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1unpaid-intern · 7 days ago

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Ok so here goes.

This Xie Lian is a puppet master ghost. This type of ghost was only briefly mentioned in the novel and I always wanted to know more about them (plus it makes XL more distinct as a calamity). But let's start from where things beginn to diverge.

Here XL dies during his second ascension. Wu Ming isn't fast enough and gets dispersed by BWX so XL takes the sword. Right at that moment when he ascends (and his shackle breaks) he gets hit by the spirits. This causes chaos because you have the spirits raining down and an explosive ascension all at once. While XL does indeed die JW and everyone else don't know that, because they can't find his body. Since all this takes place in Lang-er Bay his body got flung into the ocean, making it impossoble to find.

Two important details are that

1. XL doesn't have the sword Fang Xin with him, so once he's the goushi HC and JW won't be able to tell it's him

2. XL doesn't have a shackle,so now he can actually hear (HC's) prayers again. Plus I always assumed that the shackles make it easier for JW to keep an eye an him, so now he completely lost XL.

Since they can't find XL JW (and FX & MQ) are stressed. Either XL has died and is a ghost or he barely survived and is now dependent on prayers again since he ascended (assuming JW has some way of telling that XL isn't completely gone, but I mean he has a fucking virginity detecting sword so I'm sure he has sword for that too).

Because of this these three will all start secretly praying to XL so he doesn't fade in case survived, but they're really carefull about what they say (especially JW). JW will also try to use the opening of Mt. tonglu so he can hopefully atrract XL, should he be a ghost.

XL wakes as a ghost fire when Mt. tonglu opens for the first time aka. when HC is in there. XL is drifting in the water only half concious, until he starts hearing HC's prayers. After a while his body gets sweaped ashore and Ruoye, still wrapped around him, helps XL to (more or less) burry what's left of his corpes. (Google says that corpses usually only last a few days because of sea animals but I'm going to ignore that)

I think XL manly became a ghost because he feels like he has to repent for what he's done. It's not that strong of a desire so he'll stay a ghost fire for a while. But since he's also a god all the prayers (especially HC's) are going to strengthen him. So at some point he should have a human form again. But he's not very powerfull so his form isn't that detailed. Because of that he'll wear a big veil with his bamboo hat to obstruct his face and hair.

XL doesn't seek out MQ and FX for the same reasons as in canon, but with JW it's not just because of shame. I feel like XL would actually grow more suspicious of JW since he can hear HC's prayers. HC would point out how it's weird that JW didn't help XL kill BWX earlier or how specifically XL's believers got stuck in Mt. tonglu even though the gods made barriers meant to prevent that.

XL is also avoiding HC because he feels like he doesn't deserve all that worship. Also from HC's prayers XL figured out that he is WM so he thinks that he's just going to cause him more problems. He still thinks that he's unlucky after all and now he has the suspicion that JW, the strongest there is, might also be involved in his down fall.

So for quite a while things are very similar to canon. XL wanders around trying to help (since he has some spiritual energy now) and purposefully avoiding HC. He still becomes Fang Xin goushi, but being stuck in the coffin won't be as bad since he's already dead. He still has some trouble getting out of there because of all the talismans but those will rot awy eventually.

One thing I'm unsure about is the exact times Mt. tonglu opens (and just the timeline in general). I'm assuming it opened four times in 800 years, two times for HC & HX and two times where the ghosts were too weak (since they knew that that was a thing). Now, the first time it opens XL is drifting in the sea, the second time he's still weak so he decides not to go and the third time he's in the middle of helping somebody so he can't go either. (Haven't quite thought that part through yet. At first I wanted to say that XL is stuck in the coffin when Mt. tonglu openes for the third time but I always assumed HX became a ghost king before that and the third opening would be him)

Now the fourth opening is where XL becomes a ghost king. Mt. tonglu opens just when he plays dead and is thrown in the river after being trampled. Since he gets agitated he can't go back, so things in banyue still go similar as to how they would in canon. At this point XL still wants to stop the war but he realizes that he is too weak, so he stets out to Mt. tonglu. He might technically still be a god but a ghost king can do whatever he wants and if that just so happens to be saving the common people then who would stop him.

I haven't thought that much about how Mt. tonglu would go but XL will definetely see HC's statues and his murals, so at this point XL will know all about HC's backstory. Also XL would come across the murals MNQ painted. (I'm not sure if he painted them during every opening of Mt. tonglu but he does here, except the first time because he didn't know what was happening) And this time XL actually sees all the murals so there are no missunderstandings, so he knows about JW being BWX.

This big revelation makes him realize that he was set up for failure. How nothing he did made a difference nit because of fate but becauae of JW. This is actually the reason why XL becomes a puppet master ghost.

