His stomach made a strange twist at the realization, and Shen Yuan decided to file away that reaction for inspection at a later time (surely it was fear?). He clenched the bedsheets tightly in his fists. “This lord can’t do that, I’m afraid. This room is equipped with filtering seals, so you will not require your mechanical contraptions. Nor can this lord let you go, as he has not yet decided what he will do with you.”
The emperor’s smile widened. His thumb stroked gently along Shen Yuan’s lip. The action did not soothe Shen Yuan one bit, and he stared wide-eyed back at the emperor. “If you could answer one question for this ignorant disciple. You say you are Shen Yuan, a simple botanist. Yet it was your blood, when spilled on the foundation of this lord’s temple, that broke the seal which had trapped this lord in slumber for an aeon. It was your blood that broke the seal which can only be broken by the blood sacrifice of one of the craven traitors who had betrayed this lord. And you wear the face of the one who betrayed this lord most grievously of all. Tell me, Shen Yuan, how can this be? What is this lord supposed to make of this?”
Oh shit, oh shit, I’m going to DIE, screeched Shen Yuan internally.
Well, when in doubt, be pathetic, as Shen Yuan’s friend Shang Qinghua had always advised him. Shen Yuan did his best to channel him now. “Junshang, I—I don’t know. I’m sorry. I’m not an expert in such matters, and I know nothing at all about seals. But I swear to you, Junshang, I have nothing to do with this Shen Qingqiu.”
The emperor hummed noncommittally again, inspecting Shen Yuan closely. The full force of his regard was a heavy weight indeed. Shen Yuan wished he could turn away, but with his head held in place by the emperor’s hand, there was nothing he could do. The larger man’s eyes were fathomless and hungry pits. For the first time since Shen Yuan had awoken, the emperor looked distracted. It was as if he was trying to recall a very old, very distant memory. Finally, he seemed to have come to a decision.
“Yes, I understand now. This lord knows what he will do with you, little botanist.”
Hopefully not kill me? Shen Yuan waited, tense and fearful.
Only for his mind to blank completely as the emperor pressed his lips against Shen Yuan’s.
The kiss was punishingly deep. Shen Yuan had always been too focused on his studies and too cossetted by his overprotective Jiu-ge to have gone beyond anything but chaste flirtations and coffee dates with a few girls and boys, but even his inexperienced lips could recognize the skill with which the emperor kissed him. Shen Yuan’s arms strained uselessly against the emperor as he easily held Shen Yuan in place, and there was nothing to do but for Shen Yuan to submit to the kiss. The emperor’s hands wandered across his body, pulling up Shen Yuan’s black undershirt so that it was bunched up by his shoulders, exposing his pink nipples to the air. His large, calloused fingertips pinched at one of Shen Yuan’s nipples, rolling and teasing it until it peaked, and the other hand stroked down the side of Shen Yuan’s body. Shen Yuan’s mouth had fallen open in shock, and the demon mercilessly took advantage of the opening, his wet tongue dipping into the cavern of Shen Yuan’s mouth and plundering it. Shen Yuan felt shaky and trembly. What… what is happening?
Shen Yuan gasped for breath when the emperor finally released his lips, who looked down at him with a wicked smirk before moving to press kisses against the side of his vulnerable neck. All the while, his hands kept playing with Shen Yuan’s nipples, the stimulation sending tendrils of pleasure directly down to his cock. “St-stop,” pleaded Shen Yuan, trying to thrash his limbs and twist his body away from the emperor’s exceedingly clever hands. “Why… what is this?” He flushed deeply, mortified at their position and at the fact that his cock was already stirring with interest.
The emperor chuckled. “Stop struggling, A-Yuan.” A strange buzzing began beneath his skin, and Shen Yuan mind froze in horror as all his limbs went slack and relaxed. Why couldn’t he move? What was happening to him? Why was his body so limp and useless? The emperor’s hand wandered down to the growing bulge in Shen Yuan’s briefs, slipping under the thin cloth to stroke him directly. Shen Yuan’s head tipped back, and he let out an involuntary whimper of pleasure, a sound he’d never made before in his life. “Look how well you’re reacting for me already, little botanist,” he coaxed, his voice dark and honeyed.
The emperor paused for a moment to look down in annoyance at Shen Yuan’s briefs, before waving his free hand. Shen Yuan gasped as red sparks danced across his clothing and disintegrated them, leaving him entirely bare for the emperor’s perusal. Shocked, he tried to move away, but the emperor subdued him easily again with the strange buzzing under his skin, sighing in mock disappointment, “A-Yuan, I told you, don’t struggle. This lord will bring you only pleasure. You need only submit to him.” All Shen Yuan could do was lie there helplessly as the emperor smirked at him again, and then he spread Shen Yuan’s legs easily and bent down to swallow his cock in one smooth movement.
