#with the qi quest anyway

[silent-partner-412]

it’s been long enough since i finished my 1.6 playthrough and i gotta say i think my biggest disappointment with it is that wine is still by far the quickest and easiest way to make a ton of money. even with the bigger emphasis on ranching with the new farm, the additions to fishing, the new machines, etc, i still ended up using starfruit wine and eventually ancient fruit wine to reach perfection in my playthrough back in march. it’s a huge shame; some of the new methods of money making are absolutely nothing to sneeze at, but i still think it would be great to have more routes to a relatively efficient perfection that isn’t just wine of the best crops.

[ganondoodle]

i wish i could say i have been working on projects but the truth is i have just been playing stardew valley again every second of free time i have bc it seems to be the only thing that keeps my mind from destroying itself atm

[sunderwight]

Shen Yuan who glitches in his transmigration, but the original Shen Qingqiu still dies of a qi deviation.

So the System still needs someone with narrative relevance to throw Luo Binghe into the Abyss. In a fit of desperation, it contrives circumstances after Shen Qingqiu's death to move Luo Binghe to An Ding Peak (not that difficult), and then the System makes Shang Qinghua be Luo Binghe's new scum master who casts him down.

Airplane's thrilled, really. Cultivators aren't supposed to get ulcers but damned if he doesn't come close to one anyway. Between Shen Qingqiu and then just a while later Liu Qingge both dying from qi deviations, and Shang Qinghua looking like a stiff breeze could take him out any day now, poor Mu Qingfang is also just about at his wits' end.

But it's not all bad news! On An Ding Peak, Luo Binghe actually finds himself surrounded by the kinds of people who are accustomed to being bullied by the rest of the sect. So they're pretty sympathetic to him, and it's easier for someone with basic laboring skills to advance on that peak too. His chores don't decrease too much, but he actually gets rewarded for doing them well, and no one tries to kick him out of the dorms or anything. Shang Qinghua doesn't either go out of his way to bully or praise Luo Binghe, correctly reasoning that his best shot at not getting a gruesome death is to just be a more forgettable bad guy than an abusive dirtbag or a heart-wrenching betrayal. He doesn't sabotage Luo Binghe's cultivation (no point, and it would just farm resentment later) but he also doesn't go out of his way to help him improve (not gonna arm his inevitable maybe-probably-murderer with better weapons!), so Luo Binghe's situation sees an overall improvement but not the zero-to-hero treatment he'd have got with Shen Yuan either.

When Shang Qinghua shoves Luo Binghe into the Abyss (he just full on picks him up and tosses him like a sack of beans, better to rip it off quick like a bandage), LBH is upset, but he's not especially surprised or dismayed about Shang Qinghua's part in it. Later on he'll be kind of confused, because he just assumed that of course the righteous sect cultivator would abhor the demon, but it turns out Shang Qinghua has been working for a demon since before Luo Binghe even came to the sect? But then it still kind of makes sense because a Heavenly Demon would definitely pose a risk to Mobei Jun and to Mobei Jun's rule. Shang Qinghua, he supposes, is just really loyal to his specific demon.

Luo Binghe's subsequent revenge quest is also somewhat mitigated by the Abyss actually not being that bad.

The Abyss is not actually that bad thanks to the glitched out Shen Yuan having been camping there for several years now.

So when Shen Yuan's transmigration failed it failed because he "woke up" during the process, realized where the System intended to put him, was like no way in goddamn hell am I being that guy about it, and actually kind of won the ensuing tug-of-war. The System couldn't put him in Shen Qingqiu but Shen Yuan didn't want to go back to his dead body either, so he ended up stuck in the nearest available space for lost interdimensional beings. Which was the Endless Abyss.

Luckily Shen Yuan's quasi-transmigrated imparted an equivalent cultivation level as Shen Jiu's to him, and the glitch made him able to sense and manipulate certain extra-dimensional energies, so he manifested as this weird godlike being able to manipulate and control aspects of the Abyss. So he set about transforming Airplane's Torment Nexus into a viable ecosystem (the current version would not be anything approaching sustainable were it not for divine/narrative intervention, and is constantly on the verge of destabilizing into unlivable ruin that would only be fit for some particularly hardy microorganisms).

It's still like, a monster land full of demonic creatures and terrifying phenomenon, but with Shen Yuan's assistance it becomes something more like a demonic wildlife reserve than a dimensional horror plane. Though it is still a dimensional horror plane, and Shen Yuan is its chief dimensional horror. He treats it sort of like those dungeon building or wildlife park sims, figuring out how to keep everything in balance while still preserving all the interesting parts. A lot of the extreme survival issues of the Abyss are more of a result of it being environmentally unstable than a result of its actual denizens, and once he smooths out a lot of the messy dimensional edges and creates stable vents for the fluctuating energy run-off, the demonic inhabits start behaving less like horror movie monsters and more like animals. They're still wild and dangerous and prone to killing one another, but also more cautious, and able to access enough stable resources that they can even start to be picky about what they pursue.

Turns out that a lot of creatures in the Abyss actually don't like fighting and dying and being brutally injured on a regular basis, even if they can heal from it!

Shen Yuan has even discovered that some like chin scritches (he's not terribly worried about habituating them to people, given how rarely any people actually access the Abyss, but also because he's not really all that people-ish himself these days).

This means that one of Luo Binghe's first encounters with the horrible creatures of the Abyss, is in fact a pack of wolf-like monsters thoroughly avoiding an actual fight with him. In fact most of the denizens of the Abyss just avoid him. They can smell the Heavenly Demon energy rolling off of him, and given the current abundance of alternatives to dealing with that, virtually none of the monsters actually choose to challenge him. There are still a few that will go after anything that's bleeding, but that problem stops once Luo Binghe's physiology heals his wounds, which takes like... a couple hours, max.

Despite the stories he's heard, Luo Binghe is relieved to find that the Abyss is not quite so terrible as all that. Normal survival skills suffice for seeing him through much of it. He's able to hunt for food, scavenge for tools, and even finds potable water fairly easily. After a few weeks, he also comes across a ruin which seems to be inhabited.

The being inhabiting it is plainly a god, although he demurs and refutes such assertions whenever Binghe is too frank. He's a strange being, at turns looking like some queer approximation of a human, at other times blinking and winking in and out of existence, in patterns of strange lights and oddly geometrical fire. But he's surprisingly not hostile, letting Binghe rest in his residence, and even directing him towards points of interest. Accompanying him, too, though he seems to think that Binghe doesn't notice the odd almost spiderweb-like patterns that appear on things which he's influencing. The god calls himself The Peerless One, or at least that's what Luo Binghe infers from some writings on the ruin. The Peerless One offers instruction, seemingly without thinking about it, and gets flustered at being addressed by title, so Binghe also begins to refer to him as Shizun after a while.

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

christ more dragon god sy yapping:

all those b-points he got from finishing that first quest? gone. my mans got like 100 every time he blessed a new generation of peak lords, plus the 500 he got from finishing that first main quest {From the Ground Up}, plus whatever he got from fighting off all those beasties who tried to kill his little cultivators way back when.

but when he unlocks his human form, he does not unlock clothes, and he has to buy them from the system store! truly unfair! he looks pretty similar to how he looked in his first life, just a little less sickly. he also has to buy a sword from the system, which is frankly bullshit. but lanrui is a lovely sword—an almost pearlescent sheen to the blade, with peach blossoms inlaid in the hilt and a dragon scale sheath that…it’s almost certainly made from his scales, actually. weird. after buying everything he needs from the bullshit system’s scam shop, he’s left with about 150 B-points.

after his magical girl transformation from gigantic dragon god to gangly human wrapped in way too many layers of sumptuous green and blue silks, shen yuan is sent off the mountain on a couple of missions from the system. pop into the demon realm to slay this evil, fend off these fierce corpses attacking this little town—tutorial shit. it’s weird having such a small body again after six (or seven hundred???? he’s not thinking about the enormity of time right now) years as a gigantic dragon. his steps feel a thousand times lighter, and the first time he tries to pick a fruit from a tree, he kind of explodes it with spiritual energy. the tutorial is, unfortunately, necessary.

the system is almost helpful when it shares his stats and all his cool dragon skills. his official name here is lord canglong, but honestly it would be so hard to explore this world if people were falling all over themselves when they heard his names. did dragon gods get personal names before courtesy too? fighting with the system gets him a corny, half-assed compromise.

he still gets to be shen yuan, but while his first life’s yuan was 垣 yuán (wall), in his second life it’s 愿 yuàn (desire, hope), and the shen he has is… very transparently 神, shén (god, deity). he’s got stupid amounts of spiritual energy, he doesn’t need to eat or drink, and sometimes plants bloom around him since he’s the also kind of the god of springtime?

right when he gets excited thinking about how he’s a god!! (the dragon god in PIDW!! that bastardization of qinglong that airplane wrote who never did shit to defend the realms until his mountain was being destroyed by binghe merging them!!) the system butts in to remind him that there are limitations. he can’t kill humans except in certain circumstances or else he’ll be punished, which—fine, he didn’t plan to go around murdering people anyway? his dragon form will be locked whenever he’s not on canglong peak (bullshit!! what kind of half assed nerfing—) and there’s a permanent penalty on his account, [Dragon Ex Machina], that threatens to penalize him if he uses his dragon god powers to bully the plot into going his way.

so what’s the point of being a dragon god, then!?!??!?!

he spends days bickering debating with the system while he learns to use his sword and qi without exploding whatever he touches, but the system refuses to budge. if he tries to bully the plot too much, he’ll be punished. it’s bullshit, but so is this whole novel he’s found himself in, so…

shen yuan is ready to spend a few more days acclimating before he gets a game plan together but that flies out the window when something starts burning at the back of his mind, screaming that something’s wrong, something is in danger, part of his territory is threatened. he hasn’t felt that since the last demon invasion, and before he can stop himself, he’s mounted lanrui and darted off toward that feeling that something is wrong, wrong, wrong.

he ends up having blown in a wall of qing jing’s discipline hall, the tail of shen qingqiu’s whip caught in his fist (and fuck, that hurt to catch!!! his hand is definitely bleeding) as he stares down the man who was really just about to start whipping a child. a couple of disciples have gone white; a couple others have fallen over. the only ones in the room unaffected are shen yuan, luo binghe whose eyes are wide as he gazes up at him, and fucking scum villain extraordinaire, shen qingqiu. and the scum villain’s first words to him, lord canglong, dragon god of qing jing peak???

