#Yuanyi

[renshengs]

what if you were a thousand year old demon lord cursed to be a literal walking vessel for all the world's horrors and i was a young upstanding swordsman who lost my family to your uncontrollable violence. what if i inherited the only weapon in the universe that could kill you and you came to me one day and told me you'd help me learn how to do it. what if i promised you, in all my grief and rage, that i'd be the one to kill you someday. what if you were gentle with me despite my hatred for you. what if you looked out for me, cut yourself on my sword to save me from my nightmares, held my hand and healed the bleeding wound and asked for nothing in return. what if you never asked for anything from anyone and loved the world anyway. what if you wanted to die because you thought the world would be better off without you because the only thing you see in yourself is violence. what if they dragged me through the mud and you stood by me and protected me and looked me in the eyes like you'd always done because you understood how it felt.

what if one day i looked at you and realized i didn't want you to die and it tore me apart. what if i'd rather walk into fire, freeze myself for eternity. what if your death by my hand was written in the stars by our ancestors. what if i know how this story ends, know it can't be rewritten. what if i try anyway. what if i try anyway because i love you.

[kandadze]

The sheer intimacy in this little moment. Hope this is what you had in mind, @no-sh1t-sherly

[silver-and-stars]

Still going insane over the fact that Yuanzhou was dying in the arms of the woman he loved, said farewell words to her, then -instead of looking at her while he died- he locked eyes with the man who killed him, his soulmate, smiled and kept looking at him until he vanished.

[pastlives-brokendreams]

mentally i am still here.

i could write a whole essay about the meanings hidden behind this scene but their smiles are what really got me. you can see all the love they have for each other and how the single thought of losing the other quite literally shatters them inside.

adding to that the mysterious silent words zyc mouths at zyz when he thinks he is about to die (you know what i’m talking about and you will not change my mind about it. the L-WORD was definitely in there) and i’m pretty sure we can translate this whole scene as being their official and definite love confession.

maybe that’s also the moment that cements it for zyc. no matter what happens, he will not go on without zyz. he’ll find a way for them to be together, no matter how long it takes.

and now. imagine him with the white streaks in his hair, smiling in that exact same way when, after who know how many long years, zyz finally cultivates back to life and lays his eyes on him once again. smiling.

[fiftysevenacademics]

Is there a consensus yet on what Zhuo Yichen says in that one scene where he soundlessly says what appear to be three words to Zhao Yuanzhou through Wen Zongyu's magic barrier.

I watched that part twice today, and it sure looks to me like he's saying 我爱你 Wǒ ài nǐ, I love you. But maybe someone out there has a more definitive answer?

[xiaobaosnoona]

The piece of paper falls out of Zhou Yichen's hand and lands softly on the ground by his feet. The wind has stilled. Everything has stilled. Except for his own beating heart.

A familiar, soft smile greets him. Big dark eyes looks at him, unapologetically shedding tears. Home. He found his way home.

"Your hair is beautiful," the man before him says. "You truly look like a great demon now, Xiao Zhou."

And he reaches out a hand as if he wants to run his fingers through the soft white strands. Zhou Yichen steps forward, takes the hand in his own, and refuses to let it go ever again.

[lost-sheep]

I'm almost me again He's almost you

[zhuoyichenpretty]

Go on, hold his hand then.

[its-a--love-story]

Youtube: MyEdits

[hyog-blog]

Emotionally this scene is so hot and intense. Zhuo Yichen demanding answers from Zhao Yuanzhou, for it, for him to make sense, especially in the context of his own (already awakened) feelings. And it must be driving our boy literally insane - the contradiction of Zhao Yuanzhou being his family's killer, the one demon who single-handedly destroyed the Demon Hunting Bureau (which was kind of everything ZYC ever knew at that point, that it was it, his life was just that, and his future as well).

