#bc baiheng was dead first

[a-la-campanella]

Lunar New Year post! To all who celebrate, may the new year be full of happiness for you!

I have many gripes about the writing for the High Cloud Quintet, but what I find the most fascinating about their fallout is where it places Jing Yuan, and where it will lead him into the future.

Baiheng is dead. She's gone, and while there is very strong evidence (nothing explicitly confirmed, but we're working with what we can get) pointing to traces of Baiheng in Bailu, part of the reincarnation process is acknowledging that Bailu is a whole other person separated from her past/any other life she may have lived and with different memories/experiences. The future is thus: she will be the next High Elder for the Xianzhou Luofu, and she's content with her position as a doctor and healer to those in need of treatment. She doesn't seem to have any big dreams, and what she has now is enough for her. As part of her duty and the expectations of her, she'll stay with the Xianzhou Alliance until she has to reincarnate. It doesn't matter if she one day grows to dream bigger, the choice is now robbed from her like it was from Dan Feng.

Dan Heng is content with his own life. He's suffered enough as it was when he was first born in this name, escaped the Luofu, running away from Blade across space, and made his way to forge a life he can call his own on the Astral Express. He has no need nor want to be shacked by his past, and he can live freely without the shadow of Dan Feng hanging over him. I'm curious where he'll be centuries down the line, given how long his expected lifespan is, and the lifespans of his companions being... probably nowhere as long. But until they part ways, Dan Heng will have them by his side. Of the current Express Crew, Pom-Pom would still be around, and maybe the Trailblazer too. Dan Heng might die and never reincarnate, or he might someday return to the Xianzhou Luofu again to settle down when it's his turn to return to an egg and be reborn anew once more. Given what he's like, I don't see him going out with mara.

Blade was Yingxing, and now he's Blade. Yingxing is dead in the sense that the person he used to be is no more, and now, Blade is just a blade. Mara haunts him in a way that tortures him, and he'll take the path Elio promises if it'll grant him freedom. Living for so long is his punishment/price, and death will be a mercy. He'll die one day, I'm sure, though I'm fairly confident that day will be far off, too. He has the Stellaron Hunters to keep him company for now, and if Elio delivers his promise, Blade will see his peace in the end with them. After the events on the Luofu, I think it's safe to say his arc will conclude with him moving on from chasing a past that no longer wants him, and breaking free—accepting a certain finality—in what has passed, and what will come (his death).

Jingliu is the only other character besides Jing Yuan to keep her name from those times, but she's mara-stricken like Blade and has her own agenda now. She has no personal attachments anymore to anyone from her High Cloud Quintet days, not even her own disciple Jing Yuan, nor does she display interest in associating with them now. She'll pass one day like Blade, I'm sure. They may not go out the same way though; regardless, I don't expect her to do much even if she does live on after her role has been fulfilled (to participate in the war/"game" against Yaoshi and end the abominations of Abundance once and for all).

Jing Yuan was, and still is, shaped by the people around him. The person he was when the High Cloud Quintet was around isn't the same person he is now, but in some ways, he still shares that identity. He's fond of Dan Heng and still cares about Baiheng (now assumed to be Bailu). Jing Yuan used to dream of being a Galaxy Ranger touring the universe in the name of justice, and instead took to rising the ranks in the Cloud Knights, learning to protect what's left of his home on the Luofu, and becoming a leader who valiantly fights for peace. I'm not quite sure how he'll go out. Maybe in battle, against the Abundance; or maybe Yanqing, trained to surpass him, will be called to cut him down; or maybe he'll retire peacefully, spending his days peeling tangerines and basking under the Sun, until he's older and more gray, and one day, gone.

And it's just so interesting to me, because Jing Yuan is so kind, and it does not make him worse off. Unlike Blade and Jingliu, he doesn't let the mara consume him, and focuses on his happiness instead of the despair. His grief is quiet, he carried the weight of a world on his shoulders, but he still finds the time to take in a disciple and teach him the way of the sword, to visit the doctor who reminds him of an old and dear friend, and to make way for banter with his next-in-line. He's outlived the rise and fall of civilizations during that time, alone and not-alone, surrounded by the people he had and has now, and may live long enough to outlive several more.

Everyone has moved on from those years together, and their pasts may connect, but their futures all lead in vastly different directions. I'm sure Jing Yuan has lamented over the past before, but centuries have gone by since. Many things in the world have changed now, and he lives his own life, too. They all do.

Where am I going with this? Who knows. Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate and to Jing Yuan especially. As Yanqing might say: 恭喜发财（红包拿来）。

May your red envelopes be packed with extra money so Yanqing can buy that new and fancy dragon-themed sword.

