#human xiu

[kadekae]

Xiu

[tcfactory]

Dumb SVSSS thought of the day is Xuan Su being one breakthrough away from cultivating a human form and making its (his?) newfound ability to speak aloud to other people everybody's problem.

Unity of the Sword cultivators give more of themselves to their bonded blades than people cultivating other paths, because they have to cultivate together with the sword, as partners. It's both a blessing and a curse, making their swords more... aware. It's not unusual for Unity swords to ascend with their masters or to cultivate humanoid forms to become something like a platonic life partner.

Xuan Su is an old blade. A powerful one, expertly if eccentrically crafted (what kind of cultivator would choose a zhanmadao when a jian is so much more ethereal and versatile?) and wielded by dozens of prodigiously talented cultivators before.

Each one of them set it aside, finding it too heavy and unwieldy for their ambitions. Each and every one of them died for it. It could feel through the bond as they each fell, the lighter, sleeker blades they replaced it with crumbling like paper under the weight of the destinies they all bore.

If it stopped calling out to young prodigies after its history of losses things would have been... much the same, probably, because Yue Qi has heard about the power of Xuan Su before he stepped foot in the sword hall, but there might have been a chance that he might have heard the call of a sword more suited to his level of cultivation, one that could have grown organically along with him.

The problem is, Xuan Su keeps calling out to new wielders and no amount of warning from Wan Jian's masters could convince the ambitious prodigies to give up on the chance to be the one who carried the famed Xuan Su to ascension.

After losing too many of its people, however, Xuan Su no longer knows how to bond normally. It clings too hard, hooks its metaphorical claws into its cultivator's soul, crawls through their meridians until there's no boundary left between them.

The last three people who tried to take it up didn't live long enough to unsheathe it.

For good or ill, Yue Qingyuan will be the last one to ever wield Xuan Su. It will either ascend with him, die with him or Wei Qingwei will throw it in the Wan Jian forge where the cursed thing deserves to be if it manages to outlive zhangmen-shixiong.

The thing is, however, that an old sword doesn't necessarily mean a mature one. Xuan Su wasn't wielded enough for its spirit to have matured fully. The only cultivator who even entertained it past the first few months of realizing that fighting with a zhanmadao is an unwieldy affair, that they could never become the picture of divine grace hauling around a blade that gave some polearms a run for their money, has been Yue Qingyuan, so most of Xuan Su's personality comes from him.

A thousand years worth of guilt and abandonment issues mixed with whatever traits it borrowed from semi-feral ex-slave teenager Yue Qi when they bonded does not make for a pleasant personality. It would remind Yue Qingyuan of a young Xiao-Jiu, expect Xuan Su has a brand of unashamed bloodthirstiness that can't be replicated by anything that's not made of 5 feet of sharp-edged murder.

It's not all bad. Xuan Su mourned with him when they though Shen Jiu was dead and rejoiced when they found him again. It has been trying its best to help Yue Qingyuan fight his heart demons so he could confess to Shen Qingqiu, even when it has heart demons of its own. They are beyond compatible in the physical and spiritual sense, granting Yue Qi the almost inhuman strength he became famous for. The mental component of their cultivation stagnates, however, because they are trying to split their attention between dealing with Yue Qingyuan's guilt and Xuan Su's abandonment issues and they are getting nowhere.

It's Shang Qinghua who accidentally gives them the push to pick one or the other. ("All right, enough!" Shang Qinghua claps his hands and freezes the dozen frantic An Ding disciples almost coming to blows about which one of their three separate crises should get the most resources. "You," he points at a kid with a missing front tooth. "All resources to your problem. And when that's done, then to his,-" Points at another child. "- and then hers. This way all of them will get solved on time and they will get solved better because you don't spread yourself thin trying to do three different things requiring full focus at once.") They decide to address Xuan Su's bottleneck because it's easier: Yue Qingyuan has already proved that he would not abandon it. They will ascend or die together.

They don't expect the backlash from its breakthrough to knock Yue Qingyuan out for several weeks (it's the bond stabilizing, finally, but his body and core need time to grow accustomed to only having his qi and his life force, all contained neatly within him as it should have been all these years). Weeks while Xuan Su is left alone on the peaks, unsupervised and without anybody knowing that it currently wears the form of a fourteen-year-old boy.

So of course the first thing it (he?) does is slip away before anyone could identify him and goes to Shen Qingqiu. The plan is simple: chew the man out for making Yue Qi sad all these years and then tell him what went down in the caves so he forgives Xuan Su's human and they can all be a happy family together! (A lot of its previous wielders sought fame to be allowed to wed various people they would not be able to marry otherwise, so Xuan Su might have acquired a passing interest in romance. Xuan Su approves of Yue Qi's choice, Shen Qingqiu is a sharp, very sword-like human and Xiu Ya is a very nice, well-balanced sword, but they really keep dragging things out way too long.)

Except Shen Qingqiu doesn't believe that the suddenly appearing feral teenager on his peak is actually a sword spirit. Swords cultivating human form are the stuff of legends and Yue Qi is far too down-to-earth for any of that nonsense. So clearly this Xiao-Su is an orphan his idiot Qi-ge has adopted; he's certainly feral enough to be one. No idea where Yue Qingquan has hidden this child before, but he's not quite presentable enough to be among the Qiong Ding disciples, despite the wonderfully elaborate clothes he's wearing. He enjoys food like he's tasting decent cooking for the first time, so he must not have been here long. Shen Qingqiu remembers being much the same when he first got to eat regularly, but hiding it much better, thank you very much.

