Devastation - Supreme Ghost King Qi Rong AU - I take being a father very seriously. More seriously than most, I imagine - at least, in my experience, most fathers are quite shit, so I suspect I am far surpassing most fathers. In fact, I take being a father so seriously that I actually went and did something I have never done before: I willingly put myself in harm’s way for another person! That person was Gu Zi, my son, who this ancestor feels an unusual amount of responsibility for. Did you know you can get a son for free? I didn’t know this until it happened. This one’s son adores him, also, so suck on that, Xie Lian! 

Anyway. This one has been scattered, unfortunately, and reforming is such a pain in the ass! Luckily, I have my dedicated son to help gather the remnants of my being to put back together. For some reason, that asshole Lang Qianqiu, who fancies himself some sort of ex-husband of mine the way he pretends that Gu Zi is like a son to him too, has been helping. I thought he’d throw me to the wind the instant he got a chance! Whatever the case, I need to reform fast, so I can get custody of Gu Zi and serve Lang Qianqiu the middle finger and divorce proceedings. 

Reforming is all fine and good, but Lang Qianqiu keeps complaining that I’m not strong enough to protect Gu Zi. This is such bullshit! Didn’t I do a good enough job dying for him?! The only thing I could do to be stronger would be to…. Ugh, go through the gauntlet at Mount Tonglu. The kiln. Just like Hua Cheng and He Xuan. But who wants to be part of a club those two have joined?! My reputation would certainly suffer! Ah, well. If I must do so for Gu Zi, then I guess I will simply grit my fangs and bear it with honor. How fortunate for me, then, that Mount Tonglu is sending out that signal once more, indicating that the Kiln awaits a new Supreme. 

Time is of the essence, of course. Humans age so rapidly. I don’t have hundreds of years to piece myself back together, or else I will miss all of Gu Zi’s life. I refuse to let Lang Qianqiu steal all of those moments from me! So, with enough of myself to glue into a reflection of my former self, I hauled my ass to Mount Tonglu. I had always avoided this because I knew I would lose. That was before I actually had more to lose than my own self. 

On the mountain, as one kills, they become stronger. The weaker ghosts in the forests and foothills were easy fodder for me, already a formidable Wrath in my own right. Plus, they’re all exceedingly stupid, even the stronger ones. Subterfuge was more than enough to end them all. There are tens of thousands of ghosts, most of them sacrifices on the altar of my new beginning. As disgusting as it was to be covered in the ichor of those weaker than I, there was no time to think of how gross it felt. I could only think of why I was doing this in the first place. For Gu Zi. To take the stick from Lang Qianqiu’s ass and give it a good twisting. To show Hua Cheng, and Xie Lian, and everyone else, that they can no longer look down upon me like a diseased dog. 

Tens of thousands, and in this gauntlet, none could stand against me. I was the last remaining ghost upon Mount Tonglu, and the Kiln lay open for me. The final trial was to be reformed, and then to break free, born anew. 

I have been boiled alive. Cut in half. Blown into smithereens. Beaten over and over again by Hua Cheng. Hell, when I died the first time, it was from being tortured by rebels and then having my head (badly) severed from my body. But this, being taken apart and rearranged in flames and darkness - this was worse than all of that combined. I thought I welcomed pain, thought I could laugh in the face of it, and someone was certainly laughing in that Kiln as I bled and vomited and clawed at the sides of that prison until my fingernails were no more than torn stumps. This was how Ghost Kings became powerful - they came to understand true suffering. No wonder they changed their names, hid their true forms; they were no longer the ghosts they had been. 

Neither was I. 

Many times, the fires threatened to consume me completely. My mind might have cracked under the heat, but this pursuit of power was not just for me. This ancestor has someone he needs to protect - fires of hell be fucking damned! I don’t know how long I remained fighting for my existence in that coffin, but when I finally burst through, finally felt the light of day on my new skin, finally realized that the power within me was unlike anything I had ever dreamed of, I knew that I had won. I could drag myself back and deliver the promised “fuck you!” to everyone who had ever doubted me. 

This ancestor had reached peak levels of fatherhood! Fuck you, Lang Qianqiu! 

—

Notes about this verse:

In addition to now rivaling the other Ghost Kings in terms of power, Qi Rong can now change his form at will. He does this mostly for fun, and not to actually disguise himself. 

He is much more territorial, building permanent structures in his land for himself and for Gu Zi, rather than fleeing whenever he gets into trouble with Hua Cheng. He maintains his rudeness towards others, though he loses his appetite for human flesh, and begins to develop his own identity outside of imitating the other Ghost Kings. 

There is a branch of this verse that coincides specifically with @deiscension’s Calamity Shi Qingxuan verse, which is all the same except that Qi Rong tends to hang out in his female form around her, and Gu Zi sees Black Tempest as an aunt figure and adores her.

This verse has a fic I'm writing that takes place within it. You can check it out here.