[shadowcatzone]

au in which:

-the vidyadhara high elders can get one bio!child per reincarnation

-yingxing gets renamed ren and nobody finds out the new blacksmith is actually the old one

-xingyue child takes dan hengs place on the express

(It a bit long sowwy)

1.xingyue child hatches a short while (a year at most) after egg being laid.

2.they grow up happily and healthy with their parents. Until they're about 10 or 15 (literal age not physical age)

3.then the high elder "revives" their friend without anyone knowing. Yingxing goes into hiding after it's discussed it's for the best while DF holds a (fake) funeral for his husband. And one for his friend baiheng. And no one gets arrested and or molted because it's technically only a crime if they catch you.

4.to further sell the lie, and because the preceptors keep insisting, and because of yingxings "persuasion", xingyue child is given to the preceptors to be raised "as they should be". Which includes borderline abuse because of course. But the preceptors give DF monthly updates. Not on the abuse of course. And most of what they tell him is heavily edited, read: a lie.

5.for some reason or another, xingyue child goes through hatching rebirth (probably starvation. I dont know if they actively decide to go egg or it just happens) the preceptors keep giving updates to DF, conveniently leaving out that his child, died,, and he has no choice but to believe them bc the moment he shows too much interest his plans will be ruined (for some reason).

6.when XYchild hatches, after like, a hundred years give or take, the preceptors decide it's best to not tell DF and just go on teaching (read:abusing) them. Unfortunately there's a problem™ and XYchild doesn't forget in the egg. And after a few decades, they go egg again! For the second time!! After DF went to hatching rebirth.

7.DF and YX deciding it's best to wait until xingyue child's hatching rebirth, and then when they get reborn (which will (assumedly) not happen until DF has also gone through rebirth. So then they can actually raise XYchild and they get the family they deserve. everyone wins! (Spoiler: absolutely nobody wins.)

8.somehow DF goes through rebirth. And YX starts building himself a name as the (longlife) blacksmith ren to keep the trauma™ at bay. "Oh he's just like yingxing!" "Dont be ridiculous, yingxing was way better." (Someone mysteriously dies of hammer to the face. By dan fengs angry spirit). Jing yuan sees him by chance and asks if he's yingxing and gets "i don't know him. Or you." But its obviously yx. And jing yuan pretends like he was mistaken.

9.DH hatching at some point. And despite being trained himself, the preceptors are still giving him updates on XYchilds "education" (you're still teaching them? Aren't they, really old??)

10.after a while (about 18 decades for legal reasons) DH meets the blacksmith ren and although he vaguely remembers, he claims he wouldn't fall for the man. Naturally, it's the first thing he does. Literally. Ren helps "his highness" up and it hits full force. Sparkles. Sunset. Jing yuan in the back pulling faces bc really? Right out here, where everyone can see you?? ("Right in front of my immortals delight!??")

11.they get married very quickly after that. How do you fall for the same man twice? You walk into the forge... and see the literal sweat drip down his body. Probably. Scandal after scandal over the new high elder falling for someone who looks exactly like his former husband. And ren plays it bc he's not yingxing, the prodigy blacksmith, he's ren, the guy IL fell for (and coincidentally also a blacksmith).

12.I don't know how timelines work. It's AU magic. When XYchild hatches, they get raised by preceptors. Again. So after two or three decades they (allegedly) accidentally kill a vidyadhara (not actually dead) because they were about to "teach" XYchild again and they defended themself. Long is dead, everythings lost, DF stopped caring about them (allegedly), centuries ago. They flee the country ship. And somehow get on the astral express after a few more decades.

13.when the astral express gets to the luofu, they are 80 (literally, not physically) and also refuse to board the luofu. But the others still go for some reason. XYchild also sleeps in the archives but occasionally in a room. Where they have. Weapons collected. They wear a mask bc they don't wanna be recognised (almost everywhere not only the luofu) and they fight using a halberd they picked up off a battlefield. Is there gonna be a tearful reunion? Maybe. Will XYchild get grounded for just leaving? Absolutely.

14.XYchild leaving the luofu without telling their parents who they are. "Yes, keen observation, i am a vidyadhara. My name is [notXYchild]. Farewell!!!" Before barricading themself in the archives. Do they want to go to a festival? No. It's in belobog? Still no.

15.as a finishing touch, renheng did adopt bailu, after she hatched, XYchild is visiting them, for a few hours each time (bc they're still scared). When everything is done, after the end of the game, they might come back, but they won't immediately live with DH and ren. So they move in somewhere else. Either with a roommate (like qingque. Or sushang. For example.) Or they move into the generals home. Until they're comfortable around their parents again.