And Zhu Yan destroyed not only his family, nearly cutting down the whole lineage apart from Zhuo YIchen, but also the organization, that was put to a halt and nearly ceased to exist, and he literally took whatever meaning Zhuo Yichen's life had and threw it in the gutters. So ZYC was not simply alone, with his whole family dead, but also meaningless and without a place to go, or to be, or something to do in this world, his ancestral home becoming a limbo of sorts, with him - a lost soul that had no means to move on, to start living again.

Because he was an anomaly from the start and whatever he would become - would always be in the context of demons, and BIng Yi, and murders, and investigations, and all that weird stuff that most people considered as nightmares personified. He was already a part of all that even when he didn't really know it himself, just following his brother around, just being, just going through that archive of books and writings about monsters that were actually his kin in a way (and when he learns that Bing Yi was, actually, a demon, in my headcanon that would have shattered his self-identity quite a bit, at least for some time).

And now we meet this boy, already a young man, who has single-handedly restored the Demon Hunting Bureau, finding it in himself to build his own meaning of life from scratch, getting back that place in life he thought was his and that it mattered, and that his service to all those people was what he's supposed to do (and probably, the only thing he could do being an anomaly, an outcast, someone stuck between the worlds of humans and demons). He has more in common with Wen Xiao than we might think upon meeting him first. She's a bridge between the demon and human worlds, but he's also a bridge, or rather a shield protecting the human world from the demons and, as he later learns, maybe simply protecting the innocent, be it demon or human, from the ones that want to hurt them, no matter what realms they come from.

And so he meets Zhao Yuanzhou having just figured things out for himself, and suddenly learns that the world, again, isn't so black-and-white and even that gruesome hideous murder had so many layers to it and wasn't at all what he perceived it to be. And the man who had been his dreamless nightmare all these years turned out to be a whimsical creature that only appeared to be dangerous when he first saw him, yet possessed no killer intent whatsoever. And in fact, turned out to be a protector as well, trying to protect everyone from himself first and foremost.

And he watches this gorgeous mysterious man, as complex as he is, getting close to Wen Xiao, whom Zhuo Yichen adores more than any other woman in this world (emphasis on woman) and he already has feelings for Zhao Yuanzhou as well, however suppressed and unfathomable they are for now, and he wants this man to give him answers, but whatever Zhao Yuanzhou can give him - it's not that. It's not the certainty of being bad enough to just kill him and be done with it, and it's definitely not a certainty that he deserves to be killed at all. And even not the certainty of him seeking death at this point, even though he continues to talk about it, but it's not so strong now, not to the extent that it was before, when Zhuo Yichen first met the Great Demon.

And this is where he finds himself that night, when Zhao Yuanzhou finally approaches him for that don't-hesitate-to-murder-me pep talk, and Wen Xiao is brought up, and his newly found will to live (or something close to it) through that affection only, but Zhuo Yichen doesn't know it yet, that it's not just that affection that keeps this demon from deteriorating into the depths of despair facing that goddamn horrifying blood moon all over again, that destroyed so many lives, including the life of this gorgeous young and so very sensitive Zhuo Yichen. That there's another type of affection and feeling and need that draws him to Zhuo Yichen that night in an attempt to protect him from this, as best as he can, giving him that immunity from the one-word spell, and asking him to live well no matter what happens next, knowing already that it might turn into a bloodbath at some point.

But this time ZYZ is as proactive as he can be, and he trusts Zhuo Yichen enough to kill him or at least to stay alive and protect Wen Xiao. It will be bad, he knows that much, but at this moment and in this instance he comes to spend this time of his own uncertainty with Zhuo Yichen not only because the boy needs this to stay strong and to realize what he's actually facing, but also because Zhao Yuanzhou needs him to stay strong himself with whatever ZYZ is facing again, with that glaring possibility of losing control and wreaking havoc everywhere, with this one young man, truly, being the only one who could stop him at this point. Kill him. Save him from this torment. And it's heavy, and Zhao Yuanzhou knows it is, so he goes for that talk and talks carefully around the very notion of ending his life, but also - about that and that only, sensing Zhuo Yichen's confusion as if it was truly his own, and that turmoil of emotions, and that need to understand, to make everything make sense somehow.