“move, or i’ll beat you too.”

[confuzing]

Liu Yuan AU Posting Time

Previous Parts: 1 / 2.5 / 3

This is the Abyss, Before and After, it's a long one

The Immortal Alliance Conference: Xuanye is left back at camp at Shizun's insistence and Luo Binghe and Liu Yuan set out just the two of them to look at and then kill all the monsters. Since they aren't distracted by anyone (except each other) both of them tear up the rankings, leaving Gongyi Xiao a distant third before everything goes to shit.

Not sure who or what breaks LBH's seal but the end result is this: Luo Binghe stands at the edge of the Abyss, his newly clawed hands wrapped carefully around A-Yuan's waist and his face half- hidden in A-Yuan's hair while Liu Yuan stands between him and SQQ and LQG. LY is focused mostly on SQQ- both because he thinks he's the easier adult to reason with and because he can't imagine an attack coming at him from his brother's direction. LBH is watching LQG- the most volatile Peak Lord who's staring at his grip on A-Yuan in open disgust. Both Peak Lords feint at the same time- SQQ is trying to find an angle that lets him hit LBH and not LY, LQG is trying to figure out how to pry LY away from LBH. Both boys flinch, and lose their balance. The last thing LBH does as he falls into the Abyss is shove LY away from him as hard as he can. It's just enough for LQG to grab his little brother and haul him back onto solid ground.

Before: Liu Yuan's System is absolutely useless. It awards him points but he can't use them for anything. (What even are W points? It won't tell him.) And it doesn't have quests for him. At least it's not forcing him to do things though? Or not do them? Because honestly he didn't quite sort out all those past life memories until after he met Binghe and it looks like he's derailed the plot a little just by existing? And then he derailed it a lot by kissing back when Binghe got up the nerve to kiss him and well, the harem was the worst part of the book anyway. He's not gonna miss it.

The only thing the System does do is tell him the Abyss is unavoidable. Not that LY has any idea how he could avoid it in the first place. But the System doesn't say he can't go with LBH. He can just focus on filling his and Binghe's head with Abyss survival info and everything will be alright! Right?

After: LY is a mess. He stops eating or attending classes or speaking to anyone. He tries to run away six times that first month, only for his brother or Shizun to drag him back each time. He's especially not talking to either of them. (This is extremely upsetting for both of them though SQQ hides it better.)

Eventually the first rush of anger and grief fades and LY comes up with a plan. He can't get into the Abyss with Binghe- but he can be there when he get out. Airplane was vague on exactly where LBH entered the demon realm but LY knows it's in a forested area near one of the demon realm's few rivers. He knows the names of the clans LBH will meet first. If he can get himself away from the mountain and to the demon realm he can be waiting for LBH when he gets out.

Step One is to stop being babysat constantly. He starts eating and attending classes again. He can't bring himself to act like nothing's happened but he can at least talk to his brother and Shizun. He stops running away- he needs them to trust him to go out on night hunts for when he actually runs.

Step Two is to learn everything the sect can teach him that might possibly be useful before he leaves it forever (probably). He throws himself into classes and sword training and building his qi reserves, he learns qi manipulation through music and first aid and picks various people's brains about cursed swords. He has five years max to learn everything he wants to-maybe less. His Binghe was definitely a better swordsman than the original. (The extra training opportunities for LBH were the only reason LY allowed those fights for his hand in marriage to go on.)

He gets impatient at the 2 year mark and decides he can train and meditate just as well on the road. So he never comes back from his next solo night hunt. The monster was killed, the locals saw him fly back towards the mountain, but he's gone. SQQ and LQG find most of his belongings gone and a note that points out he's an adult now and they can't drag him home anymore. I'm going to find him and you can't stop me.

Two and a half years after he fell into the Abyss LBH cuts his way out of hell into a suspiciously peaceful forest. Less than a mile from his portal he finds a shack in a clearing near the river. There's no one at the little camp when he arrives and LBH debates raiding it or waiting for someone to show up. It could be a trap-

"Binghe?"

He whirls. That's oh. Oh.

"I'm hallucinating." he says.

"You aren't." The hallucination says and touches his cheek. A-Yuan touches his cheek. He's real. He's here. How is he here? LBH isn't even sure where here is.

And then he's kissing A-Yuan and nothing else matters. Not even Xuanye hissing at him for it. He's missed the hissing even. Everything is perfect right now.

Except. He pulls back as far as he can- LY won't let him get far.

"I am so dirty." LBH says.

LY laughs. "The river's right there, go. I'll grab my soap and meet you there."

Much much later that night when it's A-Yuan's turn to watch LBH fitfully sleep (they're trading off every few hours) Liu Yuan's System lights up and tells him he's successfully entered the system's main mode. He can now spend his Wife points on upgrades and rewards. Any further instances of him being a good wife for the protagonist will now earn him double W points! There are also a number of quests he can do to further increase his wifely suitability! ( When A-Yuan stops internally screaming enough to check the quest list the first one is called Dual Cultivation and he has to close out of the system all together before he dies of embarrassment.)

[starry-bi-sky]

Okay so this is almost a direct copy-paste of my earlier reblog but only the Xin Yuan parts, because its long enough to be its own post and i want to share it! It deserves it's own post <3 typical starry stuff to write a 2k word long reblog, unfortunately.

I say almost because I went through to proof read and ended up adding more stuff.

I've been cooking on this idea for the last two days since I saw the Xin Mo!Shen Yuan post but??? I can't find anything on Xin Mo's backstory or how it came to be -- which means that's free fucking plot right there baby. That's a sandbox and im making LIFE SIZED CASTLES. I'm so excited.

The idea of Shen Yuan transmigrating centuries before the events of PIDW as Xin Mo -- but when he wakes up, he's not the sword. He wakes up in the body of a young boy named Xin Yuan. Now it makes sense for this boy to be a demon, but the drama, the intrigue, the spice of Xin Yuan being a human child.

SY wakes up as a boy below the age of ten, and the System tells him where he is, and SY is excited to meet his favorite protagonist -- only to gradually realize that he's like, a thousand years or so before the events of the novel. The rant he gives the system is legendary.

Bc what's the point of getting dropped into PIDW if he's never going to meet his favorite character??? This is a scam! BUT he settles into his new life, he's like, some orphan street rat or some other tragic airplane-esq backstory.

The system gives Shen Yuan his first mandatory quest: become a righteous cultivator. Which was like, kinda his plan/hopes anyways, except! There's like?? No official cultivator sects anywhere? The Cang Qiong Mountain Sect hasn't even been established yet, and there are pockets of cultivators running around, maybe some groups or schools popping up and then sinking back down, but nothing's really taken root!

If he asks someone how to become a cultivator, there's no straight answer. No "oh you can go to X to do that". He's pissed! How can he become a cultivator if there aren't any schools around to teach him? Deus ex machina, that's how.

Out of sheer luck, SY manages to help save a rogue cultivator, and promptly gets adopted by said rogue cultivator, who gives SY the name 'Xin Yuan'. He is ecstatic. And you know what? It's actually pretty fun!

He's getting to travel the world of PIDW in its early stages, and gets to see the building blocks for the eventual main story. He's discovering all this local flora and fauna that are foreign to his old world and unmentioned in the book, and he's learning cultivation! Granted, its unsafe, newly(ish) discovered cultivation, but it counts!

Wistfully, he thinks about perhaps he'll do something grand and get his name carved into legend. Something that would eventually help the protagonist later down the line in his quest for revenge.

The system remains silent to his thoughts.

But Xin Yuan doesn't take much stock in that daydream anyways. It's nothing more than fantasy to him; wish-fulfillment. He does discover however, that he is positively brimming with spiritual energy. Overwhelmingly so.

It's both a blessing and a curse, as it puts a strain on his meridians if he's not careful, and leaves him prone to qi deviations for the exact same reasons. He already has a heart demon or two from a few traumatic experiences in the past.

(bc hey! angst a day keeps the writer sadism at bay, and all that)

I'll say he's about... eight when he gets picked up by the rogue cultivator, who I'm calling Lin Kai bc he deserves a name. They travel around PIDW up until Xin Yuan is twelve, where he goes through a traumatic experience that results in a heart demon.

It's after that that Lin Kai decides to put a stop to his wandering, and find a place to settle down to raise Xin Yuan in. Coincidentally! They settle down in a nice mountain region that's thriving with spiritual energy. The mountains at the time were called something different, but they will be eventually known as the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect

Coincidentally, the mountain Lin Kai and Xin Yuan end up on is Qing Jing Peak. XY does not realize that the mountain he's on is Qing Jing. The System does not tell him. But he likes it there, more than he was expecting. And as much as he's traveled around, he really does enjoy being in one place.

He has a tendency to go down the mountain and help the village setting up down there, and when he's a teenager he starts venturing out more and more.

Xin Yuan forgets sometimes that he's in a novel, especially after settling down on Qing Jing peak. The system becomes remarkably quiet since there's no quests for him to do and not a ton of opportunities to get B-Points. He cultivates with Lin Kai, helps tend to the garden they're growing, goes down to the village to play with the other kids.