_____

I had more angst planned for this. As well as more renheng. What happened...

[narwhalandchill]

dhil story leaks/bailu theory situation ramble again, incoherent prolly. do Not take this as an established theory that i fully stand behind bc that 100% clueless in my bio is there for a reason !!!

ok honestly im ngl ive confused myself now after looking at the daniel story leaks again and sleeping on it. bailu theory status is pending its literally schrödingers rn im so torn. does the timeline enable for it or not???? it Would explain some things but hhhhhh i cant make sense of it yet.

at first i was like yeah p sure its not happening bc of the dragon heart fuckery and how baiheng wasnt there for the entire course of events only arriving once shit was going down but. what if. df used the heart partially for resurrecting yx??? and then as baiheng sacrificed herself i do find it curious that they specify only drops of blood and hair remaining of her post-vaporization. which are. classic sources of DNA .

and we know dan feng went berserk with his dragon form so its plausible he temporarily regained the vidyadharas ancient but currently long lost ability to just go fuck all gene splicing manipulate biology and living tissue. that ability + baiheng DNA remains + the dragon heart is just hmm.

another thing i realized that i didnt yesterday is that bailu being recognized as the next imbibitor lunae even if her powers are lacking implies she Has the dragon heart (bc its like. not just A vidyadhara heart its clearly its own thing and a huge deal with a critical role in the continued high elder reincarnation line and longs legacy being passed down). so like its clear dan feng had to pass the dragon heart down to her reincarnation line at some point but as the vidyadhara couldnt get him to budge on the hearts status in the shackling prison i doubt it was anytime after the sedition. the IL position has been passed down its just that it wasnt done properly.

so like im thinking there might actually be two separate resurrections happening consecutively?

first yingxing who is possibly either dead or dying as dan feng initially arrives already but the initial attempt at resurrection goes horribly wrong and an emanator (?) of abundance appears + the arbor activates and leads to things like the toxic mist explosion described by the vidyadhara eggs that kills a lot of vidyadhara and eggs instantly. potential resurgence/triggered plague of people being infected by mara on the luofu? yx potentially becomes marastruck then despite being short-lived? (also if the emanator is literally shuhu then... yeah adds up w blades talent name)

and if yx now marastruck is on a clock for how long he lasts before permanently losing his self i can see that being when df uses the dragon heart to stop the mara from proceeding further through bruteforcing permanence to overpower yaoshis abundance as the core fueling his immortality - which is the basic principle behind the draught of draconic surge and how vidyadhara bone marrow is already confirmed to interact with mara. & this would prolly be when df loses control of his form? both fighting the emanator and trying to desperately help yx in time

n like the thing the storys a bit unclear on is just at what point yx had already acquired that perfected immortality of abundance + permanence. but like he must have by the time baiheng arrives on the starskiff and sacrifices herself right? bc whatever baiheng brought w her (some say lan, some say a stellaron) clearly vaporized everything in the vicinity and was enough to strike down the emanator and/or at least halt the crisis with the arbor and everything. and regular mara struck dont come back from that whereas blades still kicking

so with the like mara/arbor/emanator of yaoshi portion of the seditions initial lead up done i feel like baihengs arrival is when the Actual sedition (in terms of an armed rebellion) begins? with the vidyadhara confused but many who survived the initial stage still choosing to stand with dan feng and fight against the arriving cloud knights and all the abominations of abundance

so would this be when the 2nd resurrection and baiheng possibly becoming that furry-draconic mutant abomination happens?? and also how the position/power of the IL ends up passed down although not properly to then-mutated-baiheng and eventually-bailu by df using the either damaged or outright incomplete dragon heart (if he put most of it in yingxing) in the process.

so like in this scenario the 'sin' that yingxing and dan feng share might also be the decision to go fuck it we ball mess with life and death and biology even further (as if the mass casualties so far werent enough) and resurrect their fallen comrade as the new high elder line except it comes out wrong and horrible and jingliu has to put that beast down.