Shen Qingqiu decides that he's going to keep an eye on his shixiong's charge until the man wakes up, because it's obvious that the kid can't be allowed to wander the peaks unsupervised. This decision has obviously nothing to do with Xiao-Su's instant hatred towards the little beast. Nope. Nothing at all.

Xuan Su eventually does manage to tell Shen Qingqiu that Qi-ge came back for him. Yue Qingyuan wakes up and confirms that yes, that bratty rascal is the great and powerful Xuan Su. They eventually learn about Binghe's demonic heritage and go investigating how the hell that has happened. But not before a few weeks of shenanigans and Luo Binghe accidentally winning Xuan Su (and by proxy Shen Qingqiu, much to the man's annoyance) over by the wonders of his godly cooking skills.

[friedfriedchicken]

Y'know what? TGCF jumpscare

Close-ups:

[mxtxfanatic]

“I love the soul contained in the body, not the body.”

“I just want to call you by the way you like.”"“I just want to call you by the way you like.”

"Don't we know each other better now?"

[navarice]

how do you guys think mxtx feels knowing there are millions of people out there writing trashy rpf porn fanfics and weirdly obsessive character studies of all three of her works in every language imaginable? flattered? overwhelmed? scared? we're basically a cult at its point, i can't imagine how she sleeps comfortably at night.

[weiwuxiansbrattybussy]

🤭💘🤤✨🥺💕POV💕🥺✨🤤💘🤭

You’re Shen Qingqiu waking up every morning post book 3

[very-grownup]

He yelled, "Black Marsh Crocodiles!" As it turned out, the two of them had hardly fled two steps out of the women's bath before Mu Qing took the dice by force and rolled, and their next step had them falling into a marsh. They were immediately submerged past their waists and up to their mouths in the muddy water; after fighting to get out, over a dozen incredibly long crocodile monsters swam over to surround them. Each of the monsters was over twelve meters in length and had grown human arms and legs from years of feeding on human flesh. The sight of them moving through the marsh with those limbs stroking through the water would steal anyone's breath with fright, and it was also really grossing the two of them out. Half-sunken in the black marsh, the two fervently fought the crocodiles until Feng Xin had finally had enough.

Heaven Official’s Blessing, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

[yamayuandadu]

Consulting the convoluted history of supernatural foxes, or why is Tsukasa like that

I know I said you should only expect one long Touhou-themed research article per month, and that the next one will be focused on Ten Desires, but due to unforeseen circumstances a bonus one jumped into the queue. For this reason, you will unexpectedly have the opportunity to learn more about the historical and religious context of the belief in kuda-gitsune, or “tube foxes”, as well as their various forerunners. Tsukasa is clearly topical thanks to Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost, and I basically skipped covering Unconnected Marketeers in 2021 save for pointing out some banal tidbits, so I hope this is a welcome surprise. The post contains spoilers for the new game, obviously.

Obviously, in order to properly cover the kuda-gitsune, it is necessary to start with a short history of foxes in Japanese culture through history, especially in esoteric Buddhism. Early history: the Chinese background Early Japanese sources pertaining to foxes show strong Chinese influence. There was an extensive preexisting system of fox beliefs to draw from in continental literature, dating back at least to the Han dynasty (note that while the well known story of Daji is set much earlier, its modern form only really goes back to the Song dynasty). This is way too complex of a topic to discuss here in full, sadly, so I will limit myself to the particularly interesting tidbits.

A multi-tailed fox in the classic Chinese encyclopedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng (wikimedia commons)

It will suffice to say that historically the fox was perceived in China as a liminal being, and could be associated with pursuits regarded as ethically dubious, ranging from theft and banditry to instigating rebellions and promoting divisive religious views (so, for example during the reigns of firmly pro-Taoist emperors, Buddhist monks could be associated with foxes). Literary texts focused on supernatural foxes emphasized their shapeshifting abilities. In contrast with some of the other well attested supernatural beings in Chinese tradition, they could take a range of human forms, appearing as men and women of virtually any age. Often they favored mimicking people who lived on the margins of society, like bandits, courtesans or migrant laborers. It was also emphasized that they displayed a considerable degree of disregard for authority. The fact these animals lived essentially alongside humans without being domesticated definitely played a role in the formation of this image.

A contemporary statue of Bixia, a deity in the past associated with fox beliefs (wikimedia commons)

At the same time, foxes enjoyed a degree of popularity as objects of semi-official cult, still practiced here and there in China in modern times, for example in Boluo in Shaanxi. The religious role of foxes was reflected in, among other things, the development of terms like hushen (狐神) “fox deity”, or huxian (狐仙), “fox immortal”. The belief in such “celestial foxes” (tianhu, 天狐) was relatively common, and there is even a legend according to which there was a formalized way for the animals to transcend to higher states of existence, with the goddess Bixia making them undergo the supernatural fox version of the well known imperial examinations. If they failed they were condemned to live as “wild foxes” (yehu, 野狐) with no hope of transcendence. There are also accounts of foxes pursuing the status of a xian through illicit means, through a combination of praying to the Big Dipper and draining people’s energy, as documented by He Xiu in the 1700s. Note foxes were already portrayed as worshiping the Big Dipper during the reign of the Tang dynasty, but back then it was only believed this let them transform into humans.

The ambiguity of foxes is evident in the Japanese perception of these animals too. Supernatural foxes are probably among the best known youkai, and especially considering this is a post about Touhou I do not think the basics need to be discussed in much detail. They were believed to shapeshift and to steal vital energy, much like in China. Their positive role as messengers of Inari, a kami associated with agriculture, is generally well known too. The earliest sources documenting encounters with supernatural foxes are obviously, as expected, the earliest chronicles like the Nihon Shoki, where they mostly appear as omens. By the Heian period these animals are well established in the written record. For instance, Nakatomi Harae Kunge includes “evil magic due to heavenly and earthly foxes” among phenomena which require ritual purification. In addition to the tales imported from China being in circulation, some setsuwa written in Japan involved shape shifting foxes. However, supernatural foxes only gained greater prominence in the Japanese middle ages due to the growth of relevance of two deities they were associated with, Inari and Dakiniten. The latter is more relevant to the topic of this article.