There's one boy he's best friends with, a boy whose not all that good with words, named Liu Zhihao. He's got potential for cultivation though, so Xin Yuan drags him up the mountain when he can so that Liu Zhihao can sit in on lessons with Lin Kai. He drags him all over the forest at the foot of the mountain to go look at bugs and animals.

(One time, when they're fourteen and Liu Zhihao has been learning cultivation for a few years now, Xin Yuan drags him out of bed late one night to go look at the stars. Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao about ascension -- something that still feels like a far off dream to many in this time -- that night, while they're sitting on the wet grass.)

("We should ascend together." Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao, jade eyes gleaming. Never let it be said that Xin Yuan doesn't love deeply, no matter what kind of love it is. He was always so lonely as Shen Yuan, Liu Zhihao is his best friend. "We'll become immortals, and then we won't ascend until the other is able to.")

(Liu Zhihao stares at him silently, his face unreadable. Then, quietly, he asks; "Promise?")

("Promise.")

When he starts adventuring outwards, further away from the mountain and the village, Liu Zhihao sticks to him like rice. Not that Xin Yuan's complaining, that's his best friend after all, and Liu Zhihao has become a formidable cultivator. He deserves to show off his skills.

He starts making something of a name for himself by the time he's, like, 18 -- although that name is in its baby steps, along with Liu Zhihao. They're slowly growing renown.

Perhaps XY uses his knowledge of PIDW and cultivation in general to help make advancements in the cultivation field. Although the system prevents him from sharing too much, it doesn't mean he can't practice it himself. Perhaps he's one of the first cultivators to develop a golden core. One of the first known immortal cultivators. One of the first to have a spirit sword.

(Although I don't know the logistics of any of this since my knowledge on xanxia/cultivation stuff in general is all still pretty new and google wasn't all that helpful lol.)

Either way, its my excuse to eventually make Xin Yuan come across as ethereal to other people. Peerless beauty SY for the win. Hs wifebeam is too strong, Xin Yuan has a line of suitors following after him and he's completely unaware of it. The rest of history is not.

Demon realm stuff has been stirring up since Xin Yuan was a kid, but at the time it was rare and in the beginning stages. Its been steadily ramping up and the system is sending him on more and more treacherous quests -- some of them mandatory, some optional. SY doesn't often take the optional ones unless it comes with a sufficient B-point reward.

for all intents and purposes though, he's a wandering rogue cultivator with Liu Zhihao, going from place to place to either help a town or village, or to discover more creatures or artifacts (although there aren't that many). Just all around living his life. He participates in a few major quest lines that are sure to get him mentioned in legend, even if it's a background character way.

(Unbeknownst to him, rather than being a side character in these legends, he's named directly. You can't become one of the first immortal cultivators and NOT get name dropped for clout.)

He has a spirit sword named Shā Mó, (杀 shā - to kill/weaken/counteract/reduce) (魔 mó - evil spirit, demon, possession). He routinely goes back to QJP to see Lin Kai, or to rest when traveling has worn down on him and he wants nothing more than to sleep somewhere he knows he'll be safe in. It becomes more frequent as Xin Yuan becomes more famous. Liu Zhihao often comes with him.

it all comes to a head though when the rifts between the demonic realm and the human realm become too great, and the balance between both realms becomes unstable. A demonic emperor's influence, wanting to merge the two realms so he could conquer both to satiate his own greed.

Typical evil king stuff. This comes to a climatic head in a great battle between every cultivator available and the demon emperor's army. Xin Yuan was one of the many who helped lead the charge.

In the end, it was Xin Yuan who ends up defeating the demonic emperor, but the rift that the emperor used to cross between worlds is destabilizing as well. Except instead of trying to close, it's getting bigger and bigger, threatening to swallow the heavens and earth and demonic realm whole.

You know how Yue Qingyuan's soul is bonded to his sword due to a qi deviation? Let's take it a step further >:)

Xin Yuan uses himself and Shā Mó to close the rift. However, it takes all of his spiritual energy to do so, as well as him filtering the demonic qi into his body to redirect it back to the demon realm.

In the end, Xin Yuan and his beloved sword Shā Mó fuse. Xin Yuan's soul becomes trapped in the sword. His physical body is unable to handle the immense amount of power it takes to close the rift, and is destroyed. He is immortalized in legend by his grieving cultivators.

(Liu Zhihao ends up ascending alone. He ascends with the hope that one day he'll see Xin Yuan again, even if it's in the face of someone else. Lin Kai does not ascend, too weighed down by the grief of losing his son.)

Xin Yuan, now Xin Mo, falls into a stasis. He's very confused and disorientated when he regains 'consciousness'. The system has been silent for most of his life, only popping up to give him mandatory quests, hints, points, or to answer any questions.

But once he wakes up, it cheerfully pops up again, congratulating him on completing the origin story of Xin Mo. SY freaks the fuck out. he'd shake the system screen if he could, but he doesn't have arms. or legs. or eyes for that matter.

He can sense his surroundings, but its all like imprints to him. He can sense the energies, but he can't see anything. It's all very disorientating and horrifying after years of being human. Like a sensory deprivation chamber.

The closing of the rift and the cycling demonic qi tainted both Sha Mo and Xin Yuan irreparably, and it did some kind of damage that resulted in SY needing to feed in order to use the spiritual powers. Kinda like how Xuan Su uses YQY's life force for it's spiritual energy, but instead of feeding on his own lifeforce, Xin Mo feeds on others.

The rest is history. Xin Mo is originally tied to the story of Xin Yuan -- believed to be all that remained of the man after he sacrificed himself to keep the realms separate. It's believed that the force of the realms closing permanently infused Sha Mo with demonic energy, turning it into Xin Mo.

But, like many stories do when faced against the tide of time, things get lost; chipped off; changed. Xin Mo is steadily separated from Xin Yuan, especially once it becomes clear how parasitic the sword really is, until they are all but separate entities themselves and the origin of Xin Mo's creation all but forgotten.

The years blur together when Xin Mo is not being wielded, and at first Xin Yuan was agonized by the fact that he stole the lives of all his wielders. He knows it's only a novel, but his decades spent in this life have softened him, and he's grown attached to the world around him.

But time erodes the mind like water erodes stone, and he becomes numb to it, then eventually anticipating of it. He forces himself to remember what he knows of PIDW's plot, and kinda fixates back on his old obsession on Luo Binghe. But while PIDW stays in his mind, his memories as Xin Yuan fall to the wayside.

Not forgotten, per se, but... tucked away. The system prevents him from forgetting fully.

Xin Mo isn't fully a demonic sword either i think, but instead harbors an ugly cocktail of both spiritual and demonic qi. Special circumstances and all that. Everyone just assumes he's a fully demonic sword because that's usually at the forefront, his spiritual qi weakened from the initial fusion and from years of not being fed spiritual qi. It's part of the reason his wielders always end up destroyed by him, other than the whole, yk, 'overwhelming qi' thing.

Nobody would recognize Xin Mo's human form as Xin Yuan other than some truly ancient demons. Of which Meng Mo might. But even that's iffy because there's a lack of surviving paintings of Xin Yuan, but also because of XM's demonic appearance and supposed lack of connection to XY.

Xin Mo has never spoken to his wielders before, not in the same way he does Luo Binghe. He tells Luo Binghe this, and he also tells Luo Binghe down the line that he is both spiritual and demonic -- something he also never told his wielders because there was no point to it.

okay okay i've got to end it here because its already gotten ridiculously long -- of which im both apologetic and unapologetic for -- but i DO think the Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan meeting (and reveal) would be fucking hilarious. Especially if SY has learned how to pop between sword form and human form by then -- although i guess it doesnt matter either way because SQH's reaction is still the same.

And that reaction is internally screaming and going "hey what the FUCK?? WHY DOES XIN MO HAVE A HUMAN FORM??? WHAT IS THIS??? SYSTEM??? EXPLAIN???"

meanwhile from his place on the sword hilt xin mo is squinting at Shang Qinghua in bewilderment and going "aren't you supposed to be dead" but doesn't pay too much mind to it because its not like its going to change anything.

...up until he catches shang qinghua going "WTF" silently from his little corner while all eyes are off him. One moment SQH is standing beside his king, and the next he's been tackled to the ground by one wild-eyed, human-shaped Xin Mo.

everyone, including SQH, thinks Xin Mo is going to kill him. It is a surprise to everyone when he does not, and instead dissolves into deranged, uncontrollable laughter after spitting out some phrase in some ancient tongue and watching SQH's eyes grow wide in recognition.

[ancientnapdragon]

hello scum villain fandom. i finished these silly books like two months ago and have been rotating them in my mind since then.

ANYWAY, i've come to propose a fun AU from my brain: Shen Yaun 'Food Peak' Lord. >:) (please excuse any typos i'm on my phone)

This is a Scumcum AU cause I decided that SJ is like my fave and I wanna see him get wifed up. Does he deserve it? No. Will this stop me? Also no.

So, slap cut to SY and he's suddenly like waking up the day after being chosen as a Sect disciple. He's like 13 and really confused and something feels... kinda wrong! It's like he has all these swiss cheese spots in his memory and he feels like he should be alarmed he's not in his own bed! But, he also IS in his own bed? What's his problem? SY is still 100% a transmigrator but since he's in a kid's body his memories are like half on lockdown. He remembers a few things but not much. The System shows up and seems just as surprised as this turn of events as he is, sort of analyzes a while, then ends up making him think (by accident) it's some like Guardian Family Spirit who is there to guide him.

In truth, the System is trying to find the best route to get the story on track within it's programming. This is NOT what it's assignment was supposed to be! Ugh!