Shen Yuan let out a cry. He had never experienced anything like this before. The emperor’s mouth was so hot and soft around him, and his wicked tongue played with the slit of his cock before moving on to the rest of him. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes, and he went mindless with pleasure as the emperor bobbed up and down on his member. The emperor’s hands trailed in between his legs, stroking at the soft white skin there, reaching back to fondle at his balls, reaching back even further to push at a place that had never been touched before. By then, Shen Yuan was so hard that he could no longer bite back his moans, feeling like he was just a helpless toy to serve the emperor’s whims. He nearly didn’t notice when a single, oiled finger pressed past the furled, dusky entrance at his back. “N-no—!” Shen Yuan tried to protest, but at that very moment, the emperor swirled his tongue mercilessly around Shen Yuan’s cock, sending him over the edge. Shen Yuan cried out as he came, arching his back and emptying into the emperor’s mouth, with the emperor’s finger still inside of his ass.
The demon’s mouth released his cock with a pop that made Shen Yuan flush, and he sent Shen Yuan a look of warm approval as he licked up the last of Shen Yuan’s release. “Beautiful, A-Yuan,” he praised. “You were so good for this lord.” He started thrusting his finger in and out of Shen Yuan’s entrance, and Shen Yuan bit his lip at the sensation.
“Please, please, Junshang,” Shen Yuan begged, his pleas breaking off when the strange buzzing under his skin began again, but this time, in his… in his… back. He felt his walls relaxing around the emperor’s fingers without his permission, softening enough that the demon emperor was easily able to insert a second finger, and then a third. Shen Yuan let out a soft, hitching moan as the fingers worked inside of him, spreading apart his hole, stroking against his walls as if searching for something. He felt wanton and disgraceful, hot with arousal and with shame. No one had ever touched him like this. It felt so impossibly good, how could it feel so good? He felt so exposed, even more so because the emperor above him was still fully-robed. One of the invading fingers brushed against a spot inside of him, and Shen Yuan cried out as a lightning bolt of ecstasy traveled through his body.
“There we are,” murmured the emperor with satisfaction. Having found the spot he was looking for, the demon targeted the area again and again with his fingers, until Shen Yuan was moaning with pleasure as he rode out his second orgasm. “Look at you,” his voice continued, dark with sinister intent. “Look how sensitive you are, how your body sucks me in. You were made to be filled, weren’t you, A-Yuan? Don’t worry, this lord will give you all you need.”
By this point, Shen Yuan was so far gone that he only noticed hazily when the demon’s fingers withdrew, when the emperor spread Shen Yuan’s legs even further apart and lifted them onto his shoulders, when the emperor untied his belt and pushed aside his robes to reveal the massive cock jutting out of his body. Shen Yuan only came briefly back to his senses when he felt the hot, blunt head of the emperor’s cock pressing against his entrance, but by then it was too late. He pushed easily inside Shen Yuan’s well-oiled and well-stretched hole, groaning as he did so. Shen Yuan tried to clench down, tried to keep the demon’s cock from entering him, but it only seemed to make the sensations more intense, to draw him in deeper. He could feel every bit of the emperor’s cock sliding inside of him, impossibly big and wide, splitting him apart from his very core, his rim stretched tight around him. “Oh—oh my god,” he slurred.
The man above him chuckled again, Shen Yuan’s only respite before he started thrusting into Shen Yuan, fucking him at a brutal pace. The obscene squelch of his cock fucking into Shen Yuan’s hole, the sound of their flesh slapping together, Shen Yuan’s pitched and breathy moans, and the emperor’s filthy praises filled the room. “How perfect you are, A-Yuan, how tight and warm you are around my cock. You love this, don’t you? You tried to be coy, but you can’t hide how much you love this. You were made for this. Made to be fucked by this lord. I should keep you here as my concubine, shouldn’t I? There’s nothing you’d enjoy more.”
Oh god, Shen Yuan thought, his eyes rolling back, but it felt so good. Each drag of the emperor’s cock in and out of him was agonizingly pleasurable, so massive that it brushed against his prostate with every thrust. He was full, he was so, so full; he couldn’t think about anything other than how full he was with the emperor’s cock. He wondered if his hole was ever going to close again. Shen Yuan’s smaller cock, dark and drooling with precome, bobbed up and down with the force of the emperor’s fucking. Now mindless with pleasure, he began lifting his hips to meet the emperor’s thrusts. “Good boy,” growled the emperor, fingers tightening in a bruising grip around Shen Yuan’s hips as he somehow began thrusting even harder.