Foxes, Dakiniten and tengu

Part of a hanging scroll depicting Dakiniten riding on a fox (wikimedia commons, via MET; cropped for the ease of viewing)

The connection between foxes and Dakiniten reflected their associations with the dakinis, a class of demons in Buddhism. Originally the dakinis were associated with jackals instead, but Chinese Buddhist authors presumed that the animal mentioned in this context is basically identicial with more familiar foxes, and that belief reached Japan as well. It was strong enough for Dakinite, the dakini par excellence, to be regularly depicted riding on the back of a fox. Dakiniten was originally a regular dakini, according to Bernard Faure specifically one who appears in Heian period Enmaten mandalas (Enmaten is related to but not quite the same as the better known king Enma, for the development of two distinct reflections of Yama in Buddhism see here). However, she eventually developed into a full blown deva in her own right, and her prominence was so great that it basically resulted in the decline of references to the generic dakinis in Buddhist literature in Japan. She was particularly popular in the Shingon school of Buddhism, and at the peak of her relevance played a role in royal ascension rituals, developing a connection with Amaterasu in the process (Amaterasu acquired many peculiar connections through the Japanese middle ages, it was par the course). A Tendai treatise equates her with Matarajin instead, though. An interesting phenomenon related to Dakiniten is the occasional fusion of beliefs pertaining to foxes and tengu, which might have originated in the similarity of the terms tengu and the Japanese term for the already mentioned “heavenly foxes”, tenko. Its best attested examples include the inclusion of tengu in mandalas focused on Dakiniten as her acolytes. However, a different deity ultimately exemplifies this even better. Iizuna Gongen and "iizuna magic"

Iizuna Gongen riding on the back of a fox (Museum of Fine Arts Boston; link to the source is temporarily dead, the image is reproduced here for educational purposes only)

The indisputable center of the network of connections between foxes and tengu is Iizuna Gongen (飯綱権現), depicted as a tengu riding on a fox. As you can probably guess, he was a (vague) basis for Megumu, as evidenced by the similarity of the names. While many other aspects of his character aren’t really touched upon in the game, I’d hazard a guess he’s also the reason why ZUN decided to include a kuda-gitsune in the same game as Megumu - the evidence lines up exceptionally well, as you’ll see.

Originally Iizuna Gongen was simply the deity of Mount Iizuna (飯綱山), located in the modern Nagano prefecture. Near the end of the Japanese middle ages he spread to other areas, likely thanks to traveling shugenja (also known as yamabushi), mountain ascetics belonging to a religious tradition known as Shugendō. Two aspects of his character are particularly pronounced, his role as a martial deity and his association with foxes.

I was unable to determine when Iizuna Gongen’s connection to foxes originally developed, but it was strong enough to lead to the use of the alternate name Chira Tenko (智羅天狐; “Chira the heavenly fox”) to refer to him. Foxes also appear in a legend describing his origin. It states that he was one of the eighteen children of an Indian king, and arrived in Japan alongside nine of his siblings on the back of a white fox during the reign of emperor Kinmei (the remaining eight went to China and became monks on Mount Tiantai). His connection to foxes is also reaffirmed in an Edo period treatise, Reflections on Inari Shrine (稲荷神社考, Inari jinja kō), which declares that names such as Iizuna Gongen and Matarajin (sic!) are used in the worship of wild foxes to hide the true nature of the invoked entities. The author further states that the true form of “these matarajin (plural) and wild foxes” is that of a three-faced and six-armed deity, which curiously has more to do with early Matarajin tradition than with Iizuna Gongen as far as I can tell. The two were not really closely associated otherwise, but it’s worth noting that apparently shugenja perceived them both as similar tengu-like deities. 

The key feature of conventional iconography of Iizuna Gongen, the fox mount, has nothing to do with Matarajin strictly speaking, and likely reflects the influence of Dakiniten. However, the animal in this context developed its own unique identity thanks to the presence of foxes in a type of ritual focused on Iizuna Gongen, which could itself be referred to as iizuna. The shugenja community centered on the worship of Iizuna Gongen was not very formalized, which led to poor understanding of their practice among outsiders, with the term iizuna basically acquiring the vague meaning along the lines of “magic”. and rather poor reputation. These rites are where the kuda-gitsune comes into play. Kuda-gitsune in iizuna magic and beyond

The kuda-gitsune, as depicted in Shōzan Chomon Kishū by Miyoshi Shōzan (Waseda University History Museum; reproduced here for educational purposes only)