SY has now been shuffled into what is basically an OC so it more or less just looks like him from his old life, not that he is aware, except as a kid. Everyone calls him Kong Yuan (name pending) (also I'll keep calling him SY for this to make it easier) and he was just taken into the lower Peak in charge of Food, Wine, and Elixirs. Of course this is like, with it's own special PIDW twist so everything is cool and magic. Without any real ideas on what to do otherwise, and feeling like this is Right, he throws himself into learning stuff about the Peak. He was a lazy Millennial rich boy in his last life so he's, like, kind of a SHIT COOK. That's on top of being kind of just bad at the type of physical cultivation needed for this Peak!

While highly specialized, the people on (Food) Peak are certified badasses in their own right, even if it's not in like a proper fight. You got people dipping arms and torsos in boiling oil, doing all sorts of fancy knife tricks with qi, tearing whole large beasts apart for processing; the Peak Lord and SY's new Shizun had some giant metal ladle that's twice as long as herself and looks like it weights more than a building. She's built and buff and uses this thing effortlessly to stir this giant cauldron in the center of the Peak that is as big as a house. It's a smaller Peak but always a flurry of activity! The System, deciding it will at least try and work with this, starts giving SY Taste Points as he improves. Occasionally, it will even give him little quests for bonus points! Usually it's for meeting new people, at the start, or learning certain techniques on his Peak. He notices that he usually get these 'Meet x Person' quests when on other Peaks, though... like that really sad looking but polite boy on Qiong Ding, the sort of nervous and mousy kid from An Ding, the sharp tongued girl from Xian Shu- even the real scary guy from Bai Zhan! Then after he gets those quests done, they always turn into a 'Befriend X Person' quest after... which is way harder but rewards more T Points!

(DID YOU THINK THIS WAS JUST A PEAK LORD AU BTW? NO NO NO! IT'S ALSO A QING DISCIPLE AU! HA! >:D) But why does he even WANT the T Points? Well, Guardian Spirit/System says it will provide him special memory rewards! SY rationalizes this as thinking he's receiving visions from a past? future? reincarnation of himself, which the System does not correct. It's usually smaller things about his old life, with the real important stuff all locked away behind higher and higher Points. The System will also provide him with small boosts to his palate (his was quite shit) and sometimes even... cookbooks! Part of being a Food Cultivator is enhancing your QI and Spiritual Veins by eating food that is both delicious as well as Spiritually Enhanced. This isn't just cooking in the kitchen with mama time, this is an ART. Only the best of the best have the refined palate, knowledge base, and skills to make their own recipes. It's fairly common on the Peak for the Masters to work for YEARS to try and make SOMETHING of their own they can be proud of! When SY is like 15, enough time to get to know his fellow (future) Peak Lords, he gets a special quest: [ BECOME HEAD DISCIPE ]. For the first time, THIS quest has a time limit (two years!), and the System warns him of graaaaaave consequences if he is not able to do so....

This lights a fire under his ass a bit and makes him panic! See, SY has all these cookbooks from the System, and he can even make some of the recipes! But most of them ask for all these ingredients he FEELS like he should know but he's never really heard of.... And some of the techniques are so strange, too! The System offers him a special upgrade (for what is, at the time, probably almost all this T-Points): A taste-alike Beastiary!

So, Ancient China did not have a lot of modern fruits and veggies from around the world. PIDW? Aside from a few things ones cause Airplane was a hack writer, mostly the same! But you know what PIDW does have? Lots of weird demons and animals and spirit beasts and flowers. The next time SY looks at a cookbook he will see little (???) next to the stuff he doesn't recognize. But also! There was this one recipes he wanted to make, and he had everything except for ONE thing to make it, and it has a (Inferno-Harpy-Vulture Egg) next to it. So! It shows him stuff he can SUBSTITUTE! Provided... he knows the name of the plant or animal already....

SY had always had a passion for the weird beasts and creatures he sometimes saw, but no reason to act on learning more since he was so busy.... but with this he can totally indulge! AND it will help him with his goal! Double win!

At some point in all his fumbling, he makes better connections with the Future Peak Lords, gets a reputation as being very reliable and kind (if a bit danger prone and sharp tongued at times), and is earning the attention of his buff Shizen. After getting a lot of T-Points, he manages to uncover some of the more expensive Memories....

Which warn him of a cruel villain named Shen Quinqui. An abusive man who was just the worst! Basically, all the stuff SY thought he knew about him in SV. AND the guy was gunna cause the world to end or something? UGH! Why didn't anyone DO anything about that guy in the future? :( The System says he's not allowed to tell anyone, but if he keeps working, maybe he can change Fate! Now, you're probably like 16 paragraphs into this and like 'okay, this is all super cool and you're really smart. but where is SJ at???' Well, he is HERE!

See, while SY had been to Qing Jing Peak multiple times, he's never actually got a Quest to meet anyone from there which is super weird! But he's called over there to act as a chef for a few weeks because one of the guys who usually does it is on some mission. He decides to scout out the Peak while he's there and see if he can find anyone named 'Shen' who might be the evil guy in the future.... [Mission: Meet Xiao Jiu] suddenly pops up from the System! And SY tries VERY HARD to do so! Every day he goes to work at QJ, he never meets anyone he doesn't already know. Sometimes, he hears rumors about a new kid who the Peak Lord took in and the rumors sound NASTY about him. He's only 15 (just a bit younger than SY by like a season or two!) and the guy is said to have murdered people, slept with prostitutes, perved on the girl's in their dorm there, (probably) was actually a real demon.... and was just a huge asshole. But, eventually, SY does end up meeting this mystery Xiao Jiu! He's done in the kitchen for the night and finished cleaning with the other cooks when he remembers he left something there. Going back, he finds this real skinny and lanky guy in the kitchen picking through whatever was leftover in there (not much). He's real cagey and looks ready to beat the hell out of SY for coming in there; but also like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't do. They sort of stare at each other a bit before SY hesitantly introduces himself and the guy basically runs off through the back. Rude! [Mission Complete: Meet Xiao Jiu] [Mission: Befriend Xiao Jiu]

The guy didn't even SAY anything, though! And he seemed like he wanted to beat him up! System, that doesn't seem FAIR! But... SY really wants those T Points for more future memories to try and stop whatever bad stuff is going to happen in the future, so...

Just trying to find Xiao Jiu ends up being a huge problem in of itself! This is a whole Peak and SY is mostly just here to act as a chef for a few hours in the evening. The guy never comes in and gets food, either! Does he only eat the stuff that's left in the kitchen after? But they always clean up really thoroughly so there isn't much left... and he had looked really skinny....

SY starts staying over past everyone else and leaving some extra buns and stuff he saves from dinner on the counter. Except, he gets in trouble after a day or two because the Morning Chefs had come in to find the food left there all night. Was the guy not taking it?

Eventually, he gets the idea to leave the food but... hide it. For some reason it reminds him of hiding a treat from a cat to make it want the treat more. It... sort of works? Usually only one of the buns is missing instead of the multiple he hides. But! Hey! At least the guy got some food!

Things go on like this for a while, until one night when he's heading back to his Peak, he gets sideline kicked into a dense copse of bamboo along the path. And the guy is standing over him with a sword (not a Spiritual one, but still really sharp!) at his throat. And demanding to know what SY is trying to do by leaving him food.... AAAAND I think this is long enough. For NOW. I'll write more on it when I have some time!!! My big wants is basically Feral Angry Cat SJ being slowly socialized to like the one (1) guy who keeps feeding him. They're gunna be BESTIES! (And SY just TOTALLY doesn't feel weird about thinking his best bro is pretty! That's, like super normal!)

I'm sort of half vomiting all my ideas out of my brain but also half writing a bit of a rough outline for a future fic i want to write. If this inspires you in some way, though, feel free to write stuff! Just tag me! I WANNA SEE!!!! >:)

If you have any questions or anything feel free to reach out! I wanna expand more on the Cookbook and the Food Quest and like, how SY would befriend the other Future Peak Lords. Plus, I have a really evil idea for the System to try and force the plot back on the rails later on hehe.

Ty for reading my rambling ilu <3

[starchbean]

Shizun’s Smallest Disciple

Shen Qingqiu, on the edge of the abyss at the IAC, BEGGS the system for another way

System asks… “You’d do anything?” SQQ: “ANYTHING!” 

System puts a quest marker on a blossom that has gone to seed - a Scorching Demonic Parasite Dandelion. SY knows through his reading that if a demon blows on this blossom and someone swallows even just one seed, the demon will start growing from the seed in a tiny pocket in their abdomen until they are reborn chestburster style having taken on some of the traits and strength of the host.

SQQ instructs Binghe to blow, Binghe not knowing what is happening but trusting his master

SQQ becomes visibly pregnant with Luo Bingseed at the IAC, bearing Binghe’s demon mark on his own forehead as a sign that he can’t exactly hide before everyone knows about it

Huan Hua accuses him of being a demon, but Mu Qingfang cuts in and explains that this is likely the effect of the plant, and that it is a simple matter of medicine to “cure” Shen Shixiong of whatever demonic parasite has latched onto him. (Due to the huadian and having met Binghe, LPM KNOWS who the demonic parasite inside SQQ is!) and YQY, not having the knowledge of Binghe, thinks the demonic parasite is Tianlang-Jun who is doing this for revenge–demands to see him, but Huan Hua is resistant

Huan Hua insists on locking up Shen Qingqiu in the water prison until the medicine is administered and takes its course, putting him in the Su Xiyan position where he said he would NEVER abort Luo Binghe XD

He refuses to take the medicine at first, but then it’s forced on him. He fights it just like Su Xiyan did, and his body and weakened cultivation from Without a Cure can’t handle it, and he’s falling apart. He still does his best to eat/drink/maintain his body ONLY because it’s a vessel for Binghe’s rebirth, and since demons who use the Parasite Dandelion kill their hosts anyway, he’s resigned to his own death either way (Completely not at all considering ever getting rid of Binghe as even an option)

Meanwhile Yue Qingyuan clandestinely pays a visit to Tianlang-Jun’s prison against the wishes of the OPM. His intent is to prove to the cultivation world that TLJ has escaped and that OPM is covering for it by keeping SQQ (Who TLJ is inside as a parasite) locked up. Instead, he finds TLJ right where he’s supposed to be, in bad shape, with Zhuzhi attending to him. 