this would also explain part of where the somber tone in blades voiceline about dan heng comes from - if he still understands that the motivation behind that 2nd resurrection was at least to make amends in some desperate way when all they had available was baihengs DNA, a damaged dragon heart with dan fengs hidden DLC cas9 crispr vidyadhara powers still accessible to him. like theres nowhere near the pained sympathy and shared guilt that the tone in the dh line conveys when he talks about jingliu or jing yuan in comparison. it has to be more complicated than "he made me immortal. NOT a fan 0/5"

anyway dunno if its just me but this just makes the beloved thing even more confusing. on one hand "turning the beloved into a monstrosity" really lines up with how the xianzhou views the mara-struck and blade views himself as like. a bass boosted mara-struck on steroids who literally cannot die unlike normal mara victims. and "the one who buried the beloved is you" doesnt kinda sound right for baiheng when all she left behind was just enough genetic material for dan fengs terrible horrible awful no-good cooking class - not a lot to bury. also burying the beloved fits blades melodramatic inner dialogue style and tone with how he considers yingxing already dead and strictly uses 3rd person towards his past self. but also its hard to argue that what happened to baiheng IF the transmutation resurrection theory is real doesnt also warrant a match for "monstrosity". like bailus cool now but that first mutation sure wasnt. she got changed species with no say on the matter

the ambiguity is strong enough that a part of me wonders if its on purpose for censorship reasons tbh. (not an expert on this and by no means want to imply any proper familiarity with the subject. so like if this is wildly unrealistic or inaccurate its fully on me, lmk and ill delete) setting up a scenario where all the homoerotic subtext is clearly intentional and solidified around yingxing and dan feng but this specifically explicit romantic word used Could be twisted to apply to baiheng too for plausible deniability. this assuming they dont actually end up pulling a secret het love triangle reveal in the end at us hhhh im still kinda paranoid - ill be sad but also honestly assume their hands were forced if that rly is the case :/

also at this point it should be expected (thanks hoyo) but EN tl has inaccuracies and if sth i say here doesnt add up with what EN text suggests its prolly bc ive taken into account some of the commentary on the accuracy on reddit. too lazy to list all specifics but ask if sth pops out at u

anyway im so drained this is all killing me . What happened. yingxing. dan feng. what did you Do.

[odyssean-flower]

ok i played the new story update in hsr and here are my thoughts

warning: it's kinda negative

first things first: yeah i know this isn't the end of the xianzhou story, there are six ships after all and i guess luofu is supposed to be like the opening act to a bigger conflict with the aeons but m a n the execution was not good

the 1.3 story is more like an epilogue, which is fine, but it really should have been added to the previous patch. tbh the luofu story didn't need to be stretched over three patches with its overall length

i feel like everything went wrong when they decided to make the dan shu quests optional instead. i feel like they had to scrap a lot of stuff because of that? i agree that the dan shu quests felt out of place but they could have moved it around instead of just cutting them out of the main storyline. It's fully voiced after all and it has interesting lore

the problem is that the writers wanted to incorporate so many concepts but didn't want to (or can't) increase the length of the story. There are so much stuff going on like the conflict between Lan and Yaoshi, the bad side to immortality, the vidyadhara politics, the stellaron and the lord ravager, the sanctus medicus, dan heng & dan feng, dan heng and blade, the stellaron hunters, the high-cloud quintet, luocha, but all of these things only get brief moments of spotlight before we move on to something else. it makes everything feel kind of inconsequential and confusing

Especially the dan heng il thing which really should have been the main point of the story. his transformation is cool but it also feels random. the opening cutscene with blade also comes off as baffling in retrospect bc he didn't really do or explain anything??

i think they tried to rectify this by making the companion quests (like yanqing's and dhil's) basically main quests but they only raise more questions that may or may not get a definite answer. also these quests are optional

the ending is so abrupt, but they still try to tease continuations (see: jingliu and luocha cutscene at the end) even though we're leaving?? and who knows when these threads will get picked up again

Another problem i have: the vagueness of the lore and story. We finally know what dan feng's sin is...kind of. We maybe kind of know what happened to baiheng. tingyun's dead...or is she??? the writers love teasing resolutions instead of giving them, and it's honestly annoying. And im saying this as a genshin lore fan who loves finding random readables and trying to piece together what happened

The high-cloud quintet: ok this might be an unpopular opinion but i don't really care about them. maybe it's just my inherent dislike for the trope of "super elite group full of hot people who have a lot of history with each other and they feel sad about it :(" but they are just not doing anything for me right now. I like them all individually but as a group? meh. Part of the problem is that their lore is scattered all over the place and is very vague, so you really have to read between the lines and speculate in order to get their story, which requires a certain amount of investment from the start. i repeat that im a genshin lore player, but the thing about genshin lore is that it's not needed to understand the main story most of the time. Important stuff about the characters, on the other hand? tbh i care way more about spina di rosula trio or the narzissenkreuz people, and most of those people are npcs (faceless even)

honestly high-cloud quintet deserved a world quest chain or something instead of just (a very nice) animated short. as it is now i don't know why we would ever revisit them in the future considering dan heng doesn't want anything to do with them. maybe a rematch with blade?

tldr xianzhou had a lot of cool ideas but the execution was bad. oh well at least it had jing yuan