And so they talk. And do some magic. And none of them gets much relief after that conversation is over, but there's a certainty now. That at least this one boy would be protected from the Great Demon's magic. And if he has a chance of surviving the blood moon, than so does Wen Xiao (who probably is protected by their contract anyway, but Zhuo Yichen isn't, and it matters to Zhao Yuanznou already oh-so-much).

And Zhuo Yichen is left even more strained and confused than before because of all the contradictions he's facing, this demon acting not like an enemy, even though he's about to become one, but rather like a caring friend. And what is he supposed to make out of all that? When he simply doesn't, just doesn't want to kill him, no matter what.

[renshengs]

post-canon yuanyi snippet (~1000 words)

that yuanyi post-canon fic (estimated wc 15k-20k) that i said i'd post one day yeah i'm still writing it don't worry. here's zhao yuanzhou freshly rebirthed into a koi pool and a new life of clownery.

—

The good thing was, the first person to find him didn’t try to kill him. To avoid disturbing the fish any further, he gathered all the strength in his arms and dragged himself bodily across the pool until he could throw his elbows over the stone, rest inoffensively against the curving border. Moonlight skittered across the water and minnowed around his robes, bright enough it made his eyes ache. He shut them.

His first transformation, when he thought back to it, had only involved a great burst of red smoke, his yaoli, as his body had abruptly jolted him through the change from a white-furred ape into something resembling a real human person. Back then, the only living thing who’d been around to laugh at him and his hairless limbs had been Li Lun, and that wasn’t so embarrassing because it was Li Lun, who’d known him since they had both been no more than a tiny ape and a juvenile sapling, feeding together on the same rain. And not even a shichen later, Li Lun too had been dark-haired, branchless, his own body suddenly a stranger.

Certainly nothing about this was shaping up to resemble that.

One benefit of having been dead was that you didn’t remember much of it. All Zhao Yuanzhou could recall before he’d been so unceremoniously tossed back into life and all its bruises was that blue light, the hazy shimmer of it like distant smoke in the timeless space of nonbeing. He didn’t know who the wielder of the Yunguang Sword was now, if it was still Zhuo Yichen.

Likely it had to be. The sword had called out to him, lanced bright through the veil between life and death to tug his soul from those muddy depths. He recognized that stubbornness, had recognized it even in death, in the dark rivers of nothing that carried away all memory. Zhao Yuanzhou could hardly fathom the possibility that Zhuo Yichen might be long gone, might have passed the last trailing veins of his sorrow down to any descendants of his, to a new inheritor of the sword. Harder to imagine he would’ve allowed his descendants to take on the weight of that burden at all.

The Bureau was still standing, was still recognizable—it couldn’t possibly have been more than a hundred years or two. And Zhuo Yichen was a yao now; that seemed important to remember. Whole fistfuls of centuries would pass him with ease.

So where was he now?

Zhao Yuanzhou had only just resigned himself to the long and uncomfortable wait of a trapped animal when there came the low groan of the hall doors being pushed open.

He held very still and didn’t breathe. He couldn’t estimate exactly how much time had passed since his death, and no way of knowing if the Bureau would receive him harshly as they once had. He had been trying not to think of that unsettled question: if, in the very end, he had been remembered for all the horrors he had caused, or that one single piercing act of good.

His safest choice was to uphold caution. At his level of recovery, a poisoned arrow through the heart would send him right back where he came.