“J-Junshang—ah!—Junshang, I’m going to—” Shen Yuan broke off into a moan as the emperor hit that particular spot of pleasure inside his passage especially hard.
“Bingge,” the emperor snarled. “My name is Luo Bingge.”
“Bingge,” Shen Yuan sobbed and arched his back as he finally crested the wave of pleasure, hole spasming and contracting around the emperor’s member as he came for the third time that day across his stomach. The emperor let out a low groan of satisfaction, and Shen Yuan felt the monstrously large cock inside of him pulse, releasing his hot seed deep inside of Shen Yuan. The emperor leaned over to press Shen Yuan into a deep kiss as he kept pouring his cum into him. It seemed to go on and on, filling him up to the brim. Languid and fucked out, Shen Yuan went limp in the emperor’s arms. Ah, at least it was all over now.
Oversensitive from his orgasms, Shen Yuan shivered first at the sensation of the larger man pulling out of him and second at the strange feeling of his seed leaking out of Shen Yuan’s loosened and well-used hole. It fluttered uselessly as Shen Yuan tried to clench shut. He had well and truly been fucked open. Breathing deeply, flushed and sweating from the exertion, he gazed up through half-lidded eyes at the emperor—and then noticed with a start that he was still hard.
He let out a gasp of surprise as the demon emperor flipped him over onto his stomach, lifting Shen Yuan’s hips until his ass was in the air. “You didn’t think this lord would be finished so quickly, did you, A-Yuan?” he teased silkily, and with a single merciless thrust, he entered Shen Yuan again.
Shen Yuan wailed. The gritty slide of the emperor’s cock inside of him, drilling into his prostate with each thrust, balls slapping against Shen Yuan’s ass, the wet sounds of their fucking; it was all simply too much. He tossed his head, trying to crawl away from Luo Bingge, but the emperor simply growled and pulled him in closer. “Trying to escape from me, little botanist? Even now, you still think you can leave me?” He pistoned in, the broad head of his cock splitting Shen Yuan apart again and again, carving out a space for himself inside of Shen Yuan. “There is no place in any realm you will be able to escape from this lord.”
Delirious with pleasure and pain, pinned helplessly on the emperor’s cock, Shen Yuan writhed and begged for mercy, but Luo Bingge gave him no respite. Shen Yuan’s member twitched, but it had already been wrung dry by Luo Bingge’s earlier attentions. All Shen Yuan could do was lie there on his elbows and knees and take the fucking. It was as though he was nothing but a toy for the emperor’s pleasure. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and pathetic whimpers fell out of his mouth, saliva dribbling out, but it only seemed to spur the emperor on to fuck him harder. “Please, no more,” he pleaded. “Bingge, ah, please!”
“Stay with me, Shizun,” the emperor murmured feverishly. “Promise me you’re mine. You left me for another once already. If you want this to stop, promise you’ll never leave me again.”
“Yes, yes,” wept Shen Yuan, knowing that what the emperor was saying made no sense but too far gone to be able to argue the point, “anything, Bingge, just, please—no more—”
“Say it, Shizun,” the emperor commanded, sounding desperate for the first time that night. “Say you’re mine.”
“I’m yours, Bingge, ah, ah, I’ll never leave you—”
Luo Bingge groaned as he released inside of Shen Yuan, filling the smaller man’s most intimate place again and marking him with his warm seed. He thrust one final time at Shen Yuan’s prostate, driving him to an orgasm alongside him. Shen Yuan cried out as he came dry, not knowing if he was in pleasure or pain, sobbing in earnest as his vision blackened around the edges. There was a filthy mess between his legs, Bingge’s seed dripping down his thighs, and he was trembling uncontrollably. Please, please, let this be over—
Shen Yuan let out a low moan of fear as Luo Bingge began moving inside him yet again.
RESEARCHER MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD, FOLLOWING EXPEDITION INTO ENDLESS ABYSS
Shen Yuan, age 26, postdoctoral researcher in magical botany at Cang Qiong University, was declared missing after failing to return from a research expedition to the Endless Abyss. Two search parties led by famed Abyss explorer and daemo-zoologist Liu Qingge could find no trace of his whereabouts, though his rover was found abandoned near the ruins of a temple thought to have been built for the Heavenly Demon Emperor. It is unknown whether foul play was involved in the disappearance or whether Shen Yuan simply succumbed to the abundant natural hazards of the Endless Abyss. Cang Qiong University has declined to sponsor any further rescue missions, citing both the extraordinary risks involved for any rescue personnel and Shen Yuan’s low likelihood of survival, though Professor Liu has stated he will continue his search efforts on a personal basis. Shen Yuan is survived by his older brother, Shen Jiu, associate professor of magical zoology at Cang Qiong University.