YQY is incredulous and says as much in an out loud freak out. If the heavenly demon inside his Shidi isn’t Tianlang-Jun or Zhuzhi-Lang, who the hell is it?! He and TLJ put the pieces together that Su Xiyan had Tianlang-Jun’s child. YQY immediately (impulsively, without going over any terms) releases TLJ and the two of them storm Huan Hua together to get back SQQ and Binghe (And in TLJ’s case, to kill the Palace Master, which really if YQY looks away at this point, it’s only because he’s so concerned for his Shidi he can’t think of anything else!)

The two of them find SQQ being barely kept alive by GYX, who is transferring qi to him. The Binghe growing inside him is perfectly healthy and unharmed.

Even with a qi transfer from YQY as well, TLJ tells them it’s not enough, and that SQQ would still die. His only chance is to remove Binghe early, which TLJ and his blood parasites are capable of doing without either of the two dying (Probably. He thinks. He’s not exactly at full power, but it’s fine.)

The Binghe that comes out is a premature baby and needs a constant supply of both demonic and spiritual energy to sustain his life and maintain his growth

when YQY sees SQQ HOLDING A BABY he goes absolutely bonkers and pledges that he will help raise the child and presto, Binghe gets 3 dads

**Possible bingseed feeds on the System so as to harm SQQ as little as possible

Meanwhile TLJ is constantly teasing YQY "You know I feel like leveling a city this afternoon. Maybe you could do the righteous thing and distract me?" XD

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

A random thought, during the Mr. Qi's Crop Challenge (you know the one were you have to plant and shipped 500 Qi Beans) how will the SDV/SVE Bachelors gonna react to their lover (the Farmer) planting this weird looking crop that looks like a blueberry with sunglasses across the farm fields. 😂

Ah, Qi beans... Probably my least favourite quest, because spending a whole month growing this stuff, and also getting these fucking beans instead of cool gifts in chests or fish.... Ugh. Oh well, sorry for that 😅

Even though this fruit is annoying to me, the ask itself regarding the reactions of others to it is pretty funny, hee hee. Thanks for the ask, and enjoy! 🫰💖

_________________________________________

SDV/SVE bachelors react to the Qi fruit:

"Looks creepy..... And cool, by the way. What did you do to make them grow like that?" Sebastian's spouse is a virtuoso at growing all sorts of unusual crops, and he thinks it's a mega cool ability. Just a week ago they ate a salad made from an 'ancient fruit', and the day before yesterday they cut up a giant mushroom crop that was the size of a large pumpkin (even though Sebby's doesn't like shrooms, it was still cool!). Now it's the weird fruit with sunglasses. He wonder what unusual plant Farmer will grow tomorrow...

"Oh, I know! Are those fruits and vegetables that grow in different shapes?" Sam recently watched a video about gardeners who grow square watermelons or tomatoes in the shape of hearts using plastic moulds. So the guitarist reckoned his spouse had decided to join the trend too. A strange choice, yeah, but hey - bonus for cool sunglasses! And what does this 'Qi' fruit taste like? Looks like a giant blue melon, Sammy wouldn't mind a tasty snack. Anyway, he doesn't know much about gardening himself, so he'll leave that to Farmer.

"Did you buy sunglasses for every fruit you grow or what?" And tell us, dear Alex - why would your beloved Farmer do that? These things maybe look like sunglasses, but are hardly sunglasses. But who knows? It's definitely an unfamiliar fruit for an athlete, especially compared to what his grandmother Evelyn used to grow in the community garden all the time. But if it's edible and full of vitamins (no), then Alex doesn't really care about the look of the Qi fruit. "Hey, even if this tastes awful, we'll have plenty of pairs of sunglasses!"

"That's some ugly ass fruit right here. Do people really eat that stuff now?" Truth be told, while working at JojaMart, Shane had managed to see stranger products labelled as 'novelty'. This applied not only to obscure sauces and snacks of dubious origin, but also to fruits and vegetables. The blue colour of the "Qi" fruit Farmer grew generally gave Shane the idea that his spouse had purchased the seeds just from Joja.co. It looked strange, but Shane didn't even mind tasting it. If it's edible at all. This fruit certainly doesn't get any worse than Joja's 'special' sauce for nachos, of that he's sure.

"Honey, are you sure it's safe to eat?" Every time another crop of obscure origin ripens on the farm, Harvey's heart begins to pound with worry. What if it's poisonous? What if it's not handled properly and you could get food poisoning? Why is it such a strange shape? "Farmer, please..." The poor doctor goes through all the books on vegetables, fruits and berries, hoping to find some information about this Qi fruit and whether it's okay to eat it (spoiler - to no avail). Either it's another "healthy" product from Joja or something else. Either way, Harvey will be sceptical, to say the least.

"...If I understand correctly, my soul, this is our dinner for today?" Elliott could have sworn the fruit had just winked at him! The writer had heard that some farmers and gardeners deliberately grow their crops in a variety of shapes to make them look extravagant and sell them for more money, but... Of all the shapes, his spouse chose the face... But maybe that's the kind of crop that's in high demand on market right now. Elliott hoped that if they were to bake strudel with this 'Qi' fruit today, it would taste better than it looked. Also... sunglasses?

"Hmm, I wonder... Where exactly did you get those seeds, my love?" It is not appropriate for Lance to judge the strange crop that Farmer has grown, when the adventurer himself has a monster crop ripening in a corner on the farm, with an appearance similar to a huge eyeball. Nevertheless, this strange fruit arouses a share of suspicion in the pink-haired man. Something is not right here.... If his dear spouse doesn't mind, Lance would also like to take a look at this fruit, for he is very curious to know if this crop has any magical properties. Or anything that might threaten him or Farmer.

"This... thing is unnatural. What in the name of all spirits did you grow this abomination from?" Magnus's whole gut screams that this is not just a fruit, but the spawn of a dangerous mage or witch. Thin threads of dark magic emanate from this fruit, and the wizard certainly doesn't like Farmer being in contact with that magic. "Eat it? Absolutely not! And is it even edible?" A worried Magnus questions his spouse about who gave them these seeds and why. Hearing the name 'Qi', he sighs heavily. Mr. Qi. Of course... This name definitely promises a lot of chaos for everyone.

"Erm... That's wonderful, darling! You've managed to grow this, um... What's it called again?" Victor had spent two whole days in the town library and looked all sorts of books at home - not a single mention, about this mysterious 'Qi fruit'. It's not, to tell the truth, the strangest thing Farmer grew in their fertile fields (monster crops will always be at the top of the list for strangeness. Especially the one with the giant eyeball). Maybe it's some new fruit his spouse has discovered? Victor is sure the Farmer knows what they're doing. But yeah, he's supportive.

[cookiewoli]

Finally !!

After 2 months of preparation, I finished Elsie's cosplay.

I'm happy of the results, even though there is ( like usual ) things I'm upset to.

First : THE CORSET. It's way too small in height. And the consequences is that we can see my shirt under it. (On the pictures I did some edit so we can't see it)

Secondly : the shirt and the jacket are too... Big ? Idk how to describe it. But I ALWAYS have to put them back under the corset and I have to pull my suspenders up constantly.

For the wig, I wanted to highlight her little side spikes, to looks like yakmel's horns.

Anyway, this cosplay was very hard to do.

If I compare all Sandrock's cosplay I did (Fang, Qi, Mi-an and Nia) Elsie is the hardest one.

I will have to change some accessories and clothes later, so I guess there will be a "Elsie's cosplay V2" 🤔

I continue my "Sandrock's cosplay" quest

Cosplay summary done :

- Fang (to be improved)

- Qi

- Mi-an

- Nia

- Elsie

Hmm right now I think I will do Ernest?

Bonus : cursed pictures

(my fiance stole the trigger button)

(And I missed my throw on him)

(rip)

[eggiesins]

Your post gave me a silly idea. Would the bachelors take a goth gf, punk gf, or emo gf. This is an important question for science. And if you feel up to it, you should do the girls too sometime. No pressure though.

Anon, I am nothing if not an avid scientist.

This list is gonna be bulleted, as it's more category focused rather than scenario focused. Since it's a shorter prompt, I also have the bachelorettes included!

Prompts are for a gender-neutral builder

Let me know what y'all think! I'm eager to see what categories the rest of the community would assign to the townies. Methodology, headcanons, and some spoilers below the cut :)

Methodology: Since we are using 3 categories, I wanted to offer up how I'm defining these categories based on my own understanding of these subcultures, so I judged the choices based on a combination of the subculture's general (probably oversimplified) philosophy as well as its aesthetics.

Goth philosophy: The world is fucked up & I find beauty in that Punk philosophy: The world is fucked up & I'm angry about it Emo philosophy: The world is fucked up & I'm sad about it

Bachelors:

Arvio

Punk for sure; he's infatuated with the grumpiest doctor in town. He likes 'em angry

Burgess

I already said this man deserves a goth s/o, & I stand by it. Punk seems too ARC-adjacent, & emo seems like it might just bum him out.