“Is someone there?” A young woman’s voice, unrecognizable. Light pulsed red from the lantern that swung in her hand; after waking in so much darkness, Zhao Yuanzhou had to narrow his eyes at the lashing color. “Xiao Peng, if it’s you again, don’t think I won’t tell your shifu you’ve been violating curfew and sneaking off into her—”

Abruptly she caught sight of him and came to a stop, whole body stiffening as though spellstruck. This close, only a few strides from the moonlined lip of the pool, Zhao Yuanzhou could squint through the blinding lantern brilliance and see her face, flame-lit and startlingly sharp-featured, as if before she was flesh and blood she had first been whittled from wood. There was something distinctly familiar about the dip of her brow as she took him in, the way she carried herself, sure and straight-shouldered. If she was a descendant of someone he’d once known, he could not see their face in her.

“You’re a yao,” she said, then blinked. “How on earth did you end up in the forbidden courtyard?”

Forbidden? Zhao Yuanzhou opened his mouth to say: That’s supposed to be my question, but found that no sound emerged when he tried.

Her eyes darted over his face where his demon marks surely were, then lower. “Heavens, you’re not a carp yao from the pool, are you? I was so sure Xiao Peng was joking with me.”

“What?” Zhao Yuanzhou croaked. Yes, there was his voice. “No, I’m—” Water splashed over the stone as he doubled over, coughing and spluttering. No good—speaking felt like trying to move sand through his throat, and every word in his mouth tasted wrong.

“And there’s no reason to get in the pool if you’re only trying to steal a few fish,” continued the young woman, unfazed. “So if you’re not one of them, then how did you get in here? Forgive me, but you don’t really look strong enough to break through our privacy array. Besides, there’s not even anything in here to steal.”

Then why is it sequestered off? Zhao Yuanzhou thought. And why did I return here, of all places? She wouldn’t have the answers, of course—she looked barely of age and was unmistakably human, perhaps a student or the child of whomever now owned this place, and spoke with an unfiltered keenness that reminded him sharply of a younger Wen Xiao, years before the weight of the realms had fallen to her shoulders. But it was very possible she might know someone who did.

Taking great care not to irritate his throat, he asked, “Is this the Demon Hunting Bureau?”

She tilted her head. A frown was beginning on her face. “Esteemed guest, this is the Demon Relations Bureau. Though—”

Without warning she stopped and went very still, as if listening for something, then whipped around and hissed a terrifically unsavory phrase beneath her breath. The lantern bumped against her and sputtered. “Of all times, really?”

Zhao Yuanzhou peered out and saw nothing, only the unoffending darkness of night.

Then: a deep, resounding crack as the double doors burst open once again.

[kandadze]

And then there was light. And then there was your smile. (Yannis Ritsos, can't for my life find the collection I've read this in)

[randomingoftherandomness]

Hear me out…

Baby ice dragon demon ZYC losing control over his abilities and going Elsa mode in freezing everything he touches 😭

ZYZ so concerned and trying to help but ZYC terrified he’s gonna freeze him too

"I leave for half a shichen and this is what happens when I'm not around."

Zhao Yuanzhou barely has time to finish his sentence before Xiao Jiu grabs him by the arm and drags him towards Xiao Zhuo's room. Mouth running a mile a minute, the boy genius starts rattling off without pauses or stops about how they'd noticed something wrong when temperatures dropped below freezing even when everything beyond the compound's gates was a comfortable balmy autumnal afternoon gander.

Ying Lei chirps up that no one can go beyond the corridor that leads to Zhuo Yichen's private quarters to check on him, and when Zhao Yuanzhou moves to ask why, he stops.

There could not be any wondering of the 'why', when right at the mouth of the corridor is a thick wall of ice.

"We tried breaking through." Ying Lei says, solemnly. "Some of the men are looking to build a fire strong enough to melt it down, but that'll take ages."

"So this is why you pulled me out of my sojourn?" Zhao Yuanzhou asks the little mountain god. Turning around, he spies the way Xiao Jiu is worrying at the bell in his hair, and opts to be kind about this.

"Stand back." He commands, calling on his power for a spell.

The ice wall shatters easily enough and Zhao Yuanzhou takes the initiative to be the first to walk through the frigid air. Not two steps in, accompanied by a loud lurch and the distressed sound of Xiao Jiu calling out his name, the wall reforms itself 3 feet deep, pushing the demon back.