At first glance, kuda-gitsune is just one of many local variants of the standard supernatural fox, similarly to the likes of ninko, osaki-gitsune or nogitsune. The etymology of its name is straightforward. I’m sure you can guess what the second half means, while kuda (管) in this context refers to a bamboo tube. You’d think the name would basically guarantee it was universally accepted that’s how one could carry such a critter undetected, but apparently there was an alternate explanation, namely that it was invisible. I have not seen any further discussion of this in literature, but I assume this might be connected to shikigami beliefs, as these quite often are described as invisible. Do not quote me on that, though. Even more bizarrely, there is no consensus that the animal meant was always a fox. According to Bernard Faure it is distinctly possible the term referred to a weasel. Kuda-gitsune could be described as a type of shikigami, but note that this term had a much broader meaning in real life than in Touhou, and referred to basically any supernatural being which acted as an extension of the powers attributed to “ritual specialists” (祈祷師) such as onmyōji, shugenja or Buddhist monks. In Buddhist context, the analogous term could be gohō dōji (護法童子; “Dharma-protecting lads”), though there are also cases where gohō and shikigami are contrasted with each other. The shikigami category didn’t just consist of animated papercraft and animal spirits typically designated as such in popculture. Even the twelve heavenly generals defending the “medicine Buddha” Yakushi could be labeled as shikigami. Obviously, kuda-gitsune is closer to the familiar meaning of this term than to Buddhist deities, though. People relying on kuda-gitsune were referred to as kitsune-tsukai (狐使い), which can be loosely translated as “fox tamer”, and it is said they were often shugenja. Given the popularity of the associated deity among them this shouldn’t really be a surprise. Various supernatural abilities were ascribed to the kuda-gitsune. The ability to possess people attributed to other supernatural foxes was the domain of kuda-gitsune too. Apparently people afflicted by it were compelled to eat nothing but raw miso. Purportedly they were bringers of wealth - but said wealth did not necessarily come from legitimate sources. That, in turn, could lead to distrust or outright ostracism of people allegedly relying on foxes to acquire wealth. They also provided aid in divination, and could supposedly reveal past, present and future alike this way. However, they could look into the soul of anyone using them this way and learn their secrets. Bernard Faure notes that occasionally it was said that they even could even be utilized to kill enemies who attempted casting spells on their owner.  Shigeru Mizuki's kuda-gitsune

Kuda-gitsune, as depicted by Shigeru Mizuki (reproduced here for educational purposes only)

While there isn’t much information about kuda-gitsune in scholarship, especially scholarship available online in English, they received extensive coverage in various books about youkai written by Shigeru Mizuki, famous for arguably canonizing the modern concept of youkai. Note that while I am a fan of Mizuki's works, his encyclopedias are best understood as something closer to Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings, complete with some dubious sourcing and possible fabrications. However, ultimately modern media about youkai, including Touhou, owes much to him, and arguably he continued the tradition of night parade scrolls which often invented new creatures wholesale, so it strikes me as entirely fair game to summarize what he has to say too. Shigeru Mizuki cited the Edo period writer Matsura Seizan as an authority on kuda-gitsune. He states ccording to the latter, certain ascetics (yamabushi) were provided with these critters upon finishing their training on Mount Kinpu and Mount Ōmine. In his account cited by Mizuki there are a lot of details I haven’t seen elsewhere. The storage tubes after which kuda-gitsune are named apparently had to be inscribed with a certain sanskrit phrase (left unspecified, tragically) so that the animals didn’t have to be fed. However, releasing them and giving it food was necessary to gain their help in divination. There was a downside to this - kuda-gitsune were apparently hard to place back in containment once released without the help of a seasoned specialist. Also, they refused to provide anything of value unless fed well, and they had quite the appetite. Mizuki cites the particularly disastrous case of an ascetic who kept multiple kuda-gitsune in a single tube, and eventually couldn’t pay for enough food for his collection since the animals kept multiplying inside. According to Mizuki  it was believed that a kuda-gitsune could be gifted by its owner to another person, but the creature would come back if it was not satisfied with the food provided by the latter. If the original “fox tamer” dies before passing their kuda-gitsune to someone else, it will instead go to the Ōji Inari shrine located in what is now the the Kita ward of Tokyo.

Conclusion: Tsukasa and her forerunners

In theory I could’ve kept pointing out “see, it’s just like Tsukasa!” in virtually every single paragraph of this article. To answer the question from the title, evidently she is like that because that's how foxes have been in folklore both Japan and China for centuries. It is not really hard to see that ZUN is genuinely great at research when he wants to be, and Tsukasa's character is remarkably accurate to her real life forerunners, both as an adaptation of kuda-gitsune specifically and as a representation of the broader tradition which lead to the portrayal of foxes as supernatural creatures of questionable moral character. She engages in morally dubious “get rich quick schemes”, she definitely provides advice (of variable quality), and her self-declared ability from her omake bio pretty clearly reflects skills actually ascribed to the kuda-gitsune in folklore. In the newest game the ability to provide information is clearly in the spotlight - Tsukasa seems to be reasonably knowledgeable (she brings up Kojiki in a line aimed at Hisami, among other things), and other characters generally agree she’d be more useful doing something else than fighting. I do not think there’s any real reason to doubt this is what is meant. I think it can even be safely assumed that Zanmu’s decision to pressure Tsukasa to partake in her assassination bluff is rooted in genuine tradition. I’m obviously not going to say that Tsukasa reaches the platonic ideal of Okina, the quintessential character aimed at fans who like research, who largely seems to exist to get people to dig deeper for sources explaining the dozens of religious allusions in her dialogue, spell cards and design, but I do think it’s worth appreciating that the series reached a stage where even the minor animal youkai can be enjoyed as multilayered representation of centuries worth of genuine folklore and mythology. Bibliography -Bernard Faure, Gods of Medieval Japan vol. 1-3 -Michael Daniel Foster, The Book of Yokai. Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore  -Berthe Jansen and Nobumi Iyanaga, Dākini (Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism) -Xiaofei Kang, The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China -Shigeru Mizuki’s assorted writings on kuda-gitsune (collected online here)

[fun-mxtx-polls]

Xiu Ya vs. Xinmo

Xiu Ya propaganda:

Xinmo propganda:

Xin Mo is an incredibly powerful sword that can teleport, cross into different universes, and has the power to combine the human and the demon realm. The name meaning "heart demon" it consumes its owner and worsens all of your worst impulses and insecurities! (submitted by @salmonpinkisnice)

[tossawary]

Details (quote plus thoughts) on Shen Qingqiu killing the Skinner Demon and his reaction afterwards, including his conversation with Luo Binghe about using his disciple as bait, and his promise that Luo Binghe will never suffer any misfortune. Long post. Warning for a brief description of graphic violence, specifically the Skinner Demon's body afterwards.