Ernest

Goth for sure; they're writing poetry at the cemetery together

Fang

Torn between emo & goth tbh; like yes, let him despair about the darkness in the world, but I do love the idea of Fang learning to appreciate that darkness as well

Justice

Goth; Justice doesn't tend to go looking for the beauty in the darkness, but I think he'd be very receptive to the idea

Logan

Punk; He can definitely relate to lashing out with anger when things are fucked up

Miguel

"None of these words are in the bible."

Emo 100%, they can both be sad about the state of the world together

Owen

Maybe emo or goth, tho I'm leaning toward emo the more I think about the plot of the play during his proposal quest.

Pablo

Goth for sure. You know his lines after Heidi wins the architecture competition, but she's not happy about it? Yeah.

Pen

Punk; the aggressiveness of the aesthetic & worldview would pose both an interesting challenge and complement to his own "survival of the fittest" mentality

Qi

It's a fuckin toss up tbh, Qi doesn't know what any of these words mean

That being said, I lowkey love the idea of Qi being romanced by a more punk builder

This mad scientist definitely understands what it means to rage against the machine (of academic bureaucracy)

Unsuur

Goth! Unsuur also knows the world is a fucked up place but he's very much in tune with still finding the beauty in it all.

He'd spend cemetery dates studying the different kinds of rock used for the headstones

Bachelorettes:

Amirah

Goth! Look at some Victorian-era pottery & tell me that ain't it

Catori

Either punk or emo. Catori does fall into some more emo moments when she experiences setbacks, so I could see compatible philosophies, but she also responds really well when the builder kinda tells her that this isn't the time to get bogged down in sadness, but to get more aggressive & keep facing her challenges head on

Elsie

elsie's a weird little freak who 100% rages against the machine; punk

Grace

Goth, perfect aesthetic complement to grace's more girlypop kinda look

Grace has also Seen Some Shit, so a philosophy centered around finding beauty in the bad would vibe with her really well

Heidi

Gothic architecture, 'nuff said. But to add more anyway: her muse is literally her dead mother

Jane

Emo for sure. I'm seeing dramatic Hamlet-inspired monologues about how cold and sad the world is

Mi-an

Emo. Mi-an is generally a really positive person, but we do see in-game that a lot of it is really more a mask that she keeps in place by throwing herself into her work. Underneath all that, she deals with a lot of hopelessness and sadness internally.

Nia

Punk! Nia fights for what she believes in so I think the philosophies would align really well. I think she'd also enjoy the aesthetic quite a bit

Venti

Goth for sure; basically, the only character trait we get to know about her is that she's relentlessly optimistic & will always look for what's good or nice even in a terrible situation

[thegoldenavenger]

not gonna write this right now but!

svsss / lotr fusion au

proud immortal demon way is a grimdark fantasy story sorta like game of thrones/song of ice and fire which shen yuan hate read because he liked the protagonist and really wanted him to get a happy ending but, that, uh. DID NOT HAPPEN. EMPHATICALLY.

anyways, shen yuan transmigrates into a hobbit, waits for the plot to Happen, and when it doesn't for almost 10 years he realises he must have transmigrated to sometime before or after the plot happening and dives head first into being a hobbit. the food! the books! the gossip! yes, he'd love to get out an explore this fantastical world a bit more, but hobbits weren't very adventurous and shen yuan didn't want to stumble into the plot any more now than at first.

shang qinghua is his fellow transmigrated hobbit. once shen yuan realises this, he latches onto shang qinghua and they become somewhat antagonistic friends. shen yuan cherishes him! despite having written the novel, shang qinghua also does not know exactly where in the plot they are. the shire got very little mentioning in the original novels so they could really be at anytime at all except for the part where the shire gets burned down or what not.

this is all very well and good until someone knocks on shen yuan's door in the middle of the night and he opens it to find a strange, tall, extremely, tall, extremely beautiful, man who waltzes into his little hobbit hole like he owns it.

this is shen jiu, a wizard. who... knows? shen yuan? shen yuan does not know shen jiu. shen jiu does not seem to be worried about that. shen jiu, after making himself QUITE at home in shen yuan's little abode, gang presses shen yuan into a fun little quest. shen yuan is not quite sure how exactly he ends up on the trail towards a mountain to free it from a dragon but he is--in a word--excited.

a dragon? he's only read about them! in two worlds now! and he'll get to see one, and possibly more amazing creatures. he is accompanied by shen jiu of course, snappy and acerbic, stern and moody by turns, but obviously and intimidatingly powerful. he is also accompanied by ming fan, a relatively young dwarf who falls all over himself to impress shen jiu; ning yingying another excitable dwarf happy to be on this quest of some import; yue qi, a solemn but friendly man who falls over himself around shen jiu more than ming fan does; also like three to five more people i cant be bothered to squish in. this isn't about them!

anyways, it turns out that this is the prequel story--shen yuan only finds out when he returns from his adventures with an unbearable amount of treasure, to a shocked shire and an even more shocked shang qinghua who explains that Shen Jiu, whom shen yuan has grown a bit fond of in spite of himself, is actually Shen Qingqiu, the wicked wizard who set Luo Binghe on his path to becoming the dark and gritty protagonist in Proud Immortal Demon Way.

shen yuan boggles. surely not????? shen jiu is prickly, yes, but he didn't seem like the man the book described. shang qinghua shrugs, said this was a light hearted fantasy he wrote when he was younger and more idealistic but it is definitely the Same Dude.

but, shang qinghua says, they obviously aren't following the same plot since Shen Yuan was definitely not in shang qinghua's writing, and several things didn't happen or were changed. in any case, this prequel was decades prior to anything that occurred in the main novel so shen yuan delicately decides he probably doesn't need to worry about it.

he fingers the jade pendant he'd been given on his journey.

the pendant, of course, belongs to Luo Binghe. in Proud Immortal Demon Way Luo Binghe started the novel out as an orphaned halfling, without family or community, and barely the clothes on his back to his name. he struggled to survive on his own, his only treasure the jade pendant he'd always had since he was a baby. he could only imagine that his parents bequeathed it to him before they--died? probably. luo binghe had never known what happened to orphan him so thoroughly.

he'd stumbled into wardship with a powerful wizard who was meant to mentor him, however instead of nurturing luo binghe's relative youth (halflings aged much slower than men, a hearty thirty years was mere teenage years in comparison) he had set jealous eyes on luo binghe and made his life miserable. when he caught sight of luo binghe's pendant, he'd stolen it and with it released the other half of luo binghe's heritage.

su xiyan was a creature much like a hobbit, as these things go, but his father was a powerful demon (dark elf? listen i am not deep in the lotr lore but w/e the hell sauron is haha). the union wasn't meant to be, and when separated, tianlang-jun tried to raze the realms in fury, and almost managed it with his demon sword of power xin mo. however, he was defeated, xin mo shattered, and sealed under a mountain.

luo binghe's heritage was also suppressed. whatever su xiyan carried from her entanglement with tianlang-jun, resentment or pity or fear, she evidently cared enough for her child to try and give him a normal life free of a tainted ancestry. she gave him a pendant and set him adrift on the luo river where his tale of misery began.

when shen qingqiu removed the pendant, in the situation it happened in, luo binghe's powers and heritage manifested. shen qingqiu disavowed his newly unmasked disciple and abandoned him among the shadows of the badlands around mount doom.

embittered and adrift, luo binghe fought through what was tantamount to hell, laid claim on the throne his father left empty, commanded the wayward bands of orcs and goblins and other unsavory creatures, and worked on claiming or conquering all else. the realm of men never showed him any kindness at all, and so he would burn it all to the ground.

what started as a fairly interesting, if dark, coming of age story morphed into a grimdark grapple for power, politics, and sex. shen yuan, who had been charmed by the young luo binghe's enduring effort to find somewhere he belonged, became swept away with the darkened and awakened luo binghe's effort to create somewhere he belonged, without mercy if necessary.

however, somewhere during luo binghe's rise to power more and more of the plot threads were being dropped. luo binghe's cunning coups and strategic battles became more single note. at some point the adversaries became one dimensional, canon fodder. luo binghe's plans came to fruition with barely any struggle. as a power fantasy, shen yuan supposed it was fine-enough. one could, theoretically, turn their brain off and enjoy luo binghe's methodical scouring of the realm, conquering of power, and claiming of women. but everything shen yuan had started reading for, and had stayed for, was stripped away except for the protagonist himself.

in the end, the only place luo binghe could make for himself was a cold, lonely world empty of anyone luo binghe could turn to.

it was, perhaps, no wonder that shen yuan had frothed himself into such apoplectic fury he had died cursing the author's work.

the point is, though, that there was absolutely no way the cute youth shen yuan had encountered in the goblin caves had been luo binghe. the boy hadn't introduced himself, but when shen yuan was fleeing the wrath of the goblin king, the boy had given shen yuan his necklace.

"it will turn you invisible, so it can help you escape." the boy had said.

"what about you?" shen yuan had asked, reluctant to take the boy's only means of defense.

"it's fine!"

"but it's your treasure, isn't it?" shen yuan recalled the hours of commentary he had coaxed out of the boy as he'd been led through the dank tunnels trying to reunite with his wayward band of dwarves and wizards.

"it can help you now, i want you to take it!" the boy's eyes had been starry in the dark.

"but--" shen yuan was forced to hold the pendant as the boy shoved it into his hands. with reluctance, he settled it around his neck. "how will i return it?" he asked instead.

the boy had smiled at him, eyes wet with emotion. "i'm sure we'll meet again, shen yuan from the shire."

"okay then. i'll give it to you next time."

the pendant had turned him invisible and shen yuan was able to escape the goblins, somehow rescue his teammates, sneak into the dragon mountain, steal the treasures he'd been tasked to steal, liberate the mountain he'd been tasked to liberate, and even accomplished his own secret goal: save the dragon.