A trap, then? He wonders. It's no matter in any case because very few things can hurt him. However, there are many things that could harm Zhuo Yichen at this stage. Practically breaking out in a sprint, he runs at full tilt to where his room is.

"Zhuo Yichen!"

"Xiao Zhuo--!"

At every step he takes, the ice that coats the walls go thicker and the air colder. With his senses, the great demon feels out the way just moving through the pulse of energy that beats through the corridor is like moving through thick sludge. Worry prickles in the corner of his mind, but he pushes it back to focus on getting to the mortal.

No. Zhao Yuanzhou has to correct himself. No mere mortal. Not anymore.

When the door to the bedroom won't open, Zhao Yuanzhou batters through with a whispered word. The whole space glows with an icy blue, unnatural but beautiful. If it were any other moment, he might have taken a beat to admire it all, but as it were, his attentions go to the curled-up form on the bed.

"Xiao Zhuo-daren..."

"Don't come close! D-don't come near me!"

Zhao Yuanzhou inhales, consciously relaxing himself. With gentleness in his voice, he takes half a step forward when he asks, "And why is that?"

This makes Zhuo Yichen sob. "Because I'll hurt you. I can't control it. I'll hurt you and everyone else."

A full step. Then another. "You could never hurt me."

"Zhao Yuanzhou, I'm being serious!"

"And so am I." The demon smiles, crossing the last few steps between them. With careful awareness in his gestures, Zhao Yuanzhou takes a seat on the bed. Keeping his body language light, he reaches out to take Xiao Zhuo by the hand.

He resists, but what is resistance in the face of a patient storm?

"Xiao Chen, here."

The first touch of their fingertips is like touching a glacier's surface. The second is the sensation of melting snow. Zhao Yuanzhou lets the icy feeling numb his touch, then bleed a little of his power into how their hands slide together; finger to finger, palm to palm, intertwined.

"There. Just like I told you, you can't hurt me." The demon whispers, reaching out for his other hand. Surprise gives in to delight when Xiao Zhuo does not hesitate to lean into him, letting Zhao Yuanzhou wrap his arms around him. He is freezing, almost a block of ice in his embrace, but the great demon holds on tightly. Uncaring for the almost painful the chill seeps into his own bones.

"I can't control it..." Xiao Zhuo murmurs miserably against his shoulder.

"I know. It's alright."

Xiao Zhuo shakes his head, rubbing his tear-stained cheek against his robe, "I don't want to hurt anyone."

"And I won't let you." Zhao Yuanzhou promises, carding his fingers through his hair. "I promise."

[pastlives-brokendreams]

wing take.

i know some people found them a bit random (and i can see it) BUT. hear me out. what if those were yinglong’s wings ?

we know zyc is a baby demon mix between bingyi’s soul and yinglong’s bones AND we know that yinglong was a rare winged dragon (huge floofy feathery wings it seems like).

SO. what if, zyz having immense power and somehow maybe we don’t know being yinglong’s reincarnation/the incarnation of what he stood for, he would be able to call on this part of himself dragon grandaddy and somehow materialize it in the body of the boy who holds part of him.

therefore, the wings could maybe be seen has being part of them both and would represent the unbreakable bond zyz and zyc share… a bond they inherited from their dragon ancestors/first lives/previous incarnations grandaddies.

and now i really want to see zyz with the wings… because his would be WHITE. like pure, shiny, floofy white feathers that would match the white fur he once had on his monkey ape body.

please somebody use that as a prompt and write something about it.

maybe i will when i get some time 😭

[fiftysevenacademics]

Fangs of Fortune + text posts

[onmyo-jin]

original prompt, i hope you don't mind.

zyz + zyc = kiss, the others see them.