"The corner of Shen Qingqiu's mouth twitched, and he gathered all of his spiritual power into his right hand, lashing out with a palm strike and smacking Die-er in the chest. The demon flew back like a kite with a snapped string.

This was the first time that Shen Qingqiu had killed someone. But he didn't hold back, not even a little. First, because this was a book; second, because this was a demon who'd killed countless people; and third, because if he didn't, he'd be the one who got killed.

Shen Qingqiu gazed down at the horrible state of "Die-er": four limbs twisted and broken, bleeding from the seven facial apertures. He turned away, bombarding his own brain with a barrage of his three reasons until they blocked out the screen of his mind.

Striving to remain calm, he slowly stood and straightened, settled his hear and breathing, fixed his posture, and turned to Luo Binghe.

"This is your first time seeing someone 'eliminate demons and uphold justice,'" he said. "Were you scared?"

Luo Binghe's still-childish face was slightly pale.

"If you wish to 'uphold,' you must 'eliminate,'" said Shen Qingqiu, composed.

Luo Binghe gritted his teeth. His voice quavered. "Shizun, if this disciple may be so bold as to ask, just now..."

When the second half of the sentence didn't arrive, Shen Qingqiu spoke, "You want to ask, if that ceiling beam hadn't suddenly come crashing down, what was this master's plan?"

Shen Qingqiu had no choice but to suffer in silence, he yearned to tell Luo Binghe: Don't worry, even if the ceiling beam hadn't collapsed, perhaps the wall would have. Even if the wall hadn't, perhaps the pillar would have. Long story short, you definitely wouldn't have died, the boss definitely would have, and that's all there is to it.

But he couldn't speak these words, so he could only adopt an unpredictable air and evade the question by changing the subject. "If you're asking this, are you blaming this master?"

Luo Binghe shook his head. "No," he said, his expression sincere. "If this disciple could give up his life for Shizun, it would be an honor."

Shen Qingqiu was shaken. This kid really was too much of a white lotus!

"Then this master will promise you in kind," he said after thinking for a moment and settling on properly ambiguous words. "Even if an accident befalls this master, no misfortune will come to you."

This was an absolute truth. Even if Shen Qingqiu died one hundred times - ah, on hundred times - Luo Binghe, the protagonist with impervious plot armor, would go on living in perfect health.

"On this matter, I speak nothing but the truth." His voice resounded as he said this, his expression confident and collected, without the slightest hint of falsehood.

When Luo Binghe heard these words, it was as if his life force had been ignited. The sunflower that had begun to wilt revived, full of renewed vigor.

Holding Xiu Ya in both hands, Luo Binghe lifted the blade until it was even with his brows and presented it to Shen Qingqiu. "Shixun, your sword!" "

Volume 1, Chapter 2, pages 83-84.

This is a weird moment, emotionally, because it's both Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe's first time dealing with violent death (and demons). Shen Yuan didn't even go to look at the skinned body! (And neither did Luo Binghe!) Ming Fan did that part of the investigation! I doubt Shen Yuan in his past life was ever in a position where he saw a dead body at all, much less a mangled one or a skinned one. (I have personally seen donated human bodies (muscle + bone) used for the study of anatomy, and it is... an experience. It's not pleasant.)

They are both very young here. In fact, Luo Binghe is almost certainly both more acquainted with violence (being regularly beaten up as he trains with Cang Qiong, his shitty childhood beforehand) and with death (his adoptive mother's death, probably witnessing some other horrible stuff while he was on the streets) than Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan may have seen gore in media before, but this is very real. This is where his entire transmigration experience suddenly becomes a lot more real than it was before this mission.

Shen Yuan is a laid-back person who strives to go with the flow, and he's not afraid to deal out violence and to kill in defense, especially when the Skinner Demon is a serial killer. He goes on to face even greater violence throughout the novel and at least kills plenty of monsters at the Immortal Alliance Conference.

And yet it reads to me as though... he's seeking comfort here? He seems shaken-up. But he can't express it because that's OOC. And he presumably doesn't want to put the weight of his upset on Binghe even when he's allowed to share his emotions, when the OOC lock breaks shortly after this exchange. I think that he does want to comfort Binghe here, to apologize for using him as bait, to thank him for saving him, but also... I think he unconsciously wants someone to comfort him here, to talk it through with someone, to make himself feel better by looking after someone else.

Binghe, however, is not at a point where he's willing to be especially emotionally vulnerable with Shen Qingqiu. It's too early. "Shizun, I'm scared, please comfort me," probably would have gotten him beaten about a week ago. He's far more focused on the fact that Shen Qingqiu used him as bait, that's what scared him most, that his teacher might honestly want him dead. It's also a threat that's still present, so that's what he asks after.

And Shen Yuan can't really explain himself! (The System would't let him if he tried, probably!) So he dodges the question! In a way that makes him look pretty good, still, I think, kind of implying that he did do something. (Because otherwise it's way too much of a coincidence!) And when Binghe isn't interested in talking out the Skinner Demon's death, in talking out their mutual first encounter with violent death and killing, Shen Yuan just kind of... buries this incident immediately. He goes to the Ling Xi Caves shortly after this. He doesn't talk to anyone about it. Which is how he ends up dealing with... a lot of his negative feelings later on.