I always assumed that simular to water ghouls the circumstances of one's life/death determine if you become a puppet masters were never and since there were never any conditions mentioned, I came up with my own. There are two ways of becoming a puppet master.

1. The person was incredibley controling in life and just saw people as their pawns. And now even in death they just can't let go of that control.

2. The person was always controlled by others and never had their own agency, so now that they are freed by death they want control back.

So at their core a person must have a strong desire for control (since a puppet masters whole thing is controlling others). Which of course fits XL perfectly since JW took that away from him. (Also it gets mentioned in the book that there seem to be fewer puppet masters and here that is because XL, similar to HX, has been devouring them all)

Now regarding his powers. He obviously can turn corpses into puppets but if he can overpower them he can also control living people. I also think he should have some paper dolls similar to Wei Wuxian. XL uses his hair as the puppet strings (I tried showing it in the drawing but I'm not so sure if it's obvious). His powers are basically the same as the puppet masters in Naruto. But he can also move his hair around like tentacles to grab stuff or make it pointy to stab things, kinda like Serie from so so no frieren.

The first thing XL does after emerging from the kiln is go back to Banyue. At that point Yong An has already won the war and all the Banyue soldiers are ghost. XL obviously devours/disoerses them all because how dare they hang Ban Yue.

The ruins of banyue are actually going to become his lair, but he doesn't pick the palace though. No his base is actually underground (because I love the asthetic of a lost city underground) and you can access it through the sinners pit. There is an array to make it look and sound like in canon though, so nobody would want to jump down there.

Afterwards he scares travelers away from Banyue pass as his first major appearance. My drawing is actually when XL gets his calamity name "Golden Sands veiled in purple". He still wears his goushi cloths since nobody knows that's him + it already gives him a reputation. (I know that would attract LQQ but let's be real he would get his ass kicked) The fact that his color is gold also is a suddle hint at his divinity since gold usually symbolizes that.

The funny thing is that the two evil goushis that got grouped together actually hang out at Banyue now. When Pei Xiu eventually tries to check on BY he gets captured by XL and he talks him into acting as a spy in heaven since he caused BY so much suffering (plus he might have already started luring traveler in).

Also there is one bit of trivia in the novel that I'd like to expand on. Before Pei Xiu PM actually had another one of his decendants as his right hand man, but he got exiled and was quickly forgotten. So I figured PX might actually know where he is so XL could have his own Yin Yu. The idea is that this guy found out about Ling Wen's and Shi Wudu's potential scandals so they convinced PM to get rid of him/ frame him for something. I named him Pei Yun, meaning cloud (if google translated that right). I think it fits since Ming means bright, and Xiu means constellation. So it could be either interpreted as PY dimming the other two Peis brightness or PY hiding secrets by taking the blame like a cloud hiding the sun.

Now at some point XL would (unbeknownst to himself) enter a heavenly tribulation and succeede. I don't know if it's stated anywhere but I'm going to assume that even gods get beamed up to heaven again when they best a tribulation that makes them stronger. So now we have almost the same situation as at the beginning of book one. XL broke a lot of stuff in heaven and has to go to Mt. YuJun. He might have to make up some additional excuses as to why he never contacted any of them, but he can just lie and say that he was so weak that he couldn't even hear prayers and that he didn't want to be a burden or something.

From now on things will play out almost the same as in canon with one important difference. It's no secret that every mission JW sends XL on is meant to sabotage a god so they're weaker when he tries to kill them. But since XL is onto JW he'll always swoop in as Fang Xin and take the balme so they don't lose followers. Xuan Ji? Fang Xin devoured her and claims he killed the brides. Pei Xiu being a spy and the fall of Banyue? All Fang Xin's doing, he controlled PX so not his fault. XL used Fang Xin's technique to block HC? Actually Fang Xin replaced XL with one of his puppets because he wanted to mess with HC. HX trying to kill SWD? Nope not going to happen, Fang Xin foils his plan. Plus he takes Ming Yi's corpse with him, because he also deserves justice.

I think this is just such a funny idea. XL still acts as innocent and unknowing as in canon while he has a clone running around as Fang Xin messing everybody's schemes up.

Things will obviously strongly diverge once Mt. tonglu opens again since both HC and XL will be affacted. They probably do more than just make out ;) , but afterwards they might be both stuck as kids. And with their powers sealed away XL couldn't keep up his charade.

I haven't gotten further than that, but just writing it all down so far feels really good. I'm just glad I can finally get it out of my head, because jesus christ is this long

So about two years ago I was OBSESSED with canon divergent AUs where Xie Lian dies and becomes a ghost king. My first ever tumblr post was even me rambling about my own version of that premise. So naturally I haven't been able get it out of my head ever since. In fact it has gotten so bad that I HAD TO draw my calamity Xie Lian. (I'll ramble about my version in a reblog later, because if I don't then I won't get around to posting it today)

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