Thank you for the prompt, I don't mind at all :D I hope you enjoy these two being idiots

Zhao Yuanzhou's lips are hot against his own. He can taste the wine the demon had been drinking on his tongue when he licks into Zhuo Yichen's mouth and flushes at the realisation that the demon can probably taste his own tea as well. Zhao Yuanzhou surrounds him, envelops him, seems intent on consuming him and Zhuo Yichen is considering letting him do just that. He pushes ever closer to Zhuo Yichen, forcing him to step back to keep his balance. Then his back hits the wall. He has nowhere to go, and nowhere he'd rather be.

From somewhere off to the side Zhuo Yichen distantly registers a gasp, which seems unimportant. The snort that follows does seem important enough to distract his thoughts from the all-consuming demon in front of him. He knows that sound: that is their little mountain god– oh no.

"We should… ah, leave, Xiao Jiu," Ying Lei's voice sounds. The surprise of it, of the others seeming him–them– like this, makes Zhuo Yichen push the demon away. Zhao Yuanzhou moves without complaint, and follows Zhuo Yichen's shocked look towards their friends. His smile is nothing short of evil.

"Don't look Bai Jiu, this is not a demon hunting technique you are old enough to learn just yet," Zhao Yuanzhou says, his voice filled with laughter. He tries to lean against Zhuo Yichen again, but Yichen steps away. A quick glance at their friends tells him Ying Lei has at least covered Bai Jiu's eyes, though probably too late. Bai Jiu's jaw is practically on the floor, and he's not even trying to remove Ying Lei's hand.

/

Dinner is awful. It is even more awkward than Zhuo Yichen feared it would be, and Zhao Yuanzhou is making everything much worse by being nice. He insisted he wanted to sit next to Zhuo Yichen, something Bai Jiu argues with him about practically every meal. Then he insisted he pour the drinks, and worst of all: he keeps putting food in Zhuo Yichen's bowl. They're his favourite foods as well, none of the soggy vegetables but only the crunchy ones, the slices of meat that are neither all lean meat nor all fat… Zhuo Yichen is forced to ask himself how long the demon has known what his favourite foods are, and how closely the demon has been watching him to find out.

Ying Lei is looking anywhere but at Zhuo Yichen, Bai Jiu is sitting on the far side of the table barricaded behind Pei-daren, and Wen Xiao's attention is fixed very firmly on her food from where she sits opposite them.

Da Yao tries to put another bite of food in his bowl, and this time Zhuo Yichen has had enough of his games. He grabs his bowl before Zhao Yuanzhou's chopsticks get there, and hisses: "Stop making everything worse, you great bloody demon!"

Across the table, Wen Xiao makes a sound that might have been a snort, had she been any less genteel about it. She finally looks at him, for the first time that meal, and Zhuo Yichen immediately knows why she has been looking away for so long. The laughter in her gaze in threatening to spill out of her mouth, mirth drawing adorable lines around her eyes and scrunching her nose the way she used to laugh when they were younger.

"Xiao Zhuo," she is definitely laughing at him, and what is worse is that she's trying to be nice about it. "Xiao Zhuo, what took the two of you so long?"

Ying Lei guffaws a laugh and quickly hides his face in his rice bowl when Yichen looks at him. At the far end of the table even little Bai Jiu is nodding along with Wen Xiao. "Really, the two of you have been so painfully obvious, tiptoeing around each other for weeks–" Pei Sijing plants a heavy hand on his shoulder to stop the incriminating words. "What Xiao Jiu is trying to say is that… well…" She looks at Wen Xiao for aid, and Zhuo Yichen follows her gaze.

Wen Xiao is shaking with quiet laughter. She sits up straight when she notices that everyone has turned to her, and takes a deep breath to quiet her mirth. And then another one, because one was not enough. "What we're trying to say is that the two of you are the last to notice your mutual attraction." 

"Hey! Come now, Zhuo-daren may not be as perceptive, but I–"

"And when did you notice, Da Yao?" "Uhm," the great demon mutters, and mumbles something that sounds an awful lot like yesterday.