I think Binghe is lying when he says it would be an honor to die for Shen Qingqiu here, honestly. Maybe later on, when his relationship with Shen Qingqiu is even closer, he would mean it sincerely, but right now? It's too early, in my opinion. I think Binghe would genuinely start to mean this after Shen Qingqiu gets poisoned by Without a Cure for his sake, but not before. Maybe he wants to mean it now? He wants Shen Qingqiu to be worth dying for because otherwise... what is all this fucking suffering for?

Whenever I reread SVSSS, I'm struck by how... quiet... Luo Binghe is at the beginning. When Shen Qingqiu accidentally ends up spying on the first interaction we see between Luo Binghe and Ning Yingying, which becomes the scene of Ming Fan stealing the false jade pendant, Binghe is... quiet, thoughtful, determined, solemn, angry, resentful of Ming Fan, possibly also resentful of Ning Yingying. I don't think his self-confidence is high, but... I don't know, I don't think he's as much a "white lotus" here as he presents himself to be to Shen Yuan and his fellow disciples. His life has sucked. He's aware that the world is kind of shit, even he hopes his future will improve.

When Binghe is dealing with Meng Mo, he's savvy, stubborn, unimpressed, demanding, aware of his high ground and unwilling to cede it. Even after the time skip to right before the Immortal Alliance Conference, when Binghe and Shen Qingqiu's affection for each other is at its highest, Binghe isn't particularly... puppy-like at seventeen. He's eager to see Shen Qingqiu again, eager for his approval, but he's also relatively confident, almost suave with statements that could be read as flirtation, running parts of Qing Jing Peak on Shen Qingqiu's behalf.

(Part of the reason that Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe fail to immediately reconcile after Binghe returns from the Abyss is that Binghe has genuine anger over Shen Qingqiu's betrayal and isn't willing to just throw himself at Shen Qingqiu's feet to potentially immediately be stabbed again, and I don't think Binghe's ability to feel anger started with the Endless Abyss.)

I do think Binghe at the beginning of his time with Cang Qiong Mountain Sect wondered if / assumed that Shen Jiu's treatment of him was happening because he was genuinely doing something wrong. And I do think that after Shen Yuan shows up and starts saving him and treating him well, Binghe became intensely attached and went on to rationalize Shen Jiu's behavior as necessary correction of some wrongdoing + trying to make him stronger. But I think some small part of Binghe at this point in time must at least suspect that Shen Qingqiu is just as asshole. Binghe is too clever not to have considered the possibility, even if Shen Jiu repeatedly broke his heart disappointing him.

Anyway, Shen Yuan promising that no misfortune will come to Binghe? Even if some accident befalls his master? WILD thing to say at all. ABSURD thing to explicitly promise the protagonist.

It's possible that Shen Yuan still assumes that this point that he'll be able to prevent Luo Binghe from going into the Endless Abyss once the OOC lock breaks. I don't think Shen Yuan knows yet that the System is going to force him to push Binghe in or lose 10-20k B-Points and probably die. Shen Yuan still hopes that he'll be able to "cling to those thighs" and avert everything! It's so early on that the System probably hasn't made those threats yet!

It's also wild because... it seems like Shen Yuan is completely forgetting about emotional harm? He later tries (and kind of fails) to rationalize to himself that going into the Endless Abyss will just make Binghe stronger, so it's fine and good for Luo Binghe actually, not a misfortune, but he must know on some level that Binghe being in "perfect health" physically does not mean that Binghe will escape without mental and emotional scarring.

At the moment, I think that Shen Yuan desperately wants to comfort Binghe, without knowing how to do it without showing physical affection or friendliness, so he makes this RIDICULOUS promise. Partly because he still believes he'll be able to change things and he wants to promise to look after Binghe forever.

[freyadragonlord]

I could write a fairly long list of reasons why Pei Ming SucksTM, but still I cannot help but feel a little bad for the guy.

Despite all of his bullshit, he has always managed to preserve some semblance of a moral code, and he never really crossed the line... Meanwhile, all the people he is close with? Out there committing the Most Atrocities Ever!

Like...

Rong Guang: Bro what if we, ahah, what if we usurped the throne and put you in charge?? Pei Ming: ... Bro what the fuck??? Xuan Ji: Beloved, I will betray my country for you!! Here's all of our secret strategies and plans!! Pei Ming: ??? No thanks! Pei Xiu: I may have been killing random humans for centuries to save my ghost lover... Pei Ming: Junior!! I believed in you!!! Shi Wudu: That's just humans. I actually stole the Fate of a future god and exchanged it with my brother's, ashtag #NoRegrets Pei Ming: ....... What the fuck is wrong with everybody??? Is it just me and Ling Wen now????? Ling Wen: ... Pei Ming: ....... please don't tell me Ling Wen: So remember that Very Cursed object we have in storage? Pei Ming: For Fuck's Sake

[horsegirlwarcrimes]

I have come back am I allowed to ask about more WIPs from your list. I am so so curious about "Shen Yuan Gets Two Daemons", the intersection of daemons with transmigration is so interesting to me. (I may be back again later but I am trying once again to not do So Many Asks At Once)

omg thank u for the continued asks!!

for this fic, the concept is that when shen yuan transmigrates into shen qingqiu, he takes over the OGs body but not his soul. therefore ergo, shen qingqiu is gone, but his daemon is still there. shen yuan reluctantly makes a deal with the og scum villain's daemon—xiu ya won't turn him in for the body snatching if shen yuan works on finding a way to resurrect shen qingqiu. shen yuan's own soul is very excited to suddenly have a body of her own AND a bonus brother.