(you see, shen yuan loves creatures of all sorts, and he'd always sort of been sad when things like dragons had to be killed to save the day. didn't they also deserve to live in peace? so, when a snake like creature conspired with him to help relocate the dragon under the guise of burying it with melted gold, what could shen yuan do but agree? and the plan had worked! the mountain was liberated, the city nearby was freed from constant dragon-induced fear, his traveling companions were happy enough, and the dragon and presumably its snake-friend were safely living somewhere else probably.)

anyways, the boy can't have been luo binghe and the pendant cant be the pendant because the pendant never turned luo binghe invisible in the novels shen yuan read, and luo binghe would have never given it away! he'd reliably become berserk if the pendant had ever been in danger and of course the moment shen qingqiu had stolen it luo binghe had erupted into a coalescing tornado of unleashed power.

that did not happen when the starry-eyed, lonely, somewhat skittish but still kind and receptive young kid had given shen yuan the pendant. therefore, that kid wasn't luo binghe and this pendant is not The Pendant. there are probably a hundred sad orphans and a thousand more magical pendants in the wide million-word history of proud immortal demon way.

so when shang qinghua points at the pendant some years later and starts yelling hysterically, shen yuan has no idea why. shen jiu, who is visiting for shen yuan's birthday celebration, and quite used to shang qinghua's hysterics, offers to look over the pendant. shen yuan lets him, though if shang qinghua was awake he might get scolded for that. yes shen yuan knows shen jiu steals the pendant in the book! but! shang qinghua said it himself: shen yuan has already changed things! probably shen jiu won't steal from shen yuan! they're friends! also, this isn't the pendant so it's all a moot point.

this leaves shen yuan completely open when shen jiu does actually steal the pendant. he whisks it away, barely touching it, folding it into his billowing sleeves, eyes as flinty as shen yuan had ever seen them.

"i need to find out what this is," shen jiu explained, as shen yuan angrily stormed after him on his way out. "it feels-- hungry."

"i--" shen yuan is stopped when shen jiu whirls around and places his hands on shen yuan's shoulders.

"do you not trust me?"

shen yuan thought that was very unfair, as he had just determined to himself to trust that shen jiu wouldn't steal his pendant and the wizard had just gone and done that. but the look in shen jiu's eyes stayed shen yuan's tongue.

"do you think i would just take from you for no reason? have i not labored enough under your ceaseless expectations of me to have earned your trust in this?"

shen yuan carefully breathed out through his nose. "is it not the same question for me?" he asked, "do i not deserve an explanation? must i always sit here in the dark as though even the simplest of truths would make me suspicious of you. do you not trust me to listen?"

shen jiu seemed to struggle.

shang qinghua managed to recover, at this point, and catch up to them. he interjected, for once his tremulous tone evened into a sober enough inflection that even shen jiu listened. "It is exactly what you suspect! we can do whatever tests you need right here, in shen yuan's hearth, you needn't journey with it yourself."

shen jiu's eyes narrowed, and shen yuan cast confused glances at both his friends. even if it was luo binghe's pendant, wasn't it just a seal limiting binghe's power?

"you're not even touching it and can feel it whispering, can't you?" shang qinghua asked.

"what do you know of it?" shen jiu snarled, but his eyes betrayed a sort of fear shen yuan had never seen from his friend before.

"it won't do you any kindness to keep it, whatever you mean."

shen jiu, for a minute, looked as though he would ignore shang qinghua, but in the end the wizard closed his eyes and lifted the handkerchief covered pendant from where he had stashed it.

"it's heavy," shen jiu said, and dropped it into shen yuan's waiting palm.

it turns out the pendant is actually xin mo. "xin mo was actually uh, pretty fucked up? it corrupted tianlang-jun's mind, that's why he tried to destroy everything. su xiyan sealed its power into the pendant, but as luo binghe gets older and his heritage closer to awakening, xin mo grew more powerful." shang qinghua explained once shen jiu left ostensibly to research the predicament they were left in, but more realistically to recover from his brush with xin mo's corruptive influence. at least according to shang qinghua.

"but binghe didn't have the pendant when he started his conquest." shen yuan pointed out.

"no? he didn't need a hell-artifact trying to corrupt him. you read the story bro, his life sucked. he didn't need much of an excuse to get revenge."

"then why the pendant at all? isn't that too confusing? a macguffin you don't even use?"

"that was the point though!" shang qinghua was picking up enthusiasm now. "Luo Binghe had Xin Mo, the same thing that drove his father mad, but Luo Binghe could have resisted that. but being treated the way he was? his master undermining him and, ultimately abandoning him? magical artifacts don't make people into all of that," he said gesturing as if he could encompass all of luo binghe in his hand, "People make people into monsters quite enough on their own."

shen yuan bit his lip. that was, of course, why he'd stuck with reading pidw after all. he couldn't refute shang qinghua's words. watching luo binghe's slow descent into more and more anti-hero grimdarkness was enthralling because of how thouroughly the bright niavety had been beated out of him. shen yuan had wanted luo binghe to get his revenge, to get his power, and to create a place he could call home. he'd had plenty of the first two, but the latter had never come to fruition.

"wait! that was the point?" shen yuan asked, "but you never explained xin mo at all? or all this about the pendant! after shen qingqiu stole it, it might as well have disappeared! even after luo binghe captured him, the pendant wasn't brought up again. i had to bend over backwards to try and gather all of your loose plot threads! half the novel was just him winning another fight or finding another woman!"

"well, i mean, it was supposed to be the point. but ah, well i lost my notes and then--" he made a noise as shen yuan hit him. "But! I tried! Luo Binghe got a sword didn't he? after he captured shen qingqiu? that's xin mo! that's why he does all the fighting and fu-- uh, women. shen qingqiu couldn't destroy the pendant, and breaking it only released its true form. so luo binghe got his father's sword after all and it doesn't matter at all that he could resist it, because he didn't want to."

"why is shen jiu so worried about it anyways? i mean, i didn't feel anything." shen yuan looked skeptically at the drawer they had hidden the pendant.

"uhm, most people can though." shang qinghua said. "that's a lot of why luo binghe's life sucked so much? everytime someone was around him they felt xin mo."

shen yuan frowned, remembering the bright eyed youth from the caves. that had been luo binghe then? with his messy hair and messier clothes and dirt stained hands and feet. shen yuan, breathless from fear and running, had still not been able to resist the urge to wipe at the kid's face with his sleeve. people looked at that and what? felt compelled to be mean?

"most people are petty," shang qinghua said, correctly interpreting shen yuan's furrowing brow, "not everyone can be as peerless as the great peerless cucumber--"

"shut up." shen yuan frowned and crossed his arms. "you didn't answer my question! okay so, it has bad vibes. what about it? it's a pendant? i'm certainly not going to scour the realms. even if i wanted to, i could be squashed like a bug. who cares? why steal it from binghe?"

"because, if someone squashed you like a bug or stole it from binghe then it would eventually find someone who was powerful enough to scour the realms. i mean, even shen qingqiu wasn't immune to it! he thought taking it from binghe was the right choice, because he was worried someone stronger would take it, but obviously it wasn't. even with binghe's heritage being revealed, shen qingqiu ended up fracturing a lot of his connections while he held onto the pendant. he thought he was protecting the realms from it, but really he was just protecting it until binghe picked it up again. he practically laid the ground work for his own imprisonment with that. besides that, there are plenty of people who would think xin mo was a tool they could use for good. and they'd be wrong. so it's best to destroy it."

"but if binghe can resist it, and taking it from him is half of what makes him turn into you know, bing-ge, isn't it best just to give it back?"

shang qinghua boggled. "how did you come to that conclusion?"

"well, it's his treasure, and he wasn't doing anything wrong with it. you said yourself he could resist it! so isn't it best if the protagonist holds onto it? binghe's strong enough no one could take it..." well, besides the time someone had taken it.

a look came over shang qinghua that shen yuan couldn't identify. "i don't know. maybe he had such a tolerance because he built it up while it was in his posession all those years. but you've had it for like ten? twenty? years?"

Shen Yuan frowned. it wasn't that long for a hobbit, but it was incredibly long for the human shen yuan had been once.

"who knows how he'd react to it now! and absolutely no one is going to agree to just give an artifact of ancient evil to some kid no one knows!"

"he'd be almost thirty now, wouldn't he?" shen yuan said, almost without his own will putting together the timeline. in the novel, this is when luo binghe would be meeting shen qingqiu for the first time. thirty was too young for a hobbit to be on his own, never mind that shen yuan had been living by himself in both lives by the time he was 19.

"you are, frankly, impossible." shang qinghua gave up.

shen jiu came back in the middle of the night, as he was prone to doing, and whisks shen yuan and shang qinghua away on a journey to bring the pendant to a meeting of the realms in order to further discuss what to do with it.

"destroy it," shang qinghua murmered.

there were whispers of a dark power coalescing in the north at the bad lands bordering mount doom. orcs and goblins and other sort being organised and turned against the villages and townships close to the border, each raid pushing their powers further out.

"it's too early for binghe yet, isn't it?" shen yuan asked under his breath.

the worst of it. "they know the pendant is in the shire." shen jiu informed shen yuan and shang qinghua in the middle of throwing things into packs for travel.

"what? how?" shang qinghua quailed.

"who knew about the pendant? ming fan? yue qingyuan?" shen jiu asked, at once correctly inferring the only possible time shen yuan might have come across it.

"no--" shen yuan faltered. luo binghe had been the only other one to know, as he'd given it to him. but would luo binghe sell that information to the dark forces rising against them? or was he, indeed, the dark forces themselves?

shen jiu tsked. "it doesn't matter just now. we have to leave."

so they left, headed towards the cang qiong mountains where shen jiu hoped they could foist the responsibility of the pendant onto some other poor sucker.