Shen Yuan returns to the world of the living with a scream.  Not his own, as it turns out. He awakens laying in bed, something warm and soft and weighty laying in his chest. There’s a soft thump thump thump that beats in time with his heart. For a moment, he feels perfectly at peace—like the best ASMR ever, sending tingles through his whole body and making every muscle relax.  That’s when the screaming starts.  Shen Yuan shoots up and instantly regrets it. The weight on his chest goes flying off with a discontented noise, and the room spins around him. He’s caught between a need to get up, to find and soothe the source of the sound, and an arresting vertigo that steals the air from his lungs. The result is him flailing half way out of bed in a tangle of—silk?  Two large, firm hands catch him around the shoulders.  “Shidi, please, stay in bed. Everything will be alright. I’ve called for Mu Qingfang. A-Su is doing what she can. Just stay still.”  Shen Yuan doesn’t recognize the latter name, but the former pings something in the back of his mind. He looks up blearily as those hands gently press him back into the mattress.  The man leaning over him has a broad, handsome face that, combined with the dark eyes and gentle, worried crease to his brow, immediately puts Shen Yuan in mind of his older brothers. He allows this to be his excuse for folding right away, letting himself be manhandled back into bed even as half of his brain is clawing for him to move, to help. He looks over the man’s shoulder, searching for the source of the agonized screaming. It sounds like someone is being murdered. What he finds is a sight his mind can’t fully comprehend. There is a large dog in a corner of the room with its paw holding something down. The thing under its paw is a shifting mass, leaking strange golden dust. One moment there is fur, then feathers, then scales. It screams all the while.  “What’s wrong with him?” Shen Yuan asks blankly.  “I’m not sure,” the man says, “but we are going to fix it.” His eyes look sad.  There is a little scrabbling noise, barely audible over the creature in the corner’s yelling. A fluffy white cat jumps onto the mattress and climbs up onto Shen Yuan’s chest.  “Ah,” he says, and his hands instinctively come up around her. She must be what he accidentally flung away before.  She makes a sleepy grumble and gets comfortable. Shen Yuan finds his energy and his ability to comprehend his surroundings fading rapidly, now that she is there, warm and solid in his arms. He bats away the human hand that reaches for his wrist absently.  “Xiao Jiu, that—”  The man next to the bed looks strangely horrified as he drifts off. Shen Yuan has no idea who he was talking to.

[thegreymoon]

Eternal Brotherhood

I'm feeling absolutely miserable, angry and on edge. I'm sure watching a bunch of adorable people march straight to their doom despite all their valiant efforts to avoid it will fix me 😌

***

YESSSS, SWORN BROTHERS, WRECK SHIT!!

Since Zichuan Xiu has apparently forgotten that he has superpowers and is not dodging that axe on his own 🙄🙄

***

Whomst?

***

MTE.

This poor guy, here he is, just trying to earn a living cutting heads and all and getting caught up in political nonsense.

***

WTF.

I thought you were here to help??

Again, feeling sorry for the executioner. None of this was in his job description.

***

AND THE EXECUTIONER MOVES TO DO AS HE SAYS AND HE ATTACKS. UNFAIRNESS!!

***

He is also about to have a bad day, ahahaha 😆

Also, LMAO at some people => whole army 🤣🤣

Just a handful! Nobody significant! Oh, wait.

***

Oh, it's the guy he sent the human skin underwear to 😬

Honestly, as much as I appreciate Lord Yang as a capable villain, I would not be pissing any of these people off if I wanted to live a long life.

***

LMAO, loving him 🤣🤣

He offered him multiple options to save face. He refused all of them and now it's gloves off. Touch my disciple and die because I said so.

***

Again, whomst?

***

I am in awe of these underpants they made out of a man's skin.

Even Taxian-jun could never but I feel like Wen Kexing would be proud.

***

LMAO, imagine listening in on this conversation and hearing this out of context 🤣🤣

Especially if you knew he ditched dinner with a pretty girl to go on a date with him 🤣🤣

Romance is dead and buried 🤣🤣

***

Ah, but his cousin/girlfriend is rich 😋

***

LMAO, shameless 🤣🤣

But he did already send him leather underwear, so 🤐🤐

***

LOL, is it porn? 👀

[mxtxfanatic]

I can’t imagine what it’s like to deal with a terminal illness, know that it’s not an “if” but “when”…

[poomphuripan]

Ming is getting on my nerves so bad, I’ve decided to read the book. And now he seems so sweet to me LOL they definitely toned him down a lot. I quite understand why non-readers were mad at him. If you haven’t read, he would the worst person on earth that ever existed. But once I’ve finished it, he was my son. Now I can watch the series in peace

hi nonnie (❁´◡`❁)

yes, you get it tooo 🤣 i think most cfans are like you. because most are already novel fans or they haven't read the novel but have been able to read excerpts of the novel as fans tend to post novel excerpts on the weibo supertopic so fans in general have an idea of how bad/scum yan ming xiu is and most are on board with the humanization treatment the series has given to ming so all the fans in the weibo supertopic is like oh no my poor bad meow meow ಥ_ಥ dont curse him too much please but also cry more ming 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[jedineedlove]

Legend VS LMK Characters:

Kui Mulang (LMK):

[Kaui Mulang, Guard of the Celestial Court, Mansion of the White Tiger, Devourer of Earthly Souls]

Korean: Gyumokrang Mandarin: The Wood Wolf of Legs

Former Celestial Guard turned Yellow-Robed Demon.

After Falling in Love with Jade Maiden and having their love rejected by the Celestial Realm. He gave up their immortality and he awaited for her to reincarnate. As he waits to make sure he will be there to see her he consumes mortal lives to longavit his own.

The 28 Mansions mentioned by him are part of the Chinese constellation system as to why there is so much star imagery is in his castle.

Kui Mulang (Ledgend):

Kui Mulang originated from the ancient Chinese worship of the constellations, a spiritual practice that combines Chinese mythology and astronomy. He is considered to be one of the 28 Mansions, which are Chinese constellations. These are the same as those studied in Western astrology. He appears in Chinese mythology literate notably the JTTW & Fengshen Yanyi.

He is linked to a historical figure called Ma Wu, a general who hailed from the town of Huyang in Tanghe, located in the Henan province.

Kui Mulang is associated with the constellation Andromeda, which appears in the sky in the middle of November. In this constellation is Kui Xiu, described as the "four-legged fish palace" of Heshansu (和善宿) because its shape is similar to a fish. Another constellation, the White Tiger, is also associated with this cluster of stars.

According to the novel Investiture of the Gods (Fengshen Yanyi), Kui Mulang was originally named Li Xiong. After he died in the Battle of the Ten Thousand Immortals, Jiang Ziya deified him as the Wood Wolf of Legs, one of the twenty-eight stars.

In JTTW

Kui Mulang appears as a demon named Yellow Robe Demon . He lives the Moon Waves Cave on Bowl Mountain in the Kingdom of Baoxiang. In his past, the Yellow Robe Demon falls in love with the Jade Maiden in Heaven and decides to elope with her. He becomes a demon lord and the maiden is reincarnated from a goddess to a human who is named Baihuaxiu . She is the third princess of the Kingdom of Baoxiang. The demon then kidnaps the princess, though she has no memory of her existence as a Jade Maiden. He marries her and the couple has two children. Sun Wukong manages to defeat the demon, which mysteriously vanishes after his defeat. Wukong then seeks help from Heaven to track down the demon and learn his true identity. The Jade Emperor discovers that one of the 28 Mansions is missing, so he orders the remaining 27 to subdue the demon. The demon is revealed to be a disguised as Revatī, the Wood Wolf of Legs, a star deity in the heavenly court, and one of the 28 Mansions. The Wood Wolf is then subdued and brought back to Heaven. As punishment, he is ordered to become a furnace keeper under Taishang Laojun.

Jade Maiden:

Considering she is a huge part of Kui Mulang's life I thought maybe also some info about her as well.

[ Yunü / Jade Girl or Jade Maiden]

Yunü is a common designation for a beautiful woman or, in Daoism, for a fairy or immortal

A Taoist deity or goddess in Chinese mythology and Chinese traditional religion who, along with her male counterpart Jintong (Golden Boy), are favored servants of the Jade Emperor and Zhenwudadi. 

They are also believed to serve as guides in the underworld and the protectors of houses and temples. Some of the Golden Boy and Jade Girl pair could be found on some graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery as they are believed to serve as guides in the Spirit World or the Underworld.

During the spring festival, pictures featuring the two can be found on the doors of many households.

This couple helps virtuous souls over a golden bridge to paradise and helps souls whose good deeds outweighed the bad, over a silver bridge to paradise. Therefore by erecting the Golden Boy and Jade Maiden by the grave of the deceased, living family members hope that the deceased will not venture into the courts of hell but instead lead their afterlife in paradise. Yunü and Jintong have appeared in several stories since the Song and Yuan dynasties and have become important figures in Chinese mythology.

There are several mountain peaks bearing her name.

In Journey to the West, Yunü is a servant maid of the Jade Emperor in Heaven. She falls in love with a star god called Kui Mulang and decides to elope with him. However, she doesn't want to ruin Heaven's pureness, so she decides to reincarnate as a human. She enters the human world as Baihuaxiu, the third princess of the Kingdom of Baoxiang.

In Other Literature:

Specific examples are the southern opera version of the legend, Jintong and Yunü, In this context, Yunü is called Longnü and Jintong is called Shancai Tongzi. According to the Shenyijing, Yunü and her companions loved to play touhu, a Chinese game in which arrows or darts are thrown into a vase. In the Avatamsaka Sutra, she and Jintong seek enlightenment and are acolytes of Guan Yin. In this context, Yunü is called Longnü and Jintong is called Shancai Tongzi. Some folktales say that Xue Dingshan and Fan Lihua were originally the Golden Boy and Jade Girl. The Jade Emperor was furious with them and wanted to punish them for breaking the celestial utensils. Fortunately, the Old Man of the South Pole begged for their mercy and was demoted to the mortal world. In the Hanyi ji play, the protagonists Qi Liang and Meng Jiang are reincarnations of Jintong and Yunü. In most popular versions of The Butterfly Lovers, the protagonists Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai are human reincarnations of Jintong and Yunü who are expelled from Heaven Court by Guanyin or the Jade Emperor for their sin and forced to live as a thwarted couple for three or seven generations before being reunited and restored to their original status.

Thoughts:

Yunü has a lot of love and being kicked/leaving heaven tales.

But did love she was more than just known for this story alone.

The JTTW and LMK versions of Kui Mulang are not too different. However, in the retelling of their love tale he only mentioned himself ridding them of their immortality it almost sounded like in that tale she might have had second thoughts and he did it by force. But I hope not but we can never know because the LMK changed a lot of the characters and tweaked some backstories.

I think the real change in the LMK is that Kui Mulang captured Ao Lie before the JTTW. From the way he talked about the Jade Maiden, she had not been reincarnated or at least he had not captured her yet. For Ao Lie It had to be after his banishment of course because he talked about his powers causing damage he felt bad for aka when he burned his dad's stuff.

Well, I hope you, readers enjoyed:)