[toothpulpart]

A little Qi fanart because there’s an art challenge in a discord server I’m in. This is the significantly more sfw version of the one I’m working on, if all goes well maybe I’ll post the finished other one. Getting back to the other characters soon, hopefully I will be able to upload semi regularly eventually, I’m thinking of posting somewhere else like newgrounds for anything more NSFW as it’s much better sorted and it won’t accidentally be shown to anyone who isn’t looking for it. Anyways, the location is from that quest where he gets stuck down in the ruins and you gotta help him up.

[sunderwight]

Okay, concept:

Luo Binghe grew up very poor prior to arriving to QJP. And when he first got to QJP, he was ostracized and neglected. So there are probably a lot of phrases, terms, and ideas that he didn't know were things until SY arrived and started actually teaching him. Right? So the bulk of what he did learn, he learned directly from Shen Yuan's own slightly messy attempts to fake ancient scholarly credentials.

Plus, QJP is supposed to be the peak of scholars and well-read, fancy intellectuals, and YQY probably also doesn't know shit about most of that stuff (having also been a former illiterate street child) and of course is incredibly predisposed to take Shen Qingqiu's side on virtually anything. Especially something frivolous or linked to their shared past, such as someone, say Qi Qingqi, accusing Shen Qingqiu of making up a literary reference or "gibberish" word. If something Shen Qingqiu says is something no one else seems to know, that just proves he's more worldly and well-read than the rest of his peers. Also, Shang Qinghua will probably know it, and despite his many (many) character flaws, Shang Qinghua reads a lot too. There's really very little to convince a former street child turned Demon Emperor whose former education began and ended with Shen Qingqiu specifically and Meng Mo (wildly out-of-touch with human culture anyway) to suspect that some of the difficult-to-source references his master makes really have no worldly source (in this world).

So Luo Binghe, in his quest to become as knowledgeable of all things about his shizun and keep up with him as well as possible, and maybe also put down some arguments he's overheard once and for all, eventually gets annoyed because CLEARLY there is a wealth of cultural knowledge contemporary to Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua that didn't survive to his own generation. His efforts at hunting down all the sources being referenced and origins of certain philosophical ideas or terminology keep coming up empty in certain departments. He's been over the entire QJP library with a fine-tooth comb, but QJP focuses on things pertaining to cultivation, history, and knowledge. Obviously, there are gaps. The archives are unlikely to keep pop cultural references and lowbrow literature, and Luo Binghe begins to suspect (from what tastes his master seems to share with his shishu) that that is that actual source he's missing.

The trashy yellow books and romance literature of their generation! Bawdy poems and lewd artworks so on! Heck, that's probably even where the shared "code" (bad English) comes into play -- disciples are always trying to sneak forbidden material past their teachers and smuggle naughty books into the dormitories. Knowing Shizun and Shang Qinghua, Luo Binghe honestly wouldn't be surprised if the two of them were racketeering that shit in their own disciple days. Shang Qinghua acquiring materials, Shen Qingqiu acquiring buyers, both of them making their extra spending money off of secretly supplying Cang Qiong's population with contraband fiction and art.

Also, that would explain why both Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua get flustered and refuse to elaborate if someone asks them what this or that strange turn of phrase refers to. Shen Qingqiu has a very thin face for actually discussing erotica, and Shang Qinghua doesn't like being caught doing illegal shit.

Luo Binghe desperately needs access to trash lit that's older than he is. However, most of that stuff is not printed to last, and turning it up is like trying to find old Spirk zines without the internet.

Shang Qinghua, the obvious go-to source, also seems to not really have anything that old anymore (intimidating him is laughably easy, if he had anything he would have coughed it up by the second or third time Luo Binghe asked and frowned at the same time), and if Shen Qingqiu did have anything he wouldn't want to be questioned about it. Asking too much might even get it destroyed in an act of excessive embarrassment.

Which means there is just one other person Luo Binghe knows who might be able to lead him to some sources. One other person he is absolutely, 100% certain was extensively reading trashy literature around the same time that Shizun was a young man. Someone who would know where to go to even begin looking for it.

Luo Binghe is going to have to ask Tianlang Jun for help with something.

[henarikat]

Can you tell us more about your farmer? What is she like how does she meet mr qi how do they fall in love? Tell us everything!!!!

Omg the girl of all time?? You want to hear about my silly little guy?? And her blue man aaaaaa??? I have suddenly forgotten all of the lore I've ever conceived for them oh my goodness but um uh.... i will put it under a spoiler bc it'll probably be dumb and ramblyyyyy and I will absolutely regret posting in 5 seconds if I don't lmao

I guess, her dad is like the CEO of Joja or whatever, some really intense and high-up position. Idk anything about corporations. And he gets her a job after she graduates from college, she has some "dumb" (by his standards) artsy degree that he deems relevant enough to give her a very easy but very high-paying receptionist job. She doesn't have to do anything except for field calls and usually customers don't make it that far calling, so it's usually like... business deals or something. She also has to get donuts and lunch and coffee for the office, which, whatever. And anyway, she meets this guy and he seems cool. He works for her dad and he gets,,, close to her. And she gets,,, close to him. And anyway, it turns out he was using her for like, access to her dad/insider information about the company and then the night he dramatically breaks up with her, she feels like a FOOL and she cannot go back to work the next day. She remembers her dead grandfather's farm and the deed he sent her, so she spends the night packing up her things and leaves for the train station first thing in the morning, no word to anyone!!!! Obviously her dad is SO MAD and he just like... pulls her inheritance? Is that a thing that happens? Idk. And anyway, he doesn't talk to her ever again. She is very depressed when she gets to the valley and she's used to drinking every weekend in zuzu so she... kind of... drinks a lot?? every day?? she gets really close with shane, and they hook up once just before his heart event on the cliffs and after that, they both decide they're better off as friends, at least until they can both get clean. joja ends up firing him because he's so sick after he stops drinking and she hires him to work for her and pays him what he made a joja in a week for just a day's worth of work, so it's beneficial for him! She makes friends with Leah also because they both love art and Leah also majored in the same silly thing that Nora did and funny enough, that guy that Nora "dated" was Leah's ex. Crazy world we live in. Uhhhh and no one really has any romantic interest in Nora, they all sort of pair themselves up with each other?? Harvey has a silly crush on her (bc I hc Maru to be sort of an acespec lesbian in Nora's world), but she is not interested and doesn't want to break harveys strict doctor/patient rule anyway, even if she were. Uh and then 5 years into her stay in the valley, she gets a package with a note attached. I am a hopeless romantic, personallyyyyyy, so like, in my HC Mr Qi never sent her on any quests. He saw her on his screens when she arrived in the valley and he was like oh....ok um wow ok she's going to ruin my life cool cool cooooool. he was so infatuated with her aaaaaa. he never sent her on the quest for the battery or the rainbow shell for his club card, he didn't wait for her on floor 100 in the skull caverns. he coooouldn't. he tried to distract himself with flings, but even still, he could not stop thinking of her. so finally, he invited her to the casino to meet him. he sent her a gorgeous fitted gown and shoes and flowers and!!! and she came!! to meet him! and she was not scared of him or intimidated by him (she didn't even know who he was to be fair) and she thought he was cuuuuute aaaa. and I made up some heart events for him and them and I just!! they're my silly guys they mean everything to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And anyway here is a really cheesy dumb art I drew also because I’m stupid and I love them 😩

[sun-and-moon-mushroom]

Day 6: “You Lied to Me”

AO3 link

(Note: continuation of Day 4)

Shen Qingqiu is dead. Shen Qingqiu should be dead. He’s felt death before, and this is what it feels like — a slow fading, as he lies on the ground, unable to move except for the painful attempts at breathing as his lungs struggle to keep him alive, followed by a loss of sensation as his eyesight fades to black and his limbs go numb, before everything comes to an end.

Shen Qingqiu is not dead — not properly anyway — because the bright blue screen of the System is hanging before him, pausing time with its very presence.

[ MAIN QUEST FAILED. INITIATING HOST EVICTION ]

Shen Qingqiu could almost relax at that. Dying again was something he’d been trying to avoid but now he had to face it again, what other choice did he have but to accept it?

[ Would host like to live? ]

He frowned at the blue screen above him.

“Didn’t you say I would be sent back to my old corpse if I didn’t complete the mission? Did you lie about that as well?”

The System’s screen remained blank for a moment before it’s robotic voice blared into his mind once more.

[ Host may retain connection to current body in exchange for B-points or other energy sources. ]

Reading those words filled Shen Qingqiu with a sudden desire to live, now that the System was offering him a chance. He could see Liu Qingge again, see Luo Binghe grow up into the all-powerful demon lord he was destined to become, maybe even return to his peaceful Qing Jing Peak… maybe there was something more basal about it as well, something more instinctual, the desire of every living thing to climb their way up, even when the obstacles seemed insurmountable.

[ Would host like to use B-points to repair his body?

> Yes > No ]

Shen Qingqiu accepted the offer, and immediately felt better. Pulling himself up, he found that his wounds were already closing over, and while his broken arm still ached, the sharp pain that he had felt each time it moved before had disappeared completely. Cautiously he got to his feet, still slightly unsteady on them, and surveyed the area. It fit with what the book had described the first part of Abyss as — a wide and open wasteland of red stone, littered with the craters and sword-strikes of some long-ago battle.

Without his sword — he felt a moment of longing for Xiu Ya, shattered in the hands of Mobei-jun — he would have to be careful, especially with Without-a-Cure acting up, with no one there to clear the blockages. Reaching for his qi, he was surprised to feel it answer him easily but… wrong somehow. Rather than flowing through his body, his qi flowed… across?

[ New Achievement Unlocked : Cultivation as a Fierce Corpse! ] cheered the System.

Ah, thought Shen Qingqiu to himself, that might make things a bit trickier.